Cuts on the Bias

Please don't wear capris

I'm not gonna say told ya so but this is what happens when you only supply your vacation house with scuba gear. Before you grab those capris I know you have hiding somewhere please consider a trip to your local mall. This situation calls for a long dress like the young lady is wearing in the sartorialist pic from this summer. Then go buy the long thick scarf the other lady is wearing-it doubles as a shawl, you could also get a cardigan but that's not as chic. Skip the hats. If you stumble upon a short trench or lightwieght coat grab that as well, you'll need it again, always good to have extra layers on hand. Keep the sandals on or grab some flats but those don't really warm up your feet much. God speed, and I told ya so.

Fashion Challenge

I can dress myself under most normal conditions. I know what to wear to a business meeting, a cocktail party or a backyard BBQ. Most of my clothing falls in the "mix and match" category which means I can improvise around the general themes of professional, formal and casual wear. What I'm less capable of handling is odd, undefined situations like cold weather at the beach.

Do I don a sweater with my shorts? Socks with my flip flops? A swimsuit cover up and a rain hat seems not quite right, however it is exactly what I needed this morning. I know Kelley is cringing right now at the thought of me trying to navigate this tricky fashion space because my love of functionality does often trump my love of fashion. She'll no doubt point me to something fabulous that will solve my dilemma. Or, she'll tell me to stay inside. 

Switching to Lunestra

I have a hard time sleeping at night, I partially blame my pillow top bed that now acts more like a hammock.  I also just have restlessness that I don't want to take a pill for, so I stay up till about 2 cruising the awesome late night programming. The best remedy is finding a nice quite program that lasts for an hour so, I close my eyes and pretend its a book on tape. Planet Earth works well but I've seen all about 5 times, C.S.I has those annoying techno lab music video bits that wake me right up so they're now at the bottom of the list. I decided to try WE network, it is the WOMENS entertainment channel so there MUST be something I might like...so wrong so very very wrong.

Between 12 and 3am last night WE showed a 20/20 segment where a mother her daughter and best friend were kidnapped in Yosemite, raped and murdered. Then the enlightening "Little Miss Perfect " pageant for little girls run by a flaming gay, which really borders on abuse in my opinion. I don't even want to link to it. They rounded things out with Bridezillas, a real life look at unstable women about to marry douche bags and all the neato freak outs they require before the inevitable day. I'd like to give a big middle finger to WE-I had dreams of decapitated slutty ballerinas, your content is not only offensive but more depressing than anything I'm seeing on the news.

Tech toys

I'm headed for Honolulu this weekend and am trying out my two newest tech toys. The first is the Kindle 2 from Amazon. I didn't buy the first version because I'd tried too many earlier ebooks and thought they all sucked. But everyone I know who has a Kindle raves about it, so I have to give it a go.

It looks like a giant iPhone, only much slimmer and lighter. The hardware buttons and keyboard have some irritating flaws (whoever came up with the idea for a white keyboard with pale gray letters has not flown on many planes--at least not in coach), but the screen is very readable and that's the key performance variable for reading digital books.

My second toy is a $429 PC from Acer. That's no typo--the fully powered laptop, an Aspire 5155, has all the gigahertz and gigabytes you need, a 15" screen, built-in wifi and webcam and runs Microsoft Vista. I'm still stunned that it cost less than my iPhone (and probably answers calls better as well).

With these two in tow, I will be in instruction manual mode for 5 hours while flying over the Pacific, but nothing calms me quicker than the silent hum of new microprocessors.

Armed and ready

Yes, of course I noticed Michelle Obama's arms. Made me pull out my summer stock of tanning cream to try and recreate her shapely limbs with some shading and highlighting (didn't work). And made me get off my butt and head to exercise class today (better odds, but requires repeat applications).

She's a remarkably unique first lady. Not because she's the first to wear a sleeveless dress in February in DC, but because she doesn't hide her strength and confidence behind a dull boxy suit or a manufactured smile. I believe Hilary could have done this, but the country was not ready. Now that we're all starved for signs of true competence, I think Michele's stance is welcomed and I'm betting she will have far-reaching influence.

