It was over 100 degrees in New York today, and it is just too hot to blog. While I gather my thoughts, please check out my recent favorites from the archive.

1. Japanese Granny Fashion
2. Bag Trend: Structured Yet Soft & Slouchy
3. Participating in Art with Eduardo Sarabia
4. Shopping on Franklin: Jan & Aya
5. Shopping Trip: The Gucci Flagship
6. John Derian's New Furniture Collection Debuts
7. A Bold Statement Bag to Say the Least
   

Enjoy! For more archived faves, click on the .gee logo to the left.

Need a daily dose of cheerful color to help you get in the mood for Spring? Have you checked out the Hostess with the Mostess yet? I can't get over how gorgeous and colorful her blog is each and every day. A feast for the eyes.

The 5th Avenue display window of the new Gucci flagship,
with "resurrected Gucci crest" front and center. The crest is a
recurring visual symbol throughout the store.

The women's collection on the third floor looks spacious in this photo,
but the dark carpet and the low ceilings make the space feel ponderous.
I just did not get that "exhilarated" shopping feeling.

The fixture choices -- gold racks, black and white striped walls -- are not
exactly a neutral backdrop for the clothes. What if a collection was composed
of cool tones and silvers?

The men's shoe collection on the second floor with the city as a backdrop.

Can you believe that Daniel Saynt of Fashion Indie apparently complained his way into the Gucci party at the UN? If I had only known that were an option... According to WWD, when Saynt "complained on his blog, to broad pickup around the Web, that actual New York-based bloggers had been shafted," he received an invite to the lavish party and attended a bloggers-only tour of the store hosted by chief executive Mark Lee. I decided to take a trip to the new Gucci flagship today, uninvited. Here are my observations, unsolicited.

After viewing the new store, I would like to say this: bring back the sleek, sexy, clean lines of Tom Ford's Gucci. The new flagship, which occupies the south-west corner of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue and 56th Street, employs design details that are reminiscent of the Miami in the 70s, and are rather, well, garish. I can't help but feel that the aesthetic of the Trump brand seeped through the walls and into the store; but I think the preponderance of gold is just a coincidence.

Three elements repeat throughout the store: gold, lucite, and high-shine dark wood. Gold and lucite tubing accent the back stairways. There are free-standing gold display cases accented with high-shine dark wood, the same dark wood that lines the inner walls. The ceilings seem to press downward. There are only three floors of retail space. (I expected five. That seems to be the minimum number of floors for flagships these days.) Access to the fine jewelry store through an elevator on the 3rd floor is convoluted. The only time I got a feeling of excitement about the Gucci brand was is in the shoe departments, which are bright with views of the street.

At a time when luxury retail design favors a blend of technology and innovative materials, high-shine white, glowing light boxes, flat panel screens, and etched glass glowing partitions, the dark Gucci flagship feels of the past. As I recall my experience of the store, it becomes more and more like a labyrinthine cave. For me, the store did not convey that feeling of optimism or excitement or exhilaration. I had no shopping high.

The back stairs: dark grey marble treads, alternating gold and lucite
vertical tubing give a glimpse into the selling space. The stairs at
Chanel were much more exciting.

Mannequin (no comment) and a closeup of the ubiquitous tubing.


The handbag collection display on the first floor is too dark.
The flat panel screen doesn't even add any light.

This is my 1000th post! I decided to go with Roman numerals for the graphic.

I have not yet been engaged in a Blogger Drama. Perhaps I should tune in to the BlogTalkRadio seminar this Sunday sponsored by Coutorture and learn what I have been missing. The topic is below.


Fashion and beauty blogging is fun, frivolous and occasionally devious! Learn hope to cope with Blogger Mama Drama with Coutorture's Julie Fredrickson and Christine of Temptalia. We will tackle the tough topics including anonymous commenting, blog friendships, blogger gossip, blogger blacklisting, blogger etiquette, and keeping your cool in the middle of a blogger fight. We will explore the line between professional, personal, collegial and "I will scratch your back if you scratch mine" relationships in style blogging. Don't worry, its just us girls!

It is time for another recap of my top 7 favorite posts from the past few months. I will be back on Monday with lots of good stuff, plus a special feature on a new cafe in Williamsburg (Tuesday). Instead of eating sugar at around 4ish on Day II of my Sugar Fast, I conducted an interview while sipping a cappuccino, right after I bought the Brooklyn Industries woodgrain tote.

