Last Spring I popped the revival of the ‘80’s leggings fashion fad into the “teenybopper box”. But this year I can’t seem to get enough of the look. The adapted trend can be worn in a flattering and age-appropriate way. The revival of dresses, minis and tunics this season have given leggings a stylish return. I’ll give you 7 reasons why you should spend $7 and get yourself a pair to experiment:

1. They tone down the “dressy” aspect of wearing a dress. Match leggings with a jersey dress, add some flats and you’re ready for anything.
2. They give you coverage if you are skin-shy about your legs.
3. They are incredibly comfortable. Pairing a sturdy dress with leggings feels like you’re wearing sweats and a top instead of a frock. 
4. They add an interesting layering element to your ensemble. Choose a colour that co-ordinates with your dress or top and be playful with patterns and colours if you dare. If not, stick to black.
5. They keep you warm when the air-conditioning is freezing.
6. They are inexpensive, and an easy way of injecting the right amount of “right now” into your wardrobe.
7. They are a great transitional item for Autumn. Add leggings and a cropped jacket or cardigan to an existing dress and you’re hip for when temperatures start to cool.

Don’t get caught up with the notion that you need to have thin legs to wear leggings. All they do is peek out from under your mid-thigh or knee-length dress or tunic. Make sure that what you wear on top is flattering and the leggings look will fall into place. This dynamic duo is best with knitted dresses and tunics, but certain sturdy woven styles can also work. Last week, I was thrilled to see my ready-to-pop pregnant friend in a gorgeous vintage empire-cut maternity dress that she had matched with black leggings and wedges - she never looked better!

When I’ve introduced this ultra-comfy look to my clients, they haven’t looked back.

White items of clothing are a basic in everybody’s wardrobe. Unfortunately they don’t stay optically white for as long as we’d  like. While Tilex, bleach and oxy-clean can certainly stretch their useful life, it’s imperative that you check the state of your whites each season. Below is a loose guideline of how long you can expect white items to last before you demote them to the camping, home-crafts or gardening pile:

• White denim items – up to 5 years because quality denim wears well.
• White slacks, skirts, dresses and jackets – up to 3 years if you dry-clean them accordingly. These items loose their optical luster quicker than white denim.
• Men’s undergarment-T’s and ladies’ camisoles – up to 2 years. Under-arm discoloration, pillage and grey tinges start appearing after about a year, but you can stretch their longevity because they’re undergarments.
• Socks, bras and undies – up to 2 years.
• White collared shirts – 1 to 2 years depending on how often you wear them. Collared shirts need to stay pristine.
• Outerwear T’s – up to 18 months. They loose their appeal as soon as they go grey and yellow.

This isn’t an exact science. White items that are laundered and worn less frequently stay looking magically white for longer. Remember to replace your whites when they start to look dodgy – white whites look best.

We’re heading into the final weekend of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. The ladieswear area can get confusing. By popular demand, here is a rundown of the various departments:

• Women’s Active stocks sports gear like Nike, Adidas and the North face.
• Encore carries everything from sportswear to occasion attire from sizes 14W to 24W.
• Petite Focus specializes in clothing for women 5′ 4″ and below from sizes 0P to 14P.
• B.P. stands for “Brass Plum” and caters to teenagers and youngsters. Styles are small, hip and cheap. You can absolutely shop here if you’re in your 30’s, 40’s and 50’s if you have the body type, spunk and skill to select the right pieces. 
• Point of View stocks affordable, mainstream and fashionable casual and careerwear in regular sizes under labels like Karen Kane, Caslon, Esprit, Semantics and Michael Kors.
• Individualist is a step up from Point of View in both fashion and price point. Here you’ll find ultra sophistication in better-end fabrications and labels like Trina Turk, Theory, Hugo Boss and Laundry.
• Savvy is for the fashion savvy and small framed. This is where you’ll find the hottest trends under labels like Marc Jacobs, L.A.M.B, Diane von Furstenberg, Nanette Lepore and True Religion. Stocks here are limited to keep the look exclusive.
• Narrative is a mish mash department. It stocks fashionable dresses and coats and traditional separates with roomier fits. Price points are good and it’s always worth looking here for that unexpected bargain.
• T.B.D. is an urban and denim focused area. You’ll find all the of the moment expensive denim brands like Free People, Citizens of Humanity, Paige and 7 for all Mankind.
• Studio 121 is where you’ll find eclectic and luxe brands at high price points like Eileen Fisher, Misook, Faconable and Lafayette. The area is aimed at a mature shopper.
• St. John houses the beautiful brand itself for the ultra classic women.
• Special Occasion stocks dazzling evening attire.
• Via C is the where you’ll find extremely expensive designer wear like Dolce & Gabbana , Jill Sander, Cavalli, Chanel and Gucci. Expect to part with lots of pretty pennies when you purchase from these collections.

