Fall Fantasy Fashion Item # 1

This is the first in a series I'm going to do every week featuring a different fantasy fashion item for Fall.  I'm starting with the obsession that grabs me every September and that is to find a pair of black riding boots that fit my 19" calf.  When I was in NYC last August we went to Saks and I salivated over these boots in Salon Z and this year...I want them.  With the exception of a volumnious peach tafetta skirt I saw in the window at Young Quinlan in 1981 that I HAD to have to wear to my senior prom, I have never wanted anything more. 

They are on the Saks website (http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/) as I write, just calling my name.  Shouting really.  I would sell my first born for them.  I would give up Diet Coke for these beauties (and if you knew me, you'd know the sacrifice that would entail!)  I'm scheming because I.  Want.  These.  Boots. 

Details: 
This is the Marina Rinaldi, Salon Z Manhattan Leather Boot - $655.
Day-to-night style in buttery-soft leather has a low stacked heel for a chic and sexy look.
Stacked heel, about 1½"
Shaft, about 15½"
Expandable leg circumference, about 19"
Leather lining
Rubber sole
Imported

Wild for White Blouses

We all know the difference between "fashion" and "style" don't we?  Fashion is of the moment..it's studded jeans and peasant blouses in the winter.  Style is timeless and Jackie O sunglasses and strings of Chanel-inspired pearls.  I am musing today on the most stylish of wardrobe items; the wardrobe staple that not only goes with everything but that everything wants to go with!  Other items of clothing can only dream of being as special as this one!  I am talking about the white blouse.  Timeless.  Elegant.  Playful.  Conservative.  Racy.  Cotton.  Silk.  Marilyn wore them.  Sharon Stone wears them with jeans and tafetta.  Great at any size and great at any time.  If you don't have a white blouse - by all means, now is the time.  It ranks right up there with the little black dress and a strand of pearls but while it's classic and timeless, it's also a bit rock n'roll and a whole lot of sexy. 

Here are some of my favorites and a look through the years.  Enjoy and happy Monday!

A Piece of Work

Seriously.  See this film.  Even if you've never liked Joan Rivers...see this film.  You will walk away with a newfound respect and admiration for this woman, who at the age of 76, still gets the most satisfaction from a full calendar and non-stop work.  She's brilliant, hilarious, raunchy, real and yes, over the top.  I can't help but love a woman who has had a limosine pick her up since 1969 and still thanks God everytime she gets into it!  And she does the luxury thing really well but you see how hard she works to keep it.  This is the great misconception of people who think fame buys you relaxation and luxury.  Mostly it buys you alot more work.  This movie provides a great glimpse of the wierd reality of the comedy world where one night you're appearing at the Kennedy Center Honors and the next finds you at a casino in the middle of the woods in Northern Wisconsin.  Similarily, I recently appeared in a show in Minneapolis in front of hundreds and followed by a glamorous after-party, and then the next week found me performing in front of 15 people in a smoky bar in Ethan South Dakota.  Joan and I have something in common, even if I am not getting picked up in a limosine all the time!  She's incredible and this is my thumbs up encouragement to all of you to see this wonderful glimpse into the life of a comedienne who not only opened the doors for many of us over the past four decades, but who continues doing so today. 

I Scream...You Scream...We all Scream for Ice Cream!

This calls for a Southern accent. 

I just had an organic strawberry ice cream cone y'all.  Seriously.  It makes me think of sitting on a porch on a lazy summer afternoon..with the moss-covered branches draped overhead and the sound of cicadas filling the air.  I picture myself wearing a huge straw hat and fanning myself.  Fiddle dee dee.

Here's the thing.  I don't really even like ice cream, but the Pumphouse Creamery has the most divine, organic, home made treats so how could I resist on this muggy summer day?  How can I resist my favorite thing in the world - cream - mixed with sugar and the freshest most lovely strawberries?  Hmmmmm..I ask you!? 

So - a shout out to Pumphouse Creamery (http://www.pumphouse-creamery.com/) and if you are in Minneapolis, a visit to 48th and Chicago Avenue South is well worth the trip.  Y'all. 

