A big massive thank you to all who entered the armwarmer giveaway. Your answers were gorgeous and Captian Apricot and myself had a hard time coming up with the winner. 

BUT… we both loved Scribbles and her love notes so congratulations love! The armwarmers are yours. Just email me at lady(at)smagglestyle.com and I’ll pass your deets along to the Captain!

Again, thanks for entering! I love you all. And thanks Captain Apricot for sponsoring the first Smaggle giveaway!

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

A few weeks ago I received an email from the gorgeous Ninaribena over at Canberra’s Got Style. She made my SJP top that I’ve nearly worn to death. Anyway aside from being ridiculously talented she is also a gem. Sensing that I was having a bad week she popped these gorgeous earrings in the post to cheer me up. Bless! They are from her Etsy store Tango and James. I’ve very awesomely styled these earrings with my OH&S school appropriate head scarf and clear lens glasses that I wore to make filigree today. I do apologise for not giving the earrings a better podium for their debut but the fact that they look pretty tops on this deranged librarian speaks volumes about their coolness. 

Thanks Ninaribena! Smaggle loves you!

Now I’m off to have a few gins with Co-Dependent Smaggle. I’m going to kill whatever brain cells I have left after eight straight hours of delicate silver wire work…

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

This post is long overdue. I had several readers (and a close friend who has now given birth to her pregnant belly) ask me last year for a post on how to dress while pregnant but, as I stated yesterday, my cranium was cruising my nether-regions and I never got around to it. So here it is!

Why don’t you…?

* Wear a long, shimmery, clingy dress to a formal occasion? Embrace the beauty of your baby bump? Wear nail polish and sparkly rings? Use bronzer to highlight your gorgeous glow?

* Invest in leotards? Navy? Forest? Evergreen? Wear them under a-line shirts, floaty tops and cardigans? Be fabulous and try a unitard? With a white summer dress? And a million floaty scarves?

* Dismiss hideous maternity pants and have your existing pants altered? See what magic a tailor can do?

* Try being a hippy? Long flowing skirts, wrap around dresses and empire waists? Fabric draping with the line of your new figure?

* Make an effort with your beauty routine? Be sure your eyebrows are always plucked? Wear flattering make-up? Style your hair?

* Do an Audrey Hepburn? Dress in knits? Stretchy capri pants? Black ballet flats?

Julia Roberts- dark, flattering base colour and a chunky necklace. The balloon sleeves balance the silhouette.

Milla Jovovich – Gorgeous grey with sultry red lips and a whole lot of bling.

Katie Holmes does jeans and a baby doll blouse. One does wonder how confortable those jeans are though…

Nicole Richie embraces a casual wife-beater and knit combo.

Gwen Stefani kicks pregnant butt in flat jewellery sandals, Indian prints and flattering lines. The Queen Mum.

What about you? Had babies? Any advice to share with my readers? What article of clothing could you not have lived without during your pregnancy?

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

Advanced Style

A wee little while ago I wrote an article on How to Dress Well in your 40’s. I got several requests from readers for such an article so I thought I would take a stab at giving my humble opinion. There is a section in my article that has caused a few readers a bit of grief. Let me set the record straight.

Yes – I wrote a section that was entitled ‘Less Colour = Classy’. I clarify that women can rock brights well into the later years of their lives but that it’s really hard to pull off. In the comments section I’m proved wrong by the gorgeous colour ambassadors Tricia from Bits and Bobbins and Wendy B. These ladies rock acid brights, leopard prints and primary colours and they look freakin fabulous! At the risk of offending either one of them, I’m fairly certain that they are both over the age of thirty and they are a perfect rebuttal to my offending statement. I ALWAYS think that people should dress however they please. Obviously. I wear turbans to work and evening gowns to the movies. I’m really not one to point the fashion finger at others. I’m terrified of colour so I rarely wear it. That’s why I wrote the section on colour. I think older women look classy and sophisticated when they tone down the colour. I think younger women look classy and sophisticated when they tone down the colour. That’s my opinion. Wendy B and Tricia are both designers and fashion bloggers. It takes practice and a keen eye to be able pull off their looks. I certainly couldn’t do it!  Colourful dressers are brave, adventurous and fabulous. I’m not one of them, so I can’t offer advice on how to wear colour. I only write what I know.

As a blog author I offer my opinions daily and I do it for free. I love a good argument and I will never delete comments from people that disagree with me. If you do disagree with something I say, I would love to have a pleasant and respectful debate with you – like WendyB and Tricia. Here are a few things I would like commenters to keep in mind…

* My age does not add or detract value from my arguments.

* I’m a person, not a corporation. When you say mean things, I read them and feel bad.

* My blog is not the Bible. Please take a chill pill before you read it.

* Don’t judge me on one post.

