I want to go there...

I can't stop looking at these pictures of "The Maison in a Room" that Martin Margiela designed at 10 Corso Como, a must-shop boutique in Milan. I'm a sucker for trompe l'oeil—not to mention Margiela—and these examples are pretty great. The room, which artfully displays all of Margiela's non-fashion lines (home objects, fragrance, sunglasses, jewelry), is up through May 30, so lucky Milanese should scoot on over. I found the story at SlamXHype, but you can read more about it and view detail shots on 10 Corso Como's blog, er, journal.

Wedding Talk on Nearlywed Radio

Late Friday night I got one of those "pleasecallmebacknomatterwhattime" messages from my friend Gayle, the owner of All About Weddings & Celebrations and one of the hosts of Nearlywed Radio. It turns out that her co-host was down-and-out with the flu, and she needed a last-minute stand-in for a live radio show the next morning: Would I be up for the gig? Gayle knows me too well; I love to chat! So Saturday a.m. I rolled my bike over to VegFest at the Seattle Center, where KKNW had a booth set up for the show. It was really fun! We interviewed the owner of Upper Crust Catering, who, for health reasons, has become an "extreme vegan," and now creates vegan and veg menus for weddings. I also got to blab about my own wedding plans: What bride-to-be doesn't love that? You can listen to the whole show here.

Closet Envy

I love clothes, but the truth is I'm more a fan of clever design than amassing loads of outfits and trends of the moment. Even more limiting on my clothing purchases is my not-so-secret alter ego as a guilt-ridden tree hugger. People are usually surprised when they see how few clothes and shoes my partner (who puts my own style to shame) have in our adjoining walk-in closet. But style, my dears, is all smoke and mirrors! Purchase and hold onto interesting and well-made clothes—I especially love finding great vintage—and do a lot with the art of mix-and-match and your friends will get the impression you're the next Anna Piaggi. And until this afternoon, when I caught one of the newer Closet Confessions on Bluefly, I was quite content with my minimalist style. Then Kelly Cutrone goes and offers a tour of one of her many, many closets and I developed a serious case of…want. Watch it and weep.

The Shoes

For years I counseled brides that, if they are wearing a classic wedding gown, they should save on the dress and splurge on the shoes. The thinking being that, unlike the dress, the shoes can be worn over and over, so why not purchase that fabulous pair of Christian Louboutins or Manolos you always dreamed of but could never justify? If something is going to be worn once and then packed away until it sprouts black mold, I'd personally rather wear J. Crew or Anthropologie—or even something off-the-rack from David's—than drop $6K on Vera Wang. Then again, I'm not your typical bride, especially when it comes to The Dress.

   I couldn't help thinking of that advice again when I laid eyes on these ridiculously lavish Louboutin "Marie Antoinette" heels—of which just 36 pairs were made and sold at the designer's Madison Avenue boutique earlier this month, and despite the fact that  my own upcoming wedding colors are neither yellow nor purple nor red. At $6,295 a pair and so extravagant one could hardly imagine wearing them once, let alone on a regular basis (particularly in the muddy Northwest where I live), these heels are the antithesis of my advice. And yet…wouldn't it be fabulous? 

The Coolest Engagement Video…

Save the Date - August 26, 2010 from t davis on Vimeo.

is ours! (If I do say so myself :)

The genius hubby-and-wife team of Lance Wagner and Trixie Lane at Seattle's Old School Pinups helped Todd and I recreate our meeting and engagement into the niftiest ever proposal/save-the-date video for the small wedding we're having late this summer and we couldn't be more thrilled. A while back we took some dress clothes to their studio (housed in an old mid-century-modern kindergarten) where Trixie brought out a spread of yummy snacks and cocktails before completely transforming me into a spitting-image version (humor me, please) of my Golden Era screen goddess idol, Myrna Loy, and then styled Todd into a retro-dapper version of himself. As you can see

A Gothic Crow

There are few women I consider greater personal icons than Patti Smith. Her music, style, writing and spirit have provided 20-plus years of inspiration, and so I rarely miss an opportunity to see and hear her when she's in town. She was in town for a reading/performance at the end of January, and as usual she charmed the socks off of every person in the auditorium (Socks sidebar: Once I saw Patti at an outdoor concert and during a guitar solo she peeled off her socks and whirled them over her head like she was going to fling them into the audience, stripper style, before collapsing into giggles. It was so cute).
One of my favorite parts from the January reading was when the interviewer, rock writer Charles Cross, asked about O Magazine naming her as a fashion icon. Patti shrugged her shoulders underneath her Ann Demeulemeester jacket, giggled and said, "It's not my fault!" She paused for the crowd to finish laughing and continued in her thick Jersey accent, "I've always loved fashion. I've just got my own way of dealin' with it."

 I've always loved Patti's timeless

First Ladies of Skirts

A few years back when I was writing The Madcap History of the Skirt, my editor was adamant that I include a section about the fashions of America's First Ladies. I remember her saying: "People will love it, and it will SELL," words every writer wants to hear, but I was still cool on the idea. I wanted the book to be fun and cheeky and the first ladies seemed so…dry. But once I began my research I was quick to warm up to first lady fashion. I was looking at their dresses with an eye homed in on the evolution of their skirts, began reading about the inauguration dresses and was sidetracked for days. 
   So I was delighted to find this new video posted from the Smithsonian about the First Ladies exhibit at the National Museum of American History in D.C. (Best inexplicable, somewhat random cutaway line: "We're going to have to lower Barbara's purse.")

Can I just say that Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Sanae Park Evans have my dream jobs? Nearly 20 years ago I spent a summer interning in the basement of the Asian textiles department of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, cataloging and preserving antique textiles and fabrics and wishing I was riding my bike in the sunshine. Had I known that there were jobs like these—cataloging and preserving dresses like Michelle Obama's little number from Jason Wu—I might have stuck with it!
   I've seen this exhibition several times since I was a child, and I'm looking forward to seeing Obama's dress when I'm visiting in May. I wish they allowed