The LA Chronicles Part 1: The House and Day Outfits

So this is the first part of the much-awaited (by some of you, apparently, which I am very thankful for) post on my Memorial Day weekend in LA. I had a hard time to choose the pictures to show you because I have beautiful ones but with a lot of people in them and I didn't want to put pictures of my friends on the web without their permission. So I had to crop most of them and when I really couldn't I did some paint job. But that's the party. This first part is all about the house, that was really the main attraction of the weekend. I have been to LA many times and I have seen it all (or almost), so this time we didn't do any touristy thing (excepted for a walk from the Santa Monica Pier to Venice beach the morning of our departure after checking out) but just relaxed around the pool and spent quality time with our friends (in particular with my husband's best friend who came from Paris and was our guest at the villa).

So as you know I was travelling alone with my daughter on my way to LA and that went very well. She was very well behaved on the plane even if it was a long flight and she didn't sleep much (just enough for me to watch half of a movie, which to me was like being on vacation already). Before leaving I had bought her a little "trolley" to carry around because the last time that we were in an airport (when we went to Seattle) she absolutely wanted to carry my suitcase (which was obviously too heavy for her) and she would throw a fit if I tried to help her. I have to tell you, it was the best purchase ever: we put all her toys inside and just taking them out and putting them back kept her busy for a while. And she was very proud of having her own suitcase like a grown-up (the pic was actually taken on our way back from LA as you can probably guess from her outfit):



My husband picked us up at the airport (he was LATE, can you believe it?) and because it was lunch time and we couldn't check-in before 2.30 we went for lunch in one of my favorite spots in the city: Urth's Cafe on Melrose. Big mistake, as then we got stuck in the traffic of the angelinos who were living the city for the long weekend (we were going in the same direction, towards Santa Monica and the Pacific coast) and we arrived at the villa around 4 (and my daughter, who is always car-sick, would ask "Are we there yet?" every thirty seconds. And that for the entire hour and a half that it took us to get there).
The villa was on the hills beyond the Getty Museum, just off off Muholland Drive. When we pulled up the car on the driveway we already knew that we would not be disappointed:



Actually my husband WAS a little bit disappointed at first because Los Angeles was behind us on the other side of the hill and we were facing the valley, and he was expecting a view on LA. But as soon as we went inside, we were just blown away by the beauty of the house and the landscape. I have already told you that I love the modernist style (even if this wasn't a concrete house) so I will let the pictures speak for themselves:




The living room, kitchen and master bedroom were surrounded by a wall of glass and a wooden deck. Maybe if you live in California you are used to this, but for us New Yorkers (and European transplants) it was a Californian dream:





And from the inside the house:





The deck and pool area, where we spent a lot of time relaxing on the chaise-longues (when we were not too busy watching that our daughter wouldn't fall in the pool):



When it became clear that our daughter would come with us (when we started to make plans for the weekend we had hoped that my mother in law would come to NYC in May and that we could leave our daughter at home with her) I started to worry about the pool (that wasn't kid-friendly, ie didn't have a fence). My mother in law suggested that I buy a pair of arm rings that she would keep on all the time and not just to swim, so if she accidentally fell in the pool she wouldn't immediately drown. That was a very good advice and it took away much of the stress. For most of the time she was fine with wearing them, like here (BTW, she's wearing the Crewcuts terry drawstring dress. I loved this dress so much that I bought also the striped version that went on sale yesterday. Highly recommended):



But sometimes (especially when it was particularly hot) she would take them off and the only remedy to the stress from "baby in the pool" was to go in the pool with her (not the worst thing to do in LA on a hot day):



We never left the house during the day for our entire stay (we only went out for dinner) and I spent a lot of time lounging around in my pajamas pants and a tee or sunbathing in my swimming suit. Sunday was the only occasion when I put on real clothes because we were having guests for brunch and I wore the Target Teagan blouse (whose colors blended beautifully with the colors of the sky and the pool) with Jcrew linen shorts (a perfect outfit for a pool brunch I must add). Here I am dancing with my daughter on the deck later in the afternoon:



