sarah from the sun

RAW LEATHER GOODS

2012-01-10T23:14:00.000-05:00

Pour Porter is carrying my Envelope Clutch and Pocket Backpack! YUE Pocket Backpack - Natural Raw YUE Envelope Clutch - Natural Raw

I feel like this store GETS me. Raw is where its at. I get so sad whenever anyone asks me if it comes in black. Helllllll no!

!!! FYI !!! The Envelope Clutch is already sold out on Pour Porter so you can also order it online at Creatures of Comfort. :)

Happy New Year!

This shit is some shit

2011-11-29T13:32:00.000-05:00

http://thisshitissomeshit.tumblr.com

new favorite blog. iphone only. you guys are too funny. just some dudes broing out to some sick shit i guess.

i need to get on my shit too.

FABRICS INTERSEASON REDUX

2011-11-18T20:11:00.001-05:00

30 DEGREES IN NY this morning. Fabrics Interseason black wool stole, Isabel Marant skirt, Christian Wijnants scarf and green COS sweater. Felt like I ambled in to work with my blanket today, which is essentially how i like to feel when I get to work every day.

PREVIEW

2011-11-18T03:32:00.000-05:00

Blending Changes, 2011

HELLA CHILL

2011-11-17T00:15:00.001-05:00

Just got back from LA and am still riding the chill waves back to NY. ~~ (-.-) ~~ feeling super zen.i ended up "forgetting" to stock up on film beforehand and just bought some cheap CVS disposables (which are noticeably more horrible than Walgreens disposables) before we headed to Joshua Tree on our first day. we picked up some cool rocks and drove back as the sun was setting. so nice. i bought a pair of sneakers so i can go hiking more. if only there was a sweet desert somewhere near the east coast! i feel like a new person.

MARAIS IN THE MORNING

2011-10-12T15:10:00.001-04:00

Our apartment in the Marais. A crazy old French lady with a Dalmation lives here, and I think I might love her for these feathery headdresses she scotch-taped to the wall! She also had books about Mayans propped up on the floor as furniture-objects and candles in the shower (and everywhere else too).

Paris this time around was so much fun! True to form I didn't take many pictures, partially because for 8 hour blocks of the day I was working. But I started out every single morning with a trip to Poilane which was only a few blocks from our apartment and ate so many pain au chocolats and apple gilets that I actually started worrying about my eating habits -- which NEVER happens. When we arrived, it was so warm and sunny that i melted into a little puddle of almond butter, but the last day of my trip the wind turned chilly and the leaves started to fall... autumn is coming!

PARIS IS BURNING

2011-09-29T01:58:00.000-04:00

I'm going to Paris tomorrow! I'll be working at the (capsule) show from Oct 1-3 for Creatures of Comfort. Very excited for this trip, coconut yogurt, cous cous at Le Martel and the biggest slice of lemon meringue pie I have ever seen at Le loir dans le theiere. This video has nothing to do with Paris but watch it anyway.

I'M BREAKING OUT

2011-09-24T23:35:00.000-04:00

woah woah woah, ur acne is looking mighty fine tonite.

i'm addicted to your acne.

is that acne or are u just happy to see me?

acne: cant touch dis

SWEATER SEASON!!!

2011-09-18T20:14:00.001-04:00

this sweater = curling up in a ball in the corner and taking naps aka. a wooly comforter
this sweater = my "casual"/"i'm a regular gal!" sweater. I plan on wearing this so much that my friends get sick of it and people wonder if i have any other clothes. P.S. don't mind my grouch frown i'm just craving Peter Pan donuts.

My envelope cases are almost sold out at Creatures of Comfort, so I'm doing a new order! It sold out too fast to be shot for the online store. :( I was really excited to post about it but I'm even more excited that its doing well. Tiffany Tuttle of LD Tuttle bought the first one! Yay!

I put up a temporary website here: y-u-e.us. Other things + Issue #2 coming soon.

STORM KING

2011-09-14T00:52:00.002-04:00

last trip of summer.

voguing throwback, mirror friends

2011-09-12T22:45:00.000-04:00

luv these beats.

What are you listening to?

2011-08-21T20:45:00.001-04:00

drooling all over my keyboard and melting into a puddle of want.

cool shoes! - definitely not made for NY/real-life. it's untreated wood and untreated leather... aka. it will only look this good in a photograph.
- ETS Callatay A/W 11

!!!NEW WORK NEW SITE!!!

2011-06-22T13:34:00.000-04:00

www.sarah-chow.com

After a decade of hopping around and lurking online, I finally parked myself onto a domain. Right when .coms became obsolete too! Great timing. I have some new work up, mostly these inverse photos I've been working on lately (pictured above), and some new videos and things. Most of the work is newish to most people. My favorite page is the splash which I couldn't resist because it's just so... sparkly! Check it outttt.

I've been obsessing over my apartment lately just dreaming of all the nice furniture I'd like to have someday if I didn't live in a big white box. That and work has been keeping me pretty busy. I need to stop jumping on the opportunity to cover other people's shifts just so I inch that much closer to my wishlist.

That's all for now folks.

SPRING SURPRISE

2011-05-11T00:18:00.002-04:00

TWO WEEKS OF BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL WEATHER. I LOVE SPRING.

Seriously! Just look at those flowers!!! It's totally crazy. I went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden twice last week (once for the Matsuri festival and again with my parents when they came to town for 2 days) and basically just died in all the pink and white petals. One of my favorite things about New York is how every season brings with it some kind of magical renewal.. in autumn, yellow leaves. With winter, snow. Spring again, and sakura petals blanket the ground.

Surprise!

Yue Fang Backpack in Stingray and Natural Raw. Website still forthcoming! I've been working all day on my new portfolio first... which is aaalmost doneee. So many projects, so much to do and get done.

WORKSPACE

2011-05-03T20:27:00.000-04:00

United Bamboo Cat Calendar 2011, "My Dear Bomb" by Yohji Yamamoto, a baby Aloe, cedar Land by Land candle, and two Envelope Cases from my new line, Yue (website forthcoming).

The days are definitely getting longer and brighter. My parents are coming to visit in two days! (for only two days :() and I fully intend on dragging them to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden with me to see the cherry blossoms.

I've been using all my samples since I got back from Paris because without a lookbook (so far) I have to make do as a walking lookbook for now! OFF for some sashimi and miso with bff NK798 now and I don't want to be late so more later...

Things are looking up. :)

PARIS/SPAIN/GIBRALTAR/MOROCCO

2011-04-04T23:50:00.001-04:00

Egh. I haven't been able to muster up the energy to be cheerful and zonky enough to blog. I feel like blogging takes a certain kind of spastic zealotry and right now I'm just not feeling it. But it has been a month, so I decided to indulge in whatever moodiness has overshadowed my usual cheeer this month and just post some pictures and talk about whatever floats in between.

I visited Kate in Paris this month. Spent 2-3 weeks floating around Europe. First to show at Rendez-Vous Femme with Ritchie for Triple-Major. He was creating some zonky clothing for T-M and I made some leather bags. Afterwards, I went to Spain.

Ahh Spain. I need more days in the sun. I can feel my putrid lack of Vitamin D and how it's slowly sucking away my soul. Overstatement for sure but man I can not wait until its warm and blistering and I can fall into a mossy grove and swish my arms around in the fresh dew and eat strawberries.

Instead we went to Gibraltar, where it rained, a lot, and then we went to Tangier (Morocco), where it might as well have rained. I think I only had fun when I was eating.

I've been working nearly every day at Creatures of Comfort since I got back. This week is going to be my first normal week. I'm stoked to sleep in tomorrow with no obligations. Except this looming sense of guilt that I still need to shoot some photos to cobble together a lookbook... but I guess that comes later.

GUESS WHERE I AM

2011-03-02T12:42:00.007-05:00

Paris

Triple-Major ISSUE 1 is Ritchie's work and what I've been consulting on for the past few months. I made some leather backpacks and bags to be shown conjointly... pics of those forthcoming! I'll FINALLY GET TO SEE SAMPLES in... 1 hour!!

BRECKENFRIDGE, CO

2011-02-09T19:45:00.000-05:00

Just got back from a week-long ski trip in Colorado. So much fun I almost can't believe it happened. I'm a little disappointed that I'm not strapping on some ski boots right now and taking off for the slopes again! But I guess real life has to keep going and my plants need watering and so forth. Still it was a nice little snow fantasy zipping down the slopes at super speed!

STICKS AND STONES

2011-01-23T22:36:00.000-05:00

Natural products for home:

PIERRES GRAPHIQUES stone, Paula Valentim ceramic and coal air purifier from Ashes and Milk
Shelf, Mortar/Pestle set and Stool from Tosaryu

Ugh, I love this kind of shit. So simple, so good.

SERIOUZ BIZNEZZ VEST AND TOGA TULIP PANTS

2011-01-19T22:00:00.000-05:00

Hi Hi. Project No. 8 was having a SALEEEE and after waiting on tenterhooks for 3 weeks after my friend Dan kept reassuring me this would go on sale, it DID!

The Fabrics Interseason classic long camel vest.
I'm a bit obsessed with it atm as evidenced by the amount of Photoboothy pictures I took... it's just sooo great and sumptuous and soft. I can't help but be attracted to sumptuous clothing. Like a freshly baked potato drizzled in olive oil rosemary butter cheese and thick cut bacon, it screams out for consumption! (i'm also typing this while really hungry).

Tada!

The lapel is just a fold in the cloth so it swings nicely too!

Oversized armholes for an oversized vest... keeps your silhouette slim and not too bulky on the sides.

Love how flexible and soft the wool is. Discreet pockets on the side too.

One of my favorite things about the Fabrics Interseason FW10 wool items is that even though I've been wearing them every day since I got them, nothing has pilled and nothing (Literally NOTHING) has wrinkled. I've been wearing my Fabrics Interseason long grey wrap every day in the snow, rain, sleet and mist and it has yet to wrinkle or pill in the slightest! Good news for people who like to wear their clothes until they're completely wrecked. These have been super durable.

Yay!

I wore this to work on Tuesday even though it was sleeting. I feel like it's an amazing 90's inspired biz touch to my girly Toga tulip pants and extremely floral cowboy belt. I plan on wearing it with my three-hole Doc's in the spring. My new(ish) short(ish) hair is making me feel tuff enuff to pull that off.

