The Dress Details: Opening Night, Godspell

I'm back from an amazing weekend in New York.  I will spill all of the details about my weekend in the city tomorrow.  Today, it is all about fashion!  Here are all of the details on my look from the opening night of the Broadway revival of Godspell.

Stylist:  Roni B
Hair:  Dry Bar
Dress: Silver Kiss
Shoes:  Steve Madden $76.95
I received comments about these shoes all night.  They are 5.5" heels with 2"platforms. Yes, I was tall.  I love them and yes, you've seen them here before.
Elephant Ring:  Betsey Johnson
Oval Ring:  Forever 21 $6
Earrings:  Roni B.
Bag:  Roni B
Textured Tights:  Gap $7

The most expensive thing on me that night was my shoes which were bought in the Fall of 2010 for under $77.  Otherwise, all of the accessories and the dress were under $60.  I just want to show you that a red carpet look can be done rather inexpensively.  The attire for the evening was suggested as "festive".  I think I am one of the few that adhered to that request.  I loved being the bright color in a sea of black cocktail dresses.  I clearly was not in LA, since NY loves their black.  It's a good safe choice, but it's fun to stand out and be warm at the same time.  Yay for long sleeves!

The accessories were designed to add another unexpected color to the look.  So, gold and royal blue were added to my earrings and ring.  The clutch remained black to tie into the tights, shoes, and the hint of black in the dress.  Finally, the faux hawk added a bit of fun to the entire look.  Dry Bar hooked me up with the braids as an added touch.  I must say I have new respect for the ladies who rock braids every day.  I loved them, but wow, they are tight and made my head itch.  I thought I would keep them all week, but I caved after 2 1/2 days.  I'm a total wimp.

Emmys Viewing Party: Dress Details

These are always some of my most popular articles on my site, the "who are you wearing" posts.  Well, here are all of the details for my outfit from the Emmy Awards 100 Stars Night Out Viewing Party:

Dress:  Gifted by Deborah Viereck.  You have seen me wear a lot of her dresses here and here.  They are so comfortable to wear and I have one striped dress that I wear over and over again. Another good thing to know is that the clothes are created right here in LA.

Shoes:  Bandolino, Spring 2003 collection

Belt, Ring, Earrings:  Roni B

Bracelets:  Target

Stylist:  Roni B.

Makeup:  Carolina Groppa

Carolina and Roni helped coordinate my look for the Oscars last February, so you know I trust them implicitly with all of my red carpet looks.  I told Carolina I am moving her into my house because I want to look like this every day. (See photo below.)

InvenTORI

Before I picked up some clothes at Roni B's for Kids' Choice Awards week, I decided to make a stop at Tori Spelling's new antique/gift store called InvenTORI.  While I have never worked with Tori, my life always seems to orbit within six degrees of separation or less.  I've been on a job with her first husband, Charlie, I spent six weeks on a AOL show I hosted in 2007 with her makeup artist, Brandy, and Tori used to socialize with an acquaintance of mine from NY.  I am also happy to report that everyone says she is kind, hard-working, and a lot of fun to be around.  Exactly how I think Donna Martin should act.

Well, lucky me, Sunday was the day to see her in person.  I was there to shop, but Tori and Dean, her hubby, were there to promote, promote, promote their new wedding show, sTORIbook Weddings on the Oxygen Network.  Are you sensing a TORI theme here?  Anyway, they had brides, grooms, balloons, champagne, and plenty of cupcakes on hand to celebrate the day. Tori and Dean were signing books and taking pictures, but I wanted to shop.  Her tastefully decorated store is a mishmash of baby items, antiques, high-end toiletries, and goodies for your pooch.  The most interesting pieces in the store are the antiques that come from Tori's own collection.  They are for sale, they are fantastic, and they are overpriced.  I called it "Tori pricing".  If you bought the beautiful lavender vintage bottles at the flea market, the set of 3 would cost you about $45.  Here, the set of 3 would set you back about $80.  It's truly a store for the hardcore fan.  So, while I loved the idea of her collection, I was not in love with the prices.

A couple of juicy tidbits to take away from all of this.  Don't be surprised if you read a Tori Spelling pregnancy article soon.  I can't be 100% sure since I am not her OB, but she sure looked like she might be sporting a baby bump. (Just remember you heard it here at Red Carpet Closet first!)  Finally, if InveTORI isn't enough for you, Lisa Rinna's store, Belle Gray, is 2 doors down selling overpriced clothing and Melissa Joan Hart's candy store, Sweet Harts, is a block away and it's the most affordable of the celebrity store bunch.  Be sure to try Carnie Wilson's Red Velvet Moon Pies!  What?  You thought they would sell ordinary, pedestrian moon pies?  For shame, it's Hollywood, kids, so only a celeb baked good will do.

