Spent the morning at Kahala, not the place, but the new local men’s sportswear store that opened Sunday in the Ala Moana Center Nordstrom wing. The brand is back after some major retooling — story t.k. (that’s journalese for “to come,” though why it’s t.k. and not t.c. is a mystery in a business that involves proper spelling).
After my interviews were done, spent some time talking to aloha shirt guru Dale Hope, who’s back with the company he owned a couple of decades ago. We were people watching because he couldn’t help noticing who was wearing Kahala shirts and how people style themselves, from footwear to sunglasses. It’s part of his process as a guy who might appear to be laidback but is intensely observant and detail oriented.
I’d never met him before, so you know how people just kind of assume, businessman, business mind. But he’s been a tactile, fashion person from childhood and went to some lengths to get his aloha shirts custom made, the start of his relationship with Kahala. As an 8-year-old boy!
That’s pretty incredible. At 5, I hated the stuff my mom bought for me, but I just accepted it. It didn’t occur to me then that there’s always another way if you’re willing to look/work for it.
Photos by Nadine Kam Class is in session at CHOP Salon. Coby Alcantar works on Danielle Doucette’s hair.
CHOP Salon was the site of an inspiration educational session presented by Bumble & Bumble’s Coby Alcantar for stylists islandwide on June 9.
It was rather technical for this beauty school drop-in with all that talk about inversions and arrowheads, etc., but I got the big picture of easing up on rigid technique for styling that’s more about naturalness and flow suiting the individual.
The guinea pigs, or models, were Danielle Doucette, Heilika Leinus and Cass Gravitt, daughter of our business reporter Erika Engle, who said of the floppy mohawk cut afterward, “I wish I could see more of her eyes, but I like it.”
Coby Alcantar talks about the Bumble & Bumble philosophy on the video.
I’m afraid I was so inspired that I went home and tried lopping off some of my own bangs, which didn’t work out all that well. As simple and messy as my haircut by an S.F. stylist seemed to be — considering it has a lot of what Coby termed “messy bits” all around and was done dry while I was standing in a rather unorthodox venue — it is actually more precise than I thought.
So, yeah, don’t try it at home unless you’re prepared to live with the results. As Coby said, she loves it when people cut their own hair. That’s an indication they’ll try anything, plus, they’ll probably visit a salon soon afterward.
From left, Cass Gravitt in floppy mohawk, Heilika Leinus and Danielle Doucette were happy with their loose, updated ‘dos.
Paco Rabanne’s chainlink armored mini dress, circa 1967, is among the pieces up for grabs via eBay Live June 10. Bidding for this piece will start at about $6,000.
Those who appreciate vintage fashion might enjoy taking a look at the garb up for grabs via eBay Live’s “Passion for Fashion and Fine Textiles,” an auction taking place June 10.
Found it by accident while doing one of my standard searches for Ossie Clark and Lanvin and hit the Mother Lode of European fashion, 1920s through 1980s. What a pleasant surprise. Usually, I feel lucky if I see one beautiful, collectible piece.
I have a love of vintage clothing that dates to my teen years. It was the most tangible way for a girl from Waipahu — pre-Internet — to feel connected to the larger world, past and present. After running my own vintage/consignment boutique here and scoring my own vintage Pucci and Lanvin dresses, I became particularly enamored of the work of European designers done in the 1930s through ’40s, and 1960s through ’70s.
I read that ’40s and ’70s inspired H&M’s Fall 208 collection, described as “sharp, androgynous, elegant.”
You can own Jerry Hall’s Antony Price white lace wedding dress dating to her 1990 marriage to Mick Jagger. Bust 34, waist 26 inches. Who knew she was so tiny? She looks like a big girl standing next to Mick.
Ossie Clark snakeskin coat, circa 1967-68. Bidding starts at about $700. Fits a 34-inch bust. People were tiny back then, before they started pumping up at gyms and supersizing meals.
The auction also features tapestries and garments from the 1700s, and it appears that Jerry Hall is emptying her closet of clothing circa her life with Mick Jagger, including her wedding dress, which is starting at about $300.
Even if you can’t or don’t want to buy anything, it’s fun to look at the pieces and certainly would be beneficial for any alleged student of fashion to see. (more…)
Hope you have a chance to read my story in today’s paper about the Bon Ton, one of the first department stores in Honolulu, which opened in the early 1930s and closed during World War II.
