Not So Linked In

This evening's post comes to you with a side serving of the sickies:  after a very fun month of many good things (travel, shopping, food, drink and so on), I have been reduced to a shivering, coughing mess.  You know, when you can't finish a sentence without an ungracious hacking fit.  When anything touching your skin makes it feel sore.  And the only upside of all this is temporary "sexy, gravelly chick's voice."  Oh, and cough syrup with codeine in it :)

Anyhoos, since I'm feeling a bit off tonight, I thought it was appropriate to share a trend that I find a bit off as well.  Of what oddity do I speak?

Body chains.

At first they started off fairly minimal.  Weird, I shrugged, but whatevs:

Then, they started to meander and grow across the front:

And ultimately, they've kind of blown up and taken over:

I dunno.  Maybe I'm just old and boring.  Or too much under the influence of my cold meds.  Still, you don't need to be downing the NyQuil to think the last few are a bit much.  I have yet to see a single person sporting one of these, er, contraptions anywhere: on the street, in da clubs, and not even at work (where the "oops, I forgot my pants" look is not an uncommon sign - seriously).

What's your take on all the bling?  Love it?  Worn it?  Or just waiting to see what she snags it on?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  In the meantime, I've got a mug of hot chocolate with my name on it.  And in about 2 hours, some of that great cough syrup.




Images: all from shopbop.com

From OMG... to OMD

This weekend, my husband and I are taking an eagerly anticipated trip in the musical wayback machine.  We're going to see, yes, OMD (aka, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark).  Did I just date myself?  Eh, who cares.  OMD was one of the many bands who formed the soundtrack to my junior high and high school life.  From songs like "Joan of Arc" to "Tesla Girls" (Spike, if you're reading this, break out the Li'l Debbies ;), their biggest hit is arguably "If You Leave," which is synonymous with that classic Brat Pack flick known as Pretty In Pink.

Music is so often linked to fashion, and the 80's are an excellent example of that quirky, tacky and yet sometimes wonderful marriage.  It's hard not to think of my own crazy teenage fashion blunders while watching all of the outfits on parade in this movie (yes, I tried the bowler hat look; yes, I looked kinda silly).

While I relive my teenage years at the upcoming show and try not to blurt out, "OMG, they look so OLD!", here's a You Tube video which melds "If You Leave" with someone's nice montage of movie scenes.  Gotta love the Maxell poster in the record store images - brings back memories of making mixtapes, and recording Rock Over London off of WNUR onto my many Maxell blank tapes.

Did I say I was old?  And proud of it :)

Enjoy the clip and feel free to share your favorite 80's bands, stores (anyone remember Foxmoor?) and/or fashion "experiments."  We'll discuss soon!

Video: courtesy of You Tube, go here for the source

Finally! Fall clothing weather!

We took a trip last week to New England, where we enjoyed spectacular weather and tasty seafood while taking in the sounds and smells (ahh, clam flats at low tide) of the ocean.  Upon arriving back in Minneapolis, we were greeted by temperatures in the low 90's.  Wait, this is September, right?  Granted, Spring and Fall are notoriously unpredictable for weather in general.  Still, my brain waged battle with itself: do not curse the warmth, for in a few mere months it will be a distant, distant memory...  vs...  wah! when can I start donning my new Fall clothes?

Typical Midwest, only two days later the Weather Channel issued us a freeze warning.  On Wednesday AM, it definitely did not feel like August anymore.

I'm spending this weekend catching up on all my etail emails (inbox currently bursting with 1600+ unread messages - seriously) that accumulated while I was stuffing myself with lobster rolls and fried clams.  Appropriately, I'm seeing a lot of coats and sweaters on display all over the place.

Here are two that caught my eye:

This first coat is by BB Dakota.  I glimpsed it on Lucky Magazine's online site, luckymag.com.  I love that it evokes some earlier decade with the faux fur trim - old photos and home movies show my grandmas wearing similar styles.  I'm a little leery of how high the belt hits in the model's photos.  I'm short-waisted to begin with, and that really doesn't need to be accentuated.  So, I'm on the fence about buying it.

Here's numero dos:

I'm a big fan of Theory, and this new offering of theirs is really lovely.  Simple yet classy, I'd be all over this coat except for two things: it's pricey, and the image showing the coat buttoned up looks a little bulky.  Even so, I'll be stalking it throughout the season in hopes of a sale.

