My New Blog

This morning I created a new blog using Blogger.  I feel like I will be able to personalize my blog more than I can using WordPress.  Sometimes I just don’t understand WordPress….like when people link to one of my posts, but they don’t have my correct name.  It is very strange.  Anyway, the new site is www.jenniferjanesstylejournal.blogspot.com.  Hopefully I this new project will inspire me to post more often about the things that I enjoy and love!

Design For Mankind

One of my new favorite blogs is Design For Mankind.  They have a category called “Roadmaps: A Guide to Creative Pursuit” which is very helpful.  It includes not only inspiration, but also has advice and information to give readers the motivation to live out their dreams.   So much fun!

My Erte Arrives!

A few months back, I ordered an Erte print. I was sooo excited when it arrived, but the frame was wrong, so it had to be sent back and reframed. Now our living room is pretty much complete with my Erte girl. I just finished reading Barbara Walter’s memoir, and she told how Erte designed show costumes for her father’s nightclub. She now collects his sketches and has a whole wall of them. I would love to see a picture of that.

The ugliest frame known to man…

Horst: 20th Century Photographer

For some weird reason, I have not received the past two issues of Domino in my mailbox…So, I was browsing their site and saw a mention of Horst photography, which sent me off on a search for more information on this iconic photographer.

Horst, born in Germany, began his career in 1931 in Paris and first became known for his fashion photographs in Vogue, which featured unique lighting and sculptural influences. In the 1960s, Horst began to create lifestyle portraits and interior photos in the United States for Vogue and House and Garden, many of which can be seen in the book Horst: Interiors by Barbara Plumb (currently available on amazon.com for $82.57). Also, the Staley Wise Gallery has a collection of Horst’s work for sale (price available upon request). These images below are just a few of my favorites from the site www.horstphorst.com. Enjoy!

Mainbocher Corset, 1939

1952

Babe Paley, 1964

First Lady Mrs. Nixon

Yves Saint Laurent, 1986

Pattern for Seaside Accessories

I love this Burda Seaside Accessories pattern! How cute is the tent?

You can buy this pattern from Fabric.com for only $7.98 AND the sewing level is easy!

Where I Stand

Cinevegas.com photo

We couldn’t resist visiting the CineVegas Film Festival again yesterday and watching the film Where I Stand. The movie told the story of Hank Greenspun and was so much more than what I was expecting. I knew the Greenspun name as a publisher here in Las Vegas, but Hank’s influence was felt in so much more.

From Brooklyn, NY, Hank moved to Las Vegas after serving in WWII and became a publicist, working with Bugsey Siegel. Over the next couple of decades, Hank was involved in so much, including smuggling weapons to Palestine as part of the Haganah (the details of that are just amazing), starting his own newspaper with his famous “Where I Stand” column (one upping his competitor whose was titled “Where I Sit”), publicly opposing Senator Joe McCarthy, being the founder of Nevada’s first television station, offering free services to subscribers who were audited by the IRS, and negotiating the buying of several casinos for Howard Hughes, which helped clean up Las Vegas from the mob.

There’s more, but since I’m not an expert, read this excerpt of the New York Time’s 1989 obituary:

“Mr. Greenspun’s dealings with Mr. Hughes gave him a small place in the history of the Watergate affair. J. Anthony Lukas, author of ”Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years,” wrote that President Richard M. Nixon’s operatives planned a second burglary in addition to the famous one at the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. The target was Mr. Greenspun’s safe at The Las Vegas Sun, which was believed to contain memos about dealings between Mr. Hughes and Bebe Rebozo, the former President’s close friend.” An audio tape is played in the movie of Nixon speaking of Greenspun and saying something like “Cris, everyone knows who Hank Greenspun is”.

Greenspun helped end the racial discrimination in Las Vegas (which I didn’t even know had existed). He was also very involved in trying to establish Middle East peace, but that was all a little bit above my head…You could tell he had friends in high places. Hank was very vocal on protecting citizens during the nuclear testing and the Yucca Mountain situation (again, another situation that I know little about). All while raising a family!

