Tag Archives: style

Shopping

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You know it’s your birthday when those wonderful “presents” from Anthropologie sewing kityour “friends” at your favorite stores start rolling Anthropologiein. Usually it’s something along the lines of “You’re our special customer and we love you and to help celebrate your birthday, we’re offering you a chance to get 10 percent off your first $200 you spend with us that day.” Uh, thank you? With friends like that … But when Anthropologie sent me something, I perked up. Not that the monetary offer was anything extra enticing, but the packaging was classic Anthro at its best: An adorable handmade-looking cotton “sewing kit” with button and colorful thread and a cute little pouch for needles and what-not. Whoever does Anthropologie’s marketing and customer relations does it perfectly — everything always reflects and enhances the Anthropologie brand and makes me want to overcome my natural frugalness and go ahead and blow my birthday money on a simple $180 cotton sweater. Genius!

Fashion

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Budget fashionThis is my beautiful older daughter, Liz. We were at a family get-together this weekend and I thought she looked absolutely adorable. Now, you have to know that she is mom to my 15-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable; a dance teacher; a staffer at her local Little Gym and to top it all off, the most frugal and budget-conscious person I know — a trait she obviously did not get from me, to my husband’s eternal consternation. You usually can find Liz in yoga pants or a Little Gym T-shirt or whatever she found on the floor in her closet from three years ago that is clean fits. Clothes just aren’t her top priority day-to-day. But when she wants to, she can put together a chic and affordable look that’s so cute and definitely says “cool young mom.” From the gladiator sandals to the statement necklace, nothing here probably cost more than $35-$50. I love that she took basic shorts and jazzed them up with an eye-catching yet simple and comfortable top that will withstand anything Capt. Adorable dishes out — literally. Plus, the flat sandals were perfect for tramping around on the grass — it always makes me feel slightly superior tickles me when I see unsuspecting and image-conscious women wear heels to outdoor events — what are you thinking??? I am thinking that Liz has this whole mom-style thing figured out — and I shudder to remember our 1980s young-mom uniform. Stirrup pants and bedazzled sweatshirts, anyone?

Fashion

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Scarlett O'HaraWhat do Stevie Nicks, Scarlett O’Hara and Della Street have in Stevie Nickscommon? Besides being awesomely fabulous females, of course. Give up? They were my fashion icons when I was growing up — well, Scarlett’s Southern Victorian diva and Della’s sexy smart secretary were, and then Stevie’s flowy boho hippie came along when I was old enough to make my own style mistakes buy my own clothes. Today, I’d like to think I’m sort of a combination of all three, with some Michelle Obama thrown in. Farrah Fawcett hair(But maybe I’m flattering myself — that’s what I’d like to look like, at least!) I wrote more about how TV, movies and music influence what we wear in my quarterly fashion column for the TimesDaily’s Shoals Woman magazine, in Florence, Alabama, at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090624/SW/906239986/1085. On a day when two fashion inspirations have left us — Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson — I’m thinking about how much influence entertainers have over the way we want to see ourselves. And remembering one gold-star day in college when my wings turned out perfectly — my hair has never looked as good as it did that day more than 30 years ago when Farrah gazed back at me from the tiny dorm-room mirror. Sigh.

Art

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Anthropologie Hatch Show PrintYou got a surprise present in your mailbox this month (no — your carrier isn’t leaving you chocolate-chip cookies again): The cover of the June Anthropologie catalog features an original work from Hatch Show Print, in Nashville, Tenn., and it’s a beauty. Hatch Show Print, on Broadway in downtown Nashville, is the oldest working poster print shop in the country. It began in 1879 and became known for its wood-carved letterpress work for country music, jazz and blues performances — and its iconic balance of layout, typeface, color and Southern culture. The best part is that you can wander into the shop and see posters still being made the same way. I’ve always thought Anthropologie’s catalogues were whimsical combinations of style and design and I was tickled to see one of my favorite Nashville spots featured here. Actually, my parents first told me about Hatch Show Print — because they’re cool like that. Our hometown of Manchester, Tenn., is near Nashville, and Hatch Show Print is one of my parents’ usual stops when they head downtown. They took me along one day and am I glad they did. If you’re headed to Nashville this summer, you owe it to yourself to schedule a visit to Hatch Show Print — chock full of presses and prints and posters and typefaces and wood blocks, it’s unlike any other place you’ve ever seen. Check out Anthropologie at http://www.anthropologie.com and Hatch Show Print at http://www.anthropologie.comhttp://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/experience-hatch-today.aspx

