L'shana tovah!

May you be inscribed for a sweet year!

Hits and Myths

Last week, Shar at La Femme Couture posted an excellent piece titled Wardrobe Must-Haves...and Myths, a topic I've also been pondering lately, after having read yet another "you-can't-be-truly-stylish-without-these-items-in-your-wardrobe" type articles, that doesn't seem to take into account body type, lifestyle, or climate. I'll admit that in the past I've succumbed to influence of the style book writers (and granted, some of it was good advice that worked for me) but on the whole, I've grown a healthy suspicion of someone else's list of indispensables.

Like Shar, I've found that the White Shirt is one of those items that sounds good on paper, looks very chic on other women, but just doesn't work for me. My combination of large bust and short waist have not yet found a white shirt that is compatible. I don't like to tuck things in; it's just an uncomfortable feeling for me, and I've found few white blouses that don't look sloppy when left untucked. Add to the fact that they tend to wrinkle around the waist after a few hours sitting at my desk, and the overall effect is anything but classic.

T-shirts have become my must-have tops under a jacket or sweater. I love the Banana Republic "Timeless Tee" in black and white, and the Talbot's 3/4 sleeve boatneck tee for cooler weather or worn alone. When the chill really sets in, add a v-neck cashmere pullover (another of my non-negotiables).

The Little Black Dress has achieved mythic status among stylistas, but it's an item that I've managed to make it this far in life without acquiring. (Though not for lack of trying; I'm always on the lookout, but have yet to find one that works for me.) A black suit or a pair of black trousers, on the other hand, are items I can't live without. They've become the backbone of my wardrobe for work, travel and evenings out, and when in doubt I grab my Banana Republic basic black suit, as it's easy to dress up or down with accessories.

I'm still on the fence about trenchcoats. I love the look, but most I've found tend to have too much bulk in the waist, and tying the belt renders the "sack of potatoes" effect. So I tend to wear them open, if at all.

Truly indispensable for me is a black leather walking length jacket, like this one. Worn over a cashmere sweater, it's warm enough for Southern California winters, and doubles as a raincoat in all but the heaviest downpours.

Accessories: keeping the silhouette simple allows me to play more with scarves and other accessories. Still, there's a less-is-more factor at work, and with my lack of height it's easy to look swamped when there are too many focal points. Indispensables include a good watch, a simple pair of gold hoops, scarves (bien sur) and a favorite fragrance.

Later this week: shoes and bags!

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RIP, Paul

I've read so many moving tributes in the last day, anything I were to add at this point would just be extraneous. The world is a little bit diminished today.

This is a great little movie that hardly anyone saw. It was one of Newman's last films (and Jessica Tandy's last). I can't imagine anyone else who could've made curmudgeonly Sully so likeable.

Foulard de la semaine

Grand-mêre's scarf again.

We had one of those weeks here that reminds us we're living in a coastal desert. I'm looking forward to the cool down that's supposed to begin today.

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Hommes et foulards

From the NYT:

The lightweight scarf, until lately an autumnal hallmark of European aristos and Upper East Side decorators, has been embraced by style-savvy downtownsters. Perfected by Etro, among others, such scarves are available from Gucci to Club Monaco, in linen, cotton, silk and so on. Like the fedora, the necktie and the suit vest, all of which have made astonishing comebacks in recent seasons, scarves are yet another token of grandfatherly elegance. They have been resurrected not as throat warmers but as something that can be added to a dressed-down look like a V-neck T-shirt and jeans to give it a dressed-up flash. You might even call the scarf the necktie of the T-shirt

I've been noticing this trend a bit here in LA since this summer. Twenty-something hipster guys have been adopting some of the same scarf looks as the women: lightweight, often ethnic print, wrapped casually around the neck, with the majority of fabric in the front. I like this look on les hommes jeunes. What about you?

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Cream of the Cropped

Cropped jackets seem to still be going strong this fall, despite some forecasts for longer lengths to make a resurgence. As it's une femme's belief that the jacket makes the outfit, let's skip the boring tweeds and have some fun, shall we?

