Unlikely Sources: Equestrian Chic Bracelet

Anyone can go into H&M or Target and come out with something fabulously frivolous, but for the fashionista who treats shopping as a competitive sport, it's way more fun to unearth something from a really unlikely source and then watch your rivals bang their heads on the wall when you refuse to answer, "Where'd you get THAT from?"

One of my favorite fashion moments from NY Fashion Week happened that way when I wore a black metal chain mesh necklace with little rhinestone balls hanging from it. WAY over the top but the rest of my outfit was simple (a black wrap dress with black boots) so it worked. I got this necklace from a house sale from a woman who was selling Dolce and Gabbana for $15 because she couldn't be bothered to pack it up. The necklace was clearly high-end designer, but was unsigned, and it very cleverly straddled the line between great taste and over the top, which is one of my favorite boundaries to play with.

I went to Saks Fifth Avenue for a makeup event and literally had people chasing me down asking where I got the necklace. It was fun to frustrate them with my answers; sometimes I told the truth, sometimes I made ridiculous answers up just to see what the reaction would be.

Here's a fabulous leather cuff bracelet that will have people chasing you down asking the same question. Leather cuff bracelets have gone in and out of style about 42 times in the past ten years, but this one is timeless because it's authentic. It's also TIMELY because it has horseshoe nails on it-- a good luck symbol which I'm sure we can all use in these hard times. It comes from Colonel Littleton, a catalog which offers leather goods "in the Americana tradition," which as far as I can tell means that they're trying to look like a saddle maker. This bracelet costs $45, but it's hand made in the USA out of top quality leather and it will totally be the lagniappe for the equestrian look that NY Fashion Week Fall 2009 was pushing. Or you can wear it with a Chanel suit, rock the contrast and, when they ask you where you got it, make up something good..."See, I had this affair with this cowboy, and..."

Patchwork Into Craftwork

Hieu Tran is an occasional contributing writer to Ten Pretty Girls, freelancing and living in San Francisco. Today he explains repurposed clothes, a trend first brought into the high fashion world by Imitation of Christ and continued today by designers like Garimpo+Fuxique that's likely to become more popular as we sink deeper into a depression. Here's Hieu's take on how the regular guy or girl can do it at home:

Sewing is my embarrassing feat. A guy like myself has as good of a chance at launching a space shuttle into orbit as he does stitching anything together properly with needle and thread. This is not from lack of trying. I’ve picked up the tools of the sewing trade before—oh yes—to darn that sock that was holding together by only three molecules after years of wear and tear, and, in my able hands, it miraculously became a sweater with three arms. Houdini, eat your heart out. You don’t even want to know what I did with my warhorse underwear. Think tinseled purse.

But with the stock market now dropping faster than Bill Clinton’s pants, and with our environment critically plundered, I’ve just realized that my seamster ability is no longer a topic of ridicule but a skill that may one day propel me into becoming a brilliant fashionisto. That’s right, my consistently multi-colored patchwork outcomes are the future of fashion. Possibly.

Repurposed clothing, the name for my ingenious mistakes, has been around for as long as I know. Coming from a fairly frugal family, my great-grandmother used to be able to turn a t-shirt into a pouch or an old sweater into a wool hat if she were ever so inclined. And even the smaller projects were just as good. She could sew different buttons onto a shirt and redesign the sleeves, and the whole thing would take on a different look. I’m not as gifted to be able to make an article of clothing fit with a planned vision as she did, but if I can turn a sock into a sweater with three arms, that’s a new sweater all the same, right?

But seriously, there are great benefits from repurposing clothes. Firstly, we are helping the environment by reducing the need to collect raw materials to make new clothes. Secondly, we are reducing the amount of trash we’re throwing out, since we wouldn’t be throwing out our old clothes. Thirdly, we can create clothes to our own design. And fourthly, and most importantly, we’re saving ourselves a whole pile of shiny pennies—pennies that were once nothing more than sacrificial offerings for the wish fountain god, but in this economy, are looking a bit more valuable every day.

As for getting the materials needed to repurpose your next fashion masterpiece, if you don’t have the patterns you need for the upcoming marvel on the drawing board in your head, you may shop around on a budget. You could shop those serendipitous garage sales, or go to thrift stores, or even get together with friends and trade fabric. It’ll be like a Christmas gift exchange, but instead of passing around a vintage fruitcake, you can get rid of any garments you don’t want. And you won’t even have to feel embarrassed when you show off your previous taste in clothing, because everyone else there will feel just as embarrassed about the items they’re trying to get rid of.

