Color Me Bad

March is here, which means so is spring.

But the shoes pictured below are for Fall '08, each a lovely, bright pop of color in a usual rash of neutral, darker tones for autumn season.

From left to right? Gucci, Sergio Rossi, Jenni Kayne, Versace, Cesare Paciotti and Christian Louboutin.

Color me bad, color me mad and color me happy.

ROYGBIV is back.







I'm Lovin' it: Thanks to my girl Cora at Mavi for the sweet swag at today's Mavi Store opening on Granville! Cora's the consummate PR girl: stylish, bubbly and happy with lots of air kisses and hugs. Loves it!!

I'm Over it: No ventilation fan in my kitchen, which means that everything I cook stinks up the apartment more than I'd like it to.

Music of the Day: Sam Spiegel -- aka. Squeak E. Clean -- is the producer/DJ brother of director Spike Jonze and former boyfriend of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O. Together with Brazilian deejay DY Zegnon, he is N.A.S.A. (North America South America). The musical twosome work with other artists from rock and hip hop to create funky tracks mixing the old and new -- we're talking Sean Lennon, Maroon 5, Kool Keith, Fat Lip formerly of Pharcyde (check out the track "WhachaGoneDu?), Tom Waits, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wu-Tang, George Clinton and De La Soul. Spiegel's website is the sh*t, too.








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Wearing The Pants

So long, skinny pant.

I've been noticing a pant silhouette trend that's been running rampant across the catwalks of Europe -- big on top and small, short, tapered-ish on the bottom.

There's the dhoti, there's the modern Hammer pant and then there's this more tailored version worn by some chic Milanese woman -- photographed by The Sartorialist -- whose name I don't know.

See, the man behind her likes the, uh, pants, too.

PS. I'm not really getting rid of my skinnies.






I'm Lovin' it: Anything by Isabel Marant. Click on her website and you'll see why -- I would give my left arm for her clothes. Okay, not really, but I loves it anyway.







I'm Over it: What is famed product designer Marc Newsom doing wearing those shoes with those pants?!?






Track of the Day: Ain't Gonna Hurt Nobody by Kid And Play from the late 80s, early 90s. Old schoooool!







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Hood-Winked

I found it!

Or at least one of the Carine Roitfeld-in-a-hood photos I was searching for. The look was echoed -- in a maximalist way -- on the Parisian runway of Indian designer Rajesh Pratap Singh.

I'd also like to echo the look in my closet this coming fall.







I'm Lovin' it: Expanding my sneaker collection. Check out these Creative Rec babies -- gingham low Galows and blue Galow His -- that are arriving for me in the very near future:








I'm Over it: Waiting. As in waiting for contractual obligations to be fulfilled on time. Haute Hippie: Not happy.


Album of the Day: Marie Branellec -- the music engineer for the beyond-cool Colette boutique -- teamed up with Michel Gaubert (who picks the auditory for Chanel and Balenciaga shows) to release the double-disc "Colette No. 9". The first disc contains the duos song picks, while the second contains mixes by producer Mickey Moonlight, aka. Midnight Mike. If anyone happens to be in Paris, can you pick this up for me, s'il vous plait??







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Shake It Like A Polaroid Picture

You better shake it fast, too, because the company announced recently that they are discontinuing production of all Polaroid cameras and film in order to focus solely on the digital world.

Expect everyone and their grandma to be scooping up the cameras and film via Wal-Mart and eBay up until 2009, at which point the company's stock will run out.

I'm not quite sure if this is really going to see itself through in the long run, because Polaroid just might be taking part in a little business tactic I like to call "The Disney Model".

You know how Disney always puts out ad campaigns every couple of years, encouraging kids to bug their parents into buying limited editions of The Lion King, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin and Cinderella before they go back into "the Disney vault"?

If you ask me, it's a ploy to sell as many DVDs as possible before getting put into storage, only to get advertised in two or three years with the same schtick. It's a glossed-up cash grab.

Hey, I admit, it probably works well, and if Polaroid wants to make major dinero now and a few years down the road, then they're just being smart by discontinuing now. After all, didn't Ludacris once rap to the masses, "Shake your moneymaker like somebody's 'bout to pay ya..."?

In the meantime, what's Jeremy Kost going to do with himself??







