New Year, New Blog?

Well no, not quite. But new me for sure! I haven't blogged in so long it feels so weird to be sitting here on my new couch in my new apartment... blogging. I miss you guys. I miss blogging.


Let's play catch up in case you're new here or it's been a while.


My life has changed in the following ways:
* I am now a 30 year old divorcee. Shitty.
* I moved out of my home (for obvious reasons) and am now renting an apartment a town over
* I lost about 10 lbs (yay) from stress and depression (boo) but am now getting into a happy place which means it's on it's way back on my body (BIG boo, but yay for being happy)
* I made my TV debut a few weeks back on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
* I am learning the joy of buying less expensive shoes. Less $ = more shoes! DUH!

My old shoe set up was pretty cool...

Packing my shoes wasn't as fun.

Ok, so.... Let's start fresh with a little about me.

Hi! I'm Celine Ouaknine. I grew up in Huntington Beach, California. I like to joke that I was born in high heels, and although that's obviously not true, I was born with the love of shoes in my blood.

My father (right), a former professional soccer player, came to the US from Morocco in the 70's. He started off as a shoe salesmen and had a natural talent for it. He worked his way up and eventually co-founded a company called French Follies. They made cute little espadrilles and ballet inspired shoes. From there he went on to Guess and Charles David footwear, where he eventually became President of the company and brought it to its height of popularity in the late 80's.

I was so lucky to grow up around shoes. I was the only girl in the 8th grade wearing the kick ass ankle boots Guess was famous for... and remember those Guess jellies?? Yep. I had those too. And at a whopping hundred bucks a pair, let's just say I made a lot of new friends when I came to school in those! That's the first time I felt the power of a hot shoe.

In the 90's, my dad left Charles David/Guess Footwear to pursue a new venture... Bebe Footwear! It was his first shoe license, and it was super successful. Soon after he started his own line with his namesake, Joey O. Since then his company has held the exclusive licenses for L.A.M.B. Footwear, Harajuku Lovers footwear, Charles Jourdan footwear, Laundry by Shelly Segal footwear, Antik Denim footwear, Playboy footwear, Zinc foowear, Hale Bob footwear, Badgley Mischka footwear, Mark and James by B.M. footwear, Betsey Johnson footwear, Betseyville footwear, Jill Stuart footwear, JLO Footwear, True Religion Footwear, Joe's Jeans Footwear, and Adrienne Maloof footwear. Awesome, right!? :) did I type "footwear" enough?

So... like I said, shoes are in my blood! I realized this at an early age, when I would go into my mom's closet and pull out her shoes and clear off my book shelves, fill them with shoes, and put a sign up that said "Shoe Show". I didn't really know what it meant, other than that was where my dad was always flying off to. Shoe shows. I wanted to be a part of it!
I went to design school in Milan, Italy when I was 20. My professors at Ars Sutoria taught me all about making shoes, including sketching, pattern making, leather tanning, and lots of technical shoe stuff. It was intense.

From shoe school to designer! After graduating from my shoe program I went back home and started working as the assistant to the designer of my dad's company, Titan Industries. At the time, we were only making bebe and Joey O Footwear, and were about to go after our second license, JLO Footwear. I was a part of that project and I loved it! It was so exciting putting what I had learned to use. I was off to China and working my butt off. I was the assistant to our head designer for a little over a year when I got offered the job of taking over as the designer for Playboy. It wasn't anything I had ever thought I would do, but it was a chance to be my own designer! No more assisting!!! I took it! Then, a few months after accepting the position as designer for Playboy, I was offered another line; Zinc footwear! I took it!!! I loved working with Zinc. The clothing was cute and the shoes were much more "my style". 

Later still, I was given the job as designer of JLO footwear.

I launched the debut collection (and every collection thereafter) for Harajuku Lovers in August 2008, and in May of 2009 I took over as designer of Betsey Johnson footwear until Steve Madden bought out 

the company in October of 2010.

Currently I'm designing for Bebe footwear, Adrienne Maloof Footwear, and just launched my own line, Cece L'amour, which I am very excited about.

I love my job! I get to work with shoes every day. It's my job to look at shoes in magazines, online, in stores, and on the streets. It's a dream job honestly, and I feel lucky every day. My obsession is my job... So cool!

Betsey Johnson and I backstage before her runway show <3

Gwen Stefani and I after a L.A.M.B. runway show <3

Mark Badgley, James Mischka and I at a Nordstom personal appearance. Two of the NICEST guys you'll ever meet <3

So thats me, more or less.