The story grew out of one of my blog entries, when Gayle Ozawa, reading about Jane Lyman’s birthday, contacted me regarding a gathering of the Bon Ton Girls, including Jane.
Their story showed how, even at the worst of times — the Great Depression — people made the most of what they had and still had an appreciation for fashion.
Considering that in the early ’30s, a Bon Ton salesgirl made $1 an hour, and a dress at Bon Ton sold for $1.99, she’d have to work two days for that dress. Today, a person making $10 an hour working two days would have $160 less taxes for a dress.
It’s heartening for me, because when you consider all the things people have to worry about these days, writing about fashion would appear to a lot of people to be one of the more frivolous subjects.
Le Palais-Royal, one of the stage sets that form the exhibition “Théâtre de la Mode,” which was shown at the University of Hawaii Art Gallery in Fall 2001. The collection comprised 27-inch mannequins dressed in the 1946 spring/summer collections from 54 of Paris’s haute couture houses.
To that I would say, here’s a link to a story http://starbulletin.com/2001/10/02/features/story1.html I wrote in 2001, that shows the lengths post-World War II Paris designers went through to demonstrate that the war’s devastation of Europe could not dampen their creative spirit or the will of a society to survive. It says everything I want to say at this point in time. The intent of the exhibition means more to me today than I realized at the time, now that we are feeling some of that era’s fear and uncertainty, many of us for the first time.
Interesting “argument in pictures” by Karen Lehrman posted on Slate, in which she laments the decline of fashion photography. I would agree with some of her points, but the major point unaddressed is that the images also reflect the times in which they are taken and the designs as well. Not all designs are suited for the gauzy, romantic treatment. Nor is that everyone’s fantasy or aspiration.
New York Times magazine
In the case of these New York Times magazine photos that appeared May 4, designers don’t intend to have their pieces worn this way, but this is how the garments were envisioned by an editorial team, inspired by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” on view through Sept. 1. Like most photography and art today, it is concept driven. Technical ability is assumed.
No doubt the images she admires depict mood, elegance and mastery of the zone system, but, we’ve seen those images before and I wouldn’t want photographers to be limited to the beautiful retro style favored by Lehrman. Even if some of today’s images may be ugly and crude, I respect varying points of view I may not otherwise have had without photographers forging ahead to craft a style of their own.
Check it out at http://www.slate.com/features/010510_fashion-slide-show/01.htm
Just saw the preview for “Speed Racer.” Not really one for the kids; not for adults either. It’s totally about the creative set: game designers, animators, and believe it or not, the fashion crowd. Well, I had to look at something being that the story is simple, the dialog campy, the characters cardboardy, but the clothes they do work with everything that’s going on in CGI. Let’s just say it’s the first film that ever made me feel like running off to Hollywood to be a stylist on a costume crew.
The weird thing about the movie is that it is so futuristic yet it’s actually set in the early to mid-1950s. They reference a pivotal 1943 race when Speed was about 10 and the action takes place in his young adulthood. The costumes reflect the period with crisp polo shirts, sleek sheath dresses and other narrow, spare silhouettes. The early half of the film is full of bright primary and complementary colors and a lot of royal purple. In the final Grand Prix race icy silver, metallics and brocades dominate. Total eye candy. It was so retro, yet so contemporary it didn’t look much different from what’s on high-end retail racks today.
As I watched the credits scrolling I noted they had one vintage buyer on staff. What a great job, though I imagine it must have been difficult to come up with costumes that could hold their own against such a fantasy landscape.
Of course, being susceptible to images, I have a new inspiration for my summer wardrobe, and it’s not Christina Ricci, but the Korean pop star Rain as the racer Taejo.
There was a sea of T-shirts at the Incubus concert. While there, I took a photo of Patrick Simmons and the amulet he was wearing, which he picked up in Tahiti. It inclues the figure of a surfer carved into seal bone, set with a black pearl. For Simmons, it serves as a protective talisman whether he’s in or out of the water.
You can find similar amulets at Summer Vaimaona’s Soleil boutique at 909 Kapahulu Ave.
Then, at Green Door last night, I spotted Thaddeus Pham dining with his friends. He had just come from work as an H.I.V. counselor at Diamond Head Clinic. I liked his geek chic style with short-sleeved shirt and bow tie that he just started wearing this year “to play to my strengths as a nerd,” he said.
I didn’t get it into the photo, but inked onto his forearms are verses from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and “Song of the Open Road.” “I read a lot,” he said.
