Wet

I've always believe that if you're gonna be in a music video you should always be wet. Wet is always good when you're trying to be sexy. Always.  The same applies for ad campaigns and the new Gucci sport fragrance featuring James Franco proves my point.  Wet is gorge, and if you're tan and wet....omg.

And a wet Britney Spears video.

Dirty Chic

Totally crushing on Christophe Decarnin's  Balmain Spring Summer 2010 men's collection.  The beauty of Balmain is that the clothes represents something both dirty and chic at the same time.  That juxtaposition and imperfection is a thing of beauty. 

My iPod

Loves It

This NEVER gets old. EVER! Beyonce is simply amazing, she always gives 1000 percent of herself in every single performance. This one is no different. Wow! Single ladies forever!

Madness To The Method

I love Tracy Anderson not only because she creates kick-ass exercise routines (that work), but also because she's so enthusiastic about promoting health and fitness. AND she has great taste in music. Tracy became famous for training Gwennie Paltrow and Madonna (who famously fired her). I've tried all her exercises on YouTube and my ass was sore after doing her leg/butt routine. Give it a try, it's actually very very fun! :) I want her full length DVD! And she has a studio in NYC, which one day I hope to be able to join!

More info here:
http://action.tracyandersonmethod.com/

Fur + Red Crocodile + Diamonds + Louboutins + Denim = Gorge

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again, Victoria Beckman has the most impeccable airport style (or style period). Here she is leaving her NYC hotel last week heading to JFK. THIS is how all celebrities should dress at the airport or in their daily lives. The fur, the red crocodile Hermes bag, the louboutin booties, the little diamonds, and the grey jeans. Perfection. Gorge. Bananas. I die. The entire outfit probably cost the same as a year's worth of my rent! And her head looks a little "bobbley" but hey "Nothing taste as good as skinny feels."

Too Far

The cover of  American Vogue March 2010, featuring Tina Fey has taken celebrities on the cover of fashion magazine too far.  I like Tina Fey (it's almost sacrilegious to say you dislike her) as much as the next person, but please, she does NOT belong on the cover of Vogue. She is not Vogue material. Period. Plus it's the March issue, which is just as important as the September issue! Hellooooo.  Maybe Tina belongs on the cover of In Style, to appeal to all those soccer moms in fly over states, but Vogue?!  Truly a fashion magazine travesty.  Shame on you Anna Wintour. Shame.

My iPod

photo: Robert Mapplethorpe

Poetry

Ode on Melancholy
By John Keats

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Imprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty -Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine:
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung. 

My iPod

G.H.G.

Gratuitous Hot Guy

My H.M.H. (Hot Mess Hero)

Here is my H.M.H Pammy Anderson making an appearance during Fashion Week in NYC.  I love Pammy because she seems to be always having fun no matter what, (including selling her perfume at Rite Aid), and being unapologetic about it.  You know that's what I love about hot messes; they are usually loads of fun, and are usually super nice people who don't give a fuck about what people think.  That's a real key to a happy  life I think and how to be nicer to people--you just don't give a fuck. 

LoVe U Pammy!

Duh (But The Ad Only Applies If You're White)

Um, like duh. But that's the whole point right? Here are the Spring/Summer 2010 Diesel jeans ads. People need to STOP hiring the photographer Terry Richardson, like totally yawn. All his photos look the same, like an American Apparel ad!

And I just WISH all the models weren't white. Not even a token black person, or even a token sexy Asian girl (cause if you're gonna include Asians, it's almost ALWAYS likely to be a sexy Asian girl and not a sexy Asian boy).  Ads like these with all white people just perpetuates the idea (consciously or unconsciously) that being "sexy" means being white (hello! Abercrombie & Fitch ads).  Yeah, that sucks.  So, that means I really hate the ads.

My iPod

OMG. This remix is sick, I'm actually crying tears of joy!  

The One

I hate the new Calvin Klein underwear campaign.  The images suck and so does the underwear.  The short little commercial doesn't help either, it just seems oddly aggressive to me. Something is just wrong with the whole tone of the campaign. WTF.  I feel like I'm being attacked (or it could be I'm feeling a little extra sensitive this week.)  Not sexy.  Plus there are just too many guys in the campaign.  They should've just picked ONE hot guy!  The only saving grace is Hidetoshi Nakata.  Hidetoshi is the one.

