Category: Fashion

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Fine Feathered Trend

Here’s a vendor selling feather jewelry on the boardwalk in Venice—a sure sign that a trend has hit the mainstream (and maybe already peaked?). It’s another ’80s style comeback and I like this one a whole lot more than the return of the scrunchie. When I was a teen, wearing feathers in your hair was all the rage and we wore colorful dyed ones attached to roach clips. (Because I was a good girl, I had no idea about the more common use of a roach clip—neither did my grandmother when she bought it for me at a shop in the mall.) The one I had for my hair was lavender and I clipped it behind my ear so that it peaked out from underneath my permed curls. Now I’m less inclined to wear actual feathers but am still drawn to the feather motif and found some cute handmade and vintage items on Etsy from fellow sellers on the EcoEtsy team to make a “Birds of a feather…” treasury.

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Eyes Everywhere

JR, the artist awarded the TED prize for his photographic murals, left his mark in my neighborhood last week with a close-up of a man’s piercing eyes. Yesterday, I saw a guy wearing a shirt with a print of the classic cover of “The Great Gatsby.” This morning, NY magazine’s “The Cut” blog posted a fashion week shot of a runway model with a Man Ray eye hat. Just purchased from Etsy: this milagro eye charm, said to offer protection from the evil eye. I’ll attach it to a necklace or bracelet.

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Kid Rocks: Wild & Crazy Hair

My goddaughter Mary, 9, is a girl who likes to have fun with fashion, often putting together outfits that are unexpected and bold (and not just when she’s playing dress-up). For this look, her equally stylish mom braided her hair before bedtime to give her soft, natural waves and then added a few braids to her ponytail, using hairbands I sent her that have pieces of recycled fabric scraps tied to the band (leopard, grey fleece, camouflage).

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This With That: Scarf on Bag

I never tire of my Goyard bag, but I frequently employ the scarf-tied-to-the-handle trick for some added flair. Though I never try to match a scarf to a bag, I like how the pattern on this thrift store scarf has a similar hand-drawn affect.

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Rock On: Upcycled Fashion at the Oscars

As a dabbler in creating upcycled fashion and accessories, I love to see something shiny and like-new recreated from something unwanted and old—rescued second-hand pieces from a dusty rack that are given new life. I frequently find items of clothing at thrift shops that look promising until I find a stain across the chest, a tear near the neckline, or some other wear-and-tear defect that makes the garment undesirable in its present form. But then I think, hmmm, maybe there’s hope. While so many eyes were on Colin Firth at the Oscars (smoking hot in Tom Ford), I was particularly interested in a closer look at his lovely wife, Livia, who owns a shop that sells eco-friendly merchandise and writes a blog for Vogue UK on green fashion. Livia Firth has become a stylish ambassador for green, making it her mission this year to always wear clothing at events from designers who use organic fabrics and employ eco-friendly practices in the creation of the garments. She calls it her “green carpet challenge.” For the Oscars, Firth’s Oscar gown was upcycled, created by Gary Harvey with material from 11 vintage dresses. Great detail: the dresses came from the same era as “The King’s Speech,” the movie for which her husband won the Academy Award. Gorgeous.

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Leopard Love

My friend WendyB has written frequently about her love of leopard. Take a look at the Patrick Kelly leopard dress on her. She positively roars in that leopard, but I’m more of a fraidy cat (yep, puns intended). I have a fondness for leopard print, but I’ve always been shy about it and stick to a few choice accessories. Best ones: the London Sole ballet flats I wear with jeans (skinny or wide-legged look best) and a black top or sweater; and a long skinny scarf I wear in my hair on good or bad hair days. (See the scarf modeled above on Buttons, my childhood teddy bear.) I’ve been less inclined to wear leopard clothing, but found a blouse during one of my recent thrifting missions for my Etsy shop. It’s got a leopard print with roses and seemed like a good find on the rack, but I wasn’t sure of the shirt’s age or origin and I won’t sell list anything in the vintage section of my shop unless I’m sure of its history. Then I tried it on and it became mine. Another recent thrift store find was a jersey T-shirt in a leopard print, but I discovered a hole in it after bringing it home so I’m using the fabric to make accessories, including hair bands and jersey necklaces like the one pictured. Next up: upcycled shirts with leopard fabric details I’m adding to the neckline. On a roll…. Wendy also posted that fellow blogger Sheila has declared this to be leopard week. Today, I’m representing with my flats.

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Fantasyland Memories

Here’s the ID bracelet mentioned previously in a post on things I wear that make me feel young. I made this bracelet when I was a teen, using the glass turquoise beads from a broken set of rosary beads and lettered beads I got from a shop on Long Island called Fantasyland. My mother shopped at Fantasyland for all her crafting needs—and it was one of my favorite places for tagging along. Mom went to the section with dried flowers and other materials for her wreath-making and flower-arranging; I went to the bead section and marveled at all the colors and varieties. On a counter in the jewelry section was a large fishbowl filled with hundreds of lettered beads and I remember digging for the letters in my name. The first bracelet I made was by stringing those lettered beads with colored plastic ones on elastic thread. Later I taught myself to cut and twist wire to make chains of beads (using rosary beads as my model), but the elastic bracelet was a hit with junior high friends who paid me to make them similar bracelets and necklaces. I was happy for my own reason to visit Fantasyland and to collect some cash for doing something that was so much fun. Making stuff, including jewelry, still ranks as one of my favorite activities. When I recently consolidated all my beads and jewelry-making materials in plastic bins, I found the pictured Fantasyland postcard and other beads acquired way back when—including the remaining beads from the rosary used to make the ID bracelet, which I put to use by making the dangly earrings seen to the right of the bracelet.

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Grown Girls Dream of Unicorns, Too

Wise people say you should do what you love; for those in business, that translates to selling what you love. When I shipped this vintage unicorn locket/pendant to a buyer, I packed it up slowly, thinking a bit woefully about how I liked it enough to want to keep it. When I shop for my Etsy shop—for everything from vintage clothing, jewelry, and accessories to T-shirts I then remake into upcycled styles—I choose what I love. In the beginning, I wanted to keep it all. Now, I will sometimes get to the point of photographing an item when I reconsider—just for a moment or two. I paused with the unicorn pendant. A unicorn pendant! Of course, I’m happy to make a sale and excited that someone out there will wear it and treasure it. But I’m going to be on the lookout for another unicorn pendant to call my own.

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Closet-Cleaning: Love It or Lose It

I read about a survey in which the average English woman was said to own more than 20 pieces of clothing she never wears. You know, the neglected items that hang at the back of the closet or get pushed to the bottom of the dresser drawer. I’m betting the same would hold true for American women. I get it. I’ve purchased items that have never gone into heavy rotation—and some I’ve never worn at all. Sometimes I find myself wanting to love an item and trying to talk myself into loving it. It might be by a designer I usually love, it might have been a total steal, it might be perfect except for the way it hangs on my hips. It just doesn’t look right? It’s gone. It just doesn’t feel right? Gone. I have adopted a strict closet admittance policy: I have to love it. It has to fit right and feel right and look right. Love it or lose it, plain and simple.

I am a big thrift shopper and encounter huge bargains regularly and this has made me discriminating—even if it’s a Marc Jacobs top with a five dollar price tag, I won’t get it if it’s the wrong size or in a color I don’t like to wear. (Exception to the rule: if it looks like something I could remake or alter it by employing some simple DIY tricks with a needle and thread, then I might get it…). Because I often find items I DO love while thrifting, I truly believe that what is trash to one woman really can be a treasure to another. I live for treasures. And for the items I have that don’t pass my love-it-or-lose-it test, there’s eBay. I went through the closet last week for another sweep and put the items online for treasure-hunters. A Levi’s jacket with nothing wrong with it? I have another denim jacket I adore and this one simply sat in the closet for a year. But someone else already scooped it up. I’ve got similar stories for the Theory pants, Trina Turk jacket, Barneys New York blouses and more….

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Style Inspiration: Young At Heart Ad

I’ve been seeing these Evian ads for their “Live Young” campaign all over LA. I love that the model in this one is wearing my uniform of jeans and a T-shirt and it got me to thinking about what else I wear that makes me feel young.

Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers

Levi’s cut-offs

Faded denim jacket

NY Yankees baseball cap

Opaque tights with a dress or skirt

Pink lip gloss

ID bracelet from junior high school

CBGB T-shirt

Flannel pajamas

Vintage Coach bucket bag

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Wearing Heart(s) Around My Neck

This gold “knock at my heart” charm was a gift from my father to my mother—he gave it to her when they were teenagers. All these years later, they’re happily married. Because two hearts are better than one, I’m wearing it today, on Valentine’s Day, layered with a costume heart brooch necklace with faux pearls and rhinestones. The brooch was found on one of my treasure-hunting missions for my Etsy shop. I tied the heart pin to a black jersey necklace (recycled material from an old T-shirt) and photographed it to sell it in the shop, but then I changed my mind and decided to keep it for myself. Love rules.

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Style Inspiration: Henry Rollins

I went to see a Henry Rollins spoken word performance at Largo in LA. First up: Henry rocks! The occasion for this tour is his recent 50th birthday, and he delivered his monologue in the signature, rapid-fire style we’ve come to love, pontificating on a variety of topics that included how he knocked out a fan’s teeth at a Black Flag gig, read George Bush’s book aloud during a Costco visit, shared Stooges music with a kid during a trip across the globe, and hates shopping for clothes. Gulp. One woman’s passion is another man’s punishment, I guess. He pointed out his attire—a no-nonsense black T-shirt and black work pants (my guess: Dickie’s)—as evidence. But here’s the thing: he rocks the look. It’s his.

I have many years before I reach Henry’s milestone, but I’ve found one of the good things about growing older is the sense of comfort you gain with who you are and what you like. My own style uniform is not quite as basic as Henry’s, but it’s still pretty simple: I’m a jeans and T-shirt girl. It’s been that way since I was a teen (see photo of me in my “Feed the World” T-shirt—boy, do I wish I still had that shirt…) and I see no reason for growing out of this look. I am a treasure-hunter and a collector, always on the lookout for new jeans to add to my collection and for new tees to fill my heart with glee. (Actually, most of the tees I get now are from thrift shops and vintage sources, so newly acquired is just like new for me.) And now that I have figured out how best to use a pair of scissors, needle, and thread to upcycle any ordinary T-shirt, I see promise in every one that catches my eye….

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NY, I Love You: Token Necklace

I pulled out a roll of black tulle from my craft box and began to play around with adding tulle details to some upcycled fabric necklaces I’ve been making for my Etsy shop. A little tulle goes a long way and two small pieces tied together make a pretty little poof, as seen here on a jersey necklace (made from a recycled T-shirt) with a New York City subway token. It’s the only token I have from this era (1995-2003, a period of time when I lived in NYC and rode the subway daily; see and read about the history of the tokens on the New York City Subway site), so I’m keeping it—wearing it today, in fact—but I will be on the lookout for other tokens and coins to incorporate into designs like this.  

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New MissStefanie Necklaces: Vintage, Upcycled, Valentines

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I’ve added upcycled and vintage necklaces to my MissStefanie Etsy shop.

Some are vintage, featuring brooches, clip-on earrings, pendants, or charms hanging from the necklace. Others are upcycled, with single or multiple pieces from thrift store jewelry on the necklace. Sometimes the necklace has a chain from a thrift store necklace, and other I make the necklace using recycled material from black T-shirts (softer than a leather necklace; other colors available upon request). The necklaces made with the T-shirt material are 22-24 inches in length, but can be adjusted to be shorter or longer. You can wear one or layer two or more. I photographed the necklaces with a white button-down shirt, to show how they look styled with a shirt; I usually wear mine with my usual uniform of a tank or T-shirt under a cardigan or jacket.

So, Valentine’s Day. A few necklaces have hearts, flowers, or bows. One has a heart and skull and another is a locket with flowers and a unicorn (a unicorn!). And here’s the thing about Valentine’s Day: it’s a Hallmark holiday, sure. But I’ve always loved little trinkets and started a tradition years ago of treating myself to something for Valentine’s Day. You can have someone special in your life or you can fly solo–but treating yourself is always a fine idea. Chocolate, check. A one-of-a-kind necklace in the $20 range? Check ’em out.