If you’re going to have any words on your body, those are pretty cool choices.
“Song of the Open Road” begins:
“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road. …”
“Song of Myself” begins:
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death. …”
Nadine Kam photos
A detail of an Eli Baxter installation.
From time to time the way other people dress can inspire me to bust out my camera. So it was when I spent Friday afternoon at The Contemporary Museum during a walk-through of the TCM Biennial of Hawaii artists featuring site-specific installations of Eli Baxter, Vincent Goudreau, Javier Martinez, Yida Wang, Cade Roster, Wayne Zebzda and Meidor Hu.
I enjoyed walking around Wang’s exploration of breast cancer with an installation of hanging Latex breasts, Cade Roster’s series of manga-inspired Plush Gaiden, and Eli Baxter’s sculptures of recycled, polished bicycle tires, inner tubes and molded wax, somehow reminiscent of Alexander McQueen fashion designs.
While there, I ran into TCM’s PR officer Pualana Lemelle and took a photo of her in the museum shop next to the Art-O-Mat, which dispenses miniature pieces of art, whether jewelry, collage or a small sculpture for, last time I checked, $5.
Pualana Lemelle wears an Express wrap dress and gold Western boots from Catherine’s Closet in Manoa.
That reminded me I had a couple of photos of Neiman Marcus’ Contemporary Sportswear/Theory Specialist Alen Ajed. I’m in that department a lot, most of the time just looking, and he’s typically wearing designer, top to bottom, though in his own colorful style. I like that he’s not afraid to wear color and have fun with clothes.
Alen Ajed at the recent Hip Event wearing an Etro shirt with a watercolor-wash print, D&G jacket, Cicinnelli pink pant, Prada belt and Paul Smith tie. His favorite part of the ensemble are his Paul Smith floral design shoes.
On another occasion, I took Alen’s photo (below) with Donna Walden, who also caught my eye because she was wearing this season’s flora-, insect- and fantasy-inspired Prada shoe. Shoes that beautiful have to be uncomfortable, I thought, but Donna said they’re really comfortable.
Alen wears an Etro jacket over a heart-print Prada shirt with a Gianni Versace tie. I cut off the toe of Donna’s shoe, so below are details from Prada’s ad campaign.
When I highlight some of these pieces, I get emails or on Twitter, tweets along the lines of, “What is that supposed to mean?”
Well, to most people, nothing. I don’t want people to walk around looking like fashion clones or slaves. These are just the things I find particularly beautiful and enjoy seeing because they bring an element of beauty into daily existence. It serves the same function as a flower arrangement in an office or lobby, or, if so inclined, a Precious Moments figurine on your desktop. I don’t intend to encourage people to go out and consume, but I am inviting people to train their eyes to see more and to see the ordinary elevated through art.
Sephora is promoting “Five reasons we adore Dior” through its Beauty Insider program
Reason No. 1 is Dior Addict High Shine Lipstick ($25) for long-lasting, smudge-proof wear and intense color. But I was checking out the Midnight Blue Dior Vernis nail lacquer ($19) manicure in the photo.
I was just talking to someone about how fast my fingernails grow, faster than it takes to ruin a manicure, and how great it would be to promote something like a reverse French manicure so I wouldn’t need a do-over so quickly, and here it is in the ad:
Design by Humans artwork March 25’s winning design at Design By Humans is Punktipus by New York artist Manki.
Fancy yourself a T-shirt designer? You can put your skills to the test at Design By Hümans, a Web site where artists around the globe put their work out to be rated in the site’s Shirt of the Day, Shirt of the Week and Shirt of the Month contests. A design winning all three categories could earn you up to $3,500 in cash and store credit, plus residuals from sales of T-shirts bearing your design.
An additional contest running through March 31 is the opportunity to design a T-shirt for the London-based electro-rock band Temposhark’s “The Invisible Line” tour. The winner will be chosen by the band and will receive $1,000 and “other goodies,” whatever that means.
Those with no artistic skills whatsoever can shop the winning designs or peek at a T-shirt 101 tutorial which outlines the color processes involved in applying designs to shirts.
T-shirts sell for about $15 to $24. You can also earn affiliate dollars by sending other people to the site, like this: www.designbyhumans.com
Up for vote are “Employee of the Month” by Casajordi from France, and “Lonely Luchador,” below, by Gaunty of Bilbao, Spain.
