Coco 2010

Everyone adores a Chanel jacket. You know, the soft tweed, the boxy cut, the braid or the chains, the patch pockets. Everyone adores them, they're the index garment for so many fashionistas ("Someday I'll have a Chanel jacket,"), they've inspired countless imitations and untold envy. Except in me. I find them boxy & frumpy and for me they cannot shake the dowager-having-a-tea-party image, no matter how they are worn. I know some folks swear it's the most versatile garment ever created, blah blah justifytheexpenditureonastatussymbol fishcakes blah. Pair it with jeans to dress it down, whatever. ::yawn::



As I have pointed out before, if you can make Penelope Cruz look dumpy, you've really accomplished something. (Not something you should be proud of, but something nonetheless.)

So. While those jackets are a complete turnoff to me (and no, you're not going to convince me, so don't even bother), I do love that quintessential Chanel vibe that harks back more to the work she did in the 20's and 30's than her late-career resurgence. I love the easy, slouchy knits she pioneered, and it's hard to go wrong with her favored black & white color scheme. I just like to mess it up a little.




Here's me from this weekend doing my version of Coco. It's my black bandage skirt worn with tights and some real-thing motorcycle boots that I bought oooooooh, let's see now, I honestly cannot remember how long ago. Maybe 15 years? (Motorcycle boots are cool. They just are. They always have been, they always will be, and believe me, if I drop a bottle of wine on my foot while I'm in these things I'm not even going to feel it. They? Are sturdy.) The t-shirt, which, yes, is a bit of self-conscious irony of which I do not usually approve in clothing, but I'm being ironic about my obsession with Paris, so I'll give myself a pass. 'Cause I love Paris. What really makes this look gel for me, though, is the cardigan. It's a tipped cashmere cardigan in exactly the right shape and length. Chanel loved a cardigan and goodness knows so do I, but it's very easy to slip into mumsy with them. Keeping it long & lean prevents the mumsy.

I was so happy in my tipped cardigan that I wanted to share the love, so I hit the Series of Tubes to find you some.

Black and white! Cleverly detailed! Fabulous!

Sometimes a little color does a body good.

Kinda perfect.

Sweet but not twee. A fine line to straddle.

Stripes! Gives it a more collegiate air, but livens things up.

Here's the gray one in a great pink.





Marni. Worth the investment, as is all Marni.

More stripes.

MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA LONG V_NECK CARDIGAN

This is why we love Margiela (click on the text for the link). They can take the most basic of garments and make it completely desirable with the smallest twist. Yes, the hemline is asymmetrical and yes, it's meant to be. I adore this.

You'd wear it for the rest of your life.

A teensy bit cutesy, but I'll let it slide.

Delicious blue, so perfect for spring.

Speaking of perfect... Wow. I really, really love this -- it's Exactly The Thing.

And here is Exactly The Thing in pink and gray, another classic color combination.

So that's my fashion "tip" (oh, I'm so sorry but you really didn't think you were going to escape it, did you?) for today. Now go forth and layer!

Photos: Style Spy, Fabsugar

Pretty for Friday -- January 2

Hello, everyone! And Happy 2009!! It's a new year and we all have resolutions, I'm sure. One of mine is to not let these two-week dead zones happen on the blog, but I have to tell you -- this has been by far the most hectic holiday season I've ever experienced and it had nothing to do with the actual holidays. La Maman de Style Spy is finally here and snugged into her little rental duplex and mostly unpacked and her dog is no longer staying here and giving my Shine the hairy eyeball. So I'm hoping things get back to normal soon -- better than normal, because my mom is nearby and that makes me very happy.

What else makes me happy? A good coat. It's winter, or what we get of winter here. The most reliable indicator of winter in these parts is actually the shortness of the days rather than the dropped temperatures (it was in the 70s on Christmas Day, and yes, that's just how I like it). But it does get cold at night once the sun goes down, and I found this year that I was without a winter coat. I had a gorgeous one, that I'd bought a few years ago to wear to Paris in February, a beautiful camel wool notch-collar full-length number that I adored. But it was on the biggish side when I bought it, and after my weight loss last year it was positively enormous on me. So I've been paying a lot of attention to winter coats this year, which are not exactly thick on the ground in a place where it gets to 70° on Christmas. I did finally manage to score one, though, and a good one at that. I got it from Connie Day, my favorite dealer (and I mean that in every sense of the word) at the Austin Antique Mall. Connie is a swell gal and her stock is mind-blowing. She has everything from Edwardian delicates to swingin' 70's polyester, as well as tons of home goods and some very delectable vintage handbags. I took Connie a bag or two of things I could no longer wear and we worked out a trade and so I scored this gorgeous thing:



for a total of zero dollars. It's beautiful vintage cashmere with a mink collar and a silk lining, with some amazing detailing on the back



The label indicates that the coat is from Jordan Marsh, a venerable old Boston department store that was eventually eaten (as so many of them have been) by Macy's Inc.



