Lace has been popular with the designers over the last couple of years.  Remember Prada's gorgeous lace for Fall '08?

Here's Charlize wearing one of Prada's lace dresses, Aug. '08.

Well, it's still going strong.  Kelly Ripa just wore Stella McCartney's beautiful lace dress to a Letterman appearance.  (Stella herself wore the jumpsuit version ($4,815) in black to the Met's Costume Institute Ball last year)

Here's the beautiful dress similar to Kelly's at Net-a-porter. ($1,825)

 

Here's a Philip Lim take on the same idea. ($750)

 

Okay, so it's not nearly as detailed or quite as beautiful as the other examples, but Zara has a little lace dress for only $59.50! 

French fashion house Céline is quickly shedding its reputation as one of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA's most troubled brands.

After struggling for years to forge an identity and a following, the label is finding influential retailers including Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman are clamoring to carry its collection, even as they cut back their portfolios to focus on best sellers.

Credit for the resurgence of the brand--which LVMH bought in 1996 for €412 million ($562 million at current rates)--goes to British designer Phoebe Philo and a decision to make a sharp break with the past.

Céline recruited Ms. Philo 18 months ago. To start fresh, the company destroyed all of the inventory left in the stores prior to her first collection, a move that contributed to the €98 million in restructuring charges LVMH took last year.

Excerpt from LVMH Wipes Céline Slate Clean, Opening Way for 'Phoebe Effect' , Wall Street Journal

I saw this Yves Saint Laurent blush in March Allure...  (YSL Palette Y-Mail, $65)

It comes in the absolute cutest mini-bag pouch that features the Y-mail design that YSL uses on various bags and clutches.

The darker of the two colors is already sold out on YSL's website though!

If you happen to want to spend $1000 to get a matching real bag, Bluefly has this one on sale now (20% off).  Yves Saint Laurent Y-Mail Tote, $956.

 

It is in a black/bronze textured patent leather, lined in fabric and has a zippered pocket and cell phone pocket.  Tres chic, n' est pas?  Even at $956... eek!  That's still expensive.

I mentioned in yesterday's post you could get an authentic Saint James French stripe shirt from J. Crew... it made me think, why not get it from Saint James?  So I googled it and it turns out they have a shop in my own back yard! (well, maybe front yard, it's on Madison Ave.)

The Saint James New York boutique is at 1045 Madison Avenue between 79th and 80th streets.  This location also ships orders for their online store: http://www.saintjamesboutique.com/.

They have several options in the classic striped shirt realm.

Galathee, $85. Stripe tee with boat neck and 3/4 sleeves avail. in several colors including 4 options in blue/white. 100% cotton.

Huitriere II, $100. Similar to above, 95% cotton with a bit of stretch.  Only 1 blue/white color option among the 9 options.

Lezardrieux, $165. Similar in style to the 2 above but in a 91% meryl and 9% elastane blend.  This one has slit sleeves and button detailing.

They could really do a better job explaining the items. It's hard to say why the 3rd shirt is worth $165, based on the skimpy product descriptions.  Anyway, I think I'll go check out the boutique one of these weekends...

I finally watched Coco Avant Chanel with Audrey Tatou. Wow, she was great - really quite perfect for the part.  I got the Blu-ray version since I managed to hook up my new machine and switch over my Netflix accoun to Blu-ray access.  It's not really a movie you "need" to see in Blu-ray, but it was nice to have the super crisp video for all the beautiful cinematography.  The costumes and set design were outstanding too.  Also, I though Alessandro Nivola did a great job as Boy Capel, I didn't even recognize him... although I knew he was familiar, I couldn't figure it out...

 

 

 

(re: above shirt - J. Crew is offering a shirt in their menswear line that is made by Saint James from Normandy, France - makers of the real French sailor shirt, and perhaps what Chanel used to wear? An XS might work, it's $88 and really made in France!  Check it out here.)

It's hard not to compare it to the Coco Chanel movie on Lifetime with Shirley Maclaine since both covered a lot of the same ground.  I acutally liked both of the movies, although in the tv movie I preferred the part with young Coco played by Barbora Bobulova.  (I'm not a big fan of Maclaine.)

Audrey definitely looked like a professional smoker in the movie, which is quite necessary to play Chanel.  I wonder if she smokes in real life?  Here are some pictures of the real Chanel, if these aren't a good warning for why NOT to smoke, I don't know what is.  It looks like she aged quite poorly. 

Yikes!

I was wandering around Bloomingdale's on Saturday... one of my favorite passtimes. It makes a perfect afteroon activity to walk down 3rd Ave. and window shop along the way down to Bloomingdale's. (Gracious Home, Sephora, Banana, Club Monaco, L'Occitiane, True Religion, etc. etc.)  

At Bloomingdale's I saw these gorgeous shoes at the Louis Vuitton boutique...

Slingback in Monogram Idylle Canvas, $675

They look incredibly well made. I wanted to try them on but I thought better of it, a bit dangerous perhaps.  Also, there wasn't a salesperson in site.  Oddly, the shoe area there never seems to be staffed, as if they don't expect anyone to actually want to buy shoes.  Their shoes are very expensive, and frankly often quite ugly. A basic ballerina flat was $535, so that makes these seem to be a relatively good value...

