WHAT A NIGHT!!

The loca­tion — gor­geous… The drinks — potent… The crowd — super sexy… The “Oceans 07” Pisces birth­day event did not disappoint!!!

Orig­i­nally started at Bruce Willis’ Spy­der Room sev­eral years ago, then only mod­els, Patrick Hazle­wood and Adam Cringler hosted the 1^st annual “Swim­ming with the Fishes” birth­day party.  It was a small but chic affair with an all white theme.

The “lit­tle gath­er­ing” has expanded to include other Pisces e.g. graphic design guru Michelle Foer­ster, leather designer Aaron Arling­haus, model and tal­ent man­ager Bran­don Mills, and actress Ash­leigh Jen­nifer Parker (her absence regret­tably was due to a seri­ous auto acci­dent, we wish her bet­ter).  Pre­vi­ous events have been held in such chic New York spots as Ruby Falls, Aer, Upstairs.  This year guests enjoyed the amaz­ingly hos­pitable Hud­son Terrace.

This year, the event’s theme was “Glam­our Glam­our” — and more glam­our was deliv­ered.  Sev­eral guests were bedecked in evening gowns, chic suits, and tuxe­dos.  The glass ceil­ing was lit with thou­sands of tiny stars, as guests sipped on the cus­tom designed “Oceans 7″ cock­tails.  The beats were pro­vided by DJ Jeff Haze, the “new kid on the block” who is mak­ing a seri­ous name for him­self around New York City.

Guests received the sig­na­ture neck­lace cre­ated by Haus Leather, which has become a much-​​sought– after memento of each year’s ‘do’ and were then directed to the cen­ter cabana where the cel­e­brants held court. Our fab­u­lous fash­ion cor­re­spon­dent, Patrick Hazle­wood was sport­ing a clas­sic din­ner jacket, bow-​​tie and dark rimmed glasses… “a Tom-​​Ford-​​Moment” that only a clas­sic man like him could pull off.  Deadly-​​chic Bran­don Mills rocked a killer black suit by Paul LaFontaine — the gents looked dapper.

The ladies didn’t dis­ap­point either. Dark-​​haired beauty Fabi­ana Por­tolano, of Por­tolano cashmere-​​fame, and the enchant­ing green-​​eyes, was resplen­dent in a floor length Tadashi gown with a daz­zling train, which con­trasted with the BCBG Max Azria short dress and Chris­t­ian Laboutin heels worn by actress Fiona Kuchina. Other nota­bles present included super­mod­els Ryan Daharsh, Oliver Bork, Jis­lain Duval, Tim Rev­ell and Sean Harju, pho­tog­ra­pher Ren Sal­iba, actors Thomas Beau­doin, Sam Sny­der, and John Vit­ulli, dancer Ash­ley Lay­field, and Moulin Rouge star Brook­lyn Pascoe.

With a focus to high­light con­tem­po­rary design in the LA fash­ion scene, Direc­tives West, a fash­ion mer­chan­dis­ing and trend con­sult­ing firm, launched the FIRST​.LA  a run­way show ded­i­cated to show­cas­ing LA’s emerg­ing design­ers. Care­fully hand­picked, the show con­sisted of design­ers such as Fluxus, Jonesy, Dolan, Col­lec­tive Con­cepts, Urban Behav­ior, Vin­tage Rev­o­lu­tion, and sev­eral more.

The aus­tere envi­ron­ment cre­ated by James Camp­bell at Pent­house #11 Design space was a def­i­nitely pro­fes­sional pre­sen­ta­tion. The show boasted a long list of design­ers hand picked by Direc­tives West from the pool of con­tem­po­rary L.A. Fash­ion design­ers and lines. The room was per­me­ated with a main stream feel that was craftily orga­nized and exe­cuted. The lines included women’s wear, junior fash­ions, acces­sories includ­ing men’s and children’s wear. tak­ing heed to casual west coast fashion.

Our LA Cor­re­spon­dence team, along with host, Johanna Till­man, had the plea­sure of inter­view­ing Janine Blain, the VP/​GMM of Direc­tives West. Stay tuned for the video footage very soon! In the mean time, check out the awe­some pics from the show! Cour­tesy of our Emer­ald Chic’s LA Team: Chris­t­ian Lewis, Pro­ducer; Sean Peter­son; and Codee Maves.

