casual friday [I am stuffed...literally]

I've gorged myself this week.  Officially.  The hus has been working like a mad man for the last two weeks (literally, coming home at 1:00 am and leaving at 3:00 am) but he finally closed his big deal.  So we have been celebrating...and eating...everything.  Asia de Cuba on Wednesday and then Fogo de Chao last night.  Oh, and no worries, last night on the way home from the restaurant, I had to unbutton my pants in the car.  Unfortunately, this is not a joke.

I am laughing, but it is SO not funny.

i wish i was wearing this today [black & white stripes]

Today's "I wish I was wearing this" has a theme.  A Jailbird theme to be exact.  (Did you get enough of this joke last time, because I am so not over it and am just getting started....)  Which works for me because I rather love black and white stripes.  But it also works because, in case you have never worked in the not-so-nine-to-five corporate/legal/banking world, working in a corporate office has often been compared to serving time.  You know, jail time.  The corporate kind.  The kind where everyone is forced to wear navy and black suiting instead of orange jumpsuits and spend the greater part of their day chained to a desk. 

While I have no advice on how to escape the corporate prison (to be quite honest, I rather like my job career), here on LAW OF FASHION I do have some suggestions with regard to "business casual" uniforms. First, who came up with this navy and black color scheme?  Aren't black and white stripes more traditional prison garb?  And secondly, if we absolutely must be slaves to the man and file in line, would it be possible to do so in DANNIJO bibs?  I promise they not only serve an aesthetic function, but any escapees will be easily recognized and apprehended.  Not to mention they would serve as fantastic proverbial corporate chains.

So, with that in mind, I propose the below. 

{(1) Striped Silk Dress: BCBG, $498; (2) Sleeveless Blouse: Equipment, $188; (3) Bib Necklace: DANNIJO, $322; (4) Spike Ring: Pamela Love, $690; (5) Bucket Handbag: Alexander Wang, $825; (6) Neon Rim Sunnies: Karen Walker, $180}


Getting a ring that doubles as a weapon past the guards might serve to be a bit difficult, but it will prove to be worth it around 7 p.m. when you are looking for a way to escape.  That, and I just really want it.

Charlie Chaplin knows what I am talking about....

**Interested in this look for less?  Follow LAW OF FASHION on twitter for low-cost office appropriate options to be sent out throughout the day.

{Charlie Chaplin image via iseestripes.blogspot.com}

office no, no...or yes? [shorts]

There are certain things that even I can't figure out how to bring into the office without causing a ruckus.  And yes, I did just use the word ruckus.  What's it to you?  

Moving right along....  

For example, shorts.  No matter your interpretation of "business casual" - emphasis on the business - I would guess that you would agree that shorts are a universal no, no.  I can't be sure, but I am fairly certain that if I showed up looking like this I might spend the rest of the afternoon standing in the unemployment line.

No matter how HOTT Daisy looks in her dukes, she might have a date for Saturday night but she won't have a job...in an office, anyway.  I can't speak for how she spends her free time...  Se la vie...

But here is my question for you my friends?  What would be the result if I showed up looking like THIS:

While convention has me saying no, no.  In my head I am thinking: HELL to the YES!  Jason Wu has taken something so wrong and made it so, so right.  And since when have I been conventional?  What could someone really say about this?

Blazer? Check.  Button-up blouse? Check!  Hair in a bun? Check! Giant bow around your neck? Check, check!  

This is more traditional than half of the stuff I have worn to work and has more "professional" in one perfectly tailored blazer sleeve than lots 'o ensembles I have seen floating around the office park - honestly, there is only so much cleavage one person can handle.  Let's keep those puppies covered ladies.  

Not to mention, the "it's hot as blazing saddles" part of me finds this "removing the lower part of your pants legs and exposing your body to a breeze" to be a brilliant idea.

So who is going to test it out first......?  Bueller?

