2009

Hi Guys,

I know, I know it has been forever and a day!!!!!! Do I need to mention that 2009 has been mad? It went by in a blink of an eye. Let me give you some insight to my 2009.

January: Pamela’s birthday. Sale. Arrival of some spring merchandise.

February: Met Fred the love of my life. New York for fall buying. Valentines Day, Portia joining the Bleu Crew.

March: Amanda joining the Bleu Crew. Spring arrives with beautiful new clothing as well. Anna Sui out did herself this spring as well as 3.1 and Alexander Wang!!! Beautiful.

April: Fred’s birthday - What do you get a guy that you’ve only spent 2 months with? Where do you go? I got him a pair of AG jeans and a Warrior of Radness t-shirt from American Rag and took him to Il Sole. Amazing date. Got in some awesome lower priced lines - Jenny Han, Patterson J. Kincaid, and Young Fabulous and Broke just to name a few.

May: Georges 13^th birthday. He is my 13 year old whippet. The Bleu mascot and my very loyal companion.

May 31^st - Bleus 11^th birthday!!!! Whoooohooooo

June: 20 % off the entire month for our 11^th Birthday...Falling in love with Fred, and having amazing appreciation for all of my employees. My girl’s rock.

July: The first of Fall merchandise arrives. Do you believe it was a hundred degrees outside and we are getting sweaters in????

August: Bleus semi annual sale 30%-75% off. Fred and I leave for Italy. We take Lufthansa into Rome via Germany. We spend 4 days in Rome at this amazing, tiny hotel right by the Spanish steps. We then drive to Sorrento and spend the next 5 days laying on our backs basking in the sun and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Heaven (sigh). We then drive to my family in Brindisi. We spend our days in the ocean and having lunch with my grandparents and our nights checking out hidden cafes in Ostuni and Lecce. Did I mention my clothing? PerfectionJ I brought my white lace Sea dress, a little strapless navy number by Anna Sui, my mini Chrissie by Mrs. Roper, Alice and Olivia rompers and mini skirts, skin tight strapless dress by Alexander Wang, tons of Geren ford, and way too much more. I always, without a doubt, over pack. Fred loves to tell the story of us borrowing a piece of luggage from my best friends in Italy just so I can get all 12 pairs of shoes I bought back home.

The girls from the Hills filmed in the store, and Audrina Patridge does some filming for her website and her MySpace page in the store while I am gone.

September: Fall is here. The clothes are perfection. This is my favorite season in all of the years that I have carried 3.1.Phillip Lim. It is amazing. He did skinny black and green pants, beaded mini dresses, fantastic fur vests. Need I say more? It was wonderful. Kova & T were a top seller this year too. Pencey is someone to watch out for, and Elizabeth and James is a line we cannot keep in the store…It flies off the shelves. I go to NYC again to buy for Spring. I love Spring & Summer clothing. Nothing is better than a pair of 5 inch heels and a little summer dress. Very Feminine.

October: I open a Pop-up shop next door. Rachel Palley is the designer. Bring new blood to the area. Fun. See a ton of old faces. I have to tell you. That the Bleu client is a loyal, wonderful client that never stops shopping here. There is something so comforting about having these beautiful, strong, stylish women choosing your store to shop in. It’s the greatest compliment. Thank you to all of you. You are so special to me.

November: My favorite month. My birthday. Fred gave me a bike on my birthday. We rode all over Los Angeles then went for massages.

He took me to dinner at Asia de Cuba then we hung at the Sky bar. I wore my Camilla and Marc ballerina dress, with my Elizabeth and James tuxedo blazer with a pair of Jimmy Choos. Eddera butterfly necklace. He loved it.

The following Saturday was my girls birthday dinner. My only request was that everyone had to shimmer. Gina wore 3.1 Phillip Lim sequins jacket over her leather Geren Ford mini skirt. Jen wore a 3.1 Phillip Lim sequined back dress that is just beautiful. Lisa wore a ACT sequined mini with a Mara Hoffman top. Jeanine wore a Charlotte Ronson black off the shoulder dress with an Alice and Olivia sequined wrap in silver. Nancie wore Michelle Mason (1 of my very favorites ever) pair of cigarette pants with an Elizabeth and James blazer. Cathy wore vintage Bleu A Bensoni dress she got last spring. Chris wore a Society For Rational dress that looked fantastic with her very blingy ace by Robert Rodriguez and Nancy T. wore a beautiful Mrs. Roper. I wore a black and gold Robert Rodriguez little sequins number. Oh that party was fun. Harry Dean Stanton sang a Spanish love song to me of course it was held at my very favorite restaurant ever…AGO

The Bleu Crew took me to East on Hollywood Blvd for another night of celebrating. I swear I gained 10 pounds that month.

December: What a month. We had a 20% off postcard for the stores. I love to see everyone come in for them.. Look out for them in the mail if for some reason you don’t get them.. Be sure you are also on our mailing list. Both email and home. We went out for our holiday dinner. What a lovely night. Yes, every one of us emotional girls cried. Everyone who works here at Bleu loves each other as much as we love fashion. It was a wonderful night of appreciation. I have to tell you, this year, 2009, have been in some ways the toughest year of my life. In others the best if my girls were an army we would win any war. They are the perfect team and I am the luckiest person in the world to have each of them in my life. Know that when you walk through either of my stores doors or get one of my employees on the phone, you are working with a very hard working, honest, precious soul who would absolutely, with no doubt in the world, DIE FOR FASHION!!!!!!

