No muss, no fuss

For New Year’s Eve plans, I have a rule: keep it as simple and flexible as possible... and my New Year’s Eve outfit follows a similar rule. With available taxis on New Year's Eve about as rare as unicorns, inevitably, I will have to walk home. And this year, with snow forecast to turn into slush, I gave it extra thought as there was no way I was wearing clompy flat boots to a party, nor was I going to destroy my heels walking home in the salty slush. I'd already learned the uneven layering trick for New York winters (flimsy layer for over-heated interiors, thick layer over that to keep you warm outside or if you're next to a drafty window). And this time, I needed to be able to make an easy change into snow boots. So, my solution? T-shirt/jacket/shorts/tights/boots (and a spare pair of snow boots in my bag).

And sure enough, while the streets were filled with cabs and the air resounded with honking, not a single available light was shining. But I was comfortable, my feet were warm and dry (as were my high heeled boots) so I really didn't care... As my colleague Sanne says, "there is no bad weather, only bad clothes". Too true.

A different challenge faced me on New Year's day when I woke up: I was tired, I was hungry, and all I wanted to do was to lounge in my pyjamas with tea or coffee.. but I had no milk. Or food. When I lived on 10^th and Ave A a few years ago, I would go to the bodega in my pjs, boots and a coat, but I can’t really do that in the more civilized Greenwich Village and at an age when I really should know better (i.e., older than 8. I was older than 8 on 10^th St too, of course, but chose to ignore that then.)

Plus in my additional experience in perfecting lazy weekend mornings, I have found how to dress with only slightly more effort than putting a coat and shoes on over pyjamas, but which creates the appearance that I actually am dressed for the day and can actually walk quite respectably a few blocks further from my sofa if the closest grocery store doesn't have what I want.

What's the trick? Bright lipstick and pulled back hair takes care of the grooming in 30 seconds, a dress and boots gets you covered (add leggings if it's cold)..grab your coat (or sweater and vest), your bag from last night, sunglasses, et voila! you are golden! A smile may be asking too much..

And Happy New Year's everybody!!

Ice Ice Baby

New York has had its first snow and it’s caused massive delays as we struggle to work out transportation alternatives – namely, what do we wear on our feet as we try to go about our normal lives? This morning, the TV news attempted to help, suggesting that boots were a must. Hey, you don’t have to tell me twice! After already taking a tumble last night on the packed-down snow and seeing all the salt on the sidewalk and picturing the damage that can do to soft leather, that was a given.

So.. wear boots to keep your feet dry and warm in the snow and to prevent an embarrassing (and painful) skid on the ice. Okay. That choice is easy.

But, as always, the challenge is how you make it look good. My friend Christina told me last night that she is trying to figure out how to go from work to evening on wintry sidewalks without too many awkward shoe changes and without destroying your normal shoes (and having to walk in those mincing little geisha steps that are so frustrating to the people walking behind you). Do you pretend like there’s no snow and hope you can cab it the whole way, or do you plan for the high probability that you’re going to be on foot?

I think the solution is to accept reality and embrace the ski lounge look as much as possible. A cozy sweater and skinny pants or leggings tucked into boots offsets the clompiness of practical snow boots and is a seasonally-appropriate (and comfortable!!) look, I think. For work, I think the easiest footwear transition is with similar clothes – skinny pants or tights tuck into boots easily and, once at the office, you can slip on a pair of heels.

Still, the biggest struggle – and a topic of discussion among most of my friends – is what boots? I mentioned above that I love the après ski look (probably because I love après ski!), so fluffy ski bunny boots are appealing to me – but the last thing I want to do is to look like Mariah Carey in Aspen. (would you?)














I searched and searched three years ago and settled on these boots (in photo).. I like the fluffiness and dark color (practical for city snow!), but they’re not nearly as waterproof as I’d like, so I’ll either keep searching or try to find some waterproofing solution.. Btw, this is NOT my après ski look (that look is helmet flattened braids, red cheeks, and ski clothes).. I consider this look more citified ski lodge and hopefully not furry woodland creature or Lord of the Rings character.. (Another awful photo, I know.. BUT, please note, different pose and a smile! I listen!)














As I was walking back to my office around lunchtime today, I ran into my friend Emily who had a great pair of boots – lace-ups that are fluffy at the top and rubber at the bottom – sort of après meets LL Bean’s duck boots.. a little feminine without looking drag queen .. and practical! (and silly me – I forgot to ask her who made them!!) Looking at what friends have suggested/tried: Michele mentioned some of the new Timberlands, Simi had Moon Boots (very cute, though white needed maintenance), and Lovey had wedge heeled Gucci boots (look great, not waterproof).

I found a few other pairs on-line, but the choices are really limited: super sporty (fine, but uninspiring), UGGS (not waterproof and hideous if you pick the wrong style, though I will admit that my boots are UGGS), fur boots (not practical, think wet dog on your feet), and moccasins (think wet cow..?). Here are a few I found that have an appealling style/practicality ratio. (The grey patent Stella McCartney boots with the wedge would be great in the rain, I bet.. not snow so much, though..)


But really, I think I'm just going to buy a can of Scotchguard...

Supersize Deluxe

Is the fashion industry trying to pull a frog in boiling water trick on us? I'd sort of suspected that prices were rising gradually over the past few years. I even remember a few years ago my friend Janice asking "remember when we thought that $800 was really expensive for a bag?" Well, $800 IS actually really expensive for a bag - but you are not going to find anything designer under $1,000 nowadays - even in a recession!! And probably not even on sale!!! What's going on here? Are they offering us more for our money? Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes all have moved some of their manufacturing to China, India, and Mauritius where labor is cheaper, so what's the deal?

Well, in my unscientific study, surveying my own purchases made over the years, I can say: yes, they are offering us more. We're being supersized! Bags have noticeably grown bigger - what used to be my work bag size is now my going out bag size (bag on left)


















.. and has anyone noticed heel height? I think that they are rising in step with prices.

I picked a few shoes to illustrate this argument.. they are arranged in chronological order of purchase, from left to right. Amusingly, I had thought that shoes on the left (Sigerson Morrison sling backs) were the perfect pair of heels - today, I consider them flats! And, aside from the two strappy pairs, I purchased them with work wardrobe in mind (though I admit that the furthest right pair has occasionally defeated me and I now bring a back-up pair of shoes when I wear them.)






Where can we go from here? How much higher can we get? My nephew, Soren, told me over the summer that the pair of wedge heel sandals that I was wearing were heels not shoes, since they are 80% heel. Can we go to 90%? 95%??

Well, here's one suggestion for the next direction from my sister-in-law, Erika (and Soren's mom).. They're Alexander McQueen's "lobster claw" heels.



Prepare yourselves!

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... :)