Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Louis Vuitton Series 2.

Louis Vuitton installed a non traditional exhibit displaying their Spring 2015 line in LA and I went to check it out with my best friend, Natalie. It was so fabulous! It's a sequel of the Series 1 exhibit. The exhibit displayed the past, present, and future of Louis Vuitton. The past being some original LV trunks and other relics from the early 1900s. The present was represented by the new Spring collection that is being released. The future was represented by the future of fashion with new runways concepts.

The exhibit began with a description of what it was all about and mesmerized us into it...



Then we walked into the future of the runway. A runway lit up by spotlights and surrounded with mirrors. All the while, a looping video of a waxing and waning moon were displayed along with models reading the Series 2 description.

Exploring the lights of the runway. 

Natalie on the moon!

Then off to a short holographic presentation on the history of the LV trunks.


In the next room, there were three videos playing on how different items are made. One on a pair of boots, one on a clutch, and one on a dress. They were each 45 minutes long so I only stuck around to watch the video on the making of the boots. It was so crazy to see the meticulous detail that is put into the work. It's pure artistry. Watching the video made me actually want to spend my money on those shoes. While I couldn't capture the video, these are some highlights of it.


And here is the final product! These boots are part of the Spring collection. It was in the next white room of the exhibit where various products were displayed on white manikins.


An original Louis Vuitton catalogue from 1927. 


These were stickers that were free to take. Each sticker is an image that is on a fabric print of one of the Spring 2015 dresses.


A room full of Louis Vuitton posters and advertisements!



And our last stop to the backstage room where the backstage of a runway show is simulated. Racks of outfits with models' names and accessories tables. It took everything I had not to want to steal some of the accessories!





How could you not love all these and want to buy them all after seeing them? I wish I went to the exhibit sooner so I could have written this post before it closed, but because of the popularity, I'm sure events like this will be coming around to LA again. Happy shopping!




Monday, February 23, 2015

Oscars 2015: Fashion, Winners, & Highlights.

Yesterday marked the 87th annual Academy Awards and it did not disappoint! The Oscar's were in full effect this year with a slew of amazing movies that all deserve acknowledgement of excellence. Hollywood is always glamorous and yesterday's production was a really great way to acknowledge and honor the nominated films, actors, directors, and crew.


Fashion

The fashion this year really blew me away...when you see an actress wearing a gown and you just immediately think, "Now, she's a movie star", you know the fashion had to be out of this world. I had a hard time choosing my top three best dressed actresses this year. On some actresses, I loved the dresses but didn't like the styling or hair and makeup. My top three best dressed this year were my favorite head to toe looks...

Lupita Nyong'o in Calvin Klein by Francisco Costa. 6,000 pearls of perfection.

Margot Robbie in Saint Laurent and Van Cleef and Arpels jewelry. Head to toe perfection, best styling by far. Her necklace was created for the Duchess of Windsor in the 1930s.

Zoe Saldana in Atelier Versace. She just had twins people! She looks amazingly good, especially her girls she brought out to play.

Honorable mentions: My 2 Jennifers, Jennifer Lopez in Elie Saab and Jennifer Aniston in Versace.


Host/Cutest Couple

Neil Patrick Harris hosted the show this year, and he was okay but I thought he had a hard time topping Ellen last year. I liked the opening musical number but and his jokes and winner predictions fell a little flat. His jokes were typical "dad" jokes. He tried though! I always think Neil and his husband David Burtka are so cute together and when they showed up on the carpet, that thought was reinforced in me. How could you not love them?!

Too freaking cute. 


Winners

I watched all the Best Picture nominated movies this year, as I have been trying to do since 2013. I loved them all and definitely had my front runners for winners. I was pleased with the outcome of some and disappointed in some others. Let's talk...

  • Best Picture: Birdman. I have to be honest...I left Birdman to watch for last. I wasn't excited about it and I heard it didn't do great in the box office. But much to my surprise, I fell in love with it! I kind of anticipated Boyhood winning, because of its concept of being filmed over 12 years, but having Birdman win was a pleasant surprise and VERY much deserved. I recommend this movie to everyone.

  • Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything. I have to give props to The Theory of Everything. It was a good movie and Eddie portrayed Dr. Hawking really well, but in my honest opinion, Michael Keaton deserved this award. He was superb in Birdman, he really made the movie come alive so I think he was robbed of this award. 

  • Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice. I really wish I watched Still Alice. I just didn't have enough time to, but after tonight it is definitely on my list of must watch movies! I've always been a fan of Julianne Moore and I think she's a great actress. Having this be her first Oscar, I think it was deserved. 

  • Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash. Yes. Just yes. So deserved. He was great in this movie. His acting really hits you hard in the feels and brings out your emotions for the characters in the film. I really liked Edward Norton in Birdman and Ethan Hawke in Boyhood as well. These guys really made their respective movies come alive and gave a sort of antagonistic feel.

  • Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood. All the women in this category were so great, but Patricia just carried the entire movie. She was great in the film and her speech was so inspirational. 