Bridesmaids

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Rehearsal-dinner styleYounger Daughter was in town from her summer-school classes this weekend to Bridesmaid stylebe a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding. I Bridesmaid hairlove all the hair and makeup and these-shoes-don’t-work chaos of getting ready — reminds me of  the prom and party excitement from the girls’ high-school days. For the wedding-rehearsal dinner, YD went with simple black jazzed up with purple accents, although she switched these fantastic purple heels for black sandals before she left the house because her feet already were hurting. Then Saturday morning she got her hair done in this sweet sort of loose and messy half up-do that she and the stylist came up with based on a couple of photos and magazine pictures. Both of my daughters have great hair and know what to do with it — a skill they didn’t get from me but I wish I could pick up from them. I loved how it all came together — I thought the pink bridesmaid’s dresses and the orange bouquets were stunning together. The bride had picked out some wonderful metallic heels for the bridesmaids to wear, and after the wedding YD passed hers on to another friend who admired them and is getting married next, probably thereby starting the Tradition of the Traveling Wedding Shoes. I wonder where they’ll turn up next!

Home Decor

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Home decorI love finding home-decor ideas in unlikely Home decorspots. You never know when you’ll stumble across some inspiration. Like these exuberantly painted kitchen chairs at the Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, Mississippi. How much fun would it be to grab worn-out chairs and leftover paint and create some whimsical seating like this? In no stretch of the imagination am I a painter but I think that even non-visual folks such as me could do this. I also loved this glass and metal sofa table I saw at a clothing boutique in Oxford. The owners had knotted colorful scarves through one of the support rungs Home decor— so creative! Couldn’t you just see this in one of those huge closets big enough for furniture? You could sit in there and sip wine and read “Town and Country” and contemplate what you were going to wear where that evening. But I might be able to use the same idea by knotting scarves through the ends of the storage shelves in our perfectly-adequate closet, where I stand every day and try to figure out which T-shirt is the cleanest. (And which, by the way, I am slowly inch-by-inch taking over from my husband, who luckily hasn’t noticed that somehow my stuff mysteriously keeps showing up on his side.) This lovely white painted chair with a toile cushion was at the same boutique. It looks like another renovated flea-market find that would be so simple to duplicate. Do you remember a few years ago when toile was everywhere? Then it sort of faded away but now it’s back to where it should be: A s a statement-making classic. And I think the white paint brings out the details of this chair to make it look like something special. Of course, folks who know me and have been to our house know that all my talk about interior-decorating projects is fruitless because I am much too lazy to do anything different from our current coffee-cup-and-stacks-of-newspaper decor. But I have high hopes and ambitious dreams. It just needs a lot more planning and fine-tuning … and shopping.

Shoes

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Shoes Oh, baby — come to mama! I am so in love with these shoes that I Chique in Oxford, Mississippigot this past week at Chique, an unbelievably cute boutique on the square in Oxford, Mississippi. Tucked in the back of a dress shop on South Lamar Street, Chique is the sort of place that your girly sexy soul sort of sighs in contentment whenever you Chiquewalk in. Chique came about after owner Angel Overstreet had gone on several mission trips to Brazil and decided to “help the Brazilian Shoespeople by sharing our favorite souvenir,” according to the Chique Web site — and she started with her hometown of Oxford. It’s quite obvious that these shoes aren’t from around here, as we say. Every pair was sultry and playful and sophisticated and comfortable and affordable — and talking directly to me. I finally narrowed my choices down to two pairs and had to call in reinforcements and drag my friends from their own shopping adventures to help me decide. I love these because they’re a bit more versatile — the other pair was definitely dressy but this pair can go with anything and even on into fall. For less than $100, too. Jackpot! And, to my dear husband who I know is reading this: I only bought these shoes for the purposes of journalistic investigation. And I don’t think I got the whole story, so I’m thinking a followup visit is necessary. Who’s with me? Check out the Web site at http://www.chiqueinoxford.com

