Wear What When

News You Can Use

(…to go New York, the new Loft location, and Nordstrom.com)

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Aug 27, 2010 at 07:30AM 0 Comments

NEW YORK NEW YORK

I. So you’re into this whole Fashion’s Night Out thing? Really into it? Like, really, really into it? The Shops at the Bravern are offering a three-day two-person trip to New York for the real-deal parties, fashion shows, and shopping events. You can enter to win on the Bravern’s Facebook page. Hurry though: The contest ends on August 29.

a. While you’re in New York, you might be interested in dropping in at the Vilcek Foundation, where once-local designer Madina Vadache is showing 19 debut designs from her spring 2011 collection. (One of them is pictured here.) We’ve featured the designer’s work in our fashion and Bride & Groom spreads; it’s great to see her getting a high-profile show — sort of an off-Lincoln Center extended Fashion Week thing — in her new homebase. Sort of: The Vilcek Foundation exists to “heighten public awareness of the contributions made by immigrants to the American arts and science.”

NEW TO TOWN

II. You know that former Adidas store at Fifth and Pike? It’s going to be an outpost of LOFT, the Ann Taylor sub-line. (Yes, most LOFT stores are actually at least upstairs if not in a loft. The Seattle street-level LOFT marks the first such non-elevated location.) In a development that shocked and surprised cynical style watchers, cool indie fashion sites like Refinery 29 started making a big deal out of the brand in recent months. Also, less indie ones like Style.com. And then there was that whole image retouching thing. But I digress. Fact is: Along with the whole M’Obama-led White House Black Market thing, LOFT’s image is getting fashion-y-er and more fashion-y-er. Around here we’re pretty big on shopping local, but we understand that you might purchase a mass-marketed cardigan from time to time, too. The store is set to open in time for the holidays.

a. Soma Intimates, a lingerie chain, is set to open at Pacific Place on September 8. The New York-based bra-and-pantie shop is offering one free bra with any $75 purchase through 9/22/10. Locally owned lingerie shops? Sure thing, right here.

b. By the way, have you been watching the developments at the old Cold Water Creek location, where All Saints is set to open up shop?

POINT AND CLICK

III. Nordstrom.com relaunched, and the New York Times took notice. Call me local yokel but I like seeing our town’s name leading off a national fashion sales story with a positive bent. From the NYT piece: “In fact, Nordstrom, based in Seattle, has been the department store with one of the best improvements in same-store sales over the last year, when its overall sales reached $8.26 billion. While it may not seem revolutionary, a melding of Web site and store is surprisingly rare in the retailing world.”

a. Of course, Nordstrom.com isn’t the only local shop to meld its site with its store. Blackbird in Ballard and Totokaelo in West Edge are two boutiques that maintain a whip-smart, high-style, huge numbers web presence, and, as would follow, legions of international online customers.

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Tags: new, Seattle in the News, Locally Designed, New York, Online Shopping, New, Soon, and Gone

Virtual Reality: the Craft Pantry

The first in a series of introductions to local Etsians and other online stuff-sellers

Posted by: Amanda LaPlante on Aug 12, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

You’ve got Ballard, West Seattle, Columbia City … and the ether. With Etsy and other online shops, there’s this other neighborhood available to those of us who want to shop local.

So here we are cruising the online supermall of handmade crafts and vintage whatnots to bring you snapshots of what Seattle’s stuff-makers have to offer.

This week: Cammie Cole, owner of the Craft Pantry, where tote bags, notecards, and produce bags are poppy and personalized with an air of history and the good old-fashioned days.

Check out the slideshow here to find out why she thinks of her inspiration as an “unruly sibling.”

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Tags: Locally Designed, Seattle Etsians

Dress Code: Chicks Did It

Two galleries celebrate the legacy of rock art in Seattle and beyond

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 30, 2010 at 11:30AM 0 Comments

Where: Tether and the Design Commission Gallery

What: Did you know that Nirvana’s first album was designed by a woman? Rock can, in some ways, be a dude’s game, but a poster and album artwork show at Tether flips that on its head as the gallery/design firm/stuff shop examines the vivid and expressive work of Northwest-based female innovators from 1966 through present day.

