Jumpsuits: Friend or foe?

By Libby Callaway | Filed Under Obsessions | Leave a Comment 

I’m obsessed with jumpsuits - aka all-in-ones or jumpers. They’re comfortable, easy to wear and are perfect to run around in as temps rise.

Problem is, I have a hard time finding them to fit me. My torso’s long, so even if the ’suit is long enough in the legs (often a feat in itself) it might not be long enough from neck to groin - which means if I wear it I’m gonna walk around with a wedgie all day. No fun.

What do you guys think? Are jumpsuits cool or stupid? Would you wear them - or, rather, do you wear them? If so, where’s your jumper from? Do tell!Jumpsuit by Rogan, at Target.

Just an hour ago, the Billy Graham movie I’ve been working on almost constantly for the last three months wrapped. I’m feeling a bit bittersweet about it, to be honest.

It’s been really hard (don’t let anyone ever tell you being a costume designer on a period movie is easy: they’re lying) and the last six weeks of shooting have been among the most stressful of my life (and keep in mind I worked at a daily newspaper - aka Stress City - for many years prior to this). But I still feel a bit let down that I don’t have that job to go to on Wednesday. (We shot Wed-Sun; Mon and Tue were our weekends.)

I will miss my friends I made on set and saw for over 12 hours most days. You get into a groove, you know? Breaking out will be hard.

That’s not to say I can’t wait to get back into my pre-Billy eating and exercising schedule! My only cardio for the last two months has been running clothes to set from the costume trailer. As for food - I can’t think about it without feeling like a pig. I’ve never eaten so much dessert in my life! Stess eating, I guess.

In case you want to know more about the movie and some really useful fashion-related things I’ve learned working on it, be sure to check out my column in the paper this Friday. The City Paper photog Matt Williams came to set last week when we were shooting at the Belcourt and got some pix of our actors on set so you can check out their wardrobe. They look pretty good!

I didn’t, that’s for sure. But when I went into the one in Mt. Juliet yesterday afternoon, looking for size 15 men’s dress shoes for my leading man (they don’t carry them, in case you were wondering) I saw some way-cute stuff.

Chief among said cute items was this awesome plaid wrap dress ($67.50 on sale) by their American Living line, which from what I can discern is a riff on Ralph Lauren’s type of sartorial Americana: fresh, young, pretty and just the teensiest bit sexy.

The perfect summer bracelet

By Libby Callaway | Filed Under Target | Leave a Comment 

Really it’ll fly in any season, but I’m just imagining this amazing “Bauhaus” bracelet from the Subversive Jewelry collection that’s at Target right now popping against bronzed skin (tanning is passe, you know) with an all-white outfit this summer. Beautiful!

And cheap, too: $14.99.

The biggest fashion party of the year isn’t the Oscars: it’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Ball, which is always sponsored by Vogue, a major designer (this year, Giorgio Armani) and a few major celebrities (George Clooney and Julia Roberts).

I’ve went a few times, during my tenure as fashion ed at the New York Post, and always had a, um, ball. My most favorite memory of a Costume Institute party is the one they threw in 2003.

Two days before the ball (it’s always on the first Monday in May), I had returned from two weeks kicking back in small-town Haines, Alaska, with my sister Marie, who lives there each spring/summer. Of course, I’d not had time to ring up one of my designer friends and ask to borrow a dress. (It’s common practice for editors to ask designers they’re friendly with for loaners of four- and five-figure gowns; Vera Wang has dressed me for engagements in Cannes the year I went to their film fest, and I’ve also worn loaners from the kind folks at Chanel (at the Oscars), Diane Von Furstenberg, Catherine Malandrino, Donna Karan and other places where I have/had good relations).

So I did what any self-respecting starving journo with a stylish rep to keep up does: I hit the Chelsea flea market, which I used to visit at least twice a weekend (I lived ten blocks away for my last five years in the City).

