Nadine Kam photo In an outtake from our New Year’s Eve photo shoot for Nordstrom, Anna Adams wears a Norma Kamali dress.
Work New Year’s Eve should have fairly standard but deadlines never cease. This time it meant schlepping clothes early in the morning for a photo shoot we were doing for the February issue of our parent company’s HI Luxury magazine in advance of Nordstrom’s March opening.
Don’t want to give away too much before the issue is out, but the clothes are very colorful and feminine and enough to make you want to start purging your closet in the new year.
We were working with a really tight deadline because the clothes needed to be back in Los Angeles and Seattle Jan. 2 and 3, respectively, so clothes basically went from the model’s body into the Fed Ex box. Thankfully, our shoot was done in record time, four-and-a-half hours, so we were able to make the shipper’s 2 p.m. deadline. Whew!
Many thanks to our model Anna Adams, and Aveda Ala Moana’s Cherie Stamm-Roberts and Cynthia Williams for taking time out on New Year’s Eve to help us with our session.
Well, enjoy the fireworks! Drive safe! Happy 2008!
Dior hosted an informal party Dec. 27 to welcome the house’s 400-page 60th anniversary tome, “Dior,” which recounts the history of its creator Christian Dior, whose name became synonymous with the post-war New Look.
The book is beautiful to flip through, with page after page of photos capturing the ambience of 1950s Paris, the couturiers who succeeded him, and Dior models from past to present, immortalized in iconic photos by Irving Penn to Nick Knight. Printed on heavy coated stock, it requires some heavy lifting to bring home. The books are $150.
Nadine Kam photos Marisa Gey, front, and Branka Knezevic model current Dior designs.
The event also featured informal modeling of current Dior designs and was a little more sedate than usual because a lot of people are out of town or a bit worn by the holidays. Kristen Chan, just back from roughing it during trip to the Grand Canyon admitted, “I forgot how to dress.”
Me too. I wore a 3.1 Phillip Lim dress but forgot my Dior purse at home. Those sharp-eyed fashionphiles can recognize a brand a mile away. I thought my necklace was nondescript enough, but it caused some of the globe trotters to ask if it was from Rome. Pretty close. Picked it up in Kailua at Balcony Gallery, but it’s by artist Antonio Greco, who’s from Italy. The necklace features charms bearing scaled down images of his paintings, which I love for their exuberance.
Kristen Chan is flanked by models Marisa and Branka.
But it appeared she got her act together minutes before the event. While I’ve usually seen her wearing Gucci and Pucci, she’s an equal-opportunity shopper who turned up in a BCBG dress, with a fur from the Max Nugus boutique at the Kahala Hotel, Manolo Blahnik suede boots and Dior purse.
Pualana Lemelle of The Contemporary Museum showed up in a Rebecca Taylor dress with vintage faux fur, while Hiro Soma chose to dress in threads from Dior designer John Galliano’s own line. His jacket, T-shirt and underwear were Galliano’s, worn with Armani jeans.The glasses were Alexander McQueen’s and his belt and shoes are by Gucci.(more…)
Are you ready for color? I was supposed to be Christmas shopping but you know how it goes when a person has a short attention span. I thought, well, five hours is a LOT of time to shop. Ha! Not when you’re easily distracted.
First thing, had to check out the sale at Neiman Marcus. Really dangerous because I always get sidetracked by the new stuff, and inevitably buy things at full price. I’m not a sale snob or anything, but I’ve come around to their way of thinking, for different reasons. I’m thinking in particular of one woman I was seated next to during the wedding of Al and Charlyn Masini a few years back. We were just talking and she mentioned she had been to NM earlier that day. So I go, “Oh yeah, they have a sale going on.”
And she literally had her nose in the air and sniffed, “I NEVER shop at sales.”
I said, “Oh, really?” But what I was thinking was, “What the … ”
OK, so it is nice to be on season if you can afford it, and she could afford it. But what I find is that if I wait for a sale, the things I want are gone, so I’ll only wait if I think no one’s going to buy a particular dress or blouse. When DKNY had a men’s department my boyfriend wanted to get a white pin-striped jacket from there. I told him no one else would have the guts to wear that, so just wait. So he was able to get it for half price later. My favorite jacket of his is one that’s slim cut with leather piping, from Diesel. I made him pay full price for that.
A bare sprig is on the way so go easy on the holiday ham and desserts!
Anyway, looking beyond the sale racks was a hint of what spring will be, very feminine and like popping open a box of Crayolas, with just about every bright, happy color imaginable. Love it! Saw it on the runways while I was in New York and almost can’t believe the lemon yellows and dramatic pinks are finally here.
So after that bit of excitement, I ate dinner, got some makeup put on my face at the BeneFit counter at Macy’s and generally procrastinated, managing to buy only two catchup November birthday gifts in those five hours. (more…)
Got another giveaway today. To mark the opening of the newest Lush boutique in Royal Hawaiian Center and celebrate the holidays, they are helping to spread the joy with a Happy Christmas boxed set of Christmas Party bath bomb, bergamot-scented Green Party bath bomb, Greenwash soap, Holiday bubble bar, almond-marzipan Snowcake soap, and Twinkle bath bar, valued at $37.50.
