Archive | Wardrobe RSS feed for this section

Average Woman Looks at Springtime Shoes (and what they say about you)

26 Mar

Spring is here!  The weather’s getting warmer, the trees are budding and the forsythia is in bloom!  Which means it’s time to put away the suede shooties and shearling booties (mostly) and start thinking pedicures and peep-toe pumps.  That is, if it doesn’t snow the first week of April….

On the Spring 2012 Runways we saw a lot of what we’ve been seeing and wearing: sky

gorgeous Meredith platforms available at charlotteolympia.com

high-heels, chunky platforms, and barely-there flat sandals in every color of the rainbow (almost) including color block.  This is definitely one of the most exciting springtimes for shoes I’ve seen in years!

But let’s face a few small facts:  it’s hard to get around town in sky-high heels.  Chunky platforms on over 40 legs aren’t always fun, let alone attractive.    So what’s a woman to do?

Christian Siriano "Michelle" ballet flat at payless.com has a trendy keyhole peep-toe.

My favorite fashion guru, Bill Cunningham, recently noticed that women in New York City (a place where it’s important to be quick on your feet) have put the huge heels in their tote bags, and are traversing the streets in ballet flats.  If you have to move fast, nothing beats a good-fitting ballet flat!   I have several inexpensive pair that I use for kicking around in the spring and summer, esp. when I don’t have heavy-duty walking ahead of me.  That’s the great thing about ballet flats:  you don’t need an expensive pair to look great.

That’s not to say that heels and platforms will go by the wayside.  Not at all!  And if you want to wear them, by all means do!  I’m so looking forward to getting into my 4.5 inch red Guess platform sandals that I bought last year, even if I don’t wear them while traipsing through the streets of New York City or to the local grocery store — although the latter can be lots of fun, esp. if I want to turn a few heads…

Which leads me to another reason why you might want to wear some high heels every now and then.  Not only can they lengthen your legs, but they’re great eye-catchers.  Yes, even if you have a husband or a boyfriend, please just admit that it’s great fun to catch some good-looking guy eyeing up your shoes.  It’s a thrill!  I find it even more fun when the good-looking guys are a whole lot younger than myself (shoes are one of those things that are, well, ageless if you let them be.)   This cute little feature from Glamour.com let’s you in on what goes through the brains of men when they’re looking at your shoes.  Totally darling!

For Fun:   Check out Bill Cunningham’s latest on the beauty of springtime in Manhattan  and my Pinterest “Shoe Fetishist” pinboard of cool, beautiful shoes.

How to fix Kris Jenner’s latest fashion faux pas

24 Mar

Ah, the Kardashians!  We, the people, have probably had enough of them, but the gossip press sure hasn’t.  The latest was a smack in the tush to K-Momma Kris Jenner for this outfit, which was described as “too young for her age”.   Most of the criticism of the outfit was levelled at the pants.   Those, however, seem the least egregious to me.  After all, you can find that color in pretty much any “old lady” department.  So, I’m certainly not offended by the color–and quite glad they aren’t embroidered with little penguins or umbrellas all over them.

Likewise the black tee isn’t a faux pas.  It’s your usual tee, no biggie.

Where, then, does the outfit start to fall apart?  It’s the accessories!  Let’s start with the shoes:

OMG, where *does* one start with these fashion travesties!  Leopard clogs with something like a six-inch heel.  You have *got* to be joking.  This style, as well as the huge-heeled covered wedge shoes (which I like to refer to as “Frankenstein boots”) and sky-high pumps are, for most occasions, for the young. They tend to give one’s feet an outsized Olive Oyl/Minnie Mouse/Daisy Duck appearance,  and appear to be oh so cute on,  skinny girls in very, very short skirts.

In a term, they’re ugly, and don’t compliment the  pants, esp. if you’re out running errands.  Who wants to run errands in six-inch heels??  Either a flat (if one insists on leopard) or  a mid-heel neutral toned pump would look great with this kind of pant.

