Year: 2011

12TH Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Talent Retreat

12TH Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Talent Retreat
Alan Bronstein – Color: The Rarest of All?

The past few months have been filled with award shows ranging from the American Music Awards to the Golden Globes. And if you have been paying attention to the media at all, it has become obvious that our celebrities are walking away with more than just trophies. We recently reviewed an award event that gave away 40,000.00 per gift bag per celebrity who attended. Well, the SAG Awards is no different. January 28, 2006, I visited the Shrine Auditorium backstage the day before the big event, and caught a glimpse of what our Hollywood royalty would be getting this time.

There were only a select few gifting for the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, but these goody bags carried a lot of weight. There were perfume, skincare, makeup, laser eye surgery gift cards, CD/DVD players, etc…. But the most exquisite and rarest present of all were fancy colored diamonds. I spoke with Alan Bronstein, the color diamond expert who is among the world’s most trusted advisors of colored diamonds to leading jewelers, fine jewelry designers, and private investors. He is the respected curator of the world’s most famous natural fancy colored diamond collections, the Aurora Collection and the Butterfly of Peace Collection. He lectures widely ranging from the United Nations to the New York University, and he has published two seminal books, Collecting and Classifying Colored Diamonds – An Illustrated Study of the Aurora Collection and Forever Brilliant: The Aurora Collection of Colored Diamonds. Alan explained just how rare and precious these gems really are.

Alan Bronstein has worked in the diamond business for 25 years as a diamond broker in the diamond business. Somebody came along with a yellow diamond, which was beyond his understanding. It changed the whole course of his career in terms of what he wanted to do with his life. He decided that he wanted to focus on these rarest of diamonds that existed in the world. He had never known that diamonds came in colors (most people don’t know). It became his mission to explain to people that diamonds do exist in different colors: yellow, pink, blue, orange, and green. Honored with such an experience, he wanted to let other people know that they existed, too. So, in the process of the last 25 years, he made a diamond collection, which has been in the Museum of Natural History in New York for the last 16 years. It is considered the finest diamond collection in the world. This has become Alan’s passion and his dream. He has become the advisor and spokesperson for the Natural Colored Diamond Association, an organization that wants to get the message out that diamonds come in different colors, that they’re made by nature, and that they can also be made by man.

“We want to differentiate, and we want to let people know that there’s a difference between natural colored diamonds that come out of the earth (that were made by Mother Nature), and something that can be created in the lab by mankind, which you can make as many as possible and are not rare at all. I want to give you that same experience I had when I first saw the first colored diamond. I was so awestruck, and I wondered what I was looking at and how it came to be. It became my desire to learn as much as possible about fancy colored diamonds.”

Ridin’ Out Her Vision – Maggie Barry

Ridin’ Out Her Vision – Maggie Barry

When you’re unfamiliar with a designer’s style and her background in fashion, it’s practically impossible to be disappointed with what’s being flaunted on stage. Most people would argue that it’s all art anyway, whether deemed as “good” or “bad” by the masses. And most people would also say that Los Angeles designer Maggie Barry is one of those good ones. In fact, her Spring 2006 ride-em-cowboy collection is a visionary tale worth telling.

Showcased at the Twin Springs Building off Spring Street, Barry was among the many-featured designers that took part in the P.KABU L.A. Fashion Week Runway Series, a low-key and less populated event than Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios.

Strapless side cutout dresses in vibrant shades of reds and blues, paired with cowboy boots, buckled hip huggers, and fringes swaying in the wind kept things oh so interesting. With a model walking the walk with guitar in tow, the evening was an entertaining look at sexy western wear and her unique interpretation of casual fashion meets glam. White jeans, mini-skirts, short shorts, and eclectic accessories were spunky and right on.

Now take a quick step back. An FIT graduate from New York City, Barry went from starting her own accessory line to starting her own company, Van Buren, to emerging as a solo designer in 1996, then launching the Maggie Barry collection in 2000. With outrageous success during the Van Buren era, having custom created designs for musicians Donna Summers, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Idol, and Cher, Barry catered to the “body conscious consumer of the 80s and 90s.” She was known for “clothing celebrities and wanna-bees in edgy leather jackets, pants, and bustiers.”

