It's Important to Know You're Precious!

I love reporting on fashion but some of you know of my dedication to supporting teenage students and those who need mentoring. I wish we could eliminate the word "hopeless" from our vocabulary when we are talking about teens. When I volunteered for Maggie Daley's "After School Matters" program at IIT, I was impressed by the level of intelligence of these students that had been kicked out of several schools because they didn't have role models or mentors. Sometimes something so special comes along that requires all our attention. In this case, it is a movie supported by our own Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry called Precious based on the novel Push by Sapphire. It is the story of an overweight black teenager who is impregnated by her father twice and has little hope or self-esteem, until she meets the character played by Mariah Carey. We all need to reach out to help someone today to give them hope.

The September Issue

Attention fashionistas: don't walk, run to see the latest documentary The September Issue, directed and produced by the award winning RJ Cutler.  As the former Fashion Editor at CS Magazine for six years, along with other publications, I can honestly tell you that Mr. Cutler has captured some of the pain and passion I experienced upon seeing the final execution of my team's work when the fashion pages were edited.  In this case, the editing is performed by editor in chief Anna Wintour.  No, this not about calling this woman the "B" word; this is about reality.   Ms. Wintour has a story to tell that will seduce women to shop and help them to continue to care about fashion in the 840 page, one of the largest issues in the history of Vogue.  Grace Coddington, one of the finest stylists in the magazine world, exhibits rare moments when we can see her painful reaction as her photographs are rejected with little regret or respect for her work.  This is about business; its nothing personal.  And who could argue with the 57 year old editor, who yields more power that Oprah in the world of fashion, and has run the most profitable magazine of its time?  Any one person that is, or has plans to major in fashion journalism, photography or modeling must see this film for a dose of reality.  Yes, I do admire Anna Wintour for her work of excellence and continued passion to bring us fashion that we crave.  And by the way, pay attention to Anna's hands that are void of a manicure or polish, which is something we have in common.  Who has the time when you have deadlines, children and a dog!?

Skip the Runway and Just do a Mini-Movie!

As I was looking at some videos of the Fall collections from 2009, I came across Halston's. While the clothes were very pretty & very Halston, ala Jackie Kennedy & other celebs when Halston was at his rise & partying at Studio 54, what really caught my attention was  the movie itself.  The movie, which features Dree Hemingway & was produced by Colonel Blimp,  is clearly an artistic dream. Included are some past art forms along with the floating mylar balloons which I first saw at a party a the famous Chicago disco, Faces, where I was the President/owner & at the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Definitely a great video worth checking out!