Ce Weekend

The APEX sale was wonderful! Despite freezing temps, plenty of fun people came out for shopping and drinks on Friday night at Tribeca Grand for our fundraiser sale. After weeks of planning, the four hour event went by in a blur... Here are some pictures from the evening. I promise to post some photos of my shopping finds later this week!




Above: a shopper browsing pieces from Ideeen and Risto!



Me and APEX board member, Suyin, catching up on the couch. What I wore: a printed dress from All Saints, a Topshop cardigan and VERY comfortable patent Lanvin flats. I was going to change into heels, but after hours of being on my feet that day, I decided to stick with the more comfortable option!


Doo.Ri


Me and Corrie


Bliss Lau chains










Tamara, our Beauty Editor and me!



Some board members and the Mr. (on the far right)

Special thanks to my beautiful blogger/Twitter friends, Aimee, Chrissy, Corrie, Diane, Lala, Pamela and WendyB for coming out to support our little event!!

I'm most proud of our PR and marketing for the event. Despite having a budget of $0 for publicity, we got a mention on multiple blogs and websites, including Racked, Refinery29 and Time Out. This year is all about word-of-mouth and social media marketing! Believe it.

Hope you are staying warm and cozy this Sunday... Be sure to stay tuned for a beauty giveaway tomorrow and a Fashion Week related giveaway on Tuesday!

Weekend Links: Life is Beautiful Edition

all images in this post courtesy of Cindy Whitehead

Life is beautiful. My outlook is changing day by day. I used to be somewhat of a cynic, a pessimist, until my Mr. came along, who should really go by the name of Mr. Sunshine. Last night's charity shopping event was a success! More on that to come! Maybe I'll do an outfit post tomorrow with my new haul ;)

Check out some of the blogs who are inspiring me this week...

Thank you for your visits and your insightful comments. You also happened to be among the top commenters this week. Thank you, rockstars!!!

• Bailey and Meister
• Nearly Stylish
• Looking Fab in Your Forties
• Savvy Mode
• Wendy Brandes

P.S.: You have until Sunday to enter five hot giveaways on It's Unbeweavable, celebrating her one year blogoversary (best wishes, Miss Lizzy!!!). Be sure to also check out Old Sweet Song, who is hosting a photography giveaway by Ms. Diana of Our City Lights.

P.S.2.: Cindy Whitehead, who is a sports stylist and one of my new favorite fashion bloggers, posted some inspiring graffiti in Southern California. Click over to her blog to check out the rest!

P.S.3.: Speaking of giveaways and blogs-- stay tuned for TWO big giveaways on Dream Sequins this week. We'll announce them on Monday and Tuesday!!!

Ready Steady Go!

Today is the big day of the APEX designer sale at Tribeca Grand and after all this planning, pitching, tweeting, blogging and word-of-mouthing, I'm truly ready to kick back with friends for a fun night of shopping and drinks in the name of charity (20% of sales will go to a nonprofit that works with inner city youth). If you are in New York and free tonight between 5-9 pm, please drop by the Tribeca Grand Hotel and shop some great designers with me: Bliss Lau, Doo.Ri, Ideeen, Katherine Kwei, Mary Meyer, Meg Cohen, Risto, Study by Tara St. James, Secta, Uluru.

Even if you can't make the New York sale, you can check out gorgeous pieces like these on Cutdrop (today is the last day of the online sale and you can click on the image to shop):











Special thanks to the following amazing publications/blogs who helped to spread word about the sale:
Budget Fashionista
Daily Vogue
Dluxelist
Fashion After Forty
Fashion Pulse Daily
Grechens Closet
Guest of a Guest
NYC Steals
Pongan el Cafe
Pop Gloss
Refinery29
Yelp
Six Six Sick
The Shoe Goddess
Sugar Rock Catwalk
Time Out New York
Timo Rissanen

Weekend links will run tomorrow, after I've had a moment to breathe... Hope to see some of you tonight!!!

Accessorize This: Kabiri

Kabiri: A Fine Jewelry Wonderland
by Denise Grayson

There’s browsing a website, and then there’s losing yourself in a daydream. Kabiri most certainly offers the latter experience. It’s a heavenly collection of fine jewelry and accessories from dozens of gifted, studied jewellers from around the world. Some provide us new ways to present gems and precious metals on our bodies, whereas others explore shape and form by manipulating textiles or creating their own unusual pieces by fusing traditional materials with found objects. And then there’s a particular Valencian who really likes to use animal heads (don’t worry, not real ones). These works go well beyond simple adornment to push the boundaries of what is ‘expected’ of jewelry and as such could be considered ‘wearable art’. In other words, your Dad won’t get it. (Was that presumptuous? Let’s say my Dad wouldn’t, then.)




