My hippie daughter sent me an email today begging me to blog about Mika’s pants. Aren’t they great? She found out about them here. You can also see them here in a video shot at Benicassim. Turns out, besides being a classically-trained pop-singer from London (originally Lebanon), Mika is also quite the style icon. He was featured in the Paul Smith SS07 ad campaign. We see an edgier Paul Smith at the SS09 Paris show.

Doesn’t this tote make you want to book a New England B&B for a weekend of pumpkins, apples, and fall foliage? I found it here at Vintage Virtuosa. I love how the owner, Karen, describes her passion for vintage clothing. Like me, it started in her mother’s closet.  She says -

If I were to define vintage it would be a sip of fine wine from my grandmother’s goblet, the lingering scent of tobacco from my grandfather’s pipe, a favorite family recipe, an old re-run of `I Love Lucy’. If I were to define vintage clothing it would be a dress that dictates trend from a designer or dressmaker who captured a stylistic moment, it would be a signature piece from a retired designer or a unique item that depicts the socioeconomic climate of its era. Vintage can, but does not have to bear a label, it is of a time when getting dressed was an art form and clothes were constructed, not just made, it is a time when we celebrated our bodies and revealed ourselves from the outside in, when women were demure, yet sexy, temperate, yet sensual, coy, yet poised. It is also fun, exciting, playful and outlandish. Vintage is what you make of it and what it makes of you. So come and discover the world of yesterday and see that while it is not brand new it is not yesterday’s news.

This bag also reminds me of one of my favorite children’s books – Susan and the Rain  by Madye Lee Chastain.

Susan Amantha Cottonwood was a little girl who was always good- when
the sun shone,
BUT
When the clouds rolled up in the sky
She began to cry and moan
    and cry and moan
    and cry and moan.
Until one day she went to visit her grandpapa -

Anyway… Susan gets a new raincoat and boots as a present at the end of the book… and the coat is in the very same red plaid as this bag! 

Okay. So I found the boots I must have for this fall – flat, high, leather, simple. They’re called Milly and they’re from Levi’s Red tab shoes and apparently they’re only available in Europe. I found them online here but both times I clicked on “check out” I was sent to some other screen that had nothing to do with pricing, or purchasing. No luck at the U.S. Levis.com or at Zappo’s. I’m going to keep looking and I’ll definitely update you when I track them down. 

I’ve been slacking off the past couple of days and watching all the old episodes of Project Runway on YouTube. Of course I’m rooting for my favorite, LeAnne Marshall, but I do have a soft spot for Kenley Collins. I love her retro vintage style. The black dress (above) is from her “elegant wear” line on her website. She calls it “World War II Widow.” In this interview in The Gothamist she mentions two of her fashion icons are Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. And her favorite New Yorker? Betsey Johnson, of course. No wonder I like her.

• Kenleycollins.com
• Project Runway

I stumbled upon Gucci’s Fall collection via Isabelle’s post over at Bohemian Musings and then went to the Gucci site to see more of the collection. Although I love the big bags, the chains, the fringe, the fur, the leather and the long hair, there’s something slightly disturbing about seeing all of my favorite 60’s style elements thrown all together in one big hodgepodge and set out to pasture.  Check it out for yourself over at Gucci.com.

As you probably noticed, I always have an eye out for Steampunk inspired clothing. This reconstructed vest is from Lorimarsha over at Etsy. It would look great with skinny jeans and a long-sleeve black top.  Lorimarsha has been in the business for about ten years. This is from her profile at Etsy—- 

I’ve been designing handbags and jewelry for about ten years and in 2005 I added recycled and redesigned clothing to the mix. I have been fortunate to sell my work in a variety of venues from a funky shop on Olvera Street in LA to The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington DC. I was the featured designer for the March/April 2008 issue of Belle Armoire magazine which included a cover and a nine page spread. They did a beautiful job photographing my most recent work. My handbags have been featured on the cover of The Craft Report magazine and in the book “Hip Handbags.”

Find more Lorimarsha here:

• lorimarsha.com
• lorimarsha’s blog
• lorimarsha’s shop

And find more of my Etsy Sunday favorites here.

I’m not much of a TV watcher so I haven’t been following Project Runway this season. But when I found out that one of my favorite Etsy designers, LeAnne Marshall, was featured at NY Fashion Week as one of the finalists I was thrilled. You can see her Spring ‘09 collection here.

Burdastyle.com is holding a new contest. Here are the details.

We are in the midst of designing a new variation, a cocktail dress version, of the Malissa dress, which will post on November 17th and will include the original pattern plus instructions on how to modify it.

Next to that variation we would love to see your idea of what the Malissa dress could look like as a cocktail dress.

Design and sew a variation of the Malissa dress and send a photo to team@burdastyle.com . The dress with the most votes will be part of our professional photo shoot along with the BurdaStyle creation.

Additionally, the winner of the contest will receive a CD of high resolution photographs from the photo shoot, a look book with prints and cards with the image on it for you to hand out to friends.

Send in your photo of your variation to team@BurdaStyle.com by the 23rd of September, along with a brief description on the pattern changes you have done. TIP: Keep it simple. If you are the winner, we will ask you to create the how to explaining the pattern changes as well!!

This sounds like so much fun… if I only had the time. First off I’d get rid of the long sleeves and I’ve never been crazy about high necklines. Hmmm, maybe cinched at the waist with a belt.

I didn’t know Lucille Ball was such a style icon. Sorry to say, when I think of “Lucy” I picture her and Ethel working on the chocolate conveyor belt. But here’s a Lucy lookalike in the new Armstrong Laminate Flooring ad wearing one of my favorite color combos - dark blue and white – and looking fabulous! The ad says “It only looks like the real thing” … and you can see the whole spread here. Be sure to check out the James Dean and Dean Martin Armstrong lookalikes.

Just heard from Miki introducing me to her line of streetwear, Marmalade Ho. Miki studied fashion design at Middlesex University and later went on to sell her appliqued t-shirts at Camden Market.

Things were painfully slow at first till I came up with Bye Bye Kitty; I was so pissed off with all the bloody Hello Kitty stuff in Camden. I like Hello Kitty, I always have done, and she’s aimed at people in a similar demographic to me anyway. It’s just that there were seas of Hello kitty, Pucca, Mashimoro etc. So as a little joke I came up with Bye Bye Kitty, the first was the ‘Electrocution’ Screen print. Next came ‘Hanging’. There were quite a few of them.

Shown above is the Helix Cat Face t-shirt which is available here. And in case you’re wondering how in the world did she come up with that name? Find out here.