Urban Pulse

THE OUTNET.COM launched a new collection in collaboration with Oscar de la Renta last week. Oscar de la Renta for THE OUTNET.COM was inspired by his quintessential silhouettes that are perfect for spring. Featuring twenty-four exclusive new classics for the modern woman, the collection highlights gorgeous floral dresses, polished separates, and ladylike shapes that epitomize the Oscar aesthetic.

THE OUTNET.COM’s managing director, Stephanie Phair, welcomed prominent San Francisco women in the fashion, technology, and media spaces to a beautiful luncheon at Cookhouse San Francisco to introduce the exciting collaboration.

The women in attendance got an exclusive first look at the new collection and were invited to shop their favorite pieces in advance before many sold out the next day. Lauren Goodman, Fashion Director of 7×7 Magazine said that the luncheon hosted “[an] amazing group of women under one roof. Well done THE OUTNET!”

To view the collection and shop your own favorites visit THE OUTNET.COM. We love #OSCARxTHEOUTNET

via Bold Italic by Wendy Steiner

Everyone in SF seems to be playing a perpetual game of catch-up. The moment we wake up, we check our phones for what we’ve missed while we were sleeping, and if you’re like me, you keep checking until it’s time to set your alarm all over again before bed. After all this is a world where “POIDH” (pics or it didn’t happen) is an acronym that some people live by. I spend enough brain power sweating the big stuff like relationships, politics, religion, and my hair that I don’t have the excess time or battery life to spend worrying about how to organize my photos, keep up with everyone else’s, and you know, live life better.

Luckily, these days there are apps to make things a little easier, and recently the people at WideAngle in Seattle invited me to try out their new iPhone and iPad app to see how it might alleviate some stress in regards to keeping track of photos. The WideAngle app gathers your photos from Facebook, Instagram, your phone, computer, email – even text message pics.  Then you can save the photos you want to keep, and choose ones to share with friends. After giving it a whirl, I’ve found that WideAngle provides some handy solutions to problems that busy FOMO-fearing San Franciscans face these days.

I moved from LA, and I still have a lot of good friends down south. Just because I moved doesn’t mean I don’t want to know when they do something important like get a new tattoo, post drunk selfies, or gain weight – especially if they gain weight in the form of a baby. Wading through the hot mess that Facebook calls a News Feed to find my friends’ latest pics isn’t always easy. And some pals pretend they’re all artsy, only sharing their Amaro-filtered landscapes and food porn on Instagram, while bombing FB with their party pics, and reserving Gmail for family-friendly vacation photos. I’ve always wanted one single place to catch a fast glimpse at what all my besties are doing and not have to log in and out of different apps to do so.

WideAngle shows you the last 30 pics your selected friends have posted across their social networks like Facebook AND Instagram. WideAngle keeps me from missing anything, which is perfect because if my friends go to Vegas without me, I’ll know before their flight even lands.

If you live in San Francisco, you probably take the majority of your pics on your smartphone. Easy peasy, right? But you may also have a point-and-shoot digital camera, a fancy 35mm camera, and maybe even a Polaroid or Holga if you swing analog. Suddenly, storing, organizing, and sharing all the images you’ve taken on various devices gets a whole lot harder. San Francisco is no stranger to six or seven people living together, so why is it so hard to find one home for all my damn photographs?

WideAngle offers a place to keep everything in one spot – from pics on your phone to iPhoto archives to scanned-in shots. A cool feature of the app is that you can sort your images by categories like events, people, cameras, or anything you find helpful. Good news for the next time I want to admire my shameless pictures of latte art.

Problem: It’s hard to keep (track of) my favorite pics

Remember when your friend posted that comment on your Facebook wall two birthdays ago, that photo of a cat, dog, and rat all eating the same piece of cake? You probably wish you could see it again, don’t you? Unfortunately, you also probably don’t have two hours to wade through all your wall posts to find it. And what happens when your laptop finally dies and with it goes the 10 million photos you forgot to back up on that external hard drive gathering dust under your desk? If only there was a photo heaven for these pics.

Solution:

WideAngle offers cloud storage for your photos. If you somehow manage to get the karma payout you’ve been hoping for in the form of an insanely hot tagged photo of yourself, you can save it within WideAngle and know that it will be there long after your tan and abs are gone. Finally, I have some peace of mind knowing that I can always relive the time my ex-boss’ Facebook got hacked, and when my best friend sat in a bathtub filled with chicken nuggets. That really happened. Awesome, right?

Part of the fun of posting a photo online is the reaction you get from your friends and followers. For me, it’s not satisfying enough to just have someone like a photo, I want to inspire conversation and get the last word in the long stream of comments. When I save my photos on my laptop or phone, I’m bummed that I can’t also save all the snarky words that went along with them.

