Dream Closet: Baby Shower

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be hostess-ing a baby shower with a few of my friends for two of our other friends whose due dates are one day apart! Goodness!I have no idea what I will actually pull out of my closet to wear tomorrow to the baby shower, but here is what I would wear if I had my imaginary "Dream Closet" (a new feature on the blog! This is one of my surprises for you!) What do you think? Floaty, flirty, fun, appropriate, young, playful, but still tasteful...sounds good to me! If only they weren't so dreadfully expensive. I die when I see these shoes. I die. Want. So. Badly. I promise you I would wear those almost every day this spring and summer! Loving how the earrings take that bright blue pop on the neckline one notch up. I just imagine the dressing-room lady at Barney's closing the dressing room curtain like the First-class stewardess does in Seinfeld saying, "Maybe you should have worked just a little bit harder." Sigh...love to dream!

baby shower by fashionatalie featuring Vionnet cardigans

Items in this set:
Eye-print silk dress, $795
Ruffled woven-silk cardigan, $1,080
Tabitha Simmons Bunty leather wedge pumps, $1,210
Triple wrap leather belt, $105
M-butterfly Big Size Rose Studs - Blue - Jewellery - NEW | women's..., 2.50 GBP

Just Call Me Alyssa

Don't forget to click the pics, they look better bigger!

"Alyssa" is a classic girl, but she's got originality. No need to steal ideas, she'll tie the scarf however she wants to, thank you very much, and wear open-toe heels in February. Alyssa doesn't like copy-cats, but she has so much personality and originality, it's really rather hard to copy her. She just has that extra spark, like the pop of bright pink in the middle of winter.

High-waist jeans are just so great. I love the silhouette they create and the proportions. Tuck a shirt in and you look instantly leaner and chic. Yesterday really felt like spring in the morning, warm, sunny...hence the open-toed heels. They were fine running errands downtown in the morning. But with sun in February comes...mud. Mud, mud, and more mud. It's not even officially mud season yet, but I had to get my wellies out to head to work.

The shirt here is actually a wonderful yellow check pattern, so bright and cheery. It matches the yellow belt perfectly. And have you ever thought...bright pink and yellow? So summer in Palm Beach...so Lilly Pulitzer. We'll take summer in Palm Beach here in winter in New England! I love the combo, it's so cheerful and fun. And now, I would just like to tell you that we are in the midst of a major snowstorm and I probably won't be taking outfit pics much this week, because I won't be leaving the house much! But I do have some other treats up my sleeve for you, dear readers :-)

The Runway Rundown:

Blouse: American Eagle 

Tee-shirt (under): Gap

Scarf: Walmart

Jeans: American Eagle

Belt: from another shirt

Bangles: can't remember

Heels: Thrifted

Wellies: Walmart

 

Remember: Quotes on Beauty

"When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier." ~Diane von Furstenburg

Diane creates such wonderful outfits, and they show confidence and womanliness without being overtly sexy or crazy. She knows that women are smart but they need to love themselves more than anything. I love this quotation, and think it is such an important part of growing up to learn to be your own best friend.

P.S.> Knot Earrings

Hello there! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I woke up this morning and made pancakes first off so I'm having a wonderful Saturday.
Unfortunately, I don't have an outfit post from yesterday. You see, I wake up at 5am on Fridays. I know many of you do this every day, and I really give you props! It's just this one day a week for me, though, and I never can seem to pick out my outfit the night before (or the week before like What Would a Nerd Wear). That means I end up getting dressed in the dark, with sleepy head and judgment, and that means that some Fridays...well, I look like I got dressed in the dark. I'll spare you a photo of the combo I had on...but let's just say the words preppy, beret, and Indian should never be used in the same sentence (or outfit!).

But on a better note, I will share about the very lovely earrings I was wearing in my last post. These knot earrings are made by Isabelle Glass, whom I met when I was at a craft show this past fall. My friend knew I had a crush on these earrings and surprised me with them later! They are so intriguing and unique, and add just that right amount of shine without being obtrusive. I find myself wearing them so often! While it's lots of fun to meet and talk to Isabelle in person (and try on her jewelry!) her Etsy shop offers many options (the longer, several-knot earrings are on my lust list!). 

Also, I have many new things coming on the blog front, so please stay tuned! I'll keep you informed I promise!

Just Call Me Elena

"Elena" sounds so sophisticated. She seems like a girl who has a favorite French bakery up the street from her apartment in the artsy, charming older section of the city. She orders her cappuccino and the barista always makes a heart on the top of hers, because she just has this aura of...well, it's nothing you can pinpoint, but you can feel it. You instantly feel a connection to her, be it wanting to be her friend or wanting to be like her.

