Just laying around

        Hey gals! Look what I had just layin around......fashiony books! I thought today would be a good day to share some of my favorites with you, and these books called my name. Familiar with any of these or the names of the authors? Well, let's take some time with these tomes and have a little fru-fru fun. Grab your 'bucks cup and your jar of Nutella, and come sit next to me.

       Before we jump in, I want to tell you something that maybe you didn't think of before. There are two things that are separate that are often misunderstood as being the same thing. Those two things: fashion and style. Let's explore.

      Fashion is specific trends and items that are on the market. Fashion is concrete. Fashion is there. It's that shirt or those shoes. They are actually, tangibly, measurably there. They are a particular color, cut, shape, material, etc. There are boundaries with fashion. For example, that pair of shoes....can only be worn on your feet. That grey bag.....is grey. That pair of pants, in their original form.....will not work as a handbag. That dress comes to your ankle. It does. The designer gave specific instructions to the seamstresses to make the skirt portion to be so many inches from the waistline to the hem. No getting around the fact that it actually reaches your ankles.  That is fashion.

       Style is what you do with all those hard and fast fashion elements. “That” pair of shoes? They're ballet flats. They're definitely shoes,but there is no rule about the type of outfit with which they must be worn. You can wear them with jammies if you would like. They could be the finishing touch for a new dress or they can peek out from the hem of a pair of jeans. Ok. Maybe "that" grey bag is this one:

   It's grey. We can see this. It's not black. It's not green or red or purple, and it's not brown. It's medium size. It has handles and it has a shoulder strap. Whether you wear it with all solids or patterns or whether you treat it as a diaper bag during the business day or a statement piece after hours – that, my gals, is up to you. "That" pair of pants is hot pink. The end of the tapered leg hits immediately above your ankle bone. You have a sequiny off the shoulder top that would look totes adorbs with it. You also have a soft, solid t-shirt from the clearance rounder at Gap that you grab on a day when you've got the yucks. Wearing the pink pants with that shirt keeps your clothes from giving you fits but doesn't let other people know that you feel “off”. "The" skirt is grey – like an ashes-from-the-fireplace (ok charcoal) kind of a grey. It's jersey fabric with a straighter cut. You would be the one to decide if you go the precious route and don a wrap sweater and some flats or go caj (short for casual) and reach for a plain white t and some sandals......or you may look at any of these items and say “THAT is TERRIBLE! What the what?!”. Hence: STYLE.

        Fashion is what you're given. Style is your taste, combinations, the impressions you want to give, etc. There is no wrong answer. “But Sarah, I've heard you say this or that was “wrong” or “ugly”. How can you be talking about particular rules be true and it be true that I'm allowed to make my own rules?”.......It can't. I verbalize my style. Technically, when I am “imposing” my rules of taste on another, I'm in contradiction with what is ultimately more true – that style is subjective. You can take any item and pair it with any other item for any occasion or time of year. That's the real truth. You can't ever be “wrong”. You want to think about what it is that you're trying to say with your clothes because people hear what they say even before you speak, but that message is also your choice. That is how fashion has changed over the centuries, so there's a definite positive to operating outside the box. I have spent my whole life hovering over the lines of convention and what I really wanted. Do you feel like that? Ok. Well, then let's see if anything in these books solidifies in your mind what YOUR style is. Then you can take what you know about yourself and then immerse yourself in the world of fashion without losing who you are inside!

         Let's start with InStyle Secrets of Style. You read in an earlier post that InStyle is just my favorite magazine. Well, my devotion didn't stop there. My momma (who has always celebrated and encouraged my “sense of style” my entire life whether it was comfortable for her or not) gave this one to me one holiday (I think my birthday). It is a how-to on how to navigate through the world of fashion without abandoning your self. Notice “style” in the title – not “fashion”. Its chapter headings include: 2. Classics: Classics through the ages, 3. Shopping: Three Steps to Shopping Success, Telltale Signs of Style, Vintage Shopping, 14. Jewelry, Scarves, Belts: Great Moments in Jewelry, 17. Special Occasions (pictures and describes the structure of garments that could be worn so you have a “skeleton” for the one you'll choose for your own occasion) and 18. Travel: Packing, Destination Checklist – just to list a few. The book has 19 chapters total. There are pictures for everything, and, while the specific garments pictured are probably already out of fashion, calling black black will not change in enough time for you to care. The material is broad enough that this fashion connected suggestions will be usable for several decades. The other suggestions, like how to determine the structure quality of a garment or how to develop the sense of style that is already inside you, will be applicable to people 400 years from now. This book, along with the magazine, offers information – not rules. Good eye on this gift, Mom.

Book numero dos in our feature today is The Mane Thing by Kevin Mancuso. I have been interested in hair since I was old enough to wind some around my finger. My attentive, doting mother also purchased this volume for me. Kevin Mancuso is a salon owner/manager, educator and consummate stylist whose career began professionally in the late 80's. He worked under Vidal Sassoon at one point. His book was a brain child after having a bazillion clients with questions about......their own hair. The realization came to him that there were probably a bazillion MORE people with questions, and the only way he could offer great, technical information to TWO BAZILLION people was to write a book! It's good. I, unfortunately, let this lady get a bit dusty. I peeked inside it again, and, after doing the beauty school thing, I can see that it is a mini text book. It has basically the same headings as the spiral bound Pivot Point number that I lugged around on classroom days (only when I couldn't get away with leaving it in the car). The nice thing – it's not quite so overwhelming as my 700 + page elephant. Other nerds-that-wear-makeup-and-cute-clothes would like this book, but it's a good quick reference for non-bookworms too.

