Blaze It Up

Hijacking.

The spread.

Blazerrrrrrrrr (Zara - I die for it.), T-Shirt (Work It via Urban Outfitters, similar here), Skirt (Urban Outfitters, similar here), Shoes (Prabal Gurung for Target, also eyeing these), Necklace (Nadri), Bracelets (Misc. from Asos) 

There is nothing, NUH-THING, I turn to more when I am in outfit doubt than a blazer. Too many ladies (and men, too, now that I think about it) overlook and underestimate the power of a great blazer. Carelessly pigeonholed by the masses as the stuff of stodgy, corporate boxiness when it comes to workwear and (shudder) conventionwear for women in the workplace (I can actually FEEL the glass ceiling just thinking about it), the blazer (as it pertains to women) is often misused and mis-designed by people who don't know any better and even more often, never acknowledged for its sexiness (do NOT say "business casual" to me...ever).

Lucky for us fashion-forward ladies, over the years (NO THANKS TO THE 80s) designers have done a marvelous job of re-envisioning and reconstructing the role of the blazer in a modern woman's wardrobe. These days, the blazer is front and center of the designer focus when it comes to statement-making pieces that go beyond the boring box of workwear shame. We have a giddily boundless supply of beautiful and interesting blazers/sport coats/suit jackets from designers high and low available to us (HELLO, I LOVE YOU). For those who do know better, a thoughtfully designed, well-tailored blazer is a staple—dare I say it, the linchpin—of outfit-making greatness.  

So please, put your skirt suits away (forevarrrrr), get thee to the nearest Zara (blazers 'til your face falls off over there), and do as Snoop would do, and BLAZE IT UP.

Photos © Rose Garrett

Sandy

Leather Jacket (Asos - old, similar here), Shirt (Forever 21, similar here), Belt (J.Crew - old, similar here), Pants (Silence & Noise via Urban Outfitters, similar here), Shoes (Prabal Gurung for Target - LOVE these!), Necklace (Dogeared)

Too much? I dunno, I feel like head-to-toe leather is a pretty great way to start off an evening. Maybe the only way, depending on what kind of evening you're interested in having [insert obvious and feebly formed S and M joke here]...ahem.

In any case, the leatherizing trend that took off last year for the Fall season has carried itself steadfastly through to Spring, and I plan on riding this cowhide high for as long as I possibly can. The zeroing-in on leather statement pieces that we saw last Fall (especially on garments that aren't typically made in leather e.g. trousers and tops), asserting those many leather culottes, and shirts, and pencil skirts etc as focal points on which to build an outfit, is an exercise in a kind of luxurious minimalism that may otherwise appear to be a Danny Zuko brand of maximalism, despite the fact that it's actually not (Alexander Wang demonstrates this point expertly time and time again with his sumptuous and lucid leather wares that never seem to go out of style and always serve as pitch-perfect outfit building blocks). One (or in this case, two) perfectly tailored, cleanly executed leather garment can MAKE an outfit if you let it—its decadence tempered by its simplicity and straight-forwardness. All I'm saying is that butts look great in leather pants.

Photos © Rose Garrett

Half Tuck

Blazer (Bebe - this mofo is from high school, similar here), Shirt (J.Crew, similar here), Shorts (Minimarket via Urban Outfitters - super old, similar here), Shoes (ShoeMint, similar here), Necklace (Dogeared), Watch (Fakety-fake-fake $20 at BP. here), Handcuff Bracelet (Asos - old, similar here)

In the same way that people can become boring over time, the more time you spend with them (no matter how much you love them), so too can pieces of clothing—those that have been with you for some time and have lost that alluring luster of novelty purchases are so often imbued with after that glorious initial buy.

Obviously this is not always the case; more often than not, the more time you spend with someone/thing, the better they get, and the more you grow to love that person/thing (these leather shorts are a great example of that). This is what we tell ourselves anyway. BUT PEOPLE CAN BE BORING AND SO CAN SHIRTS.

That's where the half tuck comes in—here to save our beloved and classic, but maybe-in-need-of-a-little-resuscitating button-downs; the Fall '13 runway shows taught us all about it. It's a new twist on just plain ol' tucking your shirt in (GAWD, weren't you just beyond sickeningly frustrated by the stifling staleness of tucking your shirt in like a regular person?!), and while it may seem like a dismissible detail, and a silly thing to focus on, it can really perk up your average poplin shirt, and make YOU look a whole lot more interesting and not boring. (Just kidding, you could never be boring...just your shirts.)

Photos © Rose Garrett

Two Leopards Are Better Than One

Leopard on the top, leopard on the bottom.

Shout out to my man.

