Just Gorgeous!

I don't need any big intro for these images. They speak for themselves and are stunning!

The gorgeous AiTenshiMisha asked to borrow a couple pieces and I was happy to oblige. Turned out too she was shooting with Alicia C. Photgraphy! Alicia C. was one of the first photographers I worked with back when I started and I've watched how incredible her career has become over the past couple years. Plus AiTenshiMisha is one of her main models, so it was great to finally work with her.

Alicia C. Photography
model/hair & mua: AiTenshiMisha
gold shrug, black dress and ruffle back jacket: Sibyl Vain Clothing

OMG. Food.

I've been watching WAY too much Netflix. I watched two health documentaries - 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' and 'Forks Over Knives.' Really interesting and now I think I'm becoming a health nut. While they never considered themselves vegans, basiclaly the vegan lifestyle was promoted to help maintain your health, live a long life and with eating good amounts of plant-based foods, you could heal your body from the inside out.

What I really was interested in was when they commented on those following this diet how their skin looked great. I don't have horrible acne, but I'm at an age where I'm just like "Seriously? I'm too old for this." I've tried so many skin care products and they don't work. And of couse the one thing I haven't tried is something I've always knew and been told - I have horrible eating habits.

I don't like water. I eat a lot of candy. And while I'm vegetarian, I eat more pastas and breads than veggies and fruits. Here's the start to my attempt at eating a diet full of veggies, fruits, grains and minimal dairy.

The documentaries were mainly about juicing and duh, I never put two and two together that the nutrients from the foods absorb faster and better when made liquid. Gets in the blood stream quicker. Of course. So I'm in search of a juicer, but until then, I'm making smoothies! Frozen fruit, greek yogurt, soy milk and juice and whatever! They've been coming out so yummy and tomorrow I'm starting on making banana-based ones.

I'm also trying to buy good food and I'm a Trader Joe's addict! So to help ween me off sodas, I've been drinking their sparkling waters (lime and the reaspberry & lime are the best) with a splash of juice sometimes. Then their Tom Yam soup - love! And you can heat it up on the stovetop. I just make sure to strain out the pieces from the spice pack before putting it in a bowl.

New Food Adventures of February

New restaurant obsession...Azya in NYC!

It's a wine and chocolate bar and what kind of chocolate? Jacques Torres chocolates!

My friend and I started our night last Friday at Pad Thai on 8th Avenue and they have renovated since last I was there. It's so pretty inside and the menu is still amazing.

We tried the crab rangoon and SO yummy. I of course got vegetable pad thai and had to take half of it home because I was so full.

My friend got a mojito and I got this strawberry puree and gin martini and we were set. But then the waiter came over and freaked me out because he came out of no where and asked if we were ready for a third drink. It was buy two get one free. If we had read the sign beforehand, we could have gotten severely drunk, haha.

We found this place by accident. We missed out seeing a movie, so dessert and wine sounded perfect. We were walking around aimlessly and my poor friend was hurting - new shoe problems.

So before she hit me over the head and stole my wallet to take a cab ride home...we looked frantically for a place to go. But where to go? Googling and Yelp wasn't helping and then I found Ayza and when I realized it was Jacques Torres, jackpot!

Super cheap and absolutely delicious fondue, amazing chocolate strawberry martinis and you can order truffles a la carte. They have a dinner menu and so I think that may be in the near future.

I was meeting my assistant in Hoboken for a mother-daughter dinner and being my mom and I got there early, my mom freaked out over going to Carlo's Bakery..thanks television. So yes, we decided to see how far we could get to being allowed in and began to wait.

My feet were frozen, but we waited. Finally we were one of the last people to get a number for admittance and after 45 minutes, were still a half hour away. UGH!

I won't give details, but the most loveliest lady I know was able to get us in and not have to wait that last half hour. It was packed inside, so I wanted to leave. But my mom did spend like $65 on a few things and was excited enough to have a photo taken outside.

Verdict? The cupcakes were NOT worth the wait. But the coconut macaroons and canolis were fine, but I really did enjoy the lobster claws. Really good!

Living Legends

Want to know what I did in February?

I FINALLY got to see Liza Minnelli in person! I got chills when she took the stage and almost started crying. She's just one of those entertainers that has become such a legend, someone unreal especially when looking at her talent and who her family is.

It was a great evening with a full backing band, fans all through the venue yelling 'I love you Liza,' and while he voice isn't exactly as it was so many years ago, Liza sounded amazing!

See that glowing light on stage? That's her! It looks farther than the view I had.

Next up, I randomly won Jay-z at Carnegie Hall tickets! Yeah, I was stoked. My assistant had come over to sew and so we had the radio on, I thought it would be fun to try and win and the phone kept ringing, I got through for caller 19, 40, 70 and then...the DJ answered. I've won so many things from radio contests, but this was the first in a long while, so I was shaking and so excited.

It was a great show. I'm not going to go into all the music details, because you can read about it other places. It was the best set list, all the radio hits and what I considered 'an older white person's dream Jay-z set list' especially being at Carnegie where it was a lot of older people (hello, the tickets were for charity and mad expensive).

We were up in the balcony, but front row, which was awesome until I realized I was getting motion sickness from focusing at the stage below. All the fans up there were younger and awesome. It was a big party...probably the first time things were smoked in Carnegie Hall.

It was all the raido hits and Alicia Keys and Nas were guests with Questlove on one of the drum kits. I died over "If I Ruled the World" with Keys filling in for Lauryn Hill. Another favorite was "Girls Girls Girls" with images of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor included in the projected images over the stage.

