This time of year nearly every retailer is offering some terrific bargains on summer items. There are a lot of simple, classic pieces that will freshen up your wardrobe and that won’t be out of style any time soon. At these prices the sizes become limited pretty quickly, so if you see something you like check it out soon. I’ll be showing you a lot of simple, mostly Classic pieces that are interchangeable. Adding just a few of these elements to your wardrobe will take you into a modern look without being dated. Tailored Summer Suit Let’s start with this first entire look on the right. This i ..read more

Last week I had to get a new profile photo for my website and the launch of my upcoming book “Self-Care: 30 Compelling Life Lessons From Happy, Healthy, and Successful Women…and some Men!” My hair had gotten really long and unruly. Actually, in general, my hair is more like strings than strands. I needed someone who could work their magic and make me look more presentable. My regular stylist, Mark, was booked, so I had to see a “ringer,” a young woman named Brooklyn. Fortunately, she turned out to be just as great. Is it just me or does every woman who sits in a stylists chair simply look li ..read more

Photo: AJ Garcia/Unsplash Do people still wear watches? Well, yes, but a lot of people I know are only wearing smart watches. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be that “on call” 24/7. And who knows what data is being collected through those watches about your every move! But to each his/her own. Watches are fundamentally a form of jewelry. They are basically a bracelet. And you can wear them with other bracelets, especially if they complement each other in terms of metal and size. If you want to stay on the more Classic side, limit the number of bangles or chain bracelets you pair with a watc ..read more

Iris Apfel Amazon Print You may have heard that Iris Apfel, the self-described “geriatric starlet,” died earlier this year at the age of 102. Many of us learned about her only fairly recently through her most recent incarnation as a fashionista because she broke so many barriers about what constitutes fashion and who is “allowed” to represent it. But despite all the media hoopla about a 90+ year-old being an overnight sensation, her style roots, and the range of her influence over several decades, ran very deep. Iris Apfel started sewing and designing her own clothes in her childhood. Her ..read more

Milan on Trend on YouTube If you watch any of the street-style YouTube videos of women in Milan and Rome (I’ve been binge-watching them) you’ll notice that they all seem to splurge on high-end, high-quality accessories. It’s almost a religious dictum: “Thou shalt only carry genuine designer handbags.” It seems to be true for the women of all ages there, at least in the larger cities. So, they didn’t show any of the nonnas, donned head-to-toe in black, sitting outside on chairs, chatting with their friends. (Frankly I love those images, not for the clothing, but because they demonstrate the ..read more

In my last post I mentioned my new denim shirt that was nowhere in my ideal color palette. It’s much more “cool” in color tone than the other blues in my palette. And yet I simply love it. GAP Fitted Denim Western Shirt $29.99 Like a classic jeans jacket, I think you can find similar items at many retailers. This one is from GAP and is pretty much identical to the one I’m wearing here. If I had searched for a while I could likely find one in a darker color. But I didn’t mind the color contrast that it set up with my dark rinse jeans.  I paired it with a rust colored sweater (mine is o ..read more

Typically I shop at “High Street” (affordable chain store) brands. I can often find petite sizes there and they carry a lot of pretty well-made classic pieces like tees, sweaters, and jeans. But birthdays offer a good excuse to indulge a bit. And birthdays are about re-birth. So this year I dipped my toe into a slightly pricier brand that I’ve had my eye on for a while. A French Twist I purchased two items from Sezane, a French-based company. If you follow my blog you know that French style is one of my obsessions lately. I wrote this post about how to describe French style. In short, it is ..read more

On just about everybody’s list of what constitutes a good “capsule wardrobe” – a collection of interchangeable, basic pieces that will serve you forever – there is one that is consistently mentioned: “Every wardrobe needs a white tailored button-down blouse.” Well, maybe… Choose Color First Let’s start with the color (which is my obsession since my mentor, John Kitchener, is right now reviewing my upcoming color course.) Then we’ll get into the style of a “crisp white tailored blouse.” First of all, there are innumerable shades of white. For some of us, (including those who like me are most ..read more

Suzanne Blons (“The Beauty Shaman” one of my wonderful guests on “31 Days of Self Care”) and I just recorded our holiday fashion rundown on YouTube. Although this video was tailored for older women to show how they can incorporate some of the flashier elements of the holiday season, I wanted to expand on that idea for all my readers. Here are tons of options regardless of your age, weight, coloring, budget, or style facets. And I have to say, this was one of my very  favorite posts to write. It just filled me with holiday joy and cheer. Now I have to add a tiny caveat here. A lot of the ..read more

I wanted to quickly address the subject of how many colors there should be in an ideal color palette. Over the years one of the main questions I’ve received from people who had a custom color palette created for them is: “OK, what do I do with all these swatches now?” At first, the sheer number of colors can be daunting. The palettes created by PSC trained analysts contain about 100 distinct colors. I say “distinct” because they are not paint chip shades that range from the lightest to darkest version of a specific color. And that’s because an individual may be able to wear one shade i ..read more