Samantha Pleet Redux

I wrote a fairly detailed behind-the-scenes post about the Samantha Pleet presentation over on the Vice Blog but I took too many pictures for just one post. I avoided including too many photos of the lovely Louise and Angela because of another behind-the-scenes that will be posted as soon as Angela finishes the Cheek-ie lookbook. Louise was one of the lovely models and I got the most power shots of her and I already wrote about her photo opening. I mean hell, I love these ladies, but I've got to diversify a little bit. But here I have free reign to talk about my friends as much as I want. Professionalism be damned!

Pleet's collection was adorable. Decade-spanning yet clean, it was solid and totally wearable, something I can't given enough praise for. Not only was it wearable, but it was wantable...as in I WANT so many pieces.

You can take a look at her complete Spring 2010 lookbook here. There are some winners that weren't featured in the presentation like these lovely pieces:



I can't help it, I've been feeling printed pants so hard lately. I keep buying them via thrift and not wearing them but admiring them on others. I don't know what's keeping me from them...

In my official write-up I didn't include the magical film attached to the collection directed by my friend David Black and Jacqueline Di Milia. Sonically it's not my bag but the tune is appropriate nonetheless.

Samantha Pleet - Spring 2010 from Samantha Pleet on Vimeo.

Turner styling.


A convenient pose with lookbook


Louise's legs in the leaf romper that she eventually changed out of for another look.


Coco looking way too bored.


Angela looking unconvinced about this hairstyle.


Man busts and hat assortment.


Look, it's a naked Carlen!


The set was pretty special.


More of Coco sitting around looking bored albeit gorgeous. Energy!


Lovely ladies/buddies


Louise has the best "work it" face, pure gold.


Sweets!


Last minute primping


Lineup


Champing

I Lost My Time in a Magic Vortex

Facebook is going to be the death of me. Now that I've expanded beyond simple social networking and begun playing Dungeon & Dragons: Tiny Adventures. It's been going non-stop for a few days now. I got my boyfriend hooked too. Now we're spending our evening's buffing each other's characters from different computers in the same house. It's bad. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's an awesome application. And since it makes you wait between rounds it's not that encompassing. So it's not like I'm spending 14 hours a day playing World of Warcraft (I would never dare set foot in that realm, I'm obsessive when it comes to that shit, a prime candidate for life-wasting.) But still, it's getting a little out of hand.

Between Tiny Adventures (my Eldarin Wizard is a level 8, only three more levels til retirement and then I start again as a generation 2!) and...gulp...I hate to admit this to you guys...Sorority Life I really think I'm ruining my life. Seriously, I have a sorority girl whose body I inhabit and I befriend other girls I don't know via this game and team up to fight other girls. And to become friends with these girls in the game you have to be their friend in the real realm of Facebook which means I've actually added thirty or so strangers from around the world to my friends list just so I can grow my sorority and fight other girls more effectively and get better prizes...I know, I can't believe I'm explaining it or admitting it or even worse, PLAYING IT.

Bringing the embarassment of Sorority Life into it makes the Tiny Adventures thing much more acceptable. First of all, wizards and dragons and castles and orbs of mental dominion are awesome, sorority girls are not. Second aside from outfitting your character to maximize bonuses for specific adventures and the social act of healing and buffing your friend's characters, the game is pretty passive. So why am I dreaming about it? Seriously, I had a dream the other night where my actions were dependent on scores and a countdown timer and my adventures were hindered by an unknown force (aka the dungeon master!) deciding my fate. Really Bev? This is the stuff your dreams are made of? I couldn't even dream about orcs or any of the cool shit in the game, just the scoring tactical portion of it. LAME. You'd think a D&D-related dream would be much more epic than that.

FUCK! My character just failed a Constitution check and gets -5 Charisma for five adventures. I'm getting concerned about Grenabaul the Eldarin Wizard, she's not doing so well in her adventure, "The Song of the Dark Druid". She failed it once already last night but I really thought I had it this time. That's the problem with wizards, they are high on intelligence but low on constitution, strength, and wisdom and my inventory of weapons isn't doing enough to help it. See? These are issues of serious concern!



For a relative virgin to this sort of gaming I feel like I'm doing okay. I have to admit that a big part of the reason I was so willing to mock my friend's boyfriend when I saw him at his computer with a headset on playing World of Warcraft was fear that there but for the grace of elves there go I. An appropriate addendum to this example is that when my friend found a scorpion in her closet (they live in a wooded area just outside of Austin, TX) she had to beg him to tear himself away from the game to kill it. He entered the bedroom, sword in hand, and vanquished the tiny poisonous foe. Aforementioned boyfriend just happens to be the singer in fantasy metal band The Sword, so despite what you all may think of their music (they have a lot of haters out there,) their name is truly their weapon of choice and the singer, JD, truly knows his wizardly shit. Regardless, it is a good escape for the distraction from the annoyances and stresses of the real world, but seeing him made me realize that could easily be me in the headset missing dinner due to a prearranged online gaming meeting with a bunch of buddies.

