The Cold Front

I sent one of my writers to interview Kam Liann, a scarf designer from Brooklyn. Loving these scarves for the winter, ladies! Get your hands on them right before the trend sets in! -A.

I met Kam Liann of Cool Collegiate, an up and coming scarf designer, on a cold winter Saturday in New York City. We spoke about her path to becoming a designer and how she plans to expand her business.

Her tiny stature is misleading, to say the least. She is a full-fledged dynamo, as driven as she is talented. Kam Liann honed her design skills at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, Florida.

I asked her how she picked up knitting and she told me of a visit to Michael’s and how it was there that she became inspired by all the tools and different colored yarns. She taught herself to crochet and then slowly moved on to knitting. Following patterns, she became more adept at the craft and was soon making wearable pieces.

In 2007, after relocating to Brooklyn, New York, she began to knit tube scarves for herself and was often stopped on the street by admirers of her work and friends requesting that she make one for them. Word of mouth spread about her scarves and her line Cool Collegiate by Kam Liann was born. 

She found a market not only from fans who saw her work in person, but also in college students eager to support their school’s teams and show college pride.

Colors such as pep rally pink and Texas Longhorn orange, among others, pepper her line. I inquired as to why she chose to focus on scarves and she told me that she was drawn to the fact that they are tangible to a great range of customers. The feeling that everyone can wear a scarf no matter what size or shape they are appealed to Kam Liann, not only from an aesthetic sense but from the marketing side as well. Customers can custom design their scarves, picking colors and choosing between the simple tube scarf and the hooded version constructed with a thicker yarn. Prices range from $40.00-$80.00.

Kam Liann is ambitious about advertising her wares and sells as an independent merchant on Etsy, via her Facebook page and at a boutique in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn called The Wagon. She was drawn to Etsy after reading an article in Nylon magazine where she spotted an ad for a jewelry line that sold to Macy’s and Urban Outfitters and noticed that the designer’s jewelry was also sold on Etsy.com.

While her aesthetic is very different, Kam Liann’s favorite designer is Ralph Lauren. She is impressed by the branding and respects Lauren’s impact on so many different facets of fashion--from perfume to the iconic Polo shirt.

While Cool Collegiate is currently a company of one for the moment, Kam Liann wants a team behind her with employees and partners as passionate as she is. She would like to expand her line to include more embellishments such as spikes and pearls to appeal to a wider market.

You can find her items on: www.etsy.com/shop/kamliann or at:

The Wagon

1214 Union Street

Brooklyn, NY 11225

-Sophia Varga

Just Loving

I just "stumbled" upon this new website, NastyGal.com. Someone call the paramedics, I'm having a stroke.

My favorites:

Event Update

Eponymy, an uber cool boutique in Brooklyn that supplies the likes of Alexandre Herchcovitch, Dolce Vita, J Brand, and Vivienne Westwood Anglomania, among others, will be participating in an event this Sunday in Kings County General Store, a market at Southpaw music venue in Park Slope. They will have a table there from 12-5pm offering discounts on clothing, vintage gloves, holiday ornaments, natural soaps, and other treats. A portion of the proceeds will go to Brooklyn Rescue Mission, a food program that supplies fresh, free produce to the communities of central  Brooklyn and Bedford Stuyvesant. For every dollar donated, Eponymy will match it. Click here and here for more information.

Bergdorf Goodman recieves a personal Roland Mouret collection

Roland Mouret created an exclusive collection for Bergdorf Goodman. Comprised of 17 stunning pieces, Mouret once again shows that he is the master of his craft.You can see the full article here.

Photos courtesy of Bergdorf  Goodman                                  

Paolo Roversi for W Magazine

W Magazine has by far the best fashion photography of all the major fashion magazines. They just recently had a photo series from photographer Paolo Roversi for their December 2010 issue. He did an impressive job of creating a fantasy storyline with a tiger and a bunch of cute kids alongside Lara Stone and Lindsey Wixson. Also in attendance were some phenomenal numbers from the houses of Chanel, Galliano, Dior, Ackermann, and de la Renta, among others. 

Love the Chanel tweed jacket. So cute!

Perfect combination of a Herrera blouse with a Giambattista skirt. 

John Galliano hat. Beautiful photography!

Lara Stone and her makeup artist are magical. So is this Vera gown.

Oscar de la Renta's gold leaf and silk organza gown is an unbelievable work of art.

My favorite picture, Haider Ackermann’s polyester and silk kimono jacket, silk top, and polyester pants paired with the Tessa Morehouse headpiece....I'm going to go blind.

