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Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

As promised in yesterday’s blog post, today we are talking styling! This is one of the most subjective areas of the fashion world, coming down to personal tastes, attitudes, needs, projecteced imagry and comfort zones. Having said that we are going to play it simple, fun and easy to achieve. Remember, adapting trends into your day to day look is about you feeling comfortable, beautiful and happy. You can do whatever you damn well please! But for this post let look at some bohemian inspired messy hair that takes next to no time in the morning or transitioning from work to night on the train to achieve, natural make up and a nice rosey lip with statement nails.

Lets start at the top:

Hair

This lady is super simple to follow and cute as a button. Here is a quick tutorial on just how to get that saught after bohemian style bun.

Now that we have locked in the hair, lets move on to make up. I know we have Steel Pony tribe members all over the states and encroaching internationaly, soo..not all of you are melting ths week like we are here in the SP studio in Philly. The highs have been near 90 and the humdity! HA for get about it! Simple make up is key for staying beautiful and dewy in this type of climate.

The theme in the natural make up looks for S/S 2013 is the natural brow. Use clear mascara and powder or cream eyebrow color to lightly even out and fill your own brow, defining its natural bend and arch. Set with a quick stoke of the mascara, adjust with brow comb or finger tips.

Next use a BB or CC cream to even out skin tone, hide imperfections and illuminate while hydrating your skin. Take a cream blush or tint bar and ever so slightly rub your index finger across its top and in a circular motion apply to the apples of your cheeks closer to the cheek bone and ear vs closer to the nose. Sweep a powder brozer in the shadow of your check bones. Blend. Set with translucent powder. Take cream highlighter , dab and blend on the tops of your cheek bones, brow bone, inner eye & outer eye corners and directly above the indent bow of your upper lip. Use blackest black mascara and sweep on one to two coats on pre bent lashes. Comb out for natural length and thickness-not clumpy vamp. Do clear mascara on the lower lashes for more subtle definition, black for more impact. Finish the look by adding eyemake up if desired in a nude pallete blending carefully to look like natural shadow and highlight. Take a nude, peach, or rose tinted lip balm, matte lip stick, gloss or stain and dab to lips. Voila! Make up complete!

Finally

Nails

Anything goes with the nails in styling the sheer trend, especially with boho chic styled hair and natural makeup, go crazy, go intricate or go nude!

What are your thoughts? Which looks and combinations do you plan on trying out?

Have fun, look fabulous this holiday weekend, take tons of pics and send them our way to be featured on our social media feeds!!

Cheers

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

We have been discussing the must have look of the S/S 2013 seasons: the sheer trend, this week and I simply can not resist putting before you a top ten list showing off the look – live and not always well- as worn by celebrities at this years May 19th Billboard Music Awards. I have my favorite look, each person here in the Steel Pony Studio has made claim to their best and worst, now it is up to you tribe! Who wears this trend the best and who just misses the mark entirely?

Tomorrow we are going to talk about how to style this look: hair, make-up, nails and accessories, so take note at how these ladies stylists chose to put their looks together and make a few mental notes to compare.

Alyssa Milano in Emilio Pucci

Amber Rose in Gucci

Carly Rae Jepsen in Dyanthe

Emmy Rossum in Zuhair Murad

Jennifer Morrison in Kristian Aadnevik

Selena Gomez in Atelier Versace

Jennifer Lopez in Zuhair Murad

Taylor Swift in Zuhair Murad

Miley Cyrus in Balmain

Kimberly Perry in Mark Zunino

Cast your votes in the comments section below! Who is the Best and Who is the Worst from this Top Ten List?

Enjoy!

