Jean's $100 Challenge Times Two!

Not that we're competitive or anything, but after Valerie hit a home run with her recent $100 challenge, I had to step up my game. The underlying premise to the exercise is to see how well put together we can be for around $100.  My take on this particular challenge was to create a day and evening look from the same basic building block. The foundation of this look is a simple, black (natch!) spaghetti strapped jumpsuit by Sweet Claire. It's 100% rayon, machine washable, weighs practically nothing and rolls up into a tiny, lightweight bundle (great for travel). Best of all, it cost a whopping $15 at Buffalo Exchange, a local consignment shop.  The $15 earrings are round black and white straw concentric circles, from the recent pop up vintage boutique in Industry City in Brooklyn. The necklace is a faux ostrich-covered metal collar that was a gift from the owner of the now-defunct Eva boutique on The Bowery.

I paired the romper with a black, white and green printed long-sleeved, round-necked Kamali Kulture top. The tag says that the color is "b/w color bomb" and that the material, which is 95% polyester and 5% spandex, is also machine washable. It is body-con but not super-clingy, especially considering it is size XS(!). Price? $20 from Beacon's Closet. The reversible head wrap, which is solid black on one side and black and white flamingo print on the other, has a wire sewn inside so that it keeps its shape. (As I crouch over my keyboard, I'm contemplating having one of those wires surgically implanted in my spine to keep me upright!) Although the regular price is $25, I got three of these wonderfully packable and practical accessories for $33 on sale at Enz, one of my favorite East Village boutiques. Trying to find fun, reasonably priced shoes is always a tough nut to crack. I'm wearing a pair of black nylon rubber-soled Skechers, scored at an outlet in Henderson, Nevada as half of a super BOGO sale (buy one, get one free) of two pairs for $30!

So what is the grand total of this outfit? Let's summarize, shall we? Repeat after me: $15 romper; $20 shirt; $15 earrings; $11 head wrap; $15 shoes; and $5 socks, for a grand total of $81.

But wait, there's more!!!  To make this go from day into evening (so important to have quick-change options when traveling), I added a jacket and lost the shirt. I switched to another head wrap, a black and white polka dot number, to go with my thrift shop polka dot earrings.  I found the jacket at a giant sale at Maggie's, a little boutique in a giant hall to the right of the main entrance to Union Station in Washington, D.C.  It is 65% polyester and 35% cotton and is also hand washable. (I was with my ex-boss who also scored a couple of nice items on sale.)

By removing the top and the socks, I subtracted $25 from the $81 total and added $50 for the jacket. The head wrap was the same price ($11) as were the thrift shop earrings ($15), shoes ($15) and romper ($15). So, my grand total for the second look? $106!  The combined price tag for two outfits is $187, which split down the middle comes to $93.50 each. Not too shabby!

So think creatively. Clothing doesn't have to be expensive or have a designer label to make you look and feel good. And, to quote the G.F.O.S. (God Father of Soul) himself, James Brown: "I feeeel goood." Ciao, kiddies!

HERE WE ARE IN GINZA

(the magazine, not the district)

If you've been following our Instagram account (what?!  you don't follow our Instagram account?!), you already know that we're featured in the August issue of Ginza magazine.  We're standing next to copies of the magazine at Kinokuniya, the local branch of the well known Japanese book store, and we're both holding it open to our page.  You probably can't tell, but those are pictures of us all over page 72.  (Valerie has already laminated that page so it will last for 10,000 years.)

But don't take our word for it.  We've blown up those tiny little figures so you can see for yourself that we're not pulling your leg.

AND we had the extra added pleasure of seeing ourselves on the table of contents page.  We're teeny tiny, but we're unmistakably there.  We added the red circles so you can find us more easily.  (Double click on any of these photos to get a better view.)

While we were at Kinokuniya, we met this handsome young man, Bryan Beaudoin, who generously offered to take our opening photograph. Turns out he also speaks Japanese and even offered to translate the article for us.

You can see the cover of Ginza on the display table, but we've blown that up for you too.  We can't for the life of us understand why we're not on the cover (or even mentioned on the cover - imagine!!!), but we figure we'll work our way up.

Now we can hear some of you asking "Yes, but what does it SAY?"

So here's Valerie's not-so-bad translation.  Anyone with a better translation is welcome to write in!

Ladies' Gorgeous Days

Valerie and Jean met at a vintage show in 2008.  When they saw each other's style, they felt an immediate connection.  When they started going around together, they were mistaken for stylists, artists or designers.  Because numerous people said 'you should have a blog so we could see more pictures of you', the next year they started a blog.  The blog, which they started for fun, has made more inroads than they imagined, and they received support not only from their own age group, but from young women as well.