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A "WTF?? Moment" With Haute Hippie

Does this sound like a familiar story to you, ladies? See below:

Boy and Girl find out they are mutually interested in each other through a common friend.

Boy expresses interest in Girl, obtaining her digits from said common friend and leaving a voicemail at 6 am on Saturday morning -- WTF?? -- asking Girl to call Boy back about hanging out sometime.

Girl makes a semi-effort in response by texting back later that Saturday with a cute and funny response to said 6 am voicemail.

Monday has arrived and Boy has yet to respond to Girl's text message.

Once again, WTF??

Girl doesn't do the three-day wait game thing. She's too old for that sh*t.







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Gucci Gucci Gucci Gucci Gucci

When you see what Fall '08 ready-to-wear collection I absolutely fell in love with, you'll understand why I call myself Haute Hippie.

Four words for you: Gucci Fall '08 RTW.

Or does that count as six?? Oh well.

For the past couple years, I'd sort of fallen off the Gucci bandwagon, but let me tell you, after this season in Milan, I'm back on.

In a big way.





















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Feather-Head

As you know -- if you happen read this blog on the regular or are my friend -- I was on a feather necklace-making rampage a couple of weeks ago and ended up creating a fairly cute piece of jewelry for myself.

Then today I was searching the picture archives of Style.com for a particular picture of Carine Roitfeld wearing this fabulous hoodie dress to a Chanel Haute Couture show and came across this one of Roitfeld with fellow fashionette Sarah Lerfel, one of the co-owners of ultra-mega-super-hip boutique Colette in Paris.

Guess what Lerfel was wearing?? A dangling single feather necklace!!

Mon dieu, I knew my jewelry effort had to mean something...







I'm Lovin' it: No matter how you slice and dice it, Ryan Reynolds is completely irresistible to anyone who has XX chromosomes in their body. The funniness and charm helps heaps, too. And if you're wondering why this came up, it might be because I saw Definitely, Maybe yesterday.






I'm Over it: The incredibly inconvenient banking snafu from this weekend that left me debit card-less till today.


Shot of the Day: This amazing shot from T Magazine from the New York Times.







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Tee Time

For me, having a My Little Pony and a Jem & The Holograms tee was better than getting a pack of Fun Dip as a kid.

Now that I'm officially out of childhood and officially fashion-obsessed, the kind of tees I'm jones-ing to have right now are these cheeky ones of Hamish Bowles of Vogue, Agyness Deyn and Andre Leon Talley of Vogue, all from Deer Dana.

Guess I just need a pair of black J Brand skinnies and an Alexander Wang vest to go with 'em.









I'm Lovin' it: I was telling my girl Aims today that I'm ready to rock this scarf-around-the-head look for Summer '08. Don't mind that gorgeous maxi-dress from Old Navy, either.






I'm Over it: Yesterday, I walked into a sharp corner of my bed frame -- it sticks out about three inches all around from the mattress for visually-pleasure purposes -- and basically gouged a small hole below my left knee. Clumsy much??


Film of the Day: Just got back from seeing artist-director Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Wow. Talk about a very, very French film. Slow, deliberate, beautiful, powerful. This on-screen adaption of the book with the same name chronicles the day to day events of Jean-Dominique Bauby after the real-life journalist suffered a stroke and was left paralyzed with Locked-In Syndrome. He could only communicate by blinking his left eye using a frequency-ordered alphabet method. Think I already said wow, but seriously...wow.







* Photos property of Deer Dana, Old Navy, firstshowing.net and are used solely for commentary purposes

Heavy Axcent

I can't believe it.

My search for the perfect, massive gold watch has come to an end.

Stockholm -based Axcent -- a Scandinavian brand that designs shades, timepieces and baubles -- has for me the Frank, a style that straddles the digi sport watches of the 80s with the polished look of right now. And it's huge, which has been the ultimate criteria in my timepiece hunt.

Axcent's portfolio of Scandinavian designers come from varying industries -- fashion, product, jewelry, interior and industrial -- thus giving the brand an array of aesthetics and construction. The Frank was masterminded by Daniel Jakobsson, a graphic designer and product developer from Gothenburg who is now Axcent's brand manager.

