Blurring the high/low line

Excuse me, but is this Jimmy Choo for H&M or Jimmy Choo at Saks? Believe it or not, these boots are still priced at ca $700. Do discount bins appeal to luxury goods shoppers? Give me 80% off and I'll pick through a bin. 30% doesn't justify making the boots look sad.

I actually prefer H&M's environment - I stopped by the 5th Ave store Monday after the Jimmy Choo launch at 10am and it was fun. Granted, the lines hadn't started yet (my friend Lovey told me that the line to get a wristband to get in the store started at 4am the day of the launch) but it felt like an event. I didn't get anything (I need more shoes like a hole in the head) and the quality definitely wasn't comparable to regular Jimmy Choo's, but at $90-100, the trade-off seems fair.

The Struggle to Look Effortless

It's one of life's ironies that the "thrown together" look is anything but. It's the result of research, contemplation, and unflinching critical analysis. A t-shirt and jeans may seem so easy - it's the global uniform, right? But what t-shirt? Which jeans? Getting it right takes some thought, but it makes all the difference between looking like you don't care but are so effortlessly chic you make even the basics look like a million bucks, and looking like you've just given up.

Aside from a couple Hache t-shirts I got last year, I haven't really bought new t-shirts, so when I went through what I have, I realized how much proportions have changed. My shirts all seem too fitted, too short, too high necked.. great for the boot cut jeans I used to wear, but skinny jeans call for a longer shirt with a drapier cut. The Hache ones are great - but they're white, I can't wear them ALL the time.

So, I did a surgical strike at Saks and tried on every t-shirt on the 5th ("Contemporary") floor. 3 winners: all from Alexander Wang's bridge line (T) and not on sale (naturally). But they weren't expensive to start with and now I don't have to search anymore, so a relative bargain!

Here's my outfit - with and without the jacket. (and no smile, sorry, those photos came out blurry)

That necklace, by the way, was from one of the designers at the Edge NYC designer market on Bleecker St. It's closing at the end of December and the designers told me there would be big sales, so might be worth checking out.

To see if I could recommend another t-shirt source to you all, I took a little detour today by J Crew, Banana Republic, and Urban Outfitters. Urban Outfitters had a tank top for $14, which could be a real steal (I didn't try it on, so can't comment on fit), and J Crew had these "Art Tees", which were kind of a very girly update to Christmas Sweaters, which I'd thought were on the endangered list. (See blog post from last year). Not extinct, just evolved, I guess. But not the attitude I was looking for. I've had luck at American Apparel, but didn't make it this time.

And here's my organized drawer. Just for fun, I'll show you my sock drawer too. Yes, it's come to this. I'm not only organizing my sock drawer, but also writing about it... :)



And on a completely different topic... separated at birth?

The fall of the Berlin Wall (and why you should wear a hat)

When it's cold outside and you are at world-changing events (such as at the Berlin Wall on Nov 9, 1989 after it was announced that East Germans could travel freely and no one knew what was going to happen, but at the Wall it was a massive happy party and you met all kinds of people), wear a good hat.

Sure you should also bring a camera and, if you're going to climb around much, avoid a pencil skirt, but a good hat is important. You'll stand out in the crowd (my friend Annie and I met loads of people because of our hats) and you will be photographed (as you can see), and your head will be warm. And wouldn't it have been tragic if I were wearing a crummy old baseball hat and bad clothes? Instead, I wore a nice coat and a hat that I'd bought from a cute little shop in Charlottenburg, Berlin, and I was quite happy. If you can count, you'll also notice that I was a very precocious 9 year old... ;)

I spent a lot of time at Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate after the November 9 announcement, and took a bunch of photos. It still is one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had, seeing the symbolic removal of the wall dividing the two parts of Berlin (though the election and reunification were still a year or so away). The East German soldiers seemed intimidating at first, but they gave us pieces of the wall from their side. In case you're interested in some other photos from that period, I've attached a few more...

Going flat out.. (Going out flat?)

Style and comfort are not always incompatible, it just requires some forethought to get them both right.. and maybe a looser definition of comfort.

