Two parties, two outfits, and nothing to wear

So here's what happened. Last Tuesday I had two completely different parties to go to. First was a cocktail party at Henri Bendel, second, a b-day party at tenjune. With no time to come home and change in between, I had to choose an outfit that would work for both. The two options were either a baby-doll cut little black dress with black tight and gray patent leather and suede T-strap shoes, or, black jeans with a black tank and a long gold sequined top with patent leather booties (hot gold sequined top, not trashy looking, shiny gold sequined top). I chose the little black dress.

The problem started when at the cocktail party, at least ten other girls were wearing the exact same outfit - with various styles of black dresses. Call it classy, call it lack of originality or call it nothing else to wear, but I was seriously regretting my wardrobe decision that evening, and it was only 9:30pm. Fast forward to the club, what do we see as soon as we settled down at our table? Not one, not two, but four girls dressed in tight jeans and sequined tops. And a half an hour later another girl showed up in the exact same outfit. Talk about being happy about what I was not wearing! It's one thing to be in a little black dress at a cocktail party, but being in the same outfit as five other girls at a small and still trendy club! It hurts to even think about it! (For the record, all of their tops were tacky with shiny sequins.)

Bottom line is that I was going to whine and rant about how there's no more originality left in fashion and how everything is exactly the same and everyone dresses exactly alike (I still love you H&M). But no! I refuse to believe that. I'll just have to work harder next time and put more thought into what I wear. Because feeling tired and lazy when getting dressed is just no excuse for looking average. And so what if the outfit is just a little bit forced. At least you'll be the only one in the room wearing that gold taffeta skirt, blue polka dot top and pink shoes (sometime originality and creativity closely border tackiness and what-the-hell-was-she-thinking, but that's a whole different blog).

Hey this almost works:





top from target.com, skirt from jcrew.com, shoes bcbg from zappos.com

France 2

I'm back in New York! France was amazing! Beautiful, charming, stylish and so so very tasty, it was everything I expected it to be and more! And as for the fashion, it was every where! On people of all ages, in large towns, the tiniest little villages, kids, and sometimes even dogs!There were so many adorable boutiques that I seriously think I almost got whiplash from staring at all the window displays for too long. I loved that girls did not wear sneakers unless they were actually exercising. Guys didn't wear sneakers too often either. Everyone looked comfortable but dressed to impress at the same time - cute jeans, flats, a nice shirt and a tailored jacket, jewlery, makeup - easy, effortless, but very clearly pulled together and oh so cheek. Dark colors ruled, on the streets and in stores it was black and grey only. And I loved that H&M and Zara were everywhere, talk about universal style! These stores are so popular that in Monte Carlo, Zara was literally around the corner from YSL...go figure. But my favorite part, the absolute and total fashion love of my vacation was this coat from Custo Barcelona:

It's a little hard to see in the picture, the website images are better: http://www.custo-barcelona-store.com/index_flash.php?idioma=ING&tienda=85 but this coat is just so beautiful and unique! The red and grey fabric will let you stand out in any crowd, the cut makes it very girly but the fur sleeves give it a sophisticated edge! Just like everything else on that website, this coat is really one of a kind, and inspired the fashion part of my vacation!

Forcing what you wear

This morning while doing my usual routine of pulling random clothes out of the closet and somehow turning them into a wearable, office-appropriate outfit, my sister, who stayed over at my apartment the night before, turned around, looked at me in slight amazement, and said
- you always look so good when you dress for work, do you plan your outfits? It's so hard for me to get dressed, I always have to try things on the night before to make sure that the outfit works.

Now obviously I didn't have a tape recorder so I'm paraphrasing. And obviously I have my bad work-outfit days too. And although I don't try clothes on at night, I do think about what I want to wear the next day. And I also have plenty of days when I'm running out of my apartment at 8:50 screaming "I'm late" because I couldn't think of what to wear or because the outfit that I planned on wearing just didn't work. But the point is that the comment made me think about how long it takes me to get dressed and whether the time I spend getting dressed has an impact on the outcome of my outfit (very scientific, I know, but w/e, I'm bored at work).

