Fashion S(ho)w

(Back to Pop Show next week.)

At various times in my life I have wanted to pack it all in and become a professional gift buyer, except at some point I always realize I have no idea how one goes about being this.  But, like the aspiring chef who spends her weekends whipping up delightful, new scallop dishes, I spend at least an hour a week going through my many magazine subscriptions, clipping favorite items that might make excellent gifts for friends and family come their birthdays and December.  Then I paste these items onto white sheets.  Then I assemble these white sheets into a homemade catalog, which I consult heavily during the holidays.  By fall, the thing sometimes is already at fifty pages.

This past Christmas/Hanukah season, I was performing my final run-through of the December Lucky in the wee hours of the morning, so excited by a few of the inspired gift and receiver match-ups that I proceeded to start my online shopping.  Before closing the magazine I glanced at the "Lucky Breaks" section, in which a handful of stores offer sweepstakes prizes to readers diligent enough to enter.  I never enter.  But it was like, 3 a.m.  And the internet was open on my screen.  And I was feeling productive and alert in what felt like a entire city sleeping below me (I now sort of live on a hill), so I clicked and entered the first contest.

Come early February, I opened my mailbox and removed a letter from Club Monaco.  "Why the fuck is Club Monaco sending me mail?" I asked the fence around the pool.  (It only whispered back, "Don't know- why the fuck is there a mailbox in me?")  I've never shopped at Club Monaco before; no reason why I'd be on a mailing list.  Opening the envelope, I was informed that having entered the Lucky sweepstakes, I was one of ten out of over 10,000 entrants who had won a $1000 shopping spree.  I was to pick my pieces from the Spring 2007 line, landing in March.

I did my picking last Wednesday.  It is decidedly fun to go into a store and choose things to take with you, knowing you don't have to pay for them!  (I imagine this is one of the joys of being a professional gift buyer (or a shoplifter), even if you don't get to keep the goods; that's not the point.)  My selections are presented below, and while on last week's Top Model Tyra advised that, "Modeling is kind of acting like a ho, but making it fashion," I discovered that Club Monaco garments are very, very difficult to make ho-ey.  The merino/cashmere capelet with the high neck and Dolman sleeves was simply having none of that shit.  So instead I took Jay Manuel's oft-repeated advice, which is always to keep at least one body limb awkwardly angled:

Cashmere-blend Stripe Tunic Sweater With Front Pocket

Merino/Cashmere Donatella Cape Cardigan in Grey

Washington White Tex Pant Low Rise Modern Fit Bootleg

Grey Tex Pant With White Pinstripe Low Rise Modern Fit Bootleg

Merino Cropped Charcoal Cardigan With Puffed Sleeve

Printed Tie Neck Silk Dress

Bone Leather Clutch

Apsley & Company Scented Candle and Base in Fig

Marimekko Graphic Pillow*

*(I took the pillow because I have a really soft spot for any print that looks like those precarious few seconds when the dark has just begun to give way behind trees on a quiet street in preparation for morning, since I see this fleeting transition so rarely, but I have noooooo idea what I'm going to do with this fucker, it's so big.)

Comments

[Joey]

Work it.

(And please tell me you cut out that picture of the gun for someone.)

[dan]

you can never have too many pillows, my mother is an interior decorator and that is one of the few imutibule lessions I have learned from her profesion. Also, do people often tell you, you are beautiful? cause they should.

[bree]

dude, you won something? man, your luck sickens me. books deals, tv shows, the undying love of dan porter, now this... you won a shopping spree. BITCH.

[Kate L.]

I meant to comment when I first read this and now I will:

POP POP DIZZAMN!! YOU FINE!!!

[Kate L.]

Oh PS: Matthew ate the remainder of the spectacular jello and will not stop talking about it to this day. He loved it.