You Know the Fashion World is in a Funk When… February 13, 2009

…even Betsey Johnson, a major creative voice in the field since the 1960s, has forgone a Fashion Week tent at Bryant Park in lieu of a smaller, more subdued, “presentation.”

Betsey freaking Johnson, who has proclaimed that she will be sporting lipstick even on her deathbed, puts leopard/lace/tulle/sequins in pretty much every collection, and is the only designer who can get away with doing cartwheels on the catwalk (something most 66-year-old women rarely, if ever, do).

I never thought I’d see the day when Betsey, the last remaining designer who personifies the exuberance of the “Think Pink” number in “Funny Face,” scaled back on her shows, which, while fun and stylish, were hardly ostentatious in the first place. They were a little over the top, but only in spirit.

This is not good, and it’s not shaping up to be a fun Fashion Week.

Much in the way that the December holidays create extra jobs (Christmas tree lots, mall Santas, temporary ice rinks, extra retail clerks, gift wrappers), Fashion Week generates a sizable chunk of the year’s income for those in industries that support the fashion world. Those benefiting from Fashion Week include dressers (usually broke fashion students making $20 per show), florists, makeup artists, hairdressers, sound and lighting technicians, equipment rental companies, security guards, models, paparazzi snapping pictures of celebrity attendees, and extra seamstresses brought in to help get every last garment finished in time for the show. When Fashion Week is scaled back, those people lose income. It’s an unpleasant situation that the New York Press kindly took the time to examine up close earlier this week.

The fashion world has many, many flaws – too-thin models, toxic chemical processes, still not enough organic stuff, real fur (eeew!), sweatshops galore, polluting third-world factories, declining quality, and retailers who give their lower-level employees five six-hour shifts a week so they don’t have to give them proper lunch breaks or any full-time benefits (naming no names, but they know who they are – and you probably do too). But, when so many people depend upon it for income, turning one’s back on fashion is not the answer. It just makes a lousy situation worse.

Will I personally profit from Fashion Week? Probably not. Well, not directly anyway. I will be watching videos of all the shows when they’re posted online, of course – I need to stay current, and some of the most diehard fashion junkies will somehow find a way to get their fashion fix, economy be damned (bless them!).

Like most apparel retailers, I’m hoping the stylish Michelle Obama will breathe some new life into fashion in America and abroad, but even the influence of our glamorous First Lady only goes so far. Can she do it alone? In a stable economy, sure, but in a bad one it would be a stretch even for the late Jackie O.

God, it’s all so depressing. The only thing cheering me up today is the upcoming first-ever Hello Kitty fashion show.

P.S. Still no sign of Spanky. I can’t believe the little guy really is gone.

Monday. Blah. January 26, 2009

Still no sign of Spanky. I’m told my parents’ other cat, a Japanese bobtail/American shorthair/whatever mix named Darla, has been crying nonstop since he vanished. Darla’s usually crabby and has been really mean to Spanky at times (think Linus and Lucy from “Peanuts”), but she loves him, too (think Linus and Lucy, again). I have to marvel at some individuals’ wacky idea that animals don’t have feelings.

Dead quiet today. Come on, you guys can’t ALL be broke…

Re-stocked the shelves in Westwood over the weekend for all you LA people who hate making the trip behind the Orange Curtain. If you don’t see the size or style you want, try our website. (Why do LA residents hate coming to Orange County so much? It may be a bit of a drive, but the shopping’s good, parking is plentiful, traffic is much lighter, some of our beaches are really nice, and we have Disneyland.)

I’m not feeling too chipper today, but I am excited that Bones is getting a vegan character (link warning: SPOILERS!) in the future. I’m not sure if I’ll watch the episode discussed in the Bones Spoiler Blog when it airs, as the subject matter depresses me…I might watch Ugly Betty instead, since the two shows are now airing at the same time (aaargh!), and catch Bones online later (then I can fast-forward through any particularly irritating scenes – no, I don’t have a DVR – and the blog was a little unclear on whether the vegan character was appearing in that episode or not). The entertainment world needs more vegan and vegetarian characters – good ones, not the walking stereotypes that make closed-minded omnivores snicker. Given that costar Emily Deschanel is vegan, I imagine the writers will be able to create a great vegan character.

Has Anyone Seen a Little Gray Cat? January 21, 2009

Eleven days.

No one has seen Spanky in eleven days.

Spanky is a dark-gray tuxedo cat with sweet eyes and a squeaky voice. He’s 11 years old, but doesn’t look it, and belongs to my parents. And now he’s missing.

Everyone in their neighborhood is looking for him. Every animal shelter in the county has been contacted every day that they’ve been open. One of their neighbors, who just started a job at the county shelter, is even keeping an eye out for him at work (isn’t that nice of her?).

Spanky is a very sweet cat, and can be very shy around strange humans (strange animals are another story). Everyone loves him.

My parents adopted Spanky when I was 16. He was very afraid of most people back then, and wouldn’t let any of us pet him for very long (picking him up was out of the question for quite some time). One rainy spring day, I was so overwhelmed with schoolwork I started crying (it’s not easy being a high-strung perfectionist).  Spanky sprang into action. He hopped up on the couch and started crying, in that tiny baby voice of his, and would not settle down until I slid off the stool at the kitchen counter, sat down with him on the couch, and spent a good 45 minutes petting him. Like most cats, Spanky could sense that I needed something to settle my nerves. From then on, he was still terrified of most people, but he was my little buddy.

Mom thinks he’s probably become coyote food by now (he never did have the good sense to leave other animals alone). While it is the likeliest scenario, I prefer to think some nice person found him, assumed he was a stray, and adopted him. It’s impossible not to be charmed by that sweet little cat.

If anyone in the Vista – Carlsbad area finds a cat matching Spanky’s description, PLEASE comment below.