BCBG Maxazria fitted blazer, $176.

Labels: stay toasty, tops

I just love her stuff. Flattering, comfortable and original. Can't ask for more. Hemp ruffled skirt ($65) and 3/4 sleeve top ($60). Visit her Etsy shop here.

Labels: indie design, skirts, tops

Gray is the new black. Sorry, it just had to be said. As the prime neutral for fall, gray is best paired with bright blues and yellows. Or maybe a pair of the red ballet flats I will lust after until the day I die. Then someone will have to go out and and buy me a pair so I can be buried in them.


Structured army jacket from Forever 21 ($35). It will never see battle, aside from the daily commute, but the wide collar and belt are to die for. (Sorry. Cliches feed my weary soul. Not unlike Snickers bars. You know they're bad, but you just want one. )


Lovely gray thermal knit dress from Alice Temperley for Target ($25). I'm thinking bright tights and tall boots.

Labels: dresses, stay toasty, tops, trend

Sometimes you need a break from the little black dress. The LBD (and the LWD) certainly has its place. Unfortunately, that place is often on every third woman in the room. Instead pull out your LBP (little black pants) and top with this humdinger. The Hortensia one-sleeved tunic is made of handloomed Tussar silk, with beading on the bodice and contrasting silk fuscia lining.

Check out the glass bead strap:


Women in LBDs will be flocking to your side all night, hoping you'll drop shopping tips. Not to mention petting your sleeve. (Check out the rest of Tarsian & Blinkley's socially conscious line.)

Labels: indie design, tops

Not exactly a weekend look, but I love this cropped jacket and lace-up skirt from Nanette Lepore. I imagine this is what Jessica Rabbit would wear if she got a job.

Labels: skirts, tops

I pulled up some nice things with reasonable price tags. For once. But don't get too excited. My blogging theory is that since I can't buy any of this stuff anyway, I may as well go big rather than small. So I will continue to post shoes that no one in a normal tax bracket gets to buy. But for now: spring clothes that won't make you wince and grab your wallet to stroke it sympathetically.


Just made for those wedges and ballerina flats and kitten heels. Or flip flops. Yeah, definitely go with the flip flops. Spring is for hopping joyously, not tottering precariously. Tropical flower dress, $30 from Forever 21.


White pants = appearing impossibly OCD as you spread a handkerchief over you seat before sitting on it or getting chocolate stains on your butt. But they're cute. BCBG Max Azria white twill capris, $38 from Bluefly.


I confess a weakness for polka dots. And those rope wedge heels are very now. I now confess that I have no idea what that means, but I heard someone say it on Legally Blonde and those girls knew their clothes. Polka dot espadrilles, $39 from American Eagle Outfitters.



Now, that's spring. Nice with those white pants above. Acrobat peach linen henley, $25 from Bluefly.

Labels: bargains, dresses, shoes, tops

I like this. It's kind of funky. It's got a good name (curious collared petal dress). It looks comfy. I would probably wear it over pants because it looks less dress and more tunic to me. But then I also don't like having to think about how I bend over to retrieve my keys. I drop my keys a lot. Meaning: short dresses are out.

(From Etsy.)

Labels: dresses, indie design, tops

Going to work on a beautiful Monday morn is painful enough without the added insult of shoving your recalcitrant limbs into unforgiving work clothes. So I don't. This is not to say I'm trotting around downtown San Francisco naked, it is to say I am currently garbed in a striped shirt and hoodie. I am classy. I am professional. I should be wearing this swamp grass t-shirt instead:


Doesn't that look cozy? All nice and jersey with some swamp grass to add appeal? I mean, what isn't appealing about swamp grass?

Labels: indie design, tops, whimsy

I have a special fondness for arm warmers. Perhaps it's their utilitarian awesomeness, that which allows me to wear my favorite t-shirts in highly inappropriate weather. Now that I have found these, I can't imagine not owning them. I feel I need these. And they need me. We are meant for each other.


But...I could be wrong. It has happened before, hard as this is to believe. Perhaps I need these instead. Perhaps WE are meant for each other.


I am torn.

Also in this lovely shirred cotton are shirts. Shirts I also must own. Oh, dear. The grocery money is just flying out the door today. Perhaps in burgundy?


Or maybe in grey?


Find all sorts of other good things at treehouse 28's Etsy shop.

Labels: indie design, stay toasty, tops

I recently waxed philosophical about Marc Jacobs. Or, as philosophical as one can really get over pieces of cloth whose only real function is to keep you warm and decent. Is that blasphemy? That may actually be fashion blogging blasphemy. Not that I'm a fashion blogger. Fashion bloggers know trends from 1983, who designed those trends, and how those trends are applicable today. The extent of my fashion exposition can be encompassed in "Ooh! Pretty!"

Anyway. More Marc Jacobs. Because I'm loving the layers and the red shoes. Hey, look! Layers and red shoes! Awesome. I'm even enjoying the shorts. It's been a long, hard slog, getting me to appreciate the shorts.


Less on the layering, more on the pseudo-safari, mostly urban, kind of military look. That's really quite a look - and more fully explicates my inability to do much in the way of fashion commentary. Sateen jacquard jacket and faille skirt - I also feel uneasy about my inability to define either jacquard or faille. Perhaps I need to take cloth less seriously. Especially as cloth is unlikely to ever hire me and give me dental.

Labels: skirts, tops

I would now like to compose an ode to shiny dresses.

...

