Le Sigh - Tabitha Simmons Contrast Foulard Print Silk Mary Janes

I want to wear these Tabitha Simmons tie silk mary janes every single day this Fall.

I mean seriously, how perfect are they.  Beautiful fabrics. Gorgeous shape. Menswear done ladylike.  I'm totally in love.

Sadly for me they don't come in my size, thereby saving me from myself. But they are gorgeous though.

Tabitha Simmons Contrast Foulard Print Silk Mary Janes - $1,248 at MyTheresa.com

Go Go Gilt! - Marc Jacobs Perfection

Sometimes you fall in love and you have to follow your heart.

I went for a quick peek at the Marc Jacobs items on Gilt (click for invite link) and found myself instantly smitten by an adorable dress.



Black and white stripes, scalloped edges, multiple tiers and tiny velvet bows.

So ruffly and perfect I had to have it. Luckily I had some credits. The sale just started and there are a bunch more cute dresses there.

Go Shop!!!

Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit

I'm doing the transitional thing again. Trying to work in some of the clothes from summer that I haven't had a chance to wear as well as putting together color combinations that I like the look of.

On Wednesday, I decided to wear this bright pink patterned silky wrap dress from JCrew with the much more substantial dark brown corduroy blazer from Target. One of my favorite elements of the dress (and the reason I bought the same style in three fabrics - on sale!) is the ruffle collar. What's fun with it, is when you wear the dress under a blazer, the ruffle gets pushed up and creates this sort of ornate neckline that really frames your face.

The two colors are very strong and contrast each other well. I walked in the door to work and got all sorts of compliments which I directly contribute to the colors working off of each other.



In keeping with the simple/ornate look I wore one of my new Paraphernalia pieces - a "P for Poochie" Petit Nom Initial Necklace. If you have not found a Paraphernalia piece that you like, you just can't be looking. I think I have about ten pieces and I love them all - from girly to a bit goth.

You're going to be seeing a lot more pieces of hers because I just received a bunch and I'm so excited I'm wearing them almost every day.



For shoes, I wore these Casadei dark brown suede mary janes. I love the shape of these when they're on and the color and material are an equal weight to the blazer - they help to ground the dress.



Plus they have giant pom-poms!



The Focal Point

It was all about the dress and the great color and pattern. I am a sucker for a great saturated pink. I really cannot resist, even when I should.



I think this weekend might be the right time to do the seasonal switch for the closets and pulling out the sweaters. But I'm going to have to keep this transitional idea in mind and not bury anything too deeply that I might want to layer with.

Week In Review Redux

As I've been looking through shome of my shoe shots and uploading things to Flickr, I see shoes that I haven't worn for while. I get sad... why have I been neglecting them???

So I've been trying to wear some old loves and give them the attention they deserve.

On Monday I wore a white v-neck and linen skirt with a skinny red belt from Target.



The center of attention were my Louboutin gold and cork Prive peep-toes.



Red!



It's amazing how high they are and yet how comfortable. That hidden platform really does it's job.



On Wednesday I had a client meeting so I wore something that I knew would look good and be comfortable - this black dress which I think I've worn about 5 times already. And to keep me from totally freezing, I wore my cropped olive cardigan. The dress is Target and the cardigan is Old Navy.






Oh, yeah... and these gorgeous vintage brocade heels.



Classic, classic retro shape. One of my favorite heels shapes of all time.



This is the good stuff.



And today, I just wanted to hav fun. I mean, I'm not going to be doing much but work work work, so why not?

Grey jersey top with metallic threads, khaki pencil skirt, sparkly silver knee-socks and vintage liquor tag necklace from Etsy.



My favorite part of this is the fact that the silver is a bit worn off. It gives the tag and extra dimension and shows it's age.



Sooooo cute!



But for fun, it was all about the socks and shoes. I always find Delman shoes to be a bit big but I just didn't care. These pink silk stripe-y oxfords were just too adorable.



Yes, I'm wearing them with super sparkly silver knee-socks. That's right. I'm mature.



Oh, yeah. And pink fluffy pom-pom sock garters from Sock Dreams. Pink! Fluffy! Pom-Poms!





I got these from Anthropologie. They called the Parrotfish Oxfords. They look like candy to me. I like. I need to get some baggy khaki pants, suspenders and a white shirt to get all 1920's Garden Party.

Or a cute white swiss dot sundress.... wait! I think I have one of those. I'm off to go search through the closets!

Showers and Flowers

On Saturday I went to a bridal shower of a good friend of mine. I didn't know any other attendees, other than the bride of course. It's always a bit apprehensive when you are planning what to wear to an event like this. I think the big challenge is that there aren't as many rules any more.

In the past you would know what to wear to events depending on what they were. But nowadays, it could be anything along the range of very casual to somewhat dressy. And given that I didn't know the group very well, I didn't have a gague on the types of folks the would be.

So I erred on the slightly dressier side. Given that it was a bit warmer and Spring, I decided to wear one of my new dresses. It was also a good comfort test run with the dress before I wore it to work for a full day. I have to say, I liked it a lot. I brought along a cardigan just in case it was chilly, but ended up not needing it.