The next set of accessories send the death knell to the outfit:

Oh, gosh, where do we start!  First, the hat: what we would call a fedora and the Daily Mail UK calls a trilby.  Whether trilby or fedora, it actually ages Jenner, whom the Daily Mail describes as looking “much younger than her 56 years” (and she might if she laid off half the accessories she’s sporting.)

Next, let’s tackle 3 in succession:  earrings, bag and jacket.  The earrings simply look trashy, as if they came from a Claire’s shop in the local mall.  Sure, wear a big dangling earring if you like, but not a pair that would look better on someone in high school.  The bag, too, is cheap-looking.  Perhaps an oversize bag is great for shopping, but between the leopard heels and the pink pants, a silver over-sized bag is over-kill.   And then the cropped jacket.  Well, at any age, unless you are wildly thin, a cropped jacket will make your rear end look larger than that of the average school bus.   If you have a penchant for motorcycle jackets–even if you don’t own one–an average length men’s style would have looked better here.  Or, quite frankly, a tuxedo-style suit jacket couldn’t go wrong.

Now, take a look at how daughter Kim accessorized an equally bright pair of blue denims: In this case, daughter really does know best:  Kim wears flat sandals with a matching large bag, light-colored neutral toned tee, cropped tuxedo style jacket, and simple large hoop earrings.  The outfit looks just as effortless and far more polished…..

Which brings up one of my most important points for women over 40:  When dressing in trends, make sure you do not look like a throwback to your teens or 20′s.  Kris’s tough chick black-silver-leopard accessories in many, many ways give the look an 80′s gloss.  Nothing will age a woman more than futile attempts to replay her past in her current wardrobe.

Which reminds me:  K-Momma might want to think about getting that signature black dyed short haircut a rest.  That’s another 80′s style relic.  I did it too, back in the ’80′s,  but would never, never think of going back to that.  My gosh! It would be like wearing a pompadour with a fishtail!  While it may look cute and retro on someone in her 20′s,  it won’t make anyone in her 50′s look cute.  She’ll look just retro–like a puffy-sleeved dress in an antique clothing store.

SO…..the moral of the story is:  it’s not the pop-of-color pants that cause the fashion faux pas, it’s the poorly chosen and badly matched 80′s influenced accessories.  If you feel you’d like a pair of brights, go right ahead, but make sure you accessorize in a polished, modern way.

“The Hunger Games” costumer Judianna Makovsky combines past, current looks for film

23 Mar

Today opens the much-anticipated (and hyped) film  “The Hunger Games,” a dystopian fantasy where poor young people are pitted against one another in a battle to the death.  But have you noticed what they’re wearing?  I certainly have noticed, and not necessarily the garb on the star-crossed young folk, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson (who, in the story, are given their own stylists), but also the clothing and coiffures on actors Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, and Elizabeth Banks….

Poor horrible, horrible Effie. I'd rather fight for my life than have to wear this get-up. yeesh!

I’ve been fascinated by the horrific-looking Effie Trinket,  that Ga Ga-esque fuscha nightmare, replete with leg-o-mutton sleeves like I haven’t seen since the 1980′s.  What about Tucci’s blue samurai haircut, Bentley’s weird facial hair, and that the residents of District 12 look like they stepped out of a King Vidor film of the 1930′s.  Well, there’s no coincidence here.  Costume designer Judianna Makovsky (also the costume designer for the Harry Potter films), spoke about her work and influences to the Los Angeles Times and InStyle.com , with the latter of the two a little more (perhaps inappropriately) enthusiastic about translating the film’s looks to our world.

Makovsky, however, was most interested in keeping the looks consistent with descriptions in the book.  For Katniss Everdean’s “girl on fire dress” Makovsky says:  “I wanted the dress to be red, but not so covered in stones that it would look like something out of Dancing With the Stars…”  And, of course, the dress doesn’t actually burst into real flames–CGI helped in that department.

