Betsey Johnson's Comeback - Why Full-figured Girls Should Care

Back in February when Betsey Johnson filed for bankruptcy and closed down all 63 stores the internet exploded. Where would all the kitsch-loving retro-inspired fashion bloggers buy their cupcake dresses and rhinestone cat necklaces? As a fan of the brand for years I have amassed a sizable collection of Betsey Johnson necklaces, bracelets, shoes and bags. As a full-figured girl I was dismayed at the lack of sizes in her clothes--all her stuff only went up to a junior's size large, her bras only to a modest C-cup, some dresses went up to a very slender size 12. When Betsey Johnson stores closed down I did not weep, the one and only time I was in one the only clothes on the sales floor were in sizes 0, 2, and 4--if you wanted a larger size the salesgirl would have to pull it from the back. As someone who works in retail I know these decisions are not arbitrary, Betsey Johnson LLC was clearly sending a message to women everywhere: they don't want chubby women to wear their clothes.  The brand was tailored to Betsey-clones with skinny bodies, small frames, and preferably blonde hair. Girls like me could only stand outside peering through the frost-crusted window into a warm world full of pink tulle, roses, glitter, and lace.

See this dress? It's authentic from the 1950's but there is only one.

This is Betsey Johnson's Tea Party dress. She made it every season in a  new color, just not in my size. 

While Betsey Johnson LLC tanked my local Macy's still carried the jewelry and handbags. Before the announcement of the bankruptcy Betsey fans may have noticed a steep price drop in the brand's shoes and handbags, that's because the accessory part of the brand was sold to Steve Madden in 2010. Steve Madden scaled back the brand considerably and a few months after the bankruptcy announcement the Betsey website was up and running again, minus the clothes. Betsey herself blamed corporate structure and the "stores [that] started knocking off my $250 prom dresses for $49.” I find the statements by the designer very short-sighted when it comes to the changing climate of American retail and the shifting attitudes of the American buyer. Women interested in Betsey's clothes could afford her dresses in the failing economy if only the garments fit and flattered a more mature body, as one analyst said "the younger women that buy her don’t even have jobs anymore, let alone income.” In other words the American women with buying power are not young, rich, AND skinny anymore (arguably the BJ-trifecta necessary to wear her clothes.)

Send in the Betsey clones! Young, rich and skinny only please!

Lucky for us ladies with meat on our bones Steve Madden acknowledges this shift in the buyer's market and will be resurrecting the clothing brand in Macy's and Nordstrom stores. “ 'They’ll be young in spirit like Betsey is, but accessible for women up to 40 years old,' said Lisa Andriulli, a vice president of Macy’s. [She] added that the dresses have classic Johnson touches like fun prints and petticoats, but are sized more generously." Hopefully this means more wearable clothes for a wider variety of women that will still retain that retro aesthetic and young party-girl sensibility. However this is not the first time Betsey has promised diversity in her clothing line only to release Pink Patch in the same old tired junior sizes. Hopefully under the influence of a successful mass-market retailer like Steve Madden Betsey Johnson's resurrection will mean I can finally buy her iconic Marilyn sweater in a misses size large or extra-large and a tea party dress in a proper size 14. 

Style Icon: Bree Van De Kamp

Let's continue with style icon week! A style icon is a personal saint of your style world and serves many purposes--such as a starting line for a killer outfit or a persona to channel when things get tough at work. These women kick butt, take names, and look good while doing it. Their style is to be admired, dissected, and emulated but never copied--each should make you try to be a better version of yourself! 