Tether designer Dan Smith presents the show; the former EMP designer noticed that the scene had never really acknowledged the female artists who contributed so much color and story to the music, so he decided to do something about it. The show’s namesake, Thunderbitch, was a Portland tool and die engineer in the psych rock-era who made show posters that helped define the look and feel of the vaguely isolated Northwest around the end of the ’60s.

Meanwhile, Sub Pop art director Jeff Kleinsmith and Jesse LeDoux celebrate eleven years of Patent Pending, their Seattle-based silk-screening rock poster concern. The duo has created visuals for artists from the Shins to Nine Inch Nails.

When: Both shows open on Thursday Aug 5 (aka First Thursday) with artist receptions that begin at 5p

Wear: Bell-bottoms, biker boots, skinny jeans, platform sandals. Whatever puts you in the mind of walking past a visual depiction of music and thinking, “I gotta go.”

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Tags: Design, Music, Locally Designed, Dress Code, First Thursday

Color Theory #1

New blog series gets Style Counselors talking color trends

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 26, 2010 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Color Theory #1 asks local menswear designer Michael Cepress to tell us what shades and hues he’s currently obsessed with. And, as is often the case here, it’s all about the slideshow. To hear from more Seattle Met Style Counsel subjects, stay tuned.

Michael Cepress: While any number of things inspire me and the work I create, one of the most critical and essential components is indeed color. In our lives today a host of elements can collide in an aesthetic experience – cultural references, patterns, textures, histories, traditions…and this is very much the case in my work as a designer. Every garment I design comes to reference a heap of different times and places (in my own mind as designer, at least!) and in the end it is COLOR that ties the entire experience together. While attitudes and styling and combinations change, it is often color that we rely on to help make an entire look “make sense.”

One particular color experience I have been obsessing over lately is the pairing of turquoise and olive…or as the interior design trend forecasters of the 1960s called it: “Aqua and Avocado”. In smarty-pants art school lingo we’d label this an analagous color scheme, as the chosen colors sit beside one another on the color wheel. True colorists would use an even more complex description, but I won’t go there! Upon chatting up my artist friend Emily Pothast about this subject, I came to learn that she has not only been featured on this style blog….but was also wearing the very color scheme I’m focusing on today! Serendipity!

This particular pairing is a good one, and one that has been on my mind for years. I remembered – and revisited – a copy of a 1960 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Ideas (see the slideshow for more) that featured a host of glorious interiors from the period that favored this very scheme. In my personal life I live with this scheme by way of our bathroom towels (a gift from my dear friend and Seattle composer Byron Au Yong) as well as a wonderful set of Mikasa brand dishes in which I prepare my morning coffee.

I’ve gathered these little moments of inspiration and poured them into one particular fabric that continues to inspire me and is featured in some of my newest spring designs. The plaid fabric I speak of blends the handsome aqua and avocado scheme into a range of blacks and greys that make the fabric even more suited to the wardrobe of most any man. We all know guys have closets full of blue, black, and grey, so why not bring in an exciting accent?

A new series of vests made of the fabric are now on the racks at Velouria here on Capitol Hill, the hub for MC ready to wear. And these particular vests offer some “two-for-one” appeal as they are entirely reversible. One side features the plaid I love so much; the other side showcases a solid color in your choice of olive, navy or black, backed with a very fun and sophisticated black and grey stripe. These price at $118 and they’re available right now!

_

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Tags: Locally Made, Style Counsel, Locally Designed, Menswear, Color Theory

New: Report Shoes

Local shoe company sets up shop in the Square

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 22, 2010 at 12:00PM 1 Comments

Where: Bellevue Square mall

What: Report, Eastside-based purveyors of stilt-like stilettos, walkable wedges, and trend-driven sandals, boots, and oxfords, now has its own four walls. Limited edition styles as well as Report and Report Signature models will be on offer.