The brand is everywhere in Europe, but unfortunately hard to come by in North America. I believe the only contact for Axcent for this region is in Montreal.

Oui oui, time to brush up on my French.








I'm Lovin' it: The "Float Like A Butterfly" photo series from New York Magazine for their Spring '08 fashion section, shot by Andreas Sjodin, modeled by ballerinas from the American Ballet Theater and styled by Harriet Mays Powell. Breathtakingly beautiful.











I'm Over it: Being so far from my family. It's really starting to kick in. A year is a long time when you used to see them at least three or four times a week.

I'm Over it, Part II: A number of my good friends taking off for Europe sometime this year. Well, at least I'll have people to visit in Zurich, Amsterdam and London. Maybe I should've gone into accounting like them...nah.


Track of the Day: Hustler by Simian Mobile Disco, who are rolling into town this coming April 23rd. Enjoy the really, really eff-ed up video, y'all.







* Photos property of axcent.se, nymag.com, guardian.co.uk and are used solely for commentary purposes

He Blogs Too

Kanye West.

Hip hop impresario, fashion dandy and -- apparently -- a budding writer.

Mistah West has a blog on his official website that chronicles all the things he finds cool and Kanye-worthy (like this pistol picture camera), as well as pictures from his international adventures and with famous friends like Feist, N.E.R.D., Nigo from BAPE and Kim Jones from Umbro.

I initially thought his blog must be written by a weary assistant trailing him around all day, but the entries are so quick and candid, I sort of believe he might be the true blogger behind it after all.

So if you like fashion, music, product design, art and shoes, onto your RSS feed Kanye's blog goes.







I'm Lovin it: If I were to die today and wake up tomorrow, I wouldn't mind being reincarnated as a Parisian. And not just any Parisian, but French Vogue editor-in-chief -- and possibly the best stylist in the business -- Carine Roitfeld. Amy Larocca from New York Magazine did a great, great article on Roitfeld just the other day, accompanied by a two fantastic shots of Carine by Hedi Slimane (whose slim silhouettes at Dior were probably the reason for manorexic models on the runways of late).






I'm Over it: The Mos Def show last night was most definitely a disappointment. We even left before his set was up. Here's what I learned last night:

1. Don't watch a show at the Croatian Cultural Center ever again.

2. Hip hop shows are now overrun by 19 to 22 year old kids drunk on beer and oblivious to any of Mos Def's old -- and better -- songs.

3. Mos Def's handlers probably shouldn't let him smoke too much reefer before he goes on stage, because then he'll only do seven songs and dance the rest of the time.


Tracks of the Day: In homage to the Mos Def I know and love, here's Ms. Fat Booty (what K-Dizzle wanted to hear last night) and Travelling Man (what I wanted to hear last night).








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Grey Matter

Perusing The Sartorialist is my favorite way to find wardrobe inspiration on days when I have absolutely none to pony up.

With Fashion Weeks all over the place, Scott Shuman (the Sartorialist himself) has been snapping away at stylish peeps like crazy.

In recent days, he's been shutterbugging women wearing dark grey tights with whatever they have on.

And it looks tres, tres chic. You know what this means??

Haute Hippie's going to be at American Apparel -- the poor girl's Wolford -- picking up some slate-hued tights.

And some of AA's fabulous new thigh-high socks.

Now to go meet the gang for a little din-din action at Pinky's Steakhouse, sans the grey tights and thigh-highs.

Happy Friday, y'all!









I'm Lovin' it: More arts & crafts. With myself. I've been searching high and low for a great bracelet for months, but by yesterday, I grew tired of the hunt. So I took the detachable ankle straps from my faux snakeskin flats (which make me look shorter when done up anyway), buckled them them together and -- voila! -- I have a triple-looping faux snakeskin bracelet with double gold buckles. You know, those country folk have something right going on with this arts & crafts business...

PS. Yes, the flats pictures below aren't snakeskin, but I wanted you all the see what the ankle strap looks like.







I'm Over it: Rain. Ruining my grey boots. I really should've sprayed them.


Track of the Day: The Stereolab remix of The Avalanches Since I Left You, which I heard on Woxy today at the office. The only thing is I can't find it on the web anywhere, so you'll either have to download or purchase the promotional remix 12" somewhere off eBay.






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