Hopping Holidazzles - Let The Sales Begin!

You're all cordially invited-

For those of you in LA, I'm pretty sure there's no reason to step foot into a mall this holiday season. 

I think there's an invite for everyone:

For the Hollywood area (which includes you, Los Feliz, Silverlake, & Echo Parkers) parents, there's the Oaks - an amazing line up of artists and vendors. 

(I'll be loitering around the Duverger Macarons booth.)

For the Westsiders - there's the Resource Holiday Bazaar in Venice featuring two of my favorite artist/designers Victoria Morris and Jesse Kamm.

For the Eastsiders, there's our party at V+B. There'll be delicious food, 20% off CV and DC as well as a raffle. Who can resist a raffle? (One day, I'm going to win the free groceries at TJ's). Please let us know you're coming by leaving a comment here so we can have enough food and drink.

 For the sophisticates there's the Studio 156 party on Casitas in Atwater. 

They win prettiest invite for sure. Original watercolor? Fairly certain they win for sale with most comprehensive line-up of what-every-girl-has-on-her-wish-list. 

I'm beyond excited to spend the day with our hosts (and 3 of my favorite people): Melissa, Simone and Joanna, and I'm super excited to be at a sale with Kelly Lamb and Hansel from Basel!

Plus, they win BY FAR the award for best entertainment - Sitar and Tabla music!

Consuelo Castiglioni Makes the Masses Weep

Marni + H&M = dreamy

Most likely the best high/low collab ever.

I'm not the type to wait in line but, man, this would almost make me consider it.

Cyber Monday is almost over

Click away!

Free shipping on CV with code:

CVshipsfree

p.s. I have serious hair envy of the girls I work with.

Back From Family Time

I hope you all had a great long weekend with friends and family.

This is my family. And I had a lot to be thankful this year, my family number 1, and my business number 2. And it wouldn't be a business without you so Thank you very very much. 

(I'm not in the picture, or I am, but I'm in my mama's belly.)

Yes, I'm the youngest of 6. And this is what family bike rides were like. A little like our very own Critical Mass. We just returned from visiting all of them in MN over the holidays and it was so good to be home for a few days. Now back in LA, we here at CV are soo ready for all the holiday sales we are doing and orders we are getting out! From here until I leave for France on Christmas eve we are jam packed. So I'm drinking my coffee and we are on it. 

p.s.

Hey everyone! It's CYBER MONDAY. 

As a thank you get FREE shipping on our site when you enter: 

CVshipsfree

:) xox

Refinery 29 has exclusive CV clutches

We made these 4 new clutches for Refinery 29. 

This is the first time we printed leopard on leather - it turned out so cool - kind of twist on leopard and polka dots - both of which I'm in love with right now.

They are adorable. Who do you need to gift in your life?

This just might be the thing you're sister, best friend, mama, neighbor, teacher is dying for. :)

Isabel - en vrai

Yesterday, I had probably the best celebrity sighting of the year, and we have a lot of sightings here in LA. But this one beat them all: Isabel Marant, herself, the person, en vrai, as they say. 

I couldn't believe this famous Parisian was here, in LA and in our neighborhood, at LAMill cafe!

(Photo: Terry Richardson for Russh)

Here's the thing. I'm really not one for idolatry. Nor am I starstruck, but I did think it was cool to see her, because she's a rad designer, has crazy good style and she's wildly successful in the industry within which I work.  Here's what she says the Isabel girl is in an interview with the Australian magazine Russh:

"think it’s just a woman who wants to have a strong personality but without being totally dressed up, who wants to be different but in a discreet way. And she’s usually a rather active, entrepreneurial woman, who needs to feel good in her clothes without trying too hard."

Precisely.

(Photo: Backyard Bill for Elle.uk)

Bref, je l'adore. I love her.

So I geeked out. Kind of how I geeked out when I saw Charlotte in Paris.

Here's how my geekiness manifested this time:

I spotted her and her awesome grey hair and killer leather jacket, outside at a table with her friend. There was an open table next to her, I sat down. In French, I said, excuse me, are you Isabel Marant? She said, Oui, in a shy? Embarrassed? Annoyed? Shy-friendly-way?

I have no idea, but it was enough of slightly questionable response for me to call off the millions of questions I wanted to ask her: What was she doing in LA? How long would she be here? Would she come by my studio/store because it wasn't far? Did she want to be my best friend? Come to my house for dinner at least? Geek. Instead I said, "I'm a big fan of your work." And then quickly turned my head and buried my head in my iPhone. And that was it until she left her table with her friend, she turned and said "au revoir." And I said, au revoir, Isabel. Marant.

So I didn't find out why she's in California but I did read here that she may stay for a while. So if I see her again, I'll update. :)

Zero Of A Kind

I had prepared to blog about our latest Pochette on Of A Kind today to let you all know you should click on over and pick one up, but by the time I got to the studio this a.m. it had already sold out! 

 Boom! That is the best. We sent them 60 and they sold out in 90 minutes. That's a pochette every 1.5 minute and a record for us!

 When we got the pochette back from our factory all the girls at the studio flipped, but I was still surprised by the quickness with which it sold. I guess people were in the mood for an animal print pochette today.

