I live in Chocolate City, Work for NPR, am currently working on an MA in Interior Design, Love my roommate, friends and Kitteh, "Bits." Day to day I find more and more beauty lurking in the oddest spots. Rouge My Knees is an accumulation of notes on what I find whets my curiosity for all things toxic and pretty.
I love sharing my view of the world through the photos and links posted here. 
Filed under: My Interior Design School FUN
I was in NYC last week for the Architectural Digest Design Show at Pier 94. There were so many lovely things to see and touch…One of my favorite discoveries: Shanon Campanero’s whimsical bespoke wallpapers. The wallpaper is made from digitally manipulated sections of Shanon’s paintings. She came up with the process when decorating her own apartment in 2008. What a way to self discovery! Shanon studied art at St. Martin’s in London and now is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Fore more info, check out Eskayel.com
Talk about a great way to take up some wall space. I love wallpaper & I hope to cover lots of walls with Shanon’s vision. Some of my faves from Shanon’s collection:
Crown Jewels
Festival Feast
Bear In Mind
Culebra Cubic
Stag Hunt
Moroccan Sun
Tigers Eye
I placed my order for Moon Raven’s Skull hair tie. It was only after that I realized my kittehs could be matchies with me.
Filed under: Masculin
I can’t remember the first time I saw Stefano Pilati — it was either in the documentary about YSL or in the Anna Wintour doc The September Issue. I just know he was wearing all black and talking about how he was in a black mood. Right, it was The September Issue…Anna was telling him he had too much black. Loves him.
His style is gloriously disheveled. Like Tom Ford, a distinguished master of his craft, but unlike the perfectly coiffed Ford, Stefano is a little more on the edge.
The messy locks, overgrown beard and sleeve tattoos place him in a category entirely his own. The juxtaposition of the tats and his dapper suits has me swooning. He also manages to up the amp with some sparkly glittery rock star touch, like a coat of sequins or lovely embroidered shirt peeking out from under what would otherwise be a pretty casual outfit.
I found this Q&A with Stefano from Wallpaper Mag.
Stefano Pilati has been at the helm of Yves Saint Laurent as creative director since 2004. In a relatively short space of time (even in the fashion world), he has steered the direction of the classic brand back to its French roots, though his latest menswear collection for Autumn/Winter ’08 has a distinctly British feel, not to mention a ground-breaking presentation. We caught up with the creative director to find out a little more…
Why did you decide to show the collection in a multimedia format as opposed to staging a traditional catwalk?
I used video as a medium because it seemed fitting considering today’s social and cultural climate. I wanted the message to have a broader, more democratic reach than a catwalk show can achieve.
We found it refreshing that you chose to work with directors who are relatively young, what was it about their work that particularly attracted you to them?
Their curiosity and innate creativity. It was as new and exciting for them to work with fashion as it was for me to work with video.
Do you think this multi-media type presentation may be the future of showing collections?
What I know is that it works for me, for Yves Saint Laurent, now.
How significant is it that both the directors and Simon Woods are British? Do you feel there’s a new vibrancy afoot in British culture?
I have always admired British culture and traditions.
How does this fit in with the direction of the YSL brand?
We are constantly pushing safe boundaries, experimenting. It keeps fashion vital.
How do you feel experimental methods of showing collections will affect the way people view, think about and ultimately purchase fashion?
They introduce the possibility of an intimacy and a connection between viewers/consumers and the collection that may not have been there before. A video experience can elicit a visceral, emotional reaction from its audience that is unmatched.
We feel the crossover of creative disciplines of late is leading to an amalgamation of culture as whole, where each discipline is no longer viewed as a separate entity in itself, operating in a creative vacuum – what are your thoughts on these developments?
There are certainly overlaps amongst disciplines and it’s true that they occur these days with greater frequency. Where such crossovers produce synergistic possibilities they are useful. Still, maintaining the integrity of a single discipline – its unique identity – is essential.
Where do you see the YSL brand fitting into this?
Yves Saint Laurent has always been about a world, a set of ideas and aesthetics. It has never been only about fashion.
“Most of the women I consider chic
are the ones
who show me they are
very aware of their personality.”