The director, Scott Goldstein, hopes to have national big screen distribution. This review of the movie doesn’t do it justice, but I think Hank is such an inspiration to us all (especially young people) that his story deserves to be shared.

Cool Site: Lipstick Tracez

The bloggers of Lipstick Tracez

I just love trendcentral.com. This morning, their newsletter featured cool websites and included was Lipstick Tracez. The founder, Reggie Casagrande, wants to “provide a culture-rich, lifestyle-driven destination for women”. That already sounds refreshing and fabulous! A little bit more from the Trendcentral newsletter: “…she’s handpicked an arsenal of dynamic women, including entrepreneurs, artists, designers, journalists, educators, and other creative types, to continually contribute their thoughts, ideas, and dreams about art, street trends and pop culture as they see fit. In addition to the 18 individual “lipstick” blogs, the site also features interviews with and original content from emerging and established names in the art and design worlds.”

I checked out a few of the blogs already and was pleased. The women all seem great-edgy with their own minds. In fact, on Cindy’s blog, I thought I recognized her bedroom, and as it turns out, she is one of the designers of the fashion line Libertine. (Her apartment was featured in Domino last year-I swear I am not a stalker). Anyway, I can’t wait to check out all of the ladies’ blogs and hope you do to!

Chelsea on the Rocks

Today, as part of the CineVegas Film Festival, my boyfriend and I watched the documentary titled Chelsea on the Rocks from filmmaker Abel Ferrara. We both loved it before we even saw it because it is based on the famous Hotel Chelsea in New York City. Also, the movie was shown at Cannes, so I figured it was worthy of watching. In my opinion, there could have been some improvements (such as labeling who the speakers were, cutting out some recreated scenes), but the information from the interviews in the film cannot be found elsewhere, so that makes it a winner in my eyes.

Some background on the Hotel Chelsea from its own website: “The hotel has always been a center of artistic and bohemian activity and it houses artwork created by many of the artists who have visited. The hotel was the first building to be listed by New York City as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note. The twelve-story red-brick building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883 as a private apartment cooperative that opened in 1884; it was the tallest building in New York until 1899. At the time Chelsea, and particularly the street on which the hotel was located, was the center of New York’s Theater District. However, within a few years the combination of economic worries and the relocation of the theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building was purchased and opened as a hotel.

Owing to its long list of famous guests and residents, the hotel has an ornate history, both as a birth place of creative modern art and home of bad behavior.”

The documentary focused on telling stories of past and current residents, who are now facing eviction from new management and the hotel being turned into a boutique hotel (which is pretty much what has happened since the filming last fall). I had heard a lot about this debate of the hotel not being a haven for creative people anymore, and I enjoyed the movie because it gave me enough information to form my own opinion about what I think is best. Most surprising was how nice the hotel looked. The Victorian Gothic architecture creates a unique atmosphere, which I cannot wait to visit-which I am glad I have waited because now knowing so much of the pop culture history that has taken place there, I can appreciate it more.

Photos from hotelchelsea.com

New Cartier Love Bracelets

Wow. I noticed a lot of interest in my post from last fall of my Cartier cord bracelet, so I thought I should pass on this link to Fashion Week Daily. This is the third year for the cord bracelets and with that comes some changes. The main difference is price! This year the bracelet is $995, but it does come with two rings and $200 goes to charity. The color of the cord determines what charity the money goes to, which can make it hard if you feel strongly about a cause but don’t like the color. Anyway, eight musicians were chosen to be ambassadors this year and on June 19th, you can visit http://www.love.cartier.com and download the ambassadors’ favorite love songs. Fashion Week Daily explains this all much better than me, so make sure you check out their article.

Photo fashionweekdaily.com

Bridal Gowns

My good friend use to work for Winnie Couture, a bridal dress company, and one day was given the task of coming up with names for the dresses. They didn’t want simple, common names, so from our names, Christine named some dresses after us! She said she didn’t get to pick which particular dress would be named after me, but I like the Jenibelle style and like to think of myself as a muse. These dresses are still available, so visit winniecouture.com for locations and information if you love them!

Photos from winniecouture.com