*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*

*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,

not Happy Holiday !*

Yeah, the shy, fey, emaciated weirdo wearing some sort of Edward Scissorhands punk-goth getup that makes Lagerfeld look like a sweet old biddy in lacy doilies. The one kindly but intently ignoring Ms. Von Furstenberg’s lectures, making some sort of very intense origami construction with the plastic from his binder, a sheet of black tire rubber from the high school parking lot, a razor and a match.

That nobody there’s Gareth Pugh, and you’ll know him now by the 2008 ANDAM Award blinding you from his ratty black tee.

Revenge against popular culture is sweet, and a dish best served cold. The Central Saint Martins designer is not malicious and in fact comes across as sweet and shy, but sometimes you get the feeling that ole Gareth is playing a joke on all of us, an extended prank that he’s seeing how long it will take us all to get.

Almost everything Gareth makes could be a circus tent/vent disaster on black-and-white platforms. Witness below a piece I love but almost any other designer would probably mess up royally:

Gareth can also do sexy, in his own strange way:

The saving grace from his pieces of weirdness are that they’re done so incredibly well; the vents are so fantastically, precisely done, the silhouettes are so bizarre and masculine a la Storm Trooper chest shield/body armor, the long Elizabethan ruffs are so architecturally stable, and then he goes and says things like: “It’s kind of that essence of beauty, that duality… A flower looks the most amazing just before it’s about to die.” In Hint Magazine in 2005, he was quoted as saying that his skirts were “about the struggle between lightness and darkness, like Nancy Kerrigan versus Tonya Harding.”

How could you not love a designer who says something like that? But in this case, the bite of reality is stronger than the bark of mythos, and Gareth really follows through on what he says.

Let’s take a closer look at a couple samples from Gareth’s first shoe collection.

Simple, but perfect. And the accentuation on the appropriate legwear (black and white tights that are a fluid part of the shoe, nearly indistinguishable) and makeup (black solid lashes that are white on the sides) definitely reinforces the fact that a shoe can be subtle in color but still shout its presence from the rooftops if you play it right. It makes me think of Chanel’s classic black shoes with white cap toes, worn with black tights, so that the whole leg was black except for a tippy-toe of white peekaboo. Designers are saying, let’s think beyond our shoes to the perfect legwear for each pair.

The most fantastic thing about these shoes is that they are black and chunky in the back, warping into a whole other shoe when you see them from that angle, complemented by tights that are black in the back. It’s all about perception with Gareth’s work, shading and depth and angles and proportion. Storm Troopers plunging into a visual wrinkle in time and space.

But Gareth, I believe we can see weirder, more whimsical, more fantastic, both darker and lighter in shoes from you. And yes, that’s a challenge from an ardent fan.

Premium Plus had the chance to go in the store and take some pictures and interview Paul about the store. The store has a new age look to the ancient ruins of a Mayan temple accented all around by of course skateboard gear and mementos left by Paul. If your in the area stop by and if not just call them up they do phone orders as well for those who cant get their shoes they have SB’s for days. I would like to thank Jubal Jones for his help and shout to Andy Netkin and Paul of course for doing it up like this!

Primitive
17060 Ventura Blvd
Encino, CA 91316
818.479.7171

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

Primitive Shop

BEHIND THE SCENES: PREMIUM+ MAGAZINE. P-Rod x Primitive. from PREMIUM+ MAGAZINE on Vimeo.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.

I say,
It’s the reach in my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride in my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, that’s me.

I walk into a room just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me, a hive of honey bees.

I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, that’s me.

Men themselves have wondered what they see in me.
They try so much,
But they can’t touch my inner mystery.
When I try to show them, they say they still can’t see.

I say,
It’s the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, that’s me.

Now you understand just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.

I say,
It’s the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
I’m a woman phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, that’s me.

Maya Angelou

And, if you're like me, you carry super-low and your pregnancy is more total-body, where everything seems to expand.

So that's why I was very excited to find [bump]. It is a hip maternity line created by a mom of three, so she's been through the whole "is that a bump or a pot roast?" phase.
[bump] stands for baby under manufacturing process and it says so right on her clothes. The lettering is printed strategically on your baby bump. You can choose from shirts, tanks, pants and, new to her line, dresses. I tried the black long-sleeved [bump] dress over yoga pants. When I dropped off my son at preschool, a mom who've I've seen every day since September looked at me and said "You're pregnant?" You can bet I was happy for my [bump]!
The clothes are made from baby-soft cotton. Also new to the line are some new [bumps] embellished with crystals, such as the symbols for peace, love & [bump.] The sayings are also fun - who hasn't wanted to shout "hands off my [bump]"?
And don't forget the dad! He can proudly wear his "sympathy [bump]" or '[bump] daddy" shirt.

Enter MWS10 for a 10 percent discount.

It’s hard to tell just when Pepsi blinked. For the past several years, its advertising has lacked its trademark sparkle, and its brands have lost their edge. As U.S. volume flagged, so did that signature spunk that marked Pepsi as an engaging upstart delightedly tweaking big, bad Coke. But Pepsi finally seems intent on regaining its share. Its strategy involves three years; $1.2 billion; a complete packaging, merchandising and marketing overhaul of its soft drinks — and a reduced reliance on BBDO, the shop that put it on the map nearly 50 years ago.

In trying to rebuild North American carbonated-soft-drink volume that dropped 3%, PepsiCo Chairman-CEO Indra Nooyi said the company will embark on a sweeping revamp of “every aspect of the brand proposition for our key [carbonated-soft-drink] brands: how they look, how they’re packaged, how they will be merchandised on the shelves and how they connect with consumers.”

Leading the push is Dave Burwick, recently tapped as CMO for beverage brands

To see more photos of Mariah and Nick just

read more

This was spa success. My massage/treatment therapist, Aimee, nailed the first part (in fact, I feel it is my karmic duty to shout about her from the mountain tops). The products in the six-step treatment took care of the last. My particular favorite was the Lemon Coffee-Blossom Olive Stone Scrub ($62), which delivered serious exfoliation without shredding my skin to bits.  

Unfortunately, you can't order Aimee online, but since the spa uses Red Flower products, you can give yourself the DIY version with the Red Flower Hammam Travel Set ($56). It has small sizes of all six products: Moroccan Mint Tea Silt Purifier, Lemon Coffee Blossom Olive Stone Scrub, Jasmine Rose Rhassoul Clay Polish, Orange Quince Steam Room Mist, Cardamom Amber Oil, and Tangerine Fig Butter Crème (another favorite).