Blogs

Eat your cyberpumping hearts out, YouTubers. Starting today you can get a peek at the latest bit of inexplicable online cross-marketing from our favorite plastic shoe purveyors. Yes, that's right, www.CitiesbyFoot.com, which Crocs is billing as a "unique travel guide" plugging various shops and restaurants in six U.S. cities, is now live!

Well, sort of.

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Slide Show

Saturday's Fashion Market featured original work by over 25 local designers. The looks were fun, fabulous and most definitely fresh. If your spring wardrobe needs a breath of fresh air, check out this slide show, featuring accessories and runway fashion from the market.

- Aubrey Shoe

It certainly doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg to show Mom you care this Mother's Day -- although if you have the cash, you sure can score some beautiful, keepsake items. In case you haven't done your shopping yet, here are few fashionable ideas for Mom.

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If you want to know what Colorado and the west looks like, then head on over to the new Rockmount Ranch Wear and Liberty Boot exibit at the Denver Public Library's central branch. The display is a fashion-lovers paradise (if only we could buy all of the beautiful boots and western wear shirts!) and is part of the library's "Wild Wilde West" exhibit. The show is available for viewing from 1-5 p.m. Monday through Friday until May 30. Catch it before it's gone.

- Aubrey Shoe

Slide Show

Last week, Crocs announced that it was eliminating 27 jobs, or 4 percent of its Boulder area work force, as part of a company restructuring in the wake of disappointing sales.

Since the company could use some good news, here's a Crocs fan's response to the piece Alan Prendergast wrote about the biggest invention to ever come out of Niwot.

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Rock The Cradle, Denver's new, hip baby store opened at 18 South Broadway on Saturday. Families milled about, remarking on the cute-yet-edgy designs while sampling tasty treats from the Shoppe.

Owners Brian and Melissa Ball opened their store as an alternative to the treacly, pastel-laced baby stores and they've filled the racks with clothing that had many of the adults present at the opening declaring, "I want to wear that! If only it came in my size."

The store carries clothing by regional and indie designers, off-beat toys, and blank t-shirts, bibs and onesies that can be customized with a patch or iron-on design for $5.

For more information, visit www.rockthecradlebaby.net or call 303-733-3707. Store hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

- Aubrey Shoe

It’s coming up on us fast and furious: wedding season. We’ve all been to one, we’ve all seen them in movies and TV and seen those women (affectionately dubbed “bridezillas”) on reality shows who apparently have no grip on reality. But many of us do get married, and most of us are perfectly kind and sane, and don’t want to end up in yet another version of the strapless princess dress. So here are my personal favorites (disclaimer: I am indeed getting married this spring, but none of these are my dress, just other ones I long for) for the more stylish and adventurous Colorado bride:

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Slide Show!

Wilde Dancebar and Lounge celebrated its “soft opening” last week, and with two floors, two bars and lots of dark corners perfect for dark deeds, owner John Costelloe seems to hold the key to Denver’s newest, gay hotspot. The boyz were pretty, the girlz were sassy, and the cute bartenders’ drink specials left me with enough cash at the end of the night to give my much appreciated cab driver a big, fat tip.

Last Friday’s Wilde crowd was a nice mix of ages and genders and styles. Though a person could find everything from blue jeans and t-shirts to neckties and jackets on the backs of Wilde’s patrons, the latter look seemed a better fit for the bar’s ambiance that night.

Named for Oscar Wilde, I saw lots and lots of potential for Wilde Dancebar and Lounge to fill a niche in Denver’s alternative scene. It’s going to be dark. It’s going to be glam. It’s going to be stylish. And, most refreshingly, I think it’s going to be different.

So “Fags,” grab your “Hags” and go Wilde!

-- Steve Burge

Wilde Dancebar & Lounge can be found at 2157 Downing Street and will introduce a food menu next week. Until then, enjoy a few drink specials while DJ Iron Feather spins chill, lounge tunes this Friday in the Living Room at 4 pm, followed by DJ Chaotic on the dance floor at 10 pm. Happy Hour: 7 days a week from 4 – 8 pm. For more information, call 303.860.WILDE.

