September 2008 Archives

This morning as I was waiting for the subway I saw the most ridiculous site - - a man wearing the knee high Ugg boots with his 7 jeans tucked into them!  Okay, and I mean the Ugg boots that all the girls wear, these:

It was so horrible. I wanted to tell him, like hello buddy, this is not LA... you just CANNOT wear that in New York.  I wish I had snuck a picture, because when you google for pictures of men in Ugg boots there is not even one at this level of ridiculous (meaning the high boots which are much more ridiculous).  Even when you go to the Ugg Australia website, they do not show the high boots in the Men's section.  They make the boots - - so they must like them, and not even they can advocate such a thing!

David Yurman's Fall catalog has some seriously gorgeous rings in it!  Yes, lately I'm obssesed with cocktail rings... and these are super fabulous [and expensive].

Just in case the jewelry wasn't beautiful enough on its own, Yurman has hired Kate Moss, Natalia Vodianova and Daria Werbowy... and Amber Valletta is the face of the new perfume. Here are some of the rings that I love:

Pave Champagne Citrine Ring, $5,200. 18k yellow gold with a 20mm champagne citrine stone and pave diamond bezel, from the Albion Collection.

14mm New Albion Ring, Smoky Quartz, $1,500. Sterling silver and 18k gold with 14mm smoky quartz and pave diamond bezel.

Olive Quartz Cushion Cocktail Ring, $2,100. 18k gold with 15mm olive quartz stone and diamond accents at each corner, from the Quatrefoil Collection.

Champagne Citrine Ring, $1,050.  Sterling silver and 18k gold with a square 15mm champagne citrine stone, with cable detail.

Large Noblesse Ring, Citrine, $850. Sterling silver and 14k gold with citrine stone.

 

As if us Upper East Siders weren't spoiled enough already, J. Crew announced that their first J. Crew Collection Store is coming soon (in October) to 79th and Madison!

J. Crew collection items are always very well made and classic in their design, although a perhaps bit pricey (I mean for J. Crew). Here are some examples:
Cashmere Audrey Dress, $248. Italian cashmere sweater dress with taffeta sash at the waist.

Large Oslo Bag, $425. Tumbled Borge Garveri Italian leather with resin horn turn lock closure and brass hardware.

I totally love this D&G Pinstripe Dress ($645), kind of a variation on their corset style dress.  It has the same lingerie style straps but is done in a more conservative fabric, a pinstripe wool flannel. This one actually has the corset built inside for a good fit.

Check out the details, the wrap style top and exposed zipper in the back.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this dress! I think it could go from day into night by pairing it with a jacket for day. It's a wool blend (54% viscose/40% wool/5% elastane/1% polyester) with stretch so I think the fit would be fabulous.  I wouldn't spend this much online though, I'd want to try it on.  But that could be dangerous because if it looked really good then one would just HAVE to buy it.

You can now book advance reservations to Chanel's Mobile Art Exhibit online. Several time slots are already sold out, so hurry!  They are complimentary too!

It's less than a month now until it opens!

So, I FINALLY found a pair of True Religion jeans that I like (on me)!  I don't know why it was so hard, I've seen plenty of people much larger than I am wearing them, out and about... but over the years I'd tried on many pairs and just always felt like they somehow made my legs look like sausages.  (yes, allbeit size 0 sausages, still not good!)

So I tried on the Becky cut, $196 and I like them!  I think they will look even better after they break in a little.  They have a lot of stretch so I'm not really sure if they will "break in" as much as many jeans do. Does anyone know about this? Leave me a comment!  Anyway, I'm so glad I finally found them.  I didn't feel like my jeans collection was complete without a pair of True Religion!

Oh, and today is the first day of Fall. Happy Fall everyone. I love it, it's the best season of the year for fashion, I think...

I also tried on some Tory Burch shoes at Bloomingdale's yesterday.  These big clunky lug sole pumps, $295.  I find the gold around the heel to be a bit garish but they looked so comfortable I tried them on anyway.  They are very comfortable, but they just didn't do it for me.

I also tried on a shoe very similar to this one below, but it had a sling back and peep toe, otherwise it was the same style. I didn't like the sling back. So this version, the "James" pump, $310 is better. I love the classic heel and round toe.  Again, I'm not crazy about the gold on the heel, but I could live with it.

There's also a new version of the Reva ballet flat, $235 that I really like.  A croco embossed leather with her signature logo medallion in leather instead of the normal gold or silver. Since it's such a large medallion I think it's a bit more tasteful not in a bright metal.

Like the LAMB shoes I saw, these were made in Brazil. I find that disappoiting. I very much prefer to wear shoes made in Italy, ONLY! I know the dollar is weak and that makes production there very expensive, but they just pass it on to us at retail anyway... I just think these are perhaps overpriced for being made in Brazil. At least with shoes made in Italy, you know you're paying a lot for the fancy brand, but you ALSO know that you are getting an incredibly well crafted shoe, nearly like art. That's why I don't mind paying so much for Gucci shoes. Even J. Crew makes many of their shoes there, so I cant' believe that Italy has become so expensive that the likes of Tory Burch and LAMB have been priced out. I think they're just pocketing the extra profit from having lower COGS. Anyway, sorry for that little rant, it's obvioulsy one of my pet peeves...

Walking through the frenzy that existed today at Bloomingdale's 2nd floor shoe salon, no one would ever guess that we'd just been through an historically bad and shocking week on Wall St. The scene was a mess: totally crowded, shoes everywhere (on the floor, mixed up, out of order), no place to sit, no mirror space to look.... annoying 15 year olds with their Moms buying them $400 shoes... etc. etc. It was really quite a debacle.