Cheers

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

Before you turn your mind off to the idea of this Spring and Summer’s leading fashion trend: Sheer Clothing, think about how you can take the trend and make it your own. Most of us have areas of our bodies that we are not particularly found of and the notion of truly baring all under a see-thru shroud may illicit a gulp if not an inner gasp. Models from runway to magazine spreads, Hollywood elites captured in various day to day activities by trash tabloids are all showing the most daring way to wear the look: bra-less beauties baring breasts and strutting their stuff under gauze and organza in a full spectrum of iridescent colors. Or impossibly thin lovelies throwing on sheer asymmetric skirts with hide-nothing body suits.

The average American woman, does not care to, nor should she wear, the trend this way. Especially the boobie thing…I mean it may get you out of a speeding ticket but it could cause a five car pile up and heaven forbid if thats over the shock of it versus the aw, if you get what I mean. SO, whats a gal to do who loves the feather weight, Goddess-esque styling of this going-no-where-soon trend? You can rock a nude bra, or one in a contrasting color if you are younger and into your body shape. You can take a sheer top and pair it with a great tank or dress, throw the see-thru skirt on top of a mid length or full length skirt of solid material. The possibilities are endless, the age range is anyone, believe it or not, ANYONE can wear this look as long as it is done in a way that makes each person feel wonderful.

This version may be a LITTLE much for the average lady!

Investing in the sheer trend is not a throw away choice. For the past six years this look has evolved and permeated the runways and streets world wide. Based off of this seasons collections as well as forecasts for 2014, the see-thru look is turning year round and is a fashion wave that has no crest in sight. Hop over to the Steel Pony facebook page and take a look at five available sheer tops: perfect for rocking sexy with a bra alone or more conservatively with under shirts, dresses, tees, etc. available for purchase on sale-including shipping for only $40! Sizes small to double x-large. Range of jewel tones ideal for all body shapes and skin tones!

We have three (yes that is IT) Maggie Tops on the main website under ‘Shop Online’ available right now in baked clay, one size fits all. Do not hesitate or it will be too late! We will continue talking about this trend as inspiration for posts throughout the week.

How do you plan to wear this trend?

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

Today kicks off our May studio sale and to set the pace we have a Steel Pony favorite to share with you all in honor of our gals getting inducted this past weekend into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Their style, their sound and their inability to bend to societal norm, even when it would have proven easier, has inspired me personally my entire creative life so far. Check out how incredibly sexy and bad ass these chicks rock!!! 1977 live concert footage of heart performing Barracuda.

Enjoy!

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

We have taken a break from sharing on Bangladesh and the atrocities experienced within the walls of the industrialized global garment industry for the past week and a half. The dead count is now at 1000 people. That is nearly 3 dead human beings for every day of the year. In the vein of this weeks theme of love I wish to share a meditation on healing and loving energy.

Can we heal the world? Can we love every fraction of our Self that exists in all entities through out the world? Yes. We may have a knee jerk response that tells us “no”, but is that actual? Why can’t we heal and love the world? The only stopper is our own acceptance of the possibility to do so. What I mean by that is, inside of our brain lives the patterns of emotion and action that we have all come to identify as our “self”: we think, there fore we are. If the initial thought is “no” for a huge question such as the ones posed above, then there is a need to dissect the patterns that equate to that negative response. There are many, many, MANY ways to do this. Some helpful and healthy, others..eh, not so much. Or there is always the stick-your-head-in-the-sand-pretend-it-isn’t-so manner of being, but that doesn’t lend itself to having a meaningful, fulfilling, and purposeful life.

Heal your head. Love your Self. It is very touchy feely, I know, but it is amazing the power we each hold. Alright, take a beat and close your eyes. Breathe deep in through your nose and out through your mouth. Pay attention to your heart; how fast is it beating, how shallow does it feel in your chest? Breathe into your heart. Take your breath and send it to your chest, think of your breath circling your heart. Allow the beats to slow and relax. Allow your heart to swell and sink deeper into your chest. Now send your breath deep into your belly, filling it up under your belly button like a balloon. Continue to breathe and allow your mind to  bring up the color pink, whatever hue that may mean to you. Allow the color to grow more vivid with every breath in your mind, send that color outside of you. You can do that anyway that makes sense to you, as a blanket around you, as rose colored glasses tinting everything you see around you. Hold that for as many breaths as you can. Slowly emerge and open your eyes.

