The Limited Edition 2.55

The luxury retail market is always coming up with gimmicks and limited edition goods to lure customers into buying more and more.
Chanel's latest Limited Edition product, is this 2.55 in honor of the Chanel Mobile Art Exhibit. Now this may look like any old 2.55, but for once in fashion, the beauty lies on the inside.
Inside the flap to be specific. Inside the flap, is this signature by the legend of fashion himself, KARL LAGERFELD, commemorating the Mobile Art Exhibit in Hong Kong. Logic tells me that Chanel is trying to rip people off, because the scribbling of a few words inside the flap is certainly NOT worth the premium they are charging for it over the standard 2.55's. A mere signature does NOT bring one closer at any level to the author of the signature. The red/orangey color isn't even that complimentary!

But the fashionista side of me is in AWE that I have been able to get so close to and even trace Karl Lagerfeld's signature. I admit, I might have even let out a tiny squeal of delight. A little like what Victory Ford felt when she found Coco Chanel's dress form in Lipstick Jungle (though of course, this is not QUITE as cool nor meaningful, since I know nothing about designing and making clothes). I know this reaction is probably completely illogical and against my better judgment since it is obviously a marketing ploy to make more money for Chanel, but oh, I just can't help it! :)

And I can't wait to go see the exhibit! Its fully booked this weekend, but I'm definitely going next week! Report back!

Paris Fashion Week F/W08 Wrapup I

This is why Paris Fashion Week is THE fashion week I look foward to the most. I mean, if I'm not going to be able to afford anything on the runway, I might as well ogle at the most creative and gorgeous collections, starting with Balenciaga.

Genius. Seriously genius. Once again, Nicholas Ghesquiere used Balenciaga's history and created a very modern collection. The clothes all look very structured yet still so sensual.

The show started off with minimal, well-cut and structured evening dresses. Take note of the shoes: pointy shoes are back! Is the trend with round-toed shoes soon to be over?

These are the more work-suit looks. I hope those tulip skirts become part of the mainstream trends, (and hopefully high street retailers will be 'inspired' to make affordable versions!)

Metallic, shiny dresses are nothing new. But the shapes of these dresses are amazing.

The velvet top with skinny pants/ skirt combo seemed to be a huge favourite. I love how pretty the colourful tops are. And the black & white velvet top look is just amazing with the black eye makeup! Seriously loves it!

The show closed with printed coats and dresses. While I can appreciate how these artistic pieces form part of the collection, I have to say I'm not a huge fan of the coats. For example, the coat on the left makes the model look like she's got a muscular costume on.

Can't wait for more Paris fashion! Did you love the Balenciaga show too?

Image credit: www.style.com

Anonymous, Fauve only goes up to H cup sizes

Yes I found that chart really handy too! And use it often. The price of Fauve bras won’t matter much to us because as you can read here at Fantasie’s site, they only go up to H cup sizes. Perhaps they will make a line for us somewhat more endowed women later. Then we can wonder if we want to go the price.

I came across some other interesting bra info lately. Full Figure Plus' bra support post brings up some interesting points I never considered. You can read it by clicking here.

Things like that minimizer bras for us fuller busted women don’t really work but will reduce breast elasticity over time, (#6). And that some medications can affect breast size, (#3). I do not believe that Glen Johnson, the writer is referring to the likes of Fauve bras when he writes about you get what you pay for. I think Fantasie, Panache, Freya and Le Mystere are likely worth the money.

Well I know Panache, Fantasie and Le Mystere are! Freya has some beautiful bras I’d like to try some day. It does appear we have come to a lull in great bra sale time of year lately. Bigger Bras clearance sale may well be ending soon too.

I’m hoping to post new sales and styles of plus size and full busted bras here in the near future. Remember: Checking for discontinued colors at Bare Necessities is often a great way to get excellent prices on our size bras!

If the hour glass figure was the rarest, then it seems to me there should be a lot more inverted triangle shaped women out there like us. It does make dressing a challenge at the very least! I often go for the knit dress. If I get one where the top part just makes the stretch, the bottom half does not have too much excessive drape. Can’t always get that though!

I hope to look into who to write about bra design later this week. When I find it I’ll post it here.

