Laura Wheeler Patterns

Gwen sent some photos for pattern identification.

"This quilt was given to me by a Mennonite friend, whose husband's great-aunt made this quilt…. It's an unusual pattern, one I've never seen except here in this quilt."

It's a complex design that looks to have been made in the heyday of polyester blends, the 1970s (when brown was a patchwork necessity). It is hard to identify the block but I noticed a seam in the dark brown sashing that defined a square so I drew it in EQ and here's what I saw.

It's actually a nine-patch so I looked up Nine-Patches with small center blocks in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. It was published as "Sunburst" by the company that used the name Laura Wheeler, probably in the 1930s. Their designer drafted a lot of really complex designs that rely on secondary patterning for effect. Some are so odd you rarely see them made.

Laura Wheeler is one of the names used for a needlework pattern source in New York City. Quilt pattern collectors know little about this company which was formed as Needlecraft Service in 1932. The name was changed to Reader Mail in 1944. Quilt historian Wilene Smith determined that Nathan Kogan, Max Levine and Anne Borne formed the business, but we have no idea who the actual pattern designers were.

Needlecraft's patterns appeared in dozens of newspapers in the 1930s and still run in papers today. The 1930s were the prime years for their quilt patterns and they also sold crochet, knitting, fashion and embroidery patterns. Fictional names like Carol Curtis or Alice Brooks gave a personal touch to the patterns that were neither a column nor an advertisement, but something called a "reader service feature." Readers sent a dime to a New York address at the Old Chelsea Station post office and received a full-size pattern in the mail.

The information on Laura Wheeler is from my Kansas City Star book called Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper. I drew a Block of the Month basket based on designs from important pattern sources of the thirties. Here's the block for Laura Wheeler, appliqued by debi shrader.

Ilyse Moore made the Women of Design sampler in batiks.

For more about the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns click here:
http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/Encyclopedia.asp
For more about Women of Design click here:
http://pickledish.kcstar.com/?q=node/115

Still Walking

Of course The September Issue (that infomercial about Anna Wintour and Vogue) was sold out, so Marta and I rushed across Houston St to Japanese movie Still Walking, which was not only not sold out, but sadly, almost empty. However, nothing beats the pleasure of a near empty Angelika screen on a Friday night.
I have not seen the other films by Hirokazu Koreeda, but to judge from this one, I should. Still Walking is an intimate movie about a family reunion. Its observations about family dynamics are the most true to life I have ever seen. The movie paints the entire gamut of emotional family experience with delicate yet powerful brushstrokes but it's not a sentimental film, nor an opportunity for actors to grandstand. It's Japanese, so all the strong undercurrents of emotion are held in check by equally powerful restraint (both cultural and directorial). A brother and a sister attempting families of their own go to visit their parents in Yokohama. The parents have lost a son and the family's devastation hangs heavy in the air.  You can actually feel it bearing down on your shoulders from the first frame. Anybody who has ever spent the night at the house of relatives will feel the weight of family history that this film captures so truthfully.
The parents are engulfed by their quiet, ongoing grief and the surviving children resent all the attention given to the one who is not there anymore. The movie is surprisingly mordant, touching, cruel, sad, funny: human. The mother is this wonderful woman who cooks up a storm (I so wanted to be invited to that house). She is from an older generation, which means she has been forever in the shadow of her husband the doctor, cooking and cleaning and feeding the children, but she is not a pushover, nor a saint. She is mischievous, catty and petty, prejudiced, funny, generous and cruel at the same time.  She is a marvel, and the actress who plays her is astonishing.
This movie has many emotional surprises that make the audience gasp, but they are presented with a sure, light touch, never falling into easy sentiment, never shying away from human complexity. It's a film about family, and love and duty and regret and it is stunningly beautiful.

What makes a Designer?

3 cases in point: Victoria Beckham, The Row by the Olsen twins, and Alexander Wang.

All 3 are considered designers by the press and that's supported by retail stores. The old definition of a designer has been stretched , reshaped and repackaged. 2 out of the 3 don't really fit the old mold. The definition of a designer until just a few years (3-4) ago was a creator of new ideas. That person or group of people came up with an idea, had it made or made it themselves and then showed it to stores to buy or had a runway show for the press and buyers. For the most part , these were people who passionately believed in the craft and business of fashion. Their particular take on what was new and important and missing in the market was their driving force. Then celebrities got into the game. It seemed that their credibility as stars wasn't complete without a line of clothes or cosmetics. Their stardom was considered by them synonymous with being style arbiters. That's how a Victoria Beckham could come to be.
Allspice or my favorite nickname, Pepper Spray, was a Spice Girl. She married a footballer and then started showing up at fashion shows. Her appearances were always choreographed for maximum mystery ...at least for any lens that was within a few hundred feet. Her coy, in your face, yet paparazzi phobic sort of posturing was pure bait. It seemed like anything for a picture and preferably a picture that showed her to be somehow annoyed with the attention. When that got old, like a speeding bullet, Victoria announced that she was not just an ex show girl, or model ,or the richest pro athlete's wife, but now a Designer. I should have seen it coming. What the hell, everyone and his neighbor's best friend's second cousin is.
What bugged me about this addition to her resume was that it was born overnight. One moment she's a model the next a creator. The first collection which was a sad rack of a dozen poorly made dresses, shot on a very sad faced model in front of a door, were taken seriously by the press and buyers. Why? Well because its Pepper Spray sharing her secrets to high voltage glamor. No one cared that she basically made a group of really tired dresses which were poor copies of the looks she's usually seen in with a few truly regrettable attempts at broadening the range. Then Roland Mouret is enlisted to crank it out for her. She's busy being a model , celebrity, super star's wife and mother, in that order, and needs someone with some talent and imagination to divine her vision. This to me is not a designer. This is a celebrity playing a role. In her case, poorly. When I read that she was giving up her day job as the face for Armani to devote all her energy to her fashion "House" and cosmetics line, I had to wonder. Mouret is still the head on her brainless body and important stores are lending it credibility. I've seen the clothes, they don't warrant it.
The Olsens are also unorthodox examples of the new breed of Designer. It appears that their collection The Row is a different animal altogether. The fact that it has a very broad appeal and is selling extremely well all over the country is the first sign of its success. Another difference is that they appear to be actually involved in its creation in a very hands-on way. The NY Times story on them this week showed them to be serious ,no bullshit directors of their business. So they have a team of assistant designers that do the heavy lifting. They nonetheless, are selecting the fabrics, communicating the direction and styles to be made. The detail and fit of everything seems to go through their hands and what results are some really decent clothes. They are fashion and not just remakes of things that exist everywhere with a clear richness of detail and thought. This is a celebrity cum Designer metamorphosis that works. No shows for them, their identity is kept out of the way. The Row stands on its own. It has legs and uses them effectively.Comparing them to Beckham is almost impossible to avoid. Victoria is your typical example of the tired school of thought that anyone with money, star status and a closet full of designer clothes can in turn be one. I wear it, therefore, I can design it. Well to my eye The Olsens are it.
Alexander Wang is more the actual definition of a designer, a very successful, young one. His business model is more typical of the classic one. Go to design school, which has never been a pre-requisite for anyone, drop out, intern at Teen Vogue and Marc Jacobs , have a perfect T-shirt in mind and turn it into a $20 million business in under 7 years. Presto! His angle is to make all the hip basics that models turn up in and downtown trendsters wear. T-shirts of every sort. Baby cashmere this and that. Vests and jackets and jeans and the sort of clothes that look like nothing until they're styled and shoved down a runway. His roster of retail stores is as impressive as his relationship with Anna Wintour at Vogue and any number of other fashion mags. He's the darling and that adoration has translated to big bucks. $20million? That seems a stretch. Just like Jason Wu selling $4-5 million is a huge stretch. Those calculations are almost always grossly inflated. That aside, Alexander is the designer of today. Recession proof and growing. Or is he? He certainly plugs into the young under 30 market which is huge and the very people who eat up the fake fashion reality shows, flaccid fashion blog sites, and love on line shopping. If you read news flashes about him on these blogs and then the comments, one sees how strong a following he has. They are the new customer. Not very discriminating in their tastes but quick with a credit card. More power to him. Success is hard to capture and even harder to hold.