WideAngle knows the conversations that photos can stir up are as important as the images themselves. The WideAngle app includes the likes and comments your photos inspired to help you remember the context around a picture, or who you should be mad at for calling you an outfit repeater.

Do It Yourself

Simplify your photo viewing and storage with WideAngle. The WideAngle app will be launching in just a few weeks (Check out the photos from theWideAngle preview party on our Facebook page).  Head over towideangle.com and get on the list to get in first. And then give it a try and tell us what you think.

via MTV Style by Gaby Wilson

Celebrity sightings during New York Fashion Week are certainly not hard to come by (may we present Exhibit A?), but there’s defintiely one star cameo that, in anticipation of the Big Apple’s most stylish week, we were MOST excited for: Selena Gomez at adidasNEO‘s teen-curated runway show. Gomez is a brand ambassador for NEO alongside her on-again-off-again boo piece Justin Bieber, but Sel’s involvement also goes a bit deeper than Biebsy’s, designing pieces for the brand as well as helping pick the 30 teen-styled looks featured in the final show.

Rather than showing a brand new collection for Fall/Winter 2013, this adidas NEO show was more of a celebration of Spring/Summer 2013 (just starting to hit stores) than a presentation of fresh designs. We weren’t sure that Sel was sitting front row and center as WWD had originally reported, but certainly wouldn’t blame her since the show drewattention from protesters with a few even infiltrating the event, handing out pamphlets and attempting to storm the stage. Sel closed the show with a thank you message and linked arms with her models for pictures. NEO’s other ambassador, Bieber, wasn’t present. Well, not technically.

Justin was never confirmed to attend the show in the first place, and with his already hectic Saturday Night Live rehearsal schedule this week, we’ll cut him a little slack. As it happens, though, Bieber may have been there anyways (in spirit, at least) via these drop-crotch sweatpants — his favorite!

Like us on Facebook so we can be friends and follow us on Twitter @MTVstyle to talk.

Our client PACT just launched an inspiring new initiative with Whole Kids Foundation and Indiegogo. The three companies have joined forced to raise money to build 100 urban gardens across the U.S through a crowd funding initiative.  The “Grow Urban Gardens” campaign will run from January 21 to February 28, 2013.

To engage and inspire community support around the garden campaigns, each garden’s campaign will be led by a “PACTivist” who acts as an advocate to raise $2,500 for each garden. As an added incentive, PACT will offer gifts from its new urban garden-inspired Spring/Summer 2013 collection for each $25 to $250 donation made online. 

 

Urban Gardens are a great way for kids and adults to learn about the importance of eating healthy and experience the benefits of digging, planting and eating your own vegetables or fruits. Through this partnership we are able to help drive change in local communities around the country while wearing our PACT apparel. 

We HEART wearpact.com

 

via Beauty Junkies Unite by Amber Murray

Inspired by the Tuscan Countryside…

In Northern California, there’s this amazing 550 acre ranch where beautiful olive oil is made. Olive oil from Northern California? Sounds odd, doesn’t it? But it’s true. At McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma, California, founder Nan McEvoy brought in experts and imported 1,000 seedlings from Tuscany, and boom! Fantastic, artisanally created olive oil from Marin County was born.

It was hard work, I’m sure—but so worth the reward, because they’re now producing six varieties of rich, certified organic olive oil. Some of which, goes into their 80 Acres line of bath and bodycare products. I’m enjoying trying the products out, but one immediately stuck out like a sore thumb as a Fab Find; meet the 80 Acres Lavender Olive Oil Body Balm…

This gorgeous, hand-crafted balm is 97% organically-sourced, and is comprised of an olive oil base that is 81% of the entire formula. This makes the dense balm immediately break down as body heat warms it, melding into a soothing blend of oils that nurture and intensively hydrate the skin. This blend of olive oil, jojoba oil, beeswax, and Vitamin E is rich in antioxidants, and is handcrafted from only the purest ingredients. The aromatic notes of lavender really sing in this product, in which I was surprised to learn is also harvested on the hillsides of McEvoy Ranch. They’re really utilizing every resource up there, and it sounds so beautiful—I’d love to visit!

I highly recommend this balm! I’ve been using it at night—on my cuticles, hands, arms, and legs, and I absolutely love it. I recommend using this at night since it has such a high olive oil content, it’s very rich and a little goes a very long way. If lavender isn’t your favorite scent, they also handcraft a delicious blood orange fragrance from the citrus and jasmine grown on the ranch, in addition to their signature scent, Verde. Both of which are also available in the Olive Oil Body Balm.

