Sunday, August 30, 2009

Queen of the Bad Girls: Mamie Van Doren





Mamie Van Doren! The girl who invented rock n' roll after singing in the 1957 cult film, "Untamed Youth" and the inspiration behind the Every Little Counts fall/ winter collection, which will be debuting next week in Vegas at Pool Tradeshow.

Stay tuned for updates from Vegas and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/averyshygirl

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

August 14, 1932

Anais, I only thought I loved you before; it was nothing compared to this certainty that's in me now. Was all this so wonderful only because it was brief and stolen? Were we acting for each other, to each other? Was I less I, or more I, and you less or more you? Is it madness to believe that this could on? When and where would the drab moments begin? I study you so much to discover the possible flaws, the weak points, the danger zones. I don't find them- not any. That means I am in love, blind, blind. To be blind forever!

...I say this is a wild dream- but it is this dream I want to realize. Life and literature combined, love the dynamo, you with your chameleon's soul giving me a thousand loves, being anchored always in no matter what storm, home wherever we are. In the mornings continuing where we left off; resurrection after resurrection. You asserting yourself, getting the rich, varied life you desire; and the more you assert yourself the more you want me, need me. Your voice getting hoarser, deeper, your eyes blacker, your blood thicker, your body fuller. A voluptuous servility, willfully cruel. The insatiable delight of experience.

-Henry Miller in a letter to Anais Nin

Friday, August 21, 2009

It's Weird Science Again


Weird Science! Kelly LeBrock- the iconic knockout of the 80's. I love her party looks featured here on Who What Wear Daily, but I'm also a fan of her vixenish athletic look- which inspired our "Let Me Hear Your Body Talk" crop top just last month. See the post here

Found via Who What Wear Daily

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

I'm not the kind of girl to behave


Another one of my favorite song & dance moments in film- Anna Karina in Godard's "Une Femme est Une Femme"

Friday, August 14, 2009

I'm Not Supposed to Play with Boys.

This little number by Marilyn Monroe in "Let's Make Love" is one of my favorite film moments ever. I especially love the ensemble made up of nothing more than a sweater and tights.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Jumpsuit Addiction with artist/ designer Christie Frields

Welcome to our first installment of Every Little Counts' feature articles and interviews, where we shine a light on some people and places that we think influence the Every Little Counts lifestyle. For this inaugural interview, we chose Christie Frields. Christie is an LA-based artist and designer who I've gotten known to know over the last couple of years. A while back, we started talking about how much we love jumpsuits, and she let on that she collects them. I thought that would be a perfect fit for our blog, so a couple weeks ago she invited us to her amazing home set in Mt. Washington to photograph and talk about a few of her favorite pieces.

photographs by adam, of course :-)



How long have you been collecting jumpsuits?
This collection sort of happened by accident, thrifting here and there I would discover a piece I liked for certain qualities, the fabric, fabrication or fit would delight me, even more so when the piece was really affordable. Plus I don't really wear dresses so much, unless they are super formal or outrageous. So in a way, the jumpsuits solve a problem of what to wear, the jumpsuits are easy.

Why do you love them so much?
Because they are unusual constructions, a good one is by necessity interesting!

Do you have a favorite backstory? Favorite piece?
I love the lavender vintage floral piece. It is made entirely by hand in perfect tiny careful stitches, the buttonholes are beautiful. It's from the 30' or 40's, I got it at Flounce in Echo Park and it's one of the most feminine things in my closet. They called it a playsuit!
Tell us about the four we photographed - where did you buy them? For how much? When?
Of this collection, the first one I acquired is the cotton turquoise number. I found it at a small thrift store on York Blvd, across the street from my old studio. It was $3. I have shopped there often, Nene's on York between Ave 56 & Ave 57. The history of the building is bittersweet, a much longer story of York Blvd, but the store owners are a lovely couple and everything in the shop is immaculate, some new dead stock as well as odd pieces. For years I shopped there before going to Burning Man, things were soooo inexpensive that my friends and I would gather our finds from there, set up 2 sewing machines and turn out some pretty fantastic costumes for the desert.

The pink harem number came from Squaresville, 2 summers ago, I think it was $14. Very I Dream of Genie, right?

The lavender floral number from Flounce, I don't remember the price but it was a great deal, probably $20.

The black silk jumper is new, I got it at Scout in 2006, just before going to Berlin and I am afraid to remember the price, too much I am sure. It is by Society for Rational Dress...I remember riding everywhere Berlin on a bike in that suit.


You make amazing jewelry- tell us about it. What were your inspirations? Where can we find it?
Thank you! I've been making the jewelry since 2005. It began as a companion to my art practice in an effort to come up with some sore of trading beads. The weaving technique has been around for thousands of years but I got very excited by Ani Albers' Bauhaus adaptation which I had seen in an exhibition of her and her husband Josef Albers work at the Cooper Hewitt in NYC in 2004. You can find my jewelry at A + R in Venice and Silverlake and online.

Favorite costume design in a film?
Tarkovsky's Solaris. And I love Joni Mitchell's everything in the concert film Shadow and Light recorded in 1979.
What are you listening to right now?
Orchestra Baobab, Steely Dan's Aja, Ironhorse does Modest Mouse, The Abyssinians, James Brown...

