PROFILE: Double Shot of Vintage Cool

Every girl wants to accessorize. Adding that hint of gold, silver, or a jewel-encrusted stone creates a focal point and helps create a signature style. But who has the time or energy to rummage through Carousel Mall or vintage stores around Syracuse looking for those one-of-a-kind standout pieces?

Enter, Kristen Lubsen and Kaitlyn Carpenter, two S.U. students who are redefining vintage jewelry on campus. Lubsen, a painting major, and Carpenter, a fashion-design major, combined forces to make costume jewelry. Their new line, Double K Vintage, features earrings and rings that are simple, vintage, and unique, and the pieces sell for a steal. Earrings come in two sizes small ($5) or large ($7), and all rings cost $10 and feature adjustable bases to fit any size finger.


The idea for the company began when Carpenter couldn’t find earrings to match a dress for her junior fashion collection. After a fruitless search, she decided to create her own. Lubsen loved the look of the earrings she found, taking clip-on earrings and transforming them into unique rings and pierced earrings. She thought many students would purchase similar ones. So the two began creating big and bold jewelry from second-hand pieces.


On the first day the line debuted, Double K Vintage sold more than 15 pairs of earrings and seven rings. Demand was high, and Lubsen and Carpenter scurried to make new pieces for their sale at the Schine Bookstore on December 10.

Even though Carpenter leaves in January to study abroad in London next semester, the two plan to keep the business going. Lubsen takes over operations until her business partner returns in Fall 2009. Send requests for pieces to doublekvintage@gmail.com

PROFILE: Nada Between Me and My Keffiyeh

Think about your last shopping spree and how much you spent. Unless you’re a real housewife of Atlanta, you’re probably not keeping up with Mustafa Mohammed. The 28-year-old engineering and computer science grad details a recent trip Lebanon. “I blew four grand in 10 days,” he admits sheepishly, “I probably spent $25,000 this year on clothes.”

When sharing his fashion influences, he names his sister, who loves 70s and 80s vintage clothing and used to wear short skirts on the streets of Baghdad. I’m surprised, but Mohammed explains that in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Iraqi was very liberal. “Women wore short skirts,” he says, “It was like any other Western country.”

Medical care necessitated a six-year relocation to London in the 80s after Mohammed drank bleach as a toddler. “I wanted to be Michael Jackson,” he jokes. But his family returned to Baghdad where his sister continued working leather minis until about 1990. That’s when his native land became less fashion forward. “I can’t carry a bag,” he says, “after 2003, no rings or bracelets.”

Asked for a key designer, Mohammed rolls out an exhaustive list. “I love the vintage you can find in New York City,” he says, “vintage Gucci, Versace and Dior.” I’m almost onto the next question, but he holds up his hand. “I like Prada for suits, Vuitton for wallets, Versace and D&G for belts,” he continues, “for jeans I like Diesel and Robin’s Jean. And I like Mason and Ben Sherman for shoes.”

Ben Sherman? Isn’t that where shavs shop to dress up their East End blokes? “The have great shoes,” he replies, “you should check them out.” But he’s not finished. “I like Bottega for bags and Tumi for more formal ones. I just bought a gorgeous Tumi bag for about $400. Oh, and I like Josef Aboud for scarves.”

He’s ready to move onto gloves, but I want to know what he thinks of Jerk magazine, which recently ran an opinion piece on the politics behind the keffiyeh, a traditional Middle-Eastern cotton headdress that The Independent called “a symbol of Islamic militancy.” Arafat wore one, and Rachel Ray and Ricky Martin also got into hot water for theirs.

“The keffiyeh has nothing to do with Palestine,” he begins, “it is part of the traditional dress of many Arab countries in the Persian Gulf: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon.” He has keffiyehs in several colors he used to wear to high school. He pauses, then asks, “The P.L.O wears pants, too, should we stop wearing pants?”

PROFILE: Big Papi's Favorite Lid-Maker

Wearing that Yankees or Red Sox hat makes you about as standout stylish as wearing an orange t-shirt from Marshall Street to a basketball game. But 21-year-old senior illustration major Chris Giorgio is transforming team pride into a signature fashion statement that gives sports lovers statement-status toppers, and his designs have attracted one high-profile hitter in the process.

