The Amber Rose...

This is why I still love seeing Amber Rose.

a. She knows what works for her...

b. She is consistent...

c. She cleans up like nobody's business...

Shala la la la...

I saw this pic of Shala Monroque on The Sartorialist a while back...

I loved the classic cut and hem line of the dress...

Then came this one.

(images from The Sartorialist)

I loved the simple clean lines of the dress/coat (not sure which it is) paired with the killer heels. But most of all  the warmth of that smile!

We've been seeing a lot of Shala this year. I hope it's not a one off, cause I'll be looking out for her in the future.

What have my girls been up to?

Amber Rose is kickin' it in NYC with Kanye... You know I need those shoes.

Kimmy broke up with Reggie. (Keep your chin up babes.) And then she went blond! Looks good on her too.

Miroslava is vacationing... a lot. LOVE that dress.

Giovanna has been out and about with Domenico and Stefano. I need that entire outfit.

More Carine!

I found this mini CNN documentary about Carine Roitfeld on You Tube. She's so elegant, so fashion, so french, so chic, so wonderfully fabulous. I like her, can you tell? Anyway, enjoy!

The Girl... the Crush... S5

The Girl? Amber Rose. The Crush? The sheer stunningness. (Okay, "stunningness" is not a word, but DAMN, this woman is STUNNING)

I've been a fan from the word go. I saw this photo and thought: OMG! WHO is THAT?!

Wow! The blond millimetred hair, the reflective glasses, the gloves, Amber came out the gate guns blazing! Of course the gossip scene went wild and we got to see a lot of Kanye and his stunning "new girlfriend" in the days and weeks following. I didn't care much for all the shiny 80's look leggings and just when I started to loose interest I saw this pic:

Now I'm thinking this girl is very interesting, very unique, maybe even complicated, definitely not your average "look at me I'm sexy" chick. I love the neutral look of her glasses and the sort of inexpensive look of the denim shorts and t-shirt paired with sheer fabulousness of the shoes. And yes, I see that she's smoking a cigarette, but you have to understand; I live in continental Europe, I see beautiful women smoking on the street everyday. Not a big deal...

And when she joined Kanye on the red carpet at the Metropolitan Opera Gala...





... I knew there was no turning back. This was definitely a girl crush, no doubt about it. The dress is gorgeous, the subtlety of her make up shows off just how beautiful she really is and I love the asymetric cut of the shoes. The clutch and fur stole (shame that it's real fur) really complete to look. This proved that she's versatile. She can pull off a sophistcated look with the same ease as edgy street fashion and she does it better than a lot of celebrities. On a side note: I kept wondering why she was holding her clutch so awkwardly, but then I realized that she was hiding a tattoo on her right leg that was peeping out due to that incredible split. You can see a bit of it peeping out of her denim shorts in the pic above as well.

I hope they stay together so we can see more of Amber... Please Kanye, can you do that for me? TIA!

The Girl... the Crush... S4

The Girl? Carine Roitfeld. The Crush? Her vision.

Okay, Carine is not a "girl". Not in age, not in style and certainly not in attitude. She is to me the epitome of high fashion in the real world, more so than Anna Wintour. Carine has a realness that enables you to envison what a runway / trend look will look like on real women.

I mean, you would NEVER EVER see Anna Wintour in a denim skirt:

Yet on Carine the look makes absolute sense. Any woman could wear this outfit and not look like her clothes are wearing her.

Carine also has a sort of rebellious quirkiness in her choices. And we share a love contrast. This skirt, for example, could look wrong in so many ways, but pair it with the more serious and preppy look of the blouse and it works!

I get the impression that Carines dresses according to how she's feeling that day. Her look can go from very chic french madame...

...to ultra cool city chick.

This is a woman who knows herself well enough to be comfortable with change. So often you see (older) women who always look the same and sometimes even out of date. And though many might say: "Oh that's her personal style." etc, I find myself thinking "... or maybe she's just stuck in a rut, unwilling and/or unable to change."

No matter what she's wearing Carine always looks modern and nothing short of fabulous. There is no doubt in my mind; When I grow up, I want to be just like Carine Roitfeld.

The Girl... the Crush... S3

The Girl? Kim Kardashian. The Crush? Oh man where do I start?!

I really liked Kim quite early on. When the world was still criticizing her for her "claim to fame" I was thinking this girl has got something, something special and I didn't mean the tush. :)

It's the face, the hair, the body, the clothes, the way she carries herself, everything. Kim exudes soft and sexy femininity. She always looks "done". Even when she's running around in her Juicy Couture sweat suits and flip flops, she's in full make up with her hair done.

Okay, maybe she does it for the paps, but I love it anyway.

I not sure I would call Kim a fashion icon though, but she certainly inspires me to look my best at all times, step my game up, even if I'm just going grocery shopping.

She reminds me of that Coco Chanel quote:

"I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny."

Kim is one of those women who seems to enjoy being a woman and all the fun stuff that comes with it.

The Girl... the Crush... S2

The Girl? Rihanna. The Crush? The Sassy Style.

It took a while for this crush to develop. I did not like 'Pon the Replay' at all. Although I liked 'SOS' and 'Umbrella' it wasn't until the summer of last year that I started to really really like Rihanna.

I LOVED her photo shoot for Elle in June 2008. My fave's from that shoot:

That was the moment that everything just came together for me. I love the hair, I love the tattoos (the stars on her back and the roman numbers on her shoulder are my favorites)

and I especially love what her stylists have been doing lately. This look was a great come back after her troubles in March.


