When I first met Wendy Brandes, back in 2007, she had contacted me as a jewelry designer from New York who was coming to San Francisco (where I then lived) and she wanted to take me out to dinner. She didn’t have a blog then, well she started one days before the dinner… and I had no idea what to expect.

While I could go on about how amazing dinner was and how delightful her and Mr. B are… since we’ve become good friends over the years, it’s suffice to say that it did go well. One of the the details that stuck out in my mind at the dinner was this silver heart ring that she let me try on, and on a visit a year later, the ring again really spoke to me. The Diana Ring, inspired by Princes Diana, who was a great humanitarian, and who did so much work for AIDS patients, as well as being incredibly beautiful and stylish. The thing that stuck out in my mind about the ring was how it fit, how it felt… lush, would have to be the word, though it’s not a word you would use to describe metal, that’s how it feels.

Two years later, I finally bought the ring. It never left my mind how nice the ring feels, and also, because Wendy is such a great person and wonderful friend, it adds personal meaning to this lovely heart.

Here I’m wearing the ring with my chunky 80’s structured sweater, Market Publique cuff, husband’s American Apparel tee, vintage Wrangler cut off jeans, tights, and my studded Aldo Boots.

Oh! There is a fantastic interview with the lovely Wendy Brandes on 39th and Broadway.

When it comes to vintage, I am faithful to no era. Admittedly, I’ll do themes, arrange my hair with key pieces for an effect, but as often as I wear vintage, it’s never true to any time except the present. The other day, I was contemplating what to do with my horrendous mop. I’ve been wearing it in a top knot behind the monitor because I can’t stand how it looks… I resorted to scouring through my street style RSS folder and came across a slew of models outside the Christian Dior show on Stockholm Street Style. While I loved the show, naturally, I loved the 1940’s old Hollywood inspired hair and makeup,  it wasn’t until I saw these pics when it hit me to try this in real life.

I mean, my hair does this with minimal help from me! I just have to smooth it down and part it to the side, and throw on some red lipstick, and my trusty black eyeliner, and wella! Done!

Today’s outfit basically goes around my hair, it makes me feel sultry, so I thought I would wear something simple yet sultry too. It’s so simple, I almost didn’t post it today, because, well, it’s basically minimal clothing. Like you would want to see a barely accessorized sweater and below the knee skirt. But here I am in vintage red sweater with a charcoal pencil I bought new, but  owned long enough to be considered vintage and my new vintage red mary janes. And I pulled out a 1960’s leather coat I got from the Deco Show. I wonder if lately I’ve gone overboard with how many clothes I can wear at one time and maybe it’s time to wear less clothes and see how minimal style can be.

Obviously, I am still dressing like I live in California…dude, where are my tights?

Last night, I watched The Remains of the Day… a movie that’s been on my list forever, and when I say forever, pretty much for the last 16 years. It was probably one of the most emotionally frustrating films I’ve ever seen. When it came out I remember a friend saying about the film, that you couldn’t cut through the sexual tension and repression with a chainsaw. Which pretty much sums it up. Based on the novel of the same title by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese born British author, I could understand how he could critique English culture with an almost cartoonish amount of repression, not to say the Japanese aren’t culturally repressed though I personally, know nothing about that. But the English make repression an art form, as from my years spent in London, I’ve often heard Brits joke amongst themselves that they often need copious amounts of alcohol to overcome their inherent repressive ways. However, on various levels,  we’re all unable to say how we feel, what we’re thinking, and it’s pretty universal to have experienced one situation where you had strong feelings and cannot express them for whatever reason.

Back when The Remains of the Day came out, Emma Thompson was probably one of the hottest actresses amongst indie film lovers and Anthony Hopkins still really creeped me out from Silence of the Lambs. I couldn’t think of him in any kind of romantic role, but heard he was amazing in it. This film, set between the 1950’s with flashbacks to pre-WWII England, delves into the lives of a butler and a housekeeper who maintain a professional relationship, even though they’re in love. There’s also a second layer to the story of working for a man with Nazi sympathies, so there are a lot of questions of loyalty,  professionalism and fear.