And here's what I came up with: in general, the less time I spend on an outfit, the better it looks. It comes together naturally, showing my own unique style. On the other hand, when I spend two hours putting together a 'look', it becomes exactly that, a 'look' rather then something that's really me. It might look good, or even fabulous, but it's forced, and that always shows. The extra piece of jewelry, the over-the-top shoes, the scarves, belts, whatever it is, if you see a girl or a guy with just a little too much on, you know that they spent way too much time getting dressed before leaving the house and their outfit is forced.

Unfortunately amazing outfits don't always happen in 5 minutes and sometimes making something work takes forever, but here's the deal - after you're finally fully dressed and ready to go, get rid of as many accessories as possible, or at least take off the very last thing that you put on. Because after all, less is more!

One of my favorite shoes

I always thought that fashion exists on the Upper West Side. After all, just because you have to look for it doesn't mean that it's not there. I was once again proved right yesterday. While out shopping for a b-day present, I couldn't help doing a serious double take when I saw a girl wearing these Tashkent by Cheyenne platform wedges:

I've been in love with these shoes since the first time I saw them last April. The style is so unique and funky, the holes in the back add a little bit of edge and the variety of colors (they come in grey, black, burgundy, and deep blue) means that there's a pair for any one's wardrobe. My personal fave is the grey. The girl I saw was wearing them with a Burberry-ish plaid mini-dress, but these can be worn with jeans, leggings, shorts, skirts, or whatever else comes to mind. With shoes like this, you just can't go wrong!

Image and details from shopbop.com

France!!!

It's that time! I've been waiting and planning and now it's almost here, in one week and one day, or next Friday, I'm off on my first trip to France! Woo hoo! And now it's time for my favorite part of planning for vacation - packing! My previous trips were all to places where I'd be at the beach all the time, very active/adventurous vacations that required rough clothes, or at one place the whole time, like resorts or cruises, so I wouldn't have to carry my stuff around all the time. But this vacation is different. I'll be in one of the most fashionable countries in the world, traveling from place to place every day. Bringing a big suit case will be really inconvenient, and I will be site seeing and walking around all day long. And of course going out and partying at night. So I need a wardrobe that will be comfortable, France-worthy stylish, can easily go from day to night, and can fit into one small suitcase! This is not going to be easy.

But after looking at some packing lists designed for backpackers (http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/womenpacking.htm, http://www.backpackeurope.com/packing/tips.html, http://www.reidsguides.com/t_pa/t_pa_packing_list.html), I think I have a good start:

1. two pairs of jeans - fitted grey and blue jeans
2. leggings
3. a few long sleeved t-shits that I can layer or wear separately
4. two or 3 sweaters
5. two dresses that won't wrinkle, one of them black so I can layer it with the t-shirts and legging during the day or wear out at night.
6. flat boots, sneakers, and maybe if I have room, a pair of black heels
7. and of course all the accessories and toiletries and small necessary stuff like a hat and tons of scarves.

I'm sure I'll rework this list a thousand times and change it all completely when I actually start packing next week, but I'm excited just thinking about it, and I think I'm of to a pretty good start!

Guess what I saw today?...S&tC Spoilers

Here are a mere 3 of the gazillions of images posted on the web of the wedding scene in the upcoming S&tC movie. But guess what I saw today - a stretch limo pulls up to a town car out side the Bryant Park Grill, Big steps out of the car, Carrie runs out of the limo towards Big and starts hitting her with her bouquet screaming "I knew it, I knew you'd do this to me!" Miranda and Charlotte run out after her, try restraining her and eventually lead her away with a hysterical Carrie collapsing in their arms!

Ooh, the drama! I can't wait to find out what actually happened!! And all in one lunch break!

I have to say though, I love the Zac Possen dresses on Miranda, Carrie and Samantha. The wedding dress on Carrie is absolutely stunning but WTF's with that blue feather. I know you're supposed to have something blue but I'd want to see the bride's face, not parts of dead chickens!