Dream Big

Do you believe in dreams?  Do you believe your dreams are worthy of your time and attention?  And I'm not talking just about the dreams we have to climb mountains or pursue a new path in life...I'm also talking about our sleeping dreams.  The ones that come to us underwater as we sleep and that can leave us feeling refreshed and excited, or black and blue.  I have a zillion dreams.  In my waking life, I am writing a book; I am performing and speaking and want to grow that career.  I am doing workshops about dream wardrobe building for plus size women.  The dreams are varied and important to me and I give them my time, attention and love.  Also, I often have the most vivid sleeping dreams and they mean something in my life. Recently I dreamt about a person I hadn’t seen or thought of in months and the very next day who do you think I ran into? My subconscious certainly seems to know some things that I do not!  Earlier this week I completed a very intense four-day workshop in which I felt exposed and truthful and the night after a very open converstaion with one of the facilators, I dreamt he and I were standing in a room together and I was naked and trying to cover up.  It's not rocket science to figure out the meaning of that in my life.  Some evenings I go to sleep waiting anxiously to see what worlds my dreams may place me in. Some evenings, if I’m sad or apprehensive, I look towards my dreams for perhaps a bit of comfort. Some dreams of course, are just a mish-mash of the craziest, most unlikely events but when you think about it, isn’t life just a mish mash of the craziest most unlikely events too?  Think about your dreams both sleeping and awake.  Give your dreams your time and your attention because dreams are where it all begins.  If you want to start your own business, start looking into the steps you need to take to do so.  If you want to sail around the world with your spouse, what do you need to do to prepare for that undertaking and why couldn't you do it?  Likewise, listen to you night dreams.  We always know the truth whether we admit it to ourselves or not. 

Dreams are the roadmaps to the journey of our lives..let's follow them! 

And speaking of dreams..here are some pre-fall beauties that I stumbled onto at Nieman Marcus!  (Black dress and boots:  Prada; Ballet flats:  Yves Saint Laurent; Handbag:  Burberry; Dress at top:  Melissa Massie) 

Designer Showcase: Anna Scholz

The Power of Positive

When I let fear rule my actions, nothing good comes from it.  If I was in a jungle and facing a hungry tiger, yes, fear would be very appropriate! But so would keeping a level head. So would moving slowly and methodically. If I kept my eyes on the tiger, remained calm and did not become a panicked, screaming, crying, running target, chances are the situation would end much more favorably.   

Like a tiger, fear can turn us into screaming, crying, running, crazy people.  Whether it’s fear about a relationship or fear about money or a job, it's fear that ultimately keeps me paralyzed and keeps building upon itself.  Fear makes me eat uncontrollably or spend money on things I cannot afford.  Fear gives the tiger the power to consume me. 

Last week I was scared and feeling overwhelmed about many things when I realized I was giving fear way too much power in my mind.  Just making this connection changed how I looked at things.  I decided I needed to change how I was thinking and I started by making my mantra into one of abundance and prosperity.  I refocused on what I could do right now to bring about the results I needed.  I became proactive and I made some goals for the week (as opposed to thinking about the next year and what was going to happen in eight months!) and had to do the work, but this simple shift in my thinking made all of the difference and helped me to make my goals and continue moving as opposed to feeling paralyzed by fear.  The tiger is still present but instead of running from it, I am now feeding it out of my hand!

What are you afraid of this week and how can you take back your power and move forward? 

Dress for Summer

In honor of my SATC post (see below), check out these lovely dresses.  I love dresses...they look amazing and are comfortable and easy in the hot summer months.  A dress can be as formal or as casual as you make it and is appropriate pretty much anywhere.  Look, if Sarah Jessica Parker can ride a camel in the desert in a dress..I can certainly go to the grocery store in one!

These are some of my current favorites!

top: 

Raquel Dress by B&Lu

below: 

Double silk by Anna Scholz

Black sleeveless by Calvin Klein (Bloomingdale's)

Floral sundress with contrasting shash by Igigi

Green sundress by Lane Bryant

In Which I Get all Feminist on Everyone..or Why I Love SATC

I admit it. I love the whole Sex in the City franchise. I love the television show on HBO. I love the re-runs on the WB. I love the glitz and the NY glamour. I love the fantasy/sort of reality aspect of their combined lifestyles and of course, I love all of those amazing clothes.

