A silken touch of luxury. $58 at J. Crew.

Whooh!  The weather has turned crisp out there; I might even have to turn on the heat at some point.  In honor of our gorgeous fall weather, here’s a feature on scarves.  They’ve been in style all summer, but frankly, given some of the summer weather we had, there was no way I was putting anything around my neck that hadn’t just come out of the freezer.  Now?  They’re the perfect accessory.

The “new” thing, of course, seems to be snoods and infinity scarves (if you can bring yourself to call an item of clothing as old-fashioned as a snood “new” without snickering), but they for the most part look more warm and less pretty, so I’ll leave those for later in the season.  (Snoods?  Really?  Does anyone else feel like they might have to don a corset and several petticoats to wear one?)  I myself have christened the fall season by picking up the lovely at top, a long ombre scarf in soft, slightly crinkled sandwashed silk.  It’s worth noting that the scarf is available in different colors in stores than it is online; I fixed my orange craving by picking it up on Fifth Avenue in a gorgeous hue starting at peach and deepening to a dark burnt orange.  Could it be more fall?

The stores are full of scarves in ombre, tie-die, and perfect fall prints.  After the jump, a few of my favorites!

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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 »

The perfect summer jacket from Trina Turk.

Welcome to summer!  Wedding season is in full swing.  We’ve covered wedding fashion outdoors, in the church, at the beach, so hopefully you have your eye on the dresses you’ll be wearing at this summer’s ceremonies, but what we haven’t covered yet is, well, the cover-up!  Yes, it’d be great if your dress covered all the bases by itself, but let’s be realistic.  Sometimes weddings will take you in and out of the sun, the wind, and the air conditioning, and you’ll find yourself in need of some help for climate and modesty control.  This is particularly true if the reception is going to be outdoors or in tents and the ceremony is in a church or the ceremony is outdoors and the reception venue is heavily airconditioned.  A pashmina is always a safe choice, but if you’re looking to go a little farther afield, here are some ideas for cute cover-ups that are totally wedding-appropriate.

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Also in black, white, and oceanic!

Today we’re up to stage three of Betsy’s spring wardrobe update.  The next item Betsy asked for is coverups to go over dresses.  I’m sure you’re all familiar with the problem.  Yes, the summer months are coming and it’s going to get hot.  Unfortunately, plenty of offices seem to be air conditioned to a temperature suitable only to penguins or particularly hot-blooded men in suits. (They measured the temperature in my boss’s office at one of my former jobs and it registered at, no joke, 53 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is not, in my opinion, “room temperature.”)  This leaves most women and many men with the choice between either freezing in your office or sweltering once you step outside, particularly if your commute involves an AC-less subway platform or a car that’s been baking in the sun for eight hours.  Throw in the occasional movie theater and, if you’re lucky, cool evenings at the beach, and having a cute cover-up for your warm-weather dresses is a definite must.

For an office like Betsy’s, cardigans or blazers and other casual jackets are the easiest way to go. Yes, pashminas are great, but if you’re at the office, getting stuff out of drawers, attending meetings, and generally going about your business, wraps just aren’t practical.  Today we’ll focus on cardigans — they’re easy to roll and stuff in a biggish handbag, and in the right color, can be hugely versatile.

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I’m sure I’m not the only woman interested in fashion who has worked in a conservative office environment.  Have any of you noticed the peculiar dearth of fashion guidance on the subject of what we can wear to to work? Certain websites and magazines who shall remain nameless (*cough*Lucky!*cough*) are continually proffering “office appropriate” outfits, but really?  Those outfits might be office appropriate if you’re 22 and work at a fashion magazine, but not so much if you work in an accounting office or at a Fortune 500 company.

That’s really a shame, because “conservative” does not have to mean boring.  Even those of us who know we shouldn’t be wearing 4″ peeptoe heels and bare shoulders in to the office have options. Now, if you’re an attorney and are going to court, you know perfectly well you need to wear a suit, and it probably needs to not have ruffles and certainly needs to not be pink.  I’m not talking about those kinds of situations.  Sometimes, yes, you need to be boring.  (Although for those situations, I recommend checking out Theory, J. Crew, or Banana Republic.  They offer suits with a cut much more modern than the average suit you’re likely to find in your local Macy’s or Filene’s.)  For the regular day in the office, on the other hand, the vast majority of us can get a little more interesting without crossing the line of appropriate business attire.  Yes, actual appropriate business attire, wearable by women over 25.

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Here in New York City, the mercury will hit 60 degress to today, ushering in the first relatively warm day of the Spring season.  Even better … The weather will be besting itself tomorrow, when we get to about 62!

Which means that I’m beginning to feel my seasonal fever: the need for feminine dresses and skirts.  Things I can wear when I’m at patio bars (presumably after this diet is over) and walking around the city with friends.  As always, this is the time of year when I spend endless hours searching online for cute dresses.  My current lusts:

More after the jump! read more »