Tribute to Chanel

I'm not going to lie, I've never been a huge Chanel fan.  I'm not trying to be a hater.  I recognize her contributions to fashion, and how her designs helped liberate women from burdensome garments, and Karl Lagerfeld's team makes some beautiful clothes in today's Chanel, and I would be ecstatic to even be able to set foot inside the rue Cambon headquarters.  But everyone has favorites, and I don't have a visceral reaction to the clothes in a way I do to other designers' clothes.  However, I will also acknowledge that they seem to make way more money than these other designers!

Anyway, my friends and I got free jade colored manicures at the First Fashion's Night Out a couple of years ago at the Chanel in SoHo, and I really liked the color.  However, I didn't want to buy a Chanel Vernis for $25 (and it was a limited edition color, so I don't think they have it any more), so I mixed it myself.

I bought green and white nail polish at the dollar store, got a plastic cup, and poured enough white polish so that it covered the bottom of the cup.  Then I put in a drop or so of the green and mixed it together.  Please don't judge my manicuring skills -- I go for speed rather than accuracy.  I keep my nails super short out of habit -- I grew up playing the violin and my teacher made me cut my nails and now they feel uncomfortable if they grow even a little long.

Anyway, my photo makes the color look a little more blue than it is in actuality, but I do think that I needed to add even less green than I did.  What I might end up doing is adding a drop of green to the remaining polish in the white bottle, and see how that turns out.

While I painted my nails, I enjoyed the Signe Chanel documentary on YouTube.  It came out in 2004 or so, but I hadn't seen it since then.  It gives a great look into the world of haute couture. What I love about it is that the focus is not on Karl Lagerfeld as much as on his petit mains in the ateliers.  You should check it out (see below)!  You can see all the episodes on YouTube, although they are each chopped into four parts.  It made me want to see Loic Prigent's other documentary, The Day Before, which chronicles the last 36 hours before the fashion shows of Proenza Schouler, Fendi, Sonia Rykiel, and JPG.

I've also seen his documentary, Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton which was exciting and inspiring to watch. (Clip below)