We Nod, Dears, to Minaudieres

Les Mesdames are not much for embracing "In/Out" lists - if one has to be told what's in or out (and, more importantly, if one feels the slavish need to follow such dictates), well, life is just in a very sorry state of affairs.  However, we do delight in pointing out when major fashion magazines happen to dictate mindlessly what we have already gently suggested.

To wit:  Harper's Bazaar magazine - March 2013 "NEW FASHION" issue - IN/OUT list.  The #1 most important "IN" item, it would seem, is a clever minaudiere.
  

Now, far be it from Les Mesdames to quibble, but it seems such a subject was already addressed here at length several years ago.  In 2009 to be exact.  With suggested bags much more inventive and clever than, say, a $3,610 minaudiere that looks like, oh, a $3,610 minaudiere.  Well, maybe a $3,600 minaudiere, to be exact.

But that would only be if we were quibbling.

What Grows Your Clothes...Who Knows?

While we are on the topic of coffee table books to run out and purchase, here is one to add to the list:  Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow's Wardrobe by Suzanne Lee.

Les Mesdames Chic, Shock et Chausseurs spend oodles of time figuring out how to refashion fashion into unique statement pieces.  This did not start out as an ecological bio-drive toward anything - it was just our collective desire not to be like anyone else and use mainstream fashion and design pieces in odd and creative ways.  However, the eco-pull to recyling and redesigning fashion is relentless - we dare you to create oh, say a Tampon holder out of a Tiffany's Stationery Box and or a ball gown out of old T-shirts and not feel the "aha!" moment of reduce-reuse-recycle. 

Well...behold the newest eco-fashion innovation: bacteria that make clothes.  Vraiment!

BioCouture by Suzanne Lee, for ModeMuseum Belgium

In case you did not immediately click on the arresting image above and/or already purchase the book vite vite, let us explain:  Ms. Suzanne Lee, a London fashion designer, creates couture pieces out of (you won't believe it...):  microbial cellulose.  Quoi, et...pourquoi?  Ms. Lee has found certain microbes that spin threads that can be used to make invisible dresses, the coolest body-armour-style corsets, and more.

She has been featured in Bloomberg News, The New York Times, and was named as one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 by Time Magazine.

Ms. Lee calls it BioCouture and we call it encroyable!

Good Guests Give Good Gifts, part II

Responses to yesterday's Hostess Gift post were (as expected from our dear readership, bien sur) wonderful and unique!  Three readers sent in suggestions for more artisanal chocolates made in small shops in tiny towns.  Two of them do appear to take orders online:  The Secret Chocolatier and Norman Love Confections.  The third, Dolly Mama Chocolates, has the most wonderful website and philosophy - how can we not simply adore a chocolatier who quotes Ghandi, wants to "create beauty in life through chocolate" and whose name riffs on the Dalai Lama?!  Alas, Dolly Mama's goodies are so exclusif they do not appear to sell outside small markets in North Carolina - sigh!

Another dear reader provided excellent suggestions for buying organic, vegan, gluten-free, (etc etc) gift-worthy goodies:  Etsy.  Devoted Glam Slam readers know we believe strongly in Etsy, as noted in our 2009 post on Proper Evening Bags, and the recent essay on recycled T-shirt Couture (Jag & Nevie scarves and skirts are sold on Etsy).  Indeed, we had been so busy cruising Etsy for fabulous fashions and amazing antique gifts (a 1920s cocktail shaker shaped like a woman's leg? mais oui, we want!) that les Mesdames never once noticed that edibles were also for sale on the site.  Sally forth, dear readers, and never bring boring gifts again - there are simply too many options for a creative soul like toi!