I am making progress with Tina Louise. (Yes, *that* Tina Louise. Ginger from Gilligan's Island and I go to the same Y. Near the UN.) Yesterday, as I turned the corner from my locker bank towards hers, she did not give me the stink eye as she has for the last three years. She even gave me a half-smile! Perhaps it was involuntary, but still. I walked toward the pool a little bit giddy thinking Ginger just half-smiled at me.

I am definitely cracking her shell. By averting my eyes, giving her not-knowing-glances and the like.

Oh, I meant to mention! Richard Kind asked me for directions in my neighborhood yesterday! I was coming up the subway stairs behind a slow-moving man. He stopped at the top of the stairs and put up his umbrella. I moved around him. He said, "Which way is East?" I gave him a startled look, like I don't know, oh wait, you're Richard Kind! He made a sound like, yeah, calm down, I know I'm Richard Kind, and asked me again more pointedly. I said, "Well, that way's the East River." Luckily I figured that one out. No one asks which way is East in Brooklyn. It's not Manhattan. Sheesh.

The Fashion Show on Bravo is hosted by Isaac Mizrahi (I'm a fan!)
and Kelly Rowland. [image via Harper's Bazaar]

Yesterday a funny thing happened to me on Facebook. I posted about it today:

Okay, this is weird. The casting director for *The Amazing Race* Dana Lynne Tomsic, friended me. Wha? Dear Ms. Tomsic, please state your business with me. Please verify that you are the real casting director and the like.

So I wrote to Ms. Tomsic, and she kindly wrote me back:

Hey Elaine

I'm actually Casting the 2nd Season of The Fashion Show for Bravo. I learned you are a designer through some research and just wanted to reach out and find out your interest in auditioning for the show and/or possibly leading me to the best places to post my Casting Calls. I'm coming to 5 major cities in the US.

I'd love to chat more on the phone or email me directly at [...]

thanks for accepting my friend request :)

Well now. This is a rather interesting offer. At the very least, it would be exciting to audition. We'll see what happens.

The Bryant Park Fountain, Thursday, January 7, 2010
Ice skating rink, Christmas tree & NYPL in the background
Beautiful!

Double-treat: I saw Bill Cunningham of The New York Times photographing this fountain at Bryant Park on Monday. Look at how beautiful it is! I had to take some shots of the same scene [above] a few days later. This time (my 4th sighting of Mr. Cunningham), I felt compelled to go over to him and tell him how much I love what he does. He is such a sweet man. Always on his bicycle, even on the icy cold days.

***
Update, 3pm
How cool is this? Mr. Cunningham's picture of the fountain in On the Street | Snowy on nytimes.com.

[image from phillyburbs.com]

Oh, I had one more thing to mention. What was with all the "no necklaces" at the Golden Globes this past Sunday? Was that really in honor of today's economic climate? Please. I guess their designer gowns and gigantic, expensive, dangly earrings were supposed to symbolize restraint. Or something.

The retail space in question.

Some weeks ago, I got excited that a new store was finally going to open in a cavernous vacant retail space on Greenpoint Avenue. And then I got worried. Oh no, what if it is a West Elm? I don't mind West Elm. But not in my neighborhood. I want to keep my neighborhood chain-less. It's not exactly chain-less. We have a *$&@bucks. But perhaps we will luck out and our *$&@bucks will be one of the 600 to be shut down. Well, one can hope.

But back to the retail space in question. I have a suspicion that the fashion designer on Lipstick Jungle will open her own retail store this season. Walking home from the super-fab event I attended earlier last week, I spied the window decals bearing the name Victory Ford in a boxy semaphore-like font. Perhaps her store will be set on Cape Cod or the Hamptons. Or the West Village. Just know this. Victory Ford's fabulous store is acutally on Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint, a few doors upwind from a very aromatic chicken slaughtering plant. Oh well. Sorry to debunk your fashion fantasies.

My first sneak-peak at the Victory Ford store, Monday evening, August 18, 2008

The Lipstick Jungle shoot the next morning after my discovery.


