Warm and Fuzzy

While in New York last December, I met this girl who was wearing an oversized, cream-colored cotton sweater, which she shed once inside a warm bar and revealed a black blazer underneath. It's important to note that this girl was was very thin, and I never would have guessed she was wearing anything under the sweater, especially something as bulky as a blazer. I thought it was a great and unexpected way to not have to deal with a big winter coat all night, but I decided then and there that the 20 pounds I had on this girl would not adapt very well to two heavy, non-form-fitting layers. Didn't your mother ever tell you cable knits were bad for your arms, along with cap sleeves and tank tops? Yes. Well. I've concluded that I can do the oversized sweater, because it is comfortable and warm but I probably won't wear it over a blazer. Obviously, the look is not about showing the shape of your body. Didn't your mother also try to tell you that boys didn't like to see everything, that a little conservative dressing added intrigue and drew them to what they knew was there but couldn't see? Yes. Well.

Below is the oversized sweater look that I've been thinking a lot about lately. Dries Van Noten RTW Fall 2009 has been in the back of my mind all year. I loved the colors--each look contrasted a subdued taupe or beige or other pastel with a bright lavender or bold teal, royal blue, mustard yellow, etc. The masculine cut of the all the trousers, jackets and blouses contrasted the feminine red/orange lips and messy, loosely pulled back hair with side swept bangs.

(via Style.com)

I also really like these oversized sweater looks from Reed Krakoff RTW Fall 2010:

(via Style.com)
The wide leg trouser is a huge step away from all the leggings we've been wearing, and not wearing if you're a shorts with tights or no-pants-at-all kind of girl. This outfit makes me want to crawl up into a ball on my couch for the weekend while winter carries on with its strength and fury. Come Monday I'd wrap a belt around my waist and I'd be ready to go.

Another luxurious sweater, this time as a dress, with a leather bomber jacket and lace-ups:

(via Style.com)

I think this look would be interesting with Vena Cava's fishnets, also it would be warmer. Powers that be, I'll take a few more weeks of winter, please, but you can keep all the snow. Thanks.

Can we talk about Vena Cava for a minute?

Great, thanks. I've felt conflicted for a long time about fishnet tights. They always seem necessary at Halloween, but then when I try to incorporate them into my day-to-day, problems arise. Namely, that I look and feel like I'm about to turn some tricks, and not in the Secret Diary of a Call Girl way. Nope, more like look down there, on the corner, in the cold, there I am shivering because all I'm wearing is a loosely woven pair of fishnet tights! This might sound a bit drastic, but I'm so excited to announce that Vena Cava RTW Fall 2010 has completely changed my perspective, and I'm feeling that fishnets are my new favorite way to politely add some melodrama and a tablespoon (or more, depending on your audience) of sexiness to an outfit. There is something very austere about fishnets, something promiscuous but also classic, timeless, and mindless--that is, of course you're wearing fishnets, what else would you wear because you've been wearing them forever and ever, etc. Bask now, in the glory that is the following excerpt from Vena Cava RTW Fall 2010:

(via Style.com)

(via Style.com)

(via Style.com)

Really, what I love most, is that I already own shoes similar to those worn in all of these looks, and that I can skip on over to Goodwill and replicate the rest for under $10. FTW.

Happy Valentine's.

Dear Mr. McQueen:

What are we supposed to do.

I'm sorry if that sounds accusatory, or if it appears to imply that your death is not about you but about me and all of the other women and men you've inspired and impassioned from the beginning of your time. I'm sorry, that's not how I meant it. It's just that I can't imagine reading about another Fashion Week without also reading your name. Fashion goes on, you do not.

Word on the street is that you took your own life, and if that's the truth I know you didn't do it on purpose. That is, I trust that in that moment, as you were deciding that you were going to do it, you really did want it all to end and you were ready enough to do it yourself. But I also trust that you would have chosen to live had living without the pain you felt been a conceivable option to you. I am so sad that it wasn't.

My love affair with your work has been short, but it was immediate and constant. Thank you for this dress, it completely changed the way I think about clothes.


(via The New York Times)

About a year ago I was in New York for the first time in about five years. J's brother had taken us to a bar in the Meat Packing District and then there was your store, lights out, and there was this dress, or one like it, I can't remember and I'm kicking myself for it, I am. My heart beat fast, my hands shook, and perhaps this is sad and telling of something not for this blog, but my heart and hands felt more for your storefront in that moment than they've ever felt for any man. Ew, that sounds like I'm one of those people who falls in love with the Eiffel Tower and tries to marry it, but I promise you it's different. Falling in love with people and falling in love with art are similar in that our bodies sometimes respond in the same way, but I have no plans to propose to this dress. I'd need it in my possession first, of course.

I hope you have found some relief, some rest and some peace. You will be missed.

XOXO

K.

I die.

