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Hope y'all had a great weekend this weekend! If you've noticed, I changed things up a bit in the last couple days. I'm using a new template for the blog and have added a slide show of Savvy Outfits of the Day (I'm hoping to also add a Thrift Store Score slide show soon as well.)
Speaking of Savvy Outfits of the Day...today's outfit is an attempt to break out of my traditional color box. I'm not sure what it is about this color combination, but I really like it. In the past I would have worn a black purse with this (you know, match the shoes to the purse), but as Stacie & Clinton remind us from time to time, they don't have to match - and I think I'm beginning to see the fun freedom in that option.
As a side note, this Scarlett Blake purse is part of a short run line by the makers of B. Makowsky and it shows in the gorgeous leather. I first got hooked on these bags when I found one at the thrift store for $7. A cursory search online yielded this gem of a fact, the line is under Van Zeeland, Inc. as in Kathy Van Zeeland (you know, Kathy purses). Kathy Van Zeeland happens to be married to...Bruce Makowsky! Also under Van Zeeland, Inc. is Tignanello, another line of handbags known for excellent quality and leather.
Now B. Moss (no relation to B. Makowsky) has since closed due to bankruptcy. I visited the store a few times when I was in the mall but it was a little more conservative and well, expensive, for my taste. I did however visit when they were in clearance mode and bought this simple, classic sweater for $10.
The Breakdown.
B. Moss black button cardigan ($10 B. Moss/ARP $40), goldenrod tank ($3 For Love 21/ARP $3), green Old Navy stretch cords ($5 thrift store/ARP $30), Scarlett Blake brown leather handbag ($25 eBay/ARP $200), Coach signature Bibi boots ($20 Plato's Closet/ARP $250).
Grand Total: $63
Approximate Retail Cost: $523
Savvy Savings: $460
So, I've been doing these Savvy Outfits of the Day and somewhere along the way I realized that some of the true power of savvy shopping is lost by not giving an estimate on the money saved. That said, I think I'm going to start trying put in an ARP (Approximate Retail Price) on each item as well as a Savvy Savings number on each Savvy Outfit of the Day. If I can't remember the exact price, I'll err to the side of underestimating rather than overestimating. I'll even try to go back and add these numbers to the older posts as well. It might take a while but for you, it's worth it!
Till then stay Savvy!
It's funny, my husband is a 32x31 pant size and a 17x32/33 in dress shirts. ALWAYS. It doesn't matter who the designer is or what season it may be, I can buy pants and shirts in those sizes and outside of color or pattern preferences I know it's going to work. Not so for women.
I'm not sure what has happened in the last decade when it comes to women's sizes. When did it become so...arbitrary?
According to various sources, Marilyn Monroe at her sveltest was about 5'5 1/2" and weighed 118lbs. Her measurements were approximately 35-22-35. She was a 36D. Did you know that it is said she wore a size 12 in a dress and a size 8 in pants, a far cry from the size 0, 2 and 4's that today's celebrities pride themselves in wearing.
But really, does it matter what the number is? Isn't the point that we want to look good in what we wear regardless of size?
A friend of mine use to work in the shoe department at Nordstrom and he said he would order extra boxes of size 7 because women would come in swearing that they were that size when they were most obviously not. His solution? "Yes, Ma'am, the box here says 7, try this on and see if it works." Anything for a sale, right?
What is it about the numbers we use to define ourselves that can make us so happy or conversely, sad, when they are not in line with what we believe they should be? Too many times we get hung up on a number - whether it's a salary ideal, a weight ideal or a clothing size. But it's just a number and when it comes to clothing (and really, LIFE in general) the number doesn't matter.
As my dear friend, Jennifer commented brilliantly on my New Year's Post:
...remember that the best clothing lies. It lies for you - makes your bum smaller (Hi Clinton!) or your legs longer, or balances your giant shoulders by nipping in at the waist. The trick is to find the right lie, the one that works best for you.
I love the empire waist tops but I look at least thirty pounds heavier in them. That's also a lie, just not a lie I want to tell! And skirts? Why show off my thick ankles? I want jeans that lie for me and tell a different story.
Jennifer is an art director for a magazine who has styled models as well as magazine pages. And she's absolutely right. Looking good is about discovering what works best for YOUR body type. I'm busty at 5'4" and a 36D. My waist, however is not a size 22 like Marilyn Monroe's and so I wear good bras (another post in the future) and clothes that accentuate the smallest part of my upper body so that I show the world that I actually do have a waist under "the girls". That may sound like a "duh" moment, but it took me years to figure this out, but once I did, I routinely heard people asking me if I had lost weight.
So today I look for what fits me, regardless of the size. I have everything from XS to XL shirts in my closet, but really, who cares what the tag says if I look and feel good about myself? A skirt in a recent Savvy Outfit of the Day is a size 10. I generally wear 4's, but look what I would have missed if I didn't try it on just because of the number on the tag.
The place we need to get is one where we are happy with where we are NOW not where we MIGHT be someday, and I think it's a life-long lesson. From as far back as I can remember, I have tried, not always successfully, to find peace and a measure of joy in the moment instead of wishing I was somewhere or someone else. It's an ideal to which to aspire because the reality is that I only have the power to affect right now. Sure I can (and should) make plans for the future, but that can all change in a moment's notice.
Corny as it may be, I've heard it said, "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called 'present."
So go out there ye Savvy Women and seize the present!
Today's outfit of the day is variation of something I wore a couple weeks back. Yes, I do wear my clothes more than once! I went to a 'hood party that night and though it was just at a neighbor's house down the street, I wanted to dress up a little more than jeans without being over-the-top.
The Breakdown:
Old Navy puff & fur coat (thrift store $15/ARP $40), Banana Republic argyle sweater ($6 thrift store/ARP $70), turquoise tank ($3 For Love 21/ARP $3), winter white American Eagle cords ($5 thrift store/ARP $40), Steve Madden white leather boots ($7 thrift store/ARP $100 ), cashmere pashmina ($6 hospital sale/ARP $10), MAXXimum leather & suede purse ($6 thrift store/ARP $75).
Grand Total: $48
Approximate Retail Price: $338
Savvy Savings: $290
I LOVE the Steve Madden boots! Using What Not to Wear rules and continuing the white of of the cords to the point of the boots, helps to make my legs look longer, and what woman doesn't want to have longer looking legs? And even though white can be a rough color to wear with children running around, the cord material is more resilient and I love the fact that I don't have to iron it. Really, worse case scenario is if the pants get stained, and then I only spent $5 on it so I didn't waste my money. I've had these pants for over a year now and they're still going strong!
I didn't start wearing pink until sometime after Superstar #2 was born. It's not that I had anything against the color, I just grew up as a tomboy so I guess I never really embraced my feminine side. I was more at home in sweats & t-shirts running from soccer practice to volleyball practice and then to the football training room (I used to help tape up the players and help with injury recovery/physical therapy on the side). Not to say that I didn't have more feminine friends. I did, and some of them wore big ole bows in their hair that matched our uniforms. I just didn't.
ANYWAY - all that to say, I am falling in love with pink...in moderation. I love using it as an accent color like in this outfit where, yes, I am wearing jeans. But per What Not to Wear rules, they are a nice dark even wash and look dressy even though they are "just jeans".
The Breakdown.
B. Laguna jeans (Macy's sale $15), white tank (Rave $4), white cotton Old Navy long sleeve ($4 thrift store, new), Ann Marino black leather wedge ($8 Parisians), Pink Signature Coach clip purse ($10 thrift store), pink cashmere scarf ($6 hospital sale). Grand Total: $47
You know, I did find a pink Coach signature hat at a local thrift store (for $15) so I could have worn that as well, but it felt a little over-the-top and too matchy-matchy for my taste so here it is, sans hat. It's easy to see that with just a change in accessory color I could have a whole new outfit, but it would have to be bright in order to have the same impact, wearing black or brown accessories would be a little boring. Yellow, orange, green or red would be other good colors to pop this outfit.
HAPPY NEW YEAR my Savvy Friends!!
Several of you have asked me to share more on my "consultation" with Clinton Kelly a couple months back, and though he couldn't make it to the little New Year's soiree we had here in the 'hood, I figured we could celebrate in spirit with him by raising our right hand and solemnly swearing to uphold Savvy Shopping & Saving habits in 2009.
Admittedly my original blog about Clinton was a little shorter than what I had first imagined. I don't know what came over me. I'm usually a pretty good photographer when it comes to candid quick snaps, I'm half Japanese after all, but not this time!
Maybe it was his 6'4" tall frame and sparkly blue-eyes that stunned the camera, maybe it was his sassy comments about tapered mom-jeans, or maybe it was his gushing compliments to us moms (he spent a week at his sister's house with his nephews and was exhausted) or maybe it was just a bad camera day - you know, like a bad hair day? Whatever it was I have but a couple more pictures of my stylist to share with you with a couple more fun tidbits from the "consultation".
