Fashion Friday!

More about Uniqlo

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LogoIn response to my last Fashion Friday post, one of my Facebook readers inquired about Uniqlo wondering if the company is Canadian or American. Uniqlo (pronounced YOU-nee-klo) is, in fact, a major Japanese casual apparel retailer. We fell in love with Uniqlo on our first visit to Japan in 2005. When we lived in Funabashi in 2008-09, it was a short bike ride from our apartment to the closest Uniqlo store and later, in 2013, when we spent a semester in Dalian, China we were delighted to find Uniqlo a short bus ride from home!

From one store in Hiroshima in 1984, the chain has spread across Asia and around the world. In addition to Japan and China, Uniqlo now sells inexpensive high quality fashion merchandise in stores in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, France, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The first Uniqlo store in North America opened in Soho, New York City in 2006. Ten years later, in September 2016, Uniqlo entered the Canadian market with a store in the CF Toronto Eaton Centre. The company now operates two stores in Toronto and three in the Vancouver area with three more in the Toronto area and one in Vancouver’s eastern suburbs slated to open this fall. Once brand awareness has been well established in those two areas, the company is expected to branch out into secondary markets including Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa with the possibility of eventually having as many as 100 stores across the country.

For those of us in Canada who already love Uniqlo, but who live far from Toronto and Vancouver, the good news is that the company launched online sales in Canada early last month. Now you can order clothing from their mobile-only online store or app and have it delivered anywhere in Canada. As for me, I’ll be back in Vancouver next month, so I’ll shop in person.

On my last visit in June, all I was really looking for was the basic black tee that appeared in last week’s post, but before I even walked into the store, I fell in love with the dark olive sleeveless blouse on the mannequin at the entrance so it came home with me. It comes in 5 other colours and I see that it’s on sale right now.

Preparing for seasonal transition with a new neutral

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LogoIf you’re like me, you probably find it easy to reach into your closet and pull out the same combinations over and over again, but once in awhile I like to put things together in new and different ways. That’s what I’ve done today.

 

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I’m not quite ready to put away my summer wardrobe and bring out my fall and winter wear, but the days are definitely getting cooler. Now’s the time for transitional pieces. Instead of capris and shorts, I’m back in jeans most days. These ones are the Brick Dust Skinny from cabi’s Spring 2018 collection. I’ve been trying to add more colour to my wardrobe and these have definitely done that. The wonderful thing about this pinkish orange colour is that it actually works like a neutral pairing well with lots of other colours and looking good on everyone. I look forward to building lots of different outfits with these pants as my base.

Today I’m wearing the Brick Dust Skinny with a basic black t-shirt from Uniqlo and an old, very well-loved cotton shirt that I bought in Japan many years ago. The colour has faded a little over time, but I love the soft muted olive. Another neutral, olive is particularly flattering to those with warm undertones and it also teams well with many other colours.

Accessories always finish an outfit and I love the way the colours in my bracelet pull this look together. I’m wearing white sneakers for a casual vibe, but I could easily dress the outfit up a bit with a different pair of shoes.

Unfortunately, cabi’s Brick Dust Skinny is no longer available, but this season’s High Skinny in a lovely grey called Smoked Pearl is essentially the same pant. I may have to add it to my closet! If you’re dying for a pair in the Brick Dust colour, Uniqlo has something similar here.  They call the colour Brown, but it looks pretty close to me.

Fashion math… thinking about cost per wear

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LogoIf you’re like me, there have probably been times when you’ve stood in a dressing room trying to decide whether or not to buy an item because the price seems too high. It fits well, looks great on you, and you love it, but can you really justify spending that much?

That’s when you need to think about cost per wear (CPW). I was never very good at math, but this formula is so simple that even I can handle it!

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The simplest version involves dividing the price by how many times you estimate that you’ll wear the item. Of course, there are other factors to take into consideration. For example, does the item need to be dry cleaned. If so, it’s a good idea to factor that cost into the equation.

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Obviously, no one knows exactly how many times they’ll wear a particular item, but here are some questions that can help you estimate:

  • Where will I wear it?
  • Is it a single season item or something that I’ll wear year round?
  • Is it a trend that will likely disappear quickly or something that I’ll probably wear for several years?
  • Is it well made? Will it keep its shape and colour through multiple wears and washes or will it wear out quickly?
  • Will it play well with other items in my closet?
  • Will I get tired of it?

