Kitten Head Fashion Freak

On shitty days I lift my spirits with a lunch-hour trip to Mood Designer Fabrics. “Intoxication through textiles,” one of my colleagues calls it. He said to me last week, “If you keep heading toward Seventh Avenue each day, people are going to think you are having an affair.” In a way, I am. With the third-floor wool department.

On my way to Mood last Friday, I passed Spandex World. I waited for this man to pass the shop before I took the snap so I could capture his blue jacket and black bag.

Scores from the trip: a pair of Lucite pocketbook handles and three yards of olive green brushed cashmere from Italy.

I see the same willowy twenty-something on the same block each week day morning. He is always wearing a dark Hermes H belt with light trousers and a pale, pressed shirt. The contrast makes the belt pop, which I am sure is quiet intentional. As quickly as my eye is drawn to the gold buckle, it is torn away to a black nylon blackberry holder hitched holster-style to the dark brown belt strap.

Today is vintage Vintage Yves Saint Laurent day.

One of the best things about being a New Yorker and into fashion is that you get to shop the streets. When my darling and I pound around the city, he looks up at the architecture while I comb over what people are wearing, thinking about how I can incorporate their stuff into my own look.

New York Magazine’s Look Book takes all of that raw visual delight and edits into a juicy, liberating, serial sartorial guide to Big Apple style. Last month’s Look Book piece about bead artist Suzanne Golden simply makes life worth living. Anyone who can take a gingham blazer and make it simultaneously waked out and pretty is my hero.

Susan and I must be on the same wavelength. As I looked at her colors and textures, I was reminded of Comme des Garçons Spring 08 line (which, dang it, left me pining again for that swing coat in navy gab and white buttons). When I went to Susan’s site, I clicked on her about page and found her draped in the lavender version of the same coat!

Do you think that the CDG boutique may still have one in a medium? If not, I’ll save my pennies for one of their heart or lip overcoats for fall 08.

My red Alain Mikli sunglasses are back from the shop, thank heavens. I was without them for two weeks during which NYC had its first heat wave of the summer.

While they were gone, I was tempted to pick up a second pair just to get through. I was taken in at first by some of the big-house fashion designers, but their glasses just reek of the licensed-brand-name-extension, conspicuous-consumption nonsense that is so regrettable about the luxury fashion market these days. I feel the same way about watches. I love Fendi shoes, but would never wear a Fendi watch. Chanel suits, for sure, but a timepiece? That is for suckers. I go to the good watch people for that. And so, I considered some of the other great eye wear designers.

Persols are pretty, pretty, pretty. Fred frames are freaking awesome, especially when they are made of gold and horn. When I try them on I want to keep them on. Then, when I think about my three-year old grabbing them from my face and tossing them to the sidewalk, I go straight back to my Miklis. They were, after all, the first accessory that ever made me feel like a movie star.