Three Stylish Reads

Posted on April 22, 2013
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I always get at least 5% happier when I open my mailbox and see a fresh new copy of Vogue or Elle or any other favorite fashion glossy, but lately, a few reads have been inspiring me. While not explicitly connected to fashion, all are part of a larger, broader dialogue shaping what we want now from our homes, wardrobes, and lives.

Garden & Gun

Garden & Gun, with its memorable title and with a whip-smart, former first-female editor-of-the-New-Yorker editor at the helm, has been a favorite of mine since 2009. I stopped a woman on the street for a photo once and noticed the latest issue poking out of her bag. Immediately, we bonded. G&G has enjoyed a passionate, cultish following of Southerners and wannabe Southerners since it launched in 2007. Favorite articles include a recent one featuring one of my fave D.C. couples, Anna and Dan Kahoe, their store Goodwood and boundless creativity, and one that got me contemplating the creation of my own moonshine distillery. The magazine covers everything from music (profiles of legends like Ralph Stanley to Nashville’s new sound) to food (recipe for Mississippi Bourbon Punch, a father/son barbeque road trip through Tennessee) to conservation and craft. BLOG: Daily Shot.

Gensler Design Forecast 2013

{TopShop store at The Grove in LA. Image courtesy Gensler/Ryan Gobuty}

I have always been interested in fashion, but am especially interested in how matters of style intersect with trends and movements in related fields (architecture, design, art, music…), and how they affect consumer behavior and drive innovation. Gensler, a global architecture and design firm with offices here in Washington, has long been considered a thought leader in architecture, design and beyond. The Gensler Design Forecast 2013 distills all of the market trends that matter this year in one fascinating report. BLOG: GenslerOn.

BOMB magazine

BOMB, which started in 1981 out of New York and operates as a non-profit (supported by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs), “delivers the artist’s voice through in-depth interviews between artists working across genre and media—collaborations that reveal their ideas, concerns, and creative processes through carefully developed dialogue.” The mag covers art, architecture, film, music and more. This article, by DJ Mike Snow, is about the DJ/performance artist Aki Onda, who, like a musical Amelie, travels the world capturing sounds on a Sony Walkman and then “performs” them, toggling between various mixtapes (real mixtapes!). BLOG: BOMBLOG.

Happy reading!

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The Lilly Legacy

Posted on April 11, 2013
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{AP photo}

The death of designer Lilly Pulitzer on Sunday made me pause for a moment, in part because I realized that I’d always thought of Lilly Pulitzer as a brand rather than a person–and a brand so associated with in-your-face preppiness that I never thought of myself as ever wanting to wear it (she was actually nicknamed “The Queen of Prep”). But then about two months ago I was shopping with two friends (who both adore preppy clothing) and whaddaya know, I completely feel in love with a piece from the current line: the Malibu Blazer (in “Flutter Chin Chin Blue”).

The fabric itself is a wonderful weight, with just-right structure for a summer jacket–and done in the most fantastic, Palm-Beach-in-the-forties print. There’s a darling peplum in the back and the fit is perfect (high-cut armholes: ladies, settle for nothing else if you want to avoid looking shlubby).

Lilly! I am hooked. At least on the jacket, anyway.

So who was she?

Lillian Pulitzer Rousseau might surprise you. She left her fancy finishing school to be a midwife assistant in West Virginia and to volunteer at a Veterans Hospital in the Bronx. She eloped and moved to Palm Beach. She started a juice stand, and designed her first dress in a busy floral print to hide juice stains. She was messy!

A line of Lilly interior fabrics for Lee Jofa reveals the playful secret of Lilly fabrics, interior and otherwise: each has the word “Lilly” hidden in the pattern (though let’s not forget, that was the original gimmick of Al Hirschfeld). Jackie Kennedy wore her stuff. Generations and generations of women have followed suit. Locally, we have a brand-new Lilly flagship, in Tysons Galleria, that is a riotous celebration of her zany, tastful/tacky prints. Her legacy will endure. Heck, it seems I’ve been wood by her come-on-get-happy prints.

She liked to host parties barefoot.

Her funeral is today. Today, my grandfather, who taught me to spot the Ninas in Al Hirschfeld’s drawings, among many other things, would have turned 96 today. Lilly Pulitzer once said: “That’s what life is all about: Let’s have a party. Let’s have it tonight.” I know my grandfather would have agreed.

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Sandals, sunglasses, enormous ice cream cone: check.

Posted on February 1, 2013
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A friend and I are taking off to Puerto Rico for the weekend. Why not?! Sand, surf, a new bikini. The above photo has me so deliciously in the mood! Can we have more contemporary beach fashion photography like this?!

Here are some more retro beach fashion photos–enjoy!