Cheap and Chic-Bar Soap

My man brought home some no-frills, seriously organic "pure and gentle, soap the other day....like a whole box of it! A years, supply, in fact. We actually, up to this point, haven't even used bar soap in our house aside from the occasional travel size pilfered from a hotel.

I love the idea of organic, pure...well, anything, but this soap wasn't very pretty at all! And it comes in an ugly plastic case. Dustin went around the house putting the soap by every sink, still in the packaging. Since we moved into our house only a year ago, I'm working hard at removing any "new" feeling from our space and give it a lived in, layered and creative environment. Well, the placement of the soap looked super generic.

While I was at Anthropologie today picking out iron hooks to mount on our wall in SLEEVELESS's new retail space, I grabbed a couple soap dishes. One is small and wouldn't hold this huge bar of soap and the other was the perfect size. I went home and sliced my soap into little slivers intended for one time use.

I put them in the small dish and into the guest bath they went....

I put the other bar of soap by the sink...but I think I will slice this bar up as well because it just looks so much prettier!

So, I thought I'd share a relatively inexpensive way to take a boring bar of soap and style it pretty. Do you have any ideas to warm up our house by using thrifted items, old, colored bottles, herbs...etc. etc. I would love to hear more ideas!

"SABOT"

"SABOT"-n. a shoe carved from a single block of wood.

Take a lunch break to run over the Sabot, a small but impactful little boutique in the Buckhead shopping district of Atlanta, GA. The store carries brands that are as clever and sophisticated as the name of this boutique that headlines shoes and accessories. Since I have an affinity for Rick Owens and Yigal Azrouel, I was immediately drawn to Zero by Maria Cornejo.
Mostly monochromatic color scheme with a few pops of color and lots of drapey action, of course was all I needed to get me "into" this brand.

I had a great conversation with Desiree, the sweet and savvy owner, about being in business and the problem solving that comes part and parcel with being an entrepreneur. Sabot has been in business for 7 years and has weathered much of the economic storm that has been the death of many retailers. We both agreed on two things: 1.) Do what you love, and the 4 letter W-O-R-K isn't so bad, in fact, it can be a lot of fun....and 2.) Go big or go home! There just isn't a happy medium...you just gotta go for it!

On that note, Sabot, is our first boutique in Atlanta carrying the SLEEVELESS accessory line, so if you are in ATL, please stop in and shop for all their fine offerings....or find them online Taigan.com.

Be-Dazzled

Maybe I'm the last to know about Zuhair Murad, but this Lebanese designer has the most brilliant gowns, party dresses and couture. If I had a million dollars, I would have a closet full of these over the top frocks.
How are these for a Little Black Dress? I think so!!!!!

And what about this seaside inspired vision? I don't even know where I would wear this, but I would want to try it on and walk around my house and then hang it back in my closet as a collector's item....
This is how color blocking a gown should be done:

And here are some sheer options for a red carpet event...I mean, "whoa!"

And guess who got to wear this insanely gorgeous art? Kellie Pickler at the annual CMT music awards:

And around her neck, she's wearing a the limited edition "Cleo" necklace from SLEEVELESS. You can place an order at here.
I'm going to bed with visions of sugar plums and beaded tulle dancing in my head...
xoxo

Float Downstream...

Now that the river has receded back to it's rightful place after the flood here in Nashville, TN, it may be time for an afternoon float down stream on the Harpeth River. Vogue Italia

Maybe I can squeeze a stylish afternoon in on the river between the 12 weddings and upteenth # of showers and bachelorette parties I'm attending this wedding season. Speaking of showers, I'm planning a lusty, Moroccan themed lingerie shower for this coming Monday night. Think backyard cabana, lanterns, chai amaretto cocktails...mmmm....I'll try to snap some pics to share.
xo, Kyah

Skip Spring...Go Straight to Summer. Collect $200.

