Please Dress Up!

Meet Black Flamingo

2010-08-11T23:22:00.000+02:00

A couple weeks ago I had the lovely pleasure to meet the ladies of Black Flamingo. I saw them play at a show that was right down the street from my studio. Tropical Goths?? FUCK YEAH!!! these girls are all super cool and struck an instant cord of inspiration for me. I gave them my info and was super stoked when they called me and asked if they could wear some of our clothes for a video they were making with The Wilcox Sessions. They also have a blog documenting their adventures, that is definitely worth checking out.

Heres some photos and the video. Enjoy!!

For more info and to listen to the rest of their songs see www.weareblackflamingo.com

Wilcox Sessions - Black Flamingo (All That She Wants) from Wilcox Sessions on Vimeo.

Dress Up in London

2010-08-03T18:47:00.000+02:00

Dress and Bag by Please Dress Up!

For the summer I decided to take a course at Central St. Martins. I took an experimental fashion knitwear course and learned so many techniques. I cant wait to get a knitting machine to knit up all sorts of different creations. Grant currently has a shoe design internship, which should be amazing. Really excited to get back and produce some new designs.
London has been so inspiring. Art and Fashion around every corner. I have mostly taken photos of art I have to admit. And the fashion report here is that Top Shop rules the streets. Can you blame them?

Love these photos

2010-07-07T21:48:00.000+02:00

Earlier today I stumbled across these photos on Flickr. It made me remember San Francisco and how much fun doing this shoot was. I haven't been back there in over 2 years and I started wondering what these guys were still doing. We used to live about 2 blocks away from this barber shop. I would get my haircut there and always have some great conversations with all the guys working. I love Curtis's "STOP Hating" shirt, we didn't need a stylist to pull that one off.

Way To Long.

2010-05-18T02:40:00.000+02:00

I know it has been way to long since I have updated the blog but.. I did want to put out some of the new photos of the work Judy and I have been doing. We are also working on getting the new site up again soon. To See more please go to www.pleasedressup.com

L.A. is BURNING!

2009-08-27T00:56:00.005+02:00

Skirt & top by Please Dress Up!

This morning I woke up to the smell of smoke and went to our roof to take a look around and saw that the entire Los Angeles skyline had disappeared into a thick cloud of smoke. We thought it would be a good way to hight-light some of our recent work. Perfect for this weather, a silk jersey top and the skirt is a vintage african print. This is part of an apocalyptic chic photo series. Behind me is downtown but I wont see that for a few days.

Le Tag

2009-04-19T23:23:00.004+02:00

As some of our friends know, we are big graffiti enthusiasts and appreciate the unique art form. So, when we saw ads for a graffiti exhibit at the Grand Palais we did a double take but decided we would probably check it out. On a rainy Saturday afternoon we went to take a look at graffiti in a famous museum.

Inside of a huge room hung 300 pieces of artwork by 150 artists from all over the world. The idea was that every artist had two canvases the same size to write their name on one and on the other to paint their idea of love. I think somewhere after viewing only a quarter of the show I was getting the feeling that most of the artists took this exhibit as a joke and most could not think of anything to paint except hearts.

The crowd was made up of all kinds of people: young, old, kids, parents, tourists. All intently taking photos and following the announcer as he deciphered every painting and artist. It was quite funny in my eyes having seen some of the best graffiti in San Francisco and Los Angeles on the streets for free. There weren't even any west coast writers represented so I was a bit disappointed.

Some of my favorites were Horfe, Amaze, Ghost, L'Atlas and Miss 17.

étudiants à la mode

2009-04-15T00:39:00.004+02:00

(vintage jacket, hand knit PDU sweater, PDU private label dress, Gaspard Yurkevich tights, Melissa for Herchcovitch Alexandre shoes)
(Lanvin Jacket, Vintage sweater, Burberry shirt, Liberty Tie, Vintage Pants, Ferragamo shoes)

For a few months now, Grant and I have been taking a french course near our place. At the moment we are on one of many school vacations for a couple of weeks. Last week we were a bit early to class and the lighting was perfect for a photo op in front of our school. Our teacher loves us and always makes a point of talking about fashion during all of our classes. She always comments on our outfits and our style. Bonne Vacances!