UPDATE:  Since many of you are searching for the addresses for Ventura Boulevard's Celebrity Row, here they are all in one spot.  The celebs are not always in store, but Tori and Dean do lots of promotions there.  You can stay in touch with their appearances on their Facebook page.

InvenTORI
13826 Ventura Boulevard
Sherman Oaks, CA

Belle Gray
13812 Ventura Boulevard
Sherman Oaks, CA

Sweet Harts
13704 Ventura Boulevard
Sherman Oaks, CA

Roni B.
13626 Ventura Boulevard
Sherman Oaks, CA
(Be sure to tell Roni that KB at Red Carpet Closet sent you!)

Oscar Nominations Dress Winner

I just returned home and changed back into my pajamas to file all of my Oscar Nominations stories I have to take care of before I nap.  I wanted to post the winning dress before I hit slumberland. (My call time for the Nominations announcement was 3:30 AM!)

Congratulations to Lula for choosing the Banana Republic dress.  It was perfect for the occasion.  I looked professional, but I was comfortable and I was pleased the dress had pockets.  I was constantly on my phone or camera during the event, so they were very useful to me at 5 AM.  I was thrilled with the color and the stretch of the fabric because I don't usually have a lot of luck with Banana Republic. I decided to buy one from their petite line and that was definitely the right call for a 5'3" gal like me.

The cost of the dress is $150, but with free shipping, a 25% coupon, and 6% back from Ebates, my total cost was:   $116.72.

Dress:  Banana Republic
Shoes:  Guess, DSW
Jewelry:  Ring, Bracelet:  ShopTheLook.net
              Earrings:  Roni B

Lula, be sure to contact me so I can send you a $25 gift certificate to the store of your choice. Congratulations and thanks for picking such a great dress for me!

A Fashionista Extravaganza

It's no secret that I love my local store, Roni B.  If you have followed my blog for awhile,  you know she has dressed me from head to toe for events and shoots here, here, and here.  Well, I am excited to be hosting A Fashionista Extravaganza on Tuesday, November 30th with Roni B.  It will be a night of fashion, fun, food, wine, and a dash of charity.  Guests are encouraged to bring their gently used business casual and professional attire to donate to The Valley Women's Center.  So, clean out your closet and maybe add an item or two or grab a snazzy holiday gift.

If you would like an invite and you are in the LA area, contact me to be added to the list.  It will be a fun night on the fashion front!

Photo Courtesy of My Daily Find.

The Dress Details

After several of you contacted me yesterday about my dress from the "Get Red Carpet Ready!" panel, I decided to reveal all of the details here:

Dress:  $65-Aryeh
Purple Suede Shoes:  Approximately $80-BCBG--Seen in this post.
Sun Dance Stretch Ring:  $10-Shop The Look-Seen in this post.

The dress was purchased at one of my favorite local stores, Roni B where I get a lot of my red carpet wardrobe.  If you are interested in checking out some of the fashions from Roni B, I am hosting a party on Tuesday, November 30th.  Contact me with your email address and I will add you to the list.  It will be a fun night of wine, cheese, and shopping!

The pleating and asymmetrical bow on the neckline is one of the best details on the dress.

Shop Local

With the news about economy going from bad to worse, it is important for all of us to remember Mom and Pop.  They are the ones that run the stores in your neighborhood.  They sometimes get overlooked for the big brick and mortar stores like Nordstrom's, Bloomingdale's, or even Target.  It's time for us to go back to Main Street and remember "Who are the people in your neighborhood?".  (Thanks, Sesame Street!).  I stumbled upon my favorite neighborhood store by chance last summer.  My friend, Maria, and I decided to have a celebrity store run one lazy Saturday afternoon.  That entailed a trip to Lisa Rinna's Belle Gray and Melissa Joan Hart's, SweetHarts in Sherman Oaks.  The excursion turned out to be a mixed bag.  Lisa's store is impeccably decorated, clean, and well-designed.  Unfortunately, the price tag for simple items like a white t-shirt are well out of the norm for most shoppers.  So, we looked and we left.  To comfort our shopping souls, we headed over to Melissa Joan Hart's candy/ice cream/bake shop.  I ate a delicious red velvet moon pie baked by Carnie Wilson.  Yep, Wilson Phillips baked some goodies for Sabrina the Teenage Witch's candy store. Only in Hollywood, kids, only in Hollywood.

                                                     
After a little sugar, we wanted to continue shopping, so we headed a block down the street and stumbled upon one of the greatest boutique finds ever, Roni B.  The store is inviting with its pink and black decor and a friendly, Roni B, ready to style, accessorize, and dress you down to the last detail.  With a stylist's eye, she knows when to add a belt or an earring to complete the look for the red carpet or the wedding or the birthday party.  The best part?  The looks are all affordable.  Many of the dresses are under $100 and the styles are right on trend.  If you see that expensive designer look in Lucky Magazine, chances are a more affordable version is available that month in store.  The greatest thing about shopping local is the people you meet and the friends you make, that is exactly what you will find at Roni B.

