remixing fashion and luxury for reality

I was only 14 years old, old enough to scar the delicate framework of my self-esteem, when I was caught wearing shoulder pads to school. I still can’t get my Mom to admit she was so wrong to make me wear shoulder pads back in the day. I get that it was the 80′s and all but I was still a little girl for chrissake. This obnoxious jock (but cute of course) came running up to me and grabbed my shoulders and asked me if I was going to join the football team. Would you have died too?

Fast forward 20 years and here I am playing with shoulder pads again! Well strong structured shoulders at least. I guess garment technology has improved since he 80′s and padding is not necessary to sculpt a look. Very good thing. No embarrassing white pads flying out of your jacket.

What do the rest of you think? I get a sense that the strong shoulder trend is not one that is going to take off with the masses. Maybe that’s a good thing. It certainly doesn’t look right on just everybody. I think it helps if you have a stronger profile to begin with. If you’re dainty and delicate this look might swallow you up for dinner.

I went el frugal route and picked up this zippered cardigan with sharper shoulders at H&M over the weekend, (see 1st photo below). Barely makes the cut as a strong shoulder top but it’ll do. And for under $30 it’ll tide me over until I find the real strong shoulder piece for my closet.

The rest of these were strong shoulder looks that inspired me..

A cross between Abercrombie & Fitch and Forever 21, www.Buckle.com, is worth a look or two. I haven’t ordered anything from here yet but am about to order the python flats below. $26!! I like how the site allows you to filter down the selections you’re browsing through by price, color, size, etc. Thank you Buckle.com for putting some thought into your website design!!

http://www.buckle.com/

… is hard to find. It comes down to two things. It’s relatively difficult to dress up a big round tubby thing (and make it look hot).. and girls only wear the stuff for a few months at most so we just don’t make enough money for the majority of designers to throw us a bone. I can safely say I’m in the smack dab middle of my maternity fashion rut. They say you get the baby blues after giving birth but I’m pretty blue these days inspecting my “look” in the morning every day as I get ready. It wasn’t so hard the first 4-5 months.. it was actually a fun and experimental time for me. Mixing and matching stuff in my closet to achieve new looks that covered up my growing nub. Each day though as my belly expands (it exploded into a volleyball sized mound btw in the last 3 weeks!) it gets increasingly challenging. I think the time has come for me to shop maternity. Yes.. I’m going to break down and actually buy stuff that was made for pregnant ladies. I tried to hold off as long as possible but I’m glad I did some research previously to be prepared for this day. Check out my post at Factoidz.com on “Where to Shop for Fashionable and Stylish Maternity Clothing“.

So while I’ve managed to still look like myself for the most part these past 5 months… it’s getting harder and harder. Talk about hanging onto to every last thread of my pre-maternity clothing! Here’s one look I put together recently (while on my baby-moon in Mexico) that I felt good in. The key here was leggings (never can have enough of these when you’re pregnant).. a really loose top from Bebe I’d bought for a trip to Hawaii couple years back and my trusty black cardigan. I felt so comfy in this outfit I promised myself to go out and find 10 tops like this. If anyone has good maternity shopping tips or links please do share!

I finally got the Summer Scarf I’ve been looking for… or maybe I should call it my Fall Scarf I got this one at Nordstroms, where there was a satisfyingly large selection of scarves — both square and rectangular. I picked this blue, grey, and white checkered one since it seemed muted but still flattering against my face. The sales lady showed me how to wrap it once around my neck (from front to back) and then tucked the loose ends under the “V” shape. Such a simple tip but helpful, thanks lady!

So here I am on University Ave in Palo Alto. Did I manage to attain the casual, just here to kick-back look? Well either way, I was happy and content with my outfit this day since I was comfy and maintained the perfect body temperature with my scarf pairing. Can’t wait to try it again with something else!

I mentioned I’d have something to tell you about my new favorite designer GRAYDN… instead I’ll show it to you. A soft sumptuos leather jacket in the most cool but warm grey tone I’ve ever laid eyes on. It’s a relatively thin jacket but super warm and insulating. You know how people refer to leather as “butter” like? Well this is the Country Crock of leathers! I’m convinced Todd Magil (designer/creator of GRAYDN) put his all into this gray number for GRAYdn.

This pic was taken at Disctrict in San Francisco. It was LL’s birthday and the girls got together for some drinks and more drinks. That’s my best bud Snoop to the right. Love you long time Snoop!

I was hunting suits at Neimans over the weekend. Lately, I’m get the feeling my luxe for less threads don’t cut it for important meetings with customers and days for presentations. A little voice was telling me wearing a power suit from Theory was going to help me stop saying umm and uhhh and look like a million bucks! So off I went to Neiman Marcus in Palo Alto, my go-to-default shopping destination when I’m too lazy to make it up to San Francisco. I had 8 or 9 things balancing on one arm while fingering through the rest of the racks, silently cursing the sales girls for not coming to my rescue and off-loading my load. It was a busy afternoon or maybe it was my sloppy flip flops but no body wanted to help me that day! I finally made it to the dressing rooms with about a dozen or so things and proceeded to slip in and out of my suits. During my private fashion show I peeked my head out to call for a sales girl to grab me another size and that’s when I caught sight of this hottie named Rexy. I kept wanting to call her Sexy Rexy. Take one look at her picture and tell me she doesn’t belong in a magazine or on TV!

