Wear What When

Sweet Suggestion #4: It’s V Day

Get your orders in now for Valentine’s Day flowers

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 08, 2010 at 03:15PM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Melissa O'Hearn for Seattle Met

For some, the best route to an unbroken heart involves ordering flowers, having those flowers delivered, and then waiting patiently with an aw-shucks, honey-for-you-I-would-even-order-pizza smile.

Lots of our favorite local florists have specials running on their blogs and sites, and there are plenty of sample arrangements to browse. For example, here’s what Juniper Flowers is calling their Valentine’s Day menu, and I noticed that Willow and Bloom has some gorgeous stuff on offer as well.

Potentially, you can call in your sweetheart’s bouquet and get your Valentine’s Day shopping done without getting up off the couch. Unless you are not presently on the couch. You know what I mean.

My suggestion is to consider today V Day. That is: Get it done now. You’ll feel good about getting your order in, and designers will feel good about getting their build-and-deliver strategies together.

For florist ideas, please see this Cornershop page from our archives, wherein we considered designers with a not-strictly-traditional approach to the red, red rose. (Spoiler alert: Yep, their work still smells as sweet.)

And, even if you’re courting a DIY approach (say, the flower vendors at Pike Place Market or a couple branches from your early-bird cherry tree), keep in mind our perspective on vases. In a nutshell: We’re not fans of the cheap, practically disposable kind.

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Stepping Out

Bellevue Arts Museum shows over a hundred shoes by pioneering designer Beth Levine

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 08, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum

Slideshow: Beth Levine

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum

Slideshow: Beth Levine

View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum
View Slideshow » Photo: Courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum

Considering modern designers like Diane von Furstenberg, Stella McCartney, and even Tory Burch, it’s hard to imagine an America that didn’t allow iconic, groundbreaking shoe wear designer Beth Levine to put her own name on the beautifully made souls of her artful pumps.

And in fact, as Bellevue Arts Museum curator Nora Atkinson told me, the designer and her husband Herbert Levine, whose name took Beth’s place there under the arched step of so many stylish women’s feet beginning in the early 50s, they were hesitant to use his when they sent their first shipment to a department store in the south, fearing anti-semitic backlash.

BAM’s Beth Levine show, which opens on February 18 and represents the only such show in this country (can you believe that??), is set to be a personality-driven, architectural heel-studded walk through fashion history that gives way to many conversations about the ownership of ideas and the cultural impact of haute couture and everyday dress in America.

Then again, it should also be really fun just crusing through and imagining wearing all that smart, practical, but completely beautiful design. And then maybe shopping afterward.

Some things to think about before you go:

-Levine was a Lithuanian farmer’s daughter who knew a thing or two about calfskin and animal hides when, at 38 in 1946, she moved to New York to work as a shoe model as a means of getting her … um, foot in the door to become a designer.

-Yeah, you guessed it: The leadership in the male-run factories in those days weren’t interested, until she proved to them that she was bringing ideas, and solutions. And an American design identity — until Levine came along, the shoe industry in the states was based on replicating European looks.

-Beth met Herbert in one of the factories; they opened their own manufacturing operation in ’49. It closed in ’75, though she continued consulting and designing after that.

-Her clients included Jackie O, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Cher, and Nancy Sinatra — Levine is credited with bringing those boots made for walking to haute couture.

-Yes, her sexiest styles would fit a modern day Carrie Bradshaw type, but she had a sense of humor and wild innovation, too. She designed one style lined in an AstroTurf-like material -- she was a farmer’s daughter, don’t forget, and thought everyone needed to feel the “grass” between their toes. Check the slideshow here for more.

-We wouldn’t know as much about Levine without expert and author Helene Verin, who will speak at BAM’s preview party.

-We wouldn’t have access to so many historical perspectives without the help of Seattle-based design legend Sara Little Turnbull, who loaned a dozen or so styles for the show.

Start making plans now to stroll through the exhibit with your most amazingly shod and design-savvy friends — as to whether or not you’ll want to wear your museum-friendly comfortable shoes, I’ll leave that to you.

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Tags: design, Eastside, Bellevue Arts Museum, shoes

Luly’s Next Top Model

You fifteen minutes called, they’re waiting for you at Luly Yang’s first model call

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 05, 2010 at 07:30AM 3 Comments

Luly Yang plays Tyra Banks on Monday February 8 as she casts models for her next two runway shows

So you think you can walk?

Get your 5×7 headshot ready and plan to be at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel’s Metropole Room on Monday February 8 between 10am and noon. Local designer Luly Yang, she of the dramatic ball and wedding gowns and those other Tiffany blue windows, is looking for women between 5’8" to 6’0" who wear sizes 2,4,6,8.

And I quote, “Luly’s dresses and runway models are hour glass shaped in comparison to New York fashion designers, who require size zero (0) models.”

Those selected will wear Yang’s designs on the runway in May as well as in her fall production next October.

Don’t forget to smile with your eyes.

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Tags: locally made, locally designed, fashion show

Sweet Suggestion #3

How to get under the covers with that special someone

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 04, 2010 at 12:30PM 0 Comments

Photo: Image from Blackbird's shopping pages

As far as helpful hints go, what better way to say, “Hey, I’d really like to get under the covers with you” than a rich, vivid, beautiful blanket.

The folks at Blackbird and their sibling shop Field House have an affinity for American and Northwest products, and they’re in love with (as are others in the fashion world) the Oregon-based heritage brand Pendleton.

Couldn’t you be in love with — or under — Pendleton’s Fremont blanket?

All the gorgeously historical and timeless Pendleton pieces in the Blackbird collection (or for that matter at the Downtown Pendleton store) — can be seen as the anti-lingerie. Not that there’s anything wrong with lingerie, but skimpy and strappy doesn’t work for everyone.

If cozy, warming, and private is your idea of sexy, well, you know what to do next.

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Tags: Ballard, locally made, heritage brands, home decor, gift guide, Pendleton

Sweet Suggestion #2

Seattle-based Hopscotch Tees combine wee neighborhood pride with sweet sentiments for little ones

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Feb 04, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Image from Hopscotch Tees

If your favorite Valentine is 9 months old, a box of chocolates is probably a little much. A dozen roses? Not so much. But how about this sweet little onesie by Shana Perrina of the locally based line Hopscotch Tees?

The thing about Perrina’s designs is that they’re customizable; neighborhood pride goes hand in hand with retro-feeling, poppy design.

Check the fine print on the image here: "The sweetest thing in ____________ (your neighborhood here) since ____ (the little one’s birth year there)."

For more tees for boys, girls — and yes, these come in uh, big kid sizes, too — check the Hopscotch’s online shopping page.

^^

I know, I know, two cupcake-related posts in two days. Won’t happen again. I promise.

Stay tuned for another Sweet Suggestion later today.

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Tags: gift guide, locally designed, kids stuff