Shopping in Provence, France

Maryl returns from France with a new dress, perfume, face cream and hairstyle

I mourn the days when shopping in France, in all of Europe for that matter, meant being able to afford high fashion for less or at least sans the VAT (value added tax).  Then came the Euro, a rapidly changing global economy, outlet stores, Loehmann’s and Century 21 here in the US and the bargains weren’t so great anymore.  But there’s still something to be said about wearing “an original” and being able to say “I got it in France”.  Here’s how I did it.

SPRING 2013 FASHION: NO NEW TRENDS, BUT LOTS OF FRESH LOOKS

Maryl shops her closet -- and a few favorite web sites and stores

I can’t conjure a list of five or seven or eleven brand new fashion trends for this spring.  Most are from this past fall and last spring and are still being refined and emulated along the fashion cycle.  That’s not a bad thing; it’s actually good because that means less time and expense to get a more current look when the weather finally – if ever, at least here in the northeast – warms up.   So here's the looks to shop for from your closet and your favorite stores:

Maryl got: Arm Candy in her Stocking

Actually I got two bracelets in my stocking this year and another as a gift from Caryl (along with a leopard tunic to match). I have always liked receiving jewelry for Christmas and my husband has nicely obliged over the years. Specifically rings were my real delight, and he took several practice runs before the actual engagement ring showed up one Christmas morn. But something's happened with my penchant for rings. 

Maryl sings: The Aging Rocker Blues

Roger Daltry (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty)

Did you catch “12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief” live from Madison Square Garden? I was reminded of “Live Aid”, a benefit concert in 1985 to save the starving children in Africa and the original one, “The Concert for Bangladesh”, in 1971 organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, recently deceased at 92. The 12-12-12 concert was less global and dire in the crisis it was addressing but there was some overlap with the venues and the performers.  The latter were naturally a bit weathered but still strutting their stuff. And apparently that’s what some of the Twitter buzz was about… 

Maryl shifts: To Buying a Christmas Dress

Outnet.com:  Sonia Rykiel, Vince, Reed Krakoff, Marc Jacobs

I don’t know about you but I never leave time to buy myself something to wear for the holidays.  Maybe you’ve poked around in the Misses department in between buying a sweater for your husband and another pair of gloves for your sister.  If so, then you’ve noticed the racks full of dresses and most on sale.  But have you carved out some time to shop for a Christmas dress in between the endless gift buying, cooking and decorating?  We should all take an afternoon off, grab a friend or not, have a nice lunch and try on some dresses.  And I think I’ve rediscovered the style that will make this easy and painless. 

10 Things You Can Learn From Grace Coddington

Photo by David Sims

It’s hard to miss her with her trademark Pre-Raphaelite red hair.  And, though Grace Coddington, Vogue's creative director, is a highly-visual person she was mostly behind the scenes until her surprisingly spunky and strong performance in The September Issue where some say she stole the show from the steely, stealth Anna Wintour. Today Coddington’s memoir Grace goes on sale.

Maryl's got: Seven Easy Fashion To Do’s for Fall

What’s new and fresh this fall? I’ve got it….seven easy ways to be in style right now. The temperature reached 80 degrees here this past week, and I'm heading off on a Caribbean cruise next week.  So I admit I haven't pulled out my fall clothes yet but I have checked the fashion web sites, magazines and shops for this season’s trends. Here's the seven to do’s I plan to consider that will easily incorporate into anyone’s wardrobe: 

Katie Couric Goes Gray. Should you?

This week Katie Couric put on a gray wig and walked the mean streets of Manhattan to see how people reacted to her. The reviews were mixed: Our favorite from a man in his late 20s or early 30s (think beefy construction worker) who told her she looked sexy and . . .old!!

The reason the former (first female solo) nightly network newscaster donned a wig was to promote her new syndicated talk show “Katie”, which airs weekdays at 3pm EST on ABC and this past week’s series on hair: the good, the bad, and the polarizing gray. It didn’t help that when Katie rolled the tape of her walk on the not-so-wild side the accompanying music was “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena”. We ask you: Is this how the media—even female-led media—reinforces stereotypes? Come on, Katie, you are running the show.

