MC, Counter Couture and Isis Aquarian

Please join us for another special evening!

Something new for a change | Gift

After many days of teaching and being in front of the computer enjoying the organizing and planning of a spectacular week ahead, I needed to remind my hands and mind of what they enjoy most. So, without any expectation - no plan, no demands - I decided to treat myself to an afternoon of cutting and sewing in the sunshine that so beautifully filled my studio.

My dear friend Patrick Dorman gifted me this piece of hand painted and printed cotton from India a few months back. It has the most perfect soft, summery hand and was a joy to work with.

And with the antique cloth already showing signs of life, I've committed myself to doing some embroidery around the flaws to decorate and mend at the same time. All those little circle patches you see basted in place will soon become embellishment - something I'll do in the evenings to unwind and relax with Alexandra and Jeremy.

MC, Counter-Couture and Alexandra Hart in Seattle

Dear Friends,

With the turn of seasons and the entry of spring comes a host of new and exciting projects. For the past year, I have been enjoying researching and exploring the thrilling style of America's counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, an era that has forever stood as central inspiration to my work as an artist and designer. Thanks to the efforts of a particularly free-thinking librarian in my high school library, I was fortunate enough to come across a copy of Native Funk and Flash - a book that would forever change how I think about clothes and the art we wear. I'm not alone in this sentiment as designers world-over consider this book a highly respected and deeply coveted cult fashion tome. As I scour the globe for the best and the brightest of the hippie generation, I have been blessed to get to know many of the individuals who helped create this exciting moment in fashion history. Alexandra (Jacopetti) Hart, author of this treasured book, has become an endless font of knowledge and inspiration in fueling this research.

From this work will come a host of events and budding projects from my design studio that will continue to grow and reveal themselves in the coming months.

The University of Washington has welcomed me to share this all with their undergraduate students. This spring I began teaching my new course, Counter-Couture: Fashion and Style in the American Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. The excitement around the course is growing and we are fortunate enough to have Alexandra joining my students and I to continue sharing her very special story.

I would like to invite you all to join my students and I in welcoming Alexandra to Seattle with an informal evening at Cafe Lago on Wednesday April 18, 2012. This very special and unique opportunity to meet Alexandra is not to be missed! Please see the attached invitation for more information.

I hope to see you there, and look forward to sharing more as things take shape!

My very best,
Michael

White | Fringe

Written by St. Steven - 04.04.12


He was part animal, part angel, whipping and turning, bubbling with energy, despite the fact that the band went on at 5 in the morning. His sexual energy was far more revitalizing than caffeine might have been that morning. The cascade of fringe that ran up his arms and down his legs was already theatrical, but seemed to catalyze his spirit even further. When the music stopped, the sound of leather hitting leather remained, his own personal rhythm.



Jimi’s fringe looked just like his guitar sounded: brazen and brimming with intangible power. Playing his war-ravaged “Star Spangled Banner,” he was America, at least in that moment. His fingers feverishly danced across the neck of his guitar, as leather danced around him. The lengths of fringe extending from his arm and chest seemed as if they could be radiating out of his instrument, extensions of his soul.



The cloud of her dark curls graced her white tunic, dripping with stick straight fringe, the hellish meeting the holy. Like her vibrating voice, the supernatural white leather transported us to someplace otherwise unknowable. When she hit a heavy note, her body thrashed into it, her fringe waving to the crowd. Her eyes were tired, but her body, swathed in pure white, swirled with dynamism.

Sweet Inspiration

Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead), 1969

© Herb Greene