Fine. I'm not so good with odes. I'm better at shopping than composing verse. Though I do seem to recall a poem about bell peppers that won me much coveted praise from my senior year English teacher. Yes, I am a geek. I would like to be a shiny geek wearing this silk dress:


Or a Jackie O. geek wearing this belted jacket and plisse skirt.

What, exactly, is plisse? I assume it's a type of material, probably a type of a fancier nature than polyester, given the general price of these garments. I could just look it up, but what fun would that be? No fun at all. I prefer to make up a little story about Monsieur Plisse who invented this fabric in 1725, when his small, cabbage-shaped dog peed all over the bolts of cloth lying about his tailor shop. I am assuming that plisse really has nothing to do with canine urine.

Both from Akris.

Labels: dresses, skirts, tops

Soft, shirred cotton, pastel colors, and girly appliques totally belie the don't-wear-this-home-to-grandma messages tastefully stitched onto the necks and sleeves of these truly awesome shirts.


Guess what the sleeve of this shirt says? No, really. Guess. If you said, "No time to fuck", well, you're just criminally awesome. Like these shirts. Here's the I like it rough version:


Other styles say "Insatiable little thing", "Good luck, motherfucker" and the ever-articulate "You suck." My personal favorite? "I can only please one man a day. Today is not your day, and tomorrow doesn't look good either."

I'm giddy with delight.

(via Fashiontribes)

Labels: indie design, tops, whimsy

After driving down the freeway under what appeared to be a low-grade tsunami, clutching the steering wheel, and envisioning life without limbs, I decided to retreat to the couch and shop. These mod vintage coats are awesome - except for the wool, which may smell a tad bit like wet sheep dog after a stroll through the tsunami. Lovely over those post-Factory Girl mini dresses.




Blue green and gray 1960s vintage coats from Posh Girl Vintage.

Labels: stay toasty, tops, vintage

Pear shirt from Marimekko.

Labels: tops, whimsy

Threadless t-shirts consistently make me happy. That, and a nice cappuccino. Whoever said money doesn't buy happiness is LYING.

Exhibit A: Could she be more happy?


Props to the '80s goodness that is 99 Red Balloons. Here are the details of the 99 Luft Balloons shirt:


I'm also partial to the Fake Pandas Have More Fun design. Beautifully whimsical and almost Gorey-esque:




Both $17 at Threadless.

Labels: indie design, tops, whimsy

I've never been a huge Marc Jacobs devotee. Of course, if we're going to talk like that, I'm not really a huge devotee of anyone except Old Navy. But there are certainly designers who are first in line when those truckloads of expendable income appear on my doorstep. (Any day now.) Marc Jacobs wasn't really one of them. But I just looked at the Neiman Marcus stock and found multiple outfits that I would wear. Over and over. And then over again. I would even wash them in between. I would even TAKE THEM TO THE DRY CLEANERS. I know.

Outfit Numero Uno:


That's a cashmere hoodie there. I don't think luxury gets any better than a cashmere hoodie paired with a patchwork silk a-line skirt in a color called "parsnip". Lovely. Especially with the shoes.

Outfit Numero Dos


I've been wanting a jean skirt lately. They go with everything - especially stripey sweaters. I like the short-sleeve sweater with long-sleeve jersey look. I will have to try that and see if it works on real people. Have I mentioned the shoes?

Outfit Numero Tres


Another variation on the silk patchwork skirt look - easy yet fetching. So, how about those shoes?

Labels: shoes, skirts, tops

If that's not the perfect "this is February and it's fucking raining out there again" sweater, I don't know what is. Keeps you warm, cheers you up and makes you look good while being all warm and cheery. I love the wrap that accentuates the pointy edges, the bell sleeves, the all-over chic snuggliness. From San Francisco designer Elizabeth Cline.

Labels: indie design, stay toasty, tops

Coats have drama these days. Architectural flare. Big pouffy sleeves that once made me laugh but now totally work.

Exhibit A: Martin Grant coat from his fall collection.


Exhibit B: Nanette Lepore embroidered velvet coat that does double duty as a coat or a dress ($780).


Exhibit C: Mike & Chris Bailey coat ($286)

Labels: stay toasty, tops

Nothing makes me shout an inappropriate "Hallelujah!" faster than a sweater sale. Especially a cashmere sweater sale. All my picks are sleet gray, because I believe gray to be a lovely color for a sweater. Timeless and relatively low maintenance (who wants to take their sweater off to eat soup?), gray also looks gorgeous paired up with this season's red accents.

Magaschoni's long cashmere sweater has a beautiful asymetric design with shawl collar and button detailing. On sale at Neiman Marcus for $149 (previously $254).


Luxurious Italian weave on this deep V cashmere sweater from Adrienne Vittadini makes it an excellent staple. On sale for $149 (previously $298).


Theory's striped cashmere sweater is on sale at Bloomingdale's for $159 (previously $265).

Labels: bargains, stay toasty, tops

When you have a stunning pair of red shoes (like these here), sometimes you just need an outfit that foils the fabulousness of your footwear. In that spirit, I present to you the outfit du jour.

Nanette Lepore consistently produces pieces that are ladylike, yet eye-catching. I love the fitted structure and flaring sleeves of this silk georgette blouse ($350). You'll slide beautifully from drinks on Saturday night to breakfast with grandma on Sunday morning. (We know you didn't have time to go home and change, you saucy minx.)


Pair the top with this high waist skirt from Norma Kamali ($135) in matching black with just a hint of flare at the hem.


Restrained beauty with just a hint of vixen is yours at last.

Labels: skirts, tops