Anyway, I endured to try on some cool L.A.M.B. by Gwen Stefani shoes.  They were these killer super high pumps with a Vivienne Westwood kind of feel. L.A.M.B. Women's "Fen" Leather Platform Pumps, $395

I was very tempted, but I was disappointed that the line is made in Brazil. And, for the price I didn't think the leather was as fine as it should have been. I'm thinking about it. The other problem with these is that at a 5"+ heel, they will make my pants too short since all my pants are hemmed for 4" heels.

Here are couple more of the designs:

L.A.M.B. Women's "Finsbury" Leather Platform Pumps, $400

L.A.M.B. Women's "Rosebury" Leather Platform Ankle Boots, $520

Check out this beautiful bag from Prada's Fall collection... Vitello Daino Pocket Tote, $1495. It comes in "peltro" (light gold) or "antico" (copper) deer leather with a pebbled texture and silvertone hardware.

I like both colors, it would be hard to choose. I hope the prices of the European bags will be coming down again since the Dollar has been coming back against the Euro, but I'm not going to hold my breath. It does seem pretty crazy though to have to spend $1495 on a bag.

Here's a good one for the hideous or fabulous category: from Gucci's Fall Collection Shoes, the "Babouska" High Heel Open-toe Sandal/Bootie. $1195 (black leather with antique brass studs, 4.1" heel)

When I first saw these, I thought definitely hideous! But I was looking through the NY Times style section and they have some slide shows from fashion week, and one of the models is wearing these shoes. And, wow, they really look great.

It's so true, you know how your Mom would always say "you have to try it on", and it turned out sometimes she was right... Well these look SO MUCH better on than not. Clearly, you have to be a certain type with a strong fashion sense to pull these off (in good style), but they're not hideous at all! It's good to be wrong sometimes!

From Tuesday's post, in the "statement jewelry" category... here's a find.  Again, from Ross Simons (NO I don't work for them, I just love their selection and reasonable prices!) I found this 10 carat Cognac Quartz Ring in 14k gold with tiny diamond accents on the band.

It's an unusual colored stone, but I like it. I've been liking yellow and orange lately... this seems to be a brown/orange. This ring would be even more perfect if it was just a smoky quartz, that beautiful rich brown color. But this color makes it even more unique perhaps.

They're showing a lot of belted looks this Fall.  Since I'm always a sucker for horsebits (yes, preferably Gucci), this Banana Repbulic belt looks like a nice addition for the season.  And it's only $79, so if you don't end up wearing it much, it's okay.  (with a Gucci belt you might feel bad!)

Horsebit Clasp Buckle Leather Belt, $79 is great to belt long shirts and sweater dresses etc.

Uggh. Sorry about the ugly picture. I have no idea why they paired it with that horrific print shirt! That print looks like something Ugly Betty would wear. (but p.s. I love Ugly Betty despite her clothes :-)  )

Some of the lady-like profiles of Fall (like the pencil skirt) are to me, crying out to be paired with multi strand pearls.  I've written before about covet-worthy Chanel pearl necklaces but there are plenty of reasonable options out there too.

J. Crew has a nice option, this Double-Strand Jeweled-Flower Pearl Necklace for $250.  It's made with real 10 mm freshwater pearls, hand knotted on silk thread with a metal flower clasp.  It's 20" long.

Or at Ross Simons, their Double Cultured Pearl Strand with 14k Gold Clasp, $156 for 16 inch length, $180 for 18 inch length. The pearls may be anywhere from 7.5 - 9 mm in size, hopefully they do a reasonable job of matching them...

It's kind of funny how "Grandma" pearls can be. There are probably a lot of younger women that would never even consider wearing them. But I love them, I think they're Grace Kelly classic and as long as you know how to dress, they're fabulous!  Like this:

 

How cool does that look?!

According to the fashion people at Neiman Marcus, the top 7 important trends for Fall '08 are: berry colors, high-vamp shoes, satin, lace, sleek shapes, romantic blouses and statement jewelry.  Okay, none of this is really new, but it's all about marketing, eh?

Here are my picks from their selections in each category:

Berry Colors

Okay this is a bit over the top, but I LOVE this dress!  Donna Karan Draped Crossover Gown, $2,895 in "Winter Berry" red. 

Here's another option that is actually affordable. Tory Burch Croc-Embossed Patent Leather Reva Flats, $225.  I'm not a flat shoe person AT ALL, but sometimes you just need to be able to walk really fast, so it's good to have some cute flats around.

High Vamp Shoes

These Versace Cutout Booties, $785 are super fabulous, I'm already imaging some great outfits! (thinking pencil skirt) And they've got a 4 3/10" heel!!!

Satin

For satin, this Carmen Marc Valvo Dress, $595. An absolutely gorgeous cocktail dress in a rich "port" color in silk with black lace trim. WOW. For a dress this beautiful I think $595 is quite reasonable.

Lace

THE lace of the season is hands down, Prada's couture lace. Handmade in Switzerland and super expensive.

For us mere mortals, something like this Robert Rodriguez Lace Top, $298 will do the trick quite nicely.

Sleek Shapes

There are plenty of options in the sleek shapes category, but for me the pencil skirt is the #1 must have. Like this Milly Pinstripe Pencil Skirt, $285.

Romantic Blouses

I like this peasant style Stella McCartney Ruffled Silk Top, a bit outrageous at $1,195. But hey, it's silk and made in Italy.

Statement Jewelry

Here are some great (and fairly inexpensive) pieces.  Not "real" but not "junk" jewelry either.

Rocca Clover Ring, $510. 18k gold plated bronze with quartz stones. And Jose & Maria Barrera Quartz Earrings, $215. 14K gold plate with faux peals and quartz drops.

I'd say it's a pretty good list. Cheers to Fall, the best season of the year!