In today’s’ horizontally challenged series of pics my humble role is to showcase what a beautiful background navy blue provides for vibrant mint and coral hues that my kids sport. My Vince sweater is actually not so much navy as it is deep midnight blue. I really loved how Molly Ringwald put it about the Paris at night in her “Lost in Translation” essay in June’s Vogue: “..never fully darkened, remaining instead a deep cobalt blue”. That’s sort of the color of my sweater. In less than a week I am gonna be under that never fully darkened sky. Though further north, this is the color of the night sky I grew up with.. ..
A quick hello to all of you guys out there! I figured out a fluffy angora sweater and a wide brim hat adds enough volume on top to make the hip area look a lot slimmer. the fact that Max Mara tends to taper their pencil skirts help too. Find the skirt here:
Till later!
Ankle boots, a well known challenge for the girl with pronounced hips. Here is a quick recipe: keep it well structured, keep it all one color. Well *holed* booties, that borderline sandals help achieve better proportions too.
The Fall is settling down and I am making a shift from my beloved floral dresses to some heavier textures. As Mark Holgate put it in his review for the Michael Kors Fall 2012 RTW Collection: “next fall, if it looks hand-knitted, it looks right”, my two year old Sylvia is stepping into the picture to sport the trend.
It’s virtually impossible to find a sweater for toddlers in the US. But every time Sylvia wears this sweater, we get tons of compliments. I got mine from the Joie. They don’t have a store in the Bay Area and they don’t sell online, I spotted it on their website last year and asked a friend of mine in Toronto to get it and ship over here.
And last but not least I wanted to mention the Furla ‘messenger’ bag. I don’t like the dark brown and orange color combination, it’s very grumpy for my eye, but for the casual outings with kids I just don’t let it bother me. Also, the large cream silky accent of a blouse makes it a bit blither
But back to the purse itself. It’s is amazing how much stuff you can fit into this little thing because of its boxy shape. It has a wide,flat bottom which makes it extremely roomy. I grab it if I am out and about with my two-year old alone. I can fit a diaper, wet clothes, a sippy cap, a purse and an i-Phone in there! And it ends up working with variety of outfits. Posted it earlier with my indigo Alexander Wang dress. I doubted it for a while after I bought it but what a darling little investment it ended up to be. Taking it to my upcoming trip to New York too.
I have been sitting on this post all Summer long. Now that the Summer is officially over I thought I better shoot these pictures out or I will have to sit on them for another year. After all we still have about two warm months here in the Bay Area.
I am an advocate of the idea that pregnancy should not require special items, and a woman should be able to grace through the pregnancy in her regular dresses, including some designer pieces. I posted my Lanvin sweater dress previously and here is another example.
I bought this Diane von Furstenberg dress in the Spring of 2010, while being pregnant with my first one. The dress was featured in the March 2010 issue of Vogue ‘Love at First Sight’ shot by Steven Meisel and had nothing to do with pregnancy. I felt I must have the dress. As the name of the editorial suggests it was love from first sight.
Our relationship with the dress though turned to be more like ‘Love and Hate’ one. Every time I wear it I have different feelings, ranging from complete disappointment to total admiration. Its deep scoop neckline is not particularly flattering. I am a complete opposite of Freja Beha. Where she has non existent chest and broad shoulders, the dress adding some delicacy to her strong frame; I have non-existing shoulders, which are not a very good company for my generously sized bosom and the deep scoop emphasizes that.
At times she deep scoop neckline of this floral number does look like a nightgown on me. Had it been a blouse it would have been a complete waist. But the plethora of fabric on the bottom and a bias cut manages to balance the neckline flaw out.
With all due respect, the dress followed all the body transformations through both of my pregnancies. And followed them gracefully. Here I am, in July 2010. Three days before giving birth to my first one, at my baby shower in Menlo Park, California.
July, 2011. Lido di Venezia, Sylvia is about to turn one and me about to faint from the early stage pregnancy fatigue. About eight weeks pregnant with my son.
