The ten most overexposed luxury items

I've been discovering more and more that everyone is getting sick of the "it bag." I read it in the NYT, I see it discussed on blogs and I hear it from my friends. I want to take this current distaste with the "it bag" and expand it to other overexposed mastige items. There are certain luxury items that are SO overexposed that they've become common and completely unoriginal. In some cases these items are classics, but I feel they qualify for this list anyway, feel free to argue with me in the comments section.

Overexposed luxury items #1: Burbuery Plaid, has already been covered by C&C.

Overexposed luxury items #2: Most items sold by Coach, especially those covered with the C logo. Don't get me wrong, I still carry my Coach bags all the time, I just happen to own Coach bags that are more or less unidentifiable as Coach from the Outside. I love the quality of their leather, especially in their older bags. For example, I have this black leather clutch lined with a beautiful beige suede.

Overexposed luxury items #3: Hermes Birkin and Kelly bags. I know I'll probably get blow back on this one...these purses are still the ultimate status accessory. Once a luxury item is widely acknowledged to be "the ultimate status accessory" it is largely over. When I do spot one, I usually assume it is a fake.

Overexposed luxury items #4: The 1 karat+ platinum prong set diamond solitare engagement ring. These rings are usually so generic, and cost the same as a house downpayment. Can't we just get over it already? How about a beautiful white pearl ring? Or a stunning emerald? Or just a plain platinum band?

Overexposed luxury items #5: Anything that has the LV monogram. Louis Vuitton over exposure has been beaten to death on the blogosphere, I won't elaborate here.

Overexposed luxury items #6: Silver necklaces from Tiffany, especially Elsa Peretti hearts and Tiffany silver pendants reading "if lost please return." These pendants are especially popular in upper-middle class New York and New Jersey High Schools and College Soroities south of the Mason-Dixon line. I own four Elsa Peretti necklaces, I belong to none of those demographics.

Overexposed luxury items #7: The Rayban Wayfarer and its legions of knock-offs (isn't Rob Pattinson beautiful?)

Overexposed luxury items #8: Cristal is the beverage of choice of Miami trustafarian bimbos who think an UTI is a STD according to Tucker Max. There are tastier, less famous champagne than Cristal.

Overexposed luxury items #9: Hummers are so over...gone along with the days of conspicuous consumerism and a flush economy.

Overexposed luxury items #10: Karl Lagerfeld. The man is eccentric and lets not forget totally narcissistic. He made a teddy bear in his own likeness.

Image from mimifroufrou.com, justacasualobservation.blogspot.com, fashionboyny, neatorama.cachefly.net, photobucket, ponyundkleid, giftsinternational.net, cocoposts.typepad.com

British Vogue Blog

Fashionista just dropped a sweet little treat in my google reader...British Vogue, my very favorite magazine, now has a blog! It looks fabulous!

Image from venusasboy.wordpress.com

Wanted: Death and Texas Bike Bag

I just got a bike! It was a gift from my fabulously generous parents to help on my summer quest to loose my graduate-school-stress-eating-belly-fat. With my bike on my brain as I browsed esty this morning, I was instantly drawn to the Death and Texas Bike Bag. This bag is truly a thing of beauty, a purse that you can latch to the front of your bike...but with real style! Beauty comes first in this case, which is quite unusual in bike accessory design. If you don't have a bike you should check out the other goodies at Death and Texas, they are equally awesome.

P.S. My hubby thinks I am looking for ways to 'pimp my ride'...he's probably right, there are likely more bicycle chic posts on the way!

Image from etsy

When I grow up....

Image via Wikipedia

I've been reminiscing about my childhood lately, probably because I don't actually want to be an adult anymore. It just got me thinking about all those things kids say to their parents about how things are going to be SO different when they are adults:

When I grow up I'm going to eat ice cream for breakfast.
I do eat ice cream for breakfast.

When I grow up and have kids I'm going to buy them cabbage patch dolls, let them stay up as late as they want, watch what ever they want on TV and eat ice cream for breakfast.
My kids will eat only organic health food and they will never watch television...or so I tell myself, we'll see how well that actually works out for me if I ever have kids.

When I grow up I am going to watch TV until midnight!
Um, yeah, way to think big kid. I regularly watch trashy television into the wee hours of the morning.

When I grow up I am never going to make my kids do the dishes.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...isn't that like half the reason to have kids? So you don't have to do the dishes anymore?

When I grow up I'm going to marry Bruce Springsteen.
Where did that come from? Gross.

When I grow up I'm going to have a million dollars and I'm going to live in a giant mansion, with a whole turret for my bedroom.
A million dollars bought a mansion 100 years ago, not so much anymore.

When I grow up I am going to be the Queen of England.
So impossible on so many levels and besides Prince William is not nearly as hot as an adult as he was when we were both 12.

Word of the Moment: Unemployed

The picture says it all.

Anyone interested in hiring the most over qualified and simultaneously under qualified design/writing/art/blogging intern ever? No? How about nanny? Seriously folks. I need a job.

Now I have to go to the dentist. Could this day suck more?

Image adapted from www.dvorak.org

The Luxe Series

So, after my little Twilight fixation you all know that I am not above slumming it in the YA fiction section of my local Borders. Therefore, I suppose, I should not be too embarrassed to reveal that I am in the midst of reading The Luxe Series of book by Anna Godbersen. I've been intrigued by the covers for months now, I am such a sucker for a good book jacket. Since it was on $9.99 and I needed something to do on the horrible red eye flight back from SF, I started out by picking up the first in the series, The Luxe. I read the entire book in one sitting and followed it up quickly by purchasing the sequel Rumours, which I just finished. I have been scouring the Internet unsuccessfully to find a plot summery of the next novel Envy, but I guess I will just have to buy the book to find out what happens next.

