Movie Stars and Marshmallows

It's been a while. I know. I was compelled to come here today. Ms. Nicole Kidman is the style, is the fashion, is the risk and the pay-off. She (and also Cate Blanchett) is a movie star! No questions. O.K, so yes, the face is suspect (like she's storing marshmallows in her cheek just in case she needs a snack on the red carpet) but still...the dresses here are everything. The lady is wearing ruffles. And sequins. Together. Who could do that and not look like an elderly hooker in Vegas past her sell by date.  I love it. She never, ever gets it wrong, in my book. 

I misssed blogging for you guys.  And yeah: I'm just gonna not see the person in the Hunger Games meets Willy Wonka outfit.

Couture Please

I wish I could afford couture and that I had the occasion to wear it. How fabulous is Sarah Jessica Parker dressed up like a hooker from the Moulin Rouge while looking sweet as pie? Someone like SJP must get to wear couture all the time . I absolutely love that outfit on her and I love that Schiaparelli Fall 2016 couture dress. But for those of us who can't push the   envelope too much we can settle for a Black French manicure, putting an orchid bouquet intended for a Spring bride on our dressing table, and breaking out our yellow shoes at the start of Spring.

Out of Vogue

I am utterly bored with today's style/fashion magazine covers. I think it's because they focus too much on the celebrity or the model and not enough on style.  So I decided to go back in time...

Spring

It's been said the millenials --or maybe it's just millenial hispsters-- aren't buying diamond engagement rings anymore. They go for coloured stones like sapphires or emeralds. I think it's a cool idea, especially since they have such pretty wedding sets now in all sorts of stones. Plus, a girl with a hair colour like the rainbow is too non-traditional for a diamond, right? Anyway, Spring's around the corner. Thank God.  And I am loving everything minty, fresh and pretty. I love bath salts from here. This pretty emerald set from here. This whimsical kid's room with the melon wallpaper from here and this tablescape done by here.

Easter on the Brain

I've always felt that purple is the colour of Easter. This week, everywhere I look, I see purple. I think the internet is sending me subliminal signals to anticipate Easter. I have no speacial plans for Easter yet but my friends are coming to visit and I have to get planning. Anyhoo, here's what interested me this week:

The pretty bag by Kate Spade, Japan which I feel sells far prettier stuff than Kate Spade, New York.

The story of this Australian artist who is 105 years old. It's never too late to pick up a hobby. Loongkoonan started at the age of 90.

I have hair envy and am actually thinking of getting some unusual colour in my hair and I love the matt nail polish too. I am all over pinterest looking for a new hair style.

This origami-looking thing is wall art from Acanthe.

The colurful room was shot by Nicolas Mathues for Elle Decoration which is not the same as Elle Decor.

Finally, Christies advises on signed jewellery, which of course is more valuable that unsigned jewellery. It's a great read if you are thinking about starting a jewellery collection.

I Like Tom Ford

"You gotta learn in life what makes you feel comfortable in terms of clothing and that’s what you should wear. "

So said Tom Ford. True, right? I am not a sneakers or tennis shoes person. I cannot wear them outside of a gym. Also, denim skirts. I look retarded in denim skirts. So I like what Tom Ford says. I like more than that. I like his designs, his ageless look, his movies, the story where he says he carried a brief case to school as a child in Texas. Mega-brave, so much sense of self. I watched A Single Man with Colin Firth and I want to watch Nocturnal Animals. I like all of Tom Ford.

The Maxi

 

I love maxi dresses. Usually, I have a preference for the sleeveless ones in summer time. The long sleeve ones can feel a bit overwhelming. So I have recently bought a couple of them with long sleeves (on sale) and I will take them to the dressmaker's and have the sleeve shortened to a three-quarter sleeve length. I like that look.

30-Plenty Style

 

In your 30s?

 

Get classic...

 

Stay comfortable...

 

 Remain confident...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forget about the rest...

