Stranger Than Fiction

I'm going to do something different today. While I am usually on the hunt for the best shirt or jacket or bag, lately, I have been hunting for other things. Furniture. I have been to the Antique Mall, Alameda Flea Market and numerous used and new furniture stores around the Bay. I need a few things, mainly 2 night-stands and an armoire. The problem is, I am extremely picky when it comes to furniture as I usually keep it forever so I need it to be perfect. So, even though I've been a million places and seen a million things, I've so far only purchased a few bottles.


And an air plant.


I am not mad at these things but they certainly don't provide a place to rest my book, glasses and glass of water at night. While I have yet to find the 'just rights' for me I thought all my research shouldn't go to waste and that some of you Ironing Board Collective readers might need furnishing too. So, here's some stuff I've come across.
I really like this table from UO but it's not the right size.


I also like this one from UO, but it's the same-ish color of my walls and slightly more feminine then I want. I warned you I am picky.


Here's one from West Elm that, now that I'm looking at it again, maybe is right for me. No storage though.


And this one from West Elm is good too. I think my only problem with it is I can't comprehend spending $199 on a tree stump. Not sure why though, it's not like I'm going to go out into the woods with a chain-saw anytime soon to procure one.



Does anyone have a good recommendation on where to get sheets? I've got problems in this area also. I'm down to one last fitted that's not so fitted anymore. I do like these also from West Elm, but there on back order. Geez.



Speaking of bedding, I really think it should be updated casually and continually. It should reflect somewhat your style of clothes. Going to bed and waking up surrounded by your ultimate style will only help you reflect it in your daily style. I would very much like this Pendleton blanket, but, can't bear to spend the big bucks on it.



This stool from Pottery Barn would be a nice seat to put my shoes on.


Sorry about the size of this picture, but, check out this Jonathan Adler anchor rug!



When it comes down to it I really prefer my furniture to be worn around the edges. In my quest I came across a new store in San Francisco called Big Daddy's Antiques. It is an amazing warehouse out at the corner of 17th St and Wisconsin St. It's worth stopping by for a look even if you're not ready to drop the big bucks they're asking. Seriously, it's crazy in there, you wont be disappointed. Here's a peek.



And just to not leave you totally out in the cold, Yuketen boots.



Assembly New York hooded parka. The hood is detachable.

The Gay Divorceé

This is the 1934 trailer for "The Gay Divorcee" starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.  I am in the process of getting Gay Divorced after 3 years of being Gay Married, so I thought I'd check this out and find out what is in store for me.  According to this trailer, I can look forward to LOTS of singing and dancing and Half the Beauties in Hollywood.  SCORE!!

Also, picnics with dapper gentlemen in convertible cars, silk flowered millinery, and more ruffles than a nineteenth century pirate!

Gentlemen in Bathing Costume!! Silk charmeuse jumpsuits with intricately pleated trim at the neck and arms worn with strappy cuban-heeled art-deco dancing shoes!!

Gentlemen in Bathing Costume...   wearing Socks and Sandles!!!!?????????????

Watch chains and Tweed!!  And CRAZY reflecting....

Top Hats, Cutaway Coats and Eeeeeexcellent Posture!!!

Lace Bedroom Jackets!! Wait, is that a bedroom Jacket or an outfit?  What passed for a Bedroom jacket in the 30s would pass for a gown these days, so no telling... This looks like it has a hood and  30s evening fashion was slinky and not usually so covered-up or fastened so casually with a sash.  Fred is tip-to-toe in his tux!!  Why aren't you ready Ginger????   Aha:  Keeping Gentlemen Waiting!!!!!!!

Making my own Dancing Space!!!!  While dressed fantastically.  Thank you 1934.  Being Gay Divorced is obviously going to be AWESOME.  Except for the Socks with Sandals part. But hey, not everyday can be rainbows and spectator oxfords.

