Joy Bianchi's Helper's Couture House

Took a long overdue trip (pilgrimage, really) to Joy Bianchi's world-famous 'Helper's House of Couture'. I had long heard the rumors of the appointment-only Helper's House with its veritable treasure trove of donated vintage designer items, and it did not disappoint. The foyer is all Chanel costume jewelry, the dining room is filled with $10-$99 pieces, and the living room is chock full of vintage shoes, bags, and signed jewelry. Upstairs is an entire room dedicated to black tie formal wear, a small room with seriously drool-worthy vintage furniture, and a bedroom filled to the rafters with dapper men's clothing. To say I was overwhelmed by the entire thing would be an understatement. I pretty much ran around like a madwoman with my pupils dilated and my palms sweaty. I was afraid I'd wake up and it would all be just a dream.
I tried on a deep purple Alexander McQueen dress that could have stopped traffic (and my bank account) but came home with this most magical of items--a vintage Céline blouse. Oh be still, my beating heart:


I want Joy to adopt me and I want to look exactly like her when I grow up. The thick rimmed black glasses are her signature. I also had to snap a picture of the beautiful Camellia she had in her hair--and a picture of her as a young woman on the wall:

And here I am with Joy and my friend Laurel, who I am eternally indebted to for showing me this place. You rock, Laurel!

More items from the shop (ahem, Alaia) after the jump!

golden globes recap

Poehler. Fey. A bunch of waxed, injected, bronzed celebrities. What could be better?

First off, I should disclose that my opinion on Amy Poehler and Tina Fey is colored by the fact that I would go gayelle for them. Tina has literally never looked so hot at an awards show, and damn you Amy Poehler for wearing the femme tux of my dreams. Well played.

I have professed my weakness for clothing that should be wallpaper here and here, so it should surprise no one that I got major butterflies for this amazing Carolina Herrera on Lucy Liu. The fact that it could double as floor-to-ceiling curtains in the drawing room at Downton Abbey only endears it to me more.

You might think Jenny's lace and nude dress is reading a bit too ice capades does evening wear, but my god, if I ever saw this woman dressed down without a look on her face like she's in heat, I think I'd die of shock. It's her brand.

Despite the fact that she's spent the last 7 years starring in the worst rom coms ever, Kate Hudson has had some great red carpet moments. And I'm going to go ahead and say that this McQueen dress is one of them. I can forgive her that keyhole neckline just this once though.

 Sienna Miller has reached Chloe-Sevigny-like mythical status in my book. She almost always nails it even when everyone thinks she doesn't. However, I don't know about this Erdem look. The 3D texture is fun, but in a high-necked, floor-length tube dress she looks like the decorative covering for some sort of bathroom accessory. Too harsh?

On a more positive note, her barely-there makeup and simple trio of diamond studs in one ear looked fresh and modern, and proved she's still clairvoyant when it comes to anticipating exactly what I would want to wear:

Apparently, the color of the night was periwinkle. Nicole Richie nailed a 60's South-Beach-divorcee-goes-on-a-cruise vibe with this Naeem Khan gown. The drunky-eyes only added to it.

But honestly, the best-dressed of the night has to go to one person and one person only. Ladies and gentleman, for an outstanding display of 19th century facial hair, the Golden Globe goes to...

Bill Murray!

FLO FOX

I became acquainted with the work of photographer Flo Fox after watching 'Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work'. Joan meets her while delivering a Thanksgiving meal as part of her volunteer work for God's Love, We Deliver. Flo is legally blind and wheelchair bound from symptoms of MS, and started taking photos with an auto-focus camera in the late 70s after failing eyesight made it impossible to continue working as a costume designer.  She has taken, by her estimation, over 100,000 photographs of life in New York since the late 70's. She shows Joan a series of photos she took of the same drugstore for 25 years, documenting the rise in the price of cigarettes. "Check me out," she says, before saying, very slowly and deliberately, "Flo-Fox-Dot-Com."

Her photos are moody, subtle, and always somehow shot through with a pang of raw humor (police blockades creating an accidental Star of David, man in assless leather chaps eating alone at a diner). Also, lots of dick pics, which she's been compiling for her yet-to-be-published tome, 'Dicthology'. She claims every man who has entered her apartment since the mid-70's has posed for the book. 'Atta girl.

In spite of some obsessive internet detective work, I wasn't able to find very many of her photographs online. Her website features a few, but sadly looks like it hasn't been updated since 1999, and hardly does them justice. She has created only one self-published book of her work, 'Asphalt Gardens: 69 Photographs by Flo Fox,' but it is long out-of-print (ps if you can find me one, I'll send you a puppy).

