Musings from Poppet

Into the Fire

2011-09-03T07:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Life has taken many unexpected turns in the past few years and I now find myself in a new place, with a new life and the desire to write about what I've learned so that someone, even one person in this world, may benefit from my experience. I've heard it said that if you save the life of one person, you change the world. What does it mean to save a life?

A couple years before the tragic events of 9/11, I spent a couple weeks working as an additional costumer on the film "Frequency". In the film, James Caviezel plays the grown son of Dennis Quaid, a fireman who was tragically killed in a fire when his son was just a child. Suddenly, one night the grown son finds that he is able to communicate backward in time to his father, just days before the fire that killed him, using his father's old ham radio. You can predict where the plot of the film goes - the grown son saves his father's life by communicating to him the fatal mistake that he made in the fire, so the father survives the fire, and a young boy who grew up without a father is now a man who has grown up with a father, and his life is changed. That's Hollywood for you. In real life, ham radios don't allow us to communicate to people in our past, and we know that it's not possible to change events once they happen. But, I had an experience on the set of this film that echoes in my heart every year as we approach 9/11.

It was hot, unusually hot, those days in the summer of 1999 when we were shooting the climactic warehouse fire scene of the movie. Doing pyrotechnic stunts in 100 degree heat is never fun, yet there was something rather magical about those days. We had real New York City firemen working as background actors (aka, "extras") in the film, and the men of the FDNY are notoriously good looking - many of them are big flirts. Perhaps, under different circumstances, their behavior would have seemed inappropriate, but any man that can make me feel attractive when the sweat is rolling down my back at 6 a.m., as I hand out 1960's turnout gear from the back of a trailer parked in the lot of an abandoned warehouse in Red Hook, is okay in my book. Even in the heat of the day, there was little grumbling when my fellow costumers and I made the rounds on set, reminding the firefighters to put on their heavy coats and helmets before the cameras rolled. Over the many days and long hours of shooting we began to bond with these men whose lives and livelihood were so different from our own.

One afternoon, we were shooting a wide shot of the warehouse burning. It was all hands on deck - the director wanted every fire truck and firefighter in the shot. He wanted it to look like chaos, so the assistant directors started instructing the men to run around in every direction. As the director called "cut", one of our new firefighting buddies walked over to me and my coworkers saying, "Look at this idiot! He has us running away from the fire. We don't run away from it, we run toward it!" In that moment, I understood what made it possible for firefighters to do what they do - despite every human instinct, they run into the fire.

A couple years later, on a gloriously beautiful September day, over 300 members of the FDNY went into the the two burning towers of the World Trade Center to save the thousands of people trapped inside, and they were killed instantly when those towers collapsed. In the weeks and months that passed, as I paused in front of firehouses all around the City, reading the names and searching the photos of the firefighters who died on 9/11, I remembered those words - "We don't run away from it, we run toward it." I saw names and faces of men that I knew from that innocent summer, just two years before and, while I knew that they died doing what they do, my heart wept, and I continue to weep for their loss.

Many people died on 9/11, some running toward the fire, and some away from it. Many others have died in the years since, from diseases they contracted while trying to clear away the rubble and find bodies, or from wars that were declared in response to the events of that day. But one firefighter saved a life, my life, by giving me words to live by. While I hope I won't be running into any burning buildings, I often ponder what it would mean to live a life where being brave is something you do every day. If I can strive to live that kind of life, perhaps, one day, I'll save a life as well and, in doing so, change the world. If this means anything to you, take this and pass it on. Perhaps you'll save a life too.

MET BALL REDUX

2009-05-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Metropolitan Museum's annual gala benefit for The Costume Institute was held last night. I was reading for weeks the drama and intrigue behind who would attend, who wouldn't, and who would wear what. Even as I sat on the set of the new USA Networks series "Royal Pains", in my cashmere sweatshirt, jeans and wellies, I was reading notices on Twitter and Facebook as the day unfolded.

Many thanks to the folks at Women's Wear Daily for posting photos practically has the event unfolded. I came home from a 14-hour work day and curled up on the sofa with my laptop to see what glamour the fashion world had to offer the world in these most difficult times. I have to admit, my reactions were mixed - there were some real hits, and some rather startling misses. I may only be a vintage-loving costumer having a bad hair day, but here's what I think...