Meat packing on a Wednesday night

Last night was great - art exhibit opening at the Soho House, dinner at Paradou and an In Style party at Tenjune. I say pretty good for a Wednesday night. Of course I was checking out every girl that walked by me. Soho House was great, the typical, gorgeous "I don't care what I look like, I'm fabulous no matter what" crowd. The only thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was a girl wearing a tiered skin colored mini-dress with the layers starting right below her chest. Tiered dresses don't work for anyone except uber skinny tall girls (models), and skin colored dresses only work on girls who don't have that skin color! But anyway, skipping dinner and moving on to the In Style party, it was great, but after a while i was looking around and thinking how many girls can wear the exact same outfit! It was either tight mini-dresses with flab sticking out, baggy dresses on skinny girls making them look preggers or the leggings look...will we ever get over the '80's??? It was like all the girls called each other before leaving home to make sure that they're wearing the 'right' outfit. Boring! Just in case you're wandering, I was wearing a high-waist brown pencil skirt!

I'm trying to find some good pics online, our camera broke.

A runway show I actually like

Transitioning from structured and sophisticated to delicate and feminine to fun and flirty, from super glamorous to just super weird in one collection Alexander McQueen created yet another unique and vibrant show. Some pieces are genuinely weird and I can't imagine anyone wearing them, but others, like the pink to purple chiffon dress with black butterflies are absolutely gorgeous. I want that dress...

The structured:

The sophisticated:

Delicate:

Feminine:

Fun:

Flirty:

Glamorous:

Weird:

Yee-haw! ...huh?

Way back when before dust masks men would tie hanker chiefs around their nose to protect themselves from breathing in dust, or if you're into the occasional cowboy flick, to keep their identity hidden while robbing banks. While taking those much needed breaks from herding animals (or robbing banks) they would pull the hanker chief down and let it hang around their necks, creating a cowboy-cool look repeated in every Western movie ever made. This is a great look for the wild, wild west, or those occasional horse back riding excursions - after all, you have to have the right look at all times for all occasions. But lately I've been wandering, what is it doing on the streets of New York?

I've been seeing girls sporting scarves styled as cowboy kerchiefs all over the City lately - during brunch in the East Village, on the subway after work, around the West Village and Meat Packing while out at night. I know New York can be wild and dusty and in the heat of summer rather smelly, but turning a gorgeous Hermes or de la Renta scarf into a cowboy kerchief is unacceptable. After all, no matter how many different kinds of 'animals' we have here, you're not about to go herding them. Or start robbing banks, I hope. Bottom line is that the cowboy boot style was bad enough, let's leave the scarves alone!

Here are some images of how scarves should be worn from BergdorfGoodman.com:

Color me purple

Getting dressed Thursday morning I noticed that for 4 days in a row this week I wore something purple. Purple tights with black pencil skirt, sweater and round-toe pumps on Monday; purple shoes with a brown button-down dress and brown tights on Tuesday; black flared pants with a purple jersey fabric top on Wednesday; and brown pants, white top and beige shoes with purple flowers on them on Thursday. By Friday I had enough. I decided to go with more subtle blues and grays instead. But what do I get in by in-box on the one day that I wanted to skip this color? A shopbop.com trend alert screaming that Purple Rules! I guess it's nice to know that I'm wearing the trends before they even announce them :) But it got me thinking about what this color means and why I was so drawn to it this week. I did some googling, and here are some attributes of purple:

http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html
Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colors. Purple is a very rare color in nature; some people consider it to be artificial.


http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/purple.htm
Royalty and Spirituality: Purple is royalty. A mysterious color, purple is associated with both nobility and spirituality. The opposites of hot red and cool blue combine to create this intriguing color.

Nature of Purple: Purple has a special, almost sacred place in nature: lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet flowers are often delicate and considered precious. Because purple is derived from the mixing of a strong warm and strong cool color it has both warm and cool properties. A purple room can boost a child's imagination or an artist's creativity. Too much purple, like blue, could result in moodiness.

Culture of Purple: The color of mourning for widows in Thailand, purple was the favorite color of Egypt's Cleopatra. It has been traditionally associated with royalty in many cultures. Purple robes were worn by royalty and people of authority or high rank. The Purple Heart is a U.S. Military decoration given to soldiers wounded in battle.