Swarovski Necklaces

I've always had the impression that Swarovski jewelry were either not very interesting looking or so loud that it bordered on gaudy. However, recently I've had a change of mind. Suddenly these delicate, simple, elegant looking necklaces that I used to find "not very interesting looking," looks very attractive indeed. This has mostly been due to this recent TV show I watched, where this character in it pairs all her very chic work outfits with these very elegant and sleek looking necklaces, which I later found was sponsored by Swarovski. Intrigued, I looked up more of these necklaces and realized that while they are not super loud and ultra trendy, they are the perfect accessory for a smart work outfit. They are subtle and elegant, but are still very pretty and feminine- perfect for work.
Trendy elements are also subtly added to their designs, such as above.
This chained necklace is one of my favourites (left). The design is simple and elegant but still makes a statement. And this gorgeous purple crystal necklace (right) is just the thing to brighten up the usual dreary colors of work clothes in a quiet way. I can just imagine it looking fabulous, with a plain black suit and white shirt paired with simple diamond (or crystal!) earrings and subtle purple eye shadow!

Image Source: Swarovski

Oscar's Fashion 2008

To everyone-who-actually-enjoys-looking-at-glamorous-stars-in-gowns' relief, Oscar's wasn't cancelled. Stars went all out (in terms of the sizes of the gowns) this year as the Golden Globes ceremony was cancelled. This year, the main trend in the gowns were huge, black or red gowns, and empire dresses for the pregnant. The dresses were all pretty 'safe'. I'm going taking note of the dresses I liked here:

My favourite dress of the night was probably Cameron Diaz's Dior dress. Yes, it's not a particularly exciting dress, but I'm a fan of the fabric folds. It's simple, well-designed and pretty. And while it's arguable whether her makeup is too simple for Oscar's, I really like how she sticks to her natural-beauty style.

A trend seemed to be the long, simple dress + big necklace combo. Both Nicole Kidman (in Balenciaga) and Keri Russell (in Nina Ricci) looked very elegant. I thought Keri Russell's dress' colour looks really etheral on her, and the necklace is just a perfect match.

Black was one of the two popular colour choices, and huge gowns were equally popular. I thought the best was Hilary Swank's Atelier Versace gown, with Penelope Cruz's Chanel Couture coming in second.

The other popular colour choice was red. Katherine Heigl looked gorgeous as usual. However, I am getting a bit bored of her old Hollywood look, and her makeup seems a bit overloaded (-the blush).

Heidi Klum's vampy dress was comparatively interesting and she was equally gorgeous (in a slightly different way.)

The Marchesa girls: Anne Hathaway looked really pretty. I like how the dress is one-shouldered in an interesting way, especially the way the fabric looks like it falls and wraps around her arms so perfectly. As for Jessica Alba, she looked pretty (hard to imagine her not looking pretty), but she could probably have done better.

The two people who actually chose interesting dresses were Cate Blanchett, who wore Dries Van Noten and Marion Cotillard, who wore Jean Paul Gaultier. I love how the JPG isn't only shaped like a mermaid, but it also has silver 'scales' on it, and the dress didn't look like a costume. Not surprisingly, Marion Cotillard's dress was many critics' favourite.

If you've read my thoughts above, then you'll probably notice that I wasn't overly enthusastic about the dresses. They're weren't bad, but just not stunning or surprising. Whose dress was YOUR favourite?

Image credits: http://justjared.buzznet.com/, http://fadedyouthblog.com/

Yes Anonymous, there is a good source of Bra Cup Size Info!

It’s not so much what they call each bra size, but what measurement they mean by each bra size.
Click on this link to go to Bigger Bras How to Fit a Bra page. When you scroll down a bit under their fitting instructions you’ll come to their big long handy Bra Cup Size Comparison Chart!

This is where we can learn that when Le Mystere calls a bra an H cup they are talking about 8 inches of cup size. Yet Fantasie calls an H cup 11 inches! And Bigger Bras lists plenty of bra manufacturers! That is a good page to keep in your favorites and consult when bra shopping!

Recently Bigger Bras revamped their website. So now if you click on this Le Mystere Full Fit Bra below, the scroll down, you get a small selection of this bra cup manufacture’s size list with each bras description! Just not the ones we were writing about, unfortunately. But they are all in the big list on the How to Fit a Bra page. Well not all, but many bra manufactures cup sizes by inch are listed!




Although I can wear that bra above as my make due seamless, it does not fit as seen above. Wearing it in a G cup gives us HH cup sized women, well, lots of cleavage. Hopefully in the near future I’ll know how a HH cup fits in that bra. But I doubt it will be as soon as I like. It is, for a make due fit, comfy and pretty supportive. And for being short, the straps do adjust way up!

