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Today's weather is absolutely beautiful, but I can barely enjoy it since all I can think about is the sad state of my closet. I want flirty skirts and kitten heels in the freshest colors and styles for spring, yet my warm wool trousers and cashmere sweaters are still taking up prime real estate in my closet.

You better believe that after tomorrow's FRESH fashion market, I'll be singing a happier tune. Fashion Denver's FRESH Spring fashion market features over 25 local designers showing off their warm-weather clothing and, lucky us, also happens to be taking place the day before Mother's Day. You can check out the hot styles from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 10 at The Oriental Theater, 4335 W. 44th Ave. Fashion shows will be at 3 and 6 p.m., with Denver musicians and DJs performing throughout the day. Admission is $5 at the door, and benefits Dress for Success Denver. For more information, visit www.fashiondenver.com.

So, before heading outside to soak up the spring weather, head inside to FRESH so you can really enjoy the season in style!

- Aubrey Shoe

If you love sexy pin-up photography, don't miss tonight's Naughty Mambo Pin-Up Party. In addition to in-the-flesh pin-up babes, the party will feature a fashion show, art, music, dance, comedy and more. For more information, click here.

Recycled fashion is hot these days. Just ask local designer, Trisha Hayworth -- who uses recycled vintage pieces in her clothing -- or any of the Colorado State University students participating in tonight's recycled fashion show.

Student designers were asked to incorporate scrap material leftover from the construction of CSU's new Computer Science building. The idea was conceived as a way to help recycle materials and support the university's plans to create a greener campus.

The fashion show, titled "Caution Couture: Where Green is the New Black" takes place at 6:30 p.m. tonight, May 2, at the Hilton Hotel, 425 W. Prospect Road in Fort Collins.

In addition to the couture show, students were asked to create a "dress for less" look using clothing from ARC and Goodwill thrift stores.

Tickets to the event are $4 for students and $6 for non-students and will be sold at the door starting at 6 p.m.

- Aubrey Shoe

Denver has a thriving fashion scene and tons of great local designers, but thanks to Kevin Larson, a new type of fashion is popping in this town. This Saturday, April 26, you can experience a balloon couture fashion show as part of Kevin Larson's Sixth Annual Birthday Bash.

The fashion show will feature ball gowns and themed costumes, including animals and Carmen Miranda, and all of the clothing will be created from balloons by Quill, a local professional balloon sculptor. In addition to the unique fashion show, expect to hear DJs Brian Howe, Devo and MLE.

"This is something different that I've never seen done in Denver," says Larson. "Every year we come up with a crazy, bizarre idea." Last year's bash featured Mini Kiss, a Kiss tribute band comprised of little people.

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In April, Peter began a journey across the United States and Canada on a Vespa. But rather than just making the trip about riding across 49 states and 8 Canadian provinces, he decided to make the undertaking count. Peter is riding in a journey he has dubbed a "Vespadition" in order to "promote kindness, compassion and volunteerism," he says, and this mission has brought him to Colorado this week.

On Wednesday, Peter rode into Boulder from Wyoming and he spent the day volunteering with Eco-Cycle. Yesterday he rode to Golden to volunteer at the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum.

You can catch Peter in Denver tonight, where he will be attending Erico Motorsport's Fashion Moto. The event will showcase European motorcycles, scooters and fashions. The 8 p.m. cocktail hour, featuring complimentary drinks by St. Germain (a tasty new French elderflower liqueur), and 9:30 p.m. fashion show should be one of tonight's hottest events.

Tomorrow, Peter will spend the day volunteering with Project Angel Heart, the nonprofit dedicated to providing meals for people with life-threatening illnesses. He'll depart to Durango on Sunday before heading into New Mexico on his traveling volunteer mission.

For more information about the Vespadition, visit www.vespadition.com. If you are over 21 and want to attend tonight's Fashion Moto event at Erico Motorsports, 2855 Walnut Street, RSVP to lisak@ericomotorsports.com.

- Aubrey Shoe

"I'm a hair dresser and a real estate agent by trade," reveals Denver Fur Drive organizer Joyce McKenzie, "but I have a passion."

That passion has driven her to help stop the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals every year for the sake of fashion. McKenzie hopes to raise awareness about the fur trade, and through education she hopes to de-value the fur and help stop the practice of killing animals solely for their fur.

Many big name department stores have been found using real fur on items marked as "faux," so the use of fur, whether real or not, needs to permanently be a trend that is, like, so over.

To say good bye to your own past fashion mistakes, you can donate old furs to the Denver Fur Drive by dropping them off at Le Bakery Sensual, 300 East 6th Avenue, or City Bark LoDo, 3150 Brighton Blvd. You'll get a written receipt good for tax credit, and a warm fuzzy feeling, too, since donated furs will be used to line the cages of orphaned or injured animals. Just look how cute that bobcat is snuggling up to his donated fur.

Some think wearing fur is sexy, but trust me -- it's much, much sexier to wear your own skin.

The fur drive continues through April 30th. For more information on fur, click here.

