I Shot The Gunn?

Apparently I filmed video of Tim Gunn's visit to Austin and don't remember it, because these videos from Austinist are shot from my exact perspective, right next to Friend of Felt Up Michele S. (You can see her cute short hair and glasses every now and then.) Perhaps I was in a blackout, despite not being drunk? Very odd!

Anyway, enjoy--they are in three parts and this is the last section, the Q & A, which is the most Gunn-y. There's more here:

Texans Love Their Gunns!

Yesterday was a red-letter day for us hicks in sticks in Austin, because Mr. Tim Gunn of "Project Runway" and "Tim Gunn's Guide To Style" graced us with his presence!

Timmy G. was here to promote Liz Claibourne's new spring/summer line with a little fashion show at our local Dillard's department store. Friend of Felt Up Michele S. took matters into her capable hands and called Dillard's, reserved a bunch of seats, and got there early to make sure slackers like your humble Felt Up blogette wouldn't get left out in the cold, wandering around lost and hopeless in the Siberia of the nearby Dillard's "Woman" section (ie Fat Ladies' Clothes) without her help, so thanks again Ms. S.!

They had removed a bunch of racks in the middle of the womenswear section of the store and set up a runway and backstage area, plus a photo-op area (you had to spend $100 on Liz Claibourne to get a professional picture with Tim) and a bunch of chairs around the runway and a velvet rope to keep out all the people who didn't RSVP. Oh, such a nice feeling to be on the right side of the rope! Just like being inside Studio 54, except at 5:30 pm on a Wednesday in a mall in Texas.

It was fun to see who would show up for an event like this. Tim Gunn's Austin crowd was a pretty diverse mix of ages, races, sexual orientation, and body types. Everyone had obviously made an attempt to dress nicely, which kind of broke my heart a little. There were some totally awesome big-haired, plastic-surgered older rich ladies who looked like they had flown in from Dallas, and a great many 'tweens with their parents. Everyone was very excited, and when it got close to show time the whole place started reaching a fever pitch; the din was incredible. People were just about to burst with anticipation. I was not immune: I was able to catch a glimpse of a pin-striped arm backstage and I almost peed my pants.

First Tim's female perky co-host came out and blah blah blahed about Liz Claibourne and Mother's Day coming up and whatever; we just wanted TIM! Finally she shut up and he came out and the crowd went nuts. He was EXACTLY like he is on tv: Charming, erudite, a total delight in every way.



The fashion show began and it was nice because they used models of different sizes and ages, and a couple of times Tim and his co-host would come out on the middle of the runway and change up the look with a bag of accessories and Tim would make totally Tim comments like, "We all know that green can be dicey." Swoon! He also tends to get really red in the face which I found very touching, because it indicated nervousness. Or shock in the Texas heat. Whichever, it was sweet.



After the fashion show (which was a bit on the mom side, as expected, but there were quite a few really cute dresses), Tim took questions from the audience, which always makes me a bit nervous because I don't trust my fellow humanity in the slightest and am worried that someone will either be a) a crazy nutball, b) retarded, c) inappropriate, or d) all of the above. But to my relief, the questions were all fine and ranged from "I'm short. Should I wear a belt?" to "How much input to the producers have on the judging on 'Project Runway.'" The answer to the first question was, "It all depends on proportion, and you should try a variety of widths and materials. Try on, try on, try on!" while the answer to the second question was a bit longer but the gist of it was that the only time the producers have a say is when the judges are at a total stalemate/deadlock. He did dish a bit that he mistakenly thought the producers had intervend on Season 3 during the recycled materials challenge because he thought Vincent (loathesome nutty old Vincent! Ugh!) was so obviously the loser and should have gone home that he "burst into the producers' office" and had a fit over it, but it turned out to be solely the judges' decision. He also talked about concealing one's flaws and said of himself, "I'm a bowling pin!" Oh, Tim.

Overall, a wonderful experience and it didn't cost a penny. Tim made it work!

