I’m trying to detangle this mess of love I have for Jeremy Scott.  He’s slightly insane (definite plus), super creative to the point of questionable (inspiring) and names his collections phrases like “Let Them Eat Gas” and “Mouse Trap”.

What’s not to love?

Known for outlandish and whimsical designs, his outside-the-box concepts are a Pop-culture phenomenon. He has collaborated with everyone from Swarovski and Christian Louboutin to Adidas and Longchamp.  He is so far out of the box that he is orbiting it.  This could be attributed to the fact that he was born in Missouri, where imagination and whimsy are the only ways of escape.  His master plan took him to Design School at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, runways around the universe and a new hometown of good ol’ LA.

Look him up and you’ll find people who love him and just as many who just don’t get it.  He is controversial. Controversy is sexy.

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Patricia Field is kitsch, color and unabashed sex appeal with a slightly nostalgic edge. She’s what your grandmother would look like if she moved to NYC from Dallas and bought The Biggest Little Whore House in Times Square, circa 1984, after living in Brooklyn for a year. However, Patricia was born in Queens and her first shop in the Village, circa 1966, started it all.

The Patricia Field woman appears to be over-sexed (if one can ever be) and over the top and I love her for it. Everyone does; the Academy of Television Arts and Science (she has three Emmys), The CFDA and The Costume Designers Guild among others. She’s styled and designed for countless films and television shows including Sex and The City (of course), The Devil Wears Prada and Ugly Betty. Finally, to the delight of label hungry connoisseurs of style, Patricia launched her own line, House of Fields, in 1995. The house is where sequined hot pants go to die, be born again and paired with Patricia’s interpretation of the broad abstract strokes of the legendary Stephen Sprouse.

Field is a living fringe icon with signature fire engine red hair, mountains of accessories and around the way girl, ghetto fabulous flair. Ironically enough, this misfit is largely responsible for spreading the gospel of high fashion across America. Before Sex and the City, the majority of people were under the impression that a Manolo was a tea cookie! Her characters (well, their outfits) have given women license to break the wardrobe rules that she herself had rolled up and smoked over four decades ago. Thanks Patricia for f*cking up the status quo!

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Photos By Jeremy & Claire Weiss

Her little girl hands, at age three, were molding and sculpting accessories with blocks of Fimo clay. This love of creating accessories that integrated pieces of herself continued throughout her teenage years, where she included other aspects of life into her work:  horses, ballet, fashion and all things “sparkly.” Around the same time, she was introduced to Hello Kitty in the form of a little coin purse. A premonition?

Years later she moved to Europe, did a bit of fashion modeling and wore her designs to shoots where people bought them on the spot. In the same way that a kitty always ends up back on the front porch, Tarina Tarantino gave up the model lifestyle to pursue the art that gave her the fulfillment she craved.  Her creations were colorful, inventive and for girls of any age.  Soon enough, she wouldn’t be the only girl on the block with her playful accessories.

Re-enter the kitty. Hello Kitty, that is. Iconic and sugar-sweet, Tarina Tarantino’s collection (including our famous furry friend) have been creating a bit of a stir as of late.  With the “Pink Head Collection,” Sanrio has given Tarina Tarantino the liberty to make Hello Kitty her own. With luscious pink locks to match her own and plenty of rainbows and sparkles, the collection includes bobby pins, bracelets, earrings and even a Gothic Lolita Hello Kitty (adorable!).

Now, Tarina and her business partner/husband, Alfonso Campos, have been splashed across the pages of People, InStyle and Glamour as well as featured on Access Hollywood, Oprah, and CNN.  Although they found their beginnings in the Golden State, success has allowed them to expand to New York and Milan as well.  Her website www.tarinatarantino.com also works as a portable store, with whimsical graphics that look more like a fairy tale than an online shop.

Hello Kitty has found a new attitude with her new ‘do. Tarina Tarantino has given our favorite character some edge.

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American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and retailer, based in downtown Los Angeles, California. They currently employ approximately 10,000 people globally (about 5,000 in LA), and operate more than 260 retail stores in 19 countries. They currently have five stores in Miami.

Knitting, dyeing, cutting, sewing, photography, marketing, distribution, and design all happen in the company’s facilities in Los Angeles. The company operates the largest garment factory in the United States, at a time when most apparel production has moved offshore.

American Apparel leverages art, design and technology to advance the business process, while continuing to pioneer industry standards of social and environmental responsibility in the workplace.

The attraction to the style of the clothing crosses age, race and social lines. It is accessible and colorful. It is for all seasons.  It can be dressed up or played down. The items can be styled into looks that play into creativity and innovation while keeping them bright and simple.

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I woke up beaming this morning; wrapped in my heavenly 400-thread-count Hello Kitty sheet set, I pulled off my Hello Kitty sleep mask and set my feet down on my Hello Kitty area rug. Feeling oh-so-cute and, very much, well rested, I floated into the bathroom to brush my teeth with my pink Hello Kitty toothbrush.

Since pretty girls don’t go out with messy hair, I elicited the help of my Hello Kitty ceramic hair straightener to tame my wild bed head. My face took joy in its beautification thanks to the help of my Hello Kitty MAC makeup. Now that I was finally put together, I was back in my room to find the perfect Hello Kitty ensemble. I pulled an adorable black and white, striped off-the-shoulder, Hello Kitty shirt over my head and proceeded to step into my denim Hello Kitty mini-skirt. I made my way toward the front door, confident that singing birds and apple pies waited for me on the other side of the door . . . and then, then I woke up for real this time!

More than happy to be out of that alternate dimension of pie-in-the-sky, cutesy consumerism, it struck me that that mouthless kitten could rule my waking life as well.

Created in 1974, when Sanrio, a Japanese stationary and gifts company, sought to appeal to the target group of preteen girls, Hello Kitty first appeared on coin purses and went on to be come the face, and representation, of Sanrio. Today, the bowed kitten is one of the world’s leading marketing brands and has inspired an entire generation of girls (and a few guys too) to be part of her unspeakably adorable world, with a Hello Kitty version of just about anything you can think of.

Outside of just representing Sanrio as a whole, Hello Kitty has been a busy girl landing deals with Fender, which produces a rockin’ Hello Kitty Stratocaster, Mastercard and Visa. Tapei, Taiwan proudly boasts an entire house that was given the Hello Kitty treatment inside and out, as well as a Hello Kitty themed restaurant and a Hello Kitty jet that flies to Japan at 90% capacity, and that’s on a regular day.

Companies such as Asics, entrepreneur Kimora Lee Simmons and even Tokidoki have acquired licenses to distribute their own Hello Kitty products and apparel.

Over time people have speculated that Hello Kitty’s rampant popularity is due to her infamous blank stare that allows whoever is looking at her to project their own feelings, but I feel Hello Kitty’s chief designer, Yuko Yamaguchi, put it best, “Hello Kitty can wear Laura Ashley but also punk rock leather. She has a wide audience, and she’s very flexible because everything goes with white.”

However, despite her large and continuously growing line of products, Ms. Kitty White—yes, that is her actual name—is a simple girl. She lives with her mom, dad and twin sister in a suburb on the outskirts of London, she’s in the 3^rd grade, and she loves stars and candy. Kitty even has a boyfriend! His name is Dear Daniel but, unfortunately, they rarely see each other, he is always on an endless African safari—his father is a photographer—but don’t be too sad, she writes to him every day.

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