One of the funnier moments of the evening is when he answered a question from a stay-at-home mom. What was she wearing, you ask? A gray frumpy sweatshirt, white t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. Her excuse for not wearing something better was that all she did was take her kids to preschool, as if that was going to win brownie points with him. The funny thing is that Clinton pointed it out, "But you knew you were coming HERE and you wore THAT?" Of course we all laughed. I mean, c'mon, you are just setting yourself up for ridicule by Clinton if you come wearing a sweatshirt and baggy jeans and tennis shoes!
Then he pulled this little woman on stage. Again, what was she thinking coming to see Clinton Kelly wearing THIS? You can tell she was laughing at his little zingy comments. The great thing is that he ended by telling her that though the green t-shirt she was wearing looked a little worn, the color looked really good on her.This is what I love about what he and Stacie London do with What Not to Wear. They build people up. You can honestly tell that Clinton feels that women deserve to treat themselves better by wearing clothes that make the most of what they have. It's never about being a size 0 - it's about looking good in whatever size you wear NOW.
Clinton shared that he started in advertising before the fashion industry and that the women you see in magazines are not "real". They are images created by a whole team of experts whose sole job is to make the product or idea they are selling PERFECT. He went on about how it's one person's sole job to not only airbrush out any wrinkles but even pores. Teeth are whitened & straightened, waistlines made smaller, breasts made larger until the person no longer looks real. He went on to say that these are not the images we should be using to compare ourselves against because the model in the original picture doesn't even look that good in real life...and she knows it!
That's about all I have left to report, though one little tidbit I didn't share and it was from our last "consultation". Clinton pointed out that women have a terrible habit of being very vocal about what they hate about their body. He doesn't think we should ever talk about ourselves in that manner. Sure everyone has different challenges or areas of their body that they have a harder time dressing. When asked what his was, he said that he has a big butt. Seriously!
Now, both times I saw him he was wearing a sports coat which he says he uses to cover it up. Well, I can't say that I was spent a lot of time looking at his butt (I'm a mom of two little girls, c'mon!) but from what I can tell it's just one of those things that's not "perfect" in proportion in the eyes of a man who works in the fashion industry. Still, it was nice to hear that even the "pretty people" have their own issues and imperfections. It's what makes us a part of the human race.
So as you make your way into 2009 I will leave you with this picture that I found on Clinton's website taken by Brian Winckler. It's Cowboy Clinton, and it made this Nashville Girl (by way of Southern California) laugh. I mean, there's even penguins! And you know how I feel about penguins, especially Madagascar penguins. Till we meet again, Shop Savvy Y'all and...HAPPY NEW YEAR!
So, I realize that as we head into winter, the outfits get more expensive, usually by virtue of the addition of outerwear, but I do want to make sure I include it as it shows that you can get great outerwear at a fraction of the price if you hit the thrift store and/or sales at the major department stores.
That said, today's savvy outfit of the day is brought to you by the thrift store, Dillard's, Target, and eBay. Admittedly the jeans are lighter than what I usually wear, but I have found that I've put on a few pounds over the summer and combined with my lack of desire to squeeze into any jean that doesn't have some sort of stretch in it, this is what I came up with. Of course, just changing the jeans into cords would have made this outfit more "dressy" but I was in a casual mood today.
The Breakdown.
Armani Exchange jeans ($4 thrift store), Mossimo black sweater ($5 Target), Joan & David patent & leather ballet flats ($4 thrift store), Coach Bleecker handbag ($48 eBay), Hayden & Harnett leather tassel on Coach bag ($8 eBay), I.N Studio jacket ($17 Dillard's sale). Grand Total: $86
Once again a little nod to my stylist Clinton Kelly as he continues to tout the ballet flats as a great way to dress up a casual outfit. I LOVE these little flats from Circa, Joan & David! The patent leather detail on the from and back and even the bow (and I am NOT a bow person) is understated but still a little dressy, and for $4 I couldn't resist such a wardrobe staple.
This handbag from Coach was also a little more expensive, but it's a classic that will last for years. As with all my handbags, I pay a price that I know I can recoup should I ever tire of it and want to re-sell it on eBay. It's the best way I know to keep from overspending when it comes to purses/shoes/whatever your particular fancy may be, though it's not a bad rule of thumb to use when considering any items that are trendy. Of course, even if it is a staple item, like this black coat, I like the idea of being able to sell it for what I paid if it's at all possible!
