Tag Archives: style

Beautiful Women Over 40: Salma Hayek, 45 makes the cover of Lucky Magazine

10 Apr

I was sooo happy when I received my May issue of Lucky with Salma Hayek on the cover!    The shopping-and-fashion mag tends to have lots of under 35 starlets from both TV and movies on the cover, many of them I’m either unfamiliar with or just don’t care about.  But Hayek’s life, how she’s managed her career, and what she thinks of herself are important reads for any woman at any age.

Some of the key takeaways from Jean Godfrey-June’s feature on Hayek ,for me, were about how she views her body and her skin.  She admits to being short and curvy (read: not fat) and sometimes wanting to be smaller.  Yes, the world around us sometimes makes us want to hide our breasts and behinds as they are so often objectified.  Thus, we might fear that we, too, are objectified–and who knows that better than a celebrity, who may be picked apart at any  moment for a change in her face, or what she eats, or anything….

Hayek also admits to acne when younger, taking Accutane, and the resulting skin sensitivity.  She also mentions her grandmother’s beauty concoctions (my mom had some too!) , her own Nuance beauty line, and NOT having Botox.

Now, how many of our celebrities can admit to *that* one?  Not many, that’s for sure, and a whole ton of the over 40 set seem to be addicted to the stuff.  Rumor has it that some dermatologists are recommending it for women in their late 20′s and 30′s.  Here’s her thoughts on Botox and skin:

“Botox, trust me I’ve been tempted—but I resist! Think about what happens to your muscles—and your skin—if you’re sick and don’t move for a few days. It all atrophies! Plus, if you freeze a muscle in your face, other muscles have to compensate! And once you stop, what does that look like?” Before I can issue a rebuttal she offers another theory: “You know Latin people? African-American people? How our skin ages more slowly? Even though we’re dramatic, we move our faces, we eat higher-fat foods, we’re the ones with fewer wrinkles—it makes you wonder.”

IMO, what one eats definitely has an effect on one’s skin.  I know this from my own experience.  Yes, some of it is genetic, but also if you eat good fats–extra virgin olive oil, avocados, salmon–and this helps skin integrity. Eating these kinds of mono unsaturated fats is a good idea at any age.   Staying out of the sun and out of tanning beds helps too.  The late 70′s and early 80′s were big on tanning, and  I got a lot of ribbing about being “whitey” during that time when I was in my teens.  However, it’s paid off in the long run.  Even the dermatologist I saw last week for a sun-un-related skin condition remarked that my overall skin was quite nice. :)

Yet, Hayek, indirectly, brings up another point about our perceptions of beauty:  it has always been more acceptable for Latin and African-American women to be curvy.  Anglo, and those of us who resemble the Anglo side of our heritage more than the more “ethnic” sides tend to be overly concerned about our weight because the image of the perfect Anglo-Saxon Protestant American woman is one that also reflects the Nordic marauders–tall, slim and blond– who contributed to that gene pool.  So, if one is not identified as Latina or African-American, there’s this odd assumption that to be anything but tall and thin and small-breasted is somehow an indication of  weakness…

I could go on about these ridiculous assumptions, and their roots, but I digress. .

All in all, Hayek is, perhaps, one of the healthiest women in Hollywood today, and this profile gives us a peek into how we, too, could foster healthy attitudes about our bodies as we are getting older,  to no obsess over our minor imperfections, and how to, ultimately enjoy our lives.

 

 

 

Celebrate National Cleavage Day!

30 Mar

Happy National Cleavage Day wherever you are!

In case you didn’t know, or didn’t hear about it yet from your buddies on Facebook, today is National Cleavage Day!  According to the good folks at Wikipedia (who know about all these obscure little “days” here and there) NCD started in South Africa in 2002,  by bra manufacturer Wonderbra, in conjunction with Cosmopolitan magazine and 5FM, a Johannesburg Top 40 radio station…..

And, well, you know how these things, um, blossom…..

