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Sad but true: too many of us spend all day at work on the computer only to return home and putter around YouTube and Facebook. Maybe that’s why pixelated designs are to be found everywhere now, from the Louis Vuitton store architecture in Japan to the gowns in Matthew Williamson’s Spring 2009 collection. Even Miu Miu's wallets embody the trend

One of my favorite quotes by a Tastemaker in the magazine was Lisa Eisner’s: “I don’t mind looking like something you want to put on your altar.” This sentiment was recently echoed by our managing editor who remembers someone telling her that a blue and white dress she had on looked like a china shop exploded. It’s the holiday season, when festive attire borders on performance art. Between the seasonal license to look like a Christmas tree, and the layers this cold weather requires, it’s the best time of year for fashion. So I was surprised to see RuPaul in nothing but white, no jewelry, at a Christmas party last Friday. He/she was DJ’ing at the Moonlight Rollerway, in Glendale, wearing a long white tunic and matching pants, spiky blonde hair, and white-framed glasses. Leave it to Ru to stand out from everyone else’s clash-tastic skatewear. Ru has always been a fashion icon, and now she/he is bringing more style to cable TV with the series RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Yes, it’s another reality show, with drag queen contestants judged by people that you know from other reality shows (Tori Spelling, Project Runway’s Santino Rice). With gender illusionists, the talent lies less in lip-synching and runway-walking (though those are important) and more in overall presentation. Think of this show as a way of keeping the festive holiday feeling into the New Year. It starts in early February, but there’s an art show at World of Wonder Gallery, in Hollywood, starting January 15 all about the art of drag. If that’s not a mood-lifter in this economy, what is?

Mondrian, Dresden, Chateau Marmont, Arsenal. Not just a list of clubs I’ve passed out in over the last decade, they are also names of footwear styles in the Velvet Angels spring/summer 2009 collection. The Dresden features a clunky shape and woozy color combo of chartreuse and royal blue that you expect to see in the schmaltzy Los Feliz bar, while the Standard enhances an is-she-a-hooker? red pump with bits of metal that suggest you’d better not ask. The silver gladiator flat that earned the Moonshadows name seems apt for a beach restaurant that attracts New Age hippie chicks. (Also pictured: the orange Mondrian.) The shoes are created by Joe Ponce, who used to design Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M B. clothing, and are carried at Diavolina and Live! On Sunset.

Bravo to Converse for its prescient ad campaigns this past spring and fall. The “Get Chucked” images by art photog Ryan McGinley, for the Chuck Taylor collab between John Varvatos and Converse, stand apart from the glut of fantasy/luxury slicks, giving us a flavorful escape from Paris Hilton-style excess. I was struck by the pictures this fall when making my seasonal study of ads in fashion magazines (I often like them better than the editorial). I loved how realistic these scenarios look—who hasn’t seen a couple like this doing crack-of-noon brunch in Los Feliz?

Too often magazines miss the mark when depicting rocker fashion or thrift-shop chic. They wind up looking contrived; you sense the model’s iPod is loaded with Micheal Bublé. The Converse campaign, however, seems authentic. It crackles with the excitement of finding a pristine faux-leopard coat in a Goodwill. Let’s hope Converse keeps McGinley on board for Spring ’09.

Versace, Chanel, McQueen…Koi Suwannagate? Heads got scratched when WWD included a little-known L.A. designer in its list of spring’s top 10 fashion shows. “We were stunned,” Suwannagate told me last week at her downtown studio. True, she had landed a recent nomination for a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, but the Thailand-born talent isn’t someone you see at parties or on reality TV shows. Instead she spends time hand-sewing tops and dresses and jackets with signature cashmere details such as rosettes or raw-edged seams. Suwannagate started recycling vintage knits, then moved on to creating her own fabric mixes—such as feathers trapped between layers of silk chiffon—and designing her own prints, like a dark feather pattern. The crystal embellishments in these pictures reflect her collaboration with Swarovski, the crystal company.

The designer also worked on her spring line with Josh and He Yang, a couple with a Silver Lake store, who make fabric out of string and yarn. Suwannagate showed her latest collection in New York but, like many designers, hasn’t decided where or how to present her next show. More examples of her work can be viewed at her website, which just launched, and sells the less commercial pieces in her line.