Tag: accessories

Loeffler Randall

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I was recently out in Brooklyn visiting with a girlfriend who works in fashion PR. These girls always know what’s cool and true to form she walked in the door and I obsessed over her shoes and bag. “Where are they from?” I asked, “Loeffler Randall“. Of course they are.

It seems almost every time I love a New York girlfriend’s shoes they are Loeffler Randall. I myself am a fan girl… I’ve worn them to the beach, at southern mansion cocktail parties, and over coffee in L.A. They are easy and cool. Quality and comfortable. Or, as the founder and designer Jessie Randall puts it, “understated, elegant, effortless.” I stopped by their Soho studio to see what’s new this summer, what I will be lusting after like those red strappy heels above… UGH sooo good. And to talk with the beautiful designer herself only to realize, the products are good because the soul of the designer is too…

10 Questions with LOEFFLER RANDALL‘s President and Creative Director Jessie Randall 

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If you could give advise to yourself 10 years ago when you started Loeffler Randall, what would it be?

JR: Hire a merchandiser. Stop being so hard on yourself!

Above, Jessie wears Arbella Platform Sandal with Drawstring Tote in her Soho office. 

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Where do you find inspiration? 

JR: I find it everywhere – especially in craft techniques and doing crafts myself, art, furniture and I love love love ceramics. 

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What one famous person has worn your shoe where you had a holy-cow moment? 

JR: Roz Chast

Above, Drawstring Tote & Flap Bucket bag // Below, Bo Tassel Wrap sandal

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IWC’s Timeless New York

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IWC_Watches__02 IWC has launched a new Portofino Midsize watch for both men and women. When they reached out to me to show me the new line to see if I could come up with a creative idea inspired by it, I kept thinking about time, having time, making time, sharing time. So I thought – to me, time is the most valuable thing we’ve got- why don’t we take time together? So how do you do that with thousands of people and one small city girl? Well, yesterday we had an adventure together on Instagram– I let you decide how to spend my day in New York City, the perfect timeless backdrop to a timeless watch design, through a series of questions where time was of the essence. You chose what coffee we had, where we found inspiration, how we spent the afternoon and what to wear to dinner and I shared with you in real time what I saw. When I woke up yesterday morning I didn’t know where you would send me or what you guys most wanted to see in our city of dreams~ It was a thrilling experiment together…

but most all, thank you for your time.

{above~ four of the new IWC #Portofino Midsize watches I rotated between on our journey through Manhattan}

8:34am

I thought we’d spend some time together today, in my city, inspired by the new @IWCwatches #Portofino Midsize. Every minute counts… stayed tuned for a “choose your own adventure” journey with me in NYC! #TimelessNewYork

8:46am

Film or digital? What should I capture the day with? 📷❤️ #TimelessNewYork

A photo posted by Jamie Beck (@annstreetstudio) on

Film or digital? What should I capture the day with? #TimelessNewYork

10:09am

Ok! Film camera it is! According to my @iwcwatchesit’s time for coffee ☕️ Should I go uptown chic to #RalphsCoffee or downtown cool to @Shinola??? #TimelessNewYork

12:20pm

Here we go to the coffee place you all voted for! #TimelessNewYork

A video posted by Jamie Beck (@annstreetstudio) on

Here we go to the coffee place you all voted for! #TimelessNewYork

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NAGA

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You can’t help but be overcome by the romance of the NAGA story. All over Bali we kept seeing the face of the lovesick dragon in temples, as carvings and in the landscapes of the fable. As the story goes…

There is an ancient story of a dragon known as the Naga. He lives on the volcano peaks of Bali, but at night will descend into the ocean to see his true love, the Pearl. In the morning, the Naga rises up from the water and flies back to his peak. Water drips from his scales as he goes, nourishing the rice fields of Bali. During the day he keeps watch over the island, protecting Bali and its people, before returning to the ocean each night. Because of this routine, the Naga represents eternal love, prosperity, and protection to the Balinese people.

John Hardy’s Naga Collection takes this fable and brings it to life through dragon imagery: the scales along his body, his expressive face, and sometimes, glowing eyes. You can wear a Naga piece differently to mean different things – if you orient his head so it faces toward you, it represents eternal love and prosperity. Away from you, it means protection (this has to be my favorite application of a story to something wearable!)

Since the mythic dragon lives between volcanoes, we paid a visit to Mount Batur to hike up this active volcano which most recently erupted in 1963. Through volcanic activity over the centuries, a lake has formed from a collapsed crater. The visible activity of the volcano is a network of vents releasing hot gases – at the source, hot enough to warm food (in the case of our trek it was hot bananas!) It was my first experience on the top of a volcano, feeling its hot gases wrap around me as if Naga was watching the sun set, preparing his descent into the ocean to be with the one he loves….

