Dezeen (a design blog I adore) just had an article about Sruli Recht. It was the first time that I heard of this fashion designer who has just put out his third menswear collection. What I saw was amazing. And what I read repulsed me. And I have to confess that gets me talking no matter what I may decide that I feel about it.

Why did it amaze me?

Take a look at a few of the photos. The clothing is interesting, unique from anything else that other men are wearing. And the photography is stunning (credit to the brand’s main photographer: Marinó Thorlacius.)

Why did it repulse me?

Dezeen says that some of the features in this collection include:

• Dolphin skin leather
• Horse hair woven fabric
• “Silk extracted from a spider’s gland implanted in a goat”
• Boots “made of the calloused skin over the spines of horses”

What it boils down to

This is an interesting designer who is doing some really different things from the materials he uses to some of his edgier feminine-inspired men’s designs (see the website for the full lookbook). I don’t know yet if I like him but I appreciate his uniqueness.

Thoughts on this Australian born Icelandic designer?

Tags: Fashion, Sruli Recht, style

As you might have noticed from some of my interior design posts on this site, I tend to enjoy an eclectic mixture of high-end and low-end décor. On the one hand, I really love vintage pieces that can be found at affordable prices through thrift stores and yard sales. On the other hand, I also like well-designed, high-priced items that serve as conversation pieces in my home.

My kitchen is a room in the home where you can see this eclectic style at work. It’s designed in a retro 1950’s style. There’s a vintage apron hanging on the walls. There are posters and calendars from Anne Taintor. Most of the design of the room required very little investment money. However, I have a few accessories that didn’t come cheap including a fancy espresso machine and an awesome coffee maker. (Gee, can we tell what my biggest vice is?)

One of the things that I’d really love to get for the kitchen would be an amazing stove. Unfortunately, my apartment building isn’t going to allow me to get something like this. My best alternative option would be to get a really awesome high-end grill. I’ve been looking at Lynx Grills online and daydreaming about what it would like to get one.

The Lynx Grill is a highly sophisticated, stylish grill. It’s got a great modern design which is one reason that I love it. However, I also like Lynx Grills because they are so amazingly functional. They take your normal barbecue experience and ramp it up a few notches to allow you to do high-quality grilling at home. Durability, safety and easy clean-up are some of the words used to describe these grills.

If I did get a grill like this then I would need to store it in my kitchen when it wasn’t in use. That’s because my apartment complex has a shared yard area and I wouldn’t want to leave it out for others to use. I’d need to get a grill that was portable and one that matched the mostly-vintage look of my kitchen. I’ve seen a few that I like which meet this criteria.

People who know me will know that I tend to live within a fairly strict budget. So how is it that I could justify the expense of something like a Lynx Grill? It’s because I know that being frugal means getting the bets buy for your money. Since I’m not going to replace my kitchen stove, it’d be worth it to invest in a really amazing grill!

Tags: grilling, kitchen, lynx grills, outdoor, style

I remember when I was about nine or ten that I got a series of books in the mail. These were books that were supposed to teach me about style and beauty. One was all about learning my color palette (a topic that was popular back then but which didn’t actually make sense to me since I was in a late 1980′s hot pink kind of phase). Another was about the shape of my face and body and how knowing that shape could make me more skilled at choosing makeup and clothing that would flatter me.

I read the books and implemented their tips for a day or two. Then I went on about the business of being a kid. However, I actually think that a little bit of the information that I read at the time stuck with me. I eventually came to see that understanding the lines of your face and body and the color of your skin tone could go a long way towards making it easier to choose clothing.

It also makes it easier to choose hairstyles. I remembered this recently when writing an article on how to wear long layers in a haircut. This popular haircut is great because it works for almost everyone. However, how well it works for you typically depends on how you style it. And how you style it should relate to the shape of your face. If you never learned the shape of your face or body then it might be worth it to learn how to do that. It can’t hurt anyway, at least, that’s what this SmartChick thinks.

What do you think – does this stuff matter to you in terms of defining your personal style?

Tags: beauty, face shape, hubpages, shape of face, smartchick, style

I went back to my hometown a few weeks ago where I attended a BBQ with people from the past. One of the guys there was a friend of my sister’s who I had only known for a brief time. When he saw me, he said, “wow, you’re hair has gotten so long!”

The exclamation struck me as funny because my hair is neither longer nor shorter than the length I’ve had it for almost all of my adult life. As a kid, I always had really long hair (down past my waist kind of hair). As an adult, I realized that mid-back-ish is the right length for me.

The reason that her friend thought this was because he had met me during one of my few brief flings with short hair. Three or four times in my life, I’ve decided to drastically alter my look by going chin length with my hair.

When I think back about it, I always say that I don’t like my hair short but that’s not really true. There are a lot of cute short layered hair styles that looked great on me. The problem is that I really prefer my hair long for both looks and just my comfort with my hair. I like to pull my hair back, I like to play with it. You just can’t do that with short hair.

I have a feeling that I’m always going to be a long-hair girl. I’m sure I’ll go through my phases of cutting it short once or twice in my lifetime but long hair is just right for me. It’s one of the things I don’t mind not changing over time!