We received a pajamas letter response in the mail!

No, it didn't come from our original pajamas lover. This one came from one of you, dear readers, someone who was obviously so inspired by our pajamas drawings that she just had to send us a depiction of her jammies.

And what a depiction it is, considering it comes from Kitzchy, a member of the fantastic local street art syndicate the Magnet Mafia:

Click for closeup

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While we wait with baited breath for the mysterious pajamas lover we accidentally discovered to respond to our creative renderings of our pajamas, we’ve been wondering: What’s up with pajamas? Why would someone be so obsessed with PJs they’d seek out random drawings of strangers’ nocturnal garments? Why not request a drawing of someone’s normal cocktail dress, or someone’s normal workout clothes? (There’s a snazzy pair of Umbros one Westword writer would just love to show off.)

Turns out the letter’s author isn’t the only one jonesing over jammies these days. There are entire stores devoted to nothing but pajamas. Prada and Karl Lagerfeld models have been spotted strutting the catwalks in silky pants normally reserved for sleepovers. On May 10, the Old Curtis Street Bar, 2100 Curtis Street, will be holding a Pajamas Jammy Jam (a la that celluloid classic, House Party 2). “It seems like there is a pajamas trend going on. I have noticed a few places around town that have thrown pajamas parties," says music promoter John Baxter, who’s throwing the shindig, when he’s reached by phone. “I sit around in pajamas all day,” he adds. “I am in penguin pajamas right now.”

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As you may remember, trusty readers, I recently came upon a mysterious, unsigned letter in the deposit-envelope receptacle of a downtown ATM machine requesting that I draw a picture of my "normal pajamas" and send it back in an included self-addressed stamped envelope. Since, as a rule, I always do exactly what random unsigned letters tell me to do, I followed the instructions -- with a few twists.

After all, this was obviously a sign from the all-knowing Fashion Gods. How could it be a coincidence that a letter inquiring about pajamas fell into the hands of a correspondent for the Cat's Pajamas? The only thing to do with such divine correspondence was to make the response a company-wide affair. So when our secretive pajamas lover opened the mailbox recently, there was a letter waiting including not one, not two, but 18 drawings featuring the normal pajamas of many of Westword's staff:

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Here begins the saga of the pajamas letter.

One evening several weeks ago, I stopped by the Wells Fargo branch at 17th Avenue and Broadway to deposit the considerable amount of money I regularly make as a gainfully employed writer. Unfortunately, the deposit-envelope receptacle next to the machine appeared to be empty. Desperate to start earning a 0.15 percent interest rate on my money as soon as possible – that shit builds up, you know – I reached deep into the slot, hoping to find an errant deposit envelope crammed near the bottom. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did pull up this:

“How unusual!” I thought. “Could someone have mistaken the ATM for a mailbox?” Possibly there was money inside or, better yet, drugs. Maybe this was a special ATM where people could deposit and earn interest on their drugs! I wondered who the letter was for – until I flipped it over.

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This year, Converse celebrates its hundredth anniversary -- and it's launching the Century footwear collection to commemorate the occasion. There is plenty to celebrate, too, since Converse shoes have been a staple in the wardrobes of fashion icons from James Dean to Kurt Cobain.

Converse first appeared on my style radar in high school, when its Chuck Taylor All Stars made the perfect complement to my Manic Panic dyed purple hair. The Ramones rocked them famously with their leather coats and ripped jeans, and I did the same.

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I've felt a little jerked around by Project Runway this season. This mostly has to do with how they've treated dear Chris, whose fashion sense has not always wowed me, but I still just love the guy. I mean, have you caught a glimpse of his portfolio -- the guy's all decked out in Princess Leia and Wonder Woman drag, for god's sake! You can check out photos of his fierce looks here.

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I grew up in New Mexico and attended UNM as an undergrad, so I’ve had a long-standing awareness of the artist Luis Jimenez. In college, I would pass by Jimenez’s “Fiesta Dancers” sculpture daily and the piece always looked like a man and a drag queen dancing to me. I was never really a fan.

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