As we ramp up for the holiday season, let’s talk lace versus sequins. You do NOT need to like entire garments made of lace or sequins in order to bat for one of these teams. It’s fine if you fancy lace and sequins as trims on clothing, footwear and accessories. 

I’m on Team Lace all the way. Lace is so Chanel and Valentino, which speaks to my style soul. I have three lace tops, and I’ve had the perfect lace skirt on my shopping list for years. I almost bought a pair of long lace shorts and would love a pair of lace trousers and a lace dress. I also like lace insets on clothing. I do not own anything with a sequin on it now that I have passed on my sequin dress. That’s odd because I like sequins, and almost bought a pair of sequin trousers last year. I guess I ended up purchasing an item made of shiny Lurex thread or lace instead of sequins.

Over to you. Are you on Team Lace or Team Sequins? If you like both, or neither, you’ll sit this one out on the bench with cherry pie and tea.

Tops with horizontal stripes continue to be very on trend, although I think of the item in neutral tones as a modern classic piece with high longevity. Matching up a tailored striped top with a pair of bootcut or skinny jeans and casual boots is a great look, but there is style life beyond this pairing. 

Here are ways to wear a variety of striped tops with an assortment of bottoms that create a different vibe for Autumn. I’ve stuck to black, Winter white, cream, oatmeal, navy, grey and denim to create a neutral, texture-rich outfit statement.

Choose a striped top that works for YOU: Fitted, roomy, cropped, tunic, dark, light, boatneck, V-neck, high-low hemline – take your pick. Personally, I prefer my striped tops dark with a light stripe, a high neckline, and fairly tailored. I have my eye on the ink blue and white turtle neck shown above because it’s a true modern classic that will take me all the way through a Seattle Spring. 

The unexpected bottom: Pair the top with leather or leather trimmed pants, a leather skirt, distressed boyfriend jeans, slouchy trousers, harem pants, camouflage pants, white jeans or trousers, tuxedo pants, a lace skirt, baggy tweed shorts, or a flared mini skirt. Some of the juxtapositions are extreme, but that’s the point. Also, wearing white or off white jeans year round is fab. Why not! 

Footwear: Choose a shootie or bootie. Throw in an animal print pattern for a pattern mixed effect. Or brogue detailing for an androgynous look. Or white booties because shades of white work well year round. 

The Finishing Touches: Think daytime clutches with texture and patterned handbags like snakeskin. Mix up a black, white and grey outfit with a navy bag. Add in a fun hat like a felt fedora or fingerless leather gloves. 

As with all the outfit formulas, I sow the seed of an idea. The next step is to substitute the items so that they reflect your style persona. Have fun pairing your striped top with an item other than basic jeans.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2013, kate spade new york is inviting us all for a look behind the scenes. kate spade new york – things we love: twenty years of inspiration, intriguing bits and other curiosities is an eclectic compilation of all the things that charm and inspire their creative team. I cannot wait to get my hands on this book, “part visual diary, part inspirational reference that visually represents the spirit of this successful company, a place where the colours are bold, smart design is key and fashion is fun”. 

Like the kate spade people, I too strongly believe that outfit inspiration can be found anywhere. That pretty much everything can trigger our sartorial imagination: CD cover artwork, the intoxicating ozone-rich smell of the ocean, an artful table setting, a colourful concert poster, soft white snow covering the entire city, a sentence in the newspaper, holiday gift wrap, the way chocolates are displayed at the corner bakery… the list is endless, really. I thought it would be fun to share some or our own, perhaps somewhat unexpected, inspiration sources today. Angie and all the YLF forum ladies who post their brilliant outfits are my number-one go-to source, but here are two examples of “non-fashion events” that recently got the cogs turning as well:

What’s Cooking – Last week I made green soup, a family “recipe” — if you can call it that — for which you just toss together all the green veggies and herbs you can find. Admiring the vibrant green colour and different textures of my broccoli, zucchini, spinach, purslane and watercresss suddenly made me want to add a few ton-sur-ton looks to my Fall outfit repertoire. I’ve always liked using different shades of the same colour in one outfit. It can make for a subtle yet very striking look. I think I’ll try my hand at purple first. I’m envisioning my fuchsia high-low zip back sweater over a purple and orange animal print silk blouse, paired with dark grey tapered dressy trousers and suede burgundy booties.

Architectural Appeal – I kept going back to this photo, a detail of the Mobile Art Pavilion for Chanel. The strong simplicity and curved contours really speak to me. To recreate the feel of this art installation I want to pair a crisp white button-down with black skinny pants. That covers the colour palette. The narrow stripes in my grey pinstriped blazer will hopefully echo the distinctive black joints. I’ll use a pair of black patent ankle boots to mimic the beautiful lustre of the white tiles. And I might throw in my small white pearl stud earrings as an extra wink to the rounded structure.

Have you found clothing inspiration in unusual places lately? We’d love to know where, and do share how you chose to translate this into an actual outfit.

Reminder: for 2 November

Friday 2 November is kick-off day for our next Book Club title. We’ll be chatting about Dana Thomas’ Deluxe – How Luxury Lost Its Luster and would love to hear your thoughts.

When we look back at decades past, we have a clear picture of the style that prevailed in the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Fashion trends played a much larger role in your style life back then because that was all that was available in stores. The lack of fashion variety during those decades meant that people sported the same silhouettes in the same way, which in turn made the style of those eras very distinctive. 

Today’s fashion is different. As I mentioned in a post that applauded today’s fashion, we are living in an era that is ultra accepting and encouraging of all sorts of outfit juxtapositions, colours, fabrications, and silhouettes. Never before has there been as much variety in fashion and style as there is right now. As a result there isn’t a distinctive “look of the decade”.

Today’s fashion has taken the best trends and silhouettes of decades past and modernized them. As fashion repeats itself in a refreshing way, it has also mixed up the design inspirations of decades past resulting in a melting pot where, with discretion, almost anything goes. Of course, we are still able to distinguish dated looks from current ones, and stylish looks from unstylish ones, so the “almost” in that last sentence is important. 

Today’s more liberal approach to fashion, where trends do not rule the way we dress like they used to, has resulted in a true rebirth of personal style. Now more than ever, it’s HOW you wear and interpret fashion that counts. Gone are the days when looking stylish meant dressing in one particular way. Let there be more applause. 

As I think of today’s style, and browse through street style blogs that represent personal styles from the super classic to the ultra avant-garde, and everything in-between, I actually also have a hard time coming up with distinctive items and outfit combinations that truly represent the 21st century. Style has become so diverse. It’s not as easy as saying the dropped waist flapper dresses of the ’20s, the mod dresses, bobs and patent boots of the ’60s, or the shoulder pads, oversized tops, neon and pleated pants of the ’80s. All these silhouettes will fly today as long as they are worn with a big dose of modern.

Although the variety represented by today’s fashion is a big upside, there is also a downside. It does seem to me that while there has been progress in fabric technology and eco-friendliness, truly creative newness in style and design is lacking. Today much of the newness lies in how we mix and match the items our way, but not in the items themselves where the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Reinvention rather than invention.

Do you agree with my assessment of today’s fashion era? Are there items and outfit combinations that will go down in fashion history as the look for the early 21st century? I’ll have an apoplexy if you say Uggs and T-shirts.