One place we could see her influence is on the runway and in the catalogs. How can retailers like J Crew continue to pose their models like shameful waifs when their most important customer and leading role model is a buff Amazonian?

Tracy Reese + Mrs. Obama

Michelle Obama will be on the cover of People this week and for the cover she wore Tracy Reese, a NY designer, best known for her little party frocks. Michelle's arms look so cut-Chris they rival Jill Bidens! Here's a look I was privy to from her Fall line, this season wasn't my favorite however.

Also did you catch the "unstate of the union" last night? How charming was Barack?
The shout out to Michelle right off the bat...

Detail shots

Sorry to talk about style.com again but it was the bible when I was an editor and no one has improved upon it so it's still my go-to for show coverage. When referencing a designer on the site some of them have an option to see "detail shots" from the show. I get really giddy when I see that tab because that means there are close up pictures of bags, shoes gloves, sunglasses earrings you name it. The way they crop into these images leaves such a wealth of information. There's no distracting model, just the subtle styling tips that get absolutely lost in a show from where the photographers sit. When I worked at JANE I wanted to do a page of just detail shots so people could see the textures and layering and simply get inspired instead of looking at the model and wishing they were 20 lbs lighter and had longer legs and thicker hair...you see where I'm going with this. These are a few of my favorites from Phillip Lim, from this you can see that sequins, grey, cropped trousers and grandma florals-mixed with metals were on his mind. Just wait till the Chanel detail shots in 2 weeks at the Paris shows!

Drop7, the drug

I've posted before about my weakness for online games. Strategy games, in particular, can get in my blood stream quickly and stay there until forcibly removed. Thanks to Kelley, I am once again battling game addiction--this time to the new iPhone app Drop7 by game makers Area/Code (for those of you without iPhones, Chain Factor is a similar game that you can play online).

Drop7 is like Tetris only much better. It drops numbers from 1 to 7 that "pop" when their value matches their placement in a line either vertically or horizontally (I realize that sounds confusing, but it's highly intuitive when you're playing).

How addictive is it? I ignored my car mates for over an hour while I battled to break 200,000. Davis left me sitting alone for 20 minutes in a restaurant this weekend while he tried for a high score in the john. Kelley keeps the iPhone charger by her bed so she can play through the night. Even now as I'm writing, the app is calling me. I hear its plea....one more time. You can do it. Come on, it will only take a few minutes.

My only consolation on this incredible new time suck... I apparently have a natural talent for it. My high score is 387,569. Hopefully, the game designers did not start their careers as true drug dealers or I'm screwed.

Civility

Like Kelley , I too enjoyed the refined style on display at the Oscars last night. I also sensed a subtle, but powerful change in the demeanor. Amongst the gowns, tuxes, spotlights and reporters, I saw hints of a new civility. Even Sean Penn was contrite. Maybe it's the economy, maybe it's Obama's influence, maybe we're all more grown-up than we were last year; whatever the cause, there's a definite shift away from irreverence and acting-out and toward respect and graciousness.

I'm not suggesting everyone has transformed, just that the influential pull is trending in this direction. I've seen it at conferences where you now find fewer people who talk to you while scanning the room to see if a more important person is in proximity. I've experienced it at parties where honesty seems suddenly in vogue. I've found it in the post office, the grocery store and in airplanes where offers of help or simple friendliness are easier to come by.

Perhaps this is cyclical. The antics and arrogance that characterized the bad boys of finance and rubbed off on too many others surely haven't been banished for all time. But I'm welcoming this break from it and I'm hoping it stays around for awhile. 

Bravo!

I don't know what happened, but simultaneously all of Hollywood got a stylist. There were a few exceptions-ahem Phillip Seymore Hoffman, a beenie really? Otherwise I was delighted all night to see women with figure flattering, dramatic, bold choices. My favorite? SO tough this year but I think it's Taraji Henson, those long uneven fluffy layers on the dress, the necklace and the haircut were all so fresh and girly, she Killed it. Loved SJP's dress but her boobs were all over the place. My one criticism would be that the fairest girls wore white, Anne Hataway, Nicole Kidman and Evan Rachel Wood-why? They were practically transparent. The lady with the bravest choice, young Freida Pinto, that dress was borderline cruise singer but she made that color pop-good for her.

iRepurpose

I'm trying not to notice the continued downward tilt in the economy. I seek out bullish-sounding articles in the news and pretend I don't know what year it is when I look at the Dow. If worrying about it made a difference, then I'd worry with a vengeance, but it doesn't so try to stay optimistic by finding good news in the bad.

