04 May 2012
by sheepishfashionistain beauty, literature, outerwear, pants, Sandals, Uncategorized Tags: Adele Enerson, Aimee Cho, Gryphon New York, Jeffrey Steingarten, Peggy Drexler, Sacai
Each year when Spring rolls around I begin to think anew about trench coats. In part it’s because they are such classic, necessary and yet at the same time nuanced pieces, signaling not only a shift in the season but a rich spectrum of other scenerios: international intrigue. Furtive hotel room encounters. Heartbreaking Moroccan partings. Not to mention illicit watch sales:
Last week, Spring also had me thinking of detectives–in particular, girl detectives. This was probably because my daughter–who was locked out without her coat, and (I guess) chilly–decided to pick our front door lock with a paperclip, a little experiment in sleuthing that ended up costing us about as much as a Burberry classic to replace. (No more Nancy Drew for you, Missy!)
The thing about trenchcoats though–what makes them both so ineffably alluring and yet also intimidating as a wardrobe element–is that it can be surprisingly hard to find one that feels, well, you. I mean, the real, individual you. Not the you trying to be an international spy, or Kate Moss, or Ingrid Bergman at the airport.
The truth is, for all its utilitarian simplicity the trenchcoat can be a very hard piece to individualize–at least in the way one might individualize, say, a pair of jeans or a classic LBD. Which is why when I stumbled on pioneering trench design firm Gryphon New York a few years back, I did a joyful double-take. “Now that,” I thought, “is an interesting trench.“
[From Gryphon's 2010 Spring line]
What makes this New York brand’s pieces (they also design dresses, skirts, blouses, you name it) so exceptional is the balance founding designer and former Vogue fashion writer Aimee Cho strikes between classic and cutting edge. It’s a tricky line between ho-hum and waaaaay overdoing it, but she navigates it gorgeously, design after design and season after season. Behold:
[From their 2011 Spring line]
[From their 2012 line]
[Ditto]
I had the privilege of interacting with Aimee over a question I had on one of my Gryphons and–on the off-chance that a powerhouse designer and new mom might actually have a moment for a somewhat peripheral fashion/fiction blog like Sheepish–asked her if she’d be open to an interview. And guess what? To my utter delight she was. Not only that, but she got her answers back to me just as quickly and smoothly as she had answered my trench question–and as she continues to do with her amazing designs. The latter you can peruse on the Gryphon website, or in person at high-end retailers like Intermix, Bergdorf Goodman’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as online at Shopbop.com. For her thoughts on designing, reading and life in general, read on!
[Aimee Cho]
***
SF: How would you describe your personal style? How about your reading style?
AC: I would describe my personal style right now as a little lazy. I had a baby 3 months ago and my body has completely changed in ways I didn’t expect. I am much smaller now than I was before becoming pregnant which is nothing to complain about, but I think it’s from breast-feeding so will probably be a temporary phenomenon. Because it will most likely be temporary. I don’t want to spend any money on new clothes. I’ve been trying to make do with Gryphon samples and a small useable section of my closet…. leading to some lazy decisions (i.e., wearing the same thing pretty much everyday). My reading style is also fairly lazy. I think since starting Gryphon 6 years ago I can count the number of books I have read on two hands. That was embarrassing to admit, but I only imagine that adding a baby to the mix will further decrease the rate at which I consume books.
[Sheepish aside: This is not actually Aimee's baby--and (presumably) also not the book she is not reading because of him. But it seemed to sum up the dilemma of Literate New Moms Everywhere rather nicely. Plus, it also gives me an excuse to throw in some of these absolutely fantastic art shots by fellow New Mom Adele Enerson, who actually turned her infant's nap-time into a book--When My Baby Dreams--by creating these super-cute and smart pics around his slumber:]
[Sorry--I know that was a divergence. But can I just say how much I love these?]
SF: Who is your favorite author? Designer?
AC: My favorite writers are David Sedaris and Jeffrey Steingarten – for their humor and sense of the absurd and eye for details.