Then again that dude goes on tour with Metallica so I think we can let a little gaming slide. But while it's not ruining his life I have a very real fear of it ruining mine. Tiny Adventures seemed like the perfect compromise for my desire to engage in epic adventures with little concentration or time commitment but somehow I've managed to turn what is essentially D&D lite into a time-killer. Is it wrong that I'd rather sit at home and half-watch episodes of Ranma 1/2 while making sure my character makes it through a level 8 adventure than go to all these Fashion Week parties I've been made aware of? Actually, maybe I'm doing okay.

Odyn Vovk up on Vice!

The behind-the-scenes rundown of the Odyn Vovk show is posted up on Vice.

Click here to check it out, there are tons of pics too!

I didn't get any pics at the afterparty because I was too busy DJing, my camera was almost dead, and everyone fucking hung out in the back yard where I couldn't go because I was tied to the decks! Bummer. Still it was a blast. Playing Immortal and Mayhem at Sweet and Vicious was extremely satisfying although it seemed to bum out the staff pretty heavily aside from my buddy Brain who dug it. And there is nothing like having a crowd of your own kind in a bar that doesn't cater to you. A girl I recognized as a former customer at The Good The Bad & The Ugly came up and gushed about hearing Burzum. I gushed back, excited that she caught it. And I doubt those turntables have seen an Asschapel LP since well, when Stefan and I DJed the Kylesa afterparty on Halloween there nearly four years ago.


I'll post some of the outtakes from the Vice piece later, including my favorite category of photo, unflattering pictures of male models.

Warehouse of Horrors

So I meant to post this last week. I wrote it for the Vice Blog but we didn't have time to post it before the sale ended (for some reason people don't work on Labor Day...weird.) I thought all was lost in the holiday time crunch until I remembered, oh yeah, wait, I have my own blog that I neglect and I can post things on it...doy.



I recently bad-mouthed the Barneys Warehouse sale. Well time to come clean, I caved and I went. It was every bit as terrifying as I remembered although I managed to go late enough so I missed the line which sometimes wraps around the block. Waiting in line to spend money...not my idea of a good time. Upon entering through security I saw my sanctuary shining right in front of me. The shoes.



The shoes at the warehouse sale are the best bargain and the items least likely to be totally ravaged by the horders. I've got big fucking feet, years of retail, including two plus at the main Barneys New York location, has expanded them to between a size 10 or 10 1/2. Thankfully not a lot of other women do and the few in need of clodhoppers aren't into giant platform insanity that makes their already big feet look monstrous. I don't mind it, I think they balance out my hips, but maybe that's just one of those things I tell myself to feel okay about something I can't change.



After navigating the shelves of shoes you grab a single you like and wait in line with a bunch of impatient women until a stock person emerges from a gigantic stockroom, takes your shoe, and hopefully returns with it's mate in a box. One year I found my dream shoes only to have the stock girl tell me the mate was MIA forever. Bummercity. A tense middle-aged woman dressed in all-black with what looked like meth scratches on her face kept pacing behind me asking every stock girl who came out if they had her shoes, accusing every non-white female of being the person who helped her although none of them had. Thankfully they found the mates to my potential scores trauma-free and of course my broke-ass being there in the name of research (I swear!) fell in love with a pair.

This was my first warehouse sale as a non-employee having avoided it for the past few seasons. The Warehouse Sale is kind of a crock, at least for the first couple of weeks. Nothing is cheaper in the warehouse than it is during the final markdown period in the stores. The same goes for Century 21 by the way. In fact at times items in that discount department store sell for more than the final markdown price the retailers unloading their goods sell them for in their own shops. And during sale time at Barneys there is at least a modicum of order. There is no reason to descend into the chaos which is a million times worse than any sample sale I've ever been too. Not that it's the staff's fault, controlling the masses of women who clutch desperately onto their Balenciaga sweaters marked down to $394 from $1200 is pretty much impossible. Clothing litters the floor, the jeans table is one giant knot of denim and keeping the shoe selection properly divided by size is literally a full-time job.

The concept of "cheap" is of course relative. As is the idea of a "deal." In fashion this becomes even more skewed when one takes into consideration the justifications for pricing: quality, rarity, status, concept, etc. Still, there is a bottom line for most everyone when it comes to purchasing things and even if the whopping $1290 pricetag on a pair of handwoven Bottega Veneta printed leather platform sandals can be justified in the painstaking crafting it still doesn't make me any more apt to spend two months rent on them. Comparatively, their final in-store markdown of $354 may seem like a bargain but that still doesn't make me able to afford them. However, this is where the Warehouse Sale has it's merit. As the days count down towards the end of the sale the prices drop. First a sign is posted by the shoe section that says "50% off marked down price" then the "50% is crossed out and replaced with a "60%", then in the final days the "60%" turns into a magical "75%" and there you are, at the finish line. Barneys will not sell you goods any cheaper than what is essentially 75% off of 75% off of retail. The clothing is quicker to be marked down going straight from 50% off to 75%. Seem too much of a hassle to negotiate? I don't blame you. But there are dedicated fans of the stalk and shop. Men and women who covet an item, visit it, watch it as the markdowns progress, waiting for the last possible moment to purchase it. Some cave before the warehouse sale. Some cave during the first round of markdowns. It's all a game of chance. The longer you wait the greater the possibility that someone else will swoop up and pick up the item. Barneys relies on this shopper paranoia during the first week of the sale.