Highlights

1. Common and John Legend's performance of and win for Glory, Best Original Song. This performance brought tears to people's eyes, including Chris Pine and David Oyelowo and introduced Civil Rights issues that are still relevant in America today, like how more black people are incarcerated today than were slaves in the 1800s. The performance stage was set under a replica of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and really moving.


2. Lady Gaga's Sound of Music tribute performance. This was not the Lady Gaga I'm used to seeing, but I would really like to see more of her! She looked gorgeous and really belted out a medley of songs from the Sound of Music to honor Julie Andrews. Julie Andrews walked on stage afterwards and emotionally thanked Lady Gaga for the performance, and it was super touching. Lady Gaga really did those songs justice. 


3. That Best Foreign Language Film winner who would not stop giving his speech. Is he still there by the way?


4. Terrence Howard getting emotional when introducing Oscar nominees. Was he really getting emotional or was he high?


5. Graham Moore's speech when winning Best Adapted Screenplay for The Imitation Game. Growing up weird myself, this speech really spoke to me and I'm sure to millions of others as well.




6. Finally, in all seriousness, the speech that Patricia Arquette gave after her win for Best Supporting Actress was truly the speech to listen to at the Academy Awards. She called for wage equality among men and women and got a standing ovation from many of her peers in the audience. "It's our time to have wage equality, once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America," she exclaimed. And she's absolutely right. If you missed her speech, its a must watch...




And that's my wrap up of the Oscars this year! I'm happy that each of the nominees for Best Picture one at least one Oscar. All in all, I was really impressed. As always, I was blown away by the fashion and very supportive of the winners. What are everyone else's thoughts on the 2015 Academy Awards?

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I've always loved this day, even when I was single, because personally, I think its a day to show your love to all your loved ones, not just your significant other. I always made treats and exchanged Valentines with my closest girl friends.

I started preparing for the fun of Valentine's Day this year with a cute heart manicure. On gray nails, I just used a toothpick to drop two droplets of red nail polish on my nail and dragged them diagonally to connect them and form a heart.



This year, trying to avoid the dinner crowd and boring prixe fix menus, my boyfriend decided to make me dinner at his house. I decided to make the dessert to finish off our dinner. I took a small shortcut by buying this yummy chai tea latte cake mix from Target. It tastes so authentic and has little cinnamon chips incorporated in the batter to give it something special. It also includes mix for the vanilla frosting.



I added my own touch by baking them in Valentine inspired cupcake papers, sprinkling on heart shaped sprinkles, and creating chocolate garnishes to top them off. To create the garnishes, I melted milk chocolate in the microwave in a squirt bottle, mixing the chocolate every 30 seconds. Then using the squirt bottle, I piped different shapes the and word "Love" on wax paper and let it cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes. They slide right off the wax paper and can be secured on the cupcake with the frosting.



Even though our dinner was at home, I still wanted to doll up for the evening and I picked a special outfit for the occasion...red being the theme of the day and all!

Top: Zara
Skirt: H&M
Shoes: Steve Madden
Jewlery: Levik's Jewelers and Swarovski

I picked out the perfect card too...Target is my go to store for any holiday.



Now for our dinner...I'm so happy to say that my boyfriend actually used one of my blog recipes, Pesto Linguini for one of our dishes. See fellas? You too can impress your girls with my recipes! He also added his own steak recipe to the menu, which was delicious. Food is great, but the presentation of the table was even more great.


Chef Seto.



Folks, this just goes to show that Valentine's Day doesn't have to be a day of emptying your wallets. A personal touch and handmade food/gifts can make your night special and meaningful. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day whether or not you are with someone special. Valentine's Day is about love, and everyone can experience that. 

New Logo!

Thanks to my amazing boyfriend, I finally have a cute little logo to go with my blog. And that means an official little image that my followers can associate my posts with! This logo perfectly captures the essentials of my blog: sunglasses representing fashion, which reflects a skyline of Los Angeles representing LA lifestyle and a popping bottle of champagne, representing my inner epicure and fabulous foods and drinks. I'm so excited to share it with all of you!...







A special, special thank you again to Seto Asatourian, my graphic designer and a whole lot more.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Meat District Co.

The other night, my girl friend and I decided to extend our list of eating at the best burger spots in LA so we paid a visit to Meat District Co. in Pasadena to try out their burgers. Let me just say, the quality of the beef here is spectacular. It's really juicy and tender. In addition to the 10 types of different burgers, the menu is riddled with so many different meals like hot dogs and BBQ ribs. I didn't get a chance to try any of those, but the burgers and side dishes were amazing. I was impressed by everything from the menu to the food to the dessert.

How cute is this meat cleaver shaped menu?

A wall of wines...my heaven.

Our flights of white wine.

Transparent refrigerator filled with fresh meat. 

Southwestern Burger: 1/2 lb of beef with potato rosti, avocado, jalapeno, cilantro, and arugula.

Honorable mention burger: Truffle Burger 1/2 lb of beef with truffle Parmesan, arugula, roasted peppers, tomato, and truffle aoili. 

French fries.

Truffle mashed potatoes.



We had a milkshake for dessert including creme caramel pudding with a butterscotch shake mixed with Ferrero Rocher. To die for...make it a point for your next burger craving!