First of all there were a hand full of stand out punk couture attendees:

-Madonna totally owned the look in Givenchy punk plaid, fishnets, and a dommie wig. Loved it.

-Sarah Jessica Parker really gave high-punk-couture in Giles Deacon. She totally called the right guy. Her mohawk head piece was stunning.

-Paloma Faith was totally on par with SJP. She look freakin bad ass hot in Michael Cinco (never heard of him, but love him now).

-I loved Rooney Mara in her Givenchy (almost everyone wore Givenchy probably because he was co-chair and his line is so hot right now). It was really the idea of the night; how punk has influenced fashion. I wish she would have worn those big earrings from the collection too. She never wears accessories, but I did love her dark lipstick.

There were a lot of people who looked very nice and presentable, like Gwen Stefani in a demure but cool Margiela ensemble (I expected a better look from her). Katy Perry was a bit more byzantine than punk but looked good in Dolce & Gabbana. Kristen Stewart and Cameron Diaz both wore remarkable Stella McCartney outfits. Florence Welch looked bewitching in black fringe Givenchy. There were a lot of just pretty dresses that were nice to see but nothing outstanding that you can’t see at the Emmys.

Now for the WTF:

People are loving Nicole Ritchie’s look. She did have on this sort of beautiful vintage looking/brocade type dress. I’m not looking it up, but that’s what it looked like. Her hair was absolutely unforgivably bad. I loved that she put some sort of white color in, but it was pulled back and she looked more like Mars Attacks than Met Gala. What was her hair person thinking?

Then there was Jennifer Morrison from my favorite show Once Upon a Time..she wore a lovely black lace Donna Karan dress, simple makeup, but her hair was done as a mohawk…but like she went to Supercuts at the mall and asked them to do it. If you’re going to go punk- match your hair, makeup and wardrobe…this goes for any look. I am so embarrassed for her. Hopefully some hair people are getting fired.

Beyonce, I love her but I think she thought she was going to the BET awards not the Met Gala. It was Givenchy, but I just didn’t love it for this. But she’s gorgeous and rich so she can do whatever. Oh, and then there was her sister, Solange. First, why is she at the Met Gala? Second, her dress is good for dinner out in Miami, not this event.

Ok, the grand finale of bad goes to Anna Wintour. It was Chanel, but it looked like my abuela found some Laura Ashely sheets and made a dress. It was all kinds of wrong, but very entertaining to dish on.

I was hoping to see more Zandra Rhodes, Jeremy Scott, Stephen Sprouse, Gareth Pugh, etc. It was a fun idea and I’m glad they did it, but I was a little disappointed in the amazing fashion opportunities missed.

When I was first introduced to the gay scene in the mid-80s, drag queens were all older men in heavily sequined-mother-of-the-bride type of gowns…at least that’s what the scene was in west Texas. They were always fun and sassy with their facial stubble coming out after midnight. I could always appreciate their creativity and risk taken to dress up.

As pop culture awareness has grown to include greater drag influence, the stand out icon in this contemporary field is surely RuPaul. RuPaul’s Drag Race tv show has seemed to reinvigorate drag and taken it to a new audience and new level of artistry. I could write on and on about the topic, but what I wanted to highlight was the ensemble of Drag-Race contestant, Detox, which took her to a sort of performance art level at the show’s recent finale. She created a black and white photo look on the colorful red carpet and stage; it was visually challenging and provocative. If this was done by someone like Vanessa Beecroft or even Cindy Sherman (I could see it), it would be all over the art world.

The level of creativity on the Hollywood red carpet has really dwindled in the past decade as fashion blogs and fashion tv have insulted unique style and created fear in the ego driven actors and musicians that would have taken a creative fashion risk back in the day. I think for now the Drag Race red carpet is going to be more interesting than the Oscars, but as history proves- drag will be influential on the mainstream and I look forward to seeing that happen soon.

Art is constantly expanding in its definition and Detox really created an artist achievement that I felt I had to recognize. Work that red carpet girl!
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Here’s an eloquent homage to Hollywood by Ed Ruscha: Hollywood Boulevard 1973 and 2002

I wish I was in LA right now, not only for the margaritas at Marix, or the sun shining down on me as I hike Runyon Canyon, but to see Madonna’s personal costume collection at Macy’s in Century City! There is a short 2 hour pop up show of her outfits this Thursday April 25th from 6-8pm. She apparently chose the pieces with a little help from her stylist/costumer and old friend and boss of mine, Arianne Phillips. This is all to boost and promote the Material Girl collection, which is a pretty brilliant idea if you ask me. Let me know if you go and see the show. I’m sure it will be jammed packed at Century City all day, but it will be worth it if you’re a Madonna devotee (i.e. the gays).

