What did Carrie wear? Look no further...

While researching for my Sex and the City 2 Celebrity Style feature, I got a chance to check out the film's companion book, Sex and the City 2: The Stories. The Fashion. The Adventure. In addition to featuring behind-the-scenes stories from Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis and director Michael Patrick King, the book has an entire fashion section, including scene by scene coverage of every outfit worn by SJP in the film.

Broken down into dresses, shoes, bags and accessories, the books explains stylist's Patricia Fields' entire thought process for creating Carrie's look. Utilizing a mix of high-end designers, vintage, Patricia Field's House of Field label and Carrie's previous wardrobe pieces, the costumes illustrate how to combine designer and fast fashion, "shop your closet" to update older favorites and tailor one's personal style.

For shape, detail, colour and accessories trends from the film, check out WGSN's Celebrity Style: Sex and the City 2.

The Selby is in your place

We all have seen the incredible images that Todd Selby has been taking of creatives' homes, collectibles and belongings. So it came as no surprise that Todd picked the best examples and published them in a book. From Karl Lagerfeld's book-lined studio to Erin Wasson's NYC loft, the images are stunning and it is always so much fun to take a peak into someone else's home. Personal favorite - Helena Christensen's West Village pad.

OHWOW Book Club - New York

I have been on the lookout for new book clubs and book stores for some time as I'm curious which direction print will go in the future. The most recent addition to my new obsession is the OHWOW Book Club, part of Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff’s creative collective with the same name.

The store is tiny, yet vibrant with black and white tiles inspired by pre-war, New York bathrooms and contrasting gold and silver graphics on a turquoise background inspired by traditional Navajo blankets and designed by Rafael de Cardenas.

The book club is located on the basement level in a residential building on Waverly Place in the West Village and is most definitely a destination shop not to miss with a well selected range of books representing the downtown art scene of New York (think Aurel Schmidt, NeckFace, legendary photojournalist Clayton Patterson and Heron Preston’s downtown yearbook of 2008 called The Young and The Banging.)

Food as art

Here at WGSN we’ve been thinking about food a lot lately and its growing influence on art and design. The source of our food has become a hot topic for discussion as well as our obsession with eating, making and playing with food.

The “Palate” exhibition at Scion Installation L.A. in Culver City focuses on just that. From the wonderful world of Clare Crespo’s zany cupcake art to Scott Hove’s disturbing cake art installation, the exhibit will feature eight influential artists who utilize food as their art medium, plus collections from the Candy Wrapper Museum and Vintage Cookbook Library.

The exhibition is curated by Zio Fulcher and runs from May 22 – June 12, 2010.

For more information go to: www.scion.com.

SRI textile gallery

I have been interested in people's personal galleries and spaces as there are quite a lot of them in NYC currently and last week I visited Stephen Szczepanek's Sri textile gallery. Young people continue to investigate into ways of converting their hobbies into businesses and to make a profit out of it.

Stephen's gallery, however, has been functioning as such since 2001. He operates out of his Brooklyn loft and the gallery is open to anyone to visit.



Sri's main focus is on boro - patched or mended Japanese textiles - and Stephen displays a wide selection of original fabrics and kimonos. Most pieces, including the fabric swatches, are for sale and make fantastic inspiration swatches or even garments.

Don't hesitate to contact Stephen, he is extremely approachable and making an appointment is effortless. http://srithreads.com

Brimfield antique and flea market show

I just came back from the Brimfield, Massachusetts antique show and wanted to share some images right away. Regardless of your occupation - designer, merchandiser or antiques dealer, if you have passion for quality, vintage product, Brimfield is the place to be.

The week-long show attracts over 5,000 vendors who offer just about every item you could ever possibly think of. Clothes, shoes, furnishing, threads, fabrics, you name it and chances are that you will find it at Brimfield.


Even though the show is mostly focused on furnishing and interiors you can still find inspiration in every item, texture, color application or print.

On Monday, on my way to Brimfield, I stopped by the Antique Fabrics show in Sturbridge, MA. The show always runs alongside Brimfield and it is worth checking out if you are looking for fabric-specific inspiration. It is much smaller but quite focused and well organized.

I will be posting some more category-specific reports soon, make sure to check them out on www.wgsn.com.

How Fashion Can Truly Improve Lives

Latin American design/manufacturing fairs are generally underwhelming - mostly cheapie-looking cotton sportswear. So it was especially nice to see beautiful, hand-knit sweaters in baby Alpaca at the most recent edition of Peru Moda, the country's largest fashion trade fair.

It turns out that the International Trade Commission is linking Peruvian artisans with designers in the US and Europe in order to fuse local craft with commercial viability abroad. The idea is simple, but with brilliant results given the quality and cost value that can be achieved in Peru. And the Peruvian women I spoke to were experiencing better sales than ever.

This should be happening around the world; imagine how much better South African crafts people, for example - with skills in wood carving, beading and block printing - would fare if they had better resources about what tourists want, and are buying?

A look from Inca Trends, photo by designer/consultant Riley Salyards

New developments for WGSN's vintage directory

If you didn't catch the press release about our new partnership with vintage expert Doris Raymond of The Way We Wore® in Los Angeles (pictured left), read on.

Every month, WGSN will be showcasing items from The Way We Wore®'s fantastic vintage library, focusing on a different trend or theme.

First up is a look at the boudoir trend, with some glorious photographs of pieces from the turn of the century through the 1980s, all providing our subscribers with fantastic ideas for updates and ways to make this trend resonate over the next few seasons. Check the site for the full report on Monday.

In addition, I'll be interviewing Doris every couple of months, for up-to-the-minute news on what's happening in vintage; what's trending up and what's trending down, as well as what designers are looking for right now. I start this month with a full profile of Doris and her amazing store and Design and Creative Services, including her fabulous library.

To read the full report, check out the Vintage Directory on wgsn.com.

IASC conference

Last Friday I attended the very inspiring International Association of Skateboarding Companies' (IASC) conference in Tahapachi.

I was honored to be invited to speak at this event and, although I'm not a skate expert, I gave attendees a taste of WGSN's latest research into youth culture, with a detailed look at the digital and technology trends affecting this market right now.

With a lot of fantastic insights into social media, gaming, retail and how to reach the youth sector and particularly the skate market, from a host of other speakers too, this 2 1/2 day conference in the high desert was excellent and is a must for those in the skate industry.

To obtain a short summary of my report, fill in the form here and for more information about IASC and what they do, click here. Also, stay tuned for a report on the conference on WGSN.