Any secret shopping haunts?
Out of the Closet! I've been collecting brass goblets and silk scarves. And Toros Pottery in Eagle Rock for beautiful covered jars and vases...

For more on Christie's work, visit her website.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

an excerpt- june 7, 1932

Tuesday Night. June 7, 1932.

"Anais, you have become so vital a part of me that I'm completely upside down, if this means anything. I don't know what I write- only that I love you, that I must have you exclusively, fiercely, possessively. I don't know what I want. I've got too much, I guess. You've overwhelmed me and you've spoiled me. I keep asking harder and harder things of you. I expect you to accomplish miracles. You don't know how I miss those nights we spent together- how much they meant to me. Other times you are just a phantom, a wrath. You come and you make me sick with desire, with a desire to possess you, to have you around me always, talking to me naturally, moving about as if you were a part of me."

-Henry

(reading A Literate Passion- letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Watching: Pauline at the Beach

"a charming little essay on love and desire"












Eric Rohmer is one of my favorite filmakers. His films are always stunningly beautiful, shot in quiet yet exquisite French locals, heavy on conversation and usually about relationships between men and women- good looking men and women, but good looking in a natural, sensual way.

Pauline at the Beach is one of my favorites- flirtatious, sexy, longwinded, and very French. Pauline is a 15 year old girl who is spending the summer with her older and of course, stunning, cousin Marion at the French seaside town of Granville. Days are spent relaxing in the lush garden, windsurfing on the beach, drinking wine, and falling and out of love. Summer at its finest.

I especially love Pauline's early 80's bowl hair cut, Marion's entire wardrobe, and Henri- he gets put into my "sexy older man" category.

a few of my favorite quotes:
"love burns. i want to burn with love."
-marion

"learn to let yourself be desired, or you'll be unhappy"
-henri

A few of my other favorites by Rohmer:
Chloe in the Afternoon, Claire's Knee, and La Collectionneuse

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Return Often...














Return
by C.P. Cavafy
Return often and take me,
beloved sensation, return and take me --
when the memory of the body awakens,
and an old desire runs again through the blood;
when the lips and the skin remember,
and the hands feel as if they touch again.

Return often and take me at night,
when the lips and the skin remember....
(for lingerie to get you in the mood...visit "dreams never end")

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Watching: Schoolgirl Report







Schoolgirl Report: What Parents Don't Think is Possible. Vol.1. 1970. Germany.
Sexploitation? Sex-ed? Quasi- documentary? One Netflix reviewer calls it "a sort of Kinsey for German squares in 1970". I, of course, was watching it for the style since I am thoroughly obsessed with the 70's. But come on- it was hilarious. Sausages? Crazy 70's German vixens? It was pretty awesome... and the 70's were so much sexier and stylish than today.

The film begins with Renete, a schoolgirl, who is caught in a sexual tryst with a bus driver. The school board wants to expel Renete. Suddenly, a school psychologist steps in to explain to the parents what their teenage daughters are "really" up to. Cut-to a series of sexual vignettes contrasted with "real- life" interviews with girls on the street, discussing female sexuality.

A few excerpts:
"That's us- today's youth. Many think we're strange, they don't like us. Why? Because we're skeptical...we have our own music...because we want a new morality without hypocrisy"

"That's us- today's girls. We're curious and honest about ourselves...while you, the adults have been lying too much"

and my favorite...
"Flirting, kissing, hugging and petting...are quite natural in post puberty....petting involves intimate physical contact...that doesn't end in intercourse. But all else is allowed. This has less to do with love than with curiosity."

Monday, August 3, 2009

Love This Look


Today is design day. I've been trying to stay away from the computer as much as possible- although it has been quite hard. I mean, look here I am again- but only because I wanted to share these photos with you. I don't know the exact source- other than it came from an Italian fashion magazine. I found the clipping while going through my mountains of sketchbooks. I just love it.

Loving: Story of My LIfe




I have always been hesitant about the 80's revival- hipsters in bike shorts and stone wash denim? I can do without. Perhaps it's because I actually grew up in the 80's, wearing pastel leggings, oversized shirts...and yes- stonewash. However, I do love the glitz and glam a la "Dallas" and Cosmopolitan magazine. This Who What Wear Daily story is an homage to the stylish glamazons that inspired the literary brat pack of the 80's...this I can get into.

Images courtesy of Who What Wear Daily. For the full story, click here

Sunday, August 2, 2009

sunday


i wish everyday could be like sunday...
sleeping in, eating pancakes while listening to "sunday morning" by the velvet underground, wearing gingham and cutoffs, walking barefoot, watching slow but beautiful films- like eric rohmer, talking to my mom on the phone, taking a nap, listening to the wind blow, reading in bed, practicing yoga, and not much else.

Birthday Wish List

A Woman A Man Walked By- PJ Harvey & John Parish
$12.99 at Amazon

Custom Embroidered Heart by Miniature Rhino
$55 on Etsy.com
Grandpa's Pocket Watch Necklace
$28 at Urban Outfitters

Sweet Nothings by In God We Trust
$45 at Spartan

Goldtone Vodka Liquor Tag Necklace
$45 at Etsy.com


Scotch Liquor Label Necklace
$33 at Etsy.com

Black Canvas TOMS
$44 at Toms Shoes


Vain & Vapid TVOD Jumpsuit
$128 at Vain & Vapid on Etsy.com
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