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Arizona! Come see us make like models at the Grand Avenue Festival, taking place in a rad former pie factory warehouse: This will feature the most beautiful altered vintage from Butter Toast Boutique, the brick and mortar version of the amazing Billie Goat Vintage. I’m really excited. Hope to see some of you kids there! Wait. I’ve been invited to model in a pie factory runway show. Should I have a bad feeling about this? 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.”
emilie, half of the preen-ownership duo. um, was this dress MADE for her, or are you going to be so everyone’s favorite vintage shop in tucson, preen, would be getting involved, obviously. um, hi world! did you say that the show involved all things thrifted and vintage?
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
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:
something else amazing? tuani’s vintage gold fringe skirt, docs, and one glove:
so enough “behind the scenes” already, right?!?! you’re ready for some actual show-action!! 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.
and not to save the best for last, but the show-stopper of the evening? i don’t think anyone can argue with this:
AND
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?!?! Here it is, hands down our most colorful post to date… I got to do another fashion show for a neon-themed party at Momo Lounge on Thursday night. The clothes were provided by a rad vintage shop called Bows & Arrows (L &17th) and included the most kitsch late 80′s / early 90′s flourescent confections I’d ever laid eyes on. The outfits were styled by the Trisha Rhomberg- designer of local reconstructed vintage line, the amazing Pretty Trashy (15% discount with code PAINFULLYHIP). Our hair and makeup was donated by GS Hair and was inspired by early 90′s rave. We looked a bit crazygonuts and the blacklights made us all glowy. 
Afterwards, the ferocious HOTTUB brought things to a nice rolling boil: 
However, I missed them this time because I had tickets to see one of my favorite folk rock bands, Vetiver, right downstairs from the party- where things were rather sedate but also equally mesmerizing albeit in a much more subtle, close your eyes and soak up the ridiculous acoustics kinda way. So even though there were all of 40 people in attendance, the stunning melodies were not wasted on us. Wow, what a show… 
Which made for an incredibly schizophrenic night all in all, but at least I got to show Andy Cabic (um, starstruck! that VOICE) what a crazy person looks like!  … And then proceed to go back upstairs to dance my face off… or try to anyway; I think turpentine finally did the trick with all that makeup. |
All images were either created by the Painfully Hip Design Collective, used with permission, or found on the web and believed to be in the public domain. If any images that appear are in violation of copyright law, please let me know and i will remove them immediately.
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abraham, one of the only men i know who can totally rock pleather pants and a sequined bomber.
ok, so she’s glove-less here, but i promise one came on for the show…
there’s no terror in large groups…
evee, in her cage-dress/vintage lingerie/black velvet little-boy blazer number, with the most amazing hair ever… 
um, yeah. an amazing trash can ball gown 
