Points For Humor

Oh, my freaky friend, sometimes I love you in spite of myself...




This bag is made by Naco Paris and is available on Arty Dandy, a French website. I'm not sure what their policy is on shipping to the US, but there is an address where you can write them and query. There is also a t-shirt in this design. They aren't cheap, but they are hilarious.

Whatever you think of Kaiser Karl, you have got to give him credit for a sense of humor here. While I'm not sure I ever want to sit down and have dinner with him (or even a quick drink), I must admit -- I'm glad there is a Karl Lagerfeld in the world. I appreciate what he does for Chanel more than I love it, if you know what I mean; but I just adore his work for Fendi and his own line, and I think those are a better representation of who he is deep down as a designer. Bottom line, Karl Lagerfeld flies his freak flag high and proud, and I love that about him.

Hope everyone has a great, freaky, hilarious weekend!


Image: Purseblog.com

Fighting It Off

Oy. I had a crabby day today. No particular reason -- I'll chalk some of it up to hormones and some of it up to the relentless heat and some of it can probably be attributed to various & sundry low-level family agitas that are keeping my brain a little busier than I'd like. But it was just a crabby day -- I pretty much hated everyone who crossed my path, which made me miserable. I had a bright spot at midday, when I had a lovely lunch with a dear friend who gifted me with fantastic early birthday presents, but after we parted things got prickly again. I dunno, whaddaya gonna do? We all have 'em, right? Bad days?

By the time I got home this evening I was well & thoroughly sick of myself. I needed cheering up. And what cheers me up best of all (besides my friends & loved ones & this goofcake:)



are pretty things from my closet. So I came home & put on this:




It's just a slip -- a sheer black slip with lace inserts. It's not fancy or expensive -- it's Vanity Fair & I got it at some department store, but it's pretty and it makes me feel sexy. Like Sophia Loren, except without the boobs. Or the Italian accent. Or the mesmerizing cat eyes. Or the electrifying sex appeal. But still... sexy for me.

And then I put on these:



These are the newest beauties in my collection. Ooooooooh, boy, are they fantastic. They're Alaia -- satin with pink croc heels. I was parading around in them at the Neiman's outlet last weekend where they were having a ferocious sale and I had just about decided I couldn't live without them when I rounded the end of a rack of shoes & nearly bumped into a darling friend who wrestled them out of my hands (once I'd taken them off) and insisted on treating me to them as an early birthday present. (Such treats, I assure you, I do not deserve.) The shoes are described as gunmetal gray, but they read as black. The toe is perfect -- exactly in-between round and pointed and thus will never go out of style. The ankle strap is also perfectly in the ankle strap sweet spot -- not so skinny it's too dainty and not so wide it's bondage-y. Very sexy, that ankle strap. I really think everything about these shoes is perfect and destined for immortality. An ankle strap d'Orsay pump can never be wrong. J'adore beaucoup ces chaussures. They've been living on my bedroom dresser since I got them because I want them to be out where I can see them instead of hidden away in the closet.

I've topped the ensemble off with this

(click photo for a link if you think this would cheer you up, too)

Wonderful Kenneth Jay Lane enamel flower pendant that was still another early birthday gift, from my lunch companion today. (It's not even August yet & I'm already cleaning up in the birthday gift department! Lucky me!) I developed an immense crush on this collection of Lane's when I first encountered it this spring, and my ardor has not dimmed. So now I finally have a wonderful piece of it and it's making me smile all over. This is a happy, happy piece of jewelry -- the pendant is about the size of a golf ball, and I'm going to wear it all the time, I just know. Flowers! And sparklies! And tiny little ladybugs and butterflies! Rarely do I run across things this sweet that are not twee.

So, there you have it. The at-home sartorial stylings of a cranky fashion blogger. Do I look ridiculous? Oh, undoubtedly. Do I care? No, not at all. I feel pretty in my pretty things. And what's even better, these pretty things were gifts from people that I cherish. So not only do I feel pretty, I feel loved.

Now, that? Is some good fashion right there.

How about you guys? Do you have anything in your closets or drawers or jewelry boxes that's a sure-fire mood lifter? Tell me about it!

Just Because You Get Paid For It Doesn't Mean You're Good At It

On July 19, thanks to the fabulous Plumcake's fame, charm, and media passes, I got to attend the Austin Fashion Awards, complete with some time hanging out on the "red carpet" with equally fabulous photographer Nathan Black. We watched folks saunter down said carpet, got some posed pictures, got some candid shots, and were frequently... um, let's say... impressed by some of the fashion choices we beheld.

During the awards proper, we were treated to the reading of nominee names in various categories, envelope tearing, and actual acceptance speeches -- just like one finds at most awards shows. This being Austin, it was also viewed as an opportunity for some live music, which I was totally down with. The music was played behind mini-fashion shows featuring work by UT design students. I am sorry to report that most of the student designers' work, with one exception, ranged from mediocre to downright hilarious. As the clothes appeared, Plummie & I took a whack at dissecting the personalities and influences of each of the designers represented based on the garments they showed -- "former cheerleader from Dallas," for example, or "wishes she'd been at Studio 54."

And then this bobbled down the runway:



Holy cow. And what you can't see? The shiny confetti bits all over the front of the dress appeared to be holographic. You know, that silvery iridescent rainbow plastic stuff they make into the covers of the Trapper-Keeper your sixth-grade daughter carries to school. My goodness, was it shiny!

As this sparkly, shiny, frothy, ruffly, bubblegummy confection bounced down the aisle, I turned to Plummie and said, "This kid is a big ol' 'mo who just wants to grow up and design pageant gowns."

(This model was... er... "spunky." She took the whole runway model stomp-walk thing to new heights.)

So far, so uninspired. These are pretty conventional prom & party dresses of the sort you could find at most small-town "special occasion" boutiques all over the country. But, oh boy, things ratcheted up a notch at the next exit:



Good googly-moogly! I'm having a flashback! It's like Fashion 'Nam! (Also -- how do you know you're at a Texas fashion show? The models are all bone-thin. With D-cups.)



Seriously, these bear a striking resemblance to the horrifying gowns from the Miss USA pageant that I featured here in April.

And ya know why?

