Falling in Love: Fall Trends at Richards 2011

Giorgio Armani Milan Runway Fall 2011

How can it be? Poof! Summer is nearly gone...What can I say to cheer me you up???  Well, for starters, Fall is looking mighty luscious!!!  As the new collections pour into Richards, the prevalence of certain trends becomes obvious.  It's always interesting to see which collective fabrics and colors seep into the consciousness of the design community and how cohesive the results are. Great like minds do think alike.

Here are some of the trends you can look forward to seeing at Mitchells Stores:

I'm Melting...Melting!

I don't think it's a coincidence that 6 people have asked me if I have lost weight in the last few days...the scale is also looking good, thank you.  I'm not much of a foodie, primarily because I have little interest in cooking,  even though I come from a long line of great ones and do appreciate eating beautifully prepared food.

The only thing I can attribute this to, is the Body Melt treatment I experienced at the Equinox Spa in Greenwich...  When I told Gentry Long the always enthusiastic and professional General Manager that I was a Beauty Blogger, he was excited for me to sample some of the advanced treatments the spa has to offer like the Body Melt and the Hydrofacial.  Naturally I was game and excited. 

Here is the skinny on my incredible experience with the Body Melt Treatment:

Spa-tacular! Equinox: Greenwich

What's the next best thing to LOSING 9 INCHES in 2 hours, with the popular Ionithermie treatment, aka "The Body Melt" at the luxurious den of serenity at the Equinox Spa in Greenwich???  Maybe taking 8 years off my face with a Hydrofacial, featuring "diamond tipped" microdermabrasion.

Surfing Sephora: Fall Wonderlust on a Summer's Eve

There are a couple of things that signal the end of summer, my favorite season; dusk creeping in at 7:42, The Fashion of the Times arriving on my door , Vogue and all the other September Bibles books hitting the newsstands and Sephora's Fall Beauty Report.  It always triggers a simultaneous feeling of sadness and excited anticipation...ya know???\

Sephora does a spectacular job of highlighting new launches, reviewing the must try trends and bringing us the latest beauty breakthroughs each season.  If you didn't get your catalog yet,  don't fret!!! Click this link and pick your faves from the HOT NOW catalog.  Here's what caught my eye:

Miracles do Happen: A Sexy Dress WITH a Sleeve

Why do most dresses look better without a sleeve???  How is it possible that a few inches of fabric can make a fabulous "Audrey" dress look like something  June Cleaver would wear, while scrabbling eggs for Wally and the Beave?

As Richards Personal Shopper, I can tell you it's a universal conundrum.  There are times, like mid-January or when you are slacking at the gym, when a sleeveless dress just won't do.  


That's why I was thrilled when this gorgeous, versatile cashmere dress from German designer Talbot Runhof arrived...with a sleeve:

Travelling in the "Parallel Universe"

One of the websites I subscribed to is Rachel Zoe's The Zoe Report.  I receive it daily and love reading her cheeky take on all the things that inspire her.  Two features that I especially love is that 1) she is operating in "real time", meaning if it's summer, she's raving about a bo chic sundress you can wear tomorrow and 2) she  makes suggestions that are available by link to a similar but more affordable style in the "parallel universe".

Nice!!!

I often ebb and flow back and forth between high end luxury cosmetics and my CVS hauls.  I also receive newly launched products from the P.R. companies that represent them. Often they will send me more than one shade, so I bring the non-match with me to work, to see if I can match up who it is best suited for.

"I'm Done"!!! Do you hear me Andy Cohen???

One of my guilty pleasures has been Bravo's Real Housewife franchise. I got hooked on the original O.C. series in its second season, when "real" girls like Jeanna, Tammi and Laurie, actually interacted as friends and supported one another. O.C. was followed by Atlanta, N.Y., N.J., D.C., Beverly Hills and Miami.

My inner snob did not embrace any of the fauxsocialites other than the N.Y. and B.H. casts.  Despite departures, new faces, cancellation, and escalated  bickering and hair pulling I still endured.

So what made me play the "I'm Done" card???

The two part R.H.O.N.Y season four finale.  Three hours of vitriol, name calling, outing, screeching, backstabbing, denying, accusing, berating and insulting.  WHO ARE THESE WOMEN???

