Test Pattern

As I mentioned in my very first blog post, I have days where I feel fat, old, ugly, disgusting, stupid, useless and ridiculous. But never frumpy. Saturday was kinda one of those days! Completely sleep deprived after bedding down at 4:30 am and having to wake up to make a 10:00 am appointment that my spouse and I *had* to keep, we somehow forgot to set the alarm- maybe it was the fattie we smoked at 3:45, but I woke up with a start at 9:35 and we had to throw on clothes and run out the door. After a night of standing on my feet deejaying at a smelly bar until 4:30 am I wasn't exactly feeling fresh as a daisy. I felt more like a stale, discarded fortune cookie lying on a slimy Chinatown sidewalk. No time for proper makeup or any hair style other than 'bed head', I turned to my closet for deliverance. I needed clothes that would wake me from my bleary-eyed state and express my mood of the day (which, despite my grogginess, was happy - I was going to spend the day with my honey). I decided instantly to MIX PATTERNS! It was a warm, rather sticky day, and I was in a hurry, so I threw on a dress. A black and white tiki-esque floral linen number - crisp and easy - that I scored for a pittance at K&G discount. Over that I layered a very light, pink and white seersucker jacket from one of my favorite local designers, Sohung Designs, the traditionally wasp-y fabric given a fresh treatment with an asymmetrical hem and inside-out pockets. My favorite large, very black sunglasses (Oakley Ravishing), Vivienne Westwood for Melissa flats and a Harajuku Lovers cut out cuties tote bag (both bag and shoes in the same blushy-pink color family as the stripes in the jacket, with their own prints going on). I threw some Rhotto eye drops, makeup, and a hairbrush into the bag, hoping I would have a chance to use them later, and out the door we ran. No jewelry today aside from my Bulgari corona engagement ring. We made it to where we were going on time and, thanks to my cute outfit, I was able to wake up a bit and really enjoy my day. 

Mixing patterns is huge right now, and the magazines all have stories on the 'rules' for doing it. For spring, you want to mix stripes and florals - large florals with small stripes, or small florals with large or graduated stripes. I favor Polynesian style florals and shun the Lily Pulitzer-type tiny prints, but I have some Liberty of London pieces that I love. Along with balancing the size of the prints (the stripes in my jacket and the textured print on my shoes were both small, the floral on the dress large and the print on my bag medium), a unifying color scheme will bring all the different prints together. Today mine was pink and white and black, but I really love kelly green and navy together. Neutrals like khaki and grey are always good for accessories and to generally pull everything together if you're afraid of looking like you got dressed in the dark. The fact that I had no time to think too much about my choices worked to my advantage today.

Pattern mixing is nothing new, of course. Pinstripes and tartan is a classic fall/winter look, and some of my earliest style efforts involved not only mixing patterns, but daytime clothes and sleep wear (nightgowns worn as dresses over pants in elementary school, my dad's plaid bathrobe worn as a trench coat over green bondage pants in high school).

It usually turns out that when a particular clothing item or look inspires me, it evokes memories of something I wore or saw being worn in my youth, which brings up more memories (not clothing-related) along with a comforting sense of continuity. 

On the weekends, when I usually stay local (Lower East Side/East Village), the amount of inspiring style on the street can be surprisingly disappointing. In fact, I usually encounter a plethora of BAD dressing. I try to keep an open mind about styles and trends, believing that even a style I hate (rompers, ew) has the potential to look good on SOMEBODY out there. But all too often what I see is looks that I rather like (sheer) done so BADLY that it drives me back into my apartment and sweet isolation. But I did see one woman last week who was sporting a very cute outfit with mixed prints and with great accessories. She was taking pictures of architectural details of buidings and rocking a very artistic look to go along with this activity- a slouchy sweater with graduated stripes in shades of orange, a multi-layered miniskirt with a light blue small floral print, a really hot bag that reminded me of the Gucci Race bag, and cute open toe booties similar to these. She was for sure the cutest girl I'd seen all day- and probably in all the days since then.

Check out these looks with mixed patterns for spring!!

A Very Wet Spring

My coworker wears plastic rain boots (fake rubber wellies) in all kinds of patterns and bright colors and, since we've been having a wet spring, she's been wearing them every day. She tucks her pants into them and changes into sneakers when she gets to work. It depresses the hell out of me. I am so sick of those things. Bright colored rubber wellies had their appeal for me at one time, about 6 years ago when they first showed up on the scene. That was when everyone went apeshit over that photo of Kate Moss wearing a pair of regular brown wellies with shorts at some muddy UK rock festival. I had a hot pink pair that I bought during a rainy, grey holiday season when I was struggling to make ends meet selling my small hand made leather goods at a little vending kiosk in an indoor marketplace in Soho. They were about $50 or $60 then (this was before they started selling the plastic knockoffs at Ricky's and Payless). I enjoyed sloshing around in them, and they went very well with the items I had to sport every day from my very junior-market accessories line. And, of course, with my trench coat. There's always a trench coat.
Trench coats are something I could never, ever get sick of. I love coats and jackets in general- they offer protection and style at the same time. You can hide under them while showing off your style to the world. Trench coats are my special favorites, having so many cool connotations- from film noir private eyes to sex offenders to punk rock. These days there are so many variations on the basic trench coat, in color and in construction. I own bright colorful patterned ones, some that I wear as dresses (including one that was actually meant to be a dress), cropped sleeved ones, military styled ones, hooded ones, long ones, short ones, belted ones, double breasted, ruffled (but not too many ruffles), swing skirted (but not bubble hemmed)...and I want to keep getting more but must control myself! New York women seem to agree that the more trenchcoats you have the better. We are having a love affair with trenchcoats and I have seen them thrown on over long formal dresses (which is kind of a rich bag lady look and happens to be very fashionable at the moment), with shorts for that flasher look, with scarves or pieces of rope standing in for the belt, in hot pink, bright blue, traffic yellow, pool table green, fire engine red- and of course the ubiquitous khaki and black. Check out some of these trench coats for spring!

