Art Worth Dusting For

My office is covered in R. Nichols artwork. At our entrance is a 55" canvas called "Shopper"; my personal office has two of his signed DC pieces; my birthday invites are always R. Nichols. I even cook from The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook.* The fact that he's one of my BFFs does not take away from the fact that he is the coolest, most fashionable, most fantastic artist ever. Just ask the stationery people at Neiman Marcus, where I've seen normally genteel women in near fisticuffs over them (nevermind the time I nearly came to blows with a rather famous DC socialite over a few of his works. Preeeety sure she still hates me to this day for it. Awes).

So next week, on July 28, when Nick's original artworks go on sale here at noon sharp, I suggest you get there at 12:00:01, lest your favorite piece be gone (such as his special DC piece--he's based out of L.A. now, but grew up here). And trust me, go it will.

Here's your special sneak peek:





*And fine, that's a lie of fair proportions. It does look lovely on my cookbook shelf, however, next to Be My Guest, The I'll Take Manhattan JL Cookbook, RSVP and, of course, Silver Palette. All equally beautiful, all equally dusty. Not unlike this blog.

The Front Row

In case your invite didn't arrive today...

Gossip for you...

Bliss Spa in DC opens July 8. Four treatment rooms, so if you want to be one of the first, you'll have to book EARLY (reservation line isn't open yet).

Christian Siriano will be here on May 15, as a VIP guest for Bethesda Row's style event called The Front Row. Good luck scoring a VIP ticket.

Speaking of, the event will be featuring fall fashion previews, style-focused book parties, trunk shows, designer appearances, and beauty events, from May 14-16. It's going to rock.

Harriet Kassman's 40% off clearance sale still has some goodies left--worth the trip to get a current season Armani suit for almost HALF.

Bruno Grizzo is coming to Hu's Wear on May 13, he of the fabulous Brazilian line.

That's it for now!

It Is What It Is

...as my mom, ever the practical one, always says. So on to less hefty topics.

Like the fact that I have GOT to get a pair of non-TRB flats. Unlike the last pregnancy, where I wore 5" heels to the hospital (mainly to make the point of it, also 'cause my doctor is a TOTAL HOTTIE apologies to husband sorrysorrysorry but, well, he REALLY is), this time heels were off pretty permanently by about month 6. And since I'm anti-flat as a general principle, my only options were literally 15-year old Chanel ballerinas that were so worn down that putting cardboard in the bottoms a la Depression Era would have improved them tremendously.

Props to my husband for sensing this was coming, and getting me a killer pair of over-the-knee brown boots--completely flat--at Barneys (extra props for even knowing my size). But they're brown, and they're boots, so they don't go with everything. And spring is springing--hallelujah!

So through my tangled web of store credits and trades and discounts, I now have two pairs of TRBs, one in black and one in orange.

Here's the thing: wearing humongous medallions on your feet pretty much only has disadvantages.

First of all, it makes the toe part of your shoes not every flexible. So not all that comfortable after, say, hour one.

Second of all, it's just a bit, um, obnoxious--is that the word? I just feel like every time I take a step my feet are screaming TORY BURCH! TORY BURCH! TORY BURCH! TORY BURCH! right on down the street.

Want to need to have to get a new pair of Chanels (speaking of, have you seen the fall collections? Holy CRAP. While boucle looks like absolute crap on me, and I know that grey sweater dress on the front of last week's WWD will as well, I still pine for it so). Or at least some Delmans. Anyone have an in with Karl's people?

Bloggers Corner at the DSS!

So if you're coming to the DSS and you're a blogger, please do the following:
-Get your ticket now, as they're going quickly!
-Email blogger@districtsamplesale.com with your full blog name, address, and a 25-word description of your blog, and we'll feature it in our Fashion & Events Blog page in the DSS program.
-Stop by the Bloggers Corner at the DSS and pick up your fabulous free goodie bag!

That is all. Carry on.

Live Blogging: From the DSS War Room

If you're planning on getting a VIP ticket, do so quickly: there are only about 20 left!

Of Crowds & Chaos (and Cup Sizes)

I'm just not a fan of huge crowds, lest it's the DSS or My Morning Jacket playing on a stage in front of me. Nor am I a fan of total disorganization, unless it's my closet (okay, fine. My house).

Route 123 is the DMZ for me, with the left side featuring Scary Tyson's, the right featuring Actual Tysons. Scary Tyson's because EVERY SINGLE TIME I've ever been there, it's the Perfect Storm, packed with heinous crowds of sketch people and nasty moms pushing their sneezing kid's stroller directly into my kneecaps no matter how far to the right I move and teens in horribly inappropriate clothing that make me just want to lecture them forming dense packs that you simply cannot walk around even though they're walking 0.000004 mph and lines at the register when you just want to buy one little thing and just stacks of messy crap in every store.*

I'll just pay the 30% markup and buy across the way. Thanks.