Nordstrom covers a range of fashion personas and price points. Unlike Saks, Barneys and Neiman Marcus, there are affordable departments for ladies on a tight budget. Let us know about your favorite departments, and have fun shopping the sale!

I overlooked this versatile and affordable ballet flat at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and I’m adding it to my hot picks list. It’s by “Me Too” and currently available for $52.90 (soon to be priced back to $78.95 on August 4). It’s ultra soft, supportive, flexible, pointy-toed and not completely flat (you actually feel like you’re wearing a shoe and not a slipper).

The fit is super for both fairly narrow and wider feet because the inside cushioning seems to mould around the silhouette of your foot beautifully. It’s available in a pearlized patent burgundy or black, and an embossed dark bronze or pewter from sizes 5 to 13. Perfect for now, perfect for Autumn and a fab little basic to throw on with just about anything. They’re really comfortable and make the 8-hour mark.

When the distance between your shoulders and your natural waist is shorter than average, you are short-waisted. You’re long-waisted when the opposite holds true. Being short-waisted is not to be confused with being short in the rise. When the measurement from your natural waist to crotch point is short, your rise measurement is usually referred to as “petite” or short (even if you’re regular height which is 5′ 4″ and above). To complicate matters even more, you are not necessarily short-waisted if your rise measurement is petite. It’s a miracle that that we find pants and skirts to fit us at all (which is why it’s essential to get your mind around having clothing altered if it doesn’t fit). 

When you’re short-waisted, you’ll want to wear clothing that elongates your torso. Here are a few guidelines:

• Wear a supportive bra. This empathizes your waistline and pulls everything into proportion.
• Wear pants with lower rises if you intend tucking your top into your bottoms.
• Choose paneled skirts with low slung waistlines and strong vertical seaming.
• Longer length tops and knee length A-line dresses are ideal. 
• Keep tops and tunics fitted on the shoulders and  torso to accentuate your shape. Refrain from wearing broad waist cinching belts over tunics and opt for loosely slung narrower belts instead.

My point is clearly demonstrated in the pictures below. The model on the left has effectively shortened her torso with the wide, cinched waist belt. The model on the right wearing the loosely slung narrower belt looks like she has a long torso because of the shape of the belt and the way that it’s slung.

Spanish actress and style maven Penelope Cruz and her equally gorgeous sister Monica uncovered their new clothing line in Spain last week. They’ve had a stab at designing part of an Autumn/Winter 2007 line for Spanish design house Mango (MNG). The collection is due to launch on 16 September alongside a fab advertising  campaign that features the stunning Spanish beauties themselves. Penelope Cruz has a superb sense of style and I’m champing at the bit with curiosity. I can’t wait to see these products hanging in one of my very favourite and affordable places to shop. Watch out rival Spanish retail giant Zara… Mango’s Cruzing with style.

When Kate Moss and Sienna Miller starting strutting their designer high-rise jeans around London at the end of last year, the writing was on the wall. This was a trend in the making. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before ultra high fashion retail chains like Zara, Mango, French Connection and H&M started dabbling in the look. What I thought was going to be another short lived ‘80’s fashion recurrence is clearly not the case. Rises are rising and we’ll need to start adapting the look. The good news is that fashion repetitions are always improved and updated. Pants with elevated rises can be fabulously flattering if you find a pair that fits (or are altered to fit).

