jacket or floor-length coat that borrows military details (gold buttons, epaulets, high collars) will make everyone stand at attention.
Long sweater coats, ponchos, capes, stoles, and wraps are always a good thing to collect and bust out for variety. Wraps, capes, and stoles are especially chic for evening.
Puffy down jackets, whether from the Gap, a ski or snowboard company, Nike, or Gaultier, keep you warm and sporty cool. A winter basic. Just don’t get one that makes you look too puffy.
Maxi coat, a floor-length drama piece for high-powered meetings, black tie galas, and whenever you want to make a lasting impression of classiness and grace.
Midi, a mid-calf-length coat. The same function as a maxi, but not as serious.
Bathrobe style. Much like a bathrobe, it’s midthigh length, with a sash to tie it closed.
Smoking jacket, a manly style with a shawl collar and a sash tie. Much like the bathrobe. Called “le smoking” by the French, as it was first made chic by YSL in the mid-sixties.
Fleece. You’ll need something laid-back for when you do your errands. Note: You can also use your vest or puffy jacket for this purpose.
EXCESS-ORY: AN OUT FIT JUST ISN’T AN OUTFIT WITHOUT THE RIGHT ACCESSORIES
The Bag Ate My Hair!
KAREN
My red Chloe handbag with the chunky silver chain shoulder strap, outside zipper pockets, and luggage tag is one of my most cherished possessions. Wherever I go, people compliment it, from the hostess at the diner and my mother and her friends to bitchy drag queens I pass in the Meatpacking District on afternoon walks and even bitchier fashion editors. I wear it with everything and every color. It is my bag soul mate, the one I’ve been searching for my whole life. Like the right man, it’s the addition to my world that makes it just that much more complete.
Yes, the right bag can do all of that.
I have spent time polishing the silver chains, treating the leather, and organizing all of its contents in order to maintain the bag so that it never looks worn and beaten down. I have given it 100 percent of my love and attention. I bring it all over town. I show it the world. I treat it with the utmost respect, adoration, and care. I hold it on my lap at movies and on airplanes. I would never banish it to the floor! I never take it for granted, especially considering that I’m one of the few who snatched it from the shelves before it sold out (a karmic blessing).
No different from some of the guys I’ve dated and treated well only to be stomped on, my red leather friend has an aggressive way of showing me the feeling is not mutual. More often than not, the chain gets tangled in my locks and bites down so tightly on them that no amount of sweet manipulation will set me free. I am forced to tug and pull, often removing large chunks of hair along the way. It happens at the most inopportune moments—in the elevator on my way up to meetings with important editors (I actually walked into one fashion director’s office with the bag attached to my head. She got out the scissors and said, “This will hurt you more than it will me”), while trying to hail a taxi, and shopping in the Chloe store, where the bag, I think, should be on its best behavior. It is, after all, where it came from!
Exhibit A. Mel, carrying the hair-eating chain-link handle. It’s safer that way.
It’s a sad, sad thing when good fashion goes bad. But it happens to the best of us. And you know what? It’s worth the fight. I am confident that we’ll be able to get through this trying point of our relationship in time, which, luckily, heals all wounds. Thank gosh. I have a bald spot just above my right ear!
Speak Softly and Carry a Great Handbag
Most fashionistas are either shoe people or bag people. (Okay, most are both, but we don’t like to sound so greedy.) Like shoes, you can never own enough handbags. These are the styles that will set you apart as a member of the tribe (MOT).
Clutch—A strapless bag, fabulous
Long sweater coats, ponchos, capes, stoles, and wraps are always a good thing to collect and bust out for variety. Wraps, capes, and stoles are especially chic for evening.
Puffy down jackets, whether from the Gap, a ski or snowboard company, Nike, or Gaultier, keep you warm and sporty cool. A winter basic. Just don’t get one that makes you look too puffy.
Maxi coat, a floor-length drama piece for high-powered meetings, black tie galas, and whenever you want to make a lasting impression of classiness and grace.
Midi, a mid-calf-length coat. The same function as a maxi, but not as serious.
Bathrobe style. Much like a bathrobe, it’s midthigh length, with a sash to tie it closed.
Smoking jacket, a manly style with a shawl collar and a sash tie. Much like the bathrobe. Called “le smoking” by the French, as it was first made chic by YSL in the mid-sixties.
Fleece. You’ll need something laid-back for when you do your errands. Note: You can also use your vest or puffy jacket for this purpose.
EXCESS-ORY: AN OUT FIT JUST ISN’T AN OUTFIT WITHOUT THE RIGHT ACCESSORIES
The Bag Ate My Hair!
KAREN
My red Chloe handbag with the chunky silver chain shoulder strap, outside zipper pockets, and luggage tag is one of my most cherished possessions. Wherever I go, people compliment it, from the hostess at the diner and my mother and her friends to bitchy drag queens I pass in the Meatpacking District on afternoon walks and even bitchier fashion editors. I wear it with everything and every color. It is my bag soul mate, the one I’ve been searching for my whole life. Like the right man, it’s the addition to my world that makes it just that much more complete.
Yes, the right bag can do all of that.
I have spent time polishing the silver chains, treating the leather, and organizing all of its contents in order to maintain the bag so that it never looks worn and beaten down. I have given it 100 percent of my love and attention. I bring it all over town. I show it the world. I treat it with the utmost respect, adoration, and care. I hold it on my lap at movies and on airplanes. I would never banish it to the floor! I never take it for granted, especially considering that I’m one of the few who snatched it from the shelves before it sold out (a karmic blessing).
No different from some of the guys I’ve dated and treated well only to be stomped on, my red leather friend has an aggressive way of showing me the feeling is not mutual. More often than not, the chain gets tangled in my locks and bites down so tightly on them that no amount of sweet manipulation will set me free. I am forced to tug and pull, often removing large chunks of hair along the way. It happens at the most inopportune moments—in the elevator on my way up to meetings with important editors (I actually walked into one fashion director’s office with the bag attached to my head. She got out the scissors and said, “This will hurt you more than it will me”), while trying to hail a taxi, and shopping in the Chloe store, where the bag, I think, should be on its best behavior. It is, after all, where it came from!
Exhibit A. Mel, carrying the hair-eating chain-link handle. It’s safer that way.
It’s a sad, sad thing when good fashion goes bad. But it happens to the best of us. And you know what? It’s worth the fight. I am confident that we’ll be able to get through this trying point of our relationship in time, which, luckily, heals all wounds. Thank gosh. I have a bald spot just above my right ear!
Speak Softly and Carry a Great Handbag
Most fashionistas are either shoe people or bag people. (Okay, most are both, but we don’t like to sound so greedy.) Like shoes, you can never own enough handbags. These are the styles that will set you apart as a member of the tribe (MOT).
Clutch—A strapless bag, fabulous
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