One of the things that stumps me most in trying to get the style/comfort ratio right is shoes. I wear heels most of the time since I think most outfits look better with heels. And I've loosened my definition of comfort enough so I can wear them at a 12-18 hour stretch and can avoid this quandary most of the time. But, just as I shouldn't eat really spicy food at every meal, I also shouldn't always wear heels. Sometimes your body needs a break from pain. Even if it tastes good..or looks good.

I wrote a few weeks ago that I didn't like brogues. My friend Doreen asked how I could not like that classic Katherine Hepburn menswear look? Well, that's a fair question and this post comes from my thinking about it. I do like that Hepburn/Marlene Dietrich look and oxfords are so much better than so many of the other flat shoes I see women wearing (running shoes, UGG boots, crocs, slippers, yes, slippers!!..on Park Ave!!! I mean, is life that bad that you've just given up?) But anyhow, I still think that those long loose trousers look so much better with a high heel..your legs look endless. And, as any good tailor will tell you, you can't hem a pair of pants for both a flat shoe and a 4" heel. You either walk on the hem or look like you're preparing for a flood. So, do you want to tell the tailor to hem short and commit to stumpy wide legs when you can have willowy long ones? Not me.. (By the way, I do think that there is a fantastic opportunity for a new kind of adjustable cuff so you can wear the same pants with heels or flats. Does this exist? It should!!)

I do think that oxfords look cute with short skirts, maybe even with a menswear styled jacket with strong shoulders too.. Wait a minute, I have worn that exact outfit! That was one of my first work outfits I bought myself after college.. ummm.. must have been 5 years ago.. yeah, that's riiight... So here we have another instance of the "no trend left behind" trend. It must be so easy to be a trend setter. Well, folks - short-sleeved turtlenecks, A-line mini skirts, and square toed, lace-up chunky heels. Think "early Friends". Buy them now and wear them first. I don't know.. Maybe in 2 weeks, I'll have a "Eureka!" moment when I visualize that oxfords are the missing element from my wardrobe and I'll run out and buy them in some obsessive frenzy. But for the moment, I'm letting that trend pass.

But, as I said, I do feel like my body needs a break from heels now and then. Since I find ballerinas torture to walk in for more than a couple hours and I'm just not a sneaker kind of girl unless I'm doing a sport, my solution is boots. So, here are two examples below. Both totally comfortable solutions that will let me run around all day Saturday to do whatever I need to do and look presentable enough to meet for early drinks. Or even stay out all night if the momentum is there...


oh, and I'm smiling, as per reader request... :)

That's pants

This year when I was looking through magazines and at fashion shows, one of the looks I was really drawn to was high waisted, somewhat bell-shaped trousers. I've seen that silhouette in skirts and dresses for a few seasons, but the pants were something new. A bit more relaxed, modern, more something...So I was really excited to see that my friend Jane had some great ones at her sample sale.

But what I noticed as I was getting dressed for work one morning this week is that the proportions are so different from what I've been wearing recently, I had to rethink what to wear on top. For skinny pants (esp really skinny ones), loose and long is my way to go, but that doesn't work if the narrow waist is the only thing that prevents you from looking fat. Don't want to cover that up! And for the paper bag waist pants, anything with much detail just looked too busy and fussy. I might get more adventurous as I work my way through my closet and I've seen some great looks in magazines that might influence me. But for real life, for me now, I am keeping things simple. White shirt, long cardigan and sparkly necklace (and heels), so i don't look too much like Madonna in the "Who's that girl" era.

For me, this cut of pants works best if I keep it feminine (keep the waist uncluttered and wear heels). Otherwise, it's Charlie Chaplin, or just a dumpy pantsuit. The volume around the hips does make them tricky - but they're super-comfortable, and if you get it right, there's a very careless "now" vibe that reads as slouchy , not schlumpy. Well, the trousers in the middle photo are not slouchy at all, but they're a play on that bell shape so the proportions are similar.

