Happy Travels

Turkey Day in Turkey this year!  It was rad.  We stayed in the Sultanhamet district, which I thought was a bit like Paris mixed with Brooklyn.  It was such a different scene, so ancient and beautiful and contradictory.  It was a little frosty the entire trip, so I bundled up and hopefully looked halfway chic doing so.  Here's a shot I really dig:

[Photo cred:  Alex @thewanderlustguy on Insta.  Bag- Longchamp.  Pea coat- Thread & Supply.  Scarf- H&M.]

And then of course I started memory tripping on past trips abroad.  Here's a hotel lobby shot I dug up from Barcelona back in March of 2013:

[Chambray top- Express.  Bag- F21.  Skirt- Bluefly.com.  Leopard flats- H&M.  Watch- Marc by Marc Jacobs.]

Speaking of cold, here's one from Paris around the same time.  It's my fave city (after home sweet L.A., of course), and I loved the serene beauty of the snow cover.  But I think I will stick to spring and summer trips there from now on.

[Pea coat- Guess.  Scarf- Nordstrom.  Jeggings- J Brand.  Riding boots- Vince Camuto.]

Wide Leg Pants, Part II

I NEED a pair of satiny light beige (or light rose pink) high-waisted, wide leg pants, similar to either pair below.  I can't find them anywhere.  Gods of fashion, is that too much to ask??!!

[This is prob not most peoples' first thought when they look at this pic, but where the heck did she pick up those awesome pants?]

[I made the horrible mistake of waiting for these to go on sale at Nordstrom.  Once they went on sale, my size had sold out.  Frugality may normally be the name of the game, but I def dropped the ball here!]

Denim: Just Say No

An acquaintance of mine asked me recently what she should do to punch up her look a little bit. She seems bit bored with her wardrobe, and I think this is pretty common.  If you know what you like and tend to gravitate towards the same types of clothing or accessories, it is inevitable that a certain monotony will appear in your closet.  There was a time when I realized I had 4 indistinguishably similar lacy A-line dresses in my closet.  There was another time when I realized I inadvertently bought the exact same brushed cotton flannel shirt from Nordstrom TWICE.

Anyway, my advice to her was to do something that really helped jump start my wardrobe when I did it several years ago:  Try to eradicate jeans from your collection.  Specifically, get rid of every pair of flared jeans still hanging around your closet.  The last time flared jeans were trendy was 2004; gotta let those go. Same for ill-fitting skinny jeans.  Dependence on jeans as the staple item, or as the anchor for most outfits, was so limiting to my personal style growth.  I didn't even realize how limited my options had been until I threw out all that denim in that fateful closet clean-out so many years ago.

This is the glorious selection that slowly but surely replaced all that needless denim: Skirts (mini, midi, and maxi), leggings, jeggings, leather pants, skinny patterned pants.

Best of all, tights, in a myriad of colors and patterns.

[I love every single one of the looks on this page. Nordstrom Christmas catalog is my fave.]

I'm not saying this will work for everybody.  But when I made the jump and stopped building outfits around jeans, it really opened up a world of other options.  And let's be honest here.  In this city, when you spot a pair of flared jeans, it's usually a correct assumption that the wearer is a tourist from the Midwest.

Fashion Fail: Part III

We all know what an impulse buy feels like.  You walk into a boutique, and everything is gray and shapeless.    Then- like the mythical pair of Prada pumps on the sale rack in your size- it appears.  An article of clothing so perfect, so fitting to what you would have envisioned if you had known of its glorious existence, that it beckons to you.

It's too bad this happened in Vegas last year when my friend Matt and I stumbled into the AllSaints store in the Cosmopolitan.  Vegas and impulse buys most definitely do not mix. Matt emerged unscathed, and I emerged with this atrocity.

[Top- AllSaints.  Necklace- Nordstrom juniors dept.  Skirt- Charlotte Russe.  Shoes- Steve Madden.  Bracelets- Juicy Couture and Davani's of Santa Barbara.]

I have written about signature pieces before, and I only wish that this thought would have been invoked during the course of my vodka cranberry-induced shopping spree that day.  Fashion 101 states that bizarre prints are never classic.  The only prints that could be considered classic are leopard (Only if done correctly.  I will elaborate in a separate post.), stripes, and certain types of logo print.  Aztec was trendy for a split second.  That split second is certainly not worth $430.

Lesson learned:  Take a breathalyzer before running the Visa in Vegas.