Have you been on the hunt for the perfect Fall or Winter coat?  Found it, or is it still eluding capture?  Anything you're eyeing but, like me, still hesitating on the purchase?

While I truly am sorry to see summer come to a close, I do love autumn.  Here are a few closing images of our trip to Maine, which very nicely caps a busy, humid, hot, and overall fun summer.  I hope you've enjoyed yours as well.

Images:

BB Dakota coat #1:  luckymag.com via Modcloth.com
BB Dakota coat #2,3:  Piperlime
Theory coat:  Revolve Clothing
Maine photos:  my own

OMG... aka, Overwhelming Missoni Gahhhhh!!!

September marks the change of many things...  the colors of the trees turning vibrant reds, yellows and oranges from a tired and somewhat washed-out green...  half my Facebook friends posting pics of their little ones off on that big adventure known as Kindergarten...  and this blog turning its own new leaf, nearly one year after its creation.

I'm going to try my best to keep the topics more frequent and less, um, long.  The recent mini-series known as our trip to NYC offered many delights that I wanted to share with you, but I know it also started to give you brain freeze about half-way through.

So, today...  today!  We're gonna try something new.  Hold on to your hats, and away we go :)

I thought it fitting that I talk about Target's much-anticipated launch of its Missoni collaboration this lovely eve, since today was its official grand opening (never mind the reports that some stores were already sporting the goods the previous night).

Unless you don't give a whit about fashion and/or live under a mossy rock wrapped in tinfoil, most of y'all know about this crazy hyped collection.  As many of you who joined in the feeding frenzy can relate, the shopping experience might be summed up with words like "madness," "sold out," "nuts" and the ever so popular "Server down? WTH?!"  Scads of friends and those on Target Style's Facebook page had all sorts of emotions to share with the retailer.  Some good ("I got a scarf and a shower curtain, yay!"), but many not so chipper ("It's 8:00AM and they're already sold out?  Seriously???" - yeah, seriously...  I took a walk through the Target store by my workplace at 8:00 AM and the pickings were severely slim.  By noon, the Missoni signage in the women's RTW section was down and other brands had been hastily restocked as filler).

As a fan of Missoni and M Missoni, I am personally beyond thrilled at this partnership.  While some of my friends have equated their colorful, zig-zaggy designs with Grandma clothing, I disagree.  Although I don't love every single piece, I found plenty to salivate over.  Allow me to share some faves, starting with basically this whole look (scarf, dress, headscarf):

Other worthy offerings:

And yes, a whole bedset of ziggity-zaggaty color:

Thanks to hitting the hay at 10PM the night before, I managed to buy some items online at 5:30 AM - I think, since the server problems also mean I only got half my order confirmations (I did a few small orders to keep others from plucking my items out of my shopping cart - that's right, your wares aren't guaranteed til you hit the checkout button).  So, am I really getting the dress, scarf and wellies that I ordered, along with a number of Christmas gifts?

Heck if I know.  Also, heck if their customer service knows.  The insane number of insane shoppers - and the site's inability to keep pace with the furious mouse-clicking - seems to have truly confounded the poor system.  The customer rep I spoke with couldn't pull up anything on her computer.  I do know that the Target peeps worked long and hard to anticipate the heavy demand as best as they could.  Still, it resulted in some serious glitches.

How about you?  Did you join in the Missoni madness?  If so, what rate of success did you have?  What items did you snap up?  Or did you do battle with target.com and only get the "Woof!" page, which basically told you "Too bad, so sad!"

I don't remember a Target collaboration receiving this much hype, and I'm curious to hear what you think of it all.

In the meantime, I'll be waiting to see whether my orders survived the online glitch monster or got electronically consumed by him, dissipating in his digital belly, never to materialize on my doorstep.

Also, here's some video I snapped of Marina, the giant "blogging doll" which is promoting the collection - taken right here at the downtown Minneapolis store:

Enjoy the video (and the peanut gallery commentary from some people standing near me), and do share your Missoni for Target tales of victory or defeat!  I hope it was the former.  If not, let's hope for the restocking fairy, especially considering the campaign runs for a few weeks.  I do applaud Target for pairing up with Missoni - I've always enjoyed their choice of partners, even if I'm not a personal fan of some of the latter's designs.

Cheers (hopefully in a Missoni for Target martini glass),
Maggie


All images:  target.com
Video: my own