Wow wow wow! I just got an email from Paco McCauley, cofounder of Franklin + Gower, who read my earlier post about my favorite F+G shorts. Turns out Paco is something of a foodie himself and is offering Foodinista readers a 15% discount through the end of the year on all custom mens, boys, ladies shorts and pants! Code at checkout: foodie
Thanks, Paco! And hey you guys, let me know what you end up ordering. Or maybe I’ll spot you around town…
© Franklin + Gower
There is something batty about 90- to 100-degree weather in November. I’ve been handling the situation with a daily fix of cucumber mint lemonade from Lemonade on Beverly & Doheny, and my favorite bespoke shorts from Franklin+Gower—a totally chic local operation that adds a little West Coast flair to Eastern Seaboard preppie classics.
I designed my shorts out of a super-soft red micro whalebone cotton corduroy with a poinsettia yellow, pink and red stripe down the sides. Franklin+Gower’s shorts and pants are gorgeous and 100% manufactured here in LA. Mr. Foodinista has a pair in seersucker that are going to be perfect for our visit back east to Gulf Stream next week to see my inlaws. You can buy a pair of F+G’s off the rack at Fred Segal, or design your own online by clicking HERE! (Apologies for the below photo—taken in the only full-length mirror in the house, which happens to be about 50 years old and located in Tiny G’s room.)
Update: This just in!!!! Franklin + Gower is extending Foodinista readers a special discount, 15% off, good through the end of the year. Checkout code: foodie
Ballroom champion Anna Trull with birthday boy Billy Fong at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas
Dearest Foodinista,
Lordy, lordy I’m 40. I had stressed for months leading up to the birthday weekend that I would turn in to some awful bride who spends the whole time stressing about inconsequential details and thankfully that did not occur. Thanks in large part to the fact that everyone got along so well (hey, I’m selfish as hell and chose the inner circle well). I am so happy that you met everyone and especially Miss Brooke Hortenstine. Did I not say in advance, the two of you were separated at birth – effortlessly stylish girls who work in the fashion trade, but have never drank the Kool-Aid. Also, the minute you started talking about L.L. Cool J and she brought up TI, well I was so happy to be a fly on that wall.
Every moment of this weekend was a perfect mix of high and low (you know me, I like to mix up Le Cirque with some trashy hustler bar). Christen and Derek Wilson were so sweet to arrange for two caregivers (she kept texting me before we got there – “take your time, we got two nannies ready for any child emergencies”). Pool time was incredibly chic and I was so happy that I had lost 4 lbs before I got to Dallas – love, love your uber-stylized Facebook pics which began with a poolside table with Vogue, cell phones, cigs and overflowing ashtrays.
The Mansion, of course, did not fail to live up to expectations. What were your favorite outfits of the weekend?Anna Trull, ballroom dancing champion, looked flawless with her bob hairdo and touch-the-sky false eyelashes. I’m sad you missed my final outfit – slim fitting khaki shorts with Psycho Bunny (with the requisite bunny) argyle knee socks, 
Hermes belt and prep school white Brooks Brothers button-up oxford. The mix of music was so me, slightly schizophrenic the way it went from jock jams like House of Pain (love me some shamrocks and shenanigans) to old school rap (L.L.’s stories – so intriguing) and 80s new wave.
So, on to more important details – gifts. Your Filson shooting bag arrived today and I’ve had the biggest grin on my face ever since I opened the card that said “Happy shooting.”
Brooke’s navy blue Panama Smythson address book with BF monogrammed in silver will be the perfect complement. Now, I must find some chic bullets. Perhaps some Ich Luge ones, like those that Christian Slater refers to in Heathers would be best. I now know that the perfect storm for a birthday is girl friends and cocktails (both in large doses), as well as a chic locale.
Well, onwards and upwards, perhaps 50 will be even bigger if I make it another 10 years?
XXX Billy
p.s. See you soon. I heard about this really cool Crafts Fair that we must go to together in L.A.