This is what Jean and Valerie say about the world of fashion, where the needs of women of a certain age are ignored by designers, editors, magazines and advertisers:

"We're not dead and we're not invisible."  

"We want to break down the attitude that older women should not expect to be fashionable, and rebuild it." 

"If you think of the fact that 33% of Americans are over 50, designers should imagine what would happen if you could raise sales to that population."

Valerie lived in Japan in the '80s.  Both say the audacious '80s form the basis of their style.  Their favorite brands run the gamut from Issey Miyake to Alexander McQueen, with special mention going to New York-based Chromat.

Some of the advantages of aging?  'I'm not swayed by the opinions of others.  Experience gives me confidence in my own decisions.' (Valerie); 'There are no rules.' (Jean) 

One can't help envying these real fashionistas.


We said a lot more in our original interviews, but we're not going to go into all of that.  Our readers know us, and they pretty well know what we would say.

The Ambiguous Ambassador: Tseng Kwong Chi

We got an intriguing invitation from our friend, choreographer Muna Tseng, to attend her July 2nd narrated walk-through on of Grey Gallery's exhibition of photographs and videos by her late brother, artist Tseng Kwong Chi. We jumped at the chance to get a first-hand description of how they both came to New York from China in the 1970s to be artists, Muna as a dancer and Kwong Chi as a photographer. His work is also on display at the Metropolitan Museum as part of its China exhibition.

In his early work, Kwong Chi appeared in a Chinese worker's suit, also known as a Mao suit, wearing a cheesy clip-on ID badge of his own making that said "Visitor" in English and "Visiteur" in French. The suit combined with the badge gave him the appearance of a visiting dignitary and he was often mistaken for a Chinese ambassador or diplomat.  This was the genesis for the title of his book "Ambiguous Ambassador".  The man had a wicked sense of humor.  In his early black and white work, he took very formal photographs by himself with their dad's 35 mm camera mounted a tripod. You can see the remote clicker and cord in his hand in the photograph above in the show poster and in the one below. Kwong Chi traveled across the U.S. and Europe, taking photos in front of iconic tourist attractions like the Eiffel Tower and Mount Rushmore in this East Meets West series. The 1979 photograph below was taken in Hollywood Hills, CA. In the poster above, he posed in front of Niagara Falls. The photos have a naive, whimsical, almost Zelig-like quality.

Muna's walk-through was totally delightful. She shared stories and anecdotes and gave us a very loving and revealing behind-the-scenes look at her brother's work and the New York scene in the 1970s and 1980s. Kwong Chi died of AIDs on March 10, 1990, as did many of his contemporaries, including Keith Haring who died less than a month earlier on February 16, 1990. Muna choreographed a tribute to Kwong Chi's life in her dance-performance piece "SlutForArt a.k.a. Ambiguous Ambassador". The Grey Gallery show closes July 11th but is traveling to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA 8/18 - 12/13/15 an to Tufts University Art Gallery at the Shirley and Alex Aidekman Arts Center 1/21 - 5/22/16.  See it if you can.  You'll thank us.

While the iconic images of Bill T. Jones in full body-paint by Keith Haring are instantly recognizable, many of us never realized they were taken by her brother who was great friends with Keith and Bill and Kenny Scharf and all of the downtown art scene denizens.

This shot, which captures both artist and dancer, was photographed in London in 1983. Muna recalled how Keith would call Kwong Chi on a pay phone (long before cell phones) to tell him in what subway station he had just left his latest graffiti. Kwong Chi would grab his camera to photograph the work and eventually chronicled Keith's work in about 50,000 shots. He traveled to Brazil with Kenny Scharf and his Brazilian wife.

In a 1986 full color series of Portraits of the Artists, Kwong Chi featured staged photos of artists like Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and all the usual suspects.

In another tongue-in-cheek series on The Moral Majority, Kwong Chi photographed politicians like Alfonse D'Amato and William F. Buckley in 1981 and sent them the photographs to autograph and return to him to exhibit. They are a wonderful time capsule for a glimpse into the politics of the early 1980s.

After a wonderful evening, when we finally exited the gallery, we met this young woman wearing a very graphic black and white newsprint dress who asked to take a photograph with us. We gave our standard response ("we'll let you take a picture with your camera if you'll also take one with ours") and she enlisted her friend to take the photo just as a strong gust of wind blew her dress and almost took Valerie's hat.

As we walked across town so Valerie could take the First Avenue bus, we stopped at the historic Merchant's House on East 4th Street just west of the Bowery. The house is open year-round for tours on Thursdays through Mondays by wonderfully knowledgeable docents. Seasonal decorations add an interesting touch at Halloween and Christmas. During the summer, they are open late on Thursday evenings til 8 pm for visitors to sit and enjoy the secret garden behind the colonial era brownstone. Valerie posed for a quick shot.

