The Glamorous Life

Monday night, I attended the Glamour Magazine Women of the Year Awards at Carnegie Hall. It was a really fun night - at times funny, heart-breaking, inspiring and very glamorous. You can read all about the amazing honorees in the December issue of Glamour (yes, that means go buy it), so I won't go into too much detail here. But the highlights for me were Gloria Steinem, Cindy Sherman and Esraa Abdel Fattah.

The night made me think back on my college days (so, so long ago) and the seeming contradiction between what I studied (Religion and Women) and what I wore (before the siren song of gravity and french fries had their way with my abs, I never met a sheer top I didn't like). Are you less serious if you are glamorous or want to feel pretty/attractive? I think sometimes women are made to feel there is a choice between the pursuit of intellect/good works and the pursuit of beauty. Was worrying about my freshman 15 unworthy of me? I thought so at the time.

One of the honorees Monday evening made light of some of the lighter topics covered by Glamour and, in my opinion, implied that despite the good works of highlighting 13 accomplished and inspiring women, Glamour panders to a lower common denominator. The joke seemed a little forced and heavy-handed.

Some of the smartest (scary smart) women I know, are the most beautiful and glamorous (and I'm not necessarily talking about inner beauty). There's nothing wrong with that.

On a lighter note, those of you who read my blog regularly (hi mom! hi Chud!) may recall that I had a fashion dilemma about how to dress for a glamorous evening when 36 weeks pregnant. This is what I wore on Monday:

Spring '11 Knot Trench - with Helmut Lang stretch cupro dress, Chanel open toe boots and Chanel evening bag.

Star Snaps

What I wore to Star Snaps:

Spring '11 Knot Trench with Topshop striped dress and my trusty maternity Uggs.

My husband tells me that he prefers my blog posts that say something beyond just a listing of what items of clothing I am wearing. He enjoys my musings and ramblings, it seems. Sometimes life has its disappointments. He'll have to check back another time for a more thoughtful post.

...waiting for the elevator with Stephanie Tran. She's paired a coat she designed for Duskin with ISABEL MARANT. I've paired a coat I designed for gryphon with TOPSHOP.

....waiting for some stud samples to play with

....waiting for me to finish mapping out stud placement - Frank's about to tell me he's tired of waiting and he could have been getting so much done back at the office. I was stifling his productivity. I needed him to be my gryphon to Star Snaps ambassador. For some reason Star Snaps likes Frank much more than they like me. I know, I too am confused by that. I think we're at least equally likable.

All photo credits: Stephanie Tran

Claudia

At 34 weeks pregnant, my daily routine of deciding what to wear has narrowed down to very few options and even fewer that are gryphon. In my pre-pregnancy life, I wore at least 1 piece of gryphon a day (not out of any obligation to myself) but more just because I liked to and it makes sense to me to take advantage of the hundreds of samples I have in the archives. Lately, I've been down to zero items of gryphon unless you count my coat that I take off indoors.

But today, it seemed slightly warmer to me (but really that was just the heat in my apartment kicking into high gear), so decided to wear the Claudia Skirt from our Spring '12 collection.

Claudia Skirt worn with a GAP maternity tank and my new UGGS! I know Uggs can be polarizing, but with 20 extra pounds weighing down on my feet, they are a dream....

Incubator

Warning: this post is not gryphon related, though it is a little bit about clothes and style.

I'm currently 7 months pregnant and while I am trying (though I'm not really trying THAT hard. I'm a little tired) to not be shallow and vain and obsessed with my looks, getting dressed is becoming increasingly difficult. We are currently in market for sales and press for the new Spring 2012 collection, meeting with store buyers and fashion editors and I feel pressure in this image based industry to represent my brand well. Every proportion and fabric that I used to take for granted as working for my body no longer does and I'm not completely convinced that those proportions and fabrics will magically look good on me again post-pregnancy.

So as I get dressed everyday and purge my closet to make room for my son (he may or may not be living in my closet, also known as our second bedroom), I stress over not just what to wear that day, but what I will wear in the future as a young mom (whoops. that was a wishful thinking slip. I meant NEW mom). My legs might appreciate a few more inches of length than the coverage my vast array of mini minis and short shorts provide. My son might not like being cuddled against some crunchy sequins.

And then today, I was faced with my hardest maternity fashion challenge to date: what to wear to a black tie event when 8 months pregnant? Oh the pressure! The horror! Can you imagine? A giant baby bump swathed in tight sequins, reflecting light at every angle? I have tried to purchase as few maternity pieces as possible since their useful life span is so short, but I think I may need to actually buy an appropriate dress for these upcoming occasions. But what do I buy? What do I even look for?

I'll try to think about this subject of my pregnant looks a little less and focus on other things, like eating well for my baby and being nice to my husband. But, I can't make any promises.

This is the gym at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi, where I realized that my sudden weight gain and crushing fatigue might actually be a fetus, and not old age and jetlag

4 months - not so hard to get dressed yet.

5 months - don't look at me. I'm hideous.

6+ months - adding more and more stretch fabrics to my wardrobe

This picture's just funny.

Scenes from a Look Book Shoot

Gryphon doesn't have a big marketing budget (really, it's pretty non-existent) — we don't do a runway show, we don't have a fashion week presentation and we don't work with a PR agency. We do, however, shoot look books each season to have a representation for our buyers and press of how we envision the collection. It's really our only form of branding and we have a lovely team of amazing talent that works with us each season. We'll be shipping Fall 2011 (yes, already!) to stores in July and (hopefully) posting our Fall 2011 look book pictures to the website soon. In the meantime, here's a few behind the scenes pictures from the Fall shoot.