This is a short exercise that you can do for ten to twenty minutes at a time. Allow yourself to reflect on the way your body, heart and mind feel before and after this meditation. This is a way of beginning to reflect on the feeling and look of love within yourself. Take that with you in all that you do throughout your day, send it to everyone that you see around you. Smile and say hello to people on the street (or if your like me, include animals!) When you stop by Target or (gasp) Walmart or any store really to make a purchase; look at the tag, read on the box the origin of its make. If it is made in a country that is a known negative, that harms the world instead of heals, please make an active choice to change the world by choosing love and allowing yourself to live without the purchase. These are the first steps in changing the globe. In loving every inhabitant. Of healing yourself and therefore the world. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for spreading love by purchasing sustainably and by loving Steel Pony and our garments that we make with love for all.

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

This incredible Philadelphia based band- Vacationer- puts on one of the best live shows! Get a feel for what they offer in this video with one of my favorite songs from the album ‘Gone’:

The upbeat beauty of this song is the pace being set for the blog posts this week. Breathe it in and as the guys in Vacationer say: ‘Ride the Chill Wave’

Enjoy everyone!

Cheers

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

In yesterday’s blog post we talked about the origins of Mother’s Day and how, surprisingly, it is not a holiday created by the greeting card industry but instead a celebration of Mothering dating back to ancient Egypt.

We also stumbled upon a survey taken by NRF in 2012 that estimated the average person spends $152.00 per mother figure in their life. A portion of this money, most often then not, goes to buying Mom those oh-so-lovely candy colored bouquets of cut flowers. But what are the ramifications of this luxury purchase? Turns out, that even blooms boasting an eco friendly label may be equally harmful to the environment as their supposed non-green counterparts. According to articles from Scientific America (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=environmental-price-of-flowers) and The Ecologist (http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/behind_the_label/302429/behind_the_label_cut_flowers.html) nearly 80% of cut flowers sold in the United States are grown and flown in from Africa, they are then maneuvered around the states in temperature controlled trucks, followed by a nightly lock up in cold boxes prior to their arrival at floral shops throughout the continent. For the 100 million rose purchases per major “flower holiday” (think Valentines and Mother’s Days) the average carbon dioxide produced equals out to more then 9,000 metric tons. Breathe that in for a second. Now pair it with the worlds dwindling water supply and imagine the women and children working the flower fields in Kenya breathing in the poisonous DDT and watching the petals glisten with precious drops of water that is not going into their parched mouths.

This is a very brief overview of the cut flower industry impact and farm to table effect that exists in hot climate countries such as Kenya and Columbia (which, as it turns out is much better for the environment compared to their colder climate counterparts like the Dutch who grow their flower crops inside heated hothouses using up an average of 77,100 pounds of Carbon emissions per 12,000 blooms vs the aforementioned equivalent flower count emitting 13,000 pounds). Either way you cut it – pun intended- is it really worth it? Wildflowers are just as beautiful and special. Indigenous plants, growing your own varieties of flowers from seeds shared, collected or bought is even more special a gift for the person you showering with affection. Let us all reflect a moment before we buy and remember that the labels ‘organic’ & ‘eco’ or ‘sustainable crop’ are loopholed regulations that do not dictate each action from seed to table and therefore can not gaurantee (as to my knowledge upon this writing) iof 100% environmentally friendly product in every instance.

Alright, so you have allergies and picking daisies may kill you, especially if the pollen count in your neck of the woods is anything like ours in Philly. Or maybe flowers just arent your digs for the mom in your life this Sunday. Calling all knitters! Grab a skein of your favorite eco friendly yarn and whip up a spa inspired goody of Tulip stitch face towels and Leafy washcloths. Your mother will looove this play on the traditional (last minute perhaps?) go to gift of flowers.