Using Purple: Deep or bright purples suggest riches while lighter purples are more romantic and delicate. Use redder purples for a warmer color scheme or the bluer purples to cool down.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology
Envy, Sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, enlightenment, arrogance, flamboyance, gaudiness, mourning, profanity, exaggeration, confusion, homosexuality, pride, Scorpio (violet, star sign), May, November, riches, romanticism (light purple), delicacy (light purple).Purple is the color of mourning for widows in Thailand, favorite color of Egypt's Cleopatra, and the purple heart - given to soldiers who have been wounded during warfare.


Hmm...I guess I was feeling powerful, yet spiritual. With a special connection with nature. You an find more websites like the ones I mention by googling color 'meanings'. Meanwhile, here are some purple goodies from my favorite online store, shopbop.com:

My rule of 4

As much as we would all like it to, the right look doesn't always happen. The right combination of edginess and style is difficult and combines aspects that have to be put together very carefully. Today I saw a man wearing a navy pinstriped suit, white and blue checkered shirt and a fuchsia tie and hanker chief. The suit was traditional, with very thin grey pinstripes and the shirt, a basic navy and white check. With a plain tie it would have looked nice, but bland. The fuchsia tie and hanker chief brought the combination to an entirely different level of style. The look worked because the colors and patterns were limited and carefully put together. If another color or pattern was added, the result would be overwhelming and messy (shoes don't count, men don't have as many options as women).

Unfortunately other attempts don't work nearly as well. A few minutes after getting out of the subway I noticed a girl wearing what should have been a trendy and basic outfit. Dark skirt, jacket, tights and boots. Simple right? And yet, it just didn't work. After a few seconds I realized what was off - there were too many colors. One color less would have been perfect but with 5, it was too much. Thinking about it, I figured out the the ideal color strategy - no more then 4. If you have more, change something. So basically, white shirt, navy jacket, black skirt, green tights and brown boots = too much. On the other hand, a white shirt, navy jacket, black skirt, black tights and brown boots = street style hot. And yes black, brown, and grey count for colors. After all girls' shoes are part of the outfit, not a necessity.


Check out these color combinations from shopbop.com:

It happens on a Sunday morning

Imagine a Sunday morning, you wake up at home, the sun is shining, it's gorgeous out, you put on your favorite dress or shirt or whatever and head out to enjoy your day. But what happens when you wake up somewhere else? Especially after a particularly hot date?


Technically, the morning after a hot date should be followed by an equally hot breakfast in bed, made or ordered by him, and a quick run for a cab. If it does involve going out to eat, most likely your outfit choices are very limited - wearing your sequenced dress and 4'' heels just screams 'walk of shame' a little too loud. In the winter taking care of this little problem is easy, grab one of his sweaters, cover it up with your coat and go somewhere where no one you know will see you. But in the summer, if you're not prepared you're...well, you know what you are. Because all those T-shirts of his, not only are they too short, but no matter how hard you try, they'll still be screaming 'I didn't go home last night'. Same goes for the button downs. But I think I finally figured out a solution. Team Jerseys! I know, they're not exactly runway fashion, but think about it this way: they're long, meaning your booty won't be showing. They're loose, comfortable and relaxed, meaning that they'll look great cinched at the waist with one of his plainer ties or a belt and your heels. They definitely work with the colored tights, leggings and tight jeans that are the must-have style right now. And you'll be giving men's wear fashion a whole new look!

I love solving problems!


This (from jersey-joe.com):

Plus something like this:

or this (both from neckties.com):

equal Sunday morning style!

Once upon a time

Sometimes certain things can't help but stand out. You don't see them every day, but when you do, they are so unique and memorable that they stay with you for a long time.

While waiting for a friend during fashion week I saw a woman walking up the steps to the tents in what at first looked like a short full skirted red coat (think double breasted jacket attached to a puffy mini-skirt). But coming a little bit closer to look at the details I realized that it was actually a dress, made out of chiffon, with reddish-orange patchwork. Here's the most interesting part, chiffon is a sheer fabric, meaning that the dress was see-though. The woman was wearing a skin tone color slip underneath but the patchwork pieces, not sheer, still created an element of confusion, you really had to look to see what was going on. Definitely not what the look on the streets is, but I loved the 'is it really see-through' confusion that was created by putting patches on chiffon. I'm not sure who the designer is, I haven't found the dress among the runway shows, but regardless of the designer, that dress rocked my day.