That is why, on the surface, H&M would be the bane of my total existence.

But I love to mix up a little throwaway with the rest of my wardrobe, so every now and again, I suck it up ("it" may or may not be a Xanax) and head on in.

While in NYC a few weeks ago with my Miami team, I was dragged into the H&M down by Rockefeller Plaza. There is no H&M in Miami, so our fabulous event be damned, H&M was the absolute highlight of our trip for them. It must be like when my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Cavanaugh, went to Russia back in the Eighties (okay, Seventies) with a suitcase full of pantyhose to give out as gifts because they were such a rare luxury and the maids in hotels cried when they received them. Well, I guess like the horribly spoiled American version of that.

I got a couple of things for fall (as well as the orange star underwear, etc. for Aquaman), and then, while doing a lap on floor 4, a huge wall of bras caught my eye.

The perfect bra has always seemed like the unattainable for me, save for one beautifully crafted lavender lace concoction I bought in Paris a few years ago, whose maker was never to be found again.

Lacy is okay, but not delicate (eg., won't fall apart after one wearing). Fitted around the back without looking like a tourniquet. Little to no padding but not see through. Supportive without looking like an 18-Hour Bra from Playtex (I'm turning into my mother in enough other ways, which is Just Awesome. See "Teenagers, Incessant Need to Scold About Clothing Choices" from above).

Chantelle has come close, but they just don't support all that well, certainly not for $70 a pop (though I keep going back and shelling out my money like a cheated-on spouse thinking that this time, they'll do me right. Definitely this time. I just know it.).

But these, here at H&M, looked like they actually might be worth a shot. So into the 20-person long dressing room line I went.

Perfection. Absolutely, complete perfection. I couldn't even believe it. And SEVENTEEN DOLLARS.

Downside: I bought two colors, but didn't look to make sure the tag on the other one matched the sizing on the hanger, which of course it didn't, being H&M and crowded and chaotic and all.

But even at $34 (because I will always mean to, but will never, ever return it), still perfection. So if you're a fan of crowds and chaos (or even if you're not), definitely give them a try.

I'll be the one outside wagging her finger at some 14-year old in a belly shirt.

*Fine, the new wing is better. But it's still Scary Tyson's to me.

District Sample Sale

As a rule, if I'm going out to the press with something big, I don't break it here--would rather give them the honors.

So now that the word is out, here's the whole official scoop!
The website is updated for full scoopage.

See you there!

Ninth Floor, Please.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but one day, after lobbying DirectTV for years, we finally got the Style channel. Hoorah!

But apparently while I was away, Style went to Suckytown. Who replaced hour-long shows of the Paris shows with weird and creepy "dress like your favorite star" shows? Boo.

But then tonight, the greatest man in the universe, my husband*, was flipping channels. And due to the aforementioned greatestness, he looked at his new plasma and said, "Hey, isn't that the guy that used to do your hair?". And there in front of me was John Barrett. Cutting hair in Knoxville, Tennessee.*

Split Ends: the show that made Style not suck. Awesome.

*My husband has also identified Dolce and Gabbana and Zac Posen and, maybe he couldn't tell them apart, but there's a good chance he would be able to point to Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough and know that those were the guys whose suit I desperately needed from Kirna Zabete last year. Greatest. Husband. Ever.

"Nice to see you."

The first time I heard that phrase was from Oprah. She was the emcee for a Valentino charity fashion show in New York about 10 years ago; afterward, I was at the afterparty/launch of the Valentino boutique when I looked up from a cabinet of scarves and noticed that she was standing next to me.*

"So nice to see you," she said.

"Brilliant greeting. Just brilliant," I thought.

For the famous, it's perfect. It's a non-committal non starter. Not that it stopped me, my mother and my sister from chatting her up for 10 straight minutes, but still.

By the way, pictures do that woman no justice whatsoever. She's phenomenal.

About three years ago I was sitting down to a meeting with a former Washingtonian that's pretty internationally known. "So nice to see you," she said. And she had it down pat--the look that both directly meets your eye and kind of looks through you, the warm smile that makes you feel comfortable and looks perfect in photographs and is still a bit formal--a trained greeting from someone who has spent a good portion of their life meeting and greeting, from whom the public demands much, and much is given. So once again, acceptable.

And then. Then it kind of hit the masses.

"How nice to see you kiss left kiss right" (no three kisses--PLEASE) has become the greeting for one and all.

I kind of get it. Especially in this town, where it's all about the network, the meet, the greet.

But still.

Even when coming from us lessers, it's a non-committal non-starter. It's as if we can't be bothered to come up with something else, can't be bothered to think about whether or not we actually know this person in front of us, can't be bothered to take a risk.

