Lara Does LA Garment District

There I am in Ashanit with my J Brand pants and Comme des Garcons t-shirt from Vintage Fashion in AZ.

today was like going on the alice and wonderland ride at disneyland but longer and well better. it just keeps getting better. honestly.  i just got back from driving myself from laguna beach to los angeles.  my mission was ashanti, an african fabric shop located right in the heart of the garment district in downtown LA.  i guess it was fun because it was just me and the gps lady.  i really have no idea of how to get around so the gps lady was in complete control.  it was nice to be alone from the family.  i need to be alone so i can think and listen to my roller skating music loud in the car.

oh so why was going to ashanti? well it just so happens that i have a new client in austalia who has just requested 20 sam harvey bags.  she will sell them in her boutique. she has chosen from the kenya collection. well i didn't have quite enough fabric to complete her order so i found ashanti thank gawd! arizona didn't have any place where i could buy african fabric. when i say african fabric, i am not talking about zebra and leopard print. i am talking about batik like fabric with a wax light weight coating with dayglo colors and crazy patterns. i really like vilsco which is made in nigeria.

the shop was much smaller than i had imagined. you know i always imagine in architectural digetst terms. like there would be a conga boat to pick me up in the jungle like entrance with tiki lamps and bong bong drums leading me to a gigantic warehouse of african vlisco fabrics. this place today was much smaller.

when i parked the first place of refuge was the starbucks but they didn't have a public restroom.  i had to unload before searching for ashanti.  i found the ashanti out of the corner of my eye. it was really great to see seri the sweet lady i spoke to while i was searching online in goodyear. she was happy to see me but said she had no bathroom. she told me to go to the tall building down the street. when i arrived  in the main lobby i found myself in the whole la fashion distict epicenter! i couldn't  believe myself. i went from pinata strewn streets to this!  fashion bookstore, fashion bistro, and marble countered sinks in the bathroom.  i had to go to the fashion bookstore.  i found a load of books that i bought. i will show you later.  i have a beach down the road that is calling me to jump in it. so i am not in the mood to play with photoshop right this minute. anyhoo, i went back to ashanti and found 2 bolts of the most gorgeous vilsco fabrics for 2 new sam harvey bags styles.  i can't to show you!

Seri from Ashanti, Los Angeles CA

i am taking photos of x's too, so don't get all bent that this is not about 'x'. you know i never really turn it off...

WANDERLUST

 This post is dedicated to Mom who is living in WASHINGTON right now while I do little lizard pushups on hot sizzly rocks in the convection oven I call home. Letter for this post is "W", so I WENT WITH Frank Lloyd WRIGHT as inspiration.  I want to be with mom in this house by WRIGHT called Falling WATER at Bear Run.  I would love to be on the cantilevered patios hanging over rushing water.  The red is for my architecture professors for their drilling of this image into my head for all time.  Now it would make a nice WALL HANGING. 

Mom and I are having tea on this WET WATERSHED WALKWAY.  WE WANDER around and WING it to Rufus Wainwright. The air is moist and the smell of the WALDORF salad that we are about to eat is WONDERFUL.  WARDROBE  you say?  I thought you would never ask.  Aren't you happy that I came prepared?  Are you out there?

I love this Sunday School look that I am spying in View.  The scalloped edges and wide trims are nothing new but taking classic to a more etsy craftly meets Hello Kitty makes me want to spend my WAMPUM. I feel a bag inspiration coming. 

 

I especially want to put this demure collar on my bed side table and give it a kiss before I go to sleep tonight.

I settled for packing Prada for this trip. Screw the "W" for fashion on this post.  It has to be those stockings and heeled patent leather heels so I don't get cold.  This is what I WILL WALLPAPER myself in.  The color would look like shit on me but I could make it work in a gray.  

   

This bit 'o honey coat I will wear when Mom and I go WANDERING through the forest before it gets dark. We think the carmel color looks so pretty up against the red lazer tag splotches.

