By Nadine Kam

Photos by Nadine Kam
After Norma Kamali’s presentation in the Apple store in SoHo, everyone followed the designer onto the street to see her pieces available now at NormaKamaliCollection.com, NormaKamaliBay.com and in Wal*Mart stores. She believes technology is democratizing the distribution and availability of fashion, and that consumers are no longer willing to follow designers’ and retailers’ traditional schedules

Only one event today, Norma Kamali’s “democratization of Fashion” presentation at the Apple store in Soho. I’m anxious to hear what she has to say because she is a swimwear pioneer and legend who is now blazing a trail in the place where technology and fashion meet. I’m interested in all aspects of technology because it is changing the way we live so radically and the things we do or don’t do now will impact quality of life in the future.

She held onto her white iPhone throughout the event and proclaimed her love for the device. I picked up one two days before leaving home — it’s a long story — and it has been a life saver, not only for email, Internet and phone contact, but providing me with maps and compass so I didn’t waste much time getting lost.

She started her tech track only a year ago, when retailers slumped on their buys. She decided to test sales direct to the public at wholesale prices and she said that made up the shortfall.

Now, this is the part that may change the rest of the fashion world. Technology has made communication instant. In Hawaii, we should know better than anyone, because the diss to Hawaii has always been that it takes a year before trends arrive to the masses. No more. We get the information the same time as everyone else thanks to the Internet, increasing visibility and desire so that more people are dressing up.

So, what she has done, rather than give knock-off artists time to beat collections to stores, is put everything shown up on eBay the day of her presentation in light rain on a SoHo street, knowing people will want what they see now, and not have to wait until six months from now. Maybe that’s why I was in Topshop afterward, trying on a pale pink feather skirt (feather idea Jason Wu, color story Erin Fetherston).

I was also shopping for things that will carry over to spring, such as tny silver sequins and a white cut-out sleeve top from Alexander Wang that I found at Aloha Rag.

The pace of retail, in light of technology may be too slow for consumers, so what happens next? Her presentation gave us something to think about at the close of Fashion Week. Exciting times.

Norma Kamali’s models show designs being sold at Wal*Mart and on eBay through the NormaKamaliBay.com app. All pieces are wholesale priced at $250 and under. It was about 60 degrees in the rain. One of the other swimwear models had chicken skin.

Kamali faces the press and her fans.

By Nadine Kam

Polyvore.com collage built around 3.1 Philip Lim’s draped neck T-shirt. Click on the box to be directed toward the items.

Let’s say you’ve had to slash your spending to pay off past bills. There is a way to shop around without spending, and get almost as much satisfaction.

I’ve been watching Polyvore.com for a while, but was too busy to try it out. Well, a run through Neiman Marcus last week gave me incentive to try it out.

During the Last Call presale I noticed a Marni flower necklace I had admired since spring was still available. I actually wanted the pink, but that was gone, so I had to settle for the blue — it’s more versatile after all — at a third off its original $695 price tag. Yay!

But it’s always one of those restrictive deals. That meant I would have to postpone any current season buys, so bye-bye 3.1 Phillip Lim black-and-gray striped T-shirt. I notice a lot of designers have been addressing the economy by offering more affordable creations, affordable for Philip being $195.

Polyvore.com allows you to put your artistry at work, creating collages of things you want but can’t afford. It’s also a fun way of putting your styling skills to work on paper, in building fantasy collections. It’s the contemporary equivalent of playing with collage or paper dolls and will help build your artistic skills as well.

My boyfriend took a look at my first collage, and when I told him, I can’t afford any of this, he said, “That’s good,” because it was a little to rock ‘n’ roll costumey for his taste. Not that I’d wear it public, but it’s fun to imagine. I think any collage I put together will always have high heels, for instance, but I avoid them in real life. Too painful. I long ago crossed over the threshold from where people believe you must suffer for fashion. I like being comfortable.

I built my second collection around the Philip Lim shirt. Polyvore allows you to pull images off shopping Web sites across the Internet. They also provide a few essentials in various categores: bags, shirts, dresses, jeans, accessories, etc., for those who don’t have time to go searching all over. The idea being, if you like something you see, clicking on the object will take you to the home site where you can make your purchase.

Unfortunately, the T-shirt was the least expensive item in my collection, so I can only gaze at the Lanvin purse and Fendi platform shoes. But at least I can see how they might go together.

By Nadine Kam

Clarisonic
The Clarisonic and anemone flower that is the not-so-secret-anymore ingredient in Kinerase products.

Stopped by Sephora Ala Moana last night for a quick demo of the Clarisonic, the deep-cleaning sonic-care brush that massages your face as it cleans.

The demo was in conjunction with Kinerase, a powerful protection-oriented brand. The event introduces its new PhotoFacials Sun Damage Reversal System, with a starter kit valued at $143 selling for $100. The secret ingredient in the products is kinetin, an antioxidant derived from the anemone flower, which keeps the petals hydrated.

Brands often partner with Clarisonic, because the deep pore cleaning increases the efficacy of any serum or moisturizer you do use. Removing all the dead cells and dirt allows products to penetrate better.