My favorite series is one she self-photographed for Playboy magazine. She was already nearly legally blind when these photos were taken. There's some nudity so I've hidden them after the jump.

you've got to climb mt. everest to reach the valley of the dolls

Spent Halloween in a slowly increasing state of dishevelment as Anne Welles from Valley of the Dolls (which was a terrible book before it was a terrible movie...I highly recommend reading it). For work I played the more put-together polished version, and by nightfall I was a smeared mess, 'dolls' in hand.

The day before Halloween we had the world-famous pumpkin carver Shawn Feeney in our office to work his magic on a pumpkin, which we streamed live. This guy is seriously talented. Check out more of his work here.

More hot mess action. It rained really hard on my way to the party, which added to the overall affect:

The party was a 'Hotel California' theme, complete with a creepy butler (hired on Craigslist), a reception desk, and room keys as souvenirs:

The bathroom was delightfully reminiscent of a murder scene:

And finally, we all know it's not a real holiday without pictures of dogs looking distressed in adorable costumes. L to R: Quasi as the horse + headless horseman, Kobe as a mod, and Gus as a dinosaur (begging for cheese cubes):

Hope you all had a fun and fantastic Hallow's Eve!

halloween ideas pt. 2

I've been invited to a Hotel California themed Halloween party this year where everyone has to go as a dead musician. Which has got me thinking a lot about dead musicians. I mean, even more than usual.

And even though there are a lot fewer options when it comes to portraying dead ladies (the men have so many good options: Liberace, Freddy Mercury, Kurt Cobain, Robert Johnson) I've been thinking about going as Karen Carpenter. The garb is quintessentially 70's and thus easy to find. I think I could pretty much use what I have in my closet, but I may need a 'Lead Sister' t-shirt.

Other options:

Mama Cass (prop sandwich needed?)
Janis Joplin
Amy Winehouse
Patsy Cline
Aaliyah
Left Eye
Whitney Houston
Tammy Wynette

Any I'm missing??

i wanna dress like: Parker Posey in Party Girl

Ok folks, I'm about to blow your mind: it's been 17 years since Party Girl was made. That's long enough for an entire person to be born, grow up, and get their driver's license. It's long enough to invent a cell phone app that turns you into a zombie. It's long enough to develop the technology to land on freaking Mars.

images via dovetail, google

And yet, some things can't help but stay the same. I've been mad envious of Parker Posey's wardrobe in Party Girl ever since I first saw it. With her retro-inspired accessories, bold color and pattern mixing, and chunky platforms, she perfectly encapsulated that post-grunge, beginning-of-the-rave-scene-candy-kid look from the mid-90's. And even though I'm not exactly longing for the days when ecstasy was the drug du jour, I'm pretty sold on the idea of dressing like a hot, eccentric librarian. See below:

Ron Herman Exclusive blazer in navy

10 Crosby tulip flared leather skirt

Lanvin round sunglasses

vintage 60's cropped double breasted leopard coat via ebay 

vintage bag via etsy 

Jones NY tie-neck blouse

Antique victorian stick pin via ebay

Christian Louboutin Lady Daf Tartan mary jane

Mango bow leather gloves

Wolford Peacock net tights

Sonia Rykiel sweater via the Outnet

Cuffed denim shorts

Kimchi and Blue victorian boot

Henrik Vibskov tony tiger tights via 

Chandelier earrings via etsy

Vintage beaded tunic dress

Dolce & Gabbana jacquard pants via Net-a-porter

partners in surrealism

Spent my Saturday at the Legion of Honor taking in the surreal photography of Man Ray and his muse/artistic partner Lee Miller.  Miller, a former model, met Ray in Paris in the late 1920's, and she became a frequent subject of his photographs and eventually his lover. She had a background in photography as well, and together they explored the abstract and surrealist movement through then-radical photographic techniques like rayographs and solarization.

Lee followed the traditional paradigm of artist's muse with her striking beauty, but she was also a true artist in her own right. She spent years working as a fashion photographer and exposing the surreal in everyday life through her personal photography. When WWII broke out, she became the first female photojournalist to travel to the front lines and photograph the war for Vogue. The photos she took of the blitzkrieg and the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp have become some of the most iconic WWII images in history.

If you're in or around SF, I highly recommend seeing this exhibit. Now I just have to go see Gaultier at the De Young. And since this wouldn't be a proper post without a poorly executed photo collage, here ya go--a bunch of rad surrealist-approved apparel I found on the interwebs, some of which is potentially quite wearable. Yes, I'm talking about the black gloved bra as a top.

L to R: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac F/W 2011, Moschino Cheap & Chic lip print tunic dress (avail, here), Elsa Schiaparelli gloves, Nicholas Kirkwood flats, Salvador Dali ruby lips brooch, Elsa Schiaparelli shoe hat, Nicholas Kirkwood "pony" heel, Viktor & Rolf look from Spring 2010