The red pyramid bag is one of my favorite (not new) toys . From Creatures of Comfort by Slow and Steady Wins the Race. I believe black is sold elsewhere but the red is a special CofC collaboration and there's only one left.

Shirt is just Uniqlo Heat-tech, shoes were Rachel Comey Wrench Boots, belt by Fremont Artisan.

Also, did you notice my hair? CHOPT. 10 inches. Or 12? Anyway it's already grown out some... I think it's so much better. Long hair was getting super tiring although after my friend posted some old pictures on Facebook of my hair from the summer I did get twinges of longing and nostalgia. It went away pretty quickly though.

2011-01-08T21:30:00.002-05:00

Last night/This morning.

Winter so far has been nice this year. My mom flew to Dallas from Hong Kong to spend Christmas with us. I played with my brother's pets for ten days and taught his teacup maltese a new trick. Baked souffles on New Year's Eve. Woke up early one morning to make breakfast for my mom. We ate ample amounts of king crab and sashimi, roasted red potatoes, and all sorts of amazing Texan specialties like Rudy's extra-moist brisket. Coming back to New York was extra-hard.

FIRE IN THE HOLD.

2010-12-19T20:55:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago there was a fire down the block from the store. They'd just finished construction underground, cleaned up the block and asphalt and placed heavy metal sheets neatly atop the potholes when the whole thing exploded in fire, ash and flickering electricity. Jade bounced down the street to ask the firemen what was going on while our neighbors at the store wondered whether they were just "burning carbon" and the security guard muttered all sorts of suggestions on how the firemen should handle the situation.

I chopped 12 inches off my hair. This is the last picture of 2.5 years worth of growth. Goodbye long hair! I don't miss you yet. But pictures of long hair still look fun. Japanese hair salons are basically a small step down from a day spa. I left feeling so pampered with green tea, candy and shoulder massages that I'm already wondering when I should go get it cut or trimmed next.

This month has been crazy busy, mundane and then just crazy. Christmas is this week. THIS WEEK! What happened to the run-up to the holidays? To walking down the street aglow in Christmas lights and feeling all magical? I spent most of the time at work and indoors, freezing (since heaters didn't get installed until A WEEK AGO), making food at home and working long hours into the night. In a month from now, Kate will be in Paris. A few weeks later I'll be going skiing. Then L.A. Then back to New York. Max is coming for a few weeks. And then I'm going to Paris. Soon it will be summer and I'll turn around and wonder how crazy is it that time passes this quickly? That I just graduated, just came back from Berlin, just taught a bunch of high school students, just started working and suddenly everything has already happened and more is on its way. Life moves too quickly to sit around at all.

FAVORITE ANIMAL: THE NOBLE SEA SLUG

2010-12-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

Ever since I saw a picture of a Blue Sea Dragon I knew I was in love. I've since expanded my appreciation to all sorts of nudibranchs and I just can't stand how amazing and awesome they are.

This is a Chromodoris Quadricolor! He's SOOO AWESOME.

A diamondback tritonia. These guys are vicious and launch themselves out at swaying sea fans to bite off polyps before they shrink back into the coral. This one missed.

A Blue Lettuce Sea Slug... they usually come in variations of green but this cobalt blue is amazing and looks like the aurae borealis. Sea slugs are actually not closely related to the slimy earthling counterparts despite their name. They're actually shell-less mollusks that have been able to develop an amazing array of colors, patterns and a variety of ornament that act as warnings to predators. They're armed with stinging cells and toxins for protection.

Um, FRIED EGG SEA SLUG. Need I say more.

The Blue Sea Dragon. I love this one. This is amazing. How does this exist? The world can not be doomed if things like this really exist.

Another view of the Chromodoris Quadricolor. They're so awesome. Those hairy antennae taste, touch and sense the ocean around them since they're nearly blind and can actually only see vague patches of light and dark.

Janolus Fuscus. These are named after the two-headed god of Roman mythology, Janus. I think they have more than two heads though. This guy looks like he'd never be able to make up his mind on which way to go.

Glossodoris atromarginata.

Things I learned tonight:

1. Some sea slugs are SOLAR POWERED. They consume photosynthetic cells from the plants they eat and in turn absorb the energy to power themselves. Since usually photosynthetic cells need the originating plant's DNA to operate in this way, that means the sea slugs have also imbibed part of the plant's DNA into its own cells to generate solar power for itself. In layman's terms, sea slugs are like Superman. Or that guy in Heroes who carved out people's brains to take their superpowers after he killed them. (Source)

2. The blue sea dragon actually preys upon the Portuguese Man o' War and CONSUMES THE ENTIRE ORGANISM. This is totally crazy because blue sea dragons are tiny! Not only that, but blue sea dragons are actually more venomous then the Man o' War since they imbibe and store its most venomous threads for later use in their fan-like fingers. (Source.)

GOING FOR IT

2010-11-15T22:51:00.001-05:00

I've been listening to my anxiety. This month has been crazy. It's the last month before ITP applications for Tisch are due. I've decided not to apply.

How did things change so much? From May to November. After a brief stint in Berlin I've stayed in New York, started working, slowly shed the academic world for one that is necessarily increasingly self-guided by your own decisions. I realized this weekend that the only reason I had been planning on going back to grad school next year was a self-induced anxiety about needing more. Once I realized I didn't need to do anything that anyone ever expected, I realized I don't really want to go back to school yet.

I'm making things. I don't need to pile on more responsibilities right now. I'm just making things.

Another year perhaps and I'll go back to bounce around from class to class like a sea sponge, but for now, I'm listening to my instincts. All the signs are pointing elsewhere. I'm going to drop everything and run with my own projects. 'm going to do everything and whatever I want. It will be amazing.

MOVE! AT MOMA PS1

2010-11-02T22:45:00.000-04:00

V Magazine organized an event at MOMA's PS1 in Long Island City last Saturday involving 12 collaborations between artists and fashion designers to create performance-based pieces. Since I'm starving for art now after working so many hours in retail, I asked Neha to go with me.

It was a LOT better than I initially anticipated. I was really expecting shit. Some of it was. Collaborations between Olaf Breuning and Cynthia Rowley? Sounds like a recipe for genuine disaster. But it was alright, except for the angry and distressed models whose job it was to be poured over, and over, and over again with paint for six hours straight. The emphasis on activity, movement, performance and the collaboration itself really seemed to challenge and compel each group to stronger work. My favorites were these two:

Terence Koh and Italo Zucchelli from Calvin Klein (suuch a beautiful and monumental experience.)

Koh and Zucchelli's piece was a simple concept and simple execution with a massive impact. You entered the expansive room through two heavy black curtains and instantly felt transported. The photo is exactly what I saw (albeit lower res, hahah) when I stepped in. The men were gargantuan, 6'4 in height and moved with stiff robotic gestures back and forth from the wall towards each other. I definitely felt as though I had stepped into an alternate dimension, but four fog machines can easily do that. In fact the whole thing just seemed so... easy. That was my only problem with it. Beautiful and surreal for sure -- but hire some larger-than-life models, set up four fog machines with four spotlights angled with that vague cinematic curtain along with the merest hint of otherworldly ambient murmurs and you're set. Art is easy. Just reference the mythical!

Which isn't to say that it's not a good piece. The fundamentals of an aesthetic experience is exactly what I explored in my own stairwell installation at Gallatin a few months ago... two small tweaks in light and sound were enough to have a massive impact on the solitary journey of the individuals who traversed the interspace between the fourth and fifth floors. Anyway, for a collaboration piece this was definitely gratifying.

Brody Condon and Rodarte

Another transportational set. I had more fun at Condon and Rodarte, because I was an unwilling participant in the actual performance. After some observation it became apparent that the rules of the performance were to 1) slowly and constantly move the metal rods in geometric form across the room, and 2) that the movement of the rods should be to slowly intrude upon the clustered audience attempting to shift out of its way. I imagine that a documentation of the performance on fast forward would be really interesting as well, so that the audience's vague, shifting reactions would be more apparent. Also the dancers faces were painted like MOONS! And one of them looked like Moby. Which obviously engenders an automatic ticket of approval for me. What can I say...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2010-10-30T00:12:00.000-04:00

We carved pumpkins at work the other day. I had no idea that pumpkins came small and WHITE but if Whole Foods is selling it on the Bowery then I suppose it can't be that obscure. They're cute!

Marinated these in olive oil, himalayan sea salt and plenty of thyme and rosemary for the full day. Came home, roasted them. About to eat them. They smell SO GOOD. *_* The Boer pumpkin didn't have that many seeds because I picked something small and light (with the intention of cat-ifying it) My coworker, Matt, picked three of the HEAVIEST, BIGGEST, TALLEST pumpkins. Now my arms and back ache from carrying those monsters back to the store.

15% Off Sale on all Black and Orange items in store through Sunday! If you visit, my cat will be there to greet you on the steps!

FABRICS INTERSEASON THINGY SAVES THE WEEK FROM HELL

2010-10-24T02:36:00.001-04:00

Got this "thingy" in the mail from Ritchie just the other night. I spent my first CoC paycheck on it, which was a looot but I LOVE IT! it's amazing and makes me feel a bit like I'm a readymade Beuys performance piece via I Love America and America Loves Me.

Fabrics Interseason thing, Christian Wijnants Tantra pants in starburst pattern and Creatures of Comfort Jade chambray top

The package couldn't have come at a better time. I had probably the roughest week of the year since breaking up with my ex in January. Can't even begin to recap all the horrible news and happenings but it involved two deaths and a lot of feeling depressed and down about my house in Texas getting flooded from the rain in Austin last month. I had to book an emergency trip home this past weekend to help my parents, brother and sister-in-law pack up everything we weren't throwing out or donating. Most things got donated. A lot got thrown out. Lots of conflicting emotions about where I came from and where I'm going, capped off by watching the gardener, Ollie, cart off a ton of our old furniture in a brilliant free-for-all and coming back to New York with broken furniture on my doorstep as soon as I got off the plane. Broken... heirloom furniture. Broken, my-grandpa-had-this-custom-made-and-shipped-from-China-before-i-was-born furniture.