Sure, Report footwear has long been available via Nordstrom, Zappos, and inside other people’s shops, but who doesn’t want their own slice of the mall – a place to call home? Report insiders in Bellevue say a retail shop has always been a goal, and, finally, the right space became available. Check the slideshow here for more.

When: Now, and whenever you’re looking to sneak in on a footwear trend and you don’t have the required top dollar to go designer. This way, at least you know you’re supporting a local business and its local employees.

Who else is new at Bellevue Square? Eddie Bauer

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Tags: Bellevue, Shoes, Locally Designed

What’s Your Take On… Spare Shoes

Seattle company launches ’10s version of white commuting sneakers

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jul 19, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Remember Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, and all the thousands of women like her, who commuted to work across hard urban pavement in white sneakers underneath crisp navy skirt suits and shoulder pads? Early 90s memories of Wall Street women rushing toward lower Manhattan are not among my most sartorially significant, although they sure conjure up a specific female prototype.

I guess several factors contribute to the decline of the Reebok Executive, and we can be thankful for all of them-mostly. We’d have to do a pretty extensive cost/benefit analysis on the whole everybody-in-khakis, casual-ization of the workplace thing before we decided for sure on that. The office is, in most industries, a far less formal place than it used to be, but nevertheless,
spike heels are not any less spiky, whether worn for stomping into conference rooms or onto dance floors, and there’s a new non-white, non-sneaker shoe in town that aims to be there for women when the going gets tough.

And I do mean in town. The company that launched the packable, roll-able, there-when-you-need-it ballet-type flat pictured here (it comes in black, gold, and silver) is based in your town. The women behind Seattle’s Fabbys figure most of us aren’t really into making an all-day affair of our four-inchers, so they created what is essentially a more presentable slipper to save the day – or, more likely, the night.

Now let me be straight on one thing: I’m not a high heels kinda girl. My mom didn’t allow them in high school, and I learned to live without them. So I suppose it’s easy for me to say that in the best case scenario, we leave the house wearing shoes that we can wear for the duration of time we plan to be out in the world. But still.

If you can’t stand the height, don’t wear the heels. Or something like that.

Fabbys come in a little velvet pouch and are marketed at women who travel for business (‘why are our connecting flights ALWAYS at opposite terminals?’ asks a road-wary voice on the “About” page), live in urban settings, and/or are getting married, and I understand that in each of those settings any of us might want an elongated line and lifted tush-and then, of course, a break from that-but I can’t help but think that ultimately, what’s sexier and more stylish is to wear what you’re wearing without a plan B. One of the most unattractive things you can do is wear clothes you don’t feel good in, and, on the other hand, a big indicator of style is ease. I mean, who packs a pair of sweats for when the skinny jeans get too skinny? And in this competitive marketplace where value counts as much as trend, there are plenty of shoemakers making gorgeous, orthopedically mindful heels. Why not invest in shoes that you can actually wear?

What about you? What’s your take on spare shoes?

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Tags: Shoes, Locally Designed, Wedding Details, What's Your Take On...

Meet the Shopkeeper: Moksha

No vintage hats, but plenty of other good stuff on the Ave

Posted by: Kelly Robinson on Jul 01, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

Google searches reveal that the Sanskrit word “Moksha” is often used as a name for yoga studios, but on the Ave, the idea of freeing oneself from one’s love/hate relationship with samsara is applied to a room full of vintage finds, Boho dresses evoking high Thai style, locally designed accessories, tee-shirts for the skate park, and a couple of ten dollar bargain bins regarded by some as pots at the end of a rainbow. We’ll let this Moksha’s Aleph Geddis tell you more.

WWW: What’s your personal spin on the ubiquitous “How can I help you?” question?
When someone walks into the shop, we greet them with a hello and a
smile. If they seem more receptive to dialogue, we go on. You can read people’s needs by observing their body language and sometimes people want to be left alone to browse.

What’s your favorite thing in the store right now?
This season we received some really cute reworked, vintage dresses. I am excited about supporting the reuse of old items and bringing new life to them. Each dress is unique in print, pattern, and cut, making them one-of-a-kind rarities.

