THE HISTORY OF THE BEATEN MOTO: PART II

Sheri hit Rene's shop first.  Rene's advantages: he had done the style before and it had come out well. He also had 3 tailors vs Omar's one man show.  But the disadvantage was that Rene did not speak English and this had led to some unexpected results in the past.  He always says, "check it out" instead of "look" when he's showing you something which I now know is a trick to make you think he's familiar with the language by using slang.  Check it out R.E.N.E, we're off to Omar's.

Omar is the Karl Lagerfeld of the Lower East Side.  If you go into any shop carrying something that's not a suit (i.e. trash bag of neon pink mongolian fur) all the guys say "take it to Omar".  He once made me 7 dresses in one day and lemme tell ya I don't arrive til noon.  And he don't work past 6.  Some had patterns, some didn't.  Whatevs he says.  But he too has his disadvantages - disappearing being the main one.  "What do you mean he's working at the phone company now?!!!" I was once forced to exclaim.  "IT'S FASHION WEEK!!!!" Thank God he resurfaced a days later at Nelson.

Omar was quoting some outrageously high prices for the (32 piece) jackets.  We were barely hitting mark-up at this point adding up raw materials alone.  Sheri might have been new to the job but she is a life long hustler so back to Rene's she headed to get a better deal.  Omar insisted he send someone to help her carry all the leather.  

Mr. Carry All, it turns out, was a spy.  Once he heard that Rene wanted to charge even more than Omar he reported back and we suddenly became the victim of LES price fixing.  

We ended up splitting the jackets evenly amongst the two.  Before we left Omar that night he threw a zip lock bag of lipsticks on top of the giant pile of leather.  We examined it suspiciously.  Apparently Omar was also an Avon lady.  We encouraged him to further develop his sales pitch as Sheri sold him her old pay-as-you-go phone (she switched to Boost Mobile.)  It was time to head home.

A week or so later the jackets were looking great and it was time to face the real challenge - getting the hardware put on.  Why would getting a few snaps and studs on each jacket be so difficult?  Well it's not as long as you follow a few simple rules:

"By my watch it's 3:59!  C'mon Nancy!"

Now they're almost done!  Just a few hundred hand washes and tumble dries and voila!  The most gorgeous leather jackets you've ever seen.  Absolutely perfect for pumping gas in thigh highs.  And now they're available in black!  Buy them here http://leilashams.com/leilashamsstore.html?bpid=148 and if you've got beef with the price you know who to take it up with.  Sheri.

Below: Kim Kardashian in the Beaten Moto Jacket, Swamp.

WELCOME TO THE NEW BLOG!

Isn't it so nice and bright? I love it!

This Friday we did a fashion show to benefit the Red Cross. Hair and make-up was by the Tokyo Beauty School in Japan (TAHB*). The stylists all had Japanese flags painted on their faces - I can't imagine what they're going through - but that did not dampen their amazing Tokyo style. They went BANANAS on the hair. It was lots of fun although the turn out was a little lame. Not easy to get people to midtown on a Friday night, at least people I know, but I hope I can do similar types of events in the future. Thanks so much to Brian, Amiko, and Sheri for all your help. And now some photos, compliments of Sheri.

Stylists and make-up artists doin their thing. Almost all the models had some thing in their hair - ribbons, pom poms, feathers, flowers, surprisingly sharp porcupine needles...

This model's hair got increasingly wild as the evening went on. Eventually it became a bright yellow flame type of shape which came to a point about 8" above her face. There were no mirrors so I tried to describe to her what it looked like, watching her face look increasingly concerned.

You can kind of see the yellow in this shot - she's on the left. I really like the hair on the right as well.

Ah yes here she is in full yellow flaming glory.

A typical scene at Leila Shams LLC. I prefer that people that who work for me do so on the floor while I stand above them in a fur coat. Sometimes when you're small with a really high pitched voice it's hard to keep people in their place. This does the trick. If you don't have a fur coat a pinky ring and/or fan has a similar effect.

This was another really over the top hair-do. At first I was like, "what outfit is going to go with that?" Then I realized every outfit went with it, it was magical. The crazy thing is I put her in a look and she was like, "I wore this at your presentation". I didn't even recognize her!

One word: GLAMOR. With Michael James who organized the show.

Fashion is like pizza. Even when it's bad it's good.

Begging people to come.

Backstage

The view from the DJ booth.

When I get the video I'll post it!

ROLLERCOASTER

Ah I read the two entries below and I think, who is that person, head full o dreams? This season has been a roller coaster so far, but not a normal roller coaster ride where you land safe and sound, no the very rare ride where someone dies or Fabio gets hit by a goose (http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com) The MTV thing never aired, the collection did not sell very well in the new showroom, and the first lookbook was too dark so I had to re-shoot it, a big expense and general pain in the ass.

OMG we interrupt this bitch session to report that I just got a call about an amazing freelance job that would be perfect for me! Interview tomorrow! I should also say the on-line store is finally up and sales have been great! I was considering shutting down the line for a moment there but if on-line sales continue to be strong I can stay open. So please buy!

I close this post with some behind the scenes photos of the second lookbook shoot taken by my new assistant Sheri Barclay with my new camera courtesy of my bf Brent. Anyone who follows my blog closely knows we broke up. Anyone that follows me closely knows we got back together.

Here's some behind the scenes photos from the shoot:



Talking to Kristin who did amazing PR for DKNY Jeans and has been helping me. She convinced me to re-shoot the book and I'm so glad she did. And the hair was her idea and I love it. I believe she just told me "maybe next season you shouldn't do your presentation in a dark basement where no one can take photos." My reaction - shock, confusion, extreme nose flare.



"Neon dress, giant belt, fur vest, it's all so understated. Could I fashion this purple fur into some sort of hat?" The most disturbing thing about this pic is that I am standing right next to her. This is our actual height difference.



I thought Sheri took these photos but this picture tells another tale. Sheri getting her make-up done. We're in the apartment of my neighbor and photographer extraordinaire Howard Huang. If you want to look up his work make sure you have your safe filter on.



The first item on the rack is an amazing jacket designed by my BFF Jenn Stewart. She also designed the "Perfect Coat" as it's titled in the lookbook. It looks amazing on everyone. Deshawn, the make-up artist on the shoot almost knocked the model out and took off with it.



One of my favorite looks/poses/cupboards from the shoot.



Hot fur on fur action.



Gratuitous hot model shot. I paid good money for her I'll use all the pics I got.



This outfit didn't make the cut. It's just not pink enough.



Almost photographed something without fur. Close call.



Some girls from the casting. See how the "Lucky Penny" dress fits a large variety of (size zero) girls. The second girl, Georgia from Ikon, is absolutely stunning and only 15. I think she could be the next Selena Gomez. We went with Nadya from Fenton Moon, she's forth.