Now that the FashFilmFest is over (but will return in 2013!) I'm back to blogging! What better way to get back into the routine than with a favorite? By request and popular demand, I've got a new edition of J.Crew Catalog Theater, from the April catalog... The models are sad, sassy, confused, and wearing things we've seen before. But don't hold that against them! They're models, they can't do any better...

We start out with The City of Lost Children from 1995, a film by Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, with costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier. Presented in partnership with the de Young Museum and their current exhibition Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.

Then, we will screen local director (and former San Francisco First Lady)'s film Miss Representation, which we are all excited to see on the big screen.

After this, we will watch Julie Benasra's wonderful documentary God Save My Shoes, and we'll follow-up the screening with a conversation between the director and festival co-founder, Kim Mitchell Stokes.

Finally, we will end the night with Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.

Who's excited???

Easter and Passover everyone!

I will begin by saying that my longer-than-usual silence has everything to do with the San Francisco Fashion Film Festival going on, which has pulled me away from P&C. But after this weekend things will be back to normal!

Here's a special postcard I wanted to share because I don't have a specific Easter one this year, but I did have this one of Easter Lilies growing in Bermuda. It's dated from 1914 and it was sent to Mr & Mrs L. Irving of Beechhurst, Long Island, NY, no zip code or street address given. The message reads:

"Hamilton, Bermuda. We are spending are [sic] honeymoon here. Had a rough voyage. Wife was sick but I never missed a meal. Stopping at Hotel Kenwood. Mr & Mrs JM Sheffers"

In the early part of the 20th Century, Bermuda was THE vacation spot for wealthy Americans in the North East, as well as Canadians and British. It's climate was tropical, but it was close enough to the mainland (Cape Hatteras, NC is only about 650 miles away) that travel was somewhat easy.

(At this time, the territory thrived on its trade in fresh lilies and agriculture to the United States.  However, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 - enacted by the US against trading partners - cut off this industry and forced Bermuda to move into finance and tourism as its main industries. It is interesting to note that while this tariff act was meant to promote American growth and industry and originally seemed to work, it is cited as one of the main pieces of legislation that led to the Great Depression.)

It was also in 1930 that the first airplane arrived in Bermuda - a Stinson Detroiter seaplane from New York. Soon after, airlines such as Luft Hansa, Imperial Airways, and Pan American would follow. During this golden age of tourism and glamorous travel, Bermuda figured prominently among the early jet-setters and was celebrated as luxurious destination.

Postmarked in 1959, this card is simply entitled "Washington DC at Cherry Blossom Time", showing the incredible display near the Jefferson Memorial.

...sorry, sometimes I'm stupid. (File this one under "Rants"...)

Now that my general apology for my stylistic unintelligence is out of the way, let's get down to brass tax. I take issue with a few fashion trends I've been seeing over and over, and now I'm going to say something about it. I've sat by idly, watching the emperor shed his proverbial clothes for far too long, and now I'm reaching for the bathrobe. I have to. That willy is just too sad-looking out there in the cold like that.

Again, have some patience with me. I'm a (somewhat) older, more crotchety, more academic blogger than you young upstarts with your gorgeous selves in daily outfit posts, so perhaps I just don't understand. Maybe I'm David Letterman to your Jimmy Fallon and my routine is a little classic, but there's something to be said for the classics.

For instance, why not paint all of your fingernails the same damn color? I honestly do not get the fourth-fingernail or index-finger painted a contrasting color thing. What is that? What...you ran out of Essie's "Splash of Grenadine" so you had to finish off your manicure with "Armed and Ready" instead? I don't buy it. No one could possibly find ten fingers of the same color so boring that they had to change up numbers three and nine. Is this a drug thing? Because that is the only answer I can think of. The legendary cocaine pinkie spoons of old have given way to this new odd-finger-out manicure...so your party people know which fingertip to load.