Jean got into the act too, showing off her jumpsuit and thrift shop cross-covered crop top. All too soon, the evening drew to and end and we headed on our merry way. Until next time, adios, kiddies!

Why Are These Two Old Ladies Smiling?

Tune in tomorrow night to find out!

Wrap It Up! I'll Take It!

In which Valerie adds another year to her profile

Every year around this time, Valerie has a birthday, and as every child knows, birthdays bring with them birthday presents.  One of the lovely things about aging is that even if you don't HAVE everything, you come to realize that you don't WANT or NEED everything, so you choose far more carefully, and cherish your choice more deeply. After much thought, Valerie realized she really only wanted one thing (well, three things, actually, but we'll get to that later): she desperately wanted help cleaning out her ridiculous storage space.  Here it is, before its makeover.

As you can see, it was full of great big awkward boxes, and Valerie couldn't get into it or get anything out of it. And now, with decrepitude approaching, where she used to heave boxes around with abandon, she now has doctors advising her that she could put her back out doing that by herself.  The whole thing was making her nuts. What to do? Who you gonna call?

No, not Ghostbusters.  Jean!

The first thing we did was to completely empty out the storage unit.  With each of us carrying one end of a box, and with dollies borrowed to roll all the STUFF around on, we soon had the unit empty.  Of course, that meant that stuff was all over in the narrow corridors that characterize storage rooms, but what did we care?  (It was the Fourth of July weekend, and everyone had left the city -- except us. Go figger.)

Jean had some pertinent questions to ask, like Do you want your boxes facing this way or that way?  What boxes do you go into more often?  Do you have plastic bags to cover your suitcase with so it doesn't get dusty?  Why don't you put your small suitcase in your large suitcase to save space?  Do you have Post It notes to mark your boxes with?  And tape?  Valerie dithered over all of this, so Jean just took command, and Valerie was mostly in charge of handling one end of each box.

Here's the unit starting to take shape under Jean's direction.

We could have put in quite a few more work-in-progress photos, but what the hey. Let's cut to the chase.  Below is the finished product, WITH WALK-IN SPACE!  The whole project took about two hours, which is probably one-third the time it would have taken Valerie by herself.  And it was much more fun, because we could gossip about everyone we know, and even about people we don't know.  Very little got thrown out. That was not the point, and besides, that's a project for someone with at least a week of free time.  (Jean interjects that although little was thrown out that day, certain items were tagged for removal shortly thereafter. Prime example: The big white plastic bag with pink and blue lettering in the right foreground containing shoe-making materials is slated to be donated to the place where Valerie took shoe-making lessons several years ago.  And there was a little time capsule box of clothes dating as far back as high school. We're saving that for a separate post.)

Job well done!

You'll notice that we dressed for the occasion, even putting our hair in Rosie the Riveter kerchiefs to get into the spirit of things.

Then it was time for the other two things.  One of them was to have been cocktails (of course!), but by then we were tired and thirsty, so since there happened to be a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator, we put the cocktail idea to rest and pulled out the bottle instead. (Remember: always be prepared!)  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Less muscle than Rosie, and less determination in the face.  And Rosie doesn't have a glass.  If anything, she'd have a wrench.  But we're older, and not fighting a war.  (And notice Valerie's nod to Rosie with wrist and ankle cuffs in Rosie's likeness.)

And here's a close-up.

Valerie was ready to leave for the next leg of the day's celebrations, but Jean had a few surprises in store.  First, there was the spot-on birthday card, featuring one of our favorite topics of conversation.

Then, since we both work in offices, there was the thoughtful gift of emergency office supplies.  Wait - are those way cool black and white checkered earrings nesting along with the scissors, stapler, staples, tape and thumb drive?  Well, yes.  'Cause you never can tell!

And as a final surprise, because a girl needs a bit of art in the office (at least, girls who don't work in museums or auction houses), a bit of portable art (Malevich tributes?) in the form of earrings and a matching brooch.

Then we were off to get the third thing: the elusive chocolate souffle - very hard to find in New York.  No, not chocolate mousse. We had a restaurant in mind, but while we were on our way, we ran into Montgomery Frazier, who was decked out in holiday finery and who mentioned he'd just been to Baccarat.  (In contrast to Montgomery, in the can-do spirit of the morning, and partly because we are naughty girls, we did not change clothes.)  When we passed Baccarat not five minutes later, we looked at the menu, and to our amazement, it featured souffle on the dessert menu. Well, why not, we thought.  (Spell Check keeps suggesting we were out gunning for chocolate shuffle.  If we miss any of Spell Check's thoughtful assistance, we just want to assure you that we were decidedly not out for chocolate shuffle.  Perish the thought!)

