Some habits are inescapable. I may try to escape.. but then it looks too good, too tempting and I fall back. Coffee, chocolate, sleeping in. When it comes to style, there are some recurring themes in my life, liquid eyeliner, red lipstick, and the trusty red, white and black color combination. I try, I really try to go with other colors, declaring the triad too severe, but only half heartedly. Red is just my color, black is so easy and available, and white… well I want more white but it’s too delicate for every day. So I keep coming back, whether the combination is on the ‘it’ pallet or not. Perhaps one day, I’ll surrender and all you’ll see in my closet is my classic red, white and black.
Speaking of classics, here I’m wearing a Vivienne Tam dress. The story behind it is really quite amazing, and though I’ve worn this dress several times, couldn’t ever get any good photos of me and the dress before, so here we are, a month after it all happened. HP and Vivienne Tam invited a group of bloggers to NYC for fashion week, had us attend her collection presentation, and then the next day, they invited us to the Vivienne Tam boutique in Soho for a surprise. I thought it was going to be a presentation for the HP mini. But no. They told us that we could have anything in the store we wanted. It was amazing, I never experienced anything like that! Well, I pulled a bunch of dresses off the rack, and as soon as I tried on this one, I knew it was it. It’s not the first Vivienne Tam dress I bought. The first one was special too… it was the first ‘designer dress’ I ever purchased with my own money. I loved it and wore it for years and years, until it fell apart. The dress, was you might guess: red and black.
This dress is made of the mesh material Vivienne Tam is known for using with her dresses. I couldn’t figure out if I loved the ruffle sleeves which are dramatic and flattering, or if I loved the beaded flowers more.
Some of you may remember my shoe bender… and I’m still savoring it… I picked up these during my Payless trip, these were the shoes that started it all. I had been looking for red shoes for a while, and couldn’t find ones that I liked.. when I came across these beauties, it was just love at first sight. Comfortable, unique and RED and they only cost $15, so I figured, why not? So far I’ve worn them 5 times and each time they get loads of compliments. Not bad for cheap, over the top plastic shoes.
The gloves and the clock are vintage. The gloves are transparent with polka dots… I have to wear them more! The ring is a bow ring from 4me Paris (I wear it all the time) and the clock… well that’s a design geek thing… a Dieter Rams for Braun 1970′s flip clock. We mostly have it around for show, and use our computers to tell the time. I love it.
What are your inescapable colors?
{ 34 comments }
Mine has got be emerald green as yesterday was St Patricks day and being an Irish girl and all that!
http://blog.matchesfashion.com/2009/03/the-luck-of-the-stylish-2/
love those shoes! I can’t believe they’re from PayLess!
The more I’m hearing about Vivienne Tam & how her company is run, the more I love it! What a generous company, and they’re so friendly to bloggers… fantastic.
As for inescapable colors… mine will always be hot pink, black, and white. Sometimes there is a good dose of turquoise in there (for a touch of 80s-sass), but it’s something I consider my signature.
If only I could have pink hair again…
well…orange, for starters, it’s my favorite color.
but after that, red, green, yellow, purple, and blue, in that order.
i also mix all that up with a LOT of black and grey, and denim.
and gold.
shoot, i love nearly all colors. so hard to pick just one go-to color or combo, really.
awesome! I love red and also a huge lover of my red boots but LOVE seeing red on you!! his is very well put together. love the lace injection as well.
This is super fabulushtiqué, ♥luvvit-luvvit
That dress looks so amazing on you!! My classic colors are green and purple, then I mix with neutral faves like brown, gray, and red.
Colours that I will always assosiate with HOT fashion, that push my buttons - as a man are London Postbox Red and Mustard.
They just remind me of sexyness in (womens) fashion.
My default, fall to colors are brown, green, beige and black. I always hear that they shouldn’t be seen anywhere near each other, but I lo-lo-love putting them together.
I like when my shoes match my hair (which goes between a burnt rust color and golden brown), and wearing subtle earth tones between them makes me feel so comfortable.
Also, I could hide forever in a forest and NOONE could find me. Camouflage++!
I love those gloves they look so cute with the ring too!
It sounds like a dream come true to be taken to a boutique and told to take whatever you want! Vivienne Tam do sound like a great forward thinking company.
