wet hot american summer

outside on my fire escape. I need to remember I live in a vacation destination.

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This is me with my friend Zoe. Zoe is the coolest. And yes, that is a zipper bustier. Zoe lives in Boston. I think the bad economy spells a good lazy summer. You just sit around all day playing make-believe. She came to stay for a week and snapped me out of a funk. There is no cover on that couch because literally three minutes before this picture was taken, my cat Fatty Mayonnaise pissed all over the sofa cover.

I'm wearing my Samantha Pleet skirt and a Saks dress drifted at Beacon's. I forget where I got that pin.

ALERT

Please take this time to brutally mock style.com's choices for best dressed as Siren Fest. Most are prettyfuckingheinous

c. neeon

You crazy fucking German ladies, you've done it again. Spring/Summer 09 c. neeon collection is pretty beautiful. I love these clothes. They're a lot more wearable than you think. My boyfriend always compares my c. neeon jacket with the batwing suit for base jumpers. I know he means it as an insult but I take it as a compliment. I imagine myself carving through the thin atmosphere of the Swiss Alps, fully styled like these pretty models, my sleeves billowings wildly like kite tails. haha. I'll fucking die if I try a stunt like that.

remorse

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression. I have serious, serious qualms with my shopping addiction, and it seems to be so counter-intuitive because I'm very conscious of conservation in most every other area in my life. Sure, I can excuse it by saying that I shop mostly vintage, support local designers, and buy organic fabric, but you and I know that's all bullshit. It doesn't make me feel better about the bottom line: I don't need most of this stuff. I wonder why so many people I know share this weird compulsion.

I'm definitely a Westerner, and in the West people like to spend most of their paychecks on things that depreciate in value the second it leaves the store. We're told it's good, and the products we purchase hold for the promise of making ourselves better, fitter, younger, tighter. I really see consumerism as a form of coercion and control for women especially. Not only are we paid 75 cents on the dollar, but we complacently hand over our cash to feed a hunger to look good. Insecurity is very lucrative. We are controlled, too preoccupied with grooming to see the root of our problems.

I was talking with some boarders from China and I asked them if they felt outraged by living in a world that demands so much from them physically and emotionally. One girl told me, "It's not that simple. They want me to be pretty, and I want to be pretty. What they want is what I want." So what do we do?

My friends and I deal with a strange dynamic--we live in a world that demands that our bodies take up as little space as possible, our closets as much space as possible. When I drop a lot of money on something I don't need, I start to think about how much I buy into that bullshit. Then again, anti-consumerists need to understand the power of something pretty, something you can gorge your eyes on, something that gives you confidence. I don't know where I stand.

In the meanwhile I'm going to just start making my own things, and take pride in my own work. People need to learn to stop buying their solutions.

premeditated shopping

Maybe my shopping addiction is some weird permutation of the hunters&gatherers instinct. I need to horde. Perhaps the most telltale sign of aggression is the way I stalk sales, methodically combing though racks, relying on my instincts. For the most part, I'm an expert at knowing which shapes work for me and which do not. Why do I torture myself by looking at sartorial porn like face hunter and refinery? Is there a purpose to all this?

I delude myself into thinking so. I like to do a little something called premeditated shopping so that when I arrive at those crowded retailers, I have a plan of attack. I look for items that are missing in my wardrobe, like some baggy, bottom-tapered trousers, tuxedo blazer w/ skinny lapel, loud winter coats, and shameless Miu Miu knock-offs. For instance, this Fall I'm saving my shopping maidenhead for Comme Des Garcons @H&M



and the new Topshop on Broome Street.

the Last Laugh

Anybody that knows ANYTHING about me knows that I am obsessed with comic books. Now, anyone who knows that much knows that my favorite comic book character of all time is the JOKER--for mildly psychosexual reasons. I'm going to name my eldest son "Conrad" after Conrad Veidt, whose rendition of THE MAN WHO LAUGHS inspired the creation of the ghastly grinner.


I'm so excited for a new addition to the canon I could piss myself dry. I have tickets to the 2AM showing. I own and have read every single Joker story you can get your hands on. I wonder how they're going to handle the Joker creation myth in the story-- are they going to go the Red Hood route, or the Killing Joke route?

No one, not a single other person has inspired my closet more than the Joker. He was always so fucking daring, and understood the theatricality of dress-up. He wasn't afraid to take risks with color or proportion, and he's always hiding some sort of chemical agent. I'm so happy.

check check it c.neon

c. neeon collection TONIGHT. I just got their blue ideal sweater. It makes me feel like a super hero. Last one at Oak! I love c. neeon for their neo-bauhaus prints, incorporating the diagram of a girl doing somersaults and the like. It's not really tongue-in-cheek or subtle like the prints from Vena Cava--it's deliberately loud and fun and German. I'm so excited for what they have in store tonight.


On another note, what the fuck is up with the launch of the new Jefferey Campbell site? It doesn't show any of his shoes... it's all fluff. I want to be able to load a collection of his work, not network with other people. Maybe just a thought

more like gayfarer

Call them Jon Lennon glasses. Call them Harold Lloyd glasses. They are amazing, and in my opinion trump the over-saturated wayfarer trend. I want to get a pair with mirror lenses. Anglo- American does an amazing job making some really beautiful, retro frames without being too ironic.