Yet, another year later. May of 2012 now deeply rooted in California. Lucas is about four months old here, and Sylvia is running around, escaping the camera.
Ah, there she comes.. !
Well, that was my dress and my brood. I hope you are enjoying September and keep in mind that the Indian Summer is yet to come!
For the look makeover project in my Russian blog one of the readers submitted the following picture. The skirt is a DIY, the girl used cotton, which made the skirt very down to earth and versatile. Here she offers the details of what she did. The whole thing reminded me a piece from the Vogue editorial
Later in comments when someone mentioned this look is only good for skinnies, she confessed she does not consider herself one. She. Doesn’t. Consider herself a skinny. Now how do you like that? Anyway, the girl said she is heavy in the hip area, meaning she might be a classic ‘pear’, or better yet as someone else put it in the comments to my other entry, a ‘tea spoon’.
But there is no way for us to know whether she is a pear or a tea utensil, simply cause she did her job well. For us, ‘pears’ sweeping hem is a key. A pear shaped girl will end up with the swan walk look if she doesn’t work on her hem properly.
I only had to offer her ideas on a purse and some layering. I would like to see a boxier purse here if it’s small and a couple of idea on more practical bags.
Layering-wise the only thing I see here is a nude colored cropped leather jacket.
I took these pictures more than two months ago and meant to post them ‘some day’. This morning I woke up with a burning feeling that I absolutely need to get them out there. These shots work like a feel-good movie to me. I must admit I even bring them up in my memories whenever I feel blue. But there is a certain ‘consummation’ about making them public and knowing they are sending some good vibes out there.
My mom and my daughter are effortlessly sending you some good vibes.
These pictures were taken at my friend’s place in San Mateo. She threw a baby shower garden party for my other friend and it was a wonderful celebration of a new life. The new mom and dad to be.
and a little piece of how I see the world sometimes…
and our lovely hostess
One of the best shots that convey serenity of that day was my son Lucas, in his bassinet under the vine. He spent an entire hour observing the leaves and the play of shadows and sun beams.
While Alex and I had a chance to dance a little bit.
Whooow.. it may sound funny but I feel like I let something important out of my chest. Perhaps there isn’t much of a personal style in these pictures, and ain’t much about the hips, but I felt like these pictures must be here. I am a very family person, family in a large sense, your-family-deserves-your-understated-yet-best-looks-Dolce Gabbana sexy-family like style. May be that is because I am the only child, may be because my grandfather was Greek.. Or because grandfather was Greek and I am the only child, or it’s just my generation, but I always feel drawn to all the scenes where the large, noisy family gets together at a large table and they wine, dine and talk loudly.
So, may be there is a certain something about both, my personal style and hips after all…
Brushing through various online resources I regularly see lots of people struggling with identifying their body type/shape. Today I wanted to share a method that a friend of mine showed me a couple of years ago. Perhaps it has been broadcast on NPR a long time ago and I have missed the point entirely, then sorry all the pomp, but I have never seen it mentioned in any threads and online discussions where women are trying to figure out their body types. So here are my two cents.
First of all I would like to bypass the “stand in front of the mirror…” stage. Mirror brings lots of distractions such as colors, shades, the image of ourselves we are accustomed to, the image we wish to see and so forth. It takes an eye well trained to discriminate all these from your reflection in the mirror and concentrate on a body contour alone. And if your eye is well trained then supposedly you are pretty clear about your body type already, no?
I suggest an entirely different, mirror-less approach. The only ‘con’ is that for the task at hand you will need to solicit help. Someone you are really comfortable with. You will also need:
Now do the following steps:
You got it. Easy, no? Come to think of it, it’s the silhouette, the contour line we are hunting for. The-sketch-paper-wall method helps you get rid of all the distracting details such as colors and your own expectations and get this contour line alone. You should end up with something like this:
If you need further definitions, I like the classification of various body types described at the insideoutstyle.com here. It looks most descriptive and inclusive to me.