Many thanks to Lush. Their only request is that you recycle or reuse the packaging.
First one to post that they want it gets it. Make sure you can pick it up at our office at Restaurant Row. I am NOT going near the post office!
Please note that if you’ve never posted before your response will not appear right away. Those who have posted before may see their entry first, but someone else might have beaten it.
Petal fun rings by Wendi Lau of Yarn Confections, available online at two for $8.
If you take a look in the paper today, Dec. 20, you’ll see a brief item about Leeward resident Wendi Lau, who makes washable, easy-care jewelry for children and adults and sells them for about $4 to $38 under the name Yarn Confections at etsy.com.
It may not be too late to shop at her store at yarnconfections.etsy.com for Christmas.
Yarn Confections Beebop Shiny She bracelet, $17 at yarnconfections.etsy.com.
DIY’ers and shopoholics will find etsy.com a unique shopping site devoted to craftivism, where sellers of handmade or vintage items can set up online shops to find buyers with the same proclivities. There’s so much cute stuff, with low prices for handmade original objects by people without retailers’ overhead.
You can spend hours looking at what artists/designers have come up with. This is just a small sampling of the 60,000 items available:
Marco the skunk, felt plush toy by Girlsavage, $35.
Hand-crafted steel boned underbust corset made to measure in Alexander Henry tattoo print, $120 from DesertOrchid87.(more…)
Nadine Kam photos Fighting Eel designers Lan Chung, front left, and Rona Bennett pose with their models after the show.
The day before The Butik’s first anniversary party, I was over at Fighting Eel. It had been a rainy week so they were worried that the outdoor FE fashion show planned for the Dec. 8 event might be rained out, while hoping for the best.
It all worked out though, with not a drop of rain in sight. The sidewalk in front of the boutique was dressed up with flexible LED strip lighting to make a runway out of the plain sidewalk. Against the backdrop of blue balloons, models showed what we could look forward to in early 2008. FE’s sexy dresses were alive with color, from bright yellows, reds and purples, to brilliant blues with a geometric print or two, and some clever cut-outs. I don’t know how they do some of that engineering. When other people try pukas and other daring, body-revealing tricks, you worry about certain body parts popping out somewhere, but with FE, a girl can always feel securely contained.
Johnelle Anderson on the runway.
It was kind of funny to be sitting next to Fighting Eel designers Lan Chung and Rona Bennett during the show, the first time they had a crew of dressers so were able to sit down and see their own work come down the runway. Let’s just say possibly no one squealed louder, especially when one of the taller models came out with a very mini, form-fitting dress. I was like, “What? You never saw this before?”Afterward, women were buzzing about the dresses they must add to their growing collections. Start saving.
Inside The Butik, from left, Fighting Eel’s Linh Owen and Rona Bennett with The Butik’s Landy Cheung.
Back in civilian clothes after the show were models, from left, Chanel Wise, Johnelle Anderson, Courtney Arndt, and party host Yasmin Dar. Below, boots in the front row.
Working Title Films Once again, Keira Knightley pouts her way through a film, but it works well enough in her role as a haughty English woman whose life takes a tragic turn in “Atonement.”
Sorry I haven’t been posting a lot recently. Been out at the movie theaters. The most recent one was a preview of “P.S. I Love You,” not one I’d normally choose to see — I find the romantic comedy formula really elementary — but a bunch of my friends were going, so why not have a girl’s night out? In addition to being fully predictable, one of the other things I dislike about the romantic comedy is the way the writers jerk women around with sentimentality and cutesiness.
I realize the arts represent a form of manipulation as the creators try to elicit some form of emotion, and enjoyed the power of making people cry when I was younger, which is why I always feel like such a sucker for falling for it myself. It just so happens that “P.S. I Love You” hit the Mother Lode of sentimentality with a device that had about eight of us crying throughout the whole film!
One of my friends is so mean she’s telling everyone to see it, without alerting them to the tear trap.Omigod, that was so embarrassing! The device was a bunch of letters a man who died because of a brain tumor wrote to his wife, to be delivered posthumously to keep her moving forward throughout her mourning/healing period. So, every time a letter arrived, it was wah time.
Because I have been crying a lot at the movies lately, I thought I’d deliver some ratings in terms of tear-fall, so you know how much Kleenex to bring:
“Atonement”: I wasn’t surprised to learn this film garnered the most, at seven, Golden Globe nominations this year. It’s just the kind of film the writers who choose the award winner would vote for because of clever storytelling that has you questioning your own assumptions by film’s end. That’s so cool. It starts slow, such that one noted movie buff walked out halfway through, but if you’re patient, the film does have its pay off. It’s a very sad story in which one little girl’s lies — Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis is excellent in the role — due to sibling rivalry and an unrequited crush leads to long-term tragic consequences, but the cool detachment that serves the story leads to zero tears shed.
