Latest Stuff
By · CommentsHere’s what I’ve been working on lately…
Ombre paillette multi chain necklace
Long rope necklace
Ombre woven crystal cable chain necklace
2-strand ombre chain with metal stitching and navy, deep purple and bright green stones
Olivine navette choker with tear drop fringe and green opals
Vintage ombre multi chain choker with mosaic lockets
Delicate 3 strand figaro charm chain, with cast bronze mini medallion
Gold choker with textured circle pendant and white opal mosaic detail
Cheap chic: Long gold fringe and crystals boho glam necklace
Cheap chic: Boho glam locket necklace with tiny AB crystals
Cheap chic: Long boho glam oval locket necklace with tiny AB crystals
Cheap chic: sleek mini locket trio necklace
Gold and opal mosaic cast bronze fringed choker
Long vintage double grooved chain with vintage ball lockets in satin gold finish - also available in ombre
Cheap Chic Classic Bow Necklace
By · CommentsI’ll soon be adding a small cheap chic capsule collection to http://www.kayhubin.com/ that offers maximum style for minimum price.
Cheap chic will incorporate style features from both my super wearable “classic-with-a-cool-twist” gold filled and semi-precious gemstone collection, as well as the elegantly hip Bohemian Luxe style of my 24k gold cast bronze collection with all of it’s draped chain, luscious fringe and hand set vintage glass mosaics (not yet on my website, but will be soon.)
A classic romantic look that is incredibly easy to wear.
Here is the first official piece from Cheap Chic, called Crystal Bow Necklace, which is my take on the eternally classic bow. Sprinkled with tiny Swarovski Austrian crystals, in a canary auroraborealis color. It’s an extremely easy to wear neutral and a classic romantic look that works with virtually everything. Another cool detail – it is also adjustable so you can wear it in two different lengths. Hope you enjoy!
Looklet.com – warning: it’s addictive
By · CommentsI just stumbled onto this incredibly fun site, looklet.com.
Looklet is a digital styling studio with hundreds of items in their fashion collection for you to virtually play dress up with.You get to choose every single piece that goes on your model from jewelry to footwear, to create your own personal looks. You can follow other people, like their looks, comment on their wall, and of course become friends. The clothes and accessories come from actual designers and brands, selected by Looklet’s stylists. I warn you, once you start, it’s really really hard to stop!!!
Here are some of the looks I came up with:
Look #1
The only downside is that after playing around with all the clothes and creating your looks, you may want to purchase some of the pieces from your favorite looks to recreate them in real life for yourself, but there is no convenient way to do this. I diligently tried google searches for brand/designer/item name, but came up empty handed for the particular pieces I wanted. So it can be frustrating from the standpoint of yes, these are real clothes, as they say, but no, you can’t actually buy them (as far as I was able to determine).
Look #2
Look #3
Look #4
Smythe blazer undetected – painful results
By · CommentsThis is so sad to admit to but: I’m coming shamefully late to game on the Smythe blazer front. I don’t know how something this ragingly awesome escaped my previously foolproof fashion radar for this length of time. But the fact that one of my absolute dream blazers (I’ve yearned for a blue/white striped 70′s-esque blazer with this exact cut, from the wide peaked lapels to slightly puffed shoulders with high cut armholes to totally sleek fitted bodice forEVER) see below:
will now likely never be in my clutches, is just killing me (no exaggeration – it really really IS.) I do continual obsessive web searches for it, hoping that some way, some how, somebody will return my size just in time for me to gleefully scoop it up with the click of my (beloved shopping buddy) mouse. I know…I know…sad…pathetic…”wishful searching”…To make matters worse – I was forced to observe that it went on sale for half price before selling out of my size, which means that someone who didn’t even really want it that bad, just breezed in and aquired it at a major reduction, when I would have kissed the ground and walked across hot coals to pay full price.
Why can't this be mine?
Behold the tailored perfection. This would look so perfect with my white vintage TR super bell Jill jeans.
How gorgeous is this fit even in profile? Ok I'm going to go curl up and die now.
Kaleidescope inspired lockets
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A shot of kaleidescope lockets, partially finished, from one of my five very messy work tables.
I’ve always been mesmerized by the images seen through kaleidescopes. Endless combinations of the most spectacular, organic arrangement of color and form. A while back I did these kaleidescope inspired lockets, but I couldn’t figure out what to do for the chain part. Just doing a typical plain chain was not only not cool enough for this particular piece, but also didn’t seem to balance the texture and colors properly. I loved the lockets so much and worked out a more exotic layered chain mixed with teeny glass beads for myself, so I could wear them right away. The chain was cool but a major drag for me to produce, so outside of my personal lockets, the rest have been sitting around collecting dust while I moved on to other designs.
Locket chains - empty settings will be filled with two corresponding colors of vintage glass and crystals.
Last week after the hundredth compliment on the one I was wearing, I finally thought ok – you need to exercise some discipline and work it out right now. So I sat down, looked at the lockets, looked up at the rack of chains and immediately my fingers started moving along and came up with the perfect solution. There’s still a lot of work involved and the soldering is going to be crazy (not my favorite thing to do) but the result is super gorgeous, so laid back groovy/boho luxe and even better than what I had originally done for myself. Chain is all assembled and ready to be soldered. After finishing- not sure if I will plate or patina yet..then stones to be put in the settings. I’ll post the finished product soon as they’re done.