However, I was determined. A trip to Home Depot after work on Thursday and I was gluing the pieces of my parents' ming vase back together again a few hours later... after donating a pint of blood from all the cuts on my fingers from stupidly trying to pull the pieces out of the bubble wrap. Yeah. Not a good week, especially because the trip to Texas meant lugging back a bunch of random shit to clusterfuck my apartment, like, a manual juicer. I'm sure that'll come in handy the next time I want freshly squeeze orange juice though. I also now have a lifetime supply of watercolors, dishtowels, Christmas-themed napkins, negative sleeves and more end tables than my apartment allows room for.

WORK IS TUFF

2010-10-16T12:20:00.000-04:00

Not in the mental exertion sense but in the man-I'm-pooped-after-8-hours-on-my-feet sense. This week I had additional shit to do after hours like getting ready for a trip to Texas so my days dragged on longer into some miserably rainy nights. Clomping around searching for fabric softener and for some reason everyone's out. Even went into the megatropolis Bed Bath and Beyond, got yelled at by a pscyho having a bad day and a particularly hard time with her massive temper. On a brighter note, watched some amazing movies, had some amazing food and bought myself a new lamp to replace the $10 Urban Outfitters one I've had for four years. This one has a name (I've dubbed him Woody because I'm UncReatiVe) and was actually designed (as opposed to barfed out in the shape of a lamp)-- by some dudes in Stockholm.

On Wednesday, Creatures of Comfort had an opening party and book launch event for Signs and Voices, a book/collection of photographs from some kids in Nepal led by Peter Sutherland and Maia Ruth Lee in a 4 day workshop that included mask painting, ferris wheels, scary caves and fog. I worked during, which means 2-3 extra hours of pay which means I'm that much closer to fulfilling my wishlist. Plus, the photos are actually pretty cool! And they're all shot by 14-19 year old deaf and/or street kids from Nepal!

Here's me using my finger to help set-up. Super strenuous labor:

Maia was reeeally sweet and nice and pretty and I liked her a lot! And her enthusiasm for helping kids in Nepal. Creatures is selling the book for $15 and accepting donations for next year's workshop... it only takes a little to really make a difference here: the cameras used in the exhibition cost $4! So $4 could buy a kid in Nepal the means to express himself without words.

Here's the party later:

Somewhere in this crowd and the next room over is a girl who pulled her pants down and took a giant piss in the lobby of the apartment building next door.

TRIPLE-MAJOR OPENS IN BEIJING

2010-10-15T23:06:00.000-04:00

The Triple-Major concept store opened in Beijing this week at 81 Baochao Hutong, Dongcheng District. Our hours are Tues-Sunday 1pm - 8pm.

We're carrying Anntian, Daniel Palillo, Pelican Avenue, Rozalb de Mura, ccchu, complex geometries, Com-pa-ny, Fabrics Interseason, fffixxed and more! Check our website for more updates or order online at our Facebook page before the online store launches next month.

It's free international shipping for orders over $250, and of course tax free!

HOW THE HELLZ DO YOU PRONOUNCE WIJNANTS?

2010-10-01T23:49:00.004-04:00

Seriously, I've been butchering this guy's name for about a year now. So far I'm saying "WEE-J-NANTS" with a soft J like Jacques, but this is maybe probably most definitely wrong since he's from Belgium and not France. I feel like Nomi from Showgirls every time I pause after Christian and before the "Wijjj..." but nobody else around me seems to know what to say either!

Anyway, Christian Wijnants! One of my favorites! His work is soo graceful and luxe albeit super pricey. But compared to Electric Feathers, which is similarly priced, or Zucca, which is totally exorbitantly, WTF-ly priced, Christian Wijnants kind of feels worth it! I mean, hellz yeah I want to wrap myself in a golden velvety cape and melt into the cold misty night like a fairytale!

I love the styling of this shoot as well. Super minimal and unafraid of boobs, neither over the top nor trying to prove a point with a swagger. Just... letting the light do its thing. Also, I love prints that make me feel like a galaxy, and after a friend suggested it I've never stopped thinking about how being a solar system for Halloween would be the best thing...

The fabrics are all so soft and sumptuous too. The knits don't scratch and everything else is some mix of silk and velvety viscose. If collections were food, this collection would be somewhat similar to the amazingly succulent chocolate fudge sorbetto that I had tonight. :9

Photography by Gregory Derkenne.

You can check out Wijnant's work at Project No. 8 or Creatures of Comfort in New York.

CREATURES OF COMFORT NYC

2010-09-22T21:21:00.007-04:00

Creatures of Comfort NYC opened today on 205 Mulberry St, between Spring and Kenmare.
Our operating hours are M-Sat:11AM-7PM, Sun: 12-6PM.

We've been sweating (literally) for a while to get this together... It's a beautiful space with lots of air and light and fun cacti and beautiful clothes! My personal favorite so far are the Lauren Manoogian knits, but I can't wait until Anntian and Stine Goya come in! :) One of the other sales associates, Matthew, made the curtains for the dressing room. Confetti System created a beautiful confetti-like curtain to separate the stock/back-room from the rest of the store. It's worth taking a look at the space just to feel transported for a little while...

Edit: Image courtesy of Creatures of Comfort NYC, the Anntian came in!!! You can see it on in the center of the picture on the end of the rack! We're also carrying Rick Owens Lilies, MM6, Zucca, Rachel Comey, Slow and Steady, Zero Maria Cornejo and some special designer collaborations.

DIA BEACON

2010-09-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago Kate and I went to DIA: Beacon, a short train ride out of the city. It's an art center on the banks of the Hudson that houses work by a lot of modern/post-modern artists. Warhol, Serra, Knoebel, Dan Flavin, the Bechers, Agnes Martin, Joseph Beuys and Louise Bourgeois were all there... but most of that actually felt like obligatory viewing. Like: "Oooh, Beuys is here, let's go see what kooky native myths he draws from for this installation! Oh. Felt. And another walking stick." (My favorite was actually the Niagara Falls postcard series by Zoe Leonard.)

Dia is pretty strict about not allowing photos inside the art center. They even had a laminated sheet of paper with "11X14" printed on it so they could measure the size of your collapsible, flimsy tote bags before entering. I guess if your tote bag was rather more stuffed than usual you could run the risk of banging it into the monumental Richard Serra sculptures, but I rather think that they would do more harm to you than you to it. DON'T TOUCH THE ART signs were basically everywhere, and even though I had a nice time at Dia, it basically epitomizes everything I dislike about galleries. As an art center/museum it certainly feels more alive than the Met, which is about as dynamic as a Berlin air raid shelter on D-Day... but there's still the problem of it being a white box with (mostly) dead white people's stuff inside (+obligatory asians). I personally feel as though art should always do more than simply exist. I guess that's why I want to go to ITP for grad school.

HUMANOID AND TOGA

2010-09-14T17:04:00.000-04:00

Humanoid tank top, Toga pants, Fremont Artisan belt and (not that you can even see them) LD Tuttle shoes.

I got these pants for crazy ridiculous 90% off at the Opening Ceremony sample sale this summer. There's usually a belt that goes with it, but I guess someone had lost it and that's why it was thrown in to the sale. I paired it with a belt my brother designed and wore it to Clayton and Adam's complex geometries presentation today.

NEW DISGUISE

2010-09-10T01:07:00.000-04:00

I needed something I wouldn't scratch up my eyeballz in. I plan on wearing these on "business casual" days, when I need to feel studious, and when I want to disguise myself in peter-pan-collared blouses and gingham socks with brogues. I have a feeling that I will still look dorky in anything with a collar but this NEW LEASE ON LIFE in frames comes as a result of the ecstatic find of something that actually suits my face shape! That and after five years of red-- it was time for a change. (To tortoise shell.)

Training for work starts next Wednesday. Eager and dying to get started because sitting around all day trying to outline my professor's essay into a book-length argument on Connectivity in "Next Media" (The New "New" Media) leaves way too much room for procrastinating on Youtube with searches for "Scottish fold kittens."

TOGA ARCHIVES FW 2010

2010-09-07T20:25:00.002-04:00

Photography by Chikashi Suzuki. Source

Winter superhero alternatives? Can't wait to layer like this again... the weather has been so teasing in New York. :S

MERCURY. RETROGRADE. BAD THINGS.

2010-09-07T20:10:00.000-04:00

This summer i've scratched my corneas twice, broken out in some mysterious allergic reaction to idon'tknowwhat, sprained the top of my foot by stupidly twisting it as I tripped and fallen down at least twice in the past two weeks.

I also went to Berlin and got a job and an iPhone (in that order) so I guess that evens out. This week is my week of Not Doing Stupid Things which basically meant staying in bed because I couldn't walk anyway and eating a lot. As a result I Ate Stupid Things instead like too many Nestle Chocolate Lovers cookies and other carbs in my carb-enriched diet of rice, noodles and dumplings. I've slowly started walking again which makes me feel like Bambi in that part of the movie where he twists his legs like a pretzel and falls over. This is putting my summer list of things to do on hold, like Buying a Toaster. But those things would make me stay inside and turn into a lump of spaghetti anyway because all my lists have food at the top since I'm clearly incapable of spending brain energy on anything else.

On the bright side, I got a job! I start soon, which still isn't soon enough, and I imagine that I'll be surrounded by clothes and sunny things all day long, which suits my personality.

SOFT-CORE BONDAGE AND BLONDIE

2010-08-22T23:07:00.009-04:00

Today was one of those creepily beautiful grey days in New York where you're walking along and all of a sudden the sky takes a giant piss on you. Except it goes on for about half an hour and throws in a lot of angry huffing and puffing and that's when you know that the sky is actually a pimply hormonal teenager taking an angst-ridden dump.

Tisch gave me a $25 gift card to The Strand Bookstore. I ambled over after brunch and bought a gigantic anthology of ARAKI NOBUYOSHI's work but I did look for Kohei Yoshiyuki and linger with Stephen Shore and Will Eggleston a bit too. I mean, a gift card to a bookstore is like getting free reign in the Garden of Eden, without the serpents and doom part. Which juicy plump fresh fruit should I pluck next? A peach? That Sweet Chilean Plum that I still dream about? Strawberries? Should I just go with a coconut? Something more exotic? That was me today-- Stephen Shore? Candida Hofer? Something more classic... like Walker Evans? Even Michael Kenna was represented but to be honest Michael Kenna next to Stephan Shore and Candida Hofer looks like tourist postcards. The ARAKI anthology was a bit beat up from weathered years on the shelf. I thought of all the pimply hormonal teenagers who probably picked it up to rifle through the pages in secret, angling the spine away from passersby to satisfy their fetishistic urges.

