Stop! It's the Fashion Police

Have you ever been pulled over by the dreaded Fashion Police? For those unfamiliar with the term, those are the people (any people, really) that critique you for what they see as a fashion faux pas. Maybe almost everyone has someone in their lives that serves that function. My friend’s teenage daughter is happy to provide her with that service. The other day she accused her mom of wearing “clown pants.” And her pants just looked kind of normal to me. I wonder what she’ll say about these pants that I plan to purchase from us that also look like regular jeans to me…

What doesn’t look so normal to me is this pair of jeans that I found online.

What do you think of them? What would the Fashion Police say? I say that whoever is wearing these jeans should hope that they never run into my friend’s daughter!

by AEL

Gwyneth Takes a Risk

I just loved the first Iron Man movie (very fun) and I can’t wait til Iron Man 2 comes out at the beginning of May. But first I wanted to see the stars at the premiere to see what they wore. For those people who don’t follow that kind of thing, Gwyneth Paltrow broke with tradition (I think, anyway) and wore a shorts suit. Of course, it was no ordinary short suit—it was designed by Giorgio Armani. What do you think of her outfit? Fashion-forward? Or fashion faux-pas?

I kind of like the idea of wearing shorts whenever and wherever I can, so I liked Gwyneth’s style choice. Opinion seems to be split online as to whether she or Scarlett Johansson, another of the movie’s stars, got the red carpet award for best dressed. Me, I’m voting for Gwyneth, probably because it takes nerve to take that kind of fashion risk.

Maybe I’m hoping that it will rub off on me. There’s a certain white shorts suit in Metrostyle’s (our sister company) summer catalog that’s calling me, and though I don’t have any premieres planned, there is a graduation party coming up…

By AEL

Warm Weather Dreams

I have to admit it; I’m looking forward to the appearance of summer, much more than I usually am. Perhaps it’s because over the weekend, I found a pair of capri’s that never got packed away for the winter. I just don’t have the room to leave my wardrobe for this season, and the past and future seasons, hanging in the pathetically small spaces that pass for closets in my condo. So lately, a bathing suit top or a pair of shorts pops up from a drawer or shelf when I least expect it, and suddenly I’m deep in the throes of yearning for open-window and flip-flop weather.

So what’d I do to combat this very specific urge? You’ll laugh, but I put on the capri’s and wore them to bed. I suppose I was hoping for warm weather dreams. Though it didn’t work, I’m not giving up—over the weekend, I plan to wear the tankini top like a cami. It was one I got from Chadwicks a few years ago, so it’s soft and comfy, but that means I’m due for a new suit this summer. Time to go shopping!

Do you guys supplement your winter wardrobe with warm-weather stuff, too? Or am I the only one out there combining seasons in hopes of capturing that warm weather rush, if only in my very vivid imagination?

Fashion for the “Golden” Girls

Boy, I really can’t help myself. Since I work with fashion, I find myself critiquing what people wear, no matter where I see them. And that includes the 2010 Olympic games.

What was the deal with the ski outfits that the female freestyle skiers wore in their events? Guess they must have lost the coin toss with the Alpine skiers. That cute Hannah Kearney (didn’t she look adorable with her pigtails!) looked like she was wearing a pair of baggy old pajamas while Lindsey Vonn and her teammates looked all sleek and glammed up in their skiwear.

Does anyone know how the USA team picks their gear? And if there’s some reason why the Alpine skiers got the better part of the fashion deal? Are they dressed for speed and the free-stylers dressed for protection? Not that it seemed to matter, both women won GOLD even if one of them, in my opinion, didn’t hit the jackpot style-wise!

By AEL

And the Winner Is...

Looks like it’s a win for jewel tones this award season. Although there were a few actresses that went with pastels and looked sensational. Or at least that’s what I got by watching the award shows like the Golden Globes, the SAG awards and the Grammys. Here are my favorites in those dresses that glowed like the jewels they are named for:

At the Golden Globes: I loved Ginnifer Goodwin’s short, electric blue dress;
at the SAG awards: Lea Michele, (from TV’s Glee), took home the gold as far as I was concerned; that emerald (or was it teal) dress was a gem; and at the Grammy’s: I liked Fergie’s neon blue dress with the gold snakey stripe. In the pink/purple range, Mariska Hargitay worked a fuchsia gown and Anna Kendrick showed up in royal purple at the SAG awards, they were a close second in my opinion.

Speaking of the Grammy’s, my local radio station was giving away a free trip and I got to thinking about what to wear if I won. I can dream, can’t I? It would be from Chadwicks, of course and it would have to be jewel tone. I just wonder if jewel tones can be worn by someone who’s a bit (oh, alright, I’ll admit it—a lot) older than these actresses. Can anyone help me out?

by AEL

Write a Review!

I really don’t think that you can only learn from your own mistakes (although some people think that’s the best way); I’m discovering all the time that the world (or should I say the on-line community) is just dying to give you direction and opinions that will make your buying decisions a bit easier and maybe a little less stressful.

