The Hip Report

During the 1920′s young girls wore big bows on their hair that fell on to their head. And so they became known as “Flappers.” The name would stick with with this generation as they grew up in the 1920′s.

I love the 1920′s and thought women looked androgynously sexy during that fashion moment. I love the loose cut of the dresses, the lack of a nipped waist, the bobbed hair and the long string of necklaces that helped create a movement and vibe as the flapper walked—or did her best at The Charleston.

Designers from Gucci to Ralph Lauren showed variations on the Flapper look, with Gucci’s being heavy on the ornamentation and Ralph Lauren favoring diaphanous fabrics with a pastel palette. Even Tory Burch, known for her chic uptown girl looks mixed with a hip downtown edge– and a little bit of East Coast prep thrown in for good measure– was apparently inspired by the infamous seaside French resort, Deauville in the 1920′s and turned course from urban to urbane with her interpretation of the era. Details to add authenticity included cloche hats at Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs, men’s inspired oxfords with spats (loved them!) at Tory Burch and of course the requisite layers of long strands of beads and lots and lots of sequins at Gucci.

Weary of all the skin tight offerings out there for the last several years (think those wretched jeggings and impossibly constrictive pencil skirts), I find the Flapper look exciting, beautiful, feminine and a long time coming. I’ve been so ready for this trend and am thrilled to see it arrive.  I suppose I’ll opt for Tory Burch’s interpretation. I think she got it best–a perfect nod to the past but with enough of a current feel thrown in to make it very modern and interesting–not to costume-y and so very adaptable and relevant to my lifestyle.

Consider channeling your inner flapper this summer. If you can’t live on the “East Egg.” (fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” will understand exactly what I mean), you can at least pretend and dress the part.

(First seven images, Tory Burch, then Etro, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and finally, Marc Jacobs)

Having moved to a tropical setting I am finding not surprisingly, my taste in interiors is undergoing a seismic shift. Never a big fan of pastel colors, I am now finding my eye is drawn to interiors that are refreshing, airy and uncomplicated. I’m no longer interested in dark tones, reds, golds, browns, as I am up in my northern home on the border of North and South Carolina. We still get snow up there and warm, dark colors still seem appropriate and welcome; February in northern South Carolina can be quite miserable, trust me. Damp, cold rain and gray skies necessitate some sort of cozy factor in most rooms.

But here I sit in Palm Beach County in Southern Florida–a tropical setting if ever there was one. We’ve had no winter (obviously) and there hasn’t been a day I that I have had to put on socks or a heavy sweater. And so it is with my interiors here too–a welcome ‘paring down,’ this time, when it comes to color. I am now drawn to the sheerest of pastels–those whispers of paint colors in aqua, blue, beige to compliment the ocean just barely minutes from my front door. My eye and taste are slowly getting re-trained. Where once I would pick a brick red in my interiors, now I go for the barest blush of blue. I like having a northern and southern home now as I do. It delights me completely, being able to decorate in one extreme and the other.

Suzanne Kasler, based in Atlanta, has captured my fancy lately. I am inspired by her light touch, her deft choices in ‘barely there’ color. I love her trademarks: simple but beautiful lamps, neutral upholstery and those amazing starburst and quatrefoil mirrors she has everywhere. It takes a measured, thoughtful, very honed touch to emulate her interiors for it requires so much restraint, often something most of us do not have when it comes to selecting fabric and paint colors. We typically want lots of color and tones that are more often than not, much too vibrant (read: garish) for most homes.

Suzanne’s own Atlanta home has just been featured in Architectural Digest’s April 2012 issue and pictures follow. She has a collection of lighting (gorgeous) available at www.circalighting.com and Ballard Designs has Suzanne Kasler licensed accessories, where among other objects d’ art, you can pick up one of her lovely trademark starburst mirrors. Go to www.ballarddesigns.com for some very affordable and chic pieces. Also worth checking out–her gorgeous website at www.suzannekasler.com.

I have never been a big fan of Patti Smith.  Called “The Queen of Punk,” her gritty take on androgyny and her grungy edginess wasn’t what I gravitated towards in the 70′s, her heyday.

In any case I am unexpectedly curious and cannot wait to read, “The Kids,” Patti Smith’s recount of her relationship with the wildly creative Robert Mapplethorpe when they were young, broke and in love in New York City in the 70′s.  A New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winner, “Just Kids” chronicles their connection and ultimate relationship together before Mapplethorppe came out as a gay man and before his sadomasochistic photography began to define him.