Well, lookie who it is! With a model and a minion. I don't know who the Louise Brooks wannabe with him is -- she wasn't a model, she walked down the red carpet with him. If she's his beard, she's not a very successful one.)

If you're a regular Project Runway viewer you'll probably recognize this guy from Season 3. His name is Kayne. His full name appears to be Johnathan Kayne Gillaspie, and guess what! He designs pageant dresses!! In all the excitement of the awards show (and by "excitement of the awards show" I mean "three glasses of champagne I'd put away while milling around in the lobby pre-show and at intermission") I'd completely forgotten about seeing this minor celebrity on the red carpet earlier that evening. In addition, there wasn't a separate introduction for his part of the fashion show; they just sent his goods out on the heels of one of the student designers, so I didn't realize right away that this wasn't the work of just another student.

Now, I know that someone's got to design the pageant dresses. Goodness knows, we can't leave such an important endeavor to chance. I mean, we don't want our beauty queens just picking random gowns off the rack at Dillard's, heaven forfend! And without the pageant gown designers, the world would be deprived of things like this:



I mean, really... Who wants to live in a world without dresses like this?

Me. I do. And as soon as possible.

This thing is about 67 different kinds of awful. The "design" is shockingly tacky, the fabric is cheap-looking, and the construction!! Good lord, they appear to have basically just bought a bra and covered it in that cheesy stretch lace, then attached a panel at the center & made it into a skirt. For pete's sake, you can see the outline of the underwire!!! (And the same for the sparkly purple number in the picture above.)

I hate this dress. I hate all these dresses, and I can't believe anyone chose this guy to be featured in a "fashion show." This is not, I repeat, NOT fashion. Pageant wear is costuming, pure & simple. One of the other guests on the red carpet at the Fashion Awards was Corey Lynn Calter, who is an actual designer who makes actual clothes, some of which are pretty great.

(Photo by Jake Holt)

Here's Corey on the red carpet, wearing her own designs and a BRILLIANT vintage Christian Dior necklace that Plummie & I could have easily gotten into a slap fight over. I really love those pants she's wearing, they're some of the most successful of that sort I've seen yet. Even Plumcake, who is not a fan of the whole harem genre, had to admit those looked great, and we both loved how she worked her shoes over the pants:



I'm going to be looking for some of those. Calter had a Pop-Up Store during the Fashion Week that led up to the Awards, but they didn't take the next step and give her some time on the runway, which I think is a dead shame.

But back to the sequined abominations. I have to say, even for pageant gowns, these dresses are bad. When you go to the website & look at them en masse, they become, unbelievably, mind-numbingly dull. Just one long, sparkly, skin-tight sausage casing after another. Even the colors are bad -- garish or predictable or both. I know Austin is pretty small beer, fashion-wise, but still. This was the best you could come up with for a "fashion show"???? I mean, helloooooooo!!! Corey Lynn Calter -- RIGHT THERE. WITH A BUNCH OF HER CLOTHES.

But as I like to say, the cutting edge of fashion here in Austin is pretty dull. It's getting better -- there are a few boutiques that have opened in the last few years that are actually selling some interesting clothes. We have a Neiman Marcus now, although you wouldn't believe the comparative amount of floorspace devoted to St. John ladies-who-lunch knits; and we have a Barney's Co-Op, although it seems mostly given over to Marc by Marc Jacobs (no more puffed sleeves, Marc, I'm beggin' ya) and DVF (great clothes, but not exactly challenging). The whole world seems to be a lot more fashion-aware these days, thanks to television shows like Project Runway and The Fashion Show, and most of all, our friend the Internets. I'm not hopeful that Austin is ever going to become a major Fashion Capital -- the trophy for the Austin Fashion Awards was shaped like a cowboy boot, for pete's sake. That's okay -- there are lots of other things that we do extremely well (music, Mexican cuisine, dog-friendly public spaces).

Besides -- if everyone in Austin suddenly became brilliantly fashion-literate, what would I have to feel smug about? I'd be out of business! So when I think about it that way, I guess all I have to say is, "Bring on the pageant dresses!"



Images except where noted: Nathan Black

Style Spy DIY -- Get Thee Gone, Wench!

A problem child from Style Spy's closet:

(Yes, the face was that bad. No makeup, crazy post-run, pre-shower hair. It's hard enough for me to show you any photos of me, let alone the ones where I look like a designer-clad escapee from a prison camp. So please indulge me.)

I've written about this McQ dress before, about how it's a little challenging but I still love it. And those things are both true, but I was rifling around in my closet this weekend (I am purging relentlessly -- look out for more Shop the Closet opportunities) and I saw it hanging there and realized I've worn this dress once, maybe twice. Which is a crying shame because one of the best things about it is the fabric -- a cool, breezy, supersoft cotton voile that is absolutely perfect for the Dante-esque weather we continue to have here in Austin this summer.

So I took it out & put it on, trying to decide if I wanted to keep it or if there was anything that could be done to make it a bit more wearable. I looked in the mirror and asked, "What is it about this dress that makes it user-unfriendly?"

The answer, of course, was the neckline. I love the asymmetrical pick-ups of the skirt, and I don't mind the Big! Blue! Stripes! because we all know how I feel about color. But the big ol' ruffle with the off-the-shoulder action and the foofy, poofy sleeves combine to make it, let's be honest, decidedly wench-y.

Style Spy does not do Wench.

Safe to say, any character AT ALL you might find at Ye Olde Renaissance Faire is not a look I want to be emulating at any time, ever. EVER. (And neither should you, unless you are actually employed by an actual Renn Fest.)

So in order to save this dress I decided I need to get rid of the ruffle and tone down the sleeves, and also fix the sliding off my shoulder problem. And so I did:


The ruffle wasn't actually that hard to take care of -- I turned it under like a facing, stitched it down, then trimmed off the fabric. I added ribbon ties to the back in order to keep the neckline together -- the bonus of that was I actually really like the kind of drapey cowl effect it creates in the back. The sleeves were a much bigger PITA, it turns out. Somehow, the geometry of this dress is really wonky and my usual tricks for dealing with sleeves (like folding the dress in half to measure) didn't really pan out. There was a lot of eyeballing that went on. Happily, the dress is pretty loosey-goosey, because I still don't think they're exactly even.

(I'm talking to Shine, not imaginary friends.)