J. Crew metallic bouclé, $295. Funky, yes, but next year you can tell everyone it's vintage.

J. Crew again, making herringbone hip. J'adore cette couleur! $198.

Milly Crop Basketweave, $510. Ditch the matchy-matchy skirt and pair with a black leather pencil skirt, or jeans, or even just some nice black wide leg trousers.

William Rast Twill Jacket, $387. Love the attitude!

Marc by Marc Jacobs, $458. Like Chanel on hallucinogens!

See by Chloé, $1130. C'mon, you know you want it.

Milly metallic, $530. Razzle dazzle!

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Stylists Run Amok - Case Study # 1798

Gah. This looks like someone's great aunt's corset/petticoats circa 1932. Or the muslin mock-up of the dress that should have seen it's final version in celadon silk.

January Jones Emmy Red Carpet pic from LA Times.

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Ch-ch-ch-changes

Materfamilias posted this poem a few days ago:

To My Last Period (Lucille Clifton, 1991)

well girl, goodbye,

after thirty-eight years.

thirty-eight years and you

never arrived

splendid in your red dress

without trouble for me

somewhere, somehow.

now it is done,

and i feel just like

the grandmothers who

after the hussy has gone,

sit holding her photograph

and sighing, wasn't she

beautiful? wasn't she beautiful?

The poem was very evocative for me, especially that second stanza. I don't miss the monthly trouble, but I feel caught in that disorienting space between the hussy and the grandmother, not one anymore, nor the other yet. D'un certain age.

My mother and her friends had a euphemism for menopause: The Change. As in, "Arlene's going through The Change," while exchanging the kind of knowing look that drove us kids crazy.

But now that I'm officially on the other side of menopause, the euphemism rings true. It's not just saying goodbye (and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out!) to your periods, accompanied by maybe a hot flash or two. Nope, there's a whole package, and sister, you're along for the ride.

Most of the changes I can accept. I pluck the coarse hairs that occasionally sprout on my chin, I add a dab of concealer to the brown patches that appear suddenly despite my liberal use of 50+ sunscreen. A good night's sleep is no longer a given; some nights it feels like I'm trying to snooze atop a pile of bricks. My libido has gone into hiding, but reemerges after a few kisses. I've never been one of those women who trusted in or (knowingly) traded on her good looks, so the prospect of being no longer young and pretty holds little dread for me.

But last weekend I culled a half dozen or so pair of pants from my closet that fit nine months ago and are now too tight. This bothers me, but what bothers me more is the part of me that sees this as some sort of failure. I really thought I'd evolved beyond this kind of thinking and made peace with my body, but here it is again showing me that there is still work to be done.

It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. - Sally Kempton

I don't have many regrets in my life, but one that I still nurse is that I wasted so much physical and mental energy on the misguided attempt to force my body to achieve an impossible ideal, and to let the failure to achieve it impact my sense of self-worth so profoundly.
Wasn't she beautiful? Wasn't she beautiful?
A few days ago, Duchesse posted a picture of a lovely young woman in a tight red dress, and pondered whether she herself had ever dressed to create the same effect. Ultimately she concludes:
I know women who are mired in mourning for their lost effect. What is the point? I'd love to be able to carry off this dress, but know (and most of the time accept) that the natural arc of life has removed that possibility.
Let's have a moment of appreciation for our bodies, whether voluptuous or lean, smooth or lined, soft or firm. What we were, and on our journey, what we have become.
Hear, hear.
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Foulard de la semaine

Nothing fancy this week. The weather warmed back up, so I pulled my cotton scarves out again. This scarf is smaller (70cm x 70cm) than the last one I showed worn this way, and I think I actually prefer the smaller scarf for this style.

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The Bold and the Beautiful

Statement jewelry is back in a big way, and my favorite LA-based jewelry designer, Devon Leigh, has some offerings right in line with this trend. I love the naturalistic style of her pieces, and the unique way she utilizes her materials. I have a couple pairs of her earrings, and would love to add some of these pieces to my collection.

Green tuquoise and amethyst necklace, $825.

Lapis nugget and amber CZ necklace, $675.

Black Drusy Quartz wire wrapped ring $325. (stone dipped in 24K gold, wire is 14K)

18K gold-dipped cuff, $245.