And while we're on the subject of manicures...what's with the obsession over "nail art"? I thought that was relegated to the board of plastic fingernails on the wall at the manicurist's shop, but which no one ever actually ordered for themselves because they were too tacky for anyone who had any class. Seriously? Daisies and polkadots to match your outfit? Flames and lightningbolts? Mustaches & monocles? Leather & lace? Florentine paper swirls? Are you fucking kidding? This may be hard to hear for some of you (but with my readership, I suspect not) but, to put it in the vernacular: nail art is GHETTO. Don't do it.

And what about the special polishes that create a craquelature effect? (Ahem, let's leave the special effects to the paint department at Home Depot, okay?) Has technology made our lives so efficient that we have time to waste like this?

SOMEWHERE IN HEAVEN VINCENT VAN GOGH IS WEEPING.

That's basically the whole point: why waste the time? If you get a professional manicure, it's thirty minutes to an hour MINIMUM door to door. If you do one at home it's probably fifteen to forty-five minutes. Who has the time to be changing nail colors with every outfit? That, and have you seen the "ombre" manicure ridiculousness? Clearly this is only something you can do at a nail salon because what idiot would buy five shades of blue nail polish to make this happen? Economically, this is a bad trend. OPI's bottles are now around $8.50 each x 5 = $42.50...You'd better hope those colors don't go out of style in the next six months or you'll be sitting on a whole lot of "Austin-tatious Turquoise" and getting zero return on investment. And it's not like you can consign used nail polish.

Not to say I haven't tried to do these trends. I have. I even have a bottle of OPI's "Gargantuan Green Grape" waiting in my medicine cabinet, but somehow I just can't get myself to break it open. I've also tried to do the glitter thing, but it chipped right away and I ended up with gold glitter in my gluten-free pizza dough. That's not as glamorous as it sounds, kids.

Don't get me wrong, I adore a lot of the "outfit of the day" girls, but I always get a little panicked when they go in for the manicure detail shot. How many hours of the week go to polish changes? Oy! I shudder to think. I'd rather spend that time reading email spam from mail-order-brides in Uzbekistan. I also completely and whole-heartedly admire anyone who has this level of fashion intrepidness that they don't care about the looks in askance they get with such weird fingernails. I applaud them and their bravery! But at the same time, I worry. I worry because they're probably in for a rude awakening, and like Holden Caulfield, I'd like to catch them before they fall off the edge of a cliff...

Floral pants from Anthropologie. There are like, three people in the universe who can wear these.

Now that we're done with the nail polish thing, let's discuss the floral pants thing. I know that florals are always big for spring, but on pants? Really? I mean we're not all 80 pounds here. Don't designers know that putting a big ol' print on the bottom half cuts out about 99% of their customer base? I know it looks great on some people, but let's get real.

Sloppy stripes, courtesy of weird tucking at J.Crew.

Also...and this is the last, I promise. What is the deal with tucking in just the front part of your shirt? We used to do this in grammar school when we had to tuck in shirts for dress uniform days but we got around it by just tucking in the front where the blazer opened... When did this become the cool thing to do? I get that you want to show off your Hermès belt buckle and what-not, but to me it looks sort of sloppy. I'm already having a hard enough time getting my sleeves to roll just so so that I can show off my arm party. Now you want me to tuck my shirt in just so too? That's a lot of just so juzhing for one busy girl to carry off for an entire day.

Like I said, perhaps I'm just a classicist. I like my fingernails all one color (usually in a shade of red or pink) and I like my shirts either in or out. Okay, so I am getting into the colored denim thing, but I don't do floral prints on the bottom, in fact, the most I'll usually do is a great Windsor check.

Maybe that makes me boring, or maybe that makes me...normal?

Apple blossom time in the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, VA.

Although it's still technically winter, it's feeling mighty spring-y just about everywhere. So, I think it's time I started posting my blossom postcards. This first one is pretty old, probably 1930s-1940s but was never sent so there's no postmark. I do love the hand-tinted blossoms here - instead of pink, they're pink, coral, yellow, green and white...

That's right...we're live! (And now that we are live I promise to be a better blogger.) The San Francisco Fashion Film Festival is off to a running start and our tickets are now available for purchase over on Eventbrite! Individual showings are on sale for $10 and $15 each, while full festival passes are going for just $75 each!

