which is the title of an Oscar nominated best picture movie starring Daniel Day Lewis whose plotline, according to the IMBd website is “A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.” It could also be a plotline for a lot happening in today’s business environment. And, it, the subject title of this blog entry, was also a standout color seen during New York’s Fall 2008 Fashion Week ending this past Friday.

“The pair of crimson dresses at the start of Keren Craig’s and Georgina Chapman’s presentation for Marchesa was in such a deep and precise shade of red that it could have been mixed by a lipstick chemist,” wrote Cathy Horyn in last Friday’s NY Times article covering Fashion Week.

But it was the Rodarte collection that really made it come home to me that indeed those that are often the reflectors of our times, movies and fashion, are currently making frequent, albeit poetic, references to that stuff that curses through our veins carrying with it both the promise of hope and the threat of violence. Blood: does it speak to the times and how passionate many of us have become about what we believe in? Does it speak to the upcoming U.S. Presidential election, the bloodbath the home and therefore stock markets and thus retail industry have taken lately? Probably. Probably all that, and, I shudder to think, more. Like the movie, There Will Be Blood, it calls to mind, bloodlines…blood is thicker than water and all that stuff. Rodarte claims the two Muleavy sisters as its designers, for instance. Well, its a thought.

It also occured to me that the 1960’s era film, “Across the Universe,” which sang (literally) of another turbulent time in our history called on imagery that induced not just the color but also the spilling of blood.

Top Marchesa image by Jennifer Altman for the NY Times. Rodarte Images, Fall 2008, Courtesy Style.com. Click on There Will Be Blood, a Paramount Vantage and Mirimax production to see the haunting movie trailer. Across the Universe, Sony Pictures. Both Movies Rated R. Click on above image to see a film clip of Across the Universe and hear the legendary music of the Beatles.

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Hard to find, but I found a couple….my advice would be to try to design some a little more representative of the 60’s and 70’s. I searched all of the usual suspects: patchwork quilts come close, but Anthropologies Viceroy Garden duvet cover and pillows is a little closer. The wave duvet and pillow set is better especially if it came in a yellow and orange and brown combination but I can’t find the blue one even anymore. One from Urban Outfitters comes close to the period as well.

So, like I said, let’s design some especially for back to school and back to college 09-2010. Call me, I’d be happy to help.

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Good game, good Superbowl Commercials.

My favorite so far is the SoBe Life Water thrillicious ads with geico-like lizards dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, almost as good as the original….hope to score the video; “>got it!

I think the trailer for the movie “>”Wanted,” made it look like the latest and greatest futuristic movie out there, with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy along with Morgan Freeman (now you’re talkin’), it can’t lose. Next generation Matrix (I hope).

3rd & 4th on my list are the E*Trade Banking Baby Commercials, hilarious!

The first one shows “>trading online is so easy a baby can do it….

The second ETrade one is “>what the “baby” boys are going to do with the coin they’ve scored….

Oh, yeah, and New York, congratulations! Good one.

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I have a prediction for me for 2008 and that is that this is going to be a year of firsts; everything I am coming across of late just tops it all. This latest one is from Discovery News and I think I’ll be throwing many things out once this gets to market cause it solves just about all of my desktop organizational problems; Smart Quickie Notes Organize Themselves (and other uses for RFID tags): an official solution to the ubiquitous Post-It-Note.

Read On….

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Suzani, which means needlework in Persian, is the name given to large, embroidered textiles from Central Asia that were used as hangings or bed covers. These textiles were made of several panels of cotton or linen cloth that were embroidered with silk thread. To create the piece, the designs were first drawn on the panels in ink by either a family member or a hired professional. Several women in the family would then embroider different panels, and after the embroidery was complete, the panels would be sewn together to form the finished cloth. (Text from the Textile Museum.org: textile of the month)
Suzani were made in cities and towns in Central Asia; the different motifs on the textiles indicate where they were produced.

The image above was graciously brought to Trendbites by Maryam from My Marakesh blog who is well on her way to opening (February 08) her online store,