This may be way off but I'm starting to really love on some cat-eye glasses. When I don't listen to trends and buy what works best for me and my engorged melon, I find myself going into strange territory. When I thought of cat-eye glasses, I always thought of that really repulsive clerk working at Bygones in my high school days. She was always off somehow and thought she could sing. When I shopped there, she would serenade us with the musical stylings of catscreeches and smoker's cough. Whatever. I can't let people ruin these things for me.

sad news from the denim front

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is closing down for good. I used to live about a block away from this store, and I had actually applied for a position there. I went to the interview and they hired me. The second I step out of the store and walk home, they call me up and tell me that Judi Rosen already hired someone else. Pretty bad form. But whatever, I'll still miss the place. It was very cute. Steep discounts on high waisted shorts and criss cross jeans





After 8 years

The Good The Bad & The Ugly

is shutting its doors!

***NO FEAR***

Judi Rosen New York

will live on

STAY TUNED!

3-day closing party

featuring booze, babes, and bargains

FINAL SALES DAYS

7/11 - 7/12

1pm - 8pm

Friday, July 11

Deep discounts, samples and other goodies from past seasons.

Free champagne

treats provided by

Heartschallenger ice cream truck.

Featuring DJs Billy and Lil' JR

Saturday, July 12

Heartschallenger ice cream truck

Jams courtesy of

J Penry

Sunday, July 13

4-7 pm

We’ll be grilling, chilling, and swilling!

PARTY DOCTORS ARE IN THE HOUSE!!

Sam Jayne and Ivan Sunshine of Love as Laughter

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

85 Kenmare Street
New York, NY 10012

I covet...

Sheer things.
I will make these. I will post tutorials.
Three as Four multi-layered top.
Acne sheer baggy leggings w/ stripe.

Oh fuck I love pickles.

Brooklyn has got some good pickle going on. McClure's and Wheelhouse are pretty amazing. But seriously, someone has got to start making some piccalilli. I want some pretty bad.

pheasants

So remember when I wrote about my trip to mood? Here are two headbands I made very quickly, almost no work. I like how they turned out.This is a nice trim made of sequins and beads. When I was buying it the lady asked me if it was for a bride and I reply, "nope, it's for fun."







This one I tacky-glued pheasant feather trim onto an old f21 headband. Somewhere around $12 bucks total.













I would like to call bullshit on Barneys for selling this headband that retails for $55:


I took a 20ft length of brass chain and messily knit it into a drop-stitch triangle. Pictures later.

retail

Months ago, in an effort to curb my spending I told myself that I would never pay retail. Well what happened next was definitely not easy on my pocketbook. I found myself spending more money. Oh, how my sly self can reason out of reason... "But it's a 70% discount!" "It's a steal at $300!"

Gone are those days of reckless splurging and sample sales. The economy is terrible and I'm struggling to find a paying job (I hate internships, did I ever mention that?) The onslaught of sales and shopping events descending on the city is pretty much torture. I have this appetite for new and shiny things, so I'm going to be more proactive about my diy-ing. And I'm going to concentrate more on jazzing up my apartment, sewing curtains and throws and the like. I just hope I don't get a little to triggerhappy and buy up fabric that's way too expensive. I have a feeling I will though...

One of the projects I have in the pipeline is a little studded patent leather bootie. Probably the least labor intensive project ever:

I saw these booties on the nylon magazine blog and I covet them so much


So I'm taking these cheapie booties ($26) at Amazon.com


...and adding these studs


Kinda reminds me of my bullshitpunk days in High School when I would wipe my ass on the principal's car and steal produce from the cafetaria (would you believe I got suspended for that dumb shit?)

Also, I'm going to make sculpey versions of the Cenobites from Hellraiser.

Oh, explorers of experience.

feeling cagey.

I have issues with etsy... Sure it's revolutionary and it gives the seller a lot of control and freedom, but it's all so craftsty and cutesy, and I feel like there's a real sense conformity, especially in the prints. It's just not me. I can appreciate it, but I have a hard time imagining that really that many people have preoccupations with woodland creatures and polymer clay earrings. There lacks a kind of attention to detail that I've come to appreciate... I was at the Renegade Craft Fair and I was pretty disappointed. This one stall was selling lamp shades with paper shapes stapled all over them. They were trying to dump the shitty 5th grade summer camp project for $150 , and the paper had been manhandled all day with sticky cheetos fingers.

With all that said, I have found some really beautiful stuff. So I took a look at Susie Bubble's entry on the acne skirt and ordered myself a lovely black cage skirt with studs from Angie of Norwegian Wood. I want to make a knit version that's really colorful and graphic. (sketches soon!!)


I suppose this will be a diy blog with all my intense little projects. I'm starting a jewelry company called LANGOLIERS named after the Steven King short story/made for TV crappy video-grade movie. The first collection is going to be inspired my Dario Argento classic Suspiria.

People are lazy. They want everything made for them, and they want nothing to do with it unless it's wrapped up in a pretty bow. They don't understand that the majority of what they're paying for is labor--sloppy labor-- from people who don't take the time to take pride in their craft. I went to Metaliferous and Mood and bought tons of trappings and chain. very fun. I think everyone should take their styling into their own hands.