Now her self-titled collection embraces the more feminine side of fashion, like using soft rayon lycra jersey just flowing over a woman’s curves, and featuring light, flowing separates and dresses. All in all, Barry keeps things modern, versatile, and what else, but hot.

Written by Elana Pruitt

Feelin’ Pretty in Louis Verdad

Feelin’ Pretty in Louis Verdad

Our bodies are our temples, or so we’ve heard. And with springtime rapidly approaching, pushing aside fox fur collars and velvet blazers of fall and winter, the sense and sensibility of Louis Verdad fashion means remembering what it’s like to sit upright, with your legs crossed.

Couture designers, season after season, are proving that looking sexy and feeling feminine can succeed without desperately coveting cleavage and bare midriffs. And Verdad’s Spring 2006 collection takes that up about 10 notches––vamped up vintage, Sunday bests, yet tailored, crisp, and rich-bitch-vacationing-in-the-Hamptons all in one. His highly anticipated runway show during L.A. Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios was a teaser of sorts. A grass-bordered catwalk with oversized flowers insinuating the arrival of spring, front-seater excitement, and the show’s opening antics as unique as Verdad’s vision kept my virgin eyes frantically wanting more, more, more.

It was just another day for gorgeous, skirt-suited Ms. Master, only being held back by her doggie’s sexy nanny pushing the puppy’s pink stroller ever so slowly. With this opening act worth remembering, the rest of the show you not only couldn’t forget, but why would you want to? Feelin’ pretty in Verdad fashion seems like a cinch. Belted up to here, snug right there, and topped with a wide-brimmed hat or satin gloves, he knows that women love to make statements of style. Especially when the weather warms and skin begins to bare, the female silhouette is one worth adorning.

It was a black, cashmere two-piece that aroused a Hollywood stir. Madonna wore his design for the MTV Music Awards show a few years back when she shared “the kiss” with Britney. Hardly a best-kept secret, many would say that Verdad’s rise to fame took off from that very moment. Notably, the American-born Mexican designer has dressed starlets like Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, and Cate Blanchett. And with Paris Hilton, Garcelle Beavouis, Lucy Liu, Gina Gershon, Aisha Tyler, and a soiree of Tinsel Town sitting up close and personal during his show, it’s simple—this designer’s got somethin’.

But let’s do it different than all the rest, he declares through bib tops, A-cut polka dot dresses, ruffled “my mom made me wear this” tiered skirts, secretary pencil skirts and blouses, sophisticated culottes, and belted jackets galore. His blushing pinks and lavenders, polka dot combos, striped-and-floral pattern mixing, and sharp shades of gold and silver contribute to his sassy and eclectic spring collection.

Written by Elana Pruitt

Agenda Magazine Features the complete Spring/Summer collections of the following designers from San Francisco Fashion Week:

San Francisco Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2006 offers clean lines, an array of color pallets, and an impressive line-up of emerging designers.

Enjoy celebrated couture wedding and evening designers such as Christina Hurvis Couture, Frenchhaute couturiers like Colleen Quen Couture, and Americana Levi’s Jeans. See what San Franciscans take for granted with luxurious style, beautifully tailored ensembles and fresh new playful attire with an intense array of colors juxtaposed with faux furs, leather, and familiar cotton and denim. Clear out your closets and consider a new wardrobe San Franciscan style!

