If you ask Los Angeles based designer and illustrator Andrea Roady who her fashion icon would be, she would tell you without a doubt it is Queen Elizabeth I. Andrea has a fondness for the Elizabethan era and she draws much of her inspiration from it. Oh, P.S. if you don’t know what “anachronistic” means, as I didn’t, it is a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place, especially one from a former age that is incongruous in the present.
Designer leggings. Is that an oxymoron?!
James Lillis of Black Milk would say no. Based in Australia, this designer — who had no formal training – was first inspired by the fashion atrocities he saw committed on the street! Australia is awash with leggings: every girl owns several pairs, & many of them prefer leggings over pants. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that — we are all entitled to our preferred aesthetic. But what really upset James was the poor quality of the leggings he saw girls wearing. If you use cheap cotton to make leggings, the sad outcome will eventually include saggy knees & bottoms, which don’t flatter anyone.
He decided that he couldn’t take it any more! Why couldn’t anyone make good quality leggings?! Maybe he was the right man for the job. After many, many hours at a sewing machine, breaking needles & making messes, he created his Black Wetlook leggings & hasn’t looked back since.
Dean Motter is the legendary designer, illustrator, and writer most known for his masterpiece ‘Mister X Archives’ that launched the careers of other famous creators like Jaime Hernandez and Dave McKean. The collection, a fusion of Art Deco, German Expressionism and Film Noir, recently won Print magazine’s Regional Design Award and the PubWest Award. Motter has since released ‘Mister X: Condemned’ which continues to explore the philosophy of psychetecture – the idea that a city’s layout can influence its citizen’s emotional state – through antique futurism. His work is currently on exhibit at The Cité in Paris along side original art from Windsor McCay’s ‘Little Nemo’.
When we pulled onto the freeway in Indio, California, you could almost hear a collective exhale from inside the car. It had been a long trip. While the premise sounded idyllic — deserts! Palm trees! Swimming pools & music festivals! — the reality had turned out to be a joyless romp through an artificially lush playground for senior citizens. Harsh, I know, but unfortunately, true.
On our way to Coachella, we had passed signs on the I-10 promising some of the best designer shopping on the West Coast. I had pawed at the window desperately, but my intrepid editor, ever responsible & on-task, had kept her foot firmly on the throttle. (Things to do, places to go, enormous lines of traffic to sit in!) This time, heading in the opposite direction, it wasn’t such a hard sell. We practically left half our tread at the off-ramp, we were so excited.
After all, what could make the transition from the Californian desert to Los Angeles easier than some much-needed retail therapy at http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=6 With a slew of stores ranging from Barneys to Bottega Veneta, Dior to Dolce & Gabbana, & Ralph Lauren to Rock & Republic, we knew it was going to be a good time.