That same evening, we went for dinner in Malibu and I wore the Lohemman's maxidress. I have to say that of all the things that I brought this dress was the most suited to the style of the house (as a commenter had very acutely said), even if you can't really tell from this pic:



On Monday morning, before leaving for Santa Monica, I asked my husband to take a pic of me for the blog and basically he took a blown-up shoot of my boobs. So you have to do with this one instead (at least you can see the view):



The morning in Santa Monica was actually the only negative note of the entire weekend. First we went for a long stroll on the beach, as it was the first time that our friend was in LA and he had expressed the desire to set foot on a Pacific Coast beach before flying home, and by 11.30 it got very hot. So we left the car in the parking lot at the Pier and started to look for a place to eat and drink something, towards the Third Street Promenade. We walked for almost an hour under the sun (and with our daughter in our arms) without finding anything. By that time it became clear that my husband had in mind to have THE (memorable) "Memorial Day LA Brunch" while we were in tourist-land, and he was being difficult. So we went back to the car (in a bad mood) and started to look for a brunch place (like, from the car). At the beginning of his stay in LA, our friend had been to a place called "La Grande Orange" on Main street and we went and checked it out but there was a long line outside and we didn't have all the day because our flight was at 4pm. At that point I said, who cares about the brunch (really), let's go to the airport, let's return the car, let's check-in and then we will eat something. But my husband, who had just turned 40, reacted rather like like a 4-year-old and said something like "It's my birthday and I want to have a nice brunch in LA". So we stayed on Main street until we arrived on Abbot Kinney Boulevard which is one my favorite places in LA, but also one with very few (visible from a moving car) restaurants. And not only he wanted to have a brunch, but it also had to be on a terrace. Finally, we found one that he seemed to like but, again, there was a wait so we put our names on the waiting list and we tried to find something else. At that point we didn't know where else to go, so we started to turn in circles and we got stuck in the Venice beach local traffic. Half an hour later we were back on Abbott Kinney and we were finally seated at a nice table on the terrace. During all this ordeal my husband (who is generally the one who stresses if he is late and always wants to leave way in advance to go to the airport) was strangely nonchalant about our flight, that was now a mere two hours away. I think that he wanted this brunch thing so badly that nothing else really mattered. But as soon as we seated down and he got what he wanted he started to realize that we were in fact really late. And that we were going to miss our flight if we didn't leave immediately.
So we shovelled the food up our mouths as quick as possible, we paid and we were back in the car, this time counting the minutes left to embark on the plane. In the end we made it, we were lucky that we didn't find any traffic and that the guy at the car rental company had pity of my daughter and he took us to the terminal in his personal car. Once on the flight, it all started to fade away and became a (bad) memory, but it wasn't really how we had hoped to end our weekend!

I hope that you enjoyed this first part of the LA Chronicles. Stay tuned for the second part (the party) and for a surprise dress.

Slub Cotton isn't Only for Tees

To be honest with you the word "slub" doesn't mean anything to me and when I tell you that I am wearing a "slub cotton" tee I really don't know what I am talking about. I mean, I have come to recognize a slub cotton tee (if someone were running an experience and asked me to point to the slub cotton one from a display of five different tees I would point to the correct one), but if you ask me why it is called "slub", I really can't tell as the word slub doesn't conjure up any image in my brain. How is it possible, you may ask. Well, when you live in a foreign country, you have to make some compromises and in my case that's living in a rather imprecise world where words sometimes don't mean anything. I would say that I understand about 70% of what I hear and read, but the remaining 30% is a rather blurred universe where I have to constantly fill gaps if I want to make sense of it. It's the linguistic equivalent of being short-sighted, I guess, and I have come to terms with this condition. The truth is, in a million years I will never speak and understand the English language as a native speaker so just let's be it. Sometimes a dictionary is my best friend, sometimes it doesn't help and I am left in my linguistic fog.

