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Kate Schelter celebrates 10 years of her agency in NYC ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Andrew Andrew strike a pose at The Electric Room ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Giles Mendel and Kylie Case ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Paper magazine market editor Luigi Tadini and Vogue's Anne Vincent ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Kirna Zabete's gorgeous Sarah Easley ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Subversive jewelry's Justin Giunta, photographers Alexis Dahan and Todd Eberle ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Kate Schelter and Christie's Lydia Fenet ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

DJ Elle Dee ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Chris Schumacher and Kate Schelter ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Stylist Amanda Ross and Luigi Tadini ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

David Gruning, Julia Chaplin and Antony Todd ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Babycakes NYC ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Gypset Travel author Julia Chaplin ©David X Prutting/BFAnyc

Kate Schelter LLC celebrated 10 years of business in NYC on Wednesday, April 10th at The Electric Room with friends Luigi Tadini, Sarah Easley, Anne Vincent, Lydia Fenet, David Gruning, Julia Chaplin, Antony Todd, Andrew Andrew, Peter Davis, designer Chadwick Bell, Vanessa Webster, Giles Mendel and Kylie Case, Claudia Vick, Justin Guinta, Alexis Dahan, Vanity Fair photographer Todd Eberle, stylist Amanda Ross, Craig Schelter, Courtney Dolan, Page Leidy, James Lowther, Style.com’s Steven Torres amongst many others. Guests danced to 80s and hip hop–the original songs by their original artists–spun by DJ Elle Dee and enjoyed bubbles by Peroni and Chandon and delicious red velvet, chocolate and carrot mini cupcakes by Babycakes NYC. Thank you, NYC, for 10 years of beautiful business and amazing colleagues, clients, collaborators and friends! We love you!

Illustration by Kate Schelter

This week our friend Julia Restoin Roitfeld launched her beautiful website Romy & The Bunnies for “new and expectant mothers to find inspiring stories of family, always with an eye toward style, beauty, and joy.” Look out for Kate’s illustrations on the site, like these for Bonpoint.

Kate Schelter at Jason Wu. Photo by Tim Regas/Kessler Studio courtesy of VanityFair.com

On Friday, New York Fashion Week began with a blizzard (8 inches in NYC) and howling winds. Luckily Kate had her custom-made Susan van der Linde fur trapper hat and Chadwick Bell silver fox coat. Add tights and boots = ready for Blizzard Nemo! Thank you Vanity Fair for capturing this moment.

In 2013, not only are we ringing in our new website, we are also celebrating 10 wonderful years of work and business in New York City. We have loved every minute of it and all our clients, colleagues and collaborators. You know who you are.

Thank you NYC for all your love and support and thank YOU for test-driving our new website. We hope you’ll check our blog regularly for updates and recent projects. We love hearing from you.

Kate Schelter at home in New York City. Vintage Ungaro dress, Lanvin hat. Photo Courtesy StyleLikeU.

Take a tour through Kate’s closet and home in NYC. Kate spent a lovely afternoon with Elisa Goodkind talking about inspiration, clothes, art, family and travel. Elisa’s camera crew had free-range and wandered to all corners of her place to get great b-roll footage as well. They had so much fun the first time, they came back again a few weeks ago to play dress ups again and shoot a few more looks. So that’s why some looks are more summery and Kate’s hair is shorter. Details! Enjoy and check out the video and slide show here.

Kate Schelter's poster for World Sight Day which is observed globally on October 11th.

I’m thrilled that TOMS asked me to participating in their awareness campaign for World Sight Day and in their pop-up Art Walk at Austin City Limits alongside John Van Hamersveld, Franc Fernandez (Lady Gaga’s meat dress designer), and Magda Sayeg, the mother of yarn bombing.

The seeing eye chart was the only guideline for the poster and then it was blue sky from there. We could work in any medium so I chose watercolor. They also asked us for a quote about what our vision means to us as an artist.

Based on my quote, “That which I can visualize, I can create” I worked with the concept of “Sight for Visionaries” to create an impressionistic seeing eye chart of iconic glass frames worn by people whom I consider to be visionary leaders in diverse fields: John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Steve Jobs, Woody Allen, Alan Ginsberg, Tina Fey, David Hockney, Ben Franklin, Malcolm X, Ghandi, Meryl Streep, Elton John, Phillip Johnson, IM Pei, Theodore Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein; people who saw the path of the future way before others in their time.