A la Recherche Du Chien Chaud Mexicain.

This fun article in the NY Times reminded me of the best hot dog I have ever eaten.
It was out of a cart on the way to the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and it was simply known as "Los Hot Dogs del Güero".
Unless you were a student, you really had no other business going up the hills of the remote suburbs where the Ibero was lodged. El Güero was parked half way to the campus, in what I remember as a desolate stretch of treacherous road. But those hot dogs were worth the trip. The road may have been deserted but there was always a line of hungry people once you got there.
El Güero grilled his dogs. He didn't fish them out of funky, festering boiling water.
He would grill the sausage and everything else.
He'd grill the buns. He'd grill some chopped onions and tomatoes and green chilies -- a grilled pico de gallo. He'd grill slices of American cheese. He'd let the bacon sizzle in the grill. And then he would masterfully put all that into this glorious hot dog.
Mexicans are genius cooks. Period.

Axolotl!

 

Look at this cutie!

This lovely ajolote lives in Xochimilco, the Venice of Mexico City. According to the BBC it is in danger of exctinction. If they have survived Mexico City, they can survive anything. 

What's skakin' at Chez Posen?

Today's luke warm news flash is that Zac Posen is foregoing the big circus tent at Bryant Park for the more modest venue at the Altman Building. That in itself is not heart seizing. What caught my eye and made me think is that for a few months now, I've been wondering in the back of my mind, "what's up with Zac?".
The suave, debonair, chattering, self imposing, Barnumesque, self promoting child star has been curiously absent from center stage. Historically(that means in the last 3-4 years) Zac has been the junior Isaac, Hamish, even Scaasi of the glib 1-6 liner. His unending patter regarding his empire building was trumpeted to any and all within earshot. That fine art, and it is a very sought after gift ,of blowing one's horn proclaiming his territory,the world, has been curiously muted of late. His collections which have become better and stronger in recent seasons with the exception of his fascination with 40's inflected looks, which is my least favorite period,have strengthened his prospects. Of all the young designers in the game I've felt that he is one of the most promising. His oily approach to self-promotion is the most tiresome ingredient in the mix. Unfortunately, it's probably the most valuable.
As a dressmaker and designer he has a real understanding of the craft. His ability to create sophisticated , glamorous clothes is clearly evident and outshines the attempts made by many of his peers. I'd go so far as to say he leaves just about all of them in the dust.Proenza Schouler,Rodarte, Peter Som,Wang,Wu,Thakoon,Doo,and a few others have neither his skill nor eye. His popularity exceeds theirs or did until quite recently. The D.C.Bump eluded him and catapulted a number of lesser talents leaving him to tread water in their wakes. I wonder why.
With P.Diddy, or the rapper formerly known as Puff, NOT to be confused with me,Fluff.... with Diddy's 2 million dollar investment and the cavalcade of starlets and society girls, he seemed primed for the upper-tier. The fact that the money didn't come directly from Puffy, but Puffy's Big Daddy Ron Burkle of grocery store fame with a $2.5 billion mega fortune is neither here nor there. The money was Zac's with which to build his empire. With his slow fade from the public's eyes, I started to wonder if something happened. With the economic crisis, did Puffy aka Mr. Combs pull back? Did Ron Burkle tighten the purse strings on the $50million he invested in P.Diddy which may have trickled down to Zac? Did he run away with a mysterious new paramour to a distant land, tiring of his perpetual, self imposed press junket and cozy home in the Village? Anybody got a light? It's mighty dark out here.
The answer to all of those questions and the ones I'm too respectful and well-mannered to ask are probably very simple and undramatic. Zac turned up for the photo-op at the premiere of The September Issue and I just saw him on the TV spot for Fashion's Night Out, so my fears are allayed.
His decision to switch venues from the large tent at Bryant Park still seems strangely out of character. His ego is not a shrinking one but perhaps his fortunes, like too many in this business, have.
Many would be wise to save a penny or two and economize for the immediate future. If it means a smaller show, or an alternative form of presentation, one might consider it. Especially when you factor in the cost of the staging is in direct opposition to the degree of the audience's attention. Most are there just,for the hell of being seen and have precious little time to focus on what's passing before their eyes. The rest of them have little or no money to buy and what's left are a school of pilot fish. The press are probably the only invited guests who are actually watching and processing what's being shown.