1. Orange and Woodgrain
   
2. Coach for the Holidays
   
3. Forever 21 Goes Couture
   
4. The Brooklyn-France Connection
   
5. Victor and Rolf's Flowerbomb
   
6. East Beach Cafe, Littlehampton
   
7. Brilliantly Packaged Beverly Hills Cupcakes (Sprinkles)
   

Enjoy! And somewhere in there, my blog turned two! For more archived faves, click on the .gee logo to the left.

Gucci has created a Website especially for the opening of their new 5th Avenue Flagship (725 Fifth Avenue opens this Friday, February 8) called Gucci Loves New York. The page that fascinates me is the one pictured above, "Fashion Bloggers Love New York," featuring five fashion bloggers who have been selected by Gucci and billed as "the hottest international fashion bloggers." The fab five: Cory Kennedy, Style Bubble, La Coquette, Fashion is Spinach, and Openers. Wow. Good for them.

I clicked through to each of the five blogs. I have to say, La Coquette won me over with this post. She has a great voice, and doesn't write strictly about fashion, and what she wants to buy, or what she has bought, because frankly, that can get a little tedious, n'est pas? Check out the five blogs on Gucci Loves New York. I am sure you will find some new favorite weekly reads.

Take a look. There are new features on the blog. I worked all afternoon, designing, Photoshopping and coding my little heart out. I now know many nuances of the Blogger code, I am pleased to say.

I have been talking about doing a Table of Contents of the topics I write about, and making use of the Blogger 'labels' (a feature which I love) to improve navigation. I basically turned my 'test pattern' on its side and added more shades to create this new navigation bar. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I also included the test pattern in the new navigation and made it a link to my favorite previous posts. So now you can get started on back reading in style. Just click on the picture or the grey text in the upper left.

I wanted to share with you a fashion blog I found today, called Aesthetics + Economics, and copy this entire post, so you (and I) could explore A+E's compilation of blog articles, some on the topic of design integrity, which I was writing about the other day.

And then I noticed the date of the post: April 8, 2007. It seems that she is no longer writing her blog, which is too bad. I am hoping she will start again. The posts below are still pertinent and interesting despite the expired date.

40 Days and 40 Nights of Beauty Brands: Shiseido [Blogdorf Goodman]

Anoraks for Spring '07 [Second City Style]

The Devil Wears...Walmart? Low-Brow Adverts in a High-Brow Bible [Style Bites]

The Luxury of Valextra [Bag Snob]

Chantecaille's Reefs of Hope Compact, Yours For $420 [Beauty Addict]

Organizers For Jewels, Bags, and Shoes [She Finds]

So Long Mr. Slimane [Papierblog]

Did Chanel Copy Jessica Kagan Cushman? [Counterfeit Chic]

Fashion Houses Target Second Life [Trashionista]

I have recently been reading Bluelines, which is the blog of Martha Stewart's Blueprint magazine. Everyone and everything has a blog nowadays. Magazines, humans, you name it. The writing style on Bluelines is pleasingly conversational, and the topics vary from interior design to clothing to art to food and entertaining. Their tagline: "The Shortest Path to Personal Style." I could see myself writing for Bluelines... Just a thought.

I like the ruler edge on all the headers that randomly load in (three variations pictured above and below). I like the navigation in the left sidebar. I have been thinking about doing a little table of contents myself. And I really like the 4 icons below each post: subscribe to RSS, post to del.icio.us, digg this article, link to Blueprint. Now that is a great idea. I might have to use the 4 icon idea, the last one being a link to ElainePerlov.com, with my new favicon that I am designing for the Website today. Hooray for upgrades. Thanks Bluelines.

If you are waking up to my blog today, you will notice something new and sparkly in the address window. My new Favicon! (which is short for 'favorites icon'). So go ahead and bookmark my blog. The Favicon which I designed will appear in your list of Favorites. Gee!

Now I must get to work on a Favicon for my Website. Off to Photoshop.

One of my projects for today is to use my image above to replace the Blogger image in the address bar before where it says http://elaineperlov.blogspot.com/. Can I do it? I think I should consult the Magic Eight Ball. It answered, "My sources say no." Well that doesn't seem promising.

***
I read that it is called a favicon, which is short for favorites icon, and you can go to favicon.com to upload one for free. This is getting good.

***
The favicon doesn't seem to be free. I think the Magic Eight Ball was right. I am going to have to ask for help on this project.

***
Look at my new Favicon! Isnt' it great!? I asked for help.

It is time for another recap of my top 7 favorite posts from the past few months. Enjoy!