Patti since, has endured tragedies and deaths of a husband and many close to her and at 65, life has put her in a place of tender peace…she is still tender about the losses in her life, but at peace with them enough to be happy with where she is now. It took incredible courage to write this memoir of her youth, bringing to the surface, that time of innocence before the storm that is often adulthood.

Mapplethorppe died in 1989 of AIDS. Patti continues to sing and as if coming full circle thanks to Mapplethorppe’s influence years ago, has fallen in love with her second passion after singing: photography.

Available at www.barnesandnoble.com

If you’ve read my blog, you probably know I love anything Jo Malone. If I had won that huge Mega Millions Jackpot this past week where a half a billion dollars were up for grabs, one of the first things I’d do with my winnings is arrange for one boxful of Jo Malone candles to be sent to my residence once a week for life.

So hypnotic her scents render me, I often find myself spritzing a sample paper at Neiman Marcus with her perfumes and while walking around the mall thereafter, I sniff it occasionally for a delicious nose rush. I know, quirky but her fragrance combinations are that intoxicating.

Just released, are three curious and compelling limited edition combinations that are supposed to remind one of the city of London in glorious bloom: Peony and Moss (contrast of the ‘dainty and dirty’, as Malone puts it), Lilac and Rhubarb (tart rhubarb cuts through the softness of lilac) and  Iris and Lady Moore (a type of geranium). They are available for a limited time for $110.

I am leaning towards the Peony and Moss…typical me…a contrast of ‘dainty and dirty”–(you know I am joking)…   Anyway, I tried it the other day at the mall and did indeed walk around sniffing the sample and falling in love with it more and more, as I shopped.

Remember, these three new fragrances will be available for only a limited time. Go to www.jomalone.com to purchase as often her fragrances are difficult to find.

Reading my Town and Country magazine about a month ago, had me taking pause to notice a piece on “Young Preps of Palm Beach.” Well of course my curiosity was tickled since I live close to Palm Beach. I love driving down A1A, aka Ocean Drive and gawking at the Palm Beach houses easily $30 million and up. And I’ll always confess to being endlessly fascinated by (and honestly, sometimes put off by the affected snobbery of)  preppy.

The article spotlighted young twenty-somethings with great fashion blogs who were in Palm Beach enjoying Christmas break. A certain Kiel James Patrick and his very classic and restrained girlfriend, Sarah Vickers were featured, among others. Curious about these two (yes, I know, I have just too, too much time on my hands) I googled them and came upon the Kiel Patrick James website featuring some really interesting bracelets and belts he’s designed in the old school prep style. His inspiration is clearly American Classic–his bracelets and belts are fashioned from nautical rope, tweed, Repp tie silk and his motif is an anchor–(can’t get more classic than those icons) with the anchor being a nod to his native Rhode Island where he lives and works.

Kiel is a bit of a sensation– though if you haven’t heard of him yet, it’s  understandable. But those fashion mavens who keep close watch on the internet, know his designs well indeed. His belts and bracelets have been featured in Tommy Hilfiger ads. He’s developing quite a following and perhaps a portion of his synergy comes from his East Coast preppy good looks. He occasionally smokes a pipe (rolling my eyes) and admits to wearing Old Spice and loving Christmas sweaters with trees, reindeer, etc on it (rolling my eyes again). He got his start selling thrift store clothing to friends at his all boys prep school who admired his style. He says,”…I was wheeling and dealing clothes out of my Jeep’s trunk to bring a bit of country, yacht club peacocking merriment [to my fellow students].”

From there, finding spools and spools of nautical rope available thanks to his proximity to the ocean, he fashioned bracelets with nautical knots and classic colors, bound by an anchor. Rhode Island influenced him greatly saying, “Rhode Island is the Ocean State. Our license plate has a giant anchor on it (It did at one time.) Our state flag is the word, “Hope” under an anchor and nautical rope. Newport, Rhode Island’s nautical New England charm offered me an array of lifestyle/decor/style I admired.”

His lovely girlfriend of ten years, Sarah Vickers plays front and center as muse and model on his site as well as his blog you’ll actually find on his webpage. (His blog incidentally, is fascinating to sniff through–it’s a fun, stuffy, sometimes you-can’t-be-serious kind of window in to his very modulated,  very calculated world. He absolutely cracks me up…Note the accessories in his rooms in the background of his pictures. This guy clearly knows how to merchandise his environment, himself and his life, right down to that JFK portrait in the background of one of his blog photos.)

