Category — Fashionista / Wannabista

Namaste from India!

She’s Shopping India:
Pashmina scarves are a classic accessory to add a burst of color to your coat, a little warmth to your neck or some style to your ensemble.

Pashmina is the type of wool found on the throat, chin, face and underbelly of adult and baby mountain goats in the Kashmir Provinces. The finer the pashmina, the lighter, softer and more expensive the scarf. 100% pure pashmina is the most expensive and warmest scarf, so soft and fine you can pull it through a wedding band.

Pashmina has become almost a generic term for any wool blend scarf, regardless if it’s 100% acrylic or 100% pashmina. Whether you’re buying at a bazaar in Jaipur for $200, or a street corner in New York City at 4 for $20, or at Macy’s in Chicago for $55, you want to get what you’re paying for.

If you’re paying 4/$20, it’s a pretty sure thing you’re buying 100% acrylic. But if you’re paying $55 and the tag promises 80% pashmina, 20% silk (most “pashminas” are a pashmina wool/silk blend), how can you be sure it’s not acrylic?

India has introduced Moi to the pashmina fire drill:

- When shopping for pashminas, bring matches

- light one strand of the pashmina fringe with a match

- immediately extinguish the strand with your thumb and pointer finger

If it smells like burning rubber and there is a black sooty streak on your thumb and finger, it’s an acrylic blend. Burning silk smells like burning hair, and doesn’t leave any soot.

Moi tip: any reputable pashmina dealer in India will respect you for performing the fire drill. Macy’s will probably arrest you.

Moi is hard at work shopping the bazaars of India, researching exotic shopping tips to share with you. Until you get Moi first India road trip report, here are some ideas on wearing your memories as jewelry that Moi recently shared with The Antiques Diva:

Souvenirs de la Reine

Moi attended a black tie at the Waldorf last week (I like to keep mentioning that…it makes me happy!) and one of Moi table companions was an UES Mom who was lamenting the problems of tracking down some cute Little Bit togs by Stella McCartney for GapKids and BabyGap.  As I wasn’t in Little Bit shopping mode at that particular moment (my delectable trio des chocolats was being served) I sort of drifted through her trials, until I realized that the problem was this collection is in short supply!

Just arriving in Gap stores last week perfectly timed for the holiday season, not every store carries the Stella GapKids collection: it’s only in select stores, in limited quantities. How’s that for creating demand:  designer to the stars (Stella McCartney is regularly seen on gal-pals Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, and Madonna), young mother of 3, environmentalist, celebrity since birth (surely you’ve heard of Paul McCartney hint: Beatles! and wife Linda hint: animal rights activist and vegetarian cookbook author) and lots of PR in all the fashion and celebrity mags!

The collection follows the designer’s aesthetics:

• mini-me, of the moment styling with leggings, military jackets, winter shorts, hi-tops and hoodies
• vegetarian and organic conviction: no leather or fur products
• high-moderate prices starting at $14 for leggings up to $98 for jackets and dresses

On-line or or at a Gap store near you…if you’re lucky! Better hurry, this stuff is too cute and Mommies everywhere will be snatching it up…rumour has it Angelina has already stocked up!

Lucky Moi can combine her passions for antiquing, shopping and gift-giving this weekend in NYC… and so can you! With over 500 dealers, two days may not be enough time to lose yourself in the fun, outrageous and unique vintage stuff being displayed and offered for sale. Jewelry, furniture, artwork, collectibles, toys, books: you can shop for everyone from Grandpa to baby K to your BFF and not worry about giving duplicates. And very possibly get a great bargain while you’re at it!

At this type of show I can easily entertain myself for hours: I can go down the same row but from the opposite direction and find all new wonders to admire and inquire about. And TBG was totally engrossed in a booth specializing in vintage college sports gear: who knew?

Need a hostess gift? Maybe the set of 6 bronze metal napkin rings I saw last year. Nephew is a sci fi fan? How about a Star Trek poster or figurine. Mom is a great cook? What about that out-of-print cookbook. Your daughter is addicted to Mad Men? Check out that Bakelite bracelet. Just be sure to bring your gift list…and credit cards.

