What I Wore

This was last Thursday's outfit:




The sweater, which I've profiled before, is Karoo Mark Eisen. It was originally $300.00 at my (now-defunct) best-kept secret but I got it for $80.00. It's cashmere and the funnel sleeves just thrill me. The skirt is vintage Rae Phillips, $40.00. It's this excellent wool wrap skirt with 2, original mother-of-pearl buttons and inside snaps. It has beautiful drape and it's so timeless. The boots are Franco Sarto vegan. Every girl with skinny calves needs a pair of these because they suck to your legs no matter the width.

In Case You Didn't Believe Me...

What is it with me these days and pointing out the flaws? I've spent so long going to such lengths to make you think I'm infallibly stylish and here I am deconstructing the illusion :-) Well, to my credit, I know this is unflattering and I didn't even consider buying it for a moment.

It's that gorgeous red dress from Club Monaco I coveted:

Only on me it says "Put it back".

Give me credit for listening...

PS: Late breaking news is that some key element of our home network has given up the ghost and it may take till next week to get new part to fix it. If this is the case, you may not see me commenting or responding to comments till Monday. What if I can't read the blogs on the weekend?? Having separation anxiety and fear of reader inbox getting so overfull they cut me off. Hope for quick fix pls.

New Thing I Love

Y'all know how I have the oiliest skin in the land. Indeed, it's hardly genteel to shout this from the rooftops, but if I had a dollar for every Clean and Clear oil absorbing sheet I've applied to stem the problem, I could have 3-bedroom-with-a-view on Park Avenue. Yes, the kind with a concierge. :-)

You'd think, by the age of 38, I might have moved into less-greasy mode, and I suppose I have. It's just that less greasy by my standards still means "requiring large volume of loose powder" by yours. So I am shocked, and thrilled, to report a new product (really two new products) that have radically diminished the shine while improving the glow. (Could a line actually live up to its far-flung claims???)

Meet L'Occitane Brightening Renewing Serum:

(I got this on my excursion with Yulanda in early September. At the time, I thought I was high on drugs for spending $60.00 on something to "de-age" and "brighten" me. But I'm not proud. I bought it. And it really is firmalicious!)

It worked so delightfully - not to quell grease as much as to "firm" and "redefine" my "aging skin" - that I allowed (ok, asked) my mother to buy me the Immortelle Very Precious Fluid SPF 40.

Yes, I use sunscreen 40 and when my skin looks baby soft line-free at the age of 85, you can credit the SPF (or the fact that my sebaceous glands will have been basting my visage in grease for 8 and a half decades). But I will give it all up to the block. The only problem: it costs $56.00 CDN per ounce. Wait, let me sell you on the concept.

On entering the store, L'Occitane bombards you with these pretty "French Country"-esque flowers called fleurs immortelles. As in immortal, get? The "cool factor" (they quickly advise) is that the flowers have been out of water for months but they are still, like, flowery. And not so much dried flowers as flowers that are living sans water. Oooh. Contained within these little buds is the veritable secret of youth!! (They tell you this outright in case the metaphor didn't take.)

Immortelle fluid is the basis of both the Very Precious and the Renewing Serum. In fact, some people can't take the "volatility" of both products on a daily basis. Of course, I'm not one of them. Which is why I get to spend on both. But the benefits are also two-fold. (OK, I made that part up.)

This is the fantastically weird claim which appears to be true: If you've got oily skin, the SPF40 version of the Very Precious - as opposed to the less expensive SPF 15 version - is the indicated formula.

You know how usually when you have greasy skin, the higher the block, the more like a basted turkey you look by the end of the day? And the more likely you are to breakout and feel bad about being some almost-40-year-old with zits? Well, mysteriously, the 40 works better than the 15 to mattify and calm the oil glands?!?! Now, not having tried the 15 I cannot corroborate that it wouldn't do as well, but the 40 is pure awesome on this account. So awesome I intend to continue spending $56.00 for the foreseeable future.

Has anybody out there tried this line? If yes, I'd love to know if you concur with my assessment.

Vintage Version

You know these posts, which showed us these fantastic Neimen Marcus babies?

Well here's the 1960's version I found at 69 Vintage:

Yes, this is the most pedestrian (hahaha, get it?) shot of my legs I think I've ever taken. But it was impromptu with the cell phone and weird mirror. Nonetheless, does it not prove the point that everything old is new again?

FYI: I did not buy these (though they did look fine, photo notwithstanding). They wanted $120.00 for a pair of boots that should have been slightly less worn in the toes for that kind o' bucks. And they were not super comf. Not to mention, if you need to be anywhere quickly, these are not your throw-ons.

But they were a fun find.

The Times They Are A'Changin' (Or Maybe They'll Stay the Same)

True Story:

A while ago, when Ontario was going through its provincial election campaign (not to be confused with the federal campaign that culminates in voting day today), I decided to exploit campaign lawn signage as a platform for preliminary discussions about politics with my then 7-year old daughter, M.

That's a fancy way of saying that every morning, while we walked to school, I would choose one party and speak about its overriding philosophy. Then, after that info cycle was over, I revisited each party and talked about one policy from each that I liked, and one I didn't. I figured it was a non-partisan way to start informing her about our complex political system. To make things "kid-friendly", I renamed the parties by the colour of their signs. Liberals were "the red party", Conservatives "the blue party", NDP "the orange party" and Green was self explanatory.

One day, when talking about the policies (I called them "big ideas") for the Liberals, I spoke specifically about its position on faith-based funding (namely, the party did not support educational funding for faith-based schools). She paused, on the cusp of asking a question (I thought), and I wondered if I'd got a bit too complex. Apparently, I needn't have worried, since her well-considered response was: "That's not quite true, Mummy, is it? I mean they wouldn't stop providing additional funding for Catholic schools. And that's faith-based funding, right?"

After my jaw snapped shut again, I asked her how it was that she, of the grade 2 set, was aware of that little loop-hole in the the philosophy. Just out of curiosity, I mean...

It's not like I don't watch the news, Mummy, was the exasperated reply.

Here's my point. Don't be outdone by an underage ideologue. If you've got the right to vote, then exercise it. The global community will thank you for doing your part to protect the freedoms of democracy in your part of the world. And it'll give you something to talk about at your next dinner party. Capisce?

Walk on By...

You know how I'm always on about this great thing and that thing I couldn't live without. Upshot being that I have lots of gorgeous stuff and nowhere to put it. Not to mention less cash. Well, here's an example of something I bought that I might have - nay should have - passed on.

And let me tell you why...

The dress, by Sisley (Benetton's edgier sister, a brand I have a lot of luck with), is a fantastic colour to be sure. It's got that retro shape I dig. The jersey stretch fabric is comfortable and "easy to wear". It's got a sassy kick pleat that makes it functional for walking. It looks nice with tights and boots or heels. It was on sale for 70% off so it cost $40.00.

So what's the prob?

It doesn't fit perfectly. The sleeves are too long (and they are cuffed so they can't really be shortened). Fortunately they look good pulled up. (Did I mention that the button closure is actually a snap designed to look like a button, which secretly thrills me?) The shoulders fit ever so slightly off. Not too snugly, exactly, but not right. Which impacts the look of the bodice, an area about which I need to be so careful.

I bought it before I was really into the blogs and blogging. Before I met Enc and Editor and all of the women who think so consciously about want and need. I bought it on an excursion during which a lot of purchasing was happening very liberally and it just slipped in. (You know what kind of problems that can land you in! :-))

So, today, if shopping, I would have tried it on and put it back. Lately, I've been doing that all the more often. In fact, in the last month I've bought but 2 things - a pair of stylish, heels I can walk in (about which I just blogged) and a vintage taupe blazer (50s) in the most awesome shape - perfectly preserved and made for my figure. It was art, IMO, that I couldn't pass by. And you know how challenging it is for me to find a good jacket that fits right. (Post to come.) It wasn't about the money - though neither item was particularly pricey. It was about need intersecting a compelling urge to own those items.

Am I edging toward a shopping ban? I can't say that. But I am moving in the direction of increased consciousness about consumption.

Editor has challenged us all to count the items in our closets and share the numbers. I haven't found an opportunity to do this yet, but I intend to. And, as with the Starbucks banana bread treat I just discovered has 430 calories a piece, I hope I'm so horrified by the numbers that I can't bring myself to buy again except occasionally / at least for a while. Sometimes you have to know the real price of something before you can walk on. Do you agree?

This is That Style Of Shirt I Covet...

This is for all you long-waisted, linear types.

It's well and good to focus on the looks I can rock, but also useful to appreciate my limitations. If I could wrinkle my nose and spend the day in some other body type, you can betcha it would be 5 feet 10, long, lean, with concave abdomen and B cup boobs. And it would be wearing one of these tops with a slim cut, architectural black blazer and high-waisted skinny pants. Hmmm, media isn't feeding me any imagery :-)

So, if you happen to fit this description - especially if you sometimes lament it (is this possible??) - please put on some similar outfit, love yourself, and then email me a pic.

PS: You don't even need to be tall or a matchstick to wear this. You just have to be sorta flat.

PPS: Apparently, according to the small-boobed cognoscenti, just wearing this style imparts the illusion of chesty voluptuousness. That you can get rid of when it becomes tiresome...