But what do I know? I'm just a bald cat.

Popped in on Stella's POP-UP in EHampton's Springs

These garish neon pink flyers were all over town this week trumpeting the news: Stella McCartney was setting up a Pop-Up shop at a gallery in the deepest, most remote region of East Hamptons , known as The Springs. It's claim to fame is that it is the last unspoiled part of town,where there's still beautiful land ,woods , the bay and a large working class population. It's where we live and love the fact it's still quiet and un-spoiled. Springs is also home to the Jackson Pollock/Lee Krasner house and study center. People make regular pilgrimages there to see the house, left as it was when they livedand worked there. The Springs is considered the blue-collar hamlet of town unlike our rich relations 10 minutes away in the "Village".
So why Stella decided to open her shop way out here in the middle of nowhere is beyond me? It must be the maverick in her. There's something so Indie about her. It certainly shows in much of the clothes that hung so charmingly and unassumingly on simple racks , 2 by 2 by 2 by 2.....
The venue was the Fireplace Project, a two level cinder blocked structure filled with sculptures and odd card board cut out constructions. Some or all of the Art went right past me as did most , but not all, of the clothes. The theme was decidedly Kiddie Art. The joys of naive, grossly over-priced pieces resembling Pinatas and decorated hulla hoops dovetailed masterfully with the odd assortment of clothes, I mean "Collection". It was billed as a trunk show, so everything was full price.
I spoke with what appeared to be a Sales Associate and asked how it had gone. The local General Store was madly setting up for a party and there was 1 hour to go for the official closing. She informed me that a party was about to start to celebrate the launch of the new sunglasses collection. I congratulated her and was immediately told that is was a private and invitation only soiree, so I should move along as they had much to do. I can take a hint, so I slowed my pace and started inspecting clothes more casually than before. I brazenly started taking pictures as well.
I went back over to the Sales Associate, and pumped her for more info. Was this merchandise from the store in the city? Had they sold well? What a great thing that proceeds were being donated to The Pollock/Krasner House(very Springs PC), and how did they decide what was best for a Pop-Up in the nether regions of the Springs.
She said they basically emptied the store and brought out 2 of just about everything . I came on the last day of a 4 day run. I saw a few very cute printed and solid silk tops. Lots of skin tight Disco pants and cheesy sequined 70's tunic/t-shirts,some perforated pleather leggings/and thigh high boots in the same perforated pleather. There were 2 or 3 inspired dresses. The Chantilly lace and crepe gowns were made VERY poorly, as were a number of jackets and dresses. The quality of fabrics were also surprisingly unpleasant to the touch and constructed by assembly line hands. Half the labels said made in Italy and a lot of the rest said made in Hungary. There was a very mish mash feeling to the"Line". It felt like lots of Stuff, not like a collection. Whole groups were completely independent of the groups hanging next to them.
I couldn't help but think that The Gucci Group owned this company. Tons of money supports it and yet it looks like something made by a high volume factory out of China or Peru. Cheap wool that didn't even approach cashmere and more synthetics than natural fibers. The evening clothes were the most telling. The lace and crepe short cocktails and long gowns were constructed by hands who clearly were out of their depth. If I'd done it like that , they'd have been rejected in receiving even if they'd gotten past Quality Control. A strapless short dress(this is my BIG BONE of contention)was completely and utterly devoid of any construction for the bodice. No corset, foundation ,not one single bone was there for support. For a cool $2000. you should get a dress that doesn't require Krazy Glue to stay up. If I know this stuff, why doesn't a company like that know it?
If they brought 2 of each thing and on every rack I saw 98% of twosies crammed together and it was the last day, I would conclude that this was a vanity Pop-Up. This was PR at it's most lame that didn't please the gallery owner who was nice enough to share,"....whatever, it's the last day."
It was a gallant attempt, just ill timed and poorly placed. Perhaps the Americana Mall parking lot in Manhassett would have been more appropriate. I came, I saw, I left.
*click on the top pic, The Emperor was there.......

Back to The Eighties: Help!

photos via New York Magazine

Why?
Are fashion designers clueless, insane, cruelly perverse or all of the above? Are they aware that we are in the middle of an awful economic crisis? If so, do they think that shoulder pads and frizzy female mullets are going to do the trick? Do they think that this will bring our shopping confidence back? Yikes.

Have I told you how much I loathe Marc Jacobs?

I was mildly alarmed at the beginning of our century, when they decided to send us all back to the 70s. But compared to the 80s, the 70s are the height of good taste (but don't tell that to the Russians in Brighton Beach. They seem to be permanently stuck on the 80s).
The 80s were the most obnoxious era of conspicuous consumption (well, before the 90s and the 00s). Now we can't afford to consume anything!
Are we supposed to part with our zealously protected money in order to secure neon clothes with shoulder pads? Hell, no.
We should be harking back to the 30s, to the golden days of the Great Depression, where nobody had anything to eat but the clothes were great. Even the clothes worn by the Joads were great.

Piece and Plenty

Appliqued summer spread, signed J.H. Caspar, Pennsylvania, estimated date 1840-1860.

Piece and Plenty, by Cindy Vermillion Hamilton, Pagosa Springs, Colorado, 1999

I have an appliqued spread from Pennsylvania that is signed on the reverse J.A. Caspar (possibly J.H. Caspar or Gasper). Various flowers and fruit sprout from a basket with reverse appliqued diamonds. A swag border with strawberries frames three sides. The overdyed green has been damaged by washing, turning the green to yellow in streaks where the blue dye has bled out. Several years ago Cyndi Vermillion Hamilton borrowed the top to photograph and she came up with this interpretation, a spectacular red and green reproduction quilt. She had a good time finding a swirly batik to represent the damaged green.

You still have a few days to see an exhibit she's curated.
"Antique Quilts from the Trunk of Cindy Vermillion Hamilton" runs through September 19, 2009 at the San Juan Historical Society Museum in Pagosa Springs, CO. The museum is located at US 160 and 1st Street. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9 am to 4 pm. About 30 quilts ranging from 1840 through one of Cindy's recent works are on display.

