My Mother's 60's Mexican Dress

I have had this dress for a very, very, very long time.  My mom got it in the 60's as a thirty-something single woman.  I always imagined her buying it in Mexico City, but I have no idea.  I'll tell you something, though.  When I took it from her in my early twenties... I had to let the hem out.  Yes, it was SHORTER.  A lot shorter.  Those crazy 60's.  I wore this dress to improve our luck in finding an apartment in San Francisco.  Two wearings and two trips up north later and it worked.  I added a belt from another dress here and those ubiquitous boots.  The earrings were hers, too.  I love my mom.  I feel her looking down on me, and laughing like she used to... "Ay, Laura.  Te vas a poner esto?" ("You're putting that on?") Shaking her head.  Mystified at some of my tastes, but always entertained.

vintage clothing expo IS my disneyland

Santa Monica Vintage Clothing Expo.  If I wasn't doing yoga and meditation all the time I would have simultaneously hypervenilated, had a panic attack, and lost all feeling in my legs when I walked into the Costumes from the 1930's Mexican Independence day booth.  But luckily, I am doing yoga and meditation so I didn't.  Whew.  

And by the way, I found one a shorter version of one of these skirts that needs a little TLC in another booth for $15.  Score.

I put this find on when I got home.  I am hoping I can wear it when I get to be a "fancy extra" on Enlightened tomorrow, but I am waiting for that special call from wardrobe for my instructions.  (Did you hear my secret agent attitude.  Always.)  Anyway, this dress isn't really vintage.  It was a stowaway at the expo, but it makes me want to say, "Yes, take me to the Tonga Room."  We lived a few blocks from San Francisco's Tonga Room in another fairy tale chapter of our lives.  Go there.  You exit the street and enter a night time tropical paradise, with a band playing on a barge surrounded by a lagoon, happy hour food on skewers, and it RAINS.

Dress by Kimchi in Blue

Rebecca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First, thank you to my friend, Laura for getting me to the expo (texting me during Avengers the day before), and thank you to Rebecca for missing the surprise part of a surprise party to come shopping at the expo so last minute.  Rebeeca comes dressed to do some damage in her beautiful platform shoes, lady-like hat, updated 50's shape skirt, modern neck drapery (What did I just make up?), and... come on!  She had to get these gloves.  She was an accessories girl that day.  Delicate handkerchiefs, suit triangles for her man, sunglasses, and gloves... those gloves.  Ms. "No thank you, I don't need that plastic bag for my vintage treasures" Harrell Tickell is one of my super heroes whose film, "The Big Fix" about the BP oil catastrophe will be released on DVD on June 19th.  Pre-order your dvd now!!!

new single... two outfits!

Boom Boom! from evan hartzell trio on Vimeo.


Ummm... I feel so decadent.  In addition to occasional fashion styling, painting, filmmaking, art teaching, event hosting, I sometimes get to write bilingual songs which I get to sing as a part of Evan Hartzell Trio.  It's so fun.  


Here's the fashion part... I get to imagine what I would wear performing these songs in some romantic location like a Santa Fe weathered-wood floored bar, or on Venice beach with my blue silk dress getting sandy and wet while I listen to the track on headphones.  For some reason, I love getting that dress dirty.  Preferably with once again romantic dirt like sand on the beach and charcoal in the studio... not cherry-flavored Slurrpy at a kid's movie outing like I got on it later that evening after shooting this video.  I don't care that my sentences don't make sense anymore.  Poetic license.  And I love dot, dot, dot... if you haven't noticed.  Everyone can dot, dot, dot if they haven't tried it.  It feels really good.  It stands for looking up at the trees while you wait for inspiration.


On the sidewalk:  Levi's/Pendleton collaboration poncho, Levi's top, X2 jacket, Lithe skirt, Tsubo sneakers.


On the beach:  Rebecca Taylor dress, Zinc jacket

I can't believe I'm saying this...

...but, so far my favorite Fall 2012 collection is Victoria Beckham.  Why?  Because I actually want to wear these clothes.  It's not about admiring craftmanship and art, like when I take in Rodarte.  It's about knowing I can do what I want to do in these clothes... but do it better because the feel is so inspiring.  It's inspiring to action.  The cuts are so feminine.  The details are sporty.  And the models are wearing BIKER BOOTS, not high heels.  Plus, the dresses are all elegance in the front and sassy in the back.  You've got the watch the video to see this.  So cool.  Please, can I have some?  I don't usually ask. Or by some miracle, help me figure out how to make something like this.  I mean, I can't even tell what kind of fabric is happening here.  I have never been so into zippers. 

Check out the well-placed, flattering stripes.

