Lux Lotus

2007

No resolutions just yet, but I did place an order for my philosophical touchstone for the year ahead:

Jean-Luc Godard Necklace, part of Danielle Maveal's "Icons Series" [etsy]

A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.

Happy New Year! Hope it's not too...orderly. XX.

My Life in Pictures: Please Darling

i tried these on today.... they are deepest navy blue. what do you think -- too much or not enough?

as always, i am especially interested in the comments of smart women and handsome men (but honestly, who else reads lux lotus besides beautiful, brilliant creatures just like you?).

in the same breath: went to bluestockings on a zine bender...picked up bitte liebling #2 [link NSFW], ilse content, partyka selected daily drawings, 2003 - 2005 and butt #14 [link NSFW]: "hysterical magazine for homosexuals" (a gift for my BFF; I only read it for the articles).

Previously in "My Life in Pictures": Icebox de Lux, Rollergirl Reads, A.M. Monday, Twinkle Twinkle, Bon Weekend (Or, My New Cameraphone).

the X is someone Else's star burning inside your mouth

I am obsessed, in feverish love, with Gut Notes, "a compendium of love letters from around the world." Hello Darling, I have been looking for a letter from you everyday...

*Post title from "Dear Miss Emily" by James Galvin.

Make That List

Lux Lotus is going on holiday hiatus and returns January 2nd. Enjoy the best of the season! Not sure how to finesse that whole "Naughty or Nice" thing? Why not "Dress Like a Cat Until You Get What You Want"... XO.

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Previously: Feline & Friends.

Antwerp Journal

Originally I'd planned to go to Berlin for Thanksgiving but it just seemed like too much work. I don't speak German, Lux Eleven was booked solid and I didn't feel like flying again (the Paris-Berlin night train only sounded vaguely romantic as a concept). Also, "planned" is probably putting too fine a point on my efforts. So I did what any sensible person would do: I went to Antwerp instead. Basically I was in the National Gallery in London on Monday afternoon looking around for the Flemish paintings and thinking about how I'd like to check out the exhibition of Antwerp-based art collector Sylvio Perlstein at La Maison Rouge when I returned to Paris, and I decided I ought to just go see it all in person, you know?

Tuesday morning I woke up and called Enich Anders, the almost impossibly sweet (and cheap) little bohemian b&b -- ivy-covered on a side street in the old section of the city and attached to a stone sculptors' studio -- that I stayed at last time, to inquire whether they had any rooms available, which they did, so I went to the station after lunch and caught the next train from Paris to Antwerp. Two and a half hours later, I was delighted to find Antwerp more or less unchanged since I was last there.

I arrived at six in the evening and wound my way along the Meir, a long pedestrian boulevard lined with shops, from the train station into the old city center. Everything was closed up tight. I checked into my hotel, was pleased to get the same room again, paid for my entire stay in advance and stepped out to go to Cafe Berlin for dinner. I thought it would be a good idea to have a big, greasy meal for dinner (steak frites) and then go to sleep. What a disgusting idea that was! The next morning I woke up so happy to be in Antwerp, my favorite place: thrilled to go out and enjoy the architecture, the history (especially the city's mythic origins), admire the glossy black paint on buildings and the austere formality of the public squares, the water, the river, the birds, local pride and independent culture, general chicness, the cobblestone streets...

Some highlights of the four days I was there (e.g. when I wasn't too busy catching up on sleep, reading A Spy in the House of Love, or hanging out at Cafe Berlin to do another lap around St Andries-Oud Stad-'t Zuid): thrifting a Jean Paul Gaultier vest and a pair of beige kid gloves, HEMA (like Target but everything is neon and better designed), chocolate diamonds at Burie, pushing open the giant door at Copyright bookshop; making the required windowlicking stops at Walter, Veronique Branquinho, Dries Van Noten, Stephan Schneider, Labels Inc for Bruno Pieters and Bernard Wilhelm and racks of "recent designer" and vintage, and more, and Ann Demeulemeester, where I bought an elegant black wool wrap-style belt (best described as somewhere between an obi and a cummerbund) that still takes my breath away; Pulp department store on Melkmarkt, related to a charming, hip lifestyle magazine and selling things like a retro phone attachment for a mobile phone, Fred Perry dresses customized with flapper fringe, and badges that say Home taping is killing music. Plus: Going to the Museum Plantin Moretus, a bibliophile's dream (more on that later, perhaps). Visiting MoMU and feeling my heart break all over again to see the Dirk Van Saene dress -- (the beautiful perfect one that I could not possibly afford) with the peplum sleeves, empire waist, and strategically placed center-seam slash pockets -- that I had just finished drooling over at Walter in the exhibition at the fashion museum!

For dinner on Thanksgiving, I wore my Viktor & Rolf for H&M dress to Het Pomphuis, a beautiful old Art Nouveau pumphouse on the docks that has been converted into an unbelievably stylish restaurant, and enjoyed the best Thanksgiving of my life; I felt as though I had so much to be thankful for, then and there. It was a dream, and I can't wait to return.

Previously: London Journal, Paris Journal.

And before that: The Low Countries.