Fortunately, another thing all of us New York women seem to be in agreement on these days is the loathesomeness of wellies - be they fake plastic ones from Target or $400 Chanel or Burberry versions. They are in the same league as crocs at this point - even the Doc Martens ones with the rose-printed laminated canvas tops that I wanted to buy a couple of years ago but didn't because someone gave me the heads up that they were very uncomfortable. In fact, I cannot help but notice that many New York women have been sporting anything but practical wet weather foot wear with their trench coats- flat sandals with toe loops, skimpy ballet flats, mules, fancy bejeweled flip flops, open toe pumps...its as if there's a rebellion going on, all those perfectly polished toes being sprinkled with grubby New York puddle splash. Yesterday I saw a woman wearing what looked like a Carolina Herrara raincoat with a boat neck collar and a wide scarf standing in for the belt, standing in the middle of 42nd street in the rain texting with a pair of ankle-strap peep toe platform sandals on her feet, her eyeglasses charmingly sliding down her pert nose. She may have been the cutest girl I'd seen all day. I have to hand it to these gals, clammy city rain between my toes is something that, as yet, I've not been willing to suffer for the sake of fashion rebellion.
When it comes to the ideal wet weather footwear match to all those cute, sexy and serious trench coats, its hard to beat Melissa shoes. These candy-scented PVC shoes are a cult item (my good friend Amber turned me onto them, she owns at least half a dozen pair). This Brazillian company has their own art gallery and magazine, and collaborate with designers like Vivienne Westwood. They come in a multitude of styles (flats, booties, pumps, wedges, oxfords, sandals and more) and textures (shiny, clear,flocked). I own a pair of shiny black PVC booties that I love to wear with all of my trench coats, and I just ordered a pair of blush pink textured PVC Vivienne Westwood ballet flats. So, ladies, we can toss the wellies in the garbage and still keep our toes clean!

The Cutest Girl I've Seen All Day

On Friday night the cutest girl I saw was at the Delancey. She was with her boyfriend, who was in the last band of the night and looked like a hot mess peeled off the Sunset Strip with a glam rock hangover. I think they were from Finland (the band), but the girl looked like a cute Brit wearing an adorable pale pink retro coat that reminded me of this Burburry Prorsum trench coat, a black and white hounds tooth bubble hem mini dress, fishnet hose and an awesome pair of stiletto spectators with a hidden platform. Cute teased bleached hair, dark brows and red lips. Looking at her made me happy, she was a little pearly oyster in a sea of boring trout. She was the last bit of inspiration I needed to start this blog - The Cutest Girl I've Seen All Day.
I hate my job, but I love my commute to work. I get off the train at Grand Central station and the crowded midtown streets are full of New York women, walking surprisingly fast in high heels, carrying large and stunning handbags. I love looking at New York women. I love them in winter wearing long belted coats or short leather bomber jackets, and boots of all heights. I love them in spring wearing brightly colored trench coats and flip flops with toes freshly painted, straight from their appointment at the nail salon. I love them in fall and in summer too. I love looking at these stylish women, or anyone stylish, for that matter.
There was a guy named Wade that I met on the 5 train last week. He was a thin graceful brown skinned man wearing a straw boater, spectators and pale blue eyeliner. He was eating a piece of birthday cake and complimented me on my style. Then there was another guy who spoke to me as I was getting on the train to return home from a friend's latke party last year around the holidays - black pinstripe suit, white gators and white do-rag. A huge, dark man with a surprisingly sweet and lilting voice. He told me I was beautiful and asked me if I was "from Paris". There's a man who walks across 42nd street, from east to west, wearing a huge top hat like the mad hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland', gigantic glitter platform boots, and various tuxedo pieces that are like decoupage oddities. Sunglasses and frizzy white hair and beard, he walks with a cane but it doesn't stop him from trucking around in those platform boots. He notices me and nods at me - I stand out from the tourists in their scrunchies and fanny packs who (I hope) give him money to pose with him in pictures. He has validated me, and I can take that back to my awful job, where all they ever speak to me about is whatever mistakes or missteps they can pin on me, feeling a bit more like myself for the rest of the day.
When you're in a dead end job where they don't care about your thoughts, your ideas, your talent or your knowledge, you cannot let it kill your spirit and take away your liberty. On really bad days a cute outfit is all you have to hold onto. For me, every day, its an affirmation of who I am, and what cannot be taken away from me. You have to live for and love the little things we can do to make life beautiful.
I was having a conversation with some girlfriends and someone made a comment that they were 'feeling frumpy', and another friend said 'oh, we all have frumpy days'. I thought about it, and I can honestly say that I do not have frumpy days. Ever. I have days where I feel fat, old, ugly, disgusting, stupid, useless and ridiculous. But never frumpy.
This blog is going to be about my commitment to that, and my connection to other people who live that way.