Hook in hand

2009-04-09T14:37:00.003+02:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. We are busy working on all of our new ideas for the next spring season. We have some really great ideas we are super excited to bring them to life. Here is a little crochet collaboration we made while watching Mr. Freedom the other night. Expect more to come soon.

April Reality

2009-04-02T13:12:00.002+02:00

Considering these "economic times", yesterday I did something so embarrassing that I can only show you a drawing. I dressed up in a cute pink dress and dark sunglasses and went to the busiest street in our chic neighborhood and gave the usual peddler lady some competition. I was open to money or a possible job opportunity. I've done crazier things so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the rich investor that I was hoping would take pity, never passed by.

O.K., maybe my April's fools joke(poisson avril in french=april fish?) doesn't read well via web, but I couldn't resist pulling some legs(even the day after). I wrote it today because there is a reality in the current state of things depicted by the drawing but not actually realized.

My new favorite dress for summer!

2009-03-30T19:27:00.002+02:00

Although the weather has been a little bipolar lately, I had experienced true warmth and sunshine last week and know that the sun will be making another appearance ,and this time for good. That's when I realized that I had only brought a winter wardrobe to Paris and I had nothing for the occasion. My plan all along was to bring some of my favorite cottons to make into one of a kind, playful summer dresses when it was time. This red and blue plaid comes from L.A. and is one of the most recent additions to my fabric hoarding. Grant made the first bold move to cut into it and not too much later we were done with my newest dress. Voila!

The puces revisited and a sartorial view of Judy

2009-03-19T00:05:00.002+01:00

Last Sunday we ventured back out to the flea market with our friends to see what we could find. Our friend Julia took us to a very cool store that specialized in all these key chains from the 60s, and they were all only a euro each. Not bad. Right when we got to the good part of the market the cops broke up the whole thing so we didn't really find to many things. We still had fun looking and of course judy looked as stylish as ever.

7x7

2009-03-12T14:19:00.003+01:00

We were alerted to a very kind mention we got on the 7x7 website. It is about some of our new pieces which have recently landed at Shotwell in San Francisco. Michael and Holly are two very cool people who put their minds to work and opened an amazing boutique right in the heart of Union Square. I think their wedding was this week and we are sorry we couldn't be there. Here are some photos from their store and the link to the article here

Big thanks

2009-03-07T14:36:00.004+01:00

So we have had a busy couple of days. But our show went great, we had a really good turnout and it all went very smoothly. Thank you to our wonderful models Helen, Catherine and Illaria. A big thanks to Hanah for your wonderful help and Nestor as always is a brilliant make up artist. Pring made the whole thing possible and her wonderful space provided a great venue for our show. Here is some of the photos we have gotten back from our shoot last week. We should get some more in the next couple of days and when we get them you will get them too. Thanks to everyone who made it out to the show. Expect more updates later in the week.

Open for business

2009-03-05T12:10:00.003+01:00

Our showroom is complete and we are super excited for our presentation tonight. We hope you all can make it. Please come by our showroom anytime during the week and enjoy some champagne and get a closer look at some of the pieces we have been working very hard on.

Presentation 29 rue Charlot 75003 at 8:00

Showroom 64 rue de Turenne 75003

Photo shootin

2009-03-01T18:59:00.004+01:00

Today was the first day of the photo shoot for our new collection. Jasmine our photographer knew of an amazing location. We got a lot done in a couple of hours and the end result came together very naturally. The owner of the property took us in for the day and she was sooooo sweet. After she kept bringing us out coffee and tea to make sure we didn't get too cold she then topped off the whole thing by bringing us out a huge box of chocolates. We don't want to give to much away so here are a couple sneak peaks.

Fall Winter 2009/10

2009-02-26T22:54:00.007+01:00

We are so excited to present our new collection next week for our first season in Paris. We will be holding our presentation on the evening of March 5th in collaboration with the beautiful and talented Pring. We love the work that we have made since we have been here and are very excited for some of the other opportunities we have made. If you would like an invitation or showroom information please email us.

