Style Pick: Jenna Lyons

I love, love, love Jenna Lyons, creative director for J.Crew!  I first noticed her in a feature in Vogue magazine a few years ago.  I can't even remember what the article was about, but in the picture she was wearing the most gorgeous Gucci dress with brown riding boots.  She's been in the press more in past few years, mostly because of the success of J.Crew during the recession.  It seems Jenna's style--a mix a high and low pieces and a masculine and feminine touches--is popular with lots of people.  Her style extends beyond clothes.  Check out this Lonny Magazine article featuring the J.Crew Collection store on Manhattan's Upper East Side that Jenna helped design.  The store design is based on her own Brooklyn brownstone, which was featured in the now defunct Domino magazine.  In this article from the Wall Street Journal, she talks about keeping the brand fresh.  Here are a few of my favorite Jenna looks:

Home Decorating

When I moved back to Houston from NYC, I basically sold or left every piece of furniture I owned save for a random ELFA clothing rack and a trunk that was passed down to me from my great grandmother.  The good news about not having any furniture is that you get a fresh start and have a blank slate to work with.  The bad news about not having any furniture is that you get a fresh start and have a blank slate to work with.  So many options, so little money!

After boarding with the 'rents for a while--a situation that at first seemed unbearable but turned out to be quite fun--I moved into a one bedroom apartment in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.  The complex is pretty cool.  It's one of those new builds with 300+ units, granite countertops, wood floors, office center, two pools and a gym.  There's even a tanning bed that's free for residents (not that I've tried it out).

Move in is pretty quick when you only have a few boxes of clothes and a couple pots and pans for the kitchen.  My first big purchases were a bed (not a glamorous purchase by any means, but kind of a must) and a television.  After a few weeks, I ordered a sofa and leather arm chair, although neither have been delivered.  While I wait for the big items for the living room, I started decorating the bedroom.  I've long admired the work of DwellStudio. Based in Brooklyn, the company creates vibrant and modern textile designs, many of which have traditional design roots.  One of my favorite patterns is their Chinoiserie Duvet Set.  Chinoiserie takes an old world theme--something I studied in my Interior Design and Art History classes--and pairs it down to the essentials: bare branches, birds, and flowers, creating a fresh, decorative minimal style.  I figured I would treat myself to the duvet and then design the room around it.  The makeover is still in progress, but here's a hint of what is to come:

Pillow and duvet set from Dwell Studio

Striped sheet set and headboard from West Elm

Leather chair from Pottery Barn
Dresser from Anthropologie

Artwork and mirror from West Elm

Paint in Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware
Blanket from West Elm

Fashion Week!

Today is the start of New York Fashion Week!  I always looked forward to Fashion Week when I lived in New York City.  One year, I even got to go to a Zac Posen show thanks to tickets from American Express.  It was a Friday night.  My friend Matt and I met up with the News Corp American Express rep and his wife at the tents.  She and I were totally excited for the show.  We'd each worn our favorite "fashion" outfits!  We had fun sipping champagne and chatting it up with celebrities.  The guys however were more than a little bored--it's a lot of waiting and prepping for roughly 5 minutes of actual entertainment, something they hadn't anticipated.  I'm pretty sure, in fact, that I caught both of them nodding off during the show.  That is, until one of the models had a major wardrobe malfunction.  THAT certainly perked up their attention.

Fashion Week has over the years turned into a celebrity red carpet, but it started, and still functions, as a way for fashion editors and retail buyers to view the designers collections and decide what to put in the magazines and on store shelves.  So in honor of Fashion Week and my ONE trip to the tents, here's a look at my favorite front row fashionistas.  What I like most about them is how they mix uptown polish and downtown cool.  They also wear a lot of young designers and are not afraid to try new things.

Lauren Santo Domingo - Vogue Contributor

Meredith Melling Burke - Vogue Editor

Amanda Cutter Brooks - Author of I Love Your Style and Barneys' VP, Women's Fashion Director

Back to Business as Usual

Nothing like a health law symposium and a national weather disaster to set you back in your blogging! What a whole lot of hoopla for what turned out to be almost nothing. With the amount of panic they caused, the least--and I mean the very least--the news channels could have done was produce a little white stuff so that 1) this panic would have been justified and 2) I could have enjoyed it. In any case, I'll try not to let things like this--the Snowpacalypse that never was--interfere with my blog schedule again.