My Hero

It's been some time now since the news has broke, but seeing as how I have my own blog dedicated to fashion I thought it would only be appropriate to take a moment to talk about my fashion hero and style icon. Sarah Jessica Parker has created her own clothing line, Bitten. When I first heard the news a month or two ago, I literally jumped out of my seat and was shreiking (yes, shrieking) out of excitement. I just had to learn and see more, immediately.

After doing some research, I found out that Sarah has partnered with Steve and Barry's to develop a line of clothing that would fit women of all shapes and sizes, be affordable, and help build style confidence among women. It expresses a strong and genius concept that I believe in and sincerely hope it has lasting effects for everyone.

Clothes, clothes, clothes!
Let's talk about the clothes themselves. Sarah Jessica Parker notes on her Web site and in various magazine articles, such as Oprah Magazine, that the clothes are fun, cute, sexy, classic, and practical for any occasion. One of the many items I fell in love with was the v-neck cotton dress($19.95). It is the perfect, fun and light weight dress for summer. I like to pair it with graphic tees and tanks underneath or add a chunky belt. You can view this dress and the other fabulous pieces in her collection at bittensjp.com or at a Steve and Barry's closest to you.

Affordable
Thats right, unbelievably affordable! I took a trip to the Steve and Barry's to see if the rumors were true, and I was thrilled to find they were. Every piece in her line of clothing is $19.95 and below! Dresses, jackets and pants tend to range closer to $19.95, while tees and tanks are as low as $7.95 each. Fantastic!

Meaning behind the project
I not only love her designs but was also moved by her inspiration behind the project and Steve and Barry's as a company. Essentially, she wants to teach women everywhere how to dress and feel confident without breaking the bank. "There are no laws about how to dress," Sarah Jessica Parker says. "Show your confidence and take some chances." This quote I read in Oprah Magazine is inspiring for me and hopefully to anyone out there who has ever stood in front of their closet in the morning wondering what to wear. The truth is, buying clothes and expressing yourself through clothes doesn't mean you have to spend an outrageous amount of money or show off designer brand names. What I like about Sarah's line is that it promotes choosing different pieces and pairing them together to express your own individual sense of style. It is not a department store telling you which pieces to pair together, instead it is an open environment that allows you to be creative with your choices.

Lastly, my own take on style, which I found similar to the Bitten line's "manifesto" is this: I want my closet to be filled with pieces that I love, that are practical yet fun, that are classic yet sensual and beautiful, that are unique and exude confidence and a flirtatious vibe. I suppose that is asking a lot, but I do believe you should always love what you buy and what you wear.

If you haven't left this page already, I definitely suggest visiting her Web site bittensjp.com and I guarantee you'll be bitten by her sense of stlye, her mission, and the story that stands behind the clothes.

Wrapping it up

Hi there. If you're just joining us, I've been sharing my stories over the past few blog entries of my first ever buying trip to New York. I went to New York with my friend Juli Blunt, who owns her own store, Fresh Ideas Clothing Company located in Chicago, and we spent the majority of our trip viewiwng the Intermezzo Collections at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center as well as the Show Piers. To wrap up our trip, we spent our third and last day at the New Yorker Hotel viewing a smaller show that had some very promising new designers.

Day Three: Smaller venue, even bigger treasures
On the last day of our trip, I was invited to sit in on a buyers' group meeting at the New Yorker Hotel. I was able to absorb a great deal of quality information about upcoming trends and designers to keep an eye out for. When one designer in particular was mentioned and the entire room of women gasped at the mention of her name, I got out my pen and put a big star next to the designer's name in hopes that we would get to view her collections. Donna Morgan, a designer I had never heard of before but was immediately intruiged.

After the meeting ended, we spent a few hours peaking through the collections featured throughout the hotel. But, the true highlight of my day was finally making it to our apointment at Donna Morgan, our last apointment of the day. Juli and I had our own private viewing of the immediate delivery collections as well as the upcoming fall and holiday collections. If you have read this blog before, you know that I am obsessed (a bit of an exaggerated word there) with dresses for this spring and summer seasons.
After seeing her immediate collection, I fell in love with the colorful and bold graphic prints, as well as the casual yet feminine and sexy structure of each dress. Simply by looking at the dresses on the hanger, you could tell that this designer "got" a woman's body.

If you're as intruiged with Donna Morgan as I first was, dont fret. I'm planning on writing a seperate blog focusing on her as a designer, as well as presenting a few of her and my favorite dresses, so please stay tuned for that.

