style update

how do i shot

all my pants have holes in the crotch (lol biking), most of my button-up shirts are 5+ years old, i'm running out of t-shirts, and i only own running shoes

can we hava ils reality show where phil and laurel swoop in to rescue style-distressed ilxors // they would make excellent hosts imo

i will be the first contestant

i has style emergency! i wish someone could transport that philp lim dress to me asap, free of charge? aselkgj! there is NOTHING i want to wear for monday night and i am freaking out.

monday night football? jets jersey

http://us.levi.com/home/index.jsp

I have been rocking three-digit pants beginning with 5 and a white tee from costco like every saturday and sunday this entire summer

see that is my normal style. jeans/dickies and a white t

that is the most excellent of normal styles. I wish I could rock it at the office

also can we have a moratorium on me using rock as a verb meaning wear

apparently not

Suggest Ban

rock it, yeah

http://content.nordstrom.com/ImageGallery/store/product/MediumLarge/10/_5703910.jpg

What do we think of this dress?

i like it. ESPECIALLY with that model's coloring.

Does it say "brother's Friday evening wedding in San Franscisco" to you?

I'm afraid it will never fit--my torso is soooooo long.

And well I don't have the model's coloring but I do have very very dark hair soon to be in a banged bob, very very pale skin, and would wear very very red lipstick.

that is a beauutiful dress

i like that dress. wedding, dunno, but in SF, maybe, depending on neighborhood.

i think it would look great at an evening wedding

All I know is I don't want to wear something like this, which is what 99% of all reasonably affordable cocktail dresses look like:

http://content.nordstrom.com/ImageGallery/store/product/Medium/18/_5659718.jpg

Or, like, this. I swear there a zillion versions of this damn dress out there:

http://content.nordstrom.com/ImageGallery/store/product/Medium/1/_5697341.jpg

I think it's beautiful. Is it made out of fabric? It looks like a sculpture, srsly -- maybe it's a processed image/bad img quality, or maybe the fabric just has a deceptive sheen. Now THAT is a dress. Forget those conventional "sexy" sundress schmattes.

Oh I feel a sense of hope after many hours of browsing despair! OK I will order it to try on. It is DVF--pricier than I had hoped--but made of actual silk unlike all of the various poly atrocities (I admit I am a fabric snob).

Here is another that I liked, though I'd hoped to avoid black because I wear it All. The. Damn. Time.

http://content.nordstrom.com/ImageGallery/store/product/MediumLarge/11/_5689111.jpg

And one more on which I'd like opinions:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3006186/0~2376776~2374327~2374331~6014174?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6014174&P=1

oops

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3006186/0~2376776~2374327~2374331~6014174?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6014174&P=1

fuck!

http://content.nordstrom.com/ImageGallery/store/product/MediumLarge/2/_5713282.jpg

LOOOOOOOVE the red. Love. But how will that silhouette be affected by a long torso? It looks like the waist is really high, actually, although I guess it's not a REAL waist, it's too high on purpose.

Do you have time to have your dress choice tailored? The thing about forgettable sun-dresses is that they fit more different people -- all your beautiful tailored dresses need to be custom-fitted, unless you're a size model. I <3 tailoring.

I will have time for alterations if they are doable for the lovely dress--there may be no hope depending on how it is cut. I was concerned that the red looked maybe too business-y and not sufficiently wedding-y. I would need ideas for accessories for that one.

I'd probably wear a big gold-tone starburst brooch and pearls but I don't think that's your thing. An arm full of chunky bangles in stand-out colors or finishes? Accessorize in a nearly clashing color like pink or orange for extra energy?

Can you actually eat a meal in any of those dresses? As a curvy person who gets indigestion from having my waist constricted, I'm in awe.

As long as you're spending $$$ on beautiful things, there's always Alexis Bittar.

i love the red dress. it's a bit quieter than the dvf dress, but not in a bad way. i'd probably pair it with loud tights.

"loud tights" is my answer to most things, i think.

I like the black one

first dress is a+++++

i think the red one is too wear-to-work

the black is nice, but the first once is just amazing and wonderful.

i like the black. but you have to get funky shoes to go with it! :) the silk one is nice too but i wonder.. how long is it going to stay all perfectly pressed like that? can't tell, though DVF is pretty good at making stuff that is wearable. the red looks like it would be hard to wear, i figure, if they can't even get a shot where it's well fitted & not rumpled on the model.. bad sign!

all my pants have holes in the crotch (lol biking), most of my button-up shirts are 5+ years old, i'm running out of t-shirts, and i only own running shoes

― the valves of houston (gbx), Saturday, 20 September 2008 17:16 (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I hear you, interestingly, denims with elastic in them seem to fare so much worse.

