Never Nude

Connector necklace and bracelets courtesy of Naked Label, Ideeen sweater, Todd Oldham dress, Chloe heels, sunglasses courtesy of Norma Kamali, Slow and Steady Wins the Race bag

While plenty of designers list futurism as a source of inspiration, few manage to translate the concept as gracefully as Allison Press of Naked Label.  For her latest collection, Cosmos, Press created necklaces that looked like they are adorned by tiny swirling planets, pendants that resemble alien vertebrae, and space-age laser-cut acrylic bangles.  The pieces touch on the universe and the cosmos in an abstract manner, without ever getting too literal.  My favorite group, which Allison kindly sent me, are a set of Connector bracelets and necklaces, made out of rubber tubing filled with tiny blue beads, and connected by three different sets of magnetic clasps that serve as industrial looking accents.  I'm also obsessed with the UFO necklace, which I've been wearing non-stop.

Naked Label UFO necklace and Rapscallion by Samantha Pleet romper

-Tiffany

Hot and Bothered

Zana modeling her own leather peplum, and a friend modeling one of her bondage style face masks

Yesterday night, I made a sweaty trek over to CATM Gallery with hundreds of other Zana Bayne enthusiasts to view her latest Fall/Winter 2012 collection of leather body-harnesses.  Taking a beautifully orchestrated step away from the traditional fashion presentation, Zana chose to collaborate with three other artists and photographers to fully convey the sensual nature of her work.  Char Alfonzo, Maxime Buchi, and Adrian Wilson used photography, video and installation to capture Zana's work on the human body, playing with the themes of power and submission that are integral to her bondage inspired pieces. The fetishistic and fantastic elements conveyed through the resulting work gave Zana's harnesses a life that could not be expressed in a simple presentation with models, and the gallery truly felt like a teasing peek into Zana's lush, leather-filled world.  The exhibition is only up for one more day, so try to make it if you're in New York.  Otherwise, keep an eye out for her new pieces to arrive--I personally can't wait to get my hands on the leather cone bra pictured in one of Adrian Wilson's photographs.

Zana's Leather skull installation

Leather bra photographed by Adrian Wilson

-Tiffany

Knitwits

All photos by Mark Fina, courtesy of Degen

After stumbling across Degen knitwear on various blogs and Tumblrs, I had the surprise pleasure of stumbling across the magical designer, Lindsay Degen, in real life, while visiting her studio mate.  Lindsay shares an inspiring space in the sprawling Brooklyn Navy Yards with my friend Becca McCharen, the designer behind Chromat.  It is not often that I come across exciting new knitwear designers, and it thrilled me to see Lindsay's work up close and personal, as it is truly one of a kind.  Using a mix of hand knitting and crochet, as well as machine knit pieces made on looms in her studio, Lindsay creates colorful, tongue in cheek, and downright absurd attire using the most traditional and age-old techniques and methods.  While your average knitwear designer's repertoire includes a range of sweaters, socks, scarves and mittens, Degen presents peculiar jersey shirts with boob holes, crochet nipple pasties, and underwear with wooly fake pubes stitched on the front.  Even the Degen version of mittens are a slightly off creation: half mittens and half gloves.

Anyway, the inspiration behind the Fall 2012 Degen collection, Ask Tell, is explained in the lookbook, which I've posted in full here--something I rarely do, but I truly love each and every piece.  What I'm most excited for is not even knit at all; Lindsay is collaborating with Converse on a line of platform sneakers, which you can get a peek at here.

-Tiffany

Instagram Diaries

Jonathan's Birthday Cake

In the midst of my entire apartment falling apart (windows, lights, and plumbing somehow all simultaneously must be fixed), my camera also decided to give up on me this week, leaving me with nothing more than my iPhone to document everything I've been up to and everyone I've been visiting.  Seeing as it's my last free week before I start my new job, I've been running around town getting all my errands done, and catching up with some of my favorite friends and local designers.  Better photos of said designers are on the way, but in the meantime, here's my past week via Instagram.


