Luxirare

Michael Jackson. It would be redundant of me to write out his achievements. We all have a different memory of him. What I find flawed about mass produced memorabilia is that each of our memories of him are unique, and as such Memorabilia should be unique. Some prefer the child Michael Jackson of Jackson 5. Others prefer his Thriller days. Decarnin’s memories of Michael Jackson purely have to do with MJ’s iconic 80′s clothing.

My fascination with his work has always been with how he was able to remain so innovative yet mass market; his ambition, his work ethic. In terms of work ethic, he will never be matched. He was bottom of the pyramid in terms of accessibility, yet innovative/completely unique in the way he wrote music, danced to the music, and performed the music. Very few people are able to satisfy both requirements and as such most of my respect for him lies within this fascination. It was as if he was both Thierry Mugler and Alexander Wang in one body. The power, the beauty of MJ’s music was that it didn’t matter if you were a hustler on Wall Street, a nun in rural China, a gutter punk, a socialite, or a person who hates pop music. Chances are, you liked hearing Pretty Young Thing, and you probably still do.

Here is my memorabilia of MJ. Since Michael Jackson was the most meticulous performer I have ever seen, I tried to apply that same meticulousness with this personal memorabilia. I doubt I came close, or ever will come close to what he became, but at least I have attempted something. I know everyone is “over hearing about it” but it took me a month to complete because I had to do it little by little, and if it was up to me, I would have shown this much earlier.

Swarovski crystals glued onto white glove. This was surprisingly quick to make.

Because no one in their right mind would wear the look together as a set, I like to use the Jacket to style with other basics in my wardrobe. Here I do it with my own crop top, black skinnies, and a men’s oversize vest from Salvation Army.

I pressed the leather, or stamped it, with letters and spelled out my favorite MJ songs. This was the most difficult part of this jacket, the letters were impossible to line up.

Alber Elbaz speaks about “lightness” during interviews before his collections. I think his summation of what women need seems pretty accurate. Yes, we need lightness/ease/mobility. I love the way Elbaz makes clothes. His Lanvin spring 2008 collection made me cry. I like lightness. He is rare, a genius, and I like that he is chubby. Pies should be light too. I don’t like big pies, with one flavor. I want to change everyday. I have internet, my iphone, and many choices. I’ve simply turned into a big ball of vacillation- going back and forth between a circle of different flavors/opportunities. This is why fashion blogs are so great. Mobility, I can access blog content from anywhere, magazines are heavy, they need to stay at home so my shoulder can rest. After I’ve had a little view on one person’s blog, I move onto the next and the next. All different. All fast, all immediate gratification. Pies, they need to be the same. I want a couple of bites, and I want to be done with it. I want to pop open my bag when I’m hungry and taste a little sweetness. I don’t want commitment. I want to be promiscuous with my food. I want to eat pie, but I don’t want a whole slice- I want to try other flavors too, but for just a little, and move onto another. If I have one slice, I may have guilt hanging over me all day. I want little pies, yes, with more pie crust than filling. 50 calories or less, no guilt. Eating pie slices makes me feel fat. Lolipop-Pies, perhaps this would work. Rotating flavors. Grab and go. In and out. Blackberry, pumpkin, apple, banana…my favorites. You see I am very slutty about my food. Yes this post revolves around lollipop sticks.

The different flavors.

Cinnamon, Sugar, cornstarch, these three were the main ingredients used to hype the filling. Cornstarch is for thickening.

I made blackberry filling with just sugar and cornstarch.

I label all my homemade jams and fillings. For some reason images work better for me than text. Sometimes I look at text and I don’t know what its saying.

With the same lolipop stick, I’ve sealed the pie, making indents all around the pop.

Very crucial to slather egg whites on pie exterior. This is what gives it the “Betty Crocker” touch. Without this, the pies wouldn’t look as blistered or nicely toasted.

Blackberry

Apple.

Pumpkin

Pies to go. Work friendly, Driving friendly, Boyfriend friendly, Cellulite friendly, and embarrassment free pie pops.

In case you’re into saving desserts, this is fridge friendly too. Pop em out when your friends are over. Or not.

YSL Tributes and Luscious cut out wedge

Or..just maybe I was subconsciously influenced by the 70′s Jackson 5. Little Michael Jackson = Mozart with a fro.

I realize the look I’ve presented above is not appropriate for any daily activity. To avoid looking like a sequined trash bin, keep the fur jacket “casual” and uber “effortless” by wearing it with the whole “ripped booty shorts + top” formula. Yes, I realize I look like I jumped out of the cobrasnake.

I like unusual shapes, colors, and feelings when seeing a cake. In this specific situation, I flavored the cake with pistachio and used imagery that resonates with me. Ever since my friend Chelsea made me watch Vampyros Lesbos, I was hooked on the imagery of the film. I have a girl crush on the lead actress, Soledad Miranda, the brunette floating in the pool. I didn’t even scratch bake this, I used a generic cake mix from the supermarket, and generic frosting. All I did was add pistachio and food coloring. I find ready made cake mix quite delicious and who doesn’t like shortcuts?

My favorite image from the film, Vampyros Lesbos. I drew a shape over it because this is the outline of the shape to fit the cake.

Cake Mold. You can purchase them here.

Cake mix and frosting. Use any kind you want, sugar free, fat free, super moist, yellow, white, chocolate.

Ready made mix is the best. I used a sugar free angel food cake mix. Here is the cake mix below;

To color and flavor the cake, I used blue food coloring, and ground pistachio. You can see its a very fine ground, I used about a cup.

