LADY GAGA'S ARTRAVE

I had the pleasure of attending Lady Gaga + Jeff Koons' ARTRAVE last night, the launch party for Gaga's new album, Artpop.  I have mixed feelings about Koons' work -- on the one hand, I can appreciate its accessibility and its Warholian kitsch, but it doesn't really appeal to me aesthetically.  I feel similarly about Gaga's music; I acknowledge her importance as a popular culture and fashion icon, but I wasn't exactly counting down the days until her album's release.  ARTRAVE, however, was a true spectacle in every sense of the word, appealing to all five senses at once, and the excitement of all the "little monsters"at the Brooklyn Navy Yard was palpable.  But the real highlight for me was enjoying the concert alongside some of the industry's most revered (and notorious) players, such as Tony Bennett, Terry Richardson, Christian Siriano, and my most revered performance artist, Marina Abramovic, who was the perfect addition to our group of friends.

ACTION PAINTING

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe start to 2011. I'm so excited for this year--I have a sneaking suspicion its going to be a great one!

To start off the new year, I wanted to wear something festive that wasn't traditional NYE glitter and sequins. I ended up going with a Jackson Pollock-inspired look--what could be more spirited than action painting?

I had Pollock in mind when I bought this dress. Set against the backdrop of the barren trees, I though the setting evoked the beautifully haphazard layering of the paintings.

The beauty of Pollock's action paintings comes from the many layers of dripped paint and the open composition. The way the paint was applied to the canvas has a rhythmic quality that could not be achieved by easel painting.

Pollock's method of flinging paint onto a horizontal canvas changed painting forever (and signified the highest level of art to critics like Clement Greenberg).

Argued to be the earliest action painter, Pollock's notorious hard living cut his career short, but not before he created some of the most well-known and recognizable artworks of the 20th century.

I've been inspired by the Abstract Expressionists a lot recently, possibly due to the current blockbuster AbEx New York exhibition at the MoMA.

AbEx not only inspired my New Year's Eve outfit, but also my New Year's Resolution: to let go and live my life like a giant action painting--making what could seem like accidental drips or unplanned instances into a multilayered masterpiece.

I'm wearing an H&M dress, DKNY leather motorcycle jacket, Madewell necklace, Dannijo ring, and Christian Siriano x Payless "talon" shoes.

[Pollock images from felixbowker.wordpress.com, blog.cleveland.com, abstract-art.com, and blog.case.edu, respectively.]

SERGE DE NIMES

Denim is one of the most versatile textiles in production. Originally manufactured for the U.S. in Nîmes, France, it was called serge de Nîmes, which has been shortened into the colloquial term denim. As far as fashion is concerned, denim is always in style, and the average American owns 7 pairs of jeans.

Although the use of denim is widespread in the fashion industry, it was originally intended as a textile for laborers' garments. One of my favorite artworks addresses the issue of worker's clothing and its associations with this country's complicated industrial history.

Artist Ann Hamilton created this mound of denim for an installation in 1991, and it was shown again in 2007 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It consists of 18,000 pieces of used blue work clothes on a pallet and a seated participant actively erasing text from a book.

Hamilton's goal with this work, called Indigo Blue, was to encourage the rewriting of American history to include the importance of laborers in our country's industry. It spotlights the millions of working class citizens who made our country what it is today but have rarely been featured in accounts of U.S. history.

You can find some videos of Hamilton discussing Indigo Blue here.

For my Indigo Blue look, I wore a Marcel Dachet for Bergdorf Goodman denim dress and Christian Siriano for Payless shoes.

I plan on wearing this dress often--it's like a blank slate for colorful accessories. For its debut, however, I decided to keep it simple with these tonal pumps.

[Indigo Blue images from sfmoma.org.]

FASHION'S NIGHT OUT

Last Friday was one of my favorite events of the year: Fashion's Night Out NYC. It was a night of extravagant shopping, celebrity appearances, drinks, and dancing, all in honor of New York's fashion scene. Stores are open late and shoppers, designers, celebrities, and others gather together to paint the town red.

Tavi Gevinson, 13-year-old fashion blogger extraordinaire, chatted with guests at Barneys.

Barneys creative director, Simon Doonan, signed his book, Eccentric Glamour, for me!

I ran into some blogger friends, Claudia and Shirley, in Meatpacking!

But the highlight of my evening was meeting Christian Siriano at Payless on Madison Avenue. I wore his shoes to the event, and he loved how I styled them (with a 12x12 blouse and H&M pants). Here I am with Christian and Pat Field:

It was a great night, one of those true New York City experiences. It's so refreshing to see so many people out and about and enjoying the fashionable city life. I can't wait for next year!