First off, let's start with how much I love wearing my scarf like this, and the bright color of it. We're anxious for spring here, very anxious, and the bright colors help a lot! However, I do just feel like I'm finally getting the hang of dressing for winter. This vest is so fun, with the fur collar (that looked amazing peeking out of my bright red coat). Ok, so maybe my pink and gray obsession hasn't been retired after all! Other than that, not too much to say about this outfit! I just really like it :-)

The Runway Rundown:

Hairclip: little store in town
Earrings: local artisan
Scarf: Walmart
Turtleneck: Banana Republic (softest. ever.)
Vest: Forever 21
Belt: thrifted
Brown cords: Adriano Goldschmied
Boots: The North Face
Gloves (in hand): gift from grandma
(Also, Elena is one of the snowboarders and I happen to be watching the Olympics :-P)

Just Call Me Abbie

 

My friend Abbie always rocked the old-school classic pieces like corduroy skirts and chambray shirts. She was so put-together, a great role model for me when I was a teenager and she was in college. Abbie would run-around the Hope College campus in outfits like this, running from play rehearsals to music recitals.

I am so desperately in love with this outfit. I think I will wear an incarnation of it every day. It is a blatant rip-off of What Would a Nerd Wear's awesome grad-prep-teacher-j.crew style. She is so fantastic at being so consistently in that style, yet so free in her wardrobe, too.  Scarf tying tutorials and the idea for this outfit from here and here (along with every other awesome outfit she has).

Light pink, bright pink, and camel is, effective now, my favorite color combination. It may even (gasp!) replace my gray and pink fascination (see this and exact same color combo). These socks over my tights are actually dark gray, they just look black for some reason. Ahh, these tights. Funny story...I just bought them this weekend at Target, because I put a snag in my old ones. It was a two-pack I made sure to buy, because I'm always snagging my tights (yes, I need to jump on the WLC bandwagon). But I opened the package this morning and there was only one pair! But I wore them anyway, needing brown here, and immediately (what? how? when?) got a run in them. Sigh!

This new scarf will be worn a lot, I can tell! Loving it, that is just one of my colors. Also enjoying wearing the heart-shaped vintage earrings from my grandma...gold with little tiny pearls. Cute! I've been trying to style my hair new ways, and this braid around the front into bun is lots of fun. I need to perfect my braiding technique, I'm such a messy braider. Check out the hair tutorial here at Orchid Grey for a how-to. She's so cute, too. So, can I wear this outfit tomorrow too? 

The Runway Rundown:

Scarf: Walmart 
Earrings: vintage
Leather wrap bracelet: Gap
Pink tee: Gap
Cord skirt: Gap 
Tights: Target
Socks: Luxe Girl, via TJ Maxx
Wellies: Walmart 
(I have just recently realized that Walmart is not hyphenated--was it ever hyphenated? Then again, it took me *literally* three months to realize that our formerly-blue-and-white Walmart was painted tan and brown.)

Just Call Me Valerie

"Valerie" is such a California-girl name, Val. It also reminds me of "Valentine" so it's the name I chose for this Valentine's Day look, which one of my guy friends said was, "half L.A, half hipster." He always has the best descriptions for clothes. One time he told me the only way he could describe my outfit was to say I looked, "well-pressed." Ummm, sure.

I've been craving some of the fantastic texture of ruffles and rosettes that are all over the stores these days. Anthropologie and J. Crew had some of the best examples in their catalogues, but I got this fun shirt at Target. Gotta love it, not gonna lie, it was on clearance for $4.24 which works in this girl's grad student budget! Skinny jeans and the kick-ass booties (plus some equally intense makeup) keep this top from looking too girly. And I have to include this picture because the wind made the sleeve look so awesome! This shirt was so much fun to wear.

The Runway Rundown:

Hairclip: Goody, via Walgreens
Heart Earrings: Forever 21
Bracelets: Brighton and Wal-Mart
Ballerina necklace: Forever 21
Rosette top: Target 
Gray Jeans: Forever 21
Kick-ass Booties: Elie Tahari, via TJ Maxx

Just Call Me Meredith

"Meredith" is a good, solid name. I've known a couple of Merediths and I liked them all. This is also the name of Dr. Grey on Grey's Anatomy, and she went to Dartmouth Medical School. This Ivy League sweater is from Dartmouth. I'm trying to get my money's worth from this expensive vintage item by wearing it often!