Head to my favorite free pattern site: ravelry.com using the links below, have fun and please send us pics of your creations!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tulip-stitch-face-or-dishcloth

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leafy-washcloth

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

It is the second weekend of May and with that comes Mother’s Day, a tradition of celebrating individual women in our lives that are either literally our mother figures or have been given the title and adoration of such by us. Like so many smaller holidays in this country I have personally associated this with greeting card companies, the cut flower industry, and all together unnecessary and stressful expectations being placed on the individual for no general reason. A perpetuation of  the throw away culture: a polar opposite nature to that of the sustain-ably minded.

Having said that, is it true? Perhaps not. I started out researching the unsustainable nature of the cut flower industry and its global impact in connection to holidays such as this for today’s post(we will touch on some of those findings in tomorrows blog post). In doing so I stumbled upon a very interesting and information packed website, quite aptly titled: mothers day central (http://www.mothersdaycentral.com). Here is a Cliff’s Notes version of my findings on the history of Mothers Day and its easily traceable roots to ancient mysticism.

Mother’s Day is not an “American Thing”

Dating back to ancient Egyptian roots, civilizations have been celebrating motherhood, not in the individualized way that our society currently does, but as an over-hanging idea of mother. The Goddess Isis was looked to as the Mother of the pharaohs,  the celebration of motherhood dedicated to both Isis and her son Horus, lasted three days and spanned to that of the Roman Temple. Interstingly enough the main iconography of this celebration was that of the Goddesses cradling her suckling son Horus, smacking eerily close to the easily identifiable imagry of the Christians Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

Travel forward to Neolithic times and the celebration of the mother in respect to Cybele the Phrygian  ”Mother Goddess,” whose realm was the earth’s mountains and caverns, natural surroundings, and wild animals. She is attributed to laying the groundwork for the worship and celebration of motherhood in Europe. Resulting in the Roman festivals of Hileria, in this multi-day celebration parades were held featuring statues of Cybele at the head and followed by arts and craft. The Christian church adapted this celebration season to honor the Virgin Mary, the :”Mother of the Church” in the 16th Century where honors of jewels, flowers and offerings decorated places of worship.

This theme of non-indivualized celebration lasts all the way thru, adapting to separate mother figure Goddesses in different civilizations around the world up until the 17th century when England created a clerical decree spanning the worship of the Virgin Mary to that of individual mothers and it is within this decree that “Mothering Day” was born. From this a day of compassion, especially for the lower ranking of society was born. Workers were allowed to travel home and be with their mothers and families, preparing feasts and giving cakes and flowers to their mothers.

The American Ruining of Mothering Day

All the beauty and feasting of Mothering Day was completely thrown out by English settlers in America. Mothering Day was lost and with it the ancient origins and traditions that bore it, centuries later when Julia Ward Howe created the proclamation of “Mother’s Day” in 1870. Howe called on all Mother’s to join together in protest against the lost of sons in the Civil War with this:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
 
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of 
charity, mercy and patience.
 
“We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
  
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with 
Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.
 
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
 
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
 
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
 
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

Not exactly a call for cakes and flowers. Jump forward to 1908 and say hello to Anna M. Jervis, who petitioned the Church for a celebration of Mothers and peace in honor of her departed mother, a teacher in the church for more then two decades, which was granted her on May 10th 1908 by the Methodist Church. The first celebrations happened in Philadelphia PA and in West Virginia. In 1908 the government adopted the holiday and the nationally recognized celebration of all Mother’s came into existence as we Americans know it today.

Mother’s Day Today & Throw Away Culture 

Phew! That is an exhausting span of history, a far cry from my ignorant idea of Hallmark’s PR men smoking around a table in the fifties deciding to add this day to the calendar in order to boost sales! So how do we celebrate our mothers today? According to a study done by NRF the average person spent $152.00 per mother figure in their lives in 2012.

