i love secondhand smoke

05 February 2007

prince, proenza, and purple everywhere

Prince ended the Superbowl XLI Halftime Show with "Purple Rain", as rain poured all over Miami. I promise not to drop my tired and overtold rain joke. So Prince had on a turban, probably a Prada inspiration. Actually, it was more like a cross between a do-rag and a Lucille Ball headscarf. Mhm, that's it.

Earlier, I was seething with anger because of the Chicago Bears' loss. Right when the Bears started off amazingly and the Colts' Adam Vinatiera was sucking, suddenly everything turned around. Why, why, why?! At least Prince delivered.

By now, you're probably sick of hearing Proenza Schouler. Well, I'm not! From its high-profile exclusive opening ceremony at Opening Ceremony to its nationwide opening at Target stores yesterday, you'd probably expect almost everyone (if not everyone) directly involved, most especially Target employees to know about this. WRONG! I have a funny story to tell you. Before Opening Ceremony or Target opened its doors to the public, I started calling Target stores in the LA Area to know exactly when they'll have the goods in stock. I'm persistent and annoying like that. This is what I was told:

a. "Huh? What's that? Yeah, what exactly is it?"
b. "Excuse me, can you spell it for me please?"
c. "The what? Sorry? Can you hold on a moment, please? Let me get the RTW team leader."
d. "Where have you heard about it? Where have you seen it?
e. "I'm actually part of that department, under DVDs and Electronics but the manager isn't here right now. Can you try calling back in ten minutes?"

That's FIVE different locations. So puzzling. I'm not being a snob at all but I mean, when you work at the store, aren't you supposed to have even just the slightest idea of what you're selling?

My answers:
a. I repeated the name and I pronounced it right, [pro-en'-za skoo'-ler] and not [pro-en'-za shoo'-ler].
b. I spelled it correctly. P-r-o-e-n-z-a S-c-h-o-u-l-e-r.
c. None of the team leaders knew what I was talking about.
d. I gave specifics, like "It's part of the GO International Collection."
e. Probably the weirdest answer I ever got. I didn't even bother calling back.

I've been to one of the stores on the 30th of January and they already had the PS boards and posters up, so I really don't know what's going on. Okay, I'm done. That was a little frustrating. Maybe I was just frustrating myself.

Anyway, so the boys actually used a real model, the first GO International designers to actually employ a bona fide high fashion babe who is none other than Élise Crombez, Miss Healthy BMI of 20.1 and with lots of good work at 24, also known as Miss Nasty Trip at the SS07 Proenza runway, but who cares when your image is being ogled by men and admired by women all over the country? I almost forgot about Katja Shchekina. Count her in, too!

The abundance of purple (they call it "showgirl purple", actually) is good. The FW07 Proenza Schouler show is this coming Wednesday!

Photo credits (Top-Bottom) AFP/Getty Images, Target