Ironman Clothes

We saw Ironman yesterday, I loved it and loved Gwyneth's wardrobe as Pepper Potts. It looked like Diane von Furstenberg's fall runway show, like this outfit -

The shoes are not exactly practical, but the rest is wearable.

She mainly wore dark colors, but I'd like to think Pepper would wear this Akris dress even though it's light -
For those of us with the less than Tony Stark sized wallet, and the greater than Pepper Pott's hip circumference, this Banana Republic dress is a good way to interpret her style -

The Grown-Up Romper?

Most kids wore the one-piece outfit called a romper at one time or another (most of those times are before the age of 8 I'm guessing) Adults wore them in the Studio 54 heyday, but not really in my lifetime - except for say, Gloria Gaynor or someone who was big in the 70's and found it worked for them.

In college I had a friend from Florida (I thought the weather in the state made a difference, I mean they weren't bundled up in huge coats all winter like we were in Chicago) who had really cool style, bought all of her clothes at vintage and second hand stores and she wore a full-body jumpsuit and made it work. But I could never do it, but Shopbop is carrying a few rompers now and I wonder who buys them.

This is a full-length version -
It's $299, that is seriously steep for a look like this.

They also have the Lauren Conrad short one,


Tobi
has a whole section for jumpsuits, like this
Society for Rational Dress Gather Jumper


It's a little shapeless, butI really like this one, it's pretty hot -
Grace Sun Wide Leg Jumpsuit

This one has a military, or maybe its safari look to it -
Nicholas K Cal Jumper

I love the neckline of it.
So it looks like there are styles for everyone who wants to sport this look.

Spring Style

I am really into the clothes by young French designer Vanessa Bruno. Her clothes have incredible drape, so while simple and easy to wear, they look amazing.

Her collection includes gorgeous tops like this -

or this one-

or her ruched front dress



She also designs bags and shoes.

A Woman After My Own Heart

Diane von Furstenberg showed her fall line yesterday in New York and she and I must be on the same wave length(really!) - everything was obviously influenced by the '20's and '30's - they looked a lot like the Hopper paintings I mentioned earlier, here are my favorites:



If you'd like to see the rest of the photos from the show, you can check it out here

Pleasant Surprise

New York Fashion week began a couple of days ago and I just saw these surprising pictures - really lovely dresses from Baby Phat, the line created by Kimora Lee Simmons who is not exactly known as a woman of good taste (except in men, i.e. Russel Simmons and Djimon Hounsou):
and this one:

I hope this sea change doesn't indicate an impending apocalypse, maybe she is just jumping on the 'new tasteful' bandwagon the Times wrote about last week. You can see the rest of the images from the show here.

Structural Beauty

I LOVE women's clothes with structure, high waisted pencil skirts and sheath dresses, suit jackets with interesting necklines. Lucky for me this kind of style has come back in full force the past few seasons, so my one woman battle against the trapeze dress and shapeless sack can ease for now.

In D.C last week I went to the Edward Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery, and I have to say, while I am familiar with Hopper's paintings - everyone who has ever been to the Art Institute of Chicago know "Nighthawks" - I had never noticed the clothes in his paintings before.

This is "Chop Suey," the cloche, the style of hat they are wearing was popular again this past season - Marc Jacobs included them in his collection, among other designers.
This one, "Room in New York" features great clothes for both the man and woman. Many of his paintings have fantastic examples of this '30's and 40's style.

The AMC show "Mad Men" (which just won a couple golden globes, yay!) which is set in 1960 has women in gorgeous examples of this look, the head secretary always wears the sexy form-fitting pencil skirt and sweater combo - you can check them out on the show's website.

Lucky for me these styles from the 30's, 40's and 60's are back in, this week's Paris fashion shows included Elie Saab (made famous by Halle Berry when she accepted her Oscar in one of his gowns) The colors and fabric choices are modern but the shapes clearly influenced by times past. Here are some of my favorites:

These outfits are actually quite wearable and would translate well into the real world -





These gowns are dreamy:


and this:

Check out the rest on WWD.


To translate these looks for your life, check out high waisted pencil skirts like this one for spring:

Banana Republic has their own version of a dress that references these past periods:

You can find it here.


The defined waist is back and hopefully here to stay, Yippee!