Maryl adores: Malandrino, a French Designer For All America

I first noticed Catherine Malandrino’s designs at Henri Bendel’s in New York City about ten years ago.  They were so original, edgy yet feminine…and youthful I thought at the time.  I didn’t actually try on one of her dresses until years later….a colorful print silk one with a leather and metal ring strap caught my eye.  

Maryl poses: Should models be "ageless"?

Carmen Dell’Orefice:  Then and Now

"You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older."
                                                                                   Anouk Aimee 


We second lifers already know this to be true. We’ve reconciled our laugh lines, fuller figures and speckled skin and moved on to focus and improve on our other virtues. But think of how hard this must be for aged-out models who made their living based solely on their looks. This topic is explored in HBO’s latest documentary, “About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now,” that has its first airing this Monday, July 30, at 9PM east coast time after its premiere at Sundance this past winter.

Maryl comes back: To the House Dress

The house dress is making a comeback and its second life is not happening soon enough. The number of women running around town in their pajama bottoms and sweaty workout clothes is reaching embarrassing proportions. The slim jeans and casual Friday looks are also rendering a rather monotonous fashion statement lately. Our mothers and grandmothers had it right even if the house dress was a domestic uniform of sorts back then and not meant to be worn on the street. Wearing one today would look not just retro but positively elegant, much more so than a pair of drawstring pants and a tee shirt.

Caryl addresses: Miuccia Prada and Her 7 Elements of Style

Miuccia Prada may be the most influential designer in the world today but she readily admits her own ambivalence about fashion. At 63 with a PhD in political science, she is the ultimate fashion insiders’ outsider: smart, fearless and iconoclastic. She grew up in Milan—she still lives in her childhood apartment, though she has another one for her clothes—and reluctantly took over her grandfather’s failing luggage business at age 39. Over the last few decades, she and her husband Patricio Bertinelli have turned the company into a multi-billion dollar global brand. Prada—the label-- is currently enjoying a robust second life, like the woman who shares its name.

Maryl puts: Her better foot forward

That would be my right foot. More on that in a moment but first did you happen to see Habitually Chic’s post last month about the latest must-have Charles Philip slippers. Those who left comments were drooling over them, and that’s how I found out that they ran wide. Yay! I found a selection online and ordered the ambrosial shoes right up.

The slippers are handmade from shirting material in a variety of solids and stripes and reasonably priced but it’s the packaging that really blew me away. They arrived in a reusable lined box with a magnetic flap closure and with an embroidered cotton shoe bag, a beaded and satin toe cushion and bamboo shoe tree. The packaging just might be more beautiful than the shoes themselves. 

I held my breath as I slipped them on. I’m in love but heartbroken at the same time, and I’ll probably have to return them. Can you guess why? It’s my darn bunions, especially on my left foot. There’s no heel but the shoes are stiff unlike my Repetto ballet flats that are like being barefoot (but probably worse for your feet without any support) or my Tory Burch’s signature flats that feel fine for the first three to four hours before the rubbing against the sides of my toes becomes really annoying.

I go back and forth with the big question those of us with bunions consider -- whether to have surgery or not. I’ve been to two podiatrists and one orthopedic surgeon over the years. The first podiatrist dissuaded me from having the surgery for the usual reasons—the real possibility the bunions could reoccur and the long and painful recovery time. He wouldn’t even allow his wife to have the operation. (They had two small children and who would take care of them!) The second one gave me inserts but had her scalpel at the ready. She is a regular contributor to network news, a number of women’s magazines and the book, Bad Shoes and The Women Who Love Them (I’m afraid that’s me). Her overall mantra is that high heels destroy your feet. The surgeon I saw advised against surgery all together for the most reassuring and persuasive reason—my type of bunions wouldn’t keep me from being active later in life.

