City life at the street level is about form and function.  City dwellers often adopt the mentality that streets are merely a means to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. In fact most city-dwellers never look up and rarely see any structure, sign, or even sky that exists more than a few feet above their own eye level.  Its an unfortunate necessity: we have to watch where we are going.  Sewer grates, coffee cups, cabs and other people are permanent and moving obstacles.  It's not that we don't want to see what's up there we just don't often have the time to look. We'll look if and when we want to - or need to. Hey, I'm walkin' here!

In a city like New York the "hustle and bustle" is an entity all it's own - some say it's the soul of the city and find beauty in the rhythm of the ebb and flow of the morning and evening commutes.  The constant hum of traffic and commerce can either distract from the city's classic sources of beauty like the architecture or the parks, or perhaps you find that it IS what makes the city beautiful. The point is, if it's there, constant, noisy and dirty, crowded and man-made, can it be beautiful?

New York city has a transportation hub called Port Authority. The terminal is the biggest bus station in the United States and the busiest in the world by volume of traffic. It serves 7,200 buses and about 200,000 people on an average weekday. And it's not necessarily what most people would define as beautiful  - even for it's architecture.  On November 14, 2008, Reuters reported that Virtualtourist listed the Port Authority Bus Terminal as one of the "World's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings and Monuments.   Until now.   The firm GKD recently installed LED panels on all sides of Port Authority, showing brilliant images in bright colors that are visible day and night.  The screens, in addition to providing much needed beauty, support the function of the building by allowing air to circulate through the breathable screens and shade to the parking garages.  If the ebb and flow is what makes New York beautiful, then the 'authority' on the 'port' is finally deserving of it's name.  And that's a reason to look up. 

Port Authority: BEFORE

Last week we talked about how Fashion Night Out did more than just bring us all together to shop the stores, but it also started merging fashion with art, music and film - for the customer's shopping experience.  However, the idea of a clothing fashion designer having interests and talents with other media is not new.  Karl Lagerfeld, the iconic designer for Chanel, Fendi and his own line, is also an amazing photographer.  He picked up a camera in 1987 to shoot images for his own press kits and to this day still creates the press kits, as well as ad campaigns, for his labels. An exhibit of his work  "Karl Lagerfeld, parcours de travail" just opened today at the European House of Photography in Paris, France. The exhibition runs from September 15 to October 31.

 From Chanel News: "This ‘Parcours de travail‘ is thus a retrospective illustration, among many others, of the brimming activity of a man of taste and culture who has chosen, through fashion and photography, to highlight the beauty of lines, forms and colors. A man for whom it can be said that he has committed his life to images everyday, with his only concern being to invent, in the lightness of a moment, new ways of seeing.
His creed is to see, to see everything, relentlessly, with great curiosity and appetite, and in this seeing, choose what should be looked at. From then on, he can take portraits, landscapes, architecture, nudes and even still life."

On Friday Sept. 10 Echo will be celebrating Fashion's Night Out at several stores in New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, Santa Monica and Chicago. Stop by the stores below to see our stylists for scarf tying tips, styling recommendations and to see our new line of fall accessories!

FNO is a global event started by Anna Wintour last year in efforts to encourage shopping and boost the industry during the recession. What's also really neat is that this year's festivities not only already seem destined to out-do 2009 a thousandfold with parties, celebrities, runways, etc. but the side effect is that the gap between consumer and designer is shrinking - and integrating art, performance, music and film into the mix. In Paris, the FNO kickoff event at Chanel included 3-D glasses for visitors to view the most recent couture show, and in NY designer Jonathan Adler sat down to a pottery wheel at Barneys!

Bloomingdale's
59th Street NY 6-9pm
Union Square San Francisco 5-8pm
3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica 5-8pm

Lord & Taylor
39th Street New York 12pm-3pm

Macy's
Herald Square New York 5-8pm
State Street, Chicago 5-8pm
Water Tower Place, Chicago 5-8pm
Union Square San Francisco 5-8pm

Nordstrom
Short Hills New Jersey 5-8pm

Here's a list (by state and by country) of all the events happening for Fashion's Night Out!

This spring season we see interest shifting from couture to the culture of art and design.  There has been a revival of the avant garde in textiles. Designers are rethinking their components of design and fashion is taking its cue from animation, illustration, paintings and craft. The result is an exciting eclectic mix of watercolor brights - and it's fun and easy to integrate this into any wardrobe.

