Every Day is Halloween | Painfully Hip

Check Me Out: Impersonating Edie (...or attempting to)

Last weekend was… as surreal as it gets. Describable in one made-up word: WARHOLMANIA.

The Tuscon Museum of Art is now showing an amazing collection of original Andy Warhol screenprints so they wanted to do something special for their opening. And special always means dead people impersonation, right? So Friday the museum invited Drew Krewer and I to come in full costume and full character as Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, making a surprise appearance directly from that “Factory in the Sky.” We were even featured on the Six O’Clock News!

While Drew could easily sashay into the room with only his charm, his usual styling finesse and a spritz of silver hairspray, it took an entire team to get me in fighting Edie form. First off? The fabled dress by my beloved roommate and besty, Jamaica Cole of Sapphire Cordial (pictured in the previous post).

photo by Jessica Castillo

photo by Omer Kreso

(Hair by Addam Moreno, Makeup by Lynette at Toni & Guy, Tucson – Thank you!!)

And, of course, the ever-important jewels, designed by my dearest Laura of Wingflash Designs!

Paula Taylor and Amber Mortensen - photo by Tucson John

Necklace by Wingflash, Whipped Cream by Diana

While Edie managed to last about 27 years, I lasted exactly 10 hours – through the epic POP! Afterparty at the Rialto, complete with a Velvet Underground cover band, mylar photo booth, gallons of whipped cream, a Warhol Death Reenactment, endless dancing, and a good slathering of Tomato Soup. SPENT.

But no rest for the weary, because the next day we had a request to transform into go go dancers at the Eric Firestone Gallery. They had THE most amazing exhibit, including some never-before-seen Andy Warhol photographs. Unbelievable.

Jamaica Cole photo by Tucson John

Danielle Theriault Sit-Down Dancing photo by Tucson John

The gogo dancing lasted for 5 hours straight with no less than 4 costume changes each. So it goes without saying, I spent the last three days in bed. Sick as a dog. Like Edie coming down from a multitude of barbiturates.

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Check Us Out: Cigarette Girls From the Future

Recently, art dealer Eric Firestone invited my two roomies and I to attend his latest opening for ’40s pop artist, Andy Burgess. But not to attend as just any guests, because this wasn’t just any party. The day after I returned from my 2 month adventure/ gargantuan workfest, I found myself quite the “working girl” once again. Hawking Lucky Strikes (they’re toasted!), Cubans, Emphysema, and vintage candy for tips… dressed as 1940s cigarette girls. That man sure knows how to throw a party.

photo by Krysta Jabczenski

I think after rushing around all day, we threw these get-ups together in about an hour. Life is good in this House of Stylists and Excessive Giggling.

This Week! Thanks to About.com and the New York Times, my new website, About Budget Style is LAUNCHED… in T-minus a whack of seconds. Watch here tomorrow for linkage galore! Also a big congratulations to my friend, Mai on her beautiful new store, Threadsence!

Painfully Fluky: Halloween 2009

So I hadn’t been planning on dressing up for Halloween at all until about 45 minutes before launch time – sometimes it feels like getting dressed up these days qualifies as “work.” By the time I had resolved to pull the trigger on an actual costume, I was rather stumped – my wardrobe has dwindled decisively over the course of my transient lifestyle.

By pure fluke, however, I had wandered into the “Free Room” at my local thrift store earlier that day and found this pristine early 60s ivory brocade A-line… not something I would normally wear, fit so well and was free-not-to-mention, that I scooped it up. Not having time to dramatically alter my hair, a half-assed Betty Draper of Mad Men was pretty much my only option.

While I’m addicted to Mad Men, I’m not usually one to costume myself as the Flavor of the Year. But considering that about 48% of the population likely dressed as characters from Mad Men, I could be overstepping by using the jaunty little word- fluky – when I tell you that my best friend Richard in Vancouver had corresponded inadvertently by dressing as Betty’s philanderous husband, Donald… but that’s just the way I am.

Rich photos by Janos Sitar and Jillian Mccavour
Amber photos by Abraham Cooper
Mad Men photo from Fabric Magazine

preen (and buffalo exchange!) fashion show for tucson HocoFest 2009

what’s HocoFest? oh, you know… i had no idea either. until there was a fashion show involved (and that right there sums up the extent of the brain-space i devote to anything non textile-related…).

so turns out, it’s a pretty freakin’ awesome 3-day festival that “a celebration of all things music, solar & sustainable during labor day weekend in sunny tucson, AZ- home to one of the best indie music scenes in the states.”
(aw! thanks hocofest website! i think tucson has one of the best “indie music scenes in the states” as well!)

emilie

emilie, half of the preen-ownership duo. um, was this dress MADE for her, or are you going to be
stubborn and argue with the obvious?

so everyone’s favorite vintage shop in tucson, preen, would be getting involved, obviously.
how so? by combining with the also-fabulous buffalo exchange to create a ”sustainable fashion show.”

