#MadisonAvenueWatchWeek!!!!

It’s that time again! Madison Avenue Watch Week is in its third year with 17 boutiques participating, Antiquorum Auctioneers, Asprey, Blancpain, Breguet, Buccellati, Chopard, David Yurman, de Grisogono, FP Journe, Fabergé, Georg Jensen, Girard-Perregaux, Graff, Hublot, Montblanc, Porsche Design, and Vacheron Constantin.

As most of you know, I am the project manager of Madison Avenue Watch Week and am extremely proud of this week of festivities and watch admiration. Last night was the kick-off night and several participating boutiques threw private receptions, exhibitions, talks and unveilings. I started off on 57th and Madison at Montblanc where Rudy Guliani just stepped out after buying his next Montblanc addition! Montblanc unveiled their new Nicolas Rieussec Rising Hours clocks and I had a wonderful time checking out the newest pieces.

After Montblanc, it was time to go to the Gallery Talk hosted by Antiquorum Auctioneers as a preview to their Modern & Vintage Timepieces Auction taking place April 10th. This was a fun trip because I saw some old friends from last year’s Watch Week and was able to catch up with them. I also loved the collections at Antiquorum. The thing I love most about pocket watches, is the ability to wear the watch around your neck like a pendant.

Last stop of the night had some of my favorite jewelry. I know it’s supposed to be Watch Week and I am supposed to be paying watches special attention, but I could not resist the jewelry in Fabergé. All of it was so gorgeous. I like the watches as well but could not get over an Emerald necklace and emerald ring with a canary diamond ring next to it!

What I love most about Watch Week is its ability to bring people together with watches. All types of watches are brought into this enormous American Basel and the different varieties suit the different people checking them out. Also, Watch Week is not just marketed towards men. Many women were there to check out the new editions and several stores cater to their women customers!

I look forward to next year’s! Please check out Madison Avenue Watch Week on http://madisonavenuewatchweek.com/ and see the debut of many different watches. Also, remember, this is a free and open to the public event and this is your chance to learn more about the art of watches!

ICFashion Flix - Oz the Great and Powerful

Well it’s been a while since I have had the privilege of seeing a movie and being able to write about it. This one is a little late but better late than never. (BTW this story contains SPOILERS!)

Oz the Great and Powerful opened March 8 to the chagrin of all the Wizard of Oz lovers out there, presently writing blogger included!

Oscar, aka OZ, played by Jimmy “The Money” Franco is a struggling magician in good ol’ Kansas, prances around romancing unsuspecting future assistants with music boxes from his fictional Grandma. His old fling (Michelle Williams) comes by to tell him goodbye, she’s tired of waiting for him to get his act together. His almost remorseful convo with her gets interrupted by a fellow carnival act, after breaking the carnival man’s wife’s heart, Oz has to flee to avoid annihilation. He boards a hot air balloon drifts off and finds he’s in the middle of a tornado. When he falls, almost to his death, he swears he will do great things. Oz wakes up to find he’s in Oz and shortly meets the beautiful and impeccably dressed Theodora (Mila Kunis), who is happy to see he is the wizard that will free Oz from a terrible wicked witch! She brings him back to the emerald city after running into a flying monkey (Zach Braff) and introduces him to her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz). This is when things really fall apart as Oz finds he must kill the wicked witch in order to claim the throne of Oz (yes, land of Oz is still called this even though the wizard’s name is Oz). After a brief stop in Chinatown that’s been demolished by the flying baboons and gluing a tiny china doll (Joey King) back together, Oz approaches the accused wicked witch to find, she’s Glinda (Michelle Williams again) and not wicked at all. Now he’s confused! The rest of the tale will remain a secret until you see this film on Netflix as I recommend because it is not at all great or powerful!

The costumes and the feel of Oz were taken very seriously. Because Disney is not a part of MGM and MGM owns the rights to The Wizard of Oz. Many iconic elements from The Wizard of Oz had to be taken out of this Oz. But what Disney could do, was evoke the feel and romanticism of Oz. 

Mila Kunis’ Theodora was the epitome of romance. Looking more like  Puss in Boots or a Musketeer, she rocks an awesome wide brimmed hat circa French Victorian age of the 1620’s. I love how they made the costume which was the uniform of the King’s guard and considered manly, at the time and gave it the feminine details with toggle buttons and the purple lining in the coat. Her feather in her hat would make Jack Sparrow jealous! This costume correctly identifies the land of Oz.

Oz’s costume shows a suit that has worn out it’s welcome. Oversized, wearing thin and vintage, the suit that Oz dons is in the same shape as his career in Kansas. It also is the only thing that Oz presents that isn’t a lie.

The Wicked Witch of the West clad in all black also has an affinity for leather. The costume is very dominatrix meets Alexander McQueen. I can’t say that it was a very interesting costume because I have to say the biggest thing was missing from it. When I think of The Wizard of Oz I think of the first appearance of the Wicked Witch with her gigantic cape sweeping over her. That was the pinnacle of her costume!

Evanora’s elegant bejeweled gown embodies the character’s need for power, riches and darkness. Her gown nicely compliments the Wicked Witch’s green skin with it’s hunter green beaded sleeves and green feathered cape. I love the edge they gave Evanora with her cape.

