I Like Bling

Don’t get me wrong–I love fine jewelry. My favorite pieces are a pair of simple diamond stud earrings and a single diamond pendant on a short, platinum chain–both gifts from my husband that were bestowed in white-beribboned blue boxes. But in spite of my love for the classic and beautiful, I can get pretty darned excited about busy, glitzy jewelry that turns a simple, elegant item of clothing into something very funky and fun.

Take, for example, this faux pearl and hermatite chain necklace by Aqua:

I saw it in the jewelry department in Bloomingdale’s in Century City, and it stopped me in my tracks. It has so much going on that I barely knew where to look first. I lifted it off the display, discovering that it was surprisingly heavy. But when I clasped it around my neck, the weight disappeared and was replaced by utter love.

Bling. It definitely has its rightful place in the baby boomer’s wardrobe.

Getting a Jump Start on Fall Fashion

Ever the creature of habit, I’m constantly drawn to clothing in black and deep shades of gray. These are two great finds from a recent shopping excursion to San Francisco.

Menswear cropped pants by Robert Rodriguez:

Silk cowl neck top by Vince:

On Sale at Bloomingdale’s!

I’ve been lusting after these sandals ever since I spotted them on the Bloomie’s Web site, and now they’re marked down from $265 to $159. Since I missed out on a great deal on the Stuart Weitzman platforms, I’ve decided these have to be mine.

OK…so maybe I have a problem…

Skinny Jeans–Not Necessarily Taboo for Baby Boomers

Many fashion experts will say that skinny jeans should not be worn by 50+ women, but I have a stylist friend who dispels that myth. While at lunch with my buddy Sam Saboura, I mentioned that I love the slightly skewed, incongruous look of a dark-wash, narrow-leg jean with stilettos.

“I wish I could wear them,” I sighed into my salad.

“You can,” came Sam’s reply, and we both grinned.

Sam knows that I love to keep pace with fashion trends–following what I see in magazines, online, and adorning the bodies of statement-making women. He also knows that I’m very careful not to embrace anything that’s dead wrong for me, and he’d never steer me in the wrong direction.

Armed with that knowledge and confident in the validity of Sam’s words, I headed straight to Bloomingdale’s after lunch. There I tried on approximately 4,000 pairs of skinny jeans–or at least that’s what it felt like after an endless amount of time in the dressing room. Too low slung. Too tight in the thighs. Too big in the waist. Too long. Too short. Too faded in all the wrong places. And then…miraculously…the ones: black, with just the right rise, just the right degree of snugness, just the right length, and not a hint of fading or whiskering anywhere in sight.

Now, I’m not going to insult your intelligence by insisting that these jeans, by Adriano Goldschmied, look anywhere near as great on me as they do on the lanky 20-something in the photo above. But they work. They really work. They’re not super skinny–that is, they would never be mistaken for denim leggings–but they’re narrow enough to give me the silhouette I was after. They look good with both flats and heels, and when paired with stilettos (which I’ll admit to loving with a passion that borders on the unnatural), they make my legs look remarkably long.

My advice to BB women who want to give skinny jeans a spin is to team them with a longer top. (Ignore that statement if you’re still sporting a flat-bellied, narrow-hipped body, in which case my hat is off to you.) Choose a style that covers the hips and butt: a long, narrow cardigan over a camisole; a blazer over a T; a breezy top that flows loosely over body parts that may have broadened over the years. You just might discover that a new door of style opportunity opens up for you.