San Francisco Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2006 Photographed by Arun Nevader


Ana Mulford, Christina Hurvis, Colleen Quen, Emerging Stars
Erin Mahoney, His by Her
Levi’s, Lily Samii
Mel Rose, Oda
Richard Hallmarq, Saffron
Shivani K, Sweat Free
Teshub, TOUCH Vintage
Valentine, Wee Scott

San Francisco Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2006 Photographed by Arun Nevader

A Runway Rundown at Smashbox

When Fashion Week rolls around, there’s rarely a dull moment at Smashbox Studios, even when a designer produces fewer “hits” than “misses” during his/her runway show. Time spent checkin’ out the new digs of Spring 2006 is at least a moment of entertainment for each attendee piling through, whether standing in back or taking the empty seat no one’s claimed yet. Take the first-ever Fashion Week beauty show from Smashbox Cosmetics and Sephora, teaming for a presentation themed “Exotica.” Celebrating the beauty of the rain forest by showing spring makeup trends proved to be a stage spectacle, no doubt. It was belly dancing, glittered body paint, bronzed skin mania, feathers, knitted bikinis, and oh yes, a makeup show amongst it all.

Conveniently cushioned between Single and Louis Verdad on the first day of Fashion Week, energy kept a flowin’ from attendees all around. The heat was rising, Lightbox included . . . it was hot in there! And when it comes to baring it all, the Sheri Bodell show said good-bye fall fur fashion, and hello spring sexiness. Front-row rocker Tommy Lee may have caught serious attention before lights dimmed, but as models walked, gushing turned to the designer’s collection. Rooted in neutral browns, whites, and pinks, and, tastefully, a touch of just enough black, Bodell’s influence stems from 1960s vixens and starlets of the big screen, like “Sexy Brigitte Bardot slip dresses, Marianne Faithful blouses, and Mia Farrow minis.” And quickly rising to fame is 28-year-old designer Desanka Fasiska, whose artistic quality kept celebrities Mena Suvari, Aisha Tyler, and Taryn Manning entranced by her spring collection. Influenced from “African and tropical prints,” Desanka’s safari theme also included smock-style dresses, opaque leggings, flowing cotton voile jackets, and shades of soft pinks and greens.

Saja directly followed Desanka fever, as designer Yoo Lee kept the creative juices rumbling. The girlish optimism of childhood depicted through subtle embellishments and delicate details are said to have inspired Lee’s seasonal collection of vintage beauty. Bold colors, Bohemian-inspired knitted cover-ups, and dress-up-or-dress-down floor-length flowy dresses would make you start to wonder. Can I really pull all that off with rolled-down socks and my pointy flats? Well, according to the spring Saja collection, the possibilities of fashion continue to be endless.

And when it came to closing the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios, there was a first. Retail leader St. John hit the Main Tent, right where Kevan Hall jumpstarted the whole event on day one. Redefined and redesigned, a company known for its sophisticated women’s knit suiting and professional wear brought youth and vibrancy to Los Angeles for its first show at Smashbox. Angelina Jolie, the newest face of California fashion label St. John, was a no-show, but the collection still claimed its original stance of excellence. Belted knee-length dresses, tons of black evening wear, and tans, whites, and striped pieces added sex appeal as well as a touch of modern sassiness and youthfulness. And in turning the corner from fall and winter to spring, St. John is bringing them back-––sharp lookin’ hats for extra pizzazz. The perfect shoe may always be a gal’s mantra in completing her outfit, but remember there’s a fashion first time for everything.

Written by Elana Pruitt

Dear Adina

Dear Adina

Your 21st Century Dear Abby

I am a 35-year-old woman. I have a friend who talked me into making a sizable “no-risk” investment to have a business service done—so he said. Well, I gave him a few thousand dollars upon his strong urging. Bottom line, I lost all my money, and at first, he said he could refund my money. So I waited patiently. Finally, I started reminding him little by little to get my money back and he said he was working on it. Needless to say, he has never repaid me. It has been over two years now, and I am very angry about it. I feel like I was duped! He acts like nothing happened, but I cannot forget that I threw away a lot of money (that I could use right now in fact) every time I speak to him. I am afraid that if he doesn’t make an effort to refund my money soon, I can no longer be his friend. Oddly, I feel like I was betrayed, even though he claims that it was not his fault. It’s just that he promised me that I would get my money back, or the service for which I paid would be done. Neither has happened.

Adina, I really need your advice. How do I continue to be this person’s friend feeling the way I do? Or is the friendship doomed?