All this to say that I have no idea why the shirt that is the subject of this post is called "slub cotton perfect shirt". It carries no resemblances to a slub cotton tee, which my only term of comparison. And I think that what makes it quite special is the Tencel component of the fabric. I have never seen anything like this shirt before: it is as if the fabric has been slightly (not uncomfortably) waxed, if it makes sense. This isn't something that you can see but only feel at the touch, so I think that it's worth mentioning for those who are nowhere near a store. With the current 20% promo, the price of this shirt comes down to $32 which is quite a good price. I had tried it at the beginning of the season in store and loved it but I waited for it to go on sale as I didn't really "need" it. This shade of light blue is very summery and because it is a perfect shirt the fit is just ... perfect. It is a great alternative to the contrast-stitches perfect shirt from last year if you have missed it.

This is how I wore it this morning, with madras bermudas (these are from AE and I bought them post-pregnancy, so now I can only wear them belted or very low on the waist but I still love them):



And this is how I am going to wear it later this afternoon (I have another "wine" playdate), with white jeans and TB silver sandals:




When I first wore the shirt this morning, my daughter said "Why are you wearing daddy's shirt?" as she almost never sees me wearing button-ups and it is true that it can have a little "office wear" feeling to it, especially when the collar is not wide open and I guess that you can wear it under a suit. Personally I like it because it of its crispness and I think that it can be dressed down as well as I showed you here. You can see the always stylish Tabitha wearing this same look here.

I am almost done with the LA pics but I am sure that I will come home tipsy from the playdate and won't be able to post anything tonight!

Two New Dresses (but Same Old Accessories)

This post is about my last two "new arrivals" purchases that I still have to reveal. I spent more than I wanted on the last rollout but I must say that my PS got me 20% on the entire purchase that day because it was the last day of the "online only" 20% off INSIDER promo, and it was difficult to resist. Better having buyer's remorse as I can always return if I change my mind than than "not buying" remorse the day after. Plus I rebought several items for cheaper than what I had originally paid (including the Drexel drapey skirt, the pastiche skirt and the dye-tie wednesday skirt), so that opened up a new, unexpected budget.

Even if it got a lot of criticism and I was the first one to say that I didn't like the fact that this dress was made in silk and not in a knit, I really liked the feeling of the Marin striped dress on. It is very flowvy and the silk feels like a stroke on the skin. It isn't too short on me and I think that it is a dress that looks better on small-chested ladies than on the bustier ones (I have the opposite problem with the Laporte blouse that I think is not made for small busts). I am still not sure why this dress can be found on the website under the "cover-up" category (as I would never wear it as a cover up and it's a dress that I will wear in the city), but I took the "beachy" inspiration into the accessories:





The second dress is the "bohemian-chic", in-store only, pinkish dress (it only comes in this color). With the 20% off it was a very good price IMO and it is the perfect dress for a beach vacation. I am going to the Hamptons in July and I can see it going easily from a early morning shopping at the green market, to the beach, to an afternoon ice-cream and even dinner. Here with the same accessories that I wore with the Marin dress :




As per the other new arrivals that I have tried on, the only regret that I have are the starfish shorts. I should have gotten those but actually my PS talked me out of them when she asked me if I really wanted to spend $60 in a pair of shorts that I will probably find on sale for half of the price. I know, kind of a weird advice from a PS who is normally supposed to get you to spend, but she is probably right that I can find them later on sale and I have more shorts than I can wear in an entire summer already.

What do you think of these two dresses? Which one do you prefer? Did you try or own the Marin dress?

Two for the Day, One for the Night

I'm sorry for my long silence after my weekend in LA but this week was the last week of school and I was fully booked with birthday parties, end-of-the-year parties, make-up classes and more (not to mention that the apartment was a complete mess when we got back and I spent every free minute that I had in my hands to clean it up). In case you are wondering how it went, let me just say: OMG! It was the weekend of a lifetime and I am still trying to get over the beauty of the house. I promise that I will post pictures soon. I literally didn't have the time to turn the computer on for more than an hour this week and I still have to go though them and sort them out.
So while you wait for the LA pictures I am going to post a couple of OOTD that I wore this week. It is HOT here and I'm wearing mostly dresses and full skirts these days.

