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:

Think Pink

It's been a while since I had a chance to post--fashion week, holidays, birthdays and other fab events can keep a girl busy! And there's so much to write about, like all the gorgeous styles that I saw from my front row view of across-the-street-while-running-to-get-food during my lunch break. But right now, I'm thinking pink. Not pink as in my pretty bow, but pink as in the pink ribbon of the upcoming breast cancer awareness month. It seems like more and more companies in the fashion and beauty industries are coming together and working to raise awareness and gather enough money to fund treatments and cure research. Avon is sponsoring a walk for cure where women raise money and walk 30 miles for the cure. PrettyCity.com is working together with spas and hair salons through out NYC to raise money for the Y-ME national Breast Cancer Organization to help provide information and support to anyone touched by breast cancer. Ralph Lauren created a line of exclusive 'Fashion Targets Breast Cancer' Polo's for the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer charity, available on Net-a-Porter.com, a new site that I'm looking forward to exploring. Marc Jacobs created a special charm bracelet available on Shopbop.com and Coach has a really cute pink ribbon key chain. Seeing the fashion and beauty industries create something that is not only designed to beautify but also to help women--now that's a way to give back and show some love to it's supporters!

I know I mentioned a few things, but let me know if there are events and products that I missed!

Here are some links and pictures:

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer: http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=walk_homepage

Pretty City: http://www.prettycity.com/pink/sneakpeek/

Y-ME Breast Cancer Organization: http://y-me.org/

Ralph Lauren FTBC Polo's: http://www.net-a-porter.com/FTBC/FTHomeFlash available on http://www.net-a-porter.com/

Marc Jacobs bracelet: http://www.shopbop.com/

Coach Key Chain: http://www.coach.com/content/product.aspx?product_no=10095&category_id=73

Also, visit http://teamsugar.com/bookmarks/tags/breast+cancer for other great products that contribute to Breast Cancer charities. Because if you're going to shop this October, it might as well be good for you and good for a worthy cause. Hmmm shopping and helping...look you're multi-tasking again!

Vests all around

I've been seeing a lot of vests around town lately. Over the years they have been on the edgier side of fashion, like biker cheek leather vests, or punk rock denim vests. In the past few seasons it has been a men's wear inspired suit vest redesigned to be worn by women over dresses, sweaters, T-shirts, peasant blouses and what ever else worked with it or under it. But lately I seem to be noticing a few new types of vests or garments with vest potential. The first is a knit sweater vest that I saw in the window display of Ralph Lauren's new Rugby store on University place. It was paired it with very tight jeans, booties, a white shirt underneath and a thin belt right around the waist. Hello preppy cheek! The other kind is actually like a sleeveless T-shirt tunic, worn either layered over other T's, or as I saw it today around Bryant Park, on its own over leggings, with a men's wear inspired vest over it. That was a great look and pairing two such different yet potentially similar garments together...serious fashion know how and vested genius. Maybe it's not a traditional vest, but definitely another great way to layer and add some extra glamour to your outfit.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any pictures of the Ralph Lauren Rugby vests so here's one from their Polo Collection (from ralphlauren.com) and an imitation Rugby vest and a very cute tunic that can be worn as a vest from Forever21.com.

Vera Wang for all

So I finally finally got my hands on the super large September issue of Vogue today. I spend the day flipping through it and got only about half way into it. I could have finished it all, but I like reading the articles and taking my time looking at the ads. And I did a quick run to the mall with my mom to look for fall work clothes (didn't find work stuff but I finally found purple tights just in the shade I was looking for--by DKNY).
But back to Vogue and what I found--Kohl's, a nation wide retailer, is introducing a line by Vera Wang! The clothes, shoes and accessories looked very cute and trendy and the prices seems very approachable to those of us on a tight budget. The line, called Simply Vera, is made up of separates and dresses, shoes, coats, accessories, undies and what looks to be like very cute hats, scarves and gloves. And also a home line, to work with both your personal and your home decor styles. Now it's obvious that Kohl's is trying to take on Target and their recent stylish and affordable lines by high end designers like Proenza Schouler. Thanks to Target's brilliant advertising campaigns, they are a hard competitor to take on, but this new line should get some new clients for Kohl's, who generally carry more traditional, perfect for a BBQ in the 'burbs type of clothing. So for people like myself who are not big fans of the retailer, not only because of the rather boring clothing selection but also because of the long hours they make their employees work (I used to work next to a store way back when in high school), this new line is a great reason to walk in and spend some money. But only in the name of fashion!

Here are some pics from the new line from Kohl's.com:

Bright and shiny and big, oh my!

It shines, it sparkles, it blings and takes the spotlight away from you! You know what I'm talking about--it's big, overwhelming jewelry. It jumps out at the passer by, stealing all attention not only from the person wearing it, but also the outfit that that piece of jewelry is supposed to compliment. Like a necklace that hides the neck of the woman wearing it. Or so many rings that one can barely see the fingers (women's hands are beautiful and should always be shown of).
But don't worry, I'm not writing of big jewelry pieces all together, I just think that like all good things they should be done in moderation. Like one big ring and that's it, or a large necklace that is either long and works with a simple out fit, making it glamorous and sophisticated, or short and fit around the neck and collar bone, highlighting that part of the body. My favorite rule of thumb: if the accessory is more noticeable then your neck/hand/wrist or your entire outfit, then you should take it off. And of course, the size of the piece should be proportional to your height and weight. Check out the pictures below for some example of accessory do's and don'ts--I know that sounds cheesy, but I just had to say it :).

The first picture is one of a big piece of jewelry being too much, in the second picture it's just right, complementing the outfit, not taking the spotlight away from the model or her outfit. The third image shows how a dramatic accessory can give a simple outfit a very dramatic and sophisticated look. (Pictures courtesy of shopbop.com)

Seeing red

Checking out the stores and spending time surfing the web for the latest styles and the best shopping deals, I can't help getting red! No, I'm not mad or angry, I'm just getting in the mood for the fall's hottest color! Red is everywhere this season: on the runways, in stores, on line, and now it can be on you.

How you ask? Easy! If you're a big fan of the color and feel comfortable strutting down the street with all eyes on you, then deck your self out in dresses, boots, jeans or whatever else comes to mind. If you prefer a more modest or conservative look, try pairing a few choice red accessories with this season's other key color - grey. This also works if you're on a budget - pick up some cute red bangles from fab budget friendly retailers like Forever 21 or Mandee and you're ready to go. And if red is absolutely not your color, go for other shades in bright, primary tones, and you'll be styling all season long!

Check out the style possibilities from Forever 21.com, mandee.com and style.com:

A Mom's New Best Friend

Keeping your children looking great can be difficult for the mom-on-the-go. Since you are a style queen yourself, you want to keep your kids looking just as cute without the hassle of having to run around town looking for the best deal. To solve all your mommy shopping woes one mother from Arkansas launched a website where mothers can trade their children's gently worn duds for new finds. The process works like this: send in your children's clothes and get points assigned per piece. Then browse the selection of clothes priced by points. Select your new items and pay only $2 per point. And presto you're done! No shipping or membership fees required. Try the site yourself! Visit http://www.changingyourclothes.com/