I love shows about middle-aged women. Television shows with young characters tend to target young people so if I want intelligent, self-possessed and feisty women I look to shows like Desperate Housewives. There's no surprise that my favorite housewife is Bree Van De Kamp. Her life is far from perfect but she insists on keeping up pretenses. She's a perfectionist. If I stayed home all day I would run a home as tight and neat as Bree who's spent years polishing the routine of her life. A lot of the comedy in the show surrounds how Bree keeps it together despite all the drama in her life while maintaining her perfect middle-class facade. In season four she tells her son "This family's reputation is already hanging by a thread. I mean first people thought that your step-father was a wife killer then your sister takes up with her history teacher and now we're supposed to parade a little bastard up and down the street? We might as well sit on the porch and play banjos!" And her style! Bree looks like she stepped out of a Ralph Lauren Polo ad. She taught me all the colors I could wear as a pale-skinned red-head to look stunning. Like a Stepford wife she has a strong twist of the 60s in her wardrobe--classic cuts, pearls, jewel tones and pastels, and that lovely flippy bubble-inspired hairdo!

Fabulous!

Style It: Bree had one of the best pregnancy wardrobes ever, as if every piece was bought from Modcloth and let-out just for her. To get an everyday Bree Van De Kamp look the classic cuts and candy colors of Old Navy or J.Crew will fit the bill, just be sure to mix your high and low with some fabulous faux-estate jewelry like this and lady-like shoes from here.

Style Icon: Joan Holloway

Continuing with style icon week! A style icon is a personal saint of your style world and serves many purposes--such as a starting line for a killer outfit or a persona to channel when things get tough at work. These women reveal a part of yourself and encourage you to foster other virtues. Their style is to be admired, dissected, and emulated but never copied--each should make you try to be a better version of yourself.

Joan Holloway is a natural choice for a style icon. Mad Men has been inspiring the fashion world since it started airing in 2007. Joan won me over instantly with her easy grace, classy business clothes, and complete self-possession. She's polite yet blunt, elegant and put together. Most of all she's good at her job, makes it her art and excels at everything she does. She uses her femininity like battle armor, she is very calculated in how she dresses and what she reveals to those in the office. She uses her love life to blow off steam but keeps her personal life perfectly separated from her professional career. She maintains her facade at all times and keeps other people's secrets as well as her own. She has more integrity and honesty than anyone in the office. She clothes herself in shift dresses and high-waisted pencil skirts and never shows cleavage, as a curvy girl this realization completely changed my work wardrobe. Joan taught me how to show off my curves without exposing my body--a lesson every woman should learn.

Youch!

Style it: Look for jewel tones, little sleeves, scarf-like details around the high-neck, and a pencil silhouette. I've always had good luck at Banana Republic ($150) and J.Crew ($198) for shift dresses, keep in mind that spindly models do not show off the Joan-like possibilities of such dresses!

Style Icon: Wanda Woodward

I've been dealing with RL recently and my blog has gone forlorn and unattended. To get myself back into the posting mood I've decided to share several of my style icons with you this week. This blog is all about different inspirations and incorporating them into your personal style. Identifying your style icons is a very important process. A style icon is a personal saint of your style world and serves many purposes--such as a starting point for a killer outfit or a persona to channel when things get tough at work. These women reveal a part of yourself and encourage you to foster other virtues. Their style is to be admired, dissected, and emulated but never copied--each should make you into a better version of yourself.

My first style icon of the week is Wanda Woodward from the movie Cry-Baby (1990). Wanda is part of the title-character's gang and is a true rebel without a cause, she comes from a very normal family and should be well-adjusted. She joins the drapes (slang for greaser in Baltimore at the time the movie takes place) because she is so privileged, things came too easy for her in life so she's bored. As a very sexual character (she is played by Traci Lords, famous for creating porn while underage) Wanda is the only one from the Cry Baby gang that is single, she puts up a wall between herself and men. Her style moments are plentiful (the whole movie is a style moment, really) and she draws attention in every scene with her blonde hair and baby bangs. She makes me want a leather motorcycle jacket. When she's not wearing a pencil dress like in the scene below she sports a longer gray pencil skirt, tight black off-the-shoulder tee, saddle shoes and her red Cry-Baby scarf around her neck. She says at one point "You'd never catch me dead in a full skirt." She knows how to stand up for herself and she exudes danger and un-attainability  Be sure to check out some of the musical numbers on Youtube to get a real taste of the movie.

