Sunday, June 6, 2010

Branding At Its Best: Eleven Special Items To Obsess Over

The printed tote. The logo tee. These are items that many luxury brands create to keep the public going gaga over their pricier goods. Creating trinkets, tees, totes, and more helps keep brands in the public eye; more people can afford a Marc Jacobs key ring than a collection dress.

That said, a lot of luxury brands’ special items still sell at a high price (see Chanel’s bike), and exist to give a greater meaning to the term “lifestyle brand.”

Either way, there are tons of special items created by our favorite designers that we regularly obsess over and attempt to pool our funds to buy. Click through to see the best of what we think constitutes the “fashionable life.”

Thursday, June 3, 2010

What to Wear to the CFDA Awards if You’re On a Budget

Earlier this week we received a great e-mail from a reader who didn’t know what to wear to the CFDA awards next Monday:

Hi Lauren,

I’m basically in the most amazing predicament of all time–so I can hardly complain, but I do have a question to submit to your (and possibly other Fashionstas) expertise. I just found out that I’m going to be going to the CFDA Awards on June 7th as a guest of an attendee.

Like any person with a pulse, and a proclivity for fashion, I am positively exploding with glee. The models! The designers! I don’t know how I’ll maintain regular breathing. But on to the conundrum.

I have absolutely nothing to wear.

I’ve never been to an event of this fashion caliber, and I feel like I need to “dress the part.” But, I’m eighteen, and not about to drop several thousand dollars on a fully designer ensemble. Do you have any suggestions for wardrobe?

I’d be willing to wade through New York’s vintage shops if you think that would yield a good outfit, but which ones to try?

If you have any advice, I’d greatly appreciate it.

I trust the team at Fashionista more than any other, and I’m not sure who else to ask!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Girls Night Out… Sex and The City 2 Review

sex and the city 2

I’m not going to pretend that you are just finding out Sex and The City 2 has just came out. I bet a lot of you are excited, and a lot of you are on the fence about going to see it. Admittedly, I was on the fence, but the lovely people from Sara Jessica Parker’s perfume SJP NYC treated me and three other ladies of my choosing to go out on the town for dinner and a movie. It provided the perfect opportunity to go and see the movie, and look there is a packed theater on a Thursday night (that an the line waiting for the next show wrapped around the lobby)

Sequels have a bad rap. If a sequel on it’s own is even tolerable, it becomes almost legendary, take for instance, the three sequels that are actually good: The Godfather, Part 2, The Empire Strikes Back, and Terminator 2. Ok all boy movies. And for the girl movies, we have terrible sequels, on twitter many of you voiced that Grease 2 was terrible (I liked it, but was a child when I saw it) and Dirty Dancing 2. Perhaps that’s why I had such low expectations of Sex and The City 2.

Having low expectations can be a good thing, in a lot of aspects of life. I was a fan of the television series, but lost interest towards the end. I didn’t see the first film in the cinema because of all the hype, but liked watching it at home. One of the biggest complaints was the blatant consumerism in both the first and second SATC films. I found it to be cheeky, and a majority of the outfits to be more like ‘Real Housewives’ than any kind of style I would find inspiring (though I do love Carrie’s tiered dresses, both the blue sparkly one and the orange pleated one) and of course Wendy’s Cleopatra earrings, I wore the matching necklace.

The plot lines were entertaining. As a newly married woman, I relate to the theme of marriage and family. How do people deal with settling into real life? What happens after you say ‘I do.’ For me, getting married was one day, and the rest, well it’s a whole other journey. The film stayed true to the series with the problems each of the characters had, Carrie wanting to keep the sparkle in her marriage, Miranda and her job, Charlotte and her nanny and Samantha and menopause. The only thing was the movie seemed to go on forever, seriously, it was Lord of the Rings long. I’m surprised I sat through the whole thing, it must mean I’m getting old, because I never sat all the way through a three-hour movie.

Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. To tell the truth, I liked this one more than the first one. Is it a great film? Not really, but it’s not supposed to be.


Here are the ladies I went with, Kiri, Morgan and Christina (also from Profresh Style)..they all look fabulous. We got the soundtrack to the film and a Comopolitain set, I gave it to the one who knew the most SATC trivia, Morgan, she was on top of all the facts!

Here is the SJP NYC fragrance, it was nice, and it didn’t give me a headache, it kind of smells like candy which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how much candy I want to eat that day.