Interview: Brooklyn Designer, Lauren Nevada

I am so excited to introduce the talented Lauren Nevada and her covetable line that has me desiring a spontaneous trip to Paris, stat. Miss Nevada is based out of Brooklyn spreading her line in Barneys locations across the country. Lucky for my Boston readers, she just launched at Copley Place this summer! Having studied fashion in two of the world's greatest fashion monuments, Paris and Rome, Lauren has a knack for color, quality and feminine cuts. Her pieces are a dreamlike sophistication making an easy transition from work to play. With all of her incredible experience, I'm so happy Lauren stopped by to offer up her fashion insight!

What defines your style philosophy?

The woman who has many interests and is very involved in everything around her. Someone who reads esoteric books, cooks, decorates her own furniture, organizes gardening parties or listens to historic music. I love the idea that each person can be so individual and extreme in their own personality and can be energized by this.

Favorite place to shop?

Vintage and second hand stores.

Beauty secret?

Smile.

Your favorite color and why?

Lavender actually. It can be so many different things, it is a very specific color yet it is all around us and often goes unnoticed.

You have 15 minutes until happy hour with the girls. You look in your closet, there’s nothing to wear- a working girl’s m.o. What do you put together?

When in doubt keep the outfit simple, this way people will have to take a closer look to get to know you and this makes for an interesting evening.

Who (or what) has inspired your fashion career?

Hard to say… although I had a great black and white picture of Coco Chanel with model Suzy Parker on my wall growing up. I found it in a Vogue magazine and popped it in an extra frame with some brown velvet fabric behind it.

What was the greatest advice you were ever given?

My grandmother never stopped telling me how strong women are. This probably played a very large role in my childhood.

Describe your perfect day.

It would be a mixture of good food, time with friends and a nap. It would involve several outfit changes, some exercise and good music if I can fit that in as well.

What should a girl never be without?

A good book to pull out and read whenever things get boring.

Where do you see yourself and your line in 5 years?

Hopefully still having as much fun with it as I am now. I hope to be traveling more often and doing more collaborations with artists each season. Bringing different creative people together is so rewarding, hopefully this is something that I can continue to build on.

Thanks Lauren!

Check out more of Lauren Nevada's amazing styles at http://laurennevada.com/ and be sure to click over to her Projects to see what she's whipping up next! Looks like a trip to Paris to me:).

The Wine Riot

Ok so I know I've been talking champagne and orange juice, but another thing you should know is that somehow, by age 22, I have managed to establish myself a full-blown wine snob. I blame my mother. She's so picky about her wine that if she opens up a well-reviewed, nicely priced Malbec and discovers "it doesn't sit right on her palette" it will move right next to our stove, only to be used in meat reductions. I never meant to turn out this way. In fact, I used to drink wine out of a box! "Blasphemy," my mother would snub.

In my high taste of the grape, I'm excited to announce a very special event in Boston on April 16th & 17th. The Wine Riot, hosted by Second Glass, is an expo-style wine tasting bringing old and new winos to sample over 250 wines from around the world! The riot will take place at Cyclorama in trendy South End. On Friday, April 16, check out "Night of the Bubbles" from 7-11pm, exploring sparkling wine, champagne, cava, prosecco, and more. Since you had so much fun on Friday, you'll want to come back on Saturday, April 17, for two doses of the riot at 1-5pm and 7-11pm. Grab your tickets at www.thewineriot.com/tickets.

The event features crash course seminars with wine experts, tasty food pairings from local eats, a live DJ, a photobooth (to beam your red-stained teeth), the Gold Sparkler Lounge, free schwag, and more. The best part if you go, you might catch my mother feeding the experts some advice. So if you're a wine-snob like me or maybe just a wannabe, this is where we should meet. See you there!

Check out this DIY wine bottle light!