Maybe I haven’t been paying attention to your photos lately, but BOOM BADA. Niiiiiice.
As for timeless colours, mine are grey and dark blue.
Fantastic outfit-I love all the little details.
Hmm colours I keep coming back to…there are a lot of them. I’d say gray, black, white, hot pink, and any sort of blue.
holy moly, wow, thank you for the lovely comments!
❤ ruth.. emerald green! i love it!
❤ hello…oh they are, they are indeed…
❤ ashe… turquoise is such a cool color, there needs to be more of it.
❤ tricia, oh i can tell! orange is so good on you, and you have such a rich color palette, very distinctive..
❤ meli, you are my hero, red boots=awesome
❤ seb…london postbox red. what a great color.
❤ ki, all those colors sound great! i love it!
❤ retro…oh it was a dream, i can hardly believe it!
❤ thom…thank you, well thank rocky, now he’s finished his masters, he has some time for me.
❤ lisa! oh you’re like ashe… hot pink is such a cool color!
Oh my god, i NEED those boots! I’m going to have to make a trip to Payless to see if we got them here in Canada. Sadly, probably not
that’s such a gorgeous dress - wow! i’d choose red - like the idea of london postbox red ❤ what i always come back to besides this is grey and beige with silver/gold…and remember rodarte this year? that green on beige was so good ❤
Hot pink and black - my all-time favorite combo.
Oh, Jennine, I SO wish I’d scored a pair of those A+O for Payless booties! They’re just amazing.
I LOVE these photos. The shoes are amazing. And 15 bucks?!? I love yellow. And lavender. And orange. And bright blues.
I don’t know how to comment on this without sounding like a drooling crazy girl! The dress! The shoes! The kickass red vintage alarm clock! All amazing.
I actually was going to limit myself to a palette of colors but I do tend to get sucked back in by others. My best colors are (in no particular order):
Black
Greys
Deep purple
Red
Bright Blue
Forest-y green
White
Pinky-peach
Peacock/teal
I’m a blue-eyed red head with fair skin that has lots of pink undertones. Those are the colors that look the best and get me compliments. The worst on me - yellow. I love orange too but don’t think it suits me either so it becomes an accent color.
I saw those boots on a photographer in NYC in September. They were amazing on her too and I was impressed then. They look good on you.
You look fab as usual!:)
My colors
Grey
Pale yellow
Brown but only when worn with a teal or purple
Black
Some pink’s
I really enjoyed reading this post! Your red shoes are so super cute!
So great in the classic colors, but white is not that delicate,
those lil gloves add a perfect touch.
Love, love, love this look on you!
I loooove that dress, and the shoes are so fun! My colors are pretty dull, I’m definitely a black/white/grey kinda girl, but I’m trying to break out of that pattern this Spring/Summer! Unsuccessfully so far…
I really love how the pattern on the dress and the lace tights compliment each other. This is an outfit that is full of movement! I’m still pissed off that Payless never released those shoes in Canada…
Grey Brown and Blue. I love all colors and try hard to venture outside my color box but these are the three i stick with in both clothing and makeup colors to bring out my brown hair and eyes
I DIG the shoes! I have always loved red and black together and my mom always complains that I buy only such dark colours.
Wow that dress is gorgeous. I totally agree that you cannot decided wich part you like the best because its just all so pretty.
I love colours. I had a job for 3 years where i could only wear black and afther i left that company i was so happy to embrace a lot of colors in my closet again.
I love white, blue, purple and silver. I want to wear more pink and reds.
Your outfit is gorgeous. First visit on your blog but I’ll be back for more!
you look super good with that clock
those gloves! those boots!
Absolutely Adore!
Gorgeous! Can’t believe you got those shoe at Payless! Just shows how much selection varies by location! You look fabulous!
You look *amazing*! & what a lucky thing to have that happen!
sorry for the belated comment, but **yow**, everything about this outfit is AMAZING!
i never thought i’d say it about anything from payless, but those shoes are FABULOUS!
loving the tights, the hair, and
red, white, and black is also my all-time favorite color combo. HALSTON’s too, I think, no??
love love love!
stockings are amazing and everything is paired beyond…real editorial:)