The Karl Lagerfeld Diet

Oh Carlo, you so crazy.

Remember what Karl used to look like? Bloated, always fanning himself. Well, he got himself skinny and now he wears Hedi Slimane Dior and weird finger gloves and othy jewelry.

Yesterday I was in Club Monaco waiting for Niall to try something on, I can't remember what, and I picked up Karl's book, which is for sale there and started reading it and it was utterly utterly compelling.

I only read a couple paragraphs but I loved the anecdote about how when he was a young man in Paris and his parents would visit, they stayed at a really fancy-pants hotel and they wouldn't let him visit them there, they didn't want him to think the world was too easy a place and such luxuries came easily, anyhow I digress. It was freezing cold and Karl had no winter coat cause he gave all his away and all he really wanted was this beautiful coat from a certain shop and he would rather freeze rather than wear any other coat. How eccentric.

I think I'll buy the book, even though I don't want to lose like 100 pounds in under a year like he did.
A few pounds would be nice, but that's another story.

Eve revives Fetish, Kate Moss to launch perfume

Eve, the fabulousness rapper and actor with the claw tats on her breasts, is reportedly having another go at her fashion brand, Fetish. I didn't know it was ever shelved, but apparently it was. All I remember about the clothes was that they were kind of skanky-athleisurewear, and that I saw them at Winners. On clearance.

Kate Moss is lending Coty her name to launch a perfume. Coty perfumes are crap, y'all.

Kate Moss' line for Topshop is also crap. Shorty shorts, stupid shiny vests, the dowdiest floral dress I've ever seen. Long skirts. I mean c'mon.

Lacoste

Kudos to Lacoste for reviving the brand with consistently cool collections. Loved their blazers last fall (I even bought one), and loved their 07 summer shoe collection. Those adorable, almost nautical shoes have been ripped off left right and centre. Of course making the real thing that much more covetable. More details in this Ellecanada.com article.

I miss my Citizens

I miss my jeans, my Citizens of Humanity. The weather's been hot for the last week so I've been in dresses, looking at my pairs of jeans just hanging in the closet. I love jeans and I really really love Citizens of Humanity. If you have no bum, like me, they're the best pocket going. And it's all about the pocket. If you have a bum, they still look good.

Victoria Beckham

Posh spice. All I have to say is, why she getting so much coverage? Who cares? I think it's just cause she's scary skinny. Or just scary. For a short time, I thought she was stylish. Now I just think she's skanky. That weird Chanel outfit she was recently spotten in, with fingerless gloves was just whack. Sorry, Karl.

Karl Lagerfeld and Hadid, Nike in Soho and Tom Ford goes global

Kind of a quiet fashion day today, all told.

Women's Wear reports that Karl Lagerfield is working with Zaha Hadid on some sort of art project.

Nike is opening a Soho store.

Tom Ford is taking his new-ish brand global.

Yawn.

Let's talk about my DVF dress instead. Did I mention it before? Oh yes, I did. It's sublime. It's the Adelaide ginko pattern dress. Well, I'm not going to buy it. Why? It's too short. My legs are not up to short dresses. End of story. Sigh.
Someone was quoted in Vogue as saying you shouldn't wear short skirts after 30. Sad but true.

Dior's Victoire de Castellane

I'm watching a repeat of CBC show Fashion File right now. It's a bit meta.

The couture jewelry designer for Christian Dior, Victoire de Castellane, is brilliant. Painted gold, rings with delicate petals, tiny intricate details. So exquisite I'm holding my breath watching the images flash on the TV screen. She's very pop-roccoco. Delish.

Fashiontribes has a nice post on her work:
http://fashiontribes.typepad.com/main/2005/10/victoire_de_cas.html

I miss old FF host Tim Blanks. I miss his comforting posher-than-you accent and his smart stay-out-of-the way comments about the runways.

Now on the telly, JP Gaultier is the designer of Hermes? When did this happen? I really have to start reading Women's Wear Daily more often.

Bitten by SJP

Not to get all on-the-bandwagoney, but Sarah Jessica Parker's new line of cheapo clothing, Bitten, certainly doesn't have me biting. Regurgitating, maybe, but biting...not so much. The line was finally released yesterday at Steve & Barry stores. I've never heard of these stores.

Her manifesto, as spelled out on Bitten's website:
"It is every woman's inalienable right to have a pulled-together stylish, confident wardrobe with money left over to live."

