MOTO NGANTOK BLOG

Bodysuit ACNE £130,
Vest ALEXANDER WANG £475,
Harem shorts PHI £985,
Boots MORE BESS £305,
Satchel PROENZA SCHOULER £1,050,
Necklace KENNETH JAY LANE £105,
Sunglasses CARRERA £62.

Let's take a little dip in the pool.


Then, let's get all dolled up.



How about taking in a little champagne brunch?

Or, just take a walk on the park.

Surely, we would find some amazing vintage finds here.

What would you like to do today, doll? What outfit calls to you?
Thanks for joining me on a dreamy and sunny Palm Springs retro holiday. It was a dream come true...

xo,
Christina

All photography by Bersa for Swedish Elle

Peter Pilotto and his partner in crime Christopher De Vos moved from cocktail to tailoring this season showing amazing 70s inspired pieces. All though the collection was inspired by the era of brown and orange pallets it felt refreshing and modern.

The London based designer has done catwalk collaborations with no less then 7 exiting different designers this season! Preen, Roksanda Ilincic, Rodart and Louise Gray are some of them. Nicholas Kirkwood is definitely one to watch on the shoe front.

Yes, another post about women’s figure skating. Don’t worry, this only happens once every four years. So if impossibly graceful young women with iron wills and knives on their shoes bore you, go get a sandwich and come back Monday. Who knows, maybe there’ll be naked ladies again. But back to the ice, where last night was witness to – in my most humble of opinions – the most fucking amazing women’s figure skating finals I’ve ever seen.

This is why I watch the Olympics. Not just for the ice skating, per se (though, as I’ve said before, I do love it so). No, I love to see athletes reach their potential, do their best and truly enjoy their moment. I cannot recall ever seeing a more well skated final round from all the medal contenders. Not ever. None of the women in the last group fell. Very few made errors, and small ones at that. All shone in some way. Almost all were radiantly happy with their performance. Even the disappointed silver winner landed not one but two – two – triple axels in her program. And those plucky teenage Americans didn’t medal, but still showed their mettle. Hello, history, the ladies on Vancouver are calling.

And then, of course, there was Kim Yu-Na, the flawless golden queen of figure skating who carried an entire country’s expectations on her willowy shoulders, and Joannie Rochette, the adopted daughter of these games who battled through excruciating loss for a triumphant bronze. Damn, it’s almost like it was scripted. Bigger damn, I can’t believe the Olympics are almost over. Happy weekend, all.

Project Beyond the Runway

Edited by Fashion Pulse Daily

Reading through the links this week, I realized that fashion week or no fashion week, fashion will most certainly go on! A winter snowstorm couldn't even slow down New York Fashion Week, and the links below are testament to the wonderful style that exists beyond the runway, such as Ode to Awe's jewelry discovery, how to look chic while lounging by Cafe Fashionista, and tips for vintage shoe shopping by Wicked Whimsy. Don't get me wrong, I love being 'in the know' on runway looks and trends, but how you interpret them and work them into your personal style is so much more important than remembering which designers showed one-shoulder looks this season!

As expected, there was a fabulous round-up of links in the forum as well, all worthy of your eyeballs!

Links à la Mode : February 25th

39th and Broadway - A Side of the Industry Unknown by Most: Life as a Corporate Fashion Designer
British Style Bloggers - Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cos you're a yawn once it's gone
Cafe Fashionista - A step-by-step guide to looking luxurious even when lounging
Clutch22 -Up close and personal with Vivienne Tam as she expands her fashion+tech innovations to a new category
CMYKaboom - Independent Fashion Bloggers (IFB) 'Tweet Up in the Tents' event
Debutante Clothing - Vintage Jewelry: Q&A with Lucite line Circa Sixty Three
Fabulous Finds Gal - Moonstuck at the opera with photographer Bersa
Fashion Pulse Daily - Sonia Rykiel Pour H&M; the debut and the review
Holier Than Now - New Take on Florals (5 Under $50)
Idiosyncratic Style - A Girl's Guide to Maternity Style
Independent Fashion Bloggers : Evolving Influence Recap : Part One
Individual Chic: - Would you have wanted a Computer Engineer Barbie when you were smaller? Or would you love one now?
Night Watch - 10 Questions with Model Clara Zapffe
Ode to Awe - Denmark based Alidra Alic's Alice-inspired jewelry
Oranges and Apples - Rules for advertising and sponsorship on blogs
Retro Chick - The Ethics of Blogging
Smiles Go with Everything -10 Tips for Shopping on Ebay: How to find great deals on awesome duds.
The Coveted - Visits Nine West HQ for a sneak peak of AW10 shoe collections!
The Style PA - Gives Henry Holland a grilling ahead of his House of Holland show.
The Sunday Best - Do men get better service when they shop?
Wicked Whimsy -What to look for when buying vintage shoes
Workchic - Fall 2010 NY Fashion week collections: recreated runway to the office outfits