Figure eight earrings, $240.

Amethyst slice pendant and gold chain, $750. Isn't this just stunning???

Gold and amber circle earrings (5" long), $495. I love amber but you so rarely see it paired with gold.

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The Great Pumpkin

Don't be afraid of the orange! More of une femme's Fall Color Faves.

J.Crew calls this color "Pumpkin" but it really looks more ochre to me.

I know, I know, it's Eileen Fisher, but look at that gorgeous color!

I keep hoping this one will go on sale. Lafayette 148.

Chasse en Inde by Hermès from Luxury-Scarves.com.
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Paris Prep - Vin

Last year we purchased several bottles of wine in Paris to bring home. Because airline regulations no longer allow this precious liquid cargo to be carried on, we wrapped them in socks and sweaters and plastic grocery bags, and kept our fingers crossed all the way home that we wouldn't open our luggage to find broken glass and Bordeaux-soaked clothing. Our luck held, but this time we're taking no chances, and will be taking along some Wine Mummy bags to bring home our fruit of the vine. Top pic from here.
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Out Of Touch

(the only work-safe pic accompanying this article)

NO one blinked at the Marc Jacobs fashion show last week when the model Freja Beha Erichsen appeared in a sheer black top that revealed that she was wearing a nipple ring. No one blushed at the Chris Benz show when Sasha Luss and Ekat Kiseleva posed in see-through camisoles. No one seemed particularly hot or bothered that Ali Stephens’s breasts were clearly visible through her dress when she walked for Derek Lam. No one was outraged that Francisco Costa showed a transparent raincoat at Calvin Klein with nothing but a thong underneath.
...
We have become so desensitized to images of naked celebrities, sex tapes and Internet pornography that designers are hard-pressed to create anything that seems really transgressive. Even a strong undercurrent of bondage in the spring collections, with harnesses at Proenza Schouler and Rodarte, caging stripes at Narciso Rodriguez and Thakoon and blackout bars across the breasts of a sheer top from Cushnie et Ochs, a new label by recent fashion school graduates Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs, failed to whip up a frenzy.
One could argue that American tastes have become less puritanical, but it seems more likely that they have simply become dulled.
NYT.

OK, I'll grant that (capitalF)ashion is supposed to be theatrical and edgy and push boundaries. But COME ON. Even when this season's runway themes trickle down to the ready-to-wear racks, who will be actually ready to wear this particular trend?

(And may I just add that for many of us, going braless is not "liberating," but just damned uncomfortable.)
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Shoes for Saturday

In which une femme surrenders to Sk8r Kultur.

While walking back to my car after getting my hair colored and cut (both of which worked out brilliantly, much to my relief) I spotted these at David's in the sale bin for $25. For walking dogs, running to the grocery store, picking up the dry cleaning...why not?

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Bridge to Nowhere (no, not THAT one!)

This is another picture of the bridge I posted about here. My curiosity got the better of me, so did some googling and found out the following:

The bridge is known as the Bellaire Bridge, or the Bellaire Toll Bridge. According to this site, it was built as a private enterprise in 1926, and is a great example of a "cantilever truss" bridge. When it opened in December 1926, the toll was a nickel, and 7000 cars lined up to cross it.

Picture from 1936 (above) and sometime later (below) from here.

This is how I remember it looking in the mid 1960's.

The bridge was closed to traffic in 1991, and the roadway to the Bellaire side was torn down. It was purchased by a contractor named Roger Barack who has done nothing with it, though the Coast Guard wants it torn down.

And more Bellaire Bridge trivia:
An even more amusing note: it turns out this is the bridge which Special Agent Clarice Starling (played, of course, by Jodie Foster) crosses in an aerial shot toward the end of The Silence of the Lambs, on her way to investigate a lead in the fictitious (though strikingly believable-sounding) town of Belvedere, Ohio. (Une femme's note: the movie was released in 1991; they must have filmed right before the bridge was closed and the Ohio entrance demolished.)

