Color Schemes: Cerruti Fall 2010 RTW

I've come across blogs before where people experiment with wearing just one color for a certain period of time, or they've made the choice to do it for the rest of their life (or until they get bored with it.)

I've never really thought that would be for me, until I saw the styling on this collection from Cerruti. It's really bold and totally awesome, and maybe not even too schticky:

Look at that pretty goth: Elie Saab Fall 2010 RTW

Wunderkind Fall 2010 RTW

This is the particular style I'm really feeling for fall. Or maybe I'm just wishing I could layer right now, instead of trying to figure out the exact least amount of clothing I can wear and be just this side of streetwalker. It's fucking hot out. Anyways:






Need this jacket.

Chloe Fall 2010 RTW

I read through the latest Vogue while getting my hair done this week, and in it they boldly claimed that women were DONE with the deconstructed, messy, just-rolled-out-of-bed rockstar/hipster look. We're apparently, collectively, ready for a re-tread of the polished 50's - 80's looks. Well, that's obviously not exactly how they put it - I think there was some mumbo-jumbo about how original it all was - but that's definitely what Wintour was selling. And she was definitely using Chloe as an example. I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in a particularly ill-fitting and very blah version of these 80's styles:


Did you want an uglier version of your boyfriend's jacket, complete with the baggiest, least flattering sleeves ever?


This boring outfit is actually offensively harsh on your bum from behind:



Actually falling asleep here.


When in doubt, make it in leather? Not this time.


This should actually be burned, and no one should ever be able to make the mistake of purchasing this, except maybe your great-grandmother, and only to wear to bed.

Chalk another epic fail up for Wintour's judgement.

Ready for a Change

After having my last three online purchases result in ridiculous, run-around experiences with delivery, I had a bit of an epiphany: why are our current delivery options so last century?

Think about it: you place an order online, and as soon as you hit the "purchase" button, your choices are now over. From here on out, the company decides how and when you'll get, or possibly not get, what you just spent your hard-earned money on. They pick if they'll use Fedex, UPS, or possibly even USPS. They pick whether or not they'll require a signature. They pick whether they're comfortable leaving the package on your front porch or at your door, or if they have to give it to you directly. And they pick how much they think is enough effort on their part to get it to you.

The last three times I've ordered online, I experienced issues ranging from irritating to completely inexcusable. First, I had Fedex completely ignore the signature I left, telling them that I wanted them to just leave my package at my front door - I then had to call them and explain it so that I could get my delivery. Second, I had Fedex flat out refuse to leave my package without getting a signature from me, even though they would only deliver during the hours that I was at work. I called the deliverer, had a conference call with them and Fedex, and made Fedex agree to deliver the package without a signature. They ignored it though again, and I missed it again because I was at work, so I had to travel to the warehouse (not located near public transit, and I don't have a car) to pick it up (and they would only keep it for five days!) Finally, I had UPS claim to drop off a package, at the front door to my apartment complex - which means on the street, and I live in NYC! - and of course when I came home, it was gone. The most frustrating part was that it was from Gilt Groupe, which means I lost out an a killer dress at an even better price, and I can't have them send it again. Ugh.

The point of this incredibly long rant is this: why aren't we allowed to choose how and when our online purchases are delivered to us? FreshDirect is light years ahead of the pack here, allowing users to choose a two-hour time frame, even late into the evening, when they'll be home to receive their order. Why can't I get this same deal from every company I order from? I can tell you this - if a store was able to offer me this option, I would be much more willing to throw my considerable business there way!

Sale season

There are so many awesome sales going on right now! Check it:

Opening Ceremony Summer Sale
J Crew Summer Sale - for all your basics
Urban Outfitters $9.99 Sale
Creatures of Comfort - 30% of with coupon code PrivateSaleSS10
Tobi - 25% all regularly priced goods with coupon code SUNNY20.

Just put down: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

I finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay last night, and like another review I read said, it's hard to thing of reading anything else for a bit. I need some time to decompress. The book is about so many different things, with so many themes running through it.

One of the ones I found most affecting was how it dealt with war, and showing the aftereffects it has on every single person, however tangentially involved. The story starts around the beginning of World War II in Europe, and ends sometime after the Korean War. Each character in turn wades into this minefield of years, and each is the worse for wear. It is truly heart wrenching, no matter how clearly it's prefigured, each blow that befalls Joe Kavalier in the twenty years we know him. In a time before PTSD had entered our lexicon, the evident transformation in Joe from a shy though eager 18-year-old to an almost agoroaphobic man plagued by events he could never have controlled. It's hard to discuss the extent of this because it gives away far too much of the plot, but it's safe to say that the place he finds himself post-war is, though a product of his own control, so far removed from his actual desires that only someone so far outside of themselves could have maneuvered into it.

Sam Clay's own journey mirrors that of Joe's, but his war is cultural. Though the comic book world that Sam and Joe were wrapped up in was already on the fringe of society, there were some ways of life in the 1940's that were just too far out there. And because of that, Sam chose to live fully in the shadows for every bit of his adult life. When he's finally forced out, though you feel relief for him, you can't help also feeling the immense burden of what's been lost, of the time utterly wasted and the heart possibly so walled off that it won't ever really be useful again. What minimal hope the book ends with is tainted completely by what's already transpired, for for Sam and for Joe, and Rosa as well, the reader knows that maybe the scars are too deep.