The event repeats at the Ala Moana store from 1 to 6 p.m. today, and at the Pearlridge Sephora from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Appointment spots may be full, but you can always watch and ask questions.

The first time they were offering demos, I didn’t have time to go through it. This time I tried it on my hand because I didn’t want to take off my makeup. Such a bother to reapply, and I was off to Pecha Kucha at Linekona School, where Bytemarks’ Burt Lum was naming his picks for Hawaii’s Top 20 Social Media Geeks, and I was one of them! Thanks Burt!

My giant face on screen.

I found myself in the company of people I’ve met through work, but also, many people I’ve met strictly through Twitter. I later cornered Burt to ask him the whys of his human, non-database analytics, and he said he was looking for successful personal branding, community profile and active promotion of social media. As part of the old media guard branching into new media, I see that as a responsibility anyway, dragging my MSM peers into this new world order, as well as guiding mainstream readers through this territory.

Here’s his countdown, as borrowed from L.P. “Neenz” Faleafine’s Pono Media Web site. Names are followed by Twitter IDs should you wish to follow along.

20. Burt Lum @bytemarks
19. Judi Clark @judico
18. Ryan Ozawa @hawaii
17. Christa Wittmier @supercw
16. Ian Kitajima @ikitajima
15. Donna Nakasue @champuru
14. Liza Pierce @amauiblog
13. Jared Kuroiwa @KGMB9
12. Dan Leuck @dleuck
11. Greg Yamane @geewhy / Susie Collins @thecanaryreport
10. Todd Cochrane @geeknews
9. Roxanne Darling @roxannedarling
8. Vernon Brown @vbrown
7. Paula Bender @lavagal
6. Mitchell Dwyer @scrivener
5. Melissa Chang @melissa808
4. Nathan Kam @nathankam
3. Nadine Kam @fashiontribe
2. Andy Bumatai @andybumatai
1. L.P. “Neenz” Faleafine @neenz

Congrats all!

I still meet so many people who don’t know anything about Facebook or Twitter beyond the brand names. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like a parallel universe to the mainstream world, where people are meeting, conducting business and creating partnerships and events that pop up in the mainstream.

There are still so many people who tell me they’re afraid of social media because they’re afraid of loss of privacy. Well, guess what? The information you’d probably want to keep most private is already online in public data bases.

For the rest, your habits and goings on, you need only share what you want to share. If you’re attending an event, you can talk about it after the fact if you fear that someone will stalk you while you’re there.

(more…)

By Nadine Kam

Among items up for grabs at the Dream Sequins blog is a Garfield artist-designed tote from Stand Up Comedy and LucyJ chic shopper.

I can imagine kids wondering how any of us survived in the pre-Internet age. It is especially wonderful for those of us on these isolated rocks, allowing us to feel connected to the bigger world out there.

It was otherwise an alienating feeling growing up in Waipahu with an interest in fashion, but no one around who shared similar interest. What I got from it was that I was a weird kid surrounded by palaka (Arakawa’s) and swimwear, who shopped with friends at Sera’s and H.I.C., but preferred solo sojourns to admire the vintage 1920s and ’40s clothing at Bailey’s, when it was in Waikiki, and enjoyed disappearing into the racks at Carol & Mary at Ala Moana. I enjoyed the way the clothes provided a window into other times, other lives and even into others’ heads as a reflection of how they viewed themselves.

I don’t remember specific garments, but I thought the room, in addition to being very pink, felt very cozy, like sitting in a giant jewelry box. Its centerpiece was a plush round bench settee and its salespeople, thankfully, left me alone with my studies. The “old lady” clothes I couldn’t afford were intriguing, and though I had no intention of wearing them, I understood, through sewing, a little bit about fabrication and construction, and recognized that they were better than what anyone my age was wearing.

All this is a long way of saying, now, through blogs and Twitter, I meet like-spirited people all the time, and sharing a passion for fashion is no longer geographically exclusive.

One of my Tweeps, Deanne aka @DreamSequins, who I “met” while in a quandary pondering the cost vs. value of a Balenciaga City bag (she was the enabler who, from 5,000 miles away, finally convinced me to get it), is marking her 100th post with a giveaway on her blog, and you can check out her blog and her list of prizes and rules here: http://tinyurl.com/pfy7yv

Good luck!

By Nadine Kam

Amy Davis illustration
Peyton wears c.neeon dress, retro ’90s leather boots by Loius Vuitton, and silk skull scarf by Lucien Pellat-Finet, only because she has “waaaay too many by Mr. McQueen.”

Sometime Honolulu resident, artist and crazy rock ‘n’ roll chick Amy Davis sends word that she just started a new blog for Paper magazine, called Couture Voyeur. Voyeur is such a good word for the legion with a passion for fashion, but not the means.

It’s similar to her past Paper column, Style Fiends, but instead of “various hipsters styled out in très très delish avant fashion,” this time, she’s just reimagining one, Peyton, from week to week.