We're going on Sale!!! And we're having a party to Celebrate!

Bleu Clothing is having their Annual Sale.
There will be a huge collection of merchandise marked down from 30-75% off.
Starts on Saturday the 17th at 11am!
Cocktails, food, and shopping!!!

If you make a purchase on the opening day of the sale (tomorrow Sat the 17th) we will give you a raffle ticket to enter to win a $200 gift certificate to the store.

454 S. La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

960-10 S. Westlake Blvd
Westlake Village, CA 91361

Prom dresses make a come back!

So I’m looking at Bethany’s Blog, she’s blogging for Bleuclothing.com…and I’m staring at these dresses, and thinking “what do they remind me of?”
And then it hits me, they are totally early 90’s! The 90’s was a whole generation of…. Pretty, minimalist, simple, and yet very rich because it came right after the crazy 80’s.

The 80’s were all over the place, it was insanity then for fashion. Polka dots and stripes together, with lopsided hair cuts. Mascara on Boys and Flannels on Girls. Steel toed boots, worn with mini floral dresses, it was crazy, but fun fun fun. I mean come on, who didn’t rock that look? If you were cool, you’d rock that look. Then there was the nerdy look, which we’ll get into another time.

So looking at my pictures it reminded me of my prom. We dug the photos out for you!

Do not make fun of the hair… though it wasn’t very good for the environment….I can tell you that right now. So I’ve pulled out these prom pictures, and I’m laughing because my dress is basically the same as many of the dresses we have in the store now. Though, minus the velvet in June, I was sixteen years old- didn’t know that it wasn’t a great idea.

I just knew I liked the black. See also back then you didn’t have all the resources, I went to the fabric store myself, I designed the dress. I had this great dress maker who made it for me. She made me the muslin in grey….which is my worst color…. I maybe weighed a buck seven ( 107 lbs) and let me tell you…. I looked like a heffer when she put me is the muslin. I was devastated, and thought “Oh my god, I’m gonna be the ugly girl at prom”.

NOT! Didn’t happen! J It was foxy.

Anyways, so we’re looking at this thinking, it’s crazy… If you take girls from 1991 through 1998 and look at their prom dresses, they are going to look like dresses we’re selling right now in the store! Look at my Prom dress, take the velvet and the bow away, it’s just like this Mason mini dress we have right now. There’s a photo of me wearing it in one of the mailers.

Its crazy how fashion is constantly reminiscent of a generation 15 years before. Which brings me to the point, don’t throw out your favorite items. If you still fit in them and the fabric’s great, then hold on to them. As long as it’s not so specific to that year….like how certain fabrics are, just like a trend… … get rid of things don’t fit you anymore. Get rid of things that you wore to death. If you have really spectacular pieces – keep them! They’re gonna come back!

Things that I don’t get rid of in my closet….

I don’t get rid of my shorts.

I don’t get rid of a lot of my mini skirts because they always come back, and your fitted mini skirts are your fitted mini skirts, and your flared mini skirts are your flared mini skirts.

My evening gowns, I don’t really get rid of because they’re pretty classic.

I hold on to a lot of my dresses, but I’m such a dress freak. However I usually have to make room for new dresses…. So I end up giving even my favorite ones away. Plus I always have new favorites.

I just think it’s smart to look at the piece objectively that you have not worn to death, and it hasn’t been dry cleaned too many times, and you know that you fit in it… keep it! Totally just keep it!

I believe every season you need new denim and new sweaters. I think dresses you can keep. Nothing’s worse than two year old denim. And I don’t mean to sound like a snob or anything… but when the rise is wrong, it’s wrong. It’s weird, it never looks chic…. I don’t care how foxy or fabulous you are…. For some reason if Low rise is in, and you’re wearing high high rise, you look like a goober. And when High high high is in and you’re wearing low low low, you’ll look trashy.

Throw out you’re old sweaters. Sweaters get worn, unless they’re really great and you didn’t really get a chance to wear them. But if you wore the heck out of them, and they’re not a sweater coat, or tight fitted cashmere--- just get rid of it… if you ended up wearing the heck out of it. They won’t look as pretty the next year. So the classic oversized Boyfriend sweater, in cashmere absolutely hold onto it…because it won’t loose it’s shape. Cashmere is pretty shapeless. It’s usually the more fitted black turtle necks or the red Vneck that you wore all season…. Just get rid of it. Get a new one next year.

Plus the dry cleaners will ruin them over time. I mean I go to a “chemical free” dry cleaners…. But do I really think it’s “chemical free”? Nah. That’s pretty questionable… I don’t know I’m not sure.

Anyways my point is, save your favorites, your evening gowns and classic pieces… and Maxi dresses. They always come back and they are great summer dresses. Spend money on good maxi dresses, because those yucky cotton ones that get all frayed and lint balls …after wearing them 3 times they look horrible. Spend some money. Mason makes great fabric. Her fabric is awesome and it doesn’t ball up or wear down. It looks pretty good season after season. Maxi dresses you can spend money on and save them for year after year…because every Summer you’re gonna be pulling out your maxi dress.

Have a good one my girls and my boys and girls who like to play with boys toys… and boys who like to play with girls dresses….

Bye!