This time last year I was frantically chasing down ready-to-wear on sale. This year, I am more or less sidelined because even the items on my Chanel wish list turned out to be not so exciting (or cute) once I saw them in person. Interestingly enough, some of the things I’ve liked most are not the tweed jackets but basics that I can wear on the road, such as this slouchy beanie and scarf set
and a cool black turtleneck with leather strips on the sleeves:
One of my favorite things to wear is a simple pencil skirt. This fall JCrew did a whole slew of knee-length pencil skirts in beautiful tweeds, and I lucked into finding them all on sale last week at 60% off! More on the topic of skirts in the next entry…
On one of my insomniac nights last month I customized these Converse sneakers at their website, and 4 weeks later they showed up. The monograms turned out to be bigger than I anticipated, but I love the patent leather:
The grey pair matches my tote:
Did you notice the Missoni for Target pouf in the photo above 
? Speaking of which, I’ll close out today’s entry with a pic of my velour hoodie/shorts set:
I promise I’m finally done with the Missoni hunt!
Tags: Chanel, Converse, JCrew, Missoni for Target
What have I learned so far here, two weeks in, on this trip?
1. There actually are four seasons outside of Los Angeles. No matter what the Angelenos tell you, you can’t really melt under rain. And chilly weather is the best climate for Chanel RTW. I may have to turn up the air con to wear the tweed jackets in California, but here, it’s perfect for layering! This is what I wore to dinner the other night: Josie Natori black knit dress, JCrew scarf, Fendi heels, and Chanel leather/tweed jacket:
OK, a bit dressed up to see some old friends (they wore jeans!), but I wanted to represent! Of course after a huge dinner I wished I had on some stretch jeans myself…
2. I should have studied Mandarin instead of Spanish in college. Sure, I can order beer in South America like there’s no tomorrow, but for once I’m really out of my element trying to break into China from Europe. Something’s always lost in the translation. And just because my last name could be mistaken for Chinese, they seem to expect me to speak the language. I can barely order food in Chinese, people…even with a photo menu!
3. And finally, time really does not stop while I’m on the road. Life back home goes on sans moi. A dear friend had posted here that she’d found the Missoni for Target carry on suitcase for me and took the time drop it off yesterday. So because of her act of kindness, I can now stop trolling ebay for it at 3am and look forward to coming home to a new zigzag suitcase! Gals, say Amen if you agree that it really does take a village to make our shopping wishes come true sometimes.
Speaking of shopping…the sun is supposed to come out this Friday and I’ve a date at one of the Chanel boutiques. Let’s see what report I bring back for you in the next entry!
Tags: Chanel, Fendi, JCrew, Josie Natori, Los Angeles, Missoni
My daily outfits consist of pants about 90% of the time. It’s rare that you’ll see me in a skirt or dress unless I have a meeting or event that requires it. And yet every season, for quite some time now, I collect Chanel skirts. They don’t always come as a matching item to my jackets, but there’s something so effortless and timeless about these skirts that I’d rather “invest” my money here than with their more glamorous competitors. So anyway, I thought why not do a series of looks with 5 random (not in any particular order of preference) Chanel skirts just to break up the August heat…which doesn’t make a great deal of sense in immediate hindsight as I type this sentence because the tweeds are hotter than a Texas sun. But what the heck, let’s get started with the first skirt!
Skirt #1: I’m posting this entry on a Monday, so I’m going to feature a work look. It’s a black & navy ribbon tweed skirt from the 09A season with hidden pockets. I’m crazy about how uncomplicated this style is so that it’s all about the fabric–and the fact that it could support a navy or black scheme, depending on what you wear with it. Chanel does black and navy almost as fabulously as with black and white.
To keep it simple, some of the tops that I could pair with this skirt are a blue-themed Etro button down,
a navy Prada cotton top which comes back in style every so often whenever chinoiserie is in,
or a navy with black details silk JCrew top,
For transitioning to a night event from work, I could just change into a black tuxedo shirt, throw on some really good jewelry and a clutch and I’m all set to go.
Anyway, here’s my favorite look for this skirt–just a plain navy cotton button-down JCrew shirt, Tahitian pearls, and pale gator classic flap (shoes are 3″ black peep-toe slingbacks):
I know, I know, I just made it all about the bag again, didn’t I ? How ’bout another gratuitous shot of those gator scales for the road?
Tags: Chanel, Etro, JCrew, Prada, ribbon tweed
So continuing with the black/beige theme and rather warm weather, I’m featuring another casual look in today’s entry: ivory herringbone linen JCrew pants, Allsaints Spitalfields black top with leather harness, and Chanel camellia slides and mini “Bubble Quilt” flap…
I’m currently mad for Allsaints Spitalfields, a chain started in the UK–here’s one of its London locations:
But regardless of the city, you can always tell you are at Allsaints because of all the antique sewing machines lined up in their stores. So here’s another look at that top–the funky harness seems to go well with the distressed hardware on my bag:
Tags: Allsaints Spitalfields, Bubble Quilt, camellia, Chanel, JCrew
Remember how the world was “supposed” to end last month…but we’re still here? Well, something worse is actually happening to LA this weekend. It’s Carmageddon. That’s right, this weekend the already congested 405 freeway will close some of its sections on the Westside for infrastructure improvements. Pity the poor souls who booked their vacations months ago and who will now get the real taste of living with traffic in LA.
It’s a good time to not be in LA, or if you are already here, to find a way to stay in. I think it’s a great excuse to not go shopping this weekend and just play in my closet instead. So starting with today’s entry I’ll be posting an outfit a day with some recent finds.
In this matchy-matchy ensemble with the Chanel slides I recently scored, I’m featuring the beige claire jumbo flap and a matte pailletes tank I got from JCrew last week during their summer sale. I love anything with black and beige almost as much as black and white. I’ll be wearing this outfit with my skinny capri jeans to dinner.
Tags: 405, Carmageddon, Chanel, JCrew