Giorgio started drawing at the age of three and carried this artistic passion with him to S.U. “Everyone always says ‘oh you’re an illustration major. So what, like books?’” says Giorgio. But contrary to common assumptions, Giorgio plans to use his illustration education at S.U. in a future career in fashion.

When he was a sophomore, a friend suggested Giorgio use his drawing talent to customize hats. The friend knew a girl who used her artistic talents to create one-of-a-kind headbands and bracelets. Giorgio acted on the suggestion and bought a white hat from Lids and some Sharpie markers. He illustrated his first Boston Red Sox themed hat in honor of his favorite baseball team. Just last week, Giorgio completed the third hat in a series that he sold to David Ortiz, the home-run record holding hitter for the Sox.

Giorgio estimates he’s produced about 30 hats (all one-of-a-kind), and he has five orders to create by Christmas, which, with finals coming up, won’t be an easy feat. Each wearable masterpiece starts with a plain white hat from Lids, a box of Sharpies, and a computer file of images and information about various sports teams’ histories, players, and logos that Giorgio keeps on his laptop. Each hat takes about 15 hours and costs $150.

Giorgio is still searching for a brand name for his designs and says HeyZeus remains a contender. “I just didn’t want to call it ‘Chris Giorgio,’” he says. “I don’t know why, but I just don’t think it’s cool. Everyone’s always like, ‘that’s such a designer name!’ but there’s already Giorgio Armani.” Even so, Giorgio’s new website still stands as chrisgiorgio.com, but it too remains in the beginning stages.

In the future, Giorgio says he wants to find a way to mass-produce his designs, but the detail and the personality of his hats might make that an impossibility. He also wants to expand beyond hats. Over the summer, Giorgio hand painted several Marie Antoinette themed leather handbags for a store on Newbury Street in Boston. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I graduate, but I would definitely do something like that,” says Giorgio. “Anything in the fashion world.”

PROFILE: Chazer Clothing Company

“Absolutely not. This is what I do.” A serious expression crosses clothing designer Ross Schatz’s face when I ask if he’d rather land a “steady” job. As a professional snowboarder, spontaneity always defined Schatz’s life, and Chazer, a seasonal line of comfortable street-wear for men and women, offers an outlet for his passion, his creativity, and his need for freedom. Ross produces the entire line in his apartment. The clothes feature original artwork that incorporates the brand’s logo, and Schatz spends his days silk-screening the designs onto t-shirts, zip-ups, hoodies, and hats (prices range from $20.00 to $50.00). The intricate detail of the images distinguishes his clothes from other lines of hand-produced clothing by 20-somethings. The brand boasts a steady following, and next weekend Schatz travels to New Haven for a promotional event for the line. Check out some of the designs:

Visit http://chazerclothingcompany.bigcartel.com/products.

PROFILE: Pretty, Pretty Playthings

As young girl running around in her dad’s jewelry warehouse in Rhode Island, Keryn Tommasiello considered jewelry her playground. The senior fashion design major at Syracuse University still does. She creates one-of-a-kind statement pieces. “I love eye-catching, colorful things,” she says. “I want someone to see it, and look at it again.”

She juxtaposes the goddess of fertility next to skulls and guns. She experiments with charms, braided leather, colorful bangles, rubber bracelets, and playful ornaments that make her jewelry standout. Prices range from $20 (the least expensive being the single charm with a leather braid) to $35 (the most expensive being the stackables – more than 5 charms stacked on 15 bangles per set). She also creates anything her customers crave.



She started designing her customizable jewelry collection called KeryAnne’s Designs, about a year ago and has hosted several parties to sell her pieces within the last six months. Her items sell at boutique stores in her hometown in Rhode Island, but her designs are readily accessible to the Syracuse consumer. For more information on her collection or to arrange a time to privately view her collection, please e-mail katommas@syr.edu.