Isn't she fabulous?

Style It: Cry-Baby is such an obscure movie I had a conniption when I found this T-shirt at Hot Topic($23) and I channel Wanda whenever I throw on this red scarf ($10) from Vivcore.

Thursday's Movie Review: The Seven Year Itch (1955)

The thing that I love about old movies is realizing that the pastoral, picturesque ideas that our grandparents paint of their day are completely fictional. Who knew The Seven Year Itch (1955) is actually a movie about infidelity, seduction, and fantasizing? Richard Sherman is a book editor whose wife and son goes to Maine for the summer while he stays in the city to work. A model moves in upstairs (played by Marilyn Monroe) and begins Richard's summer of unresolved sexual tension.  The comedy of the movie lies in Richard's absurd fantasies involving the girl upstairs, his wife, and multiple other women in his life. His mental condition spirals downwards throughout the movie until he becomes the personification of cognitive dissonance. The only thing keeping Richard's libido in check is the model's sweetness and innocence, in the end she proves that she has more character than Richard. The movie is best known for the white dress billowing over the subway grate scene, which never actually appears in the movie in all it's glory.

Get the look: The white dress defines not only the movie but Marilyn Monroe herself and is probably one of the most recognizable dresses in all of movie history. Every anachronistic fashionista needs one so head on over to  Trashy Diva's Dottie dress ($163) and pick one up. Wear it all summer.

The Great Gatsby brings back the 1920s

Is anyone else as excited about The Great Gatsby movie as I am? I can't wait until December to experience all the glamour and oppulence of the 1920s. I am anticipating a visual feast followed by a love affair with the 1920s in fashion and television. I can't wait for art deco to make a comeback!

Vogue Italia and Ellen Von Unwerth already did a fabulous photo shoot and accompanying video here that channels that 1920s glamour. Do look into it.

Dita Von Teese: How She Became the Most Famous Stripper in America

LA Weekly did an amazing interview and photo-shoot of my favorite ambassador of glamour. Read the interview by Gendy Alimurung here! The fabulous technicolor photo set is by Star Foreman.

The interview gives us a peek into the very little-known parts of her career, when her persona was in it's infancy.

"There is a difference, Dita Von Teese has learned, between getting naked onstage and "in real life." Onstage she controls everything: From the lights illuminating her pale breasts, to the layers of body makeup smoothing over her thighs, to the Swarovski crystal and feathers, many "special tricks" go into creating the illusion of otherworldly perfection."

Do you know the one rule of burlesque? No pink. That's how you keep it classy.

"I'm probably overcoming my feelings of being very average-looking. Which made me want to create glamour and paint myself and do my makeup and hair well, and become something that I wasn't originally."

Thursday's Movie Review: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1965) is one of those cult classics that no one has seen, which is a shame since the film is as poignant today as it was in 1965 (if you disregard that horrible cameo by Mickey Rooney!) Holly Golightly is a New York City party girl that makes her living by charming men into giving her $50 for the powder room. She is a woman of few possessions yet limitless style, the girl knows how to go from flat to fabulous in three minutes! What money she doesn't spend on rent she spends on clothes, her apartment is comprised of found objects and her one companion, Cat. The story is based on the novella by Truman Capote (and if you don't know who that is, please rectify that egregious sin immediately!) and has as many layers as an onion. The characters are so multi-dimensional for the time the story is secondary to their individual complexities. Yet the movie maintains an air of frivolity, Holly's life is like a perpetual party. Putting aside the gigolo writer love-interest, the fabulously scarce apartment, and Holly's no-one-can-own-me attitude you still have Holly's fabulous wardrobe. The outfit she wears to Sing Sing, that orange coat she wears for the day of I-never's, and the pink dress and tiara she wears when she has her breakdown are all style moments worth stealing.



