Hiatus

I'm still alive.

However, I plan on taking a break from posting until next week so that I can recover from near death-by-tornados and prepare from my birthday on Monday. In the meantime, go check out Oscar de la Renta's fall collection and try not to drool over how beautiful it is. 

Thought for the day

This dress makes me want to buy all of the sunscreen in CVS and go frolick on the beach. Who's with me?

Fall/Winter things I want: the black button-front dress from Alexander Wang, the Grecian draped dresses for Juan Carlos Obando, Sari Gueron's girly dresses, the chunky knit sweaters and grey striped coat from ADAM. Diane von Furstenburg's classic print dresses, belted layers, and blue silk plaid skirt, DKNY's fantasic coats, wide-leg trousers, red brocade dress, and ability to mix fabric prints and textures. Lela Rose's rich fabrics and jewel-toned ladylike looks, Tracy Reese's silk prints and grey oversized sweater with pockets.

Art to Art

When I was in kindergarten, we had a class play where I played an artist. I don't remember much else about the play, but I distinctly remember my costume: an oversized men's button down shirt that was splattered with paint.  I thought that it was quite possibly the coolest shirt ever. I remember even after the play, I wanted to wear that shirt everywhere. My mother was opposed to this idea, for obvious reasons, but I still remember that shirt today.

That shirt seems to be still influencing my fashion tastes today: I love the classic tailoring of a white button-down and menswear-influenced style. I hadn't given much thought to the paint splatters until recently though. Lots of designers sent paint-inspired looks down the runway for their spring and resort lines. Dolce and Gabbana showed a number of dresses with bunches of tulle and what appeared to be layers upon layers of paint around the waist and bodice. While this may sound more like the insanity you'd be used to seeing at a Heatherette show, the results were surprisingly feminine and wearable, if a bit daring.

These dresses remind me of what would happen if  Betsey Johnson got to play in Marie Antoinette's wardrobe and then decided to repaint Versaille.

Yves Saint Laurent decided to continue with this theme of artsy fashion for his resort collection.

This collection seemed to be more influenced by Jackson Pollock. Stefano Pilati took his collection one step further by integrating the brush strokes into his accessories:

My personal favorite art-inspired collection was by Rachel Roy. Rachel hasn't been designing for very long, but so far her collections have been spot-on (I even raved about her fall 08 collection earlier this week).  Her spring collection seemed to have been influenced by the artist's smock and watercolors, and was so light and beautiful, but also incredibly versatile. 

While this might not work for the office in a conservative law office, this could work as a shift dress (with more sensible shoes) in an artistic field, and would work for anyone as a night-out dress.

This dress is perfect on so many levels, but let me just say this: pockets make my world go round. 

Oh, and while I still may love that paint-covered shirt from my childhood, I wouldn't recommend making this a DIY fashion project. Leave this one to the pros.

Fall/Winter things I want: BCBG's structured jersey dresses and fantastic belts, Erin Featherston's ability to mix florals with heavy winter fabrics, the burgundy silk formal dress from Nicole Miller, the menswear-inspired double-breasted cardigan from Rag & Bone, and the green party dress from Sue Stemp.

My Fair Lady

Sorry for the sporadic posting lately. We're having really nasty weather down here, and I've been without internet because of it.

I'll also be adding a new feature starting today. In honor of fashion week, I'm going to add a list of things that I'm coveting from the new collections at the bottom of the page. I'm not going to link specific pictures, but head over to Style.com to check out the new collections.

Enough with that. On to today's blog:

I mentioned this in the previous post, but I'm incredibly fair skinned. And not what makeup companies call fair either. This, my friends, is what Cover Girl calls fair:

Not even close. I wish that I could be that tan. Instead, I'm closer to this:

very obviously not me

This means that certain clothes make me look like the living dead. These include all clothes that are stark white. Which makes me very sad, because I'm obsessed with this dress:

Absolutely gorgeous, understated dress by Pringle of Scotland, who sent an incredible collection down the runway for spring. Check out this detailing at the shoulder:

Such a tiny little bit of tailoring, but the asymmetry along with the fold are enough to make a difference. Plus, they expose the nape of the neck and shoulder, which I think is a subtly sexy body part on every woman. No woman has ever said, "I have fat shoulders." Or at least no sane woman.

Neiman's is trying to tell me that this dress is "oyster grey", but it's close enough to white that I know that it wouldn't work. Which is a damn shame. If you're not like me, then skip yourself over there to pick up this dress. Just be sure to send me a picture of yourself having a grand old time in it so that I can live vicariously through you.

Fall/Winter things I want: Rachel Roy's Native-American inspired collection (especially the pumpkin silk sheath), big cuddly sweaters coats from Elie Tahari, grey tone-on-tone plaid pants and shrunken vests from Boy.