Yesterday morning I went to a friend's for a playdate (I must say that her playdates are always something I look forward to because while the kids play there is always something delicious to eat and a glass of wine for the mommies, even in the morning). I wore my JCrew drawstring shirtdress from last year (that I actually bought very late in the season - it must have been September already - on a popback and couldn't wear until this year), Prada rafia belt and espadrilles. I need to belt this dress as it is a little bit big on me and I kind of swim in it, which is the reason why I didn't buy it until it was too much of a good deal to pass:



This morning the school had organized a breakfast followed by free entry at the Victorian Gardens, which is an amusement park in Central Park, in the spot which is occupied during the winter months by the Wollmark ice rink. They opened up the amusement park just for us until 11, but after 11 it got beyond hot and the line for each attraction was too long, specially compared to the actual duration of the ride, so I decided to leave early (also my daughter was scared to death on most of the rides, even if I was riding with her, so it wasn't that fun for her). This outfit should have kept me cool but as I said, it was unbearably hot (I am wearing the linen striped Monterey skirt from last year, Gap top and TB silver Thora thongs):




Yesterday night I went out with the same group of mommies to see "Sex and the City 2". I had planned to wear the blue H&M dress that you have seen in my LA outfits post with my Tory Burch golden cork wedges. My daughter had been playing with those shoes when I was packing for LA and as a matter of fact I couldn't bring them to LA because one went missing and for the life of me I couldn't find it before leaving. Well, it was still missing as of yesterday night! Unable to locate the missing shoe, after a thorough search of the apartment (now you are going to believe me when I tell you that the apartment was a mess!), I decided to wear another dress, by Theory, in a very similar color but that didn't need the wedges. The funny thing is that I wore this dress exactly two years ago to see "Sex and the City: the movie" with a group of girlfriend, so I guess that I already know what I am going to wear to see the third installment of the movie (that is a GO, apparently). I added the metallic beach cardigan because I am always freezing in a movie theater and also to add some sparkle (the color of this cardigan is more vibrant than in the pic, especially against the blue of the dress):




I have to say that I really regretted NOT bringing this cardigan to LA. It was a matter of space in the suitcase and the only way to take it with me would have been wearing it on the plane but because I was travelling with my daughter I was afraid that something would happen to it so in the end I left it at home. In LA, and especially up in the hills where we were staying, the evenings were kind of chilly and I didn't have any evening sweater with me (some readers from LA warned me in the comments that but I made the mistake to ask my husband to confirm the weather the night before leaving, as he was already there and he dismissed my worries with a "Are you kidding? It's hot, it's LA!", reply that can only be imputed to his blind love for LA and too many drinks as he later admitted that it was cool and rainy that night).

Stay tuned for pics of my fab weekend in LA!

Packing for LA (and feeling like Jennifer Aniston)

I have been procrastinating the packing until this morning, when I decided to try some outfits on and take pics for the blog to motivate myself. I'm travelling alone with my daughter (my husband is already in LA and will pick us up at the airport) so I am trying to not overpack. I have imposed myself the rule that for each item that I bring I must be able to create two outfits, except for the dresses for the party.