- Aubrey Shoe

You’d be surprised by how much you can learn about life from pushing a bunch of yarn around with two sticks. When I first started knitting, the biggest lesson was that patience is a virtue, and while I’d never been a patient person, I found that I did have it in me to smile with Zen-like calm while ripping out ten rows of work after realizing, much belatedly, that I’d dropped a stitch.

My favorite knitting book, "Stitch ‘N Bitch," by Debbie Stoller, taught me how to knit with attitude, and how not to ruin a relationship with the awkward gift of a hand-knitted sweater. (It’s, like, really a lot of commitment, you know.)

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Slide Show

If you chose to spend last weekend anywhere other than the Pink Elephant Room, you
made a bad choice. Lucky for you, though, there will be ample chances to redeem yourself. Every Friday and Saturday, PS 1515, at the corner of Madison and Colfax, transforms itself into the modern-day speakeasy/burlesque club called The Pink Elephant Room. The crowd on opening night was almost as eclectic as the clothes the girls shed throughout the evening.

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If you’ve ever wanted to learn to knit, make pop-up cards or brew the perfect cup of tea but were short on dough, you might have discovered that the Denver Public Library offers all these things and more for free as part of their Fresh City Life programming. Initially intended as a celebration of Denver diversity, Fresh City Life has now cooked up a great way for us give a little something back.

By joining Fresh City Friends, you can be sure that the creative offerings — such as demonstrations on cooking Italian Timpani and crafting artisan chocolates — keep coming. And Thursday’s Frock Out: Independent Designers Challenge event is not only shaping up to be Denver’s Fashion event of the year, it is also the official roll-out party for Fresh City Friends. Everyone who buys a Fashionista VIP ticket ($50) or a Jr. Fashionista VIP ticket ($40, for those under the age of 35) to Frock Out will gain entrance into the champagne reception after the runway competition, and will also get one of the Fresh City Friends signature t-shirts designed by Westword’s own Kenny B.

Currently, membership to Fresh City Friends is available at $500 and $1000 levels. Membership includes VIP admittance to library events, advance notice on upcoming classes and a T-shirt. You can join Fresh City Friends or reserve tickets to Frock Out by calling Laurie Romer at 720-865-2050.

– Aubrey Shoe

L.A.-based pop culturalist will present his kitsch-filled holiday slide show tonight from 7 - 9 p.m. at Steele Elementary School, 370 South Marion Pkwy., Denver. Check out this slide show preview sample of what you're likely to see.

Let's give thanks that this past holiday weekend, Denver International Airport proved that it could handle crowds. (And what, exactly, was the airport waiting for? An engraved invitation from Mary Peters?)

But for once, I was sorry that I wasn’t stuck in an endless line while waiting to go through security. Because there’s an exhibit on the skybridge leading towards the Concourse A security checkpoint that’s definitely worth some time. “Fashion. Form. Function -- Then and Now,” a joint project between the airport and the Vail-based Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum, takes you through decades of uniquely Colorado history.

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A recent posting on the Starz Denver Film Festival website announced that a “mystery screening” has been added to the roster to play at the Esquire Theatre at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 13. What might be concealed inside this feature-length grab bag? Well, the blurb says the language is English, production location USA, running time 122 minutes, and categorizes the genre as “Action/Adventure, Based on a Book, Crime, Drama, Thriller.”

But the next hint is a dead giveaway: “The contemporary American west as captured by an award-winning team of filmmaking brothers.” The posting on the undisclosed flick closes with an oh-so-telling quote: ‘What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss?’”

Hmm. Filmmaking brothers. Crime thriller drama. Self-aware noir dialogue. Adapted from a novel. A western novel. Could it be Joel and Ethen of the brothers Coen?

Not saying we have confirmation or anything, but the secret screening arrives just as plenty of buzz is going around for the Coen’s latest work, No Country for Old Men, which is based on the 2005 Cormac McCarthy book of the same name. Set in West Texas, No Country follows the massive body count left behind by a psychopathic drug mercenary who is as casual with killing as he is with a coin toss. Just watch the trailer. [[2]]

Released in select cities last Friday, the official date for wide release is November 21, with select screens like the Mayan adding show times as early as the 16th. But for local Coen bros afficionados who can’t wait that long, there is no real mystery where to go. –Jared Jacang Maher

Whatever your punk poison, this Saturday’s Punk Rock Flea Market promises to have something for you. The monthly event features music on vinyl and CD, as well as tables set up by local bands, clothing shops, designers and artists.

Presented by Suburban Home Records’ Vinyl Collective, the market is a free all-ages event and local bands will be performing acoustic sets. So whether you’re searching for your favorite Bikini Kill album from you college riot grrl days or you want to pick up a new copy of Iron and Wine’s latest, it’ll be worth stopping by for a look at the wares.

The market is from noon to 5 p.m. at 3 Kings Tavern, 60 South Broadway; for more information visit www.suburbanhomerecords.com.

- Aubrey Shoe