Style Secrets of Anna Wintour

Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images Europe.

I am a big fan of Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue. Not only has her magazine brightened many a day of mine and inspired me with its gorgeous editorials, I admire the strength, discipline and hard work involved in staying at the top of the fashion world.

And then there are her clothes. I've read her clothing allowance, paid for by Conde Nast, is $200,000 a year, but I'm sure she gets most of her clothes for free. How, then, do you hone your style when you can have anything in the world you desire? By knowing yourself through and through. Her look strikes me as simple, yet elegant and glamorous, and by watching her over the past few years, here are five tips I've learned from Anna:

Photo by Andy Kropa/Getty Images North America.

1. Find your look and stick with it.

This is a woman who found her best look early on and has been faithful to it ever since. Key pieces include the shift dress, the cardigan, the Chanel jacket and the fur-trimmed coat, as well as her trademark bob and sunglasses. For shoes she favors high-heeled sandals in warmer months and knee boots in fall and winter. Has she ever been photographed wearing pants since climbing to the top of Vogue's masthead in 1988?

Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images.

2. Trends are not friends.

Anna, for all her magazine's reporting on and championing of trends, does not follow them herself. She knows her look and she's loyal to it. The silhouette is classic, though she makes it current with the vibrant colors and patterns she often wears. Call it ladylike with a slight twist.

3. Structure, however, is.

Anna avoids anything very draped or billowy and there are no bohemian shapes for her. The dresses are narrow and the jackets, cardigans and coats are clean-cut.

Photo by Darla Khazei/PacificCoastNews.com.

4. Big necklace, big payoff.

In almost every scene of The September Issue, Anna wore a huge beautiful gemstone necklace in either topaz, aquamarine or amethyst. This year she's taken to wearing them two or three at a time, upping her style quotient even more. Nothing like a big glittery Georgian-era necklace (or three) to send your look to the next level of fashion heaven.

Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images.

5. Be a shady lady.

There is no one in the fashion world (except maybe Karl Lagerfeld) who is as known for wearing sunglasses as Anna is. Whether they really are corrective lenses for badly deteriorating eyesight (as has been rumored), or armor, as she herself has called them, they help keep her inscrutable and glamorous.

Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.

Miu Miu Love

Vitello Lux Bow Bag in Deserto (Nude), $1,430.

Patchwork Mink Clutch, $1,450.

Napa Cloquet Shoulder Bag in Gray/Blue, $1,430.

Yesterday it was overcast and drizzly here in Brooklyn and half of my family was sick so I was feeling a little down. I was standing on the corner of 9th Street, close to the 7th Avenue F and G train subway station, chatting with a friend. As we talked I saw a few standout outfits on women making their way into the city--riding boots with wool skirts and tights, wide-legged pants with high-heeled pumps, walking coats, wonderful scarves. This must be what it's like for Bill Cunningham, the New York Times chronicler of street fashion, to hang out at 57th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan: you stand still and the fashion will eventually come to you!

One woman carried a gorgeous cream colored leather Miu Miu handbag that was to die for and it not only improved my mood, it reminded me of how much I like that brand. While none of the above bags are the exact one I saw, the top one is close and all of them are divine. I feel a trip to the Miu Miu boutique coming on and I hope they have the same foxy male model types to open doors and answer questions that the Prada stores hire. Minimum height 6'1, very thin, black suits with white shirts, charming and witty as well. White, black, Italian, American, short hair, long hair, glasses, no glasses. It's like the UN of hotties at Prada, at both the SoHo and Upper East Side locations.

Miuccia Prada is a genius and it's not just for her designs.

All bags featured from the Bergdorf Goodman website.

A Peacoat on Veterans Day

This is my father's U.S. Navy peacoat, circa 1964. The emblem on the arm of the coat signifies he last wore it when he was a Petty Officer First Class. He and my mother gave it to me as a Christmas present about ten years ago. I have three brothers so it was a lovely surprise to be the one to receive it. It's in 30 ounce wool, very heavy and warm, and sewn into its black satin lining is a label with my father's name, written in his own hand, and service number. It is a wearable piece of my father's history that I treasure.

Known for its durability and warmth, the peacoat was originally worn by sailors of European navies and the U.S. Navy adopted it as part of their uniform as early as 1881. When I wear it I am reminded of growing up in the military and how being surrounded by those clean-cut uniforms of the Navy and Marine Corps as a child have influenced the clean-cut styles I gravitate towards as an adult.

