I regret not packing an actual camera for the Fashion Freakout, but I do not regret “sardining” myself in with the masses to catch a glimpse of what Austin’s favorite vintage stores had to offer. Though some touches of the 80’s remained, each look dripped with throwbacks to the days of My So Called Life and TLC (not the learning channel). The 1990’s marched on in lace tights, worn lace-up boots, and gothic black on platform heels. Lonestar in hand, Sean O’Neal kept the mood light with hilarious emceeing giving reference to his wife’s “audible sigh” at the sight of the cowboy. I think it’s safe to say the audience was with her on that. For even better photos and additional information, check out what That Austin Girl had to say about her experience.
Despite the free-booze rumors, I’m excited to see what the ladies of Prototype Vintage design churn out this year. Combining real, local models with locally owned businesses and sexy, vintage clothing? I’m there, and you should be too.
Oh Ron Weasley, you gingered piece of British candy… Who knew you’d be sporting local graffiti in both promo shoots and live on Regis & Kelly? For those of you not in the know, Failure is the artist responsible for many of the racy screen prints meticulously pasted around Hyde Park and downtown. Most prints display an abundance of sexual fetish, deviancy, and will often feature pop culture tragedies with their eyes painted over in black reading, what else? “Failure.”
Printed locally under the craftsmanship of Madgods, I’d say that with this shirt on, this Harry Potter heartthrob is just one Lonestar tallyboy and a basket of chips away from becoming a full-fledged Austinite.
Rachel’s been absent and I’ve been posting for a bit of time to this website and only a select few of you have even noticed the change. Well, it’s about time I introduce myself. My name is Amber and I first started writing for Rachel in a little post about my experience being Yelp Elite and the takeover said website has had over this city. Recently, I was asked to model in an over-capacity night of fashion mayhem to kick off fashion week, all with the sponsorship of Yelp and Ann Kelso Salon. The gimmick was simple: use Yelp Elite members as models, hire dj’s, trapeze artists, burlesque dancers, and nab some liquor sponsors all in the name of fashion. Local boutiques jumped on, namely Feathers and Linda Asaf, and Ann Kelso went to working the magic of turning “Real People, Real Reviews” into models. I was incredibly apprehensive. I’ve had my own set of body issues in the past (haven’t we all?) and not fitting into whatever the hell is the equivalent of a 1961 size XS at the Feather’s fitting put me in a mood…
Luckily I was chosen for the Linda Asaf pieces which were gowns to be featured in the fashion segments inspired by the film Casablanca and 1970’s rock operas. So long Feathers size XS, and so long the “Factory Girl” themed pieces. I was amazed at the show that went on. Not only were multiple eras, looks, and designers put together, but also shapes, sizes, races, and genders. As the models were not handpicked genetic wonders, but rather women who loved to eat enough to gain local notoriety for restaurant reviews, the fact that we were still made to look beautiful and able to walk confidently and have fun with the show was astonishing. Here you can catch behind the scenes photos, video, and even more action from the actual show.
Austin’s Fashion Week is soon coming to a close, but fret not. There are still plenty of fun events to busy yourself with leading up to the grand finale on Sunday, The Austin Fashion Awards. This promises to be the biggest local style event since Stitch. If you want to make the awards show on Sunday, but tremble at the $43 price tag, rumor has it that if you show up with your student ID to The Long Center an hour before the show your tickets are half price. I’ll be manning the stations, hitting up every boutique along 2nd Street today with a camera ready. My top picks from today’s schedule are the Complete Clothing event from 3-9 on 8th & Brazos promising live pin-ups, Live Oak beer, and all day give-away’s. Once that’s used up I may mosey on over to Beyond Tradition to spot hot, up-coming jewelry designers while sipping on the complimentary vodka, then onwards to Cream Vintage Clothing and Urban Betty Salon for cupcakes, beer, and ‘live mannequin’ models.
Austin Fashion Week (July 13th-19th) is ready to launch with several events sure to turn “recessionista” right back into her “fashionista” self.Austin’s most stylish boutiques have suffered as people swapped chic for cheap during last year’s downturn, and shops have been forced to evolve employing new marketing strategies to stay afloat during the storm.One tactic I’ve watched spread amongst Austin’s high-price, high-fashion elite in their desperate quest for survival is this:Free Booze.
Times were tough and Austinites couldn’t afford to lose one cent from their Lonestar and Ramen budget so browsing, much less shopping, in the posh and pricey 2nd Street District area was completely out of the question. The stores caught on, they needed something more. Boutiques began offering complimentary champagne, alcohol, beer,
cupcakes, and h’ors douvres even.The idea was simple: Get shoppers in the door with the draw of $0 libations andhope they drink enough to forget their overdue credit card balances.
