The Space Between My Peers

The main fashion take-away for my 18 year-old from our Italy trip? They didn’t wear many prints. She kept commenting on how much easier coordinating outfits would be if prints weren’t in the picture. (I told her with her idiom she’d be better off learning to mix prints and go for the trendy Dutch style we also saw.)

Do you wonder what place prints should occupy in your wardrobe?

• If you prefer solids, I noticed the Italians mixed textures and details into their ensembles, thereby keeping them from looking boring.
• A simple way to keep from having to mix prints: use them in only one part of the wardrobe, for example tops and blouses. Or suits and jackets. Or skirts and pants (my preference).
• Want to wear multiple prints? Pattern-mixing advice from “The Prince of Chintz”, famous interior designer Mario Buatta, via Sensational Color:

start with a biggest pattern first and then add all the other elements based off of the colors in the largest pattern chosen

This technique is illustrated in detail in a tutorial at Vintage Threads.

Are you a print person or a solid person? As the weather warms up I am drawn to more prints, but solids remain the backbone of my wardrobe.

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Yay! I don’t have to really write this post - an explanation of the color terms white, off-white, cream and beige - which I had planned as a follow-up to my previous attack on the question, because Angie has written one which is very clear and easy to understand. As I understand her explanation: there are extreme whites, (palest gray) off-white, light yellows (creams), and beiges or tints of brown.

A bit of practical, Rebecca-style advice concerning that final category:

Selecting one family of browns to use in your wardrobe will make color-coordinating much easier. Simply put, choose any brown that is present in your coloring and then use all its tints and shades (white added or black added).

Recently, when thrifting with a friend, we got to experience how this works. She had a number of brown-range items in the cart: dark brown shoes, khaki pants, cream pants, tan purse, and mid-brown purse. When laid next to each other, everything blended except the tan purse, which looked green next to the other items. That made it easy to choose what to put back!

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I’m home. Leaving Trieste Tuesday morning (April the 8th) around 6:30 am and arriving in Spokane Tuesday evening around 9:30 pm combined with the 9 hour time difference had us traveling for 24 hours straight, the vast majority of which was daylight!

On the return trip I wore the same comfy black slacks and slip-on flats, but I paired them with a very light cotton button-up shirt over a tank and a cashmere cardigan which I was able to take off and roll up and store in my carry-on if need be. It was just the thing.

Concerning jet lag, I have very little experience in the finer points of adjusting. Going to Italy didn’t prove to be any kind of problem (the espresso?), but I’m told coming this direction is much worse. I tried unsuccessfully yesterday afternoon to take a nap and found I was fine until about 8 pm (I think the daylight makes far more difference than I realized). Tonight I will try to go to bed when it gets dark.

What other tips do you have to offer?

More pics coming soon.

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My best ever piece of advice has nothing to do with what to wear.

Do you think you’ve found someone you should marry? Here’s how to know:

if you can honestly see flaws in the person that cause you to question whether you can live with them for the rest of your life, and you are willing to accept those imperfections, you may be ready to get married.

The flip side of this is:

if the person still seems perfect, you are not. Ready to get married, that is. You already knew you weren’t perfect, didn’t you?

Remember, nobody’s perfect.  I would choose my hero’s set of flaws over any unknown set anyday!

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Random stuff:

• Karen rightly thought I’d be interested in this post about gray hair beauty, featured at Wardrobe 911 style blog (which I have since added to the blogroll). Okay, so doesn’t the picture just make you wish your hair were gray?

• Here’s a tutorial I’m positive you will love: how to alter a boxy vintage cashmere sweater into a more flattering fitted shape, found via elegant musings.

• The trouble with boots is often in the fit in the calves. Although a couple of people have mentioned boots gapping in the calves, I have the opposite problem: it’s all I can do to zip them up. If you are like me, you might find help in this article Wendy sent me the link for: Boots With Room For Calves.