New Projects

2009-02-20T01:04:00.003+01:00

This week we were so excited to get not one, but two huge boxes of yarn that we had left behind in the U.S. We have been knitting up a storm and getting some of our last minute pieces done for our new collection. Which by the way is coming up in a little more than TWO WEEKS!!!! We will have more details about our presentation in an upcoming post. But we are very excited with the work we have done and Thank you to Carla and Socorro for sending us our much needed yarn. Also we have been working on a new huge public art project so stay tuned.

More arts and culture right around the corner

2009-02-19T01:04:00.002+01:00

On our way home tonight we noticed a couple gallery opening on our street. First we saw a performance piece that may have been a little over our head, but then again our french isn't perfect yet. The next gallery featured 17 artists from Iran in all different mediums. There was some fascinating abstract works and a lot of other really great pieces. Most of our pictures didn't come out very well (again) so here is a limited view. If you have a chance to see it, it's worth a visit. Galerie Thaddeus Ropac 7 rue Debelleyme- 75003

Lait de Lune

2009-02-14T22:21:00.003+01:00

We met Alex at a gallery during a performing arts event. She is from L.A. but has been living in Paris for the past 6 years. When we met her she told us to check out her gallery/boutique that she had just opened. What we found when we went was a treasure trove of curiosities. Alex curates a very well selected mix of international artists and displays their works in a very inviting environment. In addition she serves organic hot chocolate and juice, raw vegan chocolate treats, and delicious little lavender cakes. She also sells her grandparents secret line of organic facial products (that you can eat), that apparently Gisele swears by. The store is a little off the main street but for sure worth checking out if you want to relax warm up to some hot chocolate, share some conversation and discover some art.

Lait de Lune

48 rue Chapon 75003 Paris

Premiére Vision Day 2

2009-02-11T22:32:00.002+01:00

So since our first day was based mostly on overwhelming feelings of joy and sheer excitement we needed to make our second day about something more productive, and with our game plan in place we felt ready to tackle the challenge. We saw a lot more of the show today and got a lot more of the things we were looking for, whatever that is. We saw some really amazing things and Judy went googoo gaga over Liberty. We also didn't get many pictures of today but you can kind of get and idea of how big this place is as the photo shows only one micron of the whole thing. We haven't decided if we are going back out again tomorrow our feet hurt and we have some sewing we have been neglecting.

Premiére Vision Day 1

2009-02-10T23:56:00.004+01:00

Last week I was just telling Judy that I want to do more posts. Like one every day. Then what happens. Of course our internet poops out for almost the whole week. But now we are back on and promise to do more for real this time. Even if we have to use the wifi at the library.

So before we got to France we were already super excited to go to Premiere Vision, pretty much the hugest fabric trade show in the world. Everyone who knows us knows that Judy and I are probably the biggest fabric freaks in the whole world and going to this was going to be like letting 5 year olds loose at Disneyland. I mean who refers to a fabric trade show as a fabric festival. Please Dress Up thats who. We had to fight the temptation not to run down every aisle screaming out of excitement while tearing our faces off. Never have we been surrounded by so much beautiful fabric coming at us from every angle. But where to start. We went directly to the mill that we found out produces most of the Lanvin fabric (and Hérmes, Gaultier, Chanel). We were quickly reminded that we have along way to go before reaching that level when the 5 fabrics we pulled to enquire about came with a disclaimer from the sales lady that those were possibly the most expensive fabrics in the booth. But we already had the designs coming to life in our heads. What do you mean 95 euros a meter with a 300 meter minimum? Gulp.. We'll take a card instead, moving on. We ordered some great samples from some Japanese suppliers and a couple others. We have a better idea what to expect for tomorrow and have a definite game plan. I know the picture we got from today aren't very good and we will get some better ones tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Arts and Culture