AC: My favorite designer is Chitose Abe of Sacai.
[Chitose Abe]
[From her SS/'12 line for Sacai]
SF: What books are on your nightstand?
AC: Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber [Sheepish aside: Oh, I remember that one!] and Raising Boys without Men by Peggy Drexler. My husband thinks the second book is a red flag for him, but I’m interested in the question/concept, not the application.
SF: What beauty products are on your bureau/medicine cabinet?
AC: SK-II cellumination cream, SK-II facial treatment essence, Shu Uemura eyelash curler.
[Honestly? This is one of my "desert island" Big Three. Can. Not. Live. Without.]
SF: If you could think of a character who might wear your styles, who would it be? Why?
AC: Thumbelina – because she’s tiny and fanciful.
[Thumbelina, as imagined by Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen,
creator Hans Christian Andersen's first illustrator ]
SF: If you could take just one book, one accessory and one clothing item to a desert island, what would they each be?
AC: Probably a survival guide of some kind to teach me how to live on the desert island, a parasol to block the sun and a large tie-dyed length of cloth that I could fashion into a dress, sarong or blanket depending on my needs.
[Tie-die sarong at Etsy, $26. Love these colors!]
SF: What do you wear when you’re making your creations?
AC: Whatever I happened to put on that morning – usually something comfortable, flat shoes, 2 to 3 elements of Gryphon with a minimum of 1 piece.
[One option: Gryphon silk pajama pants and pocket tee, both at Saks. Honestly? The pants made my heart skip a beat. I may actually have to get them.]
SF: What’s your next big fashion purchase? Next literary purchase?
AC: Fashion – Hopefully a magical, new Spring shoe that will make my lazy sartorial choices look new again.
[Sergio Rossi Flower Embroidered Sandal, $1030]
AC: Literary – an iPad 3 for the iBooks reader!
SF: What’s your go-to distraction (online or off) when you have creative block or are just feeling lazy?
AC: Playing with my son!
[Sheepish Aside: I presume she doesn't mean playing like this. Sorry--I can't help it. I love these pics!]
SF: What are you working on now?
AC: We are in production fittings and line finalization for Fall 2012. We are in development fittings for Holiday 2012 and Pre-Spring 2013. And we are also in fabric planning and initial design development for Spring 2013.
SF: Can’t wait!
[FIN]
So there you have it: words of wisdom from Gryphon New York mastermind Aimee Cho. Such amazing work–and such a true honor to have her on the blog. Thank you Aimee! Now, on to the next Sheepish task…which means, at the moment, reading a whole lot of ghost stories in preparation for the next book. Which–yes, you guessed it–will be a ghost novel. But a literary one. I’ll be back in a few with a piece on The New Blazer (not sure I even know what that is, but having spent all this time on trench coats I’m inspired to find out!). In the meantime, button up your trenchcoat–and stay Sheepish 
18 Apr 2012
by sheepishfashionistain bags, jewelry /accessories, literature, Uncategorized Tags: Angela Davis-Gardner, Butterfly's Child, Commita, Game of Thrones, Gryphon NYC, Hunger Games, jennifer egan, Joyce, Olympia Le-Tan, Puccini, The Orphan Master's Son
So I am amiss—dreadfully, terribly amiss. I know this, and apologize–I have spent the past two weeks in a whirlwind state of travel and re-entry, not to mention learning to live life without the back-bending and yet somehow stimulating and addictive pressure of a literary deadline. It’s oddly hard. I will say that the oft-made comparisons between finishing a novel and birthing a child, both of which I have done twice now, are not all that much off the mark. Particularly in the last trimester or thereabouts, which one tends to spend dreaming about how great and light life is going to be once this damn thing is OUT of you.