At the Chanel counter I picked up one of their last bottles in stock of the Particuliere nail polish. Apparently they had just got the shipment in and it was already nearly sold out! I also got two colors of the new Rouge Coco lipstick. The colors were very nice and the formula is great, I got Muse and Perle.

Oh, I also finally tried the 40 Carrots frozen yogurt. I ordered a "small" and was given a quite huge serving, it cost $4.90.  I don't know who could eat that much, I ate about half of it.  I got the Caribbean Coffee flavor.  It was quite good!

Ms. Prada loves to examine our sentimentality about women and beauty, and in some respects this was her most assertive anti-fashion statement in awhile. Something about these clothes -- the matronly dresses, the classic cable-knits -- felt so outside current fashion and obsessions as to be but a distant squeal from a 60s fondue party. True, some of the outfits almost dared you to call them ugly. But the methods of examination have begun to feel dated.

Excerpt from "Prada: Old Dears" by Cathy Horyn, New York Times (speaking of the clothes at Prada's Milan runway show)

J.Crew is offering 20% off women's knits and tees through the end of the day Thursday. No coupon code is required.

Here are some examples:

Tissue Tuxedo Tank, sale $29.20 (regular $36.50) 

Vintage Bateau Top, sale $28.80 (regular $36.00)

And it even includes knit dresses, like this one: Lilac Shower Shift Dress, sale $55.60 (regular $69.50)

You can now design your own personalized Keepall, Pegase or Speedy with the new Mon Mongram feature at Louis Vuitton online. 

There are several different colors of stripes and you can add your initials. (The concept is very similar to what Longchamp has been doing for a while with their Le Pliage bags - Le Pliage Sur Mesure.  I wrote about those a while ago.)

Here's what I came up with:

The premium for the personalization is $280!  Yikes, a bit steep!  (the regular Speedy 30 is $690)

Well I'm back (boo hoo) after a wonderful week at the Grand Wailea in Maui.

Pretty much it was a week of pool-side lounging with the spa, yoga, a sunset cruise, whale watching and a snorkel trip thrown in.  ...oh and there was the private (for my boyfriend's company) Bon Jovi concert. Not too shabby!

We had an ocean view room that was quite nice, not huge, but a perfect view (you could watch sunset from bed!). The bed had a feather bed, a down duvet and nice damask stripe sheets. The furniture was classy looking, in that dark wood British colonial look. The bathroom was quite amazing with a huge soaking tub and separate shower.  The resort overall was very nice, what you would expect, except food prices were a bit crazy. Pool drinks were $13 each and dinner entrees in the mid $30s up to $50!  Yikes, that's expensive even to a New Yorker who is accustomed to expensive restaurants.  Mind you, these weren't really fancy places, just normal nice restaurants.

The pools were incredible, I don't even know how many there were... lots... and most of them connected by slides and a lazy river with some water falls and a grotto bar.  One day we got a cabana (mucho $) which was fabulous. They bring you a fruit plate in the morning and then later frozen grapes and chilled towels. And of course they will deliver as many $13 pool drinks as you want, and food from the pool restaurant. Very cool, I'd never had a cabana before...

The pools were so great, that the only time I went in the ocean was on our snorkel trip out to Molokini atoll.  Since the weather wasn't "hot" I was afraid that the ocean water would be cold, but it wasn't.  The water in the basin of the atoll was so clear and there were tons of fish. Near the rock there were some corals too... although I thought there would have been more corals.

Just a short walk away from the Grand Wailea, were the Shops at Wailea. They actually had Gucci and Tiffany, etc.  But I didn't even go in... I have those here, I certainly don't need to lug Gucci or Tiffany products all the way back from Hawaii!  They also had a Ruth Chris (again, just like home), Tommy Bahama Restaurant and Longhi's (a local Italian restaurant).

The most fabulous meal we had, perhaps was at Sarento's in Kihei. Their location is amazing, literally right on the beach and facing West for a perfect sunset view. Also, one would think Italian in Hawaii...dubious, right??? But no, this was some serious Italian food with an equally serious wine list.  We had a Bruno Giacosa Barbera (Giacosa is my favorite producer in the Piedmont region). They bake their own bread and had a whole wheat focaccia topped with carmelized Maui onions that was seriously one of the best breads I've ever had.  We had a lot of great meals though... of course tons of seafood. The fish tacos at the hotel pool for lunch were very good (ask for them grilled, not fried) and at $18, probably one of the more reasonable choices at the hotel.  Their main restaurant Humuhumunukunukuapua'a was good, but not really great. Honestly, the wine list was crap. The location however was quite cool (see below), a thatch-roof Polynesian style structure that stands on stilts in a little lagoon with fish in it. And at night they light up the entire grounds of the hotel with tiki torches so it is really quite spectacular. 

Oh, and I also have to put in a good word for United's P.S. service from JFK to LAX. To start, you get to go to the First Class International louge at JFK, which is even nicer than the regular lounge (free sparkling wine, nice foods, etc).  Then on board, the chairs are amazing. They recline nearly into a flat bed and it feels like you're in your own little cocoon. There are only 6 seats in the section, and behind there is a pretty large business class section. In these seats you can sleep any way you want, it's great!  The service was fabulous too, they really spoil you.  I could have drank Champagne (well sparkling wine at least) the entire time if I'd wanted to.  The only problem is that after this service, all other flying sucks.  First class from LAX to Maui seemed quite poor in comparison...