You never know what ran­dom celebrity sight­ings you’ll find along the quaint cor­ri­dor of scenic High­way 30A. This par­tic­u­lar evening, to my sur­prise, started with an invite to a pri­vate recep­tion held at the absolutely gor­geous Cal­iza Pool at Alys Beach, which is with­out a doubt one of my favorite spots to sim­ply sit and enjoy the scenery.  This evening, res­i­dent home own­ers wel­comed film celeb, Stephen Bald­win, who was vis­it­ing 30A while also pro­mot­ing the Torch­light Film Series which, in con­junc­tion with the FSU Film School, is a series of con­ver­sa­tions between Torch­light Direc­tor, Paul Cohen and celebrity guest (you guessed it.…) Stephen Baldwin.

Among the small group of pleas­ant 30A-​​ers, were the Alys Beach Town Founder, Jason Comer and wife, Anna; George’s restau­rant own­ers, George and Ann Hart­ley; and Alys Beach “Town Evan­ge­list” and owner of 30A​.com, Mike Ragsdale.….just to name a few. As the night rolled on, guests sipped their cock­tails and sam­pled hors d’oeuvres from Caliza’s Restau­rant when along comes Stephen Bald­win with fam­ily in tow, Paul Cohen, and a small entourage from FSU’s Film School.

Calm, col­lected, and so easy to con­verse with, Bald­win was amazed, as are every­one else that vis­its 30A, at the beau­ti­ful sur­round­ings that make this area so unique. With plans to visit again very soon, he gra­ciously gave kudos to Alys Beach for let­ting him enter the com­mu­nity of friends, fam­i­lies, and pro­fes­sion­als that keep 30A thriving.

I was def­i­nitely excited for the oppor­tu­nity to meet Mr. Bald­win and look for­ward to what his future endeav­ors may bring to our beau­ti­ful Emer­ald Coast!  Til next time!

“Indi­vid­u­al­ity meets col­lab­o­ra­tion” was the theme of the night, accord­ing to Project Ethos’ Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Jason Peskin. 10 dif­fer­ent design­ers debuted their col­lec­tions for yet another red car­pet event dur­ing LA Fash­ion Week. Two design­ers, includ­ing for­mer Project Run­way con­tes­tants, Gor­dana Gehlhausen (GOGA by Gor­dana) and Jesus Estrada
(Haus of Estrada) were among the group of emerg­ing design­ers who show­cased their artis­tic tal­ents on stage at The Music Box, in Hol­ly­wood, which has been recently ren­o­vated and part­nered with Project Ethos for their grand re-​​opening event.

The antic­i­pated and ener­getic event was kicked off by R&B/POP act “Bruno Mars”. High­lighted by a styl­ized ver­sion of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana”.   The deep toned gritty music cho­sen by the design­ers com­ple­mented the dark atmos­phere cre­ated by the antique the­atre. Project Ethos really put it together com­bin­ing art, fash­ion and music por­tray­ing the ulti­mate Hol­ly­wood vibe…

Other design­ers and lines also included: Rochelle Corino (Rum­ple­munkeh), Maria Per­alta (Devi­ous Damzels), Rachael Feigel­son (Love Child), Michelle Liu (EMEL), Shant Der Ashodian (ARKA Cloth­ing), Omatu Gottschlich and San­dra Sturm (Fulani), Mar­i­alia Pacitto (Mar­i­alia), and Seth Nob­mann (Seth Welling­ton).

Artists, painters, graphic design­ers, and pho­tog­ra­phers also gath­ered at The Music Box to show­case their tal­ents and art­work dur­ing an evening of fash­ion, art, music and philanthropy.…altogether, this made for a fab­u­lous mix of energy, momen­tum and excitement.

Thanks again to our won­der­ful Emer­ald Chic LA team:

Chris­t­ian Lewis — Producer

Sean Peter­son — Co-​​Producer

Codee Maves — Project Coördinator

Johanna Till­man — Co-​​Host

There’s some­thing to be said for LA fash­ion. It’s not your typ­i­cal run-​​of-​​the-​​mill style, but it def­i­nitely has some­thing that’s uniquely LA about it all. Dur­ing this season’s LAFW, our team has already seen some out­ra­geous designs and out of the ordi­nary aes­thet­ics. One par­tic­u­lar show spun off the Alice and Won­der­land theme, incor­po­rated into a myr­iad of saran wrap in a way I prob­a­bly would have never ven­tured to think of. Such was the case for the Alice Mad Hat­ter Party held at the newly restored Spring Arts Tower which inte­grated a space-​​aged theme into the fan­tasy world of Alice in Won­der­land. A cul­mi­na­tion of var­i­ous hat design­ers showed their fall 2010 col­lec­tions in hopes of spark­ing some inter­est in hat designs, the millinery craft and fashion.