As an aside, I will give you $100 (OK, who are we kidding, I am not going to give you anything except MAJOR props) if you will wear this (see below) into a board meeting.  What?  You think someone might get upset?  You'd be wearing a BLACK SUIT for goodness sakes.

Excuses, excuses.  You big weenie.


And yes, I did just use the word weenie.  What's it to you?

{image 1 via denimblog.com; images from the Jason Wu fashion show via Style.com}

taking trends to the office [white pants]

Heyo!

Yes, fall fashion is everywhere, but it is still summer I tell ya!

And if you don't believe me, just take a step outside, you non-believer you.  It's hot as Hades out there.  Which means it's too freakin' hot to layer anything other than bathing suits.  And, unfortunately, layering of bathing suits is going to get you a whole lot of nowhere at your not-so-nine-to-five. In fact, the only thing it might get you is a giant wedgie, a sexual harassment lawsuit, and perhaps several misplaced indentations on your skin from all of the elastic.

Although it is an interesting idea...  For another day.

{tank: Michael Stars; blouse: Elizabeth and James; white pants: Theory; earrings: F21}

casual friday [crazy bun + links a la mode]

Now I know that the chignon is the end all be all of chicness.  But call it this crazy mess of hair on my head, or you can just call me crazy, but I love me a crazy messy bun.  It is kinda like the chic version of laziness.  

{blazer: Sretsis; blouse: Joie; denim: Seven for all Mankind; specs: Dior}

i wish i was wearing this today [red pants]

Do you ever wake up thinking: I have NOTHING to wear?  Like sometime in the middle of the night someone came in and completely cleaned out your closet?  As if you would rather go to work naked than put on a single thing available to you?

OK, so perhaps that is a little dramatic.

But for the most part, that is how I feel today.  And the absolute LAST thing I need to do is more shopping.  So a cotton button-up it is.... Psych!  I kid.

But seriously, were I to have unlimited funds and immediate teleport access to all garments on the Internet, this is what I would be wearing at this exact moment as I sip my cappuccino and settle in for a long days work...

{(1) Blouse: Asos, $60; (2) High-Waisted Pants: Alice + Olivia, $198; (3) Sunnies: Alexander Wang, $350; (4) Thunderbird Cuff: Low Luv by Erin Wasson, $63; (5) Handbag: Tory Burch, $495; (6) Watch: Nixon, $120; (7) Wedges: Diane von Furstenberg, $295}

i wore this...to work [joie maxi skirt]

Have we discussed my love for maxi skirts?  I think we have.  Have we discussed my love for jersey?  Well, let's.  I LOVE jersey.  Even though it can sometimes come off as not trying and perhaps a bit frumptastic, I love it anyway.  It is comfortable, doesn't make me self conscious in my clothes and looks good on almost everyone.  Therefore, as far as I am concerned, it is miracle fabric.  Frumptastic miracle fabric.

{blouse: 525 america; skirt: Joie; handbag: Marc Jacobs}

office essentials [the briefcase/satchel]

Being an attorney (or any other profession where you are required to haul reams of paper from one place to the next), there is nothing more important than having a good bag.  When you are called upon daily to transfer the contents of your office to another location and back again, you need to look good while doing it.   That,  or you could be briefcase-less and opt to look like me: A bumbling bozo who has never committed to a bag and attempts to carry the aforementioned contents of her office in her arms.  Trust me, go with the former.

My WW ("work wife") and I have spent the last three years (count them, three) trying to find a briefcase like bag that would both hold our files and still be "fashionable."  And for the last three years we got nothing.  Bupkis. 

Which leads me to my next point.  How am I just now finding out about The Cambridge Satchel Company??  

How I ask you? HOW!

Yesterday, the briefcase Gods smiled down on me and I made the most fantabulous discovery.  The Cambridge Satchel Company makes handmade satchels in the UK in a variety of sizes and, most importantly, a variety of colors.

Including neon.  Which is obviously my first choice.  What better way to attend court than with a satchel that can double as a reflective vest while crossing the street at night?

