pnkDesigns Blog

The Hunger Site is a charity website. When you visit, you simply click a button and for the click they donate money to help feed hungry people around the world. The donations are funded by advertising on the pages. There are partner sites for breast cancer, children’s health, literacy, the rain forests, and (the one closest to my heart) animal rescue. Visit every site once a day and click for a good cause.

I bring this up because there is a store that goes with these sites, where part of the proceeds are donated to the charities. The products are largely fair trade items, produced by the people the sites are helping, to bring economic opportunities and help the cause.

This is an Afghan lapis bracelet that I bought through the hunger site’s store. They are made by the Kuchi nomadic tribes of Afghanistan with lapis lazuli and silver melted down from coins.

I love ethnic objects, and I think this is a beautiful piece. Knowing the background also makes it special to me.

I have a habit of holding off on buying expensive things that I love, and then, when I finally convince myself to buying them, they are gone. This almost happened with the Marc Jacobs shoes, but I pulled them out with a little help. This top (Laundry by Shelli Segal) is entering into the land of the missed, I’m afraid. It’s sold out at Nordstrom, and I can’t find it anywhere else.

Look at the details (click for a bigger picture).The ruffle is the most obvious, but that isn’t nearly my favorite part. First, there is the great curve of the cut, which really accents the waist. The loops for the buttons also add great visual interest. Above the ruffle is a traditional collar, which prevents this from being Renaissance Fair cheezy like a lot of ruffled shirts are.

My favorite part is the sleeves. They aren’t cap sleeves, but real, short sleeves. Those are hard to find. The ruffle at the edge is nice, but the band above it is a great structural detail that I find so appealing.

If anyone runs into a place that is still selling this in a Small, please let me know!

I first discovered Nanette Lepore when I was shopping in Las Vegas about a year ago. I fell in love with a bunch of things in the store, and each season there are great new items. Her designs have that retro mid-20th century look that I like so much. When I am paging through clothes, half the ones I identify as loving end up being her design.

This is her Mambo Dress, part of the spring collection. I think it is beautiful and the styling is great. The eyelet is intricate, and the bust fit is perfect. I wonder about the fullness of the skirt and how that would work on women with fuller hips. Still, this is one dress that I will chance the shipping cost to try once my budget allows it.

I think this would be great with some navy sandals or espadrilles, and a cropped navy sweater in spring.

Up to this point in my life, I have only had $12 drug store / gas station sunglasses. I thought it might be nice to get something of higher quality, but I didn’t start appreciating sunglass style until last summer. As I contemplated stepping up, I also discovered CSI:Miami (a show full of sunglasses), and medical examiner Alexx wears a fabulous pair by Chanel:

So again with help from lucky shopping forum friends, I found the pair I wanted on ebay. They were identical (or at least very close) to the pair worn in the show.

However, when they arrived they were way too big for my face. I just looked silly, so I am still on the hunt for a good pair. I want medium sized frames, probably in tortise or brown, and if possible, I would love some by Chanel with the interlocking Cs.

Suggestions are always welcome. I suppose I will have to go to the store and try pairs on before making my decision. For now, I am back to the $12 pair, but I promise I threw out the ones held together with a safety pin.

This dress premiered in the La Perla Spring 2007 Ready to Wear Show. I am a sucker for contrast edging on bottom seams, which helps. However, the movement, the cut, and the drama are all perfect. I could see myself wearing this dress every week in the summer if I owned it.

This dress is part of a coherent theme in their spring collection. There are several dresses with the same aesthetic, including this very pretty strapless one.

I can appreciate a lot of designer items as artistic, and I recognize when something is innovative or doing new things with proportion, length, patten, and the like. However, a lot of those pieces are unwearable. Even the models look weird in them, and there is neither an occasion nor body that would be appropriate for those clothes.

That’s why it makes me so happy to find beautiful pieces like these from La Perla, that are interesting, but wearable. They are designed to make women look beautiful, and that should be the most important element of a design.

I am a huge Diane von Furstenberg fan. I would love a closet full of her dresses. The prints are dramatic, but still feminine and beautiful. Nordstrom added this dress, the ‘Clio’, in the last few days, and I love it. The pattern and colors are so refreshing. My style has a strong retro element, and the shirtdress appeals to that.

I am not a very good surfer, but I like everything about it. In fact, my desire to surf and be part of the idyllic vision I have is much stronger than my actions to fulfill it.

In any case, my time spent surfing helped me develop I love for the tropical aesthetic, where I designed these surf flower t-shirts. The flowers come in five colors, on a bunch of different shirts. Here are a couple samples.

See all the colors and designs in the shop.

Several new items of mine made their debut today. Here they are: The C3 cashmere sweater, Marc Jacobs shoes, and my Rock & Republic jeans.

The Sartorialist is a great site. Every day he posts several photos of on-the-street styles. I tend to split about 50/50. I think some are ugly or frumpy or just stupid looking. That often seems to be the case with people trying to look fashionable. I also hate hyper-trendy looks, so there are only so many skinny jean and ankle boot combinations I can take.

However, with the men’s shots and some women, I think he captures something really beautiful. I love this shot:

I have a jacket and bag very similar to that, and I can only wish I had that dress. Notice the white edge on the bottom. My only negative comment is that the bodice looks too short for her because the pleats go up above the belt. Still, I recognize myself in this outfit.

I have basically no going out clothes, but this month I bought a couple going out accessories from Banana Republic with a gift card I’d been holding on to for a long time.

I love the movement of the beading on the bag. This is another piece that I wanted for a while but didn’t buy. The belt is a new thing for me, but it works well with the bag. I love sparkle, too, and this is a nice subtle way to add it.