Yale Students Love to Wear Black on Their Backs - Dress The Message

Helloooo out there.

I proposed this piece to The New York Times. The newspaper published it (and others) while I was still a college student and a campus stringer. The then new Campus Life section did not have names attached to the articles, so I thought you might be interested in seeing it, since it wouldn't come up on any searches of my name.

Background: Growing up in Illinois, I did not wear black. Seeing many students cloaked in the color presented a new sartorial possibility while concurrently undercutting the stereotype that Ivy League students dressed in plaid pants, crew neck sweaters and penny loafers. We dressed much more diversely, as it turned out, based on the messages that we intended to send.

Enjoy!
Petria May teacher

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Link: Yale students wear black

Petria May teacher style fashion clothing dress Beacon High School codes message

Faith Hochberg, Judge and Jeweler

Faith Hochberg has two business cards: one for her day job as a federal judge and the other for her handmade jewels. As you can imagine, we are connected. See a selection of Faith's jewels at www.berkshireartist.com. A longtime second homeowner in Litchfield County, Faith custom creates her pieces from her imagination, and yours. She fuses  unused family treasures with new beading to make wearable art.

Devohn Walker 60 Seconds Video + Bill Cunningham Photo

Devohn Walker is one step closer to his dream that one day, everyone will know his name. I videotaped him in Brooklyn back in the fall. It seems that Bill Cunningham found him in Manhattan. Check out the Sunday Styles section for February 7, 2010 or look at the photo here. My video was posted to youtube a while back. You could have seen it there first!

60 Seconds of Style Project, J. Crew

Vintage inspires J. Crew. For a couple of years, I have visited the company offices with treasures in tow. Elements of my picks have appeared in J. Crew stores. Example: punch out leather. I took a handbag with this design element, it was purchased, then turned up on a pair of ballet flats.

Cheryl Dunn + Michael Karbelnikoff

Wedding Fantastic in Norfolk, Connecticut

White is passe, plaid is in, black is so back, and remembering loved ones lost makes sense.

This wedding visually veered from traditional nuptials, resulting in its own (and I daresay truer) tradition. Savor these images from the bliss of Cheryl Dunn and Michael Karbelnikoff.

I am left dreaming: Maybe marriage is magical.

Vanity Fair Letter to the Editor published November 2009.

The Art of Couture

AS AN ATTORNEY and writer who set aside her Columbia Law School education to dedicate the past five years of her life to being a purveyor of vintage clothes, I can attest to the everlasting allure of couture [“Toujours Couture,” by Amy Fine Collins, September]. I am an avid consumer of contemporary design—which owes nearly everything to vintage—but the pinnacle of my sartorial adventure came last January. Just before I dashed back into another frigid New England night after a house party, the host asked me what I do for a living. Upon hearing that I am a shopgirl, he descended to his basement and returned with a black garbage bag. From that rather unpromising blob of plastic emerged a cocoa-brown Christian Dior New Look ball gown from 1952. Christened “Esther” on her muslin tag and created for Mrs. John Wanamaker of Philadelphia, the masterpiece featured a finely boned corset, intricate beading, and a ballerina-inspired silhouette that must have been blessed by Monsieur Dior himself. It was the most beautiful dress I’d ever touched, I told its then owner, who offered it to me. Eventually, I sold Esther, my flower of all frocks. Today, she preens before me still, as my computer desktop image. —PETRIA MAY, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Club Monaco and DKNY visit PB.

I received a Sunday visit today from a few fashion designers.  With laser eyes, they turn the seams, try the latches on handbags, inspect all construction very carefully and, when in a group, mumble. I imagine that they are thinking about mass manufacturing.  

Today, that sartorial set included Jane Ibarra (photo, right) from Club Monaco.



There was also a DKNY designer trying to take pictures with his phone. Why buy when you can take the idea?