If you’re searching for a special gift for someone, this is where to start. And the show’s promoters have come up with another angle to entice you to buy:

Be Green – Buy Vintage

The Pier Antiques Show is Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, at Pier 94 in NYC (near the cruise ship docks on the Hudson). Admission $15: but check online and in the paper for reduced admission coupons.

While you’re at the show, don’t miss Fashion Alley, a vintage fashion market that boasts Hot Shopping: Unique, Fabulous and Affordable. Also at Pier 94 this show features clothes, jewelry, handbags and accessories. My visit last year hand me torn between Hermès scarves and Chanel bags, while TBG spent his time searching out classic cufflinks and moneyclips.

But don’t worry, there’s plenty that’s very affordable, and dealers negotiate: they need to make sales! But maybe bring your checkbook and credit cards, just in case!

See you at Pier 94!

On my fast-paced walk down Columbus Ave, Moi once again stopped to admire a gorgeously arranged display window: sexy and chic and very feminine, I’d often admired Only Hearts, but never ventured inside. Somehow, the skeptical back of my brain told me that this store must sell coffee cups and key chains emblazoned with heart logos, but my eyes finally convinced me to enter.

First several vintage kimonos caught my eye…then a display case filled with vintage and faux vintage jewels…and bits of silky and ribbony lingerie…shoes and boots…dresses and blouses…candles and perfume, and bien sur, coffee mugs with heart logos. All organized like a somewhat messy but very chic walk-in closet: a closet Moi needed to investigate.

I was enchanted: why hadn’t I stopped at this new store already! To my complete surprise I was told Only Hearts had been on Columbus Ave over 20 years, originally just down the street. And now there were locations not only on the Upper West Side and in SoHo, but in California and Rome…as in Italy! They even have an internet salesroom! Yes, its a very American store, but its sexy, romantic casual under-and-outer clothes has appeal beyond NYC.

On my first visit, I left with a new strapless bra to wear for an upcoming black tie night at the Waldorf Astoria (I’m excited, very old New York!) and a card filled with scribblings of items I want to check on my next visit, and maybe give TBG for his shopping list. Their website even boasts never-worn vintage lingerie: I need to check that out! More than eye candy, Only Hearts is affordable luxury.

Once I returned chez moi and checked out the Only Hearts website, I learned more about the store creator and lingerie designer Helena Stuart. I love her philosophy: I don’t want my clothes to age after one season. I believe in building a wardrobe, and I want my customer to be able to wear my clothes for years and not feel dated. I want her to look appealing, without giving too much away. As a woman I understand what fits a woman’s body, and I understand how to capture the male gaze.

Slow down, smell the roses: don’t just look at the windows, go on in and touch the hearts!

I love it when a chic trendy designer offers product at a lower price point when they’re hot…not when they’re on a downward spiral. Target is a master at this…every season they offer lower priced exclusives from some hot fashion and home designers.

This season Rachel Roy is taking it to the streets with her new line at Macy’s, Rachel Rachel Roy.  It’s a young NYC look that will definitely work it around the country, and has pieces that will work at any age. Affordable fun fashions by Rachel…what’s not to like?

swing jacket by Rachel Rachel Roy

I’m Shopping Now!

So you go green or are cutting expenses or you need some exercise: whatever the reason, you’re biking it. But you’re still a girlie-girl: and girlie girls have stuff.

And how’s a chic biker chick going to carry all that stuff while keeping both hands on her handlebars and not mess up her outfit?

biker chic bags by Po Campo

Chicago biker chics Maria and Emily are designing tres chic biker bags that attach to your handlebars or back wheel, and come in great colors and cool designs. Po Campo bags come in pretty-girl colors like pink and blue, and funky patterns too.  Fashionable and Functional: that’s they’re motto for these water-resistant and light-weight bags.

They’re sold at a dozen stores in  ChiTown, or on the internet if you’re not lucky enough to be a ChicChick. More stylish and practical biker chic designs coming soon.