The first item that I'm going to bring is the striped sequin henley, that I'm going to pair with a purchase from the new arrivals that many of you got right (special mention to casual-crew who picked this one out of all of them in my new arrivals post): I couldn't leave the cropped matchstick jeans in the store (see shopping rule number 5) and as a matter of fact a pair of cropped jeans where on my wishlist this year as I didn't have any. These aren't THAT cropped on me but I really like the supersoft and the summery "dream" wash.
Mrs. anketell, if you are reading, this outfit is for you:




I love the henley paired with the ruffled knit vest, but if it turns out that I don't have enough room in the suitcase this one is going to stay home (as it's kind of voluminous and I don't "need it").
The second outfit with the henley is very casual and I'm planning to wear it to hang out in Santa Monica, Abbott Kinley Bd. or have breakfast on Melrose (although it may be a little bit too far from the villa):



The second item is the tulle fountain top. I really love this top. I'm going to pair it with my white jeans to go out in the evening:



Ok, maybe I am not going to wear the ON neon pink flip-flops to go out but I wanted to show them to you as they are identical to the Jcrew ones (they are more "neon" than in this pic and they only they cost $9.50):



I know that this will sound weird but because I own the hatch print bikini I also plan on wearing it over the bikini to hang out around the pool.
Speaking of pool, we are going to have a pool barbecue on Sunday and I am going to wear one of these:



Yes, that's the Target Teagan tunic. Thanks to Sweet Tea in Seattle who posted the link to purchase it on the Target website in this post, so I could get one (as I never go to Target and I thought that it was in-store only). For $26 it is a stunning print and perfect to wear around the pool (less the jeans).
The other option is my loyal DVF wrap dress from a few years ago, that I am going to take anyway to hang around the house:



That's more or less it. I will throw in a few basic tees and maybe another top if I have enough room (wishful thinking). The question is how much time we are going to spend at the house and how much out in LA. Because our daughter is coming with us and the house is kind of remote, I bet that we are not going to take the car much but our best friends are staying in Santa Monica and they are coming with their son, so I think that at least we are up for a stroll in Santa Monica.

I almost forgot: you must wonder what all this has to do with Jennifer Aniston. Well, besides the fact that she is the image of California to me, a tanned and blonde version of the French Marianne, I had an appointment with my hairdresser this morning and my hair really, really remind me of Jennifer's (pardon my modesty, it must be the excitement of the trip):



Have a great Memorial Day weekend, I will take plenty of pics of the house and the party to share with you (BTW someone asked if we have hired a parsonal photographer for the party. We didn't, but I hope that this little gadget that I bought along with my new camera will take the pictures for us while we sip cocktails).

Two recent OOTDs (and more on the Dauphine)

I have a few minutes to post two OOTDs that I wore this pas week.
The first is a casual outfit that I wore the day when I went to Jcrew to try the new arrivals. The blouse is the lattice medallion print blouse from last summer and the pants are the scout chinos. I was a little bit worried when I washed my scout chinos for the first time because I sized down in these (bought a 00) and they were already pretty tight. But they actually fit better now after being washed, go figure.
Last year I always wore the medallion top with white jeans/pants but I really like it with khaki chinos:



The second outfit is more elegant and I wore it yesterday to a welcome cocktail party at my daughter's new school. It was unseasonably cold yesterday, especially in the morning and early afternoon and even if it warmed up later I felt like it was appropriate to wear my Dauphine jacket. I read some comments of people on the JCA blog that asked for advice on styling this jacket for work. I have to say that I don't get it: I know that on the website it was styled with a denim overall and let me tell you that that outfit (and the stylist at JCrew who came up with it) should be held partially responsible for the Dauphine's "flop" (because if the price is down to $99 it must have been a big flop). But there is nothing easier than wear this jacket in a classic, office-appropriate way. It has a lot of neutral colors in it (cream, grey, cypress green, black and even spice olive) and gold threads, so you can really wear with whatever neutral pair of pants or skirt you have in your closet and especially black or natural. Demonstration: yesterday I wore it with the tuxedo-front top from last year, skinny gold belt and Theory black pant (you can substitute the top with another similar top and the pant with any black pant):




An update on the nap front: my daughter has been napping a day out of three (like, today) so I can at least blog twice a week. Hay!