The past few weeks I’ve been on a ‘movies set in the 1930’s’ kick… watching La Vie en Rose, Frances and now The Remains of the Day. Since my favorite movie is Chinatown, there might be some kind of pattern here. I really love the modest dresses, the gorgeous fingerwaved bobs (why can’t my hair do that?) and the cloche hats. I also love the menswear, the sharp suits, with tweeds, and plaids… it just looks so sharp, and in context of the time, so beautiful.

Oh…and get a load of this… my two favorite things, braids AND embellished jackets…gorgeous….

Here in San Francisco we’ve been getting some brisk fall weather (all things relative – as in nothing like the seriously chilly temps in the Midwest or East). I finally packed up all my summer clothes and am starting to wear sweaters and clothes in darker hues, like hunter green and rich browns. Along with my clothing, I’m changing up my makeup.

I’ve been dipping into deeper, autumnal shades. Some of my favorite looks are smoky eyes with plum eye shadows and light pink lips (like those in the Guerlain fall collection – that’s their model for that campaign on the left) and softer eye makeup with dark, wine lip colors (like the lipstick worn by model for the Dior fall makeup collection on the right). I’ve definitely been seeing a lot of plums in the fall makeup collections.

Another big makeup trend for fall is smoky eyes with gray shadows (also worn by the Dior model above – although I mainly do smoky eyes or a vibrant lip shade but not both together). I rarely wore gray eye makeup before this fall. But I was inspired by all the great grays in the Dior fall collection and the new Bobbi Brown Chrome Collection so I’ve been experimenting a lot with those shades. It’s nice to change things up a bit.

Are you playing with any new colors or looks? What are your favorite fall/winter looks?

P.S. Check out the Beauty Resources page for some amazing beauty deals from amazon.com, beauty.com, Sephora, and more.

Go Fashion Bloggers, Go!

Edited by Debutante Clothing

As more and more print magazines fold, bloggers seem to be growing in professionalism and media legitimacy. When bloggers such as Previously Owned and kaKofonie Of si(gh)lenS can get the scoop on international designers, you know the fashion playing field is being leveled. If bloggers can host great giveaways like Retro Chick’s, I wonder why the FTC needs to play big brother. Fashion Pulse Daily wants to know if you even care. It seems we are becoming the pretty, little websites that could. Yay bloggers!

Links à la Mode : November 5th

• 39th and Broadway - – Gender GAP
• Aysha’s Rabbit Hole - – Cosimo Damato new hat collection!
• Bobbins And Bombshells - – pics from her trip to Phoenix including a mini vintage shopping guide.
• Decline Designs – Won’t Get Fooled Again: Counterfeit Melissa Shoes
• Denim Debutante - – Three Need-to-Know Tips to Help You Find Your Perfect Pair of Jeans
• Earth Vs. – Picking and making the best of your new (or old) winter coat
• Fashion Pulse Daily - – What do you really think and how much do you honestly care abot the FTC guidelines for bloggers?
• Fasshonaburu - – An upcoming label everyone should know about: Minimarket
• fête à fête - – Lia Lintern’s divine Winter 2010 coat collection
• Friend in Fashion – Giveaway – win a custom made dress or skirt
• Further Ado - – When fashion and architecture collide
• I’n The It Girl - – Assad Mounser Jewelry
• Idiosyncratic Style - – Top 10 Creepy Collections… loving the “darkside” of fashion.
• kaKofonie Of si(gh)lenS - – Interview with Susi Quillinan of Peru
• M.I.S.S. – Video Interview with Lydia Hearst – her top 5 favorite things about Fashion Week
• Monoxious - – How to make your own embellished lace tights
• Oranges and Apples - – Personal Shopper Giveaway – win a parcel of thrifted goodies tailored to your style, needs and ideas!
• Previously Owned - – Puerto Rican Fashion Spotlight: Stella Nolasco
• Retro Chick - – Win a Lowie wrap and gloves worth £129 courtesy of Cerise UK
• The Coveted - – Reviving Vintage Knickerbockers, The Perfect Fall Trouser
• The Curvy Fashionista - – Plus Size Curves and Fashion at the California Womens Conference