Now I am sure you are all wondering what is so great about these books? Well, they are pretty and fluffy reads just like all good brain candy should be. It is easy to get lost in the book and forget about what ever it was that was stressful about your day. The entire series focuses on the lives of four girls maneuvering in upper crust New York at the turn of the twentieth century to secure love and money whilst wearing beautiful dresses. There is the requisite back stabbing, social climbing, salacious sex, cheating, star crossed lovers, murder, scandal, secrets, etc.

The writing is a notch above Twilight and the characters are a bit better developed than in Twilight as well. One might make comparisons to Gossip Girl, but the series is even more soap opera-esqe that GG, believe it or not. In fact, if I had one complaint about the series, it would be that I like my brain candy books to be nice neat little morsels of fluffy happiness, and on this front The Luxe Series fails to deliver. The first book, The Luxe, more or less met this criteria, but the second book, Rumours, has a totally upsetting ending. I know this should motivate me to go out and purchase the next book, but frankly it kind of pissed me off.

I feel like my emotions have been shanghaied. It is totally brilliant marketing, of course, I now have to purchase yet another book, and I think that is part of the reason I stubbornly don't want to buy Envy. I hate being so blatantly manipulated. Based on my Internet search, I know that Envy also ends in a cliff hanger and I don't really want to spend another four hours of my life reading a book that will end in a cliff hanger that will not be resolved until the final book in the series "Splendor" is published. What can I say, I'm just not a very patient girl.

Overall I would have to say The Luxe series is very engaging, but if I were you, I might wait until the final installment is published to give them a read. I do recommend the books, especially if you go in realizing that each book ends with a cliff hanger and they have a good dose of soapy-tragedy woven into the plot.

Images from fanpop.com

Sourdough serves up some style

I had the great pleasure of meeting Annie of Poetic and Chic and Sourdough for the first time IN PERSON when I took my little vacation out to California. Annie was my first real interactive reader back in the day when I started out as Boudoir Betty (my first blog, and now my lingerie line). She was one of the reasons I decided not to totally give up on blogging and here I am, still online two years later! So, enough about what a fabulous person Annie is, now I want to tell you about her impeccable taste and creative talents, which she put to good use in her latest project the etsy shop "Sourdough."

I had the opportunity to check out her line of housewares, accessories and jackets during my trip to Cali and I am definitely in love. She presented me with charming tea towel and eye mask samples which I plan to show all of my girlfriends. Personally, I think the tea towel would make a perfect engagement or wedding shower present, especially at a kitchen themed shower.

I can tell you my hubby is definitely a fan of the eye mask...he used it on the red eye back to the east coast and slept like a baby. I'm betting it was the soothing lavender that Annie sews into each mask that lulled him into a deep sleep. I was super jealous! Having chosen the pinkest possible fabric for my eye mask I thought it would be safe from pilfering...the man has no shame!

But, don't just take my word for it, Sourdough has been praised my many other bloggers including: Little Gray Pixel, Daddy Likey, Wendy Brandes, Cuffington, sfgirlbybay and Leaves of Glass.

Images from Sourdoughf.com

The Nebulous Kingdom Birthday Sale

I love the dreamy, moody quality of Anne-Julie Aubry's artwork which is rendered in traditional and digital mediums. Aubry was one of the first etsy artists that I really noticed after seeing her painting "Becoming a Puppet" featured on another blog. Now, Aubry's shop, TheNebulousKingdom, is having a sale in honor of her birthday! Through July 1st purchase any two prints and get one free! SUCH a deal :).

Image from The Nebulous Kingdom on etsy

Matching Your Lipstick to Your Sunglasses

This photograph has made me completely obsessed with the idea of matching my lipstick to my sunglasses. I have been on a quest to find the perfect pair of true red sunglasses to wear with my lipstick queen red sinner lipstick. I'm even considering the idea of of also buying a pink pair of sunglasses to wear with some new pink lipstick!

image from taylor-momsen.net

Charming Blog: igorandandre.blogspot.com

Today's Charming Blog, igorandandre.blogspot.com, brings together my love of blogging, fashion and illustration with a series of lovely illustration of fashion bloggers. Artist Danny Roberts shares his fashion illustrations through this blog, with works inspired by designers, fashionistas, bloggers and sometimes, it appears, friends. He has a link off the top to his "about" page where you can watch him draw his self portrait. I also reccomend checking out the link to his image diary and his shop. I've just put his Ladies of Dior 22 X 17 Prints on the short list for my next art purchase. Roberts also sells through etsy, where he lists quite a few more pieces than in his blog based shop.

Images from igorandandrew.blogspot.com

The Cult of Converse

Converse shoes are everywhere...on hipsters, on celebs and chic Parisian women. They have almost a cult like following. Chuck Taylor All Stars, the most iconic of the converse styles, have been around since 1917 and they have fallen in and out of favor in the interim. Somehow, for the past decade or two they've been the casual, fashionable choice for ladies and gents a like.

Personally, I am just not a big fan of converse. As it happens, converse would actually fit nicely into my current personal style: grad-student grunge. Frankly, they would take my daily style quotient up a notch. I don't wear converse, I just don't find them particularly comfortable and they make my feet look like boats. They also seem to me self-consciously hip, like if I was wearing them I would be trying to look cooler than I actually am...and as you know I'm pretty damn cool.

Fabulous Squared

Watson and Guinness

Via Coco's Tea Party