The Shopping Bag Chronicles: Dior

11 April 2010

Treat Me Like a Lady-The Bag Lady Reports...Spring Style

This week the temperature soared over 90 and suddenly it's summer...WAIT! What happened to Spring?? OK, today it is 47 and things are shaking back to normal, whatever that is...The weather,however, made me realize I am really behind in my Spring Prep and if I don't hurry it will be August! The winter turtlenecks and woolies are still sitting on the shelves and the boots are still lined up in the mudroom...time to open the windows, plant the pansies and maybe do a little Spring Fling in the closet. In the process of tossing and sorting I came across some treasures-vintage bags that belonged to my Grandmother and that I simply adore. Classic frame bags with French purse closures, petite handles, silk and leather lined ...and they still hold her compacts.

Kate Spade

There is nothing like a new bag for Spring, but what has become of the graceful bag? I can rework my wardrobe for a new season but not without the addition of a new bag...or three. The problem in recent seasons, even for this Bag Lady, has been that the bag world has gone klutzy. I am all for oversized mini-suitcases given what I toss into a bag, but what happened to a bag being a compliment to a look-so many bags shown at retail arrive 2 hours before the rest of you...and many are just plain ugly. For Spring, I love a Classic Lady-Like look, crisp lines, delicate details, happy colors and oozing elegance.

Gucci and Dior/Bergdorf Goodman

I want a bag that is reminiscent of Nana's bags and my Mom's handbags that I grew up playing dress up with, bags that emulated the style of all of our fashion icons-Coco, Jackie, Audrey and Grace...

Here are some favorite Spring Bags that I have spotted, and a few on my shopping list...All fit for a Lady!

Kate Spade

Lanvin/Bergdorf Goodman

Chanel

Anya Hindmarch/Nordstrom

Prada

Kate Spade

Longchamp/Nordstrom

Ted Baker London/Nordstrom

16 August 2009

Lipstick on His Collar-Dressing Well is the Best Revenge! MAD about the Style, Betty Draper's Closet

Close the laptop, shut off the cell phone, cancel all plans...Tonight the third season of arguably the best series on television, Mad Men, premiers. The series is graced with pitch perfect writing that is filled with carefully and slowly revealed characters, characters that individually and collectively portray and explore the extraordinary period of change that was the late 50s and 60s. These are characters you care about, love to hate and are amazed by. Mad Men keeps you wanting more. The show is exquisitely crafted with sets that stage the era, which is truly the central point of Mad Men, to every detail. The story line captures the extraordinary shift in lifestyle and culture this country would undergo in those years. The performances pull you into that world of smoke filled rooms and Mad Men is flawless in its representation of the most fascinating time in the twentieth century, a time of revolutionary societal change. Watching Mad men,however, you stop and wonder how much has really changed!

Mad Men is a reason to sit and watch TV at a time when there is not much reason to do so,this is appointment viewing! I love to re-watch Mad Men to look at , yes John Hamm, but also the clothes, the styling, the jewelry... The fashion and the "look" of Mad Men is meticulously selected to not only define the characters but also reflect the changes that they experience and that the country was experiencing. The fashions of the series tell so much of the story, especially about women and their role---and it is a powerful one.

The wardrobes are to envy and sitting in flip flops and cut off shorts I wonder how my Mother did it ...and I want everything in Betty Draper's closet!

Betty's closet is filled with the clothes, shoes, bags and jewelry that work forever-the look of Dior, Hermes, Bonnie Cashen,Givenchy...

Betty is married to the mysterious, enigmatic, habitually unfaithful and totally delicious ad man Don Draper. Their life, a portrait of what the magazine's sold in the late 50s and early 60s, one of suburban bliss...which rarely was....

Betty Draper's style is perfectly coiffed and adorned. Madmen costume designer Janie Bryant describes Betty's look as "... quite simple but so gorgeous. And you know, you still see women like this. That beautiful classic style from the period that they've carried on for their entire lives..."

Bryant defines Betty's wardrobe to reveal the character her role as wife and mother and her reality "...its about having that image and maintaining that sense of perfection, so it's sort of how everyone sees her from the outside and not so much what's on the inside."

Beautifully played by January Jones, Betty Draper carries a cool serene exterior that hides to perfection the fragility that lies under the cashmere and pearls.