The In on the Fade of Plaid

Plaid plays hide and seek with the world of fashion, sometimes comes out strong and gives you safe and comfortable pieces, other times it runs scared and is unruly with ideas that will make you eyes spin. One thing I know for sure it will always come back in style and you might as well learn how to wear it for yourself. I luckily grew up in Colorado were L.L.Bean, Timberland and JCrew are staples for the outdoors bunch and plaid runs rapid in those stores. Big thick plaid shirts, tiny cute plaid shoes, plaids for weddings, soccer games, and school could be seen everyday. So I have failed buying good stuff for along time and now get a sense of what really works for me and what doesn't. Plaid is a staple in my wardrobe. I have tiny oxford Abercombie & Fitch plaid oxfords, and Gap flannel shirts to layer with all my LLBean sweaters. I once owned a pair of plaid ballet flats. I would squeeze my size 11 feet into these precious blue & green plaid with bright red ribbon and piping on the sides. It was loving wearing them until about 10 o'clock , it was hard being fashionable with my very own fippers for feet. So for surfing this trend I have 3 golden rules. 1, no polyester. 2, is it something that goes with other stuff in your closet? 3, are you comfortable in it? then there are other rules like is it age appropreiate, and made well. My last question is it worth it? How many times will you wear it? So right there on the spot I imagine outfits with it, can it be worn for evening and day. If you apply these to your trendy purchases you will be a happy person. It totally sucks to look in your closet and see that you made a wrong choice. I have been editing out bad clothes for the last 5 years. I have a lot of clothes.

The beautiful evils of Shopbop

Each day I receive an email from Shopbop filled with amazing and unbelievable clothes, jewelry and shoes. As an avid buyer of budget beauties I am ever drawn to the craftsmenship & innovative work of designers. I guess you must dangle the carrot in front of me so I can keep up with all that is holy in fashion. I know everyone has that moment in their life, where a trend began or an outfit changed their life. To dramatic? Maybe for some but for the other group they know what I am talking about. I had a pair of slouchy grey boots in high school. I wore them with jeans and skirts, they were a signature for me and even though people made fun of them I still loved them. It was the beginning of me breaking way from the typical Levi 501 meets LLBean and Polo upbringing. I started shopping at Thrift store and garage sales, looking for things that were stylish and interesting to me.

Fall 2009 forecast RED

Red has it's very own special place in fashion, one must always have a good red lipstick, a smashing red dress, I always say a tailored velvet red suit (like Gwenyth's Gucci one), and of course the perfect red stiletto. The designer Valentino has taken the color red and built an empire of sizzling graceful and exquiste red evening wear.Years back Prada made a red velvet wedge that was so popular, Time magazine wrote about it. When I went to Chicago that year, I ran over to Neiman Marcus on the Miracle Mile and purchased myself those very shoes. Red can make anyone feel empowered, alive and beautiful. I am always in awe of those who wear bright red, look fab in red lipstick, they seem ahead of the game. It is royal, true, and most of all eye catching!

The Red behind every shoe!

I have always been a Manolo Blanhik girl and still love and adore his shoes and now there is another player Christian Louboutin. So yummy and beautiful you can't just have one. The way these elongate your legs and shape the foot is dreamy. The boots he makes look like butter

A Stab at Creating a Page

Here is one of my Fall 2009 pages for budget shopping

2009 will be remembered for one thing ANKLE BOOTS!

I decided to get all the ankle booties and boots favorites out of my fashion file and onto the blog. I have been collecting these pictures for the past 4 months. This was my first time collecting and I thought the boot info who made it, where you can buy it, stuff would come along in the picture info but it did not. So next time I will have that stuff. I can probably figure out each one. A lot of them came from Vogue's coverage of the Fall 2009 collections in NY, Paris and Milan. Alexander McQueen has that fierce black leather with red interior one with studs on it. There are some Topshop boots as well.

Just a few I would like to have

and some more....

then a few more

Meet Erica Pressely a new fashion friend, who just appeared at the Dog Park last week, and to no surprise, she was wearing BOOTS! I love a good dress/boot combo for any event even if it's 96 degrees. The dress was from a Target rack last season with some simple alterations making the dress much more her own. Boots from Report shin high with faux fur. But don't forget the most unrated accessory the SOCK. She had on pink ones to match the dress. The bag, an aqua cloth skull & flowers bookbag and turqouise hoops. I always think monochromatic dressing is eye catching and really easy to do. You have to watch out on proportions to let the clothes flow and let accessories layered directed by more personal items such as jewelry, scarves, even shoes.