Stupidly Duped,
Linda

—Adina’s Response—

Dear Duped,
I’m sorry to say, but you are just going to have to let go of the money. You made an investment and it didn’t pay off. I know it’s hard to accept that the money is gone, and it is even more painful when you think about all the fabulous shoes you could have bought with that money. But the bottom line is that you took a risk and made an investment; the money that you gave your friend was not a loan. You mention that your friend “strongly urged” you to make the investment, but ultimately it was your choice. Now, you just have to come to terms with the consequences of your choice. I know this doesn’t make losing the money any easier, but trust me—there is a lesson in all of this. They say that mixing friendship and money is a recipe for trouble, but there are a few other ingredients in that recipe if I recall. I think it involves a cup of accepting responsibility for your actions, a teaspoon of not blaming others, and just a pinch of learning from your mistakes.

After letting all of this bake in your mind, you can then ask yourself if you still want to be friends with the bad investor. This is a decision only you can make.

Head Chef with many recipes up my sleeve,
Adina

The Beauty Agenda

The Beauty Agenda

Flaunting Fabulously

A New Column by Patricia Lee

Why not let holiday shopping be the only reason for the winter woes? Battle brassy, blah hair and bothersome, badly timed blemishes, perfect your pout, and flaunt fabulous fingers and toes to sparkle and shine during the holidays.

Q: My highlighted hair seems to be turning brassy and orange after a few weeks, and the color doesn’t seem as bright and fresh. Is there anything I can do about it?

A: A self-professed highlight junkie, I can completely relate to your situation. Highlights offer tremendous transformational effects on one’s hair and look. Scores of individuals love and swear by them. Giving drab hair an extra oomph, accentuating curly hair or a great layered cut, and drawing attention to and brightening up one’s face prove to be just a few benefits of highlights. Often timely and pricey at many salons, it’s understandable that you would want to maintain that “just out of the salon” look. However, highlighted hair remains more delicate than untreated, uncolored, untouched hair and requires special care.

To boost the brilliance of blasé, brassy hair, try a chelating shampoo, such as Joico’s Resolve Chelating Shampoo, which removes dulling product buildup and mineral deposits. After wetting hair, work the luster-boosting liquid into your hair, allowing it to penetrate and work its magic for about five minutes. After rinsing out the shampoo, apply a bit of conditioner to the bottom half of your hair to drench dehydrated ends. If you live in areas like Los Angeles, which harbor higher mineral deposits in the water, liven up lifeless hair and counter copper tones by using a chelating shampoo once a week.

Ultimately, infrequent washings prove most prudent in maintaining multi-colored hair. Containing harsh chemicals to remove gunk and grease, shampoos simultaneously strip color as they clean. In between washes, pulling hair into a pretty ponytail or creating a cute, messy up-do refreshes the repetitive and routine. If one’s hair desperately needs a wash due to excessive oil, select a dry shampoo, such as Klorane Extra Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Extract (in a convenient aerosol can) or Bumble & Bumble’s Hair Powder, working in the oil-obliterating product really well. And with that, I bid you happy highlighting.


Q: I have an important event to attend in a couple of days and need to hide a red, irritated blemish I’ve popped. Please help!


A: Breakouts seem to cruelly crop up at the most inopportune times. First, calm down and keep your frisky fingers from further fiddling with your face. Sebum-inducing stress and constant contact can contribute to far more flare-ups. To boost your immune system, you may wish to go the holistic route, taking vitamins such as chelated zinc. For information on vitamin supplements, contact your pharmacist or doctor for dosage and supplement information.


Irritated and inflamed, the rupture may still be red. To cut back crimson tones, you can try to drip a few drops of Clear Eyes or Visine onto the area, allowing the potion to penetrate the skin. Most often within minutes, you’ll notice reduced redness in the area. After applying makeup, dab a dot of green-toned concealer on the blemish, gently blending the red-nixing neutralizer; do away with weird, whitish-looking skin by avoiding over application. Dipping a decent amount of loose powder onto a triangular makeup sponge, completely cover the area, allowing it to sit and settle onto the skin. Follow up with the finale: dust your entire face with loose powder, a bit of bronzer and blush, and you’ve successfully squelched the sightly spot.

