Spending the last week in Singapore at the Asia Fashion Festival, I was looking for stylish inspiration that was a far cry from the amazing people I see on the streets of New York. I loved seeing the trends like outrageous nail art, spikes galore and one thing that really deserved a revisiting was transparent accessories. One lady was carrying a lucite clutch, and I instantly fell in love, even more so when she shared that it was actually a jewelry box from Muji that she repurposed. Brilliant idea as shelling out for a Charlotte Olympia Pandora Clutch may not be in my budget at the moment. I also spotted a pair of Zara shoes, that even though I heard were uncomfortable and the heel often fell off, I still longed for the shoe. Lastly at the 20:TWOTHREE show, were plexi cuffs, one covered with googley eyes… you had me at googley.

I have this weird rule, no band t-shirts unless you can sing at least three songs, and have seen them in concert. Luckily, I was able to see The Ramones before they broke up before Johnny, Joey and DeeDee passed away. Anyway, I need to go to more concerts and learn more songs, because wearing band t-shirts with neon lace and blazers seems to be one of those things that didn’t used to make sense, all the sudden make a lot of sense. Yesterday Wendy wrote a post about bloggers mixing neons and neutrals, and I thought I’d give it a roll.

Wearing: Blazer: Aritzia • Tee: H&M • Bag: Givenchy • Shoes: Loeffler Randall

Photos by Taylor Davies

I’ll tell you a not-so secret secret… I’ve always thought I had a blonde personality, but alas most of my life I thought I would look horrible as a blonde. With my olive skin and dark eyes, it didn’t seem the most logical hair color to go with, being blonde was something of a dream, albeit a dream somewhere after being a size zero and having a dishwasher in my apartment. Yep, I dream big. Lately, I’ve been seeing all kinds of people going blonde, from Beyonce to Rhianna, to Mary J Blige, Jessica Alba, Nicole Ritchie,  the late Brittney Murphy, being blonde no longer implies you were born that way, so no one expects all blondes to have fair skin and light eyes.

I made the decision sometime after experimenting with the ombre, a look most brunettes can pull off, I wondered if I could go all the way. Luckily my colorist, Marissa at Pimps and Pinups was optimistic, even though many people told me to stick with brunette. And she did a dark blonde, more of a honey color, not so far from the ombre. It was a big shock at first, but I’ve come to really love it.

A lot of people have asked me if “blondes have more fun?” The answer to that is, I don’t know, I’m having the same amount of fun. But it is fun trying new looks.

Have you ever gone through a dramatic color change with your hair? Did you stay with it?

Above, wearing a necklace from my grandmother and a squirrel Wendy Brandes necklace.

Wearing: Denim Shirt : Madewell • Skirt: American Apparel • Bag: Pendleton • Shoes: Pierre Hardy

Photos by Crissie Fuller

It’s Spring, the days are getting longer and sunnier, the flowers are a blooming… and it’s usually time to pull out the lighter clothes. I had been meaning to get a pair of white pants, but more often than not, you’d see me opt for jeans. However, finding the perfect white jeans is more difficult than it seems as white tends to be transparent, things like pockets become a very big deal. Who likes to wear see thru pants (aside from Lady Gaga?)  I am too old to wear see thru anything! Anyway, after trying on a million pairs buying and returning, Taylor, who had given a review of the Paige Ankle Skinny Jeans in White told me they were the best she’d tried on so far, and I decided to give them a go. Lo and behold, not only are they sturdy and comfortable, they’re also not transparent. Love! Anyway… the craving for white jeans had finally been quenched.

Wearing: Motorcycle Jacket: ASOS (gift) • Shoes: Prada • Glasses: Super • Jeans: Paige • Necklace: Jene de Spain • Bag: 3.1 Philip Lim

Photos by Taylor Davies

Yesterday I said on Twitter, “The best part of Spring is wearing cute shoes.” Which is true, all winter I wore my Rachel Comey booties and for better or for worse, the nice weather made it easier to wear more skin baring shoes. Got this pair of Loeffler Randall Shoes for my birthday and they are the most fun to wear! With round espadrille heel and color blocked upper, it makes the perfect shoe to dress up every outfit. Not to mention they’re really stable so even the high heel is easy to walk in.

Although the first few days of sockless shoe wearing also means getting blisters galore, these days they have a multitude of different sock options, I opted for a KushyFoot Toe Cover found at my local drugstore, which pretty much saved my life today.

I’m also wearing dresses with bare legs a lot lately. For some reason in the last few years, wearing tights hasn’t been as appealing as it used to, so winter also meant wearing lots of jeans and pants.  Not so bad, but it’s nice to wear a dress! Here I’m wearing a summery dress under my brown mac, it’s warm but not jacketless warm yet… which is often my favorite kind of weather!

Watches are really making a come back. I thought for a long time cell phones made them obsolete, but as wrist candy they’re the most useful kind, after wearing my watch for a few weeks now, it kind of feels weird not knowing exactly what time it is without rudely pulling out my phone (or Instagram maker, as I’ve been calling it lately).

Wearing: Dress: Aritzia • Coat: CoS • Bag: 3.1 Philip Lim • Watch: Android • Glasses: Prada (gift) • Shoes: Loeffler Randall

Photos by Crissie Fuller

Yellow is a highly underrated color. Orange too. But yellow is one of the colors I can surround myself in and feel happy with. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always go well with my complexion. Over the past few years, colored jeans have really come into their own. I’ve been wearing a pair of green jeans for a while, and have a pair of orange ones, but this pastel yellow by J Brand is easily one of my favorites. It pretty much goes with everything, and makes every outfit happy.  Not to mention the stretchy twill is super comfortable, making this pair of jeans a staple in my weekly rotation.

