Fashion Week S/S 2012 Dinner Party

At my place from left to right: Brittany Conner, Lindsey Menner, Rachel Conner, Lindsey Slipher, Kiley Duke and Megan Giannini. I jumped in the photo on the right.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Fashion Week! But while all the New Yorkers, Parisians, Londoners and Milanese have glamorous fashion events galore at their fingertips, us Hoosiers have to work a little bit harder to celebrate.

Me, Brittany and Rachel. I felt like J.Lo in this outfit, although that wasn't the original plan.

Since my sister Rachel, my cousin Brittany, and I all live conveniently close to each other in the Mass Ave/Lockerbie area, we decided to host a progressive fashion dinner party to toast the spring/summer fashion shows. Fashion week makes us a little bit wistful, since we all used to live around the NYC fashion action (especially Brittany, who just moved back), but this time, we brought the fashion to us! 

Left: Lindsey and Rachel. Right: Me, Lindsey Kiley and Megan.

We invited all our most fashionable friends to wear their best runway inspired ensembles and join us in a evening of food, fun, and obvie, fashion. We even used the American Fashion Cookbook, full of recipes from CFDA members, for some of the dishes. Food and fashion are my two favorite things, so I love tying them together whenever possible.

Some detail shots from our runway inspired outfits

Brittany made the super cute menu. For more on the food and recipes, go to IndySlim

We started off at Rachel's Mass Ave apartment with Derek Lam's yellowtail crudo, edamame and cucumber, mint and lemon martinis. We bought the yellowtail at Kona's Fish Market, and it was delish. Afterwards, we headed to my place for the main course, Diane von Furstenberg's Saturday Night Chicken, and a few bottles of white wine. 

 Left: Brittany and I at her apartment. Note that she's still taller barefoot. So unfair! Right: Brittany making some kickass St. Germain champagne cocktails.

Kiley pretending that she made the cupcakes, but we all know the real truth.

Dessert was Spiced Rosé Gelatin With Peaches, mini strawberry cupcakes and St. Germain and Champagne cocktails at Brittany's new place in the Maxwell. For more on the food, including recipes, check out my sister and my blog, Indy Slim.

 At The Libertine...

...with absinthe cocktails... yeah buddy!

We finished the night at The Libertine, Neal and Lindy Brown's new bar on Washington Street. The cocktails were glorious, and it was a great spot for a fashionable night cap. 

1960s Costume Party!

A few of my friends dressed up in 1960s garb for White Rabbit Cabaret's retro party last weekend. It was a blast! We really got into our costumes, obviously.

My sister Rachel drew her inspiration from the scion of elegance and class, Jackie Kennedy. She bought her white gloves and pillbox hat at Harloh's, a fabulous Fountain Square vintage store, for the occasion. Her dress and shoes are her own.

 

French bombshell Brigitte Bardot was my inspiration for the event. I decided on this outfit last minute, but I was so obsessed with the pic of Bardot in pigtails that I had to copy the look! My dress is an old 60s bridesmaid dress I had remade a couple of years ago. A couple people thought I was trying to look like a retro Playboy bunny.

My friend Megan didn't have a specific person in mind when she thought up this outfit, but I think it looks exactly like something Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg would have worn on a summer day. If you look closely enough, you can see my dog, Khan in the background. He looks so enthralled about our 60s outfits, doesn't he?

 

We scrambled this outfit together for Lindsey at the last minute. The hat is most definitely Audrey Hepburn, but the teeny tiny minidress and straight hair are SO Jane Birkin, who in my opinion is one of the sexiest women, ever. This is actually my dress, but it looks much more mini on Lindsey, since her legs are about two feet longer than mine!

 Kiley's Mondrian dress and Kelsey's go-go boots are iconic throwbacks from the 60s. Throw in some Raquel Welch hair, thick headbands, and huge fake eyelashes, and they look just like extras from Blow Up.

Clockwise from top left: close up of Kiley's hair and makeup; close up of my makeup, which took me forever to put on; Megan's colorful eyes; Rachel's pillbox hat from Harloh's.

We sort of look like a freakish version of the Spice Girls, don't you think? This was taken before we left my condo.

 Rachel's "sparkle" feature on her camera makes the margarita from Revolucion look pretty awesome, even if cell phones don't really fit into the 1960s theme...

 Again with the sparkle feature. Posh and Baby Spice at White Rabbit Cabaret.

I'm not sure what this camera feature is called, but it made Lindsey and I look like bored 60s housewives watching our children during cocktail hour.

 Kelsey and Rachel having the time of their lives, clearly!

Some girls we met with pretty rad beehives at White Rabbit Cabaret.

 

...Three of those girls ended up dancing behind the screen at the front of the bar wearing killer fringe outfits. White Rabbit Cabaret is a really unique place. If you haven't been, you should definitely check it out!

Me with Megan, Lindsey and Kiley getting our retro dance on.

The Dukes and the Conner sisters dancing awkwardly. Per Usual.

 

From left to right: Kelsey and Rachel; another partygoer in costume; Megan and Lindsey; Kiley and Kelsey do their best Mod Squad impersonation.

 

 I think it's appropriate to end with some Warhol style pics of Lindsey and I and Rachel and Kelsey. Hopefully White Rabbit will have more of these parties. I love playing dress up!