Below are some of the looks styled and created by Roni B that I have worn on the red carpet or on my show, The Web Files.  For those of you in LA, make sure to stop by and tell Roni that KB sent you.  I bet you will walk out with a Roni B. bag in hand.

Let me know what look is your favorite in the comments below. Don't forget to follow Red Carpet Closet at Bloglovin.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Oh, what a week it has been....ping pong, reality stars, and All That Jazz.  Here's a quick round-up of what happened this week:

Me and my pal, Maria, at the opening night of SPiN Hollywood.  We dressed up that night, but I only got a picture of our shoulder straps.  Oh well.  


1.  A visit to the opening of SPiN Hollywood courtesy of Lexus Dark Ride.  Thanks for the invite, guys!  We saw Susan and Vienna and Michael, oh my! (An Oscar winner and a couple of train wrecks all in one sentence.)

2.  It's week 6 of MoreWireLess and we take you right into High Speed Bluetooth.  Hope you're learning something, kids.  Sponsored by Broadcom:


3. Stupid for Movies:  I was lucky enough to visit the set of Stupid for Movies back in April where I interviewed Mike Rotman, Mark Keizer, and Wade Major for The Web Files.  They kindly invited me back and let me pick a movie to discuss.  So, here's the show, All That Jazz, and the story of my highly inappropriate dance routine in junior high:


4.  While I was on Stupid for Movies, I talked about a website I am obsessed with:  Cupcakes and Cashmere.  The content is definitely for the fashionista who is ultra-girly, but I am a huge fan of the site and its creator, Emily Schuman.

5.  Official Blog Roll Call:  I think I am going to start an official blog roll, so if you are interested in linking together, let me know in the comment section.

Next week, we will have a new episode of The Web Files featuring the talented and handsome, Al Thompson, of Johnny B. Homeless and Lenox Avenue.  I will be covering the Plug-In Conference up in San Jose through Wednesday and then running back down to LA to check out the red carpet of ITVFest.

Enjoy your weekend!  My weekend will be filled with a trunk sale at my favorite store, Roni B., my first show of the season at the Hollywood Bowl (Planet Earth!), and a little yoga to relax the mind, body, and spirit.  Let me know in the comment section what you are doing with your weekend.  See you next week at Red Carpet Closet!

Behind the Scenes of The Bannen Way

Ah, The Bannen Way. So much excitement, so much buzz, so much.....controversy? Yes, controversy. We stepped into this interview during a heated week of discussion by the web series community on the internet regarding The Streamys nomination process. SONY decided to launch the first three episodes of The Bannen Way before the scheduled launch date in order to qualify for the 2010 awards. Jesse Warren, the director/creator of The Bannen Way, dove right into the controversy at the beginning of the episode and I really appreciated that. I think we addressed the issue and answered any lingering questions. We did delve a bit deeper than what you saw, but I do think the Streamys will update their rules for 2011. It is a constantly evolving nomination process and just like The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences updating their rules year to year after 82 years in business, this will be no different.

So, let's push that aside, and talk about how much fun this web series is: slick, sleek, and sexy. Mark Gantt and Jesse did start this project independently and I was fascinated how they even procured a Jaguar for their shoot. It was a process that was all new to them as this was an idea developed by them to gain more ground in their film/TV careers. Once SONY jumped on board, they really hit the ground running with name actors to flesh out some of the roles. I might add that I think this is the best role I have seen Vanessa Marcil in yet. The web series model is constantly changing, but I believe The Bannen Way is going to change the web series scenery as it has set a new standard for web series production. Now is every web series going to look like this? No, of course not. I do think it will challenge all of the independent creators to set new goals for themselves. Let's see what happens to the web series landscape in the next 12-18 months. I am excited to see what the future holds.

It is always fun to unmask the crew behind the scenes, so let me introduce Perry Payne, who may be familiar to some, but he is our editing guru and DP on The Web Files, and Lucas Plouviez, our Camera Op for The Bannen Way episode. Without all of their hard work, we wouldn't have a show! So, thank you for your continued dedication to The Web Files.

Finally, the dress and belt. It is another fantastic find from Roni B. Roni is magic when it comes to styling wardrobe for a shoot, so be sure to tell her I sent you. Makeup was courtesy of e.l.f. Cosmetics and my awesome earrings in this episode were a Christmas gift from our makeup artist, Melissa Anchondo. You need to watch the episode to see them close up.

So, watch the episode right here! See what the buzz, controversy, and excitement is all about.

