Fashion Super Sale

This looks really fun and you can hit several sales at once! Head to Downtown Franklin and check it out...tell the gals at Emmaline I said 'hi'!

Red Alert Blog

Both $17.99: coat by Matty M and hoodie by Sanctuary

No time for funny anecdotes or quips here, just some plain old, good, get-your-butt to this sale advice...One of the best sales of my life was found at the Macy's in Green Hills today, and maybe at the Macy's in your hometown. There are about four racks marked $17.99 FULL TO THE BRIM with stuff that is ridiculously on sale. Here are some of the things I saw: cool Millard Fillmore leather coats marked from $382 to, yeah, you guessed it $17.99...other things: Sanctuary knee-length sweaters from $180, Sanctuary hoodies from $130, Free People sweaters from $150-ish. I'm telling you, if your lunch break allows, do not pass "go" or collect $200, don't play on Facebook your whole hour off, just go to Macy's. Enough said. Have a look at this post from a couple months back. That plaid coat. $17.99. I couldn't make this stuff up, people.

Julianne, Capes, Hats, and Modern Vintage

The last job I did with Julianne was when she performed outdoors for the Peach Drop in Atlanta on New Year's. It was a challenge: how do we keep her looking cute, showing off her best assets, but also keep her warm? Well, here's what we did...

1. We went with a cape! While it's not exactly figure-friendly on top, it is very cute and trendy and not the usual peacoat or puffy coat on top. She wore a fitted turtleneck underneath and cute, fingerless gloves by Fluxus (also warm, but stylish.) When you do choose something this loose on top, you definitely wanna go fitted on bottom. So what we did was go with a really thick legging, which we then tucked into boots. So beneath the billowy cape, you could see her toned, tiny legs.
2. The hat is also made of wool, but not your normal toboggan--keeping the heat in, and the cuteness happening.
3. Just a comment on one of my favorite new shoe lines: Modern Vintage. They provided the boots for her to sing in, and there aren't any great pics. You can see the boots below, however. This is certainly a moderately priced shoe, but they're really well made in some classic, but a little-bit-funky shapes. The only place I know in town where you can get 'em is Belk, and I actually pulled the Evandra Mary Jane there for another artist last week for 60% off!

Modern Vintage Evanise Ankle Bootie

Shopboparoo

If you haven't noticed, tons of online retailers are marking things down in a ridiculous way to help out the cash flow. This is no good for local businesses, however. There, items that normally have a shelf life of a couple months before going on sale, now have to compete with sites like Shopbop, where their lack of overhead allows them to discount items much earlier. Your inbox has probably been bombarded like mine with about 14 emails a day offering "free shipping" or "extra 20% off sale", etc.

I've not been shopping too much lately--it's just too dang cold. If I were though, I'd shop from the comfort of my toasty upstairs office and head to Shopbop. One of my friends who manages a retail store told me the other day that in this economy, "people don't want a sale, they want A DEAL." Well, that always sums me up, poor economy or not. What I love about Shopbop is that you can bypass the measly 30% off sales and head for the 70% off DEALS. Yeah. Check it out. There are tons of even Resort items (which normally aren't discounted til spring) on sale.

Here are a couple of my favorite deals of the day:

Dolce Vita Natalie dress, reduced from $209 to $62.90

Antik Batik leather jacket, reduced from $760 to $228

Bopbasics cashmere hoodie, reduced from $272 to $81.60

Some Cool Websites

ban-do #66!

While I was online doing research, i.e. shopping, for the video I did last week, I came across a couple cool websites I thought I would share. They could not be more opposite, but they're both FUN! The first is an awesome website for aprons--all kinds of aprons in about one million prints. Aprons are great gifts, and they just make you feel like a 50s housewife, except for the fact that you most likely don't feel bad for having a job and you do more than just cook for your husband and "keep house." Although, sometimes, those days don't sound too bad. Not gonna lie.

The second is devoted to nothing but cool head pieces. I managed to get one feather into the video, but unfortunately the darn thing was turned away from the camera, so it was all for naught. Anyway, shopbando.com...so cool!!

Trunk Show at Posh

TOMS on sale

A little birdie who has awesome bronze TOMS told me that they were on sale on this website: planetshoes.com. TOMS don't go on sale that often, so this is pretty cool. I have some gold glitter ones and some red ones, and people always compliment me on the gold. They're not the world's cutest shoes, they're really not, but they're better than flip-flops if you want a slip-on for a place like NYC and they make you look like you're trying harder at life than, say, slippers to go to the grocery.

Here's the scoop on the altruistic (and best) part of TOMS: The idea of TOMS shoes came about in 2006 when one American traveler befriended the children of an Argentine village and found that they had no shoes to protect their feet. Seeing their cuts and sores and wanting to help them, he imagined a company that would match every pair of shoes sold with a pair given to a child in need. The minute he returned, he launched TOMS Shoes: Shoes for Tomorrow. Within a year, he went back to that same village in Argentina with 10,000 pairs of shoes to match purchases from caring TOMS customers. For every pair your purchase, TOMS will give a pair to a child in need!

Yes, Please...

On www.peoplestylewatch.com, they ask, "Would you wear this trend?" That is, a hot pink dress. Well, yes. Yes, we would please. And thank you.

Happy New Year to Us!

Michelle Obama in Thakoon
(the actual Thakoon, not the Target one)

So, I'm back. I took a bit of a hiatus, partly because the DSL in Haile, LA (my hometown) is not the fastest, and partly because I needed to not think about clothes in any form for a while. In fact, I just didn't wear any for a couple weeks. Kidding. But, happy new year to us, Target just released its next GO International collection--by Thakoon! Who the heck is Thakoon, right? Well, check the pic above from some of the election festivities...he's kind of a big deal.

Here are a couple of my favorites from this link on Nylon. But in summary, you probably can't wear this right now unless you're one of the lucky people who lives year-round in the 75 degree temperature or actually gets to take a vacation during the "resort" season of clothing.