Adoring at the Mo'

The hot hot Hey Hot Shot! show at jen bekman, where I am this very instant. Next up: The Dreier Project. The Cowshed shampoo I just bought myself for Christmas. Hellen van Meene: New Work . That Obscure Object of Desire. Arab Strap's Come Round and Love Me. The new Au Revoir Simone. fafi x lesportsac. Looking forward to dinner tonight at Honmura An. Deciding whether or not to go to seven parties this weekend, or perhaps none at all. Maybe saving it for Tuesday. Maybe seeing you?

Lux.Links

• When Wrong is Right [personism]
• Quiet as Kept: the art of Robert Pruitt [the morning news]
• Mourning Jewelry [true nature]
• Eric Gill Wood Engravings [30gms]
• "Operatic in scope, ULULU (Clown Shrapnel) is a dramatic, genre-bending narrative and a lyrical cultural biography of the archetypal seductress Lulu." [coffee house press]
  

The LuxLoves Gift Guide

Now that we've exhaustively covered this year's Windowlickers and my professional projects, here's my personal shopping list for Santa Baby informed only by, you know, desire, fantasy and the supernatural:

A plane ticket to somewhere I've never been (international, of course)... Berlin, Australia or New Zealand, Scotland, South America, Scandinavia...

 

Short cape from Forever 21 (although I'd like it better in blue)

Dinner at Daniel

A(nother) painting by Anne-Francoise Potterat (pictured: Swim(Mo))

A subscription to Purple Magazine

A Cartier watch

A little Fracas!

Tender is the Night with cover by video artist Sam Taylor-Wood, as part of the gorgeous (and so sold out!) Penguin Designer Classics series

Evocative Incense from Terre d'Oc's 'Memoire d'un Instant' collection: A Walk in the Woods, Winter Tales by the Fireside.

BIBA: Champagne & Novocaine -- "To compliment the studied cool of white-lipped pin-legged anti-shopgirls  - a never-ending soundtrack: starbursts of glitter-glam, taut Roxy chic and ghosts of the Deco era..."

The Luxworks Gift Guide

Herewith, a list of all of the extremely worthy, handpicked cultural endeavors I've been privileged to publicize this year, any of which would be a sublime and thoughtful gift for the discerning aesthete(s) in your life:

ART

• jen bekman: "live with art, it's good for you" (pictured: work by Holly Lynton)

FILM

• Putting the Pieces Together: The Graffiti Model for Indie Filmmaking by the Quality of Life team

FICTION

• A Separate Reality by Robert Marshall
• The Exquisite by Laird Hunt
• The Venus Fix by M.J. Rose
• Triangle by Katharine Weber
• Instant Love by Jami Attenberg
• The Untelling by Tayari Jones
• Mary After All by Bill Gordon

POETRY

• Supermodel by David Breskin

NONFICTION

• Pulse: The Coming Age of Systems and Machines Inspired by Living Things by Robert Frenay
• The Power of Purpose: Living Well by Doing Good by Peter S. Temes
• The Essential Francisco Sosa, or Picadou's Mexico City by C.M. Mayo

Windowlicker

THE 2006 WINDOWLICKER GIFT GUIDE

Just below, a link to every Windowlicker from 2006. Some items are still available for purchase, some are not; such is the ephemeral nature of existence. And today's Windowlicker? A roomy tote to carry them all [Yves Saint Laurent Muse Patent Oversized Bag, $1,195 at Saks.com].

The Lux Lotus Holiday Guide continues all week -- Tomorrow: a list of all of the cultural projects + products I've worked on this year (art, film, books, et al) & Thursday: my personal wish list. Plus: LL @ ThisNext.

festive frocks
cheap party dresses
birch coffee table
ranch hand bedcover
ballet flats
blue topaz cocktail ring
buckles jacket
absinthe: new european writing
wool capelet
3 taper candelabra
azzaro dress
thorn pendant
tiny taj mahal
christian joy dress
black cashmere pillows
shark tooth necklace
velvet tuxedo jacket + silk evening gown
e. vogel riding boots
miss van brooch
arthur magazine
satellite bowl
a nap!
zidane-inspired skinny tie
translations wastebasket
saint joan prayer candle
blue flower pillow
bubble-skirt dress
embroidered floor pillows
dior watch
swedish daybed
enchanted forest furniture
camille tickets
crumpler bag
eames rocker
hot/cold bag
jeans
oversized teacup planter
nature girl bodywash
slipdress + tiara
merino knit separates
climber bag
faux-fur backpack
bicycle
an artsy plate
a tent
silver tea pot
grey wedge heels
mac "blow" lipstick
pig bank cast in gold
pecan log
velvet cummerbund
missoni bedlinens
a smart car
"kellogg's collection" tea set
quotable cards
chandelier
dip dye quilt
jersey spring time dress
mongolian stool
united nude heels
"antler" candlesticks
bubble booties
vintage deyrolle mounted insects
seafoam lizard clutch
a provocative pitcher + organic flowers
colorful hangers
blue glassware
swedish pop soundtrack
an evocative skirt
perfume, poetry + a pretty purse
mother-of-pearl canape knives
lizard-lined stationary
pucci heels
fendi's b. bag
vitamin water + cocktail napkins

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST.