Cross-body Bags

My cross-body bag died this weekend. Let us mourn it with a moment of silence. It was a leather envelope from TopShop that I got in 2007 for £18 instead of £25 because it was mismarked. It was gold and faux-snakeskin embossed. It came with a long skinny leather strap with clips on either end that could be attached to rings inside the bag or you could use a shorter tab-like strap and turn the bag from a cross-body bag into a clutch. It was glorious and lived a very rough life as my going-out bag of choice.

This bag, but gold. RIP.

Needless to say, I need a new bag to replace it. I know I want another leather bag, because it wore pretty damn well considering the price, abuse, and frequency of use. I feel a PVC bag wouldn’t hold up quite as well.

I was considering just going out to TopShop and getting a new bag, but scrolling through their site, these are the only two bags I’m really seeing that I fancy the look of:

Left: Pewter Ruched Leather Bag £35, Right: Gold Leather Ruched Flap Bag £25

However, that being said, neither of those bags really speaks to me and since I am not planning any nights out in the near future, I was considering holding out til Christmas and asking for a more expensive (and hopefully more durable and/or nicer) bag from Nordstrom. These are my picks (shown in black if available, though I’m not sure I want to get a black bag):

Clockwise from Upper Top Left: B. Makowsky $85.90 (on sale), B. Makowsky $118, Badgley Mischka $145 (also available in python prints!), Nordstrom $128 (amazing colours!), Kooba $195

Booted Out

I will confess: I own a lot of boots. Well, sort of. As an equestrian, it’s sort of a given that you’ll have 2-3 pairs of boots lying around by your back door or in a coat closet in your house, dirty and a bit smelly. Which is part of the reason I just can’t get on the riding boot trend: I own the real thing and it’s just somehow not cool or interesting to me. My boots are expensive, crusty with mud and horse sweat, and, in the summer, torture devices that stick to your calves and refuse to come off (I refuse to buy zip-on riding boots; I am a traditionalist and wear pull-on ones that require boot hooks and boot jacks). Ditto paddock boots, only they’re often even grimier because you never wear them to a horse show or a clinic, so cleaning them becomes a very very very low priority.

Left: Ariat Challenger Field Boots, Right: Ariat Heritage II Paddock Boots

That being said, I have recently become fixated on acquiring a boot that I have seen recently. I don’t know what exactly it’s being called (work boots? I found them in the motorcycle boots section of Nordstrom.com, so I am unsure) but they’re a sort of hybrid between work boots, Doc Martins, paddock-style short riding boots, and hiking boots. But where the former two and latter are bulkier shoes, these boots are more streamlined like a riding boot. In fact, I have been pondering appropriating an old pair of paddock boots to use as a test-drive for the style. Unfortunately, I am in London and my boots are in California, so I will either continue to lust until Christmas Break or I will have to go on a hunt for the perfect hybrid. Here are some I like:

Left to right from top: Diesel Vintage Flat Lace-Up Boot, H by Hudson May Washed Laced Brogue Flat Boot, Steve Madden “Corley” Boot, Solea Samira Frill Detail Ankle Boots, Top Shop Albert Fringe Lace-Up Boot

Missoni Prints

Two weeks later and I’m in London and FINALLY have internet. It took forever to get my student account set up, but as you do. Walking from my accommodation across the Waterloo Bridge today, I suddenly was struck by this weird visual of a Missoni dress with a leather jacket or cardigan. I don’t know why, but later I saw a sort of knock-off print on a simple jersey dress and I felt like it was fate.

Missoni Pre-Fall 2009

Missoni Fall 2009 RTW

Missoni Spring 2008 RTW
Images: Style.com (click to enlarge)

I have to say that I am not Missoni’s hugest fan. I understand the interest in their prints, but I am usually not wowed, but something about that distinctive knit struck me as perfect for the balmy late-fall weather London is currently experiencing, especially with tights and a pair of chunky boots and a cardigan or a leather jacket.

