Monday, April 14, 2014

Happy Passover!


Ladies, A Very Happy Freedom Holiday to you all! 

And may it free us of hangups, 
All forms of slavery - real or imagined, 
And everything that restricts. Except for foundation garments!




Anna

Earning Your Stripes - Dresses


The most perfect pattern strikes again - but then in dresses it is a bit tougher to wear, asking for a higher level of sartorial rank, if you will.

Ground Rules:

- If you have an hourglass figure stay away from too many horizntal stripes over your wider parts - hips and boobs. Look for diagonal stripes - a universally flattering pattern.

- If you have wide shoulders stay away from a stark neckline (boatneck or off-the-shoulder) - a maxim that always applies - that would be further accentuated by a horizontal stripe.

- No matter what your shape, avoid maxi dersses with an unchanging horizontal OR vertical stripe pattern. There is no way a prisoner's nightie will look good on anyone.

Here are some web-wide offerings on the theme ladies, for daytime wear only, from Dream to Wish to Want:

Dream:

1) Barneys
2) Neiman Marcus:

3) Farfetch:

4) Thakoon:

5) Alice+Olivia:

Wish:

1) Bloomingdales: 



2) Nordstrom:

3) NM Last Call:

4) Petit Bateau:

5) Shopbop

Want:
1)ASOS a:


3) ASOS c:

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Its All About The Marketing


The following story has been making the rounds on social media sites. You can skim it below. The gist is the touching story of how a mere girl took on the lingerie industry, our collective social mores, and the capitalist system.

The product in question is this:


Call me cynical (ok, fine) but this is just a sports bra with a clever marketing campaign. There is nothing there that is not available on the market already. What makes it successful is tapping into the growing dissatisfaction with the extreme sexualization of girls as young as early tweens, sexualization that is evident throughout our our lives - from entertainment aimed at that age (can anyone explain to me WHY the moment of self awakening in Frozen was portrayed through the ratcheting of the sex appeal of the ice princess?); to clothes design (go visit Justice ladies. And bring your sun glasses. It is BEYOND). So yes, stores offer padded bras for girls who should not have them.

Many of us who have girls around their 10th birthdays wish we could bolt our doors and hide our daughters from puberty's approach. We would like them to hold on to childhood a little longer. This campaign promises you just that - with wholesome girls demonstrating (but not modeling) demure cuts and pastel colors.

Although calling it 'berry' is slightly obscene, if you ask me.

But it is still just a campaign for a product that is not at all new or different or innovative.

Read and judge for yourselves.


Yellowberry: Meet The Teen Titan Who Is Taking On The Youth Bra Industry
It took only one trip to the mall to show Megan Grassell what was wrong with the bra industry. And 10 months of hard work to figure out how to change it.
Today, the 18-year-old high school senior from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is the founder of Yellowberry, an underwear company that’s making wholesome, age-appropriate bras for girls aged 11-15.
That’s the sort of thing Megan couldn’t find a year ago when she took her kid sister Mary Margaret, then 13, shopping for her first bra.
“It was an awkward moment for her, but a chance for me to show off my sisterly knowledge,” Megan wrote in the Kickstarter pitch that helped get Yellowberryoff the ground.

“I couldn’t believe the bras that she was supposed to buy,” she added. “The choices for her, and for all girls her age, were simply appalling to me. They were all padded, push-up and sexual. Not only that, they did not fit her body properly, which automatically made me wonder ‘Where were the young, cute and realistic bras for girls?’ There were none!” 
That ‘Eureka!’ moment was the spark that created Yellowberry — and may have ripple effects throughout the teen lingerie world, which has been the target of significant consumer activism in recent years.
“It was literally like an epiphany,” Megan told Lingerie Talk this week. “I was holding a bra in my hands and I just said, ‘This is not okay. I’m going to make bras for girls.’”
She turned to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter hoping to raise $25,000 to launchYellowberry, and was stunned by the response. When the 30-day campaign ended on Sunday, it had raised almost $42,000 to finance Yellowberry’s first production order, making it one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns everfor an underwear or lingerie start-up.
Yellowberry is as much a movement as it is a bra company, using its marketing and merchandising platform to fight back against the hyper-sexualized commercial environment that adolescent girls face every day. Fans are called “Berries” and the company’s motto — “Changing the bra industry for young girls”— boldly challenges the status quo.
Yellowberry will be different because at the core of the company what we want to do is sell a bra in a non-sexy way,” Megan said. “In lingerie, that’s a new idea.”
“For those girls aged 11 to 15 the options they have to buy are for the most part overly sexual. They need a different bra that doesn’t scream ‘sex’.
“You shouldn’t have to buy a sequined push-up bra when you’re 13. You shouldn’t have to feel pressured to look a certain way.”

