Shopping on Wheels

I can’t even tell you how many random goals I have set for myself these past few months.  Unfortunately, I never seem to keep them.  They usually sound something like this:  (1) write every day, (2) run every morning, (3) try a new restaurant every month (4) take a dance class at least once a week, (5) bring lunch to work every day, (6) eat the food in the fridge before it gets moldy, (7) don’t buy clothes every weekend, (8) contribute more to my 401K, (9) spend less on…well, everything. 

Even though the New Year’s resolutions have come and gone, I seem to keep treating every day like it is January 1^st.  I enrolled in a 5 week boot camp that starts at 6:30 a.m. and started making myself those green monster smoothies packed with spinach.  I also have made a ridiculous commitment to cut out bread, pasta, and rice for the next three days.  The problem with setting all these unrealistic goals is that it is virtually impossible to implement them all at once.  If I eat healthy, like to buy a little something for myself as a reward.  Then I end up being successful on goals (5) and (6) while blowing goals (7) and (8). 

The problem is that temptation is everywhere.  For example, one Saturday morning I decided to run to the beach.  Three and a half miles later I reached my destination and stopped to take in the amazing view of the waves.  Then it hit…the ultimate distraction.  It was a fashion truck, not a food truck, but a fashion truck—something I had never seen before, but only heard of.  The myth is that a magical fashion truck scours the Hampton homes of the rich and famous and buys up the gently used goodies to resell in Manhattan.  I had never heard of a comparable West Coast rival.  Spotting this fashion truck was like finding a unicorn. 

While I did not know that I would come across this powder pink, whimsical boutique on wheels, I knew there was a possibility I could succumb to the temptation of shopping while on a morning run. As preemptive damage control I purposefully did not bring a credit card while jogging.  Even though I knew I didn’t have the ammo so there was no risk of pulling the trigger, I still wanted to give the truck a shot.  Le Fashion Truck had a unique spattering of vintage and new clothes and accessories.  I definitely tried on a couple of bangles and flipped through the racks, but my foresight prevented me from picking up any souvenirs to commemorate this rare occasion.  Although I walked away empty-handed, I was actually quite full of hope that the fashion truck fad would catch on as fast as the L.A. food truck craze.  

The Art of Hunting for Exotic Shoes

Shopping is like hunting, sometimes you return with significant bounty, and sometimes you starve.  The most fertile of hunting grounds is Downtown L.A.’s garment district.  In a random store off Santee Alley I spotted a five dollar bin of sparkling shoes.  It was so unreal that I thought I had been entranced by some sort of shopping mirage.  Could it be that these exotic creatures were really only five dollars?  It couldn’t be—they were hand beaded and genuine leather.  These are the type of shoes that retail for at least $45 at Anthropologie.  I was completely in disbelief.  I crept up slowly to the vessel containing the shoes as though rushing toward them would alert other size six shoppers of my magnificent find. 

Once I was face to face with the bin, it was like I was staring at a gaggle of gazelles, cocked gun in hand, patiently waiting, eying them to choose which one I wanted to take under my submission.  I was searching for the right fit, and suddenly it hit me.  I knew exactly why these exotic slippers had been relegated to the five dollar bin.  Each shoe was truly unique.  There was no standard size or even a left or right foot.  This was the type of shopping akin to hunting rare birds while sitting in a camouflaged tree house for days on end.  My challenge was to find two shoes that fit me, and that happened to be a true pair.  In a bin filled with shoes of all sizes and varying shades, this was exactly the type of shopping challenge that would scare the average buyer away, but not me. 

Rising to the occasion, I developed a methodical plan to hunt down my perfect pair.  I tried on each shoe that looked like it fit until I found one that did.  I discarded all oversized shoes in another bin to avoid trying the same ones on over and over.  It was so easy finding one shoe that fit, which left finding its complementary shoe completely agonizing.  After trying on virtually every shoe marked size six in a fifty gallon barrel filled with imported, sparkly flats, I managed to emerge victorious with one silver and one peach pair.  When I came home with my bounty, my adrenaline was still pumping after the thrill of the chase.

