In Atlanta: Chic to 'Recycle'

You really can't expect to visit an edgy side of downtown Atlanta on a frigid Wednesday night and expect to find great fashion inspiration, right?
Wrong!
I learned this much from local jewelry designer Mark Edge at The Bureau on Edgewood: "Green is the new bling".



Jewelry designer Mark Edge (left) and art director Yu-Kai Lin (right) Wednesday night at Bureau.


Edge went on to explain that what retailers crave for the foreseeable future are relics from the past re-worked for modern tastes. Expect to see antique charms ("pistols", even) in his upcoming collections.






Sneaker savante turned 'serious artiste' "Michi" putting the final touches on a piece Wednesday night at Bureau.


"Michi", the featured artist at the Bureau, stayed true to his extensive roots as a custom sneaker designer; improvising on the fly at a king-sized canvas.




(And the mood of reclamation wasn't restricted to The Bureau: at her boutique's "Style Star" party in Grant Park Wednesday night, NV-U wore what she called an "old" velvet and leather corset dress. See? Gothic can go green too!





NV-U Boutique owner Nikki Vigilance sets a mannequin straight Wednesday night at her "Style Star" event in Grant Park.








CWPR "sidekick" Kate Thacker (left) and the "it" interior designer Michael Habachy at Bureau Wednesday night.


Fittingly, on a frigid night and a hard-scrabble street, stilettos with the scuff marks left unbuffed for spite's sake appeared prominently. The girls there wore clothes that screamed "vintage", "borrowed" and "thrift". By some strange coincidence, snap-brimmed hats that brought Sinatra and Crosby to mind appeared on many men's heads.



It's almost like the trendy people sense something so foreboding about the future that it's all they can do to grasp backward for relief. Not that I'm knocking it...

More of the "edgy" artwork shown at Bureau Wednesday night.

PHOTOS: ascottwalton/lumix