Last week, Zara opened the largest US store in Chicago. Oddly enough, I just assumed there was a location already here, but I guess not! Over the past decade or so I’ve shopped there on and off, loving what I get there, but never really becoming the a die-hard evangelist for the brand, even though there are a lot of times when I compliment someone on their outfit, and lo and behold it’s from Zara. Maybe I’ve had the fear come in that if I have something from Zara, everyone else will have the same thing, or will have seen it at the shop, and say, ‘Oh, I saw that at Zara.’ which isn’t really the biggest compliment one can give about an outfit, even if it’s great. For some reason, I want my clothes to have some exotic story attached to them.

But most the time, I go in for inspiration, Zara’s always had a great way of carrying on-trend clothing at attainable prices. The interesting part about them is they own the whole process from design to production factories to retail stores, not many companies have such close involvement with every detail in selling clothes. They also make quantities to fit the orders, and keep close tabs on emerging trends, replenishing their shops twice a week. I was pretty impressed by their business model when I learned about that, which is no surprise how they overtook The Gap as the largest clothing retailer, then again, The Gap is so out of touch I don’t even know where to begin…

(Click on the images for full view)

A friend of mine who works for Zara alerted me to the opening, while I’ve been to Zara a million times before, I took this chance to go and share with you some inspiring pieces I found there, since most of the time you’re not allowed to take photos inside the store. There weren’t very many surprises, everything was perfectly what I want and tend to wear right now, lots of black and grey, interesting blazers, chunky scarves, buttons, studs, zippers, covetable booties,  all very edgy and elegant at the same time.

It made me wonder if I should be dressing to be on trend right now, or if I should just wear whatever inspires me. I do think of it, more and more as the blog evolves and my relationship to personal style evolves. I’ve never been one to do exactly what’s hot, and more often than not, I’m off either by being too early, or too late, and sometimes just out of it all together. But then again, isn’t that what puts the ‘personal’ in personal style?

How about you? Do you shop intuitively or do you try to stay on trend? If you have a blog, do trends affect your style more now, then they did before you started blogging?

If all things could be cleaned with good beating, I’d be the biggest neat freak you’d ever meet!

Well, I must say that my Blogs to Covet page is massively out of date, like I’ve neglected it for AGES, and I’m very sorry if you’re not on there, chances are I do read your blog… it’s just a fluke.  So we got to change that! I will be cleaning out all the ‘dead weight’ ie. blogs that haven’t been updated in ages, ones that I don’t read anymore, don’t link back, never comment, and ADD the ones that I DO read, that do participate and make blogging so much fun!

I do want to put out the word to all of you lovelies if you’re not on the list, leave a comment, and I’ll add you to The Coveted’s Blogs to Covet page.

Thanks so much my dears!

Image Credit : The Commons

Today I’m having ‘one of those days’ not in a bad way, but I didn’t want to get dressed, I didn’t want to wear makeup, I didn’t even want to brush my hair. Basically, I just wanted to ‘be’ and not think about any of this, ‘how do I look?’ business. Which makes it difficult to actually talk about what I’m wearing, but since I actually really like it today, I thought I should just share it with you!

Here I have a vintage skirt I cut a hole in and made an asymmetrical dress via Nasty Gal, and my trusty thrifted grey cardigan, broken necklace minorly repaired, brown leggings, ski socks and Talbot’s riding boots.