2009-02-01T20:44:00.002+01:00

We have been meaning to make it to the Musée Picasso since we first moved into our apartment (It's less than two blocks away). Since the first sunday of the month equals free museum entry across the city we decided it was the prefect time to go and soak up a little inspiration. Judy is a huge Picasso buff because it is her dads favorite artist and every family trips involves some Picasso land mark visits. The museum also is featuring a really amazing installation from the artist Daniel Buren. The installation is a Trompe l'oiel (trick of the eye), basically a huge mirror thats half black/half metallic that perfectly runs directly through the entire museum, redefining the whole space entirely. Its pretty cool and hard to explain but definitely worth checking out. But back to the Picasso, I think the coolest thing about him is just the shear volumes of works that he created, and how many mediums he worked in. It's really impressive, his entire life was just about creation and I think thats something that we definitely strive for. The museum was very inspirational and we ran straight home to get back to work.

OMG!!! we're on cobrasnake

2009-01-29T20:03:00.003+01:00

and its a pretty good photo of us too. We went to the Colette blog party at Regine's and it was a lot fun. We danced our butts off and of course when we sat down is when we had our photo taken. Judy also got another pretty good lurker photo of Paris fashions man of the moment (Kanye West) as well as me getting my nails painted at the same time as the cobra snake. For the rest of the CobraSnakes coverage of the party go here.

Judy is a stalker.

2009-01-26T01:54:00.003+01:00

The day started when our friend came over and asked us to go to a fashion show with him. What he didn't tell us was that it was literally the next door over from us which was pretty cool. After the show we were jetted off to the beautiful Bourse building to see the newest mens collections at Tranoi. M's Braque caught our eye with some really beautiful and unique Mens wear. Isaac Reina made some of the most gorgeous leather goods either of us had seen and their messenger bag was to die for. Alfredo photographed some of the newest collection of Quai de Valmy, which was being celebrated at Colette later in the evening and we cut through the Palais Royal on our way over there. We found the most gorgeous vintage store in the world and I had to pull Judy face from the window. Colette was the place to be and all the whos who were there because among the Quai de Valmy collection on display the newest Thom Browne collection was also being premiered. We are big fans of Thom and it was such a pleasure to meet him. We tried to play it cool and Judy was able to get some pretty lurky photos.

Fashionistas

2009-01-22T23:01:00.002+01:00

Mens week started today and we were invited to the Gaspard Yurkievich show. We should have checked the flier the night before because when we realized that the show started at 12:30 it was already 12:20. We ran to the metro and made it to our seats right before the show started. We are big fans of Gaspard's and really liked the mens dresses paired with the leggings. Unfortunately our photos didn't really come out too well. We also attended a great discussion led by the former artistic director of Elle that featured some really great work that he did pre photoshop or any technologies that we have today. It was a pretty inspirational day to say the least.

New look books

2009-01-20T14:40:00.006+01:00

Today we were thrilled to be greeted by our brand new look books. We think they look really good and we were assisted by a great team. Alfredo Salazar took the photos, Nestor Osuna handled the hair and make-up and Elsa Crafoord c/o Ford Models Europe was our gorgeous model. The photos have also been added to our website so you can see all the rest there at www.pleasedressup.com

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-13T22:47:00.004+01:00

We know this is a little late but we wanted to share some of our photos from the past week or so in the snow. During our outing to the post office we walked through this very picturesque white winter land. Even though we left our skis at home we still wanted to get some shots of the snow before it melted away. And on a complete side note here is the perfect example of what not to wear to the BHV.

