mini etsy

...just figured out this mini etsy thing...

making more waves and catching them

Since the very high temperature days (hitting over 100 F) have finally arrived I want to get back to the surfing theme as it is what I am thinking about in my - although thankfully air conditioned - crib while filling tons of orders and coming up with cool new designs, print combinations that is, but more about this on a later note... In case you wondered: yes, sewing machines do heat up a room, very much so. I am talking about home machines and industrial's....uuufhh!

As I have given away in a post before this one, I am a huge surf fan and I truly shiver when I watch movies like 1964's "Endless Summer", 1967's "Mondo Mod", 1970's "Pacific Vibrations" and so many more! It's similar with break dancing, it's something that's fascinating. I am a huge fish too - like LOVE the water - especially the ocean's salty kind, but any swimming pool with chlorine will do, of course...

...a fish, yeah!

... and posing in an idil vice bikini...

...posing with surf board on Margarita Island in Venezuela.

...these are Venezuelan surfers...

I never learned surfing though... heck, I grew up in the mountains with no ocean in sight for miles and miles... so I picked up all kinds of sports but the one that comes closest to the experience of surf is break dancing for me: The speed, the challenge, the unquestionable importance of athletisism and the seamingly lightness of being that comes with that and the fun! Oh boy!

...me doin' the breaks!

Then there is diving. The one experience I think everyone should have in their lifetime!! Come on, are you just going to accept that you have not seen the details of one of the biggest parts of this world?? It's truly inspiring and just seemingly out of this world. All you have to do is get persuaded (think I went down there without a hint of fear: this ain't gonna happen!?) No, it's tricky and one needs to be persuaded, but it's well worth it, probably the most incredible experience of my life.

...me about to hit the bottom of the ocean in Thailand :-0
one day I will retire there...

All these sports have inspired my collections and still do, a given, as I name life itself as one of my biggest inspiration for my clothing.


And so I am collecting all things surf and here are a few of my favorite surf postcards....

making waves

photo: joe curren

Fitting, considering the various exotic vacations we New Yorkers are going to enjoy this Summer - I am kidding, of course, as this year we're all staying home and grumping about what the weak dollar has done to us, as we can't even afford to visit family in our hometowns in Europe, not to mention, join them and share the Sicily vacation villa - damn it! But, again: Fitting, in a sarcastic kind of way, was the show at Soho Grand on one of the recent warm evenings.

I've been a long time admirer of all things surfing - hey are you kidding me? I am such a fan and I am already prepared for the question, which undoubtedly will come one day where I am asked what my regrets are: Never to have properly learned to surf and catch the waves!!

My goody, and it seams that Chris Gentile and Joe Curren who both contributed photographs to the accompaigning exhibition "Cut/Break,", hosted by Stella Schnabel, which screened short films by Richard Kenvin, Britton Caillouette and Jakob Daschek, are thinking the exact same thing - are on the same wave length, I mean.

At the moment I am not able to bid on any of the great works of art despite that they were really cool! For now I am just happy to stick with my collection of surf patches on my jean jacket....

... and there was an impressive, fashionable crowd in the lounge yard of the Soho Hotel Institution, which I enjoyed...

...paparazzi...

...smoking beauty...

...posing beauty...

...wow, zac posen??...

...english paparazzi photographer...

...young and preppy...

...more posing, later at night...

...serious bling...

... bling...

... bling...

... click!




all photographs courtesy of carl posey

mine are prescription glasses

I am clueless how, out of the blue, there is a whole new generation of near sighted individuals, in NYC at least. And they do favor the old movie star 1950's type bold frame my dad was wearing until around after the time I was born. But do they all contain prescription lenses like mine? As I dared to mention there may be a new generation perhaps...? We should check the water supply from Upstate New York....

These are my new glasses with transition prescription lenses.

So yes, I have been wearing glasses since I can remember, really. Styles offered at the shops change with the seasons and trends. From the perspective of a fashion designer glasses can be a welcomed style element, permitted they are in fashion at the time, or they can pose a challenge when they are not necessarily. Well right now you better be nearsighted or you've got to fake it!

When the 80's come back, outrageous glasses are not far and so when the trend started a few years back, I think Kanye West brought that frame back to the masses. Kinda ridiculous if you ask me. But Kanye ALMOST gets away with it. Emphasis on the ALMOST.

But guys! It does NOT mean YOU should WEAR them on the street!! Yes they come in all shades of color but they do look ridiculous and they do not protect you from any harmful rays.... so let's stop this already!



Go to a great glasses shop like Selima Optique NY, who has several shops across town and features really cool one of a kinds and vintage frames that are really the thing to be wearing during this trend of larger frames, which I think IS cool.

So I just wanted to share my opinion and my new frames, which I will still be changing up with all my other frames, depending on what I will be wearing any given day.
And lucky me: I never threw away my dad's old original frame he was wearing in the 50's, (never get rid of quality frames!!!) so I am right on target with these too!

me in my dad's old frames from the 50's/60's

If you are still looking for some of these frames and are not the flea market, thrift stores browsing type, check out the 90 year old NY institution Moscot on 14th street in Manhattan, they got them all brand new!