For example, only in a recession would you find an entire post devoted to ways to repurpose an old iPod. It's from Kevin Purdy at LifeHacker and it's not bad. Most of his ideas are going to appeal to guys with a slight nerdly streak, like "Make a stand-alone, bootable XP computer from it" (yep, right after my homemade robot wins RoboFest), but a couple of the suggestions are practical enough to be gender-neutral. My favorite: load it with drink recipes by downloading iPod Bartender. After all, you never know when you'll need to make an emergency margarita.

Twittered Out

Enough leather shorts. They are the fashion equivalent of Twitter. Functional for some (mountain climbers? yodelers?), but odd and annoying for everyone else.

You're probably surprised that I'm not in love with Twitter; after all, it is a fun, free Web2.0 innovation that anyone can use at anytime. With nothing more than a cell phone, I can text hundreds of "followers" and let them know I'm sitting on the couch. Or walking to my car. Or stuck in traffic. Or watching a video. In other words, I can share the minutia of my life while calling myself a member of the "twitteratti." Likewise, by signing up to "follow" my friends, I can get realtime updates that they are sitting on the couch. Or walking to their car. Or stuck in traffic. Or...hopefully I've made my point.

Does Twitter make sense for anyone? Yes, like leather shorts it has a functional value. A smart marketer can use Twitter to build a following that helps spread word of mouth. A popular CEO can use it to keep clients informed of when she's in town or where she's speaking. A mom with 14 kids can use it to call them to dinner. But for most, using Twitter in everyday life requires a outsized ego and an accompanying belief that even minor details of your life are fascinating to others. If you're Gwyneth Paltrow this may be true, but don't count on it if you're not.

Gwyneths Mom Shorts

In response to a comment that Gwyneths outfit was cute-here's another look. And while I do think she still looks great, because she's GWYNETH, the high waist pleating combined with the tights is just killing me.

New Yorks answer to a recession? LEATHER SHORTS!

What the hell is going on? I'm not losing faith in my beloved city but when did the NY designers have a pow wow and decide that high waist leather shorts were gonna be the "it" item for Fall?

When trends like this roll around I tend to think, Ok who can wear this? Gwyneth Paltrow? She's got legs for days and rarely makes fashion mistakes, what would she look like in them?

Meh. Not that great. If Gwyn can't rock em no one can.

Strut your stuff

The tech world doesn't have Fashion Week. Instead it spreads its shows out over the year in a series of different conferences, each trying to dominate the others or to find a special niche it can call its own. There's the massive Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the self-loving MacWorld in San Francisco. There's the D conference, Future in Review (FIRE), the Game Developers conference, E3 and CHI (i'm leaving dozens out). I've been to most of them at one time or another and, thanks to Kelley, I've also been to Fashion Week. They are oddly similar.

In both industries, the main idea is to strut your new stuff in front of potential buyers or promoters. Newcomers are either dismissed out of hand or lauded as the next Coming of the Savior. Models are revered, although they rarely if ever speak (and the ones at tech conferences border on skanky thanks to geeks fondness for massive tits). Sages roam the aisles with their entourages, nodding favorably toward the chosen few.

It's difficult to enjoy yourself at these events and like Kelley, I often prefer the online version. It's easier to scan the entries and find the ones that matter. Plus you don't have to stand in a long line to pee and the food is better. Ironically, few tech conferences have good online representation. One that does is TechCrunch 50, a small newcomer whose goal is to showcase promising startups. Their site provides full coverage of the conference, including videos and a profile of each presenter. Ever want to see what it's like to be a venture capitalist? Grab a handful of Monopoly money and watch all 50 demos--then place your bets. Oh, also be a guy and wear a black long-sleeve crewneck T.