But it's not just new trousers that I'm excited about. I've been going on about tights and I really like the contrast of a military style jacket and short skirt. And I still think short skirts and dresses look so great with short swingy coats - or a cape. Capes are really comfortable over jackets, actually, as there's a bit more room in the arm, but I find that the fabric gets a bit caught up if you're wearing a purse with a shorter strap. So I like the longer, cross the body kind of strap. I like that anyway, especially as, no matter how many times I try to unload non-essentials from my purse, it still seems to weigh a ton.



Btw, I bet it is not hard for you to guess which photos are from right after my haircut! :) Still amateur photography, but at least my hair looks good! Thanks Ellen!

Extremities

I think that the best way to deal with temptation is to give in just a little bit. If you don't have a pressure valve to let off steam, then it will keep building until it explodes. But just a little bit of giving into temptation isn't really giving in, it's just keeping things healthy.

At the moment, I am very tempted to go shopping for cold weather clothes. But I am trying not to buy any fall stuff until my friend Jane's sale. Her sale is second only to Christmas in the thrill and anticipation that I feel when I walk into her showroom. And it's twice a year!! And coming up soon!!! (btw, let me know if you want to go.) And I don't want to feel constrained by having bought full priced clothes which have already cut into my budget.

So, I opened my pressure valve a teeny bit and about $40 escaped (I meant it to be about $10, but my pressure valve isn't very subtle). And for that $40, I got 5 new bottles of nail polish in new colors - purple, mauve, brown-ish, matte brown/gray, and sparkly blue. (more '90s!! remember Hard Candy? And yet, here I am doing it again...but I like it!)

I like all of them, actually, and am really inspired right now to play around with color, pattern and texture in tights, nail polish - and maybe soon gloves and hats, which I find myself more interested in this year. I think it's because designers are producing more creative ideas for extremities (legs, fingers, hands, well, ok, your head is not an extremity) because these accessories are cheap(er) ways of getting a new look. Nail polish definitely is, anyway.

So, there you go. All bought yesterday, so available in stores, in case you like any of them.

Btw, the other best way to deal with temptation is to give in and fully enjoy it.

Last Emperor Strikes Back

The first day there's a bit of chill in the air, my heart rate picks up a beat and I get this back to school feeling of wanting to step up my energy level, get into a new routine (take lessons in something, exercise more)... I finally get to wear my new boots, my skinny jeans, and to play around with colored and patterned tights and scarves that are too hot and too much bother in the summertime...
(photos - how I make a summer wool suit work for fall, and one of my Copenhagen purchases - two-toned tights from Sneaky Fox worn with summer wool black dress).


And then my stomach drops like I just hit a dip in the road that I hadn't expected and I realize.. gulp.. time for the seasonal closet rehaul. I know it sounds like nothing, but there's something a bit accusatory when your doorman tells you there's too much dry cleaning for you to take up in the elevator with you in 6 trips. All those clothes - my clothes - hidden away for the season have now come back home, reminding me that.. yep.. there are a lot of them. And it's a feat of engineering and some sacrifice to fit them back into my closet. It's hard to face. The big bill doesn't help, either.. Gulp.

Despite all my gulping as I paid that bill this evening, I still was hungry, so I made dinner and watched Valentino, the Last Emperor, a movie I'd missed in theaters because I was having too much fun at happy hour with Michelle to make it. It's one of those great movies where you laugh at the outsized personalities and "out of touch-ness" of prima donnas (or primo huomos?). (Example: hating an entire museum because of one stair rail that reminds him of Macy's).. But it pulled me away from feeling a little self destructive guilt (self destructive because I'm not going to change the behavior that leads to the guilt because the rest of the time that behavior makes me really happy). And the movie reminded me again of why I have all those clothes in the first place. Because it's my creative outlet and because they're beautiful (or at least, I think they are) and if I have a choice, I want my life to be beautiful too. There may be more important things in life, but not THAT many, really. Aesthetics are far too underrated.

So, as a tribute to the reminder that Valentino gave me, I am accepting the fact that I have a whole lot of purses hanging in my foyer and am now considering that my decor (and I added a tiny little Valentino clutch). Rationalization is another of my creative outlets...