Wonderbra recently took a rather unscientific poll to determine who would make the manufacturer’s “Celebrity Cleavage Hall of Fame.”  George Mathis, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, noted his post on National Cleavage Day that Christina Hendricks of Mad Men fame was not on the list– due to the fact that Mad Men has not reached enough residents of the U.K., where the poll was taken.

The Brits, however, have their own buxom babe–someone by the name of Holly Willoughby, who’s a model, TV presenter, and mother of two.  In this pic, Willoughby bears something of a resemblance to Brigitte Bardot, who also made the list.

Oddly enough, if you are a bra cup size larger than a DD in the United States, you will more than likely have to purchase a bra made by a British manufacturer.  We don’t seem to make large cup size bras in the U.S.A., even though many women, like myself, have been amply endowed by good old Mother Nature (and not a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.)

Go figure!

More on National Cleavage Day from The Daily Mail U.K. and the Mirror

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

Average Woman Looks at Spring 2012 Trends: Florals

8 Mar

Let me start by saying that, even as a kid, I don’t think florals were my fashion “thing.”   Now, they’re *really* not my thing.  So, I had a bit of a panic attack when I heard that florals were one of the big trends for Spring 2012….

Turns out that I’m not the only one who has some trouble with the whole florals thing.  According to a recent reader’s poll survey published in the March issue of InStyle magazine, only 17 percent of readers were looking forward to this spring trend (that means 83 percent are less than enthusiastic about florals.)

So, what can one do about all those florals?  Well, there’s always the option to totally ignore the trend.  But if you’re in the process of updating your wardrobe, or need new sizes, there are ways to bring florals into your wardrobe without looking like you’re attending a 1980′s British garden party…..

One way is to look at the color and placement of the floral pattern.  I love this look from White House/Black Market

The pattern is simple black and white, which starts out more dense at the top; and I love the way the pattern trails off asymmetrically.  This is the kind of dress that could be spruced up for a special occasion with pearls and heels or mixed into daily wardrobe with simple or sporty accessories.

Another White House/Black Market piece that I particularly love is this floral pencil skirt:

I love the way the pattern hugs the body of the skirt, but does not overwhelm it. The colors are subtle, giving it a retro look.  I like too, the way the white breaks up the pattern.  If it were all over, well, I’d feel like I had a big floral butt–not something I’d be all that happy with showing off.   However, I would be very interested to try this skirt on to see just how the pattern works on my particular body. Pencil skirts are usually flattering,  but even a flattering cut can go wrong if the pattern doesn’t work for one’s figure (as in horizontal stripes.  a total “oh no!” for my shape.)

Overall, one has to know one’s figure in order to know whether a floral will work for her or not.  Some women may look fantastic in flowing exotic floral prints, while others might look best in a pair of pants with a small or even crazy-big floral print.  If you’re unsure, I’d recommend not something floral all-over but rather one piece that fits well.  If you find you can’t be all that objective about a trend, and buy clothes usually because you simply *love* the trend, then have a good friend tell you if the piece you’ve chosen works for you or not.  Your trendy ego might be a little bruised, but it’s better to have an honest opinion than look like a trendy hot mess.

Carine Roitfeld is my fashion soul sister! (well, kinda…..)

7 Feb

Well, ok…I haven’t worked at a fashion magazine ever, and I’ll probably never get closer to Karl Lagerfeld than I did when I almost tried on one of the dresses from his Macy’s capsule collection.  But when I read that Carine Roitfeld, former Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Paris,  is planning a new magazine, slated for launch in September and wants to be “the link between the runway and the real woman,”  well, I almost died…

One of the reasons I started High Fashion, Average Woman, is to experiment a bit with fashion journalism to see if a fairly average woman with good taste and personal style could actually write something that other women would find fun and somewhat helpful as they, too try to navigate the crazy world of the fashion and beauty industries.  Too often I hear from women friends of all ages  and geographic locations about how they don’t understand what’s going on in fashion; question why clothes don’t fit nor flatter their figures; and if there is any sense to even trying to look good when everything looks recycled from previous generations’ bad fashion closets.  Granted, I don’t keep up with this blog as much as I should, but my goal has been pretty lofty and I’m not making any money from this particular venture.  So I get to it when I can.