Here I stuck a sweet little vintage half-slip under it, so that the adorable crystal-pleated flounce on the bottom peeked out. Just for giggles. And here's how the dress looked when it went out for Sunday evening moules et vin -- with a hat & various pieces of jewelry:

(Canvas & raffia platform wedges from Banana Republic that I bought for a song last summer and am going to wear to shreds, I should have bought two pairs; hat from April Cornell children's wear --yep, seriously -- and sweetest little antique porcelain flower pin ever found at Antique Mall a few years ago for something like 5 bucks. Bangles from various places -- I just scoop 'em up whenever I find some in colors I like.)

So there ya go. I'm pretty tickled about this little project. I was very hesitant to embark upon it because... well, who am I to second-guess Alexander McQueen? On the other hand, I wasn't wearing it, and if someone like me, who is fairly fashion-adventurous, wasn't wearing it, it didn't seem likely that someone was going to see its inherent magic on the small screen if I listed it on eBay and take it off my hands. I really had nothing to lose.

I know this is the sort of dress that, for some people, no amount of alterations is going to make tolerable. But I don't dress for those people. I dress for me, and for the imaginary coterie of street style photographers and fashion editors that live in my head. (Yeah, it's crowded in there.) Some will probably quibble with the volume of the dress, saying it looks bulky. In response to that criticism I have to say that still pictures don't do it justice -- a lot of this dress is about the movement. Besides: in shoes like the platforms I'm wearing in these photos I'm almost six feet tall -- I can wear the bulk without being swallowed. If I were a smaller person, yes, this dress would probably be too much for me.

So what do you think? An improvement? Or do you think it's a lost cause? Should I have left it alone? Burned it? What? Tell me what you think!



Images: Style Spy

Pretty For Friday -- July 24

Style Spy has a birthday coming up, so I'm keeping my eye peeled for this year's birthday suit. I usually use my birthday as an excuse to buy myself a dress of some sort that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to justify. Of course, I'm still working on a tight budget, so I'm looking at sale stuff.

I'm really taken with this

I love the simplicity of the shape, I love the one shoulder thing, and I lovelovelove all that gorgeous color. It's so hard to find a print or patterned dress that isn't awful or kitschy, and I do love color. And I think that something like this is a year-'round dress, if you live in a climate like mine. So I really like this.



But I dunno. Maybe I'll skip the dress and get myself a really astonishing pair of shoes, like these Haider Ackermann boots.

These make my heart go pitter-pat, I tell ya. They look a little weird, I know, and suede boots are the absolute last thing I should be looking at during a record-breaking summer in Austin, (Oh. My. God, y'all -- you cannot BELIEVE how hot it's been.) but something about these just really, really speaks to me. Lordamercy, those are cool. I would wear those with EVERYTHING. (And in case anyone is wondering -- size 39, please.)

Oh, I'm sure I'll see lots more stuff I'm interested in -- there's no hurry, and half the fun is the hunt, of course. (Honestly, where I'm concerned, it may be more than half the fun.)

Have a good weekend, everyone!

A Whim and A Sale Code

Do you like these little sandals?

Yeah, me too. And I've on several occasions this summer thought, "Hmph. What I really need is some little flat gold sandals." So I think I would definitely get some use out of these. Plus -- super cheap! And even cheaper because Piperlime has a special sale code today that takes 20% off all their sale shoes -- enter JUST4U at the checkout.

Now, we all know I like a nice pair of shoes, and that my tastes do ordinarily run to the spendy. But I am also the proud owner of several pairs of mid- and low-range shoes that have given yeoman's service and garnered me plenty of compliments. I'm not that much of a snob. And the shoes above, after the sale & the code & sales tax, top out at under 27 bucks. That seems llike a very reasonable amount for a little mid-week pick-me-up. Plus, Piperlime does free shipping & returns; so if they don't work, no harm done.

So I ordered 'em. (You can, too, just click on the photo.) I'll let you know how they work out.

I Do Not Think It Will Smell Good

Rumor has it that Amy Winehouse wants to license her name to create a celebrity perfume.

Okay, IF they made the bottle in the shape of a hip flask and called the stuff "Skanque," it would at least be funny. Otherwise? My friends, there is not enough jasmine in all the world...


Image: Boston.com

Hemming and Hawing

My apologies, but herewith follows yet more pictures of me in clothes. Which is probably tiresome, but better than pictures of me out of clothes, wouldn't you agree?

It started out like this:

Silk burnout bias-cut slip dress.

I've had this dress forever. I bought it years ago, wore it I don't even remember where even though I shouldn't have because I was too heavy & pear-shaped for it, gained even more weight and couldn't fit into it, held onto it because the color is so gorgeous and the fabric is so nice, and then, even after I was thin enough to wear it again, never took it out of the closet because it's floor-length. I know patio dresses are all the rage right now, but I'm already oooooooover that look and besides, the fabric of this is too dressy for it to be long and casual.

So I decided to shorten it. No sweat, right? Just chop it off, pin it up, sew it. I've hemmed hundreds of garments (probably) in my life, this should be a piece of cake.

HAH!

Not so much. Bias-cut + very sheer silk fabric + sheer silk lining = hair-pulling, frustrated, hem-pinning madness. Eventually I gave up and I took it over to my mom's house to have her do it, and after standing on her cedar chest for a while and klonking my head on the ceiling fan (we turned it off first, don't worry!) multiple times while she crouched at my feet trying to pin it, I realized this was a job for a professional. (There is no need to torment my mother like that, she is a perfectly nice lady.)

I headed over to Exclusive Alterations here in Austin, which is where I take all of my tailoring, and once again they did me right. (And in my defense, even the pros were grinding their teeth a little -- they had to re-do a bit of the hem in the back where the lining peeked out. So I don't feel so bad about not being able to manage it. And they did not, of course, charge to make the adjustment.)

See? Now it's a nice, flippy-skirted little slip dress that I can wear in multiple ways. I could leave it like that and stick on a pair of fancy shoes and be all sexy-salsa-dancing Style Spy, or I could do something like this:

(I am highly amused by the fact that I somehow managed to exactly re-create the same pose in these last two photos. That is HILARIOUS.)

