remixing fashion and luxury for reality

If you don’t know what I do for a living I should give you a little background about me so this post will make some sense. I work for Cisco as a "User Experience Designer" or "UX" where I design Digital/Video Media technology products. There’s a process we follow as designers that we refer to as the "User Centered Design Process". It’s literally that. We design products centered around those people who will use the product. I’m very passionate about my work and I know this process works… so the other day when I saw some Kenneth Jay Lane jewelery at Bloomies I was ecstatic to see he’s following the "User Centered Design Process" to design great looking but comfortable jewelry!

How long have we been forced to wear ill-fitting bangles or bracelets? I’ve always found the big chunky ones to be particularly un-wearable. They are always huge and if I put them on they’ll just slip right off my hand. So what did Kenneth do?  He added hinges to the bracelet! Why did it take so long for someone to figure this one out? If you’ve tried on any of Kenneth Jay Lane’s bracelets you’ll know what I’m talking about. You can slip the bracelet on with ease since the hinge help the bracelet open wide to a normal wrist-sized diameter. The rings have bendable hinges as well to grasp your finger (although these rings were way to big on my hand so I can’t honestly say whether these are ingeniously well designed or not).

I bought a bracelet right then and there just for design-appreciation sake. If Kenneth can make the effort to put some thought into his jewelery the least I can do is buy something! Mine is black and gold one similar in colors to the one below in the right but I must say mine is much edgier and HOT. I’ll post a pic someday… my camera is acting up right now.

Oh and I did mention that all his jewelery is so stylish it just makes it all the more incredible to me. I want to buy it all!

Pictured above (left to right):

Kenneth Jay Lane Snake Bracelet, Kenneth Jay Lane Giraffe Bracelet, Kenneth Jay Lane Stretch Bracelet

If you want to view/shop Kenneth Jay Lane check out Shopbop or Pinkmascara.

I started using Kaboodle on Dec 5th 2005… and have not let up one bit. In case you didn’t notice I can fall in love with technology –especially technology that augments shopping! Kaboodle was one of those days that my boyfriend at the time lost a little piece of my heart. If you are not yet familiar with social bookmarking and have not used things like Del.icio.us or Furl, well this is going to blow you away. Kaboodle is actually a slight variation of social bookmarking and it’s classified as "shopmarking" since instead of bookmarking sites you can save or mark items out on the web that you are interested in buying. You can create lists for anything you want to refer to later. This is super convenient to save things you’re considering buying but are not ready to make the plunge.

  You’ll definitely want to install the plug-in to get this button for your browser. From there anytime you are on a page/item you want to save just hit that "add to kaboodle" button and in 2-clicks the item is tucked away into one of your kaboodle lists.

The list I save most the things I want is found here at "What a Girl Wants".

Some other kaboodles you may enjoy:

Index of Luxe Apparel Sites
Index of Luxe for Less Sites
Index of Luxe Shoe Sites
Index of Luxe Handbag Sites

My first Project. I’m helping a friend step up her look to a new level. She’s not unstylish by any means but she wants to freshen up her look. I applaud her for leaning out of her comfort zone. So many women have the potential to improve their daily style but seem content to walk into the office everyday with the same old ribbed sweater and basic slacks. I can’t say I’m not guilty of falling into a style rut every once in a while but it’s important not to fall too deep. On those days I spend a little extra time putting my look together I find myself more effective at work that day or a little more loose and light.

I’ll go into more detail as to how I’m approaching this new project but for now I’ll leave you with my very first "look" for my girl "Snoopy".

This is something I see Snoopy wearing to the office or to meet a client (she works in Real Estate). She could also pull this off for a social day time gathering on the weekend. What I like about this look is that it’s classy with the romantic peasant top and soft trench, but the pants add the edge and helps to offset too much sweet. Same with the eelskin slingbacks. Nobody will mess with a girl in snake skin stilettos. The bag is so hot I want one myself! Snoopy said she wanted a big bag. I think this one is big enough but has structure and such a nice finish to it, it’s not one of those bags which overtake the outfit.

Here’s the breakdown:

Kiku Blue Peasant Top
Alice + Olivia Beige Wide Waistband Pant
Dolce and Gabbana Eelskin Slingbacks
Karen Zambos Vintage Couture Swing Coat
Decoupage Pendant
Kooba Parker Bag in Camel

Hope you like it Snoops!