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 last summer’s sale was about the creepy crawlies, Prada style, and I was all over it like a cheap suit:
And a few weeks ago I completed my trifecta with this recent online find, a swirly beige watersnake platform peeptoe slingback (I dare you to say that three times fast) with a sweet little bow, no less…
Gorgeous shoes to show off a pedicure and many hours of leg (barre) exercises, but…Houston, we’ve got a problem. Can beige be a difficult neutral in your wardrobe? Apparently, it is for me. And you know me, the first thing I do after bringing home a new pair of shoes is to match them to a bag.
Next to the Chanel beige claire, the bag is a warmer shade of beige against the now anemic looking shoes:
But heck, the skin on the bag is so delicious, how about another gratuitous shot ? It almost looks like, on my monitor, the lining of the shoes matches the bag more than the shoes themselves. But in person, the lining of my shoes is blush pink. Strange how colors relate to each other once you have them side-by-side. But I digress…
So…if the first bag is too warm in tone, how about going pale on pale with my dark white mini flap?
Uhhh…white and beige are like sisters from another mother, and father. Not really working.
So if I can’t match beige to another beige exactly, what about beige and a beige step-sister, taupe? And to make my brain hurt a little more, how about mixing two textures on top of the colors, like the snake against the ostrich?
Aye, me duele la cabeza. So in today’s Couture Counsel episode, I’m asking how you wear the beiges that surely lurk somewhere in your closet? Would you go for any of the above options? What happens if there’s not an exact match…do you suffice for “close enough” or just contrast it with another color all together to save yourself the headache?
I could, for example, just wear the shoes with the gorgeous dark matte gold bag that’s so stunning no one would care what shoes I had on…
or pair them with a dark brown bag to match the deep chocolate specks in the snake’s patterns? But do you see the first photo with the tan-colored leather trims around the bow? Well, wouldn’t a dark brown bag look weird with tan, even if they are technically in the same family? Oy, my OCD keeps getting better! I think I need to take two aspirins and wait for your opinions.
Tags: beige, Chanel, Couture Counsel, peeptoe, platform, Prada, slingbacks, watersnake
All right, so I’ve read all your comments and held the skirt then shoes up against all my shirts and sweaters and think I can either do something funky with the color or the pattern, but not both at the same time. Professional stylists are very clever with mixing both colors and patterns but I still have to stay true to what I could realistically wear outside of my closet. So here are a few options I’ve pulled together so far…
Look 1: a very safe option with the crinkled gray embellished cotton shirt from JCrew. It’s a no brainer and I like the funky beading along the shirt placket, but it’s not going to win any award for imagination:
Look 2: I thought, well, what if I added something burgundy over Look 1 to play off the burgundy in the shoes? And what if this burgundy item were tweeded and fringed (and sometimes makes me feel like the Michelin Man on my bloated days) to give it yet another layer of texture? Too much mixing of patterns perhaps? Chanel overdrive, you say?
Look 3: Then I reached for more gray stuff, like this fringed t-shirt from last summer…kinda nutty with a totally different type of pattern in the shirt’s tweed fringe, right?
Look 4: When I’m uncomfortable with a color or pattern I have a habit of throwing a solid cardigan over what’s ailing me and pray it all works out. So to temper the mixing of patterns in Look 3, I add a dark gray Prada cardigan over it (no sleeveless look for me till I get back to my workout routine!)…but it’s really a dowdy look:
Look 5: But what if I went with a lighter shade of gray like in this JCrew cardi instead?
Yeah, still dowdy. Gray is gorgeous but it can totally un-cool you.
Look 6: Then I thought, what if I went all casual and wore a GAP chambray button down with it? I’d let my pearl lariat necklace dress it up a bit:
Look 7: In this final attempt, I’m trying to take your advice about color. You’d mentioned blush, green, yellow, aqua and I love all the suggestions with a checked skirt. I’m just scared to mix colors with a patterned skirt! So this is me being bold with one pop of color while keeping everything else toned down:
I’m not sure what these outfits will actually look like on, and as you all already know this, how you carry off a look depends a lot on how comfortable/confident you feel in that particular ensemble. So I’ll go try them on and submit my favorite photo in the next entry. And who knows, maybe inspiration will find me and I can surprise you with a completely different look .
Many people fall off the new year’s resolutions wagon by this second week in January, so along that spirit, in today’s FIMTSO episode, I’m cheating a little bit by featuring an item that’s new to my closet. Today’s test item is the something-something I alluded to at the end of the last blog’s entry. But I know that if you are like me, you already have a few black t-shirts in your wardrobe. And if you are really like me, you’re always searching for that next perfect tee, the one that fits just so and that you hope will not lose its shape after the first cleaning.
Test Item: CHANEL 10A wool black t-shirt with embellished trims. LOVE the leather braided into the trim!
Work Look: I’m pairing the tee with a black/white checked tweed skirt from the 09P season. The sweet grey ribbon trim on the skirt actually throws me for a loop each time I put on this skirt–do I match the shoes to the colors on the tweed or to the grey ribbon?? (And who else but Karl would put light grey on black and white?!) But today I’m finishing off the look with the patent black Manolos. Speaking of shoes, at the top of my buy list is a pair of black heels. I think I like the peep-toe, platform pair from Chanel’s cruise 2011 collection, but I’m also still gaga over the YSL pair I saw last week. Hmmm…
Casual Look: We love to layer in Southern Cal so it’s only fitting to slip a slim, grey cotton Mossimo hoodie ($15 from Target!) under my tee. The Gucci grey herringbone tweed pants and black Manolo watersnake boots complete my look. It’s my comfy-casual alternative to jeans and sneakers.
Glam Look: I’ve seen all the great American designers do this look, pairing a formal skirt with a simple t-shirt. So in this third combo I take my cues from Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors (and actually a nod to Ms. Herrera as well), and Donna Karan and pair the tee with a long, bronze, crinkly Nicole Miller skirt. This skirt was actually a dress that I had altered into a skirt (see before and after pics below). I must be in a reptilian mood because in this last look, I’m featuring the Prada python slingbacks.
Tags: Chanel, FIMTSO, Gucci, Manolo, Mossimo, Nicole Miller, Prada, Target, YSL
The last couple of looks have been about the pants, so today I’m trying to see how many ways I can rework a black skirt on the road.
Summer 2010 Trip: Look 3 The skirt is a 2009 Prada crinkly skirt that I think will look cute with the heels I featured in Look 1 or any regular pair of black flip flops, depending on the occasion. Here I have it with a Tory Burch tank (she makes the BEST tanks to me) and Mossimo flip flops…
but if I have to run to a nice meeting or dinner, I can throw on the Chanel cardigan and heels instead:
Now, those tanks can also work with the pants I featured in yesterday’s Look 2–the second one is a black Libertine for Target skull tank…
and of course today’s skirt will be just as cute with an embellished JCrew tshirt:
I like embellished tops for the road because then I don’t have to wear jewelry, which I seem to have a horrible habit of misplacing. Then you remember how it goes in my head, right? I start to suspect the hotel staff, some random kid, mail carrier, FedEx guy….