The Rich are Poor!

Not really, but the NYT claims that a lot of rich people have lost a lot of moolah because of the crisis. It is also true that they had become obscenely, disproportionately rich, so we're not shedding tears over their losses. The numbers are sobering. The Republican policies of this country were turning the USA into a bastion of inequality worthy of the Third World. The more the rich gained, the more the poor and the middle class lost. Unbridled capitalism in action. Not a pretty sight.
So now everybody's hurt. A bit of a readjustment, a bit of a shakedown, until the rich gain ground again, as they are wont to do.
As I luxuriated in the excruciating serenity of my Tai Chi class today (as my teacher says: I'm killing your thighs!), obscuring the placid morning view of the Hudson River was a big yacht with a helicopter parked on it, several jet skis and two flat screen TVs playing even though no one was watching (this gives me heartburn). Oh. And a servant swabbing.
Everybody gaped at this gigantic toy loaded with other big toys. Males more than females, but females ogled too (wondering, I wonder, whether this humongous phallic objet belonged to a bachelor?).
Besides blocking the view, it seemed totally anachronistic, stupid and ridiculous, but there it was, asserting its superiority over the little people like a big bully.
So if the rich are getting less rich, even if this means less donations to charitable causes, less of that petty trickle down, I do feel a refreshing shower of schadenfreude. I am happy that obnoxious fashions with astronomical price tags may sit there collecting dust for a little while longer. I am happy that maybe people, even rich ones, may find a $45 entreé offensive. Or a $25 million dollar home a bit de trop. Hopefully these are humbler times.
Just so you know, I am not a communist. I believe that people who work hard and are smart and ethical with their business should reap the fruits of their labor. I love money. I want to adopt it.
But the rich in this country are coddled by the government, while the rest are not.
We need a social democracy. We need a fairer distribution of wealth. We need better education, health care, investment in the arts and sciences. This should come from our taxes, so we can all have a good standard of living. Why is this scenario so horrifying in America? We need to move on and embrace the 21st century (as we embrace Century 21, the store). We are not the fucking pilgrims any more.
I don't understand people who marvel at the inability of the rich to call it quits when it comes to amassing money. They say: "Why do they need $200 million? Why can't they be happy with $100 million, or $50 or $1o million?" It doesn't work that way. Money begets money. (Have you noticed that the rich only marry the rich?) And they should make lots of money, but they should also give lots of it away. Through taxes, through tax deductible charitable contributions, through the goodness of their hearts, for all I care.
I am hoping the age of vulgar, ostentatious consumption will subside for a while. What kills me is the vulgarity.

Vogue's Big Screen moment!

More to the point Anna's big moment.......and Grace Coddington's, too. Somehow ,I don't think that moment was supposed to have room for the 2 of them but it did. On the scale of who's moment was more momentous, it looked from the outside like Grace may have had a slight edge. With the new international scoring system it will be a while before the judges have all weighed in. The collusion of the Russian judge in the recent past is throwing all of this out of whack, but we'll get those in ASAP.
The film doesn't open until next week on the 28th, but the buzz was deafening with it's premiere the other night. For the life of me I don't know what became of my invitation. Everyone of weight (industrial weight) was there but I had to satisfy myself with a cozy spot on the side lines . It seems I'm often watching the parade and not marching . That's ok though. I have a 100 piece marching band in my head and they're ready to take to the streets at any moment.
I've been looking out for comments and critiques in the press and from informed colleagues as to the nature and thrust of the film. We all know it's the making of the Fall 2007 September Issue, weighing in at 17.5 kilos laden with 1950 ad pages and a whopping 23 editorial pages. That book was a freak of nature. You could kill a very large cat or medium sized person if you dropped it on them at the decisive moment. Say a moment when they slept or were tied down on the ground with each limb anchored to an iron spike.
Word has it that the film crew led by it 's director,RJ Cutler,followed Anna Wintour through all the stages of putting the book together. Endless editorial meetings, sittings proposals , meetings or gatherings with frightened photo editors and assistants of every stripe and plaid that resembled audiences with an dispeptic Queen. The crew was constantly trying to draw Grace Coddington, the other most powerful creator of the editorial pages...the Uber -Sittings Editor and Creative Director, but she resisted for some time. Once she gives in, the tension and drama of the whole project starts to percolate. In the end the issue is more the input of Graces than Anna's. That's neither here nor there, it sounds like it makes for a fascinating experience. The trailer shows a petulant, cold and dismissive Anna towards her staff. In private we see a very self referential and self absorbed woman who seems strangely childish. Daddy was her model and idol and she followed his rigid example. This will probably make The Devil wears Prada look like a Saturday morning cartoon. I'm very excited to get a better feel for this force of nature. Her appearance on 60 Minutes a couple of months ago was enlightening. I came away with a greater respect for her single-minded focus on her job and her dedication to the world of fashion , style and it's players. So what that the politics of the game are at times unsavory,like all the time, it was an intriguing glimpse at the woman underneath the bob.
Though her personal style is almost always dead on , there are times that her choices are less than objective. Ageism is a big issue in her world. I would go further and say that she likes to project a youthful, of the moment image. The dress she wore to the premiere was Prada(twisted irony....)but the sleeves were cut in wing fashion showing here thin arms , the skin crepey, wrinkled and armpits that had more flesh folds than the dress itself. That was not very pretty.
Accentuate the positive, and take the negative to the surgeon who erased the other negatives. Other than that she looked fabulous.
Some of the other guests were interesting in their choices of costume: Vera Wang is a true turn back the clock 60 yrs.old. Oscar and Carolina look packaged, she showing off her Hauteur and he forgetting to show his best angle for the cameras. Bea Schaeffer, Anna's daughter, chose unwisely too. Her dress is too short, too tight and makes her look too full figured. Fit is everything...She must have been at home sick the day that lesson was being taught. A beautiful Black woman is like a melody and Chanel Iman was symphonic in her loveliness. Marc Jacobs and Matteo,his betrothed looked very tanned and oily. Marc's 'manpurse', coupled with the skirt/skort and Swarovski encrusted sneakers looked iffy at best. Here is a world class designer dressing like someone begging to be noticed. Holding onto Matteo's arm only heightened that impression. All I could think was, "Why"?
There were others making the scene who were less compelling, but I have to say that Jason Wu looked a bit odd with a model as his date, twice his height and wearing a mini cocktail number that's just as poorly thought out as his Inaugural offering. He should take more time in his choice of outfit and height of date. Zac Posen seemed ok flying solo, even if he was wearing high -heeled boots , a la Tom Jones and an embellished jacket that appeared to have come from Hamish Bowles' sample sale. He certainly is one handsome man, and charming!
What's most important is that we get to see the movie of the summer! The "Jaws" of 2009.