Let’s look at a couple of examples. I’m planning to buy a new winter coat this year. Imagine that I find the coat I want for $250. I live in a climate where winter lasts from late October until March. Unless I slip away to somewhere warm for a couple of weeks, I’ll likely wear that coat at least once a day all winter long, so let’s estimate that I wear it 150 times over the winter months. If I keep that coat for just one year, the cost per wear would be $1.67, but I’m likely to wear it for several winters so let’s multiply the number of wears by 3. Now I’m dividing $250 by 450 and the CPW is only 56 cents! On the other hand, if I spend $250 on a dress to wear to a wedding and I only wear it a couple of other times, the CPW is over $80! In my mind, the coat is a good buy, but the dress probably isn’t.

Here’s another way to look at it. Let’s imagine that you’re shopping for a basic black sweater and trying to choose between buying a high quality one for $120 or a cheaper, poorer quality version for $24. Which one is the better buy? As counterintuitive as it might sound, sometimes buying cheap is actually more expensive. If you would wear the more expensive sweater 200 times over the next few years, the CPW would be 60 cents, but you might only get 20 wears out of that cheaper sweater before it starts to pill, stretch out of shape, or even unravel. In that case, the CPW would be 83 cents. Clearly, the more expensive sweater is actually the better buy.

For CPW to work to your advantage, you have to love and enjoy wearing your clothes to such an extent that you’re willing to continue wearing them long term instead of constantly buying new ones; you have to be willing to make fewer and more intentional purchases. That’s the whole idea! Rather than forking over more and more of your hard earned dollars for cheap quality pieces that won’t last, you’ll spend more for clothes that will last longer.

Cost per wear isn’t a hard and fast rule. Splurging on something trendy that you won’t wear long term isn’t all bad. Getting dressed ought to be fun, so achieving a low cost per wear isn’t always the desired end, but it’s a handy tool to use, especially when you’re considering a major purchase or when sales racks tempt you to buy on impulse.

So next time you go shopping for clothes, shoes, or accessories, why not do the fashion math?

It’s not about age

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LogoI’d like to begin by thanking those of you who responded to last week’s Fashion Friday post either here or on Facebook. I posed the same question about the length of my hair on Jennifer Connolly’s A Well Styled Life Community Facebook page which has a much wider audience and almost 100 members responded! So far, #4 is the overwhelming favourite. In fact, more than half of all the responders chose that look.

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Though they didn’t all agree on which one made me look most youthful, I was surprised at how many women mentioned that as their reason for choosing one hair length over the others. Have we been so indoctrinated by our culture that we automatically equate youth with beauty without even realizing it? Have I?

I admit that I don’t want to look older than I really am. That’s why I don’t straighten my hair when it’s long. That really pulls me down and makes me look haggard while the curls do seem to give me a more youthful look.

I do embrace the age I am, however, wearing my 65 years bold t-shirt with pride. I have no desire to turn back the clock, though I do wish sometimes that I could slow it down! The years seem to be flying by at an ever increasing pace and I’d like to have more time to enjoy each one of them.

Neither do I have any great desire to erase the visible signs of aging. I decided many years ago not to colour my hair, but to age with grayce and I love this quotation from Queen Elizabeth II. “Don’t retouch my wrinkles in the photograph, I would not want it to be thought that I had lived for all these years without having anything to show for it.”

Attitude not age

 

A hairy situation

/ edebock / 27 Comments

LogoIt’s been quite awhile since I mentioned my hair here on the blog. As you may have noticed in several of my most recent Fashion Friday posts, I’ve been wearing it up or in a ponytail a lot over the summer. I don’t want it in my face when I’m golfing or kayaking and it’s much more comfortable if it’s off my neck on hot days. In spite of the fact that my twice a year cancer treatments cause significant thinning, I still have a very heavy mane!

Though I won’t do anything until golfing season is over, I’m contemplating going for a shorter cut in the fall. The question is how short? That’s where I’d like your input. The following five photos show the progression from short to long that’s taken place over the past two years. In the comment section below, please tell me which length you prefer.

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#1 was taken in the fall of 2016 a few months before I decided on a whim to start growing it out. At the time I didn’t have a particular length in mind, but after keeping it short for many years, I simply wanted a change. #2 was taken five months later shortly after I started letting it grow.

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As it grew longer, I discovered “plopping” and began to embrace my natural curls. #3 was taken at the beginning of October 2017.

My hair has always grown quickly, but once it reached this point it really seemed to take off and #4 was taken less than two months later!

#5 was taken in April of this year. I had a trim shortly after that, but it’s at least this long again now.

So my question for you is this: when summer is over, should I cut it short, leave it long, or go for something in between? Your response can be as simple as one digit (#1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) or you can explain your thoughts.

