Sucking the Jingle from My Bells

This one comes to us from Skirt!....follow the link, view it in its original form and comment.

While the rest of you spent Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning in line for whatever deals you think the big box stores were serving up on Black Friday, I was in bed dreading having to get and go in to work. Thankfully I did not have to greet the sun to ensure that you bargain shoppers would be able to satisfy your consumer lust, however I did have to leave my house an hour before my shift to fight for a parking spot, which I found after having a mini panic attack. Not that I’m anti-sale or shopping for that matter, I just despise working retail during the holidays.


Every year perfectly normal people go bananas at the thought of little Jenny not opening the perfect number of presents on Christmas day, so much so that they turn into nasty, materialistic, hoarders during the holidays. It never fails; I always have to hold my tongue as a customer belittles me and reminds me that they are so much better than I am because I am nothing more than a lowly peon here to serve them. When then truth of the matter is that I graduated with a pretty solid GPA from a pretty solid university at a time when the economy wasn’t so solid and I happened to major in something that was not education, business, or engineering. I also do some pretty baller stuff on the reg, however none of that matters to the customer who is giving me their 50 cents because they were unhappy with the level of customer service they received. It also doesn’t matter how intelligent or over qualified I am to the people who keep cutting me off as I try to park and get to work on time. All that matters to these people is that they get whatever thing they came to buy, regardless of the fact that they are totally missing the point of the Holidays-fyi it’s not about gifts or condescending attitudes.

So despite the fact that sipping hot cocoa while watching The Year Without a Santa Claus happens to be my favorite Holiday activity, after the Nutcracker, I must say that I despise the season. I hate how nasty we get the second things get real when it comes to picking presents and getting stuff on sales. I hate the way most of us treat a group of people they know nothing about because in the back of their minds these people are here to serve them-you can tell a great deal about a person by the way that they treat servers, spa folk, and sales associates. I’ve also decided that this Holiday season will be the last one I EVER work in retail because dealing with the general public during this time of year truly sucks the jingle from my bells and the merry from my Christmas. And for the last time you cannot receive a refund with a gift receipt or exchange your sale items.

Bright Young Thing: Megan Huntz

This post was produced for Gamine online and is therefore property of that publication, to view the post in its original format go to BYT: Megan Huntz

On the rare occasion that we actually get dressed up, you know for those nights we go grown-up places not dive bar hopping, the go to outfit of heels, jeans, and a cute top never cross our minds. Thankfully, this combo has crossed the mind of designer Megan Huntz whose hand dyed 100% silk dresses are set to become the foil of many a pair of jeans and heels. Huntz, a native of Atlanta, studied industrial design at Pratt and even worked in graphic design for a few years before moving to Milan in 2003 to begin graduate studies in fashion at the Domus Academy. After spending years working for the likes of Max Mara and Meltin’ Pot, one of Italy’s premier denim companies, Huntz decided to leave denim to the masses and design her own line based around the most fundamental piece of a woman’s wardrobe, the dress. “No matter what you do, you can always wear a dress,” says Huntz.



While Megan Huntz’s dresses may be handmade in limited runs from 100% silk, her dresses are meant to be worn and washed. Yes you can wash these dresses in the sink or the delicate cycle to get the same deconstructed look that you get after washing your favorite pair of jeans a few times, which is no accident since Huntz applied the same finishing techniques that she learned in her denim days to silk. Recently she even threw a batch of silk into the Gulf of Mexico to see what effect the water would have on the fabric and was so pleased with her little experiment that she cut ten dresses from it. As an artist turned designer turned fashion designer, there will be plenty more art projects and experiments, like the video she did for the opening of Modern Atlanta last June, in the future.

On top of her commitment to making quality handmade garments, her love of the art of fashion and design, and her thumbs down to Vogue for its penchant for celebrity covers, Megan Huntz makes dresses that look amazing with boots, which means we have to grab every style available

FMM: Astrud Gilberto

Another MissOmniMedia.com original. To view this post in its original format go to FMM:Astrud Gilberto.

Tall and tan and young and lovely, Astrud Gilberto coolly strolled onto the bossa nova scene when she sang on the album Getz/Gilberto, at the suggestion of her then husband, João Gilberto the father of bossa nova. Her recording of “The Girl from Ipanema” established her as a jazz and pop singer, and ensured that people getting off and on elevators would be entertained for generations. Despite the fact that you’re most likely to hear her tunes on an elevator or a 50s/60s style lounge, Gilberto isn’t strictly for the geriatric set. Her recording of “Once I Loved” was featured in Juno, Cut Chemist sampled her in the song “The Garden”, and the Black Eyed Peas sampled her on their Monkey Business album-for better or worse.