Many of the designers who influenced Makovsky’s “Capitol Couture” fashions include Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rodarte, and Elsa Schiaparelli, queen of surrealist fashion design in the 1930;s and 40′s.  So it’s no wonder that I’m seeing the 1980′s, since Gaultier and McQueen’s work was highly influential back then–and certain motifs and themes keep getting recycled into 21st century fashion.  The Capitol dwellers have been described as “opulent” and other word to connote their high-fashion status.  But with the colored-hair wigs (green, pink, etc) I can’t help but think of the sad-looking women with bizarrely colored wigs in Stanley Kubrick’s classic A Clockwork Orange–another dystopian society movie with kids as the main focus.

A purple-haired pub waitress in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange."

Wardrobe for Katniss and other District 12 dwellers is most definitely influenced by workwear of the past.  Makovsky looked at photos from that time period, to get a better sense of everyday fashion. Since there are always more regular folk than fashionistas, the numbers of costumes for the extras (as well as the principals) came from a combination of vintage finds and costumes hand-made and fitted for the film.  With roughly 600 charater extras, there wound up being a total of 1800 costumes just for this group alone!

Makovsky says she hopes that many of the costumes will go on display somewhere after the movie.

Yet there’s another rather silly and superfluous side to all this great costuming.  Lion’s Gate, the Hunger Games film company, decided to go all out with their social media promotions for the film, including a tumblr titled Capitol Couture.  This has to be one of the worst sites I’ve ever seen: everything from the dull colors to the District Style Challenges screams promotion desperation.

Seriously, this is a dystopian film.  Lots of people get killed.  You want to dress like the idiots of the Capitol and the “citizens” who are marked for death?  Really?  That kind of promotion seems tacky and jaundiced, and almost seems to highlight an ironic mocking of fans and moviegoers.  Same can be said for a feature at InStyle.com, which talks about Katniss’ spring style.  Really???  That’s like the Lisabeth Salanader look for H&M.    All I can do is chalk this stuff up to the annals of “When Film Promotions Go Horribly Wrong.”    If film companies and p.r. departments are looking to capture some sort of fashion zeitgeist of these films, they really can’t.  The looks speak for themselves, and audiences will adopt those looks if they find them cool.  Companies cannot manufacture that kind of fashion passion.  It just happens.  Trying to manufacture it only makes them look like the people we’re supposed to be rooting against in films like The Hunger Games.  How Ironic.

 

Indulge your inner retro-sexy Happy Homemaker with Tie Me Up Aprons

22 Mar

If you’re like me, you probably do a fair share of cooking.  And if you’re even more like me, you’ve probably ruined a shirt or dress or something else while you were cooking.   My Mom always used to tell me to wear an apron while cooking, so that I wouldn’t ruin what I was wearing.  So when my friend, photographer Bruce Barone, posted some pictures he took for   Tie Me Up Aprons , I  thought I’d died and gone to clothes preserving apron heaven!

Anita Senkowski, proprietress of Tie Me Up Aprons, creates her unique confections from out-of-production and

NEW!! The REAL Krispy Kreme Girl Apron. A Tie Me Up Exclusive!!

vintage fabrics.  She has a great eye for color and pattern and assembles her aprons with a certain je-ne-sais-quois  that will make you say “hey, that’s wicked cool! I’ve got to have it!”

Considering the new season of Mad Men starts on Sunday–well, you might just need one of these to protect your perfect Betty Draper party dress while serving era appropriate hors d’oeuvres!

If you order now, enter the code HIGHFASHION1 and you will receive a 15% discount on any apron, including the made to order Zen Charmer (from a very limited fabric) This offer extends through March 31, 2012!

Tie Me Up Aprons are hand crafted in Michigan, USA, and ships worldwide (so no excuses you people in the UK, Australia, and everywhere else.)  Tie Me Up takes PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.

