Fashion Pie

I'm leaving for China in 8 days!! Wow I feel like I have a million things to do. Especially because I am leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow for the whole weekend. Here are photos from the group's trip last year. Top, pre-show rehersal with a beautiful red Sarah Seven dress, then the crowd, all there to see what Portland fashion is all about, then two Sarah Seven looks from the runway. (All the photos are by Leah Nash.) We will be having a show again this year, all thanks to the good fashion people at Beijing Fashion Week and of course the Portland Fashion Synergy board. More about the trip I promise...

Alice And Her Impossible Journey

Mid-high school I gave up trying to be cool and began to crave the light, imaginative weirdness that was so natural to me in childhood. I came to my senses and worked to discover escapes from the daily convention that threatened to deplete my imagination and creativity. In a moment in December 2003 that pulled together all I loved from the past and from the future, I discovered the bright, creative, weird, wonderful Alice in Wonderland shoot by Annie Leibovitz in Vogue.

I had always loved clothes--my mom says the outfits I dressed myself in when I was little were quite... impressive in their originality, and I worked all through high school to support my obsession with beautiful dresses and shoes. I was also forever obsessed with fashion journalism, declaring from 8th grade on that I'd be the next Anna Wintour. When I saw this Alice in Wonderland spread, the possibilities started clicking into place--and since that moment, every time I flip back through the spread something new pulls and inspires me. My favorite model, Natalia Vodianova is a perfect moody, lovely Alice, and designers Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano are several of the designers who take shape as the Caterpillar, the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen. When we re-read Alice in Wonderland in English class later that year, I brought in the issue to show the class, and I didn't even care that most the class didn't really get it or care. Because frankly, fashion just isn't for everyone.

This post is to celebrate all versions of Alice, and as a thank you for the artists who engage in a dialog with the impossible! Thank you Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Annie Leibovitz and Grace Coddington. The challenge this week--every day think up six impossible things before breakfast! It's a lovely practice!

Time Traveler Girls

Shoot for Claire Wolfson's Ai senior fashion design final today at the Ace hotel! I spent the whole day pretty much doubled over laughing. That's how great the people I get to work with are!! Hair and makeup turned out LOVELY, and Claire's designs were so sweet and in control. Claire's inspiration for the line and the shoot: "My collection was inspired by an old [Cape Cod] house that was built in the 1700's and filled with hundreds of antiques from all different parts of history. My concept is piecing together different times in history through seams. The theme for the shoot is going to be the girls sort of getting ready at the hotel to go on some sort of journey--possibly to travel back in time." I'm pretty sure we achieve that today! Below, the inspiration sheets she sent us before the shoot.

Why Should We Grieve That We've Been Sleeping?

More from that great day shooting with Leslie. We had fun playing with the cream/white/silver/brown/gray/tan/black theme while styling our outfits for the group shot. By the time I was done doing all the girls' makeup and could jump in for a couple shots, I was exhausted! But it was the good, exhilarating kind of fatigue--the kind you get when you know you're doing something right. The beautiful coat Kelly is wearing in the top two pictures is Alison's, found at a vintage boutique in town, previously the owner's grandmother's coat. Her reaction to the sale: "She's crazy to let it go!"

You Are My Electric Girl

More shots from the shoot with Shaun Mendiola and Option Model Kyla Moran. Loving the hometown connection.

The Eye Of The Tiger

We rang in the Chinese New Year of the Tiger (our year '86 babies!) on Sunday with the the great Portland Chinese community. The event (complete with traditional dragon dancing and Chinese broccoli, my fav) was MCd by Kerry Yu and included our fashion show, organized by the kickass, hard working Jillian Rabe (above, working the finale on the runway). Megan Rabe and Tim Shroyer made perfect buns with chopsticks and bobbed wig hair, and Aimee Janik and I made beautiful models even more beautiful. In the end we went with a simple thick dark liner on top and bright, not-going-anywhere-red lips. With this simplification of makeup, we were able to rock through 12 models in under two hours! Genius.