And last, Glinda makes her final stand in Oz with a sequins and feathered white gown. Nothing in the movie alludes to her affinity for pink. Instead, they deck Glinda out in whites, golds and silvers and for some odd reason, a shell crown? Don’t know what that’s about!

So overall, the movie was pretty disappointing. I was not enthused by James Franco’s performance and I felt Mila Kunis was grossly over-witching! lol. This is definitely a wait for Netflix movie.

Tonight…It’s Jurassic Park 3D. Get ready for next week’s ICFashion Flix!

African Queen article in Numero Magazine

I have been asked by my best friend to talk about the issue of blackface in the March Issue of Numero Magazine, a French glossy that launched in 1999. For their March issue, they somehow got it in their minds that Sebastian Kim’s idea of creating a girl to portray the world’s melting pot was a good idea but took a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl, Ondria Hardin, and slapped on some blackface. To further add insult to injury, they called the article, “African Queen”. 

Some how thinking that an apology would be enough, they sent a letter to the Huffington Post. I’m not going to repost the entire letter but I feel that it was not a real apology.

Some people are asking why black people are so up in arms about the shoot. This is because they have not been told by society their entire lives that their race is not beautiful enough. 

Balanchine once described the perfect ballerina as having skin “like a freshly peeled apple”. And as evidenced by the runways of New York Fashion Week, most models booking jobs are caucasian unless you are walking on fabulous Mara Hoffman’s runway or a black designer’s show.  

This article was just another dagger in the young black girl’s self perception. It sent the message that black is not beautiful and that in order to be beautiful as an African Queen, you still have to be white! It makes no sense! And Sebastian Kim’s explanation of why they chose a white model is no better.

It was never my intention (nor Numero’s) to portray a black woman in this story. Our idea and concept for this fashion shoot was based on 60’s characters of Talitha Getty, Verushka and Marissa Berenson with middle eastern and Moroccan fashion inspiration. We at no point attempted to portray an African women by painting her skin black.

Well if it was not your intention to portray a black woman but to portray a middle eastern woman, why didn’t you use a middle eastern model? There are so many types of models out there, why not use the correct ethnic model of what you are shooting for? It makes no sense to dress up a white woman as if she were from another culture, just as it would not make sense to dress up an asian woman and make her black or a black woman and make her white. This world has so much to offer with so many different types of women and models, why limit yourself?

I truly hope that one day, we will not have these occurrences and the world will really be a melting pot.

What do you think? Do you agree with my statements? 

Tilly and William Fall 2013

Friday night on February 8 after a long day of preparation for our two events for Fashion Week, @SkimMilkProject and @PMelville_ headed to Tilly and William! This was to be the first show that @PMelville_ would see and what a show it was!

Tilly and William is  comprised of designing duo Jessica Lapidos and Thomas Barranca who started designing at the University of Delaware and became roommates in New York City. Lapidos got a job as fashion editor of FashionIndie while, Barranca began writing his first novel! But soon they realized their collective dream was to create a fashion label!

Who was there:

I found @Loudpen at the show and we found ourselves perched at the end of the runway with the perfect view of the collection. Also there was one of my favorite PR people, Eduardo from Omen PR, who generously sent me invitations to all of Omen PR’s shows this season. Omen PR is one of the best teams with the greatest clients, I suggest looking them up!

The collection:

The Tilly and William show was in the designer’s loft in Chelsea, which was enormous! The runway was set up to be grand and yet intimate with the chairs set up to be level with the walkway and close to where the models were walking. I’m a big fan of the first come first serve mentality for shows, which of course meant that we got the best seats because I always try to be early. The collection felt futuristic and almost Blade Runner-esque. The clothing was multipurpose and flexible with jerseys, separates and accessories of arm warmers and leg warmers. Also perfectly suited for dance!

My favorite looks for women was the tube top with the colorblocked skirt and armers as well as the reversible multiforamen with reversible thigh riders. The look with the thigh riders gave a very elegant silhouette. Also throughout the collection were a number of looks with tie dye! Nice to see tie dye making a comeback in a big way this year! Both of my favorite looks were both pieces that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of The Fifth Element!

My favorite male looks were the awesome onesy or so it seemed as the correct name for it is a paneled tunic with grey oxford switchers and the reversible paenula moleskin side, with the light brown oxford switchers and paneled tunic. Both of these looked incredibly comfortable and I loved the look of the “onesy” and how the colorblocking complimented the model’s skin tone!

Bold:

The big surprise of the show was this amazingly scary and wonderful dance that broke out in the middle of the show without warning. The model comes out wearing a multiforamen with armers and a bandeau top and gets to the end of the runway looking very nervous. She starts shaking and the audience starts to squirm getting uncomfortable not knowing whether this is a part of the show or not. After a male model finally gets to the end of the runway with her and whispers something, there is a break where a dance begins. While the dancers were dancing, they displayed how the multipurpose clothing worked and dressed each other! It was truly unfortunate that I was not able to figure out my video and capture some of the dancing. But I did catch a quick shot! 

Future:

 After seeing the Tilly and William show, I found out that this was their first major runway show! Wow! What a first show! I really loved how the looks were very dancer oriented but I feel like that could get limited, I’m very intrigued to see what they would have in store for the spring/summer collections.