There are many examples of repurposed clothing out there for us to look at. Many people are proud to show off their latest and crazy inventions. They range from poor (my tinseled purse) to good to outstanding. It all comes down to your eye for fashion and your skill with the needle. With a little practice, I might be able to get close to the good range in quality. But, what I’ve already achieved is being smart. At this time, and possibly far into the future, repurposing your clothes is no longer a necessity due to empty wallets or a bizarre personal statement from artsy people. It is a practical measure we can take to help ourselves and, in some small way, the world.

And even though I didn’t really turn my old sock into a three-armed sweater or my warhorse underwear into a tinseled purse, I know that even with my current sewing skills, I could patch up something not too laughable, perhaps with a bit of expert hand-holding the first couple of tries. But this is coming from a guy who could barely sew the straps back onto his backpack as a kid. Sewing on a few new buttons, as my great-grandmother did, shouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure I could turn an ugly sweater into a more tolerable scarf if I wanted to. The great thing about repurposing clothing, especially for a guy like myself, is that it’s not too difficult. And if I mess up, no big loss, since I was going to get rid of the article of clothing anyway.

Yes, repurposing clothing rewards even my sewing skills. For all my seemingly disastrous attempts at repairing my clothes, for all the mutant garments that have spawned from my hands, for all the bells and whistles that I am capable of stringing onto my jeans, my ability to sew has become my genius. It should be yours, too.

Most Coveted: 5 Inch Heels (alice + olivia for Payless)

I've been really, really good about not spending money on unnecessary stuff lately, but 5 inch heels are a necessity in my world, and the winter versions are beginning to show their age. Fortunately I just found a kick-ass pair of more springlike shoes online at Payless, for under $40 and they even have designer street cred.

This pair of shoes by alice + olivia (they're calling it a platform slingback bootie-- I agree with the platform and slingback but I'd say it's more of a stylized stacked heel clog than a bootie)has a padded insole for comfort, and is the perfect thing to feminize (but not too much) your stovepipe jeans and leather jackets for those Saturday night bar band pilgrimages. They come in at just under 5 inches (4.75" to be exact)but I can't pass them up. Note to designer Stacey Bendet: a white version of these would be even better.

Better Skin Through Economic Hardship

A mere two years ago I had a lot more money than I do now, and most of it was spent at high-end skincare counters or Sephora in the quest for the perfect complexion. This was a somewhat quixotic quest, I have to admit. I have pretty good skin to begin with, but it's sensitive, and my friends and family have told me over and over again to leave well enough alone. Still, each time there was a GWP I trudged off in search of the next miracle product that would change my life.

My main skincare issue was a patch of melasma on my upper lip that I've had since I gave birth to my younger daughter 6 years ago. It's large enough to be noticeable, and extremely annoying because it looks like I literally have a smudge of dirt on my face. (I can't begin to tell you how many times people have taken napkins and tried to rub it off for me!)

I would occasionally give in to the impulse purchase of a wrinkle treatment or foundation primer, but virtually all of my skincare purchases went towards treatment of this tiny centimeter-square patch of dark skin under my nose. I tried every fad treatment imaginable-- copper, Vitamin C, retinol, AHAs, BHAs, even stuff from Asia where I couldn't read the label to find out what the active ingredient was. In most cases, the patch stayed the same; once or twice, it even became darker. And then the economy cast a shadow over my beauty obsessions, and I forgot about it.

Fast forward to recently when I grabbed a bottle out of my drawer to take with me to a wedding because I needed a good lightweight moisturizer. It was the Fresh Appleseed Brightening Essence, which I'd bought and never used, and it smelled nice and was the exact texture I needed. It was an enjoyable product and I'd spent a ton on it ($95) so I kept using it. And using it. And using it. (It's been five months now since that wedding and I use it every night.)

And one day when I was rubbing lipstick off my teeth in the mirror I happened to notice that the melasma spot was significantly lighter. Was it gone? No, but after 5 months of nightly treatments, no one was going to rub my face with their napkin anymore.

$95 is a lot to spend for any skincare treatment, but if it works, and lasts five months, I can't help but recommend it. I have not made a single skincare purchase this year-- I still have stores of hoarded stuff to work through-- but when this runs out, I will replace it.

You can buy Fresh Appleseed Brightening Essence from Sephora, a Fresh store, or Neiman Marcus, among other places. And if you know of other skincare or makeup products that are really worth their price, please share. We'll publish a roundup of them in a future post.

Fashion Yarn at a Discount

Okay, Hieu has kicked my butt today (we're into RPGs around here and he's being Peter Parker's boss-- you should see me in a Spidey costume!) by reminding me I haven't posted in, well, forever. It's hard writing about fashion in this economy...right now even my O's are recycled (my keyboard is broken, so every time I need one I have to Control V). But the truth is that it IS still possible to be stylish even in the midst of a depression. So this week Ten Pretty Girls (which may need to be renamed One Pretty Girl and a Hot Vietnamese Guy?) is featuring style on an EXTREME low budget.