Truly Mr. Patrick understands the marketing value in his style and looks– as well as those of his girlfriend Sarah. Together they have become just as much a part of the brand as any big name like Marc Jacobs or Coco Chanel became a part of theirs, though  admittedly yes, Kiel is on a much smaller scale.

Prices for his bracelets are between $35.00 and $40.00, his belts run about $88.00. The names of them alone, are worth taking a gander at…the “JFK,” “The Honey Fitz,” “Tristan Calm Waters,” “Aft the Beam’…this kid’s a marketing genius and he knows it.

I hope to get one soon and wear it with a pair of beat up boyfriend jeans, a JCrew untucked plaid shirt and slightly messy hair, tossed a bit by the ocean down here in Florida…but I’ll pretend the winds off Narragansett, Rhode Island made it messy, not the salty breezes of Delray Beach, Florida where I live. Sigh.

Go to Kiel’s really, really cool website and check out his fun (if a bit pretentious in all the best and silliest of ways) blog too. At the very least, you’ll wish you lived the coastal life.

www.kieljamespatrick.com

I’m not sure about my latest addiction…I think it has something to do with–

1. Missing the North and all things good and solid and sensible since I’ve become a SoFloridian against my will. (I’m still jarred by women flashing their boobs at 2′o’clock in the afternoon.)

2. I’ve been feeling old, ancient, fossilized– as I inch toward 50. My halcyon college days where preppy ruled are growing more and more distant. (You couldn’t pay me to shop at Talbots now or Brooks Brothers but I’ll forever love the preppy vernacular and all it stood for at my alma mater.)

All I know, is I’m addicted to Sarah Vickers’ (Vickers for short) fairly new blog, “Classy Girls Wear Pearls.” www.classygirlswearpearls.com Sarah demurely invites us in to her ultra, ultra classic, preppy life.  (Again, she’s Kiel James Patrick’s impeccable, dainty girlfriend.) Think of her as the whopping opposite of Jersey Shores’ Snookie, JWow and Sammi.

Sarah’s blog chronicles her outfit and accessories choices always sporting greatest accessory–her signature cloy, feminine smile.  Close ups abound so you can see her necklaces, belts, purses, bracelets–all of it and melt. I maintain that no way, no how would I ever dress this classic and preppy again. I had my chance from mid 1980′s as a college coed and I seized it as best I could considering my financial limitations. -Actually, maybe that’s why I love Vickers’ blog–clearly she has more in her bank account than I ever did at her age and she can take her Talbots and Brooks Brothers and slam dunk that preppy look right out of the polo field (as opposed to ‘out of the ball park’).

I am completely fascinated by the way she styles herself to perfection. Unlike me at her age, she apparently has access to an iron, cares that her shoes are not scuffed and she perfectly coordinates each piece and part of her fashion puzzle in to a typical preppy look but with unexpected baubled necklaces and layers of braclets–her accessories are terrific.

I tell you, I just love scrolling through her pictures and seeing what Sarah’s wearing today and where around Rhode Island she wears it. (The only thing I would change about her look are the pumps and loafers she often wears. They just come off making her feet look like Queen Elizabeth’s–way too sensible.)

Still, I find myself going back often to see the latest preppy this or that, she’s put together to enchant her followers. It helps too, that she is absolutely East Coast pretty–not overtly sexy but just fresh and pretty and feminine. Her looks seem completely perfect for her style.

Here and there too, she offers up her fascinated readers a peek in to her small town coastal life with her with lady-like, well-bred dialogue.  The backgrounds as a backdrop to many of her shoots are so charming to linger over too…a church spiral, an old brick wall with ivy,  a pebbled water’s edge, her in  classic, perfectly pressed garb gathering stacked firewood. Good lord, Sarah Vickers is our own Kate Middleton I think! Even if you don’t care so much for ‘prep,’ this girl is still a compelling personality to follow; I just find her fascinating.

In time when young women her age are shrink-wrapped in midriff baring tops, Daisy Dukes, slutty platform heels and overdone eyeliner, Vickers swims upstream much against the current and does it with such grace and confidence and poise, you just want even a smidgen of  her own brand of ‘preppy mojo’ to spread all over the land, far and wide, to high schools and campuses across America. Except with cooler shoes of course.