Archive for July, 2013

Print of the week

I love when J. Crew delivers the wildass with a Liberty of London print as nuts as some of the more out-there specimens you can buy directly from the source —granted you are prepared to factor in a hideous exchange rate for the pleasure.

This top is an interpretation of their popular Strawberry Thief pattern, which has actually been around since 1883 but looks the best possible kind of crazy updated in black and pale acid hues.

What item in your closet do you not wear but can’t get rid of?

As a girl, my mother would go into her closet and kiss the dresses she never wore, because she was afraid she was hurting their feelings. I’m not quite so sentimental, but do understand the impulse: there are items in my closet I haven’t taken off their hangers—except to move residences— in over a decade; items that, truth be told, I may very well never wear again, but that I can’t begin to think about parting with, because they speak to me, or to some specific time or series of events in my life. With other pieces, the equation is simpler, and I can’t say goodbye because the item in question is just way too nice. Such is the case with two Chanel boucle jackets, both purchased for me by proxy nine years ago in Paris. Editors get a healthy discount at the Paris Chanel store, and one season, before the Lucky crew left for the collections, the fashion director and I studied the look book to plot out prospects. She ended up calling me from the store with two differently excellent options, and in a moment of lunacy, I instructed her to bring home both. That spring, I wore each frequently and with delight, mostly with jeans for a look that I hoped was very fabulous and rock and roll, like the tomboyish French movie star Lou Doillon might do. Or, occasionally, with clean black trousers and a simple tee, like Ms. Coppola here. But the thing about Chanel jackets is, you have to be pretty damn cool not to just default into matronly wearing them, and ultimately, I’m just not that cool. So there they sit. My hope is that, in another fifteen years or so, they’ll be totally age-appropriate.

OK: Now your turn.

Tuesday links

• The kid in this commercial for mail-order tampon company Hello Flo pretty much kills it as her summer camp’s menstruation major domo. (Jezebel)
• Why, it’s a flying carpet for doggies, of course. (PSFK)
• The time Norman Mailer was on Gilmore Girls, and other amusing examples of literary figures appearing in front of the camera. (Flavorwire)
• Well, you can’t say the folks at Coca Cola didn’t ask for it in this 1970 exchange of letters, in which they requested that Grove Press stop using the quote “It’s the real thing” in an advertisement for a book about Harlem schoolchildren—on the grounds that it would cause brand confusion. (Letters of Note)
• Maybe this will make him disappear. (Slate)

 

Heat styling

I would argue that come summertime, the perma-wrinkled white button-down is just as appealing as its crisp and freshly-ironed sister, in large part because it just makes good practical sense to proactively factor in the rumpled effect before the weather even gets an opportunity to ruin your look. And how cute is that little heart on the pocket? Normally I’d find a detail like this way too dear, but the shape is so winningly casual and dashed-off, almost like somebody drew it on with a wee Sharpie.

Little biggie, big pretty

As I have noted before, I like myself a nice chubby-style lip pencil for summer. And especially one that allows me to get away with a poppy, bright-ish pink—so fun in summer—even though that’s not typically the most flattering tone on me. This one is called Chunky Cherry, which is rather great, as is the fact that it’s both super-moisturizing and not too shiny, two things that almost never happen in the same lippy at the same time.

Monday links

•  Your creepy-cool moment of the day: RVs in the wild. (Behold)
• Talk about your grave mistakes: a GPS error caused an Ohio bank to repossess the wrong house while the owner was away on vacation. (Time)
• Welcome to every freelance writer’s dream come true: magazine articles that became movies. (Electric typewriter via Flavorwire)
•  This guy got crazy stinking rich as a co-creator of The Simpsons (residuals are seriously the gift that keeps on giving, guys). Now he’s dying of colon cancer and leaving every last dime of his estate to charity. (Hollywood Reporter)
• It’s not everything by a long shot, but I’m counting this as progress. (CBS News)