Mn Vogue vol. 2

[MarshaBrady]

For anyone who likes to talk about style, nice stuff that they've bought and so on.

Great review Dona, the design is very sharp, clean and fresh I love. Also pleased it pointed out the shoe / model problem too.

shop have a great day. No iPad here, but big Mac users. Like the technology.

Hopefully the suede ones are very you, and spot on be good if they work.

Outfit very Saturday, indigo skinny avedons and loose aqua knit. Need an everyday shoe can be more choosy about when to wear Lanvin wedge. Pistol might just do it.

For Dona - various brocade/dark floral/patterned trousers are lovely. Not amazing quality, but then nothing is on the high street this year (fabric all feels a bit on the thin side compared to, say, four years ago), but the print is great and they don't look like shiny plastic polyester trousers, iykwim.

Am loving the style of the zara jacket, but if I'm being completely honest the colours are not exactly right. Am going to try to work it into some outfits when I'm getting dressed over the next couple of days, and if it doesn't work then it's going back.

I am now the proud owner of an iPad! I got the largest memory one as I have loads of music and photos! And a beautiful tomato red leather cover. I am allowed it early so am playing already. Have downloaded the Harrods magazine, nigellisima app and Harpers so far. Very exciting!
The new Whistles blazer that I kept (cream) felt good today with my Raybans on so I'm glad I kept it.
Hope everyone is having happy Saturdays. I am in the garden with DS playing in the mud while DH sleeps! But DH did buy me the iPad so musn't complain about lazy men!

Hehe Pop I was chuckling too. I mean designing a boot that no one can get off is a good one. I took them back (but it's not over yet) I will get a boot jack and try it in store! I'll have a look next week in town.

Quite a bit of Stella M stuff gets a good discount on the outnet. Great if something good on there.

Congrats on your iPad Shop. They are lovely things.

Marsh - I struggled hugely to get my dubarrys off initially. They were really awful to get off but I knew the size was right as had plenty of room when on. But now it's a doodle as somehow they softened and are easily removed now. But there was a fair bit of panicking at the start!

Thanks Always yes these are the right size too. Enough room when on. They are jammed when on. Would love to know how much they soften.

Ok so I love my Lanvin wedges but don't want to ruin them. So my quest is for a shoe that is very comfortable and easy to wear everyday. Options are thus

• go back with boot jack and try in store the lovely riding rain boots. Hope they soften.
• new Lanvin flats, terrible for winter?
• will try the pistols. But if they are not the right shape for me won't keep.

So this week will try pistols, do a Lanvin visit and find boot jack. Dedication to the cause . There are not enough ankle boots out there in the world are there really.

Marsha did the Burberrys make you feel sweaty? That's my main problem with the snug-fitting Aigles and that's why I much prefer the much more loose-fitting Jacobsens (because their cotton fleece lining, woolen insole and woolen socks keep my feet dry and warm - plus I can wash them regularly).

I have a pair of Spanish greased leather riding boots with side zippers but I can't find them .

Waves to others! Shop enjoy the iPad and Hopefully I need to check Zara but DH off to Brussels right now.

I didn't keep them on long enough to see Dona

I'd probably put up with that if I could get them off.

Huge thunderstorm, temperature dropping by the minute.
There is nothing more tragic than cropped pants in the cold

Wearing the midcalf length denim blue woolen socks I made in July (with rolled-up MiH Viennas and my emerald Goat sweater) but clearly have to find another solution before it gets seriously cold...

Pop sometimes a statement piece makes all the rest of it work... A cobalt jacket sounds fab. Saw a gorgeous cobalt coat on Pin on ladies attending the Paris shows...

Marsha I might accept an one-season high street solution to the boot conundrum.

Rescuing the thread from p2! I am still considering my options regarding waterproof boots and now know to ensure I can take off whatever I choose! I am still taking my time to consider carefully what exactly I want, which is actually saving me money as I am not shopping.

Topaz let us know what you go for. I'm still looking.

Back in green Stella M coat today. Luckily I love it, since a big part of the year really is spent in AW stuff.

Pop trouser suits are back, at least if you listen to Vogue or look at what office-bound women are wearing in Rome.

In theory you can do cropped pant with ankle boots, but it looks best if some leg is showing - in my case that would be bluish, with goosebumps
The weather warmed up again and I'm wearing my rolled-up cropped Viennas with ballerinas and a white peplum tee from Zara (slightly see through unfortunately - the shape is flattering but it feels an inch too short). In Italy, the other high-fashion look is floor-sweeping (and I mean that literally) bootcut or flare. Keep seeing them at my local supermarket - the most exaggerated ones hide your shoes completely. I live in an area that is a bit strange - went to the playground with DC on Sat. One mother was wearing a beige Chanel leather tote with skyhigh beige block heels; another wore very pretty Marni perspex necklace - clearly their laid-back off-duty look; children in smocked ruffled white cotton dresses

Topaz keep us posted about what you choose! (I'm with you - it's October now and I will need to do some choosing - great boots, a coat, or saving for the sales?)

Marsha green coat sounds lovely.

Reviewed Sept resolutions. Exercise going well, reading a lot, social life has been kick-started and we have explored a bit; very little progress on creative things and meditation.
Oct resolutions:

• keep up the good work (exercise, reading, socializing; exploring)
• spend more time reading to children
• get out of the food rut - goal: try at least 5 new recipes from this book
• try to reach the weekly tomato quota - any extra time can be spent exploring and relaxing

How has your "new year" started?

I feel like my new year stuff is all fashion based. I know! But now my work has gone and I am waiting for the event I no longer have any control on what happens. (And how much £ will be coming to me). So I feel in limbo and trying not to think about it too much.

I am distracting myself from this with the boot hunt. I need an everyday shoe I can wear in the park that I don't mind what happens to, really.

Half price pistols on their way, and for comparison I just bought these Kors suede boots. Because they are not too expensive and they only had my size left which I thought was a good sign. Just a basic boot and flat which is good.

Also have some great parties coming up and need a knockem dead dress. This always seems quite hard to find, so best start looking.

I love the elegance of your area Dona, so much more interesting than not having that kind of thing to look at!

This is the Stella M green coat. Very light and warm, and the colour is strong which I love.

Marsha fingers crossed everything goes well.
One of my style guides really rates Kors boots - forgot to mention Kors on the classic style thread, he does a lot of stylish and minimalist daywear.

I love how tiny tweaks update classic outfits. Wore a (boring) uniform of Vienna skinnies and ballerinas and a blazer, but felt that rolling up the legs and the peplum tee made it feel fresher. I will soon give up on skinnies - as soon as the weather turns seriously cold. Will prefer widelegs, flares and bootcuts for warmth and comfort.

Have finished a fascinating book - Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. Quite well-written (by a news journalist), lots of new information and context - best of all, it makes "luxury" goods sound so banal that it will save me a lot of money

Oh and the coat is lovely!

I might read that book on luxury good, DonaAna. I do think "luxury", as applied to consumer goods, has largely come to mean "ostentation"...

Yep, Louis Vuitton is the new McDonalds 40% of Japanese own something by LV

It's a great book and although I thought I knew a lot, still lots of new things.
It tells about how producers of luxury deceive their customers, but also makes one appreciate how hard and unpredictable it can be for them and how high the stakes are. Plus infrastructure issues become more clear - I didn't know how calculated and tightly controlled duty-frees and outlets and retail districts are. The Italian perspective is that luxury goods and pirate goods often come from the same sources, and that luxury goods is one of the places where organized crime lauders money.

Yes, I recently read in The Economist that 85% of Japanese women own something by LV .

Why has it become such a status symbol to load up on the latest wildly overpriced branded crap stuff, I wonder? Are people so uneducated (yet so rich) that they really don't understand the economics of it all?

The book is a bit old now (ca 2006) so Japanese women have had time to shop some more...

The book makes a point that most people show allegiance to a tribe by branded items and the world is full of new millionaires and billionaires who just want to belong somewhere, somehow.

I come from a fairly classless society and from a place where conspicuous consumption has always been frowned at... but have also lived in Manhattan during the handbag craze years and seen some of the shopping enclaves of the ultrarich (have been to Daslu in SP and seen how it is done in Moscow). But I'm confused with Italy - they have had time to learn all this since the caesars and they are still obsessed with both subtle and very in-your-face status symbols. And Versace??? What was that all about...

France, Italy and England all have some very subtle, coded indicators of wealth and status that it is hard for foreigners to grasp unless you have lived in the country for an awfully long time. It can be hard even for natives to grasp them - they are so deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the social segment that people learn them unquestioningly.

I remember one day a teacher at my DD's school responding to my questioning of her methods and evaluation of DD with "I have four children." Four children are a big status symbol in France, particularly in the private school sector. Of course, four children and a full-time job as a teacher look slightly downmarket to my English eyes...