Drop your pants

I've been waiting to see if the cropped trouser trend would stick around a while, it caters to the petite but can also work on leggier types. I'm always in favor of showing off your ankles, they're the smallest part of your leg and in cropped pants it gives an illusion that your entire leg might just be that skinny.

I saw cropped trousers, harem pants and even genie pants last Spring show so to see just the trousers return so far is a good sign. This is exit #3 from Karen Walker, an Australian designer best known for her quirky illustrated tees and unexpected mixes of prints-she falls into the same category as Luella Bartley or Rachel Comey. 

Here are the trousers I'd like to focus on, I've said many times that there is no need for pleats on pants but here they are. Foot in mouth. The pleats aren't very wide though so her hip/crotch area doesn't look huge.  The pockets fall low and to the side, a bonus, so you don't look like you're pleasuring yourself as you walk down the street.

The iron crease down the front, and the narrowness of the pant leg keep these khakis from being too casual, if they were in brown, black, grey or navy they would still look new and crisp. Very versatile for work and play. If I could find a pair that fit I would buy 5 and die happy.

I don't want to tell everyone to run out and buy a motorcycle jacket but I do love how this one is soft and broken in, ruffled sleeves saves it from looking a bit lesbiany, if you're a tough girl stuck in the burbs this would work great for you.

God bless those red heels! They save the outfit from being drab and lifeless. Invest in some bright heels if that's all you can afford, they can transform anything from jeans to a shirt dress.

Tis the Season!

It's NY Fashion week and for the first time in 6 years I'm skipping the Fall 09 shows. I'm not gonna miss getting up at 6am to stress about what to wear, find on average 20 cabs a day and get hustled into the tents like cattle to sit behind B list celebs. I will miss the clothes but thank god for Style.com, they load all the pics of the shows, detail shots, front row celebs and all the after parties so I can sit home in my PJ's and still be part of it all.

Now that I'm my own boss I'm going to do what I always wanted to at a magazine but was not given the opportunity-tell you my favorite look of the day and why. Then at the end of the week I'll do a trend round up for NY and see how it competes with Milan and Paris. What fun! I love being unemployed!

Look of Day is exit #10 Jason Wu. I've been a fan of Jason's before this whole Obama hoopla, he makes pretty clothes that women feel special in. It's that simple.

I'm already seeing a lot of purple and varying shades on the runway, I'm partial to this shade of eggplant vs. a cooler shade of blue-ish purple. 

So here are the strengths of this look. Start with the rich saturated thin knit, paired with a printed full skirt in a black and white floral that appears more graphic than soft. This combination can usually be very dull but for some reason this looks fresh.

I'll skip the tiara but pay attention to those patent nude heels, they elongate the legs but still look intentional and like they are part of the outfit-not a side note. And finally find a necklace that takes up some real estate on your chest. If you're just wearing a knit you need to add some interest so the eye doesn't go directly to the skirt.

Overall this isn't a mind blowing look but it's modern, pretty and attainable-something we call all appreciate and potentialy buy if the price were right.

Kiss Kiss

Have to post this before Valentine's Day (which is tomorrow for those of you vacationing in a foreign country or opposed to having a TV in your house).

No need to send cheesy e-greetings to your to beloved whatever. If you have an iPhone, you can send a Kiss, thanks to KissKiss, a new iPhone app from Ashwani. Download from iTunes for 99¢, it comes with 23 kissing sounds and you can make your own. Way cooler than playing a flute solo on your phone.

Tech Time

Couldn't agree more with Kelley's post on fashion mags missing the boat (and the entire ocean) when it comes to selling online. I used to lead strategy planning sessions and one of the first questions we'd address is "why does this exist?" As far as I know, fashion magazines exist to help sell fashions. Must have missed the memo re: "internet here to stay."