Myself and my SLEEVELESS business cohorts just returned from an insanely productive trip to NYC where we met with industry people and shopped our accessory line. We met great people that were eager to help us grow and ate some great food. And of course, we squeezed in some time to shop. Well, some of us did. I, unfortunately didn't get much time for that on this trip but I did want to tell you about what my armloads of frothy, filmy, printed and textured dresses, tops and clogs that Jess and Bek came back with! I'm a little green with envy at the scores of summery items they found. Here in Nashville, we never saw spring. The weather swapped out winter for blazing hot summer, never getting an inkling of the softer heat that we usually experience before the wave of humidity. It was a full affront to my senses, but I'm not complaining! I just am now realizing that it's definitely time to retire the black leggings and opaque tights and general black theme I've had going for the past 5 months.

I'm breaking out the light chiffons, floral and indian prints, and all my bohemian fare. Jessica came back from NYC with a dress that I'm lusting after. Moderately priced (150 bucks) for it's beauty, the dress is from a line called Aoyama Itchome. The Japanese man behind the label resides in France and so you see the influence of both cultures and the result is flowy, drapy flattering sillouhettes in bohemian prints.

Belt this little number and wear it to your backyard patio party!
Photo (above) by Joy Thigpen

It's white wine 'o clock at my house on the patio every afternoon at 5. I'm going to have to ease up on that, but with a cute summery dress and a chilled sauvignon blanc, it's really hard not to get carried away!

James Dunn and Sleeveless "News"

I'm busy as I can possibly be these days working on our (Jessica Maros and myself's) new line called Sleeveless. We are in the process of making press kits to send up to NYC before we head up and meet with boutiques and industry people, editing down our collection and making prototypes of the clutches that we are rolling out for Fall 2011. So, we are busy round the Sleeveless Studio.

I recently did a photo shoot for Americana-rock musician, James Dunn and after feeling good about almost 6 solid looks between the studio and location, photog, Reid Rolls, captured this "cover" shot. Absolutely stunning. I gotta say, I love his wardrobe for the shoot and Reid's choice of location and brilliant natural light give this guy the Americana look to match his lyrics and sound.

To achieve the mood in this pic was one part wardrobe, one part brilliant photography and direction, one part cool dude, and one part breaking out a bottle of wine and swigging straight from the bottle.

*Extra special thanks to the assistant photographer, Skip Hopkins and my assistant Bek Kaplan!

I'll take some sun and a summer frock, please!

I'm sharing an absolute gem here, by introducing you to Sarah Seven, a Portland based dress designer. I find myself lusting after these dresses (which can be found on etsy or HERE at her website) for hours on end...no joke. They are just the right amount of whimsy and sophistication. I'm helping 2 of my friends with their weddings and after showing them this site, they both placed custom orders immediately. Now that I have a few weddings to be in and several more to attend, I feel like I have plenty of excuses to get myself one of her fancy frocks.



I am beside myself, just looking at these pictures. I want to be frolicking in the fields or lazing around in a hammock with a good book, a glass of sparkling water with lime in some summer sun, wearing a one of these beauties. The unusualy long bout we've had with this frigid weather is taxing my last nerve and I'm ready for summer pastels and fresh cocktails!

Inspiration

I pulled these photos as inspiration for a shoot and wanted to share them with all of you. I regret that I don't remember where I got them, but they are just so beautiful from the location to the lighting...and of course, the beautiful clothes.


Hope your week is going well!
Kyah

Much Ado About....

The advent of my best friend's wedding, I have found the ideal bridesmaid dress to fullfill all my goals. I needed to find a cocktail dress in the "blue" family...somewhere between cobalt and navy. I found some beautiful couture dresses at pricepoints to break the bank and loads of dresses that I loved (like the white Maxazria dress below) that just didn't come in any shade of blue, and a lot of unsophisiticated dress that weren't fit for a wedding. I finally found this little number that I can accessorize to fit the greatness of the occassion, but I can also wear a number of different ways for future events. A bridesmaid dress that I WILL TRULY wear again!

And after searching EVERY online store, and every local boutique/mall....I found it at Topshop online!

FOR $90!

I have to say that the draping and fabric is beautiful and sophisticated and all around fit the requirements I was (til Topshop) searching in vain for!

Here's another dress that I wanted to buy...but alas, lace is NOT dyeable! (But it is on sale for $159.00...that's ridiculous!...so someone else get it and let me borrow it!)

"Marilyn" and "Hook"

Two new styles for Sleeveless can be found at Posh at the Hill Center. For lookbook requests, email me at kyah@wearsleeveless.com