The Victory Ford semaphore font changed color from the previous night. How?
They even built planters and trellises, which look very West Village.


In the light blue shirt with headphones around his neck, Andrew McCarthy,
perhaps ,making is directorial debut for this episode.

Can anyone identify the person in the Atari shirt?
Standing next to him is John Zorn!

John Zorn! We saw him last night talking with another no doubt notable avant garde musician at the free outdoor concert at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park last night. And then suddenly everyone looked famous and everyone looked like Marcus Samuelsson. It was an amazing three and a half hour concert featuring The Ex, Getatchew Mekurya, Ethiopian singing legends, Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete, and Kenyan and American cooperative, Extra Golden. Really and truly a treat.

More Lipstick Jungle Film Shoot flyers on Franklin Street in Greenpoint.
Word Bookstore in the background.

We Greenpoint residents take it for granted that Lipstick Jungle will take up a good part of Franklin Street and Greenpoint Avenue pretty much every week this summer. They seem to have fixated on our neighborhood. I even saw them shooting a scene in Alter one morning!

But I realized that the rest of you may want advance notice, so you can camp out all day and see who you can see. Think of it as a public service announcement. Lipstick Jungle will film on Franklin Street and Greenpoint Avenue this Monday and Tuesday, July 21 and 22, from 6am to 12am.

Admittedly, I myself have not caught a glimpse of Brooke Shields yet, nor of Lindsay Price (the one I really like) who plays the fashion designer; but when I do, I will be certain to snap a blurry photo and show you. The blurry won't be on purpose. Although I claim to be blasé about star sightings, I always spaz out in a most embarrassing manner when I see anyone famous. Sad but true.

[image: kitson.com]

The antithesis to the warm-fuzzy I Love New York tee.

Get it while it's hot, from the hottest store on Robertson. That would be Kitson in L.A. The LA DON'T LOVE U tee, designed by Kid Dangerous, Grime Couture, has already been snapped up by numerous Hollywood types. Ah well. I like it anyway. The price: $68.

[image: glamourmagazine.uk]

Many wrote about Gwyneth Paltrow and her legs at the New York premier of Iron Man two weeks ago in this knock-out black lace halter dress; but no one wrote about who designed the dress. Since the dress is what is stealing the show, a little overt credit to the designer (and a link to the dress) would be nice. Or perhaps that is just my opinion.

Aha, found it. The Daily News reports (and with a better picture minus the flash) that the dress is by Stella McCartney. Click here to view her Autumn Winter 2008 Collection. The dress in question is Look #40 and appears towards the end of the show. Details below.

"Black Wool Cut Through Halterneck Embroidered Dress"
Stella McCartney, Autumn Winter 2008

Soap opera star, Finola Hughes, dashes past after the Lacoste show.
Her current fashion-related project is called 'Style Kick'
where she delivers fashion trends and news directly to your mobile phone

Mystery Man with Philip Johnson glasses exits Lacoste show
and rushes past. Do you know who he is? I don't either.
But I know he's somebody.

Bill Cunningham of The New York Times captures everyone on the street,
but I captured Bill Cunningham!

In my book, two major fashion press powerhouses:
Cunningham confers with Fashion Director of The Daily Telegraph,
Hilary Alexander

and then she gets in a car and speeds off to the next show.
Hilary Alexander!

Bill Cunningham of The New York Times and I caught the crowd rushing out of the Tents at Bryant Park this morning after the Lacoste show. "Look, that's Bill Cunningham! He is the photographer for 'On the Street' in the Sunday Style section! Wow, Bill Cunningham. I think he uses real film in his camera. Neat." Yes I was at it again. See previous post for details.

And then he turned his camera on me. I hope I don't appear in tomorrow's New York Times. It was not my best hair day.

[image from WireImage by way of New York Magazine]*

Marc Jacobs? The center of a reality TV show? Well I would watch it in a second.

