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• The ‘September Issue’ has dropped.

• Fall goods are in the stores.

• DDR has already sold through several styles…

• but I haven’t de-coded fall’s color palette for you yet!

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So here it is…

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Building off of Julia Chaplin’s inspirational book, Gypset Style, (see earlier post) I wanted the fall palette to be an innovative take on fundamental basics, but also wanted the colors to transport us and ‘gypset’ us around the world.

I wanted the colors to conjure images of travel and adventure – rather real or imagined.

Colors with names like: Shangrila Green, Manchurian Orange, and Chinese Lantern evoke strong images from the East, while colors named Arabian Red, Kashmir, and Turkish Tobacco conjure up hues from the Middle East.   Heaven, Champagne and Basic Black are also adventurous and anything but “basic”.

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As always, one can never do justice to color by talking or writing about it – after all, color is COLOR!

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So take a look.

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My dad use to give us girls “sussies” – little un-occasioned gifts.

So here is a little sussie for you – your own personal color palette.

Simply print, trim, and tuck inside your handbag so when you are out shopping you can reference the perfect shade of “Shangrila”.

Enjoy!

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Patricia’s mom and aunts worked at the Bright Angel Lodge in Grand Canyon, Arizona during the late 1930s as chamber maids and would trek down into the canyon in their dungarees.   Here are a couple of pictures of Patricia’s mom and her  aunts.

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Interestingly, my research is showing a lot as far as faded denim work-clothes goes.   “Dust Bowl Darlings” is an emerging trend for spring ’11.

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Bright Angel Lodge, 1935

I couldn’t help but look up the ‘Bright Angel Lodge’ - it’s still there and in full operation.  A great example of “Parkitecture”!

makes me want to visit the Grand Canyon this summer …right after I finish my depression-esque denim group!

Not sure that it ever really left, but the lifestyle term keeps popping up lately.  You’ll remember cocooning was first coined by Faith Popcorn in her book, The Popcorn Report. (required reading for all Double D Ranch™ employees in the 90s) Faith identified a lifestyle move toward individuals retreating more to their home with less socializing.

Well, I think Faith got her prediction partially correct.

We have retreated to our homes, but we continue to socialize – just in a different manner:

• Facebook,
  
• Twitter,
  
• You Tube,
  
• blogging.
  

Interestingly, as a company, Double D Ranch™ is seeing a renewed interest in their home collection.  I recently opened my Crow’s Nest Trading catalog and saw our Big Sur Bedding Collection featured inside.  (It looks very nice, btw) Audrey told me the other day that she too is seeing a shift.  She said she has noticed that our apparel stores are requesting and adding small decorative items to their apparel mix.  Not that they haven’t before, but it is starting to move that direction again.  I’m sure, like with any recycled trend, it will have new nuances and updated twists to it.

Anyway, the purpose of my post today was to show you Double D Ranch’s™ bedding collection in Crow’s Nest Trading’s catalog.  It looks great and I can easily picture a couple cozied-in under the covers texting away on their Blackberries and iPhones.  Whaddaya think?

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To see more offerings from Crow’s Nest Trading Company you can visit their on-line store and remember they currently are carrying some key pieces from Double D Ranch’s™ 2010 Culture Clash Collection.

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What do you think?

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(left to right) Penelope Cruz,  Angie Harmon, Vera Farmiga

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I think not, but it sure is interesting to watch.  Here is what is happening on last week’s post,

“DoubleTake: Vogue January 1990′:

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Boing Boing a zine turned group blog picked it up.  If you remember a couple of months ago, Boing Boing exposed Ralph Lauren’s excessive hip carved Photoshopped ad with

“Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis,”

and all the fashion world logged on to see the ensuing catfight between Ralph’s suits and BB.

So anyway, here is what Boing Boing had to say about our DoubleTake on Vogue from twenty years ago:

The devil may wear Prada, but she evidently wanted you to wear pastel acrylics and then set fire to your hair.

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Editors of Boing Boing

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Ok, that’s exciting, so then it gets picked up by Jezebel: Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women and they took a whack at the tights featured on one of the models and commented,

Longer jackets over exercise clothes are the new, most important fashion item of the moment. — Karl Lagerfeld, to Vogue, in 1990. [DoubleTalk, via BoingBoing]

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No, it’s not “viral”, but is nice to make a new connection.

Thanks Boing Boing and Jezebel!

Forecasting Seminar

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Today I attended a fashion-forecasting seminar in New York.

I wore my very favorite red cashmere.  Long, belted, and shawl collared.  I like to dress up a bit for New York since it is the pinnacle of US fashion, and the fact that I would be joining others in the fashion industry.

You know, you gotta dress the part.

Anyway, the seminar was going good. I was taking diligent notes, I was looking good in my cashmere and then my eye strayed…

Out the window.

Oh, what a lovely sight – a mama cow cleaning her newly born baby calf.  It’s calving season here at the ranch and I just couldn’t help pausing the forecasting webinar to watch one of God’s simple wonders.

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I love my life.

I love my red cashmere bathrobe.

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