Pump It Up

When I'm at the gym working out this is the type of music I listen to, and I get so pumped up! I turn the gym into my own little dance floor, and the music makes me feel so good and happy.

Poetry

A Thing of Beauty

from Endymion

by John Keats

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: 

Its lovliness increases; it will never 
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. 
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing 
A flowery band to bind us to the earth, 
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth 
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, 
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways 
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, 
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, 
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon 
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils 
With the green world they live in; and clear rills 
That for themselves a cooling covert make 
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake, 
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms: 
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms 
We have imagined for the mighty dead; 
An endless fountain of immortal drink, 
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink"

The Fame Epiphany

'The truth is, the fashion world is the loneliest place on the face of the planet. It’s a shallow world full of party people and party “friends”. Lee knew that.’  --George Forsyth, Alexander McQueen's ex-boyfriend.

People who are interested in fashion are still trying to fathom Alexander McQueen's suicide. His former boyfriend reveals that he had led two lives really; one where his closest friends knew him by his first name Lee and his public, "other" life where the world knew him as Alexander.  One where he was celebrated for his immense talent and the other where he wrestled with his private struggles.  

I believe that the world of fashion and celebrity is probably the loneliest place on the face of the world because it is based on fantasy and image.  It's all surface. It's all an illusion, and when people make it to the top of the fashion/celebrity game they realize that hard truth and it can destroy them.  Lady Gaga only a year into her fame is already struggling with her fame and singing about it.  And Madonna had her fame epiphany with her song "Drowned World/Substitute for Love."

I admire fashion and beauty from afar, but I want to keep it at arms length.  I don't want to be in it because I know it's all an illusion, with no depth and no substance.  Nobody, myself included can ever understand what went on in Alexander McQueen's mind and soul, but it seems that his world was full of illusion and not enough substance--the kind that fills the soul and uplifts the spirit.  Clothes are just something we put over ourselves to cover-up the realities of our lives, but in the end there comes a time when the clothes come off; and when stripped and we find ourselves naked, the hope is that we can bare to look at ourselves and find some substance and meaning.

McQueens ex speaks out here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250830/Alexander-McQueens-ex-partner-throws-disturbing-light-hangers-lionised-truly-knew-him.html#ixzz0fgwSptsO

And The Wind Is Blowing

Beautiful song, melancholic words--and the world keeps spinning....



"I think it's dark and it looks like rain," you said
"And the wind is blowing like it's the end of the world," you said
"And it's so cold it's like the cold if you were dead," and then you smiled for a second.

"I think I'm old and I'm feeling the pain," you said,
"And it's all running out like it's the end of the world," you said
"And it's so cold it's like the cold if you were dead," and then you smiled for a second.

Sometimes you make me feel like I'm living at the edge of the world, like I'm living at the edge of the world.
"It's just the way I smile," you said

Happy Lunar New Year 2010 !!!

xoxoxoxoxoxo 

Black And Gray

I love John Varvatos converses, the most comfortable converses you will ever put on your feet. Trust. His clothes ain't half-bad either, here are my faves from Fall 2010, kinda reminds me of what I can find at Zara. 

Loves It

Crushing on Prada Fall 2010. The pants, I want the pants...

Oh Baby Baby... By Me

OMG. I discovered this song listening to some satellite radio on itunes.  Now THIS is how I like my hip-hop.  Full props to 50 cent for approving this remix, when other hip-hop/rappers totally wouldn't go this gay.  Ne-yo and Kelly Rowland are awesome in this song.

Here's the remix by Digital Dog and the original mix, which isn't half bad either!

Dear Kate, Part 14

Dearest Kate,

What do you represent exactly?  As a model you transcend words like icon, living legend, superstar, muse.....(no matter what you certainly are a lighting rod; remember your now infamous quote, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

You are beautiful, but you're more than that, and I think you know it.  You have a strong, unique sense of SELF and style that can't be duplicated, but is certainly coveted. You're more than a pretty face and that's why in the Spring of 2011 the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris is having an exhibition solely devoted to you! Art is of course about beauty, but great art is also always (or should be always) about the energy and spirit behind the beauty; there's the medium, then the message. As Noam Chomsky famously said, "The medium is the message." 