Here’s the surprise–it doesn’t really work that way. Yes, for the first week or so of post-delivery I was thrilled–both novel-wise and baby-wise, though with the babies I was also crazy sleep-deprived and highly depressed about my weight. But after that there’s a kind of letdown. Obviously, in the case of a baby its hormonal and (by necessity) lacteal. In the case of the book, though, it’s more just a kind of blankness. I find myself wandering around a lot, online, in the street, and (most disturbingly) within the dark and unorganized recesses of my apartment, which is now approximately six months behind in terms of cleaning and laundry and which, now that I’ve got no excuse not to do it all, I’m somehow even less inclined to address. I’ve done a rather unhealthy amount of shopping, which I feel slightly less-badly about since my beloved Norwegians not only gave me a very nice royalty check from my last novel’s sales but a very flattering advance on this most recent book, which they are now apparently translating at the speed of White Night light in order to get the book to press by September. (Which, by the way, beats the American version by six months!!!)
[Norwegian fjord. Oh--did I mention that they want me to go there for the publication? I don't quite understand why, by the way, the Norwegians are so madly in love with my work while certain other countries (I'm lookin' at you, France) don't want it anywhere near them, though I suspect it might have to do with the fact that Norway is not only a very small place but dark and cold a lot, which makes reading (and apparently drinking) rank pretty highly on the list of national pastimes]
One of the other things I’ve done, besides wandering around blankly, making inane and tired comparisons between gestation and publication and spending money on things I may possibly regret next month (for more on this phenomenon read ex-Gawker editor/blogger Emily Gould’s hysterical piece about impulsive post-book-advance clothing splurges) I’ve been reading. A lot. I’m about halfway through The Orphan Master’s Son, which I’m still loving, and recently re-read Lambling Number One’s last work about a middle-schooler whose mother dies in a plane crash, after which her father turns into a grief-stricken alcoholic who makes her clean the house all day, until finally the poor child hurls herself off the Brooklyn Bridge. (“What do you think?” she asked, when I’d finished. “Ah–it’s very….powerful.” Pause. “Honey, is there anything you want to talk to me about?”). Oh, and I’m still trying to finish off the second novel in the Game of Thrones trilogy, as well as the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy–both of which are interesting enough but–to be honest–rather less compelling than either of their predecessors. A good friend noted to me recently that this is a common predicament with trilogies in general–a sort of microcosmic “sophomore slump” that seems hard to avoid when you’re writing things in threes. Sheepish thoughts on this, anyone?
On the recommendation of Jennifer Egan, though, I also picked up an amazing historical novel called Butterfly’s Child. Not this one:
….though it certainly looks interesting enough (per Goodreads: While back in the West to attend his grandmother’s funeral, Cord Bridger uncovers two shocking revelations: his grandmother had a lesbian lover named Juanita; and he has a teenaged son named Kalin. Fate brings all three together, but to preserve his new family, Cord must leave his safe life in New York City behind to carve a living from the harsh ranch lands of Nevada.)
Rather, this one:
…and like almost everyone else who seems to have read this have have promptly fallen in love yet again. Like, really in love. Like, Mr. Sheepish grumbling IT’S MIDNIGHT FOR CHRIST’S SAKE TURN OUT YOUR LIGHT in love. For the record, I do love you, Mr. Sheepish. But part of what I love about Davis-Gardner’s novel–part of what’s keeping the both of us awake into the night–is it’s fascinating premise. Set in the late 1800′s, it picks up the storyline of Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly from the moment Cio-Ci0-san discovers that her American lover, (presumed) husband and father of her child has come back to Japan with an American wife in tow.
[Obviously, she's not very pleased with the situation.]
Following her hauntingly melodic demise, Pinkerton takes their son back to the American midwest to raise him there, as Cio-Cio had planned and requested. This is where Davis-Gardner picks up, exploring (in language as lovely, subtle and lyrical as Puccini’s music) what life is like for the half-Japanese boy in the rural Midwest, as well as for his traumatized and heavy-drinking father and long-suffering, highly “delicate” step-mother. I fully agree with all the reviews that it’s not fair to let slip any of the amazing plot-twists and turns that follow, so I won’t. I will simply echo their suggestion that you read it, right away. Please.
