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beauty bath & home
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If starting a line weren't enough madness for this year we had to experience the madness of moving in NYC. We live in the lovely neighborhood of Astoria which is just a short jaunt on the N/Q trains (and the former W- which was discontinue this weekend- we'll have to discuss the death of NYC subway lines in another post) We've also written about the amazing culture that our neighborhood has to offer like Socrates Sculpture park and it's summer foreign films, the Noguchi Museum, and not to mention the plethora of European style outdoor cafes, fine dining, theaters and shopping nearby, and another New York museum we've been waiting to be renovated to visit The Museum of the Moving Image located right next to Kaufman Astoria Studios where a lot of the films made in NYC make a stop.
Anywho, we thought we'd share a bit of our home and studio with you, this is where the designs get dreamt up and initially made before we take them off to the NY garment center to be produced. So as we searched for a new space this spring we wanted to find one with wonderful light, energy, and that could house all of the creative goodness we have going on in design AND in our kitchen. After all home is where the heart is, and our home is unique in that it houses more than just our place of rest but our place of work and play. We hope you like this little sneak peak into our creative world complete with our rambunctious mascot isabela Marchesa III who inspired our Fall/Winter 2010 color story with her pretty palette of ivory, grey, and pale peach, when she's not dozing on a pile of fabric you will find her contemplating the squirrels and pigeons nesting on the firescape or chasing her favorite toy affectionately nicknamed "ferret" for it's long black furry shape.
PS I will be updating this post with a couple more pictures I realized I forgot to get a photo of Mirna the mannequin and other little corners and angles!
In front of Izzy is a vintage hassock fan that we found on craigslist, it's a really wonderful piece of unique americana. I think its shape looks like the grill on a vintage automobile! It also cools really a room really nicely by pulling cold air from the floor and directing it upwards with a funnel effect.
Another nice thing about Astoria apartments is that most are pre-war and have beautiful hardwood or parquet flooring. There's so much more character in these walls and floors.
I have a labeling machine I put to good use! I really like that if people come over they can see what and where things are, and it always seems to lead to conversations. It's like adding a little viewing glass to what's inside.
I love blue and white pottery, you'll find it all around our apt, and I hope to have a whole wall or curio of it one day! Also a pretty blue and white tin that I've carried with me since I was a kid houses little bits and bobs.
As you would expect of a fashion designer I collect books on things I love like Lingerie, pin-ups, fashion, and in the image above is a prized book on Vionette. i found it in a used bookstore and since it has been out of print for a while and in high demand I was almost jumping up and down when I found it! Also in the image is a vintage bra I purchased at one of the vintage shows I attended this winter. I like having things with character around, even if they don't specifically inspire a design I enjoy being surrounded by beautiful things.
A new addition to our studio since we moved is this cutting/pattern table, it gave off nicest pine smell when we first assembled it. Isabela aka Izzy likes to sleep on the piles of fabric beneath, often to my chagrin since I end up having to lint roll EVERYTHING. Her antics are worth it though. Pins, pattern weights, and different rulers adorn the top, currently covered in SS11 fabrics about to be cut for samples.
An inspiration board (which I've been meaning to update with new tears and images I've been collecting since before our move) and organizing bins for all of our reference materials and seasonal fabrics round out the room.
Thank you for all of you who regularly read, shop, and follow us and I'd like to take a moment to ask you to say hello either on here or twitter or facebook! We'd love to hear from you, and we hope if you try or enjoy of our recipes, stories, or better yet one of our pieces and don't mind sharing your experience, by all means leave us some love!! xo
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Personally I am fantasizing about the even warmer weather, of breezy summer dresses and shoes being pulled out of their boxes and given new life. One thing I don't have and will be shopping for this spring is a bicycle, yes a shiny new vintage inspired bike is what I am craving. Why not authentic vintage? Well, I am in love with all things old but somehow riding a vintage bike does not seem safe in a city like New York with all the cabs, cars, etc, but I will be looking for a true vintage bike for some other projects/decor too! I'll let you know how I fair.
