Tag Archives: accessories

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

Luxury Flash Sale sites fall victim to consumer boredom

2 Feb

Really now. . . how many L.A.M.B. purses, seasonless Hugo Boss dresses, and gourmet cheeses can anyone afford these days?  Apparently, not too many….

no, this is not today's gourmet cheese offering from Gilt Group, but oh, if it was! ;)

BetaBeat reports that several luxury flash sale sites have sustained substantial layoffs in the past few months, including Gilt  Group, the American imitator of Ventee-Privee.  The article gives a heads-up on what’s what at many of the top, and not so top, flash sale sites.  Are they retail flashes in the proverbial pan, or will they have staying power over the long haul of our recessionary times??

Honestly, I signed up for Gilt, Hautelook (owned by Nordstroms), Ideeli, and several others in order to see what was under the hood, so to say.  And here’s my take: they’re boring.  Item offered on a continual basis are handbags, shoes, shoes and handbags.  Maybe some jewelry, maybe some cute underwear (perhaps not in my size.)  There may even be clothing from time to time, but the really good items sell out quickly–or there aren’t any good items to begin with.

The thing is, shopping, for me anyway, is a way to satiate that old hunter-gatherer instinct.  There’s something incredibly satisfying about getting out of the house to go hunting and gathering–so much more funthan pointing and clicking.  Sure, I can send something back if it turns out not to be what I want, but I’d rather make that decision before an item gets into my home.  Once an item crosses the threshold, I don’t want to concern myself with packing it up and sending it back, even if the return shipping fees are paid.

The appeal of luxury flash sale sites must be to the suburban McMansion owner who works long hours, lives off credit cards, and believes that status is conferred on those whose wardrobes are branded with big names.   Because, honestly, in small towns we don’t really care about status brands.  And in big cities, status brands are, literally, just around the next corner.

If you really feel the need…

As our economy shifts, the suburban McMansion owner may no longer have the spare credit rating to own a litter of  L.A.M.B. handbags,  let alone care about the status conferred by private vineyard wines and artisanal cheeses.

So, who knows what the long-range is for these sites–some may last, and some may fold.  But since I really enjoy the tactile sensation and hurly burly of hunter-gatherer shopping, I think I’ll spend more time at the malls and outlets and ditch my “memberships” to these sites.  That certainly will cut down on my daily spam intake for sure.

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.

How to Wear Black and White for the Holidays Without Looking Like a Waiter

21 Dec

The black and white combination is a staple in almost any season, and is perhaps the easiest last-minute combination for holiday dinners and parties (we still have a few to go this year.)  The white blouse and black pant or skirt

Model Shayla Monroque --one of Vogue's "Best Dressed" --sports simple yet elegant black & white

combination is also a common uniform combination in for waitstaff in many restaurants.  Especially if you combine it with a tie of any kind.  It’s a combination that’s both retro and modern, depending on your accessories.  So, how do you wear basic black and white, for day or night, without blending in with the waiters or looking like a refugee from the 20th century (unless it’s Halloween, that is)?  Here are a few tips to help

1.  What’s the trend at the moment?  This season there are lots of different trends from colorblocking to the “fetish femme.”   The trend you pick might say more about you than you realize, so choose carefully what you want to say with your choice.

2.  If you have some cash, add an inexpensive piece: a sparkly top, a piece of bold jewelry (or layer a bunch of co-ordinating jewelry), or a tiny hard-case evening bag that you can hold most of the evening. Even consider a sparkly skirt or shorts.  This time of year, these items are going on sale, so you may want to check out off-price retailers like Marshalls or TJ Max.  Also consider Cachet, Bebe or H&M.  The pieces don’t have to cost a lot to look like they did.

3.  Add color with your shoes!  Put the flesh-toned and black pumps to the back of the closet, and wear bright red, electric blue, emerald green or any beautiful bright color.  You can even re-purpose a pair from the summer if they are high enough and not a canvas or other summer material.  If you are wearing a summer shoe, make sure you have a great pedicure.

4. A colorful manicure and on-trend lipstick can distinguish you from the staff too.

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…

Crossdressing male captures lucrative women’s lingerie modeling contract

14 Dec

I was totally shocked–but perhaps shouldn’t be–when Fashionista reported that crossdresser Andrej Pejic has been chosen to model the “Mega Push-Up Bra” for Dutch chain store Hema.

Come on people!  Does the fashion world hate women’s bodies so much that they have to pick a guy to model lingerie??  It’s bad enough that most female models out there are tall, incredibly thin, and virtually breastless.  Hema couldn’t find a female model who was small enough?  What is Hema trying to say with this ad?  Are they trying to earn their hipness cred with a certain circle of people who ultimately prefer men over women?  Really?

One of the commenters on Fashionista believes Hema’s choice to be “revolutionary.”   And I don’t doubt that the word “revolutionary” will appear in every single article written about Hema’s model choice.

But what Hema is really telling us is that a guy is a better than a woman to represent their women’s lingerie line .

Really?  REALLY??

And does it take total degradation of women and the elevation of women impersonators for fashion advertising to be “revolutionary?”  If so, the fashion industry is in far more trouble than they know…

Here are two images from the campaign.

I don’t care how “beautiful” he is, he’s a guy! fer cryin’ out loud!  I don’t care if he’s a crossdresser either.  Over the years I’ve had some great crossdresser friends.  But my god! we don’t need a crossdresser standing in for women in advertising for women’s lingerie.  It sends the wrong message (yes, advertising sends messages beyond “buy our lingerie”) and, ultimately, works to denigrate the true female form.

Perhaps the real “revolution” would be using real women in advertising, not faux women.

Just a thought……

YSL gets green light over Louboutin to use red soles

11 Aug

sky high Louboutins

According to a report in the New York Times a court has refused to grant a preliminary injunction against the Yves St. Laurent company.  The preliminary injunction was requested by the Christian Louboutin company, which alleged copyright infringement for the use of red soles on shoes.  The decision clears the way not just for YSL to continue producing shoes with a similar red sole, but also appears to grant permission to other shoe manufacturers that might want to use red soles.

“Because in the fashion industry color serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition, the court finds that Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove that its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection, even if it has gained enough protection in the market to have secondary meaning,” the court ruled.

While the court acknowledged Louboutin’s originality, for Louboutin to copyright a shade of red would be like  Monet copyrighting a shade of blue….

Or QVC wanting to copyright the letter “Q” ……

Or Fox News wanting to copyright the phrase “fair and balanced”….

Granted Louboutin’s red soles are original, and there is probably a proprietary process for their manufacture, let alone a uniqueness of  color shade.  This will always make Louboutin’s red soles unique.

Frankly,  I’d *love* to see other shades on the soles of shoes.  I’m particularly fond of pink (as they are using on some ShoeDazzle shoes, and I think [pink shows up on Paris Hilton’s shoe line) but from what I understand, with many lower-price shoes, the color is easily scuffed off.  Too bad.  Colored soles certainly make a statement.

 

Photo courtesy of Viva Fashion

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