Love,
Carrie

Winona Ryder's Shoes: Fashion at Litquake

It's not easy being paparazzi. These shoes and the feet inside them belong to Winona Ryder, who made the 80s bearable with films like Heathers and Edward Scissorhands. I totally wanted to kill all my classmates and fall in love with a tortured person who looked like Johnny Depp. Didn't you? Winona wouldn't let me take her picture so I cannot show you how she was tucked into a cute navy peacoat, a black and white psychedelic purse hung on her shoulder, startled eyes staring out from her deer face, just exuding fragility. I didn't feel great about sneaking a photo of her shoes, but whatcha gonna do? You don't get a fun fashion blog by respecting people's boundaries. This was backstage at Litquake's Barbary Coast Award tribute to poet/freedom fighter/publisher/stylish gentleman Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I know the photo is blurry. You don't get a second chance when you're being a sneak, and my battery was dying. Here's who else was backstage . . .


The hilarious writer Beth Lisick wearing a Geren Ford dress she got to borrow from the designer like she's Gwyneth Paltrow! "She was super nice," Beth said about Geren, who she met at a dinner a few years ago. Via a conversation about celebrities (Naomi Campbell) borrowing clothes from shops (Fred Segal) and returning them damaged (funked-up crotch), Beth learned how a person goes about procuring a designer loan!

With a bunch of high-profile Litquake events (like tonight's Porchlight at the Herbst with Exene Cervenka), she figured it was a perfect time to see if she could score some frocks. "She sent me ten dresses! The Fed Ex lady came to my house yesterday. Just a box with ten dresses in it."

What do you do with them when you're done? "She said, 'Unless you go crazy and spill red wine all over it, just send it back, don't worry about cleaning it.' It makes you wonder about the whole culture . . . it's someone's job to get the shit back from people who don't send it back!" Will the Fashion Repo Man come for Beth Lisick? "I'm going to send mine back."

Here we have Tom Waits, totally rough and rumpled and handsome in a crunchy little chapeau. I like the band and the little medallion. The hat looks like it got run over by a locomotive while on the head of some dashing rogue circa 1932, and the woman who'd loved him kept it in her dusty attic, weeping into it each night before crushing it to her bosom in a fitful sleep, slowly going mad from grief. Doesn't it? Laments Mr. Waits of today's newfangled hats, "Now they make them out of paper, they don't do anything. But this one's straw." He's had it for five years.

Are we in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel or what? Like, Tender is the Night, but no one's insane or drunk or having a pistol duel, just being charming and glamorous? This is Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner, usual suspects at San Francisco's wittiest literary soirees. I asked Robert who made his suit. "My main man," he said. "Tom Ford." But of course! Nicola is wearing a skirt by Marc Jacobs. Let's get a close-up!

Camouflage and houndstooth, together at last! Stunning!

Okay, first I name-dropped the name of a person I don't even like as a way to start a conversation with Patti Smith. So right off the bat I feel bad about myself. Then I ask her if I can take her photo for a fashion blog. She's texting when I ask her this. I should have waited but my heart was in my throat and I'm like, if I don't just blurt it I'll loose my nerve. So she says, "In a minute," without looking up from her cell. I think 'In a minute' means 'If you are desperate enough to nag me about this when it is clear I am busy and uninterested, I will probably do it, because I am Patti Smith and I am a very compassionate, very empathic, totally great person.' Of course I can't bring myself to ask again, so I instead continue to chip away at my integrity taking sneaky snapshots and get massively scolded by a Litquake Lady. Was it worth it? Of course. I wish I could show you the long black overcoat she was wearing. The bottom was so riddled with holes it looked like it had been chewed by rats. I loved it, and I love her brownboots with her baggy jeans stuffed into them, and I love her little leather pouch (she had a Moleskine in it, of course. Black.) and I love her, I love Patti Smith. Want to know what Patti Smith loves?

These sneakers. They belong to James Kass, poet and tireless leader of Youth Speaks. He introduced himself to her like a normal person, and she said, "I love your shoes." Then he tweeted it and rubbed it in my face for the rest of the night.

What becomes a legend most? Your basic black jeans and blazer. Lenny Kaye is so great. He's been part of the Patti Smith Group since the beginning, he played in the Jim Carroll Band, he anthologized garage rock in a major way, he wrote Waylon Jenning's book for him, and, most importantly, he helped me with my ongoing project of cultivating attraction to people who are actually older than me. What a fox! He seemed real nice, too.

