This Friday, March 31st, the 2017 Franco-Irish Literary Festival begins and will continue right through the weekend. Organised by Alliance Française and the Cultural Service of the French Embassy in Ireland, this annual festival celebrates the unique relationship between Ireland, France and other francophone nations through highlighting the work of their writers. With fashion as … Continue reading “Silk for the Feed Dogs” at the Franco-Irish Literary Festival
Festive fun: Jackie Mallon’s Fairytale of New York
Blue and Unassuming Under the Christmas Star is a seasonal spin-off from Jackie Mallon's book, Silk for the Feed Dogs. The story returns to the problems of the loveable but habitually disaster-prone Kat as she tries to find some Christmas spirit in the hearts of the famously grumpy New Yorkers. Jackie Mallon manages to capture what it … Continue reading Festive fun: Jackie Mallon’s Fairytale of New York
A Father’s Day nod from “Silk for the Feed Dogs”
EARLY TRENDS IN FARMING From Silk for the Feed Dogs by Jackie Mallon I heard the engine of the old red Massey Ferguson fart into life and I emerged running, scrambling to get my wellies on. We were on a rescue mission, Da and me. A cow was refusing to feed her calf. I’d seen … Continue reading A Father’s Day nod from “Silk for the Feed Dogs”
Summer in Capri with Kat, Edward… and Jackie Mallon
Excerpt from Silk for the Feed Dogs A barman accepted the fifty, distracted during the aperitivo rush, so we had a little money until new funds arrived. We figured it would stretch farther away from the city, and the next morning we headed for Capri. I expected to see descendants of Brigitte Bardot … Continue reading Summer in Capri with Kat, Edward… and Jackie Mallon
New review! SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS: “full of life and personality”
A fun look at the fashion world, March 25, 2015 By Trent P. McDonald “Silk for the Feed Dogs”, a novel by Jackie Mallon, follows Irish farmer’s daughter Kat Connelly as she works her way through the fashion world from the “fashion” house of a bottom feeder in London to the top of high fashion … Continue reading New review! SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS: “full of life and personality”
Happy St Patrick’s Day from Jackie Mallon
Happy St Patrick's Day!.
“In the beast’s lair”: Jackie Mallon interviewed by Marie-Claire Magazine
From the interview that has just appeared in Marie-Claire Magazine and Atlas Jet Magazine, Turkey: MC: Everybody sees The Devil Wears Prada as the book that brought the real face of fashion to literature, and many people compare your book to Devil. But actually Silk for the Feed Dogs comes from a deeper corner of … Continue reading “In the beast’s lair”: Jackie Mallon interviewed by Marie-Claire Magazine
Come on, baby, light my fire
“Come with me, little girl,” said Fausto, leading me back inside. “I’ll light your candy cigarette for you.” The easiness of us surprised me. I had thought a relationship with an Italian man would be fuelled by arguments and accusations, judging by the amount of couples I came upon in the street doing their impression … Continue reading Come on, baby, light my fire
Australia, I’m Coming…
…just not in person. Nope. They’re sending Kat and Edward. You see, Silk for the Feed Dogs is now on Kindle Promotion for a limited period in Australia! Time to let everyone know Kat and Edward have landed. I’m calling all my Aussie blogging friends; poking on Facebook my fashion lovelies who are ahead of … Continue reading Australia, I’m Coming…
Love fashion? Read from SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS by Jackie Mallon
Silk for the Feed Dogs is currently on promotion in Australia. "I got into my dress and new Prada shoes, smeared Ravish-Me-Red on my lips, and arranged the netting of my hat over one eye. I grabbed my coat and couldn’t get out of that draughty warehouse fast enough. Instead of traffic, the streets were now … Continue reading Love fashion? Read from SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS by Jackie Mallon
Helmut Lang Exhibition by Jackie Mallon
Kirsten for Lang back in the day
As a devotee of his runways in the late 90s and early aughts, I was mighty curious to see this exhibition. The press release describes his use of materials “with a certain history, elements with irreplaceable presence and with scars and memories of a former purpose.” Right then. I was all ready for a nostalgia trip, a slideshow of campaigns featuring his favorite model, Kirsten Owen, captured by his favorite photographer Jurgen Teller, washing softly over my eyeballs as I walked to the Bowery.
Inside I was rewarded with an opportunity for contemplation that would last longer than the time I spent in the gallery and it looks like I won’t arrive at any conclusions during this post either: there’s always time for ruminating on the longevity of fashion; the recycling of clothing; the myth of a fashion icon and the destruction of…
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Kat, Edward, Gatsby, Capote…and Kevin
The Plaza Hotel in NYC by Jackie Mallon
The Plaza Hotel is legendary.
It opened in 1907 when rooms cost $2 50 per night. Now they cost around $800. At the time it placed the largest ever single order for gold-encrusted china and boasted 1,650 crystal chandeliers.
In today’s New York it looks discretely down its nose at all these precious little lifestyle and boutique hotels, hipster upstarts serving their Stumptown coffee as if that can begin to compete with the ceiling of the Palm Court.
As a Manhattan landmark it represents the regal opulence of The Great Gatsby and not the Trumped up hubris of The Donald. It continues to be a goddess of the silver screen from its first starring role in Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North By Northwest to parts in The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby, Almost Famous, Sex & The City, and American Hustle.
Scene from 2013’s The Great Gatsby set…
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Kat and Edward at Christmas
Jackie Mallon about her story in our Christmas collection GIFTS
When Silk for the Feed Dog was published in September 2013, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. There was the obvious reason: I was setting it free to be read and hopefully enjoyed––or to be ignored or, God forbid, hated––but at least it was getting an opportunity to go off and make something of itself. The other reason for the relief was that I was free too.