I had been planning on pairing this dress with the new Franco Sarto gladiator-esque heeled sandals I had bought, but when I tried them on together, I just wasn't feeling it. So I ended up contrasting it with green because I was already using my green Dooney bag and I didn't have time (or interest, frankly) to change it.



So I ended up wearing my dark green Jimmy Choo Thunder slingbacks. The color went really well with the dress - both have muted shades.



I have a feeling that this will be a great dress for summer.



One thing I do want to do is get a good brown belt to go with it. I'm not usually a belt person so I don't have a lot of options. I think this dress calls for a good bold belt to break up the pattern and tie it back to the shoes. The fabric tie that came with it is in the same fabric and gets lost, plus it's a bit wimpy for the dress.

The bride-to-be was wearing a great dress. She got the sleeveless beach dress from JCrew but in a cute brown and white pattern they don't have on their site. It looked great on her and she also had some cute heeled thong sandals with some bit-looking hardware on it. She looked just smashing.

I had to return a shirt to Ann Taylor yesterday so I also popped into JCrew myself. I have been looking for a simple khaki pencil skirt and haven't really found one I liked. JCrew didn't have any but the did have a big sale going on with marked down items getting an additional 25% off. I ended up getting 3 dresses, including this swiss dot wrap dress in white, and a pair of patterned shorts. I'll have to take pictures because I can't find the rest online. But all of that came to well under $200.

I'm trying to get over my "fear" of dresses. I think they can be so pretty, I just feel like I need to be very selective about fit but still give them a chance.

On a scale of 1 to 10... They're a 20!

As I may have mentioned, I have a deep and abiding love for two words - "limited edition." And when they signify a truly limited item, not just as a marketing ploy, I get very interested.

That is the concept of the site 20ltd.



Each of the items for sale on the site are unique, special or limited editions. They are sourced by the founders of the site and each are created exclusively for 20ltd. It is a privately owned company and not affiliated with any commercial organization.

The site rotates the featured 20 items frequently and when they are gone, they are gone.



I've known about the site for a while but hadn't checked it lately. Imagine my surprise and delight when I recently visited and saw these amazing Louboutin Mouche Zeppa peep-toe heels as number 14.



They are made of a light turquiose silk and antique lace.



The edition run for these is only 35. That means there are only 35 made like these in the world.

And yes, my heart pined for them. I love the color, love the lace, love the height. I schemed for ways to get them. But, even though they are not priced above a standard Louboutin price, I felt that must resist.

But that doesn't mean that I still didn't desire them...



Imagine my surprise when the sneaky but delightful husband told me he had a surprise for me yesterday. He wouldn't let me know what it was and teased me about it for a day but when I got home he had me sit down and cover my eyes. When I opened them, he had placed in my hands a boxed tucked in a silk bag with the 20ltd logo on it!

It was the coveted shoes! Any they were spectacular. The even came with Certificate of Authenticity documents, also in their own 20ltd bag.

They are the most delicate shade of blue just a smidgen away from a Tiffany blue.

They are a little bit loose but I think I can fix that. The smallest size was a 35.5 so they are just a bit loose on the heel. They are not overly narrow either, as some Louboutins can be.

I had to think of what to wear them with today. It's not like I could hold out!

I really wanted to pair the blue with red, so I ended up wearing my Luella Go International jacket which has a small stripe in the same blue. The denim skirt grounds the brighter colors. I also added a vintage clear rhinestone brooch for some sparkle.

Talk about fancy girly shoes!!!

I am totally spoiled!

BIG smooches to my Sweetie!

Varietals and Versions

One of my favorite times is when the designers start adapting their fabulous designs for the different stores so that each store (were talking Saks/Neiman Marcus/Barneys) gets a "unique" shoe.

What I like about it is that if you like a particular element but not the total package, you can find a variation that works for you.

Now, granted all of these are gorgeous Prada heels, but I do like having the option to pick my favorite version of them.

First up - a classic peep-toe at Saks for $750. These are my favorites.





These are slightly different being in black and the crystals are clear. As sandals, they really stand out. They're also $750 at Bergdorf Goodman.




And last but not least the mary jane peep-toe option available at Neiman Marcus for, you guessed it, $750. I guess they are sticking to that MSRP.






Now obviously there will be overlap (espceially for Neiman and Bergdorfs) from store to store. What bugs me is when you can't find a version (possibly seen on a star or in a magazine) to buy it. Or when you don't know all the versions out there. Like during the fall season when Miu Miu did all the versions of their brougue heels. The ones I bought I love but later I found out there were a million other versions and it made me crazy that I didn't know them all.

I'm sure as an average person who also does not have access to all the great stores on a regular basis I'm going to miss out somewhat. Which makes me sad. Don't they want my money????

I have been using Shopstyle.com a lot to see all the shoe versions of particular brands. It's great because it will link you directly to the site selling the shoe I want. I love enabelers!

I haven't used all of the functionality of the site, but I'm liking it so far. See what you think.