Anita Hop­kins, the fea­tured designer of the first ever Milliners event dur­ing Los Ange­les Fash­ion Week, orga­nized by The Milliners Guild of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. Por­tray­ing her vision uti­liz­ing plas­tic wrap as a mate­r­ial for both hats and cloth­ing… Anita stunned the crowd with both con­cept and cre­ativ­ity, using spacey atmos­pheric music cou­pled with out­ra­geous min­i­mal­ist designs, evoked out of this world imag­i­na­tion… a real crowd pleaser.  

Pho­tos cour­tesy of Emer­ald Chic’s Fash­ion Cor­re­spon­dents: Chris­t­ian Lewis, Sean Peter­son, & Codee Maves

DejaVu, home to some of the cutest woman’s resort wear, is nes­tled in pos­si­bly one of my favorite spots along the Emer­ald Coast - Sea­side, FL. If you’ve ever seen the Tru­man Show, then you know exactly where I’m talk­ing about. This once “secret hide­away” has become the sum­mer home for many a trav­eler look­ing to relax on the beau­ti­ful white beaches that already make the Emer­ald Coast so appeal­ing. Friends, fam­i­lies, food­ies, and warm weather fans flock to Sea­side every year for a trip through the famous court­yard or Ruskin Place which show­cases sev­eral local artists and bou­tiques that make Sea­side so quaint.

One such bou­tique, DejaVu, is a per­sonal favorite of mine. Stop­ping in dur­ing a round­about work ses­sion, I found sev­eral must-​​haves for this spring and sum­mer sea­son which is soon to be blis­ter­ing hot. Linens, silks, and light-​​flowy fab­rics make up the major­ity of dresses, shirts and other apparel that fill this chic, cottage-​​style boutique.

Owned by Stephanie Nichols, whom I’ve heard through the grapevine, is in LA work­ing on a new line of clothes, Dejavu, brings cus­tomers fem­i­nine, fun and flirty attire and acces­sories to make for the per­fect beach vacay. My pur­chase that day was a bright pink, silky sum­mer dress with bohemian-​​style bead­ing down the col­lar with a pull-​​string waist and a flowy skirt that comes just to the knees. Named after the famed Alys Beach (and right­fully so), this dress was per­fectly suited for my next out­ing along the Emer­ald Coast! Next time you’re on the coast, stop in and check out what chic new styles can be found at DejaVu. Not close by, never fear, you can also pur­chase their wears online at www​.shop​with​de​javu​.com.

Brows­ing through the many shops at the Rose­mary Beach, I found a great lit­tle bou­tique this week, World 6, which is soon to be renamed (pos­si­bly to “Drift” but stay tuned). The bou­tique itself is adorned with beau­ti­ful art­work by local artist, Alli­son Wickey, who does Venet­ian plas­ter on wood. But what made this bou­tique espe­cially unique is Allison’s art stu­dio which is towards the back of the store. Sit­ting on a large counter was an enor­mous piece of wood can­vas, freshly painted, with a fan blow­ing on it to dry the paint. Next to it were other pieces of art newly cre­ated that were patiently await­ing their spot on the wall.

Among the art­work hung an array clothes and jew­elry designed by res­i­dent locals such as JanieG­Cou­ture, owned by design­ers Alix O’Neil and Car­o­line Smith. There dresses are fun, flirty and the per­fect attire for day or evening. They look sophis­ti­cated, but not too stuffy.…perfect for our beachy lifestyles here on the Emer­ald Coast. If you don’t live close by, you can pur­chase online or call 334–805-4881.

Also, mark your cal­en­dars for the upcom­ing Fash­ion Show on May 7^th at the Emer­ald Coast Con­fer­ence Cen­ter. Local design­ers will debut their col­lec­tion for a night of art and phil­an­thropy. Pro­ceeds from the event will ben­e­fit the Boys & Girls Club of the Emer­ald Coast.…stay tuned for more details!