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Gypset Travel (Assouline) by Julia Chaplin is coming out in September. Check it out! Kate Schelter did the illustrations for the book’s Gypset atlas, chapter headings, and lettering. Pre-order it here.

gypset n. An unconventional, bohemian approach to life. —adj. Characterized by a fashionable exoticism and down-to-earth ease.

gypsetter n. One who is gypset. (A portmanteau word: the wiles of a gypsy mixed with the sophistication of the jet set.)

Kate Schelter in the Coco Weekender, Harbour Island. House of Lavande necklace. Photo Kate Schelter.

My friend and Gypset Style author Julia Chaplin, recently launched a Gypset dress and pareo line with the tagline Here and There. I was very lucky to be able to test drive the brightly colored tunics during my recent jaunt to Harbour Island, where I personally imported an order to India Hicks’s breezy boutique The Sugar Mill where they are sold. I had fun meeting India and her partner Linda and wearing the tunics all over the island. Here are a few snapshots as well as some insider tidbits from Julia herself.

Kate Schelter in the Sant Joan on Harbour Island. Photo Kate Schelter

Kate Schelter: What’s you favorite Gypset location?

Julia Chaplin: Lamu, Kenya

KS: What’s the farthest you’ve ever traveled from home in pursuit of adventure?

JC: I went to Trancoso, Brazil from Mexico via Uruguay so it really took forever. I was in Jose Ignacio, went to a late dinner then a party, drove 2 hours to my 6am flight in Montevideo, flew to some city in Brazil, missed my connection, slept in a luggage storage area for 8 hours, flew to Salvador, took a ferry and than a taxi down a bumpy dirt road and finally arrived in Trancoso.

KS: Where did you get the inspiration for the Gypset clothing line?

JC: So I could have something groovy to wear when I arrived in a Gypset enclave. Cool but not dripping with logos.

KS: Where are the fabrics from? Where is the line made?

JC: The fabrics are from both the east and west coasts of Africa. Some I smuggled back in my suitcase. I had the line sewn up here in NYC’s garment district.

KS: How often will you put out a new line?

JC: I’ll do stuff as often as I’m inspired. I like the idea of being a bit outside the fashion industry in that sense. It’s more Gypset to operate on your own schedule.

KS: Gypset is a great term. What’s the best Gypset slang you know?

JC: A Gypster [rhymes with Hipster] is the younger Gypsetter who maybe lives in Bushwick and has an 80′s caftan.

KS: Can you name three pieces from your collection and where your girl is wearing them in your mind?

JC: Sant Joan – Jade Jagger in Sant Joan Ibiza.

Coco Weekender – Karen Elson in Montauk

Poppy Weekender – Honor Fraser at Art Basel

Available at www.gypset.com

Coco Weekender watercolor by Kate Schelter.

Harbour Island watercolor by Kate Schelter.

Tom Ford True Coral lipstick watercolor by Kate Schelter. The perfect Gypset color.

Tracy Smith, founder of House of Lavande. Photo Billy Farrell Agency.

In January we flew south to see some sun (after months of snow, snow, snow) and to celebrate the town of Palm Beach’s Centennial with vintage couture jewelry brand House of Lavande. Since it also fell on HOL founder Tracy Smith‘s birthday, and because you can’t give a cake and candles to a beach, we toasted with lavender colored vodka shots, cabana stripes and surf boards.

All our favorite friends from NYC attended and all our favorite editors were there to record the dancing, diamante, and debauchery from Vogue, Elle, Purple Magazine, W, Paper, Teen Vogue, Tales of Endearment, and Fashionista. Even Page Six had a spy lurking in the sand by the dance floor as guests kicked off their heels and the chandeliers swung from side to side in the oceanside winds!

I have been a fan of her blog ever since I first laid eyes on it,  two years ago. I love her work and often felt we shared an aesthetic. So, when she emailed me out of the blue this cold January to ask to get together and, oh, yeah, take your picture, I had to keep from jumping out of my skin with excitement. She is one of my favorite photographers and you know what it’s like to meet your idols in life!! I had to act cool. Instead, we immediately started exchanging stories and jokes, and hours and hours flew by. Just like that.

© Photo Garance Doré www.garancedore.fr/en/

And then she asked me another favor: would I write a NYC guide? (I am a Gemini, and anyone who follows astrology knows that we are walking databases!) So I had two heart attacks, one after the other!! Just like a teenage girl.

© Photo Garance Doré www.garancedore.fr/en/

Thank you, Garance!!