New blog friends:

• Suzof7

• Jenny Muth

• Style You Fabulous 

• And an “old” blog friend has decided to quit blogging.  I seriously hope she will continue in the conversation around here!

One final link, one I’m certain I’ll come back to in a future post: The Science of Personal Dress. Thanks Vildy!

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Okay, show of hands - and let’s be honest here! - who thinks piano recitals are really boring? Sadly, even the best of them (like the one we went to last night) leave plenty of time for the mind to wander. That is, if one can stay awake.

Now, I don’t know where you go when your mind wanders, but I’ll tell you what I came up with during last night’s recital: a month by month plan of outfits to purchase. Not that I’ll necessarily hold myself to this structure, but it was an interesting diversion. The “thought train” went something like this:

what if my budget were large enough to buy a new outfit every month?

I still wouldn’t be able to buy just anything I wanted.

It makes The Budget Fashionista’s $200 per month look right reasonable!

And then I went on to try to create a month by month shopping plan to reflect my lifestyle pie chart. Here’s what I came up with:

1. January:
2. February: Spring leisure outfit
3. March: a daytime dress (BTW, March is the perfect time to buy a dress. At no other time in the year will the selection be better.)
4. April: Spring/Summer smart casual ensemble
5. May: Summer leisure outfit
6. June:
7. July: stock up on basics (unmentionables)
8. August: Fall leisure outfit
9. September: suit (business)
10. October: Fall/Winter smart casual ensemble
11. November: holiday social
12. December:

Then, for the duration of the recital, I sat there and tried to figure out what the gaping holes in this plan were. And whether I could buy a whole outfit on my budget of $45/ month (probably not). And whether I should put “extra sweaters and warm gear” in January, or coats or underwear, and how often I realistically need a new swimsuit, and how it’s probably better, if this were a realistic plan, to just leave December empty.

Speaking of a realistic plan, here’s an idea for transforming a stressful recital evening into family fun:

after the performance, since we were all kinda dressed up anyway, we took the ladies for dessert at a restaurant which is far too expensive for a family dinner. We had the vanilla burnt cream along with a gorgeous view of the river.

So even if the month by month shopping plan is a miss, the dessert was a hit!

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School is still out. After staying home for too many days in a row, today I ventured out (no prob!) to do some shopping and errands. At Dana’s suggestion, I went to TJMaxximus, not my usual shopping grounds, simply due to (lack of) proximity.

Sadly, I didn’t find anything exciting. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t buy anything. I felt practically forced to buy this sweater, after almost not even trying it on.

Yes, it’s boring. But it fits fabulously and the color is basic for me. (I think dd’s camera is on some sort of distorted, short and wide setting. Is there such a thing?) And even though I feel like I’ve bought nothing but cashmere sweaters in the past two months, this morning I had to go to the laundry room to get one - the bare wood in the bottom of my dresser drawer was showing. Total spent $16.29.

Lloyd Boston suggests giving up on cotton sweaters in favor of cashmere.  It’s true that cotton sweaters rarely hold their shape for more than a season or two, especially as hard as my clothes get worn.

Any outfit ideas to make it less boring?

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I have never thought of myself as a beauty expert, but when Kristine asked for some tips I realized I had a few useful things to share. Before I forget them all …

General color selection: I think the key to finding makeup that doesn’t look like it’s just sitting on top of your face lies in blending with the underlying skin tones, those caused by your hemoglobin, that is, the reds and oranges.

Foundation and concealer

1. Bobbi Brown believes everyone (or is it almost everyone?) needs yellow based foundation. I believe that most foundation color mistakes arise from choosing a color that is too pink. Conclusion: if you keep ending up with foundation colors that are too pink for you, go straight to the Bobbi Brown counter of your nearest department store.
2. It is not necessary (or desirable IMO) in most cases to wear a full face of makeup. A good match should be able to blend. A technique that works well for me for everyday makeup, using Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick: cover under-eye circles, then slap a dab in nose creases, chin, and center of forehead. Blend. Notice that it is one product doing the work of the foundation and concealer, no powder necessary. Getting by with fewer products is frugal.
3. For foundation and concealer I have not been brave enough to try drug store makeup. Any super-frugal options you can recommend?