While it was so beautiful all the proejected images and taking us on a journey through the NYC skyline, guess who couldn't focus and almost got sick - this girl. Such a great performance with the full orchestra, but I kind of had to close my eyes the whole time. Listening was beautiful because the full sound really solidified this music as music.

You had Jay-Z's mom in the audience sitting next to Chris Rock, some of the players from the Giants there and below us was Russell Simmons and I'm pretty sure one of his daughters. Plus at the end of the night, Jay-Z came out into the audience...literally the balcony below us and I was scared trying to lean over and see.

A Thank You to Jeremy Scott

Dear Jeremy Scott,

Your past collections have been full of humor, tackling not only huge trademark imagery, but also God. Sometimes I don't understand you, but when I see the reaction of fans and how you're designs infiltrate pop culture, I realize your genius. I anxiously awaited for the live stream of your Fall 2012 show to start and didn't mind having to watch snobby hipsters and celebs that think they're cutting edge because they can attend your show take front and center seats at Milk Studios. But it was all forgotten when your first model took the runway and I knew what I had long desired for was about to unfold.

I am SICK of the revival of grunge. At first it was cool, but now is annoying. Brooklyn Hipster fashion needs to be shot and while I'll always be a fan of thrift and vintage store shopping, wearing head-to-toe thrift finds is messy and boring.

The other week, I heard Spice Girls are probably coming back around again. I've also been calculating when the Clueless look would be up to bat as it suceeded the drab and blandness of the grunge period. While the love of color and fun wasn't offically killed, I feel you've brought it back to life with your newest collection. Two piece otufits, 70's large bellbottoms in knits, pastel metallics, Lisa Frank memories - you sent a model with a unicorn proudly displayed on her dress - and my memories of being a young tween with my AOL started CD and finally getting to go online for a few minutes before the connection timed out all live here.

Love, Unicorns and Fluffy Kittens Always,
Alison

P.S. - I hope you don't mind, but I am obsessed with the rainbow t-shirt-ish dress and since I am poor, will be making my own if I can find the material.

Alice + Olivia

I've been searching for the perfect marriage of vintage and fashion forward designs and was checking out Alice + Oliva's latest collection on NYMag.com. I am now in love with this line!

There's so many elements from decades past, but I feel this fresh, new way of thinking in their design. Here's a couple of my favorites, but I recommend going to check them out for yourself.

The first remind me of the outfit Iona from Pretty in Pink wears to the club. Then, I'm stoked to make myself a jumper because I have a black silk shirt like the one used here. The dresses were too cute! I love the ballerina dresses with casual jackets, then the waist ruffle (something I've been experimenting with) and look at the shaped hem of the last.

Hearts and Kisses Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm usually not one for this holiday, but I can't help but be drawn in by all the pinks, reds, fluffy kittens, hearts and girlie girl fuzzy feelings filling my heart (basically I got a lot of candy and my hair is finally fading into a beautiful pink).

Here's a couple images fitting for today and capture the mood and direction I'm being drawn to in my designs. I'm also working on a concept for my collections, but I need to fully flesh it out before making any type of announcement. In short, it's my two personalities that want to wear the same thing, but in drastically different ways. This spring, I'll have two girls to introduce to you.

I had cupcakes last night from Babycakes in NYC, found tons of candy on my kitchen table from my mom for me, hung out with adorable cats last night and of course our little fluffy monster of doom and later I'll be doing an interview, which I'm considering my Valentine's Day date. haha! I've never had a date on Valentine's Day, so I'm considering a 20 minute phone interview a good enough date.

Don't forget! One of my dresses is on the cover of the Sweethearts Issue of Bella Morte Magazine!

Grammy Best

Just my two cents on last night's award show.

I'm not a huge fan of award shows, but I did catch parts of it. Jennifer Hudson just brought me to tears by singing "I Will Always Love You" for the late Whitney Houston. The fashion was meh from everyone, but I loved Dave Grohl wearing a Slayer t-shirt. Nicki Minaj was a fool. Honestly, I'm a fan, but the new song is horrible and the performance was like trying to do Gaga's "Paparazzi" from the VMAs only Nicki failed.

What would have been funny and epic is if he wore a Hole or Coutney Love shirt.

But for the best moment of the evening...I look to deadmau5. I adore him. First, him comes in with Sonny Moore's...I mean Skrillex's phone number on his shirt. You know, Sonny won three Grammys (I still can't get over he's the kid that fell on my sister at a show in Irving Plaza like 5 years ago), but none for deadmau5 - but who actually performed on the aired portion of the show?

The BEST performance of the night and actually best performance at an award show I've seen in some time, came from David Guetta, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Foo Fighters and deadmau5.

Guetta is always perfect and I hadn't heard the Foo Fighters & deadmau5 remix. It sounded AMAZING live! Great job, guys!

My FIRST Cover!

I was SO excited when I got to see this! I had been asked a bit ago to loan out a stellar dress for model Leah Jung. It was a couple months of waiting - I didn't even get to see any images beforehand!

The Sweethearts Edition of Bella Morte Magazine went on sale this week and I was dancing around at work when I finally got to see the final image. There is also a beautiful feature on Leah Jung in the issue and she models the hell out of the dress! So stoked!

Here's another image from the issue - make sure you check it out and grab your copy today!

Photographer: Lady Lux Productions Model: Leah Jung MUAH: Chingching NG

Bella Morte Magazine