Let me give you an example: I wanted to buy a hairdryer and I wondered about the ones that claim to use ion technology to dry your hair faster and leave it in better condition than ever. And the manufacturers of these dryers also made a very important (at least to me) anti-static claim that I was hesitant to believe though I definitely wanted to as when I wake up in the morning during the heating season, my hair is a disaster!

So armed with my skepticism and a heartfelt desire to be proven wrong, I went on-line to check out the products. And there were loads of dryers at loads of places! I was stumped as to how to choose one and to be sure that it did what it was supposed to…until I started looking at the reviews from customers who had actually purchased (and sometimes returned) the dryers.

To my surprise, I found a reasonably priced ion dryer that got good reviews from most buyers and it wasn’t 100’s of dollars like the ones that I had first had my eye on. I bought it and agreed with the reviews and went ahead and returned the favor for the rest of the on-line world and wrote a review of my own.

Buying stuff with your hard-earned $$$, while fun, can be a bit hit-or-miss. I’ve discovered if I want to “hit” a lot more than I “miss”, I better pay attention to what my on-line friends have to say. I now encourage everyone to read and write reviews, it’s so easy and yet so powerful to give your opinion to the world.

Speaking of reviews, the websites for both our sister companies provide a convenient place for our customers to give their feedback on everything we sell. Since I’m looking for a good pair of boots, I’m just waiting to see reviews of one particular pair. Please help me out and give me an opinion!

AEL

Taking Better Care

Well, I’ve done it again. I sometimes try to do things the easiest and cheapest way and guess what— it just doesn’t work out the way I planned. Here’s the latest mistake that I made in the name of trying to out think the manufacturers that make the clothes.

I bought a down jacket that I was quite pleased with, especially cause I got it at such a great price. And all went well until it was time to get it cleaned. I looked at the tag and it said dry clean. Well, all of the other down jackets that I have ever bought were machine washable in a front loader and then dryable in the dryer. Why would I want to spend $$$$ on an expensive dry cleaning bill if I could do it just as easily in a regular washer?

The answer to that became apparent when I took the jacket out of the dryer. Did I mention that it had a cute faux-fur trimmed hood, emphasis on the word had. Apparently, the heat of the dryer is not a good thing to subject faux-fur to. What used to be long, flowing strands of faux fur, now resembled some kind of faux animal with a really bad perm. I did try to wet down the jacket again in a vain attempt to get the hood to go back to normal, but it stayed just as cooked and melted together as ever! I guess things might not have gone so badly if I had unzipped the hood and washed it by hand but I guess you live and learn.

So, now I have a good-looking jacket with a really bad-looking hood. And I’m ashamed to admit that it’s not the first item that I’ve destroyed in the washer, but more often in the dryer. You’d think I’d know better than to experiment with clothing care since I work with clothing; we actually have a testing specialist that works with the vendors to determine the best way to care for your clothes. And they know what they are talking about, so the next time I get a bright idea about how to wash/dry something that isn’t washable/dryable, I hope someone will stage an intervention on me and force me to read (and follow) the instructions on the tag.

Well, the bright side of all this is that I feel better about having my eye on a new jacket that’s in our catalog. And now I feel like I can buy it without feeling guilty. But, I would feel better about the whole experience if I knew I had company (misery does love company, you know) with an unfortunate washday experience. What have you done to mistreat your clothes lately?

AEL

If It's Free...

I love live theater, though I seldom get to Broadway (too far and too expensive). The closest I get is ushering at the local little theater group near where I live. In that way, I’ve seen some pretty awesome plays, but they don’t seem to have the room to do any musicals. And I just love seeing singing and dancing so it seemed like seeing Mama Mia (wasn’t Meryl Streep just a hoot!) was going to have to tide me over until somebody in Hollywood got the nerve to revisit that genre. But after reading an article online about Break Out in Song, I’ve determined that I could afford to see a musical, or at least a part of one-especially when it’s free.

Break out in song is a public arts project that puts on live performances of songs from musicals in public places and springs them on their unsuspecting audiences with incredible results. And I just wish I could be around when they show up next to work their magic. And magic it is—just look at the faces in the crowd when they are performing! It just makes me want to transplant the whole thing to Boston. Now if I my talents for singing and dancing could just be improved…

According to their website, they are now looking for suggestions of which numbers to perform in the future, I’m all for Make Someone Happy from Do Re Mi. Which production number would you vote for?
AEL

Fashion Denial?

I’m on-line surfing and I find an article about how my skinny jeans can potentially cause nerve damage due to them pressing on the nerve that runs down the side of my legs, according to some neurologist. And it gets me to thinking about the times that I have suffered to be fashionable.

As a pretty tall woman, I don’t typically wear high heels, but I have to admit that I absolutely love flip-flops. And they seem to be everywhere. I’ve seen people even wear them (pretty, sparkly ones) to weddings. And once the weather gets warm, this is one fashion trend that I’m all over. So I’m probably as bad about wearing them as other women are about high heels. And yeah, I’ve read that they can cause accidents, but they are so darn convenient and comfy. Guess since I’ve never had an accident with them, I don’t really believe that they can be deadly, though I hope I haven’t cursed myself by saying that.