Mom can wear this knitted dress.  She won't need a jacket because she will be so native and warm in the forest chillness.  The bag is wonderful.  It is a heavy knit cable made into a bag that you could use as a pillow.  The red shoes are so Italian and sexy.  I think if there was any additional red it would be ruined.  Not even red lipstick. Restraint.

Even if Mom still lived just a few paces from me I wouldn't go over to see her on a Thursday night.  Just knowing that her big heart is beating far away is a little weird for me.  My brother Erik is with her for another week to help her settle her new nest. 

WISH I WAS...there. 

http://www.style.com/, View textile, Frank Lloyd Wright The Masterworks, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer David Larkin

Visiting Vintage Fashion Inc.

I am standing on the floor of Vintage Fashion Inc. in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona.  This Rob't Groberg 1960's shift was the same shift that I spied looking through the store front about a month ago when I posted about Lola.  Can I tell you how refreshing it is to know that this shop owned by David Sheflin is available to me and other fashion junkies.  This place is oozing with authentic fashion couture from the 1950's to the 1990's.

As I was chatting it up with Cathyann, David's retainer, I started to pick up on the simplicity of the floor layout.  The unique metal clothes racks were something from a 1920's movie set.  The color coordinated vintage hanging lovelies were priced at a cool $45.00 to $350.00.   Cathyann was bubbling with historical facts about each piece.Cathyann and I became fast friends when we remembered one another from the days of vintage costome jewelry shop Pizazz at the Biltmore shopping mall where I bought my first Miriam Haskell pieces.  Lesson learned, never wear clip-on Haskell earrings while hiking up Squaw Peak.  Yes, Squaw Peak. 

Zebra print wrap dress, Diane Von  Furstenberg 1970.  Red palazzo pajama with tunic by YSL. Yum.  

Minimal displays, elegent white leather upholstered chairs, and ummm the clothes.  As Cathyann mentioned, "Not everybody is interested in the history, just looking for a nice dress.".

As for me, I felt I had come across a civilization that could speak my language outside of my blogging community.  There was a deep VOLCANIC understanding and excitement inside. 

1970's Gunne Sax

I wanted to try this on, but I needed 6 more inches of tallness.  This dress reminded me of living in Oregon in the late 70's and being with my baby sitter who always made french toast with loads of powdered sugar while listening to Heart singing Barracuda.  Did I mention that Sheflin has movie producers calling him from time for period pieces.   He may have opened shop in November of 2010, but he has been offering his vintage couture and clothing by appointment for the last decade.

One of my favorites, Ceil Chapman, 1950.  Chapman designed several pieces for Marilyn Monroe.

Classic peach dress by Geoffrey Beene.  It has front pockets!

Sheflin is known for collecting vintage fashion since high school.   This white Chinoiserie cabinet had sentimental objects of art such as a photographs, rare fashion books and French perfumes sitting on little boxes that looked like they had been stored for years in a tiny closet on a high shelf in a Parisienne flat. 

Sheflin gives a piece an elegant perch to rest on. 

Just when I think I am getting a grip on fashion houses and labels, David's rare book collection makes me hungry for more.  This book about Peggy Moffitt that lives in the sacred breakfront, is worth another return visit.  David, I promise I will wear white gloves.

Here is Peggy Moffitt in a 1967 vintage zine that is I am guessing is signed by Peggy herself since I saw a photo of Moffitt and Sheflin together in the sacristy, I mean cabinet. 

I did end up buying the spring green shift for a sweet $120.00 and a Peggy Moffitt silk screened Comme des Garcons t-shirt.  I am sure the Goodyear check out clerks could really care less yesterday as I proudly wore it.   You know who was really giving me the once over were a couple teenage girls.  Probably the coolest thing they have seen in a while in these parts. 

Thank you David and Cathyann for your warm hospitality.