I love the way OAK editorializes their items with the good photo shoots and the interviews like my favorite neighborhood haunts. 

This time they also did a "What's in your bag" item which is always my favorite feature in magazines and what I'd decided I want to make a regular item on this blog too, starring other people's bags.

So here's the first one - mine, and barring the flotsam and jetsam of receipts, stray business cards, an old gum wrapper that also inhabit my bag, this is real, this is what I carry in my bag if you looked right now, except my phone (because it's on my desk):

p.s. as I said in that What's in Your Bag piece - I bought the Steven Alan cashmere beanie hats for the girls here at the studio, here are Bri and Saehee wearing them yesterday:

True story.

Marannabes™

Marannabes is not really trademarked, but my good friend Karen coined the genius term, so using it here I had to give her props at the start. It means those items of clothing or accessories which either copy or perhaps took their inspiration from the insta-cred designer Isabel Marant.  Read the excerpt from Lucky editor Marlien Rentmeester's new must-read blog from her new style website Le Catch.

See, Marlien called it: It's true - I loved Marant's Dicker boot, but with it's utter simplicity, I found it hard to justify the $$$ price tag. When one night at a dinner party, Simone Le Blanc mentioned the Barneys Co-Op boots with glitter on the back, a la Miu Miu, that was it. Two of my favorite shoes of the season - combined. Sold.

So the other night, it was funny to be at my friend Greta's house and see Greta and Jeana both wearing the Dicker. 

While I was wearing the glitter version.

 
Off the subject, but from the same dinner of the Dickers and Glitters at Greta's, I took this picture of her Heath soup bowls with the sliced baguette awaiting the yummy soup, I documented the sliced French bread "bunny phenomenon." I didn't know about this until I lived in France: Did you know that 99% of the time when you slice a baguette, the profile looks just like a bunny rabbit? Fun fact.

Here's another pair of shoes which I bought in Paris at Le Bon Marche a few years ago, before Isabel came out with hers, but in any case are, for the moment, quelling my desire to purchase another pair of Isabel shoes.

Here's me wearing them the other day - with an Isabel dress I'll have you know. 

I'm not a complete Marannabe. :)

xox

there are 2 post scripts to this entry:

1. Joanna sent me this post from her blog about Isabel Marant - I think very worth reading.

2. I'm still kinda dying that Marlien called me a "fashion bellwether" because she has been my LA fashion idol ever since I met her a few years ago. I actually said one of my most embarrassing lines ever to her during our very first conversation: "Lucky got lucky hiring you." Yep, I said that - I've got a gift with words I tell ya. Bless her heart she still speaks to me.

Scenes From Week 45 at the Studio

Seems crazy we're already week 45 of a 52 week year, no?

That means we're approaching those end of year activities otherwise known as The Holidays.

We're gearing up here at CV by shipping a tons of bags to stores - the black canvas weekender, best gift for your boyfriend, just shipped to Steven Alan. Speaking of Steven Alan, their first store in SF, in Hayes valley, is opening tonight with a party. Wish I could have been there. Fun!

This bright pink clutch will brighten up any cold weather doldrums. They've gone to Cananda. Holt Renfrew, phew they're gonna need it with those winters. 

Don't worry Canadians, California sunshine is on it's way. :)

Hot Streak clutch as it has been named by Anthropologie has shipped.

I just saw this in their catalogue, I'd missed it the first go 'round. Cute.

More gift ideas to come. 

xoc

An Anonymous Timely Gift

I got home from 4 days in New York yesterday and found this book about street art [in general and political posters specifically] in Paris during the protests of 1968, was delivered to my door from Amazon - only I hadn't ordered it and it was delivered anonomously. Whoever sent me the gift had forgotten to put their name on it, so if was you, thank you so much. I love it.

It is one of the coolest books I've seen in a while and it fits so well with so many of my loves: French things, silk screening, text art, and politics. 

The funny thing about this book is that, while I'd never seen it before, there's a wonderful food market in Echo Park called Cookbook where they have this poster that I love so much. When I saw it I had that conflictual simultaneous feeling: it was so perfect for that shop and, oh, how unfair the world was that that poster did not belong to me. So I was so happy to receive an entire book of posters just like that one.

It's amazing how much these posters resonate with what is happening today with the Occupy movements:

The Strike Continues.

The workers will win.

I love the book because the also show you how the artists made the posters - occupying an art school and taking over the silk screening facilities to make of of them.

Press - Do Not Swallow. Fox news anyone?

Workers United - Free Information

As Vermès points out in the intro to the book, they didn't have Twitter and FB back then. To get the word out they had to make actual placards to gather support. Imagine that.

Populist Puppets.

Yes, Factories Occupied

In New York news,  I went to Vogue again, only this time actual editors met with me. Two of them! Meredith Melling Burke, market editor, and Rickie De Sole, accessories editor, both came to meet me and see the line. They were both lovely and MMB was even more glowing in real life. She was so chic in jeans, white sweater, camel coat and heels - I'd guess Celine:) - I would have never thought of her as underdressed but I over heard her say that they were all kind of dressed down at Vogue that day because Anna was out of town. Ha. Highlight of trip was when MMB actually responded later that evening to my tweet that I was on the up to see her. Cute!