Boulder and the Beautiful

• My baby and I just did a mama-baby Zumba class. She is a great dancer for age 4 months. #
• My daughter needs this. She would probably disagree with me, but I'm mom, do what I say. http://ow.ly/1Wqur #
• Music you need to listen to: http://www.statewideemergency.com. Read my story next Friday. #
• Watch out, Boulder! Foco is moving in. 3,000 street shows in five months? Whatwhat! http://ow.ly/1WovK #
• New Goodwill store opening in Boulder! #
• The Shape of a Mother: http://theshapeofamother.com #
• Did free yoga at Prana today. Loved it. It was really free. Like REALLY. And excellent. Free and excellent. I'm blown. #
• If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. #
• I'm wearing my wedding dress to work. The benefits of having a casual poolside ceremony. #
• My baby is sleeping on a tattoo chair. #
• Watching my lil sis get tattooed. She's asleep. She's a tough cookie. #

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One thing our modern world is severely lacking is the number of bustles in our day-to-day life.  They’re like fluffy backward aprons. Which celebrate the large badunkadunk.

This is an ode to bustles that you can and should buy right now.  They’re a little bit boho, a little rockstar, a little Goth, a lot Victorian and super feminine.

$120, www.etsy.com/shop/artlab

$139, www.etsy.com/shop/pondhopper

$110, www.etsy.com/shop/lovechildboudoir

$80, www.etsy.com/shop/bunnyandpear

BizarreBoudoir.etsy.com

BizarreBoudoir.etsy.com

$75, webs55.etsy.com

$136, jillscorsets.etsy.com

$48, jillscorsets.etsy.com. This is like a bustle-fanny pack.

$39, www.etsy.com/shop/Folk

$165, www.etsy.com/shop/sewmoe

$80, www.etsy.com/shop/lovechildboudoir

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www.peekoobedding.com

A Boulder mom, Emily Stinchcomb, created PeeKoo Bedding Concepts, quick-zip duvet covers that are similar to European-style bedding. That means no top sheet.

In her words:
“The absence of the top sheet provided a simple, cozy and comfortable setting.  I didn’t get wrapped up in the sheet in the middle of the night or find it at the bottom of my bed each morning.  It also offered a way to quickly make-up the bed each day without having to align the top sheet and tuck it in.  The only difficult part was the constant washing and drying of the duvet cover to ensure a clean bed.”

These covers solve that problem.

Twin: $125

Drew's Zoo pattern, close

This pattern is called "Boulder summer."

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OK,  Boulder. You win. I give up. You can stop beating me over the head with your peace signs.

I’ve been holding my breath for six years. The Anti-Hippie, I called myself. But a girl can only plug her nose so long before her mouth opens to gulp big wafts of Woodstock perfume (I use the term lightly).

And I’ll be darned to heck if it doesn’t smell delicious. In fact, it doesn’t even stink. At all.

This confession could cost me my job as a fashion columnist, but that’s a sacrifice for the greater good of spreading the word about the New Hippie Revolution, a movement I have started with myself. Down with the wo-man.
Mainly, Sarah Jessica Parker. I don’t want to write about SJ’s latest trainwreck of a “Sex” sequel, or the $10 million put into her wardrobe. Know why? Because I don’t have $10 million. And neither do you. Probably. (You never know around here.)

I’m annoyed by Carrie Bradshaw’s “artsy” style. Her poseur-bohemian accessories cost more than a Real columnist — the kind who owns the poetic license to gratuitously capitalize Things for emphasis — earns in a lifetime. Artists don’t have money. That’s why they have to be creative with their style. And you can’t buy creativity.

Here’s where the New Hippie Revolution comes in. The NHR is the inevitable response to the recession, for folks who are sick of the constant wrestling match with the economy, technology and (for some of us) body hair.

I’m not sure how Boulder unleashed its final winning blow in the cage fight versus my Schick Quattro. Maybe it was my near-death childbirth extravaganza three months ago. (My birth plan was the Murphy’s Law Method.) Or the hilarious stack of medical bills that forced me to sell my car and ride the bus. Or maybe it was simply the undiluted idiocy in SJ’s last romantic comedy with Hugh Grant.

Regardless, my husband is looking at a 1973 VW bus as I write.

Still, being a revolution newbie, I’m almost as big of a poseur as SJ, minus the whole money thing. That’s why I solicited help from the greatest guru since the Grateful Dead:

My aunt Cindy was/is a real hippie. Today, she makes jewelry and is an international expert on beads. In 1973, she sewed clothes out of pieces of vintage clothing in the back of her husband’s silversmith shop in the mountains not far from Boulder.

Cindy says:  Hippies are not dirty.

Some older, conservative people in the ’70s categorized everyone with long hair as hippies, and that included some unkempt bags of dirt (my words, not hers), as well as Rastas with dreadlocks, neither of which were necessarily part of The Movement. Cindy said she never knew a “dirty hippie.”

Even mountain folk without running water bathed in the creek (with biodegradable soap) or at the hot springs’ showers. Other friends showered at the silver shop; they dropped quarters into a coffee can to help pay utilities.
“Today a lot has changed from what it was like in the real true hippie years,” she says. “My values were well grounded and I believe in it: an earthy, simple, pure, peaceful, usually very intelligent and very resourceful, talented culture.”