My grandmother and her sisters used to unravel sweaters and knit them over again to have something new to wear. Let's face it, most of us don't have the patience for that, but you can still get the same effect, kind of, by buying deeply discounted designer yarn.

One of the best sources for chic yarn at a heavily discounted price is Sumptuous Yarn Sale. This site offers real designer yarn at astounding discounts. For example, right now Plymouth Yarn's Glitterlash, which is normally $85 a bag, is marked down to $21.25 per bag...that's 10 balls, people, at $2.12 per ball! (Hey Hieu, want me to teach you to crochet?) Other sites sell it for $10.00 a bag, so it's a really good deal, and how else can you have your own Italian designer sweater for under $25?

If you're not creative enough to come up with your own design, you can go to Knitting Pattern Central or Crochet Pattern Central for free patterns/ideas. (Search the term eyelash yarn-- they're interchangeable, you don't need to find a pattern with this exact yarn.) And if you don't know how to knit or crochet, now is a good time to learn. After all, we've all got to come up with some way to spend our time now that we can no longer afford to shop.

Nancy's Whereabouts In 2008

Hieu Tran is an occasional contributing writer to Ten Pretty Girls, freelancing and living in San Francisco.

You may have noticed that Nancy Lichtenstein has been MIA of late. Readers who are used to a more frequent stream of articles from her may have pondered her absence, perhaps speculating the reasons for it. Did she have an accident? Did she find something better to do? Did she run out of ideas?

Rest assured, Nancy is doing just fine. She did not have an accident. She did not find something better, because there is nothing better. And she did not run out of ideas, since writers don’t actually come up with ideas; they merely watch the world around them then lie about it.

The reason for Nancy’s absence this year is fairly simple: this year has been very involving. The world is changing fast, and not just the fashion world. From the controversial Beijing Games to the first African American president-elect, Nancy has been getting involved in an attempt to bring just a bit more to her articles in the future.

Here is a snippet of her 2008 travelogue:

January 9--India’s Tata Motors releases the Tata Nano, the world’s most inexpensive car. Nancy negotiates the starting price of the car to $2,000, making it a standard accessory for every Hermes "Birkin" handbag.

February 4--Nancy prevents scandal at the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots are kept from illegally taping a New York Giants practice. Unable to cheat, the Patriots lose the Super Bowl and their perfect season. Humanitarians around the world rejoice over the outcome and over the fact that another Super Bowl has passed without a “wardrobe malfunction.”

May 30--The “Sex and the City” movie releases. Nancy would like to think that the Carrie Bradshaw character is based on her and not Candace Bushnell.

July 4--To celebrate the nation’s birth, Nancy takes out a second mortgage on her home and sells a Prada bag in order to pay for a tank of gas at $4.59 a gallon so that she could drive to the New Jersey shores to see fireworks.

July 18--Comic book fans rave over Nancy’s Kevlar-suited stunt work in “The Dark Knight” as she begins her campaign to sink “Titanic” as box-office king. Kevlar, by the way, is the new leather.

August 8 – 24--The Olympics is held in Beijing. Nancy, having trained in LA for months, takes home silver in the low-profile but dangerous breathing event. Four other contestants suffer critical injuries in the competition. On a side note, gas masks and surgical masks become items of high fashion all over China.

August 29--John McCain chooses former beauty pageant contestant from Alaska, Sarah Palin, as running mate over Nancy, making Palin the first vice presidential candidate to be able to shoot wolves from a helicopter and model swimsuits.

September 15--The economy tanks. Nancy has nothing to do with this.

October 4--Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama confirms charges that he’s “palling around with Nancy Lichtenstein.” Obama cites that Nancy has good fashion sense.

November 4--Nancy, peeved at being passed over as GOP running mate, single-handedly elects Barack Obama as the first African American US president in the form of a landslide. Obama cites that Nancy has good political sense to go with her good fashion sense.

December 14--Nancy throws her Gucci shoes at President Bush at a press conference in Baghdad.

Whew! So, as you can see, Nancy has been all over the place. Understandably, she hasn’t had time to write about everything just yet. But the year will be turning over soon, and next year promises to be a good one for the world at large and for, of course, the frocks, scarves and shoes that make the world go ‘round.

Screamer of the Week: Why The "It Bag" Craze Is Over

Doomsayers have been reporting the end of the "it bag" craze for a couple of years now, but I think the end is really here now. Attempts to be edgy have pushed the boundaries of good taste and fakes have blurred with real so much that Neiman Marcus is selling this Fendi bag at the extra special price of $2,985.00-- 25% off. Great, except it's ugly as sin and looks like something that would be worn to the local bingo hall by someone who also has a Chanel scarf on, only it's spelled "Channel." I am never one to begrudge anyone their fashion purchases...but in this case, please, save your money and go buy some gas cards instead.