PS
I am really enjoying your comments on the LA weekend/outfit. If I don't have time to comment back before leaving, let me tell you that I really appreciate your comments and that you convinced me to take the H&M dress with me as a backup option. With that post I really intended to test your reaction to the H&M dress because I was afraid that it would look cheap and I don't want to look cheap at my husband's 40th birthday party. The blue dress is also from H&M and I think that it is a GORGEOUS dress for the price ($24 as well, if you can believe it), but I will have plenty of time to wear it this summer (it doesn't really need an occasion).

Memorial Day (Fancy) Weekend Outfit: Choose!

Time to reveal my plans for Memorial Day weekend, otherwise it will be too late for you to help me with my outfit.

So tomorrow is my husband's 40th birthday and he wanted to celebrate in his favorite city in the word. It's not NY, it's not Paris, it's ... LA. We used to go there at least once a year when we were childless and I must admit that even if I wouldn't live there I always enjoyed spending a few days pretending that I am a movie star or a twenty-something wannabe (as everybody looks young in LA).
Now, we aren't jet-setters but we wanted to do something special so we rented a fabulous villa on the Hollywood Hills for the whole weekend and we are going to throw a party on Saturday night. It won't be a big party as obviously not everybody could afford the flight and unfortunately we couldn't rent a private jet like Tom Cruise once did and fly them all to the party. But some friends are coming form NY, my husband's best friend is flying from Paris and we have some friends living there. So let's call it a party.

The house is in Neutra-style (I don't know if I ever told you but architecture, especially modernism, is one of my big passions, but so is Brad Pitt's) and has a very nice pool area that overlooks LA and at night the view is just fantastic with all those little lights glowing in the dark (at least in the pics that the owner sent to us). So the party is going to be, if not a pool party (I don't think that anyone will make a splash unless we get really drunk), around the pool. The best think about throwing a party is that you get to decide the dress code and we went with "Hollywood Glam" with a no-black policy for the ladies.

Obviously, I started to think about my outfit a while ago, and I looked at a few dresses when I as at Bloomingdales for the F&F event. I really liked this little number by Milly (note the very glamorous flutter-sleeve) but I didn't buy it as it was expensive (almost $400) and I didn't want to spend that much on a dress that I will wear only once or twice:



I actually have a Theory dress that I have never worn and would be perfect for the occasion (it reminds me a little bit of the famous Sharon Stone dress in Basic Instinct. I will try to remember to wear my panties if I wear it) but a) it's very short; b) it's unforgiving (it's in stretch sateen and the kind of material that lets your cellulite show through and I'm not at the top of my shape right now); c) it only looks good with stilettos and the property owner asked us and our guests not to wear stilettos on the deck as they had problems in the past). Anyway, here it is (sorry for the pic, is the only one that I have as the battery of my phone died just after):



This is my first choice but I need a backup in case I don't feel like wearing it or my husband doesn't like it (I'm not going against his will this time as he is the birthday boy after all). I have three backup options and I would like you to vote your favorite.

The first is a maxi-dress that I had bought last year for a pool party that I ended up not going to. So it's new and needs to be worn. It would have been perfect if we had chosen a "pool party" dress code (we hesitated between the two). It is a very flattering dress and the fabric is actually a very nice silk jersey and not a cheap one:



The second is another maxi-dress, that I bought a few weeks ago at H&M. I think that for the price ($24.50) is a great dress and kind of appropriately glamorous but it's very long and I am not sure that I can wear it without having it hemmed. What do you think, worth it or not?




The third option is a shorter dress in a fantastic blue hue. I won't tell you where it comes from so as not influence your judgement:



I am aware that all the three backup options that I showed you are understated compared to my first choice, but I would like you to pick one anyway. It could be that in the next few days I find a fantastic deal on a fabulous dress (maybe the Milly one) as the Memorial Day Weekend sales are going to start and I'm keeping my eyes open, but let's plan for the worst (as my husband always says).

I will be a little bit busy this week as I have to prepare everything and I am alone with my daughter (by the way, she is coming, in case you were wondering, so no Mustang). I'm flying out on Friday morning, so I apologize in advance if I won't be able to comment back or blog much.

Have a nice week!