Strappy sandal

So medically, I’m good to go, jog, run, Zumba! But aesthetically, my feet are not so good to look at and it’s not that easy to camouflage distorted big toes. Numerous pedicures are not a cure for toes that deviate in the wrong directions. Shoe shopping—once fun—has now become a soulful event as I eliminate designer shoes because the toe box isn’t wide enough and pretty sandals because a strap cuts across and puts too much pressure on the knobby area. Must I reject my Charles Philip slippers too? Is there nothing I can do? 

Thong sandal

I went online again where you can find non-surgical treatments such as toe spacers, night splints, bunion booties, padded inserts, shoe stretchers and more. Do any of these work? I don’t know, does anyone?  I also found a very helpful discussion board at YouLookFab.com, which addresses some of these recommendations. In addition, a search will return BarkingDogShoes.com that specializes in “fashionable finds for fussy feet.” It’s an attractive and informative site but you won’t find any Manolo’s or Jimmy Choo’s here.  

Even my Tods
hurt after an hour!

At least for summer, I have my gold Italian thong sandals and another black pair where the straps just miss the bumps on the sides of my feet….as long as no one stares at my feet for too long. I have  flats and some heels that I can wear for limited periods of time and for as long as the bunions don’t get any worse. I’m going to look into those non-surgical devices more seriously and would welcome comments as to which ones are more successful. But that still leaves me with what to do about the Charles Philip slippers? Well . . . if nothing else, they make a nice still life.

Caryl reveals: Lies, Dyes and her Miracle Dress

First of all, I lied.  Not even a little white one, this lie was many-hued.  When I told you in my last post that I had given up the Easter ritual of dying eggs, it wasn't true.  The thing about giving up family traditions, you have to get the family onboard. When my daughter and I arrived in the country this weekend and she spotted the chalk eggs, she exclaimed with audible horror:  “You mean we are not going to dye eggs this year?”  So we did. (I told you that ours never look Martha's, and they especially don’t look like Martha’s on Econesting. (Check out this terrific site and the incredible eggs pictured in the 4/7 post.)

I remembered that last Easter I was in New Delhi. It

happened to be my birthday as well so I went to the Sacred Heart Cathedral for mass and then to an Indian friend’s home for lunch.  I was wearing the bright yellow dress (shown below) over hot pink silk pants. I imagined I looked like the modestly dressed locals but I think I looked more like a psychedelic egg. I own this same dress from Dosa in silver-grey and an iridescent green and love them both. But the yellow, which I bought on sale (I forgot the cardinal rule of never buying anything on sale that you wouldn’t pay full price for) was a disaster.

As long as I was dying things this Easter, I decided to color my dress, give it a second life--so to speak. I used Rit’s (remember that stuff?) color extraction to remove the baby chick color. Initially, it turned the dress the color of early summer peonies, then white (except for the yellow thread).

Step 1: Color Extraction

Next I prepared the dye, using two packets of Rit’s Navy Blue. I moved the whole operation outside, where it couldn’t stain the blue stone patio. By now, I was really into this crafty scene.  Generally, I’m not much of a DIYer except in the country where I do things I never do in the city (like garden and cook!). 

Step 2:  Dye Mix

 Voila!  The dress came out navy blue. It was a miracle, if not a miracle dress.  I am pretty sure that Rit stuff was not exactly natural, however.  The directions said to wear gloves and to not inhale the dust from the packet. I wondered if I'd see another Easter.

Last year, after Delhi, I flew to the little-toured Indian state of Orissa and met with champion weavers who were making extraordinarily colored Ikats from natural dyes. But, alas, I didn’t have any cow dung available  this season; it makes a beautiful deep red. I do have plenty of flowers and berries and seeds, however, and according to a New York Times piece last week I can learn to make natural dyes.  Instead I just picked my garden's offerings for a spring bouquet and put them next to my chalk eggs, which I intend to keep until next year when I hope my family will be more accepting.

