The Best Four Letter Word- S-A-L-E

If I had it my way, I would spend my entire paycheck on cocktail dresses. Because of this impulsive addiction, I have had to hire a financial planner to make sure I save for retirement (because apparently the stuff in your closet doesn’t count as equity). I also had to post the mantra, “I get more pleasure out of saving than spending” at my desk, specifically to remind me not to shop online. I look at my mantra every day, even though it is a bald-face lie.

I get more pleasure when I spend. Saving isn’t any fun. People save money so they can eventually spend it, so why not just spend it when you are young on clothing that will inevitably be age inappropriate if you wait too long. Carpe diem-buy the backless dress! Carpe diem- buy the five inch stilettos! This is what the shopping devil says as it sits on my left shoulder watching me click through page after page of fitted lace dresses.

This weekend I went shopping with my mom in Beverly Hills and I got caught up in a whirlwind of beautiful things. I nudged my mom into Nanette Lepore because I wanted to show her that there was a designer out there who completely got her style—feminine, colorful, and oozing with unique details that makes each piece special. As she drifted off to thumb through racks of bright spring wear, I found myself gravitating toward the most perfect work tote. It was a gorgeous two-toned, buttery leather bag with a beautifully crafted bow. It was also a whopping $495.00. As I began to recite my mantra to myself, I saw those magical four letters-S-A-L-E. Suddenly it was my lucky day. It was the last bag in the store and it happened to be 40% off.

My growing list of justifications for buying the bag started kicking in:

(1) it was on sale,

(2) I needed a “spring bag” because my black one was too wintery,

(3) it was big enough to hold legal-sized files,

(4) I just survived my first appellate argument and needed to reward myself despite the fact that the verdict had not yet come out,

(5) it was amazingly supple leather,

(6) it had strategically placed zippers for organizational purposes.

As I said each reason out loud my mom said, “You don’t have to make excuses. If you want to buy it, just buy it.” Then I had a seventh reason to buy it—mom approved. And so I drove home with a beautiful bag—a bag so beautiful that it came in its very own bag.

The thrill of the buy was glorious. Perhaps I do take more pleasure from saving as I do from spending—it was really that 40% off that made the entire purchase completely wonderful. 

Don't Be Boring...Mix Your Patterns and Prints!

So I was watching Gossip Girl on Monday and in the very last scene Serena was wearing a navy and white nautical striped sweater and a skirt that looked like it had a large plaid-ish print on it. I absolutely loved how she managed to mix stripes and a bold print effortlessly.

Mixing prints may seem like a daunting task, but the key is to stay in the same color family to make your outfit look smart and cohesive.

I tried to emulate Serena’s look by pairing a cream and yellow stripped sweater with a tribal print skirt. My skirt picked up the same yellow tones as the sweater and make a preppy sweater edgy. I also broke up the patterns with a vintage brown leather belt. The look was work appropriate with patent leather nude heels and a denim blazer and it took on a whole new feel at night with platform suede strappy sandals. 

Passionate about Peplums

I thought a peplum was an STD until about a week ago. Who knew that those short overskirts attached to a fitted jacket, blouse, or dress had a name? I am now officially obsessed with peplums! I have caught peplum fever, and I hope my closet has an outbreak of peplums!

A peplum skirt is a beautiful contradiction—slimming yet balanced with a shocking dose of volume. How can this silhouette not be a show-stopper? If you are built like a two-by-four, a peplum skirt gives you hips. If you have a Christina Hendricks hourglass frame, a peplum skirt hugs in all the right places.

The best part about peplums is that the extra contouring around the hips turns a simple skirt into something architectural. It turns an ordinary piece of clothing something memorable and beautiful.

So since my peplum obsession began, I scoured the internet for a few great skirts. I oddly found them all in one place—on the Zara website. These options can take you from day to night and some are even work appropriate. I hope this trend never ends! 

Have Scientists Isolated the "Fashionable" Gene Yet?

I am not sure if scientists have isolated the "fashionable" gene yet, but if not, they could definitely use my family as a starting point for research. I suppose there are diseases that need to be cured, so pinpointing the "shopping" gene is probably not on any high-priority list. 