Soldes Monstres

2009-01-08T21:39:00.004+01:00

Every year in Paris January 7th marks the first day of a city wide holiday that lasts until February, this holiday is called Soldes and it is something that everybody in the world should experience just once. Every clothing store in the city participates with 70-50% off everything and it is when every Parisian buys all of the clothes they have had their eyes on all season. We didn't realize what was happening when we left our house and there were hordes of people in all the stores which are always empty, until our friend told us about the magic of soldes. Of course this kind of mob mentality is very contagious and we definitely didn't want to be left out. But where to start? Grant still needed boots from when we first got here and we thought that would be a good guiding point. Judy had a couple items on her wish list too so we decided to stop in Tsumori Chisato first. She picked up these amazing wool leggings that are super warm. Next we went to the ultra chic (and trés,trés,trés cher) boutique L'eclaireur, where she got these super cute little water proof Melissa shoes . After going into about a hundred mens stores with no sign of boots for Grant the situation was starting to look grim. We decided to peek into Margiela and see what kind of deals they were offering. Just as Judy warned he fell in love with the boots there and wouldn't leave without them. I just hope they last through the next decade to justify the price (but they were 50% off.....right?). It was pretty cool to get such a unique look at the true Parisien culture that is Soldes even if it did mean getting pushed over for a A.P.C cardigan and fighting your way thru every tiny rue in a mad shopping fury.

How to kill a sunday at the flea market for 5 euros

2009-01-05T14:31:00.002+01:00

Being the flea market junkies that we are we were so excited with the thoughts of what the Paris flea markets would have in store for us. After a couple unsuccessful journeys to the tourist trap Porte St. Ouen Flea Market, we decided to venture to a little more obscure one. The Porte de Montreuil market had been referred to us by several friends who told us we would be able to find a cheap bike there, but that if we were to buy one it would mean that we don't have any moral hangups about where the bicycles may have come from. Sounded like our type of crowd so we decided to check it out and see what type of things we could find. 3 blocks before you even get to the market the sidewalks start becoming lined with people shoulder to shoulder selling their goods right on the sidewalk out of their granny carts and suitcases. It was here that we started scoring right away. Every person in this section repeats some sort of strange native bird call-esque shouting, un euro un euro un euro except it's so fast it is almost indistinguishable. Its like we're right in front of you buddy, you don't need to yell that its only a euro to us, we heard you the first 1,667,808 times. Anyways back to scoring I spotted this blazer on the ground and it looked pretty cool so I picked it up and of course first thing I did was check the label, Yves Saint Laurent, and even though I don't really like db blazers too much I am much to much of a label whore to not buy it for a euro, Judy also liked a beret the guy had so I convinced him to give us both for a euro. Not bad for our first stop. About two minutes later I spotted this sweet Cacharel cardigan laying on the ground I picked it up trying to not look to interested I asked how much the lady wanted for it. She said 15 and after I started putting it down she said 3, I still told her no and then she said 1, Well lady you got yourself a deal. I already loved this flea market and we hadn't even made it to the actual market yet. The rest of the market was pretty crappy actually. The used clothing is all pilled in huge mountains and wrinkled beyond recognition, but still pretty expensive. The rest of the market is all compiled of new really cheap junk. The unbearable cold weather did provoke us to buy some thick wooly socks though and we got 6 pairs for 3 euros. Didn't see to many bikes or anything else that interested us but we were happy with what we got and called it a day.

Staying Warm

2009-01-03T22:33:00.003+01:00

Ok so we realize that the reason we are here in Paris is to design and observe the fashion we see around us. But so far most of our posts have been about food and parties. We are going to start making our blog a little more fashion oriented, but we want to try to avoid making it only shots of Judy everyday wearing her selected outfit (not that we have anything against blogs like that). With that being said here are some shots of Judy in a piece I made her for Christmas, seeing as how it has been icing up here nearly everyday it is almost impossible to get Judy to wear anything else but this thing. She loves it so much and says it is soooooo warm. We are going to start making them custom made to measure, so if anyone is interested send us an email with your measurements and we can go from there. Truly it's the best defense against the winter season.

Bonne Année!!!!

2009-01-01T13:29:00.002+01:00

We want to wish everyone a very happy new year. Hope you had a good one. We definitely did. Hope you accomplish everything you want to in 2009.

The International Christmas Extravaganza.