The first two accessories are hair grips -an origami and heliocentric - from London accessories and styling wonder Fred Butler. The third piece is a handknitted chain glove by Fannie Schiavoni



The vast selection of necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets, brooches and accessories encompasses a wide range of prices, from £16 for a silver whistle to a tree branch brooch of white gold and black and pear-shaped diamonds that costs more than some people’s houses. (You read right.) Yet they all sit side by side in the gallery in perfect harmony because they are each extraordinary in their own right. At Kabiri you won’t experience the typical, torturous predicament of finding that the only things you really love are completely unattainable. In fact, you’re more likely to find your favourite pieces in the relatively affordable range as creativity doesn’t have a bank account or lose its job and have to eat Kraft Dinner.

Kabiri was created in 2004 by Nathalie Kabiri to bring undiscovered jewelry designers to London. She established retail locations in some of the city’s best shopping destinations, namely its original store on Marylebone, a concession in Selfridges on Oxford Street and now a flagship in Covent Garden. If you’re in London you must make it a point to stop in and see these breathtaking pieces for yourself.







The exceptional service you receive in the shops extends to http://kabiri.co.uk, where a personal shopper is available to help you choose a special gift or offer style advice – not that you fashionable folks would need it!

Denise Grayson, our dreamy Accessories Editor, also writes about fashion on her blog, The Swelle Life.

Back in a New York Groove!

Thank you so much for your wonderful, thoughtful responses to my essay "Why Should I Hate Fashion?" yesterday. I was a bit hesitant about posting something so text-heavy, especially since I like to keep it short and sweet on Dream Sequins. It means a lot to me that many of you actually read my incoherent ramblings. So thank you!

Hope you are enjoying a nice and easy Wednesday... There are lots of events coming up that I wanted to highlight.

1. IFB Evolving Influence Event (2/15)



Yesterday, Jennine announced the superstar lineup for the Independent Fashion Bloggers conference and I couldn't be more excited! In addition to some informative panels on topics such as marketing, blogger ethics and the changing landscape of social media in general, there will be a reception afterwards. So mark off the day on February 15th and RSVP here ASAP as spots are likely to fill up quickly! Will you be at the conference? Let's make plans to meet up!

2. APEX Designer Sale - Online (1/27 - 1/29) and in New York (1/29)



I'm on the events committee of a great organization called APEX, which provides educational mentoring to inner city youth and our multi-designer sale will be hosted at Tribeca Grand on Friday January 29th! Hope you can make the New York sale.

And even if you can't make the in-person sale, I have some great news to share. Cutdrop will be hosting the online portion of the sale with specially marked goods from Bliss Lau, Study by Tara St. James, Uluru and H. Frederiksson for three days starting today! So even if you can't travel to New York for the sale, you can still buy yourself something pretty and support a great cause. Twenty percent of all sales will go towards APEX. Click here to shop!!

3. Social Media Week (2/1 - 2/5)

Some wonderful organizations have come together to prepare over 35 programs on social media topics and if you are in New York, you can check out the schedule here! I plan to attend some panels and hope to learn a lot and meet other likeminded folks in this space. By the way, Social Media Week is a global event, and you can check out the website for details on events in other cities, such as Toronto, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, London and Berlin! Talk about a social world wide web...

4. New York Fashion Week (2/10 - 2/18)

Can you believe we're back to another season in two short weeks?? This season, IMG will be saying farewell to the tents at Bryant Park. Will you be there? I am proud to announce that I will be blogging for Tokion and Dossier Journal as well as for Dream Sequins (of course of course).

For those of you, like me, who have waited until last minute to organize our schedules and make invitation requests, there are plenty of public fashion-related activities to keep us occupied when we are not rushing from one side of town to the other.



Starting February 11th, the Save the Garment Center Foundation is presenting a three day exhibit of nine emerging designers who will be presenting new work in response to the current furniture show, Precious Metals, currently on show at Sebastian + Barquet. The opening reception will take place on February 10th.


the imaginative work of Lenny Leleu pictured above

Starting February 15th through 19th, Flanders Fashion Institute will present the work of seven emerging and established fashion designers (Anke Loh, Anna Heylen, Idriz Jossa, Lenny Leleu, Marc Philippe Coudeyre, Peter Ceursters and Stephan Schneider) and one photographer (Flore Zoé) at the Flanders House in the New York Times building. The four day event will kick off with a brunch reception at 1 pm on February 15th.

