You know how some days you just wake up feeling like how my cat looks? This weekend has been like that for me. I sprained my ankle from a particularly rigorous workout on Friday so I’ve been hobbling around on one good foot for the last 48 hours. But the good news is that I finally got my lazy butt back into workout mode for the full second week in a row. I don’t get on the scale anymore because that’s just demoralizing when you already think your pants are feeling too snug. For me these days, it’s about how consistently I can exercise and resist bad food. Those are actually my two personal resolutions for 2011, like they have been every year. It’s just harder to find the motivation with each year that passes.
Speaking of resolutions, I’ve also made a shopping resolution for 2011. Uh oh, you say while rolling your eyes, here we go again. I know I’m no better than the next untrustworthy addict who swears she’ll not inhale/imbibe/buy again. But this year, I’ve taken a friend’s advice to heart and made two lists. One, a holy grail wish list of sorts, of all the dream items I’d love to find. That list is for giggles. Two, a more practical wish list that I’ve stored on my phone so that when I do find myself in a store, I don’t get distracted by other tempting fillers.
This second list is based on a serious assessment made a couple of weekends ago of my current wardrobe. I went through my closet and pulled out all the items I haven’t worn in years and probably will never wear. In short, about 35.9% of my closet is now in another room marked for recycling. It was both a daunting and therapeutic process, this closet colonoscopy, but I can’t tell you how freeing it is to let go of things that you don’t need. What is is with the emotional attachment to material goods? Is it genetic, cultural, or gender-specific? I don’t know, but it sure is nice to de-clutter every once in a while. Especially when that process turns up a couple of surprises I forgot I had…
but it’s going to be a few days before I can get my fat ankle into any kind of high heel.
Anyway, I’m sure some of you have running wish lists as well as you head into each new shopping season, right? Would love to see what’s on yours!
All right, so you’ve all given me lots of food for thought. I’m leaning toward most of your suggestions about wearing heels with it to lengthen the look as anything with a peplum can make me look both shorter and wider, and that’s about as attractive as it sounds! Anyway, as requested by some comments, below are photos of the jacket on me as a visual aid for your styling tips.
If I button the jacket completely, all you see is a black jacket:
And if I leave the last two buttons undone, you can see the colorful lining under the peplum as I walk:
This jacket was purchased one size up from my usual then altered to fit like a 34. But looking at the runway photos in the last blog entry, I see that it’s meant to be worn even more snugly on top so that the peplum is really pronounced. But this girl’s gotta be able to breathe so I think I’ll leave it the way it is.
So like last time, I’ll cull through all of your ideas, test them out and then post result pics!
So a couple of blog entries ago I hinted at a jacket that’s a favorite of mine yet rests in my closet like a semi-forgotten trophy wife. She’s not lost her glitter, still a sight to behold, but she doesn’t get out much. And by that I mean at all.
Every time I pass by this black jacket in my closet from the stellar Chanel 08A collection, I think of the two rather unassuming looks from the runway (the next two photos are courtesy of my favorite fashion site, Style.com)…
that in reality turned out to be pretty incredible works of design and tailoring…
But you say, it’s just a black peplum jacket, so what’s the problem? Well, it’s not so much a problem as it is a…tricky situation. Because it sort of looks like Jackson Pollock exploded under the jacket and all over the very flouncy peplum:
I love this jacket. As you can see from the belt on the back of the jacket, when buttoned, it gives an illusion of shape on my otherwise boyish figure. I’ve worn it around in my closet over pj bottoms a few times just to enjoy it, but for the life of me I’m not sure how to serve it justice out in public. I also want to play up its fun factor. Interpreting the runway is not always easy (esp since I wasn’t able to score the matching skirt, though the skirt + jacket look from the runway is not super fun) when an article has a particularly unusual detail.
So what say you fashionistas out there? How do I wear this? I’m giving you free reign this time; no requirement of bottoms, bags or shoes. I need your styling advice…the only caveat is that the outfit not look like Pollock exploded on the outside as well 
.