Paletón Corona: The Metaphysical Saga Continues

Thanks, oh thanks to Anonymous for alerting me to the existence of The Candy Wrapper Museum in the wonderful world wide web.
Did you know that when I was in junior high, my friend Naty and I covered an entire blackboard with candy wrappers we collected from our classmates? It was all American candy wrappers and it was a beautiful collage. We thought it belonged at MoMa. So I'm very happy that a museum of candy wrappers exists. It is of aesthetic, cultural and ontological importance (whatever this means).
It is in this hallowed space that I was able to find the picture of my childhood that led to philosophical and metaphysical inquiry at a tender age and that now has been replaced by the banality of evil (aka marketing).
Take a look:


See? Me, a child holding a paletón that has a child holding a paletón that has a child holding a paletón... you get the picture. One of my super smart readers explained that this is called it the Droste Effect; you guessed it, thanks to another illustrious chocolate, Droste Cocoa, from Holland.

A nun and a nun and a nun (or is it a nurse?). Leave it to the Dutch to be slightly more perverse than the Mexicans. And there is a nun in the cup too! My brain is exploding.
EXCEPT, that if you think about it, not everybody is a nun or a nurse, but absolutely everybody has been a child, which makes the Paletón Corona a much more effective portal into metaphysical exploration. For my whole thing with the paletón was, "Am I just a girl trapped in a bigger paletón, which is in itself trapped in an even bigger paletón?"
You can't think this with a nun. Or a nurse.
Without having any awareness of the existence of the Droste Effect, but no doubt perfectly acquainted with the fluffy, chewy glories of the Paletón Corona, my friend Rubén had, also in junior high, a name for this phenomenon. He used to call it "La Teoría de los Weyayosh". The Theory of The Weyayoshes. Clearly, Ruben was ahead of his time.
And now take a look at this and tell me this is not devastatingly stupid and tragic:

A void, where wonder and curiosity used to thrive.

Bye Bye Cable

The unthinkable has happened. I got rid of Cable TV. I was tired of spending almost 2oo bucks on nothing. I barely watch TV and what I watch (Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert) I can see on internet. So I disconnected myself from cable and now the TV is this huge wounded, blind eye. So far, so good. I may bring back Netflix.

Rodarte does Down Market

News flash. The girls have grabbed the greasy brass ring. Bravo! Target has signed the award winning pair to design a line for the store. Supposedly it is the largest number of styles the store has done with any of it's previous designers to date: 55-60 styles. So the queens of the staples, wires and glue gun have cobbled their way to the big time. The first press pics of it's debut showed up today and they were mind blowing!!!!!
I don't use that description lightly....Mind blowing, trans formative, otherworldly, unrecognizable and totally disconnected to anything you've seen coming from them. Granted , I saw a handful of styles but they had absolutely NO CONNECTION with the aesthetic of anything they've done before. If it didn't say Rodarte, one would be hard pressed to know who designed it. A cute cocktail dress a la de la Renta, a Gap-ish jacket over a layered tulle dress with big, bad, butch boots and then an unappetizing little cocktail, cum slip dress that looked like Stella McCartney on a semi good day, which for me is a misnomer... I'm still waiting for Stella to have a good day.
One must applaud their savvy to hook their raft onto a steam ship while the tide is low. For my money I'd say theyhave run aground , but hey, get it while you can if it's there to get. God knows the food chain is pretty sparse .
My confusion is that the Mulleavy sisters have been so adamantly "Indie", with clothes that are unlike most in the marketplace, staying away from the fray in sunny California and then suddenly going super mainstream with clothes that appear to have little or no relationship to what they are known for. I won't presume that the larger United States are unaware of their presence in popular fashion, but let's face it...they are at best,very"Insidery" and an acquired taste. What is Target thinking to choose such specifically marginal designers. That is not a value judgement but a practical business question. Vera Wang is several steps out on the retail gang plank Kohl's. She's been reasonably successful, having maintained a semblance of her look, such as it is. This Rodarte for Target looks like an exercise in design schizophrenia. Why be such Purists and then turn around and pump derivative clothes? Clothes derived from other company's formulae with a label that barely resonates beyond the fashion centers of this country and those of a handful of others.This is not to say the clothes look bad, they don't. The quality looks good from where I'm sitting.
Nevertheless, I hope it brings them financial rewards and a larger , broader audience. They are hardworking talented designers. The customer at Target is a tough Mistress, even when the price is right. Will a move in this direction make them bigger fish in a smaller pond or will the water just become muddy and murkier for everyone involved?

The Vendy Awards

There are culinary awards for our proliferating food vending trucks in NYC.
I have only tried the huaraches at Red Hook. But now that I know, I'll make sure to try the rest.

I also nominate:
• Van Leuuwen Ice Cream truck. Daytime: Greene and Spring St. Best Ice Cream in NY. Period.
• The Dessert Truck. Nighttime: Third Ave and 8th St.

Obama Caves In

I am disgusted.

The Good, and Bad of the Sale rack.