And I think , for the most part, that I’m meeting my goals here…

So, I’m really glad to see that Roitfeld is planning to use her knowledge and experience to perhaps help us navigate what the heck is going on in fashion and beauty.  In the meantime, I’ll keep up my end of the deal and continue to write here.  Who knows what might happen–you know what I mean? ;)

(h-t to Fashionista.com)

Madonna’s Outrageous Super Bowl Look Eerily Reminiscent of Madeline Kahn as Empress Nympho

6 Feb

in Mel Brook’s History of the World Part I.


And I can imagine that auditions to be part of Madonna’s honor guard (the guys in the Roman gear who carried the bier she rode in on) went something like this (not that there’s anything wrong with it, mind you…):

Thom Browne Men’s Fall-Winter 2012/2013 Collection: WTF??

28 Jan

After years and years of women’s designers causing so many of us to ask “WTF is *that*?  I can’t wear that thing!”  Brooks Brothers’ designer Thom Brown has come up with a collection for men that has us asking the same question…

I swear this was styled by Uncle Fester Addams

This is a prime example of the major problem with “designers that so many of us reasonable human beings have with them. So many seem to live in a precious bubble where everyone tells them they’re artists and what they’re doing is “revolutionary” or whatever that they lose sight of the small things: like, practicality. Like nobody’s really going to wear padded shoulders that high. We already did that in the 1980′s. Over, done with, move on. As for this look….:

Browne apparently attended the Alexander McQueen retrospect at the Met over the summer, and afterward was frightened out of his wits by a Lily Pulitzer summer collection (pick a year, those are her colors.) He discovered those high laced lumberjack boots at that great camping supply store in Northampton, and must know that *anybody* can buy scads of brass safety pins at a little shop  in the Garment District for next to nothing!

My friend Jen, who posted a link to this pictorial on Regretsy.com wondered what the models might be thinking that they’re faces are so stern.

I’d hazard a guess that they’re concerned for their modeling careers….

Maybe if there was something *original* in the collection (well, maybe that overblown 1920′s football player look *is* original,) or if it had some kind of story to go along with it, I might be able to place it in a certain context and perhaps see it as artistic expression (but that’s a stretch.)

Sad thing, too, is that I doubt there’s even a club scene to support this kind of look these days. So much of it seems kind of retro Front 242–the black and white stuff anyway. Yet I don’t think there’s that much of a fun, drugged-out, over the top, kinda gothy-industrial, club scene, even in New York, these days. Maybe small parties, but is a guy going to shell out tons of money for an ensemble he can only wear to the premiere of the next John Waters’ film??

Seriously, honey badger! why do that when all one needs to do is hit up Salvation Army and a place where they sell scads of brass safety pins. Really! It’s not all that difficult to copy this look. Unless you’re looking for those embroidered ducks. Then again, a good sewing machine can make those for you too….

I don’t know whether to be horrified or laugh…..

Then again, if I see this stuff in Hot Topic next year, I’ll probably wish I’d been on the bandwagon.  Or not.

More Browne madness at Black Rainbow Extraordinaire magazine

Update: after posting a link to this post on Facebook, one of my friends said the shoulder pads were reminiscent of David Byrne.   Don’t know how I missed that one.   However, this jogged my memory of football motifs and I came up with the Marx Brothers’ film “Horsefeathers.”    I’m sure if I continued to parse out this collection I’d find more kitsch-y pop culture references.  If I’d seen something like this collection emerge from the streets or clubs, yes, I’d say fashion and I’d say fun.  Emerging from some guy’s crazy brain?  Not so much.  More like comedy, less like fashion.

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