Fashion Passion at Richards

Yesterday I posted about writing more about my "truest passion"; fashion.  Summer is always a quiet time in retail, as clients are busy "summering" abroad, out West, in the Hampton's and Nantucket.  True to the strangeness of the delivery cycles in fashion, it may be 92 degrees out, but we are already ga ga over the full out fall collections that are arriving daily at Richards.

This week we received some new cocktail dresses from J. Mendel  that simply took my breath away.  While Gilles Mendel was originally best known for his exquisite furs, his evolution into Ready-to-Wear as followed a meteoric path.  Here is how N.Y. Magazine describes the J.Mendel label:

Founded in 1870 in Paris by Joseph Breitman, a furrier to the Russian aristocracy, J. Mendel is one of the rare luxury brands to remain family-owned. Today, the fifth-generation Gilles Mendel acts as CEO and head designer, and the label is now based in New York. In addition to fur, the brand now encompasses a full women’s ready-to-wear line, which originated practically by accident; to detract PETA protesters from staking out his first flagship boutique on Madison Avenue in the mid-nineties, Mendel created simple sheaths to display in the store windows at night. Collections now run the spectrum from luscious chiffon dresses and sleek canvas trenches to tweed suiting and red-carpet gowns.

Talk about silver linings!

I fell madly in love with this new chiffon and satin cocktail dress and I styled it as I would dream of wearing  or selling it:

J. Mendel Cocktail Dress ($2990)

I would wear it with this gorgeous Rene Caovilla platform evening shoe:

Rene Caovilla Evening Shoe ($1075)

And accessorize it with this Irene Neuwirth `rainbow moonstone and pale amythest bracelet set in pink gold:

Irene Neuwirth Bracelet ($6535)

For earrings I would prefer something dangling and would have a hard time choosing between the Kimberly McDonald pink geode earring, set in rose gold and surrounded by pave diamonds or the more delicate Sylva & Cie rose gold, hand wrought  diamond scroll earrings:

Kimberly McDonald Geode Earrings($9800) Sylva & Cie Earrings (7500)

Beautiful, no???  Which would you choose???

A girl can dream, but she can purchase too!

xox,
DD

Sometimes The Glass Slipper is a Dress...

I had a wonderful Girls Day in NYC on Monday.  My friend Jeannie organized it and in addition to our mutual pals Nancy and Abby, I  got the chance to know Mona and Julie better.  We took advantage of Restaurant Week and chose something relatively close to the Met, which in response to enormous demand,  was opened to allow  more people to be able to see the extraordinary Alexander McQueen exhibit (round two for me), before it closes on August 7th.  Our lunch was delicious, but was marred by a most unfortunate snarly waitress with hygiene issues. In a nutshell, OY VEY!

Mona works for a major beauty corporation and nicely, is a fan of my Blog.  She asked me why I write so much about beauty and if I feel more passionately about it than fashion.  To her point, it would appear that way, but in reality, I've never wept over a new moisturizer, or broken out in spontaneous goosebumps over a lipstick launch.  I have, however,done that many times, when I have been overwhelmed by the beauty of a new collection.  I cried and hyperventilated just the other day, so I thought I would share it with you what got me so crazy:

Ultherapy: Keeping a Stiff Upper Lip

OY!!!

I no longer subscribe to magazines.  Much of my eyeball time is now devoted to reading them online, devouring other blogs and  new book downloads on my Kindle.  Of course there are times when nothing less then a good glossy will do...like any salon visit.  I immediately jump to the table of contents to peruse the beauty articles.

Sometime last month, I was reading an article on the latest "cutting edge" anti-aging treatments.  Famed N.Y. Dermatologist Pat Wexler,  (who was featured on a recent cameo on The Real Housewives of N.Y.  wielding a syringe instead of scalpel  performing  a "liquid facelift" on Jill Zarin), has also embraced using Ultherapy. Ultherapy is the FDA approved non-surgical, no down time procedure that lifts and tightens without cutting. I blogged about my own treatment in November and included my interview with Dr. Andrew Salzberg and Courtney Dunavant to explain this non-cutting cutting age procedure in "Are You Heading South"?

Sooooo, why did I speed dial Courtney???  I had just read that Dr. Wexler has been using Ultherapy on the upper lip, successfully banishing  those pesky, hard to treat lip lines.  In fact, she believes it is the single most effective treatment available.  While lip injections are sometimes used for the same purpose, it not done expertly, can result in dreaded "trout pout", so women often won't risk it....moi included.  Botox can be effective, but because our mouths are in near constant motion, the results can be short lived.