I would love to hear your feedback on what you would like to see on this blog during Fashion Week. Street style shots? Live Twitter gossip? Candid shoe photos? More outfit pictures? Any suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment or email me!

Why Should I Hate Fashion?

I am sure by now, you have read dozens of responses to Tanya Gold's recent essay in the Guardian entitled "Why I hate fashion." She opens with these titillating words: "A confession – it's been stalking me for years now, this crawling ­disdain for fashion; the certainty that it is not an ally but an enemy. The older I am, the more disenchanted I am with what is meant to make us beautiful... I believe it is one of the ultimate evils in the universe... Simply put, I hate fashion."

Gold then cites what she believes to be a casualty of fashion: the tragic death of a sixteen year old girl who suddenly slid to her demise in very high heels under a moving train. A poor choice of footwear on an icy day, yes, but to argue that the accident carries the symbolic significance of a literary heroine's suicide is a bit melodramatic, to say the least.

Her other arguments carry more merit, albeit in less original ways: fashion, Gold argues, is for the impossibly rich and skinny, most women who try to adhere to those impossible standards find themselves miserable and even those who live in that rare world (the models who pose for the photos, who are then stretched beyond recognition through photoshop for our general consumption) are miserable creatures, too.

Reading Gold's essay is a bit like reading someone's breakup letter to an ex... somewhat disjointed and exaggerated. She tries to make it sound like she has moved on, that she has found a happier place where she can simply block out the memories she once shared with fashion but the wounds are still there, still fresh. "Can't you ignore it, you may ask? Can't you squeeze yourself into a ­library and have an inner life instead? Ha!" she writes.

You may be surprised to hear that I can relate to Gold's sentiments, however raw and shocking as they may seem to those of you who have always had a strong love affair with fashion. Fashion and I have always had a complicated relationship- you might say we were on again, off again lovers, and there was a prolonged period a few years ago, when I made the bold pronouncement: "Fashion, we are through, for real this time."

At the time, I was pursuing fiction writing, and had very little disposable income to spend on the "frivolities" of fashion. I felt myself superior to friends who would put their designer goods on display while I locked myself in my room for hours reading "serious" fiction and writing (in retrospect) rather dreary and self-important stories about rather dreary and self-important people. Fashion, I felt then, had only a utilitarian place in my life-- something to wear to stay warm or cool, but given little thought. And I took pleasure in wearing a pair of jeans with a simple tee or a cozy fleece jacket with the ugliest logo I could find. Yes, I was fighting fashion hard, the best way I knew how.

But then something shifted. I stopped wearing sloppy things and surprisingly, I felt better about myself. I realized how much I missed the creative act of assembling an outfit. I re-learned the significance that fashion plays in the way we communicate with one another-- how fashion is a set of unspoken symbols with which we express our inner selves. And then, when I started writing about fashion, I started to fall in love with it again, with the marvelous act of creation, almost a contact high with those who live and breathe the creative impulses behind fashion. And yes, how fashion may be part conspicuous consumption and for many, out of reach (who among us can say that we will ever be able to afford couture in our lifetime)... But how dull our lives would be without the beauty of fashion in it!

Fashion deserves its place in the world alongside other arts such as music, fine arts, film, literature. And while the arts are not necessarily essential to our physical survival, they transform our inner lives in the richest possible way, and in the case of many exciting, intellectual designers, challenge our notion of what it means to be a mere piece of clothing. Fashion CAN be art. And as cheesy as this may sound, Gold's essay reminded me a bit of an exchange from the movie, Devil Wears Prada. While Gold may scoff at the role fashion plays in her life, she is, like it or not, still a participant in the cycle. And in simple response to her essay, I offer these words: cerulean blue.

What is your relationship with fashion? What did you think of Gold's essay?

Beauty Beat: Purple Lab's Huge Lips Skinny Hips

A Dream Lip Gloss: Purple Lab’s Huge Lips Skinny Hips
by Tamara

The quest for the perfect lip gloss never ends. I have a pretty demanding list when it comes to the subject. I want a lip gloss that isn’t sticky and long-lasting without drying my lips. It ought to have a pleasant scent and taste (I mean, who doesn’t eat their lip gloss throughout the day?), and it should come in an array of shades. Extra brownie points if the lip gloss is paraben-free, and if it can give me a bit of plumping without looking like Jocelyn Wildenstein, that would be awesome. Karen Robinovitz, creatrix and founder of Purple Lab NYC is a mind-reader and has created a product that covers all the bases and then some: Huge Lips Skinny Hips.