Per­haps on pur­pose, or by chance, the name “Twin­kle” auto­mat­i­cally con­jures up an old nurs­ery rhyme of star­lit nights and fairy tale dreams. But it was dur­ing the Twin­kle by Wen­lan fash­ion show at Bryant Park, that I felt like maybe I was think­ing along the right lines after all!

Designer Wen­lan Chia, launched her line of col­or­ful, chunky knit sweaters (that are her sig­na­ture) back in 2000, which has since taken off into a frenzy of loyal cus­tomers who love to wear her fun and flirty designs. Her 2010 fall/​winter col­lec­tion which debuted dur­ing Mercedes-​​Benz Fash­ion Week noted a fairy­tale set­ting with an whim­si­cal back­drop on the run­way. It gave me the feel­ing that the mod­els were walk­ing right out of Hansel & Gre­tel and into my closet!

Although her designs are worn by celebs and fash­ion­istas such as Lau­ren Con­rad, Jes­sica Simp­son, and Mis­cha Bar­ton, her wears are def­i­nitely made for the every­day, fun-​​loving shopa­holic. Easy to wear, com­fort­able and super chic, I was ready to hop in the story book after I saw this show!

As always, Perry Ellis’ fall/​winter 2010 col­lec­tion dur­ing NY Fash­ion Week intro­duced their flair for the mod­ern Amer­i­can man. Urban, chic and sooo hand­some! Check out the pics from the run­way and a lit­tle back­stage action…

Native Son 2010 . Directed by Eric Ray David­son from Eric Ray David­son on Vimeo. (2D version)

There comes a time when one thing, no mat­ter what it is, even though we love it, can become mun­dane. In the midst of the furry, fran­tic, and excite­ment of fash­ion week, there’s always that ques­tion of “what’s com­ing next?” Who’s going to wow the crowd with the lat­est avantgarde.…those push­ing the enve­lope to dis­cover what’s under­neath the sur­face and cre­ate some­thing so fresh and invig­o­rat­ing that it becomes unfor­get­table and ulti­mately sets the stan­dard for what is to become. And then there’s that rare occas­sion, ‚ when I parked along side Chelsea Piers in the midst of cold and snow, to dis­cover the almost indus­trial set­ting for what turned out to be the venue of the world’s first debut pro­duc­tions ever seen before.

After enter­ing the front door at Pier 59, walk­ing up two flights of stairs and fol­low­ing signs with arrows pointed every which way, we entered the  space which show­cased one of fashion’s most his­tor­i­cal moments. The venue itself was noth­ing fancy, but it didn’t have to be. Merely an empty space that, on a reg­u­lar day, would typ­i­cally con­sist of mod­els, pho­tog­ra­phers, styl­ists, design­ers, and cre­ative direc­tors fever­ishly work­ing their way through a photo shoot of some sort. Although sev­eral design­ers have come and done in this stu­dio, on this night, it was all about Eric Ray David­son, Direc­tor and GQ Pho­tog­ra­pher, and Kyle Fitzgib­bons, Designer, of a new 3D pro­duc­tion of fashion-​​forward design to the nth degree.

Team­ing with REAL D, the stereo­scopic tech­nol­ogy com­pany behind the ever-​​popular Avatar, the pre­sen­ta­tion intro­duced a gritty, indus­trial con­cep­tion of the 2010 fall col­lec­tion for Native Son, a lux­ury menswear label from LA designed by Kyle Fitzgib­bons. Adorned in 3D glasses, the three minute film brought a new life to the idea of how fash­ion and tech­nol­ogy can coin­cide. As a tech-​​geek myself, it was refresh­ing to see the two indus­tries col­lide in a com­pro­mise of art, tal­ent, inter­ac­tion and sophis­ti­ca­tion that could vir­tu­ally set the stan­dard on how audi­ences can really view fashion.

Fas­ci­nat­ing as it was, this was more than a pre­sen­ta­tion, but bet­ter yet, an moment in time that set a his­tor­i­cal pre­cen­dent in the way we view new col­lec­tions. This is one of those small win­dows of oppor­tu­nity that show­cases the mind, abil­i­ties, and flat out balls it takes to bring a cre­ative idea  into fruition and into the 21^st cen­tury. I have to say that I was left anx­ious to see what’s in store next!