This jazz vocalist’s cool and sultry voice was equally matched by her style. With her perfect black liner, blunt cut bags, and just the right amount of height in her hair-take notes Snookie and Flo-Gilberto is the kind of pretty that most girl’s today aspire to. Unlike June Cleaver or Doris Day, Astrud Gilberto has a bit of an edge to her, like a cool aunt who dresses a bit risqué, smokes, and dates around, you know like a classier Cher in Mermaids. I say classier because while her hair is closer to God and her eye-liner gives off just a hint of sex, the fact that the rest of her face is bare and her outfits are understated keeps her from going off the deep end. She also gives off the perfect balance of sex and innocence that escapes most girls today. I mean what pop-star now could rock just a fur coat and a smile and still look like the girl next door? Just saying

To Catch a Thief

She didn't look like a thief.

Now that the holidays in full swing and retailers are preoccupied with profits, shoplifters are taking full advantage of poorly trained seasonal workers and a sales team that is spread too thin. While managers and sales associates are busy following shoppers based on cultural biases, money is walking right under their noses and out the door.


With most stores barely turning a profit these days, it is no wonder that they are training their sales teams to profile shopper based on their behavior. Any sales person worth their salt is taught to be on the look-out for people carrying bags from stores not in their mall, people who continue to send you on wild goose chases all over the store, and people wearing large coats that seem to gain weight as they walk through the store, amongst other things. In sales meetings you are told that shoplifters can be anyone from stroller moms to teenage girls and that crime knows no color, however time in and time out you are told to watch the young African American and Hispanic shoppers who are less than well dressed, suggesting a certain socio-economic status, while other shoppers are allowed to move freely through the store.

Most lost prevention specialists will tell you that there are two kinds of shoplifters, non-professionals who steal simply because the opportunity presented itself and professionals who steal for a living. They will also tell you that despite what anyone believes, there is no certain look that shoplifters adhere to. Most shoplifters are adults who can pay for the items that they are stealing, often buy and steal merchandise in the same visit, and are very rarely caught. Armed with this information, one can only assume that the current policy embraced by store managers is allowing these experienced shoplifters to fall through the cracks, mainly because they are too busy turning their backs to follow the wrong shoppers. They also often react improperly to store alarms that are usually tripped by paying customers due to human error- experienced shoplifters hardly ever make a sound when exiting a store because they remove sensors from garments long before making their exit.

This Holiday season as you pick up your last minute gifts, take five minutes to notice who is watching whom and why. Very rarely will you see a sales associate monitor a stroller mom, a group of Starbucks carrying young women, or the well dressed gentleman who you just saw slip something into his bag because they are too busy watching the people who look like shoplifters. Much like a child will never get kidnapped by someone who looks like a bad guy, stores will never catch a thief who doesn’t look like one.

My fashion tips via Wearever the Weather.com

Dropping fashion knowledge at WeareverTheWeather.com.... I do what I can for the kids.

Rag trade 101: Sweat-shop labor, you get what you pay for

In my morning walk through the Internet I came across this piece on MISS asking consumers if they would boycott a company because they use sweat-shop labor. As I was writing my lengthy response, I remembered that I have a blog to tackle such issues with as many words as I need.

The usage of sweat-shops in the manufacturing of apparel is more widespread than most of us would like to acknowledge and there are several contributing factors that keep sweat-shops in business. At the end of the day money is the deciding factor on whether a company like Nike goes with a cheaper manufacturer whose factories may have unsavory working conditions or a more costly less sketchy factory.

Most of us know that the garments we buy are not purchased at cost, meaning markups are built in to allow for everyone involved to make a profit from the wholesaler to the retailer. Depending upon the price point of a say a pair of jeans, the markup could be anywhere from 60%-200% which accounts for the fact that they may go on sale and the retailer needs to make a profit off of that transaction as well. That said, when a company sends their team out to source everything from fabrics to labor, the team is focused on keeping the costs down and the profit margins high. They also have to take into consideration the turn around time on the garments they are sourcing, although fashion operates almost a year ahead retailers need to be ready to produce those "inspired by pieces" the second they debut on the runways giving them a shorter than normal lead time. Don't get me wrong, sourcing teams are not out there looking for sweat shops that can produce garments cheaply and quickly, they are looking for factories that fit into specific budgets and timelines and occasionally pick based on those parameters not based on human rights. (Also the production team that deals with factories and such tends to work in an office in the company's home country and only make scheduled visits to factories, and we all know that if you tell someone when they're having company over they tend to put things in perfect order.) With everything focused on the almighty dollar, is it no wonder that the majority of companies busted for sweat-shop labor tend to be at the mid to discount price range.