Btw, the first dress that quincie posted is most awesome.

2nded

how i wish i'd had that dress for our opening night instead of the boring, toobigintheboobs, black dress. quincie, if you do not get it, you will regret it forever. you will wonder always about that dress.

OK I'm going to order the first one in an 8 and a 10 and hope one of those will work with the help of a good seamstress! If it works I will make it available to all!

I am justifying the expense with the fact that I spent a mere pittance on the dress in which I was married, so I should still get to pony up for a big-time dress for a wedding, even if it's not *my* wedding. Also: I only have one sibling. Hopefully this will be my only sibling wedding so long as I shall live.

first dress pwns the rest of those so good choice

srsly. best of luck with it! i am so so jealous!!!

I thoroughly approve of this buying something and getting it tailored to fit right. I am so happy now I get all of my trouser (especially jeans) hemmed to be just right and not trodden to shreds (of course getting a massive bunch done a $5 a pair in Bushwick was also helpful.

how do you tailor jeans?

just hem them to the right length.

ah yes of course

Of course a dress in more complex but my friend L does this to great effect, sometimes herself and sometimes with the help of a professional.

I'm thinking of bringing all my old suits to the tailor to get them somewhat... enlarged....

you have to be careful with jeans, though, depending on how they're cut. i made the mistake of buying a pair that were way too long for me and assuming that hemming would take care of it. the tailor took them up, but the fit was completely lost (they were tapered, and i ended up with a sort of off-kilter straight leg).

Enlarging is, in general, much less feasible than smallifying.

With clothing as with corpus.

Most of my jeans are fairly wide, straight leg, and we are talking a couple of inches shorter, but I get your point, xpost.

A guy I know has his suit pants tapered, if they're too wide, so I know you can change the shape of pant legs, but you might have to open BOTH sides in order to keep the line straight. Not sure. Bluejean seams are usually felled (at least on the inner leg) so it's too hard to get them open.

I have smallified a couple of inches off the waist, this is a great thing.

good god I wish I could take my jeans up a few inches.. can anyone send me the extra inches tailors cut off to cover my ankles?

I echo the sentiment about that first dress, let us see pictures once you've got it tailored!

Will do! Of course if this dress ends up working I am going to have mummify myself in like knee to boob Spanx.

Right there with ya. Today I'm wearing a stretchy microfiber slip pulled up over my chest, like a bath wrap, because otherwise it's several inches longer than the mini-dress and makes an elastic line at my waist.

Things Boys Don't Have to Worry About #3349078824950672348523

Yeah, I don't even understand this sentence

Update: dress #1 a total flop. Fit was unworkable, and aside from that it just didn't look as chic in person as it did in the photo.

So the search continues. Am I wrong to like this:

http://adn.is.bluefly.com/mgen/Bluefly/prodImage.ms?productCode=301558601&width=340&height=408

Love the detail on the shoulder, love that it is not black, and love that the style is forgiving of those us of sporting actual T&A.

i am not really crazy about it but that shoulder detail IS fun.

Two more possibilities from *cringe* Anthropologie, of all places. Don't know how to post images from stupid flash thingie, sorry:

Second-round option #2

Second-round option #3

hmm. they seem a little high school dance to me. maybe i am way off. i don't know... so that amazing philip lim is def out of the question?

how expensive is it to get stuff tailored?? i'm having a hell of a time finding pants that fit :-/

Shoot, what a disappointment about the dress. I was wondering how the fabric would hold up, it looked very silk and wrinkle-able. Also I bought a "nice" dress earlier this year (as I've mentioned) and was way let down by the quality once it arrived, so now I worry.

The green dress is nice, probably the most mature of the three in my estimation. Also would be great to accessorize, that color will take almost anything in complement, and my friend wore a giant gold-tone Alexis Bittar cuff to work the other day that I'd LOVE to put with it.

I do think #2 is a little...young? Doesn't look as Quality as the others? Something. Don't do it. :)

Id go with the green too

I've forgotten what you're getting this for quincie. A special occasion or just to have a nice dress?

My brother (only sib I have) is getting married next month in SF. It's a Friday night wedding in a Russian Orthodox church (NO PEWS/CHAIRS OMG WHAT DO I DO ABOUT FOOTWEAR?) followed by reception at some nice private club with like a library and billards room and stuff.

