This weekend, we (as in me and my Butler + Claypool cohorts) will be popping up @Studio 1469 for a SS WEEKEND POP-UP (FACEBOOK DETAILS HERE). Spring/summer merchandise + handmade jewelry and accessories and surprises. Music! Impromptu dancing! Booze, probably!

Your closet needed this.

Details: 1469 Harvard Street Rear, alley off 15th Street, between Harvard St and Columbia Road.

The other weekend we all got together for a styling shoot at Lincoln Park on the Hill. Here’s the result, with sneak peeks of some of the merch in store!

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

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!

When the Filene’s Basement near Farragut North Metro stop shuttered I wondered where the working women of downtown Washington would get their retail therapy (nothing like blowing off a little work steam with an inexpensive pair of shoes or pair of tights!). Well, now we’ve got our answer and it opened today in the former Borders space: Nordstrom Rack at 1800 L Street, NW (M-F 9-8; Sat 10-6; Sun 12-5).

Temptations on deck: Kate Spade bags and jewelry, Cole Haan and Coach shoes, labels like Trina Turk, Calvin Klein, lots of fun Betsy Johnson accessories, and worth stopping in to scoop up discounted products from Phyto, Fekkai, and Bliss.

Good to know: the pricier labels (both clothes and shoes) are up front, less expensive merch is in the back. Ladies shoes range from size 4 to 12.

{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.

Spring (errrr, summer?!) sprang so fast that I haven’t even had time to transition my warm-weather gear. I find that it’s key to do a little refreshing before the season fully hits, both as a motivator/reminder that The Winter That Would Not End will in fact do so, and also to avoid buying meh things out of desperation (“ugh, crap it’s really hot all of a sudden”). Recently, I bought a pair of shoes.

I actually really hate buying shoes. Here’s how it often goes with me: I don’t want to spend money on shoes if they’re going to hurt my feet, so once in a while I buy a pair of shoes, usually on the cheap in some way, and they often hurt my feet, most likely because they are cheap. I typically buy so few that I stick to boring pairs (the line between “classic” and “boring” is a fine one), and then I wear to death any of the few pairs that are comfortable, and then they look shoddy.

Can I get a witness?

So. In an effort to break my bad footwear habit and inject some bold spring freshness into my below-the-knee style, I bought these mint suede platform sandals. (Note: these are now on sale, and were over $100 when I bought them. Yes, that is pricey for me, especially for “frivolous shoes that I will not wear to work.”) Out of my comfort zone? Check. Comfortable? Check (yes, really!).

Ready, set, spring!

14th Street is a-changin,’ but late on a Saturday night you can still meet a young kid named Johnny, smoking a cigarette, trying to make it big, outside of the Black Cat.

Last night I unearthed one of my favorite outfits for the grand opening of Edgar, the new power lunch/drinks spot on Connecticut Avenue. The outfit? Oh, just a vintage plum-and-black satin-striped jumpsuit with exaggerated sleeves. Yes, just this old thing. I wore normal work clothes and then may or may not have changed in the bathroom of an office building across the street where I had an appointment prior. The invite said cocktail attire, and I take these things seriously.

{earring options, MAC Girl About Town lipstick}

I arrived to a purple carpet and a gaggle of leggy models donning smoldering YSL Le Smoking-style tuxedo looks. After a dinner of cheese, charcuterie and Moet–but still craving something sweet–I took my leave to discover one of the best, most unexpected parts of the night: the Carpe Donuts truck parked outside, serving free delicious hot cider and fresh hot sugar donuts.

Remember that photoshoot I mentioned in a previous post? It was for Ciao Sposa, the new bridal accessories line by Ciao Nina. Nina O’Neil, who makes, finishes, and/or sources each piece by hand, is a homegrown talent who spends her workdays at the National Gallery of Art and has built an impressive business for herself on the side.

The day of the shoot, blushing nonbrides gathered for the affair. We got pretty, wore white gauzy things and cooed over Nina’s pieces, which are vintage-inspired, fashion-forward, feminine and wonderfully original. Who wants to look like every other bride?

Here are some of my favorite shots and/or pieces.

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!

This one is amazing. Couldn’t that be Karlie on the right, in Prada/Miu Miu?!

I was part of a photoshoot for a local accessory designer + friend over the weekend at Immortal Beloved in D.C. Here are some behind-the-scenes shots I took. I can’t wait to share the final results!