I slapped on a double-wrap red patent belt, then my fantastic vintage lace vest, along with my adorable Stuart Weitzman patent flats, and went off to a baby shower brunch for a dear friend. While there, a friend said, "Look at you! How on earth did you come up with... this?" (Accompanied by that circling-finger gesture like you're drawing an imaginary ring around the person.) I think she meant it as a compliment, judging by her tone -- at least I hope so.

And I'll tell you how on earth I came up with "this": I wanted to make more of a waist on the dress because I didn't feel like putting on a giant padded strapless bra, so that's why the belt. The vest was another way to balance out the top half a little more (I'm slim, but I'm still a pear) and also to alleviate the bareness, which seemed a bit much for a Saturday brunch.

The moral of this story? If there is something in your closet that you're not wearing but hanging onto, ask yourself why. Is it the fabric? The color? Does this garment really, truly have potential, or does it just carry fond memories that you don't want to part with? If it has good bones, be creative. Can the design features that might be dating the look be removed? You can take those gigantic 80's puffed sleeves off a lot of things, and some collars can be removed -- not to mention changing out buttons or narrowing a skirt or hemming a pair of bell-bottoms into bermudas and other easy fixes. Follow this link to see a great example & get Thumbelina's excellent advice on alterations.

Part B of the moral, of course, is to seek out a good tailor. There are few things more frustrating to me than folks who refuse to avail themselves of this service. Yes, it costs a little money. But could I have bought that dress for what it cost me to have it hemmed? No, I most certainly could not. And now I have a garment I really love and am going to wear instead of a garment I loved and let hang in the closet. It was money well-spent.

How about you guys? Anyone have a good creative alteration story? I'd love to hear it!


Images: Style Spy

Shop the Closet!

Need shoes? That's great, 'cause I'm selling some more.



GORGEOUS pale pink Ted Baker sandals. Worn once. Ostensibly a size 9, in reality a 9.5 or 10. $60. Go here for details.





Beautiful, classic, NEVER-WORN ivory Pollini sandals, size 39.5. Fantastic shoes. 70 bucks. Check them out here.

One of the most perfect party dresses I have ever bought:


Gorgeous red David Meister that I promise will get you noticed -- I got soooooo many compliments on this dress. $60. Details are here.


Another beautiful dress -- teal chiffon & velvet Maria Bianca Nero, size M. Never worn. Lovely, lovely dress. $65. Details here.

Style Spy DIY -- Dior Edition

So. after ooh-ing and ahh-ing (and quite frankly drooling all over my keyboard -- what a mess!) at the Dior Haute Couture, I decided I needed to get a little vintage lingerie into my life. There's all kinds of sheerness and lace and lingerie-inspired stuff going on in fashion right now and I wanted to get in on it.

I decided not to take this route:

Because, while it certainly is wonderful, I don't think even I want that much attention. Also -- sitting down. Yikes.

What I did come across was this:


Once again, Connie Day, at the Antique Mall here in Austin, comes through for me. Gorgeous, gorgeous thing.

Let me just explain that the DIY part of this endeavor was not limited to browsing around in the air-conditioned comfort of the Antique Mall looking at beautiful things. This vintage long-line bra is in amazing condition. Except. The foam rubber padding that lined the cups had hardened and then disintegrated. It was like two bags of coal dust, or crumbled charcoal. An hellacious mess, is what it was, that left me gritty all over my hands and black under my fingernails and around my cuticles whenever I handled the thing. I had to split open the seams on the back side of the cups and scoop all that stuff out with a stiff brush and my increasingly-filthy fingers. It took forever, and it was a gigantic pain in the ass, frankly, not to mention a hideous mess. And then the alterations had to begin. Because this little item is a 36C, the cups were way too big for me, even over clothing. (Because it is a vintage 36C, the bodice, on the other hand, fits me like a glove. Numbers, apparently, were smaller in the 50's. Mysterious.) I had to basically remove the top half of the cups, take in a couple of darts along the sides next to the underwire, and then re-apply the trim that I removed from the original edge. That was much less a pain in the ass, but it took a while. Worth it, however, because it's just fantastic-looking.

First, inspired by this,

I went for a day look. Well, maybe not a day look, per se. Can it really be called "daywear" if there's a visible lingerie component? Probably not. At any rate, I came up with this:

(Happier than I look, I promise.)

This is all stuff that was already in my closet -- Theory blouse, super-basic high-waisted Kay Unger pencil skirt, Cole Haan calf-hair pumps.

But what I was really hankering for, of course, was something like this:

Because if you're gonna go Dior-inspired, my friends, go big or go home, right?

First I tried a full-on Dior homage:


The shoes are my Michael Kors Bad Girl shoes, the blouse is random but great white cotton number, and the skirt & hat are both vintage. We all know I'm a freak for tulle, and when I saw this skirt in a vintage store several years ago, well, I like to lost my mind, as we say around here. Because not only does it look wonderful, but you can do this:

Wheeeeeeeee!!!

After establishing that I like the bustier over a blouse I wanted to play with the transparency idea a little more, so I tried this:

This is the DIY project I posted about not long ago -- the lace top whose sleeves I cut off. I like this a lot, too, I like the play of the two different kinds of lace together.

Being the kind of person I am, I happen to have more than one tulle skirt in my closet. (Yeah, I know, I'm a freak.)

(This called for different shoes, of course. Pinkish-gold glitter Pedro Garcia pumps. Love these shoes.)

So I gave it a whirl. I'm less crazy about this for some reason, but I wanted to shoot for some of the transparency in the skirt, like in this look

So I put a black half-slip under the skirt:


This is a little less successful, I think. The dark slip read better in the mirror than it does in the photos, but it still looks more like a mistake than a choice, I think.

There was one more thing I wanted to try:

This is a vintage crinoline that I've had for quite a while. I don't have a black garter belt, and the shorter layer underneath is a shortened slip, not tap pants, but I think this is pretty close. Honestly, I really love this. I was this close to wearing it to the Austin Fashion Week Awards Sunday night (about which more later, but here's my capsule review: "Oh, dear.") but it was, as it has been for seemingly years this summer, incredibly hot and I really didn't want to deal with that bustier in 105º heat.

So there you have it. What do you think? Any looks that particularly speak to you?