But I had to pick ARAKI. I knew it before I entered that I would leave with the biggest book of his I could find... In this WASPy, Anglo-Saxon culture dominated with WASPy, Anglo-Saxon imagery, naked Japanese girls accessorized with ropes and dinosaur toys is just what we need to remind ourselves that this land is not just for Blondie. It's also mine. And I choose soft-core bondage wrapped in a glossy red Taschen package.

TIME TO EAT AND PET NEW DOGS

2010-08-22T17:54:00.007-04:00

SUMMER TWENTYTEN. MORE TACKY PHOTOS. I can't do anything else.

A friend made fun of me for taking this picture. "PIGEONS?" she said, "Seriously, Sarah?" I'm still trying to aestheticize trash. Also I was blind at the moment. But still... I feel like I could give each pigeon a name in this clan. That's enough. Guess which one's Daisy. Double points for Trenton.

Chomp.

I'm shocked I lined up the doorway and the frame at this point of the night.

AN ENGLISH COCKER SPANIEL NAMED FREEWAY! Dogs never get any lovin' here but I couldn't resist Freeway... he was so adorable. Kate said he "smelled like dog." Yes Kate, it's a dog.

Funny how tacky and lighthearted this looks in color, and how surreal and effervescent in B&W Tri-X 400. Oh wait, it's a disposable from Walgreens.

TIME TO WORK

2010-08-20T13:47:00.003-04:00

My body won't let me sleep in anymore.

SLEEP EAT AND ANIME

2010-08-17T00:34:00.005-04:00

I've just been sleeping, catching up on anime and eating food since the Tisch program ended. Today my cravings include green tea and red bean popsicles, chips and queso from the taco truck behind Union Pool, vine tomatoes grilled with rosemary, a meatball smash from The Meatball Shop and cheddar flavored goldfish crackers. This list reads like a depressed Midwestern teenager but in fact I am simply taking a break from functional human behavior for a while. This is obviously to recharge myself for the Super-Awesome-Rest-of-My-Life that will follow shortly thereafter. Updates on my "weblog" coming soon... to a.. future near here somewhere.

This summer I have accidentally found myself at some sample sales which means good things for both me and my mom, since I've been taking the opportunity to buy things for her too. The other day at Project No. 8 I overheard someone discard a nice dress saying a certain quality of the fabric added too much specificity, which was interesting. Since then I've been thinking a lot about specificity and whether being timeless automatically denotes good taste or not. My closet has been heading at the speed of light TOWARDS specificity so I guess I could say I'm biased (especially since my closest friends are people like Ritchie who post about inflatable or poofy outfits for young aliens...) but I did appreciate the speaker's outfit-- she looked like you could plop her in the middle of Paris in any decade! But it didn't really make me want to know who she was. And she only looked like she could be anyone in Paris in any decade.

LEFTOVERS: MORNING IN MONTAUK

2010-08-05T01:18:00.003-04:00

I just had this roll processed and spent all day scanning! These shots are actually from a year ago at Montauk (I recently revisited my trip there in my post, OCEAN PLANETARIUM) but the roll never got processed because I never finished it. A year later it was hastily finished so that I could test a roll of B&W film for the Tisch high school program (which is now ending in 2 days).

We stayed in a hotel across from a cemetery. For Neha's birthday, this somehow seemed appropriate. She picked the place.

Kit Kat Kate. Noon; departure.

Our sad rental.

Thank you friends and pseudo-friends for staying calm and carrying on when I slide out the FM2. Kate used to freeze up and stare angrily at me whenever I did that but thankfully I've eased up a bit on my madness and she's relaxed a bit. In other news, Stephanie is lost in Shanghai but not really, just emotionally marooned. Neha is in Canada, Kate will be leaving soon for some deserted island with her parents, and lucky me, I'm going to be off and out of work in 2 days to enjoy the friendless summer afternoons! My new best friend will be Kate's cat, whom I hope will be more inclined to play rather than snap, scratch and bite.

TEMARI AND TENUGUI

2010-07-24T21:06:00.004-04:00

My sister left for Shanghai to work as a student ambassador for the USA Pavilion at the World Fair earlier this week. Before she left we sent each other some packages in the mail. Mine arrived last Friday, which was probably the worst day of summer for me so far. What I thought was an eye infection was actually a scratched cornea in both eyes which means sunlight is super painful... anyway, the package cheered me up SOO much! I went from doom and gloom to instant sunshine. I love my twin! :D

Its called a temari ball! My sister wrote a note saying that it was first popular in 18th century Japan... people would play catch with it. I don't play catch with it but i sort of toss it up and down absentmindedly at my desk sometimes.

She also sent me a tenugui, which is a piece of cotton fabric that can be used for wiping, wrapping, clothes or decorating. This one looks like corn which is awesome and is pretty fun when I wear my new Stine Goya pants that my sister also sent me from Creatures of Comfort.

In other news TAing has been a LOT of work but also a lot of fun. Today I presented my portfolio of work to the students and just went through my website systematically (it's been recently updated) going from old old old high school era digital paintings, to photographs, to appropriated glitches, soundscapes, Super Mario in Youtube Land and photobooth videos.

PICNIC AT CEDAR HILL

2010-07-16T22:09:00.003-04:00

First roll of B&W in 3 years. I processed and scanned these earlier this week. The picnic this year was sunny (too sunny) but the food was good. Asparagus and goat cheese tart, I'm still dreaming of you! MMM. On the menu: Ciabatta and Olive bread with hummus, brie, some other cheeses, cherries, lychee, blueberries and blackberries, asparagus and goat cheese tart, potato and onion tart, vietnamese pork sandwiches and a watercress, fennel and edible flower salad! Jake brought little cheesecakes from Eileen's. Tricia brought cupcakes. We busted out prosecco and the food went surprisingly quickly. (Every year I worry that we cook too much).

Work has been really fun, but I'm still battling a viral infection which is making things a bit difficult. I finally made a doctor's appointment for next Tuesday since it started getting worse this Thursday... I have a bad habit of being irrationally confident in my immune system to battle things out on its own.

GOOD BYE ROSE GARDEN

2010-07-13T22:43:00.002-04:00

Just a quick video I did in Berlin to say goodbye to my neighborhood, a sketch of an idea...

ROSE GARDEN from Sarah Chow on Vimeo.

very very rough cut. Had a dream about a different video project landscape panorama the other night that I want to try... will attempt that when I have more time! It had pink houses, trains, gifs, an animated rolling plain and objects all moving at their own staccato rhythm.

VERY MISC POST

2010-07-07T18:01:00.005-04:00

I spent 4 hours the other day organizing and re-labeling my film from the past year and a half. Looking through some of the rolls I shot in America made me realize how much fun this country can be sometimes, even though I'm still pining for Berlin. Here are some MISC SHOTS from the land of plenty:

New Hampshire, L.A & New York.

I processed a roll of B&W film today for the first time in 3 years, which was a very nostalgic experience. It was a test run for the high school program that's coming in next Sunday since I'm demoing B&W film processing to them. I forgot how much the chemicals smell and how the smallest bit stains your hands and how opening the roll in the dark is actually kind of potentially lethal! I nearly stabbed myself with the can opener. I made it my goal this summer to 1) shoot more (nice) film, and 2) start exercising (a.k.a. yoga-ing) but both of those are really fucking hard to do when it's 100 degrees out and you don't want to move from the coldness of your comforters... hard enough to run errands in this heat much less lug around extra weight!

GOODBYE BERLIN

2010-06-30T18:00:00.006-04:00

I miss Berlin so much! The three weeks felt like three months, and then it felt like no time at all. I'm back in New York and still wishing I wasn't. It was so nice to wake up to birds and bicycles and a leafy green view from my window... to walk down by the canal around sunset and watch the ducks and swans on the water. The strawberries were delicious and sweet, not like these strawberries-on-steroids by Driscoll... New York in comparison is so stifling right now. So hot you can't breathe.

It would be nice to spend another summer here, but I don't know where I'll be or what I'll be doing yet a year from now. For now it's just navigating the little bits of shade and cold drinks to cool down...

BACK FROM BERLIN.

2010-06-27T13:10:00.002-04:00

CREATURES OF THE DEEP

2010-06-19T20:00:00.006-04:00

Further proof that the world is not doomed:

Went to "The Zoo" of Berlin today... Zoologischer Garten. Took 130+ photos. Probably 100 of them are in the Aquarium. I love salt water fish and ecosystems, they're so unbelievable! There was also a Giant Chinese Salamander, one of my favorite sea creatures, for their happy smiley faces. Basically zonked out against the glass of one of the exhibits for a while and when I came to I realize there was a fish staring and floating in front of my face.

OLAFUR ELIASSON

2010-06-10T19:02:00.004-04:00

Your blind movement, 2010
Rooms full of fog and fluorescent light.

Water pendulum, 2010
Water, hose, pump and strobe lights. There is only one rope of water, but I opened my shutter speed a little longer on the last photo to catch 3 different strobes on the sensor to imprint the photograph with the illusion of three. You can see the movement of the hose in a spiral more easily this way.

Olafur Eliasson is one of my favorite artists. He was born in Copenhagen in '67 and lives and works in Berlin now. One of his more famous installations, The weather project, was opened at the Tate Modern in London in '03. You should definitely Google the images for The weather project but I'm not sure anything does it justice. Does it come close enough to the experience of being there? After comparing my paltry images of Your blind movement with the experience itself, I'm a little saddened that I can't bring or show anyone else more of what I saw (or rather what I didn't see) there...

It was a beautiful show! There were two other amazing pieces but security guards were hawking around those areas a little more closely and photography was actually prohibited in the exhibit. The show, Innen Stadt Außen, is running until August 9th at Martin-Gropius-Bau, conveniently located next to the old SS and Gustapo headquarters where the Topologie of Terror is now located!