2008-12-26T00:57:00.007+01:00

Holidays away from your family can always be difficult for everyone. That is why we were so lucky this year to be adopted by three families from all over the globe. To start we had a superb French Fête. Guillaume was the first person we met in Paris and he assured us we would spend a traditional French Christmas with him and his family. His family was so funny and we had a great time learning about and trying cuisine from all over France (including escargot). His mom is a brilliant cook and even though she might not be used to cooking vegetarian food she sure made some wonderful tofu stuffed mushrooms, ratatouille, and whipped truffles. Included was the traditional French cheese course, featuring one of the stinkiest cheeses in the world, which comes from the north of France. This families hospitality already had us both entranced, but by the time Guillaume's mother brought out her homemade berry ice cream, Chocolate Mousse and Cake we wanted to be adopted for real.

After we said goodbye to Guillaume's family we went to stop by a Mexican Fiesta at our friend Alfredo's house. We caught the last bits of some authentic guacamole, and rum punch that helped build our french speaking courage. We put on some salsa/80's/mariachi music mix and had a dance party that lasted to the wee hours of the morning.

On Christmas we headed over to our old place in the 18th to spend an evening with Belinda and Helen for an Australian/British Christmas dinner. Helen was in extreme Christmas spirit and we spent the evening decorating the house, listening to old Christmas classics and Judy even dressed up as Santa. The night ended with a good game of Pictionary (British Edition) and even though neither of us knew what a paint pot or cricket ball was, we still won.

Birthday Party!

2008-12-19T11:55:00.004+01:00

Today is Grant's Birthday. Judy surprised him with a trip to the amazing Les Arts Decoratif museum for the Sonia Rykiel 40 year anniversary exhibition. The exhibition featured over 250 outfits from Sonia as well as lots of videos, pictures, and lots of other memorabilia. At the very end of the exhibit was the 30 something outfits that all theses wonderful designers had made which were inspired by Sonia for her 80th runway show. If you haven't seen the video of her last runway show you need to check it out. It looks so much fun and being able to see all the pieces in person was such a special surprise. http://soniarykiel.com The rest of the museum had great work in it as well. It is a lot of interior and product design from the 1700's all the way to 2000's The place is huge and we only got through a couple other galleries before we headed out.

After that we returned back to the house to make a little dinner. We had real tacos this time and they were so good. The cake was probably the most sinful thing either of us had ever eaten. But hell, what are birthdays for.

MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-16T15:38:00.003+01:00

Just as everyone warned us, there is absolutely no mexican food around town. If you ask anyone if they know of anything they just say "oh yeah I know this Tex-Mex place." What the hell is Tex-Mex. Do the french really consider a chili dog Mexican food. Paris desperately needs tortas, burritos, nachos, tacos, something, at this point I just want a tortilla. The situation was looking really grim until our mexican friend Alfredo told us he knows of this little place that sells handmade goods from Mexico and if you ask them they will make you tortillas. We dropped whatever we were doing and pretty much ran over to the place in a full sprint. We got to the place and our faces were lit up like the sun. Our excitement was quickly smashed when we saw the prices, 4.50 euros for a can of beans? 7.50 euros for hot sauce???? at this point we were afraid to ask how much the tortillas were. It turns out they are 8 euros for a dozen. OUCH!!! Did we mention we are from California? The land of 2 dollars for 3 tacos. On the plus side the lady actually makes them herself and brings them to you in a couple of days. Not to mention she pretty much has the market cornered. She is very nice and also offers some really beautiful clothing made by hand from a family in Mexico. She will even make you a piñata too. We forked over the money and ran home to make some potato tacos with pinto beans. Finally some real spicy hot sauce!!!!

How to move free furniture across Paris with little or no resources

2008-12-15T01:10:00.003+01:00

We desperately need furniture for our place and there doesn't seem to be the same overabundance of free furniture dumped all over the streets like there was in San Francisco. Not to mention people try to get top dollar for all of their things off craigslist (100 euros for a 2 year old ikea table? Please.) Luckily we did find one nice guy who offered us his two shelves for free. He assured us he lived quite close to us and that we should have no problem carrying the things back to our house. While we were walking we realized that when he said close to our house he meant on the other side of town. About an hour later we arrived at his house and realized that each bookshelf had to weigh at least 100 pounds. Maybe over the phone he didn't realize that Judy was only 5 feet tall and weighs only 90 pounds but there was no way we could do it. We tried with one and got about a half block before we ditched it behind a building. We headed back to the house to try to think of a new method. Judy came up with the brilliant idea of using our old suitcases as makeshift dollies and off we went again. The one we ditched was long gone by the time we returned so we tried with the other one. It worked pretty good and minus a few little bumps and a million puzzled stares we welcomed our new shelf into our little home.