“Like” Tie Me Up on Facebook and follow for the latest updates on the new fabrics Anita’s getting plus other cool news from Tie Me Up.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Barone Photography

Swivel virtual dressing room to relieve the pain of long lines and virtual mishaps

13 Jan

You know what it’s like to stand there, and stand there, and stand there waiting for someone to come by and open the dressing room door, or perhaps you just don’t feel like taking something off to try on one lousy blouse…

That’s where Swivel, the virtual dressing room, could save you a whole lot of aggravation.

Swivel was demo’d this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  FaceCake Marketing Technologies, which developed the snazzy proprietary software is hoping that it will be used by virtual as well as mall-based retailers.  Swivel makes good use of motion-sensoring technology in webcams and Microsoft Kinect to scan your body and then fit you into the items you’d like to try on.

Here’s a screen shot from the Los Angeles Times video of how Swivel works:

Honestly, if I happen to be in a store, I’d rather just buy something and then return it if it doesn’t fit.  However, I can see this as a boon to online retailers.  I will often not buy from online retailers if I am not sure of  their sizes.  Size charts help but sometimes there are multiple manufacturers sold by one online retailer.  Sometimes they have manufacturer/designer specific charts and sometimes they don’t.  Product reviews help (esp. when they note if an item fits too small or too large.)  To have the addition of a visualization before ordering an item could certainly save a whole lot of return troubles!

Note:  I believe I saw Swivel, as well as some other and quite different virtual try-on software at the Fashion 140 conference in New York City last spring.

ShoeDazzle.com Update: 3 Reasons why I haven’t ordered yet

28 Dec

I joined ShoeDazzle.com back in May, and have yet to place an order.   There are 2 reasons for this and most of them came to me well before the rumors of a Kardashian sweat shop in China and child labor cropped up.

First, consider the $39.95 price.   After over six months of reviewing a variety of styles, most of the shoe materials are “man-made.”   When photos of products are enlarged to view them better, the quality of the workmanship appears to be comparable to a $24.95 pair of shoes from Payless.

Second, many of the heels are either incredibly high or incredibly frumpy.  It’s not that I’m such an “old lady” that I don’t wear high-heeled platforms.  In fact, I have several pairs of well-made, high quality platform shoes with 4.5 inch heels.  I’m not about to risk my ankles to a pair of high, high heels when the surface workmanship doesn’t appear to be all that stellar. And order a lower heeled shoe?  Have you seen them?  Many of the lower-heel styles look like they came from the back of my closet–in the 1980s.  I will make an exception for the flats, some of which are rather cute, but the site does not offer a view of the interior of the shoes.  With flats, I like to see how they are stitched and what the insoles looks like.  I may, however, take a chance with a pair of flats.

Third, many of the styles are downright ugly or appear more than once under different names.  Just look at Rika and Mayci.  Same shoe, different material. 

I’m less than impressed…..

As for other products on the ShoeDazzle.com site, well, the one purse that I thought I might like to order, a small evening bag with a skull clasp that resembled this Alexander McQueen skull clasp bag sold out in no time flat.  All the other styles of bags and jewelry have left me feeling, well, kind of flat.  Not anything I would necessarily carry nor wear.

Bottom line:  I’m not all that thrilled with ShoeDazzle.com, and my expectations for its products are not real high.  That being the case, perhaps I won’t be too disappointed.  Except perhaps by the price.

New Year’s Resolution: Losing Weight vs. Dieting

27 Dec

“Diet” is a four-letter word (correction: foul-letter word….)

honestly, I rarely consider the numbers on the scale as much as I consider the numbers on my dress size

I don’t believe in “dieting” per se.  I do, however, believe in losing weight when it’s appropriate.  When the number of outfits in my wardrobe that fit comfortably is disproportionate to the total number of outfits therein, it is most certainly time to lose some weight.  (or start building a new wardrobe, which most of us, esp. this time of year, can ill afford….)