* If you don’t like my blog, don’t read it. It’s like hanging out with someone that you hate. It’s really weird.

I also find it strange that people are so obsessed with this article. I’ve written about WAY more controversial topics – Ethical Dilemmas in the Fashion Blogosphere, Fat Fashion and Positive Body Image and Fashion Etiquette – Is it okay to steal your style from other cultures? and for some reason people are getting all jiggy about whether or not grannies should wear colour. Bizarre.

Although having said that I’m very, very lucky that I so rarely get less-than-pleasant comments. I love all my readers so much and value the positivity and intelligence that you all bring to my blog so thank you.

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

P.S Do any of my older readers have an opinion on this? E? What are your thoughts? Is what I wrote super offensive or is it just being perceived badly?

Easton Pearson. We Aussies know to how rock a fashion week don’t we?

This collection conjures images in my head of an exceptionally tall woman wearing candy coloured wedge sandals and bright summer dresses. She keeps ducks in her garden and drinks coffee through a straw. She wears chunky clay necklaces that she made in her pottery class and she studies anthropoly. This woman is unmarried but she has a continuous string of long-haired lovers that call on her at unusual times of the day. She carries a parasol to keep the sun of her face and you can’t tell if she is 20 or 40 years old. Waking up every morning, she decorates her body with frills and lace, wraps ribbons everywhere they will fit and she always adds one more accessory before she leaves the house.

I’m beginning to wonder if anyone would mind if I wore a ballgown to work…?

I’m feeling the need to dress like a birthday present.

Love Lady Smaggle

Photos from Vogue Australia

xxx

I do love a bit of Betsey. Her ready-to-wear Fall 2008 collection makes me love her even more. The look is slightly trashy and very vintage with unexpected lines and versatility through out the collection. I get so bored when designers pick a fabric and repeat the same dress 10 times with slightly different shapes. Yawn. Not the case with Ms Johnson. Each of her outfits has an individual personality, much like the characters out of Rent - waif like band groupies who do drugs and steal but you love them anyway because they are so fabulous and tortured. The kind of girl who carries a massive bag everywhere because she is homeless and all the clothes she wears are borrowed or stolen yet she still manages to look like she fell straight off the catwalk and into a bar. Her make up is flawless, her diet consists of champagne and cigarettes and she is stuck in an abusive relationship with a guy she is in love with. Oh and she has a hidden talent like singing or painting that she either lives to pursue or halucinates about while dying from an overdose. Her life is made all the more fascinating because the girl you love to hate is wearing red lipstick, a beret, platform shoes, blue nail polish and fishnet stockings…   

Here are a few covetable items to assist you in the pursuit of the ‘Bad girl with a heart of gold’ look…

* Blue nail polish – It makes you look a little like a corpse but lets face it, it’s the kind of the look we are aiming for here.

* Fish net, polka dot or lace stockings. They give the appearance of nakedness and they never cease to make an outfit look naughty.

* Fringing. Perfect for swirling on the dance floor or strutting down the street in your platforms.

* Crimped hair. Am I the only person who still thinks this is cool? If I had straight hair I would do this every day.

* An unexpected accessory. A beret, a man’s watch, a scarf tied around your waist. You want to make it look like you just stole it from somebody else. You know because you’re just so crazy like that…

* Platform shoes. None of this stiletto crap. You need the extra stability for your slow motion running scene.

* A piece of sentimental jewellery like a locket or a ring that you wear all the time and you get misty eyed and elusive whenever someone asks you about it.

I’m breaking out the blue polish this week…

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

There is certainly something about Alice In Wonderland. It’s this certain something that makes you want to drink poison because the bottle tells you not you, that makes you try and squeeze into tiny crevasse’s that you won’t fit through and that makes you jump off a roof wearing a circle skirt because you hope the wind will catch underneath and you’ll glide softly to the ground as if you were floating under Mary Poppins’ umbrella. Well my darlings have I got a treat for you! The far less stupid (and possibly fatal) way of embracing the land of wonder is simply to don white tights like our young Alice. How she managed to party with Tweedle twins and make it through the Mad Hatter’s tea party with out so much as a smudge on her snowy white tights I’ll never know, but she sure did look sweet while doing it.

I’ll admit it wasn’t just Alice that made me all white-tight happy. I’m pointing the finger at McQueen again. His 2008 Ready to Wear Fall collection is delicious. All icy furs, gold trimmings and sparkly embroidery. And lets not forget those gorgeous white legs…

Sigh! I’m going to get white tights and carry muffins in a basket…

Love Lady Smaggle

Photos from Style.com

 * Match the colour of your handbag to your shoes and belt. How quaint.

* Wear Chanel No. 5 – the signature fragrance of Marilyn Monroe created in 1921. She wore it to bed… and nothing else.

* Drink whisky with ice and paint your fingernails and lips blood red.