It’s a visual mashup of all the fashion, accessory and cosmetic finds that fill her eyes and head, emerging through her always fabulous illustrations. That’s one way to “wear” the best of the best when you don’t have the moolah for all. I told her I gotta get me some illustration skillz.

I look forward to viewing more of her finds.

Here are more views of c.neeon for spring/summer 2009:

By Nadine Kam

Every tribe has its markers, and those addicted to the garrulous universe of Twitter.com can show their affiliation with T-shirts from Aiea designer Valentino Valdez (@valdezign) and acrylic jewelry from London-based Twitterer @CouchObjects.

This twitterati nameplate, $20, is available through @CouchObject’s Etsy site. Below, prototypes for a nameplate bearing my blog and Twitter name.

I don’t often wear words or logos because they can be bloated with unintended meaning and would make me feel like a walking advertisement, but I’ll make an exception for my own Twitter name fashiontribe. The @ in front allows other tweeps to direct their comments straight at you so you can bypass the thousands of messages that flood the site every minute.

OK, geeky I know, but I think everyone on Twitter is proud to be part of the international geekdom.

If you want to learn more about Twitter, you might want to check out the HI Twestival coming up Feb. 12 at Oceans 808 at Restaurant Row, one of 160 events being held in cities all around the globe that night, allowing the Twitter/social media community to come together to benefit Charity:Water, a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Tickets are $20 for a pupu buffet, two drinks (plus $3 drink specials), a night of music and a chance to win prizes through a charity raffle. A $5 raffle ticket could get you:
>> A two-night stay at Wyland Waikiki
>> One of two 30-minute Ocean Massages from Spa Pure at The Wyland Waikiki
>> One of two two-night stays at any hotel from the Aqua Boutique Collection from Aqua Resorts
>> A 23-piece round tray from Happy Hearts Mochi
>> One complimentary tuition to Hawaii Bartending Academy
>> Admission for four to the Waikiki Aquarium
>> $500 closing cost credit on a loan from Innovative Mortgage Solutions

Plus more to come!

BTW, feel free to:

By Nadine Kam

Ideeli.com
Natalie Portman’s Te Casan line of vegan shoes goes on sale tomorrow.

There are a lot of good reasons to live in Hawaii, but one of the disadvantages for the fashion set is being so far from all the major sample sales.

If you’re oblivious to news and ads, good for you, but I can’t help feeling like I’m missing out when I see the ads in the Sunday Times or email alerts from boutiques thousands of miles away.

I try to spend most of my money in Hawaii to keep my neighbors employed because we’re all on this rock together and can only get through this downturn together, but for those items you can’t find here at the price you want after exploring all your options, the newest invitatation-only luxury site, Ideeli.com, offers designer apparel, accessories, prize giveaways and more, at discounts of 50 to 90 percent.

The site allows members access to sales events through email and mobile alerts, and puts us on even footing with buyers across the country, though quantities are limited and tend to sell out quickly, like these purses during a recent Chloe event.

The next event, beginning tomorrow, Nov. 12, at 11 a.m. EST, features Natalie Portman’s Te Casan collection of eco-friendly vegan shoes, like the one below, for shoe lovers who want a clear conscience. Prices start at $105, representing savings of up to 69 percent.

An example of the Te Casan shoes that’ll be up for grabs.

You must be a member to check out this and future events, including W Hotels, Estee Lauder, Prada and Lanvin giveaways, and Hype, Junior Drake and Vivienne Westwood sales. You can sign on at http://ideeli.com/in/media?mi=fashiontribe or by going to Ideeli.com and using my invitation code: fashiontribe

By Nadine Kam

Leanimal photo
Leanimal Gezane dress, $480 at Etsy.com

If you have any stalker tendencies at all, the Web will bring it out by sheer ease of finding information on people online. I’m not really stalking, but have been a little obsessed with the designs of “Project Runway’s” Leanne Marshall, sadly haunting her Etsy shop in hope that she would add something new.

Because she’s been busy with the show, her shop’s gone empty, but now that Fashion Week has ended, I checked it out again and saw that she recently added a white Gezane dress, for $480. Rats, pretty soon she’ll probably be selling in the $600 to $800 Christian Siriano / 3.1 Philip Lim range.

I like all the details in her designs, though she sometimes has a tendency to go overboard, which has been a problem on the show. Self-editing will come over time, but when she’s on the results are amazing.

Leanimal designs sold before she became famous :

By Nadine Kam

Hey Gucci fans, Ala Moana Center has joined the Web 2.0 universe and is now on Twitter. They posted this special offer this morning, good through Monday:

“Visit Gucci for a Hawaii exclusive charm with purchase now through 8/18/08. While supplies last, call 942-1148.”

You can continue following them for special offers at http://twitter.com/AlaMoanaCenter

You can follow me at http://twitter.com/fashiontribe

By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam videoHere’s the video for the Aloha!Alice story in the paper. It’s great how the Internet allows anyone with a creative streak to connect with a niche market.

Maybe I’ll start a photo shop at Etsy.com. A friend told me that any business started on 8/8/08 can’t fail!