Any Holly Golightly arsenal is incomplete without a Bumpit. You can further copy Holly Golightly's style with the fantastic eye mask and ear plug duo ($50). All you need is a men's tuxedo shirt for a very glamorous morning!

Diana Agron does the 60s

Yet another celebrity I'm not really sure why they are famous yet looks killer in mod style. I'm really loving the Miu Miu coat and Tarina Tarantino earrings. These lady-like structured styles and pale pink lips are thanks to Nylon magazine.

Daily Dose of Pretty - Kate Spade New York

Kate Spade is one of those lifestyle brands that molds my own personal style--bright, cheerful, and girly with a strong dash of retro. I adore the Fall campaign featuring Bryce Dallas Howard (though I have no idea who she is!) that celebrates all the best luxuries in life--the perfect hand bag, a neon pink coat, vibrant lipstick paired with winged eyeliner, and a perfectly clear martini! We all need a friendly reminder to Live Colorfully!

Thursday's Movie Review - How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

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My Marilyn Monroe sighting in All About Eve (1950) has inspired me to watch more of her movies. I couldn't resist How to Marry a Millionaire (1957) since it also starred Betty Grable and Lauren Becall. Set in New York City the movie is about three models who rent an apartment outside their means to land themselves millionaires.



I love old romantic comedies like this that shoot straight--the movie is unapologetic about women wanting men for money and men wanting women for youth and beauty. The tale is as old as time but the fact that the women are actively trying to trap the men gives a fresh take to the story, politically correct or not. The actresses are endearing and the clothes left me drooling, there is even a fashion show in the middle of the movie! Watch this one with your single girlfriends so you can concoct your own plans to land a man that's "holding!"



Copy Lauren Becall's sophistication with the essential plainweave jacket ($158) and side banded pencil skirt ($60) in navy from The Limited. You can play around in the blue ASOS belted midi dress ($81) paired with a pink Candy Violet petticoat ($49) just like Betty Grable! Or channel Marilyn Monroe's effortlessly sexy style with the J. Crew Teddie dress ($198), Urban Outfitters Risky Readers ($14) and add a faux fur or vintage fur collar from Etsy (prices vary)! Bonus points for referring to a cute girl as a "strudel" or saying "creamy" in a sentence.

Anna Paquin + V Magazine 2011

Anna Paquin got all dolled up for V magazine and she looks...a bit ridiculous doesn't she? Paquin has a very modern face and figure so the hair and clothes do nothing for her. She honestly looks like a drag queen or like she's wearing a Marilyn Monroe Halloween costume in some of the shots. I do like the Hitchcock feel that some of the images evoke but overall I'm so distracted by the wrongness of the whole shoot. This is a great example of anachronistic style taken too literally, it becomes costume-y. If the stylist had mixed in some more modern elements the shoot would have been less jarring.

Thursday Movie Review: All About Eve (1950)

All About Eve (1950) is a fascinating film that harkens back to when movies had literary qualities. The subtle psychology behind each actor and the fiery tirades of Margot Channing (Bette Davis) punctuate the film with wit and humor. The title character Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) worms her way into Margot's life and tries to supplant her career and her relationships. The clothes are inspiring and be careful not to miss an early role from Marilyn Monroe's career. One of the movie's themes is oppositions--New York vs. Hollywood, Old vs. Young, married vs. single. One of my favorite scenes is when Margot's boyfriend turns Eve down--"What I go after I go after. I don't want it to come after me." Makes me nostalgic for a time when men had standards. Watch this one with your token-gay-male-friend or an aging fabulous aunt that will quote the movie line by line for you!



Get the Look:

I adore several costume elements from the film but the suit Margot wore to the theater still haunts me. This is the perfect outfit for putting people in their place. You can get this look with the J.Crew Telegraph suit ($306) paired with this New York & Company silky bow blouse ($37). Be sure to add this Vivcore party bow purse ($95) with your basic black pumps. Extra style points for donning a faux mink ($199)!