The other thing that I added to this outfit was the tassel on the purse. Hayden Harnett sells them and they are clip-ons. I use this particular tassel on several different purses as a way to dress them up a little or change the look. If you look at the high end Prada and Gucci purses, you'll see that some have a great tassel on it, I thought it would be fun to buy a clip-on and use it to dress up several purses. I've also used them on zip-up purses that have small pulls. It makes opening up a zipped purse easier if you've got a lot of stuff to carry or a kid to hold on to.
These tassels retail for $32 on the Hayden Harnett website. I bought it on eBay. Actually I paid $18 for one, but since they didn't have the color I wanted the seller threw in an extra free tassel so I kind of look at it like paying $9 each.
In the end, as I share these day-to-day outfits, I hope y'all know that they are by no means the most fashion forward of wardrobes, even though sometimes I try to be a little trendy. I really wear these clothes when I run out to the store with the girls to by groceries, though I may not get them on till after noon when the homeschooling stuff is finished.
I just think it's naive to think that how you present yourself doesn't affect the way that people perceive you or how you feel about yourself. If putting on a Target sale-rack sweater and ballet flats means you look more together and you feel more sassy than in an oversized sweatshirt & tennis shoes when you go to Walmart for groceries then why not? With savvy shopping it no longer becomes an issue of cost.
Today's outfit is thanks to Target, Belk's, For Love 21, Rave, and the thrift store. It's a simple, weekend look that means me and the family are out to see the movies! The Tale of Despereaux is on the agenda; having read it for homeschool we are so excited to see it, although I am already explaining that books don't always translate to the silver screen the way they play out in our mind's eye. That said, I can't wait!
The Breakdown.
Purple Mossimo shirt (Target sale $5), white tank top (Rave $4), Red Camel denim skirt ($7 Belk's sale), Gray/Black tights (For Love 21 $6), Leg Warmer Leather Boots ($8 thrift store), Kate Spade purse ($10 thrift store). Grand Total: $40Ok, so the boats are rather cool, aren't they? I have no idea what the brand name is, I looked everywhere and couldn't find it, although the 37 size on the bottom means they must be European. Suffice to say the bottom part of the foot is a leather boot and the top is warm scrunchy knit. Yes, it's trendy, so I tried to keep the rest of the outfit classic.
A Clinton Kelly tip in fact. I just turned 40 so trying to follow the trends can make one look I'm trying to hard to look young, so Clinton says pick one thing trendy but make sure the rest of the outfit is more classic. Voila!
Yes, that's right. My stylist Clinton Kelly was in town today and I got a chance to "catch up with him"...like the other 300 women that showed up at Macy's.
I saw Clinton last year and as before, he did not disappoint. He is as engaging and endearing in person as he is on the show and even cuter.
Clinton initially talked about his top 4 tips and here they are, a good reminder to all of us of What TO Wear.
1. Get a professional bra fitting - this one step will make your clothes look better. Ideally "the girls" should be in-between your shoulders and your elbows. Most forms used by designers follow the tween-shoulders-and-elbows proportion so clothes will most likely fit better if yours do too.
2. Shapewear is your friend - most of the women fitted on the show will be fitted with shapewear. It's a great way to hide underwear lines and bulges.
3. Tailoring is for everyone, not just men. Men just assume that they will have to get tailoring done when they buy a suit, and yet we women think it should fit off the rack. Whether it's shortening or lengthening pant or skirt hems, Clinton says that almost all the clothes on the show are tailored.
4. You gotta try on LOTS of clothes. Clinton says that they really do shop from store open to store close for two days for the What Not to Wear make-over person. With two full days of shopping they are happy if they come away with 7 full outfits. Did you catch that? SEVEN outfits for two whole days of shopping. So his sympathy for someone who tries on two pairs of pants and calls it quits is NIL.
As hard as it looks on television Clinton swears it's actually harder than what's shown. Every minute you see on TV takes about 1 hour worth of filming. So a 45 minute show has been edited down from 45 HOURS of filming. Still, in the midst of all the hard work, Clinton says it's rewarding to hear back from people who have been on the show of the promotions, raises and finding the love of their lives that have happened subsequent from their makeover.
He said a few of the trends this season are purple, short or modified trench coats and plaid. I was inspired enough to even buy a purple shirt, on clearance of course. Right now is a GREAT time to shop in department stores as they are getting rid of the last of the Fall items and looking toward Winter so if you're going out to shop, remember to Shop Savvy!
Hope y'all had a great weekend this weekend! If you've noticed, I changed things up a bit in the last couple days. I'm using a new template for the blog and have added a slide show of Savvy Outfits of the Day (I'm hoping to also add a Thrift Store Score slide show soon as well.)