Having crashed one too many of these lately, and I can honestly say that I think it’s working.Shoppers that would normally be too intimidated to shop the big ticket stores sneak in to smuggle a glass and those who’d never so much as heard of or taken interest in such places also feelscompelled to go and socialize with the freeloaders.All involved become a captive audience, essentially forced to finger delicately strapped summer dresses and glittering gold earrings.
Does everyone always walk away with a shopping bag?Definitely, not.What I usually come away with when I’ve browsed a store three cocktails deep and left empty handed is a strong urge to go back.Case in point, the blue dress at Estilo I’ve tried on at least twice and will likely be succumbing to any day now (regardless of free champagne or not). These events make the stores and staffs seem approachable, fun, and almost like friends.The shopper is treated as a guest invited into a private home party instead of the usual commission-target for impatient salespeople.Having said that, raise a glass and open your wallet as I’ll be keeping you up to date on this coming week’s most stylish soirees. A comprehensive list (or two, or three) can be found here.
I often like to think of myself as respectful and in good taste when it comes to sensitive matters, but lately, I am starting to question my motives.I was recently walking down Guadalupe drinking an iced chai, about to do some retail therapy, when I heard a girl say, “Oh my god, I hate those tee shirts.They’re in such poor taste.”I turned around to see who was behind me, thinking surely she could not be referring to me.I looked around for some outstanding fashion nightmare, some poor misguided soul wearing a hilarious slogan tee shirt (you know, the guy who shows up to the party with his FBI: Female Body Inspector shirt), but none were to be found.(Well, I am not counting the nineteen UT girls running around in burnt orange tees, Soffee shorts and flip flops with Coach bags.They are excluded this time).The girl who had made the comment to her friend obviously loud enough for me to hear was looking directly at me when she said it.I stood there in shock.Was I the “in poor taste” girl?I continued walking wondering what was wrong with what I was wearing. And sure enough, I figured out what it was once I walked by a glass pane store window and caught my reflection.I was sporting my “RIP YSL” shirt, solid black with gold lettering.
This would not be the first time I had received the slack for this tee.A couple of weeks before, a drunk fashionista at an event involving free vodka had said directlyto my face how tacky she thought it was that everyone was wearing tees with “RIP YSL” or for any designer, celebrity, business mogul, etc, etc.She thought it a cheap attempt for someone to capitalize and make a quick buck on a trend resulting strictly from an iconic death.“It cheapens their legacy,” she had drunkenly slurred at me.“It makes their death seem unimportant, as if it were just another way to cash in.”I had never really thought of it as offensive or disrespectful to their memory at all. I could see why someone might think that though.And ever since then, I have questioned my favorite tee to the point of not wearing it at all.I bring this matter up right now especially because of the deaths of several well known celebrities who have played such a vital role to the fields of fashion, pop culture, music and our mainstream lifestyle.Is it distasteful to voice feelings of sorrow through what we wear?Would the surges of graphic tees coming out with images of our Pop King Michael Jackson or the glorious Farrah Fawcett be inappropriate to sport?Is it really just a sad attempt for the mass product chains to cash in on those in mourning?I am curious to know everyone’s feelings on this issue.At this point in time, with the recent tragedies that have occurred, I want to know what everyone thinks about paying homage to those who paved the way for individuality, ingenuity, and sheer genius and creativity.
How often I’m posting on the blog is a good gauge of how I’m doing in my life. Perhaps then the lack of posts will let you all know that things have been complicated and chaotic for a little while now.
I apologize.
There are lots of fashion stories happening and although I haven’t been posting them, I have been collecting them, and I’m going to begin the process of getting all this information up.
I appreciate everyone’s patience with the sudden disappearance of updates and hope you will return to find new content this week.
Ugh, I’ve been the laziest blogger lately. I should be fired. Fortunately this is a blog, so that’s not possible. Actually I’ve been ridiculously busy under a mound of SXSW content but I have to get the stuff I’m paid for out of the way before I can start getting to my personal content, so that’s why things have been a bit sparse. However, there has been fashion news this week once already that has made me stand at attention and just now a really tasty Friday tidbit just appeared in my email box that made me drop everything and blog.