Where do you shop when you’re not at Moksha?
The Seattle Antiques Market on Western across from the Aquarium is enormous with myriad affordable antiques. I also like the shoe store, Five Doors Up and Lucky Vintage which are both located on the Ave.

What specific store or type of store do you think is missing in Seattle?
I would love to have a good vintage hat shop in Seattle. The only place I can find a good vintage hat seems to be in the Bay Area.

What’s the weirdest thing that has ever happened in your store?
There was a time when I returned from traveling only to be welcomed with the rumor of a possum in the store. Customers had been asking us if we had a new pet because they had seen a possum in the window after hours and I thought that there was no way this could be possible. So, I sat in the office and watched quietly. Sure enough, a cute little possum poked his nose out a like a little cartoon character.

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Tags: vintage, University District, Locally Designed, Meet the Shopkeeper, moksha

Thaw II

This one’s for the kids; Vitamin Water Social Club on July 10

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 28, 2010 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

‘Since starting the Annual thaw Fashion Show for HDSA, friends, family and strangers have told me that I should also put on a kids version of that event,’ says Liz Weber. You’re reading this now because she listened to them.

Thaw Collective’s Indie Kids Fashion Show for Huntington’s Disease Society of America is July 10 at 11 at the Vitamin Water Social Club on Capitol Hill. Tickets are available from Brown Paper Tickets.

As with the adult version of Thaw, the kids’ show puts Seattle designers on display. Expect tiny style from lines like eight3one and Littlecrow Collection.

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Tags: Locally Made, Locally Designed, Fashion Show, Kids' style, Fundraiser, Thaw

Trunk Show and Sale

Jersey Girls

Take 20-50 percent off Prairie Underground June 24 – 27 at Clementine in West Seattle

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 14, 2010 at 01:30PM 0 Comments

Camilla Eckersley and Davora Lindner were making jersey a viable, stylish option before this whole elegantly draped tee-shirt thing became such a thing so it’s certainly no surprise to that their locally designed, locally sewn line Prairie Underground continues popping up in the best little boutiques around the country and here at home.

To get your hands on the best of the summer collection – including the excellent little romper pictured here – head to Clementine between Thursday June 24 and Sunday June 27.

Prairie Underground’s signature hoodies, wear-everyday leggings, and perfect-summer tank dresses will be 20-50 percent off during the weekend-long trunk show extravaganza.

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Tags: Locally Made, Locally Designed, Spring/Summer sale 2010

Events

Walk This Way

Project Runway and Portland resident Seth Aaron on mixing it up at SAM with you and Andy Warhol

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 03, 2010 at 08:00AM 2 Comments

First things first: If you don’t already have tickets for tomorrow night’s Remix at SAM, you might as well avoid heartache and make other plans. The museum’s every-season city-wide parties are sold-out, solidly packed affairs. Though I did hear something about free entry for the first hundred people to show up wearing a wig …

Among the guests this time around: Project Runway winner Seth Aaron. The Portland-based (okay, Vancouver, but he’s about seven minutes from downtown) designer is leading one of SAM’s My Favorite Things tours. I spoke with him on Memorial Day (he hadn’t given himself the day off; he was cutting patterns and getting ready to deliver them to a Portland factory when I rang) about what he’s got planned.

“The Warhol stuff did it for me. That’s why I agreed to do a tour. My stuff is all about pop art so its’ a great fit,” he told me.

Did he get a chance to come up and preview the other exhibits, or is he going to wing it?

“Nah, I don’t like to plan ahead. I don’t really know what else is there – I’m getting in around 3p and I’ll be able to walk though and check it out, but I’m more into just doing what feels right at the moment. It’ll be really fun to meet people and talk to everyone. That’s where I’m most comfortable. *I like the idea of a room full of 1,000 people that I don’t know.”*

Any interest in the Kurt Cobain stuff? After all, his stuff does feel … sort of rock- and 90s-influenced, too.