Right now I’m going through a hair thing…it’s time to cut it, but I’m afraid. Maybe I’ve mentioned my fear of getting my hair cut, that an lack of inspiration on how to actually style it, the blunt fringe isn’t doing it for me anymore, I’m afraid of doing the bob again and forget about the pixie cut. So I don’t know.. in the mean time, I’ve been pulling it up in a bun on the top of my head. I usually do that at the end of the day,but the today, I actually left the house like that, and I have to say it was a bit liberating not to worry about my hair! (Big issues, right?)

Another thing I’ve been dabbling with is lipstick colors… with pulled back hair and big sunglasses, dark lipstick just seemed appropriate… though I’m also seriously craving orange lipstick too…but more on that later.

For a the city between the fashion capitol (NY) and the shopping capitol (LA), Chicago certainly puts a lot of effort in it’s own fashion identity. With the city funded Fashion Council, they were able to host a full-fledged fashion show for their top-tier recent graduates. I’ve been to several student shows this year, most notably Designers for Tomorrow, Lichting, and the Academy of Art and they all differ from ‘real world’ shows with playfulness and dreamy, surreal characteristics on the plus and on the minus production techniques and fitting aren’t quite up to par with the pro’s. But I love the raw ideas, how when selling is taken out of the equation where does fashion go?

It’ makes me think there should be more funding for the development of fashion, like science and art, so people can really let go and explore without the pressures of the industry to create fashion that’s wearable and saleable. Only because when you really let go and play, that’s when you get the ground breaking ideas to move forward. Either that, or when your up against a wall and have to make decisions with limited resources, that works too…but it’s not as fun.

Here are some of photos from the Dress Code show, which showcased it’s best designers from Columbia College Chicago, The Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago, Academy Chicago and the School of the Art Institute Chicago. The show was on Oct. 23rd, and I would have posted earlier if it weren’t for traveling, and also I’m not sure what the deal with the press release was, but they didn’t name all the designers, and most of them did not have websites (which should be a requirement to graduate, I’m sorry, but it’s the 21st Century) and apparently no one else had all the designers down, because I couldn’t find them online. Even at the show, they had these giant mug shots of the poor students, with their names obscured. Maybe next time, the organizers will figure that stuff out. We’ll see! But take a look, there are some really nice gems in here…I’m particularly liking the designer who used the Valentino-esque silk forms and ruffles… just beautiful.   Click on the images for full view…

Ever since childhood, I’ve had a thing for knickerbockers. My favorite pair were purple and I wore them with brown Mary Janes. I guess not that much has changed, only it took ages to find a pair of knickerbockers that fit properly…the ones I do have are a bit big… on my trip to Williamsburg with Pamela, she took me to Amarcord Vintage where I found this beautiful pair of dead stock tweed knickerbockers, they’re a high quality I haven’t encountered for a while, and for $50, more than reasonably priced. Even though they fit a bit snug, but all in all look great. Ok… so they’re a bit tight, pre-lycra high waisted trousers tend be constricting, which is why I wore so many skirts back then, but revisiting vintage trousers, they really dictate movement, causing me to sit up straight, as opposed to the keyboard slump I’m used to. Also, I’m hyper aware of my waist, “I have a WAIST???” because… a thing that I’ve forgotten about in recent years. It’s almost as if clothes today, as liberating as they are also allow us to have poor posture and gorge on giant portions of food. Not that I don’t love lounging around in cotton jersey (oh I do!), but it’s forgiving qualities sometimes bring out the worst in me.

Styling high waisted trousers can be tricky, not a lot of blouses today are meant to be tucked in, and to tell the truth, I never really mastered the whole ‘tucking in’ business with shirts. As an alternative, I’ve found a modern way to wear them is with a loose fitting cropped tee. In fact, I’ve been looking for the proper one for some time, and now I’m onto looking for sweaters with a similar cut, this one came from Urban Outfitters…but the hunt is so on, especially since I’m loving how high waisted trousers are looking lately.