It's so predictable I would like this.  Just add an apron.

And here is the video so you can see the backs and the way they move. 

Favorites from Spring RTW 2012

Valentino Spring RTW 2012 says, "What's the big deal?  We know what you want.  It's a no-brainer."

Louis Vuitton... yes, it's the same dress - on the horse, off the horse.  

Alexander McQueen's women will make things happen.  I swear those photos are moving a la Harry Potter...

My new love - Vena Cava.  These are the clothes I drive around in my red car in with my BFF's getting boba drinks on the sunny westside, feeling the ocean breeze.  It's called "no time".

hiking in a skirt

Tibetan Arts skirt, Teva boots (What's new?), flea market linen blouse, found fabric rose, home-made belt

Okay, the last post was rock climbing in a skirt.  This is just hiking.  Temescal, up to see the waterfall, and I just have to say that I saw two other people in skirts on this hike.  I was inspired by Downton Abbey when I added the rose and tucked in the skirt.  It's a bit soap opera for me, but I will watch it for the costumes.  Wow.

rock-climbing in a skirt

Levi's blouse, homemade skirt, Teva boots (What's new?), Dorfman Pacific Company hat, vintage belt, Bettina Duncan earrings

This fall,I've run in a skirt with the middle school cross country team (while being pulled by a fluffy white dog), I've hiked in a skirt, walked long distances... and rock-climbed.  Yes, I am having fun.  I get to pretend I live in some other time, a character in historical fiction.  On this day I felt like gold rush girl or something.  And I was encouraged to climb higher than ever by the boy who is taking my photo.  I had to stop at one point.  "Jump across this steep crevice thing into this little tiny cave on the side of the mountain."  Uh, no.  I think I'll just get down now.  Beautiful day, though.

almost black friday at lacma AGAIN

Theory dress, Teva boots, Moda leggings, homemade necklace (gift)

I can't believe I did a post from LACMA on black friday a year ago.  Here I am again, a day past one year later.  Not just going to LACMA almost the day after Thanksgiving again, but coupling it with the best Cuban food at El Colmao - again.  Yum.  Saw Asco show at LACMA.  Whew.  Missed Tim Burton, but couldn't miss Asco.  After seeing amazing urgency and realness of their statements that was beyond any contrived art idea coming from NY at the time and the out of this world costumes that went with their performances, anything that thinks it is cutting edge right now seems super conservative.

Look at these photographs behind me in the museum!  Just look at them.  Okay, I know they are too small, but it's what, nineteen seventy early something and they're dressed all prohibition gangster like in MALIBU.  It's just crazy.  I'm just acting like I'm hanging out with them in this photo.  

"Decoy Gang War Victim", 1976, by Harry Gamboa Jr. is my favorite photo/document of a performance in the show.  I'm not sure what motivated them then (because I was a little kindergartner at the time), but it was only the 70's and for me, they were messing with a bunch of Chicano stereotypes/traditions like gang wars, Day of the Dead parades, and murals in this playful, irreverent, hypnotic way.  How dare they be conceptual?  But they were.  And as an artist today with a Hispanic last name that tends toward illustrating my stories through songs, paintings, installations, and outfits, I am only understanding now how I have reaped the benefits.  That happens a lot in art history... and in "other" histories, for that matter.  Thank you, Asco.

About the fashion:

from The Art Outlaws of East L.A., L.A. Weekly, 2007 by Daniel Hernandez

Valdez recalls during an interview in her Echo Park home that her fixation on outrageous clothing was rooted in a longing going back to her girlhood. “I had this taste, I wanted things,” Valdez says. “I always liked nice things and I never had them. My mother went, ‘When you get older.’ And I go, ‘I’m sick of it, I gotta make something of myself, I gotta be somebody.’ The environment around me was not the world I lived in, I lived in my head, in a fantasy, so I created my own look, through movies and fashion.”

In old Asco photographs, Valdez personifies a nostalgic ideal of L.A.pachuca glamour. There she is, in short skirts and high heels, gloves, extreme eye makeup, fishnets, leather, bold colors, lots of black, eye-catching jewelry — the sort of vintage Eastside look some women still reference and replicate today. The men were often just as stylish and outrageous.

“In East L.A. in the ’60s, you didn’t wear jeans to school, you wore slacks. So it was again pushing that notion of limitations,” Gronk said. “I used to think, if you could walk, wear it. That was the motto that I had.”

"Asco" by Humberto Sandoval, sepia photograph, 1975

the fancy painters

It started with Basquiat. The story of him painting in Armani, not caring about how messed up his clothes were getting was so inspiring to me from the moment I heard about it as a grad student at San Francisco Art Institute. It was rebellious. Sacrificial? Definitely cool. Of course, it sounds cool when you don't think about the background story.  His story is so complex.  His art is so profound.  


