Keepin' it Real

Leila Shams butterfly dress, Triskaidekaphobia necklace. All photographs by Leslie Van Stelten for International Playground.

A couple of weeks ago, our friends Johnny and Virginia from International Playground asked Christina and I to participate in their first ever Real People shoot, featuring their friends and family modeling pieces from the Fall collections that are currently on sale. Since we will be selling Triskaidekaphobia at the store in spring, and generally love Johnny and Virginia, we of course agreed to be shot, and picked out a couple of our favorite garments from the racks to be photographed in. We were joined by two of our amazing designer friends (who also sell at the store), Becca of Chromat, and Astrid of Upstate. As always, it was super fun to hang out with the crew, and dress up in garments from some of the best under-the-radar designer around (which included shamelessly representing our own brands). I naturally went for two of my favorites: Daniel Palillo and Leila Shams. Here are some of the photos from the shoot, wearing pieces that are currently available here. Also, don't forget we'll be doing a shop-in-shop at International Playground from December 17th-19th, so you better stop by!

Becca wearing RHLS press your luck, cry your eyes crew sweatshirt and leggings, and a Chromat belt.

Christina wearing a Chromat underwire half cage and a Vibe Johansson shirtdress.


Becca wearing a Wackerhaus Juna Jumpsuit and a Chromat half cage underneath
Astrid wearing an Upstate silk shibori wrap, Chromat zipper half cage, and H. Fredriksson dress

Daniel Palillo Heavy Hoody over Leila Shams dress

-Tiffany

Winter Light

I took a little bit of a blog breather for the last few days cause I've been inundated with work/chores/life/nonsense. The holidays are in full swing, and while I really shouldn't be complaining about partying too much, partying is one of my jobs, and therefore also falls into the category of work. Add to this a dollop of winter doldrums, as New York temperatures took a dive in the past week. In my homebody state, I did however find a more positive take on the upcoming change of seasons via Maria Alexandra Vettese, who I discovered on Lena Corwin's wonderful blog. Rather than shunning the early onset of darkness as winter approaches, Maria started photographing the changing tones of the sky and the winter light just before dusk. Maria then worked with Maine art and clothing boutique chelliswilson to print the photographs onto limited edition silk scarves. The result is a dreamy cross between a pastel-tinged watercolor and a starkly realistic digital print. Each scarf is available for $132 via the chelliswilson webshop, and offers a much more inspiring view of the colder months than the gloom outside my window.

-Tiffany

Sibling Revelry

Earlier this year, Nicollette was telling me that during the holidays, plenty of customers come into Screaming Mimi's seeking the perfect ugly Christmas sweater. So much work goes into make those monstrosities (which apparently are celebrated with their very own holiday parties), and I always wondered why more designers didn't co-opt the garish fair-isle knits and silly graphics for better purposes and designs. British knitwear line Sibling does exactly that, adopting typical sweater patterns and designs for atypical purposes. There is a Breton striped sweater with a tromp l'oeil skull hidden in the stripes, a fair-isle knit sweater with your average row of snowflakes alternating with rows of Frankenstine's mug, and a sweater embroidered with words like "victim," "sod off," and "good shag." All the pieces are meant for men, but the designers admit that they have a large female fanbase. This is definitely the kind of sweater you want to steal from your boyfriend...

-Tiffany