What are we buying our mom’s? How are we showering them in celebration of all that it is to be a mother? Stop by tomorrow for a few words on the unsustainable nature of the world cut flower industry as well as sustainable, thoughtful ideas to put into action for the mother’s in your life.

What do you think, is anyone else shocked by the origins of Mother’s Day?

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

Last week every blog post related back to the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh. In the SP studio, this topic remains on our minds and for me, weighs heavy on my heart.  Though there is plenty of worthy subject matter to cover on this and related topics, let’s redirect our focus this week to the subject of sustainability, which goes hand in hand.

Photo Credit: http://www.sustainabledevelopmentinfo.com/what-is-sustainable-living/

I have no idea why I am posting up this song, but we are listening to (gasp) NOT npr this morning in the studio and Micheal Jackson’s Man in the Mirror just came on and it seems very appropriate to give a flash from the past in homage of this weeks blog topic.

Sustainability begins with an individual and each choice made throughout the day. Here’s to a beautiful week. Would you consider yourself sustainable? What does that even mean to you and to the American populous in general?

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

It has been a heavy week, subject matter wise, for posts. Going into the weekend we here in the Steel Pony Studio wish to take a deep breath of fresh air. In Center City Philadelphia the sun is streaming in through the loft windows, birds are singing melodies to one another and the pollen count is through the roof!!! (so that deep breath has a little sputtering behind it!) But in seriousness; I have to go back to this weeks first post: the song ‘It Can’t Rain All the Time’. I know it may sound contrived, but that is exactly the notion that I need to hold on too.

The Bangladesh garment factory collapse has affected me deeply. The fires in November upset me, upset all of us here at SP. We discussed it with all of you, with our friends and family, but this: the body count is now over 400 and approaching nearly 500. This is my industry. It is ALL of our industry. I say the later because I do not have one friend outside of Steel Pony who sews or creates their own clothing. Everyone comes to me to design, create, alter, adorn, even treat stains and mend their garments and textiles in general. Every time i offer to teach them how to let out a seam or hem a pant leg, “Nah! That’s why I have you!” is the response or “Oh Lord, forget it! I’ll just buy another one.” I smile and nod, but I do judge.

In the 1950′s and 60′s nearly 100% of American’s garments were manufactured in America. By the 1990′s that was down to near 50% and currently it is a mere 1-2%. That’s it: a blip on the radar. It makes my stomach turn, my head pound and my heart heavy. It is why my 3 and a half year old is already helping me to sew and learning how to hold a pair of thick plastic knitting needles. It is why I proudly sit here, in the beautiful Steel Pony studio, surrounded by American made textiles, American produced garments and our own safe, incredible machines( that I will be jumping behind in the next few hours to work on Fall 2013 II samples for nexts weeks Moda show in NYNY) and smile with gratitude and pride. With that said I wish to send you into a joyful weekend with a song of beauty and an incredible cause to check out- the song: Lover’s Carving’s by Bibio.

Listen to this incredible groove and head over to the Clean Clothes Campaign and start putting your opinions into actions: http://www.cleanclothes.org/

Cheers!

Lee

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

The death toll for the collapse of the Rena Plaza building in Bangladesh has reached 386. That is nearly four hundred people who will never return home.  Walmart, JC Penny, H&M, The Children’s Place, Gap, Carrefour, Benetton, Primark, the Cato Corporation…these mega clothing companies make up the current shortlist of American and European retailers that had garment factories inside the Plaza. Some have embraced the fact, others continue to dip and dodge in a vein attempt to protect themselves from negative press.