That year, the theme was “Goddesses” and I went with visions of Greek column dresses floating through my mind. Lo, I was not to be disappointed: I found a guy selling off a half-dozen AMAZING gowns for - get this - $5 each, including a white jersey draped tunic gown with large rhinestone detailing at the neckline and a Fortuny-esque strapless pleated column in a burgundy/taupe combo.

I ended up wearing the white number - and it was a huge hit. I had folks from Vogue and other high-falutin’ joints coming up to me and asking who made it. “Is that a Giorgio Sant’Angelo?” asked Sally Singer, the mag’s fashion news director and one of my fashion writer heros. Simon Doonan of Barneys fame (among other very deserving claims to it), who I adore and have several other great stories about I’ll have to remember to share later, was so giddy when I told him that I had gotten it for $5 the day before that he went around spreading the news, telling people to come find me to talk about it - this in a room full of custom-made gowns by the likes of Oscar de la Renta, Alex McQueen and Gucci, who sponsored the event along with Nicole Kidman, who looked so ravishing in her rhinestone-flecked column gown made for her by her date, former Gucci helmer Tom Ford, that the memory of her wearing it, standing among the hundreds of twinkling votive candles set up on the grand staircase at the front of the Met’s entrance hall, remains one of my all-time favorite fashion memories. She was, quite literally, breathtalkingly beautiful that night.

This year’s ball was held last night in New York - and from the pictures on Style.com this morning, the “Superheros” theme inspired some astounding ensembles - not to mention some guests you might know a thing or two about.

I was jazzed to notice at least three of Nashville’s own represented on the red carpet, which is just beyond amazing with all the models, socialites and celebs decked out in thematic designer finery.

Taylor Swift made a showing in a really terrific gold columnar gown by Badgley Mischka; she was escorted by the dashing designers themselves (who, it must be noted, have dressed the SA for a fancy to-do on more than one occasion, including pre-Oscar parties in LA a few years back - I love Mark and James!).

Franklin Road homeowner Jack White and his luminescent bride, model Karen Elson, were there in head-to-toe Marc Jacobs, as well. I’m a-lovin’ Jack’s new short haircut; he had it all slicked back, Old West style, last night and it looked really cool.

Everyone looked great, but I don’t think they’ll ever match Nicole in 2003. Sigh.

Celia Birtwell for Express!

By Libby Callaway | Filed Under Bargains, Designer news | 1 Comment 

The fabulous Aria just told me that famed Brit textile designer (and Ossie Clark paramour/collaborator) Celia Birtwell has co-designed a line with Express. I’ve never been able to afford vintage Ossie (it’s super rare and tres cher) so I’m really excited to get a piece of Celia for a good price.

Target: Driven to distraction

By Libby Callaway | Filed Under Obsessions, Target | Leave a Comment 

Dear Target designers:

Why do you keep doing this to me? All I want to do is run into one of your stores and grab a quick little sundry something and get out. Buy nooooo. You have to distract me with your cute new GO International designs, which the floor staff always manages to put smack dab at the entrance to your stores.

I’ve read enough Paco Underhill to know that this is intentional, and that you’re totally targeting (ha!) visually sensitive clothes obsessed women like myself. Damn you and your $34.99 Helmut Lang-y two-toned dress! And while I’m at it, let me go ahead and curse that really cute new Converse line you’ve got going as well.

And don’t even get me started on the Subversive jewelry line. I may not be able to pay $1,200 for one of Sub designer Justin Giunta’s extraordinary necklaces, but I can surely drop $54 for a great facsimile.

When will the madness stop? When will I be able to run in to grab in and grab some cereal (Go Lean is, like, $1 cheaper there than Kroger) and get out?

Yours in debt,

The Style Arbiter

So, next Tuesday the SA is shifting gears a bit from Movie Making Madness, moving back into a more subdued party-going, catwalk-watching glamour gal. (Well, as much of a glamour gal as one can be with roots like mine. Yikes! Where did I put that bottle of Perference by L’Oreal?)