March On!

Cute interview with Felt Up fave Chris March from "Project Runway," here.

Forget It, Jen. It's Lizatown.

(image of halston, bianca jagger, and liza via new york magazine)

I've died and gone to heaven. Or I would have if I'd been lucky enough to be there: Liza Minelli was at the newly-relaunched Halston show at New York's Fashion Week! Squeal!

From Reuters UK:

The Halston clothing line popular among the disco crowd of the 1970s is back.

With simple clothes, the Halston revival collection at New York Fashion Week for the fall season struck just the right note with one customer who wore his original designs in the 1970s at the famed Studio 54 nightclub -- Liza Minnelli.

The actress and singer was in the front row for Monday's show of designer Marco Zanini's first collection for Halston.

"I loved the colours, the way it moved, very sensual," Minnelli said in an interview. "The materials dance with you."

The collection had everything from evening wear -- a chocolate cashmere and silk sleeveless turtleneck dress stood out -- to blazers, trousers, skirts, blouses and cardigans.

Minnelli said Halston, who died in 1990, knew what women wanted to wear.

"He put us on the map -- an American designer," she said. "You need clothes you can pack -- like 87 outfits in one bag!"

The show marked the return of Halston to New York runways after a long absence and a series of ownership changes since the designer Roy Halston Frowick sold his name 25 years ago.

"87 outfits in one bag" is totally my new mantra.

I feel like Faye Dunaway being slapped around in Chinatown: My Halston, my Liza! My Halston, my Liza! My head is spinning!

Some Day I Would Like To Make A Collectible Figurine of Myself

(image via jezebel)

Oh. My. Gawww. This is so awesome. Krazy Genius Karl Lagerfeld has created a tiny figurine of himself that is for sale right now, but only in one store in Paris. From WWD via Jezebel:

Already an icon in his own right, Karl Lagerfeld is becoming a collectible, too. The designer has collaborated with Pixi on a miniature lead figurine of himself in his trademark regalia. The doll is being issued in a limited run of 1,000 figures and is on sale exclusively in Paris at Colette for 200 euros, or about $300.

Just think...somewhere a pale, lonely little Teutonic boy in wraparound shades and black diapers could be getting his wee ring-covered hands on his first Karl Barbie doll and designing his very own imaginary collection of campy-chic Chanel-inspired fashions...then flinging the figurine onto a flaming pyre when it displeases him...oh, it brings a tear to me eye, it really does!

I, Too, Have Been Described As "Exuding Papal Grandeur"

SIGH! The Best Movie of All Time, Lagerfeld Confidential, is reviewed in the New York Times today, and though I fear I will have to Netflix this sucker (as soon as I finish The Complete Works of Vincent D'Onofrio Except For Feeling Minnesota, Which I Found Intolerably Twee) because these kinds of arty, fashiony documentaries tend not to make out here to the sticks, the tantalizing tidbits dangled before us are almost too much to bear:

Even now, he cannot go to sleep without a pillow clutched to his stomach.

His mother, he says, was “the polar opposite of a typical German mother.” She “exuded frivolity” and “made slaves of everyone.” Mr. Lagerfeld displays a similar mixture of eccentricity and severity. With his white ponytail, high white collars, sunglasses, fingerless gloves (his hands are festooned with rings) and preference for black, he resembles a man of the cloth, “a defrocked one,” he says matter-of-factly.

And like a priest, he is given to making lofty pronouncements with an aphoristic ring. If the documentary had a subtitle, it might be “The Wit and Wisdom of Karl Lagerfeld.” Or more accurately, “The Wisdom and Obfuscation.”

Here are some sample quotations: “I hate people who can’t be alone”; “The best things I’ve ever done have come from dreams”; ... “There is a German saying: ‘You can’t borrow on your past.’”; “I love change; I’m attached to nothing”; “When I took on Chanel, it was a sleeping beauty — not even a beautiful one; she snored”; “Success nullifies; you have to do it again, and better.” He sneers at “bourgeois marriages,” is pro-prostitution and, as befits a man who aspires to be an apparition, virulently anti-psychoanalysis.