BERLIN, days 01-03

2010-06-09T12:30:00.008-04:00

Berlin has been so beautiful, airy and light! I'm staying in Kreuzberg for the next three weeks, which is next to Engeldam where a small river winds through rows of dormant houses and where a section of the Berlin Wall used to stand. The air is full of cotton fluffs right now that float around on lazy breezes and remind me of the cherry blossom petals in the spring in New York. Same wonderland feeling. I've been so busy that I haven't really had time to go off on my own except to the grocery store yet. They sell golden kiwis here which are one of my favorite fruits so I've been stocking up on those for breakfast in the morning. The sun doesn't set until 10PM here and then dusk stretches on for about an hour, so time feels like an endless summer of chirping birds and passing bicycles.

Today, went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe (aka the Holocaust Memorial) which was initially a joint design between Richard Serra and Peter Eisenman. Serra's influence is obvious. The imposing structure, the care with which the individual experience within the labyrinth is constructed... he dropped the project after there were questions concerning the design's inaccessibility for the handicapped.

The memorial itself was intensely humbling but also scorching hot. I've gotten about 3 shades darker now, especially since the sun apparently baked my skin THROUGH my dress. Yesterday was even longer-- I was out/about for 12 hours straight, from 9:30AM to 10PM, getting home just as the sun had set. We ended our day at a bar near Alexanderplatz that was really nice. It reminded me of a cafe in Omotesando in Harajuku, Tokyo called Mother Kurkuru. (The Japanese would love Berlin,) Big windows/a glass box establishment, long curtains from the 2nd level to the ground floor, low comfortable seats... set against trees. The owner of this bar also owns an art gallery nearby where, because of the Berlin Biennial, an art opening/party is happening on Saturday. Apparently it's not uncommon for late night events to START at 6AM here and stretch through the entire fucking weekend. I asked someone how anyone has the stamina for that and he responded-- "Stamina? You mean 'How does anyone have the drugs for that.'" Right. I forgot.

Tomorrow I'm seeing Olafur Eliasson. Will pee my pants in excitement. More to come.

P.S. the Berlin Tegel airport is the coolest airport I've ever flown into. It feels like flying into the Cold War!

HAVE A POPSICLE

2010-05-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you see an update on your favorite webshop and you go bonkers over the colors and gradiated pixel-like patterns and know there's a reason why this particular LA store is opening up a second location in Nolita soon:

I LOOOOOVE THIS SHIT OH MY GOD. WAH. SUNSETS AND FIREFLIES AND STRAWBERRY SORBET AND FRESH RASPBERRIES! Oh shit. I'm starting to sound like I'm describing fro-yo instead of Stine Goya. But it's really impossible not to think of fruit-flavored popsicles and mint perched frozen in ice cubes melting in the summer sun with this.

Love these clothes. Like Stine Goya. (Although the previous collections are kind of "..." for me.) Thumbs up for summer and Creatures of Comfort for awesome curatorial selection once again. I like them a lot with the Rachel Comey backpacks too... and since we're talking about ideal dreams anyway I'd also like them with the LD Tuttle Moon shoes rather than the heels they used to model the clothes on the website.

ENZUVAN, JF&SON

2010-05-28T16:18:00.007-04:00

dress by Enzuvan, bag by JF & Son.

I don't know much about Enzuvan, but it's a brand that Oak just started carrying from South Korea. The website is down now but before that it looked like it hadn't been updated since 2005.

JF & SON on the other hand is a light, airy boutique that opened up on Elizabeth and Kenmare last September. They only carry their house brand along with collaborations with other lesser known designers... Very refreshing as all the other boutiques opening up are more of a curatorial selection of the same handful of designers. This jumpsuit in the store window literally stopped me in my tracks as I was walking by a few weeks ago. It was designed for Peter Labier of Psychobuildings for a stage costume but didn't fit.. so now it's hanging in their store window arresting passerbys in a fit of silvery tassels!

I found myself lugging half the store into the dressing room with me to try things out last time I was there. Their lightweight, airy clothes with an emphasis on subdued but beautiful patterns and comfort is exactly what I want to take with me to Berlin.

VOODOO SALOON

2010-05-28T01:41:00.005-04:00

From here my future looks like a yawning question mark. Or space, gaping infinitude with distant, toothy specks of indiscernible shape. Everything is beautiful, but I'm not exactly sure how to explain my place in it anymore. I'm not worried about anything so much as latching on to every single familiar object and pasttime of my youth. So after my sister left New York last week after a SUPER BRIEF visit, I've been listlessly moving from Harry Potter to sci-fi to old school Super Nintendo (currently obsessed with Chester Cheetah) and baking cookies.

I'm going to Berlin next week. Almost exactly a week from now. Won't be staying too long, but it will be a noticeable length of time. I suspect I'll be taking a lot of photos but I hear the Internet connection there is slow as molasses. In any case, I haven't much thought about it yet... It still seems so far away. I've been busy pigggggging out since undergrad ended. Neha and I have been working on some super fun surprise gifts for our friends which I'm documenting and will probably post next week... THEY'RE SO UNBELIEVABLY CUTE IT'S HARD TO CONTAIN MYSELF. I can't explain more because Neha will choke me with her voodoo.

Speaking of whom, last week we went to Salon 94 in the Upper East Side to check out the Rick Owens furniture show.

The furniture was great. I mean, mink curtains and a 2 ton alabaster bed? Wow. Unfortunately I thought the rest of the gallery and the strangely curated living room/space upstairs was far more interesting, dynamic, engaging and livable... it's always the breadth and range of juxtaposed curios, ideas, objects, images, etc. that interests me. So much more imaginative and wonderful!

It was a great mix of different art from different genres. Favorite was obviously the GIANT Chiho Aoshima on the wall and the frog table. And do I really need a frog table? Yes-- yes I do! It would look SOOO great in my apartment.... the wood was so nice and soft too. I thought the Kara Walker in the dining room worked really great with the cacti in a small room as well.

30 SECONDS OF PARADISE

2010-05-23T11:50:00.005-04:00

A series of 30~ second shorts I did last month on escapism through time/space, image and longing.

The medium was Photobooth on a Macbook Pro. The original photographs are by myself. (1- Hamptons, 2- Japan, 3- Hong Kong) The intent was to reinterpolate myself into the authentic and unique time and (in this case, non-)space of the image to explore the applied uses of photography towards longing, posession and escapism.

THE PEONY STANDS AND WALKS AWAY

2010-05-12T23:05:00.000-04:00

Actually I never understood that line from Wong Kar Wai's 2046. I feel like it must be a linguistic nuance lost in translation but I'm not sure. This week Neha came to my apartment to film me & Pey in a casual/contemporary rendition of In the Mood for Love and I had a bunch of white peonies, which I swear I didn't get because of the intertitle from 2046, but because it's peony season and I love them.

Neha and $10,000 worth of camera equipment.

Neha breaking things as usual. (kidding!)

You can see some of my Glitch work in the back behind Neha here. I never really documented the pieces when they were exhibited at The Technology Show which is bad, but whatever. Now they sit on the floor of my apartment because I have nowhere to put them.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

2010-05-10T21:56:00.004-04:00

Fantastic Voyage, 1966.

Fantastic Voyage was a fantastic voyage but it didn't bring me anywhere.

It was a mostly gratuituous exploration of the human body from the "miniaturized" viewpoint of a team of scientists coupled with lots of art direction and the best rendition of computer programming that existed in the 60's, which involved a lot of charmingly analog technology.

The best part of this is (obviously) the visuals. I love how visions of the future from the past seem sometimes to totally miss the mark but in a completely on-the-mark way. The obsession with minutiae, with the incremental scales of time coupled with the physical reduction of scale was pretty on point in terms of technological affects on society. The general and his sugar addiction, the clinical sterile rooms contrasted by the dynamic and colorful landscape of the human body stretching infinitely inward, signaling a different sort of unexplored horizon to tunnel towards... all good in theory.

But the worst part of this was its total inability to identify a foe. Rather than a specific threat, there is only an ambiguous "Other," which is evil by default since it grazes vaguely against philosophies of fanaticism and agnosticism. Not much else is defined. The characters are pretty stock, but dissatisfyingly so. In contrast, mysticism and the American ideal is elevated along with a lot of bigotry about women and the excruciatingly predictable, cleft-chinned, blue-eyed, slick-haired, smooth-talking hero. Even the cheesy one-liners which I generally like just couldn't save it for me, especially when those one-liners were only used to to semi-pull the plot structure back onto the whodunnit mystery, which was, in the end, incontrovertibly sidetracked by ghostly visions of amoeba-like blood cells in plasma.

It felt like there were two different stories at hand: the mystery of the human body and its interior space of infinite complexity, and the mystery of the external threat, paralleled by the immune system attacks on the crew but really just disparate and disjointed narratives that never seem to coalesce into any coherent message.

ASSORTMENT OF IRRATIONAL DESIRES

2010-05-08T03:10:00.003-04:00

Fabrics Interseason (white layering, volume, billowy), A Détacher Orlan jumpsuit (leafy print), Creatures of Comfort long white dress, GIF cat

Tom Scott sheer billowy pants (tried these on in-store, they feel amazing), Anntian hand-printed tights, a loopy A Détacher pillow...

+ minimal furniture and big windows with leafy views from e15.

More e15 furniture:

Check out their website here: e15.com

P.S. My sound & light installation critique on Tuesday went great! Installing in the stairwell took forever, especially popping open the cover of those fluorescent lights on the ceiling when we didn't have the appropriate ladder. But once everything got put up I got a lot of positive feedback from faculty and students. Some people thought I was a masters student putting up a thesis. Umm... no. Haha. Negative reviews included confusion on why the lights were suddenly flooding a deep cyan and someone challenging whether it was a good idea to change the lights in a stairwell that is intended for evacuation in the event of a fire. Fortunately I had the installation plan approved by the building manager so it was fine. The sounds were a 15 minute loop that cycled from night to day with surreal touches via volcanic explosions, static, clapping, crickets, rain, distant wind in a hanger, loud knocking, monster growls, slow creaking, reversed hand-claps and footsteps. I covered two of the main floors in the stairwell but the sounds reverberated through the whole building. It was a lot of fun! The installation is up until the gallery assistant has time to help me take it down... which could be another few days.