My father, who retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 4, served in the Vietnam War and was the recipient of two Purple Hearts, the medal given to servicemembers wounded in combat. My brother, a major in the Marine Corps, served in the war in Iraq. On this Veterans Day, I want to thank them, and all veterans, for their service to this country.

I would also like to recognize the spouses and families of servicemembers in a war zone. They keep the home fires burning while their loved ones are away and it is a tough job, fraught daily with uncertainty and fear, but also with love and pride. They, too, serve with honor, and they are not thanked enough.

Tagged!

My new friend Sarah of Cloud of Secrets tagged me to answer some "I love your blog" questions. Thanks, Sarah!

The rules:
-Do an entry with the prize.
-Answer the questions.
-Give the prize to 10 blogs.

1. Why did you create the blog?

I created the blog because I badly wanted to attend the press preview for the costume exhibit "American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection" at Brooklyn Museum in May of this year. This exhibit celebrated Brooklyn Museum giving their entire costume collection over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. I pitched article ideas to local papers but no one took me on. I read in Brooklyn Museum's online press kit that bloggers could attend the preview. My first thought was, When did bloggers become part of the press? My second thought was, Okay, I'm a blogger! I attended the exhibit, got to ask the wonderful curator Jan Glier Reeder a ton of questions about the amazing clothes, and spent most of May blogging about them. The Charles Frederick Worth and Charles James dresses alone were worth starting my blog. I can't thank Adam Husted enough. He is the Media Relations Manager at Brooklyn Museum and he was very kind to me.

2. What kind of blogs do you follow?

I am always knocked out by the generosity of people who invite me into their world and show me something of their lives and loves and I always come back for more.

3. Favorite makeup brand?

I love drugstore brands--Revlon, L'Oreal--as well as high-end--YSL, Chanel, Laura Mercier, Dior. I also love nail polish and my top three brands are Chanel, Essie and Rescue Beauty Lounge.

4. Favorite clothing brand?

Everyday life: J. Crew and Levi's. Fantasy brands: Chanel (a jacket, a medium size flap bag), Hermes, (a scarf and a bag), Rag & Bone. Jason Wu makes the most amazing clothes. Valentino, preferably vintage. Actually, I want Mr. Valentino to adopt me so I can live in his glorious chateau in France.


Here is Mr. Valentino with the actress Helena Bonham Carter at the November 8 New York City premiere of the new movie The King's Speech.

5. Your indispensable makeup product?

Mascara.

6. Your favorite color?

I love so many colors but for clothes I always seem to fall back on black, navy blue and deep dark eggplant-y purple.

7. Your perfume?

I get headaches from every other brand (unfortunately) so I'm a Chanel gal all the way--Coco and Coco Mademoiselle.

8. Your favorite film?

My favorite fashion films are The September Issue and The Devil Wears Prada. I could watch Meryl Streep take out the trash, I love her so much. Also, I know it's not a great movie in terms of plot, but I love the scene in Le Divorce where Kate Hudson's character receives an Hermes red crocodile Kelly from her would-be lover. That bag is to die for. I bet it had its own bodyguard on the set.
This poster features a Birkin, not the crocodile Kelly I'm talking about. It was probably long gone to its new home by time they shot this picture.

9. What country would you like to visit and why?

I would love to return to France (Paris) and Italy (Rome). So many places left unseen! I would also like to visit Japan. My son wants to ride a high-speed train there and now I want to as well.

10. Make the last question and answer yourself.
What fashion industry insider would you be most interested in following for one week?

Anna Wintour. I would love to see the wheeling and dealing from the top!


Anna, I would love to come pour coffee and send faxes for you.

I now pass these questions on to some blogs I've had fun checking out. I would love to read your answers!

Artloveallister
Frills and Lace
Priscila's Closet
Paris in Pink
Svitlana M
Vogue Vintage
WhatSheFound

Disposable Clothes, a Miner, & the New York City Marathon

Yesterday was the 41st running of the New York City Marathon, a race I completed in 2005. There was an interesting story on ABC World News last night about the thousands of pounds of clothing the runners discard along the 26.2 miles of the course, stretching through all five boroughs. An organization called Wearable Collections picked up as much of it as they could to donate to different charities and to keep it from being collected by sanitation workers and dumped in a landfill.

