Is it true all the name designers are tripping all over each other as they race down the escalator to the bargain basement? Or maybe they are wearing stratospheric Jimmy Choo instead of sensible flats. Jimmy Choo is collaborating with H&M. And it is hardly surprising that the union phobic Norma Kamali would link up with Wal-Mart. Even Rodarte will be creating a line for Target—out in December. These days grassroots futures mostly runs downstairs not at specialty stores but on subway steps to see local fashionistas at the Bedford stop on the L train offer their own often DIY living “look book.”
I’ve been looking for signs of a rich chocolate brown for but the closest I have come are several taupe outfits and a couple of great milk chocolate cropped jackets. (A Pantone color for this fall was Nomad, a light past-date chocolate.) Brown leather boots in varied styles have definitively become an adventurous alternative to black. Grey is definitely extending its moment, in tights, shoes, and skirts. Cinch belts have traction, and in the case of my waistline too much traction. Nice with the big shirt look of the mid-1980s.
Because of the omnipresent gray scale version of fall fashion, if not the warmer earth- tone neutrals of ripening compost and organic topsoil, there are lots and lots of bright accents, the least imaginative being the turquoise bag. Fortunately, turquoise is mostly sported by those too young to have endured the 1950s turquoise glut and the various later iterations of corporate teal.
When Tracy Reese showed brown pinstriped loose trousers in her fall 2009 collection and some brown and raspberry prints, her models wore nude lipstick and sometimes eyeglasses. I am advocating for bright raspberry lipstick. And because some lipsticks can trip up wearers with regard to toxic ingredients, check out the raspberry shade from Zosimos Botanicals, a line of handcrafted earth-friendly mineral cosmetics. This lipstick is organic, cruelty-free, and ranks in the safest range of Skin Deep database run by the Environmental Working Group. Check out your current lipstick on this database.
And for a safer footing while descending the subway or specialty store steps, check out Matiko’s affordable Alex flats in grey. As we go downscale, at least let us be fashionable.
http://www.flyingzg.com/bags/2009/08/jimmy-choo-for-h-u0026amp-m-arrives-in-november/ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/fashion/07KAMALI.html http://www.wwd.com/retail-news/rodarte-a-go-with-target-2229917// http://www.tracyreese.com/tr_fall09.html
www.cosmeticsdatabase.com
http://www.matikoshoes.com/collection/flats/