Images: Style Spy, Style.com

Catch Some Rays

For some reason, the other day I woke up convinced I need a pair of sunshine yellow sandals. I think I'm blaming this on the English Rose, who sent me a link to a pair of adorable yellow sandals that she bought not long ago.

(Speaking of which -- if anyone has any ideas on how to get red wine out of yellow suede, the Rose and I are all ears.)

How cute are those? They're from Jonathan Kelsey and she bought them in London. I couldn't find them anywhere here, so sorry for getting your hopes up. They do carry a selection of his shoes at Saks, including a wicked hot pair of black shoe-bootie type things that are extremely on sale right now and that could find a very happy home in my closet.


Anyhoodle, me being me, I figured that if I want yellow sandals, then you must want yellow sandals, too! Right? Of course!! So here are some.

A classic espadrille from Dr. Scholl's, of all people, and you won't believe how cheap they are!

I really like the combination of yellow and natural leathers.

Flat & fancy. And fun.

Cute with a denim skirt.

Great runnin' around shoe with a rubber sole.

Yellow and gray -- intriguing combination.

These are almost good, but the flower on the toe looks too much like a bunch of cantaloupe seeds & kinda skeeves me out.

See? Cantaloupe seeds!

Great shoe. I like the idea of these with a nice air of khaki bermudas & a breezy white blouse, topped with a big-brimmed straw hat.

So super cute -- I would love to wear these to a garden wedding.

Barefoot Tess Maynard Sandal (Yellow)

These are from Barefoot Tess, which means they come in large sizes only. Cute classic little thong.

Another great, simple, classic silhouette, without the thingie between the toes (which I happen to loathe.)

Completely in love with these. Great sandal in a slew of colors, with Nike Air technology & a cushy rubber sole. Doing any traveling this summer? Thee would be perfect.

Fantastic. Love the covered wedge and the tortoise links. Crazy about these.


So there you have it -- a little sunshine below the ankles!

YSL, Meet JNY

Wow. I am rubbing my eyes in disbelief. I mean it, my mouth is hanging open.

I was reading Sydne's great blog Think Through Fashion when what to my wondering eyes should appear?

This cute top from Jones New York. Of course, that in and of itself would not cause disbelief, Sydne posts lots of great stuff. The disbelief is because of this




Yves Saint Laurent skirt that I own and have posted about here once or twice.

Um, yeah. That is the same fabric.

My skirt is from YSL Resort 2008. The Jones New York top is current. How on earth did it ever come to pass that the mill that created this fabric sold it to YSL and then two years later to a mid-level department store line? I am puzzled by this. Don't the high-end houses get exclusives on their fabrics? How did this happen? Anyone have any ideas about this? I think I'm going to try calling the YSL boutique in New York tomorrow and see if I can get any info.

So -- good news! If you loved that skirt but didn't manage to scoop one up, well, here's your chance!

The even better news? It'll only set you back about an eighth of what the YSL cost.

Seriously, I'm slack-jawed. Mouth. Hanging. Open.



Update: Have just spoken to an extremely nice young man named Chris at the Mad Ave YSL boutique about this. He took my information and is going to pass it on to someone else, who I hope will get back to me about it. I'll keep you posted!

Modern Life

In the morning, I slather my entire body with this:

And then later, I slather my entire body with this:

Is it just me, or does this strike anyone else as mildly ridiculous?

::sigh::

A Stirring in the Graveyard

I've used a lot of adjectives to describe clothes from Valentino, and the talents of its original designer: beautiful, impeccable, gorgeous, stunning, incomparable, delicate... Lately, unfortunately, I've also use words like uninspiring and repetitive. But I never thought I'd use the words "hot mess" to describe a Valentino couture collection.

Well, that day has come.

Hot. Mess.

Holy cow, was this bad.

Yeah, whatever -- just because you're wearing some sort of face-obscuring headwear doesn't make the work cutting-edge or hip, people.

After Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli's first couture colection for Valentino after the summary dismissal of Alexandra Facchinetti (whose work I loved), mine was not the only review who called them out on their ossified approach and their regurgitation of Valentino's Greatest Hits. It appears that these criticisms were heard and taken to heart and that maybe the PTBs, realizing that the world does in fact go 'round and les femmes d'un certain age who thrive on a diet of Valentino's classic little suits and floral chiffon dresses will not be around forever, and perhaps they might start paying attention to the possibility of younger women wanting to buy Valentino couture, especially given the enormous percentage of the couture sales that are accounted for by young globetrotters from "emerging" economies. That's good, they should do that. But this is not merely taking into account a younger audience -- from the looks of things the folks at Valentino have decided to hasten the demise of their traditional clientele by throwing her under a dingdong bus.

Oh, sure, the couture work is still impeccable, the detailing exquisite and even jaw-dropping at times:

But what is it in the service of? This????

It doesn't matter how fantastic that lace is and how gorgeous are those delicate chiffon ruffles -- that outfit is awful. It's awful for a middle-aged woman, it's awful for a young woman, it's awful.

Chiuri and Piccioli have done their homework. They've looked at the Balmain shows.

And the Givenchy shows.

Am I intrigued by the idea of lace evening shorts? Yeah, a little, I have to admit. For Valentino? Not so much.

The full-length pieces, of which there were far fewer than usual at a Valentino couture show, were simply tragic.

Boxy, ill-proportioned -- basically unattractive, despite the obvious quality of the materials.

The trend of sheers, lace, and under as outer was important in this show -- obviously, this is something that is going to be with us for a while. Here is how it was handled by John Galliano for Dior:

Light, whimsical, cheeky, yet still interesting and obviously springing from an actual idea, not just an urge to appeal to a demographic.


And here's the bustier dress as executed by Chiuri and Piccioli at Valentino:

Humorless, clunky, and frankly -- oh, it truly hurts to say this -- a little trashy.

Trashy!! At Valentino!! My friends, the earth itself is wobbling on its axis.


This was the first thing I saw come down the runway that I liked. It wasn't very Valentino, but I liked the silhouette and the simplicity. But look closer -- check out her shoulders.

There's some sort of GIANT ruff attached to the back that stands up behind her like a weird, gloomy peacock tail. Or worse:

Good googly-moogly, it's an haute couture reptile. And this wasn't the only example of this particular misjudgment:

As I said to Wendy B, that is the butt-bow to end all butt-bows. If you wore that dress on a breezy evening, your date would have to attach a string to you.

