This is the last time, I swear

So remember a few weeks ago, how I switched my blog name from Flora Vintage to Diamond Star Halo?

Well, I'm doing it again!

This time, the name remains the same - for the most part at least; it's the server that's changing.

You can now read my updates at www.thediamondstarhalo.com/blog.

The reason for the switch? My dear friend Sunny - she of the incredible Hooprama studio here in East Nashville - is helping me link all my enterprises (Etsy, Twitter, Facebook, Libbycallaway.com, and this here blog) into one site, which will be called - you guessed it - www.thediamondstarhalo.com. The site is sponsored by Yahoo, so I'm moving all my stuff over there.

More info on this soon!

Until then, follow me here.

XO,
LC

PS. You can now find my Etsy gear at www.thediamondstarhalo.etsy.com!

LC

A bit of Memphis in Berry Hill

I have a weird kind of love for the Regal Hollywood 27 movie theater in the Berry Hill section of town. And it has nothing to do with the quality of the sound there or the butter they squirt on their popcorn.

As far as I know, the Regal is the only building in town designed in the mode of the Memphis Group - the 1980s Italian art movement, not a pickup band in the famous river city 200 miles to our southwest.

The building has all the hallmarks of Memphisian design: it's very graphic, colorful, symmetrical and cheery (the Memphis Group was reacting to decades of what they saw as soulless Modern design.

The name came from - of all things - a Bob Dylan song. Check out this excerpt from the Design Museum:

Originally dubbed The New Design, the project was rechristened Memphis after the Bob Dylan lyric "Stuck Inside of Mobile (With the Memphis Blues Again)" stuck repeatedly at "Memphis Blues Again" on (Milan furniture designer Ettore) Sottsass’ record player. "Sottsass said: ‘Okay, let’s call it Memphis," wrote Radice, "and everyone thought it was a great name: Blues, Tennessee, rock’n’roll, American suburbs, and then Egypt, the Pharoahs’ capital, the holy city of the god, Ptah."

Well, I guess Dylan gave us Nashville Skyline; it's the least he could do for Memphis, right?

I snapped these pics the other night, when my sister Millie and I went to see The Hangover, which is kinda awesome. I love Ed Helms.

Elegant? Check. Spooky? Check. Faaaabulous? Double check.

Can't wait to get this issue of Vogue Italia. I love me some Kristen McMenamy!

You know how one thing leads to another?

I started out this morning ready to begin posting even more new Etsy editions.

Two hours later, I'm still here at the kitchen table, my dirty cereal bowl and cold coffee cup still sitting here beside my computer, where I've been surfing for far too long.

I just got on one of those fashion searching frenzies, starting with my attempt to find the correct year and season that the 1990s Gaultier sweater/jersey dress that I got in Boise came from. I found what I am SURE is a companion piece from the collection on The Way We Wore's site on 1stdibs.com (my new obsession), which gave me a jumping off point. But since Style.com's backlog of shows is only nine years old, I couldn't find what I was looking for.

I did, somehow, run into a story about my childhood friend Janie Bryant, the costume designer for the incredible AMC series Mad Men - back on TV August 16! - with the news about how she's working on a vintage inspired line. That's super-exciting stuff, so I started searching for more stories, which led to finding interviews she's done with the NYT magazine, British Vogue, the LA Times and a host of websites.

Something on one of Janie's sites linked to some information on Resurrection Vintage, which is the bicoastal vintage store co-owned by Katy Rodriquez, a friend of mine from New York. She's amazing - just a lovely, kind, talented woman (that's her in a vintage 40s Indian headdress, above)- and has been extremely successful over the past few years launching her own namesake line. Recently, she's had a celebrity explosion, with lots of red carpet action and ton of media exposure.

On her business' FB page - join it here - I came across a link to a story by another top-notch off-the-radar fashion site, Refinery29, about her fall '09 lookbook featuring Jessica Joffe, the gorgeous red-headed socialite/writer/model/former Ryan Adams GF. Super stuff. Check it out:

New Etsy additions!

Here are some of the goodies I have up on my Etsy site right now. Check 'em out at www.floravintage.etsy.com!

Walter Steiger black suede pumps with KILLER heels

YSL military jacket

Flora Kung silk dress

Guy Laroche silk cocktail dress

Escada suede spectator pumps

Who's on 1stdibs.com

Gloria Vanderbilt, for one. (How 'bout that amazing crazy quilt robe?!)

And Hamish Bowles, and Kelly Wearstler, John Derian and Wendy Goodman and a whole slew of other style luminaries whose work and/or vibe I dig.

I'd heard about this art and antique site for a while now, but had never checked it out until this morning, when it showed up as an ad link on the side of the Times' T Magazine website, where there's also an Alaia story that I'm keen to spend some time with soon.

1stdibs.com is an auction website, but like most successful and well-executed internet destinations, it also has a journalistic component. I just spent an hour I really should have been doing hot yoga reading about Bunny Williams sensitive design hand, her protege Miles Redd's sensational inclination to reference movie sets in his interiors (his "My Fair Lady" kitchen is wonderful, in all its black and white, at-the-Ascot glory) and even one of my favorite actresses, Rachel Griffiths, who has a big thing for Noguchi chairs and other benchmarks of good modern design - who knew?

Z is for zebra belt

I'm going to start carrying a lot more large jewelry and over-sized belt buckles at Fanny's from now on. This dude is there right now, alongside a pair of linking Mimi Di N leopards and a funny little angel duo that come on a hot pink patent belt. Love!