Would You ?

Sorry if anybody's retina burned.

I should have warned you to wear shades for this post.

The lovely Tweed and Toile received a few barbs

when she wore orange and red together to work.

So what about orange and hot pink?

Would you wear this combination?

Or should the question be would you wear a large question mark?

Completely sequined no less.

As for the the café capri in ultra eyelet, I love, love, love them.

Eyelet is pretty and feminine without being lacey dressy.

And the perfect fabric for keeping fresh and cool.

It's in one of my most favorite colors.

The cut is comfortably slender.

The length is good with heels or flats.

A graphic tee or floral cami or chambray shirt or linen sweater

and maybe with a cardi or blazer or denim jacket

could make it appropriate for most any occasion.

The only thing slightly annoying and worrisome ...

my pinky has an inadvertent tendency to poke through

the openings of the cutout pattern.

I hope I'm not going fast should something latch on as I'm going by.

Foulard Foolery

Though these are not nearly the craziest pants I own, I was recently accused of wearing wild pants when I wore the café capri in foulard. Maybe it's because I outed them with the Blythe blouse in silk pebble dot and the tricolor Penelope mary janes.

Husby hated the outfit (well ... maybe hate is too strong a sentiment, but he didn't like it). I pouted but insisted on wearing as is while muttering "you just don't get it" and went off to work where a male colleague asked "who dressed you today?"

Ah well.

The capri pants are a favorite and came to me via charge-send sale priced plus 30% off from a B&M in Connecticut thanks to a tip from MB on the JCA post. I can understand why they received a lot of blog love.

The fabric is 98% cotton with 2% spandex in a weight heavy enough to stay crisp looking. The material has a sensual sateen finish that's a nice surprise to the touch. The pants seem to give a longer, slimmer silhouette than the other capris I have from JC.

 

I wore them again today. This time, with the Banana Republic soft-wash denim shirt (to continue making my way through the denim/chambray shirt reviews). I'm wearing the XXS petite and as you can see, it's good for those looking for a more fitted look. The denim is a dark wash (darker than it appears in this photo shot on a bright, sunny day) with only the slightest fading along the edges and no distressing (yay!). It is100% cotton. Soft. I like it.

So what do you think about my foray into pattern mixing? The foulard with the pebble dot felt very ethnic print to me.

It was indeed a venture outside of my usual area. And I'm not sure I'll enter that territory again anytime soon.

It's OK if you hate it too don't like it. ;)

Mixing Apples and Orange



I've been wearing Crewcuts tees, sweaters and ballet flats for years (there are some advantages to being small). They often fit better (the ballet flats are perfect for my small but very wide feet) and the bonus is the much lower cost.


Crewcuts pants, however, scared me. I imagined them not making it past my knees and who wants to have that experience?! But when I saw Extra Petite having so much success with not even the largest size (she wore the size 12), I decided to give the girls' café capri in apple bobbing a go, albeit I'm wearing size 14 here.

The print is happy and fun and comes across as polka dots. The background is a super pale tan. The fabric is a very sturdy 100% cotton, good for no show-through but does not give one iota. As expected, the waist and hips are cut straighter than for women but tightening the internal adjustable elastic band (a feature for growing kids) made the gap around the waist disappear. And as my dad would say, whala!

Trying to prove that a chambray or denim shirt is the universal equalizer for any skirt or pants, I'm wearing the western denim shirt. It too is 100% cotton. The size 00 is not as fitted as I'd like but it's shorter than most shirts of this type and I like the western shirt style details.

Those are the Mona patent pumps in poppy. The poppy color is as Slastena said, "do not expect any red -- these babies are orange" in her wonderful review. I don't have much to add except I found them to run a little small and to differ from the JC online description of "incredibly comfortable." As WFF might say to the copywriter, incredibly means so implausible as to elicit disbelief. I've broken them in, so they are tolerable. Incredibly comfortable is stretching it ... a lot (ha, pun intended).

Since my blog photographer is more agreeable to taking a few more shots during the weekend, here's bonus coverage:

Say hey, with a white shirt -- the other universal equalizer.

And with a Crewcuts tee, complete with silly sequined symbol.

More to come with this tee.

I know ... you can hardly wait. ;)

On the Ropes

I couldn't wait anymore. So even with the windy condition, cool temperature and a threat of rain, I wore the painted rope skirt. As shopwithm pointed out in her review, the skirt is really well done and could have easily been deemed Collection.

The lovely fabric with good weight and a lot of body is 53% wool and 47% silk (I have a weakness for natural fiber blends). But more than the fabric and nice construction (it's fully lined, the stripes match up nicely), I think it reads Collection because of the quirky stripes (or rope pattern) that look hand drawn. The waistband is backed with a grosgrain ribbon to hold its shape and though I'm not likely to use them, it has pockets (no, there's nothing wrong with the pockets, but why is it I want pockets when I don't often use them? That's a philosophical question ...).  