We took the elevator to the second floor and actually entered the Lounge.  Sigh. The ambiance was lovely and as an extra special birthday treat, it turned out the background music sound level was perfect -- not the usual deafening roar we have come to expect and dread.  We could actually hear each other talk without having to shout.  After our morning's labors, we were ready to relax and selected comfy high back wing chairs at a table by the window.

After we'd been there for a few minutes, upon closer review of the menu, Jean made the discovery that the Lounge served chocolate souffle cake and that the restaurant (on the first floor) served the traditional souffle.  Luckily, our waiter cheerily volunteered to arrange to bring the traditional souffle upstairs to the birthday girl if we were willing to wait about ten extra minutes.  Problem solved!  Jean opted for the cake version after being told it resembled a lava cake.

When it arrived, Valerie's souffle was in a copper ramekin on a plate decorated with Happy Birthday written in chocolate and a traditional candy-striped candle.  Everything was served, by the way, on or in Baccarat products.  A feast for the eyes!

The piece de resistence? The waiter's cracking of a Grand Marnier-filled chocolate egg over the center of the souffle and placing it dead center into the crust of the powdered sugar-dusted souffle, of course. Perfection!  What we wanted to know was how they got the warm Grand Marnier sauce inside the unmelted chocolate egg.  And it all happened so fast that we missed the opportunity to photograph the little spun sugar nest on which the egg was delivered.  All of that was a bit of magic, and another feast for eyes wide-eyed with wonder.

Jean's cake was different but equally delicious, served with two tablespoons of exquisitely shaped whipped cream, drops of dark chocolate and white chocolate and a chocolate straw, which she used to stir her latte. How decadent.  We practically licked our plates clean!

Before we left, we toured the bar located on the same floor and had the opening photo taken on the outdoor balcony.

This wasn't one of those BIG birthdays, if you know what we mean, but it was a perfect birthday.  So cool it's enough to make you want another!

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BONUS PHOTOS

A Walk on the Wild Side: We Visit the Zana Bayne Sample Sale

LEATHER GIRLS!!!

Sometimes a girl just has to test her limits.  You know what we mean?  No, we're not ready to get our tongues pierced, or our bosoms tattooed, and we're not quite ready for harnesses, but we wanted to do a little skating close to the edge, so when we were invited to the Zana Bayne sample sale, we were tempted, like innocents in the Garden of Eden. Long time followers will remember we covered her Opening Ceremony New York Fashion Week runway show a couple years ago.  Click here to link to our coverage.

We are still learning to assert ourselves, so while we should have taken loads of pictures of the merch, to show you what was on offer, and the clients, to show you who the competition was, instead we tried to be as unobtrusive as possible.  Mostly that meant taking photos of one another, so we could see whether we would laugh at ourselves or not.  Do you remember that song "Things That Make You Go Hmmmm"?  We saw lots of interesting works of art in black leather that made us go hmmmm...  We both tried on the so-called Bat Belt, above and below.

OK, OK, so neither of us look like this professional model sporting the Bat Belt. Click here for more.

Here's what it looks like on Zana's website. Click here to visit her website.

Jean also tried a tamer version, a black leather peplum belt.

What is it with Valerie and bustiers?  It's not in her personality at all. There's just something about the complicated structuring that appeals ... You can barely see them, but there are two rings at the front and back of the base of the bustier, which connect at each side with two leather cords in sweeping arcs.  The cords don't do anything - they're decorative - but they add a certain je ne sais quoi (that means 'Hmmm...  I don't know what I'm getting myself into here, but I think I like it' in French).

The model is called the Bullet Bustier.  Need we say more?

And here's what it looks like on someone tall and lean.  (Or what we like to think it would have looked like on us thirty years ago.)

Fabulous trio! While we were trying things on, we were chatting with these three women -- who looked amazing in everything they tried on.  Check out the variations of ombre' hair color effects on the lady in the middle.

She was also carrying this hilarious google-eyed handbag that she said she'd gotten at TopShop.

This tall slim extremely personable gent works for Zana. (And unfortunately, neither of us can remember his name.) He was so sweet to offer to take our photo together. (Its the one that open's this post.) We liked his low-key black harness with silver rings.

Wesley, who also works for Zana, takes his look up a notch, with harness and collar. And check out those boots!

But wait!  We haven't introduced you to Zana yet.  Well, here's a sneak peek at the woman behind the edgy designs; the boss of the darkly dressed (but wonderfully warm and friendly) employees.

And here's the designer herself, bookended by her admirers!