Culturally Shallow

I’ve had my old wallet for quite a few years now. I loved it. I bought it from Urban Outfitters a long time, and it probably costs me $12. Fast forward to now, this is how it looks:

 
Yep, it needed to retire a long time ago. I remember two years ago, my then boss saw me pulling out my wallet when we went out for a group lunch one time and proclaimed, “My goodness, Winnie, you need to replace your wallet!”

When I went to Europe last year, I stopped by the Agnes B boutique to check out their collection in their homeland. I saw a gorgeous wallet that I just had to pick it up. I came home, put it away on one of my shelves and then promptly never thought twice about it
 
Fast forward to this morning: I was trying to find something suitable to wear for work, and I accidentally knocked this off my shelf. I have no idea why I put off using it! It’s not like I have a thousand wallets in rotation or something. So anyway, I properly gave it an inauguration and now it’s a new member in my purse now.

I love this dress! I passed by H&M last night and of course I had to go in and take a look. Go below the fold to see what else I bought last night! Read the rest of this entry »

We went to the official launch party of Site LA earlier this week in Silver Lake. What is Site LA, you ask? According to their website:

The way I see it, Quiksilver has been losing market share in the Eastside hipster artsy crowd for a long time now. In an attempt to revamp their image for the upcoming new women’s line, they decided to sponsor four local up-and-coming female artists and give them their own exhibition space right in the heart of hipster-land, Silver Lake. Uh huh. I don’t know if this will work out the way Quiksilver plans out to, though. I think in a nutshell, the furnishing of Site LA basically sums up their level of effort in understanding their demographics: the Eames bookshelves and George Nelson Bubble Lamps from Modernica are a nice touch, however, you can tell that the lamps were just shoddily hung by folks who have no pride in their trade and probably don’t understand their value. The Eames bookshelf is basically used as a divider between the basin and the exhibition area. Don’t get me wrong, I adore mid-century modern furniture, and these are one of the most iconic mid-century modern furniture there is out there. In fact, the Eames bookshelves and the Bubble Lamps are what I have at home, bought from the last Modernica warehouse sale. It feels like Quiksilver is spending money on the whole project without really understanding the lifestyle of the people they are trying to target, thus missing the mark. Nonetheless, if the four struggling artists will be able to get some help to launch their career, I suppose it’s not all for naught. I didn’t really see much artwork at the event, and it’s basically impossible to appreciate the little that they have on display anyway with the crowd there. I will come back on a different day to take a second look.

It’s funny how free beer and food draw the hipster crowd out. Case in point:

Site LA
2522 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Open Wednesdays to Saturdays, 1pm to 6pm
http://sitela.org