Are You Ready for Fur This Season?

The outfit may be a little cray, but def 100% my style. Photo credit a la Wendy. Vintage mink fur collared sweater, BCBG cream sweater, Anthropologie navy polka dot top, BCBG skirt, Urban outfitters belt, gifted socks, Anthropologie shoes (my favorite)!!!

Lookbook Flashback When Claude was but a Pup

An old lookbook shot, from back when Wendy and I trolled the streets looking for cheap landscapes. I'm no model, but we sure had fun. The dress is old Urban Outfitters along with the belt and boots, the jacket is a goodwill vintage find, the socks were a gift, the scarf is Burberry and the hat was Wendy's. The sachel is more recent J. Crew.  And look how adorable her puppy Claude was on the left. 

Musing on Autumn Inventory

Things are going well at Hampden though my hours have been cut back considerably for school. But what is really the best thing going on in my life right now, is autumn. Here in Charleston the seasonal change barely counts as a season, you get a weekend or two where the heat isn't relentless, and then all the sudden its time for jackets. We've been getting sweaters in like crazy, the jackets are rolling in, there are all forms of jeggings/leggings, stretched, cropped and waxed denim, leather and fur is everywhere, and it seems we can't get enough of the color plum. While my personal favorites of the season are pretty predictable, (Rag & Bone, Opening Ceremony, Carven, Elizabeth & James, Derek Lam, Tila March) there have also been a few surprises (Roseanna, a new line we picked up has an excellent oriental influenced smoking jacket). I was also surprised by the variations on leather usage, and the fabrics designers seemed to dream up, from the polyester viscose blend Opening Ceremony plays with like a cropped mohair, to Roseanna's lightweight brocades, and Derek Lam's amazing print pants that reference something between a lily pad and a paper doily, and yet I nevertheless cannot get enough of. 

So, rather than ramble on, let me post a few favorites:

First, here is the Derek Lam pant that I adore. They are priced at around $1300 so there is scant chance you will catch me running around in them, but the detail and inventiveness of the pattern is truly beautiful.

This Opening Ceremony dress is so me. The plum color is there, with a quirky white mesh cutout, (the back is completely bare). The material is really unique too, something I dubbed cropped faux mohair lol.

Carven is really emerging as one of my favorite lines. While the fit on this jacket was a little untrue to size and awkward, it was something that I instantly knew would be a staple in my wardrobe. The peplum detailing is adorable, and the material itself was similar to that which was all over Opening Ceremony's RTW collection.

This Chris Benz dress weighs about 12 lbs and costs over $2000, but is incredibly striking.

Of course, I couldn't do a feature on staples without the Rag & Bone bootie. Here it is in suede, but i'm holding out for the floral.

Here is the brocade smoking jacket by Roseanna. If you haven't checked the french line out yet, give them a look.

This is just Rag & Bone magic with this textile. If I save up for three months I can own this. I do wish it was a double breasted though, or at least didn't have the tulip hem, although it is totally appropriate for Charleston weather.

For some reason, I was biased against Tila March for awhile. I think it was the name sounded a little too preppy for me. Lo and behold I love these shoes. Gold detailing, side cutouts, and beautiful suede: the color is perfect too, I've never been an olive person, but this is so well done I think I would wear it comfortably as a neutral.

ALL of the above pieces are available at Hampden Clothing.

Hampden!

I got a job!

I'm officially the newest intern at Hampden Clothing! So exciting! It's one of the best and only places in Charleston I would consider working fashion industry wise. Hampden carries amazing labels (some of my favorite being Masscob, Rag & Bone, Helmut Lang, Elizabeth and James, Lizzie Fortunado), and is run by Stacy Smallwood, a knowledgeable and innovative buyer who has started up her own company and really made an impact in the fashion community. So far I love my coworkers, and the work has been interesting and enjoyable... and, yes, the clothes are amazing.

Embroidery

At this point in my life, I extremely loathe embroidery. Especially generic florals with cheap thread.

The Perfect Leather Jacket

I've recently managed to actually save some money, and now, predictably I am fantasizing about ways to spend it. My most recent fantasy has been the perfect leather jacket. My good friend Wendy who is kind enough to function as my photographer has an awesome black lambskin hooded bomber style jacket, and my friend who shall remain anonymous was lucky enough to come across a black revolutionary style cropped jacket with double breasted buttons. Since my friends are cool, I want to look equally cool, and I've already determined smoking isn't sustainable with my already flourishing alcohol habits. That leaves a leather jacket.... lol. But truly, I'm very fashionable and I know a quality leather jacket will forever remain an amazing wardrobe staple. I want something fitted, with a slight collar, not too cropped, a la motorcycle style, in a dark beige, in a cut that will flatter a large bust. OKAY, so I know exactly what I want. Things I keep running into as obstacles:

#1 Price, price and price.
#2 Vintages tend to be cut in a boxier 90's denim jacket style, or not tailored at all, for strictly overcoat insulation uses.
#3 There are a lot of fake leather jackets out there. or a couple, like this one from BCBG I seriously eyed, that's partially leather but the undersides of the sleeves are ponte. These partial leather pieces are everywhere.

