With Elegance and Grace

I have been meaning to get around to posting one fabulous and enticing fashion or architecture shot weekly, but technology continues to take over my focus. I found a great shot today however, worth posting. With elegance and grace. Everything needs a bit of balance, even a blog.

The Sad Truth of Media Driven Beauty

Check out this link - replicated below, seen on YouTube. It reminds me of a sad moment I experienced on my way back from Costa Rica a few years ago.

I was living on the East Coast at the time, so had to return via Miami. After experiencing several weeks of natural beauty, pleasure and respect for down-to-earth life above everything else, I heard a sad conversation in the ladies room among 4-5 late teen, early twenty year olds about their weight, the structure of their faces, the shape of their hips - it went on and on and on. Half were American, half were Latin American. Not yet anorexic, but it was only a matter of time.

I have a good friend who is an actress living in LA and went through a similiar experience a few months ago. I met a well known actress (yeah, I still prefer actress over actor - sorry to anyone this offends), through this friend, who is half my size and while I've put a few pounds on since I moved to California, I still sit in a size 4, although less comfortably. (thank god for low hipster jeans :-)

This amazing, talented and beautiful woman spent a chunk of the evening talking to the most well known plastic surgeon in Argentina (with more than inquisitive questions), and I kept thinking, "for what?" You are so beautiful - inside and out. In every way. "For what?"

As part of my personal fitness program, I do regular aerobic workouts to various DVDs, one of which includes an old Jane Fonda video from God knows when. It's hysterical, part of the reason I find it so amusing and include it among my collection. The music is high energy and while the style and music may be outdated, exercise never can be.....It's so off, that it's on. Interestingly enough, the majority of the women in the video are probably a size 8-10, yet they all look fabulous and all exude sex appeal, regardless of their age or shape. By today's standards, a few would probably be considered slightly heavy despite the fact that everyone in the video is toned.

Did I say, "for what?" C'mon girls, its up to you to personally reset the standard for beauty. Don't let the traditional fashion industry do it for you. Watch the video below. Frankly, I thought she was more interesting when she walked onto the stage.

Fashion On, Fashion Off

Fashion done right, where at least you take notice:

Fashion that makes you think, why bother?

New Cap Trends

My friend Joe and his wife Diane spend their time divided between the East and West Coasts, like so many of my friends. His presence at my house recently brought a bit of New England inside. My friend Susan, a native New Englander commented when she left that very same evening, "sitting next to you tonight just grounded me somehow. I'm so glad you live here."

While of course the comment made me feel good - what kind of friendly and warm comment like that wouldn't make any friend feel good, yet, the odd part about it was that I felt the same way earlier in the evening. I felt grounded merely by their presence in my home. It's a great thing.

Note Joe's hat below - perhaps you can make out the rough edges in the front of the cap. I joked as I pulled it off, "hey Joe, I can get you a new hat dear....I have a ton of baseball caps, what color do you want?" He told me it was new cap....the latest trend, a follow on from ragged jeans, many of which I now own. I thought, surely it was a Cape Cod thing only, but apparently I'm wrong. Who knew?

Light-Emitting Shirts in Berlin

I have been playing around with YouTube's embedded feature. Check out this video uploaded by Joostbijsterveld....he discovered these light-emitting shirts at IFA in Berlin, where they are integrating LEDs into the fabric. Click play.

A Great Look

Source: Fashion Squad

On Emilio Pucci

Gotta love these warm, toned-down (but no less brilliant) version of Emilio Pucci's signature swirl-like pattern on this suede pump. I can understand why people dedicate entire sites and blogs to shoes. I have officially added a Fashion Site and Blogroll list (check out the left hand column -- just under books).

Female Blogger Fashion

Like last year, BlogHer attracted women from around the world, from a variety of diverse cultures. We had voices from England, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Australia, Canada, India - the list goes on.

One of the unique aspects to a blogging conference with 'women in mind' is that the colors of each of their personalities and voices come through in every conversation and at every turn. It's not only refreshing but inspiring.

The stories exchanged over the two day period were both heart warming and enriching in many many ways. Below are a string of some of my favorite shots of the combined beauty, personalities and fashion of the women of BlogHer 2006.

For more photos, check out album uploads from BlogHer 2006 and BlogHer 2005.

We even had red and purple hair as well as fabulous blue hats!!!

Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/BlogHer" rel="tag">BlogHer</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/BlogHer 2006" rel="tag">BlogHer 2006</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/BlogHer06" rel="tag">BlogHer06</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Fashion of BlogHer" rel="tag">Fashion of BlogHer</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger Fashion" rel="tag">Blogger Fashion</a><br />

C'XYZ's Angeles

Playing around with a couple of new more modern and chic C'XYZ's Angels poses last weekend

Joyce Kim, Renee Blodgett and Jennifer Myronuk (aka C'XYZ's Angels)

Joyce and I took a spin in one of the new Saturn convertibles. Sweet. No, more than sweet. This baby had power.

Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/BlogHer" rel="tag">BlogHer</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/BlogHer 2006" rel="tag">BlogHer 2006</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/BlogHer06" rel="tag">BlogHer06</a><br /> Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Renee Blodgett" rel="tag">Renee Blodgett</a><br />

Driving the Saturn SKY

Check out the video blog that GM created of the various Saturn test drives we (women bloggers) took last weekend in San Jose. Yeah, I'm in there, as are industry pals Halley Suitt, Joyce Kim, Jory Desjardins among others.

YouTube also has a slightly larger screen version here.