viva las "last random moments" -

a few closing thoughts:

1) anyone who tries to tell you that vegas is crass and has no taste, tell them "pish tosh. i personally stood beside the "exotic limousines 702 837 2666" cadmium yellow stretch hummer":


2) anyone who tries to tell you that vegas has no subtlety, tell them "fiddlesticks. i have walked through the hush that is the venetian lobby. i have posed beside it's minimalistic tribute fountains":


3) if these same people persist with their whining, simply slip them a picture of you in your new fendi patent peep-toe booties standing on the replica roman mosaic floor. and then see who's all smug about their "taste level":



7) (where am i? oh yeah, 4.) learn that you can discover new things about your friends anywhere you go. like evelyn's part-time job:

5) be prepared to be overwhelmed by the wonder that is las vegas. like when you are walking to dinner and just stumble across the laminated gold-like visages of siegfried and that one that got mauled. and their tiger. perhaps even the one that mauled:


(asian tourist mauled in vegas. film at eleven.)



9) remember that saying "what happens in vegas, stays in vegas"? yeah, not so much. there's all kinds of digital cameras and blogs to prevent that shit from really happening. . .

and god, it can wear a boy out!

viva la bouchon -

so what's a group to do after staging a two day conference, a fashion show, and answering countless questions from complete strangers? yessiree, head to thomas keller's new restaurant, bouchon. a short (ok, incredibly long) walk down the strip from caesar's to the venetian, and you end up in an incredibly chic (though still oddly fake, not at all like the eerie reality of balthazar in nyc) french bistro.

the food was insane, there was a boudin blanc (a white french sausage that cuts like butter and probably carries nothing but, you know, butter) that i swear called out my name in dulcet tones at one point in the meal, an insane brined chicken with lavender honey, a brown butter apple galette with cardamom ice cream. . . drool. here was where vegas came to life for me. fabulous foods, all within walking distance of each other.

proving that great minds (an appetites) think alike, much of the rest of marketing creative team showed up as well, completely by coincidence. witness the bar scene, replete with ann, brandy, and hoa:

rachel and angela:

shane, nancy and jennifer:


when we finally sat at our table, it didn't take long for the J to start pouring.




it being evelyn's birthday, there was a little celebration layered onto the evening:

viva las fashionistas -

on the last night of the convention, marketing was asked to stage a fashion show of all our holiday merchandise. fun, right? so after sorting through all the details, agreeing to the categories matching up with the holiday television campaign (hence all the marketing, hence the point of the whole thing . . . see? integration. amazing.), we (meaning my design director, todd barket) worked with daniel (caudill, our stylist) on taking it all to a whole new place for old navy. so, we took over the forum plaza:


invited the entire conference, meaning every field employee and every hq employee:


threw a coctail party before. because. we had never done this and a little alcohol goes a long way. and yes. that IS a blue champers kind of thing i'm drinking. and yes. it tasted about as good as it sounds. but after two of them, who cared? not I.


this is just a really cute shot of evie and I. it was before everything went crazy. obviously.


me, some model who took his shirt off as soon as daniel said "take your shirt off for the picture", todd, and daniel. did i mention how much i luv daniel?


todd again, suzanne greening summers (real name. head of visual merchandising. good jewelry on that one.), and the devastatingly handsome timmer:


tim in the plaza under that insanely airbrushed/creepy/it's following me make it stop aaaaaaaa picture of toni braxton:


and as a bonus, we were able to sneak in a preview of the spring line to finish the show. urban safari and desert escape, anyone?



to say the crowd went wild . . . well you know me and understatement. SO good at it.

if you all are really nice, i'll even post some videos of the show.
for now, click below for the full album:

vegas fashion show

viva la pure -

so the first night we hit vegas, the company took over PURE nightclub. you know pure. the place where brit brit has done some classically random shit. where lindsay was supposed to have her 21st blowout bash before that whole drug "mix-up" thing where she was wearing someone else's pants. perfect venue for the "new" old navy. i actually give them credit for the choice. and there was entertainment:


not that i don't loves me some burlesque pop, but i kind of avoided this room. there was much "dude!" and "DUDE!" going on when i walked through. apparently lingerie and lip synching don't make it out beyond this venue much. ok, who am i kidding? if it were chippendale's i'd have been there in the front row going "BITCH. check out the guns."

i digress.

so we lounged and drank. see tim and todd, lounging:


this was pretty much my reaction to all of vegas:


and this was pretty much how evelyn and james reacted to vegas. they are both in some form of disbelief/denial/glee:


then most of marketing ended up on the roof in the cabanas:



things got blurry later:



you can see it all by clicking here:

vegas pure

gretchen asks. gretchen receives.

never let it be said that i let down a "bliend".
(for those of you unfamiliar with the term, you haven't been reading.
scroll down. keep going. now catch up.)

gretchen asked for pictures of the red patent alligator booties we got evelyn for her birthday while we were in vegas.

you know how when you say something out loud (yes, i know that i am typing, not talking. go with the theatre, people) sometimes it sounds so wildly . . . random? yeah. that was one of those times. probably something to do with the words "booties", "alligator", and "vegas" mixed all together.

where was i?

oh yeah. voila:

ok, that's scarlett johannson in the ad campaign.
and below is from eluxury, for reference:
HERE is evie, laughing.
apparently, at my crotch.


and here are her shoes on their inaugural spin:

viva la vastness -

on the list of things no one warned me about before i went to vegas (it's weird, but you'll like it! the food is great! the people watching is great! you like gambling, right?), the scale of the place was oddly neglected. so, for those of you who haven't gone yet (i know, i know, apparently i was like one of three people who haven't) it's BIG. i mean, they took full advantage of the lack of . . . anything out there, and the BUILT. and then they built some more, and they are still building. so you think, i get it. lots of stuff. no, my friend. these were the pools at caesar's where old navy had their convention. view from my window:


and yes, they are building MORE pools behind. here is the lobby. the tiny little ants are tim and evelyn and james tagliani waiting for me to catch up. i was winded. i had to stop:

this is toni braxton. seven hundred thousand feet tall:


this has nothing to do with scale, per se, it's just evelyn tim me and james in the elevator:


sometimes i don't have anything witty to say. here's one of the like eight hundred casino parts of the shops at the forum. slots. and shopping. kind of made me nauseous. as if there's a question where the money SHOULD be going:


OH. the statues. no one warns you about the statues. first, they are creepy. obviously fake trying to be real creepy. and there are a million of them at caesar's. literally. a million.


this is james in front of the fake david. i have no idea why it keeps posting sideways. it's blogspot's cruel joke:



although technically this isn't a statue, it still made me happy. and reminded me of something else:

this, another famous ass shot:


eventually, like much of las vegas, you just give in: