<p>Plus, if you want the Louboutin red sole look, you can always do this:</p>
<p>[Save</a> Your Sole](<a href=“http://www.saveyoursole.co.uk/]Save”>http://www.saveyoursole.co.uk/)</p>
<p>Alh- excellent post. I, too, enjoy dressing well and shopping for fun and stylish clothes and shoes. I believe (my husband doesn’t quite believe this) that I generally shop at the upper end of mid-range stores and prices. I assure him that many people spend much more! I’m happy with Frye boots, which are pricey but not $1000. I don’t buy $250 jeans but most of mine are over $100 or at least $75. I like style, I like quality and I like to look good!<br>
I guess I’m sort of a JCrew, Nordstrom, LuluLemon, Limited, Madewell sort of shopper.</p>
<p>Different people have different relationships with clothing, no question. Alh, thanks for your post. I have become accustomed to people finding my fashion habit a little pricy, so I don’t mind Hugcheck’s comment. As you say Alh, I can afford it, and there’s no immorality in spending on clothes vs. any other personal expenses. For example, I buy almost nothing for my house. Furnished it after my divorce, haven’t made any changes, am unlikely to for the rest of my time here. </p>
<p>Furniture isn’t recreation for me. I like home to be just home.</p>
<p>But clothing is my version of art and current affairs. I love learning about the designers, appreciating great craft, and watching trends make their way through our culture. I don’t buy expensive clothes to show off. Often you can’t really tell my stuff costs any more than other things, unless you recognize a Dries van Noten photoprint or its ilk.</p>
<p>On the blog I do try to provide less expensive options when I can. On the other hand, there are blogs that specialize in budget, so I figure my niche is pricier stuff for women in midlife who don’t like bright colors and work in San Francisco. Ha! Luckily there are more people who like that kind of style than one might expect.</p>
<p>MOMWC, I think Madewell’s got it going on. And I vote yes on Gourmetmom’s Fall Closet Show!</p>
<p>I am still thinking about nude pumps. Most of my shoes are cydwoq, so I would look there first. I am pretty sure they would make these for me in nude:</p>
<p>[City[/url</a>]</p>
<p>If I needed them right away:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.gravitypope.com/shoes/product/18796-fluevog-medugor-bls-miracle--medugorje]fluevog”>http://www.gravitypope.com/shoes/product/18796-fluevog-medugor-bls-miracle--medugorje]fluevog</a> MEDUGORJE MEDUGOR-BLS | gravitypope](<a href=“http://cydwoq.com/womens/vintage-line/city.html]City[/url”>http://cydwoq.com/womens/vintage-line/city.html)</p>
<p>When everyone started talking and wearing nude pumps a few years back, I thought “that makes sense but really my legs are kind of pinkish - not so nude”. So I got a pair of rose colored Trippens. I don’t see any on the site at the moment but if you look on page 256 of the current Vanity Fair dressed best issue, Ulyana Sergeenko has on almost a match for my shoes. (I can’t find a link to the photo) Although hers were custom made and mine bought on sale. And mine are closed toe.</p>
<p>She also has on one of my coats and hats with the shoes… although my coat is not Chanel. :)</p>
<p>I am really into decorating. We collect. Sometimes I think we are just high-class hoarders.</p>
<p>ta da!
<a href=“The 2012 International Best-Dressed Poll | Vanity Fair”>The 2012 International Best-Dressed Poll | Vanity Fair;
<p>I don’t think hugcheck was suggesting that it is immoral to spend $600 on a pair of shoes. Just that she doesn’t.</p>
<p>I’m an H&M girl (woman), I guess. Although when I started having foot issues, I started spending more like $100 than $30 on shoes. I don’t mind when people here link to outfits that are well beyond my price range – but I doubt I’d ever spend that kind of money, even though I probably could. </p>
<p>As for nude shoes – I tend to wear tan/nude shoes and sandals in the summer because I have relatively larger feet and feel that dark colors just stand out too much. But then I started reading Tom & Lorenzo’s blog (formerly Project Rungay) and they hate nude pumps with a white hot passion. I do see what they are saying when I look at the pictures they post.</p>
<p>alh, I used to have to shop garage sales and Goodwill for my kids clothes and guess what – it just really sucks, and I know lots of people think they are somehow putting down a really small footprint on the planet by wearing other peoples castoff clothes but I think they should sit down, think about all the struggling, hopeful fashion designers and retailers who make their living selling clothes. The Great Circle of Life and all that. </p>
<p>There is nothing like a kid getting a new and I mean brand new pair of sneakers at Walmart. Bless Walmart. Bless our fashion industry. Bless our hardwired need to festoon and decorate ourselves. Bless those who can spend 500 dollars on an exquisite pair of shoes every now and then versus sitting alone eating cake into the night. It’s all good.</p>
<p>Finally, re: nude shoes, I get the concept and I think it works on those with narrow, longish feet. Not on those like me with very small feet. When I wear nude shoes, it looks as if I’m walking on hooves. I need definition at the end of my legs. </p>
<p>That said, I love how french women will wear brown shoes with black dresses. How do they pull that off?</p>
<p>I will never ever, ever, ever buy a $500 pair of shoes, but I love looking at them!</p>
<p>I just wish I liked wearing high heels, I swore off them in 1984, and it’s only as I’ve gotten older that I’ve had this hankering to wear them again, but they drive me crazy.</p>
<p>I think everyone has their own ways to be extravagent. Clothes isn’t mine, but we’ve gone to some Michelin 3-star restaurants with pretty astounding bills at the end of the meal. As I said to my sister-in-law you can’t think of those meals as just food - they are entertainment.</p>
<p>A friend of mine told me about a sample sale for Manolo Blahniks. “They’re only $200!” I never made it over there – not that $200 is so much (especially when they’re normally $700) but I have a feeling they would make the rest of my shoes feel insecure.</p>
<p>Can I change the subject to hair for a moment? Has anyone tried the Keratin treatment at a salon (costs about $300; lasts a few months; supposed to substantially reduce frizz which is an aging thing in my mind). My hairdresser said she had had it done, but I wasn’t crazy about how her hair looked – dead flat and limp against her skull – no life to it at all – smooth, yes, but not healthy and shiny and full of life.</p>
<p>Maybe she likes it like that? I wasn’t about to ask (she had sharp scissors near my head). But has anyone tried it?</p>
<p>2015, my DD had the keratin treatment. She has naturally curly hair and it made her hair flat and dull. So glad it’s all grown out.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen anyone who hs had it done whose hair looks good. There are many other less permanent and chemically toxic ways to go. I use this dove leave in conditioning treatment and it dpes wondersneven in the San Francisco fog. Imalso treat myself to a blowout on Fridays thats lasts all weekend. In would try other leavein, or deep conditional, less layering and more blunt cut hair, etc before getting which is kind of reverse perm</p>
<p>^thank you ladies – good to know – yes, I have not heard or seen anyone raving about it (besides the salon who’s trying to sell it). This woman looked like a baby seal in a oil spill (aprf! arpf!)</p>
<p>I tried Neutrogrena clarifying shampoo last night (it’s supposed to remove the residue from other products) then a leave-in conditioner – I was less frizzy than normal, so maybe that’s the way to go.</p>
<p>Fall 2012 fashion certainties</p>
<p>Are there any? Open for discussion. :)</p>
<p>On the casual side - colored denim jeans in muted jewel tones. They are everywhere.</p>
<p>I know someone who had a bad reaction to a keratin treatment- medical care required. I don’t know if it was an individual sensitivity or a common occurrence with that treatment, but her experience is a cautionary tale that suggests research prior to having it done.</p>
<p>I went shopping twice this week and most of the stores are showing their fall line. Lots of colored pants and J Crew has colored cords on display. Also saw quite a bit of tweed.
Of course we are having the most sun we have had in years.
A question- younger D is headed to college in a locale where it is going to be scorching hot for the first 2 months. Since our summer temps are usually 70’s she had purchased some new clothes for school. The dresses are pretty short! Looking for some suggestions for her to wear underneath. Leggings would be too hot.</p>
<p>Not a fashion item, but a good fan can be a very popular dorm room item for hot months!</p>
<p>There are some really light weight leggings that are shorter- sort of like capri leggings- that are really cute under the shorter dresses. You can wear sandals, Tom’s or other flats and then move to boots in colder weather.</p>
<p>Another option is the thinner yoga shorts that are shorter than bike pants but do the trick as far as coverage under a short dress.</p>
<p>mom60 - Something like this might work for your DD from Athleta. A 5" yoga short like MoWC suggested, they get great reviews for not being too hot and for not rolling up. Several reviewers also said they wear them under dresses.</p>
<p>My nieces, attending college in various parts of the US, wear what MomofWC and blueiguana are suggesting under their short skirts and dresses. These nieces are very stylish.</p>
<p>Deborah T: Yes - Let’s talk trends!
Hats
Pants under skirts/dresses
Colored stockings/tights</p>
<p>The first two I already do and have done continuously for a couple of decades. The colored stockings not in recent years, but was considering them last spring for this fall/winter and have been stockpiling as I find them on sale. I thought when paired with my mid-calf or ankle length black dresses they would add just a bit of bit of interest & tone down the severity of the look, and remind everyone of Ursula and Gundrun in Lawrence’s Women in Love. However, now that I see them in all the fall fashion mags and on the very young girls on local college campus, I may have to send them to the college nieces! Kinda sad. Now I am considering textured black hose with colored (but not bright) shoes.</p>
<p>My DD (starting college this fall) and her friends began to eschew the ultra short hemlines about a year ago, much to my relief. It always seems harsh to me, the super short skirts. They were big on the longer skirts with short cowboy boots last spring . . .</p>