Filed under: music
My adorable friend Melco sent me this video of the collaboration between Marion Cotilliard and Franz Fernidad. Coming to us from the same director of the new Gaga/Beyonce video, Jonas Akerlund, Marion looks smashing in her red dress and her suit and skinny tie.
The video is for Dior, as Marion is the face for Lady Dior.
Short film Directed by Maximilla Lukacs and Sarah Sophie Flicker
It’s just hit me, why haven’t we seen more of her on Mag Covers?
Other mags would be smart to follow suit.
I’m rushing out to grab this issue.
The cover is beautiful. Lovely that the Elle font has patterned letters to match the Miu Miu prints.
On another note, it seems many critics have decided that Zoe Saldana’s dress wasn’t Red Carpet Hot and have put her on their Worst Dressed list…I DISAGREE and think she brought something new and avant to the often boring, sameness found at the Oscars.
She still kept it glamorous. Love the dark shoes falling in line with the dark purple of the dress…
I’ve recently discovered the most amazing products… geared towards men…which makes me want them all even more.
The Portland General Store (sold already?) makes the yummiest smelling toiletries ever. In the past when I’ve tried non-perfumy products I’m left with something to be desired. This time, JACKPOT! All nicely priced too.
Only catch is that they sell out quickly. You can find them on Etsy or at Hickoree’s Hard Goods.
My cute package (arrived wrapped in brown general store paper and twine, of course) included the following:
“Turkish Fig” Bar Soap with Rhassoul Clay
This is a hand-poured, rough-cut bar of soap. It has a subtly sweet but masculine scent.
The key functional ingredient, Rhassoul clay, is rich in magnesium, silica, potassium and calcium and claims many beneficial properties. It originates from the Atlas mountains of Morocco, and has been used by local people for over 12 centuries. Rhassoul clay helps to reduce dryness and flakiness, and improves skin clarity and elasticity.
“Tweed” Shea Butter Solid Lotion Stick
Lisa from Portland General Store says: “if a young Marlon Brando were to wear a Portland General Store scent, it would be TWEED. Elegance, strength, and charisma describe the fragrance of this lotion bar.”
“Wood” Old-Fashioned Body Creme
This is a very thick body/hand creme, especially well-suited for soothing overworked hands. Essential oils of cedar, hiba, patchouli, vetiver and vanilla give a distinctly masculine scent, but this creme can be worn by both men and women.
I love all the products so much that I just placed another order for the Eau de toilette Sampler and the Tabacco bath scrub.
It’s been a little since I can really remember coveting an entire collection from just one designer. I think of tom ford or chanel…of course at times it’s been marc jacobs…stella mccartney, chloe.
currently I’d sell off my first-born for everything from the miu miu spring/summer 2010 collection. well, not really, but I’d come pretty close before my conscience would sink in.
if you’d described to me that there were aspects of figure skating elements and cat prints involved, I would’ve thunk you crazy…but that’s just exactly what it is…and I HEART IT ALL.
all images from miu miu.
-video via viva vena cava
If there is a model for Boursier-Mougenot’s operations, it is perhaps to be found in natural systems. In one past work, From Here to Ear (1999), the artist memorably used a flock of finches corralled within a framework of amplified steel piano wires to build an acoustical structure whose form was determined by the behavioral patterns of the birds. His use of finches was not as fortuitous as it might seem; it was Galapagos finches that elegantly demonstrated Darwin’s theories of evolution. As with the biological processes of natural selection, the sonic patterns of Boursier-Mougenot’s systems branch and divide, randomly mutate, dissolve and reform in a potentially open-ended flow. The symmetries of greater complexity arising from pure simplicity are always possible – although never assured. Whereas Cage’s practice was imitative of chance operations found in nature, Boursier-Mougenot’s method lies primarily in the transliteration of natural structures, revealing to the ear certain realities that remain invisible to the eye. The artist acts as the ‘first cause’, putting certain laws and systems in motion which he then allows to exist and evolve autonomously, rather than merely using chaos and dissonance as compositional models. ~ from Frieze.com. Frieze Magazine.