97% Organic Ingredients: California Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Beeswax, Vitamin E, Lavender or Blood Orange Essential Oil Blend or Verde Fragrance

Price & Availability…

$14 for 2 ounces, $24 for 3.75 ounces, mcevoyranch.com

via The Huffington Post By Ellie Krupnick

Adidas’ NEO Label, one of the sportswear company’s style-driven brands, has just scored big: Selena Gomez has signed on as NEO Label’s new style ambassador. According to an Adidas press release:

As adidas NEO Label’s new style ambassador, Selena will inspire teens with the label’s fresh looks through a three-year partnership until end-2015. As well as sporting her favorite NEO looks, Selena will make appearances for the label in major markets throughout 2013 and 2014 and share NEO’s latest news, designs and collections through her social media networks. She will front NEO’s seasonal campaigns under its “Live Your Style” positioning, starting with Spring/Summer 2013 to debut in February 2013.

Wait a minute — that sounds an awful lot like the press release we got last month, which went a little something like this:

As adidas NEO Label’s new global style icon, Justin Bieber will inspire teens with the label’s fresh looks through a two-year partnership until end-2014. As well as sporting his favorite NEO looks, Justin will make appearances for the label in major markets throughout 2013 and share NEO’s latest news and collections through his social media networks. He will front NEO’s seasonal campaigns under its “Live Your Style” positioning, starting with Spring/Summer 2013 to debut in February.

So what’s the deal? On the one hand, it makes sense for Selena and Justin to be shilling for the same brand — they both have massive reach with the same tween demographic and are arguably more popular as a pair than individuals. On the other hand, the timing of the announcement, about a month after Bieber’s, seems suspicious. The pair reportedly split earlier this month but have seemingly reconciled already… and sources have reported that Gomez is sticking around simply becauseBieber is “good for her brand.”

Aaaaand that’s about as much Jelena analysis as we can handle (we’ve got a short attention span for such things). Suffice it to say that Gomez and Bieber will be sticking together for a few more years care of the cupids at Adidas NEO. Hooray?

Ideas to add a little holiday cheer under the tree — without the hefty price tag. See our 12 picks, all photographed with Instagram

By Orli Ben-Dor

9. All-Stripe Classics Sock Bundle for Men and Women

via Forbes.com

by Ann Abel, Contributor

You know the French Laundry and Bouchon, Auberge de Soleil and Meadowood. You have some 400 wineries to choose from. Tours can be arranged by limo, bicycle, or hot air balloon. In short, Napa Valley has no shortage of options. To attempt a definitive guide would be futile. Instead, here’s what impressed me during a recent crush-time jaunt through the valley.

Eco-chic hotel: Bardessono, Yountville

The LEED Platinum hotel is as green as it gets—but refreshingly unsanctimonious and compromise-free. Its 62 guest rooms are big (from 550 square feet), beautiful, and smart: Motion detectors adjust temperature, lighting, and drapes when you enter or leave the room, so there’s no maddening tech to mess with. Their big bathrooms double as spa treatment rooms, but there’s also a jewel box spa that uses cult lines Carita and Dr. Alkaitis and has one of the best spa boutiques around. Bardessono’s Lucy restaurant uses produce grown in its own gardens and from top-notch area farmers.

If you’re one who likes to get a head start on those gift lists of yours we have some wonderful products for you to consider adding. Three of our clients, Method, PACT and 80 Acres have amazing holiday gifts for this season, that are great gifts for everyone on your list.

Method’s holiday line features a gel hand soap, foaming hand soap, and dish soap in delectable scents of Sugar and Spice (Sugared Mint gel hand wash, Ginger foaming hand wash, and Sugared Mint dish soap) and the wintry fragrances Evergreen Nice (Frosted Fir gel hand wash, Mistletoe foaming hand wash, and Frosted Fir dish soap).

PACT, the makers of organic clothing, has an awesome holiday Sock Bundle they are introducing this season. PACT’s sock bundles are the perfect gift or stocking stuffer: colorful, warm and cozy. In addition, part of the proceeds will support Veronika Scott and her organization, The Empowerment Plan, which provides comfort to the homeless in the form of jackets as well empowers homeless women to gain independence.

With all this holiday shopping you should relax a bit and get a gift for yourself, or those who love luxury. 80 Acres is an organic olive oil based body care line that is both luxurious and healing. Their products range from salt scrubs and body balm, to candles and lip balm. Most of their products come in their signature scents of Verde, Lavender, and Blood Orange, which reflect the rolling hills and fragrant gardens on the McEvoy Ranch property.

These products not only make for a gift to spoil yourself, but can also make great stocking stuffers for those you love and want to treat.

For more information about any of our clients, please visit their websites linked above. Happy Holiday shopping from Arieff Communications!