Color me ORANGE this summer 2012

Interesting article from the February issue of the Mercury News by Leatrice Eiseman of Pantone.. I have always loved orange, orange crush or Hermes Orange to be more precise, so I am delighted to see orange tending for this summer. It was so refreshing to walk through the SF Shopping center a few weeks back and see all the orange, yellows and fuchsia in the windows. Make orange and navy your updated "nautical" look for this summer. Orange may signal caution but throw caution to the wind this summer and have fun.

QUEEN OF HATS

Great photographs of queen Elizabeth curtesy of people Magazine February 2012.  Fashion may come and go, but not for the Queen, who is never caught without her hat and radiant smile. She certainly has her own head ware  style and seldom veers from it. The princesses Beatrice and Eugenie would do well to ask grand mama for a little hat advise now and then.

Her coquettish hats from the 50's are so classic and elegant. 1961 and 1962 look a little scary as do 1972 and 1973. No wonder women stopped wearing hats in the 70's. Those turbans are not very flattering. I remember my grand mother arriving at our home every Wednesday wearing some type of turban. 1992 is not a flattering hat, she looks more like the queen mother than herself.

The queen really comes into her own hat style from 1989. She starts to wear hats that have more angles which compliment her round facial features. She also picks hats with a side up-swoop which optically give her a little extra hight. 1994 and 1995 were bad hat years for her. She looks best in a blue/teal/aqua pallette. The pastel of 2000 and 2012 just wash her totally. She should avoid Breton/saucer brims like 2012, they never flatter a round face. No fascinators for the Queen. No the Queen of Hats is much too stylish for that silly trend. Long live the Queen of Hats, long live Queen ELIZABETH!!!

Hat Design competition

Enter the Mad Hatter Hatmaker Competition

So you think you can design hats? Well, here's your big chance to be discovers. Now get your freak on and kick philip Tracy's arse!

Hey Philip Treacy, want to see if you can top this design you made for Princess Beatrice at the Royal Wedding?

Joppatowne, MD–In honor of the recent National Hat Day (Jan. 15), amateurs as well as experienced milliners are invited to submit designs for the Mad Hatters’ first MHS Hatmaker Competition.

Any style or material may be used and all themes –outrageousness, surrealism, irony and inventiveness–all apply. Unusual materials are encouraged.

Teams of no more than two people may collaborate on a hat and entrants may enter more than one hat. Rules:

• The hat must be made from scratch by the entrant(s) themselves. A hat that is merely decorated would not qualify.
• It must be made between National Hat Day and the contest entry deadline, April 1.
• The hat must be worn by someone in a public place and photographed.

The Mad Hatters Society page is open to anyone on Facebook, but you have to send a request to join. Click here for the link.

To enter the contest, upload photographs to the MHS page and in the caption state the maker’s name and name of the hat plus a brief description. Anyone can enter but they must join the MHS (at least temporarily) to upload the photos to enter the contest.

The winning photo will become the icon for the Mad Hatters Society page.

All prizes haven’t been announced yet, but winners will definitely receive a free copy of the Mad Hatters’ interactive eBook Hatatorium: An Essential Guide for Hat Collectors.

According to the Mad Hatters, if enough people enter the competition it might be expanded into several categories, and they are open to suggestions. One area under consideration Virtual Hats, which are hats only existing digitally.

In the era of big boxes, a day for the little guy

This is such a nice story. More people should support their local boutiques and family run stores. These store create community, safe downtown areas and are there for you when you are short a buck.

By AMY SANCETTA | Associated Press –t

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• View Gallery
  In this photo taken Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, shoppers and long time friends Cheryl …
• 
  In the early morning hours of Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, Rob Schwind shovels the sidewalk in front of the Chagrin Hardware in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The Shutts family, which has owned the hardware for the last 72 years, was preparing for a community-driven "Cash Mob" of the store to happen that day. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio (AP) — It began quietly, as an email to 40 friends.

But when a steady stream of customers began coming through the door before the family-owned Chagrin Hardware had even opened for the day on Saturday, it was clear that it had turned into much more than that.

The idea started with Jim Black, a resident of Chagrin Falls, a close-knit village in Cleveland's eastern suburbs that is part artist colony and part bedroom community. Black posted the email to a group of his friends. "Let's show our support for one of our local businesses," he wrote. "I challenge everyone to spend AT LEAST $20 at the hardware on the 21st."

Although his email referred to the idea of a "Cash Mob" or the notion to "Occupy CF Hardware," he really had no political agenda. And it wasn't meant as a protest against the big-box stores that have created an ever-tightening circle around the community.

It was just a way to thank Chagrin Hardware's owners for a beloved shop that has been a fixture in the village since 1857.

"These are good people who needed our support," Black said. "It's just that simple."

The store, overlooking meandering Riverside Park and the Chagrin River in the middle of town, has been run by the Shutts family for the last 72 years. It passed from uncle to father to older brothers Rob and Kenny and the three youngest, Steve, Susie and Jack, who run the store today.

