Friday, December 31, 2010

Sponsor Spotlight: Bombshell Bettie's Vintage & Revolving Styles



Now that the holidays are over and you have all the rainbow-striped toe socks you could possibly want, it's time to partake in the grand post-Christmas tradition of buying yourself the stuff you actually wanted. For us, that meant an Apple TV system and an equally bourgeois not-at-eye-level-on-the-supermarket-shelf bottle of Cabernet. For you, perhaps that means cute vintage swag like this dress from Bombshell Bettie's Vintage or these shoes from Revolving Styles. Go on, girl. You deserve it...


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Self-Reflexive Pelvic Thrusting From Bruno Mars



This will likely shock those who've seen our record collection or listened to any of our post punk and hip hop-heavy radio shows over the years, but we kind of luuurv crooning pop music wunderkind Bruno Mars. In addition to a sweet falsetto voice that could melt the panties off a nun and a dimpled, boyish smile reminiscent of Michael Jackson circa Off the Wall, the diminutive 25-year-old actually writes and produces (along with bandmates The Smeezingtons) all of his own music. What's more, press tour interviews suggest that Mars may actually be as sweet and clever as the melodic pop hooks that dot his debut album.

All of this is only enhanced by the fact that Mars' live show seems to include ironic pelvic thrusting that comically condenses a whole history of outlandishly sincere male pop performance from Elvis to Usher and beyond. Thank goodness a smitten fangirl (not us!) took it upon herself to compile concert footage of the doo-wopper 'hittin' it' 74 times. Lady boners ahoy!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A Sassy Christmas



We took Sassy home for the hollandaise, where she endured much heavy petting from our energetic niece and nephew. As you can see, Sassy does not much care for little people, and therefore spent most of our visit shooting us the stink eye and quietly intimating that she'd like to BIZOUNCE. A dog after our own, cranky heart.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Six Designer Jean Products We Hope Not to Find Under the Tree This Year



We think it's safe to say that each of these represents $200 grossly misspent.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Sometimes a Garden Implement is the Best Accessory



In her new series of anonymously-framed and frocked women, artist Kelly Reemtsen reminds us that you don't have to wear pants to wear the pants.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Is it Faux, or is it Fido?



We've known for many years of the awful trade in dog and cat pelts that are used in lieu of acrylic and polyester 'fur' (presumably because these animal skins are even cheaper than their man-made counterparts), but we'd never known how to reliably test our faux pieces to confirm their in/authenticity. Recently, however, we came across a good how-to guide from the Humane Society that usefully elaborates three key tests and/or features to look for when trying to separate actual faux from faux faux. While it's totally ridiculous that a loophole in the Fur Products Labeling Act makes this type of testing necessary in the first place, we're happy to report that the questionable fur-lined hood on our winter jacket is indeed fake. Thank you, Kitchen Orange.

1. Check the tips of the hair for tapering:


2. Check the base of the fur for skin or fabric: Push apart the fur and look at the material at the base of the hairs. If the base material is not visible or unclear, break the stitching and look at the non-hair side of the fur base.


3. Burn Test: Remove a few hairs and, holding them with a tweezer over a non-flammable surface, ignite them with a lighter. Burning animal hair smells like burning human hair, while man-made textiles like polyester and acrylic tend to smell a bit sweeter. What's more, natural fibers will burn and crumble upon touch; synthetic fibers simultaneously burn and melt, usually into a hard, molten ball.


Sunday, December 12, 2010

Sponsor Spotlight: Modish Vintage & BruklynBelle Vintage



It's 3:00 a.m., Roll Bounce is currently on VH-1, and Christmas is, like, less than two weeks away. (EEK! ...on all accounts!) If you're like us and want to 1) stay out of the malls and 2) support small businesses this holiday season, then you really ought to check out the goods from sponsors BruklynBelle Vintage and Modish Vintage. Between both shops, you could very well finish your shopping in the next ten minutes. My god, what are you waiting for?!?


Friday, December 10, 2010

Breaking News: Shakira Can't Dance


shakira bad dancer

We kind of secretly like Shakira's "She Wolf" (it sounds like a Hercules and Love Affair jam, OKAY?!!), but we'd never seen the video--or any Shakira video, really--until last night. Though we quickly moved past the fact that she's dancing in a big sparkly vagina that exists just beyond her gracious walk-in closet (why not?) in a cheap, 1970s do-me leotard (sowhatwhocares?), we couldn't really wrap our minds around the dancing. What the hell is going on there? Are none of her handlers willing to tell her that she looks like Celine Dion in a private dance-off with herself?

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

How to Remove A Security Tag Like A 12-Year-Old Boy



We recently discovered that the security tags on the "Better Quality" items at one of our local thrifts are neither linked to the security gates that flank the store's entrance nor filled with the fabled ink cartridges that are designed to crack when the tag is jimmied. We know this, of course, not because we lifted a $9 shift dress, but because the sales clerk neglected to remove a tag upon checkout. Unfortunately, it was only once we'd gotten home (nearly one hour later by train), that we realized this fact. A few Youtube videos seemed promising, but, ultimately, none of the methods illustrated in the most-viewed videos worked (see, for example, the futile plier teeth marks on the edge of our tag). So what did work?

