Where Michael Shops

You know, I’ve been a little bit obsessed with Michael Jackson and shopping recently. So, when Toffi and I hit Las Vegas last week, one of the first things we did was visiting stores that Michael Jackson has shopped at.

Three of the stores are pictured below. They can be found in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, where the sky is always light blue with little fluffy clouds. It doesn’t get any better for a shopping destination.

Shop No1: Galleria di Sorrento
Great art including bronze statues as seen in the MJ auction catalogue

Shop No2: Antiquities
Music and film memorabilia at it’s best

Shop No3: West of Santa Fe
Dream catchers and adorable nicknacks

Pinocchio Statuette

Pinocchio!
“Pinocchio Statuette
Color resin statuette of Pinocchio talking to Jiminy Cricket perched on his shoe.
16 by 10 by 9.5 inches”

Today, I spent most of my time browsing through the online auction catalogue of the Michael Jackson Neverland sale. One item that tickled my fancy was the Pinocchio Statuette above. I fell in love with it. In a nasty Paul McCarthy kind of way.

For further research, I watched the Living with Michael Jackson documentary from a few years back by that (awful) “journalist”. And what can I see, sitting on one of the tables: Pinocchio!

Here he is: Pinocchio!

Got to have him!

But what I really was looking for was the moment when Michael Jackson goes shopping in Las Vegas. One of the best moments ever captured by TV cameras, minus the stupid “journalist” commentary, who is only asking about the prices. Boring!
Anyway, here it is. Jump to 4:00 minutes, where the fun begins.

“Journalist”: Do you think it is a bit tacky?
Michael Jackson: Tacky, are you silly?

Michael Jackson + Shopping = Magic

MJ Neverland Sale

I felt very tempted to put all pictures from the online auction catalog of the Michael Jackson Neverland auction in this post. There are so many great items to be had, for instance “an electric cart featuring an image of Jackson as Peter Pan on the bonnet and Peter Pan cushions.” I’d love to drive around with that all day.

Every piece is a winner. The descriptions read like poetry: “A display of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in a setting created by the Walt Disney display team. A plaque reads: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Presented to Michael Jackson from the Cast of Walt Disney World”

What to buy first?

Update: Flip through the full catalogue

AmaZINGGGGG

“A robotic Michael Jackson head featured at the climax of his 1988 film Moonwalker, when he transforms into a robot and defeats Joe Pesci’s evil character, Mr Big.” And it still animates!

Honestly, I love every item. Want it. Need it.

Love this portrait of the King of Pop:

The King of Pop

“A portrait of Michael Jackson dressed as a king, oil on canvas, signed and dated 1995 and housed in an elaborate gold frame.”

Guardian: “It’s the sale of the century

via ultrasparky

Proddy’s ABC of Online Shopping

As you may or may not know, living in Canada sometimes feels a little bit like living in a fashion desert. After 3 years in Toronto, I have turned it into a virtue. After hours, days, months on the interwebz, I have found my favourite online stores. Of course, I had to select the shops based on their Bernhard Willhelm and Martin Margiela availability.

The list below will give you an unparalleled view on the websites I spend most of my time at. Click. Click. Click. Shopping Cart. Cart. Cart. Buy. Bought. Bought.
And when you find yourself buying from the stores, just think of it as your own personal economy stimulus plan.
Pump the money back into the financial system!

Proddy: Buy. Bought. Bought.

# B Store
Mary introduced me to b-store. We met up in London and paid the b a visit. It was such a pleasurable experience, because the Bernhard truck had just unloaded a couple of Muumuus (pictured above & below). After leaving London, I called Kirk & Matthew a week later and ordered another BW fix. Brilliant service & always some hot shit to look at.

# Corner, The
A sister site to yoox.com, The Corner sells the most recent menswear collections. I’m still not sure why they don’t ship to Canada (yoox.com does). I sent them an email once a month asking about shipment to Toronto but to no avail. I hate them a little bit. What I usually do is get my order shipped to Germany and a friend has to FedEx it to my place.
Another weird thing is that some of the labels are available in European countries but not in the US, for instance Bernhard. So make sure you select different countries to get the whole experience. Make it work.
It looks like they will be getting Walter van Beirendonck for summer. Bernhard, Margiela, Raf Simons, Viktor & Rolf are already there.