Waiting for your counsel in the closet with my trophy wife…
Tags: Chanel, Jackson Pollock, peplum jacket, Style.com
*Above photo courtesy of my virtual BFF who’s living my other life in KL
A dear reader recently wrote about her first Chanel bag and the whole charming experience behind buying it. She also asked me which was the first one that led me down this, shall we say, dark road of no returns. For me, it was the chocolate brown on brown Cambon mini reporter with orange lining. Let’s roll back a few years…now I’d been a huge fan of Chanel for a very long time, but mostly for their shoes and clothes. Always thought their classic bags were too matronly for the (Italian) rocker girl living inside my head.
Then one day I saw a picture of the real Italian-American rocker girl living outside of my head, aka Madonna, running around London carrying the large reporter in black. Don’t let me fool you, celeb advertising, whether intentional or random by paparazzi shots, works. I don’t really want to buy anything simply because a celeb is wearing it (it actually has the opposite effect for me) but put Nicole Ritchie in it and suddenly I think I can’t live without it. Maybe it’s because we’re both tiny and if she can rock something, I think it might work for me. But anyway, back to Madonna and that bag. The thing is, I’m a fan of Madonna only because her music reminds me of some interesting moments in my life and because she’s a heck of a businesswoman. What she wears, on the other hand, while I applaud will definitely not work on me because we do not have the same body type…thus, if you use her in your ad campaign, it most likely will not work on me.
And yet that one tiny picture sealed my fate. I researched the bag as if I was looking for a cure for cancer. I debated among the various permutations of the bag and eventually came home with this one and its matching phone case, which BTW never fit any of the million cell phones I’ve had since then:
If you are a fan of this label like yours truly, you know that part of the thrill is deciding which ones catch your eye for that season then scouring the boutiques (as I call it doing my homework) until you find the right one. The high, of course, is the day you finally decide to get it from the store. And if you buy it from the boutique itself instead of the department store, the biggest treat is in their wrapping then your unwrapping when you are back in the privacy of your own home…
where you could squeal and jump up and down on the sofa to your heart’s content. And yeah, it never gets old to me. At least not yet.
My first Chanel bag has since long been adopted. My collection has also morphed into a group of the aforementioned “matronly” bags. But boy oh boy, there’s nothing dowdy about them now…
They still rock in and out of my head.
Tags: Cambon mini reporter, Chanel, Madonna
When I wrote about this bag last month, a dear reader advised me to sleep on it and see if the Chanel pale bluish-gray Chain Around flap in sueded buffalo was worth hunting. Well, I did mull it over, over many cups of tea and stronger drinks, over long walks…even longer talks with anyone who’d listen (including myself). And even as the taupe lambskin version quickly sold out in stores, making my taupe one now a commodity, I couldn’t shake it.
The heart wants what the heart wants, and just like with buying art, it is all about that immediate connection. I know I’m talking about fluff again today, but fashion is highly subjective, and based on my own experience, the things I end up keeping forever have to have that love at first sight sensation.
So a week ago I gave it another shot. I got up at 5am and called the Paris boutiques and was abruptly dismissed by one (but you know, it still sounded so pretty in French!) then referred to London by another. The first London boutique had sold out and the second had the wrong size. Of course by now this sicko mind of yours truly was in overdrive. The harder the chase, the bigger the kill. I just wanted to slay that darn dragon. At all costs! Then a charming voice came over the phone at the Sloane boutique and in two minutes flat the dragon, er buffalo, was conquered. Days and miles of ocean passed and then…
It is a sueded (I want to say nubuck?) leather, and as soon as my eyes made contact with the color, my heart melted into a small puddle of water at my feet. If it wasn’t completely inappropriate to weep over a bag, I would.
Here it is next to the taupe lambskin version…
and next to the equally anemic gator flap…
Maybe not in all things, but generally my instinct is strong when it comes to fashion. I could tell from one tiny picture that this bag was the one for me. I’m glad I took the time to think it over so that it wasn’t an impulsive decision. So when that reader told me to sleep on it, I did. And I dreamed of buffalo. So glad it is even better in person than all my dreams combined .
Tags: Chain Around flap, Chanel