We got to chatting about Rexy’s hair. It was stylish, edgy, original (This picture does not do justice)… I got her secret but like my hair would ever look like that! According to Rexy, she curled her hair with hot rollers, then took them out and pinned the curls to her head with bobby pins. Went to bed and woke up with awesome hair! She fixed a few strands in the morning with her hot iron.

What I liked so much about Rexy was that she embodies strength, beauty, brains, and confidence all in one. Her easy and carefree spirit was a refreshing breath of air in the uptight environment NM can be. We chatted at length about her passion for hair, makeup, and fashion. Somehow between all her jobs she is getting ready to launch a swim suit line (that she designed) and when it debuts you’ll be sure to find it here. I love the look Rexy puts together here — tube over a white-tee. I like to do this with a white tee and tube top too + jeans. It’s a great look to dress down but still look put together.

Go Rexy!

It was Friday night and I was late coming home to meet my husband so we could go pick up my sister-in-law at the airport. On my drive home from work I was doing a mental scan of my closet trying to imagine what I was going to throw on in 30 seconds or less. I kept going back to my skinny indigo jeans (which have become my second skin) and my knee high vintage boots from Modern Vintage. When I ran in the door my husband gave me the "I can’t believe you’re late again we are leaving now" look so I double stepped my way to my bedroom and started to frantically throw clothes on. It’s these urgent moments where I normally throw on my go-to (pre-selected) "uniforms" but I wasn’t in the mood to wear one of my recycled looks again so I went for it, grabbing the first satisfiable top and jacket in first view and here’s what I ended up with…

What happened later still makes me laugh as I think back. As my husband and I were making our way to the baggage claim area to greet my sis-in-law, we were standing on the moving walkway looking at each other. I thought he was looking at me lovingly but then suddenly he burst out in laughter. I was like what. He said "You’ve got a lot going on tonight". A lot as in I had too much going on with my outfit and that I looked ridiculous! I got a good laugh out of that then he escorted me to the bathroom to take a closer look at my fashion faux pas. I did look a little over the top. Under my husband’s careful direction I proceeded to tie back my hair and zipped up the jacket (the pic was taken after that).

I still think I look "ok". Maybe a bit glammed out for the airport but I think I’m good for dinner in the city, no? If you don’t take risks you’ll never get past boring!

Jacket: Forever 21

Tissue Turtleneck: Myong-Dong Shopping District in Korea (I got this for $10!)

Jeans: Armani Exchange

Boots: Modern Vintage

Actually this was Friday, last week. Why am I wearing curls? I had to look fabulous for my night out in LA! My husband and I took a road trip down to LA, and left right after work. Knowing I’d have a long drive ahead of me and no time to get ready, I set my curls in extra extra tight the night before. It takes considerable time to curl my hair — about an hour but I was able to do this in the bathroom while watching Lost with my husband at the same time. When I woke up the next morning I had to revive a few curls back to life with the iron but overall not too bad.

I’m wearing a grey sweater (Forever21), skinny indigo jeans (AX), and my patent Chanel peep toe heels (post coming on these new loves of my life soon).

This taking photos of myself at the office is tricker than I thought. I’m sitting here trying to play it cool and take the shot when no one’s looking… Do you want your co-workers seeing you snap photos of yourself (full-length body shots)? There’s no good way to pose in front of my laptop and get my full body in the picture, without raising a few eyebrows. Don’t worry though I will find a way. If you have any ideas pleez do send them my way

Anyhow, here’s the best I could do today. Really all I wanted to show you today anyway was my new AX cropped denim jacket! I bought it a few weeks ago at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose, along with 2 pairs of jeans and a pair of jeans for my husband too.

I love the cropped sleeves on this jacket and the way the front crosses over. It’s shown buttoned up on the AX website but really I don’t recommend it that way. I wore mine over a grey loose shirt, white pants and my white and beige python Jimmy Choos.

AX Cropped Denim Volume Jacket

I’m trying something new today. Per Mayor’s request I’m going to post a photo of me! It’s kind of a funny concept but I’m going to give it a try and see how this goes. I’m playing around with Apple’s PhotoBooth Application (which is what I used to take this photo of myself). I’ve been struggling for a long time trying to figure out how to take a photo of myself and it finally dawned on me just now — DUH I can use PhotoBooth! Photobooth uses the embedded camera on the Macbook Pro to take photos, but the nice thing is is that it will delay the capture a few seconds so it gives you time to set up for the picture.

This is me ladies! It’s Friday in the office so I went for a semi-casual look.. nothing too ratty. Lately, I’ve been letting myself slip a bit and wearing jeans and oversized sweaters to work. I thought to myself this morning I should dress in such a way that matches how I feel about my work. I don’t want to appear too laid back or sloppy!

I started with a white tank and threw on my over-sized white button up that I got in Korea the last time I was there from a store called Supermarket in Apgujongdong. The one thing about this shirt is it’s a little too thin and flimsy so it’s riding up and poofing out a little more than I’d like. I also added a belt I got the last time I was in Vegas at the Elie Tahari outlet. This helped pull in the poof and make me look a little less pregnant. You can’t really see the pin stripe pants but they were from… MY FAVORITE GUILTLESS PLEASURE (forever 21 I was struggling with which jacket to wear. I tried on a cardigan but it just didn’t feel right, then tried a jean jacket but that was too casual. This cropped beige jacket I have on was the final and last thing I was going to try and it ended up looking the best (at least i think). I can’t recall the name of the boutique I got it from but it’s in Burlingame. That reminds me I’m going to have to drop by there soon!

Well let me know what you guys think of my semi-casual-Friday-look! And have a great weekend!