This pretty lady kept getting prettier all night! Her name is Persia Matine, and she's a makeup artist. I shoulda known! She did makeup on the Ferlinghetti documentary, Ferlinghetti.

What a cool purse! "It was made by women from a Tibetan refugee camp," said the woman carrying it, a Berkeley person with mutli-culti flair. Check out her man-friend's jacket:

The fabric is from Tibet, too.

You know they have been rocking this look since 1969, and the cycles of fashion have whorled back around and embraced them. Keep the faith, Berkeley People.

A mysterious boy leaning against the wall at the afterparty. Perhaps he was being paid by Litquake to stand around looking awesome? Money well spent, I say.

Writer Rhiannon Argo was wearing the best leather vest with sort of shredded fur on the shoulder and collar. See?

Basically it was once a jacket and Rhiannon allowed the sleeves to elegantly rot away. It's very Just Kids-era Patti, no?

Looking Good, Sounding Good: Writer Ali Liebegott reads at Litcrawl at the Lexington Club, Saturday at 7:15; Beth Pickens reads at RADAR at the San Francisco Public Library, Wednesday.

Original Plumbing publisher and photographer Amos Mac, wearing a spiffy number from Topman. Check it:

Yes.

This is Mitche Manitou. "I sometimes can't live up to the belt buckle," he says. I tried to take a close-up, but my camera finally died, releasing me from the tyranny of the blog. The belt buckle is a giant tiger head, and it's great. I leave you with photos of the man of the hour, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who started City Lights bookstore and press, went to court to fight for Ginsberg's Howl, and who looks great in a hat or an orange pair of spectacles.

The Incredible Gentlemen of My Garden Party Wedding

As Michael [von] Braithwaite began exploring here on Monday, people who came to our wedding last weekend looked off the chain. The image above is one of a gallery we gave our guests ahead of time because we wanted people to understand what "dapper" meant to us and because we wanted everyone to look fly for pictures. We were not disappointed. People brought it in a serious way. The pictures we have so far--snapshots, all of them--are pretty fucking incredible.

Here is a small gallery of beach bluff garden party style on a variety of gentlemen who I'm proud to call my friends and family:

Kareem and Alex. I love that Kareem, who did our photographs, looks like an amazing newspaper man. He totally nailed it. And Alex did the skinny black suit perfectly.

Kareem, like the Libra he is, looking handsome and perfectly dressed for the occasion.

Emily and Sten. Sten's socks are an awesome detail and a perfect compliment to his tie.

Tyler, who you will learn more about next week. He is my fashion hero, I've recently decided. Somehow he wore a jean jacket, jeans and a bow tie and it looked dashing--thus breaking my number one fashion rule and proving me wrong simultaneously. Part of the secret was his super sweet saddle shoes, not shown here. So into it.

I know this is supposed to be about gentlemen but I fucking loved seeing all the lady outfits, too. This was our procession--we brought the party to us, on a crazy edge-of-the-world beach bluff in northern California. Everyone looked stunning.

Annie and Matt, who did such an awesome job at coordination. Matt's bow tie + scruff + glasses is perfect without being precious. 

Michael's brother, Adric, sporting the best fashion accessory possible, against the best backdrop known to man. 

Brett and Clare, my brother and sister. Clare is obviously in a LADY TUX and Brett's suit is an excellent fit, proving that the silhouette of a suit makes a the difference. 

Michael's father, Mickey, looking like he just finished a hard afternoon game of croquet. Which is probably accurate. LOOK AT HIS SHOES!

Speaking of croquet, there I am and there's Michael in the back, playing it. This is after she'd removed her amazing fur stole (still on in the picture below, taken in very gusty wind which somehow makes her look even prettier):

Well, there you have it, folks. Thanks to my uncredited photographer friends.There were many excellent gentlemen dressers who have not yet shown up in pictures, which is really everyone's loss. But, point is, when you tell people to look like a dapper garden party, they will roll up PREPARED. To bocci ball and Salty Dogs and fashion on cliffs! And, of course, to love!