It took me a moment to see the frill on the black sheath dress, because as you may have noticed the entire collection is nude and black, and the set for the show was also black. Here's an idea for the folks at Valentino: when you're showing a collection of clothing, how about creating an environment where we can actually SEE them?


And do you know what made me saddest of all? The shoes. The shoes! The shoes at Valentino have dependably been some of the most fantastic, gorgeous, drool-inducing beauties in the business on a regular basis. I have a pair of my own that are some of the most beautiful shoes I've ever slid my little hooves into

And yet, in this collection, they didn't even get the shoes right.

Really, that's a bit much. And we know that I'm a lover of an extreme shoe. But that's just silly. And worse yet, appears once again to have been copied from another designer:

And these:

Feathers! On your shoes! What a great idea! And what an awful execution of a great idea! Here's how it's done well:

And there were more...

Seriously -- what the HELL is that????? The really, really bizarre thing about this failure in particular? Chiuri and PIccioli used to be the accessories designers for Valentino until they were bumped up into chief designer duties.

For which, I am sad to say, they were clearly not ready. Valentino is in trouble. From season to season we're seeing these huge stylistic pendulum swings that give the impression of the house being completely unmoored, and despite the still-living Valentino himself being available for input and guidance, they seem to have absolutely no idea of where they're going and what the house is to become. This makes me all the more infuriated that Alessandra Facchinetti was not given more time to work her magic for the company. I felt like the few collections she did were absolutely note-perfect and was astonished that they cut her loose so quickly. I have read that the reasons Fachinetti was let go have as much to do with her personality as her design chops -- there are rumors of her being a slavemaster and a prima donna and that the workers at Valentino were suffering mightily under the yoke of her tyranny. Of course I cannot speak to that in the least, I've never met Ms. Fachinetti. And if it is in fact true, I suppose Valentino & his partners should be commended for looking out for their employees. But what of their legacy? It may now be peaceful in the Valentino workrooms, but it's the peace of the graveyard.




Style.com, SydneyWildlifeWorld.com.au, Style Spy, Net-a-Porter.com

Sentimental Education

As I'm sure you can understand, I was disappointed not to have been taken up on my offer to model for Christian Lacroix's Fall 2009 Haute Couture show, but I am too big a person to let that color my feelings about the show itself. Besides, I'm sure it was just an oversight -- no doubt things at the atelier were absolutely tornadic for the last month and I'm sure someone just forgot to respond to my e-mail. I'm more than willing to forgive and forget.

Surely, M. Lacroix has bigger fish to fry than one small-potatoes fashion blogger's thirst for catwalk glory. The House of Lacroix is in the French equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, put there while its owner, the Falic Group, sorts out what's going to happen next. Without a buyer to step in and take over, the situation is precarious. There are rumors circulating that luxury goods Godzilla (and one-time owner of the house) LVMH might step in, but so far nobody's sayin' nothin'. (There are a lot of folks in government who could learn a thing or two about zippin' the lip from fashion industry insiders -- it's like the mafia or something with those people.)

Because the finances of the business are in such dire straits, orders for the last two collections from department stores have been canceled and the clothes will not be produced, which means that Lacroix's boutiques worldwide will have to be shuttered -- they will have nothing to sell. This makes me unspeakably sad, not just because of all the craftspeople and sales staff who will lose their livelihoods, but because M. Lacroix's clothing deserves to exist. The world needs more joy, and Lacroix is a bringer of joy. His clothing is merry, exuberant, bursting with life. I don't know about you, but I could do with a little bit more of that in the world.

The Falic Group did not want Lacroix to stage a couture show this season, but Monsieur was having none of it. He was determined to create work for all of the seamstresses and craftspeople who bring to life his marvelous creations. To that end, he called together all his suppliers to ask if they could help out, and they did. Practically everything in this show was donated, from the hats (Cheri Bibi) to the shoes (Roger Vivier) to even the venue of the show itself (a suite of rooms at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs). Whatever fabrics didn't come from the Lacroix storerooms were also donated by high-end European producers. Only the models were paid -- the minimum sum allowed by French law, a paltry €50. (I think even Linda Evangelista would have gotten out of bed for M. Lacroix in these circumstances.)

I'm sentimental at heart (Stop laughing! I do SO have a heart!), and knowing about all this makes me warm & fuzzy inside. It's wonderful, of course, to hear about folks being nice to one another -- we can never get too much of that. But it also warms Style Spy's cockles to know that there are people in the world willing to make sacrifices for fashion -- for the Goddess of Haute Couture whose death is predicted again and again in an annual cycle of pessimism and surprise. I feel very strongly, for reasons I've nattered on about before so I'll spare you, that couture is important. Like any art form, we'd be less human if we lost it.

And Christian Lacroix is one of our great artists. Take a look at what he can produce even in these circumstances...

I just love this. It certainly is much simpler than what we usually expect from Lacroix -- absolutely no bells & whistles. But this is really very much my sort of thing, that trapeze shape and beautiful ink-blue silk.

And this dress -- also gorgeous. Both of the above dresses were described in reviews as having very low backs with bows tucked in strategic places. I couldn't find any detail shots anywhere online -- I don't know if it's just too soon or if the usual sources just decided not to provide them -- but I'm hoping I'll track some down soon.

The collection was described as "somber" by a lot of reviews, and it certainly did lack the usual Lacroixian riot of color, pattern, and embellishment. But even so --

this is what passes for somber at Lacroix. We should all be so somber, huh? Oh, that Yves Klein blue! It's like a living organism, it's so vibrant. Je l'adore!


Especially interesting to me after the lingerie delirium of Dior was how much lace and sheerness was on display in this collection.

It's time to go shopping for nice new underduds, ladies, because apparently we're having a see-through moment. It's been going on for a bit now, done in interesting, unexpected ways like the laser-cut leathers that have been all over the place, the patent-leather grids at YSL, the hypnotic, Rapunzel-like fringe at Jil Sander; as well as the more tradition chiffons and tulles and point d'esprits. Remember Miuccia Prada's seminal laces from Fall 2008? That may have been where it all started.