I seem to have a never-ending interest in Marc Jacobs. I just read this article and heard myself saying, "I like Sponge Bob too! I have iced coffee in the afternoon!" Let me explain. I don't know what it is about fashion designers and celebrity chefs. When I see once in person, I get goofy. I point and urgently hit my husband's arm and point and point, "Look, it's Valentino!!!!!!" (at Phillips de Pury) "Look look look! Isaac Mizrahi! In the navy and white striped shirt, and the sweater!" (at BAM last week seeing Happy Days) "Look! Todd English!! Todd English!!!" (at one of his restaurants).

And then I monitor their every move giving a blow by blow commentary to my husband where he cannot possibly get a word in until we leave or they leave. On Valentino, "He's looking at the Gurskys. I wonder if he owns a Gursky. He's over by the strawberries and champagne. He is really tan. Is that a model he's with? Look at that suit! I wonder what his art collection is like... He is really really tan." On Mizrahi, "I wonder if he'll come back for the second act. Hey he's back for the second act. I'm impressed. Is he here alone? I wonder if he likes Beckett or if he came because Target sent him the tickets. I think he likes Beckett. He did come back for the second act." On English, "He's talking to the assistant chef. Wow he is tall in person. Where did he go? I wonder if he'll be back."

Well anyway, I'd watch a reality show about Marc Jacobs.



*For some reason, this image was not constrained by the usual pixel limit of 400px height. I don't know why. It looks like a Chuck Close, practically. By the way, I also saw Chuck Close once in a gallery in Chelsea and freaked out in excitement. I had cocktails near David Hockney, and for years following drank the Pimm's Cup which was no easy task because no bartender had ever heard of it. If it was Hockney's favorite, it was my favorite too. I spoke Japanese with Takashi Murakami and told everyone I met him when his Louis Vuitton bags came out years later, including some sales people at the Louis Vuitton store, who could have cared less. I stood right next to Roy Lichtenstein at his last exhibition at the MFA, Boston which was pretty darn incredible, especially since he died so soon after, never to paint anything more. So I guess you could include artists in the above list. Yes definitely.

By some mysterious stroke of good fortune this past Saturday, when we arrived at Film Forum for the new documentary on one of my favorite designers, Karl Lagerfeld, we found that the 8:20 showing of Lagerfeld Confidential was totally free. It was paid for by HSBC. When does that ever happen? Thank you HSBC.

So I suppose you want to know my feelings on the film which Lagerfeld debuted during Paris Fashion Week earlier this month. Well, I love a chance to learn anything about Karl, and to see him in action. So in that way, it was a treat. But I feel that the powerhouse creative side of him was not explored enough and explained enough. You want to come away from a film about an artist inspired and itching to get in the studio and create something yourself. You want to feel energized in your own pursuits. I am afraid that this film did not have any arc of storytelling and lost its way and its momentum too many times. But if you are a fan of Karl, it is certainly worth a watch. Especially if HSBC is covering your ticket!

Oprah says America loves movie stars because they symbolize all that is possible. I say America loves stars because they are good looking. They have great skin, great hair, great clothes, great bodies. Yeah sure, because they devote a good portion of their day to beauty.

So I thought, why not devote more time and effort for the next seven days to a more rigorous beauty regime. Maybe I too can attain the Beyonce glow. Or the silken locks of Angelina, Nicole, Gwyneth, and well, not Britney, but you get the idea. I am starting immediately.

Step 1. Wash all makeup brushes. Eva Scrivo says to do that once a week.

Step 2. Go to the gym.

Step 3. Post work-out, trim bangs and deep moisturize hair with Kerastase Elasto-Curl. Finish with Kiehl's Creme with Silk Groom, a quick blow-dry and my favorite barrette (currently, a red one).

Step 4. Apply full facial regime with Decleor products, instead of omitting certain products because they are expensive and I don't want to run out. This point will take some self-convincing.

There. I am well on my way. I will let you know the results in 7 days, perhaps with some updates in the meantime. It should be really good! You probably won't even recognize me.