how to take charge of your too-close-to-Christmas birthday

I don’t make it a secret that I was born 4 sleeps til Christmas. 

If you belong to the 'my birthday is not Christmas' small niche, you may find any of the following extremely familiar. 

If you don’t, very funny. 

A few quick tips to make your day as jolly as possible.

A birthday celebration is meant to give thanks to mother nature (and any spirit, soul, superior mind you believe in) for having sent to Earth that exceptional human being that you proudly count in your family, friends, colleagues, neighbor. 

When it comes to being born within those days when everybody is wrapped up into holiday shopping (pun very intended), it entails some more tactics to get attention and don;t fall in the lame excuse ‘buy 1 get 2’ shortage of ideas and thoughtful thoughts to make your day the happiest one. 

1- Take your own Santa list seriously

Think about having to go through the holidays shopping nightmare spree and having to deal with a birthday present. When you already have to take care of those tasks like that Secret Santa for the office, school’s teachers and in-laws (in order of sympathy), oh no! her birthday, what shall I get her?

That’s when shit goes down and those mall employees in the hallways come handy and they convince you that she will like the latest scent from whomever after spraying it allover your clothing and causing you to choke. 

So ‘making a list and check it twice’ is your job. Go through everything that possibly makes you happy and don’t be shy asking. You may very well end up winning that sparkler of the contest you never thought you were going to win.

FYI: I really won it, this year, a Net-A-Porter contest of the most sparkly crystal ear cuff by  Ryan Stover.

2. Get the party started

Whatever is your favorite champagne, stock up on it.

BTW, mine is Louis Roederer reserve, the one wrapped in yellow, it goes with everything.

What’s your birthday cake? Have it available, to make an impromptu visit another excuse to blow those candles.

And here it goes to say that mine is shared with one of those Italian Christmas traditions that don’t even know how much Italian they are. A big Pandoro transformed in to a wonderful Alps village with whipped cream as snow and kids on a sleigh, snowmen and the biggest fanfare of sparkling candles to make it look like the one from the ‘Last Christmas’ video (if you are old enough to remember).

3. Always wear your invisible crown 

(you can always go all Kate and wear the real one) and walk like two man are walking behind you (Oscar docet here). 

Concept is: God forbid they lure you into the most unsuspected place where they have a surprise party set up for you.  Sooner or later it will happen, last year was my time: how could I end up believing that my own boss had ran out of gas and was in front of a random park where she knew I was going to pass by right then? 

4. Recycle your list

Not your gifts, but the items you have not received recycle them into your New York Resolution. Ship-shape Bristol shape and les jeux son faits.

P.S. do you have your secret tricks that always work when it comes to having your wishes come true? and … Happy Birthday 

The Zen of Fashion Blogging

Dear ‘street style’,

what a year it was!

How much we love that high lo of fashion is proportional to how much we want to be bloggers.

But what is it that we want from the life of a blogger? Dress like one, aspire to go to runways and stumble upon The Sartorialist on the way to?

What is it so desirable that drags us to follow, stalk and admire them as much as … Justin Timberlake?

If ‘Bloggers wear shit that everybody else admires them for’ is your answer, then let it be known, you float in the Olympus with the likes of Mira Duma, Anna Dello Russo and Rachel Zoe.

The Olympus of bloggers is populated by those who do it well as a 24-hour job. Even though it’s that secret that is not revealed, they are pampered and favorites. They become the elected by fashion houses for first row seats, VIP discounts and showers of gifts. Those who are ’famous for being famous’ (to say it with Suzy Menkes) and who love live for posing outside fashion shows to draw attention and cause a frenzy.

If your answer is ‘I want to dress like a blogger’ then you are in the Kingdom, situated underneath Mount Olympus. Those are the ones who are not front row regulars, they live not where things go down, they are invited to local affaires, have random commercial gigs. They are royalty to their readers for their way of dressing. They have thousands of followers.

If your answer is ‘Bloggers wear shit that everybody else admires them for AND I can’t wait to read the next post and would love to write for her’ then I know you very well, because I am also one of you. There you have a limited niche of … us. Remaining with the royal game, we are the courtiers. 

We are the ones that have an extended, profound, detailed, solid knowledge about fashion as our pain quotidien. History, garments, lace, haberdashery, buttons, millineries, embroideries, bespoke, WWD and Jane Austen.

We have had our dose of years behind the scenes, have worked and met the most talented artisans and designers.

We recognize and appreciate at a glance if what’s coming down the runway is a collection or a jumble of vestments.

We are the ones that get shivers when visiting an exhibition or a museum’s retrospective like standing in front of the David in Piazza Signoria.

The ones who are able to admire an embroidery by reaching it close and touching it. The same that can’t stand when someone cannot discern an embroidered tulle from Leavers lace. 

We wake up earlier on Saturday morning when fashion week is in Milan and we need to look at the pictures of Bottega Veneta before the review comes out.

Yes we are opinionated, we don’t shut our mouths, we feel entitled to say what we think, especially when we are disappointed. We dress and speak bold whether we are grocery shopping or attending an event.

We wear silver shoes without thinking we are over dressed.

We eat, pray love fashion. We strive for innovation and, at the same time, we can’t stand when some basic rule (like no brown for men after 6 pm) gets disregarded. God forbid a designer is disrespectful or forgetful of the heritage of the house he’s been nominated creative director of. (There is only one Karl in the world).

