What $1k gets you these days.

Like a Viking in a foreign village, I come to your websites to plunder your designer clothing selections and steal all your best...um, pictures of pretty clothes. Yarrr. (No, that's pirates. What the hell do Vikings say?) Today it's Tobi.com. Unfortunately for the pyromaniacally inclined I failed to burn anything down in my plundering, but here is roughly a thousand dollars worth of prettiness for you to look at.


You might look at this Rag & Bone tailcoat and wonder where you can wear it, but my question is, where can't you wear a coat this fabulous? Because I never want to visit there. The cut! The shape! The whole fact of it being a tailcoat! Finally, utilitarianism and Victorian gentleman chic have been combined. That collar!


Oh wow: my yearning for Diesel jeans is never going to go away, ever. As soon as a large sum of money falls unexpectedly into my lap I'm going to buy these Diesel Ronhar jeans, and then you know what's going to happen? Me neither, but I suspect it will involve my quality of life increasing by 65% or more.


And then sometimes simple is best, like with this cleverly pleated mod dress by Saint Grace. There's not a lot going on, but everything happening here is right. Let's hear it for simplicity done absolutely perfectly.


Tokidoki, my sin, my soul. I don't need another hoodie, but if I did, say, if I had any money left over from that unexpected windfall, I'd probably buy this Tokidoki hoodie and wear it with the Diesel jeans and feel fabulous and cool.

The four-figure dress budget.

I need a unifying theme for this post. How about "things which are gorgeous and amazing and cost more than I make in a week/paycheck/entire month"? And...go!


Zac Posen, you rockstar. I think the sash in the back is what does it for me; that, and the mystical, magical things he does with the ordinarily-pedestrian pleat. I just don't see anyone working with material the way he does, shaping and draping it until it becomes exciting all on its own. And the fluttery little sleeves!


This is called the Radcliffe coat; Peter Som, you had me at hello. I adore the exaggerated shape of this coat, the puffed bell sleeves, the swingy, cape-like shape. You could dress this down with skinny dark denim jeans and Converse and still look chic.



The shape, the shape! Derek Lam, you have romanced me. I can't think of anywhere in particular I'd wear this dress - rather, it feels like it could go anywhere, like it could take you from the office to dinner out and then to, I don't know, the dungeon where you train up men part time.


On my list of things to purchase before I die broke and alone: the Damier Canva Reporter Melville. Too many years in close proximity to Canal Street made me inherently suspicious of the monogram, but the Damier check, oh, the Damier check and I are for keeps.


Including this L.A.M.B. dress is cheating: it's actually the most affordable of the bunch. Well, "affordable." L.A.M.B. doesn't always work for me, but my god, when it does, it does in a big way. This dress has so much going on, starting off with the stripes and up through that genius collar, but it's not overwhelming, it just commands attention. I think you'd probably have to be pretty badass to wear it though, and really commit to that - pairing it with the severe ponytail was definitely the right decision. I'd also pair it with this Thomas Wylde tote.

If fall means accessories like this, I say bring on autumn.

Two accessories I've seen today that have inspired me to be a better person:


I don't know what it is about them, but those Costume National elbow length cashmere gloves with leather buckles just actually blew my mind. I mean - god, have gloves ever gone so right? Leather buckles, are you kidding me? I feel like I could happily structure my entire wardrobe around getting to wear these gloves every day. I would move back to NY just to have a cold-climate excuse to pair these with every outfit. Costume National is generally just a little too severe for me - gorgeous structure but so much black! - but now I feel validated in my insistence on paying attention to them. Via Style.com's Fall '07 Shopping Guide.


Well hello, Michael Kors, where you've been hiding that rakish spirit? This Lolita pump is dirty fabulous but still business-appropriate. Peep-toes and patent leather accents have never looked so demure. Like the unexpected hints of military chic that the Costume National gloves above hint at, these heels have an equally unforeseen respectability. The Lolita librarian trend begins here, and I'm ready to hop onboard.


In other news, eLuxury is holding a final clearance sale. I can only assume it's to mock me by featuring this Nanette Lepore dress I've been lusting after for months marked down to $199:

The bodice is what really does it for me; Nanette Lepore always gives good cleavage without being overtly sexy about it, which is nice when you're a curvy girl like me. I still have the lacy black Nanette Lepore top I got for $30 on sale at Anthropologie (I know) even though it's now four sizes too big. I don't care. They can bury me in it. Hopefully after a long glorious life that truly began when an anonymous benefactor gifted me with the divine dress above. Dream big, kids.

Winter Survival Plan #1: Burning Money For Heat

Today I have been thinking about jackets (a lot about jackets). My usual method of keeping warm in the winter (or in the summer when it's cold, or in other seasons when it's cold, or in the office when it's a day) is to wear an American Apparel hoodie - I have ten of them, and ten or so other hoodies that I wear on a regular basis. I'm thinking it's time to branch out, though. The trouble is I need jackets that I can wear all the time, so I can't have anything that's a trench, really, because I don't want to look awkward sitting behind my desk and working while wearing a big obvious jacket.

God, the moral dilemmas that haunt my everyday life.

So I've been seeking out a happy medium that would allow me to stay warm and not look ridiculous, and so far I think that owning the following jackets would improve my life 110%:


It should be noted right now that I have an unbearable crush on DSquared2; Dan, Dean, call me. When I need to pretend I have a different life than I do my instant pick-me-up is browsing their resort '07 collection on style.com. This blazer perfectly captures their Italian preppy aesthetic.


There's just so much here that I feel to be right. This Gentle Fawn jacket is a statement jacket without being really obnoxious about it. You could teach a grad class in this jacket, you could work at a bookshop, you could take it to an art gallery opening, you could go to the mall. It's youthful without being self-consciously tweedy, and the details, the details! The blue striped lining has romanced me. I'm a little dizzy. Hold me.


The combination of this Ann Demeulemeester jacket and Diesel jeans is so good that it sort of makes me want to die.


Pretty sure this Alexander McQueen jacket is a guys' jacket, but wow, I am magnificently unconcerned with the supposed limitations of gender-based tailoring when faced with that delicious assymetricality. That cut. Those sleeves, the buttons, everything. I don't know if I was just not paying attention to McQueen for awhile or something but lately I've just been nuts for it and I'm not sure why.


Dear sweet god, it's plaid, it's warm, and it doesn't look like it came from a lumberjack's closet: Paul Frank be praised. And oh, it's acceptable with a white t-shirt and jeans; be still my heart. Matching accessories, stop it, my delicate constitution!

(While we're on the subject of plaid: are you trying to seduce me, Derek Lam?)

(Okay, whatever, in the interests of full disclosure I should admit that all previous words to the contrary, I am still staring lustily at this in white with black polka dots, this in heather grey and red, and this too. Habits are hard to break - give me some time.)

If I keep recording my daily outfits, I will feel motivated to change them up:
Saltworks jeans
Odille yellow-and-white striped halter
White AA hoodie
Light blue New Balance 574s

Gaultier goes Gothic Lolita; matches my mood

Hello, internet! I'm Sara, I have wild aspirations of someday living beyond my means, but I think I need to knock off some student loan debt before I start accruing fashion debt (a much more noble pursuit). My day job as a copywriter, while deeply, unbearably glamorous, doesn't quite cover the fashion budget of my dreams, so in the meantime I'm going to keep the dream alive by telling you what I wish I was wearing today.

The weather here in Washington state has been summarily miserable and I've been trying to combat it with sunnier colors. In fact, my mood would be better expressed by the following thundercloud-friendly ensemble:


Dress by Jean Paul Gaultier. Did you know that the naughty gothic schoolgirl look can actually be done in a restrained fashion? Thank you, Gaultier. The collar, the buttons down the front, the sequin edging, the subtle puffed sleeves. Pair it with dark red lips and enough black mascara to convey the long-eyelashed Dickensian waif goes to Paris look and you're good to go.


Patent-trimmed cranberry red spectator Mary Janes by Marc by Marc Jacobs: how has anything ever gone so right? It's a postmodern steampunk mashup with day school spirit. Violet Baudelaire is going to grow up and wear these with everything.


Marc by Marc Jacobs umbrella. This is a rough estimate, but I think I would pout 30% less about the weather if I had a designer umbrella shielding me from the rain. I'd also probably twirl it in a circle and spin around in the rain and close my eyes and hope to wake up in a Tim Burton movie, and you know what? On the off-chance that it happened, I would be perfectly attired for it.

Today's actual outfit:
Blue tank tip printed with cherries
Red American Apparel hoodie (this will be a recurring theme)
Rich&Skinny jeans
Green Saucony Classics