I left behind a sweatshirt and a pair of gloves before I even got to the starting line in Staten Island and I wasn't the only one. It was like a crazy closet there in Fort Wadsworth, clothes draped everywhere over barricades or gently laid out on the sidewalks. It is so great to know the clothes go to people in need and I applaud the work Wearable Collections is doing. I should volunteer to pick up clothes for them next year.

The picture above features Edison Pena (center runner), one of the rescued Chilean miners, who completed the marathon in 5 hours and 40 minutes. This blows me away since he had no training other than the six miles he ran every day while trapped in the mine, which also blows me away. That is one tough man, although I have a feeling that after what he endured down in the mine the marathon was a piece of cake.

Congratulations to him and all the runners. The New York City Marathon course is especially difficult and when you finish it you feel like you are on top of the world.

Witchiepoo

I normally hate most pictures of myself but these shots from Halloween aren't repulsing me, because I am hidden under my pink wig, witch hat and a ton of eye makeup. Here, too, is the luxurious velvet coat my husband's grandmother gave me a long time ago. At this point it is one of the fanciest garments I own, although I hope to keep adding to my fashion collection.

This is so Brooklyn with the chipped paint on the shuttered storefront.

With my son, the pirate. Where I live in Brooklyn the kids trick-or-treat on Seventh Avenue, where the shop owners give out candy. There is not as much of the traditional house-to-house trick-or-treating you find in the rest of the country. I saw some of my neighbors on the block had left bowls of candy out on their stoops for the kids to select as they walked by. I did the same and it worked like a charm. Bye-bye candy!

With my son the pirate, and my daughter Thomas the Tank Engine.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Now let's get busy with those turkeys...

Edith Head, Hollywood Legend

Browsing in Barnes & Noble over the weekend I discovered a new gorgeous book called Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer by Jay Jorgensen.

Edith Head is responsible for the fashion in movies I love: All About Eve, Funny Face, Rear Window, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Sunset Boulevard, The Ten Commandments, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo. During her long career she won 8 Academy Awards, more than any other woman in history, the first for The Heiress in 1950, the last for The Sting in 1974. The looks she gave to Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Kim Novak fueled my love of clothes and still influence me today, and, I'd say, anyone who counts Hepburn and Kelly as style icons.

If you get a chance to see this book, first put your muscles on because it is huge and heavy, and second, look through it and be astounded at how influential a costume designer Edith Head was.

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck (could he be any foxier?), Roman Holiday.

Grace Kelly in that glorious white dress on the set of To Catch a Thief.

Audrey Hepburn on the set of Sabrina.

This famous “Sabrina” dress was believed for years to be by Givenchy, but in 1974 Head told her protégé, Jean-Pierre Dorleac, who wrote in an article published in the Los Angeles Times, that Hepburn sketched a version of this dress after seeing a Givenchy show and gave the sketch to Head since she wanted it as one of the costumes for Sabrina. Head removed the one-sided peplum that was shown in the sketch and added the bows at the shoulders and the “Sabrina” dress was born. Maybe the book elaborates even more.

William Holden and Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard.

I love the leopard, sunglasses and floppy hat on Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.

Kim Novak, Vertigo.

Now I remember why I love white or cream-colored coats so much, look at how beautiful this is on Kim Novak, especially when paired with black!

Bette Davis, All About Eve.

A promotional still of Bette Davis for All About Eve. I love the pleating in the shoulders and bodice, as well as the brooch.

Anne Baxter, The Ten Commandments.

Check out Anne as a super sexy Egyptian! My husband drools over Anne every year when this comes on TV. I drool over Yul. I still cannot get over how sheer and revealing the costumes Anne wears are. How did they ever get past the censors?

What is your favorite movie costume of Edith’s?

Fall Bag Lust List

Here is my roundup of four bags I love for fall and winter.

Celine Leopard Luggage tote, $2,500.
I've read on various blogs that this bag is already sold out everywhere and I can understand why. I love the leopard with the leather.

Mulberry Oversized Alexa, $1,250.
This looks like a bag you'd have forever, one that would improve as it got beat up a little bit.

MZ Wallace Leopard Print Bea, $395.
I've loved MZ Wallace's Bea bags for awhile and here it is combined with a leopard print. Divine!

Longchamp Le Pliage tote, $145.
The bag from this group I'd be most likely to buy. I see this bag all over the place in Manhattan and Brooklyn. What a perfect tote with its nylon fabric and leather handles and accents. It's available in two sizes (this is the large) and a ton of colors. Make mine black.