Cheap Show at Cafe du Paris

2008-12-12T22:49:00.005+01:00

We were invited to a cabaret type show that our friend Camille was performing in. We didn't really know what to expect, except that it was free and the three time world champion tap dancer (claquettes) would be performing. What we witnessed was nothing short of amazing. The video quality may be lacking but each act was so good. The opening act, a young woman performing traditional accordion songs in several languages had Judy completely entranced. Camille a.k.a Belle Fée Gore sang songs from the 30's about drug use. The tap dancer had the fastest feet i've ever seen. Then we were treated to a surprise can-can performance. It was Sooooo french and we had a lot of fun.

Ode to a blouse.

2008-12-07T00:11:00.003+01:00

In quite possibly the strangest event in our life we lost one of our most beloved creations. We were woken up at 2:30 in the morning today by a complete stranger who had somehow broken into our apartment and decided to browse our rack of clothing. Once he realized that we were here he grabbed what he could and made like the wind out of the door. Luckily he dropped most of the things but he did make off with our favorite blouse. I found the hanger sitting about three blocks away in a pack of parked vespas. I have no idea what this person would want with our blouse but if I ever find anyone in Paris wearing it I will rip it right off their body and demand an explanation, or maybe the blouse will be the hot new item at H&M next season. You never know. Never the less we are very shook up from this event. Please spread the word and if anyone knows anyone who may know where it is please email us. The blouse is one of a kind and very very special to us.

Home Sweet Home

2008-12-06T00:05:00.004+01:00

Holy shit finding an apartment in Paris has to be one of the most stressful things either of us have ever had to deal with in our whole life. I have never had to sign my name on so many pieces of paper before, I felt like a celebrity. But it finally worked out and we got an amazing little place right in the heart of the Marais. Next to some amazing boutiques and galleries. Here are just a couple photos of our place and one from the craziest move by taxi ever committed. All the driver kept saying was we should have gotten a bigger taxi. I hope we never have to go through anything like this ever again.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving in France (while trying to move)

2008-11-29T01:27:00.003+01:00

Its been a crazy past couple of days and we still have a couple more ahead of us. Our sublet ended on Thursday and we thought we were going to be getting the keys to our apartment on Friday but as it turns out we aren't going to get them until Monday. The French require so much paper work and that takes so much time apparently. Never the less our lovely friend Berenice is letting us stay at her place while she is out of town for the weekend, Thank god.

We still had time to make our Thanksgiving meal at our old place before we had to get out. Thanksgiving doesn't exist in France and neither do veggie burgers so we made due with what we could. Goat cheese mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, broccoli, baguette, wine and some cookies, mmm just like mom used to make. We had a good laugh but we were sad to leave the comfort of our old place and roommates behind.

Picture perfect Paris

2008-11-26T23:56:00.005+01:00

We went to see some stores which we had researched before we got here and ended up right in front of the tourist haven that is the Eiffel Tower, but it made for a good photo op and then we moved along. We walked near the Palais de Tokyo which seemed really interesting but unfortunately not on our agenda. The back end of it has these great statues and they are all covered in graffiti, it also has a lot of windows smashed out and boarded up which we thought was really strange for a massive museum. There an older woman said she loved Judys dress (we made it!) and wanted to take a photo of the two of us (sartorialist?) After that we went on and strolled down the St. Honoré, stopped to look in Sonia Rykiel, Christian Lacroix, Christian Louboutin, Lanvin, and Junko Shimada before calling it a day and heading home. We keep seeing models every where we go and one today was staring at Judy like she wanted to take her home. Judy was too enamored to respond, too bad.

Brrrrrrrr.....