And then Giacometti. In Henri Cartier-Bresson's photo of him in the the 60's he looks just as stylish and exciting as in a portrait from the 30's. His clothes were part of it. Again, painting and sculpting in those beautiful suits in that same studio all of his life in that dark part of Paris.  Can't you just see it?

O'keefe was the minimalist desert beauty. Just look at that waist, that belt, the hair. She dressed like her paintings, so elegant, so emotional and peaceful at the same time.

And Frida. I resisted her for the longest time. When I first saw her work at 18, I was really disturbed by it. I went to her house at 24. I'll never forget it. And then I got it. Her indigenous blouses as she shopped in the outdoor markets, all those silver rings on her fingers as she painted, the flowers in her hair as she sat for portraits, it was all part of her art performance.

I think the marvelous clothes actually affect the art that is made. Just the way people say that music affects the cooking. Here is one of my studio outfits. I feel like a great dress with the right accessories really feeds into my paintings, makes me feel colorful all over, and the whole thing feels like a performance - especially since my studio is a gallery/storefront!

silk skirt by (actually, it is a dress) Rebecca Taylor
blouse by Karisma
silver and turquoise necklace, unknown craftsperson in Taxco, Mèxico 
silver earrings by Mingle (!)

summertime, and the living is easy...

No posts since June 10th? I am shocked. I promised myself I would never make excuses for why I haven't posted for a while. So now you know why I am not. Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to celebrate summer. Summer is my FAVORITE time of year. I love warm weather. I love hot weather. I love breezy, sunny weather at the beach, stand-still desert days, tropical humid, rainy days, and lovely mountain summer days. All of it. I am particularly enjoying this summer because last summer was cold and foggy ALL summer at the beach. We had to leave the area to find summer. This time all the right ingredients are here: the blue skies, the slight breeze... maybe the ocean will even be less than freezing in the coming weeks! This summer is also special because I have started a new chapter in my life called, Paradiso Arts. Doesn't that name just go with the whole year-round summer attitude? I love it.

Also, here is a song that we just can't stop playing at our house today... my favorite version of this classic right now. Thank you, thank you to whoever digitized the 45. I suggest listening to it at least seven times in a row. Then, you will start to understand the genius of melody, rhythm, attitude, everything.

Mingle earrings, Levi's blouse (on sale now!), Tibetan Arts skirt, Santa Cruz flip flops

i am the pirate captain of my golden fish ship

Well, basically I am a kid. I may appear to be a grown up sometimes, but I am a child dressing up in costumes. I just have to work on staying in character a little more. I am sure I have friends who would like to pretend with me. Totally inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean. My kids just watched one, two, three on dvd so they could go see four. And Penelope is on the Vogue cover. Did that movie need more advertisements? No. It was always my favorite ride at Disneyland growing up 20 minutes from there, and I will always see any pirate movie (or spy movie, or car chase movie - I don't care how dumb it is).

Ah, but here are the stories. My father-in-law, who was a film editor, was working on a studio lot back in the early 80's when he brought my mother-in-law to a sale where they have clothes from different movies. This blouse was bought by my mother-in-law for one of her sisters, who has since past away, and so it came back to my mother-in-law. It was worn by Mitzi Gaynor in a movie back in the 50's. It has her name in it. Crazy. People ask me about the blouse which is really falling apart - thus, it really fits the pirate theme. I mention Mitzi, and they get all excited. Well, now I know who Mitzi is, and I am definitely a fan of pre-70's movies. Here I go with the decades again.

And the earrings! Oh, I suffered on Sunday when I could not buy every single piece of Mingle jewelry at my friend's fundraiser for CCFA. She has this open house/jewelry sale once a year and the actual Mingle designer is there. It is the only time I buy jewelry for myself. I had various friends who could not make it there with me that day, but who admire my Mingle, so I was sending them photos from my phone, and they were calling me to tell me what to get for them. It was really fun. Phone shopping with your friends!

Costume designer unknown blouse, Levi's jeans, Teva boots, Mingle copper (yes!) earrings, vintage necklace

bikini, dress, landscape

These were painted in the Art Barn of Esalen a year ago this month. I go to Esalen at least once a month... in my head. A place for learning, meditation, and relaxation, Esalen is located in Big Sur, California - one of the most beautiful places on this planet. These are very fashion-y paintings, especially because I painted them on the back of clothing tags I found in the Art Barn!

The coast, the Art Barn, inside the Art Barn with my paintings in the foreground (resident stylish artist in the background;)