Last night I no shit looked through 177 of 444 pages of cocktail dresses at styleshop. The only things that caught my eye were upwards of a thousand dollars!

Alas, the amazing Philip Lim dress appears to be unavailable and was twice my desired price point anyway :(

I am so glad I got your feed back re: the Anthropologie dresses because yes you are totally right, they are not so good.

Would it be CRAZY to wear black tights and black high-heeled BOOTIES with the green dress? Never before did I think I'd wear BOOTIES but maybe they would be good with the green?

Oh and gbx it should cost you like 35 bucks tops to get pants tailored (waist + hem). My dry cleaning place does a perfectly fine job with this.

If you're not looking to spend $300+ on an occasion dress, I have to repeat: I got a semi-worky but slightly nicer black sheath dress with pockets and button details with 60s-ish styling for $60 at a discount store in NYC. It's by one of the "boring" office-wear companies but it's a GREAT style and a great fit and the price made it worthwhile. Also since it's made of one of those gabardine-ish polys, it absolutely refuses to wrinkle. It's not the most luxurious item I've ever owned, but it's black and neatly tailored and you really can't tell.

q, did you try bcbg? they have a ton of cocktail type dresses, i guess normally about $300 but i had to get a semi classy dress & found one at 70% off that was super nice. normally this brand is so not my style but there are sooo many dresses there, worth a try. georgetown store is huge.

To be honest I have avoided bcbg simply because I phear ending up in the same dress as another wedding guest!

Laurel I would be totally on board with the plan you suggest except that in purusing Loehman's and Filene's I couldn't find anything beyond basic "little black dress" items. I'm trying to avoid black because I'm just so tired of wearing black (and already have a black silk wrap dress that I wear to both weddings and funerals). I'm also avoiding navy as that is what the bridesmaids are wearing.

For now I have ordered the green and will keep my fingers crossed. I also found a great dress on the sale rack at neiman's, but need to find it one size up. Thus internet searching continues!

Gotcha! Forgot about the non-black request.

You need a Century 21!

I wish!

Also wish I weren't a six on the top and an eight on the bottom. Oh and almost six feet tall. This combination is making dress shopping particularly challenging. Unfortunately the available evening-wear separates are few and far between; they also tend to be very "mother of the bride." I'll leave that to my future SIL's mother, thank youverymuch.

This is why there are so many of those empire-waisted, vaguely A-line dresses with no sleeves and some kind of straps: the fit in the lower body and in the shoulders and upper arms hardly matters at all.

Not so the highly fitted things you posted here originally! Gugggggggg why is getting dressed so hard

otm re: separates! i was browsing them last month and could not find anything age-appropriate. so annoying. yeah, sounds like empire waist may be your friend in a size crunch.

getting dressed IS hard. i tried 3 different things today and as soon as i left the house (with no time to spare for another change), i was so unhappy with my final selection. ugh.

Russian Orthodox church (NO PEWS/CHAIRS OMG)
ugh I hear you here.. one of my friends is getting married in a traditional Serbian church which also lacks pews.. and the ceremony is almost 2 hours long! She's apologized in advance.

Too bad about the dress, quincie! :( Anthropologie doesn't like me apparently so I can't see options #2 and #3 but I do agree that teh shoulder detail on the green dress is absolutely adorable and looks very flattering and appropriate! I see you're also hovering around six feet tall and now I truly feel your pain. Everything I put on looks (and usually is, because I am a cheap-ass, non-tailoring person) two inches too short for me.

http://photos-d.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v2318/149/77/13944462/n13944462_51024331_3963.jpg

"the road leads to my heart"

^^^^ filed

haha awes

my style update: trying to go more for simple & elegant but never have time/inclination to go shopping but now really need to b/c most of my clothes have become frumpy lookin due to general body size decrease which is one of two things that seems to have snuck up on me this week as not just imagined but actualities. weird times.

miss u guys

obv at 1st all u can see is the tie then the name tag and chucks details begin to emerge while the drink and body language anchor the composition - delightful photograph a+

general body size decrease is probably my favorite reason for a style update, wtg/kiu rrrobyn :D

I bought some stretch jeans…pretty cool. They look like jeans but feel like pyjamas. A Vince Neal / Bret Michaels vibe

I have ordered Bat child pajamas in my size.
Also there are now Joy Division items that aren’t the Unknown Pleasures art.