And I get that it can save from a potentially embarrasing situation, get that it's a "one size fits all" type of greeting, that the conversation CAN be taken from there. But I miss the days when you could look in someone's eye and say "I'm sorry, you look so familiar. Where did we meet?" and it begat a whole new conversation. When someone put their neck out there a little bit to say, "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met," and then engage. Or took the risk of "Hi, I'm BabsieD. We met at..." and sometimes, yes, you get the blank stare. Other times, it brings back memories and a flowing conversation from the outset.

What DOES one say after "Nice to see you," besides "Nice to see you as well *pregnant pause*"? It's just so...self-important, I guess.

Anyone have a better answer?

*There's a whole other half to this story that includes making a COMPLETE fool of myself in front of Valentino--yes, Valentino Garavani himself-- with a mint sprig, but that's for another day.

**Photo above: perhaps the most unflattering picture of me taken of ALL time (and before the age of digital cameras everywhere, so it's a bad scan of an okay picture).

So First Things First...

Haute for the Holidays: What a great night. Attendance was smashing, everyone had fun, lots of new faces at Alex (all of which hopefully found their perfect holiday frocks!). Fabulous goodie bags including bottles of Snow Queen vodka, R. Nichols notecards, Graham Webb Halo shampoo & conditioner, Altoids, and the first edition of the Alex Stylette (you may be able to get one if you stop in and ask nicely!).

The vintage couture brought in for the event was truly phenomenal. It was worth it just to come and walk through the fashion history stored on those racks. Amazing.

The Vogue book and Jaanu diamond pendant were both raffled off to incredibly happy winners--and all proceeds went to Labels for Love and Suited for Change, which was just the icing on the cake.

So for all of you who came out, thanks!

Ponds of All Sizes

On yet another beautiful day (does the god of weather not realize that it's basically December?), I found myself sitting outside at a Starbucks with Alison Lukes, up from her new homestead down south for our event tomorrow. Since this is a site that toils in vapidity, the following phrase will not seem completely out of place: should you ever have need for a stylist, she should be your very first call, darling (okay, the darling for emphasis may be a bit much). She singularly made the term "stylist" a bona fide Washington occupation--and she's still the best there is.

My husband bought me a few hours of her styling services two Christmases ago, and I swear to you she changed my closet forever. Got me over my fear of Intermix (maybe it's just me, but that place, with its completely packed, unmerchandised racks and plethora of tiny gorgeous 20-year old salespeeps in dresses doooowwwntothere has always been just a wee bit intimidating, even when I had my now expired 20% discount card), pulled together three outfits from my closet that I never even realized I had that are still wardrobe mainstays, and it was a fabulous time to boot. She still comes up here often, so call her.

Anyway, sipping our coffees, enjoying the day, we got to talking about ponds: she's now in a small one, and she's more of a small fish/big pond kind of gal (and she worked for Michael Kors and Celine in both NYC and Paris, so she knows from big ponds); I always found myself to be a big fish/really small ponder (as opposed to my sister, who is the rare big fish/big pond. More on her...someday). But the more I work in Washington, and I guess the more comfortable I get in my surroundings, the more I realize how manageable a city it really is. I'm convinced the total population of Washington rests somewhere around 400, of which I know 100 (okay, 50), and recognize another 100. So I'm not sure if my pond preference is changing or Washington is just a really, really small town--or maybe it's somewhere in the middle. Either way, it's cool.

Update on tomorrow: when you buy a raffle ticket--prizes are a Jaanu diamond pendant and a copy of the humongo coffee table book In Vogue, signed by the author (thanks Vogue!)--you'll also receive a coupon for 20% off of any one Alex item, which you can use right on the spot. See you there--I'll be there with "Pam" as I've named her, the bigger-than-a-Vogue-coffeetable-book zit that decided to celebrate the day with me by making an appearance right between my eyes. Yes, I'm a cyclops. Good times. Good times, indeed.

The Most Fantabulous Event of the Year...

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving!

And now that the traffic has died down...

So, here's the deal:
The event features an incredible high-end vintage dealer (on top of Alex's fabulous wares), as well as stylists and ateliers--all of which will help you sort through the collections, piece both the new and the vintage together to create your incredible holiday outfit, and then customize it if you wish.

The raffle is for both a Jaanu diamond pendant, and a signed copy of In Vogue, The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine, with proceeds benefiting Labels for Love and Suited for Change. There will also be select vintage items where 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Suited for Change. I picked them out myself so I know they're fabulous!

And then, if you spend $400 or more, you'll receive a fashion sketch of you in your new frocks, created by an incredible local designer.

The event is invitation only, but email me and if there's room, I'll be happy to put you on the list (I'll email you to confirm).

xoxo