Vintage Fashion Inc. Fine couture and vintage clothing.

Tuesday-Saturday 11am-5pm or by appointment

4700 N. Central Avenue Suite 121

Phoenix, Arizona 85012 (480)280-6838

http://www.vintagefashioninc.avl.1stdibs.com/

Sam Harvey Giveaway

SAM HARVEY handbag GIVEAWAY!

SAM HARVEY GIVEAWAY!

Shangrila Jadite Bag

Designed and sewn in Arizona.  It has my finger prints all over it.  Thank you to LovelybyM who is hosting the giveaway.  Show the love and go visit!

Here I am picking out fabric for my SAM HARVEY bags.

I design my own patterns on Autocad dudes. Really.

Each SAM HARVEY bag is sewn with love and by hand.  Are you feeling it?

Unfettered, Unadultered Fly Fanny Pack

 He does a mean UNDERDOG on the swings.  What does your fanny pack say?

Hey kids. What's it?  I have a new VIEW textile journal.  This 306-ish page journal is ULTRA cool.  Better than UNICORNS or UNKENNELED dogs.   More military, flowy gauzy UNIFORMS.  Oh and bigger buns.  On the head.   It is about Winter of 10/11 so there are wonderul fabric directions that involve giant ULTRASONIC knitted sweaters.  Wanna see? 

She is so not UNDERDRESSED.  She may be UNDERFED though.  Maybe.  My need for this sweater is UNCRUSHABLE. 

 Special thanks to David R Shah who tells it like it is.  David says that "According to a Gallup Poll for USA Today, 32 percent of Americans are saving more than they were a year ago."  Hold on to your UMBILICAL CORD for this one, "In China, the elder generation saves from 40-50 percent".  My UMBRELLA is not taking this well.  It just broke, too much UNDERCURRENT. 

UNCLOUDED YELLOWS

 I skipped to the back of the View where the forecasts live.  "These yellows, golds and tumeric oranges are set against a backdrop of passive neutral layers that emphasize their singular status, blithely eclipsing the competition with their easy energy."

Introducing, Knitwear forecast for Summer 2012

View Textile Magazine Issue 90

So 2012, the capabilities of thread will not be UNDERESTIMATED.  Woven raffia textures, ruffled tea bag looking rosettes and ruffled organic gauged layers.  UNDULATING tea bagger UNIFORMS.

UNFETTERED

This is what I like to do with yellow paint.  You can UNDERWRITE it.  Yes, I painted this.

Put all that in Lily's UNIQUE microwave.  I want to see less cobra next time mmmmmmmmKay?

Totally Tweed

After seeing this I am thinking hard about how I will finish off my jacket.  It will have this exact neck line.  I was thinking on my bike ride as a million bugs were pelting my face how I could braid some military cotton strips in with the unraveled boucle that I have.  This neck line is so soft and well you know... GORGEOUS!

Vanessa Paradis wears a suit created in 1960, a perfect illustration of an enduring style. Photo by Karl Lagerfeld for the cover of Marie-Claire, October 2004.

Chanelisms.  Notice how the silk lining is stitched to the tweed outer shell.  How to describe the work... Like making enchilada sauce only you can't open a can of Rosa Rita. She doesn't know a better way. TRUST me!  Quilting the pattern pieces individually for this jacket is like making enchilada sauce from the actual peppers and tomatoes like 8 separate times.  Don't try this at home.

TWEED

"Chanel first came across tweed as far back as 1924, when her lover, the Duke of Westminister, took her to London.  She chose this fabric primarily for its suppleness, for the way it 'subjates light to shape' but also for its woven palette of restrained colours that perfectly matched the skies and landscapes of England.'

- Daniele Bott, Chanel Collections and Creations, Thames & Hudson

Here is my muslin toile over the weekend.  My anti-social crafty time, listening to Garisson Kiellor talking about graduation and his first almost kiss sitting on a boat dock with his strawberry blond girl friendly.  Well what do you think?  Da pockets I mean. Not the boat dock. Geeez!