Fire!

Certainly not the safest method since you run the risk of burning your item, your person and your house (all while inhaling potentially deadly toxins!), but these are the risks we must be willing to take for fashion--and return train fare.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Modcloth and the Work of Shopping



Modcloth co-founder and chief creative director Susan Gregg Koger speaks somewhat candidly in this talk at Parsons about the company's incredibly humble beginnings in her college dorm room in 2002, its relatively quick rise to Internet indie fashion fame, and its current supply chain management and marketing strategies. As we here at Huzzah! are quickly aging out of the Modcloth core demo- and psychographic and don't, therefore, really visit the site or 'engage with the brand' in any serious way, we were a bit surprised to learn about the many ways in which Modcloth customers 'work' for the company.

In addition to Modcloth's 'You Be the Buyer' program, which helps the company minimize the risk associated with purchasing inventory by asking customers to indicate which dresses they would buy given the opportunity, the web retailer also solicits customers to 'Be the Writer,' and 'name' selected items before they become available for purchase. But marketing and buying are not the only areas for which Modcloth recruits free labor. The company has also effectively begun to outsource aspects of customer care by encouraging shoppers to answer each other's fit, quality, and styling questions via product reviews attached to each item and, more incredibly, via conversations between customers on its very active Facebook wall. And in response to requests for live models instead of dress forms (which, Koger notes, are much less expensive than their respirating counterparts), the site will soon offer its customers the opportunity to upload photos of themselves in current Modcloth apparel so that other shoppers may see what the item looks like on an actual person--specifically, one who does not demand an hourly wage, smoke breaks or glossies for her portfolio. (Or a product placement fee a la popular fashion bloggers.)


Perhaps not surprisingly, this complimentary customer labor is cloaked in a rhetoric of 'fashion democratization.' Customers are flattered into believing that they are a contributing member of an exclusive sartorial collective, and that the free work they do for the site is somehow different, somehow less exploitative than that which paid focus group participants do for major retailers like Gap Inc. and Zara parent company Inditex. The reality, of course, is that the only thing different about Modcloth's strategy is that it is cheaper and has the value-added benefit of promoting much deeper engagement with the brand and website (something the company perhaps learned from its young, start-up savvy investors). Like so many Americans today, Modcloth customer-laborers are working harder and harder for less and less. As far as we can tell, this is not a model of democracy, but a capitalist's filthy wet dream.

Addendum (12/16/2010): Modcloth has started (seemingly within the past week) using more live models to display certain of its items. Coincidence? Perhaps, but our contrarian sensibilities think not.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Mother Midnight Vintage Purse Giveaway! (CLOSED)



********************************************************* THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED! Please see our current giveaway HERE!

This week's killer giveaway comes to us courtesy of Lisa of Mother Midnight Vintage, an online vintage clothing shop with a fast-moving inventory of goodies hand-picked to make you, your house and your kids look fly. Lisa is generously offering one lucky winner the fab vintage 1960s Etienne Aigner bag featured above. The oxblood leather bag features brass hardware, and is ready for heavy rotation in your Winter wardrobe.

To enter the giveaway, simply visit Mother Midnight Vintage and leave a comment (along with your email address) indicating your favorite item from the shop before Sunday, Dec. 12 at 11:30 p.m. PST. The randomly selected winner will be announced on Monday, Dec. 13 and contacted privately with additional details. Good luck, and thanks so much for entering!

For up to 3 additional entries & opportunities to win:
• Follow the Mother Midnight Blog & leave one additional comment
"Like" Mother Midnight Vintage on Facebook & leave one additional comment
Tweet about this giveaway & leave one additional comment


No purchase necessary to win. Giveaway contest open to readers worldwide. One winner will be selected from among qualifying entries at random by Huzzah! Vintage at close of giveaway on Sunday, Dec. 12 at 11:30 p.m. PST.

And the winner is...

Congratulations to sartoriography, lucky commenter no. 24! We'll be in touch soon with details ~ xo, Team Huzzah!

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Giving the Gift of Art


We're fond of giving and receiving art, both because it keeps us out of America's malls, and because it makes us feel like the men and women of leisure that we will almost certainly never be. Here are this season's moderately-priced contemporary favorites from Etsyland:








Saturday, December 04, 2010

Sponsor Spotlight: Vintage Strings & Lola Vintage



We here at Huzzah! Vintage are incredibly thankful for our sponsors. Not only do they help us keep the blaaag going (and our little dog fed!), but they also happily inject some sexiness into what is otherwise a relatively modest fashion and culture logbook. Two sponsors currently bringing the sexy in a big way are Vintage Strings of Central Cali and Lola Vintage of the Mitten State (which, we only recently learned, means 'Michigan' to Midwesterners). Though their modesty probably prevents them from recognizing this, trust us when we say that the ladies behind both of these shops are hawt, just like their vintage wares. And were we not firmly committed to our own dowdy academic aesthetic, we'd be wearing these pieces rather compelling you to purchase them. Onward now to the shops, Gentle Readers!


Saturday, December 04, 2010

We Have to Laugh to Keep from Crying



Recommended "outdoorsy style socks".....$12
The hilarious jokes that will be made at your expense.....priceless