Combining colours

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LogoWhen I was young you didn’t wear blue with green or brown with black and you most certainly didn’t pair red with pink. Thankfully, times have changed and most of the old fashion rules have been thrown out the window!

I never did understand the problem with blue and green. After all, we see that combination in nature all the time. The sky is blue and the trees are green and we don’t find that aesthetically unpleasing. When it comes to fashion, I’m particularly fond of navy and emerald green together. Here are a couple of combinations that I found on Pinterest.

Brown used to be a staple in my wardrobe and life definitely got easier when combining it with black became acceptable, but what about red with pink? Apparently that’s a trend that’s continuing into fall, but I’m having trouble getting my head around it. The outfits shown on the runways are always a bit outlandish, but even if the clothing was more my style, I’m not sure I could see myself in this colour combination.

What about you? Do you wear pink and red? Would you? What are your favourite colour combinations?

A model who embraced her age

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LogoIt was with sadness that I learned yesterday of the death of 67 year old Cindy Joseph on July 12.

Ms. Joseph, began her career in the late 1970s working as a make-up artist for fashion and beauty photographers. In 1999, at the age of 49, on the very day that she cut off the last remaining bit of her coloured hair and fully embraced her gray, she was approached on the street by a casting agent and asked to model for a Dolce and Gabbana ad campaign. That ignited her modeling career with Ford Models Inc. In her 50s and 60s she modeled for companies like Olay, Elizabeth Arden, Anthropologie and Ann Taylor.

“I certainly didn’t fit the status quo of the modeling world,” Ms. Joseph told Yahoo Beauty in an interview last year. “I was 49 years old — I was under 5-foot-8, my hair was gray. Hello! I had crow’s feet!”

What she didn’t mention was the fact that she was stunning!

Cindy Joseph

Cindy Joseph on the front cover of Viv magazine – July 2007

Ms. Joseph encouraged women to embrace their age instead of trying to conceal it. She believed that fixating on youth was unhealthy and an ineffective beauty strategy contending that many cosmetic companies failed their wearers by trying to mask the signs of aging. In 2010, she launched BOOM! by Cindy Joseph, her own “pro-age” skin and cosmetics line consisting of natural moisturizers and easy to use multitasking “Boomsticks” that act as lipstick, blush, and eyeshadow.

Cindy Joseph died after a valiant battle with soft tissue sarcoma, a cancer that attacks the soft tissues of the body.

Cindy Joseph

Summer sales!

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LogoIt seems like summer has hardly arrived in our part of the world and already retailers are selling off their summer stock and preparing for the next season. It’s a great time to perk up your summer wardrobe at discount prices.

Those of you who have been reading my Fashion Friday posts for the past couple of years are aware of the fact that I’m a cabi girl. Cabi clothes, sold through direct sales, are fun, fashionable, and good quality, but they’re a bit pricey for this frugal fashionista. That’s why I love it when my cabi consultant holds her end of season sales!

On my recent visit to her beautiful in-home boutique, I came away with a couple of delightful buys. Today I’m wearing the Poet Blouse. I love the uneven hemline and the feminine flair of this ruffled bohemian top. The lightweight sheer poly drapes beautifully and gives the blouse an airy feel on hot summer days. Its muted colour palette of beige, soft pink, green, yellow and black adds versatility allowing it to be worn with many different bottoms.

Perhaps the most surprising and delightful aspect of the Poet Blouse is that it’s really two garments in one. Snap the tank top liner off at the shoulders and it can be worn on its own or mixed and matched with other garments. The overtop could also be worn over a different tank or camisole to add a solid colour at the neckline. The versatility is endless!

The tank isn’t limited only to summer. Under a cardigan or jacket, it will move right into fall with me.

Have you checked out any summer sales? Did you find any bargains?

#13 Haunted Lakes

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Sometimes we travel long distances to see new sights when there are hidden gems right on our own doorsteps. Though they’re only about an hour and a half from home, I’d never heard of Haunted Lakes until I started looking for new places to golf and kayak.

According to legend, the natives of the plains had been in the habit of pitching their teepees on the eastern shore of the larger of the two small lakes. Once, in midwinter, seven braves camped there overnight and when they woke the next morning, they spotted the head and antlers of a magnificent buck that was caught in the ice on the other side of the lake. They hastened across the ice to claim their prize, but as soon as they started to chop the ice around the antlers, the mighty beast, still very much alive, broke free and smashing a passageway before him, swam straight to shore and disappeared into the woods. All seven braves were drowned and it is claimed that their spirits still haunt the lake. Supposedly, every winter when the lake is frozen over, a huge fissure appears along the exact path that the deer traveled to shore.