Fall is around the corner. All the most interesting clothes , shoes and accessories of the year are about to appear in all the stores , everywhere. It's like the best drugs for the biggest junkies.... But unlike typical junkie mentality which is the sooner the score the faster to rush. This Recession has changed the scoring habits of Fashion fiends. Instead of the race to the racks , people are hanging back, white knuckling it, teeth grinding (what I refer to as jaw boning), even a bit of profuse sweating while waiting for the stores to break down and put the "stuff" on SALE. It's what we've come to expect. When you want it but no longer have the money to pay retail or don't want to spend money you may have, we no longer shop the old fashioned way.
There's a paradigm shift in the way the business of fashion is conducted. I've waited so long to use a big word:Paradigm. There's one small problem with this shift: it has taken the concept of Business and is pushing it towards extinction. The good thing is that you get something that otherwise would be out of reach. The bad thing is that it is putting designers and stores steadily out of business. A catch 22 is the result.
Some of you may be aware that Anna Wintour is attempting a moratorium on SALES. At the risk of a hairless cat suddenly sporting an Afro, I have to agree with her to a certain degree. The dealers are losing money and the suppliers are in turn going under with the end result being that one day soon there won't be any "stuff" available to buy; sale or no sale.The idea of Business the world over will go the way of the dinosaurs . Something has got to give, and yet there are no easy answers.
A small group of Fortunates still heavy with disposable incomes can pre-order and grab the goodies the moment they hit the selling floor. The rest of us wait. The salespeople live off commissions and are so desperate they'll put stuff aside for customers for when the mark downs begin. Meanwhile, the designers see their clothes go on sale 3 weeks after they've been shipped. It's instant charge back time. They, the designers, watch their payday turn into crumbs. The stores begin asking for discounts before the designer has even gotten paid.
When you're small you live from each piece you deliver .You pay for the fabric, the cost of production and watch your investment evaporate.
Are you following where I'm going with this?
Saks, Neiman's, Nordstrom's ,Barneys, and almost every specialty store in the country is bleeding. The same goes for almost every design company not buffeted with a perfume, secondary line or fantastic licensing deal in the Far East. That means everyone out there who's not a Donna, Calvin ,Ralph, Marc, Michael or Carolina, to name a few major players in this country, are living from check to check. If we want them to survive we need to try something risky. We need to buy something before it goes on sale. Anything. We need to grit our teeth, save up a little money and invest it in something ,it could be one thing. But we need to buy it . This is how we can ban together and shift the Paradigm to a new spot. Not the old one, or the present one but to a new place.
It's not an easy simple solution, but this business is in terrible trouble. Every species of it is in danger of extinction. We can take small steps to save it. In doing so we can slowly change the way we've gotten the things that give us pleasure. The food that feeds our sense of ourselves can still be ours, only this way everyone in the mix has a shot at a tomorrow. I know it sounds idealistic an impractical, even foolish. I just can't think of a better way. Whether it's KMart or Bergdorf Goodman the game is the same. Let's play!

Style....addendum.

I am troubled that my last post suggests that style is the domain of the rich. That really was not my intent. Style has never been a matter of money or proximity to a fashionable neighborhood. It's a personal understanding of exactly who you are, what makes you feel and look good, in that order. It could be anything. Play clothes are as valid as the most formal attire. My point was that this place touts itself as being on the cutting edge of Fabulosity , and it ain't. So I want to leave you with a picture that best displays imagination, style and inventiveness:Hamptons' Style! Bon Appetit!

When style goes out of fashion

I've been taking it easy out here in the land of good and plenty. Good in the sense of there being a lovely landscape and beautiful ocean. Plenty , because there's too much of everything to excite the senses. It's too much of the same wherever you look. The best way to describe the "scene" in East Hampton and the surrounding villages are they are one huge Ghetto. The rich, the would be rich, the has been rich and the ones who hope to appear reach,let's not forget the pilot fish of the rich and then the regular hard working middle class and poor are all crammed together out here. The ghetto aspect applies particularly to the wealthy .
One might assume that one's means are a means to an end. That end often means a fabulous ,way over the top home, nice wheels, membership to the right country club and a guaranteed table at Nick and Toni's. It also could mean that elusive gene, Style. In my naive mind , I figured that the 2 should go together, considering the proximity to NYC and all things informed and fabulous. Even with the Euro element that has migrated , one would think a bit of savoire faire my seep into the ground water. Well after years and years of studying the habits of the inhabitants in their increasing numbers, I've concluded that this once amazing enclave has altered its face and now is by definition a ghetto. I don't know about you, but any sort of ghetto, be it underprivileged or way over, is not a pleasant environment.
Main Street is a sea of pushy , ill mannered men , women,children,nannies and lapdogs. Everyone acts as though the side walk is their personal property. The excess in luxury designer shops directly mirrors the foot traffic. Even though you have 16 Ralph Lauren shops, Tiffany's,
Hermes, Gucci and a 1000 more which aspire to the same grandeur, no one seems to have any style. What happened to style? Was it in the one steamer trunk they forgot to load into the truck when they moved out for the summer?
The guys have forgotten how to tuck a shirt into pants. It's just not done. The women , no matter their age or body type wear cotton jersey strapless tube dresses day and night. No support, unflattering, often way too short and in the end cheap. A gauzy , quasi- indian tunic with cheesy embroidery is an alternative with short shorts or capri pants, but that's it on the wardrobe effort.
Hair is a non issue.....it's bleached, broken and burned. Shoes are flip flops or towering platforms of one sort or another. Ballet slippers are the in between option. Still it's a sea of sameness. Ghetto mentality in habits, dress, and behavior.
Some of you may think this is an off assessment or just a snotty smack, but it's depressing to go into town and feel in 5 minutes you can neither breathe or move. Well that's the HamptonEffect.
Is it a luxury problem not worth complaining about? Sure. But when you have an interest in style and you see that it is absent and in it's place is conspicuous consumption of high and low merchandise that is indistinguishable and everyone looks dull and duller, then it becomes something more than just a luxury problem . There's no longer respect or regard for each other . It's not considered or considered cool. It's vulgar attitudes, showing off and way too much passing on the right.
Style used to be valued and cultivated. Now it's just out of fashion.

