My History with Dylan

A few months ago, I had a friend request on Facebook from someone named Dylan Ryu. I'd never met her before, but we had one friend in common whom I trusted enough where I thought, if this person knows her, she must be okay. So I accepted the request. (Have you done that before - accept an unknown on the one friend rule? I digress...)
Since then, I would occasionally see posts from Dylan and I began to learn that she was an artist and her medium was bags - mostly vintage, mostly high fashion bags, and she called her work History by Dylan. I was intrigued. Last week, I saw that she posted about her new exhibit at a gallery. I really loved everything only it was all in a foreign language, so I couldn't tell exactly where the exhibit was. A little sleuthing led me to her gallery in Seoul, Korea and to her website where I learned more about her.
Then I emailed her to more formally introduce myself and ask her if I could blog about her. She consented and said that she's lived in Paris and New York and now currently lives in Seoul. She's very inspired by classic French cinema (Goddard, Truffaut and Rohmer, she named a few) and music. Her elements have a distinctive western nostalgia, whether it be in the vintage family crest patches she uses or metallic old car logos she attaches to her bags. All of the embellishments she uses are vintage materials she's found in flea markets and antique stores in Paris, London and New York.She uses only "real" vintage bags, no fakes, so her works have an inherent value to them.For her new show, she dressed 48 Dean & Deluca bags in ribbons and patches and crests, the result being a very nautical vibe when you see them all together.
The Chanel wall...cute! Judging from her very impressive press pages on her website, Dylan is quite a rising star in Korea, I wish I could read the articles!
I can honestly say I think she truly improved these Dior bags. J'Adore - if you will. She's done what I think is so cool, which is taken a cliché "it" bag and made it individual - it's not a groundbreaking idea, but I appreciate how she does it with a great eye instead of in a subversive way. Not that there's anything wrong with subversive ;) just that she doesn't need it.
Above are more scenes from her work as part of the "That Seventy's" show currently at the très chic I M ART gallery (which is sandwiched between the Hèrmes and Marc Jacobs boutiques to give you and idea of the neighborhood) in Seoul until August 28, 2010.

All images courtesy of Dylan Ryu.

Viva la Daily Candy

Daily Candy Deals is running a special with CViv this month, if you click on that link it may ask you to subscribe to DC (which you should do immediately if you don't already) to see the page.
But the gist, go to our site and enter the code DCSUMMER at check out for a sunny discount ;)

Shopping While Driving

We Los Angelenos spend an inordinate amount of time in our cars - everyone knows that - so we've gotten really good at doing other things while we drive. I, for example, rarely leave the house with make-up on, but at every stop light, a little mascara, a little blush, a little lipcolor is added so by the time I arrive at my destination, I'm perfectly presentable with a dewy glow - well, er, kind of. There was something I'd never tried in the car before - shopping - until this last weekend. Here's how it happened:
What I failed to mention in the previous post is that it actually took us a bit longer than an hour to get to Malibu on the 101 N that day, because of traffic (!). For a little while it was a bit of a parking lot (not unlike the photo above) and during that time in the freeway parking lot, I was receiving texts from my friend HBT regarding the Marni outlet store she had happily happened upon. Marni. This sent me into a parked freeway texting tailspin. I need a dress, I wrote. She obliged with photos of the shop girl holding a few options.
Buy me the orange one, I wrote. Again, she obliged. You see, that evening we had an event to attend and I (of course) had nothing to wear. One of my local heroes, Rose Apodaca, had curated the fashion portion of the California Design Biennial and invited us to come to the opening night party.
Maybe not the surest thing to buy an-outlet-but-still-not-inexpensive-per-se, Marni dress without trying on, but I trusted HBT and I thought it'd be worth the risk (there's always eBay if it didn't work out.) It did work out, and I was so happy I shopped while driving! I mean, sitting in traffic - don't judge. I wore it with my bougainvillea fuchsia Lanvins and just to go all out with the brights - a kelly green mini CViv clutch...
Rose included a picture of us on her blog the next day. I'm so happy with her caption on the photo, too. And to think her CViv bag was almost stolen in Paris!

Friends with Keys

Le mari has been out of town for 8 days. This is a long time in the summer, when school is not in session, I work from home, it is ridiculously hot out and we have no swimming pool. This is just to tell you that I've been a bit overworked and out of sorts lately so when Saturday rolled around and at 7 a.m. promised to be another sweltering day and I had nothing but Oscar-asking-where-we're-going-to-swim on the day's docket, I thought I had to be proactive. Aha! At 8 a.m. I had the epiphany of the two of us going to the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica because I've heard how great it is...
By 9 a.m. I've got Oscar in the car with beach bag full of swimsuits, towels, goggles, toys, books (yes, plural, two of them - for me - because Oscar was going to find a friend out of the other kids who'd be at the pool to play with and I would sit leisurely in a chaise longue - see above - reading all day in my fantasy scenario...) So there we are cruising our way to Santa Monica in the bright morning sun and I'm day-dreaming away (or thinking very laser-like about strategic planning for the bag business more likely) when I realize I'm on the 101 N. In layman's speak: the complete wrong freeway (!!) headed for Hollywood and the valley beyond - i.e. no where near the beach. I've already gone a good 10 minutes this way, which means it'll be another 10 min just to get back to where I started from and then another 20 to get to the beach. But while I'm turning around to head back in the opposite direction to then head in another direction in the tangle of LA freeways for the beach, I get a call from my friend Else who tells me, "ah, yeah, the Anneberg, well, you have to be there at like, 7 a.m. to wait in line to get a number, to then at 8:30 buy a entrance ticket to get you in at 10." In other words, in my world, impossible. Pretty certain I will never see the likes of the Anneberg Beach House.
Shame, it looks lovely. We go home. You should of heard Oscar's howl when he saw us pull up to our house after 20 minutes in the car. Whaaat? Yep, your mama's not the best day-trip planner, kid.