# Doshaburi
One of my favourites. Doshaburi is from Japan and they have a shop in Barcelona, where they ship from. When I went to the store last summer, there was always a very friendly Japanese woman working there, helping me with my hysterical questions. One of the best Bernhard Willhelm (men’s only) sites, they carry so many more exciting designers, it would take me months to list them all. Last time I ordered, I got a Bernhard poster / look book thing with my sweater. Amazing. Buy something now!

# Far Fetched
One stop for 20 shops in old Europe. Haven’t gotten anything fetched yet. Can’t be long. B Store is part of Far Fetch, too, so you can actually shop with them twice. Neat.

# Fatal
I love Fatal, based in Minneapolis of all places, but have to say their sale is not the best. Most of the clothing gets reduced by 30% only. But who cares? I got my beautiful & humongous Bernhard pot scarf (picture above & below), that I wore as a dress from them.

# Good Hood
I haven’t personally ordered anything from Good Hood, but I like their site and selections. That’s easy, because there are a couple of Bernhard women’s dresses that I would like to get my mittens on.

# Kron Kron
From Reykjavik. In the summer, they had wonderful dip dye Bernhard dresses. They are sold out now & I can’t wait for the new deliveries. Click them daily.

# Oki Ni
They have some Margiela, Raf Simons etc. The current specialty is the Opening Ceremony Collection by Wong Kar Wai. Get yourself some film shirts.

# Reborn
Based in the old town of Montreal, this is the only Canadian store on the list. Birgit and myself stopped by the lovely store last year & threw some serious dough at the welcoming sales people. My favourites lines here are Bless & Zibskov. Mary loves herself some Complex Geometries. Reborn also has the Six Scents perfume collection; therefore they are the only place in Canada where you can get Wicken 3000.

# Seven
The Bernhard usually sells out pretty quick at this New York store. If you want a specific piece, you need to call them around the time when the new collections arrive and get pictures sent BEFORE they post them to the website. Otherwise, the best stuff is already gone. You snooze, you loose.

# 10 Corso Como
I can’t wait from 10 Corso Como to open their online boutique. Comme des Garcons galore. Went to their shop a couple of years ago, when I was in Tokyo. I want to go again, right NOW.

Proddy: Buy. Kaufen. Acheter.

I haven’t included eluxury.com in the list above as they only ship within the US and you have to use an US credit card. Thank you very much. However, I have to admit, that I ordered a MMM necklace from them last year, and had to use a service company from Florida that bought it on my behalf and forwarded the precious metal to me. There is always a way to get the item you need!

Apart from all the online stores, I can recommend randomly calling Margiela boutiques around the world to ask about products you really need. For instance, my dear friend Mary Messhausen loves the diamond necklace, bracelet and ring (pictured below)! Call them NOW.
I personally like to chat with Colin from the NYC Margiela boutique. He is very friendly and last time I was at the store, his arm was broken, which added some extra cute clumsiness.

Back when I lived in Germany, I only shopped at Heimat. If you’re ever in Cologne, you have to pay them a visit. Andy and Andreas are in charge of my favourite store in Germany & they publish the amazing Mode Depesche, for whom I did an interview with Jean-Paul Lespagnard and other articles.

MMM Diamonds

So now, keep the economy going and buy. bought. bought.

Day

IMG_0140.JPG

Yesterday, Mary and me went to Miss C’s Closet, a new drag store in an back alley near Yonge and Wellesley. Not only looked the store great from the outside, we just had a very pleaseuarble shopping experience. Highly recommended.

With our bags stuffed, we hailed and cab and drove to the Powerplant to see a performance by Ei Arakawa. He used Scott Lyall’s exhibition as his set, two pictures below.

Perfect Saturday.

Showgirls (fall down the stairs scene) projection

Ei sawing

Der, Die, Das Heels

Dear Readers,

After Frankfurt Gay Pride, the tour with Ms. Messhausen led us through 3 countries and 5 cities in 8 days. It was the blast, during which we rediscovered our love for the German article “die” (pronounced dee). As some of you may remember this site started as dieproduzentin.de

After Mary went back to Toronto last Sunday, I needed a rest from the binge purge & shopping excesses. Cocooning seemed like the only solution.

Tuesday night, I watched “Die Stein“, a new TV series about die lustig lüsterne Lehrerleben. A welcome surprise of the show is the former Fassbinder actress Irm Herrman in a supporting role as the school’s secretary.

Anyway, here is a picture of die pumps I bought in Antwerp. Now, I’m asking myself, might die MMM heels be to demure?

xoxo
p


Photo by Bitz