Another shot of messy work table.
Pixie’s doggie diapies
By · CommentsThis weekend I made some more super cute diapies for our little Pixie-pie – Pixie is the newest addition to the family, a blind,14 year old miniature poodle that we adopted 6 months ago from NSPCA . She had been relentlessly used and heartlessly neglected by a greedy,conscience free breeder. After they were no longer able to profit from her little body, she was given to an elderly couple who, due to potty accidents, took her in to NSPCA to be euthanized. You can read Pixie’s story here.
Pixie stretching, usually followed by a quick jump straight up in the air (to make herself seem bigger) while unleashing a booming "woof!" that could rival a dog 4 times her size.
Pixie sleeping with her long legs extended like a little colt.
These doggie diapers are a frilled out, super diva version of the cute little Fundies which our Bichon Frise, Maggie (also a shelter dog-please make adoption your first choice), has worn. Pixie is unable to wear Fundies due to leakage out the sides, so after picking out some cute fabrics/trims, I revamped the pattern, did a slight gathering stitch around the leg openings, lathered on the bows and ruffles, and now they fit perfectly, do not leak and look freaking adorable on her.
Pixie drinking water from her pink polka dot bowl. Though she is completely blind, she can find the doggie's water bowl in any room of the house, with no problem at all.
Pixie, just as her feet touch ground, completing her mid-air bark-a-thon. After an initial adjustment period, blind dogs can live a perfectly normal and happy life. All they need is for you give them a chance.
Who’d have thought that my (under) three painful months at fashion school would have paid off this well…heheh… um…actually I jest, they don’t even deserve credit for dog diaper design …all I can remember from that brilliant exercise in time/money wasting, is receiving a D on a project that I had completed, without error, due to the fact that I’d neglected to print my name (like a 5 yr old) on each and every pattern piece . Being the crazy slacker that I am, I signed only the top piece, assuming that my professor possessed sufficient deductive reasoning skills to readily determine all pieces (connected together by a string hanger, btw) belonged to me. I was wrong….very wrong.
Cheap chic – Japanese Michiyuki
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Japanese Michiyuki
An artist friend of my brother’s is a life long admirer of Japanese art and textiles as well as being quite a collector himself. He enjoys sharing his passion for this ancient art form and generously sent over a box of exquisite Japanese silk kimonos. This type of kimono is actually called a michiyuki, the jacket that is to be worn over the kimono. The mitchiyuki opens at the front, has a square neck and comes in varying lengths. The shorter length makes a uniquely cool, laid back yet elegant little dress.
Elegant simplicity
Note the hand stitching
There are many vintage kimonos available on ebay, some for as little as $20.00 – use search term michiyuki for this particular style. They are beautifully made,heavy silk and fully lined in silk so they do not cling and have a gorgeous rich drape to them. Many of the colors and patterns are spectacular. I’ve since become a huge fan and begun a collection of my own. Happy cheap chic shopping!
Buried treasure at Anthropologie
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During a recent stop in LA, I found this grooved out coat at Anthropologie at the Grove.
True Religion Joey jean in dark homestead,C&C California extra long sleeve turtleneck in navy,Kay Hubin jewelry & accessories (me) Janis Necklace in coral vintage glass and mosaic.
Elevenses Karelia coat at Anthropologie: sold out
Coral vintage glass Janis necklace: Kay Hubin jewelry & accessories
Swancho/jeggings- annoying or just me?
By · CommentsDoes anyone else find wanna-be-clever names like “swancho” (poncho styled sweater) or “jeggings” (jean leggings) mildly irritating /off-putting ? I saw a sweater poncho at Revolve a few months ago and even though I liked it I could not bring myself to purchase, due to it gratingly being listed as a “swancho”. And not that I would ever purchase denim leggings – skin tight is not always the classiest policy, nor is it the most flattering one, especially for those of us who have a tendency to shun the boring, repetitious, lack of immediate gratification endeavor called: working out (me), but if I did ever find myself in the market for sausage casing jean pants, I would not buy the ones called “jeggings”….ugh…just ugh.
How do I love Mackage? Let me count the ways!!!
By · CommentsThe moment I laid eyes on Mackage it was love at first sight…I was googling some item and accidentally wound up on a blog faced with several images of winter jackets one of which immediately captivated the full extent of my newly enraptured attention – it was Mackage’s classic nipped in at the waist puffer with high neck, belled sleeves (thank you I love you) and fur trimmed surplice hood.
Mackage Peaches
Elegant/cool/sleek/sexy – a treacherously difficult to achieve, yet highly favorable combo. Aren’t puffers supposed to be passably cute at best, homely and figure unflattering at worst? Not if you’re thinking completely outside the tried and true fashion box, packing a finely tuned sense of aesthetics, like the transcendently cool designers behind Mackage, it seems.
And to top it all off this brilliant dynamic design duo seem like the nicest, most down to earth, genuine people. Check them out in this charming youtube vid.
As if I needed another reason to love Mackage:-)