Like you noticed about the surplice cut in D cup swimwear did not work well. Likewise the Le Mystere Carina will not make due in a G cup the way the Dream Tisha will for us. A real pity because the straps are out of this world smooth and soft silky. But I tried it on and, owing to the cut of the cups; my breasts just fall right out.

The Lands End swim tops sound great. Love those prices! Writing about swimwear for a few years now I’ve noticed often the best prices are in the late summer and fall. It may be possible for my current swimwear to last till then. Well I can hope! Having my daughter tugging at my clothes all the time and perhaps distaste for the feel of sunscreen on my skin, I’ve opted for the swim skirt. Do they sell those at Wal-Mart and the like as separates too? Although it seems sun screens are getting less icky every year!

I wonder how many inverted triangle shaped women are out there. I recall reading; I think it was Allure, a small study of women’s body shapes. For unusual, I believe we come in second rarest. The rarest, if I am recalling this correctly, shape being the hour glass figure.

I know it runs in my father’s side of the family and my daughter has always had it. All those cute pajamas sets she got as a toddler, even a current gift one, when the tops fit, the bottoms fall off. Eventually the bottoms fit, but the tops can’t by then. Recently she wanted me to get this suit. I clicked on its picture for her, then scrolled down and showed her the size charts and how it is that I am a size 20W or 22W chest, a size 18W waist and size 8 hips. I told her that’s a lot of taking in I don’t have the time to do. And I got to avoid explaining how it is so not in our budget. I hope she enjoys putting together her own outfits, because it seems even her slender 8 year old self has been heading the same way proportionally too.

Any other full busted inverted triangle shaped ladies out there too? I wonder if these things go together.

Looking at how the week to come is shaping up, it seems I’ll get around to looking into whom exactly to write to by middle or late in the week. To my way of thinking; if a bra is going to cost some of us around $50 each, we should get a REAL GOOD FIT. And Seamless should be possible too!

How Often Do You Wash Your Hair?

NYT's Thursday Style Section has a rather erm, weird article called, Of Course I Washed My Hair Last Year (I'm Almost Certain). It basically describes a beauty phenomenon in which people don't wash their hair anymore, or at least more infrequently. The article has interview quotes from various people and the reason for not washing their hair include things like, it's more convenient and fun to get it washed and styled professionally once a week (obviously a girl,) or that oily hair has more shine and texture, and finally, shampoo is evil and is a part of the evil consumption plan. The writer also explains that 'textured locks and full hair' are now in vogue again (compared to straigtened hair,) and that dry shampoo sales are up.

The main reason why I called the article weird is because it is very one-sided. The whole article had two short paragraphs about scientists being sceptical about this. (I'm not a good writer myself, but I'm clearly a product of an education system that has brain-washed me into writing pros and cons for everything.) Anyways I want to say, first of all, the people who get their hair washed once a week must not have super oily hair because I know girls who wash their hair in the morning, and by night it already looks oily. By the next day, said girls would look like they've got 80's-era type of hairgel combed in. Secondly, isn't part of the reason we shampoo is to get rid of the dead skin cells that are already littered around in our hair, ie. dandruff? Unless you have white hair, dandruff is probably visible to anyone who is near you. And doesn't dandruff fall onto your black coats?

And there are other things that I don't get. For example, in the middle of the article, there is an interviewee who washes her hair every seven days. In between the days, she uses dry shampoo, blots and combs. And to her advantage, she can now get ready in 30 minutes instead of 2 hours of shampooing, drying and styling. Talk about extreme. I'm sorry but if you really thought taking 2 hours to get yourself ready is too long, couldn't you just shorten it?

Clearly, that interviewee has been out of universtiy life for too long. On the days that I do wash my hair, it takes me 30-40 mins to get ready (-This includes brushing my teeth, taking a shower (includes hairwash and facewash), applying body cream, throwing on jeans and tee, applying skincare products, styling my hair and putting on makeup.) And even I don't think I'm fast enough. Now don't get me wrong, I try not to wash my hair everyday because I really do think it prevents my hair from going dull. I have always been an every-other-day type of gal, (although I do sometimes wash the front/fringe bit everyday.) And on the days I don't leave home, I can go through a couple of days with dirty hair. Usually by the 3rd day, my mum tells me my hair smells and I should wash it, of which I ignore her until I have to actually go out. So hey, most people who know me well think I'm lazy about my hair-washing too, but even I think completely abadoning shampoo is not the way to go. I'm all for people washing their hair as frequently or infrequently as long as they don't smell.

