Starbucks Style

Ever notice that there is a distinct look on the weekends at Starbucks (or any of the mass market espresso/coffee places we have here in Seattle)?  It's distinctive: not too dressy, not too casual, a little bit athletic, but still pulled together so as not to look as if they've just tumbled out of bed to get their morning cup of joe.  I always feel a little under-done when I check in at Starbucks...as if maybe I should have taken a few more minutes with my hair, or my make-up or even re-thought my entire ensemble before I shuffled out the door.  Coco Chanel always said before you walk out the door stop, and remove one piece of jewelry, accessory, etc.  But perhaps, before you walk into your local coffee shop, you need to add something...a little pizazz maybe?

Black and Brown...Yes? No?

Black wool coat, brown boots. I have always struggled with this. Sometimes I think it looks good; sometimes not so much. I'll read in one years magazines that it's a fashion 'do' and the next year it's a don't. Thoughts? Rules? Better of it was a brown coat and black boots?

Am I in a National Geographic Photo shoot?

The other day (well let's be honest, it's every day) when I was getting coffee, I turned to briefly look at the person next to me and almost vomited....through the enormous holes in his earlobe.  I think one of the weirdest body adornment practices which is popular right now is the 'discs in the earlobe' thing.  We all remember (I do at least) looking through the National Geographic magazines as kids and marveling, wide-eyed, at the mainly African peoples with the lip discs, ear discs, and my favorite, the ladies with all the brass rings around their necks in order to lengthen them like giraffes (I'm waiting for that practice to become popular).  I have pierced ears, and a small tattoo, and I'll admit for years now I have toyed with the idea of getting more ink and even a possible nose pierce.  But I think when you start to adorn yourself in a way that is mainly associated with a particular ethnic group, something gets lost, and the tradition can be disrespected.  More often, though, I just wonder what all these young hipsters are going to look like when they're 80 and they have earlobes down to their armpits...what a sight that will be.

Just Breathe it in....and Sweat it Out...and Stink it Up

I love my hot yoga classes. I've been practicing hot yoga (or Bikram yoga) now for about 5 months. I love how the 26 different poses make me feel, how it moves/stretches/exercises every bone and muscle in my body. But there are a lot of things that I don't love about hot yoga too, mainly that it smells, or better put, there are a lot of people in the class who smell. Now, of course, when you have a room heated to 114 degrees with 25 people in it, there will be a bit of an aroma. I'm cool with that. But some people come to class and it's like they've already run a marathon and then not showered for 3 days, and they are typically the person who lays their mat right next to me...when there's plenty of room on the other side of the studio! I probably don't smell like a bed of roses, but I do bathe regularly and usually have clean yoga outfits on. I also make sure my towel is full size and clean so that I'm not contributing any more than necessary to the overall funk. None of these nags are enough to make me stay away from yoga, but if someone had told me how gross it can be, I may never have started.

Just Button it Up...Man

I am becoming increasingly aware that there are a growing number of gentlemen who insist on wearing their dress shirts with an additional button unbuttoned. IT LOOKS WRONG. There's really no other way of putting it. I find that in my observations most of these gents are in their upper 50's or early 60's, so my thought is that they are still recovering from the 70's era disco styles, and are slowly working their way into buttoning up their shirts to a proper look. And when you think about it, it makes sense: in the 70's, they probably had their shiny, satiny, blousy ensembles unbuttoned to their navels, chest hair blowing in the wind, the sound of gold chains rattling away as they boogie-oogie-oogied their way across the dance floor. In the 80's, they buttoned up one or two, put on their Hugo Boss suit and pondered the immortal words of Gordon Gecko. As the 80's became the 90's, they probably buttoned one more, traded in the dress shirt for flannel, threw a thermal undershirt on as a base layer (remember these were the 'grunge years'), and felt like they were 'with it'. Then you have the new millennium, and I almost think that the buttoning went backwards (maybe a binary glitch with the turnover to '00?) and they unbuttoned again, because now in 2011, I am still seeing men with their dress shirts opened up to a degree that seems off-putting....maybe in the 20's we'll get some standards back.

Clomp, Clomp, Clomp

You've heard it before, and I don't mean when you've been at a parade or downtown when the horse cops come trotting by. I'm talking about hearing the unmistakable sound of someone wearing shoes with heels that they apparently can't handle. The person in question last night had a pair of high-heel wedges (I think with cork detail), but man was she ever loud. I mean, you could hear her coming from the other side of the bar, and since she was a smoker, she crossed the room a number of times while David and I were having dinner. I am a fan of high-heels; I like how they look, I like how they make me look (hey look at me, I'm over 6 feet tall in these!), but what I won't wear are heels that I can't walk in properly. I don't think there's anything more unattractive to the eye (or the ear) than someone plodding along in shoes they can't really maneuver in easily (Herman Munster anyone?). I've tried on shoes in the store that were 'iffy', bought them, gone out in them, clomped around in them, and taken them back, even though I loved how they looked....I'm just not going to be the person that everyone has to listen to as I cross a room, or patrol Westlake Park in the summertime (oh wait, that's the Seattle Police Cavalry).

This is probably less about style, and more about simple presentation and manners when one is in public. WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE SO DAMN LOUD? (yes, all caps on purpose). I have never been able to fathom why some people find it necessary in a public place (in a restuarant, on an airplane, in the restroom, etc) to talk so loudly. Do you want people to hear every tidbit of your conversation? Do you not realize how much your voice is carrying to every nook and cranny of the room/space you're in (and expecially into the ear canal of the person lucky enough to be seated next to you)?

Aaarrgh, Matey, Pirates in Seattle!

Ok, I get it, everyone loves boots, especially us ladies here in the Northwest. I myself have 5 or 6 pairs of boots, and I enjoy wearing them to work, or out with my friends. But this new trend of over-the-knee boots? I really don't get it. Particularly in the 40+ crowd (and I am a member of this group now ). I spied a gal the other day waiting for the light on the corner of 7th and Pike, most likely on her lunch break, wearing a pair, and it just looked wrong. Don't get me wrong, I am not the most fashion-conscious person out there (ask my friends, they'll tell you) but I think I do know when something is right, and appropriate (and don't think that because I'm 40 I now automatically think that everything that is trendy is too young for me, because I don't). All I can think when I see people (and I use the word here on purpose, because I've seen some gentlemen in the over-the-knee boots too) striding down the sidewalk in these get-ups is that Seinfeld episode where Jerry didn't want to wear the puffy shirt...he didn't want to be a pirate...but perhaps in 2011 he would want to be.