I Can Dig It

(Photo: Oprah.com) 

They say nothing's harder than finding a needle in a haystack. 


As an amateur reseller,I say, "Bring on that haystack, honey!" You never know where a Brikin is hiding. 


This mentality was reinforced and rewarded yesterday when Mr Taurus and I stumbled across a end of season vintage courtyard sale. A vintage store stacked piles of end of season deadstock in its courtyard and swung open the doors to the general public. Each item: $3. 


We couldn't resist. Others in line did not share our enthusiasm. Excessive mounds of misshapes can be daunting, true, but for me and my partner (and burgeoning business partner) the thrill is in the hunt. And hunt we did, honey. We found some real kills in the drifts of duds and all was fair game. Bargain hunters came and went but none preyed like our party. Most felt instant intimidation or laziness and gave up before they really began. More for us. 


All in all we walked away with over a dozen chic car coats, tailored trousers, men's bomber jackets and sleek pencil skirts.  

To the scavenger go the spoils. 

Last Nite's Party: An Evening with Ralph Lauren

(Just the usual Lauren family Christmas card)

Boy am I beat from all the well-moneyed elbow rubbing at last nite's "Evening with Ralph Lauren" hosted by the big O

A small gathering of real close friends benefiting the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention and Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, it managed to bring out some real elite beauties. Let's judge they obligatory Ralph Lauren ensembles!

Ralph and Ricky look rich and calm. I guess owning the West Village will do that for a couple. 

Mr Seth Meyers you are the cutest thing ever and that tux is a new but incredibly sexy visual for the collage of you in my head. 

I love you, you crazy B! One of the many reasons is no matter what envelope opening you're attending you always make it seem as the president of the CFDA that it's the only place you'd want to be. You're either 100% invested or the fakest b***h this side of "Bad Girls Club"! 

Normally Chanel Iman I get a 'happy model' vibe from you, but man did someone lay on the sourpuss big time! I guess if I was stuck in a frock that looks like my sister's go-to 90's wedding guest dress I'd be all pussed up too. 

Former model Hanneli Mustaparta is showing the new blood up big time! And she's got designer of the moment, Prabal Gurung on her arm. Girlfriend knows how to show up to a dinner she's got no intention of eating! 

The beauty of being so rich is that you can dress like Paz de la Huerta and no one calls you out on it. Am I right, Wendi Murdoch? 

It would have been pretty easy to win best dressed at this event since most people wore the same simple long sleeve dresses and fur jackets that litter the Upper East Side on a daily basis, but oh no that's not good enough for Kerry Washington. No, no this b***h had to kill 'em dead! This is like the fashion chic equivalent of Jason Voorhees: no one stands a chance so just get the hell out of the woods! 

Your abundantly apparent disinterest in Ms. Wintour's ramblings only makes my heart beat faster, Mr Seth Meyers. Purr...

Oprah's O is Fur Free

 O Magazine has had their "a-ha" moment and realized fur has no place in a modern closet

(Oprah knows that the only ones that look good in fur are our fuzzy friends)

In the October issue, editor in chief of O Magazine, Susan Casey says

…at O we strive to be stylish – and know our readers do, too – we encourage every woman to create her own definition of what that means… but all trends will never work for all people. And there’s one that O has decided to skip, not just this season but in every issue since the magazine began: garments made of real fur…

That's a huge stride in the right direction, and where Oprah goes, hordes follow

(Photo: Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Speaking of the mighty one, she adds her sentiments:

“In the beginning my thing was, ‘Have you seen Chicago winters? You need a fur coat in Chicago!” Oprah told me. “But I had an aha moment looking at a sable cape in my closet.” The cape’s  thick pelt gave her a visceral sense of how many four-leggeds had been used in its creation, bred specifically to be killed: “and that was it. I gave away all my furs 20 years ago.” 

Now which magazine will be next? And will any go full anti-leather, feather and skins? That would be
avant-garde!

***PS:  Saturday October 1st is World Vegetarian Day kicking off the month of October, aka "Vegetarian Awareness Month" (Really? October? Well candy corn's sorta a vegetable, right?) So be on the lookout for a bunch of Veg friendly posts ***

End of the Road: Oprah's Last Stand

Oh my Oprah! That crazy old guy got the wrong date: the end of the world wasn't Saturday but TODAY. For today, Oprah signs off into the sunset.

I will be on an airplane bound for Iberia, but have no fear I'll feel it. The moment when the world as we know it tremors into a new world order and 4pm sick days will feel hopeless and barren.


We'll miss you Ops.


I think the video below sums it up with the first lyric: "Grow and go, O"






Love,

It Can't All Be dior

Murder Ink

Oh dear...

this doesn't bode well for Housing Works' "Design on a Dime" event Thursday nite since this year's host is more likely to place throw pillows in Oprah's mansions than put it on ya....

