Fading Out

This Marc by Marc Jacobs dress has everything I need in a summer dress.


Cinching at the narrowest part of me.

Pockets.

A carefree feel.

And sundried colors.


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The Leftovers: Milan Fashion Week FW10

I found myself more in love with Milan this season than I was last season. Love might be stretching it a bit. Let's say that I was less dissatisfied. This shift might have had something to with the inclusion of color, something that had been missing from the other cities. I shy away from wearing bright colors, even though I'm constantly told how good they would look on me and how lucky I am that I can wear them. But even with my proclivity for navy and gray, there was something a bit too melancholy about the runway without the brights. So when they showed up in Milan, I rejoiced.

At Bottega Veneta

At Moschino Cheap & Chic

And, of course, Milan did what it does best. The Sexy.

At Gucci

At Dsquared²

At Emilio Pucci

Outside of the occasional brights and the sex, Milan followed the themes that had been established in New York and London.

There were fur accents...

At Alberta Ferretti

And the military inspiration...

At Moschino Cheap & Chic

At Etro

At MaxMara

At Trussardi 1911

At Fendi

And the minimalism.

At Iceberg

The 1970s trend that peeked out in New York and gathered strength in London reached its peak in Milan.

At No. 21

At Aquilano.Rimondi

But nowhere was it more prevalent than at Salvatore Ferragamo.

But even then you'll need your camel coat.

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Favorite of the Day: Miu Miu

Miuccia Prada commanded my attention for the second time this season with the collection at Miu Miu.

And she even has me lusting after an orange dress. To get me to do such a thing takes a level of talent that I can't fathom.

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The Leftovers: London Fashion Week FW10

There were many reasons that the jump from New York to London excited me. Less fur. Almost no velvet. The fact that Burberry stayed in town for another season.

The mood in London was minimal. And for that reason, it seemed to be lacking some of the energy that I normally associate with it. Even in the fall and winter, I have come to expect something a bit wild, crazy, experimental. There were still some of these elements, but there was definitely also a certain coldness to the clothes. I haven't fully decided yet if that shift was a good or bad thing. But with my love for the simple, I'll probably end up falling into the good camp.

The prints were still there, though this season saw them in the muted colors that have been dominating the runways for the past few weeks.

At Emilio De La Moreno

At Mary Katrantzou

At Matthew Williamson

At Peter Pilotto

As they were in New York, the 90s were on also display in London, but instead of school girls and the first new inklings of grunge, the minimalism of that decade was the focus.

At Maria Grachvogel

London, the first to reintroduce the 1980s to us, has tired of the decade. And, as was seen in small ways on the New York runways, has decided to take us back just a bit further.

At Aquascutum

At Amanda Wakeley

At Margaret Howell

Burberry Prorsum stayed true to the military inspiration that they began playing with in their pre-fall collection and created a cadre of coats and boots that I would like to add to my collection immediately.

But if there is only one thing to take away from London (and from Paris as well, as you'll soon see), you're going to need a camel coat next fall.

At Aquascutum

At Jaeger London

At Nicole Farhi

At Clements Ribeiro

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Favorite of the Day: Giambattista Valli

After I posted this, one of my friends was surprised. Are you endorsing [glitter pants]? My response was simple.

Yes. Yes I am.

And now, with the Giambattista Valli collection shown yesterday, I appear to be endorsing sheer bottoms as well.

Paris makes me do funny things.


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The Laptop Bag

In college, I never owned a bag for my laptop. It was carelessly thrown into my backpack with Locke and Rich and Organic Chemistry textbooks. Power cords tangled with headphone cords. Scratches and pen marks littered the casing. It wasn’t until I started to commute from Brooklyn to Greenwich, CT in the winter of 2006 that I bought a real one. Gotten at a proper office store, it was pink and resembled a large, structured purse. It knocked into people on the 4 train. It sat on the floor of the Metro North. Its straps dug into my shoulder. I loved it. It made me feel like the grownup I barely was.

But it always seemed a bit fake to me. I was playing at a game. And when that job ended, the bag settled into the corner of my apartment stowing bills and miscellaneous papers. It has continued to do so for over two and a half years. It wasn’t until the early months of 2008 that I found its more appropriate replacement.


Yes, it is sitting atop The Coat. It's having an early showing due to the unseasonably warm weather. My green, swing coat peeked out briefly on Sunday.

Like almost all of the favorites, I happened upon this bag by chance. Temping in Manhattan, I had been sent on an errand to pick up a package at the post office. Through no fault of my own, I had to return to our office sans package and then once again head out to the post office. I was annoyed by the second trip, and on my way back with package finally in tow, I naughtily stopped into Brooklyn Industries.

The Laptop Bag was on final sale, and so I spent a good ten minutes considering it. Did I need it? I had a perfectly good laptop bag collecting dust next to my slowly growing mountain of fashion magazines. But the strap on this one looked more comfortable. The pockets were more accessible. Its slimness would make knocking people out on the subway virtually impossible, but it could probably still pack a punch if the need ever arose to use it in such a way. And the pattern made it youthful. I wouldn’t appear to be quite so serious. I tended to have a problem with that.

I still do.

I bought it and snuck back into the office where I hid the shopping bag in the bottom of a desk drawer. I carried the new bag out as if I had had it with me the entire time. No one noticed a thing.

Favorite of the Day: Martin Grant

I may have a penchant for Martin Grant's Fall/Winter 2010 collection because the dress I finally wore on New Year's Eve, though strapless, resembled the following one in shape, length and color.

Or it could be the limited palette, clean lines, and utter chicness of it all.

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