After various plans to keep cool are thought up then shot down by me or Oscar, we have the bright idea to call our friends with a house in Point Dume, Malibu. Score. They're there, they invite us out and by noon we are in the car (again) headed for an hour trip to the private beach at Point Dume. Here's a new part of LA, I'd never seen. The "key" beach. On my way up the PCH, I pass lines and lines of cars waiting to get into the public beach parking lots, suckas. (JK.) We sail past them all and drive to our friends house, park the car, grab the kids and KEY - no joke, this beach is behind 2 - count 'em - 2 Fort Knox style gates - and walk to the beach.
Beyond the locked gates, you walk down a long path which leads you here, bliss - replete with Malibu-lifers and new comers alike all calmly enjoying the surf and sand and content in the fact that their good fortune has assured them a key to a private beach with no lines. Oscar and his friend body surfed all day in the perfectly manageable waves (apparently money can buy good waves, too), I even took in a few and our summer day was saved by the good graces of friends with keys.

Point Dume image from: flickr.com/photos/segamatic/2945580861/
Annenberg Beach House images from: annenbergbeachhouse.com/

Happening in 3s - shoes

I am of the persuasion to find rhyme and reason to things happening in 3s.
Okay, it is usually something a little more significant than this but, I recently bought 3 pairs of shoes. I bought these, which I saw on my friend Karen's blog. Her blog, by the way, is becoming dangerous for my pocketbook. Each time she writes of something she's just bought, I feel compelled to think it is suddenly something I cannot live without. Good thing I don't have a Stella store in my neighborhood.
These are the other two. Summer roses from Net-a-Porter's sale - Marni flats and Lanvin heels. Man, that Lanvin box is dreamy, isn't it. It's the shoe fanatic's version of Tiffany's robin's egg box.
After 10 years online, this was my first time buying anything at NAP. Took me a long time, but I'll be back...that black ribbon was a good idea.
More happenings in 3 to come...

30 Doors (an email to my web master)

Hi Chris,

Perhaps we could start to divide stores by states/locations?

Below, I've divided everything by states/countries, could you please arrange like this and everyplace except for Japan and UK (just website) put the physical address which you already have.

Thank you!

XC

OTHER COUNTRIES:

CANADA:

HOLT RENFREW

JAPAN:

GALERIE VIE

galerievie.jp

UNITED KINGDOM:

BODIE AND FOU

bodieandfou.com

NY:

STEVEN ALAN 3 LOCATIONS (TRIBECA, BROOKLYN, EAST HAMPTON)

WINK 3 LOCATIONS (SOHO, LEX, COLUMBUS)

HENRI BENDEL

STANDARD HOTEL

SUNSET BEACH

JUMELLE

GENERRA

HAMMERTOWN

CA:

STEVEN ALAN 2 LOCATIONS (VENICE, WEST HOLLYWOOD)

MOHAWK GENERAL STORE

STANDARD HOTEL

COMMUNITY SHOP 2 LOCATIONS (ACE HOTEL, WEST HOLLYWOOD)

SONYA OOTEN

LAKE

MAUDE

SHOWROOM

IL:

SPACE 519

TX:

SPARTAN

OR:

ALDER & CO.

VA:

SHOP ELOISE

(This is a big deal for me! 30 locations selling CViv, most of them in the last year alone. Just thought I'd share the email I just sent to my web angel, i.e. the most awesome web guy in the world, Chris. -XC
p.s. I should say that "Door" is retail lingo for "store" - I just learned that. Ha!)

LV Connections

Months ago, I wrote about being able to visit the original Louis Vuitton factory in Asnières (both Ss go unpronounced), France. Then quite recently, I've had the pleasure of meeting the French head of Vuitton production in the US and his family - our kids go to school together natch. To me, he's like a celebrity - overseeing production and quality of a meticulously lux bag line! I can totally geek out talking to him about zippers, corners, hardware, leathers and whatnot for hours. And he's promised me that I'll get to take a tour of the US factory soon. xx
Todd Selby took me back to Asnières like it was yesterday, you've go to check this out. And then you'll understand why this has remained an epic day in my life as a bag designer.
This is what The Selby photo shoot turned into. It's a fascinating piece of marketing bliss. I've just clicked away a dreamy hour on it.
While I was hanging around on the Huff Post, I found this - another moment LV is having. (I mean, come on Christy!! She is just an insane freak of nature, absolutely the most gorgeous creature on the planet. I always wonder what Ed must think at night. The other girls are stunning and yet, I cannot remember looking at them once in this video.) But besides CT, old stalwart Vuitton is stealing the show with their marketing right now. High marks all around. (No pun intended. Ha.)

A Japan Order

Our biggest order to date went out this week- to Japan!
I shot some pictures becase it all looks so lovely in multiples.

Working girls with their laptops will be cute in Japan!





A well needed weekend! Happy 4th!