“Oh yeah, I mean, I had Nirvana’s studio album about a year before it came out, and I own all their records, it’ll be cool to see that stuff, but it’s about Warhol.”

What type of art is he most drawn to?

“Photography is definitely an interest. I’m fascinated by all of — I guess I don’t really care for folk art, but I grew up in a house where art and design were in our every day world. My dad was a cartoonist, he worked for Disney, and my mom was always sewing and making things. We had an art-filled life. We just shot my collection for the July issue of Marie-Claire, and I’ve been a fashion stylist here in Portland for ten years, so I work with photographers all the time, I love fashion photography. "Rafael Astorga,”:http://www.rafaelastorga.com/ here in Portland is one of my favorites."

And how’s life after Tim and Heidi?

_"You have to work every bit as hard. All the doors are open now, bu you can’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. I’ve done 101 interviews from radio to TV to print, and I’ve got a publicity company in LA and I’m with DMA in New York, but yeah, I’m still cutting my own patterns. Anne Bocci sells my stuff here in town, but she’s been sold out for awhile and wanted more. As you get bigger, you can always have your personal projects, so that’s what this is for me."

So the Northwest still feels like home?

"I’ve had so much support from this area, and stuff like this (SAM’s Remix) is how I can show my support in return. The next morning I’ll be back in Portland to be the grand marshal at the Rose Parade. It’s good to mix it up."

Indeed.

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Tags: Reality TV, Visual Art, Locally Designed

Events

Outside the Box

You’re invited to an open house featuring NuBe Green’s repurposed cardboard furniture

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 28, 2010 at 03:00PM 2 Comments

What’s next? Movie theater seating made out of those boxes that soy milk comes in?

Local design duo Graypants (we featured their slice chair and more here), whose repurposed cardboard lighting fixtures you’ve seen all over town from the bar at Vermillion to your cousin Ray’s rad pad, used their favorite material to craft a custom headboard for the Broadway, a new Built Green 3-star certified building overlooking Cal Anderson Park at 1620 Broadway.

You’re invited to an open house there, where a model unit is staged with cardboard furnishings from NuBe Green, including those aforementioned.

So go, on Thursday, June 3 between 4 and 8, and make yourself at home (use the building entrance off of Nagle Pl). It’s a cool opportunity to see innovative design work in a natural setting, and also to spy on new living quarters and imagine a world of fully sustainable cool.

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Tags: Home Decor, Locally Designed, Sustainable Such and Such

What's in Store

Where to Find It: Happiest Place on Earth

Planet Happy, where socially responsible, mom-owned, and otherwise green play stuff is a good time

Posted by: Charlotte Chen on May 28, 2010 at 08:00AM 3 Comments

Hello parents and concerned friends-of-small humans, still scarred from all those toxic toys incidents? Planet Happy to the rescue.

Find safer, organic alternatives to mass-produced plastic toys for your little ones at this Ravenna store (find the store itself tucked behind the University Village) – stuff like Max’s Mud, a non-toxic, gluten-free rice flour-based sculpting dough exclusive to Planet Happy and produced by a Seattle-based mom-owned business, backyard tree swings, and Reusies; dishwasher-proof lunch bags. Check the slideshow for images.

And check this out: Each product in the store comes with a seven criteria tag listing whether the item and its manufacturer are fair-traded, organic, socially responsible, recycled, mom-owned, green, and natural.

Now how’s this for mom-friendly: Planet Happy offers after school activities like eco-friendly science projects and drum circles. If you can’t catch one of the scheduled events, don’t worry, the fun station is always open. (And the store pet, a hedgehog called Little Foot, is always around.) Little ones can make magnets or mirrors using the button machine, and a natural beauty bar makes it easy and fun to cook up lotion, bath salts, and fragrances using essential oils, all natural lotion bases, and the shop’s special house-ground flower petals.

Check Planet Happy’s June calendar for after-school and weekend activities.

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Tags: Locally Made, Locally Designed, Sustainable Such and Such, Kids' style, Where to Find It