Dispatch From NYC #1

Posted on 10/27/2012 by Slim Paley

“Swimming with the Louboutins”

While I’m sorting out my formating issues during the next couple of weeks I’m going to have some fun and share much shorter, more frequent posts.

Little visual palate cleansers if you will.

Today I hit the visual motherlode at Barney’s NY where the window held a giant aquarium filled with lovely pink fish and yes, Louboutins!

LOVED THIS! God knows I’ve had more than one night I’ve wished my pink Louboutins were sleeping with the fishies!

Now that’s creative.

and look who else thought soThe adorable Bill Cunningham, who told us he has never watched the fabulous documentary about him. Can’t say I’m surprised.

A fun day in NY!

The calm before the storm??

Can We Talk?

Posted on 07/09/2012 by Slim Paley

Can we talk??

Have you ever been applying your make-up and thought that a very fine, stray hair from your make-up brush was stuck to your face and gone to remove it only to find it was a line??!

Me neither.

(right by my your eye)

I was just wondering if that had ever happened to you.

So, speaking of getting gussied up…

We attended a stunningly beautiful wedding this weekend.

Now Santa Barbara, as most of you probably know, is a magical location for a wedding,

and this one was no exception.

Love was literally in the air

Of course due to privacy, I won’t go into any details but…

‘Twas a Black Tie affair.

I wore an ultra-violet evening gown with hot pink suede Christian Louboutins (never to touch my feet again, such was the agony of the experience) and carried my hot pink patent Alexander McQueen oversized clutch.

(We’re talking borderline too big for ‘carry-on’)

I do love a clutch that you can actually fit $%#@ into though, don’t you?

The Satan Spawn Shoes (sorry Mr. Louby)

You know it doesn’t bode well when you’re applying band-aids before you’ve even left the house.

I wish I’d had these instead.

and while we’re on the subject of shoes

( I think we can all agree; a subject very near & dear to our collective heart )

Never have I been to an affair

where the men seriously gave the women a run for their money in that department

(no pun intended)

Wish I’d gotten a better photo of this gent’s wonderful zebra skinned evening slippers

And I so wanted these…

Gorgeous bespoke beaded gems (size 15 1/2 no less. Dude-that’s a lot of beads…)

Truth be told, I’m absolutely loving the resurgence of the evening slipper for men & women right now.

So much so I even convinced my husband to pay a visit to the Stubbs & Wootton website the very next day.

See? miracles DO happen!

it’s just all in the timing…

When love is in the air, anything is possible.

And is it embarrassing to say I still get a little thrill at a good cluster of Disco Balls?!

If only I’d had velvet slippers to dance in!

Congratulations Beautiful Newlyweds

May you trip the light fantastic for many decades.

xoxo

*Footnote ;

Many thanks to Leslie v.W. for sending in this additional pic. from the evening!

Great Minds…or what?!!

I Blame it on Tissue Paper & Tulle

Posted on 07/06/2011 by Slim Paley

It all started innocently enough.

I saw the above photo featured a week or so ago on A Gift Wrapped Life and thought to myself; well, aren’t those pretty? and easy enough to make.

In fact, they look an awful lot like some of the roses that are growing in my garden right now…

Slim Paley photo

Which somehow reminded me of the newest Dior Couture collection

(a big disappointment, but not surprising, in my humble opinion. Despite his terrible demons, John Galliano was a massive talent- good luck replacing him Dior)

But back to moi…

Then, I remembered these Bouquet Chairs by Tokujin Yoshioka

(Listen, it’s not easy being me…do you think I want to be thinking about bouquet chairs at 1 o’clock in the morning?!)

or this beautiful table setting from Pinterest?

Although, I did kind of like this Dior jacket

even though it would give me a vicious neck rash and be super hard to drive in.

This would probably give me a neck rash too, but I’d chance it, if it was offered to me…

Slim Paley Photo

The roses start to fade after a few days, achieving an almost sepia tone. So beautiful.

I wanna say Valentino??

Elie Saab

Project Wedding

And then there was this Tim Walker photo I remembered from an old British Vogue

These Alexander Wang confections

.Valentino Couture

and this beauty via Tumblr

Dior

Slim Paley Photo

petals, petals, everywhere

“Strawberries & Cream” Friendship bracelet via boticca.com

and I was happy that I’d sprung this vintage corsage and blouse from my vintage closet

Dior

I swear I wore my hair like this once in the 80′s

OK, maybe twice.

Elie Saab

and finally, while I’m posting on frivolity & utter outre’ abandon…

How could I resist including these “Ballet Pumps” by Christian Louboutin?

They take “Dance like there’s no one watching” to a whole new level.

And now you know why I don’t sleep!

Yesterday was kind of a tough day.

Sometimes you’ve just got to take a deep breath… or three… and escape to a place of beauty

Don’t you agree?

Instructions for making tulle flowers HERE

Movies, Monsters & What Will I Wear??

Posted on 10/31/2010 by Slim Paley

Slim Paley photo taken from “Bat Balcony”

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN!!!!!!