That's one of the things I love about vintage clothing -- imagining their travels before they got to me. Who bought this? Who wore it? How did it get to Austin? I'll never know. I do know that it makes me feel oh-so-Betty-Draper when I wear it, especially with an Hermes scarf wrapped around my neck, and that is a very good thing.



So I've come to know now that I really love a fur collar. I have a pencil neck, it must be said, and if my neck isn't warm, none of me feels warm. But a nice fur collar? Mmmmmmmm, yumminess. If further proof were needed of said yumminess, I present Exhibit B:




This is a cashmere cardigan from Robert Rodriguez which I salivated over in a post this past summer, when it was still way too expensive for me. But I watched & waited patiently, and it eventually went on sale, and then the nice people at Neiman Marcus made it even more on sale by putting it in their extra 40% off sale (still going on!) which put it under the cut-off line. It's been my only purchase this winter, my one splurge in a very tightly-controlled personal economic climate, and I do not regret it one iota. I adore it. That fur is breathtakingly soft. It's not quite as soft as this



but it does have the advantage of staying put around my neck. Above fluffiness refuses to do that, even with the promise of fishy treats for her trouble.

A note: you can click on the photo for the cardigan above and order it (at the fab sale price!) but they only have one size available. I don't know in what universe a size 4 is a "medium," (well, apparently in Robert Rodriguez's universe) but that's what they're calling it. Don't be fooled. 4 is small. I'm pretty petite through the torso and the "medium" is as small as I could have gone with this.

So when I went looking for my Pretty for Friday for this week I ran into this and it seemed like a good call.

Robert Rodriguez Fur Collar Coat

Gorgeous, gorgeous coat, and also from Rodriguez, so I'm guessing the fox collar is of the same quality as the one on my cardigan. Which is to say that if you're anything like me you're never going to want to take it off (although you can -- for cleaning, of course).

Happy New Year, everyone! Anyone have fashion resolutions? I'd sure love to hear them!




Photos: oregonlive.com, Style Spy, saks.com

The Magpie Protests

Last week I was out running one morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, it's November so the temperature was below 90 -- it was perfect. I was humming along on the tail end of mile three and feeling really good about pretty much the entire world and all its inhabitants when I saw two women walking toward me. There is an elementary school in my neighborhood, and when I'm out running I often see women in groups of two or three walking around. I get the impression that they are teachers from the school getting a little air & exercise during their off periods, and I applaud them for this. However, on this particular day, one of the women was wearing a garment that very nearly threw me off my stride. It was a metallic gold lace tiered broomstick skirt that reached down to her ankles. Not only was the material metallic, there were apparently sequins or rhinestones or somesuch applied here & there, because tiny flashes of light winked at me as she moved closer.

Good googly-moogly. It was all a bit much for 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday, ya know?

First off, let's talk about the skirt. Happily, I have not been able to find anything just like it on the interwebs to show you, but it was along these lines:

Okay, we all recognize this skirt, right? Imagine this, but made out of shiny gold metallic lace.

Gracious.

Please don't wear this skirt. Don't wear it if it's a solid color, don't wear it if it's a "cute" floral calico print and for god's sake don't wear it if it's made of metallic gold lace. I don't care if you are Heidi Freaking Klum, there is no way to escape looking dumpy when wearing this skirt, especially because it is almost always worn by women for whom dumpy is a distinct danger. Let's be honest, we hardly ever see this skirt on 5'10" 120-pound could-be-a-model types, do we? For some reason, this has become a near-uniform for ladies of a certain age who are pear-shaped, or just have more on their bottom half than they are happy with, and apparently think this provides some sort of camouflage.

WRONG.