Questions for you are, how often do YOU wash your hair? And what did you think about the whole not-washing-your-hair 'trend'? Opinions wanted!

Anonymous Thanks again! & I wonder who we should write to?

I was looking at that Panache tankini last year my self. Good to see it comes in cup sizes up to J now. It’s also good to know that d cup swimwear style could possibly work on us women with who normally wear HH cup bras! It is too bad about your timing on the purchases though. Perhaps you’ll have better luck this year!

The very Idea of being able to fit in to a D cup Swimsuit though! Think of the much larger selection and the savings!

Lots of the styles I write about here, with the exception of the Christina and Just My Size Swimwear, likely all fit D cup sized women! The President / CEO of Always for Me told me this is pretty much true of all plus size swimwear. Always for Me advises often, especially for their own chic but cheap plus size swimwear, if you wear a D cup or larger bra, just order a size larger!

Actually for me, an extreme inverted triangle shaped woman, I’d get one of Always for Me’s own brand of tankini or skirtini swimsuit from their clearance section. (here is a direct link to it. AlwaysForMe.com Sales
) And see if the bottoms fit any larger friends of mine.

Soon the responsibilities that overwhelm my weekends will over take me. But early next week I hope to look into who we could write to at the fuller cup bra makers. Just incase either of us, and perhaps other full busted women, get in the letter writing mood. I know, the mood its self eludes me too.

Actually Anonymous there is One Smooth Over G cup Full Fit Bra I know of!

Not up to HH yet, but Le Mystere’s Dream Tisha underwire Full Fit Bra now comes in cup sizes up to H! Her Room and Bare Necessities have it in stock in sizes up to H cup sizes! And currently Bigger Bras, whose link I just put on this blog page’s right column, has this bra in nude in 36H for $61.20, in stock.

To give you an idea of fit, this is one of my make due smooth cup bras. I wear a lot of t-shirts. The one I am wearing at the moment is a 36G. They just came out with the H cup sizes about a month or so ago! Who knows may be next year HH cups sizes will be added!?!?! It’s a good bra under a t-shirt. This bra is often on sale in discontinued colors at Bare Necessities and Bigger Bras!

Bigger Bras also normally has a 10% off code on their pages. And some times they give me a 15% off discount code which I post at the top right of my Bra Sized Swimwear page. Bigger Bras carries lots of, usually underwire, Fantasie, Freya and other large cup bra sized swimwear. I have tried a Fantasie one piece, too long for us petite women. And I have a Fantasie underwire tankini top, just right! I have not tried any of the many underwire bikinis tops or Freya swimwear styles yet. But I sure am glad I found bra sized swimwear!

My other make due smooth G cup bra is Fantasie 4500. The Le Mystere is a bit padded, this Fantasie one is not. Both have molded cups. And my snuggly daughter does not like it as the underwires between my breasts stick out and poke her on the Fantasie one. This does not happen with the Le Mystere in the same make due size 36G.

She absolutely loved the Panache Tango II, my first HH bra when I first got it. It took a while for me to figure out my cup size, and then find it. She likes Panache’s Harmony bra too!

One of my favorite things about the Fantasie molded 4500 are that the straps stay put. The Le Mystere ones did, up till about 6 months of really quite often wearing. But for us petite women, the Fantasie 4500 may not work anymore. Bigger Bras tells us in its description that they have made the straps longer now.

Ok so that’s one larger than a G cup smooth full busted bra.

Thanks again for the extra waist cincher info! You may be right ordering the Harmony in a J cup. I wear that one in an HH and it does appear to be a little like Busting Out over the cups. However my breasts actually never leave the cups. Even when lying down. The lift and support is just GREAT!

The breast falling out of cup thing does happen with the Le Mystere Dream Tisha in my current make due 36G size, but only when lying down.

I’ll post more smooth over G cup bra styles, as well as full busted bra sales, here as I find them!

Maybe if we all wrote Panache, Fantasie, Le Mystere and Freya and told them we need smooth cup bras over H cup sizes too. And in Average, petite and tall strap sizes. And make those straps true long wear, no slip at all straps as in the Fantasie 4500 bra. Maybe one of those bra company would make one!