DIGITAL FOLKLORE AND PYRAMID POWER

2010-05-05T00:44:00.000-04:00

Reading list for summer:
The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
Storyteller by Walter Benjamin
Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins
The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine
Journals & Notebooks by Susan Sontag
Image, Music & Text by Roland Barthes

and probably some fiction, starting with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, hahah.

CUEVA DE LOS CRISTALES

2010-05-02T21:30:00.001-04:00

Sometimes it feels like humanity sucks and the world is doomed, but then you remember things like this actually exist. Which is pretty much the reason why I could never be a pessimist...

From the wiki:
Naica lies on an ancient fault and there is an underground magma chamber below the cave. The magma heated the ground water and it became saturated with minerals, including large quantities of gypsum. The hollow space of the cave was filled with this mineral rich hot water and remained filled for about 500,000 years. During this time, the temperature of the water remained very stable at over 50°C. This allowed microscopic crystals to form and grow. They continued to grow to immense sizes.

More pictures and the National Geographic article here: Cave of the Crystal Giants in Chihuahua, Mexico.

On another note, I am almost done with school! Last week was my week of final projects/presentations/papers... I'm installing a sound installation into the stairwell of my school for Finals week also which I get critiqued on for a class next Tuesday and then I'm essentially done. One of my professors is trying to convince me that it would be a good idea to go to the graduation commencement ceremony, but those sorts of things make me really anxious and i've always hated those strange ritualistic expectations involved, so instead, my sister is just going to come visit me!

Edit: Some of my responses on formspring are just disappearing. I have no idea where they went, but they always seem to have "issues" with "delays." :(

OCEAN PLANETARIUM

2010-04-26T19:10:00.007-04:00

We came here last August for Neha's birthday. I've been thinking about this beach a lot lately. Something about the rocks. (They reminded me of planets, and the sand like swirling nebulas.)

And how removed it felt. You could only hear the waves crashing against stone monoliths.

I would really like to come back to this place but I know it wouldn't be the same. The sky wouldn't be grey, or there would be trash littered amongst the planet-rocks. I wonder if we'll ever do things like this again?

COLLOQUIUM COLLOQUIUM COLLOQUIUM

2010-04-23T11:34:00.001-04:00

Inspiration Board #8

2010-04-20T02:34:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately most of these images came from tumblr with no photo credit. The woman on the left is Lauren Bacall, on the right, Charlotte Rampling. Burmese Prince (source) in the center and an old science textbook illustration in the top left.

BAMBOO SHOOT TRIBE

2010-04-18T01:47:00.000-04:00

My sister's doing a project on Japanese subcultures and sent me this link last night... the first Harajuku subculture in 1980!

The video is amazing, hahah.

Apparently they were high schoolers and liked to dance to disco candy pop in Arabian dress on the weekends. They would go dance, people would go watch, and as a result thousands of people just flooded in.

$6.00 A YEAR, 60¢ THE COPY

2010-04-16T17:58:00.000-04:00

I wandered into a second hand junk shop in Greenpoint last weekend and found some old copies of National Geographic. Each issue was only $1! Which is funny because I guess that's still $0.40 more than the last guy paid for it, hahah...

The cover on the right is from 1953. Love how it's simply the table of contents, the way old pamphlets might have been designed. The titles of the articles are funny too: "YANKEE SAILOR WHO OPENED JAPAN." Um, you mean Commodore Perry? (Speaking of which, I visited the town he made landfall on once, it's a reeeallyy beautiful village called Shimoda with the most amazing hot springs).

Apparently this ape has friends in Washington and knows how to dance.

Generally I stay away from junk shops because of the moldy, dilapidated smell, but I would go back to this one just for more issues! They had an entire bookshelf of issues from the 50's, 70's and 80's. I put down a King Tut cover that I'd love to go back for, but at the time I only had $8 on me, so I spent it all on Nat Geo rather than on lunch. It's also fun to see the old advertisements for cameras, because apparently "Minolta helps you enjoy lunch with your friends" and "Kodak makes your pictures count!"

GHOST IN THE PALMS

2010-04-12T01:44:00.000-04:00

Masaaki Miyazawa

I was going to post this last night and write something about how we had 2 days of (real) summer here and ever since it's been not-quite-warm-enough so I like this picture because it reminds me of the complete abandon that only summer brings (coupled with an eerie quality of the night/night-vision/kohei yoshiyuki-style-park-esque photography), but then I heard about this huuge 7-alarm fire in Chinatown on Twitter and I got distracted.

As a result I am far less eloquent today. I'm sorry if that run-on sentence was hard to read, it was hard to type too and I got confused in the middle. In any case, everything distracts me lately because when you have to read a 50 page chapter on "JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT" in a book called "THE WEALTH OF NETWORKS" you'd rather be doing anything else... like listening to sound recordings from World of Warcraft in order to mine them for an audio installation on the 27th. I've been listening to a lot of grunting orcs and gnomes joking about platform boots, I'll say that much. Every time i hear that I just think GOTH HEELS a la Luxirare & my friend Violet.

I've been thinking about this photo a lot lately too:

Kinga Rajzak by Viviane Sassen for Pop! (I love everything in and about this editorial.)

Is it strange to wish you had blue skin and dusky/dusty hair? It reminds me a bit of the demons in Akira Kurosawa's Yume that I blogged about in February... maybe that's why I like it so much?

KATIE GALLAGHER

2010-04-06T21:58:00.001-04:00

I want to like Katie Gallagher, I really do. I think a ton of her pieces are individually amazing and pretty, especially some of the pseudo-leggings/pants/tights/things in her FW '10 collection, "The Heart of the Woods and What I Found There."

(F/W '10)

It's just that the styling of the models in the lookbook on her website really kills me. I've been through it six times now and each time I'm still disappointed. Katie! What the hell! I'm not sure exactly what the lookbook is trying to achieve except "This is how to wear my clothes in a really dumbed down way if you can't think of anything more creative." It's like a lesson in dressing for dummies. It's not inspiring. I always feel like its up to the layman to make things trite, not the designer. The designer/artist brings h/er visions to life and manifests them. Sometimes into a more consumable form for practical, business purposes, sure, but in the process I want to be pummeled over the head with those visions, not spoonfed.

(From the S/S '10 collection.. I do like this swingy thing on top.)

Anyway, the clothes as individual pieces are really, really good. I think in terms of layering and buying one piece or two to incorporate into a wardrobe, they'd be successful. It's just that as a whole, it feels lacking... and I think it might just be the styling. And I also don't want to sound crazy but I also feel like it could be a little less... wearable. i.e. more wild, more avant? Especially since she's going there already, why not all the way? I'm also pretty weirded out by the choices in shoes.

In any case, it's still very much worth a peek, as you can see, so visit her website here: www.katiegallagher.com. The good thing is that the lookbook is the only bothersome thing, her pieces individually are fun. Although there aren't any stockists listed on the website, I did find some pieces available for purchase at EVA, if you live in New York.

THE FIFTH ELEMENT

2010-04-04T01:47:00.000-04:00

I can't resist. Sometimes I am revolted by tacky, corny, stupid shit, but when that tacky, corny, stupid shit comes packaged in the form of outerspace, futuristic paradise, girls who kick ass and gratuituous fashion wrapped in a Jean-Paul Gaultier bow, I embrace it with open arms.

I LOVE The Fifth Element.

I think its one of the best tacky movies ever made. It's a bit like Serenity-- a close disaster, but so gratuitous, self-aware and packed with cheesy one-liners that I fell in love.

It's not a really good movie, it's just a really good really bad movie. I like watching it when I want to disengage and go back to the future for a bit. Sometimes I feel like I belong there more than I belong right now, and, since one of my professors told me today that I looked straight out of Blade Runner, I guess that's true. Although to be honest I was wearing a bit too much color for a futuristic dystopia... hand-dyed sunrise-gradient tights by Anntian don't really scream FUTUREDOOM to me. I liked Hayden's description, however: winged warrior. Warrior? Like Lightning from FF13? Yessssss. IF I COULD JUST BE HER RIGHT NOW, THAT WOULD BE GREAT.

TWO TYPES OF SPRINGS

2010-04-02T01:54:00.000-04:00

1. I signed up for Formspring 2 months ago and got a mysterious question from ANONYMOUS right away although I never published the URL. Or did I? I don't remember, if I did, I probably deleted it right away knowing myself, although someone sneaky must have been too quick on the uptake for me... In any case, I A) will probably delete this again soon and B) foresee a weekend of boredom since I've been assigned to read a book titled "THE WEALTH OF NETWORKS" which looks as exhilarating as it sounds...

So ask me anything:

http://www.formspring.me/sarahchow

2. The cherry blossoms bloomed today! I can't wait to lay out in the sun on someone else's blanket and eating food that I probably spent too much money on for my friends.

PLANET WHITE T-SHIRT at SPACE15TWENTY

2010-03-24T16:32:00.001-04:00

Eep, things have been so hectic for me I barely had time to eat or sleep last week! Getting through the Project White T-Shirt installation and exhibition opening in sunny LA was fun and nice and relaxing but then I came back to New York with reality crashing around my ears: projects, paper, assignments, reading, everything that had been neglected or pushed aside for the exhibition opening instead. After not sleeping at all Wednesday night to write a 10 page paper on Walter Benjamin and "The Mechanics of Fragmentation" I hope this was all worth it.

Me

My sister

We spent four days total installing the show with help from Anthony (who apparently is in a band called Mickey and the Mouses but mysteriously HAS NO INTERNET PRESENCE--I knew he was one of those types who don't have a Facebook... it's all good-- annddd Jasmin! Jasmin was so much fun! She's a twin too, like me and Steph. We took twin pictures together! You can find it on the Space15Twenty flickr but I'm not linking it because I think I look pretty bad as usual.

These laundry symbol boxes, which were rough simulations of "planets" that hung from the ceiling, took five hours to stencil, spray paint, and deconstruct Ritchie's endearingly shitty scotch tape and construction paper prototypes.

The show finally started coming together after much forceful effort on the 3rd day. Tania helped a lot at this point with setting up the mannequins.

We finally started arranging the layout. Ritchie wanted it all in a row. Mannequins on one side, paintings on one side, and the clotheslines on one side. Uhmm, no.

