Happy Easter

Wishing everyone a very happy Easter Sunday!  

What I Wore: Car Show Colors

I attended the preview party for the New York International Auto Show last night and a cocktail event at the Bulgari store on Fifth Avenue.  Sadly, I don't own any Bulgari (how can that be???), but I felt like I had to break out the "good stuff" to attend a party there!

I wore a medium blue dress with a multicolored tweed jacket over it.  The colors in the jacket were light pastel so I chose accessories in shades of blue, pink and green.

Shoes:  Manolo Blahnik

Bag:  unknown

Ring:  Coach

Bracelet:  Seaman Schepps

Earrings:  Verdura

Necklace:  Ross Simons cross

Pearls:  unknown

I was so glad I was wearing something from Verdura because I ran into the chairman of Verdura! Truth be told about 85% of the time I get dressed up I wear Verdura, so the odds were in my favor.  I love this bag.  I got it at a store in my general neighborhood that sells a lot of bags.  The label in the bag just says "Genuine Leather" and I can not recall the name of the store.  The color blue is so pretty and I always get a lot of compliments.  I also love the blue of these old Manolos.  Blue is one of my favorite colors, but living in NYC I tend to wear a lot more black.

Since it was Holy Thursday I thought wearing this cross would be perfect, plus it picked up the colors in my jacket.  Here's a close up of the jewelry:

All the pretty pastels worked together, because the ring had all the colors in it.

In addition to the jacket, the Coach ring also had a lot of pastel colors in it.  This ring is pretty cool.  It was part of the limited edition Tony Duquette collection at Coach a few years ago.  There are flowers all over it and in the center of each flower is a different crystal gemstone.  I had never worn it before, but Spring is the perfect time.

What I Wore: Tiger's Eye

A couple of days ago I attended a book signing party.  It was a chilly day and I needed to bundle up and I felt like wearing a dark color, so I chose a leopard print dress and lot's of tiger's eye accessories.

Bag:  L.K. Bennett

Shoes:  Dolce & Gabbana

Necklaces:  Van Cleef and Neiman Marcus

Earrings:  W Hotel gift shop

Bracelets:  Treasures in Jewelry (vintage) and two made by me

Rings:  Judith Ripka and Bauble Bar

I love tiger's eye, especially set in gold.  It's such a rich stone.  Here's a closer look at the jewelry:

Rich browns

What I Wore: Malachite

Last night I attended a private cocktail party for the Museum of Arts & Design.  It was a pre-party for their upcoming  LOOT: Mad About Jewelry exhibit benefit.  The invitation said to wear fabulous jewelry and since it's St. Patrick's Day later this week I decided to wear some green jewelry.  Green has always been my favorite color and I absolutely love malachite!  The rest of my outfit was black with an ivory jacket with black trim.  And, my model here was Misty, my black & white cat, who fit in well with the color scheme.  She took a little too much of a shine to my bag and started chewing on the handles.  Just another supermodel behaving badly ;-)

Bag:  Gucci

Boots:  Elaine Turner

Long bead necklace:  vintage

Short necklace:  Van Cleef & Arpels

Ring:  Bloomingdale's

Model:  Misty the Cat

It was another rainy night in NYC so I wore my old faithful ET boots, a Gucci bag I love that my mom got for me in Italy fifteen years ago and the aforementioned malachite jewelry.  My father got the long necklace at an estate sale and it's vintage.  It's not real gold, but I think it's genuine malachite.  The Van Cleef necklace is a limited edition malachite Alhambra and a very special piece. I got the ring in Bloomingdale's about a year ago.  I saw that huge malachite stone and just couldn't pass it up!

Here's a closer look at the jewelry:

Malachite jewelry

What I Wore: Shades Of Pearls

I went to a lovely dinner party last night.  It was at a private club so I wanted to dress up a bit, more than I would have in someone's home.  My hostess makes and sells pearl jewelry for charity and she put a bracelet at each place setting, which was a nice touch.  I already have some of her jewelry since she's generously given me some in the past, so I though pearl jewelry would be a good way to go.

I wore a cream colored jacket over a long black sheath dress and I mixed a lot of pearls of different colors.

I piled on the pearls 

Bag: Chanel

Long strand of pearls:  possibly Majorica (from Bloomingdale's)

Multi-strand necklace and bracelet:  Joan Rivers Jewelry

Watch:  Joan Rivers Jewelry

Brooch:  Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ring:  Vintage

Earrings:  unknown

Shoes:  J. Jill

Cord pearl bracelets:  Pearls4Purpose 

A close up of some of the accessories:

The brooch picked up the black and gold

My mother bought me several Joan Rivers

watches.  I like the goldtone hardware.