To inspire you to go and discover the world around you anew this spring two vintage images of some bikes I'm looking to for inspiration. A good cruising bike lets you sit upright and less hunched forward. It should also have lower bars in the center to allow for wearing a longer skirt or summer dress (more like the green bike above), and a guard to prevent anything getting caught up in the wheels, but you'll probably still have to find a chic way to tie up that summer skirt when the time comes- ahh the troubles of spring! I won't mind at all.
Some sites I've been browsing that have a really great selection of bikes for girls:
REI cruiser bikes
A Bike Store
Beach Bikes
Chubby's Cruisers
Of course my fave bike was out of stock, but if you want to see my pick click here
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I don't care whether it's holiday, valentine's day, or labor day- red lipstick never goes out of style! There is no better way to update your look and totally change the way your face looks than to throw on a gorgeous shade of red.
To start you will need:
*A red lipstick in a shade that's right for you (Ask someone at the makeup counter to help you find the right shade for you, and always make sure to walk outside and check it in the daylight too!)
*Matching lipliner
*concealer, liquid foundation, or some sort of lip primer
Here I used Mac satin finish lipstick in "MAC red" and Mac Lip pencil in "redd" with a touch of MAC Dazzleglass creme in "Do it up", and I think it's the perfect shade for a wide range of skin tones and to get that fresh "pin-up-y" look!
If you have chapped lips (and right now it's the middle of a blizzard here in NYC so many of us might!) a good way to prep your lips and get rid of any flakiness is to brush them, yes brush them with a toothbrush! Not to hard but just enough to bascially exfoliate your lips.
Apply your primer/foundation/concealer. If you are putting on foundation anyways it's easy just to cover your lips as well, and what this does is give a dry base to prevent cracking in the color
Next line your lip with a red liner to define your lips edge and also to help prevent the color from bleeding
Apply lipstick, and you can do this with a brush or from the tube. A brush will layer on the color whereas straight from the tube will go on thicker.
Blot between your lips with tissue, and run your finger between your lips like a lollipop (this takes out any lipstick that might've gotten on your teeth!)
I usually go back and add more color if blotting took too much off, and also a dab of gloss to the pout to accentuate
Another neat trick I picked up is to add a highlighter like Benefit's HighBeam to the outside corner of your mouth, this emphasizes the sharp corners you've drawn in
Now get ready to break some hearts!
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I think people are surprised to find out that I do the hair and makeup for our shoots, but I'm too much of a perfectionist to keep my hands off!! I've spent years tackling my own persian mane, and also getting friends and roomates to sit still for me to do makeup has been a much loved past-time. I've had to lend a hand to fix or touch up hair on shoots in the past, and also am no stranger to the fashion show backstage, and along the way I have picked up the tricks of the trade and developed my own technique for that perfect sexy tousled just slept in look.
To start you will need:
Blow Dryer
Strong Hold Hairspray
Large Barrel Curling Iron (1 1/2 to 2" should do it!)
Basic Hair clips (bobby pins will work if you're in a pinch but are harder to handle and can leave a crease)
Large Velcro Rollers
Shine Spray/Serum
-You want to start with semi-straight hair
*do not use a flattening iron or you'll never get the volume back in!!** so blow dry your hair straight and dry or let it air dry
-Next you're going to section your hair off into 3 parts
1. The hair around your neck below your ears
2. The hair between your ear's and the crown of your head
3. The crown (by the crown I mean just where a crown would sit on your head, simple right?)
- Pin the hair above your ears up so you have room to move, and moving around your head start curling your hair by wrapping sections around the curling iron
TIP **To remove frizz run the curling iron along your hair from root to tip like a straightening iron before wrapping
**For fine or super straight hair spray the hairspray on your hands and run over each section
-You know when to release the hair from the iron when you touch it and it feels hot, not warm (this may singe your fingers a little depending on the temp your iron goes up to, but it's worth the end result and also keeps you from over-heating your hair!)
-When you release the curl, don't let it fall open! Keep the curl wrapped as it was around the barrel and pin it to the scalp like in the picture. This may take some practice, but once you get the hang of it you can work through sections rather quickly.
-For the hair on the crown I like to "smooth curl" the hair, and then roll it over BIG velcro curlers. Running the curling iron over it heats it up so it takes the shape of the velcro roller better, and the velcro keeps itself in place without any pins that could cause lines.