Hair Cuts

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The other day I turned to my college-student daughter and said, “I’m thinking of doing something really wild and different.” After a couple guesses — hang-gliding? painting the kitchen purple? — she gave up and I confessed my secret: I was thinking about ditching my usual hair guy and wandering in to one of those quick and cheap no-appointment places for a much-needed cut. I was at that place where if somebody handed me a pair of scissors I’d chop it all off myself. You know? One day your hair is good and the next morning you wake up and you cannot stand it one more minute. Or is that just me? Anyway, I knew I had reached that I-hate-my-hair point and I knew it would probably be a week or so before I could get in to my usual guy and anyway I’d always felt sort of guilty about the amount of money I pay for a few snips and razoring and hair-styling when I usually go home and completely mess up his creation anyway. So why not try something different? My daughter, on the other hand, had another solution: Go to the local beauty school. That’s what she does when she needs a trim. It’s cheap and you can get in immediately, she said, and the instructors are nearby in case of crisis. Hmm … maybe that college tuition is paying off because that sounded like a great idea. So that’s what I did — albeit somewhat cautiously. The result? A positive experience overall that I would recommend to anyone who Needs A Hair Cut Right Now. I simply walked in and the receptionist checked her list of available students. I got a sweet 28-year-old girl who was confident and skilled and gave me a trim with a bit of a different style — and a fun half-hour of girl talk and local gossip. Since I also got a shampoo and some hair-drying, the price got bumped up … to $13. Definitely worth it. I also got the satisfaction of helping out some young people, which is always good. I don’t think I’ll give up my hair guy altogether, though, especially not for color. And my usual place definitely wins more points on the calm-and-peaceful front. But for one of those in-between trims or when the budget demands a choice between a hair cut and a new pair of shoes (and we know the shoes always will win), the beauty school was perfect.

Fashion

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Capri pantsAre you like me and find yourself turning to seasonal uniforms, fashion-wise? My cold-weather go-to outfit is a black turtleneck with boots and jeans. Boring but classic, I guess. As temperatures start rising, the turtlenecks get folded up and the boots get cleaned and stored and it’s time for capri pants. I remember 10 years ago or so when capris went mainstream again, invoking days of  Grace Kelly/Jackie Kennedy sophistication instead of the dowdy and baggy gardening attire they’d become in the past couple decades. “I could never wear these new capris,” I remember saying then. “They’re only for young girls with good legs.” Today, of course, young girls with good legs wear short shorts and us moms and grandmoms gratefully have made capris our No. 1 summer basic. I love how they’re cool and comfortable but still allow me to sit and bend and move around without fear of … well, exposure. Unlike shorts, you know. But capris are not trouble-free. The problem is finding ones that fit and flatter your legs as well as your middle. Not easy. If the leg openings work, chances are the waistband won’t. And vice versa. And if you find the perfect fit, it’ll be in lime green or electric turquoise blue or some other tropical color that in the store you can talk yourself into thinking you’ll wear all summer but really you wear them only once to the neighbor’s cookout and then never again. That’s why I felt as if I’d hit the jackpot when I recently found two perfect pairs of capris. I had been on the lookout because my only wearable pair of denim capris — hand-me-ups from one of my daughters — had moved from the “wear only at home” category to the “wear only when doing yard work” category. And you can’t get through summer in Alabama without denim capris. Luckily, I scored at Belk’s with a pair of dark denim (Ralph) Lauren Jeans Co. The rise is high enough to prevent muffin tops but low enough not to be matronly. The other pair is a lightweight denim from Gap. It’s a Limited Edition with a lower waistband and slash pockets that I’ll take out and sew shut for a smoother line. So I’m all set — except today it’s sort of cool and rainy and makes me think I need boots and turtlenecks again.

Fashion

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Old Navy little boy clothesWhen my two now-20-something-year-old daughters Old Navy women's blouseswere younger, Old Navy was Clothing Central. We could find whatever we needed there for all three of us: School clothes, T-shirts and shorts for summer, jeans, jackets and even work basics for my office. Lately though, I’ve been disappointed. I don’t know if we’ve changed or Old Navy has, but I’ve walked out empty-handed most times I’ve gone in recently — if I even went in. With grandson Capt. Adorable’s arrival almost 13 months ago, however, Old Navy has regained its top spot for family fashion. I bypass everything else and head straight back to the baby-boy corner, where shirts and shorts like these are off the cute-0-meter. And cheap. In size 12-18 months, each of these pieces was about $12. I think Capt. Adorable’s going to be the best-dressed toddler at the playground. And of course, on my way out of the baby-boy section, I just happened to spy these blouses for me. Perfect! They’re lightweight and fitted just like I want button-up blouses to be and they give winter-weary closets some of that cheerful color warm-up we’re all craving right now. At $25 each, they come in literally a rainbow of shades. Hard to choose — I may have to go back for more. Check them out also at http://oldnavy.gap.com/.