PROFILE: An Orange Flavor of Olsen

A glass shatters in the Peterson apartment. Vicky stares at it blankly, and the speedy clicks of Erica's Dell computer serve as the only sound. No one makes an effort to move. Finally, Erica asks, “Where did you put the broom from Thailand?” She rises from the couch and uses the white, plastic dustpan and bristle brush. As she leans, her necklace, which a Buddhist monk blessed and gave her, clangs against the floor. Just like Mary Kate and Ashley, Erica and Vicky are fraternal twins, but identical to the untrained eye. They live in a South Campus apartment, the only shag pad where a framed portrait of the King of Thailand hangs juxtaposed with a Snood poster. An authentic Native American headdress, an Idaho license plate, a poster of Stone Cold, and school photos of their younger brother, Graham, hang on the other wall. Erica and Vicky may not live in a Manhattan penthouse like their more famous counterparts, but their pad is just as cool. Keepsakes from their travels- a collection of international glass soda bottles, felt artwork, and two sacred Quechua (descendants of Incas) mesas (a birthing cloth that, after serving its purpose, is used to keep holy objects)- litter all of the rooms. Both count the following country stamps in their passports: Peru, Mexico, Canada, Iceland, Jamaica, Barbados, Italy, England, France, Thailand, Guadeloupe, and St. Croix.

Erica and Vicky qualify as Syracuse's own version of mirror-image celebs. They starred in their own movies when Vicky was a film major. Photographed in countless student projects, the twins attract a collegiate kind of paparazzi. Like the Olsen twins, they also garnerattention for their style. Erica wears her shoulder-length, light-brown hair in dreadlocks. Another travel keepsake. She says showering proved to be a luxury this past summer in Thailand, where she and her sister volunteered for five and a half weeks. Vicky favors anything Icelandic.

The twins spend their free time learning languages. They are fluent in Spanish, Erica currently takes Italian and Vicky started Arabic this semester. On their own they study Swedish, and Icelandic respectively. The twins watch ridiculously bad horror movies like the Wicker Man and 1,000 Corpses. Their favorite movies however, are foreign films. Vicky's favorite movie to watch is Icelandic flick Noi Albi Noi, and Erica's loves Y Tu Mama También. Their style, a manifestation of the cultures they observed, appears effortless and eclectic. If you see them on campus, you'll know Erica by her collection of hats and Vicky for her favorite Icelandic sweater, which the locals call a lopapeys.

PROFILE: Kaiser Karen the Karl of Syracuse

Professor Karen Bakke, program coordinator of the Department of Fashion and Design Technologies at Syracuse University, opens her bottle of diet Pepsi. Beads of cool water drip down the plastic container and over her bijoux-adorned and frosted mauve-polished fingers. She licks her lips and grasps the blue plastic cap. She shares Karl Lagerfeld's passion for dark carbonated cola, but Karl only drinks diet Coke in a glass. With ice. Bakke, from her outfit to her beverage choice, exudes an efficient blend of high and low and epitomizes Karl's statement for his H&M ads: “It's all about taste, if you are cheap…nothing helps.” Her sweater might be from Penney's, but Karen, a self-proclaimed garmento, knows her fibers. (Always natural, of course.)

Karen's signature look consists of using liner as shadow, custom-made tri-focals made from oversized Ralph Lauren sunglasses, and frosted pink lips. Her hair, white and wiry like that of a feisty Norfolk terrier, falls only a few inches above her shoulder, too short to be tied back with a black ribbon like Karl's. The necklace she wears is bold, asymmetrical, and shiny. In a speech to the Fashion Communication students in spring of 2008, Karen said she uses her necklace as a beacon to attract friends that share her tastes. An aficionado of chunky precious stones and bold jewelry, Karen's best market might be big-haired Texans. (Karl, on the other hand, embellishes his fingers with Chrome Hearts jewelry and caters to the Parisian chic and a waifish clientele).
Groundbreaking and scandalous at 16 year-old, Karen bought her first pair of high-heeled red shoes while Karl was competing against Yves for a coat design contest. The similarities continue. Karl recently refurnished his Parisian living space with all new scientific textiles and industrial materials. So new, in fact, that he does not even know how they will abrade. The only entity that he kept through his many reinventions: the photograph of his lover Jacques de Bascher, who passed away in 1989. “I am whore,” he says, not referring to his love life, but his career, “I go where they pay me.” During class Karen once reminisced about her late husband. He was her painting professor in college, and she fell in love. Today, Karen continues to explore painting and drawing — just like Karl continues to pursue his photography and publishing company. Karl believes that designers must be interested in everything. "It's like being beyond; you don't have to care anymore, good or bad reputation; it doesn't matter."