Hemorrhoid Cream for Dark Circles?

No matter how long I sleep, I seem to have permanent eye bags and puffiness. So a while ago, my mom suddenly very excitedly called me and told me that I should go buy myself some hemorrhoid cream for my eye bags. And I was like, WHAT? She swore that she saw it on a beauty TV show, hosted by quite a reputable dermatologist, and that everyone used it. Disbelieving, I told her if it truly worked so well, they'd have made that into a proper eye cream by now. Then the other day, I was re-watching Miss Congeniality (one of my favourite movies!) and I've never noticed before, but in the scene where she was preparing for the swimsuit competition, Victor (her pageant consultant) hands her a tube of hemorrhoid cream, and she says,

"Hemorrhoid cream? Do you really think they'll be looking that closely?"

And he replies, "Its for your eyes bags."

This made me think, maybe hemorrhoid cream for the eye bags is not such an obscure, random and completely ridiculous concept after all! Intrigued, I googled it up.

Turns out that I am quite behind in the game, and indeed hemorrhoid cream has been a model industry (not so secret anymore) secret for quite some time! More scientifically, it contains shark oil and live yeast cell derivatives, which are believed to be the ingredients that shrinks the eye bags. However, these ingredients are said to have been removed from the American version of Preparation H (the most common brand containing these ingredients), but can still be found in the Canadian and European versions.

From online reviews, there seems to be a lot of conflict regarding this issue. Some swear by it, while others claim that it stings. Personally, I am still hesitant to try anything that wasn't specifically designed for the eyes. Has anyone used this method to treat their dark circles and puffy eyes before? What has been the results?

Thanks again Anonymous! And a Tip for Savings when shopping Her Room

I really like the Rago cincher too. To save when shopping at Her Room use the Her Room vote and save 10% link in the right column of this page. If clicking on a link or picture here does not work, press your control key when clicking on the link.

The Flexees waist cincher below that you recommend looks very beautiful, & SMOOTH too!


Now if I can just get my waist down to a 33” – 34” size! I’ve got exercise penciled in for March. The problem with being a mother is you pencil yourself in a lot. Then you erase a lot. I did look around for this Flexees waist cincher in larger than a 2X, which is what the above comes in, maybe later….

And thank you again for answering my other waist cincher question I forgot about. When I first wanted to try a waist cincher, I wondered, do you order your waist measurement? Or order a bit smaller for cinching value?

But as you, Anonymous, were nice enough to include your waist 33” and the size in the above cincher you wear, XL. Which the size chart tells at the cincher above tells us is a waist size 31” to 32”. We, or at least I, now know that to get some satisfactory cinching you order a size smaller!

Thanks again that clears up a lot! I ordered one at my waist size that when I tried it on, well it sort of hung around me. I noticed the company discontinued that one some months later. So I felt I really could not base sizing on that particular waist cincher.

And I understand about the short length being an issue for us petite women. I did order 2 of those Squeem cinchers I wore out. For me they were both long torso. I’m 5’1 ½” short. The first one fit perfect. The second one bruised the tops of my thighs when I sat. Same size, same brand, go figure.

A tip from on 36HH bra sized short woman to another:
The Panache Super Tango II is a bit on the long strap size for me. It’s a good bra, but I get far more lift and support from Panache’s Harmony underwire Balcony Bra. I believe it simply has shorter straps!! It’s still on sale at Bare Necessities in its Petrol color. And you can save 10% if you use the 10% off full figure bras Bare Necessities link in this blog’s main page’s right column.

I try to post sales on larger than G cup bras here as I find them. And as you can easily imagine, I look quite often! I also go off in pursuit of the elusive larger than a G cup smooth seamless bra. If you see one, that is not a Goddess, let me know! I don’t know why, but I’ve tried Goddess bras on twice and it seems they are actually shaped for an entirely other female form than my own. I’ve never had that experience with other bras, but there it is.

Milan Fashion Week F/W08 Wrapup II

As always when we're in the midst of Fashion Weeks, all the clothes shown just look like a bunch of clothes with no direction to me. (It's why magazines like Vogue and Elle exist, and why they publish runway guides at the beginning of every season.)

