A cool and relaxed summer starts at ground level with a bevy of hard-to-resist flat sandals in plain, racy or bejeweled versions that even true hard-core height aficionados won’t resist. Nothing quite compares to flats under hems cut on the short, frisky side. The ultimate boho-chic touch? Razzle-dazzle flat sandals under a short and fluid caftan belted at the waist or peeking out from a swooshing evening number. Read more…

Could Lady Gaga’s well-documented fascination with vintage looks have ignited the trend? Perhaps, but fact is that the scarf print is back in all its exuberant, heraldic glory, from head-to-toe. Read more…

At the age of 40, American artist Ryan McGinness is a rebel and provocateur – often adopting an experimental approach to his environment and manipulating the line between the anonymous and the personal.  He has staged exhibitions of blacklight paintings of nude women in strip clubs, hosted parties at his studio on 50 consecutive Friday nights (“50 parties. 50 themes. 50 weeks”), and held three-night performances drawing partially obscured nude women.  Whether creating paintings, silkscreens, or sculptures – McGinness emphasizes the bold in color, subject or context. His original drawings are influenced by contemporary graphics, commercial signs and logos – all sources of inspiration since his surf and skate childhood in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  One can’t help but also see an Andy Warhol influence – which is not surprising given that McGinness served as curatorial assistant at the Warhol Museum while in school.

While McGinness may be somewhat of an “enfant terrible,” pushing boundaries in often futuristic ways, he is also already part of the contemporary art establishment.  His works hang in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MUSAC in Spain, the Taguchi Art Collection in Japan, among other major institutions.  The artist lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

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Safari Style – A look popularized by Ernest Hemingway, Yves Saint Laurent himself, James Bond, Clark Gable and even J.R Ewing (the Dallas film series anyone?). Commonly referred to as the Safari look, it has a very precise and adventurous connotation, evocative of the bestseller-cum-blockbuster-movie, Out of Africa. A sort of informal uniform that harkens back to the turn-of-the-20th-century Anglo-Africa adventures during the colonial period, worn by British soldiers in the African Bush. Read more…