Though it isn’t technically Spring yet, for this new Southern California transplant it sure feels like it, which is probably why I got the urge to clean out and reorganize my design studio. So much, um…stuff was uncovered that it has caused me to begin reminiscing on my fashion adventures.  It also makes me realize that a huge sample and moving sale is definitely on the horizon.

Besides half-finished samples, beads and chains of every sort, random decorative charms that chronicle my creative inspiration (and often times off-the-rocker mindset) for each of my past collections, I came across clippings of, what I deem to be hilarious feature placements and some footage of on-air interviews.

None is better than this Showtime Network promo for the capsule collection I designed for them in a licensing deal to promote their hit show, The L Word.

Because it’s Monday and I try to give my readers a little something to pick up their spirits on this “dreary” day of the week, I will share this special piece with you. Please enjoy!

P.S.
If you’re hankering for some of the exclusive collection pieces that come with a collectible The L Word, “L”ements of Style tags, let me know…we just happen to have a few sizes left and I would love for them to find a happy home.

Found in a box - an announcement of the shopping event introducing the Collection

Shop Till You Drop: Harper cozies up in a shopping bag after a trip to the mall

It’s no secret that I’m a massive dog lover.  Of course I find their furry coifs, wet little noses and sweet spirits irresistible, but I love dogs even more for their loyalty, eagerness to please and incredible intelligence.

So, when someone was sweet enough to introduce me to the absolutely adorable website I Do Dog Tricks, Harper and I thought we would put our own video together to prove that my ten pound cutie is much more than just a fashion accessory.  She can stand her ground as a “real” dog who listens to her master, takes commands and feels proud when she follows direction.

We hope you enjoy our little video!

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dolores Fuller, the 1950’s actress and songwriter and one-time girlfriend of film director Ed Wood.  Those if us under the age of 60 will best know her from Tim Burton’s 1994 film titled Ed Wood, (staring my favorite actor of all time, Johnny Depp as Wood) which was written about their relationship.  Sarah Jessica Parker played Dolores.

Dolores’ filmography mainly consists of black and white b-movies such as Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait and Bride of the Monster.  She is maybe best known as a songwriter for Elvis Presley – in fact, he recorded more of her songs than any other songwriter.  Hollywood has acknowledged her contribution to film and music with a coveted Hollywood Star and she recently authored an autobiography, A Fuller Life: Hollywood, Ed Wood, and Me

Johnny Depp and Sarah Jessica Parker in Tim Burton's film, Ed Wood (with Dolores' beautiful angora sweater)

Today, though as beautiful and elegant as ever, Dolores spends her days in silk house-gowns and velvet trouser suits rather than ball gowns and sequin jumpers, so figured it was time to lighten up and sell her treasures.  Enter little ol’ me.  One morning I was invited to her home to peruse through her closets to determine if any of her treasures were worth selling.  It took me a full day to make it through a dozen closets – I think she saved everything she ever wore – and as you may well imagine, I found some pretty fabulous pieces lingering in her wardrobe.  Nothing more heart-stopping than the very angora sweater that was made famous in Tim Burton’s film.

As a very exclusive, first offering, I’m holding an intimate private sale in Las Vegas this coming week before shipping the remaining pieces to Hollywood for a larger, event and sale.

If you will be in Las Vegas – Wednesday, January 20th and are interested in attending, email me at laura@dahlight.com for the location and details and come prepared to celebrate your inner Hollywood Starlet.

King Phillip II by Kehinde Wiley

As the Curator of Dahlight, I’m excited to highlight my favorite gallery as they prepare to show a highly anticipated painting by a contemporary artist – of a modern icon – in the vain of a classic treasure.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Miami from December 2 through 6, head on over to Art Basel Miami Beach and visit the Deitch Studios booth where they will be hosting the Kehinde Wiley painting, Equestrian portrait of King Phillip II, which is in the style of Peter Paul Rubens but, upon closer look, King Phillip II will look quite familiar with his updated face resembling  the late Michael Jackson.

Being a blogger in NYC means that your part of a very large club.  Being a house blogger makes you a member of a more elite group.  My Husband, the founder and editor of Charles and Hudson is one of the latter.

Obviously, his position as a top DIY authority doesn’t mean that we get invited to P. Diddy’s parties or have a sitting reservation at The Waverly Inn, but it does afford us some perks of the household variety.  The most recent being our inclusion in Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s new book:  Apartment Therapy’s Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces

Having had our West Village apartment featured on the Apartment Therapy website, it’s so much fun to now have professional record of our West LA Bungalow – even if just for posterity.