Behind the Scenes of This Week in YouTube

This was one of the most difficult episodes to schedule. If it wasn't my schedule crimping the shoot day, it was Shira Lazar's nutty schedule. It was hard to figure out when the two of us would be in town at the same time to shoot. It went from an August to a September to an October shoot. The calendar gods finally aligned and we hit the Mahalo Studios in Santa Monica on October 22nd.....the same day that I left for a job in Miami. (I told you it was tough to schedule.) Actually, my work life looks tame compared to the woman with a million jobs, Shira Lazar. She is one of the hardest working, savviest, and nicest hosts in the industry. Shira and I have crossed paths a few times, but we had never officially been introduced. Everyone kept tell me how fun and kind she is. You know what? They were right.

Now, I cannot forget about Lon Harris. I met Lon at the GeekOut event in May of 2009. That event certainly brought a lot of interviews for The Web Files. We met Tay Zonday, who was our first guest EVER on the show along with Brett Register of The Crew, which became our 2nd episode. So, one event netted three interviews along the way, guess it speaks volumes for power of networking. I find Lon to be sweet and funny all at once. He is the veteran host of This Week in YouTube and it is his steady presence and writing talent that helps drive the viewership of the show.

We were able to check out a taping of an episode which happened to be their first shoot using an TelePrompter. As any host knows, this is always a welcome sight since it takes half of the time to shoot versus memorization. They banged out the script and then sat down with us for an interview. You can definitely see why the show works as Shira and Lon have an easy natural chemistry off screen which carries over on screen. Lon also gave away some strong trade secrets on how to get hits on the saturated YouTube site. He is a master at drawing them in, so make sure to watch the interview!

Off-screen, Shira was really excited that we had brought our makeup artist, Melissa Anchondo to set with us that day since Mahalo does not use an artist for TWIYT. If you like Shira's hair and makeup in the episode, tell Melissa, it is all of her artistry. Also, Mahalo has a chef on the premise. How cool is that? I find that to be a very Google-like office perk.

Finally, I love my dress from Roni B. worn in this episode. Roni even let me borrow the shoes since I didn't have a pair to match. Thanks, Roni! Makeup provided by e.l.f. Don't forget to check out the episode below! Thanks for watching.....

Notice anyone hanging out in the background of this photo? The best set dog ever....Indiana!

Behind the Scenes of Hurtling Through Space At An Alarming Rate

Okay, this is a really late behind the scenes look at Hurtling Through Space At An Alarming Rate, but it's here, it's finally here! I think I have been talking with Stephanie Thorpe and Mike Davies about doing an interview since I saw them on the red carpet for iTVFest in July. Well, here we are in the late fall and we finally got it done, but there was one tricky part to the interview: Mike Davies was in Canada. Duh-Duh!

Well, thank goodness we have Sandra's creative brain to help with all of the logistics to make it seem like Mike himself was hurtling through space. We shot all of the questions for Mike first, then sent the questions to him via email, and he shot the video on his end to answer all of the questions. Sandra also came up with the genius idea of a crowded space highway with a nice little shout out to other web series we have featured like The Crew, The Cabonauts, Safety Geeks:SVI, and Space Hospital. A big thanks to all of the creators for contributing their footage to the show. Since HTSAAAR was shot in Canada, we obviously did not have access to their set, so Sandra's living room doubled as the apartment floating out in the universe. Now, none of this would be possible without the incredible efforts of Gordon Lee who created all of the VFX for us. The truly amazing part of it all is that he turned it all around for us in little over a week. So, Gordon, thank you, this episode would not have been possible without you.

As for Taryn O'Neill, Stuart Paap, and Stephanie Thorpe, it was great to finally sit down with them and get behind the scenes on their show and their collaboration. I love that they have their own little Canadian posse working together on creating stories for the web. Taryn has found her niche here with a huge slate of web series this year....After Judgment, The Crew, Compulsions, and of course, HTSAAAR. Stephanie showed up in one of my favorite shirts from Bebe. How do I know it is from Bebe? I own the same shirt. In fact, you can see it in my host reelon the QVC clip. So, naturally, I am going to like anyone with the same fashion sense. Finally, I was familiar with Stuart's work on Live from the Future because he interviewed a friend of mine, Zen Gray, about her participation in the Bravo TV show, Workout. It truly was fun to have three web celebs all joining us on The Web Files. Wait a minute, I mean four.....you have to count Mike's cameo too! Come back to LA soon, Mike. I hope you find your way home with all of that space traffic. In the words of Mike Davies, it was "DEE-lightful" to have you"awesomness" on our show. Be sure to check out their show on Babelgum, a site that is starting to become a heavy hitter in the Web TV industry.

As always, a big thank you to e.l.f. Cosmetics for helping with each episode and my favorite wardrobe gal, Roni B. (I cannot stop wearing this shirt!)

If you missed this episode, watch it here: