Ritsuko Shirahama and Helena Christensen

Helena Christensen Photography Exhibit
One of the first to kick off the 2007 Spring/Summer Tokyo Collections was designer Ritsuko Shirahama, whose works combined a fragile femininity (crocheted lace on demure knitwear) with political undertones (tank tops imprinted with photographs taken by the former supermodel Helena Christensen).
Shirahama said Christensen is "an ideal" for Japan's working women, having morphed from a fashion icon into a professional photographer, while having children and maintaining a home in between.
In a culture where women are finding it difficult to juggle the personal with the professional, Shirahama's message carried relevance - if not reality - and was a prelude for what was to come. - International Herald Tribune
To view Ritsuko Shirahama's designs printed with photographs by model Helena Christensen, visit Anastasia Boutique, Cafe, and Gallery.

QT

The eclectic and often provacative director Quentin Tarantino was recently interviewed by GQ magazine. The director is shown wearing his own vintage Yohji Yamamoto kimono. Both Yamamoto and Tarantino share a similar ability of provoking thought and excitment in their respective projects. Read more about Tarantino in this month's GQ and view Yohji Yamamoto's collection at Anastasia Boutique, Cafe, and Gallery

Timeless Creator

Yohji Yamamoto is the most playful of the highly respected Japanese design triumvirate that also includes Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo. Never conventionally sexy or trendy, Yamamoto appeals to clients who appreciate wit, romance, and the history of fashion; his clothes are full of allusions, and he’s as capable of dropping a reference to an Edwardian tea dress in a track suit. Although his palette is somber, he’s never funereal; there’s too much joie de vivre in the floppy, flowing, sensual fabrics to bring down the mood.
- New York Magazine
The latest issues of GQ and City magazines exhibit the brilliance of Yohji's unconventional and timeless designs. Check out the upcoming issues and find Yohji Yamamoto's Fall/Winter Collection at Anastasia Boutique, Gallery, and Cafe

Rue du Mail

Martine Sitbon is a cult designer acclaimed throughout the international fashion scene. Fashion designers keenly look to her as a key reference. Her world, as rich in terms of design propositions as in terms of images, never ceases to be consistent with the zeitgeist, often one step ahead of trends. Sitbon's new line, Rue du Mail, is being named for its headquarters, a 7000 square foot space currently under construction until July on the Right Bank in Paris, at 5 Rue du Mail. "I'm still the same designer as I was in the past, and I have the same sensibility," Sitbon told WWD, "but now it's updated for today's mood." She plans to show Fall 2007 in Paris, introduce four collections a year, and even menswear sometime soon. Martine Sitbon left the Paris runway scene in 2004, but judging by the arty crowd at her comeback show (her new collection is named after the address of her atelier), she's hardly been forgotten. One of the things she's remembered affectionately for is an edgy sense of romanticism, shown alongside edgier, more streamlined pieces in her Fall 2007 collection (Fashiontribes.com, Style.com).
Be the first to view Martine Sitbon's Rue du Mail Fall 2007 Collection, premiering this fall at Anastasia Cafe, Boutique, and Gallery in Laguna Beach

Artist Profile:

Susan Weller

What emerges today in the paintings of Susan Weller seems to document the affirmation of an Italian cote, in her background and her sensibility which has almost overtaken that of her West Coast background. At least this sees to be apparent in the eyes of one who meets her today, since for the past few years she has alternated her life between California (Laguna Beach), her place of birth and growth, and Italy, at her home in Verona. [In Susan's paintings], there are fragmants of a column or an arch, seen in ancient building and perhaps reused and reassembled in a succession of architecture which emerges as from the sea of history; or the pavement of Roman origins deformed by the passage of centuries of humanity passing across it from who knows where. After having distilled them from the context from which they are derived, Susan places them more abstractly, but always recocnizably, in the lyricism of a painting which shows her fascination, admiration and adherence to a European cultural matrix.
- Camilla Bertoni (Art Historian).
Susan Weller's paintings are currently being exhibited at Anastasia Boutique and Gallery in Laguna Beach, Ca.

Summer Getaways

The St. Regis Resort, located along the world famous Pacific Coast Highway, has tremendous visibility in all directions from the heavily traveled thoroughfare. Pacific Coast Highway provides easy access to popular Southern California beach communities including La Jolla in San Diego, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach in Orange County; and Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica located in Los Angeles County.
A luxury coastal retreat awaits you at the St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach, offering spacious guestrooms, a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean, an exclusive beach club with "Surf Butlers," an award-winning Spa Gaucin, on-site championship Monarch Beach Golf Links and six ocean-view restaurants.
Drive along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway to Laguna Beach to mingle and dine with artists and fashionistas at Anastasia Cafe, Boutique, and Gallery.

Refined and elegant, Montage Resort & Spa perfectly reflects the culture and heritage of the world-famous Laguna Beach, home of California's acclaimed artistic community. The resort is particularly noted for its panoramic Pacific views, highly personalized service and the gracious hospitality it extends to all guests.
Vacation in style: Treat youself to luxury, food, fun, and fashion at Anastasia Cafe, Boutique, and Gallery-
"Where the Laguna Beach intelligentsia meet for breakfast" - Departure Magazine.

TAO - Fall/Winter 2007 Collection

PARIS, February 28, 2007 – Sporty knitting in neon pink and black—for Fall, that’s the nub of Tao, the mini-collection designed by Tao Kurihara in her own separate nook at the house of Comme des Garçons in Tokyo. The designer bent her mind to layering cropped crochet tank tops over fine-gauge knits, running shorts, and sweatpants, then working in a substrand of black-and-white stripes and tiny, asymmetric ruffles. As a piece of condensed thinking about gym wear, it carried a lot of Kurihara’s signature charm and accessibility, making it a part of Comme’s output that’s less a commitment to high-concept dressing and more a line of quirky pieces for young women to break down and incorporate into everyday wear. That, especially, goes for the big, wedge sneakers—not exactly designed for the running track, but, then again, one of the season’s rare footwear compromises between fashion and comfort. For a crowd suffering from four toe-crushing weeks in platforms, they were a sight for sore feet.
– Sarah Mower
To view the Tao Spring/Summer 2007 collection visit TAO at Anastasia

Hotels of Style:

Gramercy Park Hotel

AN ENTIRELY NEW GENRE OF HOTEL - ONE THAT WILL CHANGE THE GAME AGAIN AND RAISE THE BAR.
The Gramercy Park Hotel's Haute Bohemian heritage has been honored and renewed in the transformation by Ian Schrager. It is still the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City but better! It represents a sensuous vision of artful diversity. Bohemia reinvented for the 21st century with an original combination of styles, with great pieces of furniture and art and the extraordinary use of color.
It is a balancing act which only Ian Schrager could pull off, as well as a fresh approach which represents a new departure for him. It brings together a number of creative forces, not chosen for their compatibility, but for their shared commitment to the modern lifestyle.
-Gramercy Park Hotel
For more style, fashion, and art visit, Anastasia