Another trend that I have a love/hate relationship with is huge handbags. They can be so cute and so HEAVY! Especially when you stuff everything that you could conceivably ever need into them. The huge bag thing has definitely been an issue for me (and my chiropractor). So now I carry (for the most part) a smaller bag that has the wallet built in and various pockets that I can stuff things into. But every once in a while, I HAVE to drag out my ginormous bags if they go with an outfit; I just try not to dump the whole contents of my house into them!

I’m sure that there are whole categories of fashionable suffering that I’ve endured that I’m forgetting about. And I think I will just forget that I ever saw the article about my skinnies and nerve damage. Mine are not that tight. Or am I just in fashion denial? And are there other “me’s” out there?

Wait…What’s a Cankle?!

I was at my desk working away when I heard it and it was music to my ears. Since I’m a writer and voracious reader, my ears just perk right up when I hear a word that I’ve never heard before and I just had to ask my boss what she meant by the word “cankle”. Everybody else seemed to know what she was talking about so I thought I’d better get up to speed.

Apparently, the same people that came up with the words “love handle”, “muffin top” and “saddlebags” (I’m not sure that I like those geniuses) to describe women’s various figures problems have come up with a word to describe chubby + ankles=cankle, or at least that’s how I think it came about. Or maybe ankle + same diameter as calf=cankle. Guess women have genetics to thank for the condition. Or at least that’s what the Today show’s health segment had to say. Take a listen for yourself…

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The good news (according to the video) is you can make your cankles less noticeable by what you wear (I’m a big fan of disguise, sleeveless tops have fallen by the wayside for me in favor of short sleeve or ¾-sleeve ones). Here’s the advice that Today was passing along: wear longer pants, longer dresses, or a 

nice-looking wedge. Maybe Chadwicks can help in the fight with something like this...

The Perfect Man (with a wrench)

It was a day after I had the day off and quite a busy day with a catalog releasing, so I stayed a little later to finish up and then I headed out to drive home (which is a pretty good commute away). When I started to back up, I heard the car making what sounded to me like a very expensive sound. Don’t you hate when that happens?

So I pulled over and nervously got out of the car to see what made the noise-a tire that was flatter than a pancake. Much better, I thought, than an engine or transmission freaking out! I breathed a sigh of relief and went into damage control mode-time for a call to roadside assistance. Before I got to make the call, I ran into one of the guys that I work with, though, and he offered to change the flat. He also gave me quite a lesson in tire changing. Then I was off.

Because it was so late, I couldn’t get the tire fixed until the next day. And then, wonder of wonders, I walked into the tire place and saw my old mechanic, whom I haven’t been able to locate since his auto place closed down. It was like a reunion with a soulmate. The discovery even took some of the sting out of having to buy, not one, but two new tires, (apparently tires should be replaced in pairs).

Anyway, the whole thing made me wonder three things: how many women can change a tire by themselves and why didn’t they teach that in school, and do other woman feel like finding a good mechanic is worth as much as finding the perfect guy?

AEL

Help for the Hatless??

[H]aptitude?!?

Do you need it? To shop for hats?

I was proofing copy for some items in our new fall catalog and noticed that we had quite a few really cute ones that caught my eye. A newsboy cap (which is way too cute for any real newsboy to wear), a cloche with a glam flower on the side and one with kind of a modified brim. And they looked absolutely marvelous on the models that were wearing them. I said aloud that I wish I could wear hats but they always look kind of ridiculous on me, to which someone replied, “you have to find the right one.”

I kind of laughed at that since I’ve tried on so many hats and haven’t found one that I thought looked good. But I guess the comment stayed with me and I decided to go online to see if there was some kind of rules for hats.

So I went on over to a few web sites to see what kind of advice I could get: On instructables.com, they had this to say: Drag a friend with you when shopping (someone who you can trust to give you the truth and not flatter you by fibbing.) Of course, the next stop on that particular website kind of stopped me in my tracks with this advice, which I know to be true: “the world is full of hats and, most of them will look terrible on you.” Now tell me something I don’t know!!!!

The next site was something called MidoriLei.com, which claimed that the large, lightweight slouchy beret looks good on everyone. And it did look good in the pictures they had of JLo, Rhianna, and Lindsay Lohan. But there was no one on there close to my age (definitely older than those girls), so I had no role model there. Although, they did make a good point that it doesn’t give you hat hair!

Then I went over to stylelist.com that grabbed me with the intriguing headline-How to…wear a hat. According to the girl who wrote the post, it all boils down to this: find a saleslady to give you valuable advice. What she got from hers was to cover her ears (both with her hair and the hat), and to tilt the hat slightly to the left. What happened was amazing (at least to me)! Her hat looked “smashing.” And when I did look at our model in the marled hat on the metrostyle website, she had her ears covered just as advised, so I just might take that advice out for a "spin".

I guess what I really want is a program that allows you to try on hats virtually like the ones they have at the salons to try on hairstyles. Anyone know of any way to do that?

I just feel like my look for fall could stand some [hat]titude added!