And the shoes. Oh…the shoes. Every time someone watches SATC, Manalo Blahnik gets his wings.

SATC 2 premiered this weekend and the reviews have not been good. The box office however, was number one which tells me that like the first one, groups of women made an event of this film. I saw it last night, a Wednesday night, at a theater in which it was playing on four screens, and the one I was in was packed. I imagine the girls all gathered together, got dressed to go out, sipped some cosmos, checked out the guys at the bar and then headed to the theater to worship at the altar of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha. I imagine a movie studio is quite happy.

But like all things that appeal to women, I see SATC being diminished and not valued. Even People asked when Samantha was going to stop dropping her panties and sleeping with every man she sees. Besides the inherent sexism in that comment, it seems that SATC gets to be pooh poohed and deemed not worthy because it’s something that women enjoy. It’s a story that is directed at, about, and appeals to, women. Not only is much of the buzz about the fashions presented and worn, but in the same way that fashion is a multi-billion dollar industry but gets dismissed as frilly and frivolous largely because it appeals to women (Read Robin Givhen’s amazing editorial in the Washington Post on this subject.)

SATC 2 is a total fantasy based on over the top fashion and a lifestyle that very few of us will ever realize and perhaps, very few of us even want to realize. But we still love it and think of those four women like our own sisters. SATC isn’t even a chick flick. It’s a chick flick squared. It’s a clit flick.

A clit flick celebrates women without making it about men. It’s not the sort of movie most men will go to, like a chick flick they might be dragged to on a date. I have a male friend who will only go to movies he deems “chick flicks” if he’s on a date.

Chick flicks are like foreplay to men. Clit flicks, on the other hand, are like a cold shower.

Why don’t we call movies like “Iron Man” or the upcoming release “The A Team” guy flicks? Those sorts of movies are total, undiluted fantasy, yet they are held up as worthy action-adventure that will break all box office records as men and their buddies flock to them. But they do not get labeled according to the gender they attract and they are not easily dismissed in such a derogatory way as “chick flick”. There’s another type of movie as typified by the upcoming “Killers”, coming out with Katherine Heigel and Ashton Kutcher. Yet another tale of a beautiful woman married to a gorgeous man who happens to have kept from his wife that he leads a secret life separate from her yet she will get pulled into it and together they go on an action-adventure with the wife sprouting womanly-reactions the entire time. “I can’t carry this gun in my waistband..it’s way too big.” Or the new Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz flick that appears to be full of big car crashes, explosions and lots of gun (fore) play. We love the women to be either non-existent..or just beautiful and unaware and needing to be saved from the bad guys.

Perhaps that’s the definition of a true clit flick. “Thelma and Louise” was a clit flick. So was “Out of Africa”. Those female leads did not need to be rescued and in fact, if they did, they saved themselves. The SATC girls save themselves and as stated in SATC 2, know that ultimately it’s the girls themselves who know the real and right answers. Oh sure, Big came to Paris and swept Carrie away from Alexandre Petrovsky..but she was reaching that point on her own as well. At the end of the first SATC movie, Samantha actually left the guy in order to rescue herself. Could this be part of the reason why we flock so dramatically and loyally to them? How many of us, in living our day to day lives, feel we need to be rescued? Things can get bad from time to time but that’s typical of everyone. Do we ever really think we want someone else to rescue us from our own lives? Are any of us truly waiting for the proverbial prince on a white horse to fix our lives and make it all ok? Do we need to be rescued? We are TOLD that we need to be rescued constantly. Rescued from our big thighs and flabby bellies. Rescued from being single, from how we take care of our children, from our dry and unshiny hair and wrinkles. Women are supposed to need and want to be rescued and the SATC ladies manage to skirt the issue (pun intended) with flair, humor and a bit of panache. And in today’s world, panache is a welcome commodity.