Put a pin in it

Any of my friends (and especially my roommate) can tell you, I love bobby pins. I shed them everywhere I go and instead of having a wrist full of hair bands I have enough bobby pins stuffed in my pockets to set off an airport metal detector.

So I'm thrilled to see my standby hair accessory going mainstream. The fashion forward started letting their zippers show last year, so showing off your bobby pins is another way of celebrating the art and tailoring that went into your coiffure.

Diane Kruger stepped out in a nude Hervé Léger by Max Azria dress and her bobby pins showing at the “Inglourious Basterds” Berlin premiere.




The First Lady relied on well hidden pins to create this chic faux-bob that set the presses on fire. But the convenient tuck-up was last year's craze, and this fall will see the inconspicuous bobby pin in the limelight.


Carolina Herrera's Fall 2009 show used bobby pins on the outside of the bun, instead of hidden underneath. Then Dior took things to another level with flapperesque bobby pin bobs.




You can pick up bobby pins in a shade to match your hair at any drug store, but amp it up with a little romance or rock by trying bejeweled or neon colored pins from an accessories store like Claire's or Icing. Or you could DIY it with a trip to a craft store for feathers, ribbons and charms.

The swimsuit issue

With summer well underway, most of us have been obsessing about our swimwear for at least the past 6 months. Immediately following the winter holidays, in fact, women start considering the diet regimes to attempt in hopes of attaining the impossibly perfect bikini body.
Here's one less thing to worry about: forgetting you suit while on holiday. There's no need to go skinny dipping if you're staying at The Standard Hotels, where bathing suits are on hand poolside, from a vending machine. Quicksilver has partnered with hotel chain to sell a line of boardshorts ($75) and bikinis ($84) for the forgetful.

"We decided to collaborate and make something cool as well as useful for Standard guests. Our core product is boardshorts, and The Standard hotels have pretty notorious pool scenes, so swimsuits made a lot of sense," Quiksilver's Joshua Katz tells WWD.

“This is a 24-hour customer, and a lot of times they might not have a swimsuit but want to take a late-night swim, after the hotel’s boutique is closed,” Katz said. “We are very much interested in new and progressive ways of reaching our customers.”

There are four different swim trunks and just one basic black bikini for the ladies (I guess boys are more forgetful).

With an $84 price tag, inconvenience doesn't come cheap, but -now that we're all past caring about how skinny we look in our suits and have moved on to perfecting that line-free allover tan- it's time to cash in on the swim suit clearance sales.

The past few summers have seen the revival of the retro one-piece suit, while popular runway trends like ruffles and 80s neon leaked into swimwear as well. Below is a mini look book (all on sale!), but you can also find great suits at discount stores like Marshalls and T.J. Maxx.

J.Crew ($29.99 each)

Macy's ($65.80)

Target ($29.99)

Style Challenge: 07/28

In honor of the Delaware State Fair, this week's Style Challenge will be to wear the fair to work.

So break out your plaids, belt buckles and denim - extra credit if you manage to incorporate livestock as an accessory. But the rub is, you have to keep it office appropriate.

Send in your photos and the best will make an online gallery. My own take on fair wear will be posted soon.

The (fascist) fashion police on Hillary Clinton

Ok, that's not a PC term for North Korea - it's officially the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. Their system of governance is hardly worth discussing evidently, because a Foreign Ministry spokesman would rather trade insults with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The spokesman called Clinton "by no means intelligent" and a "funny lady."

"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping," the statement said.

Hmmm...don't know where they got the school girl idea, unless North Korean school girls typically dress in pantsuits.

But this international incident is more interesting for its style repercussions than its political fallout. Hillary is not know for her fashion choices, hence this reaction by the New York Times to a very conservative V-neck blouse.

The cleavage, however, is an exceptional kind of flourish. After all, it's not a matter of what she's wearing but rather what's being revealed. It's tempting to say that the cleavage stirs the same kind of discomfort that might be churned up after spotting Rudy Giuliani with his shirt unbuttoned just a smidge too far. No one wants to see that. But really, it was more like catching a man with his fly unzipped. Just look away!

Steady on - I guess MObama's one-shoulder Inauguration gown really was a giant step forward for First Lady fashion.

The article does point out the conservative nature of Washington's dress code: "it wasn't until the early '90s that women were even allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor." !!!

Maybe there was some logic behind that archaic rule, since no matter what their policies (or their sense of style), women in Washington have always been targets for their wardrobe choices.

Would you wear it?

This Would you wear it? is for the gentlemen: the man girdle. Or "mirdle" or man corset, if you will.

Photo: equman.com

This product hit the market several months ago and yesterday the Times reported that Saks Fifth Avenue has sold more than 30 percent of its stock in four weeks. The men's fashion director, Eric Jennings, called the sales figures "incredible."

“No one really knows what to make of it, of course,” he said. “But one of the reasons why men are interested now is that silhouettes in general are getting trimmer.”

Er, have you taken a look around the average cubical pod lately? Silhouettes may be slimming down, but the Supersize option at a McDonald's only costs a recession-friendly 89 cents. So are guys really that concerned about looking trim?

Oh, wait. Men do it for their health. The premiere manufacturer of the body-con undershirts, Australian company Equman, claims their shirts will improve posture and reduce back pain.

Priced from $89 to $119, the shirts are made of a blend of polyester, nylon and spandex and come in a selection of styles and colors. Other companies (yes, including Spanx) are developing similar ergonomic, gut-sucking girdles.

If you are still on the fence about squeezing your spare tire into one of these tops, don't take the company's word for it, The Daily Mail got two male staff writers to try on the man girdles for a product review. (They have pictures!)

Write in with your first-hand mirdle accounts or opinions.

Coming soon to Christiana Mall

After settling for the somewhat less well dressed cousin (Gadzooks), we will finally get the keys to the mother of all couture-copying closets. And it's a two-story closet at that!

Chrisitana Mall is promising shoppers that the new Forever 21 store will be open in time for this year's holiday shopping. I, for one, am looking forward to the racks of "cheap-chic" clothes on their way. With the company's launch of a plus-sized line (Faith 21), a swimwear line, as well as home and beauty lines, the store may very well become the one-stop shop for tweens and twenty-somethings on a budget.

The only concern, besides Christiana's construction schedule, is whether Forever 21's designer look alikes will survive the latest copyright lawsuit.


What do you think of the legal battle over designer knock offs? Do you still buy them because it's your best chance to wear couture?