Luckily when I was younger, I put down a good foundation of muscle.  Muscle has memory, fat doesn’t.  So, once the muscle is activated through exercise (or more movement in general) it will “remember’ its correct, un-crumpled position in my body, straighten up, and begin to burn the poundage that currently presses on it.

Unlike a lot of women, though, I don’t regret the weight I’ve gained, nor is it having a negative impact on my health.  I come from some rather hearty genetic stock, so I seem to be able to carry a whole lot of weight and not have it impact my sleep, breathing, cholesterol, blood sugar, or any other system that would lead my doctor to tell me that I need to lose weight.  Conceivably, I could stay my current chunky monkey self and not feel one whit of guilt….

Speaking of not feeling one whit of guilt, unlike so many of those sad sacks on the Oprah Winfrey’s show and network, I didn’t gain my weight from overeating because of some sort of devastating emotional issue.  Yes, I had some emotional issues: last December I lost my Father and the project I was working on folded.  There was one other thing too, but I don’t recall right now (these things usually happen in threes for me.)   And yes, I ate more than my fair share of red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  While this more than likely was a contributing factor to my weight gain, I don’t feel bad about it, don’t feel that I need to punish myself  nor do I feel a need to “confess” the sins of my over-eating.

Sh*t happens.  Sometimes we take comfort in food.  I doesn’t mean it’s a “compulsion” and doesn’t mean it will lead to all sorts of devastation…

But I digress…..

Back to the whole “diet” thing….

Now, I don’t plan to diet.  Not at all.  Won’t be going to Weight Watchers (although I understand their programs work very well) and won’t be consulting with any of the books that are out there.  I know my body fairly well–as we all should at some point in our lives–and know what works comfortably for me.  Here are seven food-related steps I plan to take to lose weight, not diet, which you may find helpful as well.

      1. Lower carbs, boost protein.  Over the past two weeks I noticed myself nodding after my morning oatmeal.  I switched to bacon and eggs and had a great energy and mood boost.  Therefore, oatmeal is out, and protein like eggs, bacon, ham, and others are in for breakfast.
      2. Eat more fish.  Beef is another comfort food:  stews, chuck steaks, chili.  Esp. really good burgers like I can get at my favorite restaurant.  However, it tends to pack on the pounds.  Fish is far better, and I actually like it.  Just have to make sure I don’t drown it in some kind of sauce or sugary stuff.
      3. Step away from the candy, embrace fruit.  Mandarin oranges, apples with a bit of peanut butter are great.  Stay away from the pineapple though.  It’s high sugar and, for me, is an appetite stimulant.
      4. Back away from the booze.  Lower the intake to once a week of wine.
      5. Do the French thing: if wine, no bread; if bread no wine.  It cuts sugary carbs, and works.
      6. Whole wheat pasta and brown rice.  Extra fiber can’t hurt.
      7. Don’t get stupid about it  If I’m out with friends, I don’t have to announce that I’m on a diet, and I don’t have to eat “diet” food. I can enjoy that time without feeling guilty.

More than likely it helps that my goals are reasonable.  I am not trying to be a size “Jessica Parker.”   I’m merely attempting to get back into my current wardrobe, which includes some very nice size 12 skirts.  I want “well-managed curves” (as one guy once told me I had) and not my little jelly belly.   Grieving is over, it’s time to move on.

Want some more good tips? Check out 7 Healthy Steps to Get rid of Holiday Fat! from AllWomenStalk.com

Klout perk from Bluefly.com and what happened (not)

21 Dec

Today I received an email from Klout–the “influencer metric” measurement site–which informed me that I’d received aperk. Said perk being $25 off a purchase of $50 or more from Bluefly.com a very well-established e-commerce site which offers designer brands….