        The year that I was 20, my mom gave me a of makeup brushes from Victoria's Secret (see how she did that celebrating who I was thing over and over again?). They came in a case that was pink satin with a black lace overlay. My first makeup brushes. I felt so fancy because I was under the impression that they were such a fancy that you could apply your makeup just the same but you didn't have to dirty your fingertips – sort of like those big sticks ladies in the 20's used for their ciggies. I didn't wear blush because I didn't want to look like a clown. I was 20 with mostly perfect skin, so I didn't even need powder (hate that girl! - the 20 year old me). Those two brushes ended up lost amongst dirty laundry or empty shopping bags. I have yet to enjoy a lip brush. They all hurt! I think I just threw that one in the trash. One brush, however, remained. It was the shadow brush. I could do some magic with that one dang brush. I began exploring with some other colors besides the shimmery taupie brown I dabbed on most days. My mom saw my look of lust as I passed the makeup counters in the mall – all those colors and textures. All those different ways to be beautiful. All those possibilities for me to show the world what I could create. She purchased for me Beauty Evolution by Bobbi Brown (please girl, NOT BOBBY Brown. I was sitting at the BB counter one day being shown some foundation when a passing woman said “Ooh!!! Bobby!! I didn't know he's doin makeup now!” I died a little inside....and then I laughed). 

     Bobbi Brown and the world of cosmetics were introduced to one another during her mother's preparations for evenings out in quintessential 1960's fashion. The period's signature opaque, pastel hued eye shadows and nothing-less-than-perfectly-pointed liquid eyeliner extended a hand to the little girl. She grabbed hold and never released her grip. She worked at the local cosmetics store before graduating from high school, earned a degree from Emerson College in theatrical makeup and then worked for 10 years as a freelance makeup artist in runway shows, photo shoots and other creative ventures where she could use her hand. In 1991, she launched a line of lipsticks that cemented Ms. Brown into the retail market. The natural look cosmetic empire only grew from there. Bobbi's name is deity in the culture of fashion, the line of 10 lip shades has evolved into an international full cosmetic line and there are now several books with her name printed on the author line. 

       Beauty Evolution is a text book in its own rite. There are lessons on skin health, bone structure, laws of light and shadows, brush shapes and how to use them, what beauty has looked like through the ages and how to work your beauty at any age. She's a very analytical yet easy going person, so you can tell she was very discriminating with everything that is included in this book (and the others) but not at all towards the innate beauty in every woman's face no matter if her features are conventionally “pretty” or not.

       The last two titles in this feature are a departure from the “serious” or “scientific” attributes shared by the first three.

         Domestic Bliss by Rita Konig was a gift to me by my sister from another mister, Mandy. She is married to my brother, and I think sometimes she buys me items that are as over the top indulgent as someone could dream up and successfully market just so she can have an excuse to buy them and then watch me girlishly shriek upon receiving them. Domestic Bliss was one example among many of said gifts off of which I have torn pretty paper and a ribbon.....and I always adore them.  This book is sort of like Martha Stewart meets Amy Sedaris......or Emily Post after one two many cocktails. I'm sorry! That is the very best way to summarize these contents. You begin reading the book by judging it by its cover and feel sure that it's full of nothing but preposterous suggestions  that will ultimately feel more secure in the substance of your own life. I mean, chapters on coating everything in glitter and using a feather duster instead of Pledge and a rag just because “it's cuter” are things you'd read to give you a laugh during the time between your kids going to bed and the Zquil kicking in, and you kind of just bought the book for the cover anyway. Then, as you're giggling through the descriptions of an afternoon with a friend that consisted of a completely successful who-can-make-a-better-cup-of-coffee off or prissy complaints of not wanting to throw away a stack of old periodicals because the corners tear the trash bag or that that sewing baskets are typically stocked more often with old name tapes from childhood summer camp and loose buttons than usable thread or other supplies. Something in you connects with this 50's homemaker/desperately frustrated housewife, and you find yourself turning the page. You realize that the tip about placing an extra tumbler beside your own on the bathroom counter for your overnight (or longer) guest isn't difficult and is something YOU would actually like if it were you. You read on and find more usable tidbits from this sassy Brit until you find that you've reached the end!.........also it's cute on the shelf, or in my case, the dresser I use as my hair station in my kitchen.

     
 If Domestic Bliss were the Jackie Kennedy of books, The Bombshell Manual of Style by Laren Stover would.......well, it would be the Marilyn, right? (Her name was really Norma Jean Mortenson! Did you know that?) This book is hilarious and impractical, but I love it. It is full of completely unnecessary things to do with your time, some of which you will not be able to resist trying. Curious? Ok. This is a portion of her suggested playlist – for a bombshell kind of a day:

 

"Momma Looka Boo Boo" - Robert Mitchum

"Mambo No. 5" - Xavier Cugat

"Let's Do it" - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt

"Come Fly with Me" - Frank Sinatra
"Sunrise Serenade" - Glenn miller

"What a Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong

"Black Coffee" - Peggy Lee
"Sugar in my Bowl" - Nina Simone

"Blue Skies" - Frank Sinatra
 

      There are suggestions for everything from dishes bombshells love to eat to decorations that a bombshell would NEVER have in her house. Bombshells don't sit. They (we) perch, and should a bombshell be without shoes, she should make an effort at standing on the balls of her feet as if they were tucked inside a high heeled shoe.......it's hilarious. It offers almost no actually usable advice, but it is very entertaining.....and it looks cute on the shelf too.

      So read up, gals. You can feed the nerdy side of you (the first three titles look like reasonable research material after learning about the last two, don't they?) or just be a priss while you soak in the tub wearing your bejeweled shower cap and read about what perfume Sofia Loren wore when she was a young screen siren. Either way, you can rest assured that you will find some way to incorporate “pretty” into your everyday.