Yellowberry is already on the market, with a professional website and online shop selling two youth bra styles in four colors, with cute names like ‘Tweetheart’and ‘Tiny Teton’ for about $40. The cotton-spandex pieces are soft and metal-free, designed to provide a comfortable transition between children’s undershirts and the style-driven world of molded cups and T-shirt bras that lies ahead.
Yellowberry gives girls the idea that they don’t have to grow up so quickly,” Megan said.
“We’re not saying what’s right or wrong. It’s not my right to tell someone what’s appropriate or not,” she added. “I just want everyone to have another option.”
The Yellowberry name is a symbol of the need to nurture adolescent girls during a critical and challenging time in their development.
“Think about a berry before you pick it,” Megan said. “It’s still yellow. It’s not yet ripe. It has to go through certain stages until it is ripe. And you can’t rush those stages because they are what will eventually create a beautiful berry.”

Megan had no experience in business or fashion when she came up with the concept for Yellowberry, but that didn’t stop her.
She worked with a seamstress in Jackson Hole to develop prototypes, sourced a manufacturer in Los Angeles and spent months fit-testing samples with the help of local friends.
She had a gut feeling the concept would catch fire, but after the first four days of her Kickstarter campaign, Yellowberry had received only $2,000 in donations and little attention. Undaunted, Megan reached out to Facebook groups, companies and online groups that promoted causes aimed at empowering young women.
Then, however, schoolwork intervened and Megan headed to Guatemala for a week-long class trip, a journey that left her without internet access for a full day.
When the students arrived at their Guatemala City hotel, Megan plugged in her computer, checked her Kickstarter campaign … and started crying. Yellowberryhad gone viral overnight, and was already past its $25,000 funding goal.
More than 1,000 donors contributed to the campaign, many of them young girls — and their parents — who are enthusiastically supportive of the new company and its mission.
Part of Yellowberry‘s undeniable appeal is its authentic marketing (the company’s promotional photos use non-professional models) and the heartfelt values embodied in its mission statement.
Yellowberry espouses six ‘mantras’ that are printed on its hangtags, and which were written years ago following the tragic death at age 5 of Megan’s youngest sister Caroline, who fell from moving float during a parade.
Those mantras, written by Caroline’s godparents as a tribute to the little girl’s bright spirit, encourage people to celebrate their youth in a loving and natural way… and not feel so rushed. ‘Water the flowers everyday’‘Watch quietly and observe’‘Find a hug when you need one’‘Go barefoot’. And finally, ‘Campfires are rare; eat as many marshmallows as you can’.
Megan has taken those truths and applied them to Yellowberry‘s business plan and its broader purpose of supporting young girls.
“Caroline is still powerful in my mind,” she writes in her biographical sketch on theYellowberry website. “She taught me through both her life and her sudden death to slow down and enjoy each day as its own.
“These statements help reiterate the values behind my simple goal: build a bra that is unique, colorful and young made for all girls who love and enjoy their youthful, yellow stages in life.”
While her classmates look for summer jobs, Megan will be running Yellowberryfull-time (with her mother, Lynn) until next spring when she heads to college in Vermont. The company is already working on future designs and hopes to offer underwear choices with its next collection.
In the meantime, she has a message for all those mall brands targeting pubescent girls with sparkly, padded push-up bras.
“Girls come in a lot of shapes and sizes, but the bras I seen when I go shopping all look the same,” Megan said. “They’re creating a false sense of variety. Not everything has to look so similar.”

Sitting in a Cloud

LO and I were on a massive return mission following my blitz Israel trip. Wandering through the hallways from one return destination to the other, weary and exhausted, we came to an oasis of vibrant color and the most cloud like sitting spaces - the Yogibo store.


It really was amazingly comfy - comfier, in fact, than my super styling couch, but that is a whine for another time.



Turns out we both knew about the brand from before - LO already bought one for her girl-child; while I saw their bean bags at a 'life-style' outdoor fair in Ra'anana with Ripple. Yes, it is an Israeli company. I remember thinking then of stuffing a bean bag in my suitcase only to deem the idea futile. Well, they made it here having undergone some changes to fit the US market.  And the stuff is fantastic (not just the beanbags either - I WANT those red baskets above).

All I need is a play room for the kids and I am getting two, one for each child, like this one:
Yep, I couldn't resist posting an orange one.. 

The super nice store manager even promised a discount of 10% for anyone from Vestments!

Anna's Note: This is not a paid endorsement. Just an honest private obsession. 

