Elle va bien

I liked this article on Elle.com today. Thanks Elle!

And as they mentioned at the end of piece, if you're in NYC this weekend, please stop by Steven Alan in Tribeca!

Closet Visit by Jeana Sohn

Jeana came over this weekend and shot some pictures of my closet and me in outfits, etc.

This is a new series the very talented painter, photographer, filmmaker has in the works and I'm her second subject.

Jeana said she calls the series Closet Visit because it's like a studio visit with an artist. Love.

I like the lighting on this picture and I love the serenity of my bedroom. (These pics of me are so serious. But really I smile a lot in real life. ;) )

She's got quite a roster of top notch Los Angeles ladies so this is one series to watch!! I think she should turn it into a book. Of course with her line-up of fabulous ladies to come I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make the book edition, but I'm soooo beyond honored that she choose to include me on her blog. And you can see more pics on her Flickr page.

People. The Editors are Raving.

Weekend in Reverse

The weekend - or long weekend rather, including Thursday and Friday in New York City, was a blur with business, here it is in pictures in reverse - starting on Sunday and working back.

We were invited to participate in Heath-LA's first annual Bazaar along with several other very talented LA artisans. Even on the tail end of two and a half crazy days in NYC, it was a blast of a day and it was such an honor to have been invited.

I love the entire decor of Heath's interior, but those Mexican wedding streamers add a bright, happy element.

The lovely girls from Treat Street showed up with an amazing set of baked goods in keeping with Heath's aesthetic sensibilities:

Post n Beam cookies, Meier lemon Rectilinears, Nelson Lamps globe cookies, you get the picture. Treat Street girls are majorly cheeky...

Saturday, I flew home from NYC but I had a few hours in the a.m. to hang with my girl Simone. She had a flower arrangement to do so I tagged along with her to the Union Square market and snapped these fruits and veggies. Radishes!! And Concord grapes-New York is the number one grower I overheard at the market.

On to Friday, at Karen's house...These are her shoes! They were amazing and she wore them all day (read: comfortable)...I had to capture them under the table.

We had buyers and press come and meet us at Karen's apartment all day long. Here's a beautiful buyer with a "laptop" clutch - worn as clutch.

La Trop hanging out in the living room looking pretty with a pom pom...

Black nubuck leather "laptop clutch"dressed up with grosgrain ribbon detail.

The same cute buyer trying on the black messenger with a pompom.

A happy buyer leaving Karen's after a personal purchase. La Trop found another happy home, I'm sure.

And Thursday, after arriving in New York at 6 a.m. from a red-eye flight, Karen and I hit the street for appointments at stores - it was the day with torrential downpours and flash floods, and we were dragging a huge suitcase with wheels containing the entire line - but that's how we roll, ha! Here's us, in a momentary dry spell outside of our Theory appointment - with dreamy Pastis in the background.

Look Mom, Mom Look

In a feat of epic bad timing, my mother arrives today from Minnesota for a visit (after a 2-year absence from California) and I leave tonight for New York. Humph!! I'm in NY for two day-whirlwind-trip (I'm back on Saturday) for meetings with buyers and press. It's okay she'll spend a few days with Oscar and le Mari and be well taken care of I'm sure.

My sister emailed me this picture of my mother at my request because Michael and Karen asked me to contribute to their new blog. I've written my submission, it's up now.

I'll be back over the weekend! xoxo

p.s. the title of this entry was my never ending refrain when I was little.

Danish For Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

I don't quite understand how this happened, but the gist of the story is that months ago, my friend Else went on a brief trip to Denmark, met a stylist, and these beautiful editorial pictures featuring CVIV arrived in our in boxes today...
The iPhone pouch, it's sexy girls, get it!! If I could shout it from a rooftop I would. Here's a little story about the iPhone pouch. The most coveted American chic & cool department store (remaining uncited but its one word name starts with the second letter of the alphabet), meets with young bag designer in Paris and all the buyers love it. They get it. In fact, super chic head buyer covets and purchases from young designer an iPhone pouch for herself. Weeks later, young designer receives an email from said Desirable Store which says, "sorry, although we love your line," it is too "simple" or "unadorned" said designer cannot remember the adjective exactly, but the sting is etched in her brain, "for our customer." Ouch. Maybe one day your customer will catch up to your buyer and to this hotness...!!? (And now I will stop talking in third person. Sorry.)
Foldover clutch in black leather!! Hot.
Silver wrist wrap. Aye caramba!
Black messenger bag. This is soooo cool for me to see my bags in photos like these. I'm in awe. Thanks Denmark. Yai, que igge taylor dansk! (Phonetic for - I don't speak Danish.) But I'm fluent in Scandi-chic!

