Not quite sold on the Total Geisha look? And why would you be, now that it's oh so featured in the new Star Wars? A Touch 'O Geisha can be added in a sub-tle way to your big toe in it's summer sandal glory, by adding the two dollar decoration option to your pedicure. Contrasting colors are best. Brown, purples and golds are good on an orangy-red background. Yellow, green and navy on fuschia etc. You get the picture.

And then there was Ann Hitchcock.....
Designer Ann Hitchcock believes in deconstruction. Her collection landed in NYC through London by way of Austin, Texas, U.S.A, where she keeps her studio base. Her refreshingly new approach to creation was born out of a thorough rejection of traditional training, and any resulting traditional thought. Her structure is lack of structure. She wholeheartedly trusts her inner muse with each original slash tuck and pull - creating spontaneous pieces as she merrily sews along on her old Singer.

You can't just pick any meaningful message these days, you need your own message and good messages are always better. Par example, what were all those ad agencies thinking by their recent overuse of Mafioso references in advertising? The warm fuzzy feeling that we all get from gangster shoot-outs? Some dots just don't connect. Aside from the obvious international faux pas of promoting violence - why we wonder aloud - did they think that having a little girl dubbed with "Brando's" voice make us want to drink Pepsi? When we really want what Tinky Winky drinks.

It's also no longer enough to "just" open up the little boutique of your dreams - even if it is on the Internet. You have to have a higher cause - religious or otherwise. There has to be some meaning behind most actions of art and commerce or the new improved consumer attention span will leave you in the dust. Speaking of which, as long as we're all on-line, a topic overheard often lately, is that many e-commerce sites - fashion inclusive - are in big trouble, based on lack of initial fulfillment structure. Apparently credit cards are often taken for orders that are either filled extremely late, or not at all. Not fun for either end of the transaction, but reassuring that only the vendors with upstanding customer service will be getting your money after the millennium dust settles. To help us with such matters - and other crucial Cyberspace related matters from slow connections to Webcasts from the Pope - the Vatican is busily appointing a patron Saint to the Internet. Rumor has it that the earliest known encyclopedic database author, one Saint Isidore, is up for the position.

Innovative use of fashion meets technology comes from France's Printemps department store which now offers "Webcamers" as a high-tech answer to personal shopping. Armed with digital cameras and mini-computers - this new breed of salesperson skates over to the coveted items of their shoppers' choice - snaps a photo - and sends it over the home computer lines. The Jetson lifestyle may not be so far away.

© Fashion Icon
June 1999