Fashion Friday!

Making trends work for you

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Photo – Getty Images

Chances are, you aren’t going anywhere dressed like this this fall. Neither am I, but this intriguing outfit incorporates, to some extent, at least nine of this season’s biggest fashion trends! Let’s take a look at what they are:

  1. Red
  2. Plaid
  3. Oversized tote bag
  4. Oversized blanket coat
  5. Large, colourful floral print
  6. Flowing maxi dress
  7. Animal print
  8. Extreme layering
  9. Slouchy boots

Screen Shot 2018-09-03 at 7.51.11 PMPlaid is really a returning trend from last fall and winter, but this year’s reinvention includes plaids in wild colours, head to toe plaid, and mixing plaids. Similarly, while animal prints are an enduring trend and are usually considered a neutral, this season you can also expect to see neon zebra and garishly coloured leopard prints. If you want either a plaid or an animal print to have enduring value though, opt for a more traditional look that you’ll be able to wear for years.

For those of us who live a cold climate, layering is a no-brainer during fall and winter, but this year’s trend takes it to the extreme with multiple layers often topped with a bulky oversized coat. One of the great things about this trend is that it allows you to continue wearing some of your spring and summer pieces right into fall and winter. For example, think about layering a sleeveless summer dress over a long sleeved shirt or tee and leggings, then don’t be afraid to pile on a few more layers!

Have fun with the trends, but don’t become a slave to them!  As always, the key to incorporating the latest fashion trends into your wardrobe is to consider how you might put your own interpretation on them while staying true to your own style. Begin by shopping your closet to see how you can make the trends work with what’s already there. For example, I’ll definitely be wearing the black and white plaid shirt that I bought second hand in the spring of 2017 as well as the Check Shirt from Cabi’s Fall 2017 collection again this year. I also have a couple of leopard print items in traditional neutral colours that will be in circulation again this season. I’ve been doing a major closet cull lately and I almost let go of an older leopard print shirt that I haven’t worn for a long time, but I changed my mind and snatched it back out of the bag that’s destined for the thrift store! I’ll show it to you next week.

Your Perfect 10

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LogoThis weekend I’ll be packing for another trip to Vancouver. You may remember that we were there in June to celebrate my father’s 95th birthday. On that trip, a lot of things never came out of my suitcase because the weather was unseasonably cool and damp. Spring and fall are easily the most difficult times of year to pack efficiently for in this part of the world because weather can vary widely and one needs to be prepared for almost any eventuality. I’m hoping to do a better job this time though!

So how am I going to do that? I’ll definitely be packing layering pieces for warmth and versatility. I’m also going to adopt some ideas from “Your Perfect 10 – Building a Core Wardrobe for Maximum Versatility” which my friend Deborah, an independent stylist for cabi, recently shared with me. The Perfect 10 is a variation of the popular capsule wardrobe idea and allows you to mix and match creating many outfits with a minimal number of pieces.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

Choose 3 colours that work well together. A dark, a light and an accent colour. Choose a jacket, top and bottom in each of the colours and then choose one extra bottom in your darkest colour = Total of 10 Garments. Those 10 garments, when designed around colours that work well together will give you 25 to 30 different outfit options, a must have for any traveler!

I’ll be tweaking this list to suit my own style and I’m sure that I’ll end up with more than the 10 basic items in my suitcase, but it’s a great starting point for planning. If this was a business trip, jackets would be appropriate and at least one of the bottoms would probably be a skirt, but I’m retired. I don’t go on business trips! Our main reason for going to Vancouver this time is to be with Dad when he has a minor surgical procedure. Of course, we’ll also be spending time with our son and his family. Rather than jackets, I’ll be packing cardigans and my bottoms will be pants, mostly jeans. I simply can’t imagine only taking 3 tops though! If I was going to restrict myself to 10 items, I would definitely make a trade and pack 4 tops and only 3 bottoms. At least one of the tops would be a print that included 2 or 3 of the colours I was building my perfect 10 around.

Do you have any packing tips that have worked well for you?

 

Fashion and social justice

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levi

Famous jeans maker, Levi Strauss, made news last week by jumping into the gun control fray calling for stricter gun laws in the US and pledging $1 million in grants to be distributed over the next four years to non-profit and activist groups fighting to stop gun violence. The company “simply cannot stand by silently when it comes to issues that threaten the very fabric of the communities where we live and work,” wrote the firm’s president and chief executive, Chip Bergh, in a piece for Fortune magazine.

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Levi’s action followed hard on the heels of Nike who, on September 3rd, unveiled a giant billboard featuring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, over San Francisco’s Union Square. Similar billboards followed in other cities. Kaepernick has been a controversial figure since he took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, a gesture that spread to players on other NFL teams and sparked a nation-wide debate. Nike followed up by releasing an ad featuring Kaepernick which aired during the NFL season opener on September 6th. In spite of the fact that many customers blasted the company on social media and some filmed themselves destroying Nike products and claiming that they will boycott the company, Nike reported a 31% increase in sales over the Labour Day holiday this year compared with the same time period last year.

Levi Strauss and Nike are far from the first members of the fashion industry to involve themselves in social issues. Women’s apparel brand, Eileen Fisher, proudly supports a long list of environmental and human rights groups.  Through its Heart of Cabi Foundation, Cabi, one of the largest direct sale women’s apparel businesses in the US, supports several initiatives to encourage and empower women in need around the world. Even fast fashion giant, H&M, has collection boxes in their stores worldwide aimed at recycling clothing items (any brand) and reducing the tonnes of textiles that end up in landfills. These are just a few examples.

Should companies like Levi and Nike stick to producing products and making money and leave issues like gun control and racial inequality to politicians and lobby groups or should they put consumers in the position of deciding whether or not to support these issues with our clothing dollars? When you shop for clothes do you want to have to think about whether or not you agree with the manufacturer’s ethics? After all, when you give money to a company, you implicitly support the values that that company stands for.

I’d love to hear your opinion!

 

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

/ edebock / 9 Comments

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.

Nov 23 2017

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.

Oct2016

#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.

March2017

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