Oh and Did We Mention We got Osama Bin Laden?

During today's Oprah, Michelle Obama glows in a colorful mixed print dress (so on trend Mrs. O!) from London based designer Duro Olowu's Fall 2011 collection.

Yes, I know this was taped last Wednesday when the president's birth certificate release squashed that ridiculous birther debate.

Little did they know the timely triumph less than a week later.

Or did they? ... dun-dun-dun!

Jennifer Love Hewitt's "A-Ha Moment" at Max Azria

Miss Ghost Whisperer knows what Max Azria did last Summer and she wants it in every color, darling!

Christie Brinkley Thanks Her Genes and Her Beans

On Friday's Oprah, Christie Brinkley and a whole bunch of other iconic models were on talking about beauty and aging. 57 year old Brinkley credits her still amazing looks to a vegetarian diet.

As a fellow vegetarian, I agree, Christie. Going veg is the way to looking your best!

Oprah, This Best Not be Another "The Secret"

Whatever could it be???

You've Been Warned

Oprah is letting you know now that come 2012 she will OWN the world and you will be her puny minion forced to massage her feet and fetch some hot cocoa.

The Mayan calendar has foreseen these tragedies.

Prepare yourself now.

Not a Fan of Chocolate

I discovered last nite at a X-mas party that I have a little bias against hot chocolate

I've never really understood hot chocolate. It seems so sad. I always think of it as a drink for frigid old women or Jane Austen characters

Or Oprah.

Oprah would totally put it in her "Favorite Things" and that sea of housewives would freak out. And how much sex is going on in that room?

Jessica Simpson is Stupid Rich

Seems Jessica Simpson has been quietly going the Ashley and Mary Kate route 

Remember when it was announced those teen twin tots had amassed some ridiculous fortune peddling straight to video holiday movies and sugar sweet sunshine perfumes and t-shirts? Well self-portrayed dum-dum Simpson remembers. She took note and decided to follow suit with her name slapped on shoes, bags, jeans, perfume and such (mercifully holding off on any "Jessica Simpson's Haunted Halloween Caper" movies... so far) and now her business is worth close to $1 billion!

(I'd be dancin' too!)

Sold at MACY's and other mid-America friendly spots, Jessica Simpson has been one of the few success stories from that insidious "now I'm a designer" disease that hit big in the 2000's. But without a fan base for her music and films, and with no fashion cred, HOW has she been able to move so much merchandise? 

Fashion Icon?

and need we see this again?

So here's my theory: America has become uncomfortable with its body. Obesity continues to increase across the states and we identify with and support a celebrity that has fought with her own weight problems publicly (hello Oprah)

Add that empathy with a general disinterest in quality 

Add that apathy with a fear of fashion. 

Cuz let's be honest when most people are following US magazine and the "style" of innocuous starlets from MTV reality shows, what they are really saying is that real style is not digestible nor relevant. Trends don't compute and fashion is foreign. "I can understand cut-offs and lariat necklaces and maybe I'll experiment with a floppy hat. Maybe. But I'm not taking any risks. I want to blend in"

So fine. Jessica Simpson makes a completely logical messenger for ho-hum style and bully for her! Make that money, girl!

(laughing all the way to the bank!)

If so interested: http://www.jessicasimpsoncollection.com

Thrown a Curve 'Ball'

(Queen of the Universe in and with Oscar de la Renta)

A few weeks ago I wrote how there was none of the usual hype for this year's Costume Institute Ball at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Well where there's no smoke, there's none of that fire. And last nite was in desperate need of a bellow.

(Hilary Rhoda in Prabal Gurung)

(Naomi Campbell in

Dolce +Gabbana)                                       

Ladies, these outfits are weak. This is your moment to give us a giant sartorial bitch slap, Alexis Carrington style. This is more like Amanda Woodward lite.

(Jessica Stam in Rachel Roy)

(Zoe Saldana in Calvin Klein)

                                                               

Things I did like: lots of models present, granted outside Naomi no "supers". Where's Kate? Stephanie? Alek? Karen Elson? Could they smell this stinker a mile away?

(Chanel Iman doin' it in Michael Kors)

And I liked that most guests repped for American designers (again except Naomi. Oh Nomes! Gotta love ya!)

And these usual suspects looked good:

(Chloe Sevigny in Proenza Schouler)

(Nicole Richie in Marc Jacobs)

      

(Rachel Zoe in Marc Jacobs)

(Gwen Stefani in LAMB)

  

And obviously let my US Weekly subscription lapse, cuz when did these two get back together???

(Sienna Miller in Pucci and Jude Law)

But hands down the best look of the evening belongs to:

(Dreamboat Christopher Bailey

and non-descript young'in white girl actress  #4)