shoesandfashion

Over Thanksgiving, my sister, who’s 23, asked me if brown was
acceptable for Christmas wear. I looked at her in astonishment. “I’m
sorry. I guess I should know it’s not,” she said.

“No, no, no. Brown is fine for Christmas. How do you not know that?”

“Well, I thought only black was okay.”

“No. Brown is fine for Christmas. What are you wearing?”

Stop by tomorrow for a post on Christmas Accessories!

She
ran up to her room and produced a beautiful cream and brown frothy
dress that I knew she’d look great in - even if she ignored my
suggestion to wear a lacy cream or brown undershirt with it and wear
white instead. “That’s perfect,” I assured her. “You’ll look beautiful.”

“But now I don’t know what to wear for Thanksgiving!”

I don’t know about you, but I think this year is a good year to pass on the boring green, red and black typically worn for Christmas. Try browns, if you wish, or go for pastel greens, purples or blues. Bright colors, like in Fall , or still hot for winter, so a bright blue or purple is also perfectly acceptable. Seriously, it’s okay to wear color on Christmas.

My sister solved her problem by not listening to me. She wore a white ribbed tank beneath her dress (made me want to cry) and a brown button-up sweater over it (which was worse). Fortunately, I’ll have a week over Christmas to show her what she can wear, instead of only a day. And I know she has money to spend on whatever I tell her (she lives at home still). I just hope she’s ready.

I hate to say it, but with the economy the way it is, I need to cut back on what I would normally spend on fashion, shoes and clothing. I really can’t imagine anything sadder, but it’s important. I mean, seriously, what’s more important: paying for gas or a pair of shoes?

That said, I don’t think it’s necessary to completely cut money for fashion and clothing out of my budget. I think it’s more gratifying to save money for the clothing I need/want and go out every couple of months and purchase those things. I also check online frequently, because there are often websites that are offering huge sales and discounts on the things I want. That and window shopping are my new favorite past-times. This allows me to:

• Know what’s in stores in my area
• Keep an eye out for sales
• Compare prices
• Know what I like

If I were a smarter girl, I’d have applied this months ago. Then, the shoes I bought two months ago for $50, I could have bought yesterday for $15. Oh well; you live and you learn.

What are you doing to watch your finances until - and hopefully even after - the economy picks up?

A few weeks ago, I commented that I don’t like and do not understand crocs, and didn’t know how anyone could. I still don’t fully comprehend it, but one more clue in this little mystery has been uncovered. See, today I learned that they were developed for the beach. I still think that’s scary, but that makes sense, right? They were designed to let people walk around on the beach and in the water while letting their feet breathe, protecting them from sharp stones and rocks and providing extra support while walking.

I suppose cute kids’ are designed to look cute - not support the foot.

Since they’re designed with support in mind, the developers made them for kids, particularly young children learning to walk. I suppose I can see that. When they’re small, they’re not even as hideous as they usually are - still bad, but not as bad.

But somehow, something happened, and they became this huge phenomenon. Ugh.

My boyfriend isn’t the type to dress up. Ever. But for my birthday, we went out to a nice restaurant, and I asked him to dress up and look nice for me. He said he didn’t have anything nice to wear. I knew that was a lie, because he deejays for weddings and such and I know he doesn’t show up for that in jeans and a t-shirt.

The next day, I headed out with a boyfriend who was wearing nice, clean khakis and a gray t-shirt under a blue button-up shirt. Simple, right? But he/we received more compliments than I imagined possible.  He responded to each with a, “Don’t get used to it.”

But I learned something from this experience. It doesn’t take a lot to look nice for something, be it a special occassion, a job interview or a request of some kind.

1. Wear something you already have
2. Wear clean clothes
3. Dark jeans or khakis (dark are in-style right now, but light khakis work too) are fine for dress-up pants
4. A button-up shirt goes a long way
5. Don’t think of it as dressing up, but as looking extra nice.

Oh, and girls, if you have a man who knows how to match his clothing and likes to look nice for you, be grateful.

Boots are a staple for fall fashion fashion every year, and this one is no exception. Ankle boots, open-toed boots and over-the-knee boots in suede, leather and calfskin are all available this summer. Some of the highlights include:

Shoe Booties:

These have  been around for a few years, but weren’t ever a runway item. They were a huge hit on the streets, though, so they’re back in full force.

What are they? Essentially, shoe booties are exactly what they sound like: a cross between shoes and boots. They’re ankle boots that hit in-between the ankle and mid-ankle and have a heel that can be platform, stiletto, or somewhere in-between. They look best when worn with tights.

Open-Toed Shoe Bootie:

The open-toed shoe bootie is a shoe bootie with an open toe. It’s sleek and elegant, but not as extreme as the shoe bootie.

Over-the-Knee Boots:

No, these are not thigh-highs, or the boots worn over skinny jeans. Instead, these new bootss are designed to hit just a few inches over the knee and expose a bit of thigh. They open at the top, and if worn with a short skirt (as they’re designed for), they’ll make your legs look longer. Expect these uber-sexy boots to go fast.