Mercy me, I didn’t have to spend any more time with that Kat and Edward pair!
We’d been living in each other’s pockets for four years. We knew each other’s quirks and foibles, bad habits, and could finish each other’s sentences. We badly needed a break from each other.
Se ya, wouldn’t want to be ya! I didn’t even wave.
I rallied the old brain cells and giddily embarked on a new writing project.
Initially the lightness about me was intoxicating. Everything…
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“Illustrated Adventures in Fashionland” by Jackie Mallon
To accompany the special week-long Kindle promotion of Silk for the Feed Dogs, I thought I’d post together all my drawings of scenes from the novel. I’ve been asked many times if I’d consider doing a graphic novel version of Silk for the Feed Dogs. A chance would be a fine thing, I say! Although graphic novels tend to have less text than regular novels. That would be the challenge. I like words too.
If only illustrated novels like Alice in Wonderland or all the Charles Dickens classics were the fashionable model nowadays. Illustrated plates, as they were known, are just not part of our reading experience anymore. And they would be too expensive to produce in our print-threatened times. Already we don’t like to pay as much for books when digital versions are cheaper and more portable.
But the Sir John Tenniel in me is itching to get…
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“Why do I write” by Jackie Mallon
This is the question posed by my blogmate, Kate at Maison Bentley Style. It’s part of a blog hop. I could never say no to Kate. She is the big hearted, ever-so-stylish epicenter of my blogging society; our intrepid heroine and our gracious hostess. She is the pre-scandal Lily Bart; the always charismatic Daisy Buchanan; the nobly independent Jo Marsh of my circle.
Why do I write, you ask, Kate? Well, that’s like asking why one would want to disappear through this little gate…
What am I working on now?
Despite weeks lost to my well-documented home search and the attendant broker, mortgage, co-op application misery, I am about two thirds of the way through my second novel. First draft, mind you. And, full disclosure, it doesn’t have a beginning yet, nor have I any idea of the route to take to arrive at the ending. But it’s still an easier…
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“Ekphrasis” by Jackie Mallon
I’ve been up on the roof. no, not to throw myself off. There’s no WiFi up there. The lengths––or heights––I will go to in order to dodge the clutches of procrastination. I have a new writing project deadline which I’ll tell you about later.
You would have loved it up there this week. You hear the city below, the symphony of sirens, a school bell faintly, voices from other rooftops that sound like seagulls’ cries, a door slamming in the belly of the building, a car horn, but the noises are all so gentle and far far away. Even though I had work to do I felt like I was on holiday. On a beach even. I felt like one of those writers with the means to retreat to an exclusive island hideaway every time they have a deadline (I’m sure these blessed individuals still exist–I don’t know any but…
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Literature and Art: Jackie Mallon about “Painted Women”
My current reading: Augustus John by Michael Holroyd published 1974
Immersed in research for my second novel, I stumbled upon the painter, Augustus John. He was an interesting type and no mistake but it is his women who truly fascinate. Upon reading descriptions of them, how they spoke and looked and thought, I sought out their portraits. Style mavens with names like Dorelia, Ida (surname Nettleship, no less), Alick, Euphemia, Estella, Arabella, Guilhermina, Ottoline, Clarissa, Caitlin, Amaryllis, Iris, formed a pageant of poetically monikered muses that fuelled his art. They would fuel my sketches too if I had a collection to design. Instead they will fuel my fiction.
Marchesa Casati by Augustus John
Known for “a compelling stare when he looked at a woman,” Augustus John’s quest for the next enigmatic face was a compulsion he made no apologies for. It was a congenital weakness. A coquettish voice emanating from…
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“Dollmaker” by Jackie Mallon
Jackie Mallon, the author of SILK FOR THE FEED DOGS: “We do not want to be Barbie dolls…”
I can’t hold my tongue any more. It’s abuse of position. Jeremy Scott is using the glittering Moschino name to peddle his own nasty wares. Can we call security? Get this guy outta here! This is one Scot(t) that should have been granted independence this week!
Okay, so he has a sense of humor and thinks fashion should be fun. He doesn’t know the code and is trespassing on our property
Franco Moschino had a clever, questioning, political point of view, using his fashion as a platform to tackle issues of consumerism, drugs, AIDS….and then, as well as all that, he knew how to have a laugh, yes.
Through fashion Franco bantered with women; he engaged in witty repartee. Even when he embroidered For Fashion Victims Only on our back, or Waist of Money around our middle, it was clear he loved women. There was respect behind what he did…
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Students, It’s Showtime!
Jackie Mallon, fashion designer and the author of Silk For The Feed Dogs, proudly presents the accomplishments of her students.
“Silk for the Feed Dogs, set in the international fashion industry, follows a young graduate as she strives for success while evading the snapping jaws of those villainous and ravenous “feed dogs,” gatekeepers to her dreams.”
“I never know what I really want so I flirt with the fabric a little while.”
Nassim Shadmani, born in Persia, might play coy initially but there’s no questioning her commitment to the relationship between design and fabric. She creates sumptuous and seductive dresses, as liquidy as Lanvin, using only one seam. Only one.
Nassim’s sketches
“It is from this kind of discipline I will grow as a designer.”
Ladies, you will melt. There’s vulnerability and confidence in every stitch. Inspired by the idea of contornionism, her “Bend, not break” collection plays with twisting and draping, matt and sheen, dark teal, silver and slate, slippery charmeuse and double-faced silk, to depict an unpredictable sensuality. The nonchalant ease of a slinky dressing gown with the intrigue of a geisha’s ceremonial wrapping.
Nassim was one of thirteen students representing the Art Institute of New York City who showed their graduate collections in…
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