I definitely took my cue on this outfit from the Olympic opening ceremony uniforms I posted about on Friday. Winter-white bottoms, check. A cream turtleneck sweater, check. Puffy jacket or vest, check. Black boots, check. It's not a perfect incarnation, but then if you have the money to drop on a $300 jacket from the official collection, I'll let you shop here (and send me something?).

I also happened to be spending the day in this outfit at a ski jumping competition, with world-class and Olympic team skiiers, so I thought the Olympic-inspired outfit fit. Being outside, I needed even more layers, so I added the Ivy League sweater. It was quite muddy at the ski jump event, so I tucked these white pants into my brown wellies for the afternoon. In order to keep this outfit from being too bland, I also added my animal-print barrette again, one of my favorite hidden touches. I feel this outfit is a bit masculine, so next time I will try harder to have a more feminine touch...any ideas?

The Runway Rundown:

Turtleneck: Ann Taylor (borrowed from a friend)
Ivy League sweater: Vintage
Barrette: can't remember
Cream corduroys: Aeropostale
Black boots: Muck Boot Company
Grey coat: American Eagle
Mittens: Gift from grandma :)

Spotlight: Ralph Lauren Olympic Attire

Hello! Oh goodness, I simply love the Olympics. Winter, summer, home or away...I just love the spectacle and spirit and competition and stories of it all. Watching the Opening Ceremonies tonight, I really fell in love with the Team USA outfits, designed this year by none other than Mr. Americana himself, Ralph Lauren. Both the Opening and Closing Ceremony outfits are so vintage-awesome, full of puffy down vests, balloon-y trousers, plaid shirts, chunky white turtleneck sweaters, shawl-collar sweaters, ties, berets, and knit ski hats.  David Lauren said, "So these outfits take inspiration from the '30s and '40s — the heyday of the American teams — and add it a modern sensibility. We're always rooted in the classics, but with a modern twist."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And the closing ceremony outfits...

"Spotlight" is one of my new features, where I feature collections or designers that I think deserve a tribute, be they modern or vintage. I hope you enjoy it! Obviously all of these images are copyright of their respective owners.

Now, GO TEAM USA!!!!!! VANCOUVER 2010!!!!!!! SUPPORT THE OLYMPICS, WATCH THE GAMES!

Just Call Me Apple

My coworker and I were talking about little girl names, and I brought up "Apple" (Gwenyth Paltrow's daughter) and we both agreed it was pretty cute. This outfit seems so playful (the necklace! the necklace!) and the green is an apple color, so this name fits perfectly. A childish name for a childish outfit on a windy, sunny day!

I grabbed this necklace from my closet again because yesterday my great sister-in-law, Steph, who blogs about baking over here at Girl vs. Dough, commented on the Rachel outfit. I wore this necklace to re-purpose the bridesmaid dress I wore for her beautiful wedding to my awesome brother! This necklace never fails to get many comments.

Even though the necklace is the most fun in this outfit, the sweater also gets its fair share of compliments. It is so cozy, and I love the huge knit, and the large collar. And did I mention I'm in love with this color, too? I also have a belt in....wait for it...the proper place to wear a belt! It is in the beltloops, folks, not high on my waist. Aren't you proud of me? This suede Coach belt has been worn countless times, it has been a real standard in my wardrobe for longer than I can remember. Gotta love old 'favorites'...especially on cold, windy February days when it feels like spring should be here already. Oh, and before I leave! I have to show you my new favorite socks!!!

The Runway Rundown:

Sweater: Victoria's Secret
Necklace: Urban Outfitters
Belt: Coach
Corduroys: Adriano Goldschmied
Boots: The North Face
Gloves: TJ Maxx
Socks: American Eagle

Just Call Me Sam

This outfit reminds me of Sam from Samantha Who? for some reason. That is such a funny show. Sam is also a male/female name, and these trousers have a men's fashion feel. I should technically call this the "Ali" but since I just used Allie, I will hold off. It was (rather blatantly) inspired by the outfit Ali wore on this week's episode of The Bachelor. Yes, I'm kind of obsessed this season. She had gray wide-leg trousers and a flourescent pink racer-back flowy tank top (can't find pics!!) when she went to tell Jake that she had to (gasp!) choose between him and her job. Oh goodness.

Anyway, I love this outfit! Apparently, the pants are a bit too long to be worn short. I was informed that any wide-leg trousers should just barely come right above the floor, so they hang properly ("Like curtains," my friend said). Will work on that. But aside from that fact...gray and this hot-pink/magenta color go together so nicely. A tiny Western-inspired belt and some "Lovely Heart" bronze earrings to round out the ensemble. I think this outfit could have perhaps benefited from bangles, but I didn't want to go overkill with all of the detail work on the shirt and waist.

