Sir & Madame Spring Lookbook

Sir & Madame, fellow Chicago lifestyle brand, and awesome team of stylish folks dropped the lookbook today for their Spring '11 collection.

Let's pause momentarily for some of my editorial:

-The riding theme is so inspired, particularly the contrast color riding pants.

-That weekender bag is awesome, I hope you guys don't just look over it where it's featured.

-I'm so glad Chicago has something like this to call its own

-A BOW TIE FROM THE STYLE COOPERATIVE IS STYLED ON A WOMAN, so I'm doing a little happy dance at my desk as I write this

Take a look at the whole book, lust over everything, and click your way over to the Sir & Madame shop. It'll be good for your health and happiness. Trust me, I'm a doctor.

A California Girl

While at the Chicago Sky shoot, we also outfitted Shay in some of my current summer favorites from The Co-Op, The Stockwell's Perfect Skirt in yellow and the Wiley top in Coral.

We styled it up a bit with some great jewelry on loan for the event.  Big, bold, and exciting jewelry, that is.

She wore it well and had such a good time feeling very "California" in it,, paring down the girly look with classic chucks (her idea!). Easy coming from an LA native.

All in all, a really fun way to close out a Friday night working with some great folks.  I'll be at the game again tonight with more designers at the shoot.  If you're in the area, come out and cheer on the team!

Introducing The Style Cooperative

This is what you can look forward to from me on behalf of The Style Cooperative.  We are building a community around the idea of personal style and the new generation of creative minds and modern renaissance.  And we'll be doing all of this stylishly.

Enjoy!

The Weekend, Revisited

My weekend was a pretty busy one this time around. 

I've been working seemingly non-stop on pattern drafting and preparing samples.

Since I no longer work out of a separate studio space for the time being, work has started to find itself in places throughout my apartment. That would be patterns hanging from my patio curtain rod- how chic.

And remember when I told you I'd share the less than glamorous parts of this whole situation?  This is what became of my living room this weekend. As the number of patterns hanging kept growing, and the light became more sparse. 

In a more beautiful turn of events, I went to a promo runway show- saw some Summer looks to get the creative juices flowing for my own summertime styling.

The mens looks were also great- I wish there were more guys who would step outside of their wardrobe uniforms to put together fantastic, yet practical looks like this.

The models had great shoes, too! Great attention to accessories detailing throughout the show.

Hope you had a beautiful weekend! Welcome, new week.

The Start of a Journey

A couple weeks ago when I left the blog on hiatus, I had needed to care of some personal things going on in my life.  While I was away, I was staying with my sister (a Peace Corps volunteer) who lives in the countryside of the Dominican Republic.  This was no vacation, my friends.

I'm talking no running water, spotty electricity, and I never once made it to the beach.  It was serious business.

When I left, I was feeling an overwhelming sense of urgency to make, do, create, and come back renewed.

The difference in atmosphere was incredibly inspirational, and the sounds, sights, and colors were magical.

Leaving Chicago for a while was the best coincidence that could have ever happened to me.

Because of the slower pace of life, I was able to concentrate on creating and planning things for when I would return back to the states.  Because internet was out of the question and I was getting antsy with things that I wanted/needed to get back to, I had returned with this incredible energy and eagerness to start.

Amlul's New Closet

Somehow I missed this before, but Gala Garcia (whose fame still baffles me) announced her new line on the blog. The line itself is exactly what you would expect if you follow her style. However, it's a little tougher and takes more risks than typical lines out there now.

Verdict: Not entirely cohesive. Not a total disaster. She made the line for herself, no doubt. Overall- I like.