Well, first, what do we mean by “designer brands.” This term is getting a little confusing. I completely understand when I’m looking at something from Ralph Lauren or Michael Kors–designer name = designer brand. It’s when we get to names like 7 for all Mankind or Hayden or CeCe or Miss Sixty or L.A.M.B…..well, I’m not sure if I’m dealing with a manufacturer or if I’m dealing with a brand that’s fronting for a celebrity, or what I’m dealing with.

We certainly have come a long way from the couture houses and the transparency of “designed by so-and-so for y manufacturer or House of another so-and-so.”

What then becomes even more frustrating is the tons and tons of goods that simply look the same. All some sort of knit jersey in black, heather grey, beige, eggplant (or plum, or jam or whatever you want to call it) or another rather dull color. Seriously, if I’ve got to click through 30 pages of utterly boring turtlenecks and open front cardigans, I’m going to lose my patience pretty quickly.

I also was not entirely impressed with the search feature nor how it narrowed the criteria. I typed in “beaded jersey tees” and came up with a bunch of stuff–some of it beaded jersey tees, some of it designers starting with the letter B.

Oh, and then there was the size range. Let’s just say it wasn’t mine….

After my eyes began to water, my right shoulder to ache from the clicking, and my brainwaves to short circuit, I figured it wasn’t worth trying to redeem the $25 on an item or two of clothing.

I quickly glanced through the fragrance offerings, and noticed a few items that were worth the perk. Sadly, no one on my list is requesting fragrance this year, and I’m still working through some fragrance I purchased last year when I worked at Victoria’s Secret (Oooh La La! being my favorite for its cherry and vanilla notes.) So, no new fragrance purchase….

Overall, I’m not thrilled with many of the designer-discount e-commerce sites. Often the size ranges are limited, or the goods are limited, or I have no need for what they are offering. The status-seeking that drives designer purchases is, thankfully, not a particular need, thankfully, and my wardrobe is pretty much full for the season….

So I’ll politely pass on this particular perk.

I still, however, retain my “Influencer” ranking…

Lagerfeld Inspires with 2012 pre-Fall Collection, LeWeb Interview

14 Dec

More often than not I’ll view the video or photos of a fashion show and think “meh” or “omg, that’s ugly.”  Believe me, it’s not that I don’t “get it.”  I’ve been “getting” the whole fashion thing since about 1980.  It’s just that most of it leaves me rather underwhelmed with its rehashed style and retro kink.  Then I peruse the Chanel 2012 pre-Fall collection,  and I find myself having a Wow Moment.  Tim Banks writing for Style.com describes it thusly:

The theme “Paris-Bombay” was a reminder that Europe’s fashion industry has increasingly turned to India to produce extravagantly handworked pieces as it has become prohibitively expensive to make them at home. [Karl] Lagerfeld’s fiendish plan was to flip the equation, so that everything that looked intricately Indian was actually made by Chanel’s ateliers in Paris. That was some kind of tour de force….

All that aside, Paris and Bombay blended beautifully in pearl-swagged tweeds, in a raw silk tunic over leggings (they were actually sinuously bootlike, so we should probably call them beggings or loots), in sheer paisleys, or side-draped asymmetry in ivory silk.

Wow,  indeed!

Now, I might not want to wear an entire ensemble from the collection.  That would be a tad too costume-y.  I could, though, easily add a piece here and there, and bring a little Parisian-Indian elegance to my wardrobe.  Here are some of the complete looks that I would then take a piece from, here and there, to the continuing fashion  Story of Me

And then, my friend Halley Tucker, who was at the LeWeb tech conference in Paris, blogged LeWeb founder Loic LeMeur’s interview with Karl Lagerfeld!  She captured the most insightful moments from the interview.  The stand-out of the interview was Lagerfeld discussing the way he indulges new technologies while never forgetting the importance of the tactile world (something a whole lot of geek-techy types want us to think is unimportant.)  The best, though, is Lagerfeld’s sentiments about social networking overload: “It’s not about being overly connected, it’s about being WELL connected.”

Indeed!