Whatever your favorite color is, this season’s explosive new shades pack a powerful punch and there is a lot to choose from. Tangerines, citrines and dynamic neons make for a tangy combination and these bold strokes of color light up fashion that can easily translate from day outfits into night.  Spring’s kaleidoscope of colors and artistic patterns range from florals to geometrics to fearless graffiti scribbling – the effect is exhilarating, unexpected and inspiring. Breezy layers of sheer cotton, chiffons, or organzas – modernly overlay atop colorful wovens or color block knits. Florals get a bold makeover in disorienting proportions and in abstracting crude painted techniques. It’s a joyful manic artistic movement where flowers, stripes, dots and abstract geometrics float on washed, breezy and crinkled surfaces. Electrifying color, freedom of imagination and limitless artistic inspiration…the outlook is optimistically bright for Spring.

The best thing about spring's bright colors is that it's easy to be on trend with your existing wardrobe.  By simply adding a splash of color to a neutral outfit like khakis, camouflage green, greys and denim blues you can update your wardrobe and create a fresh new look.  Happy Spring!

Chances are you've been watching this year's winter Olympics in Vancouver.  Occasionally NBC's coverage will include some footage of the city and the culture that make Vancouver the beautiful city it is, but most of the time, a closeup of a skier or an ice skate could be anywhere in the world.   I wanted to share with you a beautiful video of Vancouver at night - from above the city and from the waterfront. In the winter months, Vancouver has only 8 hours of daylight so this time lapse video shows the city's skyline at night as clouds flow past buildings and bridges like liquid.   The cars and the people fly by in bright streams of color and you can even see the lights of the ski events on the mountains up above the city. Time is sped up so each scene spans 12+ hours and while watching it I can't help but wonder what actually occured during that time - someone completed a triple toe loop and someone else fell on the last turn of the relay. Dreams were born and dreams were broken. It's life condensed. They've trained their whole lives for that one moment, hoping their personal best becomes the best in the world.   If you sped up 12 hours of your life, what color would it be?  Would there be wild movement and bright lights? Or would it be a steady stillness of light and quiet?    Hopefully your days include a little bit of both.  You don't have to be an Olympic athlete to aspire to reach your personal best, sometimes just realizing what that is, can be your own gold metal.   Enjoy!

Love letters of paper and candy

Valentine's Day cards have come a long way since the first one was sent in 1806. Of course the message has stayed relatively the same, but the words and the format we choose to relay this message has changed.  This goes along with the normal course of time and how the everyday vernacular and technology of any society becomes a very interesting snapshot of the times. For example, in the video below, Nancy Roisen, president of the National Valentines Collectors' Associaton says that the first postmarked valentine in 1806 was a message from a sailor to his wife in which he says he looks forward to returning from service and to living with her in peace.   An even earlier precursor to our modern day Valentine was a devotional, dated 1700 and made in a french convent, which is a small card decorated with flowers and hearts and lace customarily given as a gift at communion or marriage as a token of love.  Valentines at war time were unquestionably important: Civil War soldiers were given pre-made valentines within their military issue stationery packets.

Today we say I love you on candy, with balloons, skywriting and email.   Has the message changed? Not really but the words we use have.  Take a look at some Necco's famous candy heart sayings from just 7 years ago:
WRITE ME
CLASS ACT 
WISE UP
TEACH ME
LOVE LETTER
PEN PAL
SCHOOL MATE
LET'S READ

Pen pal? Now it's called Facebook friend.  Write me?  Try: text me.  Let's Read? In 2010 that's either Let's Kindle or Let's Nook.  Both of which could either be a great marketing strategy for the namesakes or a lawsuit.  It's a toin coss.

When Necco first invented conversation hearts in the 1860s these first hearts had printed paper notes tucked inside. This allowed ample room for lengthy, old-fashioned sayings such as “Please send a lock of your hair by return mail,” or “How long shall I have to wait? Pray be considerate.”   2010 translation: lose his digits. 

However, we are relieved to report that there are a few timeless treasures that Necco candy continues to use throughout time: “Be Mine,” “Be Good,” “Be True,” “My Man,” “Kiss Me” and “Sweet Talk.”

Stay tuned for our Valentine's Day blog post Part 2:  One of the most romantic and real stories is Beethoven's letter to his Immortal Beloved. Do you think he typed it in Times New Roman 12?  Doubt it!  Hear from renowed Calligrapher and stationer, Bernard Maisner, on his thoughts on writing messages of love. Has qwerty replaced penmanship? Will future generations communicate solely with their thumbs?  What are we in for?! 