The paranoia essentially worked on me. I visited the sale on Friday when the shoes were still at 60% off. I found the aforementioned Bottega Veneta printed leather platform sandals. I did the math, 60% off of $354 was just barely within range of what I could pay but more than I should. But they were calling to me and I couldn't resist. So beautiful, so tall, I imagined them with tights in the fall, with shorts next summer, told myself even though they were floral printed it wasn't "too floral". Convinced myself the style looked vintage enough not to be out of style ever. Fuck it, I knew I was getting them as soon as I found them.



I tried to shop the rest of the sale and quickly got discouraged. Everything I wanted was still $600. Fuck that. And yes, I could have bought a pair of jeans for $40 but did I really need them? Somehow they didn't seem as special next to a rack of tattered Vionnet silk gowns. Hell I almost bought a silver metallic knit Dries Van Noten skirt that looked terrible on me just because it was gonna cost me less than $100. In such an atmosphere it is difficult to judge anything on it's own merits. Everything is relative and suddenly it seems okay to spend $80 on a Stella McCartney t-shirt because you know it's the only thing from the line you'll be able to afford.



Thankfully common sense won over my desire to own designer goods. I got in the treacherously long line and waited for twenty minutes before I was rung up. The cashier mistakenly took 75% off the shoes instead of 60% and suddenly I was out of there having paid $108 for a pair of platforms that originally retailed at $1290.



End Note:

The shoes I scored were the Bottega Veneta fisherman's sandal. I wore them tonight actually. Sean and I went to some art openings and then Morimoto. We got out of dinner just as it started to rain, about 10:45. We were in the Meatpacking District right when Fashion's Night Out ended. Getting a cab was a fucking nightmare but the shoes looked amazing with my olive tights and plum jacket. Hurrah!

Also, this sale ended up costing me an extra $100 since someone swiped my meds from my purse. Yeah, I know, not my wallet but a bottle of a very non-recreational anti-anxiety medication and another bottle that contained 1/2 of a klonopin...not a very recreational dosage. Fuckers!

Jersey Shore!

Glen, Audrey and I went down to the Jersey Shore and had a basically awesome time. I had to get back to work so I missed out on a mushroom enhanced bike ride and potential karaoke but we did hit the strip and shopped our butts off. It's discount heaven with a lot of tie-dye thrown in.

I wrote about it for the Vice Blog, so click here for the full run down.



Aside from shopping we spent a couple of hours with Sadie at the dog beach. It wasn't fancy and we had to share it with a fat kayaker whose boat was named "The Emotion". That's right, no motion in the ocean puns, just plain old "Emotion"...laaaaame.






Of course the astro-turf set-up was Glen's idea and btw, that's no an American flag beach towel but a fucking poncho...what else could I expect?




The only rule was that the dog had to be on a leash that was held at all times. There was no length restriction so we found a nylon rope in Glen's van (that's not rapey at all dude) and tied it to the end of Sadie's regular leash so she was free to run around almost as much as she pleased although she somehow managed to reach the end of the longest leash ever a few times while playing fetch in the bay.


Family!


I look so posey here but I really wasn't. Audrey said she wanted to take some pics of me and I didn't know when she was taking them exactly. I throw like a girl.


Best dog ever

ODYN VOVK

Ahh, black metal and fashion, the two have flirted, well maybe the flirtation is a little one-sided. For every designer or stylist who has done a black metal inspired line/shoot/runway show I don't think there has been any album dedications in return. But the grim gotta wear something and occasionally the grim just happened to be inspired menswear designers like Austin Sherbanenko.



This season's Odyn Vovk runway show is at the St Marks Church on 09/09/09 and the afterparty is at Sweet and Vicious at 10 pm, DJed by yours truely.

I am incredibly stoked to be DJing this afterparty. It's a rare occassion when I can get away with DJing nothing but metal. The fashion week crowd isn't going to complain, it's thematic with the show. Anyone even slightly familiar with the line will not be expecting much else. Still after getting off the phone with my buddy Ryan Turner who is once again producing the show, my brain is pulsating ideas. Black metal and the darker side of thrash plus some more menacing Alice Cooper tunes. This is going to be fun...the list is forming...Emperor, Bathory, Whiplash, Darkthrone, Hellhammer, Blessed Death, Metallica, Savatage, Force, Sacrilege...sigh...

Oh and there is no uptight RSVP/invite only vibe to the afterparty so hopefully everyone will come from the show plus hopefully some stragglers from the Genesis P.Orridge opening I may be cursed to miss!