I seriously feel as if I have been living under a rock with this one folks (and it isn't a good feeling), because when I started Googling these bags they were everywhere.  Everywhere but in my closet.  In fact, I had seen this image from The Fashion Squad (first image above) before and lusted after her bag.  But, at the time, I didn't know two things: the wide variety of sizes and colors it came in or the price.

They have every color you could think of: light pink, navy blue, red...  Keep thinking, they have it.  And the best part?  No matter the size, they are all between $120-$200.  Which means I need one in every color.

Oh, and it gets better.  They monogram them.  Seriously.  Need.

In fact, I am more than a smidge upset that I am just finding out about this because that lime green loveliness up there and that rockin' orange are all I have ever wanted in a satchel.  But given that it is mid July and they ask for a bit of a lead time to make them (they are handmade after all!), I am thinking neon may not be the most practical choice in wild colored briefcases...

So I am thinking perhaps yellow or purple....  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Please help me... I am overwhelmed by the amazingness and can't think straight.

{images 1 via the fashion squad; 2 via hypebeast; 3 via the haute collective; 4 via chictopia; and 5 via the royal cheese}

i wore this...to work [cocktail dress + marni coat]

I have received several comments/questions recently about the "formalness" of dress (or lack thereof) in my office.  Specifically, I have been asked if the dress code in my office is a bit looser than the norm.  While in some respects I believe that it is (I live in Los Angeles after all!), I do want to make it clear that I work in an office with a strict "business casual" dress code.  Dress-code violations have been handed out, rules are often clarified and appropriate haircuts are not an uncommon topic of conversation.  Let us be clear, I am an attorney.  I do not work in fashion.  I do not work at a magazine.  In fact, I work in a world largely populated by gabardine pantsuits and cotton button-up blouses.

{dress: Mint; coat: Marni; belt: Milly}

casual friday [linen is the new denim + links a la mode]

Today is casual Friday and, for some reason, when I woke up this morning the last thing I wanted to wear was denim.  I know, I know, not wearing denim on casual Friday is like sacrilege - you wear it because you can!  But it is summer, it is hot, and I wanted to be dressed up.  At the same time, I seriously did not want to wear "business casual" attire on casual Friday - talk about a waste!

So I scoured through my closet to find something light, airy, denim-less, not wearable on M-F and yet still office appropriate.  And this is what I came up with - LINEN!

{dress: Patterson J. Kincaid; belt: Patterson J. Kincaid; specs: Dior} 

cocktail dresses in the office [my high school reunion]

After last week's post on my potential high school reunion garb, I received multiple requests  for an  "update" with what I chose to wear.  Well ladies, ask and you shall receive.  Here it is in all its glory - my very Elizabeth & James high school reunion outfit.

I think I made it fairly clear that I was a smidge apprehensive about attending my high school reunion this past weekend.  Something about going back and seeing people that you haven't seen in ten years was freaking me out.  What if everyone was different?  What if they all thought me, my blog and my Los Angeles craziness were insane?  What if I was completely going to regret this....

 

{tank: BP; skirt: Elizabeth & James}

 

I labored over this outfit choice long and hard.  You would have thought I was headed to a red carpet event I looked so long.  But here was the issue:  I didn't want to look too "LA" - after all, this party was taking place in West Texas at a bar with a dirt floor (true story).  So I had to balance the seriously casual venue with the fact that I didn't want to compromise any of my personal style either.  If people were going to think I was insane, then let 'em think it.  But let's at least give them a good enough reason...

Oh, and the hellish Texas heat.  I had to consider that factor, too.

My solution?  Casual cotton tank on top (conveniently avoiding silk near sweat glands) and crazy party ruffle nonsense on bottom.  Perfect marriage.  Although, you should have seen me teetering around the potholes in the dirt floor in my heels during the party.  I looked absolutely ridiculous.