Jacket (Urban Outfitters), Shirt (Urban Outfitters, similar here), Pants (Gap, similar here), Shoes (Seychelles - old, similar here), Necklace (Forever 21, similar here), Bracelet (Asos, similar here)

The truth is, you can in fact wear white after Labor Day, so don't let anyone tell you differently. Especially when you're looking for bit of a pick-me-up in the middle of a cold week. My penchant for print-mixing may have had me going a little overboard here, but the white denim is a good basic to build upon—it keeps things from getting too messy.

While there are a total of three different prints playing together here, the duo of leopard prints in varying proportions and colors jives together because the prints share a common pattern, while they act as complimentary neutrals to frame the outfit. Piling on the leopard certainly makes for a good time, but keep things to a dull roar (as it were), grounded with a good, solid basic like white denim, so as not to end up looking like a cat lady.

Photos © Rose Garrett

Potato, Poh-tah-toh: The Return of the Lucite Heel

Left: Deena & Ozzy Clear-Heeled Sandal here, Right: Stuart Weitzman Theone Patent Leather Lucite Heel Sandal here

It seems that last year's Spring trend of lucite footwear and perspex accessories and accents has held up and carried into this year's fray of Spring trends. It's been poking its head out here and there (the raved-about Charlotte Olympia Pandora clutch is probably one of the sources of this trend's NOT eye-roll-inducing slight resurgence) but it looks slightly different than before (as it should).

I for one went crazy for it last year, when everyone else did (I still die for those 3.1 Phillip Lims—HELLO CINDERELLA) but after a while, once the plastic pandaemonium started to filter down to the masses, and appear across the full spectrum of designer to not-designer brands, I got a little sick of seeing it. I love him, but Jeffrey Campbell made me so sick of clear-heeled everythings that the trend became utterly intolerable for me to stand any longer, not to mention he rendered it impossible for me not to associate the trend with strippers once more. (The Fashion Week designers last year did such an astonishing job of dispelling the pole-dancing associations with see-through footwear and replacing them with a new and entirely chic re-imagined image, that the light-up, strawberry scented origins from whence the look came seemed a far-off memory. But alas, JC's over-studded, hyper-platformed aesthetic eventually swung the pendulum back to Stripperville.) And then, I forgot about it.

Fast-forward to now, when I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon it again this season, and beyond that, not even the slightest bit annoyed. (I'm sure that's exactly the kind of reaction designers are hoping to induce with their wares: merely not-annoyed.) But the truth is, its decidedly more sheepish sequel this Spring has softened my hardened heart for the see-through trend, and has sweetened its way back onto my wantlist for Spring. I find the blush+lucite combination these two steppers are sporting to be rather pretty, and even prettier at about 1/5 of the price of those Stuart Weitzmans.

Debbie

Blazer (Bebe - I kid you not, I bought this when I was a sophomore in high school - similar here), T-shirt (Forever 21, similar here), Jeans (Abercrombie & Fitch - for the reals - similar here), Belt (J.Crew, similar here) Shoes (Superga - I DIE FOR THESE) Necklace (Dogeared)

WHATEVER I shop at Forever 21 occasionally and sometimes I hate myself for it. But they make a mean 4 dollar rocker tee and always manage to satisfy my not-so-kosher craving for cheap jewelry made my small children hands, okay?? LET'S FIGHT ABOUT IT.

I don't wanna fight anymore. Things were better when we weren't fighting. But this does bring up something worth mentioning: The fact of the matter is, Forever 21—that ear-splittingly abrasive brat barn of a place that promises nothing but fast fashion, sweatshop-made prices (went there), wall-to-wall racks of merch, miserable employees, and NARY A REFUND IN SIGHT—is sometimes a source of internal conflict for fashion-forward and semi-morally-conscious consumers like myself, especially for ladies my age who aren't cloaked in the protective aegis of excused immaturity and scruplelessness that 14-year-olds are so often afforded.

And yet, I can't help but be lured by their technicolor devilry of hyper-trends and dollar-store price tags. A finite amount of spending cash coupled with a healthy addiction to shopping means sometimes, YOU GOTTA SLUM IT. Forever 21 scratches an itch that occasionally needs scratching. And moreover, by economizing the trickle-down runway trends of designers on high, they're inherently democratizing those trends, and contributing the "diffusion fashion" movement that's become a large part of what "Fashion" (capital F) means today for a broader-based population of participants (the exclusionary devices of Fashion's yesteryear are of course, still an integral part of the mode, but no longer completely dominate it). And is that really a bad thing? What's lost in the process, though?

It's a first world problem to be sure, but that doesn't make it any less worthy of discussing. I suppose I could just stop shopping there. But my checking account doesn't want me to. So for now, I'll take my cheap Debbie Harry t-shirts (which they have an abundance of, by the way) and my sweatshop bangles THANKYOUVERYMUCH, and I'll be on my merry, blazered way.

We all need our cheap thrills in some form or another.