Letters to Patty to Ruby: Fashionistavore = an animal that feeds on STYLE (Ruby)

You may not know that I have 30-odd hats, not actually ODD hats…but approximately that number…and I always want more. As far as I am concerned, a hat functions nicely in so many ways; I always think it helps keep the “steam” in…tames the lion in you (or me) by literally keeping a “lid on it” and it can be like a cave to hide in with the brim or visor pulled down low over the eyes, delineating personal space like a privacy fence. But, most importantly, the right hat makes anything look better…the very cherry on top.

My husband, shown here, was the first person I knew who regularly wore a "Fidel" or "Castro" style hat in the 1980’s and now that they are literally everywhere, in every color and texture imaginable, for women, men and babies, this particular style has become somewhat diluted for me…fallen a notch on my personal style-o-meter, by default, for having become a mainstream T-R-E-N-D. The irony is that in the fleeting world of fashion the precise thing that you might want for a look – for it to actually catch on, become popular – is the same thing that causes it to lose that special quality that makes it unique and sought after to begin with…which is why it’s fortunate that there is a new line of everything every season.

I was three years old when it started to matter to me what I wore. My perfectly pressed ensembles, genteel in their matchy-matchiness – thanks to my mother and her early patronage to tailored designers like Florence Eiseman - were my first venue for comprehending that all articles of clothing had a natural “mate”…that there was a “RIGHT” combination or the opposite of that…a mess…the anti-ensemble, which my younger sister’s clothing choices epitomized with merry abandonment and which I recoiled from as if it were a disability. I remember the day my mother unveiled my new lavender oufit: a white shirt with an embroidered lavender kitty on it, lavender shorts with small white dots and white ankle socks with lavender scalloped embroidered edging along the delicate cuff. I recall laying the outfit upon my bed just to gaze at it before ever putting it on as if to drink up all the magical air around it, and in my 3 year old mind I believed that if there was any goodness on the earth, it resided in two things:
• the color L-A-V-E-N-D-E-R
• the rules and regulations of matchy-matchy

And so began my personal pursuit – entirely wrapped up in emotion – of the right thing to wear, and not in a Garanimals way, but in a way that is intuitive and passionate, if not desperate at times…as in “no…this isn’t right, I don’t FEEL like this today…”, a common and direct cause of much hysteria among girls and women.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been enjoying, with my husband and kids, a show called The Day Before – a Fashion & Style documentary sub-series that is part of the Full Frontal Fashion series on the Sundance Channel. For our family, the equivalent of “Movie-Night” is that we are all huddled around some Fashion show on television (Project Runway-esque)…possibly with Popcorn to enhance the down-to-earthiness of our pastime. The first one that I watched was about Marc Jacobs, who I just loved, and although I have always imagined top Fashion Designers as the elite, Deity-like purveyors of the Keat’s adage: “beauty is truth, truth beauty”…(that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know), I found him enchantingly human, a nice guy who seeks feedback and support like all of us and who shows a seriously vulnerable side of his mega-designer persona as he questions the “correctness” of the choices he makes while developing his latest line of clothing.

Most charming, though, so far in the series for me, has been the episode that featured the preparation of the 2009 Fall Debut of Proenza Schouler which, until I saw the human version of this super-power, still thought this name referred to one woman with a very robust first name: PROENZA!! Realizing that “Proenza” and “Schouler” are the respective maiden names of the mothers of designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCullough, I was charmed by the very real slice-of-apple-pie-and-Mom feeling they seem to exude and intrigued by their unintimidating, almost impish-boyishness while being awed by their great design and industry savvy. After meeting at the Parson’s School of Design as Fashion Design students, Jack and Lazaro ended up becoming a real-life team after wowing audiences with their final collaborative project and thus the launch of their own label, Proenza Schouler. And they continue to impress as fresh, young faces in the uber-competitive world of fashion. Their new line of slouchy jackets and coats with layer upon layer of shapely lapels and hip-skimming skirts looks comfortable but with a sophisticated twist that seems to come from the juxtaposed angles of it all.

Meanwhile, the thrill of fashion for me is that I get to see the resurgence of attitudes via textures, colors and/or patterns that I have fallen in love with at an earlier time – come back with a new splash, a new translation and a tweak, like recycled sentiments that continue to evolve in style and wisdom with every assertion, every season. Or, perchance, we get to see something we have never seen before, possibly more exciting. In the end, it all comes back to the mantra that seemed to be echoing throughout The Day Before series which simply asks: “Is it wearable?” And the judges on this particular show certainly seem to know how to assess this. Would we all wear these “wearable” items? Not necessarily, but “everyday” clothing can be an off-shoot of the attitudes of high fashion…a sort of dumbed-down, easier to walk in, easier to zip up version. Thankfully.

Some of the looks that seem to be everywhere right now that I am enjoying are the following:

Fringe Boots – many to choose from, but Minnetonka gets points for being the tried and true, authentic brand; GARGANTUAN heels – a short woman’s best friend…kind of; Military jackets keep coming back with evermore style and, in some cases, decidedly feminine touches; very high and slouchy boots – at least to the knee, some with peek-a-boo toes; harem pants, which take a little more getting used to for me because of the very low, drooping crotch but, admittedly, I do own a very cool pair of black ones; very dramatic jackets and coats with interesting angled closures, giant collars and lapels, big-bold-statement outerwear; a new twist on “half-gloves” as seen on Sarah Jessica Parker in last year’s Sex and the City movie where the fingers are in tact but the part of the glove that covers the hand is not all there (I am still partial to the “Hobo” gloves that are missing the ends of all the fingers…because of the practicality of being able to perform tasks while staying relatively warm and I have created my own for years by snipping of the tips of inexpensive gloves);

luckily for me, horizontal stripes are back with a vengeance; and finally, the art of makeup is as pronounced as ever with crimson lips a rev-it-up easy accessory – again – and deep, dark, sultry eyes with extensively lined lids are equally popular in magazines and on the streets. And body art – as seen at fashion Week in New York (Rodarte / Black Magic) – is an interesting twist - time consuming but pain-free - on the fairly recent surge of tattooing, as an example of that place where art and fashion link up with lifestyle and its own momentum.

Finally, a great website for getting to be the all-powerful implementer of a personalized look is Polyvore.com; while magazine sales are down recently, this online real-time, potentially trend tracking fashion “magazine” of sorts – which managed to triple its traffic over the last year - is generated by the folks who visit, populate and use the site. At Polyvore, among other things, you are able to not only put together outfits but also design an entire layout, essentially an essence board, which could include anything from background designs to furniture to nature scapes, etc., that can be incorporated to compliment your look. You can make as many of these “sets” as you desire and publish them on the site itself for other Polyvore-ites to enjoy or share on social networks like Facebook and Twitter with a simple click. Here is a look of my first published set and I’ll be going back for more, no doubt…the perfect outlet for the fashionista-vore in all of us!