{watch & bracelets: vintage; shoes: Elizabeth & James; necklace: Kathryn Bobb}

 

Lucky for me, no one had changed, they all thought I was crazy (but apparently they had thought that all along....) and I was only tad bit over-dressed (jackpot!).  Aside from almost breaking my ankle running through dirt in five-inch heels, I had a truly amazing time.  I forgot how much I loved those people.

And lastly, because this is what I do friends, here is how you take this snazzy reunion mess to the office.  Oh, you didn't think I was going to go there?  Well I did.  And I used all of my tricks at once: librarian glasses, "I am serious" chignon, and a perfectly professional blazer.

Consider it done.  From Cocktail Party to Office Party in two seconds flat.

Happy reunion!

{blazer: Theory; handbag: Marc Jacobs; specs: Dior}

{all images by LOF}

beauty focus [work hair]

Another beauty update from our resident beauty expert, Jamie:

It is official:  I’m at that point. You know...that point where I don’t think I can go another minute without a haircut. I don’t know how it happens, but it happens and it happens quick. One day I’m perfectly fine and the next I don’t think I will make it through the day without asking my WW ("Work Wife") to cut my split ends in the bathroom at work. That’s totally acceptable, right?

Well, lucky for me....today is the day my Hair Angel Nikki at Nine Zero One is going to change my life – once again.

But, if you are anything like me and it has been an outrageously long time since you last had your locks trimmed, you show up to work with your hair in a bun, a pony tail or any odd little hybrid of the two....just so that you don’t find yourself picking at your split ends instead of focusing on, oh, I don’t know, WORK.

In these last few months weeks before my haircut, in an attempt to hide my ends, I’ve been wearing my hair up using the amazing SPIN PIN. Don’t hate on this...you will love it.

Now, the boring tight bun gets old, and let’s face it, we aren’t librarians. But a perfect chignon never goes out of style - split ends or not.  Enter the Spin Pin. They come in packs of two so you can use one to leave your bun nice and loose, or two if you need a stronger hold. And the major upside? No one has to see your 1980s clip, you no longer have to fight with the hair tie that is losing elasticity, and best of all...the pins hide in your hair! Perfection!

All you have to to is twist your hair into a bun as loose or as tight as you want it...

Then "spin the pin" (ha-ha, I slay myself) into the bun like a corkscrew...**

**NOTE:  IF you are using two pins you should spin them into your hair directly opposite of each other without interlocking them.

and, VOILA!  

They say that the Spin Pin does the work of sixty bobby pins.  All I know is it produces the perfect bun that is sure to hold my thick hair through coffee runs, conference calls and midday walks to the mall.

Hey, you take your breaks your way, I'll take mine my way.

Spin Pins can be purchased at Target and most grocery stores.

{all images by LOF}

taking trends to the office [neon]

Over the weekend, while lamenting to a friend about the impossibility of rocking feather extensions to the office, I came up with a new feature here on LOF which is really going to be more of a "how-to" guide.  I am going to call it:  "Taking Trends to the Office."  Why did I feel this was necessary?  Because it is damn near impossible to take most trends to the office as a "professional." You know, being trendy is often identified with being young and immature.  Whilst I vehemently disagree, balancing my penchant for trendy and fashionable duds with the unfortunately equally important perceptions of my colleagues can be a chore.  

So where to start?  While there were *so many* trends that I felt were equally impossible to adapt to a "take-me-seriously" environment, not one says "I am thirty but I act like I am fifteen" quite like NEON.  

So "how-to" NEON in the office?  I say start small.  Choose but one item of bright and then tone it down with lots-o-neutrals.  It takes the sting out and, if you keep it nice and structured, confuses the viewer into thinking it is just a-lot of color instead of, what it actually is - NEON.  A perfect example are these Key-Lime diddies DVF is doing (I have, and love, the blouse on the left).  I pair the color (which is bright neon in person) with fuddy duddy colors like below.  Picture either of these with a pair of chocolate (think the shorts the model has on) trousers and a pair of wedges.  Lovely, and perfectly professional.