Kate Moss and Classic Vintage Style

Kate Moss posed for Vogue UK in a combination of '40s, '50s, and '60s fashion re-imagined through a modern lens. This is what anachronistic style is all about--playful imaginings of classic styles and vintage glamor. The styling is simply divine and I find the neutral color palette with shots of emerald and coral inspiring.

Dita Von Teese on Stockings

Dita recently shared her tips for wearing fully fashioned stockings and her advice is too good to not pass on. Like most things pertaining to vintage fashion stockings are a lost art. Here's what Dita has to say for those of us born after pantyhose were invented...

"Always buy more than one pair of the same style, so if one gets a run, just take another from a new package. Stockings are superior to pantyhose not just because they are more beautiful and feel more free, but because chances are, you may run one leg, but not the other, so the pair is not all lost when you have backups pairs. Next, do as the French do, and put the garter belt on FIRST! Panties (if any) go over the top so you can easily remove them for whatever reason and still have that lovely stocking and garter belt frame. Authentic fully-fashioned seamed stockings never have any lycra, therefore they have that lovely rasp of nylon, the welt with a keyhole in back, and of course, they have an authentic stitched seam and a cuban or french heel. Your garter belt must have stability to keep the seams straight; look for ones with six straps rather than four, one that is wide and sits firmly in place at the waist. Girdles and corsets accomplish this too. The stockings should frame the pelvis, not be too long, nor too short, but the top part of the stocking should rise to about mid-thigh. My signature stockings are made on the true vintage 1940s era mills, with every detail in place. Beware of faux seams and lycra! Welcome to the Cult of the Fully-fashioned Nylon Stocking! Accept nothing less!"

You can purchase Dita's authentic stockings at Secretsinlace.com here!

Thursday's Movie Review - Funny Girl (1968)

Funny Girl (1968) is a rags to riches tale about a girl making it big on Broadway as a comedienne. Fannie Brice (Barbara Streisand) experiences the highs and lows of show business and experiences a whirl-wind and doomed romance with the professional gambler Nicky Arnstein. Set in the 1910's the movie is all about the costumes, each outfit Barbara Streisand wears is worth pouring over in every minute detail. The leopard coat and cloche worn in the theater, the purple dress she wears to her dinner with Nicky, and the train-station outfit are most memorable for me.



Streisand carries the movie and the plot is secondary to her charms. I never experienced her talents for myself so the movie was very eye-opening for me, I understand now why so many people love her. Watch this one with your BFF and a bag of popcorn.

Blake Lively's Mod Style

Blake Lively channeled the 1960's for Glamour magazine. Makes me want to keep working on that beehive tutorial I posted a couple weeks ago and pair it with a smoky eye instead of the liquid eyeliner I was planning. J'Adore all those shoes!

Thursday's Movie Review: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

A bittersweet and heartwrenching tale of young lust and marriage in 1960's France The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of those movies that has to be experienced once. It's not a movie that will appeal to a broad audience, and the fact that all dialogue is sung instead of spoken will turn off some. There are two reasons to watch the film--1) the visuals and 2) Catherine Deneuve.



Umbrellas Of Cherbourg is part of the French new wave in cinema. The backgrounds are inspiring in Easter egg colors. Catherine Deneuve skips around her technicolor world, a vision in youth and blonde hair, a perfect paragon of young love. Nino Castelnuovo is an appropriate Romeo to Catherine's Juliet. I love Deneuve's iconic black hair ribbon, her constant ballet flats, and that lovely salmon pink coat. Watch this one with a boy you are about to break up with anyways as a form of revenge/torture.

Katy Perry + Vanity Fair

I much preferred Katy Perry when she sung about kissing girls than fireworks but I do love the looks she is sporting in this Vanity Fair spread. I love how the girl vacillates between kooky and glamorous. This editorial sums her up nicely, fluffy blurbs and all.