Mentioning our Mentions

CVIV has been out and about this week on the interwebs and paper press too, so I thought I'd aggregate here. My own private HuffPo, if you will.
There's the tellmewherethisis blog where my photos of the poster Art assignment were on display. Our job was, the 200 of us who were mailed this numbered edition poster (I got number 1 otherwise I wouldn't have done it. jk. kind of), to photograph this poster somewhere in our surroundings and then send it (or them) back to Mr. Edwards for him to publish on his blog. I took pictures of the poster on a beach in Malibu on Labor Day and let the waves wash over it which promptly destroyed the colorful numbered edition like tissue paper. In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn't have ruined it as it may have been the only time I get #1 of any limited print. In any case, Oscar was not amused. Click on link above for story.
Here's the digital postcard of Steven Alan sent out for Fashion's Night out in NYC. Note Clare Vivier written as one word. That's what they call me there. I have to admit it is unclear...Note to self: make that more clear.
Similar postcard for SA's FNO in Los Angeles, but Clare Vivier, although written in two words is written with an "i" ! Ouch. Oh well, I love them anyway and I'll be there on Friday to show it.
Hitting the newsstands this week is the new Lucky magazine where yper-chic, Creative Director Andrea Linett describes the red messenger tote as perhaps her "favorite tote ever - great shape, super light, with an attached inside pouch." Thanks A.L.! There's no way I could have said it better myself.
The rad surfer chicks at Foam like our flat work tote this month! It's true this bag is a real unsung hero of the line!

The ever brilliant Heath Ceramics of Sausalito has invited us to participate in their 2nd Annual Heath Bazaar on September 19, at their store on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. I'm so excited about this! Look at the Los Angeles line-up: / Katherine Bentley: handcrafted jewels/ Beatrice Valenzuela: cool leather shoes/ Krank Press: off-beat letterpress designs/ Clare Crespo: sweet, sweet treats/ Jackie Terrell: paintings and paintings/ Cathy Callahan: vintage-inspired crafts/ Clare Vivier: gorgeous, timeless bags/ Modern Kids Photography: fun, free photo booth/ Matteo: glorious linens. I'm soo thrilled to have been invited and can't wait to spend the day with these talented people.

We got an email from Michael Sanderson this morning alerting us that he had featured our iPad case in his new illustrated online fashion mag called Birche. So cool! Look at how cute that case is drawn! And what a great idea for a blog/mag/catalogue! I'm all for a modern day, chic J. Peterman. We had just been talking about how we needed an Elaine working with us here in the office on copy.

FerrolStudio of Seattle included a bit of Trop-i-ness on her lovely-thing-a-day blog on Tuesday.
There was also this piece on Jamila's fash-art blog. Okay, that's all! Man! Thanks to all these nice people who've included us recently. Very Lucky indeed.

Fashion's Night Out - NY and LA!

Steven Alan (the NY store) emailed last week asking if we'd like to do something special for Fashion's Night Out, next Friday, Sept. 10. It was a little last minute, but the proceeds are going to a good charity, so we hustled it to get new items to them in NY by last Friday.
We decided to do a new iPad case - in natural, undyed leather "dipped" in white ink.
Here they are being tried and tested in our iPad size testing laboratory.
Behind the scenes in at the photoshoot.
They look so lovely all together. I wish I could have many iPads just to be able to keep them all in pretty cases.

This is what it says on the tag:
In other words, the more rocked and worn, the better.
Finishing touches at the iPad case testing facility...
Packed up and heading for Tribeca, New York City.

P.S. the latest news is that more of these lovely, special edition cases will be at Steven Alan - Abbot Kinney in Venice on Friday night where Jocelyn and I will be hanging out with more CViv wares for FNO-Los Angeles! Come out and see us! XO