Here I’ve paired it with my turqoise Ariztia silk blouse and a standard black blazer with vintage pumps. It probably falls in the color blocking trend, though I’m afraid of color blocking being “so 2011″ oh well, it’s easy. Today I had a meeting and had to look somewhat presentable and blazers always make every outfit look dressed up, even if it’s with a cheery pair of yellow jeans.

Wearing: Jeans: JBrand • Blouse: Aritzia • Blazer: Juice Couture (gift) • Bag: 3.1 Philip Lim • Pumps: Vintage • Tights: Wolford • Jewelry: Low Luv, Vintage and something from Gilt…

Photos by Crissie Fuller

I am not a hair person. Meaning, I can barely do my own hair in a ponytail. I also have very fine hair, so the topknots just point out the super fine strands. Lately, I’ve been seeing these hair donuts around, wondering what they could be used for, and after going to London, and having flat iron issues, I just said to heck with it and took a chance on the hair donut, and see if it a simpleton such as myself could figure it out.

Low and behold, even with no instructions, figuring out the sock bun was super easy, and it took only a few seconds! Here is how to do it, and once you try it, you’ll notice that if you can put your hair in a ponytail, you can do a sock bun!

Sock bun tutorial in 5 Easy Steps:

You’ll need: One hair donut, two hair bands, a comb or brush, and some bobby pins.

1. Put your hair in a ponytail
2. Thread your ponytail through the hair donut
3. Smooth your hair over the hair donut, distributing your hair evenly
4. Put a second hair band over the hair donut
5. Pin the extra hair around the bun

And you’re done! See that was easy!

One of my favorite quotes from 30 Rock, is Kenneth saying to Liz Lemon, “Your thin, but you’re not New York thin.” Meaning it as a compliment of course (does Kenneth ever say anything mean?). While fashion week is certainly not the place for body acceptance, it’s interesting to see when designers quit literally take on the curves of human form. Antonio Berardi, supported by Peroni Nastro Azzurro,  debuted his winter collection, that paid homage to rococo and the human form, he says, “I want to give the impression of curves without cutting into the body.” The literal curves mixed with geometric sequins, tailored into the gowns, the peplums creating a more hourglass shape along with Matisse like cut out shapes on the backs of coats. It all was quite lovely, modern and very lady like.

See the full collection here!

I just want to say thanks to Peroni Nastro Azzurro for giving me such a wonderful LFW experience!

I’m not much of a unicorn person. The only real unicorn I like is Charley the Unicorn (poor guy). I also like the unicorn in Legend, which is also the only Tom Cruise film I like. However, over the past few years, I’ve come to be quite the perfume lover. Once I started exploring boutique perfumes there is a whole world out there aside from Clinique Happy. During my Peroni/LFW trip, I didn’t have much time to explore shopping, but I did want to stop by Penhaligon’s a perfumer since 1870, it had the charm of a turn of the 19th century shop mixed with beautiful sophisticated, and sometimes historic scents.

One of the perfumes that really stood out was the Artemisia, which has lilly of the valley, violet and jasmine with amber and vanilla, in the perfect mixture that is subtle, not too girly but feminine. Which is odd because the perfume has unicorns all over it. Then again, there’s a lot of unicorns in the UK. They have them on their passports and they’re all around, so maybe they’re not so pansy there as they are stateside. I did like adding the pretty bottle with the pink bow to vanity. The solid perfume had the embossed logo, which maybe aside from the sophisticated smell, the unicorns really sold me on a subliminal level.

So there you go. Unicorns.

This has been a crazy week in New York City – New York Fashion Week brought out the fashionable masses, from shows to parties to the streets and of course the internet. Through social media and our favorite fashion outlets like Style.com and New York Magazine, we can keep up with collections almost instantaneously.

This week’s Links a la Mode round up wasn’t done in the usual way – and we apologize for that! Our community site has been down for maintenance, and should be back up and running very soon. We’re making improvements to make IFB better than ever! Please enjoy this week’s submissions that came in via Twitter, using the hashtag #LALM. Thank you to all who participated – we appreciate your flexibility!

THE IFB WEEKLY ROUNDUP

• 1972 Projects – Scratch – Under Tom Ford’s Skin
• Aqui – How To Trim Your Own Bangs
• Best of Bklyn – J. Crew Fall 2012
• Coming Unstiched – Find Your Style
• Culture Keeper - The Kid In The Eyeglasses
• Designed By Ann – How Do You Pamper Yourself?
• Dramatis Personae – Rocking a Champagne Life on a Beer Budget
• Head to Toe Chic – How To: Polka Dot Nails
• Le’Love – Bloggers Do It Better & This Heart Of Mine
• Mae Badiyan: {Wear That Art} Turquoise + Red
• Passports & Pearls: Fashion Week Favorites
• Ploy.com – Vogue.fr’s move to a Tumblr-like site
• Real Girl Glam – Curling Wand Review: T3 vs. Conair
• Rock My Shoes – Retro Hair Tutorial
• Some Kind of Style – Lena Hoschek AW 2012
• Style Delights – What Makes a Woman Stylish?
• The Coveted: Let’s Talk About Balance
• Thethrillofthechase – Victor Luna: One To Be Watched
• The Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower – 5 Lessons in Style From Adele
• Unpolished Sapphire – Fashion Is (Not) A Mask At The Romanian Culture Center in London

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