One of the things I hate about going shopping with my boyfriend is that he refuses to try anything on. If I ask if he has the right size or wants to try on another pair - so I can give my opinion of course, he’ll go up a size and say, “Well, I know this will fit.” What? That doesn’t even make sense to me!

My roommate is the opposite. She tries things on, but only if she likes them. As a graphic designer, she’s very very picky about color and pattern and shape and all those things.  However, she’s been known to buy things just because the tag is well-designed.

I really believe that both my roommate and my boyfriend are missing out on things because they don’t try things on -especially my roommate. My boyfriend doesn’t care about clothes - ironic, right?

I have another friend who will try on anything and everything. She claims that she does this because she thinks she’s hot enough to wear anything. And the thing is, most of what she tries on looks great on her. Really though, she knows why “Try it on” is the most important rule of shopping.

Any ideas?

When you try something on, you might find something you like that you never would have worn in another circumstance. A color, a cut or a style that you don’t think you’d like just might be your new favorite piece of clothing.

As you already know, fall’s colors are bright reds, oranges, yellows, golds and friendly browns. In nature, these colors are paired together all the time. On people, though, they shouldn’t be. These bright colors deserve to be fairly monochromatic.

Though the reds, oranges and yellows all look beautiful together in nature, if you put them on a person, it looks ridiculous. Choose a color. Pair it with a skirt or pants of the same color, a similar shade of the same color or a solid color like brown or black. One thing: don’t pair them with gray. These colors are bold and bright, and they need something that will emphasize their boldness, not neutralize it.

One other note: make these colors really stand out with a bit of shine from silk, suede or leather. The boldness of the fabric really contributes to make the look truly amazing.

More accurately, there are three shoe (types) I will never understand, and two that I understand in part.

1. Tennis shoes. I understand them to a certain extent, but only when worn for exercise purposes. Why, women, do you wear tennis shoes for everyday activities? Work, school and shopping aren’t exercise, why are you wearing shoes created for exercise purposes? They give you a slovenly appearance that say you don’t care what you’ve put on.

2. Flip flops. Not only are they ugly, but they’re incredibly bad for your feet and there are millions of other shoes out there that slip on easily. I understand them in the form of fit flops - which are essentially for exercise purposes - but that’s it. (Speaking of which, I purchased my first pair of fit flops yesterday and will be happy to report the results in a month or so.)

3. Jelly Shoes. These were popular in the eighties, and like many other young girls, I owned a pair. However, their recent revival has my literally scratching my head. They do nothing for your feet and they aren’t attractive in and of themselves. So why? If anyone can enlighten me, I’ll gladly listen.

4. Clogs. What are they? A cross between shoe and sandal? Hate them unreasonably. I especially hate them when they have fur.

5. Crocs. Shoes with holes. These are easily, by far, the worst pair of shoes that I have ever seen in my life. I’ve been told they’re comfortable, but they’re scary, ugly and indicative of our culture’s obsession with anything that will help us be more lazy. In a recent roadtrip with my roomie, we saw a little girl who is the epitome of what I think of when I hear “crocs,” overweight and unkempt, the kid was wearing too-tight and too-short sweat pants, with ratty, uncombed hair and feet spilling into her crocs, in which she plodded through the ladies room to wash her hands. Is that really how we want to be seen and remembered?

We’ve all worn blue jeans and black jeans. For a long time, colored jeans have been a thing of the past, but not any longer. Colored jeans are back in full force in red, blue, green, yellow, khaki and white. Yes, white.

Jeans should be tight and they should be the part of your clothing drawing attention, so when wearing colored denim, put the uber-tight tops on hold for another day and go with a few loose-fitting layers.

People have always told me that jeans go with everything. I’m pretty sure this has never been true (dark blue jeans and black shouldn’t be worn together, for instance), but it’s especially untrue with colored denim. Avoid wearing black shirts with yellow jeans or green shirts with red jeans - bumble bees and Christmas colors are out.

Wearing colored jeans is a really easy way to add color to your wardrobe, just be sure it’s the kind of color you want. Experiment a little bit, add a nice shoe and get out on the town.

To be honest, I never though the day would come where it was anything less than inappropriate and weird to wear mix patterns . There have always been people who did it, but they were made fun of in high school and politely ignored in college.

Now though, to my utmost surprise, wearing more than one print is not only appropriate, it’s trendy.

So, for those of us who have avoided this kind of thing all of our lives, how do we do it? Simple. You mix different colors , patterns and fabrics. I personally think it makes wearers look a bit homeless, but that’s my opinion - and it doesn’t look nearly as bad as I expected.

Like in the picture above, consider wearing plaid or animal print with stripes, floral prints with stripes, polka dots or animal prints, and any of fall’s random patterns with animal prints or floral prints, as well.

Though it may take some time to get used to the pattern-mixing, once you do you may find some patterns  you like and some truly unique looks you never would have found otherwise.