Floral bouquets at the opening of the new Bijules flagship store at 355 Bowery


Jules presenting the latest collection of her jewelry at the Media Seance at her new shop


Hearts on fire at the Bijules flagship store


Becca custom fitting my Chromat bikini at her new studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yards


The Chromat inspiration board


Degen Knitwear mood board


Anne Koch's installation at Allegra LaViola Gallery


Carved tree stumps at Figment on Governor's Island


Figment


Stilt walking musicians at Figment


Victoria on the Statue of Liberty installation at Figment


A puppet from the Children's Museum of Art's stop motion animation program at Figment

-Tiffany

Protective Gear

 All photos by Nikita Karizma

While harnesses and restraints hardly raise eyebrows these days, I do have a high appreciation for the ones that London based designer Nikita Karizma creates.  Not afraid to take on provocative subject matter, Nikita designed her first collection with female abuse in mind.  While the harnesses and restraints play on the idea of restriction and a lack of agency, other elements, such as protective headgear, spikes, and armor act as a form of physical protection.  Nikita even designed a rape/SOS alarm embedded in an accessory that sends a Bluetooth signal to the wearer's smartphone, which then sends an emergency messages to a family member with a GPS location of the wearer. While I sincerely hope none of us would ever have need for such a device, I wouldn't mind having such an accessory, or any of the others Nikita designed, to wear home on a long walk home late at night.

-Tiffany

Just Swimmingly

Chromat designer Becca McCharen with some pieces from her new swim collection

I know summer isn't officially here yet, but after coming from the not very warm Stockholm "spring" (which involved several incidents of snow), New York feels perfectly sweltering. It hit eighty degrees this past weekend, and if it's any indication that I'm turning into a Swede, eighty degrees means it's beach weather to me.  I am already fantasizing about my first weekend escape to the Rockaways, and when I make my way out there for some surf, sun, and cheap tacos, I hope to be wearing Chromat.  I've always been a big fan and supporter of Becca, who has been constructing her outlandish architectural cages for several seasons now.  I have to say, as impressive as all her previous work has been, she has really outdone herself with her newly launched swim collection, featuring very sexy, very cagey, yet totally practical suits and separates.  They're like no other swim line I've seen vefore, and they're currently only available at International Playground, and off Becca's webshop.  Prices top out at $250, which is a steal for such beautifully constructed, locally made suits.  I personally can't wait to purchase the high-waisted bikini.

-Tiffany

Fierce Looks From Pop Souk

Daniel Palillo dress, Iceberg vest, choker necklace courtesy of Bond Hardware, Triskaidekaphobia tooth necklace, Henrik Vibskov bag.  Photo by @nicollettenyc.

This past Saturday, Christina and I took Triskaidekaphobia and Arms and Armory down to Greenhouse for the second edition of Pop Souk, the one and only market for downtown designers and nightlife personalities. It's always exciting to see all my favorite local talents gathered up in one place, and everyone came out wearing their most outlandish attire, dressed for a night out even though it was really an afternoon in.  I only got to take a quick glimpse at all the offerings, and didn't actually buy anything since I spent most of the time in the booth with the girls, but I did manage to sneak in a manicure with Naomi Yasuda, and capture some photos of my favorite looks.

Sophia, Christina, Riza, and I at the Triskaidekaphobia and Arms and Armory booth

Becca of Chromat wearing one of her fabulous new swimsuits (more images to come!)

One of the fellows from the Asher Levine booth

One of Pam Hogg's many stretchy jumpsuits

Naomi Yasuda was on hand giving out special manicures.  Riza and I opted for the evil eye design.

Another half-man, half-monster creation from Asher Levine

Dana, one half of the design duo behind Bond Hardware, wearing an incredible ombre feather coat that she made and a necklace from her collection

The beautiful ladies from the Kathleen Marie Couture booth

-Tiffany