The exhibition is a tribute to the undeniable greatness of your beauty and spirit.  Viva La Kate!

always xxoxoxoxo 

P.s. Love your cover and interview in the March 2010 issue of Harper's Bazaar.

Black Eyeliner

I love this song from 30 Seconds To Mars.  It makes me want to put on some black eyeliner, smoke cigarettes, drive along the PCH and emote.  The entire album is pretty awesome too.

RIP Alexander McQueen

"It's Alexander McQueen's purpose in life to create beauty in the world, and God bless him."

Purpose accomplished.

39 Screens, 42 Days, $223,202

Last night during a beautiful New York City winter snow storm I watched a little seen movie called "Fur" starring Nicole Kidman and a pre-Iron Man "Robert Downey Jr.  It was amazing. Of course nobody saw "Fur."  The movie is too special, too unique, too beautiful really to be embraced by the masses.  It opened on November 10, 2006 on only 39 screens and made $223,202 during it's entire run, it closed on December 21, 2006.  It only had a movie theatre screen life of 42 days. In a sense it fits the movie's theme of the misunderstood and the marginalized perfectly. It's an "Imaginary Portrait" of celebrated photographer Diane (pronounced Dee-Ann) Arbus.  Diane is a real person, but the movie's rendering of a period in her life is not.  But really aren't all our lives--our "real" lives, imaginary in some sense. The movie was directed by Steven Shainberg who also made a wonderful little movie called "Secretary." 

We constantly measure success (and failure) by popularity, by how many people click on button, or go through a turnstile.  But success doesn't always have to be popular.  "Fur" is a wonderful, fully imaginative movie that is a success in my eyes.  We're trained not to think outside the box because it's not popular, or when we do think outside the box we want recognition for it.  

No.  Think outside the box for yourself.  It's not about how many strangers approve of you, it's really about the approval of nobody, but yourself.  Embrace your world and live it.  Conform to your freak show, and if people laugh and shun you then you can smile and know you're truly living your life.

P.s. The movie is so much better than the trailer.

A Poem

The Snow Cricket

by Mary Oliver

Just beyond the leaves and the white faces

of the lilies,

I saw the wings

of the green snow cricket

as it went flying 

from vine to vine,

searching, then finding a shadowed place in which

to sit and sing--

and by singing I mean, in this instance,

not just the work of the little mouth-cave,

but of every enfoldment of the body--

a singing that has no words

or a single bar of music

or anything more, in fact, than one repeated

rippling phrase

built of loneliness

and its consequences: longing

and hope.

Pale and humped,

the snow cricket sat all evening

in a leafy hut, in the honeysuckle.

It was trembling

with the force

of its crying out,

and in truth I couldn't wait to see if another would come to it

for fear that it wouldn't,

and I wouldn't be able to bear it.

I wished it good luck, with all my heart,

and went back over the lawn, to where the lilies were standing

on their calm, cob feet,

each in the ease

of a single, waxy body

breathing contentedly in the chill night air;

and I swear I pitied them, as I looked down

into the theater of their perfect faces--

that frozen, bottomless glare.

from--Mary Oliver, New And Selected Poems, Volume Two

My Hero

Pammy's no dummy, and she KNOWS how to appeal to her demographic.  So here is my hot mess hero in all her glorious hotness and messiness at Rite Aid hawking her perfume "Malibu." It's really a genius place to sell her smell.  So if you're heading to Rite Aid to stock up on your beef jerky (I looooove jerky), Cheetos, condoms,  Bud Light,  Marlboro's and Bic lighters, don't forget the "Malibu!"  

P.s. I think Pammy is on a national Rite Aid tour promoting her perfume, so watch out for her!

RachBots

Last night was a big night for Rachel Zoe.  I don't know for a fact, but I'm 99 percent sure that she dressed all these women for the "Valentine's Day" premiere.  Three out of four of them are definitely RZ clients, and Jessica may be one too.  RZ did style Jen and Jessica for the March 2010 issue of Marie Claire.  Let's call them RachBots! And it looks like RZ is very into strapless right now.

Update:  According to RZ's tweets she definitely styled Jen, Demi, and Anne. No word on Jessica, hence probably the hideous dress she wore!

Love the RZ project!