As soon as our apointment at Donna Morgan ended, I sadly had to jump into a cab and head to the airport to go home. Throughout my time at various airports that day, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the trip with a giant googely smile on my face. Not only did I have a great time at the shows, but I learned more than I ever expected to simply from observing, participating in the buying process and absorbing as much information as I possibly could. I loved everything I saw and experienced, and I only look forward to starting my career in this industry.

Jumping back into my fashion dreamland

I slept extremely well after spending the day at the Moda Show and dreaming of the clothing collections and bags for the upcoming fall season. We woke up that morning and headed back to Jacob Javitz to finish the accessories show, before heading over to the Show Piers 92 and 94 for the ENK Accessorie Circuit and Intermezzo Collections.

Moda Show Round Two
We spent our morning at Jacob Javitz, perusing through rows of bags and jewelry. We saw a lot of classic leather and reptile prints in colors of olive green, tan, cranberry and of course the classic black and white. Clutches are still around for fall showing a lot of chunky buckles and a softer, more light weight leather in all colors. Magnet clutches have definitely become a favorite of mine. I saw a ton of them sticking around for fall, with what seemed to be a few advances in production for a stronger magnet and more compact organization.

After getting our fill of purses, we shifted our focus to jewelry and what we found was gold, gold and more gold. Hooray! I have to be honest and say that I still haven't gotten enough of the gold trend in jewelry, so I was pleasantly suprised to see that is still going to be around for awhile. After making our way through the rows of incredible jewelry, I came to the conclusion that there is not a clear and defined trend for jewelry for the fall season. Chunky necklaces, rings and bangles are still represented, but what I saw more of - and loved - was a more thin, delicate and feminine take on all pieces including earings, necklaces and bracelets, especially in gold. I also saw a lot of precious stones being incorporated into the desings, which I loved and thought was a refreshing addition to the collections.

People Watching at the Piers
After finishing the Moda Show at Jacob Javitz, we headed over to Pier 92 and 94 for the Intermezzo Collections. Juli and I made stops at Michael Stars, Sweet Pea, 3 Dots, Joes Jeans, Ella Moss, Splendid, and many more, but the real appeal for me were the ladies walking around in fabulous dresses and jumpers from this spring and summer collections. I thought the fashion walking past me was just as inspiring as the collections being presented to us by the designer reps. I almost wanted to line these girls up and coordinate a fashion show - it was one of my favorite parts of the entire show, and I wanted to snag every outfit and purse that passed my way.

I also loved our appointment with our rep at Michael Stars. I have always been familiar with the brand, but after spending some time looking through the fall collection, I quickly learned that I wasn't as familiar with it as I had originally thought. Of course they have their great cotton basics, but I fell in love with their new line of cashmere sweaters. I loved, loved, loved the mod jumper that was shown to us, as well as a casmere dress that comes as a wrap dress and a basic scoop neck dress that could easily be thrown on with a pair of leggings or over jeans with a great belt. In addition to their cashmere line, they are also introducing a line of printed tees which will come in metallic as well as their basic cotton line.

In the end, day two was another success, and even though Juli and I were both exhausted from the day and everything we experienced, I was too excited to go to bed. I kept thinking about all of our appointments we had that day, the fashion I fell in love with just taking some time to stop and look around at the women attending the show, and I started to get a bit sad that the next day I would wake up and it would be our last day of shows, and I would have to leave my new favorite place and head back to Kansas City.

My Trip to the Big Apple

I just spent an incredible three days in New York City at my first ever ENK International Intermezzo Collections and Accessorie Circuit buying shows, and I am still bubbling over with excitement I don't even know where to begin. Overall, attending the different shows was one of the more memorable experiences I've had in the industry, and I loved every moment (even at the end of the night when my feet couldn't handle one last step before falling into bed).

Because I have so much that I want to tell you about my trip, I'm creating a blog within a blog over the next few days which will feature my experiences and overall observations during the trip, fall trends to look forward to and a few designers that I think everyone will enjoy learning about.

New York is so amazing to me every time I go, but when I was invited to come along on a buying trip with my friend Juli, I jumped at the opportunity. Juli owns a store called Fresh Ideas Clothing Company in my hometown, Northfield, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago. The store covers a lot of ground in appealing to a wide target audience of both younger and older customers who love fashion and, similar to many of us, purchase clothes that make them feel beautiful and unique.