The Chronicles of Narnia – Author C. S. Lewis

How grateful I am for the recent movie The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe! No, I have not yet seen the movie, but because I had been planning for many years now to revisit the series, some of whose novels I had enjoyed with my son who is now thirty-two years old, I found the Christmas season the appropriate time to do that, as well as introduce my two youngest granddaughters to the masterful art of C. S. Lewis. My Christmas gift to them was a beautiful collector’s item that contained all seven novels: The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle. My gift to myself was a less expensive version, which I just completed.

You see, great-grandmother that I am, I am just as enamored of fantasy as the many young people today, and like them, I eagerly await J. K. Rowling’s seventh Harry Potter. When J. R. R. Tolkien’sThe Lord of the Rings was re-popularized by the movies, I reread all three of those books. One day I plan to reread The Hobbit.

What is the appeal for The Chronicles of Narnia? For children, of course, it’s pure fantasy! They will simply enjoy the adventures of the children of Adam and Eve in the paradisiacal world of Narnia, that C. S. Lewis so beautifully peopled with talking animals, mythological figures such as satyrs, centaurs, dryads, naiads . . . legendary dwarfs . . . He has masterfully woven religion, legend, mythology into a beautifully written fantasy adventure. For the more sophisticated reader, it is allegory. Each of the characters and each of the events represent (symbolize) a human character and an event in the chronology of our world. Aslan, for example, may be viewed as a Christ figure. Killed by the wicked witch very early in the chronology, like Christ, he is resurrected. No matter your religion, you will see the parallels.

Because reading is so important, I celebrate anything that entices young people to fall in love with books. So if you haven’t discovered The Chronicles of Narnia, do run out and buy the series. You will be richly rewarded while you wait for the nextHarry Potter.

Written by Lee Lemon Peoples

The Mermaid Chair – Author Sue Monk Kidd

The Mermaid Chair
Sue Monk Kidd

Reviewed by Lee Lemon Peoples

Jessie was nine years old when her father’s boat exploded, reportedly because of a leaking fuel line, ignited by a spark from the pipe she had given her father as a gift for Father’s Day. At forty-two years old, happily married with her only child, a daughter, now in college, Jessie experiences a feeling of restlessness, which she does not understand nor does she confront until she is called back home to take care of her mother. For some unknown reason, Nelle Dubois, her mother, has chopped off the index finger (the “pointing” finger) on her right hand. Returning to Egret Island, a tiny barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, where she grew up, she meets and falls in love with Brother Thomas, a Benedictine monk with conflicts of his own.

Sue Monk Kidd, the best-selling author of The Secret Life of Bees, has this novel, The Mermaid Chair, set in the winter and spring of 1988. A year later her main character, Jessie Sullivan, looks back on the incident in an attempt to bear it by telling about it: “They say you can bear anything if you can tell a story about it.”

I’ve always admired people who were willing to take chances and suffer the consequences, but never did I dream I’d admire a woman (or a man for that matter) for infidelity, nor did I ever dream I’d admire the husband his forgiveness of that wife’s infidelity. While this novel has elements of mythology and legend (the mermaid chair, Saint Senara, a former mermaid), it is about Christianity, more specifically, Catholicism.

When Jessie was a child, her father told her the story of mermaids living in the waters around the island. Their main job was to save humans, he said, and years later, she wonders if they didn’t save her. Never ever having done anything out of the ordinary, she, at forty-two years old “dove” into impropriety:

Attachment and the Next Level: When Casual Dating Hits an Emotional Roadblock, How Do We Know When to Take It to the Next Level and When to Call It Quits?

Simply Single

Attachment and the Next Level:
When Casual Dating Hits an Emotional Roadblock, How Do We Know When to Take It to the Next Level and When to Call It Quits?

