The Met Gala — the informal name for the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — takes place tonight and, as always, I am bitter about not being an invitee. Not because I want to rub elbows with celebrities and billionaires, but because I LOVE theme dressing and I LOVE to shop…
vintage WendyB photos
Going Wide With Frame Jeans and Diane Keaton
I need to do a YouTube video about my whole history with jeans. I’ve realized that since my teenage years, I’ve always been searching for a style that’s not readily available. Over the past decade, I’ve been bedeviled by the persistence of skinny jeans/jeggings, which was a style I loved in the 1980s — when…
Foot Fetish: 1980s Booties and Boot Styles
There hasn’t been a shoe that’s interested me in quite a while, but this Dior caught my eye because it reminds me of a Peter Fox style I had in the 1980s. You can just barely make out those Peter Fox shoes against my crazy striped tights in this poorly lit photo from 1986. Madonna…
Notre Dame’s Bell Towers Survive
I was on the plane on the way back from Coachella today when I glimpsed a news report on the in-flight television about the tremendous fire that broke out on the roof of Notre Dame, the Gothic cathedral that is the literal center of Paris. I tried to convince myself that the scene wasn’t as…
Throwback Thursday: OG Bloggers and Leopard Week
I’m so thankful that a few other “original gangster” fashion bloggers are still blogging away, just like me. I share a decade-long history with people like Judith from Style Crone and Sheila from Ephemera. Those mutual memories are treasures, as illustrated by Sheila after she watched my recent video about designer Patrick Kelly The video…
What Wendy Didn’t Wear: Patrick Kelly Mini Dress
For last week’s video on the late designer Patrick Kelly, I wore a Kelly dress that I’ve never worn out in the real world. Can you guess why this one stays in the closet? What Wendy Didn’t Wear Dress: Vintage Patrick Kelly (probably from eBay, maybe purchased around 2008?) Boots: Prada (2012-ish) If you truly…
Throwback Thursday: Anne Boleyn’s Necklace
Here’s the first photo of myself that I shared on this blog, from the second of three brief posts I published on July 27, 2007. In it, I’m wearing my Anne Boleyn-inspired necklace, while posing outside Anne Boleyn’s childhood home, Hever Castle. My desire for a bold initial pendant had been with me since I…
Fashion Repeats Itself: Saint Laurent Lights Up
The 1980s were a decade of DayGlo, and I’ve never lost my love for neon colors. Those hot ’80s hues were inspired by 1960s fashions. I spoke about that with some experts when I wrote about neon for the Huffington Post in 2012: “Ingrid Johnson, professor of textile development and marketing at the Fashion Institute…
Throwback Thursday: Ossie Clark in 2005, 2011, 2019
In my tribute to my late friend Al Radley, I posted a photo taken in his house in 2005. The long sweater I’m trying on belonged to him, but I was wearing my own vintage Ossie Clark dress. In 2011, I took a photo that showed the dress clearly. And last Friday, I randomly wore…
Wednesday’s Video: Career Advice for Disruptive Times
My latest YouTube video is a continuation of my series of job and business tips. This time, I’m sharing what I’ve learned from the my own surprising career path, which took me from journalism to jewelry design. Today I reveal the faulty logic behind two bits of conventional wisdom: That NOT having a Plan B…