Boycott Glenn Beck

I'm happy to hear that a campaign aimed at advertisers to make them pull their ads off the Glenn Beck Show is working. Somebody sent it to me via facebook and I signed the petition. Apparently, so far P&G, Sargento Cheese, Geico and Men's Wearhouse have pulled their ads. It's unfortunate that the audience needs to apply pressure on these marketers, who should know better than to spend money supporting a bigot, a hatemonger, and an insufferable, moronic windbag.
The African American organization who called for the boycott is called The Color of Change but you don't have to be Black, (and I'm sure many of those who signed are of every color in the human rainbow), to express your outrage at this idiot.
Yes, freedom of expression, yes. But we need to bring back the level of discourse to something that is not regressive, offensive and dangerous. Comparing Obama to the Nazis? It's so absurd, it's nauseating. It's worse: it's calculated, pre-emptive spin, since the Nazis have far more in common with the right wing nutjobs than with anybody in the Democratic party, much less Barack Obama.
But this is how propaganda works and it has done way too much damage in recent human history to give it a free pass. We are in the 21st Century. Those who don't like it should shut up and put up.
All the craziness about the health care debate, about this is not my America, about Sarah Palin's death panels, is nothing but unmitigated racism. Interestingly, the worms are coming out of the woodwork and America gets to show its ugly, ugly face once more. It is up to us, decent people of whatever political persuasion, to fight this kind of rhetoric.
Luckily, we have Stephen Colbert setting things straight in his very own way.

Lazy Chilaquiles

To celebrate our national soccer victory (you'd think we won World War III), here's my recipe for super lazy chilaquiles. I tend to be a purist about Mexican food, particularly when I don't have to cook it myself. Mexican food is awesome precisely because it's labor intensive. If we were to do this from scratch, it would probably take two days. So here's this shortcut and may the goddess Coatlicue have mercy on me:

(You have to figure out the quantities. These are lazy for a reason).

• Santitas salted tortilla chips, about 1/4 of a bag.
• About 3/4 jar of Frontera cilantro/jalapeño cooking salsa.
(Truth is, this is what I had around at home. All the Frontera salsas are great. You can use whichever you like, depending on your tolerance for spice).
• Grated Monterey Jack cheese
• Optional: some thinly slivered onion and a dollop of creme fraiche or crema. Please, no sour cream.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

In a lightly oiled small pyrex dish (like for lasagna) put a layer of chips, pour some salsa over them and sprinkle some grated cheese.
Repeat for a second layer.
Stick in the oven.
When the cheese on top starts melting, take out of the oven (careful: super hot pyrex) and mix well with a fork.
Grate some more cheese on top.
Put back in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is totally melted and the chips are softened. Take out. Top with onion and cream if you wish.
Enjoy!

Pimpernel

This may be my favorite William Morris pattern, Pimpernel, ever since my sister wallpapered her stairway in it twenty years ago. I am luxuriating in having yards of reproduction fabric in three colorways from The Morris Workshop line.

"Pimpernel" is the name that the Morris workshop gave to their wallpaper in 1876. A pimpernel is a flower. Anagallis arvensis is an English plant that seems actually to be considered a weed. I always thought the flower in the wallpaper looked like a tulip since I had no idea what a pimpernel was. I did some quick and dirty research, brought up some pimpernel photographs on the web, and now I realize the pimpernels are the background flowers. Those are tulips with pimpernels creeping around behind them.

An English gardener has a blog with a photo that shows how they grow in the garden as they do in the Morris pattern.

http://oxfordgarden.blogspot.com/2008/07/elusive-scarlet-pimpernel.html

All I know about pimpernels is a melodramatic 1930s movie called The Scarlet Pimpernel, which used to be on Million Dollar Movies in the afternoon when I was in grade school. I see it was drawn from a play by Baroness Emmuska Orczy about the French revolution. The hero, sort of like Zorro, assumed a mysterious identity to aid the suffering.

The reason I bring this all up, aside from an enjoyment of the word pimpernel, is that I had intended in The Morris Workshop fabric to include the designer's name and the date and name of the design on the selvage of each piece, but we ran out of room. People might like that information so I made a PDF and linked it to my website. You can download a sheet with an index to each print. Click here to download that file.

http://www.siputflash.com/Morrisworkshop.pdf

Healthcare Mishegoss

It is very disheartening to see where the healthcare debate is going in this country.
What a bunch of losers Americans are. We have a chance to have a decent health system that protects most people and instead we got morons like Sarah Palin talking about death panels and people going to blows in stupid town hall meetings.
But Obama and the Democrats have not been able to communicate clearly what is this mishmash of a plan they are proposing.
Obama wants to have it both ways. It's called a "uniquely American" plan. In other words, a mess. A mess of conflicting interests, a mess of unnecessary pandering. If I was the President and I had a Democratic majority, I would pass single payer legislation, raise taxes and fuck everyone.
We are the laughingstock of the industrialized world. Ask a French citizen or a Brit or a Canadian how much they hate their healthcare. They may kvetch, but they don't have to pay one cent. And if they want extra care, they can pay for it.
This nation is so divided on everything, I wonder why we keep up the pretense. Let's split up into blue nation and red nation and live happily ever after.

Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon. Hand appliqued and hand quilted by Bobbi Finley, San Jose, California, 1998-2001. 72 1/2" square.

On the masthead here you'll see the new cover of my reprinted Encyclopedia of Applique. I published the first edition in 1993 and it's been out of print for years. It was in such demand that used copies were bringing over $100, so C&T Publishing decided we'd republish it. It should be in quilt shops this week.

The new edition has the same index to 2,000 applique designs but with a new cover, more color, an updated history of applique and five projects. Bobbi's Rose of Sharon is one of the how-to projects (scallop and everything).

The striking color on this quilt was inspired by the flowers we call Rose of Sharon in my part of the world. These hardy hibiscus are in bloom right now, cheering up our sun-scorched August gardens. Bobbi says her idea of a Rose of Sharon is not the red and green of traditional applique but purple and yellow like the flowers outside her kitchen window.

Buff and Blue

EBay, like the rest of the economy, has been suffering from some deflation. It's encouraging (I think!) to see a quilt bid up to astronomical heights. I got a note yesterday that eBay is sorry I didn't win this album quilt for $3,349. I'm not sorry as I like to spend about $60 for a quilt.

It is a great quilt, over 100 inches square, possibly from the 1840s, sold by the eBay quilt dealer French Antiques. It is full of fondue or rainbow prints in the blue and buff color combination produced by Prussian blue dye. These large-scale stripes and plaids were quite popular for women's dresses in the 1840s and '50s. Dyers loved the palette because both shades came from the same dyestuff. The blues could be quite bright shaded to dull and the browns from rich caramel color to a light tan (buff).