Day One: Travel Delays + Fashion Stimulant Overload = Happy Lauren
Our day got off to a slower start than we had both had hoped, thanks to flight delays, the NYC bike race and parade that were all blocking me from attending the show that I had been anticipating now for weeks. We finally made it to the Jacob Javits Convention Center and dove into the fall collections for women's clothing and accessories. We continually came across sweaters and jackets in adorable babydoll cuts, oversized buttons, rounded collars, and 3/4 length sleeves - a fun trend and feminine shape that is flattering on all body types. We continually ran into this style in fun colors of chocolate, greys, mustard, warm blues, and red. Cropped jackets were also everywhere we turned. This piece will be a great item to wear with all outfits, especially with dresses as we transition into fall. Jackets and sweaters were only the beginning of our adventure, and at the end of the day I had been thrown into the excitement of the buying world. I was helping Juli make decisions on what would make it to her stores, and I even did a bit of modelling.

We came to NYC on a mission to find clothing for the fall season...and boy did we succeed. Stay tuned for details from day two and three of our trip where we came across more accessory trends for fall, as well as a few designers that I immediately fell in love with their lines being shown.

Getting cozy with cobalt blue

It has become quite apparent that this spring's hot new color is cobalt blue. Hooray! While I know everyone wasn't exactly sitting at the edge of their seats waiting for the "new black" color to be announced, I am quite excited about it. Blue has always been a favorite color of mine, but to have such a vibrant, beautiful and power packed color surface for this spring allows for a refreshing variety of options when it comes to developing a look for yourself. I'm not saying that everyone start wearing a full-out cobalt blue jumper every day, but let's explore a few different ways to shake out the blues and show off this season's hot new color.

The easiest and most fun way, in my opinion, to express the spring blues is to throw on a dress in your favorite cut with the perfect hue and call it a day. For example, I love this dress from H&M(www.hm.com). It can easily be worn with sandals or flats to show off a more casual feel, and it can transition into a fun party dress when paired with heels and silver or gold accessories. This look is chic and will undoubtably turn a few heads.

Backing away from the all blue outfit, you can still have fun with this season's popular wide leg trousers, an A-line skirt, or a fun pair of cuffed shorts. Try pairing white wide leg trousers with a blue fitted blouse, or a skirt with a colorful printed tee. The goal here is to create a slimming silhouette by utilizing the wide leg pants or full skirt on bottom and forcing the eye to come up toward the fitted shirt on top. Once again, we are using the bold color as the focus of the outfit and effortlessly exuding confidence in everyone.

One other thing to keep in mind is that blue doesn't pair easily with every color you might have in your closet. Keep it simple and try pairing the color with clean and crisp whites, or with silver accessories, which is another popular spring color trend.

If you aren't comfortable strutting around in an all blue outfit, try punching your ensemble with cobalt blue accessories including leather or suede belts, oversized bags and fun strappy sandals as seen below.













Cobalt blue is trendy, wearable and a fun transitional color to help us cool off and get ready to warm up to this summer's vibrant and dare I say neon color palette.

Prima Ballerina

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of Crocs, and I haven’t been since they chomped their way into everyone’s homes and gardens in 2003. While they are comfortable, colorful and sweat proof, I have never really felt the need to own a shoe that could easily transition from the garden to running errands around town. But, their latest product has forced me to reconsider my nose-in-the-air opinion of the loveable brand.

Crocs looked to the latest fashion trends in footwear to spin their original product, and what the company ended up creating was a surprisingly adorable ballet flat. Appropriately named, the Prima, is a comfortable yet fashionable shoe that comes in 8 different colors, including all of your pastel favorites and this season’s popular metallics, silver and gold.

So, if you’re in need of a fun, cushiony, loveable and trendy shoe that is guaranteed to remove any and all summer foot odor, I definitely recommend purchasing Crocs’ latest Prima ballet flat. Find your favorite Croc at crocs.com

Charge up

I recently came across an invention that addresses battery power in a fashion forward manner. A college student at Iowa State University designed a handbag that charges your gadgets and gizmos while out running around town. If you have ever run out of charge on your cell phone during an important conversation without hope of finding a charger to call the person back, then the Power Purse may be just what you need.


The Power Purse, invented by Joe Hynek, draws energy from the sun via mini solar panels and converts that energy into watts for all of your gadgets to feed on via a built in USB port. In addition, there is a glow pad inside the purse, so you can find your keys or lip gloss in the dark. With this environmentally friendly bag, you will never run out of cell phone or iPod power in those key must have moments.

The purse is available through Solarjo, a wearable technology distributor, and to the tune of $300 you too can be worry free of ever losing charge on your favorite electronic.

I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks about this purse. I think it is a genius concept, but is it fashion forward? Would you wear such a thing? If Hyek thought a bit longer about it, I think he could have enlisted a top name designer to collaborate with on the design and really banked on his unique concept. The design, in my opinion, is not exactly fashionable, or durable for that matter. What if you drop your purse? Will the solar panels break and stop working? Overall, I believe it is a great concept with potential for expanding into different designs, as well as potential for appealing to a male audience.