Complex Geometries

The ultimate arrangement was much better. We spent a good hour and a half arguing about where to put things and why, and I think it ended up looking much better as a result.

LA was probably the most fun I've had since last summer in Japan! I ate sooooo much delicious food (but missed out on my favorite, tamales! how could I forget tamales? I think it was because everything else was so good..) including an entire platter of sea urchin, good, authentic thai food at Pailin, tacos from tacozone, tostadas, moroccan mint boba... mmm.

I can't wait to go back.

2010-03-23T00:02:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted these shoes.

(screencapped from The Fifth Element)

2010-03-22T01:52:00.000-04:00

LA was the most fun I've had in months and I can't wait to go back. Pictures and stories soon.

LEFTOVERS

2010-03-07T16:16:00.000-05:00

Hi Ritchie!

After lunch with Camille at the Spotted Pig a few weeks ago, Ritchie and I walked along the highline to Milk Studios to kill time before Patrik Ervell. His jacket is awesome, I tried it on and if it was just a little smaller/fit me better in the arms I would have begged to borrow it for the rest of the week... which I already did to his Walter Van Beirendonck scarf anyway. It's by Mundi whom we featured in Project White T-Shirt and reminds me of an alien space hunter.

Troops.

Camille, abashed escapee from the ~~pretentious~~ crowded throng of Milk Studios.

SUNNY SIDE UP

2010-03-06T15:56:00.000-05:00

I went shopping today because when the weather is finally bright and sunny for the first time in five months, that's really all you can do.

Perforated suede boots by Jeffrey Campbell at Oak

Straw visor by Fabrics Interseason at Project No. 8

Next week I'm going to LA for some warm weather, food, sister time and the Project White T-Shirt opening at Space 15 Twenty. Stoked about the food. I can't lie, food in New York is great but it's mostly gourmet or pizza and cheap take-out. What if all I want is a tamale that's fatter than my fist stuffed with fresh ingredients? What about a crunchy tostada with crispy fresh lettuce, tomatoes and all manners of heavenly deliciousness (sans avocado)?? At dinner with the guys behind Complex Geometries (Clayton and Adam) a few weeks ago they mentioned a cafe or some place that sells pancakes bigger than your face. I am excited. Can't get that in New York. Hello LA!

Too bad my doctor just told me I had to cut back on alcohol, green tea, dairy, and eat more often but less in each sitting. :( How am I supposed to eat more but less when these pancakes are calling my name? and the tamales? and the korean barbeque? and Ritchie tells me there's an entire plate of SEA URCHIN (my favorite) at a place called Shabu Shabu....

Sigh.

DAMIR DOMA

2010-03-04T00:12:00.001-05:00

I just had a heart attack:

Damir Doma, SS10
ASYLUM OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND SERENE PSYCHOPATHS

SS10 - PALAIS DE TOKYO from Damir Doma.

SWOONING. I'M SWOONING! I want to be a scarlet psychopath in Damir Doma's world.

And that's not even all, each one of Damir Doma's three shows are gut wrenching manifestations of what my sister called "moody" and what I would rather call moody ethereality. I can't even hold myself back from posting all this.

AW 09

One of the beautiful things about Damir Doma is that even though his work is "menswear" in the loosest sense that the clothes are presented on male models... it essentially transcends these gender distinctions. For the first time in his AW10 show, Doma presents his clothes on three female models which is presented as a sort of climactic twist in the video presentation but which in reality is already so easily translatable that the appearance of a woman on the runway for Doma comes not as a gasp of surprise but an exhalation (or exaltation?) of relief. Yes, of course! OF COURSE. I want Doma's clothes for myself as much as I groan over Rick Owens or Robert Geller.

You can buy some of Damir Doma's accessories at oki-ni (or if you're in New York, at Atelier) or visit his website to see all the videos and collections (which I highly, highly recommend) at www.damirdoma.com

Er-

2010-03-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

After the Suno presentation a few weeks ago, I've been trying to figure out a way to get my hair to stick up like the hilt of a samurai sword. This didn't work though, obviously. It was fun to play with during the blizzard earlier this week anyway.

I started growing out my hair about a year ago and now I'm not sure what to do with it. It's getting so long its almost unmanageable now, and is definitely a beast if I don't have it pulled back in a bun in some way. This winter I've had to figure out all sorts of way to tame it, and on the days when I let it down to be ~free~ it ends up whiplashing me in the face.

But a few months ago, my sister sent me a little box of Crede's hair treatment, "er" from a salon in Little Tokyo in LA. Weird name, i know. BUT IT'S FUCKING FANTASTIC. I've since learned it's "big in Japan" and every review I read online raves about its silky smooth punch in the face. So i'm just... adding to the clamor. Crede. Er. it's good.

Yes, Neha, this is probably going on my list of things I sound like a broken record about.

And while we're on the topic of recommendations:

CHILEAN SWEET LEMON PLUMS!
Sooooo goood! They taste a little bit like a honey strawberry wobbled over a garden and injected its juice into the seed of a plum and it grew out like this. They smell amazing too.

PLANET WHITE T-SHIRT at SPACE15TWENTY

2010-02-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Project White T-shirt is opening in L.A. at Space15Twenty on March 20th! I will be in L.A. for the opening and a week before to help install and eat lots of delicious, wholesome, hearty food made from fresh ingredients with crispy lettuce and crunchy bread in warm weather.... along with Steph and Ritchie, the whole Triple-Major team, together! yay. We're going off the idea of a planetarium and building an observatory of sorts in the gallery space with a telescope, goodie bags and spacey music. More to come but we can't tell yet, shh.

There will be an in-house silent auction for the pieces set up during the opening and running for the length of the exhibition. As always, the online exhibition at www.projectwhitetshirt.com also supports a silent auction, where you can bid any time.

I have to say, with a theme like space (my favorite theme ahhh!! Can you tell yet? Am I that predictable?) I had a bit more fun designing this poster than the last... hence the Planet of the Apes font. The postcard we're mailing out salutes Star Wars too, hahah.

HAIRY VULTURE

2010-02-25T17:14:00.000-05:00

"'Hair Culture' for Fall 2010 was inspired by the salon and all things hairy. The title of the collection comes from a book Scott found on ebay from 1921 that is a how-to guide for taking care of your hair. The work of the artists Ellen Gallagher, Erich Steinbrecher, and photographer Okhai Ojeikere, along with found images of hair and salons all form a humorous and unlikely starting point.
Pieces are knit in exaggerated bobble stitches like hair buns, sweaters and coats are crocheted to look like loopy locks, and mohair is knit in salon colored reversible stripes. Silk fabric is cut into strips like hair ribbons and re-knit, while cables are made to look like braids and ponytails."

I thought these pictures would be a lot cooler because of the film but they're mostly just dumb, hahaha. Face/palm. No wonder people care about DSLR's at fashion shows, because nobody is interested in the installation. They're all going gaga over the clothes. Oh well. Still worth showing:

This is Carolyn. She's originally from Malaysia but moved to Toronto. This was her first season at NYFW and she was very sweet and soft spoken. I liked her!

Models just can't stop modeling. Even to a $5 disposable from Duane Reade. (Let's think about how ridiculous this must have looked...)

I'll be honest, this was my favorite show because of the installation. A presentation at a hair salon in the East Village, in which everyone just hangs out like its the '50s of the near future, ordering chocolate malts with some overly-coifed maniacs in sweet knits. No big deal, just chilling here with my flying-saucer hairdo and wiggly knits. Um, yes. Especially since that guy with the faux hawk has his hair lined in steel clips! That's the first thing I saw on entering. Come on, steel clips! As an accessory! How cool is that?

(...They should have served drinks rather than water though hahah. Just putting it out there.)

MANISH ARORA

2010-02-22T22:52:00.001-05:00

After braving this guy's horrible Flash-only spastic site and digging through some of the collections, I really had to share them. The past collections are a bit Midsummer-Night's-Acid-Trip but the A/W '09-'10 screams "FUN IN THE GLITTERY SUN!" Except it's probably the sun overlooking Narnia from the perspective of a kaleidoscopic metamorphosis, and at various stages of the Solstice. The dresses come complete with glittering paper lion gloves and antelope sculptures molded into dresses. I'd like to redo my brothers' weddings all over again and show up in one of these confectionaries.

Manish Arora

Pictures from this season's NYFW are coming as soon as I don't feel like barfing over all the lame online coverage of the same style.com and jak/jil photos. (Which will be soon because I'm excited about Tom Scott.) I just wish someone would photograph these events like the dreams that they erect within each presentation... something that keeps true to the actual vision of the designer!

NEW FACE

2010-02-16T17:15:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention that I got contacts this year while I was in Hong Kong!

YAY!

Had dinner and drinks last night with Clayton & Adam of complex geometries which was sooo much fun. Neha, Ritchie and a girl I hadn't met before named Julie were there too. We went to Lil Frankie's. Unfortunately I think I've had a pizza overload since I got back from Hong Kong... I've banned myself from Chinese food in New York because it's simply not good at all. And there's really not much else but pizza to order on Seamless if you're not eating Chinese. Maybe a burrito, but the goal here is to attempt not to gain a hundred pounds of bean and cheesy gas.

The Technology Show is opening on Friday. I have 3 pieces in the show, so if you're in New York, come check it out at 1 Washington Place @ Broadway. Antonio and I have been working a lot of late nights getting it together.

note

2010-02-15T01:51:00.001-05:00

I'm the only one at the front lines of a fashion show or presentation whipping out a disposable camera. Consequently, there will be no ~NYFW~ updates until these rolls are developed. Consequently, they will be cooler.

LOOK THE OTHER WAY

2010-02-10T23:20:00.000-05:00

red tongue and nails.

Akira Kurosawa's YUME

2010-02-08T02:04:00.000-05:00

So after years and years of friendly reminders, I finally got a Netflix account! My boyfriend and I broke up recently, so having two movies a week delivered to my mailbox like little red gifts from the movie fairy is a great way to pass the time. I've been catching up on a century of classics and movies-I-should-have-watched-but-never-did. I sort of wish there was a Netflix equivalent for gaming systems now too... like, pay some odd figure a month for access to PS3 EMULATORS FOR THE MAC. (But that will never happen.)