I love, love, love, one-million-times love these maroon suede YSL ankle strap pumps. Karla Deras wore them so well with navy and white ankle-length trousers, and here is Caroline Issa, via All The Pretty Birds. I love the maroon/rust color against her opaque black tights. I've been trying to incorporate more maroon into my wardrobe because I think it's a great subtle pop of color against all the winter blacks. This shoe is also such a great choice because it's both dramatic and sophisticated at the same time. Caroline Issa's outfit here is otherwise very basic and classic, but her shoes add an element of surprise that both enhances and interrupts the simplicity. Sigh!

Constant Comment

Yesterday, Coco made a list of the things she is thankful for. What a great way to remind yourself of how good you've got it, even if you're in the midst of a mess or just having a difficult day. My life has been disaster free, and my days are only difficult if I make them so. That is, I've got a horrible habit of putting a negative spin on everything. I've got a critical eye that's always criticizing, and a nasty train of thought that always ends up at the worst case scenario. I'm working on it, I promise.

I was especially reminded of how critical I can be, how critical all of us can be, by the explosion of dialogue over at What I Wore. It looks like Ms. Schroeder has since turned her comments off, but yesterday afternoon there were almost 200! Craziness. I'm not a big blog commenter in general, but I follow her blog and this whole situation got me thinking about fashion and blogging and I decided, against my better judgment, to leave my two cents. A snippet of my comment, which probably went unnoticed, but that I hoped would counter or at least balance out the many irrational displays of contempt between Ms. Schroeder and her commenters:

I think we all want to be in this together, but I also think that criticism is a huge part of fashion, as it is of other art forms, because it helps move us all forward. I think we want to believe that fashion has no rules, but we've all got our own set of them, and can usually call someone else out for breaking one of them.

When I was thinking about what to write, I also wanted to find a way to mention that so many of us really internalize our personal style, and so criticism of it, constructive or not, usually feels like someone just stabbed us in the gut. And on the other side of it, when we see someone who's wearing something we wouldn't wear, we react with such disgust and shock you'd think some creeper just showed us their privates!

I think as fashion bloggers, we should save our criticism of other bloggers for drinks with our friends and keep it off the record. And if we want to critique designers and professional stylists, we should be sure to read religiously and take cues from Cathy Horyn of the New York Times. Criticism is essential to fashion, but it must also be thoughtful, respectful, and justified.

PRISM London

Impulsively chose square black frames that slide down my nose last spring. Sort of timeless, definitely designed for men, make my nose look wider than it is. I can’t remember what I saw in them and I’ve lately spent a lot of time fantasizing about new ones. The perfection of Prisms makes me so restless I want to do things like quit my job, move to New York (with or without employment, who cares!), and most of all, buy a pair of New York’s (or Rio’s, can’t pick!) in clear, exchange rate and all!

Halloween Schmalloween.

I spent most of Saturday searching for the shortest, highest-waisted shorts, cheapest fishnet tights and retro-est top to complete my pin-up girl costume, all the while stressing about what I was going to do with my hair--pin curls, tedious, out of the question. I found the shorts at Forever 21 as well as the top and a two-pack of fishnets for under $4. Halloween schmalloween.

My most beloved purchase of the day was unexpected and arguably unnecessary, but nonetheless beloved. Standing in line at Sephora with false eyelashes in hand, I looked to my right to find a display of roll-on perfumes. Kenzo's Flower caught my eye first, only because I was immediately reminded of Kenzo's Tokyo worn by J, selected by me now two years ago. Tokyo is sweet, with strong pine undertones, and it's such a good scent for him, a mountain-man at heart. Flower was also sweet, a little musky, and quickly forgotten as I looked to the bottom row and spotted Fracas by Robert Piguet: gardenia, musk, rose. It's been my mother's scent for as long as I can remember, and she's even got a lovely little story about how she discovered it working at a cosmetics shop in Cambridge in the 70s. It's very clean and sharp, in the same way that black tights with black pumps are clean and sharp, in the same way that red lipstick, the right shade worn with the right complexion, can be clean and sharp, surprising and simple and just always fashionable. So there you have it, that's Fracas, and the velvet pocket the roll-on came in was almost too much.



So, yes, Halloween schmalloween: Plans were made with girlfriends to go to J's work party as a troop of pin-ups. Sadly, girlfriends were accosted by some malicious young residents of the Northside on Friday night--both were okay, amen, but too shaken to participate in Saturday's debauchery. I decided to stick with the pin-up plan. Moments before we were to leave for the party, with J on my couch as a last minute Waldo becoming too engrossed in MTV's My Super Psycho Sweet Sixteen, the zipper busted on my final-sale Forever 21 shorts (surpise, surprise!) so French Maid it was. I was able to put the fishnets to use, as well as the top-hat headband and chiffon and lace apron I bought a few weeks ago in the early stages of costume planning. Also put to use my American Apparel scoop-back dress in black, which so far has only made it out of my closet for costume parties oh and once for a show at the Brillobox this summer. The party was fun, but mostly I stood beside Waldo, sipped on Frozen Brains and munched on Peanut Butter Eyeballs while the Yankees-Phillies game was on in the background.