Once When I Was

capitalcities:

It’s with great pleasure that we unveil to you the new video for “Safe and Sound” on VEVO, directed by Grady Hall from Motion Theory and choreographed by Mandy Moore (Silver Linings Playbook).

Watch as exuberant dancers from various eras and cultures participate in a dance off inspired by Capital Cities and the majestic setting of the Los Angeles Theatre.

I had the pleasure of working with the talented group Capital Cities on the music video for the single Safe and Sound. I had such a fun time styling these great guys. Get ready for your new favorite summer jam!

Once When I Was a little girl I had certain toys that meant the world to me. Of course my books, records and yes, Barbies. But there were these amazing artsy toys that I treasured as well. In addition the groovy awesomeness that was Spirograph there was my all time favorite called Fashion Plates.

My Mom sent me a package filled with childhood drawings that weren’t destroyed from Hurricane Andrew way back when. Since moving to LA and getting all my stuff out of storage in NY I am reconnecting with my treasured objects. These have a lot of water damage but to me it just adds to the images. I love discovering bits from your past that let you know you have been on your career path your entire life.

Want to make your own?  You have 6 days left on ebay for this set.

This is the welcome I get when I go to visit.  It’s not always so marvelously color coordinated but it’s always marvelous. 

I mean really, how freakin’ cute!?

I don’t think this is the same outfit.  I recall her telling me the one where she is sitting is actually a jumpsuit.  A chic red jumpsuit.  That was at Christmastime and she is drinking a Bailey’s on the rocks. 

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How fantastic is Grandpa Norman’s smirk in the photo below?  I love that on New Year’s Eve they wore corsages and boutonnieres!  Stunning. 

This is the only photo I could find of her as a grown woman with a different hairstyle.  She went big for a day.  For a photo, at least.  Must be the 60’s. 

Nana reflects on this photo of her with my dad and uncle.  She is in her 20’s here and they are probably living in the city on east 55th street or upstate in Katonah. She moved from London with my grandfather, uncle and father in the Forties to escape the war. 

No one is more inspiring to me than this woman.  My Nana (Grandmother) Kitty Lee.  Lucky for me she doesn’t have a computer or understand the internet, hell, when I call she rushes me off the phone because of long distance charges but that’s besides the point.  The point is she would kill me if she knew I was going to post photos of her all day in honor of her amazing and beautiful 90 years on this planet. 

Get ready, it’s Nana Kitty day over at OWIW. 

This one looks like it is a passport photo and it must be late 60’s / early 70’s by the look of that collar.  But hello, red polka dots!  This has been Kitty’s hair style since she was a teenager. 

Long before I was a fashion stylist, I went to film school and was pretty much hell-bent on being a director.  Cut to: enough days on set loading film nervously in the back of cube trucks to know film was not for me.  But that’s not to say movie-making wasn’t.  I bounced from camera department to art department and thankfully landed in the wardrobe department.  Where, for the first time in my life, everything I did was right. I got it.  Easily.  As they say, “it clicked.”

I was really excited to work with Vincent Schiavelli because he was in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and pretty much every TV show I watched in the 80s.

Loretta Devine’s character on set was completely different than in person, she played a crazy murdering nurse. 

Donovan Leitch was so fun, here he is after I would get to wrap him with tape every day while he was held hostage.  He also took me to my first LA strip club.  Hooray for Hollywood!

Lesley Ann Warren was the lead actress in the film and as you can tell she had a great sense of humor. 

I loved working with Louise Fletcher who I was thrilled to meet because I was a major fan of her in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (which she was in with Vincent, but they did not get to shoot together).  

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I found these old snap-shots and polaroids from the 1st LA movie I worked on as a wardrobe supervisor.  Being a wardrobe supervisor is one of the coolest jobs because you get to be on set all day and watch the monitors with the director and script supervisor.  You get to know all the actors really well and make friends with all the crew members too.   This indie film, Love Kills was directed by (and starred) Mario Van Peeples.  I know I had more photos but I can’t find them.  Lucy Lui & Alexis Arquette were in this and they were both super fun & nice to work with. 

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And let’s not talk about my purple streaked bob.  Don’t ask! 

I came across these photos that my dear friend, amazing photographer Andrew Zaeh took of us on a road trip to a wedding in Las Vegas.  It was a week filled with impromptu fashion shoots, old motels, Dollywood, Graceland, YeahYeahYeahs in LV and a wedding.