queen B.

sultry & unpolished beauty tips with leighton meester:
marie claire december 2010



via leCHEAP c'estCHiC + fashiongonerogue

Puma Shoes

Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. Puma is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Elegant Black and White Puma

The company is known for its football shoes and has sponsored acclaimed footballers, including Pelé, Eusébio, Johan Cruijff, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthäus, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Deschamps and Gianluigi Buffon. Puma is also the sponsor of the Jamaican track athlete Usain Bolt. In the United States, the company is probably best known for the suede basketball shoe it introduced in 1968, which eventually bore the name of New York Knicks basketball star Walt "Clyde" Frazier, and for its endorsement partnership with Joe Namath.

Puma Shoes Black and White Edition

Following the split from his brother, Rudolf Dassler originally registered the new-established company as Ruda, but later changed to Puma.[3]:31 Puma's earliest logo consisted of a square and beast jumping through a D, which was registered, along with the company's name, in 1948. Puma's shoe designs feature the distinctive "Formstripe",[3]:33 with clothing and other products having the logo printed on them.

Black and White Puma Shoes
Puma Shoes for Girls

The company also offers lines shoes and sports clothing, designed by Lamine Kouyate, Amy Garbers and others. Since 1996 Puma has intensified its activities in the United States. Puma owns 25% of American brand sports clothing maker Logo Athletic, which is licensed by American professional basketball and association football leagues. Since 2007 Puma AG has been part of the French luxury group PPR.

Red and White Puma Shoes

Hermes 2011

What an amazing runway show
from the clothes, to the music to the dressage horses
totally Hermes
(ignore the obligatory commercial at the beginning of the video)

happy halloween!

whip it.

Outfit of the day:Rushed as Hell

Converse

Unamed
Levi's

Malboro

Sorry for the duper rushed outfit! I was running uber late (rushed as hell apptly) for training.

The Sparklefication of Halloween

From Deep Glamour
Remember when Halloween was scary?
I barely do. These days, it's all "sexy" costumes for the ladies and decidedly un-sexy, not-even-funny joke costumes for the guys. And on the decorating front, instead of ghoulish graveyards or even dark and mysterious haunted houses, those of us trying to deck out our houses for the holiday get...glitter.

A clever post by Kit Pollard of the transformation of Halloween from the dark and daunting to the bright and sparkly.
For this phenomenon, I blame Stephenie Meyer and her band of chaste, "vegetarian" vampires who, instead of burning up in the sun, sparkle like a fleet of immortals dressed for a night out at Studio 54.*

The sparkle is just one more way that vampires - who used to be a genuinely scary staple of the Halloween season - have been softened. Last year on Slate, Grady Hendrix wrote a great summary of the evolution of the vampire from bloodthirsty killer to emo virgin.

The sparklefication of Halloween is not a surprise, though - it's mostly a matter of supply and demand. With Twilight moms holding a whole lot of purchasing power, it's only natural that the glitter goods would fly off the shelves. I can't blame product designers and stores for delivering what the people want.

For some reason, I don't really know why, I have never been a fan of Halloween. The dressing up part was fine, it was the overabundance of candy that I didn't care for.
Now, it has evolved from a children's holiday to every woman's excuse for wearing the slutty-est outfit she can get away with
and of course glitter galore.
I shall ignore the whole thing as I do every year.

Jasmine Di Milo

As we all know, Jasmine Di Milo has recently closed down her fashion line, prefering to focus on interests outside of fashion. I understand her, but I can't say I'm happy about it.
Jasmine gave us some beautiful collections, her pieces appealed to many different women. In my opinion, this because she offered quirkiness, but never forgo the glamor.
Jasmine Di Milo didn't get half the coverage I would have like her to, and I'll sorely miss her.

Rachel Mcadams
Olga Kyurylenko

Daisy Lowe

Nicole Richie

Florence Welch

Zoe Saldana
Sienna Miller

Outfit of the Day: City Ballerina

Lanvin Shoes

Chanel 2.55 Bag

Dimenzione Danza Tutu
Rag and Bone Jacket

Kate and Johnny

Striking, Reading, Working and Shopping

Really I wonder, when do the French get to the point of saying enough is enough?

The above photo isn't recent, it is from March 2009 telling us that if there is one thing that the French do with consistency, it is protesting, something, anything, everything...

OK, we've all know that this latest month of protest has been about raising the retirement age, for public workers, (about 1 in every 4 works for the State in some form or another) from 60 to 62. 

So if you are French, after 35 hour work weeks, and 6 weeks off for vacation, retirement should start at 60.

As Guy Sorman wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "The French have a long tradition of taking to the streets as an irrational answer to economic reforms." Sorman goes on to remind us that "Alexis de Tocqueville, then a member of parliament, wrote in his "Memoires" that the French knew a lot about politics and understood nothing about economics".

And it isn't just the public workers who are protesting.  High school and university students have gotten in on the fun too. " For the young, street riots are a sort of generational rite of passage.  They replay the Revolution as their parents did in May 1968"

In disagreement with Sorman I will say this.  There is a huge economic and societal problem with France when the French are unemployed at 30 and expected to work at 62.  Since there is virtually no new job growth in the private sector, the older workers need to retire to make jobs available for the young.

Still, the State needs to be fed if government pension accounts are going to have enough to pay for retirement benefits.

Here in the US, our middle aged managers have suffered for years from rampant age discrimination.  How often do we read about the 50 something year old manager who has gotten downsized and replaced with a younger and cheaper employee. That 50 year old is never going to get that level of job back.  And now with record high unemployment, many are only so happy to still have a job at 60 years old. 

In addition, many workers who have formally retired from decades of work at their career jobs, desire to continue working in related fields or to go into some new field altogether.  And before our recent economic boondogle, people could do this.  Jobs were available. Who knows now.

Recently, I've been reading the books of Elizabeth Gaskell, the female Dickens, who wrote novels dealing with the conditions of factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. A key element in her books, aside from the extraordinarily harsh conditions of life where people lived at the edge and poverty was the norm, was the desire to work.  At that time when workers went on strike or factories cut back production, people starved...to death.

Thankfully today, striking workers are not going to starve in France, the UK or in the US.

I'm very glad that at least today we live with an abundance of goods that can tide us over in bad economic times.

Virginia Postrel's article in the WSJ, Saved By The Closet, we've got so much stuff that it's easing the slump

discusses this phenomenon.
Americans have a lot of stuff—so much, in fact, that getting it under control has become a major cultural fantasy. Witness the Container Store, whose aisles of closet systems and colorful boxes peddle dreams as seductive as any fashion shoot.
Over the past few decades, as businesses have learned to streamline their inventories, American households have done just the opposite, accumulating ever more linens and kitchen gadgets, toys and TV sets, sporting goods and crafts supplies. "Because of all the shopping we've done, many of us now own lots of great stuff we never use anymore.
Because of our rampant consumerism in the past, we don't live on the edge anymore.
In today's sour economy, however, what once seemed like waste is starting to look like wealth: assets to draw on when times get tough (and not just because of all those ads promising top dollar for your gold jewelry). Material abundance, it turns out, produces economic resilience. Even if today's recession approached Great Depression levels of unemployment, the hardship wouldn't be as severe, because today's consumers aren't living as close to the edge.

Reading so much in the blogosphere questioning can we get by with less and can we survive on a wardrobe of 15 items or less for a month or some such challenge, I am very thankful that I don't have to because I have a closet, or three, full of clothes. 
And I'm also thankful that I have a job that I'm passionate about.  I can only hope that at the age of 60 I am still doing what I am doing now.

KATE'S LAST CRUSADE

images from Kate Moss' last collection for TOPSHOP just released, and she doesn't look too happy about it! not sure if she's sad that their relationship is over, or if she's underwhelmed with the clothes. yeah, not sure.

the collection will be released in stores on Nov. 2, and to gain a little more publicity for the occasion, topshop.com is posting pictures of Kate wearing one piece from the collection each day up to to the release date, appropriately called 7 Days of Kate. today is cape day.

what do YOU think of the collection?

that little grey sweater

activewear as ready-to-wear has been very apparent the last few seasons. we've seen slouchy sweatpants replacing leggings, heels have rubber spike soles for better walking traction, striped over-the-knee tube socks are slightly sexy now (thanks to the heels-with-socks trend), and then there's my favorite – the ubiquitous grey crew neck sweatshirt.

what was considered a raggedy, warm sweater you wear to sleep has now become the go-to staple to dress down a too-fancy look. the way that it's not form-fitting, the way it slouches, the way it fits just like your man's but better, the way the grey just goes with just about everything in your closet – this understated piece has infinite possibilities.

wear it with sequins, pair it with leather shorts. pile on chunky, sparkly necklaces, while you roll up the sleeves. rock it long as a mini dress over your favorite colored stockings, or cropped with high-waisted trousers or a maxi skirt.

if i can wear my Cheap Monday crew every day, i would. ..with black liquid leggings and any one of my booties/wedges. i'm a sucker for comfortwear.

some photos just to give you some ideas:



Dries Van Noten and 3.1 Philip Lim

 braided by Bodkin

 looks from Zara

 Sasha + a leather jkt

 leather shorts, decorated shoulders, & cropped

 Clémence & sequins

Ashley Olsen + headband + leather leggings + YSL Tribs + a GREY SWEATER! = front-row chic at the Chanel show. 

effortless and timeless, the way everything oughta be!


xoxox