Maryl models: Her Miracle Dress

Maryl wearing Celeb Boutique "Miracle Dress"

You may recall last month I blogged about the pluses of Stella McCartney’s Miracle Dress (a.k.a. the Octavia dress). Due to its unique fiber and optical illusion design, it can compress excess body fat and smooth out curves before your very eyes. The only minus is the $1600 price tag. The knock-off I ordered from Celeb Boutique (CB) at 1/10 the cost finally arrived after being on back order all this time. 

Here’s my up-close and personal assessment based on three criteria and scoring of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest): 

Kate Winslet wearing Stella cCartney
"Miracle Dress"

1) Fabric: 3
Both dresses are made of synthetic fabric but the original has a softer and more substantial feel to it.
2) Body shaping: 2
There’s no miracle fiber with the CB copy. (The good news is that a Spanx body shaper can take up the slack and is much cheaper than the price differential between the McCartney and CB dresses.)
3) Design: 5
The dress looks the same complete with the bust and side seamlines. 

And I’ll give it another 5 for just being fun to wear. So what do you think?  I'm no Kate Winslet but miracle or not?

Maryl believes: In Stella McCartney’s Miracle Dress

Kate Winslet, 2011Venice Film Festival 

Would you believe there is a dress that takes you down two sizes, adds curves and firms up your tummy? No Spanx or Wonder Bra required; the magical fibers are already woven into the fabric itself. If there was such a dress, would you buy it? Well, there is and you can’t…at least for the moment. The dress is from Stella McCartney’s 2011 Winter Collection and is called the Octavia quickly renamed the Miracle Dress because of its magical powers. The unique stretch material and the panels of color that create an optical illusion are the “secret sauce.” It sold out immediately everywhere and at $1600 a pop a lot of us may not have been in line to begin with.

Dorothy Perkins                 DKNY, $345                         ASOS         

But the fashion industry is known for its knock offs and there’s a range to choose from with this design. Starting with Forever21, H&M and BeBe, each has their own take on the dress and at prices ranging from $23 to $69 to$125. DKNY has the color block idea down but not the svelte silhouette. There are a number of internet sites, mostly from the UK, that feature some interesting replicas, like Dorothy Perkins for less than $40 and their version has some elasticity.   ASOS, another fashion web site, has a close copy of a polyester dress marked down now to $52 but it appears to have no stretch. You get what you pay for though. You must be willing to sacrifice some of the look in exchange for the lower price.  However, the one knock off that most agree comes closest to the real thing is at Celeb Boutique. It’s got the color panels down right and enough elastane to tame all your bulges. I just ordered it so standby for a full report back.  


And the Miracle Dress isn’t just a fleeting trend as was seen in several Fall/Winter 2012 collections during New York Fashion Week earlier this month:

Phillip Lim                                               Victoria Beckham

Celeb Boutique

Over and above the miracle aspects of this dress, I wonder if it is the right look for a second lifer? Does it only belong on the Red Carpet or at music venues and night clubs?  Interesting enough when I was looking for the Stella McCartney dress and its  knockoffs online, there were only smaller sizes available. So does that mean that larger-sized women are really looking great in this dress and buying them up? Or is the dress just cut too small? Or like me is believing in miracle dresses worth the gamble and not a fantasy at all?

NOTE:  Be sure to check out this Sunday's NY Times Magazine profile of Stella McCartney.

Stella McCartney center crouching

And Stella's also in the Wall Street Journal Weekend edition speaking about her "The Meat Free Monday Cookbook."

Caryl remembers: Charla Krupp

Photo by Kristin Booker

Charla Krupp, popular author, magazine editor and commentator on fashion and beauty whose bestsellers included How Not to Look Old and How To Never Look Fat Again died in Manhattan last month of breast cancer. She was 58 but, according to the New York Times obituary, “looked the perennial 49.” That says something coming from The Old Gray Lady.

For several years, Charla and I worked together at InStyle Magazine. Our offices were on either side of then managing editor Martha Nelson’s, and, because Charla was the magazine’s Today Show contributing editor and because one of my responsibilities was to insure continuity between magazine and television content, we spent a good deal of time together. We were not close friends but we had a lot in common: we were from the Chicago area, we had gone to journalism school, we were magazine addicts, and we followed the advice from long-time Glamour editor Ruth Whitney to never underestimate the intelligence of the reader even if what she was reading was mostly fluff. Because Charla genuinely loved women and wanted to help them, she never would. And, though I preferred covering hard news to celebrity journalism, I never did either.

