District L

Dear Santa,

You must admit, this has been a bit of a rough year. Between the East Coast earthquake, “Hurricane” Irene, and two apocalypses, District L proposes that you take all things into consideration and grade on a curve this holiday season. Besides, compared to last year, we haven’t been all that bad.

First and foremost, we developed a little financial responsibility. We didn’t spend ANY rent money on United Nude shoes or A.OK knits this year. Honestly! We always used our credit cards instead.

Furthermore, we only partied on weekdays when it was really, really vital. You can’t deny the importance of Alan Cumming’s fragrance launch, anything Anna Dello Russo, and Lois Eastlund’s evening revelries. And how can you expect us to skip an open bar at Highline Stages, an event at the Chelsea Art Museum, or… okay, fine. It's true. We never miss an opportunity to have fun.

But we were taught the virtue of positivity by Lela Rose and the importance of a full eight hours by Kaelen. And perhaps we even learned how to relax a bit with the help of Nomia, Sergio Davila, and Son Jung Wan.

So, if we were you, we’d check the list three times -- before Mathieu Mirano pours something special into your milk.

Sincerely,

District L

There is nothing more painful than the caustic return of Monday after a good weekend -- especially those excruciating moments right before viewing my Chase Checking balance for the first time in three days… But as unavoidable as the first flannel purchase for a new Williamsburg resident, Monday made its bitter return.

So what other option do I have than to reflect upon the past days’ unabashed consumption and celebration?

Festivities began early last week with Anna Dello Russo’s INC launch at Openhouse Gallery. The Wednesday night event possessed the right ingredients for a perfect party – Champagne, models, and a famous style icon.

The second half of last week enjoyed its good share of meet-ups. My first stop was Ludlow to visit designer and friend, Lois Eastlund. As I browsed through her new color-ways and styles, we caught up and discussed a particularly exciting photo shoot on the horizon.

Two Bisousciao macrons later, I finally summoned the courage to elbow my way through Soho. When I finally exhaled inside Bloomindales, I was immediately drawn to a table of megawatt LARUICCI cocktail rings like a sorority girl drawn to glittery puff paint and plastic stemware. Designer, Lauren Ruicci, was busy greeting impressed visitors at her weekend trunk show.

“We have a lot in the works for fashion week,” she hinted, “but I can’t really divulge much yet!”

After a bit of self-pampering and shopping, it was time for another rooftop rendezvous with friends -- once again, falling into a champagne haze in the name of birthday celebration. But by 8pm, it was already time to start pulling ourselves together for the Digitalism show at Terminal 5.

Post by Amanda LaMela

Anna Dello Russo, the Editor at Large and creative consultant for Vogue Japan, is celebrating her new Editor at Large arrangement with INC for the Fall/Holiday 2011 season. During this evening’s event, guests previewed ADR’s launch at Openhouse Gallery.

With a full champagne bar and music by DJ Sky Ferreira, we spent our Wednesday night mingling amongst a line-up of fabulous color-blocking and fuchsia fur.

Post by Amanda LaMela

In the world of District L, there could be no moar perfect form of government than the Robo-Glitterati Totalitarian Technocracy. Just imagine it! All night rooftop dance parties on levitating glass and steel high-rise hotels, sexy robot ladies spraying you in the face with vodka from their robo-tits, Karl Lagerfeld blasting holes in the ozone with his laser eyes, and Anna Dello Russo flicking the lights on and off while Busy P spins "Call On Me" on a loop. That's how government works, right?

So now speaking of imagining, imagine the soul-crushing disappointment we suffered this morning when we discovered that a very different Robo-Glitterati Totalitarian Technocracy was being ushered in, by none other than THE FACEBOX.

According to techCrunch, Facebook will be hosting an event this coming Monday featuring the unveiling of their top-secret Project Titan initiative - referred to internally as the "G-mail killer". Meaning, basically, that Facebook will soon be launching it's own answer to Gmail that will tie directly into the social networking giant's existing evil, soul-sapping, privacy-obliterating Orwellian techn0logiez. So hide your kids, hide your wife, and get ready to sit down to dinner with a Facebook Telescreen watching your every movement!! YOUR CRIMETHINKING DAYS ARE NUMBERED.

The Robo-Glitterati Totalitarian Technocracy, it would appear, is starting to look less like that sexy titanium Vargas girl and more like this.

Post by Nicolas Sera-Leyva

The relationship between fashion and the economy is a running motif of District L's in depth industry analyses - there are few correlations in our society with such a tangible and literally visible impact.

The last few seasons, we were all privy to the effect the downturn had on the industry - classic looks oozing with timeless wearability made an especially spectacular re-emergence. Particularly palpable after the decadent, angular 80's glamfest of F/W 2009 to be certain. With the timely rise of recessionista chic, color and concept quickly began to play second fiddle.

Which is why, this season, we were pleasantly surprised to see designers lose their poker faces and begin to go all in. Chances! Risks! Gambles! A touch of the dearly missed caprice and whim of the industry had returned. This attitude was manifested no better than by the escapist, nostalgic, and in some cases almost fairytale-ish surrealism that many labels embraced for Spring, seen everywhere from Monique Lhuillier's seductive Eden enchantress and Toni Francesc's woodland warriors in New York to Mary Katrantzou's digital dreamscapes in London and Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini's youthful, evocative collection for Fendi in Milan.

But the fun didn't stop there - check out some of these moments from Spring 2011's Great Escape.

Post by Nicolas Sera-Leyva

Photos from Style.com and Jakandjil.com