There’s a new flat sandal trend that takes its inspiration from the classic Birkenstock sandal. It is surfacing in many variations — some styles are sleeker and more refined. And it makes the original Birkenstock sandal completely fashionable. 

It’s remarkable that this style of sandal is having its fashionable moment. At first I was surprised, but then realized that it makes a lot of sense in the context of a fashion era that is more inclusive than ever before. What’s more, looking square is hip these days, and so is irregular outfit juxtaposition. Two ways that this trend reflects the look of 2014.

Here are some street style looks sporting the Birkenstock with panache: 

• Black from head to toe with crisp red bag. 
• Crop top and dungarees. 
• Pullover, skinnies and gorgeous red hair. 
• Tuxedo jacket, tee and shredded jeans. 
• Column of white with long blazer. 
• Sporty. 
• Chambray shirt and leather pencil skirt. 
• All black and comfy. 
• Skinnies with peplum and rucksack. 
• Short shorts and chambray. 

The outfits below show more Birkenstock-esque sandals in action. They are paired with everything from shorts, skinnies, boyfriend jeans and track pants, to skirts, dresses and suits. A truly irregular outfit juxtaposition, especially with the formal suit. Black is the most popular colour.

I like how black and white Birkenstocks have been worn in casual neutral outfits (and I include blue denim as a neutral.) I’m not that fond of the ped remixed with dressy pieces and colours. I also like the Birkenstock sandal silhouette on high volume feet with short toes. I don’t think the sandal style looks as good on low volume feet with long toes. Proportions look off to my eye when feet can’t adequately fill out the sandal, and when long toes are fully exposed in a slip-on style of shoe. 

I bet the die hard Birkenstock wearers are as happy as clams. It’s a comfortable and practical footwear option for many people, and I am always in favour of happy and healthy feet. Personally, I won’t be sporting the look because I don’t wear sandals. Furthermore, they are too casual and chunky for my style preferences, and a bad visual fit for my low volume feet and very long toes. But I fully support the look on others. How about you?

Marie Claire launches a pop-up magazine, sneakers adorned with Magritte paintings, Vanessa Friedman joins The New York Times, and other fashion-related stories that made the news this week.

• Vivienne Westwood is sporting a super cropped new ‘do to support climate change. She also intends to not dye her hair again.
• British Vogue has launched an online image store with a selection of prints from iconic photographers like Cecil Beaton.
• According to the lipstick index, nude colours are more popular than reds for the first time in three years.
• First a fine jewellery collection and a unisex perfume. Now famous photography duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are also launching their own apparel line. 
• Vanessa Friedman has joined The New York Times as Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic, taking over for both Cathy Horyn and Suzy Menkes.
• As mentioned in yesterday’s Link Love post, The Guardian’s Invisible Woman has revealed her true identity, and advocates ‘adding our own voices” to help change the perception of “older women”.
• The Bill Cunningham “Facades” exhibition sounds fascinating. It opens today at the New York Historical Society.
• H&M’s fashion cousin COS is coming to the US and will, for starters, be opening stores in New York City and Beverly Hills. 
• Do you live in New York City? Then keep an eye out for “Branché”, Marie Claire’s first pop-up magazine.
• Speaking of wearable art: Opening Ceremony presents their sneakers collection featuring surrealist Magritte paintings.

On YLF we also did a post on the Lammily doll, an alternative to the Mattel Barbie doll based on the measurements of a 19-year old woman.

Fun Fashion Fact

Jeanne Lanvin, the founder of the French high fashion house that celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, was ahead of the curve in more ways than one. She ran a nursery for her employees’ children, was one of the first designers to do four seasons, one of the first to use lamé fabrics, and she never started from a sketch, but would directly drape fabrics on a dress form and design the clothes from there.

I recently went shopping with a client who needed help putting together a small business casual capsule for a brand new job. Our goal was to create a small, but effective assortment of flattering, pulled together mix and match outfits. That way she would be able to reach for outfits without fuss, and focus her energies on work. 

My client wanted to look professional, polished, current and a little fun. It was important that she feel comfortable, which meant items couldn’t be overly tight, and no heel heights over two inches. She also runs cold so toppers are a daily necessity. 

We shopped for two hours and put together a capsule that is similar to the one you see here. My client had some of the pieces already (black jacket, clutch, ink blouse and grey trousers). She also has some pieces not shown here (more tops, cardigans, black trench coat and white jeans) that will provide further outfit variety within the capsule. 

The first thing we did was decide on a colour palette. My lovely client is blonde and looks extra fab in cool colours, so we chose light grey, black, ink blue, taupe and off-white as neutrals. She loves fuchsia and citron, so we included those colours in some of the tops. Although these are warmer, wearing them with cool neutrals makes the colours completely wearable against my client’s cool complexion. 

All five tops can be worn with all four bottoms, and topped with any of the three jackets. All footwear options work with the bottoms because my client’s extra long leg line allows her to wear one inch heels with bootcut trousers. She’s also fine wearing booties and loafers with skirts. She’ll add nude hosiery and knee-highs for warmth. The belt is for the off-white tops that she partially tucks into the front of the three pairs of trousers. She wears the rest of the tops untucked. 