In any case, Akira Kurosawa's YUME (DREAMS) was great. I am a sucker for beautiful colors, dreamy sequences and things that don't make sense but do anyway. There are demons, peach orchards, nuclear explosions, suicides, blue ghosts and fox weddings in the sun and rain. YUME is composed of a series of shorts, all different dream sequences which take you through a variety of landscapes-- even paintings. The Netflix synopsis and reviews indicate that most viewers should be cautioned that there is no narrative arc throughout YUME, but I found the opposite to be true. The existing arc, although illusionistic and dreamlike, is a loose history of Japan and mankind through the 20th century, from a childhood belief in magic to the disillusionment of war and nuclear power. It sounds like heady material but YUME really succeeds in being light, beautiful and digestible even when there's a demon on screen telling you the world has been obliterated and there are no more humans left except the ones with mutated horns who will suffer through eternity.

2010-01-22T19:12:00.000-05:00

I found a cactus in Hong Kong.

2010-01-06T00:16:00.000-05:00

PROJECT WHITE T-SHIRT: Doktor Doktor

2009-12-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

Photographer Dan Monick in Doktor Doktor's marshmallow studded tee shirt for Project White T-Shirt.

ABOUT GODDAMN TIME

2009-12-03T11:32:00.001-05:00

After much sweat, tears, sleepless nights, cranky phone calls, Chinese take-out and coughing fits from sickness and overwork...

PROJECTWHITETSHIRT.COM IS HERE!!! YAY! Unbelievable! Ritchie, Stephanie and I have been working non-stop on this for the past few months. Ritchie backpacked through Europe on his own dime this past summer to interview 31 designers from 13 different countries and ask them to join Project White T-Shirt so that they can burn it, trash it, re-create it, transform it, or whatever. My favorite result? I can't decide. I probably shouldn't talk about them anyway since not all of the designer previews have been unveiled yet. But! One of my favorites IS already online... The Marshmallow Tee by Doktor Doktor/ A Bug Collection They covered a T-shirt in marshmallows to mimick pyramid-studded tees and to represent the "price you pay for fashion... and it smells good!" I can only imagine how good it smells. I love marshmallows. I keep jars of them on my countertops at winter time just to have the perfect hot chocolate mixture.

Anyway... CALLING ALL L.A. RESIDENTS, CHECK OUT THE OPENING AT WELCOME HUNTERS in Chinatown on the 19th!! Also, seriously go to the website and check out the video interviews, they're really fun. Each week, 8 more designers are going up on the website and on the 19th, the exhibition opens and the last previews go up at the same time.

We're auctioning off the pieces to anyone who bids and donating all the proceeds to Designers Against AIDS so even after all this, the only reward is really how much fun its been to set up, meeting all these creative fun people and killing each other with late-night last minute panicky episodes.

Stephanie, Ritchie and Me in L.A. this summer "working" on Triple-Major.

Yay! Celebrate with me.

REASONS WHY I'VE BEEN MIA THIS MONTH

2009-10-22T21:45:00.000-04:00

THOSE ROCKS NEARLY KILLED ME.

2009-09-22T12:37:00.001-04:00

Everytime I update it feels like I'm talking about another trip I took out of NYC.

Anyway this time it was the Hamptons. Neha's 21st birthday of which I feel like I should have taken more photos but I only developed 2 rolls, still waiting on the 3rd. It was a lot of fun and I had a life/death experience on these slippery humongous rocks on the cliff by the sea and a battle scar to prove it but at least i didn't fall off!

Then it was Fashion Week and Ritchie came to say hi and bludger me with his midnight web projects. I'm designing Project White T-shirt and Triple-Major. Unfortunately at the time I had so much homework from spending the weekend in the Hamptons so I wasn't as fun as I should have been but he might come back sometime soon for a day so we can talk over it again. I think we should just Skype but Ritchie is one of those rare creatures that hates all manners of speaking that are not in person.

We also went to Fashion's Night Out and it wasn't fun as expected but I got to see Camille a few days later and that was! We went to Epistrophe and ordered too much food.

These rocks nearly killed me.

Next summer is looking more and more busy. I might be going to Berlin for a bit.

LOST ANGELES AND THE CITY OF SMOKE

2009-09-07T02:56:00.000-04:00

I just spent a few days in LA with my sister but am now (thankfully) back in my comfy abode in New York. While I was gone I had nightmares that a cat climbed into my fishbowl to eat Flushy (my goldfish) and when I woke up I wondered with a sinking feeling whether I'll ever be able to adopt a cat now. Do cats even really hunt/prey on goldfish?

I met up with Ritchie while I was in LA (3rd photo). We had dinner at Hungry Cat, Sushi Gen, some thai place and went to Blu Jam on the morning before my flight. Turns out he's started his own business now (at 21 years old!) called Triple-Major (more details to come in following blog posts) to represent his current White T-Shirt Project and future projects. He asked me to design the website for White T-Shirt project and maybe Triple-Major as well. Most of Triple-Major is supposed to be kept under wraps for now... as well as the results of the White T-Shirt Project but I can safely say that of the products I've seen so far, I'm most excited about Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair's recreated T-Shirt and some guy from who-knows-where whose inspiration was the Michelin tire mascot. The pieces from the White T-Shirt project are going to be auctioned, with all proceeds going to Designers Against AIDS.

Of course while I was in LA I checked out Ooga Booga and Creatures of Comfort. Ooga Booga is a recent discovery whose only description I can give is fucking amazing, and Creatures of Comfort has been one of my favorite stores for a while. I picked up a fun grey sweater-cape by Slow and Steady Wins the Race and a pair of tribal-esque tights from Henrik Vibskov and a super amazing fun faux fox stole (also by Slow and Steady) from Ooga Booga. Slow and Steady is really getting amazing. I really like their black crushed velvet wedges Oak carried a while back, but Ooga Booga carries exclusive/limited edition pieces like this light denim version. The employees at Ooga Booga are really nice and friendly too. Diitto for Creatures of Comfort, but Ooga Booga seems like the only place I'd ever want to work retail, surrounded by art books, photos, music, clothes and fun things all day in the middle of Chinatown, LA.

2009-08-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

WHY MENSWEAR WILL ALWAYS BE A LITTLE BIT BETTER... #1

2009-08-20T19:10:00.000-04:00

And another reason to love the surfer chick (or dude) aesthetic. Can't you just see it with Rick Owen's DRKSHDW collection for girls? All the lines swimming along in harmony. I'll keep dreaming then.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS OF TOKYO

2009-08-19T16:24:00.000-04:00

Seriously. You've all made me hate the victory sign. IT'S NOT KAWAII! ~*~v(^____^)v~*~

BIG PHOTOS FOR BIG NEWS

2009-07-24T10:34:00.000-04:00

New York can be so beautiful, but I am looking forward to going to Tokyo soon! 6 more days until my bags are packed and I'm off. Stephanie (my twin) and I are going to spend 3 days in Tokyo, a week in Aomori and Sendai and then one last day in Tokyo before she moves back to L.A. and I come back to New York. I'm bringing a small bag and a backpack and 5 rolls of film and every yohji yamamoto thing I own. Which is not a lot. But the occasion requires it anyway, doesn't it? If I get eaten by macaques in the hot springs, so be it. At least it will be a beautiful passing in the mist and springs. Dear world, I will miss all the food I never got the chance to eat, Shake Shack's shackburgers, Neha's epic and long-awaited 21st birthday and the last two installments of the Harry Potter movies. Please feed my goldfish when I'm gone.

BOWLED OVER

2009-07-10T21:25:00.001-04:00

Not much to say lately, mostly because fashion and clothing are the same boring regurgitated excess. I never see anything new. I bought two pairs of socks today by Tsumori Chisato and felt like life was repeating itself again. In 3 weeks I'm going to Tokyo and I hope it rejuvenates me. Japan has a way of doing that.

STRANGE CREATURE

2009-06-24T00:32:00.000-04:00

Student project;

I've been taking a Lighting class (Photography) and a Magazine class this semester! Lots of work. Lots of editing, designing, layouts and post processing. These photos were done by Chloe Moore although I did the art direction/concept, styling (obviously) and modeling (also obviously). Haha. Violet Xie did the make-up. I was inspired by Chadwick Tyler's monster series of those strange models with contorted bodies, tarantulas, and some of Kristin Vicari's work (in terms of lighting).

Fresh Lost & Palmy

2009-05-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

Just back from L.A. & Palm Springs for Coachella! New York feels brittle now. Why is it still so chilly in May?

Inspiration Board #7

2009-03-30T21:32:00.001-04:00

Because I want to pretend

2009-03-18T18:05:00.000-04:00

that 61 degrees in New York means the start of summer, that there will be no more days of snow and rain, that everything from here on out will be beautiful and full of light:

(Photos from a daytrip to the Hamptons last year).

I know we're all secretly itching to start stocking our wardrobes up for summer. I just bought a pink bralet top by Wood Wood to layer with when it gets warm enough. I am so obsessed with pink and peach lately (sorbet colors), but i think it will go great with all the black shapes for shoes (hard edge) and the neutral/tan/beige heels that are coming out! This summer will be about escapism... we need some fantasy after this harsh recession winter.

Waves (not Tides)

2009-03-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

At last, at last! Spring is in the air! I woke up this morning to hair a little wavier than usual, and slumps of snow slinking into drainpipes. Neha says she can hear the birds chirping. On Washington Mews, bulbs of tulips are peeking out from their little plots of dirt! This weekend will be warm and wonderful...

Moved! (and.... we're back!)

2009-01-26T22:28:00.002-05:00

I finally moved in to my new apartment. It is a wonderful little place in Chelsea with big windows and great sunlight, so I am very lucky to be here. The past few weeks have been just hectic and crazy, lots of moving and feeling stuck in transition and just wanting my apartment to be clean clean clean and donneeee at last but I haven't really felt quite settled until... well, actually I don't feel settled yet. I need more storage units, a coat rack and a doormat.

Anyway, so the object of my obsessions since I've been moving and thinking of moving and obsessing over moving lately, are these little bonbonieres and sugar/milk
soldiers by Jorine Oosterhoff available at Horne.

Horne has everything I want to stock my new apartment and more. I also wish I could sip out of these little golden-winged teacups in the sunsets of summer reading a new book!