Was loving this Dior Couture gown on the runway, but it's not a great picture nor is she any exceptional model. The makeup isn't helping, they could have gone completely bare with the eye or done a beige with a cream undertone and cream along the water line.

Lara Stone is INcredible. INcredible. She's the master of her craft and this picture is testament to that. Chanel silk tweed jacket with Tessa Morehouse headpiece. Could die. Right now.  

Newfoundland

Love Charlie & Sam!

Going bonkers over their great quality dresses and jackets. Waw!

(Totally something Kim Kardashian would wear, no?)

Some for the men:

Jackets, a skinny leather tie, and warm gloves are essential for the wintertime (falltime if you live on the east coast).

Inspiration

I was in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel the other day when I was introduced to a friend of a friend, photographer Joel Simpson. He had a book of his photography with him, and I fell in love with his work. The images are so inspiring and would be great for some high fashion shoots. Take a look, and make sure to visit his site, joelsimpsonart.com

Jimmy Crystal Video

Remember the Jimmy Crystal event (click HERE to remember) I went to a few weeks ago? The video of the event is here! See below and make sure to watch out for me at the 2:37 mark (I sound like a whiny cheerleader).

"Clothes are memories and I want to decorate your dreams"

"I love designing for women; you are so complex, so unpredictable. You have so many things you want, need, demand the clothes to say - 'I want to be empowered, romantic, whimsical, flirtatious, mesmerising, I want to look like I haven't tried that hard, I want to look like I have been to the gym every day for months'. I have a lot of secrets to keep, but it's teamwork, together we can hide those hips, get creative with those curves, and bring out your siren. Clothes are co-conspirators, your ally and partner in crime but be sure they work with you, not against you, or overpower you. The perfect dress is more loyal than the perfect man on the red carpet. A man might say, 'Oh, you look nice dear', but a great dress can make you look and feel amazing, bring you out of your shell and make you all the things you hope you are.

Getting dressed each morning is a ritual that everyone goes through, yet you have to vary and find inspiration for every day. It's like you're dressing for battle, putting on your uniform, war paint and then you will be ready to take on the world. I get up and go to the gym, go for a run to clear my head and prepare myself for the day.

I think about the dilemmas of dressing when I am designing, or when I am getting dressed myself. The reason I launched Galliano Homme was because so many of my guy friends would say: well, what about us? So I looked at my own wardrobe and started to design what I wanted, and what my wardrobe lacked. Clothes can say so much about you. Clothes give people clues to your mood, your personality, your identity, they conceal your shyness and any nerves and speak before you've even uttered a word. Clothes are the subtitles if you like, they are what you are trying to say and who you want to be. Power suits and power dressing didn't happen by accident!

Clothes are there to be friends, or remind you of friends. A Lacoste top will always make me think of my friend Steven [Robinson], a flat cap Stephen Jones, a vintage shawl perhaps a night out with Kate [Moss]. Clothes are memories and I want to decorate your dreams. Above all I want fashion to be beautiful, escapist, aspirational. Fairy godmothers are hard to come by so let me tell you: you shall go to the ball! Make life more of a fantasy and more of the story you imagined.

When I am working in the studio I could be in jeans, T-shirt or waistcoat, it depends. My hair is quite long so it's usually twisted up, in a bandana or a cap. Clothes should tell a story and take you on an adventure. I love to see my clothes step out - maybe on Kate when she went to get her award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in Dior; we made her a cocktail dress in nude chiffon and black net and jet beading and she looked major - or Princess Diana who wore the first design I did for Dior, before I had even done my first show for the house! When Cate Blanchett wore Galliano to the Oscars we were both relative newcomers to the red carpet. We came up with a Garden of Eden dress, with flowers, vines and hummingbirds embroidered up her back. She looked so amazing in it. I love clothes that make you look twice, and that is what's worth getting dressed for."

-John Galliano for Guardian.co.uk

My new favorite...

Stacie and I went to the Paper Mag party last night, and I ended up carrying my favorite bag--the Nicole Lee "Shelly" doctor bag. It's faux fur (I'm a vegetarian, I wouldn't wear real!), and it carries anything and everything. It's not too big or in the way like most bags that carry everything are. It's cute, goes with just about anything, and come with a shoulder strap.

It took me a while to post this because when I get a new product I like to try it out. I've been carrying it for a few weeks now, and I love taking it into the city with me because I can fit spare shoes and spare clothes in there...and still have room for my makeup and camera. I love it! It's from their Fall 2010 collection, and is currently on sale for the Halloween holiday. Click here to see more or to purchase the purse.

As for the party, it was wonderful! There was an Ipad raffle, cocktails, and some hors d'oeuvres. Besides the fact that my phone broke yesterday, it was a great night.