In closing–and in a rather unprecedented format-inversion–I’ll end on the fashion side today. Sort of. Given all my thoughts and immersions in books of late, I was intrigued when one of the fashion blog sites I subscribe to pointed out this fascinating Italian company (serendipitous, no?), Commita, that sells these gorgeous bookmarks-cum-necklaces on Etsy. Check this out:
The Conmita Bookmark/Necklace (around $80). Now it’s a bookmark….
….and now it’s a necklace!
The company also makes quite impressive non-necklacey bookmarks, like this dramatic number:
No alternative fashion use suggested, though I’m thinking you could stick it in your elaborate chignon and look rather Cio-Cio-san-ish.
The idea of fashion-accessory-as-book-accessory also reminded me of the other lit-and-fiction pick that caught my interest last year: a high-end collection of purses disguised as novels. No, really. They’re made by Olympia Le-Tan. And while they’re kinda a bundle (even by my standards) I have my eye on them for when and if the French finally cave and buy my goddamn books….
…Oh, and this one, which is rather sadly sold out as of now:
As I said, at roughly $1500 a pop these are a bit pricey even by my jaded, book-and-fashion-loving standards. But I still intend to keep my eye on them–just in case. In the meantime, though, it’s off to the Sheepish Home to try to finally attack that towering laundry pile. Or maybe the next several pages of Butterfly’s Child. Come back in a few for a fascinating interview with Gryphon NYC’s genius founder and designer Aimee Cho, who–though also postpartum (in the baby sense, not the book one) is doing some of the most remarkable things with trench-coats. In the meantime, keep reading….and accessorizing.
05 Apr 2012
by sheepishfashionistain Uncategorized
So I am technically on hiatus this week, having passed in my manuscript (yaaaay! Happy dance!) and promptly hit the skyways for Passover in Illinois. I do have plans–big plans–for the next post, but as the next few days will be a bit full of matzoh and Midwestern nachas I wanted to make sure I slipped this in beforehand. Many thanks to friend Jessica for posting this on Facebook. And yes: it’s real.
The lede here? Rule number two. I mean, is it even legal to prohibit specific types of footwear in a playground? And why would you do so? Granted, this is Long Island, so maybe the heels there are a bit more child-endangering than the ones in more civilized sections of the state….
[Bang, bang!]
As disturbing as this was for me, it also was strangely in line with the novel I am currently obsessing over:
As I told one of my friends yesterday, this is one of those novels I picked up due to the interesting premise (it’s set in North Korea) and the reviews (Abraham Verghese, David Mitchell and Jennifer Egan have all raved about this writer). I expected it to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be one of those rare books that makes you shiver about two pages in because it dawns on you just how damn good it is, and how much more of it you have left to read, and how wonderful that prospect of all those fantastic, waiting pages of story feels. I’ve just finished a section where the main character has a strangely poignant and almost philosophical encounter with a kickass Japanese opera star whom he is assigned to kidnap for a North Korean minister who has fallen in love with her (apparently this shit does happen still) and am clamoring to get back to see what happens next, so I’ll leave the summary (as usual) to Amazon:
The book traces the journey of Jun Do, who for years lives according to the violent dictates of the state, as a tunnel expert who can fight in the dark, a kidnapper, radio operator, tenuous hero, and foreign dignitary before eventually taking his fate into his own hands. In one of the book’s most poignant moments, a government interrogator, who tortures innocent citizens on a daily basis, remembers his own childhood and the way in which his father explained the inexplicable: ‘…we must act alone on the outside, while on the inside, we would be holding hands.’ In this moment and a thousand others like it, Johnson juxtaposes the vicious atrocities of the regime with the tenderness of beauty, love, and hope.
Off I go. Back with much good stuff sometime soon–a Sheepish interview with the powerhouse designer behind Gryphon NYC, a look at tribal patterns on wedges and my neverending hunt for the perfect white tee. Until then….Sheepish dreams and happy Pesach (and Easter)!
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