Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Cozy Wide Lapels

Last night as le mari was leaving to go on a shoot in SF, his worker mate, France, needed a coat as it is actually fall up there. I went and dug thru my coats which haven't seen the light of day since I lived in SF and I found two cozy cashmere treasures. I don't know how I ended up with this same vintage wrap coat in two colors, but I did. They feel a bit more like house robes than coats, but I've always kept them as they're lovely quality and chic in a Katherine Hepburn kinda way.

The length is not working for today and I may employ my scissors, but I really should take them to a professional. Camel color is classic, but bath-robey-length has got to go especially on this one...


After I took these pics, I saw this. Yes, Carine, you're perfect, and I'll cut my coats to the knee.


And this...both of them on Garance Dore, both wide lapel coziness


Monday, October 26, 2009

Majorly Upped the YSL DIY

Simone took the YSL Tributes I cut to her major shoe guy in NYC and as she says, "He killed it." And, that's in the good way. Don't they look amazing?! He used the trim from the upper part of the boots to finish off the tops! Uber chic. Now I'm crying because, me hoarder of too many things, threw away the tops of my boots just a few days ago as I'm cleaning everything out in my move, trying to be a better person...boo hoo, fancy topped DIY YSLs are not in my future.

Friday, October 23, 2009

New Work Space


I've been missing my blog!
I have spent every minute of the week - when I wasn't picking up bags to ship or shipping bags - moving things in my house. Le mari finally cracked and couldn't take living in a bag factory anymore. Or rather, he just wanted our dining room back. So he had the lovely idea to turn my upstairs office (which had gotten too small for my biz) into my walk-in closet (ma reve!) and move the playroom upstairs to Oscar's considerable closet and move my office into the old playroom! Pictures on the finished rooms (walk-in and office) upon completion of the moves and decorating. But until then, here are some random, unsettled scenes from the new office space.


These are my personal work bags. I have the original cartable which has traveled the world with me a few times, and I have the work tote in natural canvas, too. I found my Slow and Steady Wins the Race canvas wedges next to them and thought that was cute. Creamy canvas family.


This extremely beautiful Italian, veggie dyed leather which I desperately needed to fulfill orders was delivered to some random house in Burbank special thanks to a UPS driver with a screw loose. I thought I was going to have a heart attack for a few days until the good, random people in Burbank called me and said, "we've received a big package with your name on it," !!

Is one of those your Trop you're waiting for? Okay, okay, it's going out this weekend.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

RF29

Bienvenue R F vingt-neuf.
Restez chez moi un peu.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Jeana in Blue


The talented and amazing Ms. Jeana Sohn. She posted these pics on her blog after purchasing the Messenger bag in Navy . She is very cute - and very humble - and wildly influential at the same time. She is my definition of a star. So if any more editors ask me if any celebs carry my bags, I'll say, "I don't care much about celebs but I know I've got a lot of stars carrying CVivs."
And after Jeana posted these pics on her blog, a girl I don't know but I know her brilliant blog Simple Lovely, posted about it too. Man, take a look at those comments! I'm beyond thrilled!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Yay, It's Fall in LA

It's cloudy today. I've actually got my heat on (I know, a bit of an exaggeration, but still.)
More importantly, I was so excited to be able to get dressed like a person in October today.
Steven Alan reverse seam shirt.
Gray wool flannel blazer from flea market in a seaside town in France.
Prada brooch.
Gap cords.
Costume National ankle boots.
Cozy.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Birds of a Feather Fed Ex Together

My friend, Simone, in NY called me the other day she had a wedding to go to this weekend and asked if I had anything she could wear, "you know like any kind of fur thing, or something?" The wedding is in CT, mostly outside and it's fully fall there. Not really, I said, but there was this vintage feather jacket I was thinking of buying from my fav thrift store, and I sent her this pic:

"Are you kidding? Yes and Yesser!! That looks so sick. I love!!" she responded, it'd be amazing with the YSL dress she was going to wear. We decided that if I bought it and Fed Exed it to her on Wednesday, she'd happily help pay for it and the shipping. Also, on Tuesday, she Fed Exed me her YSL tributes so I could cut them off as I did to mine. While this may sound crazy to some people, it sounded completely normal to me. To get the right outfit, I have been known to call upon my styly friends, no matter where they are...

