opening ceremony

... all photographs by carl posey...

Na, I'm not talking about the Olympics. For the ones who are out of touch: Opening Ceremony is an immensely trendy shop/showroom in Downtown Manhattan which only takes from the Olympics (founded by Baron Pierre de Coubertinhe in 1896, who transformed what the Greeks had created into a modern day business venture) the guise of creatively merging sports, business, and global participation and applies these elements towards fashion.

Opening Ceremony - created by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon - currently features an array of international established and young designers. Collaborative design has also been a key aspect of Opening Ceremony’s retail philosophy.

...carol lim and humberto leon flanked by the olson twins at a recent oc opening in tokio...

As part of their unique concept they just added the Betsey Johnson Archive Collection, a line of clothing curated from the designers 30 year career span, carrying the original woven label. You can go right back to the 80's, with zipper clothing and raggy coats!

So, alright, so what's up??! Well, besides that this shop carries some really cool fashion, it has become a sort of save haven for alternative punks, which - if you haven't been in NYC for a while - are becoming an endangered species. The real estate boom - and collapse - has driven out cool New Yorkers in droves in recent years while the look and feel of the city has become more bohemian. So OC is a rare little island of creativity in the midst of our fast city.

...mini skirts and tights at the fashion night out event at oc...


...studded pockets...


...comme des garcon shirt...

Clearly one of the must-visit shops on every body's list that "Fashion Night Out" event during Fashion Week, was Opening Ceremony. Lines and lines of people trying to get a glimpse of cool in the shop. Many were disappointed and never even got close...

...the line outside...

For an exclusive unpolished look into the coolest things happening you can count on me though. Here's what went on inside as seen by photographer Carl Posey:

...jimmy from "band of outsiders" looking cute as a button like alain delon!!

...posing with erin wasson after a few cans of beer...


...posing in my jimi hendrix fringed tunic kaftan dress...

All photos courtesy of Carl Posey. What would I do without Carl? Would this blog exist? Or would it be as nice? You betcha not!

You expected bathroom pictures? FYI: the bathroom at Opening Ceremony is the tiniest ever and has no mirror.

what I am wearing right now

You probably guessed that I would not give in to the rule to ditch white after Labor Day. It's fine, I'm not mad at you. Of course I wear it. I actually get a kick out of doing it. Yeap, there's some rebellion left in me honey, if that's what you call such an action. These are my new shoes, right in time for LD ;-)





And I wear these kicks with my Mr. Spock Pencil Peplum Skirt and some black tights:

...and this is the back:

This 80's style, high waisted skirt has a long sexy slit in the back, but don't get fooled, it is dangerously comfortable, being made from a soft all cotton French terry sweatshirt fabric!

...nicky hilton wearing the mr. spock skirt...

back to the 80's again?

The week is over and what remains is a lot of impressions. Our sales meetings went well and I am looking forward to a pretty good season ahead. During the shows, good design won the votes and I basically liked everything that was optimistic!

There were a lot of vintage looks on the runways, 80's especially (just have a look at Marc Jacobs collection, or Michael Kors's), the big shoulders, punk hairstyles, club wear, day-glow colors, asymmetrical cuts, etc. The regular Joe's on the street were mostly dressed in decent shades of grey..??! What a contrast! A disconnect maybe?

I thought these 2 bystanders went into the prognosed direction and had a pretty authentic style:



And here a very last impression from the tents...


...see you in 6 months!

damien hirst got punk'd

Yes, we all don't want punk to be dead and we all wish a time as true to itself as this, will come back soon as we could use a fresh and free movement that has no boundaries, but here's the awful truth my dear readers, you can't fake the real thing, I mean it undermines the whole point of the punk movement NOT to be fake and NOT to be commercial.

So here is this tale I have been hearing about fake punk gear, supposedly from Sex + Seditionaries, the boutique founded by McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, circulating the art market.


I can't help but NOT feel sorry for the dumbish museums and galeries as well as Damien Hirst, who went ahead and bought that fake stuff up for about $200'000.- on the internet. As if someone actually owning the genuine items would get rid of them...?!

Someone greedy with an eye and knowledge of the real thing, created distressed punk clothes and put it on the market. An asshole yes, but the ones that bought it even more. This example is a sign of the time and really shows that punk IS dead, as at this rate it cannot come back even if it wanted. Thanks to dummsies like these...

So let me finish the story, Damien was planning to put the collection on display until Mclaren declared the bounty to be fakes. Thanks goodness, Malcom! Thanks for saving us a punk exhibition, which would have undoubteldly been hard to take in it's commercialism.

Damien you're a punk, but not a geniune one! You miss the point and you put shame on our generation (aren't you one of the most successful artists of our time?) as you wanted to sell us out by exhibiting clothes from a subversive movement a few decades ago that garnered such high prices! Shame on you!

Punk still exists in it's pure form, yes, sometimes it still lives in a personality here and there, but only in a few places, genuine relics? Mostly right at home of a punk, at his home in the cellar.


I for once took a picture of my original (and originally distressed by actually wearing it) The Damned shirt, and I won't sell it to you Damien.

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!

idil vice vintage

Hi! I was thinking about how great it is to have the opportunity to have a blog and upload whatever we want and write about what inspires us - or not - and basically in a few years have this great archive of thoughts and images about what is our passion!
And, most importantly: The whole wide world can access it and indulge, which is a far cry from the old paperback diary we used fill back in the day.

I have been in the fashion business for more than a decade now and was just reminiscing about what my blog would look like today, if I'd started it in 1994....

Well, therefore I though it was necessary to have a look back, especially since I do see many of the early 1990's trends come back with a vengeance. The whole 80's thing, (as put together by stylist Richard Shoyemi or worn by Rapper NiYi) with all the deglo colors and the "technoy" accessories? Been there done that - but I don't mean this to sound cocky or bitter - not at all - as life goes on, we realize: everything always, all the time, rotates and, although reinvented and hopefully updated, it all comes right back around, every time!

It's just like history, it repeats itself, and sometimes even the saying: "We will never learn" resonates factual in fashion... and another thing is true: Never throw away a good piece of vintage. It will be back in fashion.

Anyway, enough preaching! I won't bother you with everything at once, but will throw a few pieces in here and there and date them. After all I need to catch up with my lost years in blogging!

Disney's Aladdin spandex gold printed strap dress Idil Vice 1995.

It's me rapping (New York, NY big city of my dreams/The Message
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five) on stage at
Kaufleuten in Zurich, 1995.

....and here some more outfits from this show dated 1995...








...o.k. 'nough said!