xo,
Christina

So I am always looking for new skin products,
which work better than the ones I already have.
A few weeks ago I have bought this.


And it is amazing!
I really cleans out your pores!
It works much better than those patches you can stick on your nose or t-zone,
also because you can use this on your whole face!
The pores that might be still clogged you can clean out with a pore stick.
I now use this once a week.

Women’s figure skating is why I fell in love with the Winter Olympics in the first place, all those years ago. While I was too young for the Dorothy Hamill hoopla (or, blessedly, the haircut), I distinctively remember the power and, let’s face it, sexuality of Katarina Witt. Then, as a teenager, came the Asian sensations. My heart stopped at the great Kristi Yamaguchi versus Midori Ito duel. My heart still hurts for Michelle Kwan. I identified immediately with these tiny dynamos. Sure, I lacked their grace and strength and dedication, but at least they looked more like me than Nancy Kerrigan (or, blessedly, Tonya Harding).

These Olympics again feature some great Asian skaters, none more so than South Korean Kim Yu-Na – the skater so famous she had to flee her country to train in peace. But the heart of the competition, and perhaps these games, beats and breaks with Joannie Rochette. By now, everyone knows the story. The Canadian skater took to the ice only two days after her mother died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack after arriving in Vancouver to cheer on her daughter.

You could see the emotion, the pain, the tension in her face before her short program began. I held my breath. The announcers fell silent. And then it was just her and the ice. To say she skated well would be trite. She skated transcendently – her performance came from a place occupied only by muscle memory, pure grit and a mother’s love. And then after two minutes and 50 seconds of strength came the tears.

We have all had that moment – though probably never on so grand a stage or when it meant so much – that feeling of holding the world together and then finally letting it all go. I lost my father five years ago, also suddenly and unexpectedly, and I cannot imagine doing anything as beautifully as Joannie did Tuesday night so soon afterwards. While some might question why she would go on to skate after such a tragic loss, I understand it intrinsically. It is the one thing she understands. The one thing that makes sense. The one thing she knows she can do even though nothing else will never be the same. She had to.

But that she had to is one thing, that she did it so spectacularly is another. The Olympics have always been a microcosm our human condition played out over a fortnight. It is all of our dreams and life’s work distilled to that second when the starter’s gun fires. It’s your moment. Win or lose, what I think each athlete hopes for it to do her best. That is what makes it so universal. We all have dreams, we all work hard. We don’t all get rewarded at the end of the day with a gold medal or a Wheaties box. But we all try.

So now, on the day of the women’s free skate, I hold my breath again. My entire body aches for Joannie to do well. But even if she falters, if the understandable and unimaginable pressure gets to her, she will have already won. It’s not a victory for precious metal, but something much more precious. Love.

\

First show to be globally live-streamed, and in 3-D! Christopher Bailey and Burberry nailed down everything from a creativity, brand awareness to communication and selling. (pre-ordering was available instantaneously on the Burberry Web site)
Love the aviator style jackets and the buckled boots.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I love “Glee.” Fun, fabulous and so fucking gay, the show has almost everything I love. Singing, dancing, snarking. Jane Lynch, jazz hands, gay cheerleaders. That’s just quality television, right there. One of the other things I love about “Glee” is how it has become such a massive cultural phenomena. It’s cool to love this show. Hell, even President Barack Obama has jumped on the bandwagon and invited the cast to sing at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll.

Yay, Gleeks! We’ve arrived! Right? Um, right, sort of. For all the show’s success, it also represents a fundamental dichotomy in our culture. While the larger world is perfectly happy to laugh along with us, they’re still not completely comfortable making us equal. We’re allowed into their living rooms for an hour each week, but we’re not allowed to live totally free every hour of every day.