- At this point it's important to let your hair SIT & COOL, if you don't the curls will fall out much faster, once the hair cools the shape gets set in and you'll have springy bouncy curls! So do your makeup, read a magazine, relax until your hair gets cool
-Remove the pinned curls and rollers, and at this point you can spritz with shine serum or apply a small amount of a liquid shine serum to your hands. Run your hands through the curls, breaking them up and evenly distributing the shine which returns luster that hairspray can take away
-Finally you may want to recurl the front of your hair from your crown to blend in and define depending on your hair's length you may or may not need to.
VOILA!
(To get Jaime's look here, take the hair at the front of your crown and smooth back and push forward until you get a "pouf", anchor with two criss-crossed bobby pins at your crown.)
Now you too can be ready for your moment in the spotlight, and no matter who your partner is they will be sure to want to reach out and touch your seriously sexy locks!
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"I painted these as I was starting the brand, & I wanted to visualize the girl I was designing for. I was just starting to work with watercolor and it took a couple of tries until I found a way to keep the color where I wanted it, and in the end I was so happy with the images that I decided to use them for my namesake brand & site. I think there's something so ethereal about images in watercolor... the way it bleeds in some places, the way the colors run together. I'm going to make a point to do more as I move the brand forward, because on the night's before a photoshoot or in dreaming up a new collection I keep picturing a moment in my head before it even happens and something about putting it on paper puts me at ease. I hope you enjoy them!" xo Layla
all images copyright Layla L'obatti
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So with the holiday season fast approaching I want to find fresh packaging ideas for gifts and gift boxes. You know how hum drum most brown packages you get in the mail look? Well I just received some samples back from Birdie's Panties in Kansas City (who've picked us up for next spring!) and they actually had this tape I've been eyeing for a while! It's a lace tape by a company called Papermash and I just thought it was so special! Kudos to Birdie's for going the extra mile, so I'm hoping you'll all be ordering our panties from them in the spring and enjoying the lovely wrapping as well! If you're planning on shipping anything in a brown box, I also suggest you give it a little oomph and spring for this adorable tape!
 
UPDATE: Papermash no longer seems to be carrying the tape... maybe they sold out from all of our readers? I also found what I believe is the tape's designer, Kari Zahn, and her site sells/ships from Brooklyn! So to shop directly from her click here
And since I'm a nerd at heart, I totally appreciate this adorable birthday card that looks just like the card from the inside of a library book. (Old school I know! now all you have is scanner barcodes, but I love the nostalgia of it!)
click here to get someone this special card or just to add it to your collection!
Another great holiday giving idea is a bottle of wine, and of course you don't want to look like you just ran to the store and showed up. This little wine tag makes you look incredible pulled together, and even though bringing wine can seem snob factor the card proclaims your sense of humor or your naivety!
click here for this wine tag
Finally we absolutely recommend joining Birdie's "Panty of the Month Club" or getting it for someone close! What a fabulous way to share your love of lingerie (and we're hoping you love lingerie if you're reading this blog!) You can call for details at: 816.842.BIRD (2473)
Click here to visit Birdie's Panties and also see their lovely illustrations of each of the designs they carry!
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Hi ladies and gents...this one is directed at the ladies. I feel like so many people hesitate to spend the extra money to buy lingerie that will last. And what a shame if they finally do and they don't take proper care of it, thus shortening their luxury piece's life! Solution the bra dryer, which we found out about through the lingerie post.  I've been trying to figure out if you dry it flat or if you dry it standing up. If it's meant to be standing, well I'm not sure but these images don't look like it would work that way for soft cups. I love the concept though because so many bras meet their demise in the dry cycle with your jeans and other clothes! Until the bra dryer comes out, wash your bras by hand if you can and lay flat to dry. There are some other bra drying solutions that can keep cup shape intact (which I need to say I have not tested myself) but that make a lot of sense if you're a lingerie lover and/or neat freak who needs to do everything just right! Which I am, so you can bet that if this bra dryer works I'm going to be asking santa for one around christmas! For now, some other bra drying tools are out there, but really just a table and some rolled up tissue... well I guess we really need the bra dryer then don't we! xoxo L
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