something to rely on...

so it's been a couple of those good news/bad news kind of days. one minute you're up, and the next, wham! right back down again. a real roller coaster.  but in times of turbulence, it's good to know that there are some things you can always rely on..

i love you los angeles. you are my sunshine.

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brizo fashion week in NYC (good things happen to those who blog)

jason wu s/s 2012 (photo by john aquino for WWD

when i saw the tweets and blog posts of the first group of bloggers and designers who brizo faucets flew to new york for fashion week way back when (early 2010?), i admit, i was confused: "faucets? fashion? what the heck do they have in common?"; then brizo sent me an invite to fashion week 2012, and i thought, "i still don't know if i get it, but hey, fashion week in NYC? i'm so there!"

faucet = fashion? for the home, yes!

now, after meeting jason wu, and the brizo design team, i finally do get it, and completely understand the connection between fashion and faucets, and why brizo has developed a relationship with jason wu practically since he was fresh out of design school. the connection is that both the brizo design team and jason wu are passionate about craft... and form...  and finish... and on and on, and really when you put it into perspective, the only difference between designing a faucet and designing a dress is lead time- you want both to the ultimate expression of your inspiration, and you want the finished product of both to be as absolutely perfect as possible given the constraints of the manufacturing (and sewing) process- no loose threads on a dress (paraphrasing jason) or no extraneous seams on a faucet (paraphrasing judd, brizo's design guru). really, be it fashion or faucets,  it's the same ideal all of us creatives pursue: the dream made real...

this photo perfectly captures the hustle and bustle of fashion week (waiting to get into the jason wu show, courtesy of kerrie kelly design lab)

and brizo's fashion week experience was like a dream (and not just because i was jet-lagged and quite out of it the first day or so). it was a fascinating peek into the brizo design philosophy, coupled with the incredible excitement of fashion week in new york.  now i'm a jaded angenelo, and it takes a lot to impress me- we angelenos rub elbows with glamor and celebrities every day after all, and  i've been lucky enough to have attended several NYC fashion shows in the past (and even styled a fashion week party or two back in the day), but having rare birds of fashion like joe zee, anna dello russo, and hamish bowles, mere feet away from you, and nodding to scott schuman (the satorialist) like we're old friends, is pretty damn exciting, thank you very much. as is that moment when the lights go dark, the beat kicks in, and the first model appears on the runway. magic, peeple.  magic, i tell you!  (jason wu's show was really pretty too- that helps. just as a good show is magic, a bad show is, well, tragic...)

yup, that's me, committing the publicity photo faux pas of a clutching a cocktail in front of a stand and repeat.  oops!  i'm standing with my 19 new bff's, 15 of whom i had never laid eyes on before last week. these junkets are great bonding/networking experiences too... (courtesy of kerrie kelly design lab)

more about the brizo fashion week experience to come...

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take this, madge!

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wake up in new york

the above view may look gritty to you, but it fills me with excitement, because it means the drive from JFK is almost over, and soon i'll be in one of my favorite spots on earth, the exotic and magical island of manhattan... which is were i'll be when i wake up tomorrow morning, courtesy of the fashionable folks at brizo, who are flying a group of interior designers, tastemakers, and social media mavens to NYC to participate in the fabulous frenzy known as fashion week. if you've never been to fashion week in new york, you are missing out as it's just as fun and exciting as it looks in the media, so when brizo asked me to participate, of course, i was all over it like mario buatta is all over chintz on a chair!

fashion for the home, by brizo

we'll blog and tweet about our whirlwind visit (wish i could stay longer to shop and socialize, but alas, work is too busy here in LA to be gone for more than a few days) so if you aren't following me on the twitters, or the FB, now would be a good time to start!

so tomorrow, while ted and richard wake up to the petsitter (sniff, sniff), m21 will wake up in new york!



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a very good deed.

this is virgil. he is eight weeks old and possibly the cutest thing ever. we met him for the first time yesterday as he is going to be our neighbor for a while.

for while, you say? yes, virgil will only be our neighbor for about 18 months, as our extraordinary neighbors, barry and penny, are foster parents for a very good cause. for the next year and half, they will be "puppy rasiers" providing this little guy with tons of love, exposure to as many different situations as possible, and some basic puppy obedience training before they turn him back over to guide dogs of america, where he'll undergo an additional 6 months of training before becoming a certified guide dog for a blind or visually impaired person.

what an amazing thing barry and penny are doing... they are far better people than i, knowing that they will fall in love with this little guy, and also knowing they will be soon be sending him on to do greater things. a good deed, indeed.

to donate to guide dogs of america, or find out more about this very cool program, click here. Tweet

a great start

this brief video is how we start every morning here at the atelier- not such a bad way to begin the day!

***make sure your volume is all the way up***

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