My new shoe set up? Well OK since you asked... Here's a sneak peak but I'll be doing a full post on my new apartment soon.

:)

So stay tuned. 2012 is going to be a good year... Thank you all for your continued kind words and support. It really means so much.

LOVE and kisses,

Friends and Fashion Week, The Dramatic Conclusion, Part 1

Ha! You like my blog titles lately don't you? There should only be one more to finish all these fashion week posts, I just have too much stuff to fit into one or two posts. You understand... ;)

Next up? Tuesday the 14th and another double runway show day.

First was Badgley Mischka and it was really beautiful. You guys know my friend Jess designs their shoes right? We now also do their Mark and James line, a younger more casual line. Both looked great and I loved the show. It was all so pretty and girly and I loved the bouncy soft curls and pink floral background.
Here are some of my favorite looks...

(photos NY Mag)

I'm really loving the whole 70's vibe that fashion has gone into. It's so feminine flouncy and flattering. FFFFFF

Some of my stalkerazzi shots...

barf.

heeeey girls!

Next up? The hot mess that was the bebe show. Ya I said hot mess. The line was a joke. It was literally a city block long and that was when I arrived at 6 when the shoe was supposed to start. The security didn't know what they were doing and were letting all kinds of people sneak in. People with assigned seats were waiting in line and when they announced that they were at full capacity at 6:30, people were pissed. I heard complaints from the press line- someone from a HUGE magazine was there and was not being let in. It was ridiculous.
Luckily I got pulled in by one of the girls running the show, but at that point the show was almost over and my seat was taken.
Hot. Mess.
I have no photos because I couldn't see sh*t and I'm butt hurt.

OMG and then the bebe after party!! hahahaha. It was ok. I took my friend Ana with. We hung out for a bit, had a drink and then left early to eat really quick. Then we came back and giiiiiirl... wouldn't you know the open bar was closed. No biggie. A $15 glass of wine it would be.
Then there was this douche of a bus boy, bus man really,who tried to take our drinks away (we set them on the table) and said "the free party is over" to which I replied, "that's ok. This was a $15 glass of shitty wine." He called me a liar and and a cheap bitch. I'm serious you guys. It was really psycho.
He quickly grew to hate us and kept walking by and calling us bitches... SO weird. And when we left I spilled my remaining drink on the table (THAT was bitchy, I know) and he chased us and SPIT on Ana!!!!!!! hahahahahaha. Insanity!!

Next up is the L.A.M.B show and my debut in Vogue. (sort of)

My Friends are Gorgeous AND Talented!

You guys have to check this out! My annoyingly beautiful and very talented friend Skully handcrafts these beautiful one of a kind veils, and when you see them you'll make up a reason to need a veil!

Check it out- En-Veil.com

Then there's one of my oldest and dearest friends, Jessica Palermo, who is getting married next month. We're going to celebrate her bachelorette in a really exciting way! Well, In MY opinion anyway.

Jess is not your average bachelorette. She's incredibly creative (she designs Badgley Mischka footwear and is our new and improved Charles Jourdan designer) and entertainingly quirky so when talking about what we should do for her party I knew she'd be into my sort of out there theme.

The idea came from Jess and I laughing about the average party where girls wear embarrassing condom covered veils and are surrounded by their scantily clad girl friends. Not really our style.

I thought it would be really cool and glamorous to sort of do the opposite. To have all the girls dress in sexy black dresses and vintage black veils (enter the En-Veil tie-in) and call it "mourning the death of her singlehood"... yes I'm serious, and to my pleasant surprise- Jess loved the idea!

Doesn't that sound fun!?

What fun crazy things have you guys done for a bachelor/bachelorette party?? Spill it!

Readers, Meet Jessie. Jessie, Meet Readers...

So I asked my (literally) life long friend Jessica Palermo to contribute to my blog from time to time. She's my partner in design for Hale Bob and she also does Badgley Mischka footwear on her own. Our dad's are business partners and best friends. Jess and I have VERY different style, which I think is the most exciting part about us designing together. 

Anyway- she's going to post soon and I just wanted to give her a little intro. ;)

She's way more fashion savvy than I am and was featured on The Sartorialist blog a few months ago. She'll hate me for telling you that but I'm not making her a blog administrator so she can't do anything about it! BWA-HA-HA!