Lipstick and blusher

What inspired this thread is the E.L.F. All Over Color Stick in Pink Lemonade I bought to use as both blush and lipstick. (Pink eyeshadow I’m not so sure about.) I’m smitten with the concept!

Good places to look for blush/lipstick color inspiration:

1. the color of your gums or the tip of your finger when you pinch it,
2. your tongue, or
3. your lips when they get chapped.

Eyes

1. For eye shadow, a good basic color scheme would be your eye color with liner the color of the rim around your iris.
2. I have an inexpensive little pot of brown eyeshadow doing triple duty for me: as shadow, applied with a soft brush, as liner, applied with a wet angled brow brush, and as eyebrow filler, with the same brush.
3. This on mascara from an old post last spring:
   

   friends who are make up artists have always told me that applying a single coat each of 2 different mascaras work the best and i have found this to be true in my own make up experiments. usually one lengthening and one thickening or curling or separating or waterproof, whichever you need. don’t forget to comb out with a clean mascara brush. vc
   

General shopping: Do you have Rite Aid where you are? They have a wonderful return policy on makeup, designed to discourage people from testing it out in the store: you can return anything you don’t like. Also, paint brushes can substitute for makeup brushes and, in a pinch, I wouldn’t hesitate to try very cheap ones (obviously new and clean).

I think this is comprehensively everything I know about makeup.

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Update on my jean hunt: while I’m still hunting for the perfect pair, I picked up a simple pair of j crew button-fly, straight-leg, five-pocket, you know, just-plain-jeans. For $1 at the thrift store. Then I went back to the thrift store I mentioned previously and found that the jeans I had liked on me, but declined to pay $6.98 for, were now 75% off of the $6.98. These are gap long and lean, with flap pockets and the crease thing down the front. Not everyday jeans for me, because I don’t wear heels every day.


But back to the question at hand: rigid or stretch jeans?

Conventional wisdom says stretch. And I know all the reasons: you get a personally fit pair of pants, you can wear a smaller size without worrying about shrinkage (my husband wonders how many women prefer stretch for the primary reason that they can wear a smaller size), and so on, yada yada, ad nauseam.

But. Consider the wisdom of Clinton and Stacy regarding jackets. They say a structured jacket fixes most problems. So if the structured jacket is the solution for belly rolls - and I think we can all agree that it is! - why isn’t a structured jean the solution for saddlebags?

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Thanks to Wendy for sending me the link to this Oprah slideshow, which contains some discussion related to jean pockets. While looking around Oprah’s site, I found this quote from our beloved Stacy London:

Myth 1: Boot cut is flattering on everyone. False, Stacy says. Petite women, in particular, should avoid boot-cut jeans, and wear jeans with a straighter leg. Stacy says if you’re shorter than 5′4”, a boot cut may make your thighs look heavier by hugging the knees too tightly before flaring at the bottom. Boot-cut jeans can also make your legs look shorter.

The ideal body type for boot-cut pants is a woman taller than 5′4” who has long legs.

While I am taller than 5′4″, I do not have long legs. Proportionately, my thighs are 3 inches short for my height, although I pick up one of those inches below the knee. Stacy is also quoted in multiple places saying that people with heavy thighs should avoid bootcut, because the tightness at the knee emphasizes the thigh.

In addition, I propose that wide-legged pants make short legs look shorter. You can see me in both skinnies and wide (although they aren’t jeans) in this fashion lab from last March.

Now, honestly, in my mind I look like this. Not Oprah, the other one. Why can’t I have jeans like those?

I think I need to join a gym.

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