There was something else we had in common: we were both busty. Growing up I wished I had smaller breasts- a more boyish silhouette- but would never chance surgery. Charla, who didn’t favor cosmetic surgery (quoting fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, “Do you want to look 70? Get a face lift”) had had breast reduction as a young woman. I mention this seemingly obituary-unlikely fact for a reason: it is both revelatory and prophetic. From very early on, Charla believed in taking whatever steps you needed to make yourself attractive. Looking your best not only made you feel better but it was critical to “your personal and financial survival," she said. That philosophy got her in the door of the highly-competitive world of women’s magazines and eventually up the corporate ladder and onto the best seller-lists.

Charla’s colleagues and friends have enumerated her virtues in their remembrances; they said she was kind, generous, funny, fun, hard-working, driven, down-to-earth and “fabulously glam"--to quote current Glamour editor Cindi Leive who recalled Charla as the first person she knew to have highlights. I would add another attribute to the list: Charla was savvy. She was her own brand long before personal branding became a goal. With her trademark high-lighted hair, brightly-colored skirted suits (the rest of us were wearing black pants and jackets), and gold-inked, gold-embellished stationery (she was a master of the thank-you note) she set herself apart. Her savvy went farther than that, however. She could read the cultural winds and reduce them to sound bites, write cover lines and brilliant book titles. HOW NOT TO LOOK OLD: Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter and 10 Times Better. Who could have said it better?

Charla would never reveal her age, except to say she was over 40. It was her mission, she told Gayle King on Oprah radio in 2008: "I don’t think we should be asking women how old they are. Nothing good can come of it. It just pigeon holes women. I don’t want to contribute to sexism and ageism. We have to look out for ourselves in this youth-obsessed culture." In a job market like this, women over 40 are the first to go, she said. So she filled her books with tips on how to look younger (Have your eyebrows professionally arched. Brows are an instant face lift, she wrote) and truisms (Nothing ages you faster than yellow teeth). She showed readers five ways to "look thinner before dinner": start with a properly-fitted bra. (She wore shape wear every day). She understood the stuff she was suggesting dealt only with the top layer—she acknowledged she wasn’t talking about inner beauty but outer beauty. “I’m not suggesting changing your core—your values, your brains, your wit, the things that makes you different and unique.” Her mantra was looking good makes you feel better. “It gives you the confidence you need to exist in the world-- and to survive.”

Well, at least the first part is true.

Maryl tackles: Color Blocking, Another Fall/Winter Fashion Trend

As we move further into the Fall/Winter season, I’ve been noticing another fashion trend that is bold and eye-catching and yet easy to pull off. It’s referred to as color blocking. Actually there’s two looks I’ve been coveting; the other is pattern-mixing. It intrigues me and it can work with the right patterns but takes a lot of time and practice. If your ensemble hasn’t been thought out beforehand, it could be too much to subject yourself to if you dress on the go as I do. (Although I thought I was successful teaming up a floral blouse with a brown pinstripe pant but that’s as far as I got.) 

Pattern Mixing

Yves Saint Laurent & Costume National

Back to color blocking, which is much more effortless and a relief from the total black silhouette that has predominated the fashion scene for so long. It simply means the wearing of three or more clothing and/or accessory items of separate and different solid colors at one time. I believe it’s creative source was Piet Mondrian’s abstract paintings of colored squares, rectangles and thick black lines. Yves Saint Laurent used these as inspiration for his 1965 Mondrian day dress. There’s been a few designers this season mimicking that look as well. And J Crew has been long known for its unusual mixing of colors with its latest catalog and web site chock full of these chromatic ideas. 