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#Wanderlust

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I‘ve always dreamed of traveling and I feel so very lucky that my job takes me around the world to be witness to and capture the wonder and beauty of different cultures, natural marvels, and lifestyles. One of our most recent journeys was to the island of Bali to shoot Cuyana’s summer campaign. We added a few days to the trip so we could truly experience the island, hosted by our friends and Bali natives at John Hardy who know the island so well. Staying at the Villa Campuhan was one of those pinch-me moments when your wanderlust dreams come true in the pure definition of paradise…we ate only the freshest food in an open air pavilion overlooking the Balinese ocean, we drank coffee with the sunrise and spent the hot afternoons swimming and reading. This special place fit right into LoveGold‘s summer of #wanderlust campaign… I can’t wait to see where other people travel to over the next few months and if they are lucky enough to be adorned in luxurious hand crafted gold like I was. Here is what I wore at the breathtaking Villa Campuhan…gold to match the sun, white to keep cool, anything to flow like the ocean and only bare feet ~

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Above & below John Hardy Bamboo Collection gold and diamond pave cuff and ring // MAIYET skirt & Ralph Lauren top

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Maria Brito

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I met Maria Brito last year when she began working with and advising Kevin and I on our personal work and where to take it. We started doing artist studio tours together around Brooklyn – Maria has an amazing knowledge of the art world, not only in New York but around the world. Her blog and Instagram do a great job of taking you along for the ride! And in case that doesn’t sound chic enough, she covers art fairs like Basel for publications such as Elle; she was featured in Vogue Brazil; she buys art for P. Diddy’s (Sean Combs’) homes; she’s written a book about living with art; she’s a wife and a mother of two; and now, because she has soooooo much free time 😉 she is marrying her two passions, fashion and art, by launching a very limited edition capsule collection of clutches. These pieces feature three different artists –  Kenny Scharf, Erik Parker and Carlos Rolón/Dzine – in editions of 20 exclusively at Kirna Zabete in SoHo and online. They are truly “wearable art”, pieces that will increase their value through time, and that are themselves timeless.

Below are a few questions I had for Maria about what she wants to do now, what other A-listers are on her client roster, and her thoughts on how to buy art…

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So these clutches are amazing! Where did you get the idea for them?

“I had been looking at the idea of doing product. I wrote a book, I do design services, I post things on my blog, so I thought it was about time to do something else. I had been looking at art collaborations, and while I thought some of them were very cool, I realized I wouldn’t necessarily wear what’s available right now. I wanted to create something that my friends or my clients or that I would actually wear, so I came to the idea of doing these clutches. I emailed a few artist friends about the idea to validate that the prototypes were going to work, and they all said, Yes. And the beautiful thing is that in the end, it worked out. So really it came as a natural progression of what I do.”

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 So tell me about each of the three pieces of art…

“The zebra print one is by Dzine, his name is Carlos Rolón, he’s an artist who’s based in Chicago. He’s from a Puerto Rican background, so we connect really well because we’re both Latin. This was a piece made for a show that was at Paul Kasmin at the beginning of the year. I took a detail, because it’s a big square, so I had to crop it so it would work for this shape…I feel it works really well for this type of thing.

The white clutch is from Erik Parker. The original is a diptych – it is actually hanging in the house of one of my clients. It’s huge – 6 feet in height by probably 9 feet in length. It’s separate because it’s a diptych, so I decided to play with it and put it together. It worked out really well! This one came full circle because it’s in the house of my client and now…well, you know what I mean.

And the Kenny Scharf one came from a piece that he did in the 90s. It’s also a detail. He’s very known for doing those creatures and little animals, so of course he told me, “Choose one in my archive of 600,” and it was kind of hard. I mean, it’s not that it was hard, having 600 pieces to choose from, but I wanted in particular to have the little creatures! I loved how this turned out to be. It’s very playful.”

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FEED Heritage Bags

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Another New York Fashion Week is beginning today, which means a full week of beauty, glamour and all sorts of gowns…but I thought it would be nice to kick off the coverage by focusing on a brand that really thinks about the world around us and changes it for the better one mouth at a time.

FEED, founded by the wonderful Lauren Bush Lauren in 2007, has so far been able to provide over 75 million school meals globally through sales of a collection of totes, handbags, wallets, jewelry, t-shirts, scarfs and more. This season, FEED is introducing a new luxury collection of leather bags (I personally LOVE) handmade by master artisans in Kenya. Each item you purchase, whether it is one of the leather totes (available this fall) or a burlap all function bag, has a number on the back which tells you how many meals for the year you have provided with your purchase. I was intrigued by this design decision, because it’s so rare that you get to know and fully understand the personal impact of something you buy. When I complimented Lauren on it, she said she wanted to make sure FEED was tangible and meaningful in a way you can relate to personally and not simply a “percentage of proceeds” product.

The amazing thing about the production of the FEED products is not only the good that is brought about from the sales but also that it provides sustainable employment to the local craftsmen in Kenya or Guatemala who can then send their kids to school where they can have nutritious meals sourced from local farmers. Lauren’s passion toward the work she does with FEED comes through so clearly, whether she’s talking about how the beading on one Kenya Messenger Bag took two and a half days, or through watching the 8mm films of school children in Africa she shot on her most recent trip.

So here is to remembering this Fashion Week that there is nothing more fashionable than doing good.

