Anne Fogarty dress

While in Ohio I visited Revival a vintage/local clothing store in Akron. They don't have a huge vintage selection, but I always seem to have luck there. This time I found the most amazing striped quilted dress designed by my imaginary friend, Anne Fogarty. Remember her? She wrote Wife dressing in the 1950s, which I can now say is one of my favorite style books.

Now quilted circle skirts are a lovely little novelty I adore, though I don't actually own any (I know, I know, poor me.), so a quilted dress? With stripes? And pockets? By Anne Fogarty? For $20?

Jackpot.

It's fantastic to own a dress where I know a little something about the designer, and her thoughts on dressing. Like, why choose these colors? Was it designed with an event in mind? Did she ever wear the design herself? How would she have accessorized it? What would she have to say about how I styled it?

One thing is for sure, she would have worn petticoats! And four is better than one ;)

Anne Fogarty dress-Revival Vintage

Petticoats-Urban Eccentric Vintage and Antique expo

Hat-Urban Eccentric Vintage

Necklace-Inherited from my great grandmother

Swedish Hasbeens-Courtesy of Modcloth

Unseasonal and unaffordable.

One of the many reasons I wear vintage: Affordability.
Yesterday my mother and I were in Portland and stopped by "Nordstroms Rack" and a high end consignment shop "Seams to Fit". At the rack I found two pairs of boots, a fun over the knee fringed suede boot I couldn't help but dance in, and the most comfortable green boots I kept on and just looked at until it was time to leave. But both had price tags over $200, so it was a brief affair.
At "Seams to Fit" I found a Chanel jacket that was so luxurious I wanted to wear it morning and night. But again I just wore it until it was time to leave ;) It was a really unique design, with a built in vest front, and fit perfectly! I have a Chanel addiction, so its probably good I don't have anywhere near the funds to feed it. I did manage to trade in clothes at "Buffalo Exchange" last summer for a killer pair of sunglasses, and have the Mademoiselle perfume, but thats about the extent of my collection. I have wanted a Chanel jacket since I did a report on Coco Chanel in 9th grade, and have tried a few on, every time not wanting to take it off. It's one of those things that will be on my "wanted" list for a while. The jacket was actually on sale for $399, which is a pretty good price....If you dont have to eat ;)

Where did Alex go?

Today Nylon posted photos of Alexander Mcqueen's upcoming line for Target. Now. I've always been a quite a fan of his work, always so different, eccentric, and tailored to fit a woman's curves. E few years ago there was even some controversy over his choice of adding structured padding to make the designs seem more curvy and voluptuous, an obvious metaphor on today's shapeless models. For that I liked him even more.

Two lovely ladies in beautiful frothy jeweled dresses.

Why yes, I do want that hat.

If Elton John were in the military.

So you see, absoulutly crazy beautiful. Even in his lackluster seasons, he never failed in originality, and intense detail.

I was quite excited for his Target line. I knew it would not be near as spectacular as couture, but it would still have that lovely Alexander McQeen essence. Apperantly, I expected too much.

This makes me tilt my head to the right and furrow my brow.

Cropped leg jumpsuit. Awww yeah! (No. Really, no.)

It's like one of those slings you put a baby in, only...its missing the baby.

Remember what I said about that wonderful womanly tailoring?


As you can see these pretty much suck. The designs have nothing great to offer, they look cheap and so trendy, they are in and already out of style with the blink of an eye. And to top it off, the models are boys in some sort of robot high heels.

Alex? Where did you go?

Perfect purse.

Lades and gentlemen, I introduce to you, Clark. My new and perfect purse (I don't know why I named him Clark, it just happened that way). I've been keeping my eyes out for the perfect purse for a while, something brown, leather, big enough to carry lots, durable enough to last a long time, and stylish enough it goes with almost anything. I've found great purses before, but they are always missing something, that personality, that soft leather feel, or that payable price tag. This one is designed by Michael Kors, and I got it at a fraction of the cost. It's just so lovely and bold, the perfect mid winter pick me up ;)