Ok, I can see how this method can keep some of you still unclear about their body types, but I am sure that good 80 percent of girls reading these lines will have a revelation about their body type and body particulars. At least I saw a clear pear contour and had no illusions about my natural hour-glass-ness from then on. Quite explainable thought that after I made all the necessary adjustments to my wardrobe, more people spare of all the intimate details started perceiving me as a ‘perfect hour-glass’.
Hope you will find this helpful!
READ THIS ENTRY IN RUSSIAN HERE.
And so I went ahead and tried the Kate Spade dress with Garance’s print this morning but ended up buying a blouse. The dress did not fit me just right and also I found the blouse to have more versatility with my current wardrobe.
Everything about this blouse, from Peter Pan collar to the poet sleeves are ultimately French and hips friendly. The puffed sleeves add some strength to my slope shoulders and the contrasting black collar make a nice accent driving attention away from my childbearing ‘treasure’. What a charming and thoughtful design for all ’pears’ out there. Last but not least the scattered drawings make this silk blouse drooling friendly as Lucas has just turned six months (yesterday) and this is his first public appearance.
This print reminded me of my old dress with the French cafe print. I only have an old paper picture from 2005 that I snapped on my iPhone and marked up in aviary editor. (come to think of it, what we are doing today was totally unthinkable only some 7 years ago!).
I hope to fit into it once I shed all my baby weight, which means I won’t enjoy it till next Summer. What I wanted to share with you today though is the way it is cut. This curved waist line will grace a lot more body types than a straight, slightly raised line with gathers that is on the Kate Spade dress.
But that means more work for the manufacturer and therefore higher costs. I found this one at Marshals back in 2005, which should explain why they are not frequenters on the racks these days. So, once you spot a good design.. talk with your money.
Back to the matters of print. I was totally enamored with the dress until one sunny day I noticed that the print is a bit too pixie for my facial features that are - lets face it - slightly on a large side.
For a while I wanted to give it away to a girl with the heart shape face and somewhat elfin look but thanks God we never hooked up till another bright sunny day came along and I realized that I can totally wear it with my oversize sun glasses and that’s that. You probably figured it out by now that Sylvia’s skirt is a nod to my old French Cafe dress.
Garance’s print is by far more versatile and will play up a variety of facial features. It’s old school elegance and modern whimsy is like a perfect ratio of olive oil and white wine vinegar in a salad dressing at a restaurant, where you end dining every business lunch despite seeming simplicity of a salad….
I own a chiffon scarf by Christian Lacroix somewhat resembling of this print, posted earlier that’s why I jumped on this capsule collection like a jaguar. My two year old daughter Sylvia found the print quite entertaining as well.
Well, I do hope that once she turns into a young lady she will find the blouse just as charming as she does now and will proudly wear it to her dates with some nice chaps.
Thanks, Garance!
(Source: garancedoreprintblouse)
While waiting to see how the Kate Spade’s Garance print dress will work on me, I sport yet another floral number. I think I was influenced by the the Vogue March editorial with Karlie Kloss that read: ”colors that haven’t been cool for almost 30 years look almost perversely chic today: burgundy, hunter, emerald, wine.”
Only Karlie is flat chested and I am.. well, not. I found scattered floral print of medium size being a nice cover for my generously sized bosom. I know, I promised this blog to be all about hips and pear shaped, but I am also large in the bosom area, which does not prevent me from being a pear. I have a very narrow back and non existent shoulders. Quite a hassle, let me tell you that, but that’s another story.
I realized I could never pull off a belt that wide on a solid colored dress. But then on another hand I wanted it that wide for it defines the waist beautifully. Which in turn helps gracing the hip line, which allows me to go for above the knee length; usually a challenging length for all pear shaped. This is the way to pull it off: wear it on a dress, wear it on a print-dress.
This length also asks for nude colored, non-existent shoes that compensates the pear-shaped compromising length. You can find the same principle in action with another similar floral dress I posted earlier.