It was two months after we packed up our tiny NYC home and made the trek across country in our newly purchased car (we hadn’t owned one for 9 years) to settle ourselves near the surf of Los Angeles, when Maxwell and his NYC crew came knocking on our door.

His professional team of assistants, stylists and photographer Jim Franco, made themselves at home in our small bungalow and with a few tweaks and a couple props, they made our small space photo worthy.

I’ve been involved in countless fashion shoots and I’ve worn every hat from producer and designer, to stylist, intern/slave, and even photographer and “model”, but I had never been behind the scenes at a still-life shoot.  In fashion our subject (the clothing) takes on life by its relationship to the model who flaunts it.  Garments gain attitude and breath simply by being draped on a living being.  With still-life, the challenge is intensely aggravated.  How does one bring energy and life to something totally inanimate.  It’s a different art all together.

I haven’t seen any of the photos from the shoot and I really don’t know what to expect…I’m hoping our home is photogenic and oozes spirited personalty.  What I do know is that, as the head of a blogging empire Apartment Therapy, Maxwell has incredible taste and must have chosen some unique and creative spaces to feature.  I’m sure even those living in mansions and plantations will find the book to be interesting and inspiring.

Needless to say, I’m quite flattered that our home was one of the few chosen to be featured, and I’m thoroughly excited to pick up my copy of the book when it drops on May 11, 2010.

Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.

It doesn’t sound like the most cheerful of story lines, but (500) Days of Summer is a curiously charming film that endears itself to the audience.  By melding fantasy with reality, the movie captures you with its quirky approach and takes you willingly along on Tom’s (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) 500 day journey of love and loss.

I know you might charge me with being biased since my brother, Matthew Gray Gubler, is in the film.  He plays Paul, Tom’s best friend.  But truly, this is a sweet movie brought to life by an imaginative new feature director, Marc Webb, with an alluring visual look and savory soundtrack.

I’ve long had a girl crush on Zooey Deschanel who brings Summer to life with her alluring and free-spirited charisma.  There’s just something about the way she manages to be both innocent and cunning at the same time that fascinates me.  Summer’s joie de vivre is perfectly countered by Tom’s zipped-up and conservative character who, with tempered subtlety, ultimately wins you over.

Matthew Gray Gubler, Geoffrey Arend and Laura Dahl

Adding the perfect tone of humor to a movie that would otherwise be at risk of becoming too sappy are Paul (played by my bro) and McKenzie (played by Geoffrey Arend).  These guys steal every scene they’re in and inject a casual energy that’s welcomed with giggles and gusto.
As a side note, they are genuinely awesome dudes off the screen so it makes it that much easier to fall in love with their work on screen.

So, if you’re in the mood for an artistic love lesson and want it taught to you by a sharp and talented cast, get yourself to the theater on July 17th.  Summer’s waiting!

Marc Webb, Rachel Boston, Geoffrey Arend, Matthew Gray Gubler, Zooey Deschanel, Chloe Moretz, Scott Neustadter

I was quite happy to discover that The New York Times did a spread about an apartment that I regularly admire.  It stands across from my gym (Equinox, where you get a good view of the rooftop home while hunched over the evil Butt Blaster machine) in the West Village.  The apartment graces the top of a building who’s ground floor is occupied by Tea and Sympathy, a wee little English restaurant and grocery shoppe.

The wall of white paned glass stands proudly above the manic energy of New York life, and it is there that the current tenant finds peace in her 350 sq ft home.

Needless to say, it’s a sad reality that makes it the norm to pay on average $41 per sq ft for a rental apartment in Manhattan.  So, it speaks volumes for the magnetism of the City that millions of smart, ambitious, upwardly mobile people with good taste will happily cram themselves into a cubbyhole and call it home.

Chez Moi | Le Gendarme

I did it for 9 years.  Though we bounced between newer buildings in Chelsea for a few years, it was the former police building in the West Village, Le Gendarme, that welcomed us home for the long haul.  It is said that our apartment was in fact one of the holding cells when the building was an active police station.

