What’s Your Eccentric Glamour? Classic Style, Part III

A classic fashionista knows how to pull off a look that is modern, American, and timeless. These fashion femmes know that trends come and go, but an essential, edited look is here to stay. They choose solid colors, bold accessories, and classic cuts. From the days of Audrey Hepburn longing outside the doors of Tiffany’s to Michelle Obama bouncing out of burger joints in our nation’s capital, a put-together look can never go wrong. When shopping, classic chicks opt for quality over quantity. Gals with classic style often have a signature look that they repeat time and time again, check out Audrey’s timeless black look that never went out of style:

Get the Look: Tailored Jeans, Trench Coats, Classic Suit, Knee-high Boots, Black Pumps, Pea Coats, White Work Shirt, Pencil Skirts, Little Black Dress, Floral Summer Dresses, Black, Tailored Well-Fitting Clothes

Celeb Inspiration: Audrey Hepburn, Katie Holmes, Michelle Obama, Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, Gwenyth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson

Where to Shop: J Crew, Gap, Banana Republic, Ralph Lauren, Tory Birch, Nordstroms, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, 

As always, no matter what your style is, in the words of Mr. Doonan himself, “SAY NO TO HO! … and yes to ECCENTRIC GLAMOUR.”

Trend Report: It’s Clutch

 

It’s officially summertime and as our wardrobe shrinks as the weather warms up, so do our purses. Box clutches are a modern, flirty way to shake up the traditional evening handbag.  These clutches are designed in all colors and styles to satisfy your mood so you can change up your look as often as your flavor of the week.

And there are some very excentric pieces out there.

 

Vogue.com highlighted the Lavin (above on left) in their uber popular trend report, I must concur on their selection it is truly a jewel – very mod meets legally blonde – in Paris of course.

Even Fendi pulled out the stops for an extremely feminine boxed clutch reminiscent of patterns from our grandmother’s days but I must admit is a stunning piece and had I the extra capitol I would certainly add this to my collection. Will blog for Fendi. Really.

One credited fashionista divulges, “With a satin front, black leather lining and silver tone trim, this clutch is surely a head turner. Besides the price, the only thing I am not a fan of is the fastening top; it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the bag. But, I might be able to look past that and go back to focusing on the fact that I actually found a flirty Fendi bag I wouldn’t mind carrying around,” and continues “Fendi’s glory days date back to Sex and the City. This multicolored box clutch has what I certainly consider to be gorgeous hand stitched and painted cotton flower detailing. ”

 

Calvin Klein designed this summer clutch that pains both our hearts and our wallets.  A fellow fashion writer reveals her love affair with this particular purse worth purse-uing. (Ok, too much?)

“This enamel box clutch nearly knocked me off my feet today when I saw it. Constructed with sturdy enamel, the rectangular-shaped evening bag is decorated with floral ornamentation and lined in suede. The bag features a back wall slip pocket and closes at the top with a clasp. The silver Enamel Box Clutch is very New Wave and perfectly compliments any Friday night out you have planned. Luckily it’s payday for most of us, because the bag will cost you $1500 at Zappos.”

Moving on from a Friday evening to Saturday Night Fever.

“Disco fever has hit over at Anya Hindmarch headquarters, meet this tribute to the past, the Disco Box Clutch! Anya Hindmarch, known for her bright, bold designs and pretty leather goods presents to us something rather… odd.”

This designer went off -brand to bring us another fun, unique and un-recession-friendly box clutch, but perfect for the retro chic.

 ”Here’s a clutch that is not only an essential holder but can also double as a decent-sized mirror for its owner. So a combination of the two most popular metallic’s form this pint-sized box, what do you gals think about this? Personally, I believe this piece should have made its debut… in the 70’s! I apologize to any fans of this clutch, but unless I find this sitting lonely at the clearance section, (that’s with an extremely reduced price tag of course) this glimmery piece won’t be found pictured within my bag collection. This petite accessory measures in at 7” x 4” x 1” and carries a hefty price tag of $460!”

 

So what did we learn today?

Box Clutches= Fabu!

Their Price  Tags= Not so much.

If you want to clutch any of these clutches you had better be a TFB (Park Cities TLA (three letter acronym) lingo for Trust Fund Baby) or have a very serious credit line.

Now back to my DVR recording of Oprah’s 2009 money episode.

 

XOXO

Hopefully Not the Last from ‘Kiss

The Spin: Jadakiss – The Last Kiss
Released April 7, 2009
The Island Def Jam Music Group 2009
[rate 4]

If you’ve followed Jadakiss’ career at all, it’s easy to see that he’s consistently put out some of the most solid work in the genre since as far back as The Lox. Although every album has its fair share of what would be deemed commercial songs (and they’re just as good as anything else you would hear on the radio), he hasn’t managed to reach the type of mega-stardom as Lil Wayne or 50 Cent or even gained the type of mainstream notariety as someone like Mims or Chingy. I think plenty would argue that Jadakiss’ lyricism would have him fare well in a battle with any of these guys and the beats that pervade his albums are definitely good, if not equal to his rapping.

“The Last Kiss” finds itself again without a huge hit, but has managed to garner plenty of praise and respectable sales. But also like most of his albums, it’s sort of a mixed bag and lacks continuity. There are a couple of Neptunes beats that stick out, there are beats that sound just five minutes too dated, and then there are southern-style club bangers in the middle of it. Content-wise, Kiss is equally sporadic.

In “Who’s Real,” we hear Swizz Beats’ familiar voice and horn arrangements. For whatever reason, Swizz Beats has certainly mastered his particular brand of simple drum patterns and synth arrangements (which he’s claimed to accomplish in fifteen minutes or less), although he does add in samples, from time to time. His lyrics definitely have not received the same amount of attention for good reason. However, Swizz Beats, in collaboration with other artists, provides a recipe for very effective rap tunes. Thankfully, Jadakiss does a good job of complimenting the track. OJ Da Juiceman provides fairly weak guest lyrics.

Anyone who’s heard a Jadakiss album knows that he’s fairly obsessed with guns. “Smoking Gun” serves as a manifestation of that, but with a sort of twist. This song is a sort of Bonnie & Clyde tale, but more socially conscious and more vengeful. Yeah, actually, it’s more like one of those highly entertaining albeit cheesy revenge flicks from the seventies. At any rate, the content of the song is really interesting and the beat’s pretty nice. I don’t want to give away more than that because it’s such a cool song. Instead, I’d encourage anyone to check it out.

“Respect My Conglomerate” is a Busta Rhymes song that is included on the Itunes version of Kiss’ album. The female vocals sound like they’re sampled, but they’re not. The hook is really cool. The beat’s fairly poppy and simplistic, but effective. Busta Rhymes delivers as always and Jada doesn’t disappoint, either. “Grind Hard” and “Something Else” serve as Jadakiss’ attempt to get in good with the south, even including a verse from Young Jeezy on the latter. “Grind Hard” features a hook by Mary J. Blige and is appropriately catchy.

If I had to describe Jadakiss’ career to someone, I’d say something like, “Jadakiss is a five-star lyricist who consistently makes four-star albums.” It’s hard to not feel like if he just had an album with two or three really big hits that he could be on the same eschelon as someone like Jay-z or Nas.
I think it’s unfortunate that this isn’t the case, but I certainly keep hoping for it, and considering that he’s one of the only good hip-hop artists still doing big things in New York, his time may be yet to come. Predictably, I give this album four out of five stars.

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