The reality, no matter how their PR people spin responses, is that the consumption culture created by big box stores such as Walmart and the urgency of meeting the bottom line thru price point gagged response and rationalizing perpetuated by large brands such as H&M and Gap- have driven textile mills out of this country and into areas around the world where work conditions go unregulated. As of the writing of this post there are 4,000 garment factories in Bangladesh. How is it that these companies writing orders that lead to this abundance feign blindness and unknowing?Although I do not have direct knowledge of this,  I believe they know exactly what goes on inside the cinder block walls of these work houses. Brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren  taut buzz words such as “organic” ,”american design”, “sustainable” etc to aid sales- not because it is true conviction and passion- in reality the figure heads associated with these brands are no longer in control of their own companies, perhaps the original designers who created empires based off their names did not know, for fact, that the factories in which their garments were produced housed thousands in work conditions akin to that of a Dickens work house. However, it is not plausible that no one associated with the brand knew.  ”The owner of the company is ultimately the responsible party” remarks fashion designer and Steel Pony owner Joanne Litz “They should not say: ‘I didn’t know’ – no matter what size the business is. Someone has to go in and see the factory, especially for those (companies) well established overseas. Someone had to have gone in and see the factories. Period.”

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Andrew Biraj

Litz speaks from first hand knowledge. As a design director for major brands in the eighties, she traveled around the world visiting the work floors of factories from Hong Kong to China to India. The price point game of placing monetary gain for a company over that of morality is among the reasons why Litz went her own way and began her company Steel Pony. ” I try my hardest to mainly work with people who make textiles here. The industry has gone overseas. People are no longer willing to pay for their garments like they did in the eighties.”

When consumers choose to purchase a ‘throw away’ item, meaning a garment that is not made to last, but made for mass consumption from the lowest quality materials, fastest piece work assembly and will fall apart nearly as soon as they are purchased, they choose to put money in the pockets of the people supplying orders and there fore keeping in business the slave like conditions of garment factories around the world. It is not possible to sell a high quality, well made item for under cost and stay in business. Do the math, it will never add up. “On a level of morality and human kindness, making money does not sit as a higher priority.” says Dennis Wolk, co-owner of Steel Pony and artist to the question of why Steel Pony is willing to remain in the United States for its garment production versus going overseas, growing and making more money by paying far less and keeping its good at the same or similar price point for the consumer (think Liz Claiborne, and any luxury or high end brand that’s tag says Made_____ anywhere but in America)

Photo Credit: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

Steel Pony has its cotton sourced on the American West Coast – spun, knit and finished on the east coast. Garments are made in Pennsylvania then dyed, adorned, altered etc in house in Philadelphia. Not every fabric is produced in the United State however, Linens and silks for instance are simply not available. “I try my hardest to mainly work with people who make textiles here (in the States). Linens and silks are not made here. I mean I do not know of anyone making linen here (in America). That;s when you have to know and trust your distributors and suppliers.” Litz explains the reality of the current American textile industry. “There are some things that are out of your control. It’s like the Serenity prayer. That’s really what it is.”

Knowing, educating yourself and your consumer is the first step towards being apart of the solution and helping to reshape the landscape of current consumption habits in American and world culture. That is what Steel Pony has done for more then two decades and will continue to do as it grows and reshapes itself. “We don’t let greed interfere with our morality” puts Wolk. Let’s hope we can all step up to that ideology.

Article written & edited by Lee McClary

Hello Dear Steel Pony Friends!

Today it is raining in Philly, big surprise for this time of year, but the song choice that will not stop ringing in my ears today is not that literal for the Steel Pony Studio crew. After spending time writing on the tragedy that occured in Bangladesh last week we all discussed as we worked about why we have chosen to work for a made in America company. It sparks alot of emotion for differing reasons for us all. Today I was planning on writing this post on the reality of a $5.00 t-shirt. Instead, I want to give a little hope. Some encouragement to you all, to us here at SP and to myself. This reality that we have all, in one way or another, aided in creating has to end- it can not stay this way forever. We can prevent this harm, we can help change and save the world and its people. I have to believe that is a possibility. How about you? Please enjoy this beautiful song by Jane Siberry best known for its addition to the soundtrack from the movie The Crow (one of my top ten movies of all time). What are your thoughts? What does this song bring up in you?

Cheers!

Lee