It's that time of year where everyone makes a list of resolutions. I'd like to break with tradition and go for the halfway point and make a resolution in JULY.  Think of the benefits: less people at the gym.   But if you were to make a resolution today or at least this month, what would it be? Will you remember it in February? Oh well, it was a nice thought there for a moment, wasn't it?  Maybe we tend to waffle on the follow-through because of that word. Resolution. Sounds so clinical. How about something lyrical like 'promise'? Or poetic like 'devotion'?   Whatever you'd like to call it, I believe in order to get a resolution to really stick, it should be all encompassing and not too specific.  Think about it.  'Work out 5 days a week' is pretty daunting.  But 'be healthier' sounds much more do-able.  This way you can stick to your resolution several different ways - by cooking a few nights instead of ordering in, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, adding some broccoli to that slice, ordering the low fat double caff soy latte. Another great resolution to consider is to let yourself be inspired. You're on that hamster wheel every day, chugging along and missing the scenery. Take a moment to appreciate a store window display, the discipline of origami, the intricacies of lace or the sheer wonder of a star fruit.  Or have you looked up lately? We are so busy checking email and focusing on our destination, that we forget to look at the world above our heads. If you're in a city this is particularly true. In NYC we've got gargoyles, art deco detailing, even gardens on the tops of the buildings.  Suburbs not so much. But you've got rooftops, trees, birds, planes, sunsets, and let's face it, the sky. So take off the sunglasses, get out of the car, take a moment to check the planetary alignment, take a deep breath.  Give yourself a chance to see what inspires you. Just think how different 2010 will be if you follow your inspiration. 

Irving Penn died on October 7, 2009.  For anyone who loves photography and art, Irving Penn’s work which is so clear, honest and elegant awakens all the senses.  Penn worked in fashion photography, most notably for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, but his portraits of famous people are what stand out.  His images are striking -  striking for their black and white composition and for their intensity.  It is as if the camera has become a mirror of the subject’s soul.  Somehow Irving Penn, through all his talents, had a way of connecting with his subjects and revealing what is so special not just about the subject but about life.  It is the power of connecting with others, of understanding each other, of taking the time to really hear each other and share in a way that gets to the essence of things: our joys, our concerns, our troubles and our passions.
A year or so ago there was a great exhibit at the JP Morgan Library called: Close Encounters.  Irving Penn Portraits of Artists and Writers.  As described the photographs were unbelievably magnetic.  What I found as engaging was the clothing worn by Penn’s subjects, such as Truman Capote, Pablo Picasso, Yves Saint Laurent and others.  Was it the times?  Was it the artist being photographed?  Was it somehow Penn’s sensitivity to fashion and design?  Everyone was so smartly dressed.  The silhouettes seemed so modern.  You could almost touch each thread of fabric and see each shade of color, all in that rich black and white image.
Today, with everyone linked to screens and devices, seeing Penn’s images is not about looking at the past.  It is much more about seeing how life can be seen.  As seen through an artist’s eyes Penn’s subjects are revealed with a sense of beauty and refinement.  What a gift he created and left to us.  - Steven

Top left: Truman Capote; Top Right: Yves Saint Laurent; Middle left: Jasper Johns; Middle Right: Georgia O'Keefe

Bottom left: Jean Costeau; Bottom Right: Truman Capote.  All photos by Irving Penn

If you've been to Soho - in New York city or in London - you know that half the fun of shopping is in the people-watching. Thanks to Elizabeth M. for pointing out this great picture from BeautifulStranger.tv of Katie K. who was spotted wearing an Echo caravan patchwork scarf today in SoHo - NYC. 

I always find it interesting how celebrities and fashion transcend culture, continents and history. I recently took a trip to Italy and found that no matter where I was, a touch of fashion or a celebrity picture was directly positioned next to a historical landmark or cultural event.

In Milan, it was seeing Scarlett Johansson in an ad for Dolce & Gabbana across from the Duomo.

In Venice, it was watching Margherita Missoni as she “flew” down from the top of San Marco Square during the legendary flight of the angel that happens once a year during Carnivale.

 (Yes, that tiny tiny dot on the right hand side was Margherita in all her glory)… here’s a quick video of the whole affair.

I always walk away from a traveling experience with a different perspective on life; I guess one of the takeaways this time around was how fashion and celebrities are often seen as superficial but they do have their own place in history and can, in their own right, be as influential as a historical event.

- Alyssa