Unique looks can't be repeated, but sometimes you do see the same concept. Like this Tuesday, hanging out at my fave UWS bar I saw a girl wearing a really cute white flowered baby doll dress. Of course I had to turn back to get a second glace and this dress was also see-through! She had white boy-style undies underneath, which of course was extremely sexy, but since it was a baby doll rather than a fitted piece, it became an approachable sexiness rather than blatantly overt or trashy sexuality. Basically, it just looked good

And of course sometimes this something unique and memorable one season can become the must have piece of the next. I'll be waiting for it.

Seeing plaid...or stripes

A few weeks ago my sister and I got a vintage plaid Levi button down shirt for our male cousin. We want to make sure that he looks good! Of course both of us wore it before giving it to him - skinny jeans, the plaid shirt, a thick belt over the hips - it worked. And it was hot! So what did I see all around Bryant Park today? The plaid shirt, re-styled for the office. Flared pants, a tucked-in plaid shirt and a belt around the waist to separate it from the pants. It was a good look. There were also some girls pulling off the same style with striped shirts. There's definetly very masculine elements in this, but because the hips and the waist are so dramatically accentuated by the flared pants, the fact that the shirt is tucked in and the waist is emphasized by the belt, it retains its femininity.


Here are some "office hottie" options from gap.com:

Street fashion

Ok, so maybe this is really bar fashion, but here's what happened. After my post on how I'm going to start looking at street fashion instead of runways for style inspiration, I went to see a band at a bar on E. Houston. Talk about street fashion, this was a mix of punk rocker wanna be's, pimpin-aint'-easy leopard print coats and red velvet hats, glittery LES fashion divas and East Village comfortable-cool it-really-took-me-two hours-to-get-dressed looks. It was a buffet for the fashion senses. (I was going to say feast, but then I decided that buffet is the more accurate food comparison. Like when there is a lot of food and you try a little bit of everything, but only a few dishes are actually done right). But anyways, there were some interesting looks, like military pants tucked into combat boots with a white fur vest. Punk cuteness. But the absolute best was actually the bar tender. Not the fastest server in the world, but checking out her Judi Rosen elephant bell-bottom jeans kept me patient while we waited for our beers.

I found a picture on line, but I think that they’re from last spring so I don't know if they are still being sold. However, you could get Judi Rosen shorts and pencil Capri’s on sale at shopbop.com. Sigh, I do love shopbop!

When fashion fails

I finally had a chance to start looking at some of the fashion shows from last week, and I have to say, I'm not impressed. I'll keep looking just in case there's something bigger and better to come, but so far everything has been pretty much the same and not overly outstanding. The colors are mainly creams, yellows, oranges and blues, and the shapes focus on high wasted short shorts and pencil skirts, structured pieces similar to what we saw in the fall 2007 shows, breezy shapeless summer dresses (and I thought those were gone for good) and a few super-feminine full or synched at the waist skirts and dresses. And to the horror of horrors, the shoulders got bigger. I understand the need to balance out the shorts or the high waists but I'm not a man, I don't want to look like one! So in the case of blah fashion, what's a girl (or a boy) to do?

Well, one can turn to the look of the streets, and New York is one of the best places to be for street fashion, so I think I'll be writing about that a lot in the future. Also check out the Sartorialist blog on Style.com, great street looks! One can look for indie designers, there's so many in the East Village, LES and the trendy neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and I'm sure there's a lot selling online. There's always the sticking to the classics option-going for simple, clean cut pieces that look good any time – this is when my love for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein is strongest. Or you can rebel all together! Forget the conventional, the trendy and the practical, and do your own thing! Just make sure that everything fits and your undies aren't showing, cause you want to be a fashion master, not a disaster (ha, I just rhymed!)

Anyways, here's some pics:

Spring 2008 collections from 3.1 Phillip Lim, Anna Sui, Bagley Mischka and Behnaz Sarafpour

Some classic looks from Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein: