summer’s officially in swing here.  temperatures are hovering around 100 all this week.  and probably into the foreseeable future.  i don’t feel like doing anything other than laying by a body of water with a vodka snow cone. probably not going to happen soon… but this picture’s nice, isn’t it?  it’s one of renate aller’s seascape photographs.  i haven’t seen these in person, but they’re large, and i’m sure are pretty great in real life.  some of them are a bit more traditional, and others verge into pure abstraction.  you can see lots more on his site.

i can’t say i’ve been particularly excited by the resort shows.  and i feel like i want to be excited by something right now, but they’re just not doing it for me.  i know christopher kane is the talk of the shows, but i just can’t get on board in general with the photo print thing.  i associate it with contempo casuals items from the early nineties for some reason…  the only line that i like as a whole is burberry.  it’s nothing groundbreaking, but there is some great detailing, nice lines, and a muted color palette that works for me.  negative points though, for the odd socks and sandals situation…

there are a few looks from other shows that got my attention.  i can never quite figure out what my opinion is of bottega venata, but i do seriously love the look on the left.  the skinny jean, slouchy t-shirt, leather jacket thing is pretty easy to do, but i think the proportions of everything here are pretty much perfect.  and i do think the platform-y sandal thing is a bit unusual with the look, but works.  center is really the only look that particularly stood out for me from chanel, which is sad.  but i do think it’s a pretty great dress, and amazing necklace.  and finally, this simple, but graphically cool look from phoebe philo’s debut for celine.

amy bennett is a brooklyn based painter who works from miniature three dimensional models.  she describes her work as “glimpses of a scene or fragments of a narrative.”  the top and bottom image are monotypes, and the center is from her series “neighbors” for which she built a model neighborhood, and created personalities and relationships for it’s inhabitants.  at first glance, most of her work is picturesque, but if you look closely, you might see tiny figures in various compromising positions.  i think her work is really amazing, and she does a great job of capturing the essence of the american summer, with her own peculiar brand of story telling.

i’m not really sure what you call this style of earring.  they sort of give me the feeling of being a more socially acceptable way to experiment with the tina turner in mad max look.  how could that not be a good thing?  (incidentally, i just downloaded we don’t need another hero.  so good.  if you’re not feeling that level of commitment, you should watch the video here.)  anyway… check out disco medusa.  the earrings pictured left are only $40, which is more than justifiable. they have a number of other cool, similar styles.  and the pair on the right is by victoria moore.  she works with damascus steel, where strips of metal are forged together to create patterning.  there are a lot of really amazing pieces on her site. check it out…

for summer i’m feeling simple clothes with over the top jewelry.  i’ve been staring longingly for a while at these fenton necklaces.  they kind of embody everything i want right now.  a little color to liven up my mostly all gray and black wardrobe.  still working on that…  a little girly, a little tough.  what’s not to love?

i know modeling isn’t all glamorous work, but doesn’t this kind of sum up the fantasy of a model’s life?  casually hanging around in a dressing room with karl lagerfeld and a hot male model.  trying on the new chanel line…  fitting room follies is a short film that karl directed to showcase the fall 09 collection.  these are a few of my favorite stills.

i love the selby.  the image from the site that’s inspired me the most isn’t particularly home decor related, but it’s these studded leather converse pictured left, from designer ryan korban’s apartment.  and yes, studs have been kind of everywhere forever, and maybe they’re over by now, or should be, but i can’t help but love them in the right context. there have been a few diy versions done at this point, and if you’re so inclined you can actually purchase a similar-ish version on the free people site.  i was really in love with the details of these though.  black leather shoe, and tiny studs, as opposed to the canvas converse and larger stud version, so i decided to take matters into my own hands.  

as far as diy’s go this is fairly easy in the sense that it doesn’t require any particular skills and the supplies are relatively cheap.  i will say that i wouldn’t attempt the leather/tiny studs version unless you’re really motivated.  it takes a long time. and it also kind of hurts.  but, i do think the end result was well worth it.  i would work on it for about five hours or so at a time until my hands hurt too bad and then let myself recover for a couple of days.  i would also recommend planning yourself some sort of movie marathon, because it does get sort of tedious.  i like to diy with stuff that i’ve seen before and doesn’t require a lot of attention, so i went with john hughes movies, and revisted gossip girl season one, which made it a little easier to pass the time.  