I’m not sure what it says about my personality that it is in a cell that I chose to spend some of my best years in NYC, but the space boasted high ceilings and a loft that we loaded full with storage.  I even kept all my pots, pans, tupperware, and shoes up there since these was no room for it all in the actual living space.  Perhaps the best feature of the apartment was the planted outdoor space that we and our 2 dogs shared with 6 humans, 4 cats and a bunny.

Apparently our strange apartment, rich with character, had more admirers than just our friends as Apartment Therapy featured our tiny space on their website.  I still wish I had been able to clean up and stage the place a little before the photo shoot – there’s crap everywhere, but having our curious place documented has already proven to be a fun thing to have for posterity.

Just for sentimental and historic purposes, I dug up another fun article published in 1987 , also by The New York Times, that talks about our police precinct home and the proposed development of the area, the Far West Village.  New York is such an amazing city in that it is constantly evolving and moving forward while holding tightly to its unique history with respect and deserved arrogance.

Early morning scene on the way to my studio|showroom

For me it was also fun to see the Meatpacking District mentioned in this archaic article.  In the late 80’s it was still the neighborhood where meat was in fact butchered and packed.  Today, only two plants still exist and the rest of the neighborhood has been taken over by luxury retail and designer showrooms.  Laura Dahl and Wifebeader even called the Meatpacking District home.

Every morning I would dodge cow carcases dangling by hooks as they were hauled into the packing plant.  Again, I know it may sound strange, but the vision of friendly butchers sporting full mustaches, dressed in their bloodied whites and smelling the scent of flesh mixed with cleaning solution and City dirt is one truly awesome way to begin a day.

No one really knows where the next decade will take the City.  But, it is most fair to say that wherever that is, the people responsible for making its heart beat will be living in tiny apartments, and they will be loving it.

P.S.  Keep an eye out for Apartment Therapy’s follow-up book to their successful Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions where you can catch a glimpse of our Los Angeles home.  I’ve been told its release date is late ‘09, early ‘10 and it will be titled something to the effect of Smart, Small Spaces.

Flying Fish, by Aaron Morse, commissioned by Laura Dahl

I’ve been getting enthusiastic feedback on dahlight’s featured artist who is responsible for the current site banner.  To all you fans out there, here is a brief look at the inspired work of my friend, Aaron Morse.

Cochella by Aaron Morse

AARON MORSE
Aaron is a good friend of mine who’s work I love, obviously. Several of his pieces hang in my home and I even commissioned him to do a large ocean piece with a cool pirate boat and huge golden flying fish. He painted it on a metal screen which gives it an interestingly shear effect that can be manipulated by different colored walls and back lighting. A very cool piece if I do say so myself.

Aaron Morse Cards available at MOMA

A few places you can find his work

MoMA Museum of Modern Art
MoMAstore
ACME gallery, Los Angeles
Guild & Greyshkul gallery, NYC
artnet online gallery
Facebook

Aaron Morse was born in 1974 in Tucson, Arizona. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona, Tucson in 1996 and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1998. Selected solo exhibitions include ACME, Los Angeles (2009, 2007, 2005 and 2003) and Guild and Greyshkul, New York (2008, 2006), and the Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2008). Selected group exhibitions include MATRIX 213: Some Forgotten Place, Berkeley Art Museum (2004); Women Beware Women, Deitch Projects, New York (2004); and The Old, Weird America, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston (2008). He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Laura Dahl and Aaron Morse

]]> http://www.dahlight.com/aaron-morse-featured-artist/feed/ 6 http://www.dahlight.com/la-sonrisa-means-smile/ http://www.dahlight.com/la-sonrisa-means-smile/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:00:27 +0000 Laura http://www.dahlight.com/?p=535

45 Minutes and 100 Years from Las Vegas…

…stands my mother’s magnificent ranch.  She appropriately named it La Sonrisa, which means “smile” in Spanish, and the place certainly lives up to its moniker with an extraordinary flair for putting a grin on your face.  At La Sonrisa, everyone is welcome, and most of the time, the odder the better.

Gublette getting a belly scratch

Rawhide getting an ear scratch

Character, and characters, run rampant at this little oasis in the Mojave desert.  In the chicken coop lives Giblette, the world’s friendliest turkey, and a three legged pig named Tripod.  Sometimes you’ll find Rawhide (the calf we saved after he fell off a moving trailer and was dragged along a gravel road) buddying up to the goats, pigs and humans instead of hanging with the other cows.