Not being even slightly superstitious, I thought it was pretty funny when I phoned ahead to reserve a camp spot and was told that we would be in site #13! It was actually the perfect spot for us as we were able to launch the kayak directly from our campsite.

I absolutely loved the picturesque Haunted Lakes golf course!

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Never before have I had to tee off with a freight train thundering overhead!

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After playing 18 holes our first day there, we kayaked the perimeter of the lake in the evening. Though it was bigger than it appeared from the campsite, it took just a little over an hour. Later, as we sat outside the trailer doing our devotions and enjoying the evening air, Richard glanced up and noticed what looked to him like the hand of God hovering over the water!

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Our first day at Haunted Lakes was so perfect that we  hoped to repeat it the next day, but after 16 holes of golf, we were driven off the course by thunder rumbling overhead and rain beginning to fall. We spent the remainder of the day hunkered down in the trailer listening to the rain on the roof and watching the wind churn up the lake. Considering how dry it’s been here in central Alberta, we weren’t terribly disappointed, but I look forward to returning again some day and hopefully enjoying more sunshine!

IMG_20180712_133842499_HDRSince this is supposed to be Fashion Friday, here’s a picture of me golfing on another course on our little trip. This is a typical golfing outfit for me. As long as the weather allows, I’ll be found on the course wearing shorts or a skort, a sleeveless golf shirt, a ball cap, and golf sandals. And yes, that’s a knee brace. According to one of my doctors, my knees are older than the rest of me! That’s a nice way of saying that they’re arthritic. I bought the brace mainly for hiking, but since 18 holes of golf (even with a cart) was beginning to cause discomfort, I decided to try it for golfing too and found it very comfortable.

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Trailer packing

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LogoIn a previous packing post, I mentioned that there are some items that I can take with me in the trailer that don’t pack well in a suitcase. Since we’re out and about with the trailer this week, I thought I’d share my trailer packing techniques today.

As RVs go, our travel trailer is small; just 24 feet from hitch to bumper with no slide-outs. Though we’ve managed to squeeze in an extra adult and two kids on a couple of occasions, it’s really perfect for just the two of us.

One of the things that attracted me to this particular unit when we bought it was the amount of storage space. Last summer, we spent a full six weeks on the road and if I remember correctly, other than washing my bras by hand, we did laundry three times. This year, we’re planning shorter jaunts, but even on a long trip like that one, I had no problem fitting in enough clothes.

On our current trip, we plan to play several rounds of golf and do quite a bit of kayaking, but we’ll also be spending time in urban settings and we plan to attend church on Sunday. When I was packing the weather forecast looked very favourable, but we all know how quickly that can change, so I packed for a variety of activities and conditions. In fact, I probably packed way more than I’ll actually need!

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The trailer bathroom has a roomy closet where we hang most of our clothes. I’m showing you only my half. As you can see, I packed mostly neutral colours, so that it’s easy to mix things up and create many looks with just a few garments. I do like brightly coloured golf shirts though, so you can see some of those in there and I added my bright red jeans for an additional pop of colour. Although the closet isn’t full length, I did manage to take a dress all the way to Dawson City, Yukon for our nephew’s wedding last summer. I hung it at the end of the closet against the wall and laid the bottom portion of the skirt flat being careful not to pile anything on it.

A second smaller closet near the entrance to the trailer is used for jackets and there’s room beneath them for hats.

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The trailer does have a couple of drawers that we could use for clothing, but we have chosen other uses for them. The one in the bathroom holds toiletries, medications, a travel blow dryer and a handy little travel iron as well as a a few other odds and ends. The reason that we don’t need to use the drawers for clothing is that as soon as I spotted the storage space under the foot of our queen bed, I had a brainwave. I bought each of us a plastic bin to fit into that space. Mine holds socks, underwear, camisoles, pyjamas, shorts and skorts… everything that would usually be folded in drawers. They make packing very simple as we can carry our bins into the house, load them up, and return them to the trailer. Easy peasy!

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Just inside the trailer door there’s a cubby where we pack our shoes. There are usually more shoes crammed in there than you can see here, but Richard hadn’t packed his in yet. What you see is my trusty Merrells used mostly for hiking; some old shoes, sandals and flip flops that I use only around the campground, and the slippers that we keep in the trailer for chilly evenings and mornings. The cupboard is much bigger than it looks from the outside, so there are other things hidden in behind including shoe boxes that hold my dressier shoes and sandals.

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I don’t anticipate having access to wifi very often on this trip, but I look forward to sharing our travels with you as I’m able. If there isn’t a Fashion Friday post next week, be sure to look for one again the week after.