as far as execution goes, if you want to go the all black leather route, you can order them for $75 on the converse website.  the studs themselves can be bought at various places, but i decided to order mine from the aptly named studsandspikes.com.  i went with the 1/4″ bag of 500 which was pretty much the perfect amount.  i know that some people use x-acto knifes or scissors for studding projects, but for this specific project i would recommend using an awl. it’s cheap and seems to go through the leather as well as possible and is either to hold i think than an x-acto knife would be.  you’ll also need a pair of small pliers.

the actual process is pretty straightforward.  poke holes with awl, insert stud, bend back stud prongs.  repeat a billion times.  i started from the bottom, because i figured that would likely show more, and it would be more important for that to be straight.  the bottom is much harder, just because it’s less accessible.  the other big thing that you have to deal with is when you get close to the heel.  there’s a reinforced layer there that is too thick to poke through or to get the studs through.  so… you basically have to rip the seams from that side of the heel reinforcement, pull it up, and do the best you can to work under it.  once you get past that part it’s pretty much a breeze comparatively.  and remember that in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal if some of the studs aren’t perfect.  it’s not noticeable.  one other tip– if you order the all black leather converse, for whatever reason, you can’t choose black shoelace grommets.  however, i found that black nail polish worked very well to cover those up.  

when you finish studding, you’ll find that the inside of the shoe resembles something not unlike the texture of a cheese grater.  kind of scary.  i’m sure if you wanted to be fancy you could hot glue canvas or something on top.  i went the easy route and applied two layers of black duct tape.  even so, i was a little worried about ending up with lacerated feet, but i’m happy to say i’ve worn them on a couple of long nights and all was well.

the met costume ball is always good times for red carpet watching.  there was over the top-ness (leighton and rhianna obviously), the shockingly sedate (kanye and gf), the just plain shocking (debbie harry.  what?), and the ornately glamourous (mary kate olsen).  

i think the four looks above are my favorite.  kind of simple i guess relative to a lot of others.  they all have long, classic silhouettes, but are somewhat out there in their own ways.  i think claudia’s versace is really incredible and possibly my favorite favorite.  versace only works for me a really small percentage of the time, but i think when it is good it’s really good.  (not on you cindy crawford.  yikes.)  ashley olsen in the row.  i love that she wore the row.  it’s just kind of shockingly simple, and cool, and very her…  i think lou doillon’s nina ricci is kind of hilarious, cute and glam all at once. not three qualities that i think are that easy to find in one evening gown.  (btw, a more modest, but similar nina ricci dress on tori burch- not quite as captivating…).  erin o’connor is one of my favorite models.  this to me has sort of a tough, punk-ish glam without needing a bunch of studs, chains, and hardware to get that point across.  i think this silhouette is so great with the pseudo tie thing, and exaggerated shoulders that to me really work with this look.  i feel like i’m getting sort of tired of the exaggerated shoulder showing up on everything just for the sake of it being an exaggerated shoulder, but this makes sense to me…  if you want more more more you can see full coverage plus the 50 best dressed on style.com.

according to their website, the gentlemen’s league are striving to “return to a time when artistic vision, handcraftsmanship and quality were the true marks of personal style and substance.”  their signature bags are created by seth stevens and then hand drawn with pen and ink by artist adam razak.  there’s an interview process, and then the artwork is custom designed with the owner’s monogram and images that are created to be a “self portrait.”  i love that the leather and canvas bag itself is sort of preppy and rich looking, and the drawings veer somewhat into a metal, or fantasy realm.  definitely something to keep in mind if you come into some extra cash, and want a luxury bag that you won’t see random celebs carrying in people magazine.

i’m all for things that are a little over the top.  it’s no secret that fashion has been borrowing heavily from punk for some time.  good or bad?  it is what it is, i guess.   i’m not really sure that delfina delettrez fendi or damien hirst had that in mind when creating either of these pieces.  fendi talks about being inspired by anatomy, which seems evident in the $25,000 skeleton bracelet.  damien hirst is, well… damien hirst.  the theme of most of his work is central to death.  ”for the love of god” is a human skull encrusted with 8000+ diamonds.  it’s the most expensive artwork ever sold by a living artist at £50 million.  i’ve been staring at the skeleton bracelets a lot lately.  as mind blowing as they are on their own… there’s always got to be a next level, right?  combined with diamond covered human skull and re-imagined as one of punk’s most iconic album cover images… well, i’ve amused myself anyway.