Um, are you kidding me?
I'm sure that's exactly what my immigrant grandmother was thinking when she fled rural China in the 50's and escaped poverty and food shortages..."oh please, I hope my daughter and granddaughters have the right to buy styleless clothing at the low, low price of under $20 per item." Right.

The blandness of Bitten's style aside, is there any real need for another cheap (and in this case, not even chic) collection of throwaway clothing?

Look at her shirt: "Fashion is not a luxury...it's a right"

I'm barfing. If fashion is not a luxury, what the hell is?

(Also, on a side note: why is anyone surprised that SJP's line lacks style, a certain quirky je-ne-sais-quoi? SJP herself is not a real fashion maven, it's Patricia Field that was the mastermind behind her Sex in the City fashionista persona.)

Why do designer purses cost so much?

"Oh, you're just paying for the name."

I've heard this a ton of times, usually about pricey handbags and clothes.

But is it true? In a way yes, and no. Here's a good layshopper's guide as to what goes into designer handbag costs, from CanadianLiving.com:
Why do designer purses cost so much?

My opinion? Yes, they seem (and let's face it, are) ridiculously expensive, but oh, the fine details, the sturdiness, the gorgessity of them (thanks LaineyGossip.com, for coining that marvellous term). I love that they have dustbags tucked inside, I love that the hardware never falls off, I love that they wear to a beautiful patina instead of looking like ragged crap after half a year.




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Miss Selfridge + Topshop

Yep, still love it. Miss Selfridge is my fave UK store, hands down. In Ireland I made 2 pilgrimages. One to the shop in Derry (in Northern Ireland), where I picked up a very cute floaty cotton summer top with puffed sleeves and a notched collar and a darling apple dangling from a silver chain. The second pilgrimage involved going out of my way, dragging my sis-in-law, to a plaza in Galway City when the family took a little road trip there from my husband's hometown of Donegal. There, I bought a pair of turquoise perforated-leather round-toe flats with dainty little bows on the top. Very adorable. Also, a silver cuff.

I also popped into a Topshop, where I picked up a funky 60s-ish printed dress.

A Model Summer

On my flight back from Ireland, I read A Model Summer by former superduper ubermodel Paulina Porizkova. It kept me steadily turning the pages. The gist of it: a Swedish girl goes to Paris for the summer to model and is thrown into a world of sex, drugs and judgement. The fashion aspect doesn't play very much into it, except for notable mentions of Fiorucci.

Do you remember Paulina from the 80s Cars video, where she's scribbling on the wall behind her like a lunatic? I remember her from Cosmo and other such mag covers.

The blog Conversations with Famous Writers posted:

"Of course as I was reading, I wondered how much of this book Paulina experienced herself as a young model in Europe. I recall Paulina never smiling in her pictures because she had bad teeth, just like the character of Jirina. A Model Summer is worth your time to read, scooping you up into the world of modeling and shocking you with the seedy details and gritty experiences of a young fashion model." Couldn't agree more. Read the rest of the post here.

Karl Lagerfeld

Read a story about him in the New Yorker's fashion issue, and he's brilliant.

Check it out, on the New Yorker's website:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/19/070319fa_fact_colapinto

Marc Jacobs

Quick one today:

Marc Jacobs. Have you seen him lately? Totally hot, and I'm not just talking about his handbags (though they are particularly smokin' this season). He looks awesome, really toned and tan and slim! Good for him.

Bag, borrow or steal

Yep, there are websites out there for those of us who want to rent (seriously) a designer bag for a week or a month. Perhaps the best known one is
bagborroworsteal.com.

It's selection is comprehensive, I must say. I've never rented from them, but it so happens the only two designer purses I own (thus far), they have on offer.

The obscure Micheal Kors I scored at Century21? It's there, for the low, low rental price of $13 a week:





Except mine is silver.

My one and only, first and last Louis? Also there:




My friend's superawesome, superpricey, superhot Chloe Bay Bag? Also there:




Hers rents for $80 a week. My Kors rents for $13. Needless to say, she ponied up some big cash for that big, gorgeous baby.

Anthropologie

We need to get Anthropologie here in Canada. This store is so lovely, the dresses are adorable, the clothing on-trend but not striver-ish, chic but unstudied...oh, I just love it. But I have to go Stateside to shop there.

It is expensive considering the quality, that I concede.

As far as I can tell, and I haven't heavily researched this or anything, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters are run by the same company. This is just judging by the store set up and the fact that the price tags look identical (you know, like how Gap and Banana Republic have similar looking price tags). Urban Outfitters, we have.