Movies, television shows and music videos have filmed there.  Fashion shoots have used the ranch as their backdrop.  People come from overseas to get married under the expansive western sky.  They celebrate their anniversaries, and some celebrate their divorces.  We’ve hosted bachelor parties, birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, Mexican rodeos, Western reenactments, roping contests, and Halloween howls.  The ranch has seen it all.

Rusty and me penning cattle in the arena

At La Sonrisa people come out of their shells.  There is no judgment.  They try things they have always been afraid to try.  They do things they have always been too chicken (pun intended) to do.  They laugh, cry, dance, discuss and unwind.  I guess it’s fair to say that the ranch is a veritable therapist, helping you to think more clearly, relax into a peaceful pace, and let go of silly inhibitions.

I vividly remember the day I got my first horse.  I was 12.  She was a leggy black Morgan named Onyx, and she was gorgeous.  Quickly, our vacant stables began to fill up with the addition of a rescue burro that we fittingly named Burrito and another Morgan named Beauty.

The ranch and our horses have influenced my personality.  They have taught me important lessons, and have inspired an inner confidence that encourages me to dream big.  It was on the back of my horse that I decided to move to NYC to become a fashion designer.  It is through horses that I’ve met some incredible people.  Horses have made me more patient and understanding and have always reciprocated my love and respect.

my brother Gray on the tarzan swing

Knowing that this post has gotten semi sentimental, let me bring it down a bit and just say – La Sonrisa freakin’ rocks.  Take a poll of any of my friends who have survived raging parties, skeet shooting, horseback races, the Tarzan swing, and bottomless bottles of whiskey and I would bet my Stetson that they agree.

So, to my beautiful Mumzy, thank you for filling my life with unique adventures and joyful smiles.

xx laura

the Boss Lady and me all dudded up

Dameon Clark, Matthew Gray Gubler, Laura Dahl

No one knows the criminal mind better than Dr. Spencer Reid, of the CBS series Criminal Minds, so who better to cast as the eager apprentice to a cold-blooded murderer in the movie How to be a Serial Killer, than the same clever actor – my brother, Matthew Gray Gubler.

Much like Heath Ledger did when he explored the flip sides of love by going from Brokeback Mountain, where he played a conflicted gay cowboy, to Casanova where he embodied the quintessential lady’s man, Matthew goes from genius FBI Profiler to the FBI’s most wanted list.

Matthew plays Bart, a simple video store clerk who anxiously accepts the invitation to learn all the ins and outs of serial killing under the tutelage of a seasoned professional, Mike, played by Dameon Clarke.

At face value, the film transforms the cinema audience into an auditorium of self-help seekers attending a seminar given by the famous serial killer, Mike Wilson.  Sadistic and warped, writer and director Luke Ricci brings us a perfect parody of Tony Robbins, the famous motivational speaker.  And it’s that ironic and twisted perspective that makes this off-beat movie work.

Bart becomes the audience’s eyes and through his perspective we watch as this reserved and tortured character fluffs up with confidence and gains a sense of serenity by finally finding his purpose in life.  That purpose just happens to be murder.

"Dr. Reid", Criminal Minds

"Bart", How to be a Serial Killer

I found it fascinating how similar Matthew’s two, seemingly contrasting characters, really are.  It’s as though Reid and Bart started out as the same person, but through a series of distinctly different life choices, developed into completely opposite creatures with disparate beliefs and ethics.

They’re both socially awkward.  They both long to find their place in society, and they both gravitate to a life in crime.  Criminal Minds the series is fundamentally based on the methodology that one must “become” a criminal in order to catch a criminal.  If that’s true, Reid must know Bart pretty darn well.

This movie is strange, surreal, bizarre, and ugly.  It skirts the edge between comic ridiculousness and disturbing psychopathic illness, never apologizing for it’s bad taste.

It’s not a film that everyone can appreciate, and oddly, I think that was the director’s intention.  The story is clearly questionable.  It looks like it was shot on a budget, and the costuming is sketchy (though I personally took pleasure in seeing my brother wearing old-man, high-waisted elastic sweatpants in one scene).  That said, it has all the requisite elements, including vivid and likable performances by the leads, that might just make this deviant film a cult classic.

Bart perfectly sums up the film’s perverse personality when he, with his new found confidence and purpose, addresses the camera and declares his appreciation and love for his cherished friend and mentor.  His sincerity might make you well up with compassion, but that heart felt moment is literally killed when Bart awkwardly jogs off screen – hot on the tail on his next innocent victim.