All Along Our Little Watchtower

Hot kids in Shwood sunglasses by Shaun from our commercial shoot earlier this fall:

Be Curious, Not Judgemental

Shoot today with Kelly (top), Alison (avec le tour eiffel), beautiful Mia Weiselman and some fun new friends! Leslie Noel Montgomery shot us (yes I hopped in for a few...) and I tried some seriously dark eyes. Mia, Alison and Kelly collaborated on styling us (seven models, plus Tilly, Alison's sweet baby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, for a few pics). Explored the park on Ainsworth, and made good use of Alison's NE Portland living room. Can't wait to show you!

Like Looking Through A Fogged Mirror

Obsessed with Lookbook.nu, collective fashion consciousness. Fashion girls (and boys) around the world unite, and share--I love it. Some of my favorite looks posted recently:

Be Reckless Enough To Gamble All Or Nothing To Follow Your Dreams

-Monsieur John Galliano

"All life is an experiment." - Walt Whitman

A very special xmas present from my Momma was Influence, the gorgeous coffee table book by Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen and edited by Derek Blasberg. I'm being inspired not only by the Mary Kate's chunky thick eye lashes (below) and handful of rings, but also by the many thoughtful interviews with some beautiful artists, photographers and designers.

Fashion show producer Alexandre de Betak is "light obsessed." When it comes to sex, Lauren Hutton says nature is always looking to make a masterpiece. (So be careful who you make masterpieces with.) Terry Richardson, master of the stark, grainy, emotional photograph (Batman and Robin 1996) says: "Every day we feel different; sometimes we're happy; sometimes we're sad. But to photograph someone as they are is my favorite." Oh! And brilliant Giambattista Valli says he always uses an art reference in designing collections. Art like the entire collection of of Peggy Guggenheim, then Rembrandt, then for his Fall 2008 collection, the question "What would happen if Little Red Riding Hood ate the wolf?

Urban Princess

I gave you a preview (and another and another) of this shoot long ago last summer. These talented peeps all worked together to make some beautiful fashion/beauty/city magic: shot by Peter Greene, styled by Alison Nicole Grisé, makeup by me, hair by Megan Rabe and model Jillian Rabe with the Raw Action Bboys.

The Prettier The Flower The Farther From The Path

My dear friend Katie asked me to model in a shoot for a photography class at Oregon last summer, and despite being incredibly uncomfotable in front of the camera (at least in a formal setting), I agreed (but only because I love her). The feeling of adventurous summer took hold and we wandered around Eugene and stumbled upon abandoned trains and into the dynamic little peacock park up on Hendricks hill. While we were wandering the train tracks in the Whiteaker district, I grabbed the camera and got the photo of her above.

Katie hand developed these in the dark room, making them even more special in our time of over digitalization.

Finding The Courage To Reach Unreachable Stars

"I sometimes think that all you tell me of knighthood, kingdoms, empires and islands is all windy blather and lies." -Sancho Panzo

Don't ask me why it's taken so long to post these finals (photog Shaun Mendiola, beautiful work as usual) from Jasin Weiner's senior project, but anyway, here they are!! Maria Blandino and I rocked the makeup and Critter Pierce styled.

The Harder To Get The Better To Have

I'm really excited for this upcoming shoot, with my beautiful buddies Brittany Powers and Tim Shroyer (below). Shaun is shooting with stark, bright lighting like the W shoot with Ginnifer Goodwin (top), and I'm going to style them with leather and black and a lot of bling. Kate Hudson's makeup by Dick Page (above) is perfect, like black leather. But just like black nail polish, black lipstick needs to be taken down a notch so as not to scream 2007.

I'm thinking twilight colored, not midnight.

I See You.

A perfect photoshoot, with some crazy talent. Shaun (as good as they make'um) rocking it on the cam, and Kyla as beautiful and natural as ever. I used Arbonne concealer and pressed powder, and blended out M.A.C. Carbon eyeshadow around her eyes for that seductive smokey feeling.