In Praise of the Color Orange - 3

Now, as opposed to the meek excuse for Orange that Zara produced in their catalog, THIS, ladies, is the real deal:

Awesome, perfect, ideal ORANGE.

Wear To Work Series: The Slouchy Jacket

Offices are always cold. Even the most perfect, imaginary ones. So what do you wear on top of your dress, say?

You could go with a blazer. But a structured blazer and a dress can read too harsh and blunt, even in the most fashionista environment.

You could go with a cardigan. But cardigans do have that unfortunate reputation for schoolmarmishness and a stolid, wooly, professorial air (which, surely, explains why I adore cardigans of all shapes, colors, and cuts). 

The solution? Unstructured jackets, without as much definition and cut from a slouchier fabric.

The perfect place to find them is one of my favorite stores in North America – Antrhropologie. While some of their wares can be a little hippy or doily or precious or all of the above, somehow they always carry the best unstructured jackets.

On the less casual side you have this, perfect with its rounded shoulder and silky fabric:

Or this, with its gorgeous detail in the back:

This isn’t too shabby either, if a little predictable:

More casual? How about this?

Or this?

Sure, stores other than Anthro carry similar things as well. My favorite is probably this, from Shopbop (total lust – it is striped after all!):

Wear To Work Series: the Black Pump

Perhaps the most versatile shoe in our closets, although personally I believe, like Bach, in variations on a theme – hence I have a collection, not a closet. Just one black pump is never enough. You need different heels, different vamps, different fabric. That said I do subscribe to the idea that there should be a black, rather plainly classic shoe in one's collection. I have two - one pointy, one rounded. 

The stripper shoes of last year – rounded toe, super high heel, platform – are on their way out. Round toes are rare. The hottest shoe currently is the D’orsay pump, here executed perfectly by Vince:

Asymmetry by Wang (lust):

Lower heel, wedge by Sigerson Morrison (want!):

Black does not have to be solid – a little variation can do wonders:

If you are absolutely against a pointy toe, here’s a classy option:

 Want a sturdier heel?

Embellished?

Cheaper version?

Funkier?

Funkier B, bi-color?

Wear To Work Series: What to Pair With Navy?

It is spring, even in polar-vortexed Boston. My fingers are itching for a new wardrobe. To exorcise my lust, virtual shopping ensues.

A few caveats, ladies, before we dive into this.

‘Wear to Work’ – does not mean YOUR work. It is that perfect, imaginary workplace, both chic and slightly formal, where you dress up, but are allowed every now and then to dress down. A place where you want to look professional but funky, formal yet retain your edge. Most of us do not work there. That said, most of the basic rules that underlie these posts are applicable to all wardrobe – just take it down a notch or two on the ladder of formality. How? Lower the heel, remove the structure from the garment, dull the color contrast – and presto, you’re in your average office situation.

“Wear” has to do with real bodies, of different shapes and sizes. There is no ONE FIT ALL rule in dressing well. If you have short legs you can’t wear the same color contrasting bottoms as a girl with mile high ones. If you have hips stay away from peplum tops. The list goes on, but like with caveat number 1, you can adjust.

So let’s get crackin’.

In a neat fashion dogma reversal, if you asked me 10 years ago what I thought of folded or pushed up blazer sleeves I would gag, with an image of Don Johnson’s large, pinkish, blazer with upturned sleeves burning a hole in my mind’s eye. Now? I love ‘em. Black blazers are fantastic, but easily transgress into dressy. There is always gray, the new black, and my personal preference.

 But - How About Navy?

Navy, color of the Sloane Rangers. Color of neutral respectability. My mom’s favorite hue. It is a tricky color to get funky with.

My suggestions are:

1) The most obvious: Navy blazer + White slacks. Not too slim cut, for that Katherine Hepburn look with a good dash of sailor drag thrown in (needless to say I adore anything sailor. I own more striped items of clothing than a 19^th century prison, and if I had the hips I’d never get out of sailor pants). Pair with solid color, probably white or dove gray on top, white shoes. Sandals would work too.

High End:

- wide

- Not that wide, but in my book a bit blah:

Given the neutral color architectural detail can work but will be tricky depending on length of blazer:

2) Punch a dull navy with color, like so: Navy Blazer + Red or Orange cropped pant. Slim cut, rolled up.  Red and navy are an expected combo, but orange and navy (especially if the navy is on the duller side tone-wise) is an awesome look. Pair again with either white, dove gray, or stripes. This one you can pull off with oxfords on the bottom, but if heels are your thing go for white or nude pumps.  Again, sandals would work as well.

- Killa:

- Hot

- I love the 'good girl' vibe of these if contrasted with some harder edge jewelry:

Cheaper version:

super classy:

3) Tone-on-Tone: Navy blazer on top + Different shade / pattern blue pant on bottom. Again, I would advocate for a slimmer cut, although here given that the color is not as wild as in option 2 you can go for structural detail – pleated waistline for example. I would recommend slightly rolled up hems for a spring-time look. Pairing here truly depends on your choice of pant and is therefore hard to generalize. 

High End: 

- Different blue 1

- Perfect ultramarine blue, one of my top 3 favorite colors on the spectrum:

- A cheap version of the above:

- pale pale aqua:

- Marant - too funky?

- same as the white ones above, by one of my absolute favorite brands - Zero Maria Cornejo:

- doves

- Cheaper version and not quite as dovish:

- Even Cheaper version and not quite as cute:

Cheaper & STRIPES!

