Inspired by a simple yet beautiful Instagram photo, by fashion and design superstars at Demu Label, I add my own voice, echoing historical scriveners, to the present paradigm of writers, designers and sketch artists everywhere. I declare, "La plume et le papier ne sont pas mort!" The pen and paper are not dead!

Like a garden shed or one's shoe closet, the journal is a storage unit of sorts: a private spot where one gathers, collects and organizes one's thoughts before committing them to the exposure, sunlight and scrutiny of the harsh outside world. Combined in perfect unison and in complementary usage throughout the creative process and stages, the pen, the journal, the lone bits of hotel notepad paper, plus all necessary digital mechanisms can trudge forth as one. Vive le tablet, vive le laptop, but longer vive the pen and the paper! (Waterman pens, especially :D Thanks, Mom!)

Happy Scribbling!

With the exception of Del Mar, bits of L.A. and Laguna Beach on a Saturday night, Southern California is fast becoming a sartorial desert, at least south of Melrose. If it's not a bevy of cookie cutter, polyester, primary colors, Real Housewivesesque maxi dresses and oversized -just plain over- leather, studded handbags, it's a dusty and prosaic, coastal desert landscape speckled with naught but jeans, hoodies, beanies and Old Navy tees. Enough of the desperately casual look already ... especially when I know darn good and well your hobo get-up cost far more than my weird, New Girl ensemble. Just because economic times are in a downturn, doesn't mean you have to look like a Dust Bowl survivor. Then again, they looked pretty good, considering. Heck, Ralph Lauren did an entire spring line around 1930s rural, migrant style. Certainly, my pal, Miss Hannah Hart, ghostdame of the 1930s herself, has a thought or two on the downgrade of American fashion. Big shock, right?

I'm not so stuffy as to head down George Will's "no blue jeans" road:

Today it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of  loading their bags of clubs into golf carts to go around in public dressed for driving steers up the Chisholm Trail to the railhead in Abilene.

True dat, George! I like the unapologetic snob in George Will and I appreciate, if not completely agree with, his further advice:

For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don’t wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.

I dig my Bebe jeans, bikini tops, sarongs and tattered espadrilles and played, Justin Timberlake dancer fedoras; but I get his frustration, even if it is a bit stiff. It's a reaction to a national theater of drudgery. Does everyone have to look like they're forever taking a break from cleaning their garage?

It's not tough, folks. Pulling on a skirt or a stylish blouse is as easy as pulling on those Kohl's stretch pants or Wal-Mart tee. Heels are easier, in fact, to slip on than tennies. You don't have to have crazy cabbage in the bank to dress up a bit, either. Recession has nothing to do with it; thrift stores are amazing places to scoop up an entire season's gear for less than a month's worth of Americanos. Even better if you're in an area where the hand-me-downs started out at Neiman Marcus, Anthropologie and Barney's. Go, Moi! Plus, eBay gives you a chance to be green a bit by recycling already produced clothing and it's a bonkers vintage marketplace! Yesterday, I was wearing Gucci sunglasses from Israel, a vintage dress from some island off Florida and my newest eBay find: a pair of patent leather Bebe slides I've dubbed my DitaCorsetFeet.

Mix it up, use your imagi-naaation. Toss a vintage, Maggie the Cat slip over those jeans or pair that frowsy tee with a pair of plaid, city shorts. Dolling up, even a little, is a fab way to whisper, "I respect you." to those throughout your day, that simply being around them is special enough to make an effort. It's also a fab way to grab a little self-respect. Now, there is still a handful of folk whom know how to don the goods: Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani, Donny Deutsch and Zooey Deschanel to start. Then, the Europeans ...