Although there is no "official" study to prove this, having an eye for fashion is just as genetic as near sidedness. Two of my favorite style icons are my mom and my sister. When I was a little kid, mom would pick us up from school every Friday and we would go to South Coast Plaza, Orange County’s premier mall. We would start off at Via de France to pick up a baguette, then we would do laps around the mall until it closed. Needless to say we put in our 10,000 hours and mastered the art of shopping.

Although family trips to the mall are rare now that we all live in different cities, when we are together it is a bit of a fashion show that ends in my sister and me trying to swipe everything that my mom bought since the last time we saw her. This Easter weekend was no exception. I wanted my sister’s blouse (I could just see myself in it paired with a navy blue pencil skirt for work), my sister wanted to buy my dress asap, and we both wanted to steal my mom’s skirt.

Per usual, the three of us each picked different outfits that incorporated this season’s latest trends: mom rocked the high-low skirt (short in the front, long in the back). She kept it age appropriate with a pair of classic Ferragamo stack heels. Chrissy, my sister, wore a colorful tribal print top with a chambray skirt. The top was beautiful and surprisingly budget friendly (from Target!). I embraced my favorite new trend, color blocking with an orange and purple dress with. The pleated skirt has a preppy vibe that makes it completely work appropriate in addition to being fun for the weekend. 

What we wore this past Easter was a true reflection of who we are every day—trendy, colorful, different from one another, and daringly bold.

Step Into Spring with a New Easter Dress!

The best part about Easter isn’t the peeps or the Honeybaked Ham. The best part about Easter is buying a brand new Easter dress. When I was a little kid I always got a new Easter dress with a matching bow or hat and of course the frilly, white socks. Think “Toddlers in Tiaras.” Scratch that, actually it was nothing like that show at all. I didn’t have a spray tan, fake teeth, or a child-sized Marie Antoinette wig.

Now that I am all grown up, I still make it a point to buy myself an Easter dress. More accurately, every time I see a dress I like that is springy, floral, or pastel, I buy it and say it is my Easter dress, even if (1) I already bought an Easter Dress, or (2) Easter came and went.

Everyone keeps saying (by everyone I mean everyone on E!) that the “it thing” this spring is floral prints, especially big flowers and tropical flowers. To that I retort, um duh, the “it thing” every spring is floral prints. For me, the best Easter dresses are flirty and feminine, and not necessarily floral. Sometimes floral is frumpy, and not so much fantastic, so before you jump on the flower power bus, think twice about the overall silhouette of your Easter/spring look.

These are a few of my faves in all different price ranges!

Moonlighting as a Hipster

Full disclosure, I do not hold myself out to be a hipster. I actually think hipsters are kind of ridiculous. The men wear their pants so tight looking at them is practically sexual harassment. I am not sure if all hipster women actually have dirty hair, or if they try extra hard to make their hair look dirty. It also baffles me when you see packs of hipsters on their fixies. I get the impression that they all dress the way they do because they want to be original or against the establishment, but there are so many of them that their originality becomes ironically homogenous.

Despite my distain for multiple aspects of hipster culture, it is hard not to take fashion cues from them—especially on weekends. The hipster trend has allowed me to look socially acceptable when I just want to be casual/comfy in a lot of ways. Now that thick, black-framed glasses are all the rage, it is more than cool to ditch the contacts and wear nerdy glasses. Making this fashion decision shaves a full five minutes off of my morning routine. The hipster culture has even been embraced during prime time—think Zoey Deschanel and Fox’s coining of the term “adorkable” to describe her “New Girl” character. She too wears the hipster glasses. I would even venture to say that she is the celebrity face of hipsters everywhere. Perhaps this means that the reign of the alpha blonde with 20/20 vision is coming to an end.

So I guess you can call me a poser because I am not a hipster, I just appreciate dressing like one on the weekends. After rocking a suit all week, it is nice to forego the dry clean only items for crochet beanies and stretchy jeans. The best part about the beanie is that I can drape it on my hair if I haven’t washed it or if I let it air dry and it gets all crazy. Oh, and let’s not forget the slip on Toms. My sister gave me a houndstooth pair for Christmas, and they are so comfortable.

