Normali Kamali: Always Way Ahead of the Fashion Pack

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Norma Kamali participating in a weekly tai chi session with her staff in Central Park. The designer is just as disciplined, and flexible, in her approach to her work. Todd Heisler/The New York TimesNorma Kamali has always been an adventurous, pioneer Smart Sensuality designer.  One of the ultimate ‘trouser girls’,  Kamali made jumpsuits sexy and never looked back — although she has ridden that infamous retail fame and fortune elevator more than once.

Norma Kamali has always been a fashion innovatorKamali, now 63,  hooked up with Apple’s Soho store today, showing her Spring 2010 collections to just about anybody who was browsing laptops.  There were no bodyguards, no sniffy editors unhappy with their seat assignments.

The forever-talented designer led a talk called “The Democratization of Fashion: How Technology Is Transforming Fashion.”

As for the clothes — well they were displayed on the street. Talk about fashion democracy in action!

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Sophisticated Hemp Goes Upmarket and Mainstream

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Lucien Pellat-finet Pot Leaf Cashmere SweaterMarijuana may be illegal, but the weed is increasingly evident in American culture. Yes, Woodstock enjoyed its 40th anniversary this month, but there’s something else blowing in the wind.

Barneys New York in Beverly Hills is celebrating the Woodstock spirit by selling $78 “Hashish” candles in Jonathan Adler pots with bas-relief marijuana leaves; French designer Lucien Pellat-Finet dishes up a cashmere sweater at a pittance of a price, compared to white-gold and diamond custom pot-leaf-emblazoned wristwatches for $49,000 and belt buckles for $56,000.

In LA, the estimated 40,000 people attending the inaugural THC Expo hemp and art show in downtown Los Angeles will have another opportunity in 2010: April 23-25.

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