But I think I'm about 5 or 6 years too old to be shopping there. If Urban Outfitters is your younger sis's rocked out, edgy shop, Anthropologie is for big sis who got her first string of pearls.

Judge for yourself:
www.anthropologie.com

Gofugyourself.com

The two gals who plonk out the copy for gofugyourself.com are pretty funny, non?

The GFY gals, if you haven't checked out their blog, write about celebrities and their bad outfits.

Love them. They are dead-on most of the time, and incredibly witty and plugged into the pop zeitgeist.

Though I think they may need to step up the posting a bit (this coming from me, I haven't posted in almost a year--hey...don't judge me. I started a new job on top of my other job and it's been a hard cold winter where I've stomped around in quite possibly my ugliest outfits yet and I haven't even been wearing heels anymore anyhow I'm starting to digress...) Perezhilton.com, that Perez, say what you want but he keeps updating through the day, every day. I think he even had pneumonia in Australia and he didn't even take a day off. Now that's dedication.

One or two items a day isn't going to cut it anymore. I feel like 3, 4, 5 items a day is where it's at.

Fashion Babylon dishes the dirt

Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones is a pretty darn good read for those interested in the sordid tidbits of the fashion world (me). Loved the gossip on models, children's cotton (not as durable as adults cotton, will crap out at the few-months mark), why it's tough for designers to get into shoes and handbags if they don't have a mucho-richo conglomerate behind them, what fashion weeks are really like behind the scenes, etc and so forth. It's late. I'm rambling. Just read it.

Miss Selfridge in a few days

Topshop and Miss Selfridge will be all mine for the perusing in a few short days when I go to Ireland. Can't hardly wait. What will the overseas chickadees be sporting? I guess I'll find out. They're so way ahead of the curve in England and Ireland--they're really early adopters. Gotta love it.

On my must-get list:
•Cute flats, was considering Tory Burch but I dunno. Not sure I'm feeling it for the summer. Nice with skinny jeans (yes, I've succumbed) but not so sure if they'll fly with a floaty summery dress
•Light, loose summer dresses
•Bangles or cuffs. Why is it that none in the stores fit me? They're so loose they fall off my wrists.

When I get back, I will search in earnest for:
•The DVF Adelaide dress in green and white with a gingko pattern. Canadian dollar is flying high these days, good time to order from the U.S. and cross my fingers that it doesn't get tagged for duty and taxes. Once in a while that happens. This dress is hotness:
http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2920974/0~2376780~6009391~6009098~6009101~6009112?P=1


I'm skeptical about:
•Bluefly.com
I bought a pair of Jimmy Choos and a rockin pair of Gwen Stefani-esque Gucci sunglasses, but most of the time, they've got pure dead stock on offer. It's never the stuff you saw at Holt Renfrew 4 months ago, it's the stuff you NEVER saw cause, well, I don't know why to tell you the truth. I guess it's where they're buying it from.

Back in the saddle, baby

Haven't blogged in a dog's age (10 months or so), but here goes:

Loving my new Elsa Peretti Tiffany Bean, so much so that I posted a pic of it on Facebook and now I look like a right twit because I forgot that everyone who's friends with me gets a feed of pics I've uploaded. Um, can you say pretentious?

I read in the New York Times the other day that clavicles are the new cleavage and/or killer abs.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F16F83C550C738DDDAC0894DF404482

To blame: those swingy, trapeze-y, A-line cuts that obscure your curves, but are cut to show off your collarbones. Unfortunately I have terrible collarbones so this is not a look for me.

The White Dress Part 3--the NYC finale

So the reason I bought the white eyelet dress is that I was eloping. Surprise! Niall and I got hitched July 2nd, 2006, in Central Park, at Bethesda Fountain overlooking the pond. It held up beautifully.

New York was amazing, as it always is, and will continue to be. It was steaming hot, and I always feel that on those 32C+ days you're not really getting a feel for what people are wearing, cause they seem not be wearing much of anything. Did spot some weird frog-skin multicoloured 80s belts.

Century 21 department store was wicked, as it usually is. Scooped up a Michael Kors goldy silver handbag,regular retail price must be close to $400, for a mere $80. Actually Niall bought it as a wedding gift. Thank goodness for him cause I'd never have a nice handbag if I had to buy them myself.

Also purchased: a long charcoal grey dress from American Apparel, an evil place but they were open til 2 in the morning, and a zip-up from Ben Sherman.