Tres cool, tres practical!

We’ve had a long wet summer and Sunday both the temp dropped and the rains came: what I’d been dreading was facing me smack in the mirror: I needed to wear jeans.

The last 5 years have been crazy…7 moves, 2 of them international!  TBG lost both his parents. We built a new house, then sold it less than a year later. Locked out of moving into our new condo due to asbestos problems. 8 surgeries between us, including a quintuple bypass and the big C. What the hell is going on here!

Could it get any worse? Mai oui! In the drama, I gained 42 pounds. I managed to camouflage as best as I could, but going up 4 sizes in your ass isn’t easy to camouflage. The big shocker was having to buy a new spring skirt this April, and finding out I’d gone up another size.

So the last 6 months I’ve taken the pounds off, and I’m back in my old size. I’ve re-stocked my t’s, skirts, and dresses. But now, with the Fall weather creeping in, I needed new jeans. I never wore jeans last year, not once.  I started researching my options: nothing trendy or torn or frayed. No logos on the butt. No mom jeans or peeking cracks. And long enough for my 34″ inseams. Oh, and not too expensive while I’m dreaming!

What did I find?

• Gap’s 1969 line looked good and offered a variety of fits,  and was reasonably priced, and wouldn’t be too humiliating trying to figure out my size
• SheFinds.com says “a black wash…sexy and slimming…dark jeans can be worn casual or slimming”. Sounds promising
• O Mag listed great jeans for less than $65…what’s not to like?
• InStyle had an ultimate jeans guide which showed dozens of stars in jeans…and scared me to death!

But InStyle also had a suggestion that turned out to be my best jeans buying guide: Shop Your Closet

Through all those 7 moves,the most recent downsizing from a 4 bed 4000+ house to a small 2 bed 2 bath city apartment, I’d thrown away everything from books to records to clothes to dishes to linens to furniture, and stashed excess in 4 storage units in 3 different states. Sunday I managed to pull from the far corners of my cramped city closet 7 pairs of  jeans carefully chosen years ago that will see me through the next few months. I shopped:

• 2 pairs of Halogen, one dark blue, one black, button flys
  

  from my fave boutique

• 1 pair of DKNY, super casual but a little chic, a little too big but wearable
• 1 pair of white cords, which were too small when I bought them (but a great deal!)
• 1 pair of tan Dana Buchmans, still with the tags on … they’re out of business now!
• 1 pair of Gap faded blues 5 pockets, zip fly, slight flare. Classics
• 1 pair of Banana Republic black zip front straight legs khakis

All long, without tatters or embellishments or anything too young or too hip or too tight or too too.

I swear I didn’t know they were there. I was certain I’d thrown the painful reminders away before we moved here 18 months ago. But something about the InStyle article made me look in my closet Sunday morning, as the rain poured down and TBG waited for me to get ready to go see a movie. To the corners of my closet I can’t possible reach, on the top shelf where I needed a chair to squeeze myself up there, to pull down a stack of fabric from my past. To fearfully unfold them, slip them on, and zip them closed. They fit. No one could me more surprised, and happy, than Moi.

My tiny little closet. My favorite boutique.

I’m suuuuuurrrrrrrre they want you to have a little more cover up, but Yummy Mummy on Lexington in NYC is showing it can be REALLY convenient to breast feed your Little Bit.

These peek-a-boos make it really easy to breast feed!

This season I’m flashing pink on all my nails with a little help from Posh and Strawberry, no not the Spice Girls, the Revlon girls! I’ve found some delicious new colors. My tootsie toes are a hot bright shade called Strawberry Electric, and my fingers are twinkling with Posh Pink.

Posh Pink and Strawberry Electric

My pilates instructor loved the new tootsies!

Moi tip: My usual nail bars don’t stock Revlon, but I prefer their colors, so I bring my own polish when I go. Then, I have the time and selection beforehand to find colors I really like; plus, I have the color for touch-ups, or when I’m counting pennies and want to do my nails chez moi.