“I’m trying to find something wrong with him, but I just can’t find anything!” Amy emphatically exhaled. I kept silent, wondering if that was a sigh of relief because he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy, or of exasperation because she failed to find a flaw to decrease or deaden her growing feelings for him. “It’s only been three months,” Carrie reminded her. “You both are still in the honeymoon period. Give it some time before stressing out.” Ah, the honeymoon period. Almost always, new relationships experience a honeymoon period. Lasting for days, months, or years, it’s the initial courting period, during which everything seems and feels perfect in a relationship. The apple of one’s eye proves flawless in every way. Engaging conversations, delightful dates, great chemistry, amazing sex, displays of thoughtfulness, and everything else in between create a stress-free, drama-free rapport, as courters dish out 110% of effort to win over their crush. A highly impressionable period, its magic can win over crushes and even blur reality, mentally crippling some and making them unable to leave a bad or mediocre relationship.

Factoring time into the equation, once easygoing relationships can turn complex as emotions grow, feelings develop, and superficial layers are shed. Time exposes the true colors of most individuals, initially on their best behavior to impress their crush, as comfort and indolence set in and regression takes place. Time can also cause a person to grow on you, become more attractive, invade your mind more frequently, and so on. Many form some type of bond with the object of their affection, whether this bond is actual or imagined, mutual or one-sided. Most often, time leads to emotional attachment, as individuals begin adding emotional value to the new person in their life. During this time, daters concurrently enter the realm of cerebral thinking, creating mental, subjective pro-con lists about their date(s) and shaping their feelings. Perceptions of reality, desires, dislikes, and personal intentions influence one’s actions, interactions, and reactions towards his/her sweetheart, setting the stage for relationships ranging from fling, friend, and foe to fiancé, fluke, and plain frustrating.

Generally, as one or both parties develop feelings, a relationship eventually reaches a standstill, and one faces a juncture. Does one take it to the “next level,” leave it as is for as long as possible, end it, or let it fade? With at least two players to each game, individual feelings, wants, and expectations affect the path a relationship takes. Let’s say after three months, you and your current beau approach this fork in the road. If you’re both simply mad about each other, you effortlessly breeze into the next level. If both of you don’t care to take it anywhere, you effortlessly cut ties. If you don’t care for him much, feel he’s a waste of time, screen calls to avoid him, suffer from repulsion or annoyance by the sheer thought of him, and the like, you know the demise of this little romance draws near. Sound easy, right? Complexity enters the scene when you think your beau’s fantastic and want to take it to the next level, but his emotional murkiness leaves you unsure about where the two of you stand. In such instances, how does one know if and when a relationship could and should be taken to the next level? How does one know when to cut one’s losses and leave?

As with sampling new cuisine, dating usually takes time, practice, and experience in order to develop a better idea of what one likes, dislikes, wants, doesn’t want, and deserves. For instance, as a teenager I viewed sushi as trendy and disgusting, and as a result, my premature opinion negatively influenced my sushi experiences and prevented me from enjoying or giving it a fair chance. Years later, my view changed––I love sushi! Frequenting different sushi joints throughout the years, I eventually learned to distinguish between good and bad sushi, fresh and old sashimi, and worthwhile and rip-off establishments. Without much dining experience, I would probably call a sushi restaurant great, simply because of its great ambiance, trendiness, or great reviews. Instead of having knowledge and a personal preference of what I considered excellent, I’d fall prey to influence. Similarly, experience in dating usually can help many develop a list of preferences and a set of standards. Along with some experiences come heartaches. However, as wretched and hurtful as they may momentarily feel, heartbreaks and bad experiences can toughen one’s hide, helping one to realize that life isn’t over if or when one’s crush turns out to be nothing short of an inconsiderate idiot, providing the strength to leave a hopeless, negative situation. With a tougher hide, one often becomes more discriminating and less tolerant of the dallying and emotional manipulating kind, as expectations and feelings of self-worth increase. Admittedly, some with little or no dating experience can find their perfect someone and live happily ever after, but these instances seem to be quite anomalous.