Or maybe booties?

Boots: Frye, Jacket: H&M, Booties: Proenza Schouler

The Ugly Truth: Jeans

I am supposed to be packing and getting ready for London. That headache + work + excessive heat are, in part, to blame for my lack of updates. I have been super stressed about moving. Also, kinda hot and lazy. I promise to do better in the future though, and my current goal, starting possibly next week is to update 3-4 times a week with 2-3 outfits and 1-2 Stuff I Like posts talking about trends or random clothes or collections or bloggers/blogs I like.

Today’s entry is sort of a combination of Stuff I Wore and Stuff I Like. Since I’m jetting off halfway around the world, my very generous mother told me to buy another pair of jeans. I don’t know if it is because I am Californian, American, or just a personal quirk, but I love jeans and I wear them pretty much daily, especially when I feel lazy, which is ironic because jeans are harder to make chic/nice-looking than a cute dress, but old habits die hard. My problem, however, is that I am VERY PICKY about my jeans. I don’t like some cuts. Okay I don’t like MOST cuts. You will rarely see me in anything besides skinny-cut jeans on this blog. I do own one pair of really cute trouser-cut jeans and a pair of bootleg jeans and oh god I am suddenly realizing they may not fit any more as I recently have lost weight. Whoops!

Image: The New York Times

But on to my dilemma. I hate buying jeans. When you have a super-long waist, relatively small-ish hips, and large, musclar thighs it sucks to buy pants. Add short calves into the mix and it’s a reciepe for disaster. The knock I have to make against skinnies is that they have a tendency to give me thunder thighs, which is truly unfortunate and I am wont to look like Tweedledee or Tweedledum in a particularly ill-fitting pair.  However i love the look of them and the bonus fact that you can’t stomp all over the back of the hems and ruin them like boot-cut jeans.

Until recently, I owned a variety of brands of jeans, mostly culled from Nordstrom’s BP Juniors’ department or from Gap. In 2006 Gap had some LOVELY skinny jeans, but they seem to have only stocked them for a short time, and I was, as I will soon be, studying in England so I only had the two pairs I bought at home during Christmas break. Needless to say I quickly wore through them. Last Thanksgiving, however, I girded my loins and begged my mother to buy me some jeans that weren’t full of gaping holes in the thighs and/or from the juniors’ department, whose jeans are cut for twiggy toothpick legs, not, shall we say, a more womanly thigh. I still feel somewhat weird about buying jeans that go upwards into the $200 range, but after several exasperating trips to the mall/Target/wherever, I bit the bullet and ordered some designer jeans.

Best. Plan. Ever. Coincidentally, there were a pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs Chrissie Skinny Jeans on sale only in my size the day I was shopping on Nordstrom’s website in vain hope of getting a pair of un-predistressed, un-bedazzled jeans for less than $150.  I snatched them up, dubious they’d even fit, but oh how they fit! I have expanded my collection now to four pairs (though I must admit the original pair are on their last legs having been worn pretty much daily for 6 months before I bought a second pair).  I have them in three washes, including a light wash that I just received in the mail last week. They are delightful.

I must add a word of warning, though, if you buy these pants, which is to CHECK THEM VERY CAREFULLY FOR FLAWS. One pair I received had flawed threads in the leg and another a flawed button for the fly!

Jeans: Marc by Marc Jacobs, Monocle Necklace: Marc by Marc Jacobs, Chain Necklace: H&M
Tee-Shirt: Hanes Men, Shoes: Nordstrom BP, Sunglasses: Marc Jacobs

Jeans: Marc by Marc Jacobs, Plaid Shirt: Kmart Men’s

As always, click the image to enlarge.

P.S. I bought a remote for $20 for my Digital SLR and OMG WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO BUY IT?

P.P.S. Please feel free to share your woes about jeans in the comments. Misery loves company.