Gossip Girl On Acid: A How To For Intrepid Playgirls!
Can I admit something? Something I am a little shamefaced about? For all my caterwauling about the winter, & how I was dying for the sun to come out… I wish it was fall. There is no middle ground in New York! It is either 100°F & the city feels like an oven, or it’s just above freezing & you’re slip-&-sliding all over the icy pavement. UGH! Is it time to move to California?!
The rumours are true. Summer, I’m so over you!
So since the weather hasn’t quite caught up with my desires, I’ve just started my fall shopping about a trillion years early!
I try to compose a style direction piece every year. It helps give me a view of what I’d like to be wearing, & while it isn’t set in stone, it can be a great guideline or framework to start from. 2010 has been no exception. In January, I cooked up Psychedelic Ladies Who Lunch, my very very very favourite style direction piece yet.
About a month ago, I printed out the original article & taped it into my Filofax. I thought it would be a useful way to keep myself stylistically on track, especially since I am easily distracted, & admire lots of different styles. I wanted my wardrobe to become a little more cohesive — I wanted things to go together easily! It has helped a lot. I re-read it often & it reminds me of how I’m evolving my look. Otherwise I am totally prone to just grabbing things I like. (Clearly, I need to plan everything!)
When I was originally cooking up Psychedelic Ladies Who Lunch, it was described by my friend Jess as “Gossip Girl on acid”. For the upcoming fall/winter, I’m moving more in this direction — colder temperatures lend themselves much more readily to this kind of thing! (& of course, when I say “Gossip Girl on acid”, I mean in appearances only! This has nothing to do with drugs!)
Gossip Girl On AcidA How To For Intrepid Playgirls.
Browse Etsy, eBay, antique stores & flea markets for old school pins & vintage badges to adorn the lapels of one perfect blazer (this is my pick from Rugby Ralph Lauren). Use the J.Crew fall lookbook for inspiration. Messy white hair & pink lips. Collect cashmere cardigans in every hue & length: minty green, royal blue, amethyst, fuchsia. Dust your eyelids with sparkling pigment. Create impromptu ankle jewellery by threading charms & broken trinkets onto a ribbon, to be worn over your boots. More is more is more is more!
Mix prints: put leopard with floral with polka-dots with stripes. Draw inspiration from Little Edie Beale, camping trips & treehouses. Flowers everywhere! Dig out your old Girl Scout handbook. Stock up on striped sweaters & wear them with everything — tucked into high-waisted skirts, under leather jackets, over frothy dresses. Oversized statement rings of crystals & skulls, worn with an immaculate, dazzling manicure. Knee-high socks all the time. Well-worn motorcycle boots & glitter-covered Christian Louboutin pumps.
Pinstriped blouses tucked into shockingly bright a-line skirts. Grey with lime green. Overdyed vintage slips worn with a washed leather jacket, stockings & boots. Stockings with beads & crystals sewn onto them with gold or silver thread (I bought some at Forever 21 of all places!). Curate a menagerie of bracelets & bangles (tie loosely with a ribbon if they move around too much). Attach flowers to your shoes…
Wear a little Edwardian velvet jacket over a floral frock. Or go the whole hog & wear a coat with tails over everything! Personalise a bright handbag with charms & bells & tassels. Use belts & fitted jackets to give even more shape & structure to a-line dresses. Invest in several tulle petticoats. Only buy what you absolutely love. Treat yourself.
Wear colour all the way through winter & extra glitter when it snows. Find your lucky nailpolish colour. (Mine is Catch Me In Your Net by OPI.) Collect hats which frame your face & disguise bad hair days. Wear your perfect summer dress with a cropped, striped cardigan, big belt & blazer. Buy lurid socks which almost glow in the dark.
Make jewellery for your friends. Wear flower crowns in thunderstorms. Go out & drink whiskey with your favourite girls. Adorn yourself with bright, fabulous lingerie & wear it under your favourite faux fur coat. Keep crystal points in your purse. Become a Scrabble champion. Carry perfume in your handbag so you smell delicious all day.
Think eccentric mad-chic British aristocracy. Wear a bird on your head if it pleases you. Team a mint green sequinned tank top with a necklace which looks like pieces of broken chandelier. Sling on a locket with a photo of your lover inside. Work sequinned bloomers into your everyday wardrobe. Channel Royce & gesticulate grandly. Enjoy your life & be as extravagant as you please.
“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”(Joseph Campbell)
“I don’t want to be a reality in people’s lives. I want to be like an apparition.”(Karl Lagerfeld)
“Wherever I see grey, I paint it pink.”(Alain Berliner — director Ma Vien En Rose)
“Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”(Roald Dahl)