Is It Worth Altering?

One sign of good service is when a person steers you away from spending money. For example, my husband and I recently took some items into Alfred's Tailoring in Goleta. Don had a jacket hanging in his closet for, oh, I'd say 4 years. In order for the jacket to fit him properly, the arms needed lengthening and the buttons needed to be moved.

I brought in a lovely Marc Jacobs black cotton jacket that I never wore. Each time I put it on I took it off. Why? Because it was boxy and unflattering. Still, I knew it could be a wardrobe staple. Another item in need of altering was a beautiful white linen skirt with silver beading along the waistband and hem. Knowing it would cost a fortune to take the waistband in, the skirt had languished in my closet for months.

When the tailor at Alfred's looked at me in the jacket, she made some "Oh, I see." and "Uh-huh, this is the problem" sounds before pinning it along the back seams. It already looked better! When she saw me in the skirt, she shook her head: "No. Making this skirt smaller would cost a lot of money. You do not want to spend that. Just wear it low with a long shirt!"

Then she looked at Don in his jacket and stated, "No, it cannot be done. There is not enough fabric here to alter it the right way."

We so appreciated the seamstress' candor and honesty. I am looking forward to wearing my new, flattering jacket, and think I have a longish top to wear with that skirt! Don is slowly moving toward donating his jacket. It's hard for him to part with things.

I am happy to recommend Alfred's Tailoring in Goleta for its excellent work and integrity. I learned again that day that alterations, in the end, do save money.

My Sweet Pineapple

What a great discovery! Today I took my young daughters to a new store in town, My Sweet Pineapple. Proprietor Sarah Anticouni was there to talk about her new and used children's clothing boutique. She is happy to offer Santa Barbarans a place to shop for clothing that is not crazy-expensive.

The store is darling, with a tiki/Hawaiin theme. My girls browsed the racks and found a lot of cute things to try on. Camille came away with a number of great pieces, all very reasonably priced. Since the concept is similar to that of a consignment store, it will pay to frequent My Sweet Pineapple. Sarah says she gets new things in every day!

Cooking and Fashion

I just finished reading an article on cookbooks from the New Yorker magazine. As I've stated before, food and cooking are right up there with clothing when it comes to my interests. What struck me about this article is the comparison the author, Adam Gotnik, makes between reading cookbooks and fashion magazines for pleasure.

After describing the joy one can get from reading cookbooks since they can take us to other lands and times, he talks about magazines. "The woman who reads the fashion magazines isn’t passively imagining the act of having; she’s actively imagining the act of shopping. (And distantly imagining the act of wearing.) She turns down pages not because she wants to look again but because, for that moment, she really intends to buy that—for a decisive imagined moment she did buy it, even if she knows she never will. Reading recipe books is an active practice, too, even if all the action takes place in your mind. We reanimate our passions by imagining the possibilities."

Read that last line again. Isn't that what looking at fashion magazines, catalogs, and shopping are? They are exercises that help us to imagine the possibilities. . . of looking chic, edgy, happy, bold, creative, etc. We are given images that excite and interest us, and may push us to expand our horizons. Naturally, noticing what people wear on the street, and thinking about fashions you can try is also possible, in the same way that going to a restaurant and later trying to replicate what you ate and loved can be an pleasurable endeavor. I like to think about what I will wear when I am going out to eat, thus marrying two of my favorite past times.

Another Top 10 List

I like Style Bakery's website, and their daily e-mails. On February 9th, they chose Ten Pieces for a Timeless Wardrobe. What do you think of this list?

Triumph of Size 12s

Yes, every now and then the fashion world discovers there are women who are not stick thin. In a recent article in the New York Times, journalist Eric Wilson talks to a size 12 model. Of course, size 12 is not a plus-size, but the fact that model Crystal Renn is getting regular work in mainstream fashion magazines is encouraging. Maybe this will mean more designers will make clothing for the average (size 14) American woman.

Reinvention

Harper's Bazaar's recent article "Reinvent Yourself" opens with photos and descriptions of Madonna's various looks over the past 2 decades. Fortunately writer Teri Agins is not suggesting that women run out and attempt each of Madonna's styles. Instead, she suggests, "Revamp your look for a fresh start."

