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The other day, I was chatting with my boss about how she's influenced my personal style. So far, she's inadvertently shamed me out of wearing denim leggings (but they're Madewell! Almost real jeans!) and chipped nail polish. She also owns (and I've been keeping count): a pair of leather shorts, a leather maxi skirt, a leather jacket, and a leather tunic. Clearly, her own personal style is down pat: edgy but appropriate, and definitely cooler than me.

Besides my bosses, I develop style crushes on semi-celebs with ensembles that just pluck my little pants-and-tee-loving heartstrings. The evidence:

1. Freja? Check. I cut my hair into a pixie because of Freja. Then I grew it into a bob because of Freja. Then I grew it out to shoulder-length, thanks to Freja. Wash, rinse, repeat. In addition to her many hairstyles, Freja may be the reason that I have a black leather jacket. And why I wear dark colors so often. And why I wake up at 6:10 AM every morning to go to the gym.

2. An important lesson for which I have Audrey Tautou to thank: throwing a blazer over a rumpled t-shirt makes it look instantly polished. I have a go-to fitted grey number from J. Crew that I can wear over anything and—ta-da! I'm ready for work.

3. Chanel Iman is just cute. Also, I wouldn't EVER say no to a slouchy grey purse and black stiletto boots. Big smiles!


Whose style do you take note of? It's Freja, isn't it? I knew it.

Photo credits, from left: Pinterest, Cognac and Coffee, The Petite Brunette.

Burch Versus Burch

(Tory Burch's home in Southampton, courtesy of Vogue via This Is Glamorous)

On my lunch break, I read a NYMag article about preppy designer Tory Burch and her ex-husband, C. Wonder founder Christopher Burch. The similarities of their brands are uncanny and pretty obvious, but to be honest, I feel that I know neither person well enough to make a call on who is right. This is my public and diplomatic declaration. (Personally, I'm Team Tory. Tell no one.)

I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the C. Wonder store, which is a kind of like a bright, colorful zoo of weird knick knacks, tourists who are NOT afraid to knock you down, and clothes that just cannot be of very good quality. And, if you read the article, you know that they're absolutely not great quality. Then again, you don't go to C. Wonder for the decent quality of the clothing. Save the ready-to-wear for Tory.

You go to C. Wonder for the affordable and cheeky housewares...especially those made of lacquer. Lacquer boxes, lacquer trays, lacquer everything. I love lacquer. I love lacquer more than I love petting strangers' puppies on street corners. And, maybe it's because I'm half Chinese, but I would love to see these little guys ($58; cwonder.com) on my bookshelf:

Team cute, quirky bookends.

Looking Forward

I've been on a hiatus lately. Oh, did I say hiatus? I mean Fashion Week happened.

 In other news, I booked a spring trip to Madrid with two of my very best college friends. One lives in Chicago, and the other has been in the heart of Tanzania since August. We're going in late April, so I'm hoping everything will be bursting with flowers and the weather, warm enough to day-trip to a beach town. (Valencia? Barcelona? Something tiny along the coast? Suggestions welcome and/or desperately needed!) I want to wear skirts and tan my legs and carry around open bottles of wine. That's allowed in Spain, right?

Have a wonderful and relaxing holiday weekend!


Photo credit: That's Chic and here. 

Got Gucci?

Last week, I was sprinting down Fifth Ave and came to a sliding stop right in front of the Gucci store. I usually don't pay attention to the ready-to-wear collections of in-my-dreams labels like that (a pair of wedges are as crazy as I'll get), but I have this newfound affection for mixing prints and not-so-newfound affection for color-blocking. So I stood outside and threw a temper tantrum to my wallet and we both agreed that I would like to be able to pay for my kids' college educations one day. I want three kids. That's going to be somewhere around $600K, not counting for inflation and whatnot, and a $3,000 silk t-shirt dress will not pay for their meal plans. Unfortunately. So this happened:

 Gucci silk dress, $1,990; gucci.com. Madewell silk dress, $168; madewell.com

 Gucci silk dress, $2,995; gucci.com. Diane Von Furstenberg dress, $375; dvf.com 

Gucci silk dress, $1,700; gucci.com. DKNY silk crepe de chine dress, $345; dkny.com

Which is your favorite look-a-like? Lucky for my savings account, I'm hankering for that little Madewell number...

Say Yes...

...to jumping for joy—literally.

Yes to rainy days.

Yes to the Giants...

...and definitely not the Patriots. No yes for you, Brady.

WHAT ABOUT BRIDGET?

Yes to Bridget Moynahan.

Yes to this not being my job.

Yes to the weekend!

Photo credit: Louvve

Come to Light

This week, I read a semi-helpful article in the NY Times about how to create natural light in an apartment where there is, well, none. Semi-helpful because a) I already do everything it advised, and b) it basically squashed my dream of lacquered walls in a New York City apartment ("Avoid glossy finishes," the article cautions). I guess I should have made that "Not-very-helpful."

Then I read another NY Times article, this time about buyers who search specifically for dark apartments. Though many have schedules that suit a constant lack of light, there are a few that claim that bright artificial lights are enough. Plus, darker apartments tend to be set in the rear of buildings. Read: they're quieter. Quieter, unless you have a very bitter little cat that sits outside your window and cries all night. Did you know that a wailing cat sounds unnervingly like a screaming woman? As someone who can't watch Dexter without locking all of the doors and windows first, that's one harrowing sound to wake up to at 4 AM.

What's your take? Thanks to this apartment, I've realized that natural light is a nonnegotiable for me. I can't wait for the day I wake up to sunlight...or a thunderstorm...or anything but the sounds of pigeons getting to "know" one another in the Biblical sense. It's the little things, after all. Right?

Photo credit: Charles Spada and 79 Ideas.

In the Bag

I love a good leather purse, and the trapeze tote is all the rage right now. I'm kind of an extremist when it comes to bags: I like either tiny ones that you don't notice while you're dancing (small cross-body styles, I'm looking at you), or gigantic ones that will fit two magazines, a book, and a teacup pig. These fall into the latter category, and after years and years of buying perfectly rectangular totes (I'm a girl of habit, apparently), I am craving an interesting, off-kilter shape. Seriously. This is what happens when you write about fashion for a living: you begin to slip things like "crave" and "need" and "Come to mama" into daily conversation. The trapeze tote is perfectly slouchy (all the better to pair with rumpled tees and skinny jeans) yet unexpected. Plus, it's so versatile. Here are my favorite styles:

Clockwise from top: J.Crew leather tote, $328; jcrew.com, Alexander Wang leather tote, $975; alexanderwang.com, Céline calfskin purse, $OutOfMyPriceRange; celine.com