I totally feel in love with this bubble dress from none other than Topshop. It has simple classic lines yet becomes more modern & youthful with the cut. Wear this with some playful ankle boots or fierce bright red studded stilettos, jewelry needs to be simple yet compelling as well. Either a Lanvin monochromatic black satin tie necklace or BR's new (2009) fall collection(plus Forever21 for the cheap) easy easy look for anyone!

check out the beautiful collar cape lace thingy. It's intense, when wearing this carefully weigh all other accessories this takes most the weight but have strong classic shoes black heels, with a modern zipper or studs..in skinny black of dark denim jeans with white shirt or black tank, could be worn over a coat

New York Times photo showing the varying styles of Summer boots.

it's the ankle boot thing

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/fashion/25NOTICED.html?ref=fashion

just check out this article in the New York Times this week. This happens to me every once in a while, more than my husband would care ( because all I talk about is the item I'm obsessing over is all he gets from me) to hear in a conversation. In the article they state that the "summer boot " is becoming a must have piece. I went from wanting just one pair the right pair to wanting a bunch of different looks. I have always been a fan of wearing contradictions. When I worked as a book store manager I would saunter in wearing a pink Laura Ashley dress with my oxford Dr. Marten's. This was back in the 90's. Now I wear the little dresses with a layered look and my lovely ankle length motorcycle boots. Those boots have been a staple in my wardrobe for years. So much that the heels needed to be resoled. I hated the cowboy with the dress style way back. It seemed too done. But with these new summer/ankle boots styles you can make so many looks. I also bought riding boots this year. One of my favorite looks for anyone is a bulky cardigan with T, leggings and riding boots. It's so "high end" and yet so affordable. I bought my black riding boots at Target 50% off (12.50) legging can be very affordable, the sweater you can go cashmere, you can go Costco, I prefer the wrap kind to pull the outfit in and give you some shape.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/fashion/25IRONY.html?_r=1

Cathy Horn is a fashion writer for the New York Times and if you haven't read her work you should. This week she goes to town about what Madonna wore to the Met Gala this year. She was head to toe Louis Vuitton . She looked silly and I felt sort of sorry for her. She cannot reinvent her age. The outfit with the oversizes scrunchie that looks like bunny ears, with the thigh high boots did not work on any level. Cathy gives her readers a lesson in fashion history which I can always use, plus she writes about clothes in such a delicious detailed way you want her to describe everyone's closet. Check her out!!

My first Bus stop visit!

Plaid & neon green skinny jeans

Here is my first bus stop fashionista, Rachel is wearing a plaid shirt with neon green skinny jeans both from Paxsun, aviator sunglasses and a prepschool necklace from Forever21 with her "vintage" Walmart flip flops. I love this outfit for it's bright simplictic nature. It's so on trend even though the wearer doesn't follow trends. She loves bright colors, plaid, dresses with leggings, and the only influence she spoke of was Katy Perry's makeup. It all comes together so causally you just have to appreciate her style. I did not ask her age I know she was not around in the 80's but clearly she is so on trend with the neons and plaids then to top it off with the sunglasses. The major high end designers styles are trickling down into every facet of our lives.

Fashion at the bus stop

I have started a new topic on fashion here, it's called "Fashion at the Bus stop." How many times have you seen a killer outfit of someone either walking down the street or at a bus stop. I have seen many but never stopped to chat. Now we will find out the goods on each outfit, the where, the why and hows of each one. We can watch trends happen, learn about new shops, new styles just about anything clothes. Most fashionie people love to talk clothes. So hopefully every day I will find a sumptuious outfit for you all.

Here are some new images from Mango, the online retail store much like Topshop and Forever21. It's not as well know in the midwest area but up and coming in the "know" for fashionie people. In my pursue of the perfect ankle boot, I came across these beauties and low and behold they do not come in my size. So I am going to make them myself! I'm telling you all there is going to be a huge craze for ankle bootie of all kinds out there. The layering and the look of urban meets rural meets super fashionie looking women will be everywhere.

the slouchy boot....my new obsession

Lately I have been a bit crazy about the slouchy boot. This design I am loving, and for the lucky few with a smaller shoe size than mine you can have a pair like the pix from Urban Outfitters. LD Tuttle made these boots and if you do a little search you'll find other killer shoes by them at OAK and other outlets. The Miz Mooz green boot comes in a range of colors and can be bought at Nordstroms. The genesis of this new look came from a pair of Vivenne Westwood pirate boots from her 2007 Fall collection. It would look great with flirty skirts, the 2009 crazied jumpsuit trend and the best with some skinny jeans. Take a chance with this look. Want unique, go with a slouchy bootie!