Honored

I’m honored to be a volunteer at The Career Wardrobe and The Wardrobe Boutique.  I’m gaining so much from my experience.  Talking and learning from Wardrobe clients, helping the women to get a fresh start with a fresh wardrobe.  Hearing their plans to improve their lives as they re-enter the workplace.

The Wardrobe Boutique feels like home, and not just because there are so many fabulous clothes there!  Melanie and Kerry, the boutique managers, are kind and generous and committed to empowering women.  Read more about the Boutique in my January 23, 2011 post.

The Wardrobe Boutique blog recently featured me in their volunteer spotlight.  I'm thrilled that they have  become followers of Casual Friday, and absolutely delighted to share this article with you.

What’s Your Favorite Color, Baby?

Raf Simon for Jil Sander

On a recent surf through the local HDTV channels I saw something that I hadn’t seen in ages--a color bar test pattern!  The color bar is a perfect illustration for one of the season’s hottest fashion trends. 

Those of you who are just coming out of winter’s gray hibernation were probably shocked awake by explosions of saturated color.  Pulsating rainbows of tropical colors and shrieking neons will keep you trippin’ all summer long.  Designers have gone Crayola crazy.  The best examples include Diane Von Furstenberg dresses and accessories, and Raf Simon for Jil Sander (see pic).

Double Bubble pink, royal wedding purple, chilly cobalt blue, emerald isle green, overripe tomato red, and school bus yellow are all waiting to jump into your closets.  Here’s what cool--color looks great on everybody, you just have to know how to wear it.  Stay away from head-to-toe monochromatic looks.  You don’t want to look like Big Bird, or even worse, Barney.  Brights look best when worn with solid neutrals.  Think about a slinky slate gray silk sheath dress under a fitted tangerine jacket.  Maybe a cloud white shirt with a teal skirt.

Fit and quality are also critical when you’re wearing color.  Color makes cut-rate fabrics look even cheaper, especially prints.  Poor quality color items can fade or run in one washing.  Ill-fitting color garments look even tackier.

If you’re not ready to dive headlong into the multi-hued pool yet, you can add small doses of color to your wardrobe.  Think about adding an orange patent leather tote, a pair of lemon yellow Wayfarers, or a pair of turquoise wedge sandals.  Make your world a brighter place!

We’re Going to the Nudies

The hottest color in footwear this spring is “nude.”  Platform pumps, wedges, and ballet flats can be found in soft shades of blush, ecru, peach and tan.  YSL, Jimmy Choo, Steve Madden, Vaneli, and Miu Miu among others have added these muted colors to their shoe design palette.  Flesh tones are your best bet for versatility, and a gorgeous pair of dusty pink slingbacks would be the perfect compliment for hot shades like kozmic blue, chocolate city brown, stop-in-the-name-of-love red, and fireball orange.  "Nude" also flatters neutrals such as like-a-virgin white, oyster gray, and inky shadows black.

However, in my online searches, “nude” usually doesn’t translate into my skin tone. I would love to find a pair of platform pumps that match my golden brown color.  Where are the sexy ebony, café au lait, mahogany, warm cocoa, or almond colored shoes that reflect the shades of many of world’s women?  I found a pair of Steve Madden caramel colored patent peep toes that are close to my shade, but where is the wide selection of “nudes” for the Roshumbas, Juanitas, LaToyas, and Khadijahs?  Our feet are flesh colored too, but again, it all depends on who defines the standard.

When you're looking for "nude" kitten heels or gladiator sandals, will you be able to find your skin?

Handbags (no Gladrags)

I have three cherished vintage handbags that belonged to my mom.  One dates from the late 1950s, one from the pre-mod 1960s, and the other from the superfly 1970s.

The 1950s and 60s bags are ladylike and proper with these imagined contents: embroidered white hanky, a tube of Revlon’s Cherries in the Snow lipstick, big black sunglasses that made her a mysterious glamour girl, a small hair brush and a compact.

I always thought of the leopard bag (pictured) as her Jackie bag.  She had a sassy little leopard pillbox hat that she often wore with it as part of a “special occasion” outfit.  You know, an adult dinner out, maybe a cocktail party.  Other accessories may have included a fox fur stole and a chunky charm bracelet with a jade heart or glass-encased four-leaf clover dangling from the links.

I coveted the 1970s shoulder bag for years.  She bought it in Vineland, NJ shortly after moving there in 1972.  It was the style of the time—hippie, unlined, tooled heavy leather with leather laces that attached the shoulder strap to the bag.  She carried this bag constantly for almost a decade and I always teased her about borrowing it.  That bag reminds me of her essence—bold, sometimes outrageous, unafraid, and proud.  The imagined contents of this bag would be an Afro pick and car keys, in addition to the oversized black sunglasses, neutral colored lipstick, and embroidered hanky. In her new role as a suburban housewife she also carried shopping lists as well as outgoing and incoming mail retrieved from their post office box.

I haven’t used any of these handbags, but I can’t part with them.  They’re history and they’re style from my mother, my muse.