Diane von Furstenberg Crochet Dress at GROWop

Each week Gem features one standout piece from a local shop. Whether it’s a jacket, necklace, or handbag, it’s on our have-to-have list. What: This vintage Diane von Furstenberg dress is cut in a mod, slouchy silhouette, with an orange Creamsicle color scheme. It’s a summery crochet that could fashionably…

Five Sure Signs the Mustache Trend Needs to Die (Please)

Dear anyone (and everyone) who has ever considered cutting a mustache out of felt and putting it on, well, anything, It’s time to let go. Not only is your fascination with this variety of facial hair a little disturbing, it’s a little late. The mustache (as it’s currently known in embroidered pillow,…

Fashion Fantastico: Be Part of the Second Annual Event

Calling all fashion inspired uniquely gifted artists: For the first time in Arizona, Fashion Fantastico is hosting a wearable arts event. Fashion Fantastico is an event that allows the human body to become a canvas and allows fashion and art to become a performance. And this year, the group’s members are…

Pinterest: An Illustrated Field Guide (Plus a Few Survival Tips)

​Friends, creatives, crafty types, and internet obsessed — meet Pinterest, the prettiest time suck you’ll ever see. No need to worry about small talk, Pinterest will cut to the chase. It already knows all your friends from all your networks and is wide open to anything you’d like to pin on…

Downtown’s Roller Skate Shop SEVEN13SK8 Hangs Tight with Plans to Expand

Inside the ever-open door of SEVEN13SK8 in downtown Phoenix is a space home to quality roller skate parts, street-fashionable accessories, and abstract paintings by Kristine Brambilla. The local artist just finished the store’s exterior mural (and a few others on the neighboring storefronts in the OPtic complex on Third and McKinley…

Burlesque at FilmBar, Vernacular Typography, and Christopher Walken Reads Where the Wild Things Are

1. Scandalesque Presents: FilmBar VignettesThis Saturday, the Scandalesque Vixens will perform center stage at Downtown’s FilmBar. The group, known for their acrobatic ballet and burlesque performances, will perform vignettes featuring individual scandalesque talents. The feather and leather-clad ladies will take the stage at 10 p.m.. Tickets are $25. More info here. …

Julia Chaplin Talks Gypset Style at Phoenix Art Museum

Despite Julia Chaplin’s seemingly constant globe-trotting (she’s recently spent time in Uruguay and Brazil, and travels to Mexico today), the writer insists she’s an interloper — a sort of Margaret Mead when it comes to understanding and documenting gypset culture.What’s “gypset”? It’s pretty simple actually. Combine the roaming lifestyle of…

Nostra Style House Opens on Sixth Street in Downtown Phoenix

The GROWop and Butter Toast, two of our favorite hunting grounds for vintage treasures in downtown Phoenix, welcomed a new (and stylish) neighbor last month. Located in a converted historic home on Sixth Street, Nostra Style House is a new boutique in the former Roose Salon space on Roosevelt Row.  Style-wise, Nostra straddles the line that…

Big Rose Ring at Chadwick the Jeweler

Each week Gem features one standout piece from a local shop. Whether it’s a jacket, necklace, or handbag, it’s on our have-to-have list. What:  With Valentine’s Day coming soon (and keeping in mind the unyielding forgetfulness of boyfriends, fiancees, and husbands everywhere), Chadwick The Jeweler has grouped together a collection…

Downtown Sewing Lounge Now Open on McKinley Street

Attention sewing fans: If you’re looking to learn something new or swap tricks and fabrics for your next big project, you’ll want to check out Downtown’s newest crafty addition. Tina Eaves, who owns and operates the spot at 341 E. McKinley (in the OPtic building), says she opened the Downtown…

Simon Doonan’s Gay Men Don’t Get Fat and Spring Trend of Choice

During a recent appearance at Barneys in Scottsdale, Simon Doonan (famed former window dresser for the upscale department store and currently its creative amabassador-at-large) signed his latest book, a humorous diet dissertation, Gay Men Don’t Get Fat. As a crowd of ladies and a few well-dressed gents stood in line…

Chanel Button Ring at Vintage By Misty

Each week Gem features one standout piece from a local shop. Whether it’s a jacket, necklace, or handbag, it’s on our have-to-have list. What: Leave it to the fashion plates at Vintage By Misty to scrounge up disembodied Chanel buttons and transform them into costume jewelery. The gorgeously curated downtown…

Making Terrariums with The GROWop’s Kenny Barrett and Joshua Hahn

Kenny Barrett’s no stranger to dirt and a few plants. The local creative and one of the founders of the Roosevelt Growhouse and the GROWop in downtown Phoenix spends most of his time tending to the boutique/urban garden’s produce and managing Valley of the Sunflowers, the two-acre lot-revitalization project across the…

Meat Market Vintage to Open Brick-and-Mortar Shop in Tempe

Fans of locally-owned, Ebay-based clothing shop Meat Market Vintage rejoice. The store’s owners announced via Facebook plans to open a brick-and-mortar storefront at 1020 S. Mill Ave., in Tempe — former home to Three Roots Coffee House & Cafe — adding, “We can’t wait to venture out of the fluorescence…