the uniform project

Today I discovered The Uniform Project. Last May, a woman named Sheena Matheiken in Brooklyn, New York has pledged to wear the same dress for 365 days to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots foundation that funds uniforms and school expenses for underprivaledged children in India. So far she has raised just under $70,000.

One dress, 365 different ways. How does that work, you ask? Sheena enlisted the help of her friend Eliza Starbuck to design and make a multi-season, functional dress. The result was a simple black shift dress that can be worn back to front and as an open tunic. She has one for each day of the week and through some seriously clever accessorizing and layering, Sheena is doing exactly what she set out to do: wearing one dress for one year. One great feature of her website is that she's providing proof that she is indeed wearing the dress every day. She posts a photo of that day's outfit and tells the inspiration and the provenance of the accessories she's used. Its incredible some of the looks she's put together. I've put some of my favorites below.

There are only two months remaining in her quest, and it will be interesting to see what she does when her time limit is up. Will she continue wearing her LBD or will she be tired of it and looking for the next philanthropic fashion adventure?

Day 61 with vitage suede belt and shoes from esty.com

Day 123 with thrifted denim jacket, vintage trillby and Laredo boots, & donated jewelry. There is something so very Lisa Bonnet about this outfit.

Day 233 with handmade tiered ruffle dress, wool scarf and vintage gloves & granny boots

Day 258, in Pune India with kids who have been helped by the Akanksha Foundation;

Check her out at www.theuniformproject.com

the names of things....

When I was a kid, Crayola had a contest to name the 15 new crayon colors they were planning to release. It was the first time in the brand's history to use outside sources for names. The contest was a HUGE success, and although none of the names I suggested were winners, the names that were chosen are still used today. The only colors i remember are Macaroni and Cheese, a yellow-orange the exact same shade as the Kraft stuff, and Razzmatazz, a bright neon-ish berry hue. While the contest was lots of fun it never once occurred to me that perhaps I was doing someone's job. It wasn't until a few years ago that I actually met someone whose job was to come up with color names.

At ON, we have two lovely ladies who do just that: name colors. Some of them they come up with themselves and other are supplied by the factories that do our dying. A lot of the names are self-explanatory: Marshmallow White, Taxicab, Caribbean Blue. Other color names are more elusive. What color do you think of when you hear "Laserbeam" or "Playing the Field"? Those are actual color names. My current favorite is the color above, called North Beach Neon. Let me remind you that this color is used in KIDS CLOTHES and will show up on the website when the garments rollout in October. Do other people not know that most of the neon in North Beach lights up the signs for Big Al's and other XXX establishments? I truly don't know and honestly I think the name is absolutely hilarious. What about you? What does North Beach Neon conjure up in your mind? Or Laserbeam...or Playing the Field?

More colors of note to come in the future.

a day at the beach

One of my favorite places to be, no matter where I am in the world, is the beach. Rain or shine, there is something about staring out into the endless expanse of ocean to the point it meets the sky that brings an incredible calmness to me.

As a kid, growing up in Orange County, my parents would take my brother and I to Huntington Beach and occasionally to Balboa; At night, after hours of sand and salt water, laying in the stillness of my own bed I would close my eyes and feel like I was floating in the waves. In college, I lived for a time, in the English seaside town of Brighton. The beaches there were shingle and even on the most blustery of days, I would still go down and sit at the waters edge and listen to the waves endless raking the pebbles smooth. Some days it was so loud, you couldn't hear anything else.

Now, in San Francisco, I end up at Fort Funston, part of the old Battery Davis compound, on the southern portion of Ocean Beach. The area is dog friendly and I don't know that I've ever seen happier crowds of pups there. This past weekend, my dog and I took to the sand. The surf report said the tide was low but once there, that fact was somewhat debatable. Despite a few mishaps, due mostly to miscalculating just how fast the waves were coming, Otto and I had a fantastic time. With any luck, we'll be back soon.

thnx panda

thanks to the encouragement of a dear friend of mine, i too have joined the ranks of the blogging world. most who know me, know i'll say pretty much whatever is on my mind, so consider yourself warned ;) allons-y!