We take fashion by the rules and if there’s one thing that drives us insane are any type of knock-offs.

We are not millionaires and we know it. But there is nothing more vulgar than pretending to have something and not having it. When we spot it, it hurts like a nail scratch on a black board. 

We are the ones that want everything around us beautiful and that will be our life. The ones that swear by anything that Diana Vreeland loved and said. The ones who dream of a Wallis Simpson closet and jewelry safe and listen to jazz.

The ones who dream of vacationing on a Riva with Tiffany blue leather interiors and that Mrs. Robinson’s leopard coat.

And, what about you? Are you one of us?

The Art Basel Miami Beach face-off: water, sand and hard hats

Is Art Basel Miami Beach a ‘conspicuous consumption’ arena?

I am quoting long time friend Dennis Leyva, Public Art Coordinator for the City of Miami Beach, who has been one of the masterminds behind Art Basel Miami Beach since its inception. I happened to stumble upon him at Design Miami and this is what we briefly discussed with a (can’t disclose the name) NY Magazine editor. 

Over 300K events and circa 70k visitors in one week equals Miami Beach could sink under the stricking number of expensive cars driving through the disheveled streets of the Beach (we are not in our best shape these days) and an exponentially volume of assets circulating streets, venues and exhibitions under the disguise of art collectors, their friends reality show stars and their boyfriends that think they are Jesus, buyers, collectors, fashion royalties, magazine editors, socialites, models, singers, actors, vintage kings, pop-up everything (stores, bars, collections, collaborations) and oh, artists.

Art Basel, Design Miami, ArtMiami, Scope, Pulse, NADA all showcase any form of modern and contemporary types of art from allover the world nominally for a Latin American and American public. Yes they come and buy, big numbers. So hey why not enticing them to, ALSO, buy that limited __________ (insert anything from Gap x Visionaire t-shirt at The Webster to the Ai Wei Wei skate from the drive-thru Colette at the Alchemist 5th floor to the @shopBazaar pop-up store on the 8th floor of the Soho Beach House).

(I made some damage, yes)

Anyhow, here’s my version, a mix of what I could attend and a little bit of a room with a view parody. Promise you will not see the difference.

Design Miami

Tent Pile by Formlessfinder artist welcomes visitors: 1 mill pounds of sand. The form and the meaning are for you to find.

(a shadowed evening view)

Water was the common denominator, as I read thru the exhibition.

Swarovski presented Mangue Groove by Guilherme Torres a construction that looked like a DNA construction but made of plexiglas ‘bones’ filled with dust of Swarovski crystals. The led panels that surrounded the installation made the crystals give the perception of moving. Sustainability, water, life.

(the artist describing the experience)

(pink strikes provoked by light and air playing within the liquid)

Phare No. 1-9 by Dutch designer Simon Heijdens. It is an immersive piece that reinterprets Art Nouveau in the 21st century: nature, coincidence and time. A symphony of colors that manifest themselves via lights and the experience of you passing through. I could have remained suspended within for the entire time. And I went to see it more than once. 

Galerie Perrotin captured my attention with the series of satellite exhibitions around town.  

Jean Prouve’ and the house he designed in 1945 rebuilt inside the tent.

Free-spirited designer of modernist furniture and interior designer Charlotte Perriand and La Maison au bord de l’eaux built for the first time at The Raleigh thanks to the collaboration with Louis Vuitton. 

Kolkotz’s 'Curiosity' a Swiss chalet floating in front of the abandoned Miami Marine Museum with the sponsorship of Audemars Piguet. The incongruence of a snow covered bourgeois chalet in the tropical waters of Miami opens the doors to arguments, discussions or just plain enjoyment. 

Miami Design District

Dacra’s mastermind Craig Robins introduced Phase II of the project that blends fashion, art and design.

That’s when I made it, first time ever, into www.worldredeye.com photographed by Seth with Laurinda Spears (Herzog & de Meuron dame).

(hard hats were the hottest accessory, mine was a walking cane and I had to drag myself home) 

PAMM

The Perez Art Museum and the other ‘M’ stands for ‘mind-blowing’. As much as it seems not organic, disproportioned, massive from the causeway, the 200,000 sq ft structure molds with grace contemporary and modern art with its surroundings of nature at its wilderness state.

(Djs were spinning, light effects were projected all around and the garden was part of it)

Open plan, tall cement columns that let the water of the port and the wind go thru and a hanging garden as imagined, created and planted by green-haired landscaping architect Patrick Blanc. Whom I met during the members preview. The museum has had events every night, with a remote self-parking and coordinated bus transportation that would put the Swiss train system to shame. 

I was also fortunate enough to be attending the event with one of the docents of the museum who spotted in the crowd Hew Locke, the artist behind ‘For Those in Peril on the Sea’ the installation that wraps you inside like the sirens Ulysses. What more appropriate than being at the convergence of the port of Miami, in front of the Freedom tower and facing Miami Beach and standing under a constellation of boats suspended from the ceiling.

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei is not new to Miami and Art Basel and now he has a permanent retrospective at PAMM. 

So much more to say about “Miami’s new front porch” (- cit. Thom Collins) that could not be absorbed in one night.

Meanwhile here’s an outstanding overview on the WSJ by our friend Alastair Gordon. 

More on this later.