Just enough hardware for this fall -- from Boutique 9.

Let’s hear it for fall!  The weather has definitively turned, and the fall fashion offerings are reaching dangerous levels of irresistibility.  I mentioned a few months ago the arrival of grey and purple everywhere you looked.  The stores are still bursting with grey and plum, with the result that I am feeling the burning desire to buy grey and … burnt orange.  What can I say? I have a little perverse streak.  Thankfully, J. Crew is encouraging me to get my fix with a slew of jackets in warm coppers and sweaters and tops in peachier hues.

Amazingly enough, all this time on enforced hiatus from online shopping has actually let me give some thought to updating my wardrobe for fall.  Not that I don’t usually make some updates, but the process usually resembles a blackbird piling up shiny objects rather than the organized approach of a methodical mind.  So, here are the basic items I’m looking to buy this season.  read more »

I know, I posted on my opinion of the continuing leggings trend only a couple of weeks ago, but a recent pass through the stores exposed me to fresh horrors that I just had to share.  I know that leggings are still in fashion.  I know that they’re going to be in stores.  I had hoped, though, that the out-and-out leggings (as opposed to skinny pants) would be confined to the juniors department and unobtrusive corners of the t-shirt and hosiery sections.  I was thus unprepared to enter the Theory section of Bloomingdale’s and see this:

Dear God.

Since I know this is a super-blurry cell phone pic, let me narrate.  They’re leggings.  They’re woolly.  And they’re fuschia.

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Whoo!  Welcome to September, everyone.  I’m sure we have more of the dog days of summer ahead, but for today, the cool breezes coming in through my window feel fantastic, and have me all ready to break out my cutest fall jackets.

Thankfully, it being September, the fashion gods are all conspiring to indulge my mental shift in seasons to the fullest.  In an act of perfect timing,  the folks at Mackage have opened a pop up store in the Meatpacking District to showcase their gorgeous jackets and coats for the next month.  Located at 829 Washington Street (between Little West 12th and Gansevoort), this, their first ever free-standing retail location, is a prequel to their first permanent store, scheduled to open in Paris in November.  Luckily for New Yorkers, although the temporary store will be gone at the end of September, there’s still hope for a permanent Manhattan location down the line.  In WWD, Mackage designer Elisa Dahan said “This is definitely an area we have been interested in for a while.  New York for me is the number one place where I would like to have a retail location.  We really wanted to give it a try.  We love the Meatpacking District.  Now that the High Line is open, the Meatpacking District is back on the map and we definitely wanted to be a part of it.”

So seize the day and stop by the store to check out Mackage’s fall line.  What could be more stylish for an autumn stroll along the High Line?  The store will be open through the end of September and then will be disappearing, so don’t miss it!

The, uh, "classic" leather mini?

Okay, it’s $600, and I suspect there’s an age limit on having an excuse to buy a leather miniskirt, but this is without a doubt the classiest hot little biker skirt I’ve ever seen.  I love the studded beltsl  If I thought I could get away with wearing it on a regular basis?  Maybe I should ask the boy…

ZOMG. *drools*

Does anyone do flat-out gorgeous better than Versace?  I would have to be getting married in this dress to justify its price tag, but Versace never fails to include at least one thing in every season’s line that reduces me to total idiocy and incoherent lust.  Had I mentioned that’s just about my favorite color?  It’s completely over the top, but…

Excuse me while I go gibber.

You have heard me ranting about flip-flops in the past.  Allow me to be a curmudgeon yet again.  LEGGINGS.  I know they’re popular, but I haaaaaaate them. They are wretched.  Can they go away now?

To begin with, let’s admit: leggings only look tolerable on a VERY small minority of women.  Legs that look fine bare and look fine in pants can look bulgy or spindly in leggings.  There was a big spread of pictures in July’s Vogue of Sienna Miller wearing leggings.  Sienna Miller can wear leggings.  Me?  I’m tall enough but I’m still not even sure that I can wear leggings or if my legs are too muscular to get away with it.  Sadly, the fact that leggings only look good on a minute fraction of the female population doesn’t keep lots of and lots of people from wearing them.  Even if your legs look okay, they always end at the ankle, leaving a bright flash of skin before the shoe to draw the eye.  Woe betide you if you then pick the wrong shoe.  If you do, the leggings will make your feet look comparatively enormous, and the flash of skin will make sure no one fails to notice that you are wearing rowboats on your feet.  I have trouble imagining an outfit with which you could wear leggings that wouldn’t be better served by skinny jeans or tights except the ones that are straight of the 1980s, and I am SO not going there.

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Can't you see the CEOs fainting in my path?

I talk about fashion all the time, but we relatively seldom focus on the place where most of us spend a painful amount of time: the office. To be perfectly honest, my real work wardrobe falls somewhat short.  I do have a collection of well-fitting and perfectly serviceable suits, a probably inappropriate number of pairs of pin-striped slacks, largely from Banana Republic, and half a dozen shells and silk blouses in different colors. Beyond that, though, what I have in my closet for the workday is a collection of relics of shopping trips ten years ago when it had not yet occurred to me that fashion existed and that there was a distinction between things that looked good on the hanger and things that looked good on me.  (Oops.) I finally just threw away a pair of baggy burgundy pleat-front wool pants that were at least one size too large, and possibly two.  Let’s never speak of those again.

As I slowly replace the horrifying with the stylish, however, I find myself fantasizing about the wardrobe I’d have if someone gave me Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe funding.  That wardrobe?  Ooh.  You know the kind.  The wardrobe of clothes so mind-bogglingly sharp and fashionable that the women keel over out of sheer envy and the men can’t decide whether to be turned on by your gorgeousness or intimidated by your air of competence and power. My imaginary work wardrobe involves a lot of Hugo Boss, a lot of Armani, and a judicious selection of terrific work wear from other designers.  Filling my imaginary wardrobe is nearly as much fun as stepping up the real one.

Here’s what would be in my imaginary work closet for this season.

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Country tweed from Nanette Lepore.

I give in.  The fashion machine has won.  While I’m normally one of the people who refuses to even contemplate buying clothing for a season that is months away (who wants airy eyelet dresses in February?), my eye has officially moved on to fall fashion. The weather is hot and sticky, and I am far from done with the summer produce.  But still, jackets are starting to look cute to me again, and the texture of flannels and tweeds is starting to look rich and appealing again. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t want to WEAR any of it yet, and I really need to spend at least one solid day in a pool somewhere before the end of September.  But I have to admit, the wool is starting to call me.  Luckily, the stores, physical and online, are starting to fill up with distinctive pieces in tweed, plaid, and wool flannels.  Here are some of the pieces I most want to pet this fall.

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Versace, do you ever go wrong?

This dress is the epitome of spring — just in time for the fall collections.  It’s perverse, but I think I love it.  Can’t you just see it with a cute jacket tossed over it as you pick up cider donuts, as bright as the turning leaves?  I couldn’t wear that yellow in a million years, but hats off nonetheless.

Multicolored sapphires from Reinstein/Ross.

Recent developments among friends have got me thinking about weddings.  (You know who you are!)  Being the jewelry fiend that I am, this of course leads me to thinking about jewelry for the ceremony.  Engagement rings, well, every woman seems to have her own opinion on the subject, but the options don’t end there.  Not everyone wants a lot of bling, but for those who just want to stick with a band, there’s no need for the band to be completely plain either.  While big statement rings are the fashion of the day, there are a lot of beautiful low-key diamond and gemstone bands out there too.  Some of these also make great little personal indulgences by themselves or stacked.  So, here’s a little eye candy and something to consider for those with a wedding in view and slightly non-traditional tastes.

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