Project Runway & Payless

Hopefully someday in the near future Austin Scarlett will branch out and design some shoes, but for now we'll have to be satisfied with Christian Siriano's (a former winner of Project Runway) designs for Payless. Partnering with a store seems to have kept Siriano on the minds of consumers (truth be told, we can't all afford his actual runway creations), so I'm crossing my fingers that Austin will get a similar deal. I can just imagine the fanciful and over the top shoes that he would create! They would be full of glamour, class, and just enough sparkle, and who doesn't love that in a shoe :) In the meantime, check out the latest collection for Payless from Christian Siriano, which you can buy online here, or at Payless stores!

Christian Siriano for Payless
"Anna" cutout wedge bootie
image borrowed from here

The Next Yves Saint Laurent?

I’m not the only person who’s noticed the eerie resemblance between Austin Scarlett and Yves Saint Laurent, not only in the looks department, but also due to fabulous couture fashion designs. YSL is one of my favourite designers of all time, so it’s no wonder that I took an instant liking to Scarlett’s design aesthetic, which runs towards the luxurious and fanciful. I was ecstatic when he made it into the finals of Project Runway All Stars, and I’m crossing my fingers that he’ll take the show by storm. Your time has come Austin, and this time you’ll rock the runway Scarlett style!

Portrait from Wikipedia
Pictures 1-3 from Austin Scarlett's website
Pictures 4-5 from My Lifetime

Don't Call me Starlet!

image from Persephone Magazine

In a hideously embarrassing faux pas, designer & Project Runway All Stars judge Isaac Mizrahi mistakenly referred to genius contestant Austin Scarlett, as Austin Starlet (see the finale of Episode 7). Dear Austin has been known to be a bit of a drama queen, but in this case he was totally justified in snarkily correctly Mizrahi. There’s nothing worse than having someone get your name wrong, especially when it’s pretty simple to pronounce. Though, Austin really is a star, so maybe we’ll forgive Mizrahi his slip of the tongue.

After a lifetime of correcting people on how to pronounce my last name, I finally gave up when I realized that every single teacher in my highschool had pronounced my last name wrong (including one who had taught my father and uncles back in the dinosaur days) and the situation wasn’t likely to improve. The constant eye rolling, and piping up got to be too much of a hassle, so now I just let them sound like idiots. And they usually don’t enjoy being called out on their deficiencies infront of the class, when they’re just trying to get through roll-call.

But if people mis-spell my first name, then it’s a whole other story. Yes, my name is spelled “oddly” apparently, since it has an extra “i,”  but it can be a real hassle to get it changed on official documents if people spell it wrong. Which almost happened when I was getting my driver’s license and the woman the counter didn’t wait for me to spell my name out. She also didn’t ask me what colour my eyes were (they’re hazel, not brown), so that’s wrong on my driver’s license, but that’s not a sticking point when comparing official documents. Plus, having my name spelled a little differently means that I have another unique quality, that makes me “me.”  Not that I really need any extras, since I’ve been told that I’m far too much to handle :p