The Hits:

Kate Moss (pictured above) was truly awesome in shimmery gold, back-baring Marc Jacobs. Along with Anne Hathaway's plum silk concoction, the king of 90's grunge proved that he has made a complete 180 into early 21st century glamour. Other stand-outs include Marion Cotillard in Dior, Natalia Vodianova in vintage Fortuny, Rihanna's shoulder statement, Lou Doillon (at left), Jessica Biel, and Claudia Schiffer (we'll forgive her for the bad hair - it was raining).

The Misses:

I've always admired Madonna's ability to transform herself, but the Playboy Bunny look from Loius Vuitton is a direction we didn't need to see. And, the lovely Kate Beckinsale in the human feather-duster look was faintly reminiscent of a character in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". The Olsen twins proved that, while they can rock street looks, they don't know glamour and they don't know how to dress to suit the proportions of their petite bodies. And, speaking of bodies, I'm glad to see that Donatella Versace and Cindy Crawford have still got great ones, but the blue bombshells were anything but glamorous.

MANHATTAN VINTAGE SHOW ROCKS NYC!

2009-04-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

This Friday and Saturday, April 24th and 25th, Chelsea's Metropolitan Pavilion will be overrun with 80 of the hottest vintage clothing and textile designers around. Poppet will be amongst the fray, with new pieces from YSL, Sant'Angelo, Cashin and others. Make a bee line for booth 36 to get piece of the action.

The event runs Friday from 1 pm to 8 pm, and Saturdy from 11 am to 6 pm. The Metropolitan Pavilion is located at 125 W. 18th Street, between 6th nd 7th Aves., in NYC. Admission is $20, but you can get a $5 discount by going to http://www.manhattanvintage.com/. Woo hoo! Don't miss it!

Resurrection

2009-04-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Easter and, I have to admit, I feel a bit like I'm rising from the dead. They say, after a caterpillar spins its cocoon, it's body becomes a sort of DNA soup. It sort of dies to being a caterpillar, in order to become a butterfly. Well, the past few months, I've been "in the soup".

Poppet closed it's doors in the East Village in early March. The time leading up to that, and the month since then, have certainly been eventful.

First, Poppet and I appeared on Italian TV at the beginning of February.

Then, the day after I closed the store in March, I got a message from a friend on Facebook asking if I could do some freelance costuming work on "Did You Hear About the Morgans? , a film starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker. My work on that has consisted primarily of fluffing the background and stunt actors as we spent nights outside with rain towers, but I must say that costume designer Chris Peterson , has got SJP looking fine in Dior, Prada, et al. and Hugh sports custom-made Tom Ford.

Other than that, I've been arranging my private atelier, which I will open for private appointments soon, listing new goodies online, and preparing for the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show (April 24th and 25th) and the Sturbridge Antique Textiles and Vintage Fashions Show & Sale (May 11). More on those soon.

Happy Spring! Time to rise above the madding crowd and soar...

Memory Lane

2008-12-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

In middle school, I never wanted to hang out at the mall like everyone else. While my girlfriends wasted their weekends at Contempo Casuals, my best friend Garen and I would eat sugared popcorn and watch old movies on the VCR in our den. We'd watch our favorites over and over, fast-forwarding to the best parts. I found a clip of one such moment on Youtube yesterday:

The wink at 1:17! SO amazing. This is from The Perfect Partnership, a documentary that my mom taped off of PBS in the 80's. She had a major thing for Nureyev, and can you blame her? Just look at him:

Jeez.
-Emily

Poppet Loves 60's Euro Pop

2008-12-20T09:39:00.000-08:00

Poppet is a vintage boutique in NYC's East Village that caters to the discerning vintage-lover. But, we're more than pretty frocks and mind-blowing monster platforms. We love music, art, politics, our community, life...and we'd like to share it with you. So, for our first post, we'd like to point you in the direction of our fellow blogger Mordi, who maintains blowupdoll.

Clearly Mordi shares our penchant for 60's Euro Pop music and he posts songs for download from some of our favorite European artists, such as Poppet's muse Jane Birkin, as well as some off-the-beaten track recordings from American artists like Sissy Spacek. That's right, the Carrie we all knew and loved before SJP claimed the name. Check it out and let us know what you think.