Seems like it's time for a new tech post, doesn't it. Something to distract us from the constant flow of bad news and give us hope that anything is possible if we have enough bandwidth and battery life. Well, check out Toxel.com, a bizarrely entertaining site that describes itself as "a daily design, inspiration and technology blog dedicated to showcasing the best creative products and designs from all over the world." I'm not sure I agree on the "best" part, but their year-end post on the 75 Best Design Resources is pretty comprehensive. When you're done with that, perhaps you want to learn about Clever Elevator Advertising or, for those of you who are domestic divas, 27 Beautiful and Creative Cake designs. I chose to showcase the Mario cake because I know Kelley's too close to her Wii right now.

I give up

I was going to write a post about how I saw a peek of Jessica Simpson's new clothing line in the March Issue of InStyle Magazine and surprisingly didn't hate it. The dresses were cute, stylish and very reasonably priced (around $120)-I was shocked.

When I searched for links or pictures of the clothing online they were nowhere to be found, not on her site or the InStyle site. The magazine says shop the dresses at InStyle.com but I did every sort of celebrity/designer/shop now/in this issue search and came up with NOTHING.

So what's the point? Why talk about something that really doesn't exist. It's so maddening that celebrities get a page of self promotion for somehting they are not prepared to sell while other smaller designers are dying to get a mention.

InStyle did a re-design a couple of months ago and I think it did them a world of good. Their ad numbers are up and they seem instantly cooler than they were before, but when you can't even shop from a fashion magazine it makes you wonder why you're buying it at all...and this my friends is reason #303 that fashion magazines are in the shitter.

Sorry...

I haven't been able to write much because today is the last day I have to pack up my office and get everything organized. Packing sucks, you can relate. I will post tomorrow-promise.

Fashionably informed

I really understand the value of design when it's used to make convoluted and unintelligible information clearly relevant. The most recent example is the $800+ billion stimulus plan. All most people can say about it is that it's gigantic and that they are either in favor of it (because they like Obama) or they are not in favor of it (because they preferred McCain or they just don't trust government to do anything). I shared that emotionally-driven pro-Obama response until I saw this beautifully drawn chart created by Laura Stanton on behalf of the Washington Post.

We're only showing part of it here, so visit the Post to see its full glory.  Granted it's not a lovely gown or smartly tailored coat, but it is the latest in fashionable data, and it will make you feel alot more informed about where your money (and your kids money) is going. For those of you who asked, this information makes me more in favor of the stimulus package than not--now I just know what the hell I'm supporting.

Eye Candy

The lovely ladies over at Fashionista (unfortunate name but great insider site) brought to my attention that Street Peeper, another Sartorialist-ish site is advancing its options. Now they have guest designers give their favorite street looks and why. I suggest going and checking it out, not only can you search by designer and city all the shots have shopping information. If they could clean up the site a little it would soar to the top of my daily fashion hits.

TED Parties

Kelley's Grammy's post made me laugh out loud and reminded me to lighten up. Least you get the impression that the TED conference is a serious place, I need to balance my earlier reports with an analysis of the social life at this conference. It has always been good, but this year it was great. Maybe it was because the conference attendees skewed younger than previous years, maybe it was the LA vibe or possibly the larger size of the conference--whatever its cause, the result was energizing.

There are three primary ways to party at TED (not counting the scheduled affairs the conference throws each night). Quiet, talk-laden, "invitation only" get-togethers are arranged in advance, mainly by old line Tedsters. If you're selected to attend, be prepared to pay deference to "those who came before you." More fun, at least for my taste, are the parties that arise from spontaneous combustion. The lobby of the Westin, particularly on Friday night, was such a place. Picture a tap dancer, a lariat roper and a conga line in the mix, all set to music by the maniacal piano styling of Eric Lewis.

A few adventurous types find each other and create their own two-person party. One such couple used the bike awarded as a prize earlier in the week to transport themselves from bar to bar. The night concluded around 4AM with the attractive blond market strategist pedaling barefoot to drop her even more inebriated entrepreneur at his hotel. As expected, the blond showed up for the conference on time the next morning no worse for wear. We can only hope the entrepreneur was as resilient.

Take a Peek at Vera Wang...

I just added some pics of Vera Wangs Pre-Fall (Summer) necklaces to the "Out and About" album. The jewelry was the only bright spot of the collection, and I doubt you'll want to buy them but they are so pretty to stare at.