I’ve had the best luck dressing women in these styles when I’m mindful of the following: 

• Keep the waistband above the hip bone and below the belly button. This seems most flattering across the tummy area.
• Opt for a flat, clean front. Stay away from pleats or pockets that add bulk.
• Keep the leg width flared and floor skimming for the longest leanest line.

Higher rises give us the option of tucking our tops, shirts and blouses back into our pants. It’s the perfect silhouette for waist-cinching belts and a nice change to flowy swing tops that are equally fashionable. It’s brilliant to have an abundance of choices!

High rise pants from Nanette Lepore, Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren (available at Nordstrom).

This invention blows me away. Have you ever longed for a shoe that goes from heel to flat at the push of a button? Well, apparently a British Insurance Company by the name of Sheila’s Wheels has invented just that. They’re called Sheila’s Driving Heels and the idea seems too good to be true. According to Sheila’s Wheels:

“The design concept is aimed at those 11.5 million women drivers in the UK who put themselves and others at risk by wearing the wrong footwear when they’re behind the wheel.”

I don’t think that the product is for sale, but it’s fun to think about. Thank you Elizabeth for sharing the info that you found on Gadgetcandy. With technology like this in the pipeline, who knows what’s in store for us next… look out, 007!

Men’s shirting is not created equally. I can bring home six size mediums for my husband and they’ll all fit differently. Then, when you think that you’ve found a brand of shirting that fits, the retailer changes their size specifications overnight. This happens all over the world and is immensely frustrating. But things have improved over the last few years with a greater proportion of men’s shirting slotting into one of two fits and being labeled accordingly:

• “Slim fit” which runs narrower across the shoulder and torso area and is ideal for leaner blokes.
• “True Fit” which is regular in size and best for boys who are a dash more cuddly around the middle.

A sizeable portion of men’s shirting will keep you guessing. If a shirt’s fit isn’t labeled, you can usually assume that it’s regular fitting. Yet, swanky designer wear is seldom fit-labeled and it’s almost always narrow-fitting.

After lots of shopping, fitting and client testing I have found that different brands cater best to different fits as follows:

• Ultra-slim fits: Zara, Kenneth Cole and most designer wear
• Slim fits: Hugo Boss, Banana Republic “slim fit”, Lucky, INC., Ben Sherman, Calvin Klein, Faconable “slim fit”, French Connection, Mexx, Quick Silver
• True fits: Banana Republic, Oakley, Marc Ecko, DKNY, Faconable, Esprit, Next, Liz Claiborne
• Roomy fits: Timberland, Perry Ellis, Nautica, Polo, Gap
• Extra-roomy fits: Tommy Bahama, Eddie Bauer, Land’s End

I hope that this info stays relevant for at least a couple of seasons. Expect an update once retailers change their shirt-fit specifications yet again.

Shirts by Kenneth Cole (ultra-slim fit), Robert Graham (slim fit) and Banana Republic (true fit).

I really hit a nerve with last week’s post on Crocs’ unsightly Cayman. The comments were uniformly in agreement that this shoe is, shall we say, aesthetically challenged. “Unfortunate fad”, “hideous!”, “nauseating”, and “they should be banned for their sheer ugliness” is pretty representative of the sentiment. But there were some other interesting points: there clearly is a place for these shoes in activities like “fishing and gardening”, and a couple of people pointed out that Crocs do have other styles in their range.

Then, quite by chance, we came across this article in the Wall Street Journal. It seems that Crocs Shoes are launching a rather stylish range of peds for Autumn. The collection is called “You by Crocs” and their mission is to:

“Create a new shoe experience where both comfort and fashion are inseparable”

There is no doubt that aesthetically this collection is leaps and bounds ahead of the current Crocs range. This gives me a sense of relief and hope.  But the proof remains in the pudding; will these fashionable shoes actually be comfortable?  It’s yet another company trying to fill the huge gap in the women’s footwear market (that of supplying an affordable, fashionable and comfortable shoe).

I leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding comfortable shoes that also look fab. This means that I’ll be testing You by Crocs in September the moment they’re available in stores. I’m curious to know which “hour-mark” they’ll make. Judging by the height of the heel, probably nothing past 4 hours, but I hope to be proved wrong.