But this isn't lace in the service of irony, or surprise, or subversion. This is really just lace in the service of beauty. Good googly-moogly, that makes my heart skip a beat, it's so lovely.

Breathtaking.

We all know I'm a fool for tulle. (Apparently, I'm also a poet & don't know it!)

I think I'd like to get that printed on a t-shirt: Fool For Tulle. Actually, I think I'd just rather get this dress, which makes the point in a more interesting way.

This just makes me crazy. Because it's perfect, that's why.

And this may be my favorite thing in the entire show.

It's a wearable Franz Kline painting! That is so crazy-chic I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I got to wear it. I'm pretty sure in that dress my French would improve leaps & bounds. It probably comes with a glass of Pernod and a Gauloise. I have to say, I'd probably wear it with red shoes, but that's just me. It would also be brilliant with black knee-high boots.

Lacroix, sweetie:

A recognizable silhouette, yet only done in blue, black and white. That's about 43 colors short of what you usually find in a Lacroix dress of this sort. This is certainly a reason why Cathy Horyn & others proclaimed this collection to be more subdued than Lacroix's usual, and they were certainly right. Even so, these are beautiful, happy clothes. (And if you don't believe me, how's about we put me in that black & white number & see how happy I get? Dude, I'll make Cuba Gooding at the Oscars look like he just buried his grandma, I'll be so happy.)




For a great wrap-up of the Lacroix situation and some thoughts from M. Lacroix himself, check out this terrific article by Hamish Bowles on Vogue.com.



Images: Style.com, NYTimes.com

More Mad Genius!

Yippee! It's Couture Week -- Spring 09 is already upon us -- in Paris and it started off with a bang at the salons at Dior headquarters on the avenue Montaigne. Instead of the usual enormous show venue, Galliano presented his collection in a much more intimate environment.

Which was appropriate...

...given that a lot of the clothing was, well, intimates.

Inspired by photos of Dior and his models & seamstresses in the 1950's, the collection mingled the wild fantasia of Galliano's Dior with the images of half-dressed models preparing for presentations. Does that sound outlandish?

It was, a little.

But in the most wonderful way.

Stephen Jones did the hats, which were magnificent.


Some of the lingerie references, like the one above, were blatant, but if that was too much for you, how about this?

Just a hint of a slip in the most gorgeous, creamy silk with lace that probably cost my rent peeking out. Lovely.

I have a lot of slips, but none with this kind of quality. Suddenly I'm really feeling the lack.

Oh, that hat!!

Where on earth does a person wear such a thing?

Wherever it is, I want to be invited.

I'm not a big bustier/corset person ordinarily -- frankly, I don't have the bust to make it worthwhile. But this? Is so beautiful that this weekend is going to find me rifling through my favorite vintage stores looking for something along these lines to play with.

Look at all this beautiful hand work -- just stunning.

Not every look featured lingerie. Some of them were just plain old garden-variety heartstoppingly beautiful clothes.

There was a lot of super-saturated color, which I of course loved

along with the details you only find in couture.


Cathy Horyn talks about this dress in her review of the collection.

This is a deceptively simple dress, but as Ms. Horyn points out, it's all about that lapel. Look at it -- how it starts off as a traditional notched lapel and then somehow melts into a cowl. That is amazing.

I sew -- I've made a few notched collars in my time -- and I can't begin to imagine how that was done. Look also at the set of that sleeve, how it elongates the line of the arm. These are the things that make the difference in clothing, and these are the things we have almost completely lost thanks to mass production. Why do designer clothes cost more? Because of this. Yes, the Dior dress you buy at Saks is still going to be factory-produced, but not at the same scale as your average department or discount store garment. And before it got to the factory, more time was spent on these sorts of details -- the placement of a seam, the set of a sleeve, the angle of a collar. Those things take time, skill, and money, and there's no getting around it.

Plumcake and I are going to get together with a bottle of wine and hold hands and look at this collection and cry, I think. I do believe she & I could get into one mighty girlfight over this here dress. (I'd put your money on me -- I'm scrappy and not above fighting dirty, especially where couture is involved.)

A lot of the looks fell somewhere in between on the lingerie scale, using sheer fabrics to reveal just a little.

Yes, please...

This makes me want to run mad...

That blouse is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Like I said, I'm not a big one for underwear as outerwear, it's just not usually my thing. But something about this positively intoxicates me. I love that it doesn't really shoot for "sexy" in the way we've come to think of it -- the overexposed bosom, the thigh-high slit. This is coquettish, a bit naughty, amusante. These clothes are a light-hearted afternoon tryst in a sun-filled pied-a-terre with the curtains open on French doors that overlook some grand Parisian boulevard. That kind of joyful, giddy sexy when you're laughing out loud and not in the least ashamed.

And what's completely insane? I'm looking at this thinking, "Hmmmmm... I have a couple of great jackets. Maybe I need to get some tap pants. I won't go the whole garter belt route, but maybe some opaque tights instead..."

But there you go. I'm seriously, insanely considering it. Like I said -- intoxicated.

But the best bit? The whipped cream on the sundae? The shoes. THE SHOES!!!!

Aaaaaiiieeeeeee!!!! LOOK AT THEM!

They have those tiny little rubber snap closures like you find on old-fashioned garters & girdles!! And that pink!! That perfect nude/ballet pink!!! What is prettier or more feminine than that? Oh, I cannot express how these shoes have shredded my sensibilities -- I'm going to start saving NOW for a pair of these.


So there you have it -- more of our boy Galliano's wizardry. I've read a few reviews and comments complaining that this is nothing groundbreaking, it's too retro, that Galliano is revisiting old territory. And no, it's not cutting-edge fashion. It's a glorious tribute to a beautiful tradition designed by a wonderful mad genius. Which is sure as hell good enough for me.


PS... (And remember how I told you Cathy Horyn's commentors could be long-winded & tedious? You must check this out. I mean -- what the what???)

Images: Style.com

Wherein Style Spy Overshares a Bit

The noise I made when I saw these shoes for the first time was positively pornographic. I know this because I was unfortunately in public when I discovered them and my, er... vocalization elicited comment from a few of my neighbors.

Black Skye Pump

Yeah. The shoes. I loves 'em a leeeeeetle too much.