Some lovely Halloween inspired passementerie by the very talented Jessica Light Trimmings UK

Thank you so much to all who responded to the previous post and especially for sharing your own personal experiences as well!

Very funny and I will credit you all in my “Fifty Fahbulous Ways to Bag a Bat” book available on Amazon soon!

In the meantime, I’ve styled my “Next Encounter With The Dark Prince” wardrobe. It’s a tad chicer than what my husband cobbled together for his performance the other night , but to be fair, he didn’t have the gift of time.

But I SHALL be ready – Vampires seldom ring ahead…

I’m having a super tough time deciding between these two looks.

The bottom one is sexier, that goes without saying really, but the top one will showcase which ever shoe I ultimately choose as well as provide much more neck protection.

(Victor & Rolf)

What say you?

My choice for a clutch is a No Brainer (literally )

My gloves;

Duchess of Windsor- Girl, Eat your heart out!

Oh Hellooo. I might just wear these Monday for No special reason

But then again, These Louboutins are also very “wingy”

Wouldn’t you know, I can’t decide on the shoes either.

Chanel “Steel” on the toes, of course.

What I’ll be drinking…

Blavod black vodka

What I’ll be burning…

Modern Alchemy “Dia De Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) candle

Slim Paley photooooooo

Modern Alchemy “Salem” Skull candles

Doggy in a Skull “Outfit” photo by Tom Flach

And while I await said Dark Prince sweeping into my life again, I might check in with a few scary old flicks;

The Haunting of Hill House (1964)

“An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for ninety years and might stand for ninety more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

Who could leave a hand or foot hanging off the bed a centimeter, after seeing this movie the first time?!

Black Christmas (1974)

with Olivia Hussey and Margo Kidder

Possibly the first “Don’t pick up that phone!” movie?!

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

I know the movie is a little dated (my son thought the pay off wasn’t as scary as he’d expected after all the build up) and quite frankly if I’d been Mia I think I would have murdered the neighbours before my second trimester, but I never tire of watching John Cassavetes, despite him being such a $%^* in this movie.

The Innocents (1961)

I rarely go to horror films anymore- they got too scary, no make that too dark and morbid for me. I prefer the “oldies”

The original Body Snatchers with Kevin McCarthy

Donald Sutherland in the remake of The Body Snatchers

One of the rare instances the remake is almost as good as the original

And who could ever forget this little girl in

The Bad Seed ??!

and my vote for one of the saddest scenes ever in a horror film;

Frankenstein

You gotta love the guy.

I read somewhere that this film was good, so I ordered it to watch tonight.

I reserve the right to add to my list if something else comes to me later, but I need to get this post up before it’s Thanksgiving.

What are some of your all time FAVOURITES??

And if you’re hitting the streets tonight (with your kids that is…or, what the hell, even without kids)

Wishing you lots of fun and bulging pillowcases!

Leopard Spotted in L.A.

Posted on 09/10/2010 by Slim Paley

Max Abadian for Flare

Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2010

Wow. Apologies for the long delay since my last post, but I’ve been involved in heavy, heavy litigation with various magazines, including the one above for their continued proclivity to just assume it’s OK to airbrush my body on to various model’s heads. I’ve let it go on for what I deem to be a more than gracious amount of time, but enough is enough…you can only interpret this sort of cheeky behaviour as a compliment for so long. I put in the hours at the gym treadmill pilates reformer Well, let’s just say, I put in a great deal of time to keep up this silhouette and I won’t have it just splashed indiscriminately across pages and billboards (and yes, several commercials…Victoria Secret bra commercial with the heavy drum beat?? Helloooo- see you in court as well)

Prada bag

Right, now that we have that nasty business out of the way, we can focus on today’s post;

I’ve been down in L.A. the last couple of days. Although I’m ostensibly here to shop for plumbing fixtures (and also never let it be said that I don’t know how to ring every last shred out of my birthday celebration ) I’d like to report that the complete and utter take over of Fall Fashion 2010 by the mighty Leopard is now complete. Talk about staying power…This print manages to maintain the mantle of ‘Chic’, ‘Trendy’ and ‘Iconic’ simultaneously. Thank the Fashion Gods I stopped myself from selling my Fendi leopard skirt and boots on Ebay last year ( albeit small consolation for their being comatose during the ‘Hermes Belt Incident’) I’ll also be pulling out my old YSL wide leopard print belt to wear over my coats and jackets once the cooler weather hits and searching for my leopard gloves (but not to wear with the belt, no no) So lucky was my good friend who scored not one, but two genius leopard coats last season. No, it has no bearing on our friendship. Really. I couldn’t be happier for her.

Despite leopard not necessarily being the easiest fashion choice, even if you’re of a ‘certain age’ it’s easy to wear as an accessory. I’m guessing you probably already have something from the big cat in your closet… if you don’t, you might want to consider at least a scarf…an enamel cuff… or perhaps one of the following;

Tom Ford Glasses

Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2010

.And speaking of great Italian design…

Do you need to see anything more than this ‘still’ from Lucino Visconti’s cinematic masterpiece “THE LEOPARD” to want to experience the newly restored version by Martin Scorsese?!