I love this tweed Chanel bag!  

I gave it to my mom for Christmas in 2002,

but she never used it, so now it's mine.

Shades of Chanel

I wasn't looking to buy a new bag, in fact, I wasn't even shopping.  I was just walking home from an event with a friend of mine and we passed a shoe store and liked the colors of some of the shoes in the window.  I didn't even know what store it was until we looked up at the awning.   It was ALDO.  I haven't been inside an ALDO in years.  I remember ALDO as a store to buy inexpensive and comfortable walking shoes.  My friend wanted to go inside for a closer look, so we did and as I was looking around I noticed that ALDO has had an upgrade since I was last there.   A lot of the styles mimic top tier brands, without the extreme price tags.  Obviously the quality at say, Manolo Blahnik, may be better, but these shoes looked pretty good and I don't think anyone would be getting that close to someone's feet to notice.  There was a pair of cutout booties for $90 that looked just like a Jimmy Choo style from a couple of years ago that I really liked, but knew I'd probably only wear a couple of times a year.  I never bought the Choos, but for $90 the ALDO version seemed like a good buy, and I was making a mental note to myself to go back when I had time to try them on, when I looked up and saw a really nice bag on a top shelf.  I immediately thought of Chanel.  The color was what I'll call light beige or taupe and perfect for Spring and Summer.  It was $60.  I fell in love with the neutral color and the classic style.

ALDO quilted tote bag

Classy details like this goldtone chain and 

leather shoulder strap add lux

I have expensive, top tier brand bags, including Chanel, that I carry to events and business meetings, but I always have a couple of more moderately priced bags I use as "everyday bags" that I use when I run errands or run out for a quick bite with friends.  And they have to have an open top and lots of pockets so I can easily access my phone, wallet, shopping list, etc.  This bag had all of that:  an open top with two top zippered side pockets and inside pockets for smaller items.  The only thing mine doesn't have is the double C Chanel logo on the front.  But, the minute I walked into the hair salon with mine, my stylist said "nice bag!" 

I wasn't looking for a copy of a Chanel bag and I'm not going to pretend it's Chanel (obviously I'm sharing this with thousands of people!), but I wanted to share this, because it looks just like Chanel's Grand Shopping Tote in quilted caviar leather for a fraction of the price:  $60 vs about $3000.  It comes in black as well.  Believe me I would love the Chanel one, but a $3000 bag is not in my bag budget for Spring.  If my ALDO lasts through the Fall I'll be thrilled!

And, just for comparison here's the Chanel original version from a resale site and a blog:

From www.polyvore.com

From www.chicsacblog.com 

What I Wore: I Got The Red, White & Blues

Last night I attended two store parties for charity events.  I expected the crowds at both events to be pretty high end so I pulled out the "good stuff."  I also got great photos of other people's accessories, but I'll save those for my NYSD column.

Here's what I wore with a blue dress:

Bag:  Hermes navy Birkin

Shoes:  Navy suede YSL

Necklace:  Chanel

Bracelet: Verdura Criss Cross cuff

Earrings:  Tiffany pearls

Rings:  Pearl possibly QVC & sparkly X from Bauble Bar

Jewelry close up

The Chanel necklace is a really special piece and very unusual for Chanel, because the beads are red, white and blue and the Gripoix glass in the medallion is swirly.  I fell in love with this line when I saw it at a preview a few years ago.  Long story short, but months later I spotted this necklace at the Chanel boutique in SAKS in NY and used my AMEX bonus points to help buy it!

Chanel necklace

I love how the colors run into each other--very unique!

What I Wore: Zebra With A Dash Of Color

I went to an exhibit preview at The Museum at FIT last night, called The Women Of Harper's Bazaar 1936-1958.  The vintage magazine covers were amazing!  So classy and refined with beautiful clothes.  If you're in NYC I recommend seeing it.  The exhibit runs from March 1st to April 2nd.

I always take photos at events for my column in The NYSD and report on the accessories other people are wearing, but I'm starting a new feature here to share how I accessorize when I get dressed up.  People always ask me what I'm wearing and where I got it, so now I'm keeping tabs on myself for my own blog. Last night I wore a gray dress with a long oatmeal colored jacket.  I thought it might rain (it didn't, of course) so I wore my black all weather boots and pulled the outfit together with a gray and black zebra print bag and a black sparkly necklace.  I didn't want to look too drab, so I added a pop of color with three enamel bangle bracelets.

Bag: Asia Bellucci from T. J. Maxx

Boots: Quilted moto style from Elaine Turner

Necklace:  unknown

Bracelets:  Hermes

Necklace and bracelets close up