There’s also a beautiful parade of 1930s/40s inspired costumes designed by Jacqueline Durran in “Atonement,” and I couldn’t help but think that some of the jewelry looked like it came from the house of Chanel, which hired Knightley to be the face of Coco Mademoiselle. “Atonement’s” director Joe Wright also filmed the Coco Mademoiselle ad film.
“August Rush”: An implausible, saccharine story that works because of the single-minded certainty that music can bring people together, as an orphaned boy searches for his parents, who are similarly searching for him/each other. One tear, though I can’t remember where. I think it involves a sympathetic Terence Howard. (more…)
Listen to audio from the show on the green player below:
Just back from the My Chemical Romance concert. Fun. Not one of my favorite bands but a couple of friends wanted to go so off we went. Turned out to be a great, high energy show before they go on Christmas break and head out to Vietnam in 2008.
Started on the floor for the openers Saves the Day, pretty much a yawn. When they announced they had two more songs to go, some guy next to me yelled, “Hurry up!”
My Chemical Romance came on quickly after that because their drum kit was set up and ready to go. I drum so I have to say drums are the worst when it comes to setting up. I really went to watch the drummer so moved up to the loge as close to the stage as security would allow. Always like to see if I can keep up. Just watching him play “The Black Parade” was worth going to the concert. He was awesome (the drummer from Thursday), but wasn’t the band’s drummer Bob, who, according to their Web site, developed a golf-ball size lump in his wrist and made it worse by continuing to play. He wised up after being unable to hold onto his sticks during a Bon Jovi concert and is now getting treatment.
Naturally, for a band with a hit song titled “The Black Parade,” there was black all around. Considered going against the crowd and wearing white or red, but decided to go with the flow and wore a black Theory jacket (needed pockets to get the illicit camera in) over silver sequin striped gray tank top from Wet Seat, and multi-tiered lace and knit skirt from Miss Sixty. Accessorized with black and silver Chanel bracelet, Me & Ro silver bracelet, and two vintage black glass necklaces.
Mikey’s two looks.
I really loved what bass player Michael, or Mikey, Way was wearing on stage, a fitted double-breasted tunic with a military braided trouser. Wish I had a photo but no photos was the band’s request. The funny thing was when he was sitting in front of me I didn’t notice what he was wearing. Was just studying his face and hair. Guitarist Ray Toro also has great stage hair that moves, like Corbin Bleu.Here’s what some fans wore:
Saw about a dozen of these jackets from Hot Topic.(more…)
Well, bachi on me. I always used to laugh when people don’t know how to use their cel phones, usually making the excuse that it’s new. It’s not like they’re really so different when it comes to address book or message retrieval functions.
So, a day after picking up a white Blackberry Pearl, my sim card is back in my old phone until I can figure out how to work the new one. Never mind that I seem to have broken part of my new phone by trying to open it. I don’t know. Some spring popped out, but it doesn’t seem necessary. It’s not like I watched the phone guy when he transferred the sim card from the old phone to the new because I believed it was something that only needs to be done once. But this time, I had to do it to retrieve my phone book from the old phone. Apparently, I’d been saving them to the phone, not the card, so my numbers didn’t move over with the card. I ended up having to copy all the numbers on paper for transfer at a later date. Tedious.
Maybe I should have listened more closely to one of my friends, who, as I was walking into T-Mobile, called and told me how she had just sold her new Blackberry Pearl on eBay because she could never get the hang of the dual-letter keypad.
I’ve succumbed to many a clothing trend, but never an electronic one before. A new phone is definitely not something I needed, but it’s hard to resist when phone service providers are offering up their latest and greatest models to lure us into two-year contracts.
A generic Motorola gets glammed up with mirror and charms.
Like any accessory, our phones are an extension of our aesthetic sensibilities. One of my friends is waiting for her current phone contract to end before getting a new phone, but feels her basic Motorola is “not very cute,” so dressed it up with a $2 mirror from Claire’s. Isn’t it so weird how we’re so obsessed with cuteness or personalization that all our accessories have their own accessories these days, whether purse charms, cel phone charms or zipper pulls? Sort of makes you wonder how future historians will judge us. My cel phones have always had clothes. With limited offerings, the last one was dressed in black Body Glove, which was rubbery enough to bounce whenever I dropped it.
In the Blackberry Pearl’s case, just by offering up colors like red and gold, I was there. My white phone is now dressed in a bright pink skin (since that spring went flying, that might be holding the phone together).
It’s funny how new services/diversions also seem to dictate our new needs. To be honest, I bought the phone mostly because I got somewhat addicted to the one-sentence format of Twitter.com. Everybody’s been warning me, “Don’t do it!” But it’s too late!
Having mobile email and Internet service will probably be nice, I think most people would agree, but really, I got along fine before without it.