Personally, I think this bridge is a thing of beauty and should be preserved. I'm guessing that puts me in the minority.
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Foulard de la semaine

The weather has turned blessedly cooler, cool enough to pull out the silks again. I know it won't last, so I'm enjoying while I can.

I tried something a bit different with this one. Usually I fold diagonally into an oblong shape to start, but this time I rolled in from opposite sides, and then tied in a single knot. Surprisingly, it stayed in place all day without fiddling.

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Paris Prep - Les Livres

Each day closer to our trip, ma tête is less and less in LA, more and more in Paris.

Currently reading: Selected Letters of Madame Sevigné. These letters provide a fascinating glimpse into the life of an upper class Parisian woman of the 17th century. She knew everyone who was anyone, including the Royal family, writers, poets, soldiers, and was a prodigious correspondent on subjects as varied as a notorious criminal trial to gardens to gossip about those in her circles. The majority of letters in this collection seem to be to her married daughter, with whom she had an obsessive attachment, and apparently missed so much she seemed in constant danger of pining away to an untimely death. I'm reading this because one of our stops this trip will be the Musée Carnavalet, which was her home and now houses a museum of Paris history.

Just finished: Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac. The "red in tooth and claw" world of 19th century Paris high society provides cruel temptation for one man, and is the undoing of another, while their fellow boarders at Mme Vaquer's boarding house all engage in machinations to further their own agendas. We visited Balzac's house last year when we visited Paris, but I'd read so little Balzac (and so long ago) that most of what we saw was lost on me.

Last year before our trip, I devoured Ross King's The Judgement of Paris, which is one of the most fascinating art history/art/history books I've had the pleasure to read. "Judgement" delves in great detail into the historical, cultural and artistic climate that gave rise to Impressionism and provided amazing context for much of the art we saw at the Musée D'Orsay. I've always been interested in art history, but would recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in Paris, art and/or history. It reads like a novel and is anything but dry. Those artistes were a fractious bunch, sort of like Heathers with oil paint! Stir in some wars, some snooty art critic types, some prostitutes and absinthe, and the result is the stuff of legends.
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Do The Right Thing, Win Some Bling

Wendy Brandes is auctioning off some of her gorgeous jewelry to raise money to help cover medical expenses for blogger Stephanie Neilsen who was severely burned in a small plane crash last month. Go! Bid!

Edited to add: Wendy has upped the ante! She also has a link up for donations via Paypal for those who aren't bidding or would like to make additional contributions. Bid here.

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Face à face: Paris and New York

We'll be in Paris from Oct 12-16,

and in New York from Oct 17-20.

If any fellow bloggers out there would like to meet up for coffee/lunch/cocktails/a walk in the park, drop me an e-mail. I'd love to meet you face à face!
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Yo, Vinnie!

The right leather jacket, une femme believes, is a versatile and indispensable item in anyone's wardrobe. Last year in Paris my very basic 3/4 length black leather jacket served me quite well in all but the heaviest downpours, and looked right at home on les rues Parisiennes. I love the instant shot of attitude and subtle masculine element that a leather jacket adds to an otherwise feminine ensemble, and some of these below would be a great balance for the ruffled blouses and florals that seem to be hot items for fall.

A good leather jacket will last for years. Styles can range from classic to edgy, but the best are versatile and can be dressed up or down.
Office-worthy AK Anne Klein, $299. Would also look great with jeans. (Not loving that skirt, though.)

Classiques Entier, $348. I'm on the fence about this one. I like the shape and pockets, but think those buttons at the top are a distraction.

For beautiful leather and classic, sublime styling, look to Cole Haan. $695.

Bluefly.com also has a great selection of Cole Haan leather jackets (at a discount!) like this one, $537. Another in walking length. While I like this length, it does limit your utility to outerwear. Kenneth Cole Reaction, $299.

Great color, great style! Ellen Tracy, $998.

Cole Haan, $477. I'll bet those seaming details make this one look fabulous on.

Similar collar detail, an edgier look. Andew Marc, $357. Can't you just picture yourself zooming around Paris on a scooter wearing this jacket (and a fabulous scarf, bien sur)?

No scooters here. This one is the real deal; requires a Harley-Davidson, and oodles of attitude.
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