On Monday night, the Council of Fashion Designers of America awarded  some of the biggest fashion names and some more relatively unknown names in the industry.

“Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler were named top womenswear designers with Michael Bastian honoured for menswear and Alexander Wang for accessories. The international award went toCeline’s Phoebe Philo.

Swarovski emerging-talent winners were Prabal Gurung for womenswear,Eddie Borgo for accessories and Robert Geller for menswear.

Lifetime achievement awards went to habitual CFDA winner Marc Jacobsand to photographer Arthur Elgort, while the CFDA Founders Award went to InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein.”

“…A little nervous, [Lady Gaga]… was in what [she considered an] understated dress, with… “a frothy black Thierry Mugler corset gown that was ultra-short and tight but with a frou-frou train [that] looked subtle, even accessorised with the star’s aqua green bobbed hair.

[WGSN]

Watch out ladies! These shoes could poke your eye out….or may be something else ; )

The eye-catching, pointy boot-craze has swept through the Mexican town of Matehuala, in North Central Mexico.  Although it’s not clear how the craze attracted so many fans, local lore has it that a lone cowboy requested that cobbler, Dario Calderon make him a pair of boots with a toe box that extends out almost 35 inches.

The mystery man from Huizache, a nearby village, wore his new boots to Mesquit Rodeo nightclub, where he danced bandido style with a handkerchief hiding his mouth and nose. ”He was dancing and having a good time and he didn’t care what people were saying about him,” said Fernando Lopez, the master of ceremonies at the rodeo-themed disco.

Then he disappeared.

Before long young men and boys were putting “all kinds of things on them, strobe lights, belt buckles, and those red lights that flash when you step on the shoes,” said Manuel Colim, a DJ at the Far West Corral in Dallas, Texas, where a lot of Matehualan migrants live.

“The pointy-boot fad coincided with a new dance craze of gyrating, drawer-dropping troupes dressed in matching western shirts and skinny jeans to accentuate their footwear.  They dance to “tribal” music, a mixture of Pre-Columbian and African sounds mixed with fast cumbia bass and electro-house beats. In Matehuala, all-male teams compete in weekly danceoffs at four nightclubs that offer prizes of $100 to $500, and often a bottle of whiskey.”

Now girls won’t talk or dance with guys unless they are rockin’ pointy-toed boots, but others say the trend has already peaked and another, the Roper boot, is all the rage, and better designed to accommodate more dance movement.

Via (Yahoo! News, Muzi)

I will ask you to please bear with me as I develop the blog. It will be a constant work-in-progress but I know it will be fun. I am really looking forward to this year and all the changes, hopefully, that will come about in my life.

Along with posting daily to this blog, I would also like to incorporate physical exercise, nutrition and meditation into a morning routine.  Ideally, I am envisioning a blissful morning,  slowly awakening from slumber, welcoming the morning and coming day, full of energy and sunshine, and then later, me: gracefully doing yoga postures in the early morning light.

Ha!

No, really, leave me alone with my fantasy, it’s sublime…. Realistically, I want to cut down on my money-wasting food habits of constantly eating-on-the-go. I commute daily from Philly to NYC for classes at FIT, which requires a 5 AM wake up. It’s brutal and I am often sluggish and slow to wake up in the morning. As a result, I buy food and snacks from vending machines, the FIT cafeteria, the yummy food cart on 7th Avenue & 26th Street (love you! xoxo), Starbucks, Chipotle, and KoFoo (I love you but you are too slow!). It has become a serious drain on the funds and I must get that in order this year. This year I am planning to bring more snack foods like, nuts, dried fruit and cheese with me in disposable containers. (Maybe I can work on brown paper bag idea – something recyclable.) But healthy food is key to my New, Fit 2011…or how about FIT & Fine 2011! Ha.

So, my ideal is to start my morning off right with 30 minute routine to keep my energy up, my spirit happy and my body healthy.  In my Yoga I class, I learned a series of postures called the Sun Salutation. It’s a series of fourteen postures consisting of forward and backward poses, when “linked together in a continuous flow, help to develop strength and an awareness of breathing.” (Fraser, 101) These can be repeated several times and for varying lengths of time to create a routine for yourself. I am thinking ten minutes to stretch my muscles, and ending with five minutes of meditation.

Another 10-15  minutes to make a cup of coffee for my travel mug, pack drinks and snacks and gather school stuff. I would also like to begin taking Chantix again and a multi-vitamin.

So, it sounds easy and like something I should be able to get into the habit of, right? Well, we’ll see. They say it take 66 days to almost a year to form habits.  I am often stressed in the morning because I am slow and disorganized. I am hoping this morning routine can serve as a balancing force to start my morning off right and in good spirits. Who knows? By the end of the semester in May, I should be seeing signs of increased energy, more flexibility and weight loss, or slimmer thighs….which ever happens first!

Philanthropist and collector, Fiona Druckenmiller has recently opened a new boutique in Midtown devoted to rare jewelry and exotic goods. The tip from W Magazine, writes:

F.D, Fiona Druckenmiller’s Upper East Side gallery of a boutique, set to open on October 28, is devoted to staggeringly rare jewelry, accessories, furniture, and other exquisite goods. There is a Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet from the Twenties, a pair of French Art Deco bookends carved in the shape of pelicans (silver bodies, ivory beaks), and vintage Birkins galore. The oldest piece—an Indian sculpture of a fertility spirit—is from the first century, but perhaps more stunning are the two Fifties cuffs that once belonged to Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. While those will set you back $40,000, and an Italian-made green enamel and diamond serpent bracelet (above) $28,000, Chanel costume jewelry begins at around $100. “I think it’s great to wear a pair of earrings and a ring, or just a statement necklace,” says Druckenmiller. “No one wants a full suite.” Still, she has made sure to acquire just that in case the right client wanders in. Made with 154 carats of Burmese Pigeon Blood rubies and 129 carats of diamonds, the necklace, earrings, and bracelet—created in Geneva—go for a cool $3.35 million.

The NYTimes adds:

There’s something for everyone at F.D, the philanthropist and collector Fiona Druckenmiller’s new Midtown boutique. That is, if the everyone in question is seeking exquisite new and vintage jewels (the shop boasts an impressive cache of period Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels), watches, sculptures, Art Deco furniture, photography, first-edition manuscripts and swanky barware. The interior, designed in collaboration with the décor firm Pamela Banker Associates, is best described as cozy chic. “We wanted it to be homey and welcoming, not intimidating,” Druckenmiller says. “People will hopefully feel comfortable enough to linger, have a coffee or glass of wine, and spend time learning about the objects that interest them.”

They had me at “Hello.”

21 East 65th Street, New York
212.772.2440
fionasescape.com

Via W Magazine