This is what the mix should look like. I tried to get the color of the cake to match the overall color of the imagery I was using. It comes out slightly greenish because of the pistachio.

This is what it looks like after its out of the mold. If you are using a mold do not mess with it until its completely cooled off.

I cut the cake up into three layers to frost in between and place chopped pistachios. I also spread an even layer of frosting all over.

Chopped pistachios in between layers of the cake with frosting.

Frosting sheet. This is a thin sheet that is printed on edible ink. It is very thin and blends into the frosting you use.

I wanted to design an outfit to compliment this sequined blazer depicted in the pictures above (by one of my fave designers, Margiela), and it was actually tough to come up with something that goes with it, because the blazer is just so awkward and strange.

I finally decided it would have to be something simple, but at the same time somewhat futuristic looking (because the blazer is sort of futuristic looking), and super short, and maybe a little bit “slutty”. I wanted the length of the skirt to be meet the hem of the blazer which meant the skirt would be very short.. I sort of look like I lost my pants but I think this “lost my pants” look is actually a great look. Its okay, you don’t have to agree with me.

I used cords, and basted them horizontally on sheer mesh which took me a long time and was sort of …. a big waste of time…I could have been watching Law and Order SVUwhile eating triscuits.

Martin Margiela Sequin blazer.

As surprising as this may sound, sometimes, I really don’t want to cook. I just don’t feel like dirtying up endless pots and pans and I don’t know one person on earth that enjoys doing dishes. Yes, with this dish, I didn’t even use any dishes….You’ll see what I used instead.
This dish showcases Sea urchin, and sea urchin only. Olive oil, salt, and lemon were the only flavorings to enhance the dish.
How many of you guys order sea urchin, or UNI at Sushi restaurants? I love sea urchin, it really is Foie Gras of the sea.
Its funny that the exterior look of it is so menacing, what with all the spikes jutting out, but the inside is super tender.

Don’t mean to scare you all with this picture. I know, its gross. I opened the sea urchin with a scissor, and this was what was inside, a goopy mess. The middle piece (the white thing) is what keeps all the “tongues” (orange parts) together. All of this needs to be washed and cleaned to be eaten.

To my amazement, after washing the parts off thoroughly, a beautiful pattern was presented in front of me. The little dots were formed from the sea urchin meat inside, while they were sitting in their respective sections. There were five housed in this sea urchin.

Nature’s imprint. Isn’t it beautiful?

This is the edible portion, and what it looks like after they are cleaned.

Before serving the sea urchin, I laid down several lemon slices inside the sea urchin’s shell.

As I said, this post involves no cooking. All I used was olive oil, lemon, and salt to flavor the sea urchin. If the food is fresh you really don’t need much to flavor it.

I squeezed lemon juice on this, and now a good dosage of olive oil is added. I served the sea urchin in its own shell. As I said, sometimes I don’t want to cook, or do the dishes.

Everything pictured here today is Chanel-ed and see through, even Rocky is see through… I scored the c-suit and the bag with my mom when I was a sophomore in highschool and it was a memorable experience for me.

Ew, clear shoes and a clear bag? Super tacky. In my opinion, if you’re going to be tacky go all out, its the only way.

Rocky wanted to make a little Michael Jackson tribute with her armband.

You can’t fit much in here. I have a $20, credit card, metrocard, and a pill case with ..well…pills.

If you look closely, you’ll see a trademark Chanel technique that has been carried on through the house after her death, she attaches thin chains at the bottom of a lace, not as decoration but for the purposes of weighing down the slip of the skirt. She also did this for the jacket portion of this suit as well, right where the lining meets the hem of the face fabric. I like that the chain is used for functionality and not frivolity.

One of my favorite salad combinations are usually those that involve a good dosage of avocado, and cooked shellfish (lobster, shrimp, crabmeat). I played with the actual shape and textured skin of the avocado and brought that into consideration when I was making this avocado salad. Its not hard at all, and its perfect to surprise your guests with. If they don’t like it, a surprised reaction of “WTF” will at least register in their minds. Better to have a strong reaction to something than no reaction at all.

Ingredients for salad; lime, garlic, cilantro, crab leg meat pulled out, sprouts, dried cranberries, red onion for some color.

This is how your salad should look like once its mixed up. Also toss with olive oil and some salt. I kept the dressing really simple, just lime and olive oil. The ingredients speak for themselves.

Do you think we’re done? No not yet. You could serve the salad like this, and it would be passable. But why be passable when you can go nuts with it? Dish is available here; Jayson Home

Mash avocado, and spread it on top of clear wrap. Place the salad inside.

Place it inside where you carved out your avocado. You shouldn’t carve out the whole avocado meat, you should leave a thick skin of avocado.

Crust flavorings; red peppercorn, dried edamame, wasabe sesami seeds, black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds.

Grind them all together.

Drench your avocado shell with the ground up seeds. You can see, I left a shell of avocado that wasn’t mashed to cover the whole thing.

The cutlery featured here is available at Jayson Home

Do you see the layers of the mashed up avocado and the shell that I left hard? You need the outer shell to hold its shape.

Contrary to popular trends, I’m actually hardcore into ruffles. Christopher Kane’s ruffle collection was actually my favorite of his so far. I’m into looking at them, making them, and attaching them.
Don’t ask me how many yards I used. I had to buy a whole roll (60 yards).
Muslin. You can see its only half done but thats only because I needed to see the fit.

Rocky’s like Lohan. She loves the paparazzi.

Cut on the bias, and I also left the edges raw (Lanvin style). You can see the horsehair adding extra volume.