Check out the link to read the full article in WWD:

http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/an-immaculate-collection-at-macys-6901887?src=facebook%2Fshare

Surprise; Basquiat’s ex-girlfriend, Alexis Adler, has a house full of his old and unseen work. He even painted a mural on her apartment wall that’s still there. And girl bought that apartment thanks to god because it’s worth a fortune now. She seems to have good plan. Currently she is organizing the material for a book on the collection and most likely a sale to ensue. It’s pretty admirable of her to hold on to it for so long (about 30 years) and not profit from it when she could have in the height of the art market. I think she’s doing it in a very respectable way. The article is found in the link below.

I remember when I moved to LA in the early 90′s and even though I loved his work the art school discussion on him was already tired out, but I was still intrigued by the rumor going around school that his gallery dealer ____ locked Basquiat in his studio and basically fed him piles of coke until he finished the work for the show… which probably didn’t take too long. Anyway, that’s just hearsay, but juicy gossip at the time and it seemed valid because my friend ____ knew ____; where apparently he got the story from. It will be interesting to see what this early work looks like, although probably not too different because he did do that thing where he got stuck making the same painting over and over again (Rothko comes to mind) because it sold so well. I just hope it doesn’t bring a resurgence of wannabe artists painting faux-naive stick figures with faux-naive text next to them.

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/883285/basquiats-ex-girlfriend-reveals-major-trove-of-unseen-works

Trockel’s work is juxtaposed with various pieces from “self taught” artists that “provide models of dedication to their chosen field that, for Trockel, are exemplary and inspiring”.”Many of the objects and artworks, selected by Trockel in dialogue with curator Lynne Cooke, produce a context for the artist’s work within other fields of inquiry, such as the natural sciences and natural history.” All these quotes can be found in the Serpentine Gallery write up. These other artists & the natural museum-esque display seems to be an attempt to further play on Trockel’s tension of art & craft. I think the art/craft dialogue is already accepted as part of Trockel’s oeuvre. If the curator wanted to use this display/juxtapositioning as a key idea in the show they should have taken a page out of Damian Hirst’s book – oh lord, I can’t believe I’m referencing him…but he is a master of presentation for his audience. The curator could also have better used the idea of incorporating the environment like for instance Jason Rhoades (maybe and extreme example) who made experiencing the whole room/gallery part of the art with his clustered mishmash of items. I just felt like the show was incohesive & this made the work look random & dated.

Maybe I just don’t understand. In reading the other reviews of the show I found one that I can relate to from Waldemar Januszczak at The Times. He writes: “A Cosmos is so uncommunicative, so inconsequential, so horrible, that no words of mine can do it justice“. Meow! He does suggest going to see for yourself…& I did, & I agree, but I much rather have a bad reaction to a show than none at all. Touche Rosemary.

I have started on as a contributor for the blog Duct Tape & Bubblegum. It’s a fun variation on the self-help blog circuit. Please take a look at my first piece:

Healing PTSD: A Family’s Experience with War and Recovery.

Well I guess I’m way behind on this topic, but I just saw a post about Chanel being a Nazi & I thought it was a joke…apparently not. The book Sleeping With The Enemy; Coco Chanel’s Secret War by Hal Vaughan came out in 2011, and I missed it. In the very little bit of research I just did, it seems Chanel’s anti-semitism and her Nazi connections were fairly well known. I’m not a big big Chanel fan and I think it’s because it’s one of those brands that every wannabe & posh girl desperately wants a bag of, so I automatically hate it. Plus every “fashionista” in an attempt to sound knowledgeable gives that one famous Chanel saying about taking one thing off before going out (I refuse to give the actual quote). I don’t know much about Coco Chanel and I didn’t even bother with the Audrey Tautou film or the Shirley MacLaine Lifetime TV movie…I guess I really don’t care. Now I have to say, I’m intrigued. I’ll wait for the “Coco-was-a-Nazi” movie to come out in the next few years, I’m sure it will be much more interesting than the previous versions.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/04/03/coco-chanel-was-definitely-a-nazi/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/books/review/sleeping-with-the-enemy-coco-chanels-secret-war-by-hal-vaughan-book-review.html?_r=0