Give in Style: DC Shoppers, Start Your Engines for the Fall 2013 District Sample Sale

I have - since its inception - loved the District Sample Sale. It's a lovely, well-thought out event. The vendors have interesting pieces - clothing, shoes, and accessories - oh, and the bags, and the sips and tastes are always worth the nibble.

L-R, from top: @travelinjames and the danglers she found; the silver lambskin "space vest" I scored; the faux reptile skin sheath Chelsea found for me (and subsequently earned a "Love the leather!" from The Stacy London as she signed my book); Chelsea, her ruffles, her animal, and her bubbles; me, travelinjames, and Chelsea with our packages; the Queen Bee Designs stunner that always makes me feel like Cleopatra when I wear it; the Vivienne Westwood Anglomania tunic/dress I adore and don't wear enough. (More pics from last year's fun here)

Never mind the monies raised for charity. This year, it's N Street Village. As the DSS website shares,

"N Street Village is the largest provider of women-focused services for D.C.’s homeless and low-income women, offering 1,400 women each year comprehensive services including affordable housing, employment, integrated health care and addiction recovery. The DSS Fall 2013 donation will specifically fund the Bethany Women’s Shelter at N Street Village, the drop-in day shelter that offers up to 100 women each day safe respite from the streets including breakfasts and lunches, shower and bathroom access, a place to receive mail, laundry machines and clothing closets as well as activities, resources and opportunities to help them move from homelessness, including crisis care, 365 days a year."

So. If for some odd reason you live in "the DMV" and haven't yet gone, here's the scoop. Tickets went on sale this morning, so get yours now. If you can swing the $100 VIP version, that extra donation is well worth the hour of masses-free shopping.

Tickets on Sale: Here
When: September 24, 2013, 5:30 (VIP, General Admission 6:30) - 9pm
Where: The Sphinx Club, 1315 K Street NW
Why: Do I really need to explain this again? See you there!

Winter Style: Brights in the Grey

I love winter. I think I might have mentioned that before. Nevertheless, it's really hard to rejoice in the brisk cold air when you're dragging with what seems to be the 537th cold, a stack o' DayJob deadlines, and a crankypants attitude that may or may not be well received at home.

So I don't have energy for much reading, but trolling - ahem - scrolling through Pinterest when I'm waiting in line at my morning Starbucks stop, or at Target picking up yet another glamorous package of toilet paper or paper towels seems to give me some short & sweet reminders that life is not only not that bad, but under control, manageable, and even gloriously bright. Oh yeah, and I'm steering the ship.

So here are some of my recent pins and how they spoke to me. Hope they brighten your already-sunny-but-crazy-windy-cold day.

We'll start with the night when I was feeling crazy overwhelmed and sick. Pinterest said this to me, which TrainerJen had emailed me, in not so many words, just minutes prior, changing my workout plan for the next morning to, literally: sleep.

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And then Pinterest said this. So I figured I'd better listen and go to bed. I did.

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Earlier, Pinterest had tossed this image my way. The coat, in its gloriously wrecked and punk sensibility, was in, and was the cover art for the catalog of, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2006 Anglomania exhibit. Later in the day, The Museum at FIT (one of my favorite places on earth, and one that gets far too little notice, in my opinion) posted an article from The Observer on their facebook page (like it now, please, for all of the amazing current and historical fashion they post). As the discussion around The Met's newest take on punk shows, punk is funny stuff, both musically and culturally. The sheer chaos that shows there is apparently bubbling up in the provenance of the fashion, too.

Once again, the Pinterest universe was speaking to me. Ok, the online universe. Quibbles.



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We're renovating our kitchen this spring, and are in final debates. We have a tiny, but not terribly tiny kitchen, so the "galley kitchen" stuff isn't quite right, but neither is the sweeping expanse of some things I find. I pin them nevertheless. I couldn't be more excited about finally getting a handle on our culinary world by taming our insanity known as our cabinets. I'm in love with a modern + rustic combo like this one.

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Once that's done, creating culinary masterpieces will be a cinch, right? Isn't that how it works? In the meantime, H's orthodox Christian tradition of an essentially vegan fast is coming up, so I'm grateful to Pinterest for helping to maintain the trendiness of veganism. I cook vegetarian often (but LURV a brilliant steak), but am lining up new tastes for the 40 days, like this mushroom ragu. You can bet I'll serve it over some soft polenta...or...

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And while I'm a Winter Girl at heart, still pinning away from the Autumn/Winter 2013 runways to get my fix of fur, coats, and scarves, and, well, fur coats and scarves (comma placement, anyone?),

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I've also started pinning and planning for #DownthaShore2013. Cannot wait to get a new bikini and maybe a retro suit (last year's don't fit!). Also can't wait to rock my best schlumpy Jersey Shore looks. Or, if I'm feeling ambitious, a crisp, clean (ha!) summer look like this one. (And gee, Bloomingdale's *just* pinned their version of the shorts, here)

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What's getting you through?

Week in Style: Shopping and Goals and Punks, Oh My!

More DayJob insanity, so here's a quick and dirty on the erstwhile style insanity...

Ready, set...GO!

1) New Nordstrom Rack in Tyson's - if you follow any of the DC style blogging set on Instagram, you saw all sorts of fabulous fashion finds getting scooped up in a sneak peek. The grand opening was last night (Thursday). My favorite shot? This one of Allie of Wardrobe Oxygen in the jacket I made her promise to buy so we could go out in our badass jacket and Union Jack skinnies together. (Here's Allie's feed, btw)

2) District Sample Sale - Duh. TravelinJames, The Chelsea Chronicles, and I scooped up crazy bargains in their first ever DSS. Since I haven't gotten to a real post on it, check out our finds over in my DC Celine facebook album, here.

3) I hit my true end weight goal and earned a big ass star on Weight Watchers. There's a lot more behind this, much of it having to do with the real results of #healthyme, trying on boutique clothes, and getting stopped by strangers, but still, that star is one I never thought I'd get. Now the real fun begins.

DSS Morning After shot at my gym, following a TrainerJen workout, and 2 days before the weigh in where I hit goal. Jacket: Nordstrom Rack (Friendship Heights); Necklace: Queen Bee Designs (DSS); Tank: Target; Skirt: Banana Republic (yes it's too big now and it's one I bought for #OperationBoothBabe); Belt: Banana Republic; Not pictured, Python Platform Pumps (Stuart Weitzman from Simply Soles)

4) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announced a New Costume Institute Exhibit - book your tickets now. To quote the press release, which blissfully arrived in my inbox yesterday, "The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that the spring 2013 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute will be PUNK: Chaos to Couture.  The exhibition, which will be on view from May 9 through August 11, 2013 (preceded on May 6 by The Costume Institute Benefit), will examine punk’s impact from its birth in the 1970s through its continuing influence on high fashion today." I'm envisioning all sorts of ridiculously wonderful insanity of punk, with a dash of the Anglomania exhibit and the eye for a exhibit design that will blow our minds.

Left: Sid Vicious, 1977. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph © Dennis Morris - all rights reserved; Right: Karl Lagerfeld (French, born Hamburg, 1938) for House of Chanel (French, founded 1913), 2011. Vogue, March 2011. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph by David Sims, both via

Think I can get myself invited to the May 6, 2013, Gala Benefit with Co-Chairs Rooney Mara, Lauren Santo Domingo, Riccardo Tisci, and Anna Wintour?



Museum Style: Iris Apfel+Tavi Gevinson+Judith Thurman on Schiaparelli and Prada

We'll be in New Jersey. Which is closer to The Met than DC. Think I can talk H into letting me take the day in Manhattan on our anniversary (or is it the day after our anniversary? I can never remember)? Oh, wait! We honeymooned in Manhattan. And went to The Met (and saw Anglomania). It's the perfect way to celebrate 6 years, right?

Now. For a babysitter.

Image via It Girls Don't Cry

What: Sunday at the Met: A Conversation on the Evolution of Chic with Iris Apfel, Tavi Gevinson, and Judith Thurman

When: Sunday, June 17, 2:00–3:30 p.m.

Why: Good Taste/Bad Taste: The Evolution of Contemporary Chic. style icon Iris Apfel (age 90) and fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson (age 16) for a conversation across generations on what it means to be chic in the 21st century, moderated by New Yorker writer Judith Thurman, who wrote the introduction to the exhibition catalogue Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

This program is held in conjunction with the Costume Institute exhibition, which is on view at the Met through August 19, 2012. This event is free with museum admission. Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Staying Relaxed...and Catching Up (Warning: Could be TMI)

One of the joys of motherhood is spending quality, quiet (usually) time with your little one while she eats. In my case, that means she's attached to me - quite literally. This also means that, now that I'm back at work full time (nearly through my second week of heartbreak, now), I get to spend time locked in a closet masquerading as a - ahem - women's lounge.* It also means, that since said closet has no TV or radio, a girl's gotta do something to keep herself occupied for the 15 minute stints sprinkled throughout the day. And, despite what our one supposedly enlightened VP says, I am not working on a proposal while pumping. I think my milk would dry up in about 2 seconds if that were the case.

So instead, I'm reading.

I'm an avid reader - always have been. From the womb through infancy (mommy dearest read me East of Eden when I was an infant - no wonder I'm so f-ed up) and beyond, I've got a bedside stack and a not-so-mild addiction. Needless to say, with The Bean's arrival, about all I can manage is a few pages of a magazine. Until now. These 15 minute sessions are going to let me catch up on all of the fashion and style books I have waiting for me in my stack. I've decided to dedicate that time to bettering my knowledge of The Industry.

First up - and first done: Justine Picardie's My Mother's Wedding Dress. Just finished in my last session today. An absolutely delightful collection of essays on the meanings we hold in clothing. Her career has introduced her to some pretty amazing people, and her family stories hold some incredibly touching - and stylish - moments.

Next? I'm going to have to dig out the style books, but I've got a history of the LBD and other fashion favorites, Madame Dariaux's Guide to Elegance, and a couple of biographies I've been meaning to read (Coco, Diana Vreeland, to start). I've also got two big honkin' coffee table books I'd love to add to the pile, but I'm already looking pretty conspicuous walking down the hallway with my oh, so stylish black backpack. So Anglomania and Elsa Schiaparelli will have to wait.

I'm open to suggestions, too, so let 'em rip...I promise to report in on favorite parts. And yes, this is the same list (sort of) that I recommended ages ago. Notice how many I've read since then.

*For the non-faint-of-heart, a Lactation Room. They're all the rage, I promise.

Style in Print: Tomes for the Stylish Nightstand and Coffee Table

My H is the best H ever.

(That sound you hear is his chest puffing out with pride.)

1) He pushes me to go shopping when I need to.

2) He understands style (most of the time - "joke" Christmas gift of jean short shorts excluded, of course).

3) He's got an incredible memory - especially for things I like. (Yes, H, I just said you have an incredible memory. Take that one to the bank & hold on to it for dear life.)

4) He buys me presents just because.

5) Lots of other, non-vapid reasons.

6) He's mine.

The real reason I'm running on about him today, in particular?

He and MIL took a trip to Jersey & NYC this weekend (I was resting quietly at home; The Bean ordered me to). They hit The Met, and took along a wedding gift certificate from a family friend. It arrived just after our honeymoon last year, and we just haven't been back to check things out since.

So what did he get?

A gorgeous blue-swirled handblown bowl;* a replica of ones made in South Jersey (home territory for both of us) in the late 1900s. Its color is exactly the color we had for our wedding, along with the lemons (which, though we never started out having "wedding colors," inadvertedly ended up being so - cobalt and sunny yellow), and which somehow shows up in almost everything we buy for our home. It also pairs well with subtle lines of the Simon Pearce pitcher a dear, dear friend gave us as a wedding gift.**

But the real reason for this post is that H spent part of our gift certificate on the exhibition book from an exhibit we saw when we were on our honeymoon in NYC. The Anglomania book wasn't available when we saw it in July (it's the type of exhibit they have to photograph in place, then produce the book, rather than use photos of paintings or sculpture from previous exhibitions). The book is a paper tour of what we saw in July, with much appreciated detail shots of things we just couldn't catch viewing from behind the railing in person - like the pinup girl embroidered on the cuff of a Paul Smith shirt. The exhibit notes were lovingly detailed and woven with history, philosophy, and whimsy; the book reflects that, as well. I highly recommend going online & buying it. I'd put it in the top of fashion & style tomes.

While we're at it, also atop my list of favorite style tomes is Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli, the record of the roving exhibit's visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Schiaparelli somehow escapes the average style follower's notice, and if she makes it on the radar, it's in comparison to Coco (Chanel, that is). True, she was a contemporary of the woman many consider to be the grande dame of style, but she used architectural in her designs well before Dries van Noten or Donna Karan were even a twinkle in their grandparents' eyes. Her collaborations with some of the greatest fine artists of her time surpass anything we see today, in my estimation. Lastly, she has a color named after her - Schiaparelli pink. Any woman who pioneers a color shade is one to emulate.

True to their nature as exhibition records, Shocking! and Anglomania are lots of pictures accompanying a fair amount of words. If you're up for a little more of a read - something perhaps unexpected, when it comes to modern writings about style & fashion - try one of these:

A Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions. (Geneviere Antoine Dariaux) Olsson's cites the classic as the "orginal what not to wear." It's a delightful read, and looks ever so pretty in a stack of books by your bed (which is, of course, a very good reason to buy a book).

My Mother's Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes. (Justine Picardie) This gets a little deeper, wondering about what we wear, how our clothes define us (or don't), and how or why we attach so much meaning to them - all through the vehicle of her mother's wedding dress - a black cocktail dress bought in 1960.

The Classic Ten: The True Story of the Little Black Dress and Nine Other Fashion Favorites. (Nancy Macdonell Smith) Every girl should know the history. Need I say more?

*Unfortunately, no pics are available - it's beautiful, though, and you'll just have to trust me.

**I know Simon Pearce is overdone, but I get to like it, as it's made on the banks of the Brandywine River.