Hugo Boss Orange is putting on a contest to design a T-shirt with

the theme of parrots. Here is my design just uploaded, it took a while

to design, painting feathers is not my strong point, but I love how it
turned out! The prize is to go to Stuttgart, that's where I'm from
and to meet the creative director. I was just in Stuttgart visiting family
and I would love to go back and have a chance to collaborate and make this design come to life.

You can vote for me here:
http://apps.facebook.com/bossorange-contest

Blanc de Chine Fashion Show

The show at the Blanc de Chine store at 53rd Street and

5th Avenue was packed.Cocktails were served along

with tea and delicious shrimp dumplings.

A lot of familiar faces were there such as celebrity stylist

Derek Warburton with Alex McCord and as we climbed up to

the second floor it looked like the crowd was spilling out of the seats.

The fall styles were refined and elegant with classic silhouettes.

A standout dress was a red sequin cheongsam style.

Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld in WWD

"We live in a speedy world. We are here to make the products light and modern. If speed is too much for you, don't complain. That's our world. We are not in the old days with two couture collections a year. At Chanel, we have six ready-to-wear collections, in fact: fall, pre-fall, métiers d'art, spring, pre-spring and cruise, and so the merchandise in the stores changes every two months. We reduce the time as much as we can. Creativity is not an issue. If you are not capable of doing it, you do another job. Doing fashion today is like being a racecar driver. That's how I see it. So if the world of today doesn't fit with your creativity, do your thing in an intimate, small way, but don't play the victim. We have to fit in to our times."

Karl Lagerfeld is always right on target.

I so admire him!

pearls and crystals

I've been making lots of new jewelry out of vintage pieces and love

mixing in pearls for spring. I also found some vintage crystals from a

broken chandelier and made new necklaces mixing in chains.

I stopped by Topshop and admired some of their new jewelry

but am happy with my one-of-a kind creations.

I really like alternating between making clothes and jewelry.

Maybe it's that I have a very short attention span,

but I think one complements the other

since they are so different and yet both are

about lines, form and functionality.

You can see these 2 online at www.astridland.etsy.com