This means I can keep my bare armpits. Very groovy.

Cindy also says:  Make everything from scratch. This proves problematic for this one girl, a friend of a friend — definitely not me — who broke her sewing machine while trying to make a Smokey the Bear costume after six too many glasses of wine.

That’s why the New Hippie Revolution touts buying clothes that other people made from scratch.

Like Phat Cat Patch (www.phatcatpatch.com or www.phatcatpatch.etsy.com), a line of gorgeous, handmade patchwork dresses by a Boulder single mom named Lauren Vice. I love the floor-length purple and dragon-print dress, with five layers of fabric ruffles. She calls her clothes “wearable art,” and they start as low as $20. Not $10 million.

Find the clothes online or at the Boulder and Beyond artist co-op on the Pearl Street Mall, just east of Broadway.

Boulder resident Elsa Hayden, originally of Peru, runs the shop and designs some of the clothes. Ask her to show you her tie-dye dresses ($39) or the white cotton, lace and eyelet ruffle skirts ($29), with fabric from Denver, sewn in Longmont.

Supporting local designers is kind of like dropping money in the coffee can to help pay utilities.

Did you know that there’s a children’s clothing consignment store in Louisville called Spirit Kids at 629 East South Boulder Road? Me neither. That’s why I didn’t include it in my column last week about kid clothes.

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I am saddened to announce that khaki is one of the big trends of the summer.

I will never understand what is appealing about walking around town looking like you are not wearing any pants.

If we can’t keep the khaki off our buttocks, can we at least please leave the front pleats at home?

Admit it: This looks dumb.

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• Just devoured the best biscuit in the world – at the Atomic Cowboy in Denver. #
• I reckon today is the opposite of my favorite day. #
• Judge me, s'ok. After this confession, I'm freeeeeeeeeee! http://www.dailycamera.com/fashion/ci_15212461 #
• Zero percent of the items I am wearing match, even remotely. Including the heat wrap on my neck from my baby-related spinal injury. #
• Nautical Print: Not stripes. Oh no. I'm talking about a lobster-print dress. http://ow.ly/1TOYf #
• Instructor didn't show up for today's free yoga at Prana. But it's free so who can complain? #
• RIP Blanche from the "Golden Girls." #
• Stfu! I just saw an ad for a stiletto hippie fash show – rvccdenver.com #
• We call today's outfit tribal Victorian hooker. I don't think it works. I'm wearing it anyway. #
• My most hated style trend for summer 2010: KHAKI. There is nothing flattering about looking like you're wearing no pants. http://ow.ly/1SFDN #
• Writing about the 1940s WWII ball on June 19…. And simultaneously planning my outfit for said occasion. #
• Cast iron bathtub turned into a couch: http://ow.ly/1SBKV #

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OK, maybe you don’t know her name, but you know her Web site: theweddingchannel.com.

The site’s founder Jessica Herrin will be in Boulder 12:30-2 p.m. June 10 (Thursday) at the Twenty Ninth Street Mall. Herrin also is the CEO of Stella and Dot, a direct sales jewelry line.  Learn more at www.stelladot.com.

And because I now have an excuse to shop online, here are some Stella and Dot gems I’m loving on.

St. Tropez: Cool, casual and ever so chic.

$178

$178

Happy flowers necklace:

$248

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Billed as “retail therapy without spending a single penny,” www.bigwardrobe.com is the answer to staying stylin’ during a recession. Add the clothes, shoes, accessories and bags that you no longer want to the Web site and you will receive offers from other members to swap with their unwanteds. A site like this wouldn’t work with mega participation, so lucky for you, Bigwardrobe already has 35,000 members, more than 80,000 items and 5,000 new men’s, women’s and children’s  items every week. Basic membership is free. The downside: Dress and pants sizes start at size 6. But then again, if you’re that skinny to begin with, we don’t feel sorry for you.

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The best advice we once heard was to “be what you wanted to be when you were a kid.”

Which is one reason of many that we love Ru Fabricates’ handmade bags.

The Boulder-based designer, Jessica Ruth (“Ru”) Galbreath made her first pillow at age 7, after watching her grandmother and mom sew items for the home.

At age 27, Galbreath rekindled her elementary-school hobby, telling her husband, “I’d like to start sewing again.” Several days later, she came home from work to find a new sewing machine sitting on the table.

Galbreath started selling her handbags two years ago. When possible, she uses green and local products. We love the bags for their fabric patterns, great colors and sleek shapes.One of the reasons we love vintage accessories is they are unique and often durable (they have to be if they’ve lasted 40-plus years). Some of Galbreath’s bags look vintage, and also boast that same originality and quality.

On our must-have list: the City Clutch in Del Hi Cinnamon, $65, and the Satchel in Green Plumes, $85.

Check out the Etsy shop at www.jrmiller77.etsy.com. Also find Ru Fabricates at www.rufabricates.com and on Facebook. Contact Galbreath at jessica@rufabricates.com for questions or custom bags.

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