#4 Creme is not a common color, most people want black or dark brown
#5 Many of the "stylish" leather jackets have too much going on for me. Too many tassels, zippers, buttons, pockets, buckles. Just over stylized.
#6 The jackets I often do find are predictable and don't do much to the classic "moto" look. They don't show much personal style, in my opinion.

But I finally found one! It is quite perfectly me, if a little dainty/frilly, but that is just my kind of thing. It's by Mulberry and I located in for $550 (take into mind any quality leather jacket is going to be upwards of $250). Do I go for it?

A Miss for Missoni

While I've never professed serious love for Missoni, I can't deny there are some house staples I would love to own. I've many a time oogled over a beautifully patterned knit sweater that, true to its brand, couldn't be anything but the alluring, comfortable, and opulent M. I can remember the first Missoni dress I fell for was in a shop in one of the high-end retailers in St. Martin, I believe. It was a wrap dress, of their signature pattern, a kind of pastel yellow, gold, and orange, with delightful zagging slices of eggshell blue. I fought myself over the instinct to buy that dress pretty ferociously, as it definitely wasn't per-se my accustomed "style" but, four years later, I still find myself thinking about it...

But the Missoni for Target line simply does not equate for me. Besides the general design of the clothes (which remind me greatly of some of my most favored seventh-grade staples, see photos below) I think there lies an issue with the general expansiveness of the line, and also the entire fashion concept. I think the line should have more closely adhered to what Missoni is known for, and as a unique, unmistakable brand, for me that would have been a very limited pool of upscale garments and accessories: the places where their philosophy and style translates best. That I can buy Missoni style bathroom rugs, bycicles, salad bowls and i-pad covers leaves me feeling-dare I say it?- A little exploited. And a little oversaturated. Not to say there weren't any successes in the Missoni for Target line. I liked the classic knit dress, the velour shorts and a few other pieces like this girls sweater vest, or the velour shorts picture below... I even liked their "rose" motif, represented here in a bra...

The other problem I had was mainly conceptual. Missoni is a brand known for their distinctive pattern and their materials. The Missoni pattern itself is iconic, not because of its novelty alone, but because, in this authors opinion, Missoni has managed to take a standard geometrical pattern and elevate it into opulence through their luxurious materials, impressive attention to knitting and weave, and carefully chosen color palettes. If you asked me if I liked small geometric patterns on a dress I would strongly reply in the negative, and yet hand me a Missoni sweater and the playfulness of the colors, the softness of the materials, and the whimsical Bohemia of the pattern, somehow draws one in and combines to create something exceptional. When you take away the added touches that are necessarily stripped from the Missoni for Target line in order to meet a certain price point, not only is the image of the brand devalued, but you are left with only the barest bones of that iconic lines design philosophy-- that is, a lot of bright zig-zag lines. In my opinion it reminds me of the entrance to Marc Jacobs stores, a roomful of knick-knacks and kiddied-down paraphernalia, key-chains, grocery bags, ect.. targeted at a younger set, who have not yet developed the sensibilities to separate brand name from value. And this is what I find distasteful. For me, I respect a line that searches for an opportunity to further investigate its most artistic visions via couture, which is a dying breed due to its rarely equatable financial returns, rather than a line that dumbs down its concept in order to reach a wider commercial body. It comes down to the idea of whether fashion is an art or industry? I like to argue the former but in this case, its all but clear, financial gain is the main motivation.

This is not, by the way, to say that I disapprove of all the newer attempts to fuse high fashion with a lower price point. Simply to say that it's a slippery slope when we let the brand carry the value rather than the design. Two instances that come to mind, in my opinion, of extremely well-executed collaborations are Stella McCartney's Collaboration with H&M and Proenza Shoulers' earlier collaboration with Target... even if Target later seemed to borrow a little too much from Proenza with their copycat PS1 Bag.

Here are some of my personal NO's: the puffer jacket (why? that's all, why?), the middle shirt i'm pretty sure i've already seem hundreds of times at every outlet superstore available, and the sweater is straight out of my 7th grade wardrobe.

To decide for yourself go to Missoni Target.
For info on the PS1 controversy see NYT on the PS1 Bag.
For either the Proenza Shouler for target line or Stella McCartney for H&M line just get googling.