Prada

THE show of Milan. I'm always half in awe and half in annoyance that Miuccia Prada shows collections with completely different themes every season. Half in annoyance because it hurts to spend the money to update our wardrobe so much, (although it's not like I buy any Prada clothes anyway,); Half in awe because Prada's shows are always so... thought-provoking. I've read many online reviews on the Prada shows and the key words seem to be: perverse, erotic/ seudctive/ fetish, Switzerland and lace. The interesting thing is that while most reviewers seemed to love the creative aspect of the collection, (no one dared to not like the collection,) everyone managed to come up with their own interpretation of the clothes. The clothes were impractical as always, but I think we're all so used to seeing artsy, unwearable clothes from Prada shows now that it's not mentioning.

The show started off with nun-looking dresses, then the clothes moved onto lacy, see-through skirts.

Lots of lacy dresses. It's very hard to decide whether the dresses are prim or erotic isn't it?

Collars and turtlenecks were there throughout the show. The collars seem reminiscence of Miu Miu S/S08.

Out of the collection, I think the LBD in the middle is my favourite. Hey, at least it's a bit more wearable than the lacy trouser (on the left).

And since we're looking at Prada, we must take a look at the shoes. The shoes sort of remind me of Miu Miu, and something Japanese anime girls would wear after they transform into their ever-impractical outfits to fight against evil.

Miuccia explained that females wear lace in all ages, from babies to marriage to widowed. Maybe it's the I grew up in a non-lacy period of time, but I really don't see lace featuring as a big part of a young, contemporary wardrobe. (I may just be brainwashed by the pictures from ShopBop, Barneys and Neiman Marcus.)

Jil Sander

While Jil Sander has always been all about minimalism and simply cut clothes, it's always bordered on being boring. But I can honestly say I like this collection.

I LOVE the coats. The coat Vlada is wearing -I can't stop staring at it! I love those artistic folds and the fabric wrapped around her shoulders. SO stylish and modern.

And the jackets look way cool too. Though as style.com mentioned, the suits looked a bit crinkly.

And the simple, work-women-type of looking dresses in all shades of grey.

Image credits: www.style.com

Dear Anonymous, Thanks for Your Input! & Which Waist Nipper?

Thanks for weighing in on the loose of form fitting dress question! I know I’ve got the ‘When are you due?’ question when wearing loose dresses too.

Obviously my concerns, shape wise, would be well served by a waist cincher or nipper.

Which waist nipper would you, Anonymous, wear? Or any full figured waist cincher, or nipper wearer wear? Your advice will be appreciated! I have an event coming up in March and my wardrobe is never ready!

Cinching Pretty? Pictured below is one of 5 plus size Rago cinchers and a nipper on sale today at Her Room



Today I found Rago, and Flexees, full figure waist cinchers and nippers on sale. Like this pretty one above that gets lots of good reviews.

And they are all so much cheaper than the Squeem waist cincher I wore out so completely!

The Squeen waist cinching vest I wrote of in my last blog is a bit pricey. But it was so comfy I wore it daily, even with jeans, till its stays wear popping out! At Rago or Flexees prices I could wear them most days. Well at least in the winter. It’s a warm way to dress!

Milan F/W 08 Fashion Week Wrap Up I

Alberta Ferretti
Usually I just skim pass Alerta Ferretti, because the styles are always so similar. Very delicate, feminine and girly.
But this time, when I glanced at the first shots, I was surprised to find them to be Jill Sander-esque minimalistic! Albeit in a more styled and flattering way. The jeweled tones of blue and green were also refreshing to see on a FW runway.
On the other extreme, they also have printed dresses fashioned in a more flowing and draping material, reminiscent of the past seasons.
Example of the two extremes. The flowy, girly, delicate design and the more structured prim look. I want them both!
The cocktail dresses were a pleasant mixture of the more structured elements and the more feminine styles i.e. flowing pleated skirts.
I thought there was more variety in the evening wear as well. For example, this one on the left looks like they hired Laure Bennet from Project Runway to do it. I'm not much for feathers, but this is not too bad. The one on the right on the other hand is more structured and somehow reminds me a little of the pieces Zac Posen did a few seasons back. Still, very gorgeous and elegant.

Burberry Prorsum
This season, Bailey definitely went for a different direction. This collection is more fun, wearable and relaxed- and I LOVE it.
Don't you just love these chilled, wearable yet incredibly stylish looks?
The big overcoat is genius. And those huge chunky jeweled necklaces are TO DIE FOR. I bet they are going to be sold out, HUGE hits next season.
A little reminiscent of the cute shift dresses from last season. These are adorable.
The subtly vibrant hues are gorgeous. Though I'm not too sure what to make of what I THINK is the scarf detail....
LOVE LOVE LOVE gold dress here. I'm positive we will be seeing a LOT of celebs wearing this soon enough! And as for the feathered confection on the right....she looks like a bird. No matter how they put it, feather is simply NOT my thing!