  I am hand stitching the tweed to my silk so it doesn't move around on me when I quilt it together.  It kinda gives me goosebumps when I am doing this.  I can smell the cigarette smoke from behind me as Gabrielle is watching me.  She is telling me that the military pockets are ridiculous.  She keeps telling me to keep it simple and elegant.  I tell her this is my way and go do your Coco dancy number thing.

Wes Anderson's, Darjeeling Limited short with Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman.   This video justifies my need for sewing this French inspired jacket.   Timeless style.  My tweed *actually boucle* jacket belongs in a room with tall windows with skinny steel frames.  The kind of heavy ass frames that have tons of coats of black thick paint.  Oh, and English Breakfast TEA a' brewin. 

American Modern, Thomas O'Brian, page 50.

Black steel window framed Parisian flat, Oh shopping cart I will click.

My Slide Projector is Stuck. Damn It All!~

This is me taking a photo of a slide from my slide projector.  Yes, there I was in my dark hallway, just me and the ray of artificial light and the shutta sha kink dunka shink sound of the projector everytime I pressed the forward button.  So I took a digital photo with my camera of my vision on the wall. Neato.  I left the black edges.  This is what images look like in my dreams. Kind of colorless in the center and gently fading out to black around the edges.  Men wearing pastel yellow socks with plastic loafers that are splitting open at the seams... What symbolic message could that be?

This image is of Val Verde Estate in Montecito California.  This was taken so long ago that I was using slide film.  Think your Kodak One-Step camera is cool, well check out my projector.  I am using Val Verde for inspiration for a landscape design project I was tinkering with last week.

Val Verde Estate

I didn't tuck my shirt.  Now you know I was taking pictures of slides projected on my hallway.  I love this magical hedge intersection.  Good place to tell someone a SECRET.  The 'S' blog is here upon you.  Oh and the SUCCULENTS are good at not SAVING SPACE.

Val Verde Estate

Medusa SUCCLENT. Knarly cool.

SUCCULENTS are softy green and cute.

Val Verde Estate

If you are going to have a pathway do it like this one.  Barely able to track.  Arrange the brick at a 45 degree angles with different SIZES of brick.  SO SPRORATIC of me.

Val Verde Estate

This idea of SECURING abalone SHELLS on the SURFACE of a pool edge is beyond comprehension cool.  It is definitely not SOFT but SYMBOLIC of the SEA life that is not so far from Montecito. 

The Best of Eddie Fisher, Lady of Spain, 1965 w/ Stella Mccartney Resort 2010

Let's hop in our time machine and travel to 1965 at one of Lilly Pulitzer pool parties where this song would be playing.  I will be wearing this STELLA Mccartney gingham dress.   Everybody ready... 1...2...3 STEEEEEELLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  What are you going to wear?

I will have a grapefruit-ish size bun on the top of my head too. Lilly Pulitzer's hair buns were mediocre but her Barbie version bun is off the charts. 

Essentially Lilly, A Guide to Colorful Entertaining, Pulitzer and Mulvaney, Page 14.

It's a good thing Lilly didn't add sharp edged SHELLS to the edge of her pool.  The guy doing an armpit hang looks happily hammered.  That would have been great for "H".  Oh, there is Lilly Pulitzer with the long hair.  Really!

Some SKETCHY STUFF I did.  Utlimate pool detail.  I want lots of level changes so there is privacy for the people having SANGRIA at the table wearing SOLUMBRA.  All the femmes have Lilly hair buns.

SPECIAL thanks to Jeffrey who figuered out how to convert  The Best of Eddie Fisher from turn table to mp3, then the mp3 to a video and then create an icon on blogger to post Lady of SPAIN for you!

SSSSSSSSSSSSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

you wanna see the gingham dress up close.  ok.

i should grow my hair out too. hmmm.