I’m getting all dudded up and heading over to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center to enjoy a presentation of Oscar de la Renta’s fall 2008 runway collection, presented by Jamie (your one-stop-shopping source for OdlR locally).

Mr. de la Renta will be here this time around (last spring he couldn’t make it, unfortunately, though the clothes came and they were, of course, faboo) and the SA is being given a few minutes with him pre-show to reacquaint (I know him from my years of covering New York Fashion week when I was at the Post; we’ve lunched and clinked glasses and exchanged air kisses in the past - he’s a lovely, elegant, charming man; I’m a huge fan) and ask him a few questions.

There’s where you come in. I wanted to ask you guys to come up with the Q’s for him. You can suggest pretty much anything - what inspires him, what the hardest part of his job is, why models are so skinny, why he’s here in Nashville, why zebras have spot (OK: maybe not that, unless it has to do with any of the animal prints he’s wont to use from time to time in his collections).

You can post them here or email them to me at lcallaway@nashvillecitypaper.com. I need to get them together by Tuesday AM, so be quick like a bunny about it!

I’ll post the answers in my column on Wednesday, April 30 - which, for the record, is my 38th birthday.

(I like red velvet cake, by the way. And Maggie Moo’s Better Batter ice cream.)

Happy birthday, Two Elle!

By Libby Callaway | Filed Under Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment 

The lovely Rachel Lowe, owner of the 12th South store Two Elle, is throwing her boutique a birthday party. Thursday night she’ll toast the occasion by selling new spring merch for 25 percent off.

As if you need another reason to drop by, she’ll be serving delish Dulce cookies.

Two Elle is located at 2309 12th Ave. South. Check out their website for more contact info: www.twoelle.com.

No rest for the weary

By Libby Callaway | Filed Under Movie Magic! | Leave a Comment 

Sorry I’ve been a bit lax about blogging this week. I’ve been up to my armpits in Billy Graham movie stress.

Though the first few days of the shoot were a real trial by fire for me, considering I’ve never done a movie before and we have HUNDREDS of extras to dress and over 200 cast changes, all set in the ’30s and ’40s. It’s possibly the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced - even harder than when I was in college, studying in Paris and attempted to write term papers on Parisian architectural history in French when my francais was barely above the Ca va?/Ca va bien! level. (It’s still not much higher than that, to be honest.) I thought that was going to kill me for sure.

Today, I’m up and going, about to hit Sh’Opry Mills’ Brooks Brothers store to shop for some suits and shirts for my wonderful leading men, Armie and Kris.

Armie’s shown up in previous columns; Kris is Kristoffer Polaha (that’s his mug above, circa when he was starring on Fox’s “North Shore”), who you might recognize as a current cast member of the new Judy Greer sitcom “Miss Guided” (I’ve watched: it’s really funny).

Not only is Kris tall, dark, and handsome, he’s a really lovely guy - a devoted family man (his wife and two kiddies are here with him during the shoot) and an all-around calming presence. We love it when he comes to our trailer, because it means we’re going to laugh and smile.

It also means he and I get to really talk character: his is Charles Templeton, Billy’s friend/rival - frenemie, if you will. He starts out as a bit of a rogue (a drunken journalist/womanizer, a type of man I unfortunately know a bit too much about, having worked at the NY Post for so long) and transforms into a charismatic Man of God, only to question his faith and ultimately leaves the ministry. Kris has some very specific ideas about the clothes shape his character, as do I. So we discuss what a certain color might indicate in a certain context, how a tie might be undone a bit or a vest unbuttoned (he wears a lot of three-piece suits) to indicate his being tested and run down with doubt.

It’s a rich, meaty part and I can’t wait to see what Kris does with it. His first big scene is tonight. I’m thrilled for him and so happy to have him on the shoot.

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