1. It's Outdoor Patio Season!
2. Speaking of Gursky, How About Edward Burtynsky?
3. Push-Pull: Simply Fontastic!
4. Let's Not Forget Tord Boontje...
5. It's Getting to Look a lot like Fashion Week
6. H Fredriksson Runway at the SoHo Grand
   
7. Grocery + Open House + Lolita + more

There were a lot of good ones in August. That month, I was on a roll.


I am working on some freelance projects at the moment, so please peruse the archives until I get back.

I've been tagged to play '8 facts' by Deb at Your Destiny is Stone Golden, and here are the rules:

Players list 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, players then tag 8 people by posting their names and make sure they know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at the tagee’s blog.

So here goes . . . (everyone writes the 'so here goes...' so I did too.)

1. I have a thing for repetition. I eat peanut butter toast for breakfast and would wear the same thing everyday, if I could. There is discovery in repetition. There is newness in sameness.

2. On the other hand, I don't much like sameness. In the end, I love seeking out new things constantly. I always thrust myself into new situations just to see how I will do. I have found that I have many skills.

3. I have only been camping once in my life, and once was more than enough. No thanks on the camping. You can't wear nice outfits and nice shoes. What is the fun in that.

4. On nature: I love nature if it is in close proximity to, or preferably contained in, a dense active urban area with lots of shopping and opportunities to people-watch and drink iced coffee and eat biscotti at outdoor cafes. In the end, I prefer 'Nature in Microcosm' to actual wooly, wild nature. (Please see Nature in Microcosm or My Mini Lawn for further evidence.)

5. I use paper towels with gay abandon.

6. I am not much for dogs, but I don't mind cats. If I had a cat, I would name him Chairman Meow.

7. When we moved to Greenpoint, I thought it was the land of milk and honey, only the milk was pierogies and the honey was pickles. Pure Heaven.

8. When I let my mind wander while riding the subway or walking along, a lot of perfect cat names come to my mind. I don't know why. I don't have a cat. So I give these names to you. If you have a pair of cats, you could rename them 'Cat Stevens' and 'Kitty Carlisle.' How about 'Cat the Great'? That would be a good one. An 'enlightened despot' cat. Or 'Cat of Aragon.' Or 'Cat Deneuve.' Anyway I don't know why 2 out of my 8 Facts are about cat names. I did not plan that.

*9. Bonus fact about me: I cut my own hair in between haircuts, and always try to hide it from my haircutter, but she always finds out, because I always confess at the end of the cut. As if I could ever fool her. Psst. I just trimmed my bangs with my thread scissors. Just now.


Tag! You're It:
Jodi @ The Jodiverse
Kyria @ Kyria Abrahams
Jon @ Happy Mundane
Holly @ Decor8
'Poppy' @ Poppytalk
Susan @ Sulu-Design
Jessica @ Shiny Squirrel
Danielle @ Final Fashion

Yes indeed, where have I been lately? Not that you've really asked, which I appreciate, but I thought I should tell you why my posts haven't been on my usual every-day schedule. Should that be hyphenated in that case? Now that I look at it, I think it should be 'everyday schedule.'

Anyway, I have been busy working, writing for Zoozoom, hemming pants, re-cutting dresses, making necklaces, organizing my exploding shoe collection (there are so many cute shoes and sandals out there right now, how could I say no? And might I add, organizing my shoes took me 2 solid hours this morning. I thought I would have time to post, but I couldn't stop with the shoes), getting rid of drawstrings on pants and adding belt loops instead, swimming, researching, procuring images for future stories, and watching video taped shows which I programmed on my VCR.

With that said, back to posting. I have a large backlog of images which I am eager to share with you. It is fun to write. I like my blog. I like you too. Thank you for reading. I am pleased that you read my blog.

Welcome new readers,

Here are my top 6 favorite posts from the past few months. Enjoy!

This time it was particularly hard to select only 6. I am particularly proud of all of the interviews in my Shopping On Franklin series. As you can see, Alter is up next! And I really liked the post about how to photograph your home, Apartment Therapy-style too. So I guess what I am saying is please dip into the archives as well. March 2007 was a particularly good month. And don't forget, I love comments. gee

1. the best cuts and fabrics for your shape
2. when the blog world inspires the design world
3. riyaz design: contemporary indian miniatures
4. mangos bakery steakhouse bar
5. party pics at the domino issue release party
6. shopping on franklin: hayden-harnett