Huge Lips Skinny Hips

The very tongue-in-cheek named Huge Lips Skinny Hips is a lip gloss and lip plumper made with natural ingredients that will give you plumped lips without looking like you’ve been stung by a bee. This lip gloss is the one you will want to wear on a windy day, because your hair won’t get stuck on your lips. When you open the tube, Huge Lips Skinny Hips will bring a smile to your face. Its fruity aroma and taste is sweet and delicious without being overpowering. Another feature I loved is that after the gloss wears off, a nice stain remains. I used the shade Red Sole, which I found to be the perfect every day, any occasion red. It is also perfect if you are new to trying red lips.

The plumping contributors of Huge Lips Skinny Hips are meadow foam, lemon peel oil and vitamin B3. Meadow foam is an active ingredient that seals moisture on the lips leaving them soft and supple. Lemon peel oil provides a cooling effect when the plumping begins, hence voiding the sting sensation. Vitamin B3 is what plumps as it delivers blood flow to your lips. I found that what this plumping does is fill in the little crevices on the lips giving the appearance of a uniform lip. The best part is that Huge Lips Skinny Hips doesn’t burn like other lip plumpers, nor will it dry your lips.


Red Sole

So what about the "Skinny Hips"? This lip gloss comes with the added bonus of containing Hoodia, an ingredient used as an appetite suppressant, and orange peel extract, a natural metabolism booster. This is something I can’t attest to, because I don’t really have a problem with snacking or eating for the sake of eating. What I can say is that last weekend, as the Mr. and I were walking around shopping and trying to figure out what to eat, Huge Lips Skinny Hips kept me going for a couple of hours until we found something we both wanted to eat. Huge Lips Skinny Hips didn’t keep me from nose diving into my bowl of Pho when it came to the table, but from my experience, the shade Red Sole is just so beautiful and flattering you don’t want to ruin it!

Huge Lips Skinny Hips comes in six amazing shades and I want them all. With names like Kitty Pole Dancer (nude pink), No Panty Lines (clear) and Love Your Thighs (pink), these lip glosses will bring pizzazz to your makeup stash and umph to your pucker. The gloss retails for $20 and is available at several e-tailers and retailers including www.b-glowing.com, SpaceNK, and the company’s own site, www.purplelabnyc.com.

Have you tried Huge Lips Skinny Hips? What is your favorite shade?

Disclaimer: The company provided a sample for this review.

Tamara is our Beauty Editor and writes about beauty and style at Brunette and Pink.

The CFDA Effect

I recently interviewed an emerging designer who is known for bold color and silhouettes in her collections. While her pieces were selling briskly abroad, she and I spoke about why she felt they weren't as popular in the US. "Well, it's kind of a CFDA world, you know?" she said while I nodded in sad agreement. The underlying assumption is that CFDA designers have a certain uniform "look" that lands them in the pages of Vogue or on the floor of department stores such as Bergdorf Goodman. In other words, "ladies who lunch" looks with a bit of design to keep things interesting, never bold, and never innovative.

But recently, I found myself scrolling through the members page of the CFDA website and... color me pleasantly surprised!

Love by Richard Chai Spring 2010 courtesy of Style.com

The designers who make up this elite group are not only a more diverse bunch than I had assumed but many are cited today as true innovators in the global fashion community.

They are the ones:

• making new trends every season at New York Fashion Week (Marc Jacobs),
  
• dressing the First Lady (Narciso Rodriguez, Thakoon, Zero + Maria Cornejo),
• partnering with famous teen bloggers on Target collaborations (Rodarte),
• bringing a Margiela-like discipline to affordable design series (Slow and Steady Wins the Race) and
  
• singlehandedly resurrecting the "It Bag" (Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler)...

Marc Jacobs Spring 2010 courtesy of Style.com


Rodarte Spring 2010 courtesy of Style.com


Zero + Maria Cornejo Pre-Fall 2010 courtesy of Style.com

Regular readers of this blog know how much I love independent and emerging fashion designers, and I never expected to come to this simple conclusion: that there are many CFDA designers out there making cool things happen. So the real question is: has my taste become more "mature" or has the aesthetic of the CFDA started to shift? Are you as surprised as I am? Do you have any favorite CFDA designers? Thoughts? I'd love to hear them.

Weekend Links: Jersey Shore Edition

Tonight, I was at dinner with three girlfriends of mine and inevitably, That Show came up. The Jersey Shore phenomenon has blown up in a big way. Did you watch the finale? Hope you are enjoying the start of a great weekend! I wish I was at the Jersey Shore, but I'll be at home working some Powerpoint magic for a presentation and catching up on some sleep...