His most unsettling remarks concern friendship. Hanging over every close relationship, he asserts, is a sword of Damocles. And he implies that many have been permanently exiled from his court. “Forgiveness isn’t something I’m preoccupied with,” he says. “Turning the other cheek is not my trip. The curtain falls: an iron curtain.”

Oh, Karl. We have so much in common! I, too, sleep with a pillow clutched to my stomach. I, too, favor ring-festooned be-fingerless-gloved hands. I, too, mix severity and eccentricity like so much coffee and cream. I, too, have a mother with a bunch of slavish devotees. I, too, am pro-prostitution (almost embarrassingly so!). And everyone in the coveted Felt Up Inner Circle is certainly aware of the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Acthtung! YOU ARE ALL ONE UNFLATTERING COMMENT AWAY FROM THE IRON CURTAIN COMING DOWN!

Your humble Felt Up blogette's birthday is just around the corner (she turns 24! finally!), and this year she has but one wish: THAT Lagerfeld Confidential COME TO TOWN!

Hix In Stix Wish For Lagerfeld Pix!

The lovely lasses at Jezebel.com just posted some leaked soundbites from the new documentary Lagerfeld Confidential, and if these quotable quotes from frightening Teutonic dietmaster, Chanel head designer, and Felt Up Icon Emeritus Karl Lagerfeld are anything to go by, this is shaping up to be THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME:

"The few people I know who knew me as a child say I was like a male Shirley Temple - rather unbearable and spoiled."

"I love the smell of building sites."

"I can't plan six months in advance; we might be dead by then."

"If you want social justice, be a civil servant. Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair."

My only concern is that this, perhaps the most important film ever made, might not make it out here to the sticks in Austin. IF I HAVE TO FLY TO NEW YORK TO SEE KARL LAGERFELD TALK ABOUT HIS RESEMBLANCE TO SHIRLEY TEMPLE, I WILL! Don't threaten me with a good time, Lagerfeld Confidential!

Fabulous Celeb Photo of the Day

Well, here's something totally new and different for Felt Up--something I LIKE!

Behold a photo of Felt Up Role Model Emeritus Miss Joan Collins, who looked awesome at the memorial service for British fashion icon Isabella Blow in London recently:


(image via hello magazine)

I hope I look this good when I'm 105 or whatever she is. Kudos, Joanie! Kudos!

Fashion Dealt A Blow

British fashion icon, muse, and famous hat-wearer Isabella Blow has died, and though the official cause of death was given as ovarian cancer, people in the know are saying that she may have committed suicide, because that was kind of her thing. From the NY Daily News:

Fashion lost an eccentric icon yesterday with the death of Isabella Blow, a British stylist, editor and former assistant of Vogue's Anna Wintour and Andre Leon Talley.

But friends familiar with her suicidal tendencies - especially in recent weeks - are questioning the official cause of death, given as cancer.

One magazine source tells me: "She tried to kill herself again last week and drank bleach, then on another occasion tried to jump out of [her husband] Detmar 's car."

Self-administered poison was the leading theory among New York fashionistas yesterday, gathering for the annual Met Costume Institute's Benefit Gala.

Wintour said that Blow, 48, "was a true British original, and [her death] is a great loss to fashion and to us all." Blow's outlandish personal style was lionized by designers including Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, and made the career of hatmaker Philip Treacy.

In 2005, she tried to kill herself by jumping off a London bridge. After breaking her feet and no longer being able to wear any of her 280 pairs of spiked heels, she was inundated by gifts of flat shoes from designers including Manolo Blahnik and Christian Laboutin.

Fellow style icon Victoria Beckham, on hearing of the 2005 suicide attempt, famously declared: "What genius!"

Oh, Posh. I think maybe you are the real genius!