Only problem is that I've been extremely busy lately, shipping bags, running business, being mama. So at 4:55 p.m. on Wednesday when I finally open the Fed Ex box from Simone with the Tributes, I panic and think, wait a minute, I cut my own $900 boots, it's quite another thing to cut someone else's. I call Simone to give her a last chance to change her mind. "Do it," she says, "Worse comes to worse, I already got two good seasons out of them."
Done. And so much cuter, no?! I love them. At literally 5:59, Oscar and I arrive at Fed Ex in Hollywood, to ship feathers and boots to NYC.
Thursday 4 p.m. I receive this picture of Simone in the feathers and boots. They look amazing with what she had on - jeans and Marni top.
At 2 p.m. on Saturday in Los Angeles, Simone is at the wedding in CT in feathers, YSL dress and cut off boots and I received a package in the mail from Amazon.
This book, with a note from Simone which says, "I do love your style, and thank you for making so much effort for mine this week." J'adore mes amis.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

1 Girl, 1 Pose, Multiple Chic Bags

I love the new front page of seevivier.com
the art of the scrolling fashion show...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

That ol' bag

I just found this image in my files and thought it was so cute. This was my first computer bag, one of my first bags ever. I was embroidering on them for a while, back when I had time to embroider. This was just a sample to see what it would look like with someone's initials and I love Vivier. Cute. Company was still Vivier then.
This one I actually made into a bag and it was pretty adorable, I thought. I sent the original to a major retailer as a sample at their request. They ended up not ordering from me as I was doing only "computer" bags and they didn't carry that type of bag at the time. But even after many requests they wouldn't send it back to me. Finally, they had to pay for it. I've always wondered what stylist or design director from the company got to have it.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

recent thrift items

I finally got a pair of "boyfriend" jeans (whoa, I know, look out, here she comes!) These are Chloé and they are cute - dark dark wash. I saw them on eBay for a lot a lot o'money, not so much where I got them. And, I'm so happy mother nature is giving us the opportunity to wear pants in Los Angeles.

My killer kelly green and black, silk/wool YSL scarf...
A red triangle, wooden bangle and a blue wrapped, woven circle bangle.
A closer look at the scarf.

And I'm sorry, I'd love to tell you the BEYOND thrift store where I got these things, but then I'd have to kill you. ;)

From Bag Maker to Bag Lady: Best of LA!

When I got married years ago, I remember being at city hall in Beverly Hills (because we thought it'd be nicer than LA, but it really wasn't) filling out the paperwork for the marriage license. They ask for your occupation. Le mari wrote journalist and, while I had been working as a journalist up until that point, I didn't want that to define me on an official document. I wrote Bag Maker. It wasn't my occupation yet, but I knew that's what I wanted to be. I didn't write designer that as that was a little exaggerated, but maker, well, I did make bags...Very funny to write it - a little bit like writing candle stick maker, and I almost put Bag Lady instead, but thought I had to be serious. When the marriage license arrived, there it was in official print on fancy rainbow hued, impossible to counterfeit paper, in the Bride Personal Data section: Clare Guerrero - Bag Maker. I thought, now I really have to do it or it'd just really be weird to have this certificate reminding me of the dream unfulfilled.

Last night my friend Snow had a very satisfying dinner party (where she made this delish scallop dish, pictured above from epicurious.com.) Amid lively conversations about the sex scandals du jour Polanski & Letterman, and the great Los Angeles rat population, I learned of some of the dinner guests' exciting new projects like Jenny Meier's new meal go-to blog The Modern Busy Girls' Cookbook, and writer Sarah Bynum's book, Ms. Hempel Chronicles - which I loved, just out in paperback.

At the end of the night while helping Snow clean up the kitchen, I was informed very nonchalantly from my friend David that he'd seen me in the LA Weekly. I thought he'd misspoken and I said, "say what?" He said "you were 'Best Bag Lady' in the LAWeekly's "best of" issue, don't pretend like you didn't know that." I really didn't.

So excited that on the way home, I literally parked in 5 illegal spaces to run into businesses where I thought there'd be a Weekly - to no avail. Finally, parking in red in front of Casbah Cafe, was the spot. They had it. I didn't get a ticket.

That's it then, according the one source at least, I'm officially a Bag Lady.

And what a nice little write up, as well! Thanks LA Weekly.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Pretty Girl, What Are You Doing Tonight?

Voilà, some images of Alexis with the bags...pretty girl, pretty bags.



What are you doing tonight?


Come by, I'd love to see you!!