Is there anything Kanye doesn't do?

MaxMara, Max&Co.;, Sportmax. 'S MaxMara, Marina Rinaldi and Weekend

Prices up to 70% off retail

Sunday, April 26th 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday, April 27th 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 28th 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 29th 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Metropolitan Pavilion
123 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

This morning I popped by the Iittala showroom on Madison Avenue to check out my friend Klaus Haapaniemi's new tableware collection for the famous Finnish glassware company. We'll reveal the new collection (not shown) in the print edition of Haute List in a couple of weeks, right when it hits stores in June. In the meantime, feast your eyes on Klaus' previous work for the company. I have the blue Owl set, which I beyond adore.

It hasn't really come out on this blog so much yet, but I have a real thing for Finnish homewares and, uh, rock bands. More TK, for sure, especially when the summer festivals start. Maybe some Finnish bands will play the US circuit this year and I'll be sure to snap a few pics to show you -- stylistically, that country has it down pat.

In my (day) job, writing for the print edition of the NY Post, I don't ordinarily get to cover a lot of men's fashion -- even though I am really interested in it. It's like my hobby. Plus, I think there's a lot of really interesting things going on in the menswear industry now that really trumps the thinking-outside-the-box of the womenswear industry, right now, at this moment in time... or, really, since 2004. You know what else I don't really get to cover a lot? Cute guys. Kind of goes with the territory of not covering men's style, I guess. So I was esp chuffed to get to write today's Pulse story about guys who work in what lots of New Yorkers wouldn't necessarily consider typical New York industries -- and it ran masquerading as a style piece. These guys are fab. Check out the story here. Here's Tim Morehouse doing an interview with Fox Business News this afternoon at the Bull & Bear on showing up on the cover of Pulse and how he's working on 2012 Olympic sponsorship for the US Saber Fencing team.

Delightfully retro.

And only $35 at keds.com.

LOVING the "Gone But Not Forgotten" fingerpuppet series from Moss feat. Yves St Laurent, Maharishi Maresh Yogi (above), Charlton Heston, Aleksandr Solzhenitzsyn, Jesse Helms and Heath Ledger. See them in person at Moss (150 Greene St.) or at the SLS Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

I am the hugest hugest fan of Topshop in London -- when I lived there, I'd wander down Oxford Street to visit the flagship at least four times a week, just to check out the new merch they'd get in stock everyday. So -- maybe it's the crowds or the hype or the frenzy, I don't know -- it's kind of weird that I've been resisting a visit to the new NYC Topshop that opened a couple of weeks ago. ANYWAY, that said, I've made an appointment with myself to go this afternoon, for the first time. Excited to see what it's like (I know, I'm so late on this), if it puts me in "The Shopping Zone" like the one in London, which practically hypnotizes me as soon as I set foot in the front door, but bracing myself for total madness. Eep! One thing I know for sure -- I'm going to be checking out some summer dresses, since I'm heading back to LA next week and I haven't got a single appropriate thing to wear. All my summer clothes are resolutely New York-ish, i.e. in the palette of "lighthearted black." So I'm on the market for something bold and fab...

Maybe polka dots? This one looks just like a Henry Holland number from this season.

With, maybe, a studded denim motocross jacket?

Or maybe I'll just stick to getting some more lighthearted black...

From WGSN this morning:

DIESEL BLACK FRIDAY PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
Diesel is launching a new campaign today, Diesel Black Friday, in which the company is giving away illegal black bank notes to spend in stores.

Diesel Black Money notes will be scattered across the streets of the world's major cities over the weekend and will act as real currency at Diesel stores, offering 30% off purchases.

There are also three Charlie and the Chocolate-style golden tickets, which will grant the lucky recipient 99% off their shopping up to £500.

For more information and participating stores, visit www.diesel.com

Just got an email from a friend; "Balenciaga is selling their bags online at barneys! They never did it before. Guess it's a sign of the bad economy?"

Will we ever find out? I don't know, I'm gonna follow her anyway (just in case)...

There's something there...

Every day I go to Universal News and ask them if they've gotten the new SS09 Arena Homme+ yet, and every day they tell me no, but to check back either on a Friday or Tuesday (I guess that's when they get new international magazine shipments...). I still haven't gotten my hands on a copy, so I was SUPER excited to see a preview of the new issue, and the Rick Owens pictorial therein, on ShowStudio. Now I really can't wait to get my hands on a copy...

When I moved into my new grown-up (but collegiate sized) apartment three-and-a-half years ago, it took me ages to find the perfect kitchen utensils. The only ones I love love loved were from Muji, but Muji wasn't Stateside back in the day, so I had to place an order with mujionline.co.uk and have a whole gang of stuff shipped to New York. Super-expensive, but super-worth it -- I'm a Muji fanatic, love the clean lines and total form-meets-function of their products. And while they've now opened several stores in Manhattan, the launch of Muji.us is still super-exciting because now, the truly lazy (me) can just surf and shop from the comfort of my own sofa. I am so ordering one of these CD players now...

I have a morning skin ritual, it works for me, and it's the only system I've tried in my 31 years that reliably keeps me publicly presentable and breakout-free. For a while now, I've been washing my face alternately with Freeze 24-7's Ice Crystals exfoliating facewash, which is super-key for a smooth, zit-free complexion, and Dr. Hauschka's Cleansing Cream, which is gentler and contains sweet almond meal and other gentle natural ingredients for when my skin's feeling a bit sensitive. Then, I put a dab of Clarins HydraQuench cream for Cold Climates in the palm of my left hand, blend it with a squidge of Dior Capture Totale foundation (amazing, best foundation ever) and a drop of Armani Light Master Primer, then apply the whole concoction to my face and neck. Now, with spring weather rolling through, humidity and stuff, I'm looking to shake up this routine with a warm-weather friendly moisturizer. I've always had horrible experiences with tinted moisturizer -- generally I find the coverage is much heavier than my foundation-cream mix and the resulting finish is always too matte for my skin, even when I blend in a luminizer like the Armani primer. But I really really really like the Dior HydrAction Deep Hydration Skin Tint (with SPF 20!) that I tried this morning. It's matte, but not too parched-matte-looking if you know what I mean, and it's a great base for powder (StudioFix for me).

I'll be trying other tinted moisturizers as the season goes on -- we're seeing a lot more high-tech moisturizing things in stores this spring, so I'm excited to see what else is out there.

The first time I saw Lotta (then Skeletrix) in person was at Dover Street Market in London -- she has fabulous personal style and I knew her face from seeing her out in Hackney and from magazines like Dazed and i-D. Now, she goes by Lotta Volkova. Love her aesthetic. Her new collection is available exclusively at Maria Luisa Paris.