um, hi world! did you say that the show involved all things thrifted and vintage?
huh… i suppose we could work within those parameters.

preen tucson

pre-show. we (and by “we” i mean emilie,) did a fantastic job with the theme, no?

so the theme was “glam rock,” something which i personally have never embraced as a style choice. it turned out to be a lot of fun to work with though, actually.

amber and i spent way too many hours combing through photos of david bowie, lamenting over our lack of one armed/one legged psychedelic jumpsuits, and listening to all things sparkly and amazing in our itunes. we styled some really amazing catwalk outfits, which were immediately tossed out the door the minute we set foot in preen and realized we had some serious options to work with.

me, amber and evee, wearing more makeup, leopard print and hairspray than we will for
the entire rest of the year combined.

so preen had eight models total, and buffalo exchange had somewhere around 30, but we totally managed to kill it anyway. the missing 8th model from the group picture at the top? this handsome looking fellow, abraham:

abraham, one of the only men i know who can totally rock pleather pants and a sequined bomber.

something else amazing? tuani’s vintage gold fringe skirt, docs, and one glove:
seriously emilie, how do you pull this off?!?!

ok, so she’s glove-less here, but i promise one came on for the show…

so enough “behind the scenes” already, right?!?! you’re ready for some actual show-action!!
well, that’s “behind the scenes” too. (hey, best spot in the house. and a change of scenery…)

so… some of us had never actually walked the the runway before and were actually a wee bit terrified. i won’t say who this “someone” is, because i’d be embarrassed. (hey! i’m not a model, i’m a designer and a stylist! being stared at is terrifying!)

this photo does the situation no justice – we’re all on the runway at this point – which i’m cool with. but how does a girl with absolutely no catwalk experience pull it off when it’s her turn alone down the runway? well, if you’re ever in the same situation, i’ll give you a little hint: do your most ridiculous dance and pretend everyone is eating it up.

there’s no terror in large groups…

and not to save the best for last, but the show-stopper of the evening? i don’t think anyone can argue with this:

evee, in her cage-dress/vintage lingerie/black velvet little-boy blazer number, with the most amazing hair ever…

AND

um, yeah. an amazing trash can ball gown erin bradley, the other half of the preen
magnificence created by hand.
yeah, i said it. BY HAND.

and in case all that wasn’t enough, the Meat Puppets played immediately after our part of the show. the meat puppets! stop and think about that for a minute or two. seriously, how awesome are the 90s?!?!

September 9th, 2009 | Tags: fashion, fashion show, music, preen, recycled, tucson, vintage | Category: Diana Deaver, Every Day is Halloween, Fashion Shows, Tucson Hip, music, vintage | 7 comments

Mad Boy: America’s Most Stylish 8 year old

Oh happy day, Eve just found out seconds ago that the lil’ tinykins currently inhabiting her womb is a BOY! Soon to be named Ennio. Yesterday we were agreeing about how it seems that no amount of frills and lace can make a baby girl any cuter, but the absolute cutest way to dress a boy is to dress him like an old man.

In celebration of today, I just HAD to post these photos from GQ of Arlo Weiner (son of the creator of HBO’s Mad Men), currently being touted as America’s Most Stylish 8 year old. Needless to say? I believe.

“This is my Valentine’s Day outfit. The jacket and the pants are velvet. I love the tie because it’s really two ties stacked on top of each other. (My dad had to tie it for me.) The pink tie matched the pink shirt. I wore brown-and-white argyle socks for a random pattern.”

“My mom got the jacket for me—I love it because I love Frank Sinatra and this is like something he would wear. I wore the jacket with the pants because I like the different plaids together. I thought the blue in the necklace brought out the blue in the pants. It’s a blue orb with fire around it.”

“I have a lot of black outfits these days, so I needed the red ascot to add some color. I love red and black together—they each make the other stand out. I’ve worn this to school about 12 times.”

“The hat is like a Frank Sinatra hat. I wore the jacket with the tie because green and gray are my favorite blend. I’m holding my dad’s bag in the picture, but at school I use my dad’s old brown leather satchel.”

“This is my favorite outfit. The tie is a regular tie, but I tied it like that because I’ve seen it done that way in old English movies. Even though the tie and the jacket are different colors, they’re both striped, so I thought they looked right together. And I wore the vest and pants together because they’re both shades of red.”

It’s really funny too that Diana posted about stylish young’uns yesterday. We’re just on the same mission to elevate “cute” into the art-form it is.

Check out more of the adorable Arlo Weiner here: Continue reading Mad Boy: America’s Most Stylish 8 year old

March 16th, 2009 | Tags: everyday is halloween, Street Style | Category: Every Day is Halloween, Street Style, celebrity style, children's fashion, men's fashion, thrift stars, vintage | 15 comments