Even this White House invite, while fantastic, typifies our struggle. Pres. Obama supports and is pursuing the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but does not support full marriage equality. One step forward, one step still stuck in the mud. Granted, that one step forward is a big one. I don’t recall any open invites to tea from W.

Though, as impatient as we are, the “Glee” movement might just be a sign that better days ahead. Because, instead of breeding contempt, familiarity in this case could breed acceptance. Polls have shown over and over again that younger generations are more comfortable and committed to gay rights. The future, it seems is bright – there’s just that tricky matter of getting there, and quickly. The song remains the same: Don’t stop believin’.

Awww shucks, you guys, you’ve done it again. Thanks to you, I’m up for another Lezzy Award for 2009 Best Lesbian Entertainment/ Lesbian Culture Blog. The Lezzys (started in 2008 as the Lesbian Blog of the Year Award) are handed out annually by The Lesbian Lifestyle. Those of you’ve who’ve hung around here long enough might recall that I’ve been lucky enough to win the last two years (2007 Lesbian Blog of the Year & 2008 Best Entertainment/Overall Lesbian Blog of the Year honors).

This year the awards will be handed out in 11 categories. They are:

• Best Lesbian Entertainment/Lesbian Culture Blog
• Best Lesbian Humor Blog
• Best Lesbian Parenting Blog
• Best Lesbian Engagement/Wedding Blog (new for 2009)
• Best Lesbian Feminist/Political Blog
• Best Lesbian Personal Blog
• Best Lesbian “Out later in life” Blog (new for 2009)
• Best Lesbian Sex/Short Story/Erotica Blog
• Best Lesbian Podcast
• Best New Lesbian Blog (new for 2009)
• Lesbian Blog Lifetime Achievement Award (new for 2009)

Also nominated in my category are Autostraddle and Fit for a Femme. The former is the glossy girl-on-girl culture chronicles of Riese and her homosexy staff (not to mention their intern army of, like, zillions). The latter is the chronicles of the daily fashion choices of, you guessed it, a Femme. Both are fabulous, both are formidable.

So many well-known and equally great blogs are up for awards in other categories this year that instead of picking and choosing, I’m just going to go straight (but not in that way) ticket and promote fellow Team AfterEllen nominees. For Humor, Grace the Spot. For Parenting, Mombian. For Lifetime Achievement, the mother ship, AfterEllen.

Now, onto the mushy stuff. Since I started this blog in 2006, I’ve been continually humbled by all of your support, encouragement and generosity. Clearly, I don’t write this site for awards (though, let’s not lie, who doesn’t like to win things). Instead I write it because a) sleep is for suckers and b) if I couldn’t write my head would explode and c) you’ve made it such a wonderful place to keep coming back to. People grouse all the time, and rightfully so, about what passes for discourse online these days. But I feel forever fortunate that together, we’ve been able to carve out a space that is overwhelmingly civil, respectful and engaged. I never take that for granted, ever.

OK, OK. I’ve put away my Kleenex. This is, after all, a competition. So here comes the nitty gritty:

1. Voting is now open.
2. You can vote once every 24 hours.
3. For your vote to count you have to click the link in your confirmation email.
4. Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. EDT March 1 (technically 12:00 a.m. March 2, but people always get confused about which midnight that means and I don’t think that 1 minute will make or break anyone).

So, vote early and vote often, like an old-school Chicago politician. As fantastic as it would be to win again, what I’m most pleased about is that The Lesbian Lifestyle (and its founded Kelly, aka goldstardyke) keeps running these awards to recognize the wonderful diversity and depth of gay women on the web.

But, just to show you I do have some competitive spirit (I sucked at sports, this is my only shot), I’m going to sweeten the pot by running a contest. If you forward me a copy of your confirmation email, you’ll be entered in a contest to win either the complete season five DVD of “Weeds” or a review copy of the Indigo Girls double CD, “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug.” See:

The more you vote, the more times you are entered. And don’t worry, you don’t even have to vote for me to be eligible (confirmation emails don’t show who you voted for, so I’ll never know). Yes, I’ll even send it overseas out of my own pocket if someone abroad gets picked. Win or lose, that’s a thank you from me to you. Oh, and just to show how really, really competitive I am, this is also a thank you from me to you. Enjoy.