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Chopard Watchmaking

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As I walked through the rooms of Chopard’s watchmaking house in Switzerland I was struck by the interesting balance between man and time. Here were the artisans, these specialized skilled craftsmen working with precious metals in parts so tiny my naked eye could not see it. They are making time, they are making something that counts it beat by beat, but they are doing it by hand and they are doing it over months. Many of these skilled hands dance around the piece: building it from part to part, polishing each layer until it gleams, checking and double-checking for any flaws, carefully putting each tiny component together under a magnifying glass. As the watch comes together, the viewer can only stand in awe at this delicate harmony of machine and man. In a world where technology continues to take over more and more of our lives, it’s hard to believe that humans still play such a large part in this, the art of time.

But this – this is how Chopard makes a watch.

Watching the stunning L.U.C. watches (named for the founder, Louis-Ulysse Chopard) come to life gave me so much appreciation for Chopard’s devotion to quality. It was inspiring to watch mere men & women put these intricate and complex pieces together, more than beautiful watches but award-winning, certified time pieces to be cherished forever.

Come with me as we watch Chopard make an art of time…

  

  

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Robert’s Muse

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One thing Robert Lee Morris is is a true artist. He has not only received two CFDA awards for accessory design but was also awarded the CFDA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.  After digging around his studio, we had to bring some of the history to life. Modeled by our beautiful friend Taylor Livingston and styled by Kelly Framel, Robert took us through the stories and inspiration of his collection of art we call accessories.

Above image: “The long earring was a handmade, one-of-a-kind construction meant to evoke the feel of a water spout, or gingko leaf.”

Below image: Headpiece designed for a Kansai Yamamoto show, made of natural blonde horsehair; this piece was worn by every model on his Spring 1983 runway at once.

Above & below, on the breastplate: “I made it to form fit the body of Sayoko, which she wore as the bride, the finale look, under a massive embroidered coat while also wearing a very high crown I made of golden wings, formed from the reconfigured struts of a Japanese umbrella, set on a metal headband and sprayed with gold dust. This piece is incredibly special as it was the one item that I showed at the FIT museum show called IMPACT, which commemorated the 50 year anniversary of the CFDA.”

 Below image: “That belt is a brass disc with a square center ~ inspired by Chinese coins ~ and I made it as part of my belt license in the early 90′s. I believed in a form of body language, where a big disc at the waist was protection for the belly, the third chakra, the power of action and doing.”

 Above image: “The inspiration was futuristic armor, and it turned out to be one of the most beloved of my major headpieces for Kansai, very well-photographed for years after. This bubble collar was a version of the one that graced my very first cover of Vogue…this was one of the iconic pieces that helped build my early brand image.”

Robert created 12 of these headdresses, one for each model in the Kansai Yamamoto Fall 1982 shows in Paris, New York, and Tokyo.

Above image: “This green patina jumbo disc belt was made for the Calvin Klein Fall 1981 show; the inspiration was moss-colored river stones, Ireland, and the emeralds of Africa. I have kept this piece very safe and in mint condition since that show.”

Above image: “The mask was made from a mannequin of Sayoko Yamaguchi, the supermodel of the early 80′s and the muse of Kansai Yamamoto. I love this one because of the unique green patina and how the area of the eyes is left as brass. This was part of a limited production of masks that I sold at Artwear.”

From 1977-1995, Robert Lee Morris founded and ran Artwear Gallery, dedicated to showcasing wearable sculptures in the same sort of context as contemporary art.

In the Studio With

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“A moment of crazy fun turned into a dramatic coronation.”

On a rainy day in Manhattan, I walked into the studio of Robert Lee Morris and all of a sudden, like a scene from a musical, we were pulling out drawers and drawers of jewelry!  accessories! belts! crowns! cuffs!… a whole lifetime of creating extraordinary, one-of-a-kind pieces for the world’s top designers. “This walked down Calvin Klein’s runway and oh yes! This walked down Donna Karan’s!”

All around the studio were artifacts from travels, books for inspiration, sculptures and studies on the human form, work benches, sketch boards, mood boards, old ad campaigns and editorals framed and leaning on one another – layered through time and history. Taylor, Kelly & I were like giddy little girls finding treasures while Robert told all the wonderful fairytales that accompany each of his masterful pieces.

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A Handbag Designer, a Dog, & the West Village

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This former stylist and accessories editor is now designing her own line of luxury handbags made with exotic skins and surprising colors which reflect where she finds her inspiration, most recently from a trip to India. With a new store opening this fall in the West Village it goes without saying she went from showing us what is cool to making something cool.

I met up with Khirma at her work studio in the Village recently to see the new space and collection, talk boys and fashion mags, and, over dirty martinis, why we love NY in the fall.

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Etienne Aigner

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At the end of World War II, a former bookbinder began putting together leather goods with whatever materials were available. His first collection: bags fashioned out of linen harvest sacks & leather from old suitcases! As he was only able to afford one dye, all his leather was deep oxblood in color, which you know is everything this fall just as it was back then – a true classic. Fast forward 60 years to the new collection designed to be timeless & luxurious just as it’s always been, allowing women feel classically beautiful head to toe.

Do you know this story?

This is the tale of Etienne Aigner.

Above: (from top) Etienne Aigner Epic Satchel, Preface I Satchel and Epic Large Satchel

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