* Wear as many bangles that will fit on your wrist and carry a clutch bag. A delicious beaded one with nothing more than a lipstick inside.

* Wear lingerie in gelati colours with little fruity garters.

* Discover Egypt. Tutankhamen was the subject of fashion fascination and his head adorned many a clutch bag in the 20’s.

* Use rouge.

* Buy your man a cape and have him wrap it around you on chilly street light-lit nights.

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

Dear Readers,

There is something about scarves that you should know. It may not have been evident due to the careful editing of my How to Wear a Scarf – Part 1 post but if you wish to become a true inspiration to the scarf wearing clan I’m about to tell you something that could potentially change your life. And take you to an expert level of scarf wearing. Ready? You don’t have to wear a scarf around your neck. It’s shocking, I know. For the next installment of How to Wear a Scarf we’re going to get a little kooky, a little weird… a little experimental.

Why not try beautiful clean make up with a scarf around your head? Make sure you show a little hair to avoid that widow look.

I’m sorry but the coolness of this is ASTOUNDING – Wear your scarf UNDERNEATH your jacket with artistic fringes peeking through the neck and hem.

Wear two scarves at once! One up high in a bow and longer one tied down low. That’s poetry. Oh and if you could be as cute as this girl that would be good.

My new obsession. A short scarf and a necklace. It’s much easier to pull this off if you’re French.

And again! Only this time it’s Paraphernalia. I have this necklace in red and I love it. I fully intend on wearing it with a scarf sometime in the near future. And cutting my hair into a blunt bob.

Why not wear your scarf like a hood? With a devilishly shaggy fringe?

Bunch your scarf up like a roll neck jumper and wear it with a mega collar. On a bike. With a basket holding a French bread stick and a bunch of wild flowers. Okay so I may have analysed that one a little too much…

Okay. Can everyone please promise that in the next week you will wear a scarf tied in a bow on your head? You will be depriving the world of serious amounts of cuteness if you don’t.

A big arse neck bow. How delightful.

Don’t even get me started on the structural brilliance of this. Not only is the head piece INSANELY AWSOME she is also wearing one of the most beautiful scarves I’ve ever seen. Multiple scarves. Why the hell didn’t I think of that? Photos from Facehunter.

Oh and I was trawling through Style Bytes (surprise, surprise) and I know poor Agathe must think I am a stalker but she is quite simply an amazing style icon. And her scarf wearing skills are truly extraordinary. Barely a day goes by when this sartorial delight doesn’t don a scarf and although she is conservative in her placement of this accessory (usually around her neck) the style, structure and colour of her scarves is a visual phenomenon.  

 Go forth and conquer my little Scarfy MrScarfersons!

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx

I have to say that I was quite shocked to discover how many fabulous images I managed to find of men wearing scarves for my How to Wear a Scarf – For Men post. Who knew there were so many men I would shag wandering aimlessly around London? There were even more women! Wearing scarves I mean, not women I would shag.

Here is the pick o’ the litter…

I love a silk scarf tied around like a roll-neck. And the pattern and colours give it an unusual twist.

I strongly believe that shawls are in the scarf family. Or scarves are in the shawl family. I don’t know which one but there is some serious in-breeding going on there. Anyway how beautiful is this girl? A shawl with serious fringe doesn’t look at all Nanna-like when paired with a funky haircut and a dapper little beret.

Skinny scarves are too cool. I like to wear them and drink Frappucinos and pretend that I am Kate Hudson.

Always play with texture. Okay the jumper is a little scary but the scarf is divine.

Wear a red scarf with red lipstick. Seriously just do it.

A loose extra long scarf gives snuggle-factor like nothing else. Only attempt this look if you want people to cuddle you excessively.

A fur stole with big-arse bow. Need. This. Now.

I don’t know if this is technically a scarf or just some fur pompoms on a ribbon. Lets just call it the Pommy Ribbonator (distant cousin of the scarf… It may have had some babies with a necklace and a rabbit) and admit that it’s rad. Is anyone feeling a DIY kind of thing here?

Block colour is splendid. Lined with black and thrown over a leather jacket is just scarf heaven wouldn’t you say?

Casual plaid with matching heels. How quaint!

A casual designer scarf slung around your neck and blowing in the breeze. Oh yeah.

A red scarf with straight black. An afro is preferable but not compulsory.

A marshmallow fluff shawl with a pink headband. Why don’t we all own these?

Stock up on scarves! They are the cheapest and most over looked item at nearly all thrift stores. And here is a kooky tip for you – wear them around your neck. So many people wear them as headscarves that it’s scary but a silky number tied around your neck is SO COOL that it’s practically frozen. Lame metaphor, I know but I needed to get my point across somehow…

 Stay tuned for more scarf-y goodness…

Love Lady Smaggle

xxx