Ironically, unless you ARE at least 5'10", wearing an ankle-length skirt is the surest, fastest way of making yourself look shorter. And dumpier. (Yes, it's an ugly word, but I'm trying to shock people into awareness.) Also ironically, those vertical pleats aren't fooling anyone. They're just expanding across your wide bits. It's a disaster, trust me. JUST SAY NO TO THE BROOMSTICK SKIRT, I'm begging you.

But that wasn't even why I brought it up. I brought it up because of the sparkly bits.

Now, don't get me wrong, Style Spy loooooooves her some sparkly bits. I had a friend who used to call me Magpie, because of how easily distracted I am by anything shiny or sparkly. Sequins, rhinestones, satin, I love 'em all. And the last couple of years those things, which were from fashion time immemorial relegated to strictly evening wear, have migrated into acceptable daywear. Once upon a time, it was taboo to wear a charmeuse blouse in the daytime. Now, it's fine. In days of fashion yore, any hint of sparkle before 6:00 pm was shocking. Now, not so much. And I'm all in favor of expanding our fashion boundaries, but there is such a thing as A Sequin Too Far.

So let's talk about Acceptable Daytime Sparkle.

Typically, I'm not in favor of whimsy for whimsy's sake, but I can't help it, I love these.

Sparkly Chucks! What's wrong with that? Suddenly, your trip to the hardware store to buy little hickymajiggers to hang up the latest family portrait isn't a chore -- it's an opportunity to sparkle! Do you have a dog? Trust me, your dog wants you to wear these when you take him for a walk.

Not so much the sneaker type? I can also go for these:

These are adorable. And they work for daytime because they're a matte sequin, and the shoe itself is a nice, casual flat. If you put these on with a pair of trousers for work, I don't think anyone would bat an eye. I sure wouldn't.


These are also great for everyday.

And the swell thing about either of these pairs of shoes is that they of course could work with a dressy evening outfit if you wanted them to. 'Cause they're sparkly!


Not only would I be okay with wearing these during the day,

I would positively encourage it. Ooooooh, my goodness, what a shoe. Again, the sequins are matte and the spectator style is inherently daytime, but that is a daytime shoe with some oomph and some hey-baby-look-at-me without being over the top or in the least inappropriate. Gaw-juss.


This, on the other hand, is not a daytime shoe.

And that's just fine. Sometimes special should just be for special.

Here are a couple of other items that have a little sparkle but still work for day.

This is a great all-purpose shell with just a little glimmer at the neck, to draw the eye up to your pretty face. It works great under a jacket or cardigan, and my other favorite trick the last couple of seasons has been to layer something like this over a button-front blouse, or a long-sleeved t-shirt. Try it, it's really cute.



This cardigan is adorable.

That cropped length is extra-great for the petites among us, and again, just a hint of sparkly up near the face. Very nice, and work-appropriate with a not-sparkly top. It would also be a great extra layer with a festive LBD and some shimmery silver shoes. Double duty -- we love that in a garment.


I'm intrigued by this sweater.

I can't get a good read on exactly how shiny or all-over the sequins are from the pictures. It really could go either way. If the sequins have a bit of space between them, sort of a sprinkling of sparkle, and are fairly matte, it could be a nice day piece, especially as a layer under something. If it's too shiny, or is solidly sequined wall-to-wall, well, I still love it for evening because I always love that idea of a super-easy or casual silhouette made out of a special fabric. That top with your best black pencil skirt and some fabulous shoes (and pretty much any color would work, but might I suggest those adorable blue numbers above?) and you have the killer cocktail outfit that takes 30 seconds to put on and looks like a million bucks. The other great thing about all-over sparkly clothes? No need for jewelry. Maybe some simple earrings or a bracelet, but a necklace will be overkill. See? More time saved!


And one more thing to show you, which is definitely NOT daytime-appropriate, but when a gal types "sequins" into a search box, she's bound to turn up this sort of thing.

Good googly-moogly. I am COMPLETELY IN LOVE with this dress. It's so devastatingly Daisy

Buchanan. I don't think I'd pair it with those heavy tights and shoes, although I see what they're going for with the idea. I'd do a bare leg with a thin-strapped gold or black sandal, or if I wanted to go with this more modern take on it I'd do maybe a less opaque black tight with an ankle bootie -- just something a little bit lighter. Oh, I'm going to dream about this dress...

So. In conclusion, Style Spy is down with the sparkle. Up to a point. Sparkle, like any spice, should be used judiciously. The correct amount adds flavor and zest to your outfit. Too much drowns out everything else. Unless you're going for full-on festive, use a light touch.