PROFILE: The 12-Year-Old “It” Girl

Anna Wintour annoys her, she’s got a thing for Curt Cobain, and the French icon Madeline helps get her through the night. But the latest fashion blogger in cyberspace possesses a more notable trait: She’s a 12-year-old. Her name is Tavi Gevinson of Chicago, and her blog “Style Rookie” (tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com)delivers a captivating collection of writing and pictures that take readers into her pre-teen world of explore her definition of “fashion.” From the latest trends, thrifting, the eighties, Japanese Street style, a stark obsession with Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood, to DIY fashion, the mature content and opinions Tavi possesses enable her to spark interest in readers from all ends of the age spectrum.

Here’s an excerpt:
I know it sounds corny, but to me, fashion is a form of art. I've said that on here before, but that's strictly what I find it: it's not necessarily about simply looking "good" or "chic". The designers that inspire me don't focus on designing clothes just to be clothes; the looks they design are art! WEARABLE art, which is more fun than pretty paintings in a museum that you can't touch. My ignorance aside, it really bothers me when silly ideas like "Fashion Do's and Don't's" and "Fashion Police" are established, because that takes all the fun out of putting together an outfit. In my opinion, the most interesting fashion is the Anti-Fashion. No rules, no restrictions, no normalcy, no pleasing anyone.

What’s remarkable about this outspoken fashionista — besides her age — is the amount of national attention she garners. Other high-profile fashion bloggers such as “Nova Style” and “Fashion Pirate” gush about Tavi. “Nova Style” writes: I am not exactly sure how old this girl is, but she has so much style it's ridiculous. I honestly think she's one of the most fashionable people I have ever seen. “Fashion Pirate” put “Style Rookie” on its list of top seven brilliant blogs: If we weren't already married I'd move to Chicago and adopt her as my little sister. True story. Is my rabid fangirlism bothering you yet?

In other publicity nods, the New York Times’ T Style Magazine featured Tavi in the August 17th, and she recently earned Teen Vogues “blogger of-the moment.” Move over Anna.

PROFILE: The Picasso of Uggs

The salt city wears on sheep skin, leaving winter staples like Uggs stained and grimey. But senior painting major Kristin Lubsen found a way to celebrate fashion without surrendering practicality. Lubsen put her major to use, covering up her dirty Uggs with a colorful design and creating one-of-a-kind footwear in the process.

She began transforming her own Uggs two years ago, but now charges $35 to make others’ boots stand out in a sea of boring brown. On each boot, Lubsen paints a whimsical line design, varying in color from purple, green, blue, and yellow to earth tones to subtle gold. Instead of being inspired by shapes or objects, Lubsen gets her inspiration from color.

Lubsen grew up with her artist mother in Bethlehem, Pa. and always had an art room at her disposal. She wears a short, blonde cut and a pair of square, brown glasses and ends her sentences with the exuberance of spoken exclamation point. Her creativity extends beyond Uggs transformations, recently upgrading an “old lady floral shirt” to nighttime loungewear.
Lubsen paints each pair of Ugg boots per customer specifications. Customers choose their own color scheme and any specific detail they want. What better way to stand out in the snow this winter.

PROFILE: Kustum Kicks

The text message from fellow classmate and designer Megan Kimber reads: "Be there soon." We agreed on a 5 o'clock departure. At 4:58 a dark Saturn Vue pulls up. Sitting in the SUV, the driver's minute frame appears even tinier than usual. Wearing sunglasses and all black (her trademark), she motions for me to hop in. We jet off.

I accompany Kimber on one of her prized escapes to Carousel Mall. Although rush hour amps up the traffic, my friend keeps her calm, blasting her all-time favorite, Nirvana. Me, not so much. Today I'm more than friend. I commissioned Megan for a personal project, and today I play the role of client.

In 2005, Megan began her own business, Kustum Kicks. Inspired by Kimber's passion for music and fashion, Kustum Kicks specializes in hand decorated sneakers. According to www.kustumkicks.com, it's “a place where you can choose the converse/vans designs of your dreams.” Like the designer, who labels herself somewhere between Goth and punk, the creations scream authenticity and employ an assortment of media, including bleach and paint. They also attract celebrities like Bert McCracken of The Used and Syracuse University students by the scores who pay from $90 to $120 for the kicks.

At the mall, Megan directs me to Journeys, the capital of alternative footwear. All the employees welcome her back. She smiles and introduces me to Mark, who assists me with a pair of black high-top Converse. The two catch up on the latest shows and ponder whether to eat or not to eat meat. I listen, fascinated by the exchange. Within minutes, I complete my purchase, and we move on to Hot Topic. Megan's turn to shop.