Here are some links to keep you occupied...

If you are just catching up on Dream Sequins, please be sure to check out

• our Beauty Editor's review of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics and her visit to the showroom,
  
• our Accessories Editor's piece on Cha-Cha's House of Ill Repute, a Brooklyn hatter's heaven and
• a Designer Profile of eco-friendly label Ajna.
  

Please vote for me on Shrimp Salad Circus's blog awards for Best Fashion Blog! Use the middle column for voting (you'll have to scroll down a bit). I'm up against two great blogs, including The Swelle Life!

While Bobbin Talk is away on her much deserved vacation-- I had a guest post about designer Hermione de Paula (pictured above). Love her stuff

Savvy Mode is giving away an awesome pearl necklace.

And special shoutout to Nearly Stylish, Looking Fab in Your Forties, Janetteria, Bailey and Meister and Leah for being in the top 25 commenters for the week!

What are your plans for the weekend?? Any suggestions for good movies? I feel like seeing a really good Oscar-worthy flick.

Accessorize This: Let's Go to Cha-Cha's House

Let’s Go to Cha-Cha’s House
by Denise Grayson

Ask and you shall receive. There were requests for a focus on hats in the comments section of my inaugural post last week and on Twitter (thank you for the suggestions!) and I am only too happy to oblige on this particular subject.

As I previously mentioned, I love hats. I am most certainly a “hat person” and wear them with ease for reasons ranging from style, warmth and covering hideous bed head while running breathlessly out the door to do the school run. It’s great when people see you as super stylish when really your motivation for what you’re wearing is largely to hide the evidence that you left the house without showering! That’s a winning combination.

Me in my beloved Cha-Cha's red felt cloche. This was taken two years ago for a local magazine, so although I still love my Nanette Lepore jacket and top, I would most certainly style this differently now! I guess I'll just have to prove it...

There are many talented milliners taking their craft to beautiful new levels and I decided to focus on one that I know well because I own a few of her hats. I introduce to you Cha-Cha’s House of Ill Repute. If that name doesn’t stick in your head you may want to visit a neurologist. Cha-Cha’s is a New York millinery label run by designer and milliner Dina Pisani. Dina has a distinctive style that is more gritty than pretty (though my choices from her collection tend to gravitate toward the prettier ones). While she can create a perfectly structured cloche or fedora on her vintage and specially designed blocks, her signature technique is deconstruction; asymmetric and slouchy, in dark shades and rich fabrics for easy chic. Dina works mainly in fine felts and straw and offers unique shapes in wool, velvet and snakeskin.

I love a traditional hat but the fun of Cha-Cha’s is the influence of the 1920s and 30s Old World techniques and styling mixed with Dina’s unique vision. And the trims are special. She scours the markets for her vintage and antique ribbon and feathers, the latter which featured heavily in her Spring 2009 collection. Brims are typically piped with lambskin and her adornments cater to the skull and pirate loving set, in the form of crests and trinkets.

It’s no surprise that hats have been a huge trend these past few years and as such hers have been seen on Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Alicia Keyes and Britney Spears (that was in the Madonna pal years, before she began making dubious fashion choices), and they’ve been used to style dozens of magazine editorial and cover shoots all over the world.

None of that really matters to me. A great hat is a great hat. And Cha-Cha’s House of Ill Repute is in the club. If you’re in New York you can visit Cha-Cha’s in Dumbo at 68 Jay Street, Suite 312, Brooklyn, New York.

Denise Grayson is our hat-lovin' Accessories Editor and also writes about dreamy fashion at The Swelle Life.

Wishlist Wednesday: Acting Your Age is Boring!

How are you, friends? I'm feeling a little overworked this week, and already looking forward to the weekend. Definitely overextending myself these days, which makes me yearn for a fun night out on the town or a shopping splurge. Being a responsible grownup is boring sometimes...

For this week's Wishlist Wednesday, I thought I would feature pieces from designers who are participating in a charity designer sale that I am helping to organize on Friday January 29th at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. If you are in New York and would like to hang, shop and drink with us, check out this invite for further details. And do let me know if you want to come! I'd love to meet if we haven't already met :)**


Bliss Lau chain available on the designer's website


Doo.Ri jersey dress on sale at Forward Forward


Mary Meyer "Biggie" dress available on the designer's website


Risto "Galaxy" print parka on sale at Assembly New York


Uluru cashmere sweater with elbow patches on the designer's website

What's on your wishlist today?

**Disclaimer: These pictures are pieces available for purchase online right now but are not necessarily representative of items that will be available at the January 29th sale.