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Orange Pumps - Dressing for the Season


Don't look at Nicole Kidman's puffy, shiny face, or her fried, bleached hair. What she did to both is a crime against humanity. Amnesty Intl. should get on it right away. Look instead at her awesome dress and the fantastic way her stylist took an outfit to a whole different place with the choice of shoes.


Orange pumps are a truly creative choice here.

Red would be out of the question (what idiot would match red to red?); pink would be too matchy as well. Black would be too dressy, too heavy, and un-seasonal (see under: Anne Hathaway). The dress by Peter Pilotto from his Fall 2014 is not, in itself, a warm weather look. BUT, by staying within the family of colors but opting for orange, NK's stylist managed to balance out the look, shifting it from fall to spring and creating a fun overall effect.

Major.

Dress Your Life – A Manifesto

I’m not gonna lie, ladies. Dressing for an event is fun, whether it is you who is attending, or whether you are dressing someone else.  N’s TV appearance was an exciting step out of the realities of my life, and therefore a pleasure to style.  Style for everyday, however, is different.

My late grandmother ז"ל dressed up to go out – anywhere. Not in her evening finery, no,  but she was always put together with lipstick applied no matter where she went. As she grew older the destinations diminished but she always kept up appearances. I miss my grandmother terribly… and my birthdays, that once were a day we shared (I was born on the day she turned 50), have a large gaping hole in them...  But I think of her often, especially now that my life consists of many school or supermarket runs and fewer work related appearances.  I always see her in my mind’s eye, painting that dab of  plummy lipstick on her way out of the door.

I don’t think I am alone in this. For many of us, who work less, or work from home, or work AT home, life has changed dramatically and with it how we look.

When your life feels circumscribed it is easy to put on the same ratty gym clothes and wear them, day in and day out. It is easy to tuck away your work wardrobe in a far corner of your closet and forget. It is easy to run out last minute without your lipstick.

But is ‘easy’ better?

In a time when our beings are regulated by medicine, when “The Eternal Sunshine of the Beautiful Mind” is no longer science fiction, we forget that simple, uncomplicated remedies can help. Making an effort when an effort is unnecessary for anyone but your inner self is worth the while, ladies.  My grandmother’s  advice actually, truly, works.

It isn’t just dress the body you have, ladies, rather than the one you once had or wish you could regain. The maxim is also dress the life you have, not the one you once had or wish you could regain.

 Dress your life.

How , ye may ask?

The first step of “Dress Your Life” is re-organizing and purging.
-          Go through your work clothes and pick out the casual items . Put them where you can see them.

-          Throw out old jeans , Tshirts, and sweatpants. Anything that has been worn every day over the past few years deserves the boot.  Anything sagging around the bottom or the boobs. Anything with piling fabric.   Throw them out! These are terrorists, constantly infiltrating past your safeguards.

The next step is to reassess, take stock of what there is, and get a few key items. Doesn’t have to be pricey – any budget can accommodate a thing or two.  Next time I will post on the first key item – the outer layer.


“Dress Your Life” will be a recurring series on the blog.  Please come back and follow them!

Hot at Every Age?


Anyone who has ever leafed through a glossy has come across these stories: 'Beauty over 40', 'dressing for 20, 30, 40, 50', etc.  Glossies, part of a print industry that has been dying a rather rapid death over the last decade need to grab in all demographics, so these taglines are understandable. They are rarely useful, however.  I wonder whether the best advice on aging gracefully is handed to us by adversity,  when we are faced with an incarnation of what ABSOLUTELY NOT to do when you are a certain age.

Like so:

Oh Cher.

You are an institution. But even living monuments should recognize that what looks grotesque on Miley will look ghoulish on a senior citizen.

Now try to stop looking above, ladies, at the Meduza nipple pasties.

Then again, Julia Louis-Dreyfous is in her 50s. And  I think this is HOT:


The only controversy here is that the person who put this cover together 'forgot' that John Hanckock signed the Declaration of Independence NOT the Constitution. The fact that JLD has been the only one of the Seifeld cast to succeed, again and again, helps. Certainly some fan boys who have grown up watching Elaine are happy to indulge in their childhood fantasies. But arguably JDL looks way hotter now than she did then, in the age of long dowdy skirts and oversized blazers.

Here she is then:

And here she is now, at a premiere for the second season of Veep.


Way to rock that pleather dress.

And ladies, watch Veep. It is the only show on TV right now that delivers pure laughter. AWESOME.

And here's another actress whose age bracket is squarely in the grandmother category: Jane Seymor. Oh and the baby she is holding? Her granddaughter.

Envy.