>> Argh me maties!!  Shiver me timbers, but have I got a golden treasure chest for ye lassies...  the John Galliano Pirate jacket (left) from his Fall/Winter 2001 collection.  It's easy to get your hands on one (cheap too!), but don't worry, there's a catch.  You have to make it yourself. 

I came across a great site today, showstudio.com, which  provides the pattern for the Pirate Jacket itself.  Personally, I like the Union Jack version that SHOWstudio made (right) much better than the runway version (Eep!  Did I just say that?  Sacrilege!  Burn her!).  I don't think I've seen a pattern I'd more like to make in all my days of looking through Butterick, Simplicity, and even Vogue pattern books.  I'm so tempted, to start on this... if only I wasn't leaving the country in three weeks.  The corset detailing (I'm such a sucker for corsets), the decontructed look, the flap on the front -- it's all to die for.  And I know that it's possible -- a couple of regulars on craftster.org recently pieced it all together.  And for those of you who are up for the task, they left behind some priceless instructions -- SHOWstudio may be great with the patterns, but they're horrible with the directions.  It's all there for the taking -- so Godspeed, ye landlubbers and wenches.

For those of you who would rather walk the plank than don anything by the Dread Pirate Galliano himself, as you wish -- SHOWstudio's design_download section has graciously provided you with a few other options -- an absolutely gorgeous kimono-inspired jacket (left) from Alexander McQueen's Fall/Winter 2003 collection, a cape from Yohji Yamamoto, and sometime in the near future they will be adding a pattern from Junya Watanabe's forthcoming Fall/Winter 2005 collection.      

>> Last month it was Citizens of Humanity...this month True Religion...what will be next?  Tsubi? Sass and Bide? Le Temps de Cerises?  All I know is that the age of designer denim has returned; an age in which people are willing to pay $200 and up for one pair of jeans, as long as they're the "right ones."  Yes, I'm talking about that pair that performs a butt lift and liposuction on your thighs, falls to just the right length at your ankles, is comfortable to wear, and even rolls over and plays dead if you ask it.  There's been so much hype, they're even making movies about magical pairs of jeans that fit four very different sized girls well.  It seems as of late that the perfect pair of jeans has become everyone's new Holy Grail -- I mean, even the "fashionistas" at Time Magazine have taken notice -- they recently wrote an article mocking people who pay bigtime for their jeans to have the bejeezus pounded, ground, scrubbed and ripped out of them.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty damn tired of seeing A pockets every two seconds.  At least try out some Stitch's... or some Paige Premiums, people.  Or better yet,  go out on a limb.  Eliminate the jean-dependency that seems to be so prevalent, especially now that jeans becoming more and more acceptable in the workplace.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm just as guilty as you are at wearing jeans every other day, if not more often.  But think about it -- once you put on a pair of jeans, half your outfit is made.  That's why everyone likes them so much in the first place.  Not only that, but pretty much everything goes with jeans.  On the flip side, however, you're losing some of your creative potential -- it's almost lazy to put on a pair of jeans. You could be wearing a skirt or pants that are much more likely to make you stand out from the rest of the denim-wearing populace, but instead you (and I) go for the easy route...the security blanket.  No matter how much you pay for the jeans you're wearing, at first glance, all jeans look like...jeans.  So join me, doff those crazy expensive i-know-five-other-people-that-have-these-jeans, and try a few other looks on your bottom half.  Really, in the summer you don't have an excuse -- skirts are much cooler in the sun -- so use that as your crutch, if need be.  This isn't the '80s, and Brooke Shields isn't a hot young Calvin Klein model -- so you don't have to listen to her any more -- it's okay to let something come between you and your jeans.

If you simply can't wean yourself off your denimy fetish, at least join the "Jeans of the Month" club at grettastyle.com and keep up with the Joneses.  The president of the club, Gretchen Monahan, tries to "look for under the radar styles, sleeper styles."  That way, at least, you won't be like the rest of mankind.   

** sources: international herald tribune, ny times, msn money