The night before the shoot, testing paint colors for our backdrop

Finished backdrop - Svieta on set

Svieta being prepped by April Greaves and Susan Joy

Laurence and April

We took a brief break to take a group portrait. From left: Kevin Sturman, Tom Dunn, Stephanie Tran, Aimee Cho, Laurence, Stephanie Feller, Elif Ucan, Frank Park, April Greaves, Susan Joy.

We always have friends and family and children and animals dropping by during the weekend of the shoot - it helps us all take ourselves a little less seriously and adds a festive, reunion-like feel to the weekend. Below are some images of our small, smaller and tiny special visitors:

Eloise - our budding animal rights activist, much more interested in cat videos on youtube than in the models on set

August, eyeing Boo and Billy off screen. He was alternately fascinated and terrified of the dogs

Our tiniest visitor of the weekend - Oliver Sturman!

Family Portrait! Boo and Billy with Tim and Tom

Almost done with the shoot - me celebrating and Susan getting me ready for my close-up

Trial and Error

When we're prepping for our look book shoots, the lovely and talented Susan Joy usually puts together looks and we talk them over and see what's working (and not) and what areas we might need to fill in and what types of accessories we want to pull for the shoot. It's easiest to tell whether something's working by seeing it on the body. That's not always possible due to budget and/or schedule. In those cases, we might make outfits and lay them out on the floor (which is something my friend Meredith and I used to do when she edited Vogue Index and I worked for her - yes, seeing clothes on the floor makes me nostalgic for Vogue).

Successful Fall 2010 look book prep on the floor:

Sometimes, we're lucky enough to have a professional model come and do a fitting (which really is the best way to figure out if proportions are working), like the super cool Linda Beecroft, who makes everything look chic and relaxed.

Successful Fall 2011 look book prep on Linda:

And once in a blue moon, if we're struggling with a look that's really not coming together and the floor's not cutting it, I might try a few things on. Those are usually desperate times and somehow, my trying it on doesn't result in a magic fix.

UNSUCCESSFUL Spring 2010 looks:

Say Cheese

Today was the SKII photo shoot! The gryphon top I wore to the shoot made me look a little washed out on screen, so sadly no gryphon will appear in the advertorial (except me). But they did let me wear a lovely pink Marni top.....and really, who can complain about that? I forgot to take a few behind the scenes pictures on set, but here's a picture of me still in full hair and makeup from the shoot.

Go buy this product. It really works. I'm not just saying it because they took my picture.

For Goodness Saké

I have mixed feelings about sake. I've had some delicious sake (both hot and cold), and a sake bomb (or 5 or 6) may have fueled a fun night or 2 in my distant and not so distant past. But given a choice, I'll always choose a sancerre over sake. Always. Or so I thought.

About a week and a half ago, I was approached by SKII skincare to participate in an advertorial shoot they're doing with Harper's Bazaar. I have to admit I was a little skeptical. I'm pretty bare bones (read lazy) in my skin-care routine. But as I just turned 35 last week and have started to detect some unflattering signs of aging on my face (increased discoloration, dry skin and 'gasp' wrinkles!), I thought I would give it a try.

I filled out an online questionnaire and 3 products magically appeared on my desk a few days later. SKII's signature ingredient, Pitera, was discovered in the fermentation process in sake brewing (were you wondering how I was going to tie back the sake intro?). Of the products I've been trying, the Facial Treatment Essence is the one I think everyone should go out and buy. The skin on my face and hands are noticeably smoother after just 1 week's use. It's really pretty genius.

What my skin will look like after a few more weeks

Sake Bombed

Gryphon on the Road

It's gryphon's annual trip to India - visiting with current and potential new factories. This one was a whirlwind - 3 days in Delhi and 3 days in Bombay. I've barely adjusted to the jetlag and it's time to head home soon....

Poolside at the Taj Hotel, Bombay

Alexa Rodulfo candles at chic Bombay store, Le Mill

Karishma and Anita from Eske Commodities and gryphon's Alex

The interior of our taxi

The Theme showroom in Delhi

Beaders hard at work at R&B in Delhi

5, 7, 8!

We've moved (again)! First was the 5th floor, then the 7th floor....and now we've landed on the 8th floor. More (and hopefully higher quality) pictures to come at a later date, but here's a sneak peek at our new entryway....

Getting Dressed

New York Fashion Week means something very different in my life as a designer than it did in my life as a magazine editor.

Then, it meant running from 8am to 10pm everyday from back to back presentations and shows and the occasional party dressed as a better version of myself (or more fashionable version of myself). On the best of days when the clothes on the runway looked great and the clothes on me felt good, it was uplifting and transcendent (truly) to see beauty, creativity and commerce coalesce. On a bad day, when the clothes on the runway looked obvious or tired and so did I, it was exhausting. But there was always a certain joy to dressing up as the best possible version of me. It's about loving clothes and loving style - and that's why I do what I do.

Now, New York Fashion Week means a moment in time (well, really the start of a month-long moment in time) when several months of creative, physical and emotional upheaval is judged worthy or unworthy of generating approximately half of my annual revenue to sustain (or not) my little gryphon world. So far, it seems to have worked out okay....but it's still incredibly nerve-wracking. I like to escape by still obsessively looking at what's happening on the runway to see if I would have been having a fun day or a tiring one had my career stayed on its editorial path.

This morning, I saw the one show (so far) from NYFW that made me want to get dressed in something other than my pj's and face the day. I'm not wearing any gryphon (I did wear a gryphon coat over it all though), so it won't go on What Aimee Wore. It's not quite as chic or luxe as the original inspiration, but it still made me happy today. The Row made my week.

photo via style.com

photo via style.com

photo via my iphone