In reading 18th-century English history I find there is political meaning as well as fashion sensibility to buff and blue. Those were the colors of the American revolutionary war uniform. The Whig party in England, opposed to King George III, also wore the color combination. The fabulous Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire and her friend Frances Crewe wore buff and blue in electioneering for the Whigs, an activity that caused this cartoon backlash depicting Georgiana as trading kisses for votes. Mrs. Crewe, wearing buff and blue on the left, made a famous toast to the Whig politicians in 1784:"Buff and blue and all of you."

This quilt is fifty years later but the print's palette remained known by the alliterative name of Buff and Blue. So for those who bid on this quilt---a toast: "Buff and blue and all of you."

Krugman Says it Better

So here it is.
Read it and weep.

Department of Unfathomable Idiocy

I got some sort of moronic prophecy yesterday via email (that's how we get them nowadays, together with asinine chain letters and Nigerian scams) in which, supposedly, the biblical book of Ezekiah foresees the destruction of Israel by a "black prince".
Now, some enterprising religious imbecile put it upon himself to find the Hebrew letters that spell Obama scattered through the text, totally at random. You can do the same and find the letters for "Burger King" or "Borscht" or "Mogo in the Gogogo" or whatever combination you desire. This is nothing but the most insidious, retarded, irresponsible fear and hate mongering.
Jews should know better than to do these kinds of things. For those with a short memory, let me remind you that it is precisely this kind of defamatory drivel that fanned antisemitism for centuries. Shame on you.
And why? Because Obama is demanding a freeze on settlements? Or because he's Black and has an Arab middle name? Or because it is always good business to keep the gullible pissing in their pants?
What angers me most is that the very selfsame Jews who consider the Bible sacred and untouchable and literal, are the ones who are quick to turn it into a cheap source of supersitious mumbo jumbo.
Beware of the holier than thou: they are the greatest scammers on Earth.
I have a picture of this thing, but I will not post it because that would defeat the purpose. This stuff should not be scattered around. It should be condemned and abhorred, if only for how transparently manipulative, evil and stupid it is.

They Are Closing Hutto!

I wrote about this disgraceful prison for illegal immigrant detainees (and their children), after reading an alarming article in the New Yorker.
Apparently, the Obama administration is going to "reform" and make "more civil" the detention centers for illegal immigrants. I find it interesting that these news appeared exactly two days after the NY Times claimed that the Obama administration is continuing the inhumane policies of Bush's persecution of illegals. Things that make you go hhhmmm...
This is one case in which public outcry can bring about changes in policy and I feel like screaming hurray!, but I am wary of the Obama administration's claims of reform. Lately, they seem to be applying this word too liberally to stuff that isn't really changing all that much. Like health care, for example. Or torture. In Hutto's case I was exultant, until I read that they are going to transform it into a detention center for illegal female immigrants. Hutto was conceived as a maximum security prison, and the premises are not fit for the detainees, who are not dangerous criminals.
Still, it looks like we should count our blessings with this administration.
It's not change; it's change, kind of.

Department of Newfangled Etiquette

In Brazil, where they have always been progressive about the human body (behold their beachwear) , if not about anything else, there is an ad campaign encouraging people to pee in the shower in order to conserve water.
I have always found peeing in the shower a little gross, but leave it to the British to come up with very sensible rules in case you are feeling virtuous and want to do your part for the environment as you bathe.

Influence Peddling

Fashion is a sport with fixed betting. It's not for light weights and certainly not for the naive. High stakes Fashion tends to be played by it's own rules with weighted dice. Very little happens by chance. Almost never does someone come from the Port of Authority with a Singer sewing machine and a dream and end up as Creative Director of Liz Claiborne. It doesn't happen.
What is more, one doesn't necessarily end up winning CFDA Awards without the consensus of a committee, let's say the leaders of the organization, and to some degree the membership. But there are surely outside forces up the street and around the corner that play an important , if not a silent role in all of this. It ain't Lotto. Being In it to win it is an oversimplification. Having a company ,constitutes "IN IT". But, there's "In It" and and just in it. Design ability or talent, let alone sales in the market place aren't necessarily deciding factors. This is where it all becomes rather murky. Clearly, night vision glasses are an accessory necessary to find ones way.
Peddling is not easy in 5" Laboutins , but with the help of a darkened windowed Escalade , one can teeter around without much problem. Sitting comfortably behind ones desk and holding audiences with the constituents is certainly even easier. Influential editors placing designers in key positions of large, and important companies has become the new substitute for headhunting. Head hunters per se are a thing of the past. For lower level positions they have their hands full , but for big game hunting , they pretty much stay at the campsite. The major players come to the most influential magazine editor(s) for direction. They need to be editorialized and touted and appreciated by these magazines. They want to pump huge advertising budgets into said magazines so these editorial pages are guaranteed, so they ask the the big game headhunter who they should hire. There is a list of malleable favorites. Malleable , meaning designers who will answer to the editor's whims as well as the demands of their employers. In this way everyone is happy. I can't imagine as Creative Director of an international brand having to take direction from a magazine as to what should be in or not in the collection I'm about to show, but that's the price of stardom. That's akin to guzzling fish oil.
It's all very neat. The press love a love match and the magazine has satisfied it's appetite for control. Control is the operative word.
To list these love matches is tedious and unproductive, but when you see odd marriages fall to bits, you have to ask yourself what went wrong? Companies make silly choices or they make hasty mistakes. An Isabel Toledo was a pretty clever choice for Anne Klein and yet someone pulled the plug before the lights were turned on. That was a boo boo. But Todd Oldham for Old Navy,Patrick Robinson for Anne Klein and to a degree for Gap is a bit iffy, and Lars Nillson for his last 3 positions were all examples of companies buying the Kool-Aid by the keg.
It's great to have your number called. It's a designer's dream , but too often these are capricious choices with little basis in sound business management. Fashion is a business and one that should operate as one.How about the best person for the job and not the pet who pleases the Wizardess of Oz.
This shouldn't be a fixed dog race.