Tags: beauty, hairstyles, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, long hair, short hair, short layered hair, style

My dad recently re-did the floors at my sister’s house. Dad is a custom woodworker who also does urban harvesting and sells that wood to others. He had a bunch of extra wood because of this and was able to use this reclaimed wood to create my sister’s new floors (as well as a really great new wooden door for the front of their home). The new floors themselves are such a work of art that they dramatically altered the style and mood of the house.

This got me thinking about how floors can be used as fifth walls to really shape their space. A truly wonderful floor can be a style foundation for the home. Bold rugs, painted floors, unique tile options and the placement of large sculptures directly on floors are all ways that you can start to use a floor as the canvas for a room’s design.

I’m not sure yet what this means for my own home. I live in an apartment that already has wood floors. They’re nice but they need to be cleaned up. Plus I think that they need a bit more than just their own selves to be truly beautiful. Perhaps some rugs? Maybe some art propped against the walls to bring the eye down to floor level? I’m not sure yet but I’m hoping to figure it out. Or to at least have fun trying!

Tags: decor, design, floor, hardwood floor, home, houzz, Interior Design, kathryn vercillo, style

It’s been awhile since I contributed one of my blog posts to a blog carnival. I love blog carnivals but sometimes it’s hard to make the time to submit posts to them since there are so many other things to be done in terms of web writing work and writing promotion.

However, a post of mine is finally featured in a new blog carnival. My thoughts here on how to be a smart shopper were included recently in the Fabulous Festival which is all about fashion, beauty and shopping. My post was in the shopping category. Other posts in this category were about vintage shopping and buying socks for men. There were also several posts on dresses in this category including wedding dresses, prom dresses and celebrity dresses.

Posts that fell specifically into the fashion category were on a wide range of topics. These topics included military jackets, vintage lingerie, bustiers, pajamas, hats, mending your own clothes and making clothing donations. There were also book reviews and interviews. In the personal style and beauty categories are posts on jumpsuits, recycled fashion, acrylic nails, shoes, spring fashions, big hair, mineral makeup, skin care (including wrinkle prevention) and the man purse.

Happy reading!

Tags: arts, blog carnival, blogs, fabulous festival, Fashion, kathryn vercillo, style

I’ve just been reading up on vintage baby clothes and retro clothes for kids. What a great idea! Kids’ clothes are typically so boring. I love seeing creatively dressed children walking around in town. And I love the idea of taking fashions from the past and turning them into something cute for children today.

Of course, you can go totally wrong with this approach to baby style as well. You can end up making your child look way too cutesy by dressing him or her up in clothes that were meant for another place and time. If you don’t have a good sense of vintage personal style yourself then you may want to stay away from this option!

In my opinion it’s probably best to save this kind of stuff for special occasions and dress-up days. There’s a time for kids to be in jeans and a time for them to look super cute. The smart parent knows which time is which. Done correctly, though, I think you could get some adorable scrapbook memories out of these types of outfits.

What do you think? Are vintage and retro baby clothes a waste of money or are they worth it for your kid to look cute?

Tags: baby clothes, children, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, Parenting, retro clothing, style, vintage

Being a SmartChick doesn’t mean that you always know everything that there is to know about a topic. In fact, being a SmartChick often means that you know that you don’t do. Instead of pretending that you do, you make sure that you figure out where to get the knowledge that you’re seeking.

For example, you may be interested in dressing like a celebrity. However, you don’t want to spend a lot of money so you’re looking to recreate celebrity looks for less. It’s okay if this is something that you can’t figure out yourself. You just need to know where to look for that kind of information or how to ask people to help you.

This definitely applies to certain style stuff for me. I don’t necessarily have any interest in recreating celebrity styles but I do have an interest in other fashion and style stuff. It’s not something that I naturally know or find easy to learn but I know where to look. There are online and in print resources for that kind of stuff. Plus I’ve got cool people in my life who can help me. (For example, the photographer of my recent photo shoot helped me with my makeup).

Often it is the ability to find the right people to help us to learn things that distinguishes the SmartChick from the average girl. We are resourceful. We meet people in many different ways. And we give back to those people with our own knowledge so that it’s not just a one-sided exchange. Yes, I may not know everything but I know that finding great smart friends is one of the most important things in life!

Tags: celebrity looks for less, Fashion, frugal blog, kathryn vercillo, know that you don't know, looks for less, save money, smart women, smartchick, style

I don’t get the chance to write about fashion very often but it happens every now and then. For example, I recently provided advice on How to Wear High Heels without Hurting your Feet. I’ve been wearing high heels for as long as I can remember but I also walk everywhere so I’ve had to learn how to do this the hard way. It’s paid off in a set of great tips.

The article was chosen as one of the Top 3 articles this month in the Fabulous! Festival. The two other posts that were chosen along with mine for this honor were on mineral makeup and around-the-world shopping from your computer. Although these were considered the Top 3 posts, all of the other posts were also good.

There were posts on beauty in the areas of skin care and alpha lipoic acid. There were posts on fashion topics like pinups, depression chic and Milan fashion week. There were general style posts on handbags and Apple products. And there were shopping tips for things like prom. All great stuff! Do have a read.

Tags: beauty, blog carnival, ehow, fabulous festival, Fashion, high heels, how to, kathryn vercillo, style, tips