Your Grandmother's Jacket

Do you know how sometimes you say there are certain things you wouldn't be caught dead in? Well, I say that. There are certain articles of clothes I think would make me look silly, or girly, or trashy or whatever; and you just walk right by them in the department store. You know what I mean? Like, I always thought a pink or coral jacket or any such similar shade would be ridiculous on me. And I always say I'd never be caught dead in a pale/soft yellow jacket. And, I always say tweed is something I aspire to wear, but how do I wear it without looking like the QEII going to church? Yesterday, I went out and bought a yellow tweed jacket to wear to work this week. I needed something different and I thought o.k: what could be more different than a colour you would nevaaahhh wear and in a fabric that you have serious reservations about? Never say never.

Spring and Summer Style Hits

 

Metallic shoes are obviously in and they work so well with these outfits. I wouldn't have the gumption for it, but that maxi with the plimsolls is fun, fresh and unpretentious. And, I love the embellishment of the black dress with a yellow or gold shoe. And above all else: I love the girly florals all over the place.

Images: Tatler, Essence, AuFeminin

Hideously Classic

Bear with me. I know you think this jacket is hideous. But every woman needs one jacket in her closet so off/on trend, so colourful, so hideous that it becomes a wear for all time statement piece. Look at Palermo sport this otherwise hideous jacket and say you disagree with me.

 

Jacket from Here

Copy That: Chiara Ferragni

 

Last October Chiara Ferragni of the blog The Blond Salad  appeared on the cover of Dutch Elle Magazine. Well you guys know I've never met a primary or secondary colour that I didn't like and the bigger the earring, the more fabulous the outfit is what I like to say. What I want from this outfit is the skirt and the earrings. But I really love that feather embellished  top too.

 

 

 

The orange embossed skirt is from Miu Miu. Where is Zara when you need a good knock off for Spring? The feathered top is Elizabeth and James. All the earrings and others like them can be found at RStyle Me.

See more of Chiara Ferragni's style over at Instagram.

When the Waists Were Tiny

 

 

  Images from Movie Stills Database

 

And the men were trim and distinguished. I spent a decent part of my weekend watching and rewinding Designing Woman (1957) with Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck. The themes are enduring in movies, I think. There is the male ego, the pretty woman trying to hang on to her man by mostly biting her tongue and stroking said ego, etc., etc. It's laughable--only it's not, not when you consider that we are in the same place over 50 years later. Nevertheless, I could watch these movies all day long because the clothes were so elegant, the décor trés chic and actually, both clothes and décor would fit right into today's world (except for that green swimsuit Bacall is wearing--maybe that swimsuit has no place outside of a 1960s Penney's catalogue).

The Woman's Card

Elle February 2016

 

Something about Ms. Taraji P. Henson in this leather jacket embellished with some brooches puts me in the mind of leather with lace and pearls with rock studs. Feminine and yet tough. I love the contrast. I also love when women celebrate their femininity in all spheres of their life. We can't play the "woman's card"-- that kind of talk is counterintuitive. As though it is possible to disrobe our feminine intuition, stylish armour and emotional intelligence and ability to multitask and leave them all in the parking garage before we enter the office/politics/a court room/the man's domain (???).

 

I remember my first day of work in a Washington DC law firm-- and I also remember all the other days in Brussels and one day in a Berlin law firm. One of my first impression on those first days of work was that the women dressed like men and appeared to dispense with anything that could remotely signal that they were female. In Brussels in particular, I formed the impression that the women were underdressed and barely groomed-- I actually/frequently saw t-shirts, biker boots, jeans and unwashed hair. I wondered at the time whether the grooming was a signal from the women to the dapperly dressed, be-suited male lawyers that the women were working so hard they scarcely had time to wash their hair and organise professionally-appropriate attire.

 

 

Madeleine Albright the Americans' first female Secretary of State loves brooches and used them during her time as Secretary of State to give clues on her thoughts of her state of mind or her sentiments about certain world leaders. Like the time she wore a "three monkeys" brooch on her visit to the Russian President Vladimir Putin-- according to Albright, it was a clear and definitive statement to President Putin that some of his foreign policies were pure evil. Albright actually has a book called "Read My Pins".

 

So what signal do we send to our male colleagues when we dress a certain way? If I wear a colourful, flowery dress, a brooch, lipstick and well-coiffed hair to work does it make me a less effective lawyer, does it cancel out my intelligence? And what is this "woman's card" they keep accusing Mrs Clinton of playing? Is there a "man's card"? Is the "woman card" in the same category as the "race card"? As a woman or a man, are you offended by this talk?