Another option is putting the neon into a print.  If the base colors of the print are all neutrals or staple colors (black, brown, nude, gray, etc.) then the neon both pops but doesn't overwhelm.  This DVF shirtdress (again, give the NEON structure and it will detract from the insanity) is a perfect example.

If you think your office is not quite ready for full on garment NEON, then start with accessories.  They are small and they pack a big color punch.  My favorite NEON accessory of the moment has to be this Proenza Schouler satchel.  It is structured just like a briefcase - but green (or yellow, or orange as the case may be).  So on trend, and yet no one could say the bag isn't practical.  I am fairly certain all of my briefs would fit inside.

Leave it to Ettika to have the chic NEON jewelry under control.  These crystal bracelets are killer when you mix the grays, browns and NEONs.  And I really love the gold chain bracelet (below) wrapped around the orange neon cord.  If you don't want to invest too much $$ into such a potentially fleeting trend, jewelry is a great way to rock it.

And last, but most certainly not least - SHOES!  I am the queen of crazy shoes to begin with, and nothing is more sexy than color.  So why not bring in your NEON that way?  These Pollini shoes (on sale at Milk Boutique) are perfection.  I picture then with a black high-waisted skirt, and a pale blue silk top.  To Die.  

Super Chic.  NEON.

How do you rock your NEON to the office?

{images 1, 2 & 3 via dvf; 4 & 5 via net-a-porter; 6 & 7 via ettika; and 8 & 9 via milk}

lust list [my high school reunion]

So I am about to make this relationship of ours just a smidge bit personal:  My high school reunion is this weekend.  That is right, I have been out of high school for, count ‘em, TEN years.  Yikes.

Now once I decided to actually GO to this reunion, I was immediately plagued with what to wear.  Which was made more complicated by the fact that I am from a small West Texas town (read: HOT) and I hadn’t been home in a very long time.  So the task became a matter of finding a cocktail-ish dress that wasn’t too flashy, wasn’t too HOT and still looked like me (you know, crazy).  For a girl whose entire fashion presence is based on over-layering and crazy patterns, this is quite the difficult task.

So here is this week’s “lust list.”   As in, the list of things I am lusting after to wear to my reunion.  Now, to be clear, I didn’t end up with any of these (although I tried most of them on).  I am not bananas enough to put my actual choices up on the internet pre-reunion, bozo!

First up, this Alice + Olivia maxi dress.  This was almost the gold prize winner.  In fact, had they been able to locate this dress in my size (I had an interesting experience with the LA store’s attempt to get a size from NYC), this might very well have been the dress I chose.  Perfectly chic and casual.

 

Can’t go wrong with DVF.  If you are telling me that I can’t wear a crazy print to this shindig for fear of giving attendees migraines, at least allow me to color-block.  I’m on trend, and I know it….

This Elizabeth and James number is my fav.  In fact, if I hadn’t spent two months worth of my disposable income on Bali beach attire, I would have nabbed this for no reason.  Although, I can hear my mother now:  “Lynsey, that dress has no shape.  Wearing a sack does nothing for your figure…”  Whew, now I really am back in high school.

My last two dress “lusts” are both by Parker.  While the same brand, they are completely different looks and I like them both for completely different reasons.

This red/orange Parker dress is gorgeous.  Talk about being the center of attention.  There would be no avoiding it in this loveliness.  Fantabulous.  Not to mention, the fabric is light and airy.  Red hott, but not HOT.  If you know what I mean.

And as for this lovely:  Nothing says “I’ve kept my teenage figure” like a tight sequined mini.  In fact, I might still need this dress…

Stay tuned for my ACTUAL reunion choices next week.  I had to dial it down a little for Friday night (think light and linen), and steered closer to the silhouette of this last number for Saturday evening.  Here’s to hoping I am not over-dressed.  

Oh what the hell, here’s to hoping I am.

{images 1& 2 via Alice & Olivia; 3 & 4 via DVF; 5 & 6 via Net-a-Porter; 7 & 8 via Bloomingdales; and 9 & 10 via Otte NY}