                           

J Crew

A dress, jacket or sweater may be a design of two or more colors itself making color blocking easy to pull off. I remember I once made a dress where the sleeves, bodice and skirt were each a different hue. (I was so ahead of my time!!) But if you want to really dive into the trend, you can start off easy by choosing from a family of analogous colors (per the color wheel) or by simply introducing a third color with an accessory like a belt or handbag, a bold piece of jewelry or even hosiery. I recently wore burgundy tights with my teal dress and carried a purple handbag. A teal skirt with a navy blouse and sweater coat was so easy I added a red purse. I was so comfortable with that the next time I swapped out the navy blouse for a salmon colored one. I feel I’m on my way now. 

My Color Blocking

Give it a try. It’s actually fun and an easy way to be a trend setter and look like you know what you’re doing on the fashion front. Start with accessories first and then analogous colors. Be brave and move to complimentary colors. Mix some orange with blue, some green with red and no black or white please. They’re not colors!

Color Wheel

Maryl finds: Five fall fashion trends for all ages and sizes

What’s in my closet for fall?  I’ve attended Fashion’s Night Out; was early to the Jill Sander (+J) designer launch at Uniqlo; was one of the multitudes repeatedly kicked off the Target website for their latest Missoni designer promotion; shopped all my favorite department stores, boutiques, web sites and my closet.  (Caryl even stood in line at the new Century 21 grand opening.)  I’ve assessed the fall fashion looks through the second life filter and here’s my findings.  There's five trends that are fitting for all ages and sizes and that can take us through fall and winter 2011-12.  They are:

 1)    Simple sweaters and skirts (or pants).  They’re never out of style, just don’t pick out another black cardigan like Caryl!  So I did manage to score a couple of Missoni pieces which will work great with brown and black skirts I had from past seasons.  (In fact the black one is also Missoni but purchased at an end of season sale at Sak’s.)

2)      Tall black leather boots.   I mean real talllll….almost thigh high and you don’t need a heel.  What could be sexier aside from a thick platformed highhhh heel but who can walk in them?  (I’m not that well balanced – I can barely do tree in yoga class!)  I found these boots discounted at a department store outlet (Neiman Marcus)…probably there because they seemed like too much boot.  But not so.  The best news is that they fit up and over my calves.  I finally have a boot that I can wear over my pants without the zipper getting stuck half way up.

       Dior                                  Kate Spade                     Michael Kors

 3)      Reptile shoes or handbags or both, preferably black and white or two contrasting tones.  It’s the new "leopard print" for this year.  Of course the real thing will cost you in the four digits range but the reptile leather printed versions are quite attractive as well.  I have that Michael Kors tote in a shopping cart right now online at Bloomingdale’s!

Pendant against teal (the new black) dress

 4)      Long chain with a big pendant.  There’s some fabulous jewelry designers and stylists at work out there but who has the time to pile all those necklaces and bracelets and rings on?  Simplify!  I’ve seen quite a number of dresses and sweaters adorned with an effortless long chain – about 36 inches  - and an easy swinging pendant.  I just attached a couple of chains I found in my jewelry box and added a large locket.  I’m also eyeing one by designer AlexisBittar.  (Accessories are what differentiate you and make people take notice.  Shop your basic dresses, skirts and pants in your closet and make them look new with powerful accessories.)

Black wool +J sheath 

 5)      Fur accents.  I apologize now if this is offending anyone but if it’s any consolation the trend is not full length fur coats but fur trimmed coats, dresses, boots, handbags, gloves even jewelry.  Fur around collars and cuffs on coats and dresses isn’t anything new although the coats I’ve seen lately have the cuffs trimmed to the elbows and the collars plain with the fur on the bottom almost to the waist.  But an elegant fur collar on a simple coat and dress does wonders to not only liven it up but to take the focus away from a worrisome neck and chin line.

What to wear for fall?  It's really easy.  Shop the stores, the web and most important your closet; mix the old with the new, patterns with your basics, reptiles, fur - faux or real if you like - topped or rather bottomed off with more boot than you're used to. And don't forget the importance of accessories-- some safe choices (sentimental lockets) or not (Lucite baubles).  Fall wardrobe 2011 done; case closed!!