Black's note was forwarded and forwarded and forwarded again. Calls started coming in from folks out of state who wanted to make a purchase over the phone.

And when the day came, so did the shoppers — one by one, with dogs on leashes and children in tow, hour after hour until the hardware was teeming with customers.

"This is small-town America," said resident Martine Scheuermann, a bag of pet-safe ice melt in her arms and her Springer Spaniels tapping their toes on the worn wooden floor at her feet. "This is a special family business in a town where everybody knows you."

The store has seen its share of tough times. Road construction on Main Street at the store's front door some years back crippled business for a time. More recently, the weakened economy and the big boxes have stolen away customers.

On this day, though, those storylines were forgotten.

By 10 a.m. the place was jammed. By 1:30 p.m., the credit card machine was overloaded and had to be reset. "This is so cool," said Steve Shutts, a mix of joy, wonder and happy exhaustion spread across his face. "I've seen people today I haven't seen in years."

The line at the checkout stretched in two directions as people with snow shovels and light bulbs and fireplace grates and vintage movie posters and horse shoe caulk — yes, horse shoe caulk — waited to pay.

Chad Schron, 38, came with his 8-year-old son Robert. "We didn't have anything we had to get, but we found things we had to get," he said. As he spoke, Robert clutched an Ohio State desk lamp and two flying monkey toys to his chest.

"When I was a kid, my Mom would send me down here with a note to let me buy BB's," Schron recalled. "Lots of kids did that back then. The notes still are in a drawer over there," he said as he pointed past the register to a wall of wooden drawers containing everything from old springs to screws. In the drawer still labeled "BBs" were stacks of crumpled notes dating to the '50s, from mothers just like Schron's

When the final customer had finally left well after closing time with her fuzzy dice and floodlights, Schwind and Steve Shutts tallied the day's receipts. Shutts shook his head at the wild and unexpected ride.

He wouldn't say how much the store made that day, but was clearly pleased with the outcome.

"Thanks to Jimmy Black," he said. "Thanks to everyone. Thanks to Chagrin Falls.

"What a place to live."

The Swim Journal

Callanan resort hat style CR147-ASST as seen in the current Jan/Feb 2012 edition of The Swim Journal.

It is merchandized with a bag from my sister devision Cappelli Straworld.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! 新年快樂 - Happy New Year! Wishing you all a fantastic, great "Year of the (Water) Dragon"...

The Lunar New Year: Enter the Dragon

The Lunar New Year is celebrated in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Tibet, as well is in countries such as Singapore that have large Chinese populations. Christopher Livaccari of the Asia Society explains to Yahoo! Shine that it used to be celebrated widely in Japan, but now most Japanese people consider January 1st to be the main New Year's holiday.

Related: Coming Home for Chinese New Year

Year of the Dragon

This year's Lunar New Year begins on January 23, which is the first day of the first new moon of the year. It ends 15 days later on the full moon. The Chinese calendar is divided into 12 cycles each represented by a special animal. According to Chinese Astrology, this year is the year of the Dragon, the only mythical animal in the zodiac. People born in the year of the Dragon are said to be energetic, charismatic, and natural born leaders. Some famous "Dragons" include Joan of Arc, Vladimir Putin, and John Lennon.

Lunar New Year Traditions

Celebrations of the coming year commence on the eve of the first new moon with a feast and fireworks. Families clean their homes to symbolize a fresh start and buy flowers and plants, which represent rebirth. Often, gifts of new money or money in red and gold envelopes are exchanged to bring good fortune. Livaccari told Shine, "I think some people tend to think of these holidays and celebrations as something very exotic, but most people in contemporary East Asia see this time as an opportunity to take a break from school and work and reconnect with family, much like we would on Thanksgiving or Christmas."

Lucky foods include dumplings and other stuffed delicacies which symbolize little packages of good fortune, oranges which in Chinese sound like the word for "auspicious," and apples which sound like "peace." Fireworks are detonated to ward off evil spirits. Boisterous dragon dances are also performed to scare spirits away.

A tradition that kids will like is that parents aren't supposed to scold their children during the Lunar New Year. Livaccari also points out that, just like in the West, "Your average 14 year-old in Beijing, Shanghai, or Seoul is probably more focused on this as a chance to get some more time to play video games or interact with friends online."

mode du jour fall 2012-HOMME

LV
The fall fashion from Paris is wearable, sellable, less dandy and more manly.
My favorite accessory is the cowl scarf and brooch from Louis Vuitton.

But the plastic shrug might come in handy for dandruff collecting.

The "it" hat is the beret at both Armani and LV.

Nose rings were du rigeur at Givenchy

And the fashion bulls were seeing red.

Givenchy

LV

Mattiussi;from  the neck

Kolor; to the shoes

D Squared conductor cap.
And no man fashionistaman should be found without his butcher's apron from

Mugler
or
YSL's sexy Mr. Spark's tunic.