Neutral and colourful outfits can be created from this capsule. We kept patterns to a minimum because solids are easier to mix and match.

Here are the components:

Bottoms: Choose four bottoms in different silhouettes to ensure maximum variety: micro check ankle pants, grey bootcut trousers, ink straight leg trousers, and a patterned pencil skirt. We chose a pencil instead of a flared skirt because it’s easier to pair with untucked voluminous tops. We chose a pattern in the skirt to liven up the capsule. 

Tops: Choose five tops in an assortment of colours, silhouettes and textures. We chose an off-white blouse with a high-low hemline to partially tuck with a belt. And solid blouses in fuchsia, cream and citron. One was structured, and the others fluid. My client was wearing the drapey navy blouse, which unexpectedly worked brilliantly in the capsule. 

Jackets: Choose three jackets in an assortment of colours and silhouettes. We chose a lightweight taupe leather jacket that could be worn indoors, and a simple modern classic light grey blazer with a low stance. My client already had the short black tuxedo jacket, which has fun pinstripe turnup lining on the sleeves. 

Footwear: Choose at least three pairs of shoes because feet need change, and so does your outfit. We chose a pointy toe tan flat to bookend my clients blonde hair, and elongate the leg line when wearing bootcut trousers. The black bow on the flat worked well to repeat the black of the jacket. The black loafers are comfortable modern classics. Black cut-out booties provide a little trendy hard edge. We didn’t manage to get the patterned black and white slipper flats, but that is next on the shopping list, so I popped them into the capsule. 

Bags: Choose a bag or two that suits your lifestyle. My client likes to use one bag for the season, so we lightened up with a taupe tote for Spring that carries a laptop and paper. The clutch fits into the tote, which is essential because she travels to and from work with the tote but uses the clutch during the workday. She’ll change up the colour of the clutch during the season. 

Accessories: We bought a tan belt to wear with the partially tucked white tops and left it at that. No scarves or additional jewellery was purchased because stud earrings, watch and wedding ring are fine for day-to-day office wear. 

This is just one business casual capsule to get my client started on her new job. She will add to this capsule, and create new capsules in different colour palettes for greater variety. She’ll probably be able to shop her closet for a more denim-friendly look for Casual Friday. And she’ll add some dresses for Summer. 

Planning and purchasing your workwear wardrobe in capsules is one way to ensure that you have an assortment of mix and match outfit possibilities on hand. Having several mix and match capsules in your closet allows you to pick and choose your outfits daily from different capsules, thereby ensuring ongoing variety.

Yesterday, The Guardian columnist Helen Walmsley-Johnson revealed her true identity to her readers. Under the pen name “The Invisible Woman”, she had been writing excellent columns about fashion for older women for quite some time. However, she’d been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with “staying invisible”, and thought it was time to stand up, for herself, and for a whole generation of women:

“Another reason for shedding my anonymity is that we are a generation of women who need to speak up and demand what we need because there is so much wrong with the treatment and perceptions of our age group. We are a generation of ‘copers’ — silent copers at that — but we need a voice. I can’t add my voice if I remain invisible. We must all stop being invisible women. It’s simply no good to be polite and hope someone else will do it for us, or that common sense and good manners will prevail. That is not how society is, if it ever was. We need to adapt and reinvent ourselves.”

Another blogger whose style philosopy I like is Alyson Walsh from That’s Not My Age, a freelance journalist and former fashion editor who “strongly believes that you don’t have to have youth to have style”.

Through Alyson’s blog I discovered the website of photographer Kristin Perers. She started interviewing and photographing women “of a certain age” for the this is 50 project when she herself turned fifty and “was looking for role models who could show her how to do it with style and grace”. The pictures are beautiful and the stories thought-provoking and truly inspiring.

Fab Links from Our Members

After reading the Man Repeller’s post about a cry against normcore, Deb wondered if we are really doing this. Are we becoming boring dressers?, she asks, and is “boring” really in style?

Vildy enjoyed this piece on actors needing to “perform ordinariness” to come across as authentic, and in touch with their audiences. 

Both MuseumGal and Angie came across our very own forum member Deborah being interviewed about her killer style on 40 Plus Style. Angie adds that she especially loves Deb’s style when she incorporates white and/or light grey into her outfits.

Angie would also like to share Already Pretty’s selection of favourite body-positive blogs.

Betabrand, a San Francisco-based apparel company, decided to use female PhDs instead of professional models in its latest ad campaign. Diana has mixed feelings about this, and started a great discussion in the YLF forum.

Peter Lappin of Male Pattern Boldness asks a question Laurinda has long wondered about: Why must our clothing be gendered? He also includes a video interview with Timothy John, often seen in Bill Cunningham’s fashion photo essays in the NY Times, who explains that he just wants to wear clothing that makes his heart sing.