Now if you have ever tried to read one of Love’s blog post before, they are about as lucid as she is and are pretty much ramblings speckled with caps lock, punctuation and misspellings. But here’s a bit I took from Love’s myspace blog on this topic (and I’m copying this verbatim..typos and all):
imnot going to deal with this issue until after my lawyer and the Austin Police deal with it, but my etsy adventures are about to end period, if it turns out as i suspect i have been stolen from on a level…
But im ussually preety chiled out MAN OH MAN AM I ANGRY!i thin it may work out and we can be “friends” again,
she has received a VAST amount of money from me over 40,000 dollars and i do not make people famous and get raped TOO! besides Etsy is great but they need to get thier admin together,i hve been asured they will they will remove her store completely so she cant icitmise anyone else,
my aassnt cals me cos etsy vendors have called her cryong fpr usingthe owrd “flapper” sje says its everyday and i dont like a BULLY and noone else in the fashion industry does either shes a geniunly nasty person so i dont kow what makinh her “fakous ” willactuaLLY DO FOR HER AT SOME POINT SHELL HAVE TO SHOW SHER FACT AND THAT BLACK CLPUD OF VAMPITIC ENERGY THAT IS AROUND PEOPLE WHO SOLD DRUGS OR WERE MOLESTED OR its that grey and biyts of black in the aura, im toomuch of aa apussy about people withthis enercy nd the thing i have GIT to learnis this UNLESS THY A HAVE SOME INSANELY BRILLIANT INFRASTRUCTURE AND THEY DONT EVER SOEAK EVER. those people NEVER MAKE IT IN THEREAL WORLD EVER>
ive beeen assured from etsy she’ll be removed and banished but its not enough , we had a dal i gave her a VAST amount of money
clothes id been collecting for 8 years and 40,000$
Um..yeeah. Cray cray much there Courtney? Seriously, I think a lobster girl after a fifth of vodka could type better than that. I hit the translate button at the bottom the myspace post and they had “Spanish” and “French” but not “Junkie” so your guess is as good as mine at figuring out just what is going on here. The post goes on for literally thousands of words and also includes a shout out to Austin photographers 666 photography.
Now, my first reaction was that Dawn shouldn’t worry and that no one can understand Cort’s drunken tripe let alone would they believe it but lo and behold I find 58 comments on that entry split about 20/80 between people wondering what the fuck she’s talking about and people totally swallowing every word.
Over at the site Chart Attack they have posted a copy of the lawsuit, filed in LA, which gives a little bit clearer picture of what’s going on here (or at least a better written one.) From what I can gather, Cort was a fan of Dawn’s and flew her out to LA to talk about designs. She gave Dawn a collection of remnants and fabrics with which to make a design (Dawn did have photos of this on her blog, which I linked to in an old post, but it appears she has now taken them down.) Dawn designed her several garments and sent her an invoice, which she claims Cort has refused to pay. Since then Cort went on a rampage apparently talking about Dawn on Twitter, myspace, Etsy feedback and more and harassing her via email and voicemail. The lawsuit literally goes on for 48 pages and includes accusations of libel, emotional distress and breach of contract. If you have an hour to spare, it’s actually quite worth the read as Cort’s statements put into a legal context are particularly hilarious.
I do pity Dawn for getting caught up in a shitstorm while just trying to pursue her fashion line, but people like Cort are dangerous to tangle with (and mind you it could all be that Dawn is in the wrong and Cort is right but….I don’t think so.)
Ho-lee-crap
So a full 24 hours have not yet passed since we learned that Austin Chronicle society/fashion columnist Stephen Moser has been jailed and charged with arson, with other possible charges pending, and details of the evening are trickling in. My favorite thus far? That he was wearing a full-length white fur coat and leather pants as he did the deed inside the parking garage of City Hall. Honestly I can hardly wrap my head around this story, it’s scandalous all around. He even mentioned the evening in his most recent column, but naturally, failed to include how his fabulous evening was capped off with a car fire.
I just picked through the affidavit for any other juicy tidbits that hadn’t been picked over by the media, but there isn’t much left and I’ve been poking about the blogosphere looking for some insider info to no avail. I’m sure there is more information to come out (not to mention some incredible video), and I strongly question why, when there was so much evidence, that it took police over a week to arrest Moser. As I’ve mention before, I work at a news station and was actually on staff in the early hours that that car fire occurred. Our reporter talked to Stephen’s roommate Nicholas Hill but he never once mentioned Stephen by name, only as his roommate which I find remarkably discreet for someone who just torched your vehicle.
I’ve made no secret that I don’t always agree with Moser’s style (both of writing and of dressing), but I’m going to keep it classy here. Stephen is a fiercely loyal man who has cultivated a strong group of friends, and I think now we’ve witnessed where the passion and ferocity goes to when it turns dark. I’m sure he has been in an enormous amount of emotional turmoil first undergoing major weight-loss surgery, then discovering he has inoperable cancer, then succumbing to violence and drug addiction and now this. I’m interested to see what the response of the Chronicle will be as the weekly paper is tied to Stephen not only in a professional sense but in a family sense (his sister Margaret is a senior editor there.)
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