December is Dress Month! 31 dresses here we come. Support your favorite charity by participating. Dressember. Here is  Dress outfit 1, While it is still fallish outside. I will wear it with stockings otherwise my legs will freeze. But it was 70 degrees here the other day.

Where left meets right!

I wonder if a older plumper lady can utilize style tips provided by a twenty something? Will the style combinations work on an older lady with some tweaking like lower hems and in some cases flatter heeled shoes. Tell me what you think?

Working on hats planning session

When women buy my hats they are usually impressed with how good they look. I have seen several women tell me that hats dont look good on them and then end up buying one of my hats because that wasnt true. What was true they never had found the right hat before. I LOVE when this happens. I want women to feel good about how they look.

When I develop a new line of hats I always sort all of my stuff by colors. I put all of the hatblanks ribbons and flower trims, feathers, together by colors. That way I know what I have and what colors I need. Then I usually dye the straws the colors I need. I confess I love to do the dye process. I usually go overboard and dont make enough neutral colors. Most ladies buy neutrals with a color trim. American Women are very conservative when it comes to hats. Okay that is a sweeping generalization. Maybe it is better to say that most of my first time hat buyers buy hats in neutrals.But I LOVE making the colored hats and putting them together...

The next thing I consider is the shapes. I have some shape combinations that people love. I have other odd shapes that I usually only make one or two of per season.

Then I get busy trying to have a variety in each size group. Small -medium- large head sizes. I never trim hats exactly alike. I use a variation on a theme; ribbon with flower on one hat, ribbon with feather with flower, fabric sash and buckle all in the same color families. This way it gives the hat some variety without going crazy trying to think this stuff up.

French Chic

I was reading an article on "How to dress like a French woman". I do like the classic French chic style. But what is the 'American Chic" style? I'd like to think that each region of the US has an architype of style. I think that West coast is the Blond thin suntanned kaftan wearing ladies like the ones on the TV show The Housewives of Orange County . Women from Atlanta in the Southeast I think of sundresses and high heels and curly hair and those classic colors of hot pink and lime green. Women of DC I think of the well heeled business suits. Classic bob haircuts. Floridians I think of capri pants beautiful sandles blond hair and suntans and beautiful manicures and pedicures. New York women I think of artsy avant guard style. The northwestern women I think of boots and beautiful sweaters and coats of wonderfully hand felted woolens. My sterotypes may be off but the point I'm trying to make is that we -The American Women- are chic and have our own looks. I am proud to be one of them an I am glad no one mistakes me for French Italian or German.. Okay now I'll come off of my soap box and say Ladies lets step up to the plate. Clean up our acts. NO MORE FUNKY SWEATS at the grocery store.

Vacation new for me

I am on the dock in St. Augustine before we took a boat ride. What a great city to have a vacation. There are lots of historical sites to see and great food, good weather. I am coming back!

What is my style?????

I am trying to figure this out. Seems like a simple question. I have been reading on other people's blogs how to do it. Well here are my style words:menswear inspired, colorful, classics, accessories, creative. They are supposed to describe what I wear. I realized that thinking about what I am NOT first was easier. I'm NOT: Boho, ultra feminine, eclectic, artsy, dramatic, femme fatale. When I looked at my inspiration board the clothing basically were: pants; jeans and cargo types and basic dress pants, jackets some more tailored than others, knit tops in lots of colors, some button downs in colors, very few skirts and very few dresses. My favorite accessories are: scarves, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and of course hats. I wear some rings and always a wrist watch just out of habit and I like them. I like belts too and have some nice ones but my waistline is disappearing so I guess I don't feel like belts are that great on me. So what would you call my style??

shoe wardrobe

I have some really nice shoes and I am trying to stop buying black shoes because that is not my bookend color (color that matches your hair color) I have some really old Frye boots that is why they are so scuffed.. I took pictures of my shoes a while back and they all looked so dowdy and drab. So I have tried to find cute 'Wearable ' shoes.