Now, I know I said that Rihanna and her stylists have been taking notes on Omahyra's style. And I stand by that statement, but Rihanna is not copying any one. She brings her own flair and and she changes it up a lot. She is definitely one of my favorite girls at the moment.

The Girl... the Crush... S1

The Girl? Jennifer Lopez. The Crush? The shameless sexiness of this woman.

Jennifer Lopez was the first girl crush that I can clearly recall. I'm sure you all remember the dress.


Yep, the green Versace dress the made the world sit up and notice Jennifer Lopez. But believe it or not, this was not a big deal to me, I was already convinced that J-Lo was the sexiest thing on the planet. The fact that she wore that dress was just a confirmation of everything I already thought of her.

I loved that she was comfortable in her own skin. Her body shape was different from what we were used to seeing (i.e. skinny, skinnier and skinniest) and she celebrated that. That made her sexy. Yes, the make up and the clothes helped, a lot, but her confidence sealed the deal for me. She was just flawless, always. She could even run around in big hair rollers and look like this:

Flawless I tell ya!

The thing I admired most about Jennifer was her drive. She had a keen business sense that made her a very wealthy woman. Things didn't just happen for her, she was prepared, disciplined and she worked hard. The clothing line, the perfume, the restaurant... When her star rose she was ready and she worked for all it was worth.

We haven't been seeing much of her lately. I wonder if she's just going to settle down into motherhood and disapear. I hope not...

All the beautiful women.

My last post about my girl crush on Miroslava Duma got me thinking about girl crushes in general. When does admiration turn into a crush? Where is the line? And when do you know you've crossed it?

I admire many women, for different reasons. I admire my mom of course. My mom raised five children on her own. With her strength of spirit, her compassion for others, her ability to forgive, her ability to LOVE and her humor she set for us a great example of how to LIVE life and LAUGH and ENJOY life with a grateful and loving heart.

Growing up I saw a lot of strong, beautiful women around me. My aunts were wonderfully strong and fabulous women. They all just seemed so in control of every aspect of their lives. I mean they were well dressed, well groomed, hard working women, who could whip up a fabulous meal from scratch in no time. They, along with my grand mother (who was a seamstress) planted the seeds of my love of clothes and my awareness of style. My shoe addiction, however, I blame on my mother. :-) My aunts carried LV bags and wore YSL Opium and to this day I still love LV and I always wear Opium, when I want to feel all grown up.

As a result of my upbringing I admire strong, clever women. Women, like Oprah Winfrey, Anna Wintour, Jennifer Lopez, Kat von D, Iman and the list goes on. Girl crushes are different. First of all, they don't seem to be because of any one particular reason. It could be their look, their style, their attitude or many other random reasons. In fact I think it's exactly that, a combination of randoms reasons why a woman catches my special attention and mere interest goes in to overdrive and I develop a girl crush.

I kinda like having girl crushes. I like the shallow, slightly "guilty pleasure"-esque obsession with what she's wearing, where she's going and who she's seeing. I guess there we have an explanation for the phenomenon that is reality tv. But I digress...

Just as my aunts did, my girl crushes influence my style in some form or another. So I'm dedicating this week to my girl crushes. That means 5 posts on my top 5 girl crushes.


P.S. Starting Monday that is, for now, it's weekend!

The Girl... the Crush...

The Girl? Miroslava Mikheeva Duma. The Crush? Her fabulous style! Miroslava first caught my attention last year when I saw this photo on Garance Doré.

First it's her calm confident stare into the lens, that grabs your attention and then you notice the suit. The contrast of the "older gentleman" vibe of the dubble-breasted jacket, with it's boxy shoulders and dark blue pin-stripe fabric, against her very, very young, girlie-fresh face. Your eyes go back to her face and then you see those glasses. The glasses pull the whole look together. They are the common factor, the link. They go with the suit; this is the sort of outfit you'd expect a congresman or a former president to wear. Case in point:

... and they go with her face:

On her they are totally trendy and "geek chic". Throw in the heels and low cut top and the whole look gets a sexy Manhattan Librarian twist that says: "I am not a little girl playing dress up. I am a sexy young woman and I know what I'm doing." And she pulls it all off so effortlessly, she had me at hello!

From that moment I was hooked. I had to know everything about this girl and as it turned out I am not the only one. She's been featured on so many blog's and forums over the past six months, she's become the new it girl, "one to watch".

Some say her style is still very immature compared to other style icons of the moment like, Giovanna Battaglia. Others say she hasn't found her style yet and she's all over the place. Me? I like that about her. Lot's of different looks, lot's of different styles. She clearly loves clothes, all kinds of clothes. From dresses and heels to hoodies and Uggs, she loves it all and she wears it all. And yet, as Garance said, "...everyday you see only her." She absolutely owns every look and she looks like she's having fun doing it.

Here are my favorite Mira looks and why I think they are special:

No. 1

It's the dress, those glasses, the Rolex, the chanel bag and the wind in her hair.

No. 2

The matching tones of the slip under the lace, the coat and the shoes paired with the black opaque tights and the privacy of the moment captured.

No. 3

The shoes, the leathers (real leathers, not those hideous leather-look leggings), the chain brooch, the shoes and the shoes. City girl on the go!

No. 4

The dress, the tiny belt and the shoes. Understated yet fresh and again, I need those shoes.

No. 5

The preppy shirt paired with the jean shorts. Easy, laid back, comfortable.

Expect to see more of Mira. I think it's more than a crush... I think it's love. :-)