It's pleated front and back and as suspected, will wrinkle a bit from sitting. Though the pleats kept their shape after a day's wearing, the skirt will need a steam or light ironing before the next time. The center back length of the size 00 is 21.75" and on my 5'2" height, the length is right at my knees.


If you read my Texas Tuxedo post, you'd recognize the Jean Shop dark denim shirt (with the brand's distinctive orange selvedge). I wanted to try it untucked, thinking the structure of the shirt would hold down any excessive fullness of the skirt. I thought it worked reasonably well, the wind had picked up some when the photo was taken.

You'd think in May (even if only a couple days in), I wouldn't be needing tights or thermal underwear, especially in SoCal. But I did. And I wore them.

There you have it, my fashion tip: thermal underwear.


Like Gin and Tonic or P and J

Three months from today would be the first day of London 2012 Olympics competition. In the spirit of awe-inspiring, breakthrough performances, here's mesmerizing ice dancing from the incomparableTorvill and Dean that garnered 12 perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s, including never-before perfect scores from every judge for artistic impression. With that, the pair became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single program).

Jayne Torvill (a former insurance clerk) and Christopher Dean (a former policeman) met when they were teenagers at a Nottingham ice rink. The rest (as they say) is literally history as they became legends.

Unlike others who tried to dance on ice (the routine would probably be better on the dance floor) or skate to imitate dance (technically superior skaters not as passionate about the music), theirs was unique art expressing music through the beautiful blending of figure skating with dance. Every move was meaningful, not as opportunity for another trick, but to creatively interpret and punctuate the music.

Torvill and Dean had a music arranger condense Ravel's original Boléro from 17+ minutes to four minutes and 28 seconds (as close as possible to the Olympic rule of four minutes, plus or minus 10 seconds, for free dance). They then choreographed not putting blade on ice for the first 18 seconds to comply with (or get around the rule of) the timing of the skating routine. 

I cannot take my eyes off their performance and never tire of seeing it again.

Here's to the spirit of the Olympics!

Texas Tuxedo

Aka Canadian tuxedo, the head-to-toe, denim-on-denim ensemble has been both a fashion faux pas and a fashion trend.

Traditionally, a Texas tuxedo comprised a pair of clean, pressed, new looking denim jeans, a Western shirt with pearl snaps, a bolo tie, a large belt buckle, shiny cowboy boots and a Stetson hat. Though I own all those things (yes I really do), I'm not going anyplace formal in an area heavily populated by ranches and cowboys. I'm merely trying on the shirt (to start my denim/chambray shirt reviews) and jeans (recently received) and finished off with shoes remembered by Alexis' top 10 shoe post.

The shirt is the very same that DaniBP has reviewed so beautifully. It's of Japanese 100% cotton denim with the Jean Shop signature orange selvedge (I have a weakness for selvedge). The denim is raw and untreated and the shirt arrives stiff and crinkly. As Dani, I'm also wearing an XS. The shoulders are slightly wide on me. The sleeves are long, reaching the first knuckles of my hands and why I have them folded up. It could be sold out from J.Crew but you can get it from the original source.

Here's what's unexpected: I'll be reviewing about a dozen different chambray and denim shirts ranging in size from XS to XXS to 0 to 00 petite. You'd think this an XS would be on the larger side but I think this one actually fits best. Maybe it's because of the arm holes that are cut high and close. Maybe it's because of the texture of the denim that feels like unbroken new jeans, not soft at all but crisp like sun-dried sheets that I find earthy. There's enough structure to the shirt to keep it from feeling oversized and slightly sloppy as most denim or chambray shirts. As much as it can be, I think it the most formal or dressed-up among them. I love the shirt.

The jeans, also from Jean Shop, we'll talk about on another post. You can see they are sausage casings for my legs. They're supposed to loosen up after wearing but I haven't broken them in yet.

Word has it some of Hollywood's trendiest have stepped out in the once taboo Texas tuxedo (it was reported by MTV Style a year ago, but hey, you know how I stay on top of these things!).

Prince Harry was spotted in the coordinated outfit one morning.

Even Jenna has done it.

What do you think ... is this a fashion do or don't or is it so over?

Whoa ... What ?!

This has got to be a record. Didn't this top just get launched two days ago? So how ... why ... is it on reduced pricing already?!

In case somebody was fiddling with the website and it was a mistake and somebody realizes at some point and it is changed by the time you are reading this post, this is what it says (just now):

Silk bow cami in garden floral

was $110.00 select colors $98.00 item 83779

Our silk cami in a vibrant abstract floral that our design team spotted on a roll of vintage wallpaper (blooming with... More