Here is some useful advice to keep in mind:

1. Dress up more often. Wear bold jewelry and beautiful shoes. Don't save your "best" clothing for special events. This reminds me of when my girls were toddlers. I would dress them in lovely frocks, mostly given to them by grandmothers, knowing they would probably be stained or torn in no time. But gosh, they looked cute, and they would quickly outgrow them anyway. Life is short!

2. If you favor preppy, classic touches, happily wear those looks. J. Crew has some super cute tennis shoes for spring. You can wear them with almost anything.

3. If you are tired of your style, try wearing different accessories which transform your look.

4. Get a new hairdo. Cut styles you like out of magazines and ask your hairdresser which ones would work best for you.

5. Tune up your body: Getting in shape is about eating and exercising sensibly, not working out madly and depriving yourself of food. A Santa Barbara personal trainer and holistic nutritionist I can highly recommend is Dan LaBerge.

6. Try a new lipstick color. This sounds simplistic, but it really can provide a lift and change your appearance. Before Longs converted to the dreaded CVS, I used to love choosing a fresh lipstick color every season. It didn't cost much, and it felt like a little treat. I suppose you can do the same thing at Sephora.

Reinventing yourself does not have to mean following Madonna's extremes. It does mean branching out a bit and trying styles and colors you may have shied away from in the past.

Collector or Hoarder

I sure like reading articles by Michelle Slatalla in the New York Times. Her most recent is about sorting through stuff, trying to decide what she needs and what represents important memories. I'll be thinking about her article when I work with my Santa Barbara Wardrobe Wisdom clients, and when I go through my own closet.

How Clever!

I just read about this nifty website called Reknit. You send them your old sweater and they will knit it into a scarf. Voila! That is what I call re-purposing. It reminds me of that story, "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat," where a thrifty and clever man fashions different pieces from his coat as it wears out. Joseph starts with an overcoat, makes it into a jacket, then a vest, then a handkerchief and so on.

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Shoe Dilemmas

It is so nice when someone asks me to address an issue in my blog. Stacy brought up the myriad dilemmas many women face when it comes to shoes. I'll address a few of them here. Please let me know what your shoe dilemmas are.

1. The perfect shoe. Why is it that when we look for a shoe, we often expect it will serve every purpose? We want the shoe to go with pants and dresses, be casual yet dressy, comfortable and fashionable, and something we can wear all year. Sheesh! What a tall order! The shoe which can cover all bases and can be worn in all situations does not exist, so consider buying more than one pair of shoes, one you need the most now, and the other later.
For example, I have been on a quest for some black pumps though I get distracted thinking I can also use some cute black casual shoes. This leads me to wander around Nordstrom, expecting to find a shoe that is pump-esque but works as a flat as well. I NEED two pairs of shoes!

2. Comfort and Fashion. I touched on this above, intentionally using the word "and." In the past, shoes were comfortable or they were cute. Nowadays, women can have both. Look in magazines and notice what shoes you like. With that picture in mind, look for shoes like them, focusing on soft soles, padding around the heel, a wide toe box, and a breathable (natural) material. A quick search on Zappos turns up hundreds of options. Some brands I feel do a superb job with combining comfort and great style are: Sofft, Paul Green, Born, UGG, Me Too!, and Cole Haan.

3. Old Shoes: Nothing can bring a beautiful outfit down like a crummy old pair of shoes. I see it all the time: great pants, nice shirt, lovely scarf, and scuffed, dirty, or torn shoes. It is not just me who notices either. When they are of good quality, it is smart to take care of your shoes. This means recognizing when it is time to bring them to a shoemaker. There you can have them polished, new soles can be attached, straps can be mended, and heels can be replaced. I once tried to salvage a pair of darling (fake) patent leather pumps with a Magic Marker. If I had only invested in proper, good quality shoes in the first place, I would not have had to resort to such desperate measures. The shoes ended up getting tossed. Truthfully, they looked tacky even before my sad attempt at fixing them. The moral of the story is: When your shoes start looking bad and cannot be spiffed up, get rid of them.

As with clothing, any time you can invest in something made well, do it. In any event, take care of the shoes you have. They will reward you by complementing, not detracting from, your outfit.

To read further about shoes and what they say about you, read this article by Diana Pemberton-Sikes.