Companies like Forever 21, who was recently accused of using sweat-shops to produce their blatant knock-off that disintegrate in the wash, make big money by mass producing cheap products and reselling them at a price point that attracts their core customers, teenage girls. With $7 tank tops and $20 skirts, its no surprise that they are working with factories that pay their workers little to nothing and ask them to work in unsafe conditions. I'm not saying that Gucci or Louis Vuitton have never used cheap labor, but I am saying that with higher prices you'll usually find bigger budgets for things like labor and the quality of the products will tell the tale. Like the saying goes you get what you pay for.

What can consumers do to discourage sweatshop labor? Well first of all stop buying stuff for quantity instead of quality, usually high quality goods are made by adults in factories that keep them somewhat happy. If you can spend money replacing those $7 tops every other month because they don't last, you can afford to purchase one $15 top that will last you at least a year. Think of purchasing quality goods that may cost more as an investment, not as you paying too much for something that you can get cheaper somewhere else. Also look for goods that are made in the US. Yes, we do have sweat-shops  here however our labor laws require closer federal monitoring for things like safety and workers rights, and purchasing goods made in the US go a long way to stopping outsourcing, generating more jobs at home, and helping pull us out of this recession mess.

If you tried boycotting every company that uses sweat-shop labor you'd have very few places to shop in your local mall, and I'm not asking you to do that. What I am asking is for consumers to be better educated on where their goods come from and how they are produced, that way instead of behaving like mindless purchasing machines you can at least know what went into your Forever 21 top before you fork over your babysitting money.

Fashion Meets Music at New York Fashion Week

This is another MISS original, meaning this post is all their's. To view it in its original format got over to Fashion Meets Music at New York Fashion Week.

It’s that time of year again when fashion editors, stylists, bloggers, and anyone remotely involved in the fashion industry turn into Barnum and Bailey and travel from city to city in the name of fashion. While what started out as a way to attract attention from French fashion houses during World War II and has since evolved into a month long fashion marathon. While the industry folk sit front row and plan photo shoots, buys, and client pulls for next year, everyone in the audience knows that there’s more to fashion shows than the clothes.

Year after year designers, production staff, publicists, DJs, and whomever else has a say get together to figure out what music will be the best backdrop for the ‘’practical, matter-of-fact, not too over styled” clothes at Vena Cava (apparently it was Klaus Nomi). The same way that Abercrombie and Fitch insists on blasting whatever they think kids are listening to these days out into the mall, designers blast whatever music best suits their brand and collection in an effort to create an atmosphere and give models something to walk to. (How boring would it be to watch 30+ looks stroll down a runway in perfect silence?)

Since fashion is all about being new and fresh while simultaneously giving a nod to the past, it comes as no surprise that this season, like those before it, featured music from up and coming indie faves as well as tried and true acts. From Nina Simone and David Bowie to The Cure and Stereolab right down to Telepathe and LCD Soundsystem, it seems as though everyone dug deep into their iTunes and came out with playlists that are a music lover’s dream. (Check out Vanity Fair’s list of playlists from NYFW S/S ’11. Billy Reid, Timo Weiland and Prabal Gurung’s lists make me want to download some new music asap.)

According to MISS music editor Randi Hernandez the folks over at Betsey Johnson and L.A.M.B. were just as fond of mixing old school and new school on their playlists as the Vanity Fair group. While Betsey kept to a New York influenced playlist complete with songs about cycling around the city to follow her Le Tour de Betsey theme, over at L.A.M.B. Gwen further expressed her love of Ragga and laid back tracks that were the perfect accompaniment to her relaxed collection. Both ladies mix genres and obviously appreciate Kanye and Jay-Z, since they popped up on both playlists. Check out the playlists for both Betsey Johnson and LAMB, as gathered by Randi with the help of everyone’s pal Shazam-don’t know what I’d do without him sometimes- and load your iPod up with tracks to get you through the upcoming winter months.