© Jar Restaurant
Last night to celebrate my lovely husband’s birthday, we cabbed it in the pouring rain to JAR on Beverly. It’s a favorite spot thanks to its cozy, clubby atmosphere, fantastic bar and comfort food done right. It’s where we went the night we found out I was pregnant back in 2007, and where we had dinner the evening before I went in for a scheduled C-section to welcome Tiny G into the world. But this time, I was able to drink! I started off with their signature Manhattan, made with Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon, Vya Sweet Vermouth and Angostura Bitters. And a cherry of course. My husband predictably ordered a Ketel One and tonic. Here’s what we had (brace yourselves): crab deviled eggs, fried squash blossoms, 1/2 dozen oysters, rib eye (me), Kansas City steak (he), braised Brussels spouts, Japanese purple yams, hot fudge sundae (he) and the best chocolate pudding (me). Oh, and there was a bottle of Morey St Denis involved. Oops! And what did Mr. Foodinista want for his birthday? It makes a girl proud, a pair of crazy Stubbs & Wootton velvet evening slippers. They are a little aggressive, however humorous. Personally, I think The Foodinista’s Father-in-Law—whose shoe collection is to be envied above all others, I’m not kidding—might raise a brow. We’ll have to test that out next month when we visit.
Check out today’s post on the Herman Miller Lifework blog about my groovy new file cabinet from MUJI, an awesome Japanese company that designs with an eye toward earth-friendly, innovative materials. MUJI also makes fantastic reused yarn socks, which Mr Foodinista wears religiously.
Next time I’m in New York, I want to pick up one of their Silicon Ice Ball Makers. I mean, how great would this be in a glass of scotch?
There’s one thing I’ve learned about my husband: you can take the boy out of New England prep school, but you will not get him out of a driving moc. Seriously, forget it. Since I’ve known him he’s gone through a variety of mocs in varying hues and leathers, ranging from an espresso pebbled leather pair from Zegna to an Allen Edmonds pair in British tan to a pair of dark brown J. Crew numbers I got him last year for Christmas and which he promptly returned faster than you can say “rubber studded sole.” He’s been on the lookout for a new pair for literally months now, until last week when we had a few hours to kill in Antwerp and we wandered into the boutique of French shoemaker, J.M. Weston. There he found a pair of hand-stitched dark brown nubuck mocs (shown here in beige calfskin), and I have to admit they are pretty damn good-looking as driving mocs go. Happy Father’s Day!
For the newly initiated, POSTCARDS is recurring feature with fashion advice from my dear friend Billy, an art consultant with a wicked eye and even wickeder wardrobe. In this edition, he packs his bags for his 20th high school reunion. And for those of you who caught the Gossip Girls ’80s flashback on Monday, the timing couldn’t be better…
POSTCARD FROM HIGH SCHOOL, AMID SUNNY PLANTATIONS
2009 has thus far been a year of great indecision. Perhaps the stress at work—I fundraise and the current economy doesn’t lend itself to having your hand out—has manifested itself in not being willing or able to make snap decisions. It took an old friend booking a flight to Atlanta to prompt my attending my 20-year high school reunion. I had been sitting on the fence about revisiting the ne’er do well days of my youth.
If you are of my generation, certain films were so integral to our youth—most of them from John Hughes. Who could forget Molly Ringwald’s moment getting felt up in Sixteen Candles and that über-cool outfit she wore as Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club? But for this trip down memory lane, I am going to refer to a movie that was slightly post-college, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. As I contemplate this weekend of seeing old friends and acquaintances from two decades past, I wonder, shall I create a fictionalized version of who I am today? Why dwell on the fact that I am not living in the Park Avenue co-op that I thought I would be in at 38 and instead find myself in a rented Atlanta apartment? So what if I am not running a successful art consulting business out of a chic Watergate-style highrise. I might as well dress the part and let no one be the wiser.
FOR BILLY’S WARDROBE PICKS FOR THE 20-YEAR REUNION, CLICK “READ MORE” BELOW…
Friday Follies [n., pl.] postings on Fridays about fashion and food in film from guest bloggers with impeccable taste.
When Sean Penn took the stage to accept the Academy Award for his performance in Milk, it made me flash back nearly 30 years to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the 1982 movie that burns brightly in my memory not just for the slow-mo, topless Phoebe Cates sequence, but for Penn’s pot-smoking, wave-riding Jeff Spicoli character—and his particular choice in footwear: the iconic black-and-white checkerboard slip-on skate shoes known as Vans.