The next day I sported my silver beaded slippers with a pair of jean shorts and a breezy, white button down shirt.  I accessorized with a beaded teal statement necklace to add color, but to keep that safari look.  I also love the shoes with my silk, floral flouncy skirt and just about everything else feminine in my closet.  They are beautiful, delicate, and elegant, so naturally I adore them.  My mom took one look at them and said, “Ooh, can you get me a pair so I can wear them around the house?” “Around the house?!” I exclaimed.  Clearly she did not recognize the painstaking effort that went into finding these shoes.  Perhaps one day I will be that woman who only wears designer shoes and sends her daughter articles entitled, “Spending more for good shoes saves in long run.”  Until that day, I will continue to wear my five dollar shoes everywhere like a proud hunter displays her conquered game. 

Make it a DIY Summer!

Sometimes it isn’t worth spending your savings on summer trends since fads come in and out as quickly as the seasons change.  If you have a free afternoon and just an ounce of creativity, you can bring some of your favorite summer looks to life, and the only thing you will really have to spend is your time. 

Last week I was on a stay-cation bumming around L.A.  I dropped in on a few hip-hop classes and lunched with friends every day.  Being out in the world (vs. inside in an office), inspired me to take on a few DIY projects that I thought you may like.

Walking around Venice recently has made me obsessed with fringe bikinis.  They give off this cool hipster vibe and they look great with jean shorts and tussled, ombre hair.  If you are well-endowed, they may make you look like a stripper, but for all card carrying members of the itty bitty titty committee, a fringe bikini is a great way to add some volume without succumbing to Victoria’s Secret insanely padded swim tops.  Although I love as much help in that department as the next girl, some push-up swim suits have so much padding they are practically flotation devices. 

My DIY inspiration was the L*Space Audrey FringeTriangle Bikini Top that retails at Bloomingdales for $73.00.  I love this look in yellow.  Since I happened to have a yellow bikini top that I never wear, I thought it would be the perfect candidate for some fringe.  In search of the right material, I headed to the best place in L.A. to buy fabric, Michael Levine in Downtown L.A.’s garment district.  For just $2.35 I got a quarter of a yard of neon yellow lycra and was on my way. 

Fringe Bikini in a Few Easy Steps:

     1.   Cut material into a rectangle.  The length should be measured by the length of the “V” part of your bikini (shoulder to cleavage to other shoulder).  The width should be the length of the outermost side of the bikini to (the part closest to your armpit).

     2.    Mark vertical lines along the fabric to your desired fringe width.  I would say mine is about a ¼ inch wide, but I just eyeballed it since I haven’t owned a ruler since the sixth grade. 

     3.    Use the sharpest scissors you can find to cut the fringe.  If you use crappy scissors, you will hate your life around the 50^th cut and your fringe may look janky. 

      4.   Sew the fringe to the top of the bikini.  I used clear thread since it is durable.  I sewed two layers of fringe to get the look I was going for. 

I would attach a pic of the final look on me, but it made me feel like I was sexting a pic of my chest on my blog or something, so I decided against it.  Just trust me that it turned out very cute.

My second DIY project was ombre jean shorts.  If you google this, a thousand other fashion bloggers have done it.  My inspiration was my cousin Marly, a super cute freshman at FIDM.  She bleached a pair of high-waisted Levi’s that she cut into shorts.  Since I’m not avant-garde enough to quite pull that off, I picked up a pair of Seven jeans from the GoodWill in Santa Monica for $7. 

Ombre Shorts in a few Easy Steps: 

          1.       Cut jeans into shorts

1. 
   
         2.       Pour about a cup of bleach into a large glass pyrex baking dish with about an equal amount of  water. 
   
   
         3.       Place the bottom of the shorts in the mixture to soak for about an hour or until the desired coloring.
   
   
   Perhaps you are thinking that bleached cut-offs are inappropriate if you are (insert any post-college age).  I too had my apprehension about cutoff, bleached shorts for myself.  You can always make the look “classy” with a summer button down and a colorful, grown-up necklace.  I also avoid wearing the shorts with flip-flops since I am NOT going for that Redneck Riviera look.  The shorts do look great with a pair of tasteful wedges or funky boat shoes for that juxtaposition of casual and refined.  You can also rock this look with your DIY fringe bikini too! 
   
   
   
   
   
   

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.