A Quick Note

I'm doing a little bit of gradual re-formatting on the blog this week, so you may notice a change or two here & there. For example, I've eliminated my ENOOOOOOOOOORMOUS blogroll and created a link so that you can look at all the blogs I follow. If you're a fellow blogger and were on my blogroll, now you're in my followed blogs list -- you haven't disappeared! If you're a reader of my blog and you haven't checked out the other blogs on my blogroll, I hope you will. There's an awful lot of good stuff out there that inspires and tickles me every single day.

A few other small changes will probably show up over the next week, so bear with me!

Me & Cathy Horyn Are BFFs, Me & Ricardo Tisci Are Not

Cathy Horyn is my favorite fashion journalist. If you aren't reading her blog in the NY Times, you're missing out. Last week, reviewing the men's shows in Paris, she called Ricardo Tisci's collection for Givenchy "just plain tedious," and my heart warmed with fellow-feeling. Horyn's post caused a tornado of comment on her already comment-heavy blog (While I really love Horyn's writing, I'm less enamored of the commentary that her regular readers provide. There are a lot of folks who seem to know a lot about fashion and they want you to know it, too. It is not uncommon for her readers to post comments that are a good chunk longer than the posts they're ommenting on. Frankly, that gets "just plain tedious," too.) and she followed up with a post wherein she spoke at greater length about "the insecurity of a designer who doesn’t have a meaningful, real vision." Bells chimed in my chilly little fashionista heart when I read that, because for several seasons now I've been looking at Tisci's work for Givenchy and thinking, "I don't get it. There's no there there."

Here are some of the looks from the collection:

Okay, nothing wrong with this, basic black suit, skinny trouser silhouette which is fairly common these days. It's hard to tell from this photo with the model's hands in his pockets just what exactly is going on with the tailoring of the jacket, but it looks inoffensive enough.

On the other hand...

Um, WHAT???

Ooooooh, for pete's sake, why not just put a frame around your johnson and be done with it? Honestly...

Much has been made of the fact that Tisci was supposed to be designing costumes for the late Michael Jackson's scheduled tour this year, and that this collaboration inspired many of the flashier pieces in the collection.

But I cannot for the life of me feature the King of Pop in this rig. Leather shorts and leggings. What. Ever.

I mean, really -- what am I supposed to do with this??

This I just showed you because... well, you know the because. Gracious.

Now. I know a lot of silliness shows up on the runway during all seasons, men & women, ready-to-wear and couture -- everywhere. And at first glance, you might look at John Galliano's collection and think, this is every bit as ridiculous as Tisci's stuff.

But it's not. It might be styled in an extreme way, but the clothes are actually really, really beautiful.

This collection was inspired by Napoleon, of all people. The runway show was divided into three themes: his early years in Corsica, his campaign into north Africa, and his time as the ruler of France.

Does this seem silly to you? I suppose in a way it is. But the up side of this is that it gives a designer a skeleton to hang his ideas on, and a way to indulge in higher-concept design than he could if simply presenting a bunch of clothes to wear. And as far as I'm concerned, the genius of Galliano is how far he can push the fantastical boundaries of an idea and still have beautiful, wearable clothes buried in it. The styling of the three outfits above is decidedly extreme, but it's easy to see how it is in service of the ideas of the collection, and it doesn't rob the clothes of their impact. The leather safari jacket in the first photo is a thing of real beauty, as is that gorgeous embroidered shirt in the second.

The second section of the show was my favorite.

I just love this. I'm always a fan of a monochromatic palette done in lots of different textures, and I think these desert-inspired clothes are simply gorgeous.

That jacket is fantastic. FANTASTIC.

No, of course no one is going to walk down the streets of Manhattan swathed in mosquito netting, but it makes for a lovely effect on the runway.

Aside from the Lawrence of Arabia headgear (and probably the sandals avec chaussures), if a man showed up to take me out to dinner wearing this, I wouldn't bat an eye. Okay, I would bat, but in the good way. He would be ill-advised to leave that embroidered vest unattended, though. I would gank that in a heartbeat.

The other thing I love about John Galliano? Sense of humor.

C'mon! That's FUNNY. Nothing Tisci showed in his collection had even the tiniest bit of humor about it. Okay, sure, it was funny, but not in the way you want.

Pat McGrath did the makeup for Galliano's show and as usual it was great, but it was in this last section that she really got to go to town and show what a genius she is.

Voila! Napoleon himself! If you are a hair stylist or makeup artist, it must be a dream come true to work with Galliano.

Normally I don't go for the sort of goth thing we're edging into here

(unless it's a certain Billowy Coat King of Pain TV character whom I still miss), but I think this is beautiful. I doubt there are very many men who will be willing to take the time to wrap themselves so artfully about the waist with a shirt like that, but I really think they should. (Yes, it's a shirt. Look closely. Talk about working your wardrobe resources!)

I also don't think any of the men in my life would be willing to go with this look, with the embroidered lapels and the layers of what looks like tulle, but again -- just gorgeous. As we know, any designer gets extra points from me for things that reward movement, and even this still photo makes me want to put on this coat and run across the moors or some such.

So.

Gallliano's shows and styling -- nutty, wacky, OTT. But that's okay with me. Galliano views every runway collection, for any of the labels he designs, as a laboratory for cooking up new ideas. You can see it quite clearly in his Dior Couture collections, and we expect to see the wildest flights of fantasy in couture, but he brings that to all of his ready to wear, too. He pushes everything to its most extreme and makes an enormous spectacle, but you can always see the bones of what he's doing inside it. Strip away the makeup and the mosquito netting and the laurel crowns on the models' heads and what you can see the beautiful clothes that are going to show up in the stores and the overall feeling of the season that he's created. Nothing Tisci showed is anything but a weak attempt at trendiness and shock value, and to my eye every single one of the exits from his show looked more ridiculous than any of Galliano's theatrical Corsairs with their inch-thick eyeliner. (And don't even get me started on how much it bothers me that Tisci seems to have no relationship What. So. Ever. To the history of the house of Givenchy; a designer, you'll recall, who was a protegé of Balenciaga and a favorite of Audrey Hepburn. Fancy Audrey wearing this. I don't think so.)


A note: Sorry I was AWOL all last week. It got a little hectic around here!


Images: Style.com