The first time Spicoli wandered onto the screen sporting the canvas kicks I knew I had to score me a pair. To a rural Vermonter, they seemed to represent the exotic world of cool California, the skate rats, the surfer dudes – the assorted sun sponges, free spirits and law-benders that enjoyed a hedonistic Eden that was 3,000 miles and three time zones away.
I bought my first pair that year on a class shopping trip from boarding school to Holyoke Mall in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
When I broke my left leg in three places that summer, friends used a black Magic Marker to give the foot of the cast a checkerboard pattern to match the right. By the time the cast was off, I’d worn out the right shoe. It wasn’t until a quarter-century later, when I actually moved to Los Angeles, that I owned anything other than those first black-and-white checkerboards; I now own some 30 pair, including beige/espresso checkerboards, custom-designed pink and black checkerboards, (in honor of the Bride), tweeds, palm-trees prints, Galinsky prints, Marc Jacobs crossword-puzzle designs, green aloha prints, the limited-edition Simpsons chukkas (black lace-ups emblazoned with Kwik-E Mart shopkeeper Apu) and even the 40th-anniversary re-issued original maroon-colored lace-ups in the original blue-and-white “Van Doren” shoe box.
Curiously, I no longer own a pair of the black-and-whites that started my collection, but something about watching Penn win the Oscar – maybe it’s because I happened to be back in the frozen hinterlands of my home state – made me want to put on a pair, pop in a copy of Fast Times and as Spicoli himself might put it: “catch a tasty wave.”—Adam Tschorn, Los Angeles Times
Before hitting the road for Vegas yesterday morning, we exchanged presents and noticed something of a color theme. My husband had gotten me a bottle of the Chanel nail varnish in Vendetta, which I’d been eyeing from the Bohemian Fantasy collection, and I’d gotten him a pair of purple floral boxers from Façonnable. Here in our suite at Encore, there is a beautiful vase of magenta orchids to continue the theme. Check back for photos of the room, and what we’ve been eating….oh, and one more shopping update. Both Louis Vuitton and Chanel boutiques at the Wynn and Encore were PACKED last night around 11:15pm—Hermès and Manolo Blahnik, not so much. But if the number of large Chanel shopping bags floating around this casino is any indication, not everyone is aware of the recession.
Friday Follies [n., pl.] postings on Fridays about fashion and food in film from guest bloggers with impeccable taste.
As a 26-year-old girl (who is happily engaged), I have to say The Talented Mr. Ripley could have been just as breathtaking if it were a silent film—simply because Jude Law‘s look completely takes over the screen. In other words: He’s flammable in this movie. Even golden goddess Gwyneth Paltrow is overshadowed by his wardrobe and beauty. Still, Paltrow doesn’t have the advantage of playing opposite a frumpy nerd like Law’s character does, which only helps his fashionable cause.
The film earned an Academy Award nomination for best costume design in 1999 for its flawless wardrobe circa the late 1950s, all of which looked deliberate, natural, subtle, easy and yet fabulously exotic. With the use of wardrobe the audience really feels the Dickie Greenleaf vivre and luxurious life. But I assume the Oscar nod must have been rooted in the way Jude Law looked in a deep cobalt silk jacket, Persol aviators—which he wears while sipping Campari on his sailboat, Italian swim wear, and the fact that he never once wore socks. I appreciate that even though the film was referencing a period four decades prior, the costumes reflected the era without being over-the-top or too in your face.
Bonus: One of the last scenes takes place in the Gucci store in Roma!
Extra credit: See the cult-classic (French version) filmed in 1960, Plein Soleil, staring Alain Delon which rivals (if not beats) the American version in the wardrobe and substance department.—Lizzie Garrett, DESIGNwatcher
For the previous Friday Follies, click here.
Several years ago, sitting over brunch at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, a fashion editor friend in town from NY said, “You know what you are? A foodinista.” I think we were discussing Louboutins and guanciale at the time. But whatever it was, the name made sense. And it ... Continue reading
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