Yoko, Oh No!

We'd heard that Yoko Ono had a new line of clothing out - Fashions for Men - based on drawings she'd done for John Lennon waaaaaay back before many of you were born (but not before WE were born) and that it was available at chic, edgy Opening Ceremony, so as soon as we had the opportunity, we rushed right down to see it with our own eyes. We are not yet on the A list (how can that be?!), so we had no inkling that we'd already missed the book signing just a few days before until one of the store employees told us so. Darn!

Here is a copy of the banner outside Opening Ceremony's Howard Street store.

And a better view of some of those Fashions for Men.

The window display at Opening Ceremony shown above says it all. The customized knee pads, adorned with fashion-lashed eyeballs, were Jean's favorite. The blue hands strategically placed over the crotch area and the plexiglass chest plate with 2 metal bells (yes, they work) were a little more in your face than tongue in cheek, so to speak.

While we were cavorting outside the store, trying to take pictures in the fading light, these two young handsome Spaniards - fashion designers Lucas and Andreas - stopped and asked to take our pictures for their street style blog. We of course agreed, with our usual proviso - that they'd take a photo with us. How thrilled were we when we went to hand them our card to learn that they already knew exactly who we were!

After checking out the Yoko Ono for Men clothing and accessories, we meandered through all four floors of the store, finding lots of names we recognized, and lots of interesting pieces we probably wouldn't find anywhere else. While Jean was smitten with some of the sunglasses on the third floor, Valerie singled out this fabulous shirt with an architectural print and a quilted disc over each breast. Shades of Jean Paul Gaultier! And we guess if you fell down wearing it, you wouldn't hurt yourself!

That was our Women of a Certain Age Misbehaving photo. We weren’t allowed to photograph once we were in the store (and there was a security guard nearby to enforce that, in case any older women should show up and try to flaut a few rules), so the picture we took through the window – of the pants with two hands on them, and the plexiglass chestplate with bells - was the only one of Yoko’s Fashions for Men we got while on the premises. But don’t despair, readers! To see the full line, click here. We thought you’d also like to see an interview of Yoko Ono by Opening Ceremony founder Humberto Leon: And if you have any trouble with the embedded video, click here for a link that will take you to it. Utterly to her own shock and surprise, Valerie wound up buying a pair of shoes (on sale, natch) that we're NOT going to show you yet. That's for a future post, where they will be paired with the right outfit. But she also bought a set of six bee clips ($2), which might go onto her orange hive hat, and which we CAN show you. (Isn't the internet wonderful? These are the exact clips, but the photo was on line.)

Jean says: Aren't they just the "bee's knees"?  Ever wonder where that funny expression came from? According to the online Phrase Finder: "There's no profound reason to relate bees and knees other than the jaunty-sounding rhyme. In the 1920s, it was fashionable to use no nonsense terms to denote excellence -- 'the snake's hips', 'the kipper's knickers', 'the cat's pyjamas/whiskers', 'the monkey's eyebrows' and so on. Of these, 'the bee's knees' and 'the cat's whiskers' have stood the test of time. The nonsense expression 'the bee's knees' what taken up by the socialites of Roaring 20's America and added to the list of 'excellent' phrases."  We think we've got some new doozies to work into future conversations.

Afterward, we had just enough time to step into one of our favorite people-watching haunts, the Bari Cafe, which has great picture window on two floors (and a spiral staircase connecting them). Jean had the homemade tomato and parmesan soup (absolutely yummy) and a latte while Valerie had a decaf (decaf! sure sign of age!) cappuccino. As we were getting up to leave, two young women exiting at the same time asked to take a picture with us. The lady between us is also a blogger. The obliging waiter took this photo with Jean's camera.

Then we split up and made our way to separate commitments for the evening. Jean went to the Etsy pop-up store for Ari Seth Cohen's book signing and Debra Rapoport's hat making clinic.

What we're wearing:

Jean is wearing a Maria Del Greco hat with vintage bakelite pin; High Use coat;  Brigitte pants; Donna Karan turtleneck sweater; red leather Tignanelo bag.

Valerie is wearing a polka dot hat from Brigitte, coat by Issey Miyake, open felt scarf by Tiiti Tolonen, shoes by Arche, and nothing else you can see!

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 BONUS PICTURES Just for fun, we thought we'd include these.

See any similarities between the photo above and the one below? We did. We couldn't have taken that picture if we'd tried, but sometimes good comes out of not trying. Or at least fun comes out of it.

And in honor of our two Spaniard friends: