Style Reboot: Finally Bringing It All Out

Way back in March, I posted about rediscovering what's already in my closet.

It's August.

I finally got around to cleaning out my accessories cabinet. Two weeks ago.

The day H and I were planning a Sushi Ko date (and on which I debuted my new Oscars), the afternoon was stormy. We were also planning a Big Dinner at a Fancy Restaurant for The Bean as a belated birthday present, so we unabashedly deployed the DVD player and on-demand to show movies and keep her quiet and rested. We hoped it that would yield a not-over-tired-child for her Marcel's dinner.

But I digress.

I dashed out to Ace Hardware, then The Container Store while they were napping and resting, and brought back what was probably intended as a hobby or hardware case with drawers. I wanted clear drawers so I could see what baubles were in there, but needed it to fit inside of our IKEA cabinet where I store my accessories (and my baking supplies. Yes, we live in a condo with limited storage space.). Fingers crossed. Because why would I do something logical, like measure the cabinet and its shelves? Caution, meet wind.

Home again, and young active things scrambling at my feet, I tried to distract them from the Pretty Sparkly Things emerging bit-by-bit from the shelves. I de-jumbled my chains, matched up my earrings, and remembered long-lost favorites. To The Beans' delight, I ditched every single one of the boxes in which my jewels had lived. I emptied out purses of the last bits of change, mints, and lipsticks I thought I'd lost. I wiped down the shelves. (Yes, Mommy, I am your daughter.)

My hobby-bins-turned-jewelry-box works perfectly. I can see what I have, and am unexpectedly enjoying, oh, I don't know, putting on different pieces each morning. Because I can now see what's there, and don't have to dig, I can easily find something different than the same 3 cuffs and 2 necklaces I'd been sporting for the last 4 years.

My Newly Organized Accessories Cabinet. And The Bag's Place of Honor, moved happily from atop my shoes in my closet.

Then there's The Bag Shelf. I've already carried 3 more purses than I had in those same 4 years: Mom-Mom's vintage monogram clutch, an adorable wicker Fornash clutch, and my beloved Furla (as H brought it to me from Italy, after my inability to shop while In. Italy., he was thrilled to see it again) all made it back into the rotation.

Next up? The Baubles I Need to Wear (Discovered in The Big Cleanup)

Style Debate: Fashion for the Masses

Sitting at dinner last night with H (thank you MissIzzy, for the night out with H), I had a thought.

Now, truth be told, our Guapo's (yes, rockin it Tenley Old Skool) outing was actually intended to be "thought free," and let us relax. Which we did. But somehow, in discussing This, That, and The Other, it came up.

I was thinking about a woman Malena told me about. She has a customer who collects - and started ages ago - a certain 70s jewelry designer. Part of the reason she collects is for her daughter. And apparently she picked well. Granted, she originally picked this designer (name long since forgotten on my part) because she loved the designs. At the time, they weren't Sought After. Now, they are.

While I absolutely factored The Bean into The Bag Decision, I don't have anything else I could say I collect. And I don't know if there is anything else I'd want to. It would be really hard, now, with the proliferation of available Big Names, to select something I both adored and would be unique. It's all available everywhere.

I wholeheartedly support Fashion for the Masses. I think it fabulous that H&M, Target, and the like catapulted the Jaclyn Smith/KMart model into our style conciousness. I think it marvelous that there's less and less distance (for all sorts of modern, webified reasons) between the Runway and the Average Consumer.

But then, it isn't.

Call me a snob, but it isn't so fabulous that I try and go buy something unique and special, and turn around and find someone else carrying the same bag or wearing the same scarf. There is something so elevated about The Houses that is disappearing. There are no more muses. The Grace Kellys are no longer the inspriration (there is, of course, the argument that there are No More Grace Kellys). Natalie and Kate and Reese and ... well, it's just not the same.

So for someone who actively tries to make High Fashion palatable and wearable to The Rest of Us, I suppose it seems odd to be calling out The Houses for "lowering themselves." But if there isn't any aspiration in fashion, where are we supposed to go with it? I still, no matter how practical my own daily closet choices may have to be, want to delight in details that only come with that heightened sense of style that trickles down from haute couture. The drapey flowy collar on my Gap sale T-shirt came from somewhere, and it wasn't KMart.