Pictured are a few of my favorite “hipster lite” items that are cool, but probably over the top hipster if worn together.

Get a Discount, Just Because You are AWESOME

When I was a little kid my mom tried to bargain with the cashier at the GAP when she bought a boatload of socks. I was mortified. “Mom, we are in a store, at the MALL. This isn’t a flea market; sales people here don’t bargain.” I said as I rolled my eyes. Fast forward twenty years, and I was eating my words.

A few weeks ago I was en route across the country to an outdoor December wedding. My friend Amanda didn’t get the heads up that the ceremony would be outside on the water. When I told her this she said, “Well I’ll just wear my fleece zip-up over my dress.” Friends don’t let friends wear fleece to another friend’s wedding. That would be breaking two cardinal rules in the friend code at once.

Instead of driving straight to our hotel, we took a brief detour to the nearest outlet mall in search for a pair of shoes for me, and of course, an appropriate jacket for her. One of my favorite things about Amanda is this little song and dance that we do when we go shopping. She laments about how much she hates trying things on, and I pick out a few things for her, then she tells me she doesn’t want to spend so much money on herself buying them, then I tell her all the things she could wear said item of clothing with, then she gives in and buys it, then I calm her buyer’s remorse once again, then she calls me two weeks later and tells me how many times she wore said item, and that she can’t live without it. Although we hadn’t seen each other in over a year, once we entered the sliding glass doors of the outlet mecca, we fell into our old routine.

While walking though the mall Amanda told me how much she really wanted to buy a leather jacket for fall/winter. As we rounded the corner my eye immediately went to a beautiful, gray leather jacket on display at Calvin Klein. I ran into the store and would have plucked it from the rack but for the fact that it had an alarm tethered to it. I immediately knew what she was thinking—alarm on jacket = expensive jacket. It was a pretty simple equation. Amanda excitedly tried on the jacket anyway and the sales associate and I nodded excitedly when it fit her perfectly. Then the song and dance began:

Me: “That jacket is amazing on you.”

Her: “It is kind of expensive.”

Me: “But it is on sale, at an outlet, and the tax rate here is lower, so it is like, practically free.”

Her: “Didn’t I say I was looking for a leather jacket?”

Me: “Yeah, you just said that. And you can wear this to the wedding because it is fancy enough.”

Her: “Well, I don’t know…should I get the black one or the gray one.”

Me: (Smiling to myself, because I know I have already won her over) “The gray one since you just said you always wear black.”

As I took a victory lap around the store and picked up a few things for myself, I saw Amanda at the checkout chatting it up with the sales person at the cashwrap.

Amanda: “So do I get any extra discount on this?”

Sales guy: “Sorry, it already has a 15% discount today.”

Amanda: “Well can I get a discount for being AWESOME?”

Sales guy: “Ok, but don’t tell anybody.”

Then the guy gives her an extra 10% off.

Once again my mom was right. Sometimes people at the mall will throw you a bone just because you ask, or just because you are awesome.

If my guy friends actually read this blog (which I am pretty sure they don’t) they are going to take one look at the picture I am posting of Amanda in her leather jacket and they are going to tell me that she got the discount because she is hott. This is true, Amanda is hott, but she still wouldn’t have gotten the discount if she didn’t ask. In this economy, it never hurts to ask. The worst that can happen is that you pay the outlet sale price.

I know some people think that writing about fashion is frivolous and materialistic, but the art of asking is not just relegated to shopping. Last week I was at a ceremony for Holly Fujie to celebrate her recently being chosen to sit on the bench. For those of you not in the legal world, she was president of the California State Bar, a powerhouse female attorney, and an all around rock star. My friend and I were grabbing ramen after the event (since we were starving associates who just came to the event post work and skipped the apps and headed straight for the free booze.) While I was texting him for directions, he texted back that he was running late because he offered to carry some stuff to Judge Fujie’s car for her. I texted back that he should invite her to ramen with us—two first year associates. So he asked her to have dinner with us at a hole in the wall ramen joint in Little Tokyo, and she said yes! So the lady of the evening, the honored judge, role model, rock star, etc. came to ramen with us JUST BECAUSE WE ASKED. Pretty freaking awesome.