It sounds like maybe the world was too cruel a place for someone like Ms. Blow. Although anyone who could work for Anna Wintour and live to tell the tale must have had inner reserves of strength--or was that just another failed death wish? Anyway, a sad story, but also rather fabulous...

I Don't Cotton To Cotton

Fave store of Felt Up Forever 21 (aka Forever 31, aka Forever 21 Inches Too Small) has launched a new line of curiously-numeric-themed shops called Heritage 1981. I just got an email about it and excitedly clicked on the link, hoping against hope that the spin-off would cater less to the tiny pre-pubescent Asian ballerina shopper and more to the coveted Princess Plus old lady crowd. Sadly, the only difference between Heritage 1981 and Forever 21 appears to be that there are more "natural" fibers and fabrics--like 100% cotton--which means a focus on clothing with an EVEN LESS FORGIVING fit! Poly-blends, lycra, and modal are the stylishly zaftig lady's best friends! WHY DO YOU HATE US FOREVER 21?

At any rate, the only Heritage 1981 store in Texas is in Arlington.

PS
Has anyone ever noticed the biblical reference on the bottom of the Forever 21 plastic bags? Can I at least purchase low-priced, overly youthful, too-small trendy pre-teen clothing without religious indoctrination? I don't care what anyone believes--but I resent it when those beliefs are force-fed to me against my will in a retail environment. It's bad enough I have to eat my beloved Chik-Fil-A sandwiches whilst being inundated with peppy Christian music in their stand-alone locations (not to mention the fact that they are closed on Sunday, the day when you want to do two things: Go to the craft store and eat a strangely sweet fried chicken-n-pickle sandwich, and yet both Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A are closed on Sundays! Boo, hiss!) and can't buy hard liquor on Sunday (the third thing every decent American wants to do), but the last thing I want shoved down my throat is a message from God on my shopping bag. Argh! I still shop there religiously, though. Ba dum dum! I'm here all week, folks! Try the veal! And Happy Easter!

I THOUGHT That Last Collection Looked A Little Weird...

Breaking news from Women's Wear Daily! (If I had a nickel for every time I heard that.):

Marc Jacobs has checked himself into rehab.

After seven years of sobriety, the designer relapsed recently and decided to undergo a second round of in-patient rehabilitation for drug and alcohol abuse. The day after showing his Louis Vuitton collection in Paris, Jacobs, who has publicly acknowledged substance abuse problems in the past, left the French capital and flew to a treatment facility in Arizona.

Reached for comment earlier today Jacobs’ business partner Robert Duffy confirmed the rumor that had started to circulate around New York. “Marc made the right decision,” Duffy said. “He’d been sober for seven years. When he relapsed, he wanted to deal with it right away.

“According to the experts, such a relapse isn’t uncommon,” Duffy continued. “Thankfully, Marc recognized the problem himself and chose to deal with it. Obviously, our prayers are with him.”

Fashion And Music: Felt Up's Raison D'Etre! (Besides Trashy Gossip, Of Course)

The original Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers has a new fashion blog up called Fashionista, and it's just as silly, funny, and fun as you would expect, including a snippet about the sudden proliferation of white Converse high-tops in NYC, a featurette on the Scissor Sisters' stylist, and a reader's submitted picture of her Karl Lagerfeld M&M (from the "Become an M&M" site):



It's fashion writing for people who don't take fashion too seriously. Felt Up says check it out.

Also, a little shameless plug for Band of Felt Up Nagel (yes, after that Nagel): Take a looksee at our MySpace page, which is chockfull of exciting photos (featuring a dazzling lead singer!), downloadable mp3s, and Patrick Nagel imagery galore.

And Austin metroplex area peeps, take note: Nagel is making a rare live appearance on Friday, Feb. 9th at Red's Scoot Inn on E. 4th Street, with The Dresses, Alright Tonight, and Yellow Fever. Nagel goes on at 10pm.

And don't worry, I'll be sure and plug this show about a gazillion more times. Huzzah!