Oh,yeah, and if you want a perfect sailor look - I'd kill for these (although getting the blazer color right will be tricky):

Foundation Garments

Horror of horrors, in a recent premiere Emma Watson’s slit dress (quite lovely if a little bridal) malfunctioned and gave the paparazzi a view of the edge of her shapewear. Like so:

Yes, if you look closely at her thigh you will notice the edge of what looks like spanx. Surely, news worth many a headline!

It got me thinking though – we really should talk about foundation garments.

Here’s the thing – it is not about weight, the weight you are or the weight you think you ought or want to be. Rather, it is about uneven distribution of fat (yeah, lets call a spade a spade) and the appearance of lumps. Most of us who are out of our twenties, after a kid, or two, or three have said lumps. In the spirit of sharing that this blog is all about I will list mine in descending order of magnitude: belly; love handles, upper thigh.  I hate them all. I go to the gym in an effort to eradicate them but reality keeps oozing itself out in an unsightly muffin top.

What to do, you ask? Buying a size larger helps up to a point, but only just. Being strategic with the cut (longer hems on your Tshirts, looser blouson tops, higher waist jeans) helps, but again only up to a point. What delivers the most bang for your lumps? FOUNDATION GARMENTS.

No, I’m not urging you to commit to anything as binding as this:

But I do believe that a good foundation garment will smooth out ye lumps. What makes a good foundation garment?

Spanx has long been a favorite of many, with Beyonce supposedly pulling on two pairs  at once (this is before her recent slimmer version). Personally, however, I’m not a spanx fan. I find the fabric both too tight and yet not sturdy enough, hard to wrangle. Recently I’ve discovered Flexees (put out by Maidenform). Why did I convert? Lets review.

What are the requirements of a foundation garment?

1) suck in everything from below the bra line (assuming you are wearing one, and not opting for an all-in-one shape-wear, of course)

2) avoid a VPL (visible panty line) – ideally by running to mid thigh

3) avoid the redistribution or reappearance of displaced fat elsewhere, based on that ancient Pythagorian theorem.

4) occupy a sweet price point of around $30

Flexees delivered on three out of four. I got this:

• Price is fantastic (between $18-$24).
• No fat spillage from under bra to mid thigh, at which point fat realizes it has no choice but to be contained.
• Lumps were smoothed out. I cannot say that my belly magically disappeared (nothing but lipo would make it go away), but it at least did not jut out in some areas more than others.

VPL? The Flexees has an unfortunate seam between top and lower portions of the garment and if you happen to be wearing a really tight dress a hint of it might show.

Try it.  

Onesies – or Fashion Dogma Reversed

MW’s grown up, very NY, daughter wore a jumpsuit to her mom’s bday party. It was black, and strapless , if memory serves, and pleated around the waistline. A onesie with pleats. Should have been a disaster but looked fantastically chic.  

Until that moment my opinion of jumpsuits was eminently negative. Overwhelmingly negative. And just like that it was reversed. I remember feeling that way about leggings. And then one day I broke down and wore them.

Do I – do we – go back on our fashion dogmas that easily?

I promise to consider this at some length and report. Meanwhile lets address jumpsuits.

Jumpsuits have been popping up on runways for about two years now, creeping into the evening attire sections of department stores, worn by celebs.

Here are a few recent sightings, all mostly positive:

Margot Robbie in Paper London: Slightly too shiny, but not bad overall.

Naomi Watts in Elie Saab – the lace panels I don’t love (and I actually do like some lace) but lovely color and good fit:

Charlize Theron in Jason Wu: ok fine, you will all scream that Theron here will look good in anything. Sure. But this 80s vibe getup is all kinds of funky.

Kristin Bell in Jenny Peckham: I think Bell is too petite to support such a strong shoulder but I actually think she’s rocking this.

And now for the NO, SHILED YOUR EYES section of our post:

Rosasrio Dawson in DVF: all kinds of no. Such a deliberately on point interpretation of the late 70s early 80s look reads almost costume.

Lizzie Caplan in Houghton: I love Lizzie Caplan’s look. I can’t say that “Masters of Sex” rocked my boat in any way (in fact I thought the show succeeded in making sex sleep-inducing) but I love how she looks in the show, her hair, her costuming. This, however, is NOT working for me – the lace over all too obvious nude, the narrow pant leg:

Naomie Harris in Monique Lhullier: Naomie Harris can pull off tricky looks but this is just too much lace and cheap stretch fabric:

And, to crown things – Julia Roberts in Valentino. Where to start? The woman with exaggerated features wearing an outfit with exaggerated features, in an exaggerated color, making my eyes hurt.

So why, you may ask, do some jumpsuits work and other don’t?

1) the sensitive crotch area – the garment has to be constructed flawlessly, avoiding making your ladyparts an awkward target area.

2) ratio of pant leg to top part: jumpsuits do not work when too narrow (see: L. Caplan) because they start looking suspiciously like adult onesies. But pantsuits with too wide a leg run the risk of making the crotch area look weird (see: J. Roberts) – because the excess fabric has to go somewhere.

Bottom line: I think this is one garment that hippy girls should avoid. Height is not key here, you can be short and trim through the hips and pull it off beautifully. But if you got hips – girl, stay away! 

Turn That Smile Down

An awesome example of musical education: how do you turn a song in major into minor?

Sad piano chords do the trick.

Below is a YouTube link to Yoann Lemoine's, aka Woodkid's remix of Pharrell's ubiquitous "Happy" (girl child, the wise ass that she has become, rolls her eyes every time the tune comes up on the radio. Apparently it ain't cool for 4th graders).

Check it out: