the pop cultural: sights, sounds and pages

I’m a bit of a TV junkie, I’ll admit it. In addition to the obvious favorites like True Blood and Mad Men, one of the best new shows is Rubicon. It’s super intriguing and very smart. I’m growing attached to the characters and the storyline. I definitely recomend watching it.

This season’s America’s Next Top Model looks great too so far - love that they win the cover of Italian Vogue - that’s HUGE. Some weird looking chicks in there.

I’m finally catching up on fashion and beauty - so the things I’d like to share are my new loves. I am loving Nars blush in Desire and Dior Ultra Gloss in Flash right now. They are fresh for the summer and feel amazing on. The blush has a really soft powder feel and intense color you can tone up or down. The gloss has a rich hue and isn’t sticky.

I’m sort of uninspired by a lot of fashion right now. I am really into dresses though - I can’t get enough of them. I’m also really into gray shoes - boots, heals, whatever…I want them.

And one of the most amazing inventions I wanted to share is something most women don’t talk about, but we all do it. Clean our pores. There is an easy obsession to cleaning pores and your skin looks so much better if you are masking regularly. So…when I saw this new tool I almost freaked. Bliss Pore-fector which uses sonic vibrations to clean pores. Don’t pretend you don’t do it too.

I bought this fabulous silk summer dress from Patterson J. Kincaid at the Nordstrom anniversary sale and I wanted to wear some thin white leggings with it. Unfortunately, white leggings are no where to be found. But what I learned is that fall will be all about leggings. Fall shipments start coming in around mid-August, so be prepared!

I’m obsessed with this book, Deluxe by Dana Thomas. I’m half way through and I’ve deemed it as an all time favorite read. Recommended by my friend Todd, the short of it is about how the luxury, couture fashion industry has changed to sell to mass consumers, versus just a high-end clientele, and how that adaption has devalued luxury goods.

That’s how the book is positioned, but it’s true, but but I’m getting so much out of it and see it differently. I thought going in it would make me not want to be sucked into the mass consumermism that is going on, but instead it’s made me so much more aware of which companies (Chanel and Hermes, Piaget and Cartier, and others in certain areas) are still serving the very best in luxury goods and haven’t “sold out.” OR where I can still get quality, inspired fashion at affordable prices that are more my choices, versus what the brand wants me to pick (I’m already more there but this has helped educate me how to avoid the “it handbag” for example.)

The book is full of brilliant marketing and business moves that are now standards - like Henry Racamier of Louis Vuitton’s vertical integration - told through the story behind the business. I’ve learned through Dana’s brilliant storytelling how each of the main fashion houses were inspired, born, and changing today.

LVMH is a MONSTER - I knew they owned a lot, but didn’t know the back story or the extent of it. That said, I’m still loyal to Veuve and Sephora and think they aren’t the most evil. Arnault, the guy who’s been running it is ruthless and can’t say I agree with his business tactics, but crazy to see how the company is run and become the power luxury conglomerate it is today.

It’s entertaining, funny, interesting, and reminded me why I LOVE fashion. LOVE marketing. And especially LOVE perfume. A whole chapter on perfumes! It’s inspired me to find a tour of LVM, one for the perfume houses, when I go to Europe again. It’s reminded me why I DON’T buy celeb branded perfumes. It’s raised the sleaze factor for celeb endorsement of brands more than I already had it sleazed up.

I could go on - the book is all marked up with my thoughts and comments, but I won’t. Instead I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes.

• “The luxury industry has changed the way people dress. It has realigned our economic class system. It has changed the way we interact with others. It has become part of our social fabric. To achieve this, it has sacrificed its integrity, undermined its products, tarnished its history and hoodwinked its consumers. In order to make luxury ‘accessible’ tycoons have stripped away all that has made it special.”
• “‘What counts with critiques (fashion show critiques) is not whether they’re good or bad,’ (Bernard) Arnault (chairman of LVMH) told me, quoting Christian Dior. ‘It’s whether they’re on the front page.’”
• “‘If you control your factories, you control your quality.’ Arnault explained. If you control your distribution, you control your image.”
• “‘To fake luxury today is easy. You put some details from the brand’s past, you put a little bit of gold, and that’s it. I can’t bear that…Real luxurious people hate status.’” Miuccia Prada
• “At the same time in Japan, conformity is prized. By wearing and carrying luxury goods covered with logos, the Japanese are able to identify themselves in socioeconomic terms as well as conform to social mores. It’s as if they are branding themselves.” 
• “‘Their attention to detail and demand for quality is unmatched and unyielding,’ says Chanel Japan’s president Richard Collasse. ‘The Japanese have zero tolerance for flaws.’”
• ‘“Luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence if vulgarity.’ Coco Chanel”
• ‘“If I ever got a tattoo it would be “Tom Ford Lives Forever”.’ she (Rachel Zoe) gushed to Harper’s Bazaar in 2005.
• “‘A woman enveloped in luxury has special radiance.’ Coco Chanel”
• “French poet Paul Valery said, ‘A woman who does not perfume herself has no future.”

So I’m watching “The Reader” the other day and my mom comes in near the end and sees the main character walking towards an old woman in what could be an old folks home. She asks, “what are you watching?” I respond, “The Reader.” She says, “oh, is this about a guy who likes to read to old people?” Moms….

So I loved the movie. It deals with some very serious topics including the holocaust, illiteracy, sex with a minor, and manipulation of the weak. Kate Winslet plays the role of emotionally distant almost too well. And the guy who played the boy, David Kross, did an amazing job straddling his role as a 15 year old and an early 20 something. I think it’s hard to show the immaturity of a boy and then a subtle maturity and have the audience see two distanctly different times but the same thread.

You can empathize with Kate Winslet’s character despite the fact that she’s done some horrible things and totally manipulated people in really inappropriate ways.

The main thing that I liked about this it’s the first movie that I’ve seen that uses the holocaust as a main plot in the movie, without the movie being really about it. I think it moves forward the conversation and that’s really important. I also recently saw “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas.” It’s a heartbreaker and a movie about the holocaust. Also really great, but just a different kind of movie.

Iconoclasts is a show on the Sundance Channel. It’s one of the best shows on TV. Ie now seen every episode in the 4 seasons. It pairs two celebrities in different genres and follows them for a few days. The two ”icons” essentially interview each other on their life, career, passions and what helps them key balance or find success. What I love about it is it takes you deeper into the lives of highly successful people and the people aren’t always your traditional celebrity that is here today gone tomorrow. It’s people who have deomstrated long-term success. Some of my favorite episodes were:

• Isabella Rossellini + Dean Kamen
• Stella McCartney + Ed Ruscha
• Cameron Diaz + Cameron Sinclair
• Mike Myers + Deepak Chopra
• Madeleine Albright + Ashley Judd

 I recommend you find it and DVR it. Enjoy!