I really do love this "paper-bag waist" as it is called because of the cinching and pleating at the top. . It was popular on skirts back in the '80s, but is coming into fashion on wide-legged trousers now. And don't worry, I promise you I do wear sweaters, scarves, gloves, and coats after I take my pics! But short-sleeves can work in the winter if you bring a long a sweater, because in my office it gets plenty warm!

The Runway Rundown:

Earrings: Target
Blouse: American Eagle
Tank (under blouse): Aeropostale
Trousers: Thrifted, originally Express
Western skinny belt: Thrifted
Brown Herringbone Flats: Gap

Just Call Me Cassie

"Cassie" is a bit sassy, but all classy. She mixes patterns with abandon, but never neglects polish. She will be your most loyal friend in the whole world, but it takes awhile, because she can be a bit too honest. You know the type, right?

This outfit felt so fun. I'd been really, really wanting to wear this cute new plaid dress I got on clearance recently at (who would have guessed?!) American Eagle. So many of my clothes are from that store! But with the spaghetti straps, it would take some layering to wear it in the middle of winter. I love this white, dress-length button-down, and added that first. Then I needed something darker to 'ground' it (too much white!), so I plucked another AE new fave out of my closet, the long cotton woven sweater. It is a great piece that bridges seasons well. Rolled the sleeves up on the sweater, and added the belt.

I still haven't found any great new winter heels/shoes, though I have been looking. It's a tall order! Please let me know if you have any suggestions :)

The Runway Rundown:

Plaid dress: American Eagle
White Blouse/Dress: Urban Behavior
Navy Cardigan: American Eagle
Belt: Thrifted
Tights: who knows
Boots: Wal-Mart
Red Coat: Forever 21
Gloves: TJ Maxx

P.S. > Week's End

Well, goodness. Here the week/weekend are over, and I have barely managed to make any posts. I've been in a fashion rut this weekend...out of motivation, feeling like all of my clothes are worn too often, unable to get up the extra half an hour early to actually make an effort and take pictures...sigh. I'm sure you all have days and weeks like that. Sometimes, fashion just isn't at the top of my list (all of you other grad students understand that one, I'm sure!).

I did at least take pictures of these two outfits, though neither of them is anything special. This is pretty much how I dress when I'm "not trying." I'm really in love with this magenta color. And in the middle is my new headband, of which I am such a fan! Love it!

The Runway Rundown:

Magenta peasant top: Max Studio, via TJ Maxx
Jeans: Earnest Sewn
Headband: American Eagle
Pink tee: Gap
Magenta wrap sweater: thrifted, originally Express
Necklace: Urban Outfitters
Jeans: thrifted, originally X2
Boots: Aerosoles
Gray coat (in hand): American Eagle
Gloves: TJ Maxx

Just Call Me Nicole

Nicole. Oh, everyone seems to think my name is Nicole instead of Natalie. Nicole is beautiful, too, and one of my best friends from elementary school was named Nicole. She had a shoulder-length bob, and I'll never forget I thought it was so cool that her mom had "girl's night out." I'd never heard of that before. But I digress...Nicole is the sort of girl that works hard all day and plays hard all night. She is in control in the boardroom, but loves a good night out. This outfit is sort of the in-between.

I will tell you up front. This look is totally inspired by J. Crew's catalogues. I don't know how they manage to make mixing office and night pieces together, and even casual pieces as well, but they do. I wanted to try my hand at it. Plus, the whole short and tights thing was calling me again. These tights are just my favorite. A friend let me borrow them, and ended up giving them to me because I liked them so much (ok, she made me buy her a glass of champagne, but it was her birthday so I would have anyway!).

These black shorts take me just about anywhere. A staple that I never knew I needed! I've worn them in the summer for playing around, rolled up. I've worn them in all seasons for more dressy occasions, either with or without tights. The real J. Crew touch here though, was the flower pin on the blouse. They've been doing flower pins all over the place lately!

It was sunny and beautiful today, despite being crazy-windy (hence the majorly wind-blown hair in the pics!). But the sun kept it warm enough to not need to really bundle up. I did change into black ballet flats later in the day to run some errands around town. Otherwise, a daring outfit that comes together out of closet staples...who would have known?

The Runway Rundown:

Sunnies: Nine West
Earrings: Brighton
Blouse: American Eagle
Flower Pin: H&M
Shorts: Gap
Tights: friend
Heels: Dress Barn 
Gloves: TJ Maxx
Coat: Thrifted, orgininally Express