Image Source: Elle

Grammy Fashion 2008

I realize that this review may come as a bit late, since the Grammy was last week and I almost skipped it this year, because honestly, the Grammy's fashion simply do not compare to the fashion of the other awards. But then, I thought: this was something we do every year (almost like a tradition!) and since we've had a bit of an awards drought this year..... I should really do it anyway. Better late then never is not a cliche for no reason. Anyway, here goes:
The clear winner for me at first glance was Alicia Keys in this GORGEOUS gown by Armani Prive. I just LOVE the vibrant rich royal blue color and the elegant design. This look is Oscar Worthy- except for the pink egg shaped clutch she's holding. Or is that a clutch? Maybe its a sidekick? In any case, a nice beaded satin even bag would've completed the look.
Sharp electric blue is clearly THE color on the red carpet this year. Witness Rihanna in this adorable creation by Zac Posen. Though obviously color is not the only factor to a winning look. Corinne Bailey Rae's Luella dress is just a whee bit too show girl-esque for my taste.

Another winning blue that night was Nelly Furtado in an Arthur Mendonca draping dress. It is simple and goddess-like. Natasha Bedingfield's purple drape dress by Reem Arca is also very pretty. She even shows off the intricate three fold design here in this pose! I'm on the edge with Beyonce's dress from Elie Saab. Its very.... fantasy, Cinderella-like with an edgy twist, what with the darking bodice piece. I can't decide if its a daring success or a beauty pageant dress gone wrong. The pale blue color doesn't help. And Carrie Underwood's floral dress from Murad is...nice. Its not a bad dress, but not fabulous either. The floral pattern just doesn't seem to go well with the red carpet.
Maybe the guys would appreciate this more, but for me, Fergie near bursting from her Calvin Klein dress is not attractive to me. Furthermore while the yellow dress is simply designed and elegantly tailored, its just.....boring. And as for Miley Cyrus, from what I can see of the white Celine dress, it looks very cute and suits her. Unfortunately her hair and shoes drags the whole look down.

Image Source: Yahoo News

What do you Feel more Comfortable In Form Fitting or Loose Dresses?

Featured at the top of my home page and on page 178 of Glamour’s March issue is this beautiful georgette dress from Avenue below. In Glamour it is worn by a larger woman than below. And it looks great!
Clicking on this dress will take you to Avenue



For some time now Glamour has been suggesting form fitting and body skimming dresses to us full figure women. And Kimono styles like those featured near the top of my dress page recently.

Do you like the way you look and feel in form fitting dresses? Or do you prefer looser shift dresses like this one below?

Could be I like it because it has pockets. Although Avenue has body skimming dresses with on seam pockets lately!
Clicking on this dress below will take you to Silhouettes



Further on in the March issue of Glamour I see they recommend a heavily pleated Lavin trapeze dress. Silhouettes has this pleated trapeze dress in their outlet store now for just $58.99! It’s available in the rouge color below in all sizes 12W to 26W and most of those sizes in black! You can click on its picture to shop for it in Silhouettes’ Outlet store.



Glamour recommends this in their Fashion section, to no particular body shaped woman. I like it and the shift dresses Silhouettes has in both their normal store and in the Outlet because, pockets or not, it also takes negates the shapewear issue! Well aside from what bra to wear.

With a form fitting dress I, for one, would have to consider a body briefer. But it is not likely I’ll find a body briefer for a 36HH bra size. A high waist panty like a Spanx Power panty and cover the bulge between the panty and bra with a shaping cami. Or perhaps this Spanx Higher Power High-Waisted Power Panty could work.

If it dose not fold under my bra and the legs do not come down to my knees. So I’m kind of short. But it might…..

See this is the sort of thing I might go through when I think of wearing a form fitting pale colored spring dress like the one at the top of this post. I wore a form fitting black dress last to a place I know had low lighting, under my favorite suit jacket. And I wore my, now worn to smithereens, Sqeem waist cinching vest. That’s the color and place consideration.

Or I might just tell myself: OK that’s just me, bulges and all!

What about you?

What kind of dresses do you prefer and why?