My designing friend Zang Toi showed his Spring 2014 “Ballet Babe” collection at Lincoln Center last week. A real ballet babe — American Ballet Theatre principal Cory Stearns — got the show started. Here’s the final walk of the show, followed by Zang’s bow. (You can hear the couple sitting to my left discussing which…
Recommended Reading and the Week in Review
Random reading recommendation: This investigative series by Megan Twohey for Reuters exposing the underground market for foreign-born adoptees is extraordinary. On a less serious note, here’s what was on the blog this week: Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013: Leave Paul McCartney alone! Monday: Trying to dress ’80s for Depeche Mode. Tuesday: September’s Jewel of the Month….
Boots for Fall: Daisies and Spikes
I got a pair of short, low-heeled boots in Paris this summer — a “Never Is the Next New Thing™” purchase for me — and now there are more decorated versions of the style catching my eye. These $650 daisy-adorned boots by Red Valentino in the Bergdorf Goodman catalog are tough but sweet. I’m amused…
What Wendy Wore: Mermaid Style by Zang Toi
My designing friend Zang Toi moved into a gorgeous new showroom space in New York City and he had a post-New York Fashion Week party to celebrate. Earlier in the summer, Zang had convinced me to try on an emerald-green, paillette-covered, high/low mermaid skirt that he had saved from his Spring 2004 collection. I was…
Wendy Brandes Jewelry in Jeweller Magazine
I got a nice mention in the September issue of Jeweller Magazine, a jewelry trade magazine for Australia and New Zealand. The story by India Nicholson is about jewelry with secret compartments; it really gets into the history of this type of design: I was pleased to see a mention of a locket ring owned…
From the September 11 Archives
Here are my previous September 11 posts, from oldest to newest. 2007 September 11 Is Here Again 2008 9/14/01 Laughing While Crying The Prodigal Bumpe Returns 2009 Three Old Posts and a Little Story 2010 Thoughts on 9/11: The Devil Is in the Details 2011 “I Thought Everybody Else Was Lost” 10 Years Later: “Essential…
Jewel of the Month: UOENO Necklace
When I introduced my TWERK necklace as August’s Jewel of the Month, I noted that the overuse of a word/acronym tells me when the time is right to add that word/acronym to my pop-culture-inspired WENDY by Wendy Brandes diffusion line. An expression has reached critical mass when I’m ready to cut the next bitch who…
What Wendy Wore: Depeche Mode and a False Memory
After I used the refund from Neil Young’s canceled show to buy tickets to Depeche Mode‘s concert at Barclays Center on Friday, I was thinking about the last time I saw the band. I was positive it was at Radio City Music Hall in the summer of 1983, the day that I returned from a…
Musings on Former Greatness and the Week in Review
On the weekends, I spend a lot of time reading old-fashioned paper copies of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. I still enjoy newsprint because being forced to flip pages leads me to things I’d never see if I were clicking only what was of obvious interest to me on a website. Yesterday,…
Rumors of Unsupervised Cat Exercise
Because cat things are always funny, I have to share a letter sent to The Ethicist column of the New York Times Magazine last month. W.S. of New York wrote in to say: “One of my neighbors complained to my co-op board’s management firm, claiming I allow my cat to exercise unsupervised in the hallway…