Okay. If we read this correctly, the reader has the opportunity to save $100 on this bag, God knows how, and she is still writing to get our opinion. Perhaps this is a joke. Perhaps it is April Fool’s Day. Perhaps … the answer to this question is so obvious we almost wonder why we did not simply write her back saying “Yes, ninny,” and “ninny” is a word we are so rarely moved to use. We can only imagine that the question-asker is feeling like an idiot for losing the second bag, and is in purchase-denying mode, as a form of handbag-centric self-flagellation. We urge the asker to move on: The bag is lost. No use crying over spilt milk, lost tote bags, etc.
On the other hand … we imagine we might have frowned upon spending $130 on a cotton tote. Or at least this cotton tote. Honestly, we preferred that Fred Flare tote with the paint-by-numbers horse on it. (Now sadly only available in t-shirt form.) So: Honestly, honestly, honestly, if it were us, we’d take our $30 elsewhere. But obviously this reader should spend that money on this tote, though we beseech her to think to herself: Am I spending this money on this bag because I love it, or because I am saving $100? Which is a whole lot of fucking money to save? Suze Orman would not approve, and neither, in that would we.
We have no idea why we retain Suze Orman as our goddess of all smart, but slightly self-denying, fashion purchases.
We love reader questions even more than Suze Orman, and without the second guessing. Send your questions here, please.
Our favorite moment of the day just happened, and it was when we remembered we bought a cookie from Mrs. Fields and forgot to eat it, meaning it should be somewhere in our apartment, just waiting for us. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find it. This is not as upsetting an event as we might have thought. Really we are just happy knowing that the cookie is out there.
Still, there was a dark lining to our silver cloud of cookie-ness. That, we have to say, is our least favorite thing about good news, in that there is so typically bad news involved in there somewhere. (We know, the optimism is just tremendous.) There is no dark lining, we are delighted to say, with the new holiday collection from Jocasi, which we are extremely excited about.
Okay, so this could very well be our favorite thing of all, all, all time, and it is our debut contribution from our brand-new London correspondent, Iris. Iris’s assignment, “assignment” in this case meaning that it was completely her own idea, was to document the bootie-friendly atmosphere in London. She has done so brilliantly. Really, there seem to be many more people in booties there than here. Now we totally want some. This is the problem with fashion: There is always more to want. Actually, it is a problem with more than fashion. Argh.
Iris’s comments:
Boots and Keds: they’re taking over the streets, rain or shine. But marvellously mix and matched with a good bold coat, and skinny jeans/solid tights: adorable. Including wellies!
Minnie Wilde: a singular light in the San Francisco retail scene. And now they have a friendlier website. This provides us with the opportunity to get all covetous of this dress, and totally obsessing over those giant billowing sleeves. Money: Why does it refuse to grow on trees?
Can we quite wrap our heads around the phrase “Oscar nominee Sienna Miller”? Oh, no, we cannot. We surely cannot. And so, we figured it was time for some head-soothing looks at the real-deal Edie Sedgwick, pre-Sienna-fied update.
This makes us want to go out and buy black tights immediately, and then never wear anything else. Hmm. We may very well attempt this tomorrow.
This is the sentence that made us like her, or at least the idea of her, from the NY Post: “‘A lot of the battle with her family was fought over finances. Her point was, ‘I’m not getting enough money from you? Fine. I’m not going to wear any pants.’”
And we’ve always like blonde hair and big, dark eyebrows, it’s the gutter girl in us:
Big eyes, stripes, big earrings. This is achievable. Minus the barbituates overdose, and we are good to go. (Sienna version.)
Fred Flare. Cheap and adorable. These, we are finding, are necessary ingredients in our lives. We left out “cute,” and we did not mean to. Though it is really mostly a synonym for “adorable.” Our head is pounding, and we can only blame it on this Bay Area climate, and more specifically, the lack of heating sources in any of our academic buildings at school. It’s like, hmm, tuition: yes to napkins, but no heat. We are betting that everyone in traditionally cold, winter-y, like, say, Minnesota or Vermont, is actually quite warm, because the founding fathers and mothers of those places mastered things like heating. Whereas everyone here was just … we want to say smoking patchouli, and although that is not exactly what we mean, it is enough of what we mean.
But: back to Fred Flare. If we were home, in the warm bosom, metaphoric not literal, of those who love us, we would briefly leave that cozy space to go to Fred Flare this weekend, which is, for the time being, an actual space, rather than simply a virtual one. Hurrah! And these are the things we would seek out, even if we acknowledge we would be immediately distracted by all the cute \ adorable \ cheap-ness, and immediately gravitate to whatever is closest \ shiniest.
First, though, we would try to buy the Amy Sedaris book, because she is hysterical. I Like You, $27.99
We can’t cook, but say we lived in this imaginary world where we did, we would totally want this binder for all our delicious recipes. Though now that we think about it, take-out menus probably work just as well. Recipe journal
We thought we were well past our days of ironic-t-shirt-wearing, but … maybe not. “Best friends” [sic] tee, $24
Honestly and truly, we are buying this belt … [Red stretch belt, $12]
Right after we buy these sunglasses, which, as far as we are concerned, are perfect. Except that they are quite probably named for Nicole Richie, and that particular brand we have trouble endorsing. Nicole sunglasses, $9
It is possible that if we owned this box of holiday rubber stamps we might actually send out the Christmas cards we’re going to buy this year. Possible, if not probable. Holiday rubber stamps, $25
Well this is just ridiculous proof of our Scrooge-like ways: One of our favorite independent jewelry designers, Amy Tavern, is having a holiday sale: 25% off. (Plus free shipping!) This could easily make for an excellent gift-buying resource for friend \ mom \ sister \ etc. However, there is no category here at Bunnyshop called The Best Gifts Are The Ones You Give Your Friend \ Mom \ Sister. Man, we are such greedy little trolls sometimes.
This rather bleak self-asssessment will not, of course, stop us from doing it. There are so many things we like, but we believe we would buy this one for ourselves: Variegated necklace, $61.50 – 25% = just about $45.
Personally, we avoid double-breasted coats like the plague, or at least a bad cold. Either way. They make us look like we are twice as big as we normally are, and that is not, unfortunately, the look to which we aspire. There are, however, quite a few reasonable ones out there, and they are tempting us. Like the cookies we cannot throw away. Forcefully and stealthily.
This is our favorite. Honestly. It’s just perfect. It is even better with that hat. Ugh. Perfect. APC coat, $487
I spent the whole weekend watching What Not To Wear on BBC America, and now I am all paranoid. I know you hate them, but I am wondering what a guy would think about them. Is it just guy-style tough love—which would mean we should listen to them, however horrible they seem?
Well, we know where we stand, but here goes:
AG is a big fan of anyone who is willing to answer the tough questions with some tough answers. AG likes it even more when tough advice is given to those in need, in lieu of questions; we enjoy all sorts of disasters. AG is less sure, though, that T&S are out to really help, anymore, rather than be provocative. That they are tapping into the demographic of women lacking confidence and self-esteem not a new play (AG considers this a vital part of his dating pool), but this feels, recently, a bit mean-spirited.
AG cannot, however, disagree with The Golden Rules, although, AG is sure that they are thinking of themselves a particular age and BMI when they drop: “No woman over the age of 35 should wear skirts above the knee.” They have certainly not noticed the veritable bevy of tremendously fit women in their late 30s that seems to have taken over London recently. Please, please, do not let their jealousy interfere with AG’s ogling.
AG appreciates the spirit of full disclosure offered, but it isn’t entirely clear what their qualifications for giving fashion advice are, as it’s hard to walk down the street without observing many others who do more with less. AG is not the type of guy who recommends playing it safe, he would rather everyone shoot the moon, and is furthermore nonplused when supposed fashion mavens like T&S consistently err on the side of caution. Effective fashion is rarely about being safe. Being safe decomposes fashion, which probably a topic worth exploring on its own. Admittedly, AG is quite possibly not the target audience.
But are they entertaining? Yes. But no, AG sadly would not recommend that our friends pay strict attention to any advice given remotely to others, whether via BBC, TLC, or some random blog. You are not others. And although many advice givers have the ability to make any off-the-cuff prescription sound awfully sensible, your friends—the ones who will in fact tell you your ass looks huge in that—are a far better source. An acquaintance, who is a professional advice-giver (AG is tempted to use “advisor”; this feels vague), repeats incessantly: “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.” Trinny & Susannah have almost no ability to diagnose your case. Do not take them too seriously.
Fuck them, is what he means. Er, what we mean. Anyway: Have a question you want to ask an unbiased guy? We know one, and he’s looking for your questions. Send them here.
Holiday season. More fun when you are buying presents for yourself, we’re thinking. We’ve always thought, we should say.
All we’re hearing re: Smythson is their new designer-designed line, like this one from Missoni. This is possibly too much design for us. Fashion Diary by Missoni, about $410
We sort of like the Zac Posen one, but still we’re thinking it takes up a little bit too much space in our brain. ZP Fashion Diary, about $410
We guess what we’re thinking is that the limited-edition line gives us a little bit of a headache. Maybe we would buy it for a friend, if we had a friend we loved $400 much. Do we? Maybe we do, maybe we don’t. But this is about buying for ourselves—even saying that, we feel a little dirty, but we persevere. Persevere in our greediness. We love this fashion diary, for what it is, which is a ridiculous indulgence. We will put it this way: If we found $400 on the street, and we were forced to spend it at Smythson, we would definitely spend it on this. Smythson Fashion Diary (featuring “Smythson edited fashion title section including fashion show dates, fashion council listings and fashion guides to London, Paris, New York and Milan. The city listings include fashion, jewellery and accessory shop addresses, places to eat, drink and stay, city maps, national holidays and key days and dates as well as year planners for 2007 and 2008″), about $350