2008-11-23T23:23:00.003+01:00

Judy had her whole face rapped up and everyone else was wearing heels with no socks. (I think that's the first time everyone knew we weren't from Paris) check the invisible hand.
Amazing illustrations from the 20's
Vintage Couture
How did they make pixelated fabric before there was even such a thing as a pixel.

Well, winter is definitely here. It actually snowed today and it was so freakin cold. Most of the businesses are closed on Sunday(and Monday) so we decided to go to the Puces de St. Ouen (Flea market). Grant really needs boots and within 5 minutes of being outside he knew his vans just weren't going to cut it. You have to walk through a huge perimeter of junky new clothes to get to the amazing vintage stuff but once you get there it is pretty unreal. Everything from the vintage Chanel Couture shop to this crazy shop of all one of a kind accessories. The prices are pretty high but Judy considered going into permanent debt for this 1900's circus themed projector powered by a candle. Everyone is really strict about taking photos though so we only got about three before we were told it is not ok to take photos.

The French are onto something

2008-11-23T01:36:00.006+01:00

Here are some more photos from the past couple days. The first one is from a really cool gallery we stumbled into featuring all these Andy Warhol photos. The next is from this bar that we walked past several times but was always too crowded to get in. The bar is called Machine á ecrire and if the wallpaper doesn't give it away it means typewriter in french. There was a guy singing on top of the bar and if this place were in San Francisco it would be the most popular hipster bar ever. Lastly this is how people move furniture in Paris. Makes sense right? forget day laborers, just get this handy elevator and shut down traffic for the whole day so you can move in your furniture through the window.

Graffiti Report #1

2008-11-21T00:28:00.000+01:00

Paris is super smashed. The streets are like a free art gallery on nearly every Rue. For the record Horfe, and space invader are killing shit. More to come in future posts.

Touristy stuff

2008-11-19T23:44:00.000+01:00

   Judy battling for space at the Sacré-Coeur
   On top of it all
   On the banks of the Seine near the Louvre
   Judy takes a second to consult the map near George Pompidou
   Pullin a fast one at Yohji Yamamoto
   Lunch at the Water Bar

We have been here for about a week and it feels like we have already done and seen so many things. Paris is an amazing city filled with history around nearly every corner. Its hard to not whip out your camera and pose in front of every building on the street. We also had lunch today at colette just to say that we did. Everyone was looking at Judy like she was a movie star (at least in our heads). Then we went to the brand new Yohji Yamamoto museum....I mean store. I almost died when I saw this crazy hat was retailing for 1200 euros. After that I didn't look at any more price tags and just oogled over each piece individually. And lastly something about watching two gorgeous models being buzzed in to the Chanel atelier is quite a reminder that were not in San Francisco anymore.

Paris goin hyphy

2008-11-18T22:04:00.000+01:00

This video was being filmed right around the corner from our house. Some thugs came up to Judy to tell her she couldn't take a photo but they didn't say anything about a video.

Oakland to Paris

2008-11-16T20:43:00.000+01:00

Before we left San Francisco we were told by Ben of the store Modern Appealing Clothing to search out a gallery which is part of the Creative Growth Art Center, called Galerie Impaire. Once we arrived we were greeted by the artist J. Otto Seibold and the Gallery curator Jennifer, both from Oakland California. The show was entitled Dream homes and one song guitars The art was very cool and we were also treated to a very intimate performance by the musician Spiral Stairs(Pavement) and the band Bombazine Black. If you haven't heard of any of the artists you need to check them out. The Creative Growth Art Center is a organization which funds artists and is very worthy of everyones support, so look them up as well.

Please Dress Up! in Paris

2008-11-13T23:53:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time coming and even though it was sad to leave our friends and families behind we have finally arrived here in Paris. We hope to use this blog to inform and inspire people of our daily accounts of life here. For our very first blog we will use it as an opportunity to remember our beautiful home and friends in San Francisco. Enjoy

     Our insane Fabric collection
James and a dead guy
Judy had to wear all her hats to get them to Paris
     Vi's smashed
(if you want it)
   dia de los muertos
     Project Runway
Nina and Noah supermodel
   Zana be our model please