We are also very happy to announce our lineup of films which we think includes something for everyone:

Saturday, April 7^th, 2012

1:00 PM - Ziegfeld Girl - $15 (Costumes by Adrian)

3:30 PM - How I Get Dressed/The Way I Dress - $10

4:15 PM - Jack Taylor of Beverly Hills - $15

6:30 PM – Fashion Shorts - $10

7:15 PM – Barbarella - $15 (Costumes by Jacques Fonteray & Paco Rabanne)

9:45 PM - The Matrix - $15 (Costumes by Kym Barrett)

Sunday, April 8^th, 2012

2:00 PM - City of Lost Children - $15 (Costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier)

4:45 PM - Miss Representation - $15

6:45 PM – Fashion Shorts - $10

7:30 PM - God Save My Shoes - $15

9:00 PM - Marie Antoinette - $15 (Costumes by Milena Canonero)

Please visit the "Films" section of our website to read more about these titles, why we chose them, and how we grouped them.

Also...we're offering two events to lead-up to the festival!

On Sunday, March 25th we are partnering with the Disposable Film Festival in their latest class of "Disposable Film 101". This class will have a fashion focus, and we'll talk about ways to make engaging and fun fashion shorts.

On Friday, April 6th, yours truly will be introducing a rare French film from Jacques Becker entitled Falbalas at the de Young Museum as part of its Friday Nights at the de Young. The de Young's highly anticipated exhibition Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk opens on March 23rd, and the San Francisco Fashion Film Festival is pleased to be partnering with the museum to support this exhibition.

Falbalas was made in 1945 in Paris just after the end of World War II. It tells the fictional story of a couturier, and shows the most realistic view of a Parisian couture house of the era on film. When Jean Paul Gaultier saw this film as a young man, it was what prompted him to become a designer...

For more details and information, please visit the "Schedule" page of our website...in fact, just visit our website - it will tell you absoltuely everything you want to know! http://fashfilmfest.org

Looking forward to seeing everyone in April - please say introduce yourself and say hello!

SF Fashion Film Festival poster by Alice Lam.

San Francisco's famous Chinatown, the largest outside of China itself...

Sent by the U.S. Navy in December, 1943, this postcard went all the way to New Hampshire to someone's Aunty Daisy...

"I visited this place last Sunday. It's a nice place but kind of spooky. It's in San Francisco. I suppose the Chop Suey looks familiar to you don't it? There's a lot of hills in this place and plenty steep too."

I thought this classic view of Grant Avenue was a perfect tribute to the massive Chinese New Year's parade that's happening on Saturday. Chinatown can still be a little bit spooky, and I'm afraid that Chop Suey is very difficult to find these days, but not much else has changed in this image.

I've finally done it...I have a Tumblr up and running as a place to showcase all of those OTHER random images and moments that I love that may not be entirely appropriate or timely for Poetic & Chic. The name, is "Peripatetic", in keeping with the original lyrics of the song "One" from A Chorus Line, where I derived the name "Poetic & Chic".

"She walks into a room and you know she's uncommonly rare, very unique, peripatetic, poetic and chic..."

The word "peripatetic" is an adjective meaning "traveling from place to place, especially working or based in various places for relatively short periods." Noun synonyms include "wayfarer" or "traveler".

How very appropriate...n'est ce pas?

The content of Peripatetic will be just that: one thing today, another thing tomorrow. Thus far it's pretty vintage and elegant and wistful, but a few playful things are up there too. It's a lot of simple imagery with no text - I can say all I want to say over here. This is where words don't need to happen.

Please follow Peripatetic on Tumblr & enjoy!

Blissful isn't it? Amazingly enough, this very vintage postcard was never sent to anyone. My guess is that it was kept as a souvenir in a scrap book because it's still in perfect shape and has these amazing colors. It's also printed on that great linen-weave textured stock.

Images like this make me think of one of those screwball comedies where everyone is in Florida going to horse races and night clubs. Like The Palm Beach Story, or Saratoga... Too bad no one makes movies like that any more!