Archives at Zinester: The Perspicacious Woman OnLine, June 2005 Issue. The Perspicacious Woman OnLine (copyright). Fashion & Beauty

The Daisy Shop, women's couture resale

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THE PERSPICACIOUS WOMAN ONLINE?©

Volume 5:Number 3, June, 2005

Published by The DAISY Shop, women's couture resale

67 East Oak Street, 6th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611 USA

http://daisyshop.com//

(001 International +1) + (312) 943-8880

FAX: (001 International +1) + (312) 943-6660, a secure line for ordering by credit card (VISA, M\C, Disc)

To “Reserve” merchandise (24 hour hold), e-mail us. E-mail address Head Daisy

Publisher: Barbara, Head Daisy

Feature Writer: Ms Terry

Associate Editor: Anna, Daisy

All prices shown $US. All sales are final sales.

Our popular historical articles have been compiled into an e-book, An Interpretive History of Sorts. If you have Microsoft Reader software, you can download the e-book and read the compilation to your heart's content. Click here to go to the e-book: An Interpretive History of Sorts.

If you have Adobe Reader, you can access the articles in .pdf format at this link: An Interpretive History of Sorts.

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LAY AWAY AVAILABLE AT THE DAISY SHOP!

No service charge. Minimum of 30% deposit. Maximum of 4 months to pay! E-mail us at Customer Service with your FAX number and we’ll send you a form to complete and return to us via 1st Class Mail.

ADVERTISING NOW ACCEPTED IN THE PERSPICACIOUS WOMAN ONLINE?©

Have a product or service that perspicacious women might be interested in? Perhaps, an ad in our fashion ezine might be good for you. Here’s some information:

* Our proprietary, opt-in subscribers list exceeds 1,000 email addresses

* 79,893 unique visitors come to our website in a two month period

* These website visitors spend an average of 8-1\4 minutes on our website

* The fashion ezine is the third most popular web page on our website

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At publisher’s discretion, advertising will be accepted in this fashion ezine. No adult content products or services, financial schemes and offers, work-at-home offers, religious, political messages, philanthropic requests will be accepted.

Should your advertising contract be accepted and your payment information verifiable, the advertising contract constitutes a 2-month agreement between The Daisy Shop and you in exchange for $100 flat for the following advertising:

* A text ad containing no more than 50 words (spell check, please)

* A .jpg format image (72 or 96 resolution), sized 200x200 pixels

* A link to your website, should you have a website; other wise, address information (part of the 50-word text)

The text ad, image, and link will be published in The Daisy Shop's bi-monthly fashion ezine, The Perspicacious Woman OnLine?©, located at http://daisyshop.com/newsletter.asp, at various ezine directories, various search engines, and sent one time to subscribers of The Perspicacious Woman OnLine?©, a private, opt-in subscribers list, owned by The Daisy Shop, which will NOT be made available to advertisers.

Deadline for text, image, and link information is 15 days prior to the publication date:

August publication - July 15

October publication - September 15

December publication - November 15

February publication - January 15

April publication - March 15

June publication - May 15

Should you miss the deadline, your ad will be published in the next bi-monthly issue.

The Daisy Shop, The Perspicacious Woman OnLine?©, and all parties involved in these two entities are held harmless for any and all malfunctions of the Internet which prevent a two month display. No refunds or accommodations will be given in compensation.

GoTo http://daisyshop.com/AdContract.htm for a printer friendly contract. FAX this to The Daisy Shop, (312) 943-6660.

SUMMER FASHION COMMENTARY

There's a 1950's underlying theme to this season's Look. I don't object. Mid-20th Century was a nice place in America for those of us who are now 'of a certain age,' so I say "Why not?" go for the quietly elegant updated nostalgia and pass on the updated nostalgia that screams costume party-50's theme. Summer is a short season in Chicago and the mid-west, so I recommend accomplishing The Look frugally, and I'll suggest how to do this after I describe the Look.

There are garment choices to accomplish this Look: all styles and lengths of skirts in solids (at right, Vintage Jaeger dirndl skirt with coordinating dynasty silk blouse, for example), florals and prints; crisp white garments (at left, Vintage Chanel strapless white linen sheath, for example); white eyelet garments (at right, Vintage Michael Kors white eyelet jacket, for example); souped up cotton (& Spandex, great combination), linen, silk, chiffon blouses (at left, current Prada brown chiffon blouse with pink chiffon collar & placket, for example); ballet\ballerina shoes and Espadrilles; shrunken jackets (below, Vintage Colonna jacket, navy silk Shantung with red & white embroidered polka dots, part of a suit with 2 skirts, for example); cardigan sweaters; loose and baggy pants, cigarette pants (also known as Capri's); dresses, with halter necklines, strapless necklines, and just about any neckline to mix and coordinate. It's a nice Look for Summer 2005, for it's feminine without creating a Jane Austen gone mad effect. I like it very much.

For those of you who are visual, here are some mix and match ideas from couture runway shows that are simple to mimic:

Calvin Klein, first two images; Celine, next two images.

All Celine.

Celine, first two images; Chado next image; Chanel last image.

You can use what you have and separate the matched outfit, then fill in on what's missing. It's that simple.

If you want to spend for something for this season, I recommend a dress, any type dress, sheath, twirly skirt, A-line with any neckline, strapless, V-necked, Jewel neck (at left, Vintage Cache strapless dress with tiered skirt worn under Joan & David black tissue linen jacket, for example). Check out our "Summer Glam" page on our website for more ideas. Click here. Wear dresses with the cardigan of that twin-set that went out of style a couple, three years ago or a coordinating jacket. It's a nice fresh look for work or casual. Lace dresses are just fine, too. (at right, Vintage Chloe lace dress with dropped waist, for example)

Another purchase easily spent would be shoe buys: a pair of "espadrilles,' the canvas shoe that ties up your ankle and has a rope heel, and ballet\ballerina 'flats.' If you don't wanna pay big bucks, payless.com has espadrilles for $16.99. They look good with long, twirly skirts and with long, soft skirt. Shown at right. Shown below is their ballerina at $9.99, which comes in nice soft colors as well as black, and next to it is their ballerina sling, which comes in nice soft colors, too, as well as metallics at $12.99. These look good with skirts or pants. I think the soft, rounded toe looks nice for a change from the stiletto toe we've been suffering with for the past four years. They're comfortable as all get out, women, and they're feminine, too. Okay, okay, they're not as sexy as the stiletto mules, but they're a nice look.

Others, more than the some who like and wear the 'trend' look, fall so short of the mark, I know they don't know what's what in Summer fashion. This dismays me. It's a lousy definition they're using for Summer outfits. They're not listening. They call it casual; I call it messy, disheveled, sloppy. In your flip flops, shorts, and T-shirt, you look the obverse of mahvelous, dahling. If I were cruel, I would photograph and publish the worst in this fashion e-zine, but I'm not cruel, just cranky and wordy. Will you please shape up and put yourself together, stop throwing yourself together? There's lots of styles to choose, some even for "Dog Day" summer days, and one or some are right for you. I don't want to tell you, again.

The merchandise buzz is on Nicky Hilton and her venture into an apparel line. It's not couture and doesn't pretend to be, but I though Perspicacious women should know buzz things. The line is called "Chick by Nicky Hilton." Nicky says "Chick" was her family nickname for her. I say it's most convenient. Okay, okay, that's cranky. Now, I'll tell you about the line. It's hoodies, ornamented tight-tight denims, ornamented tight-tight T-shirts, and nice blouses, all in a moderate price range. With the exception of the blouses, it's not for me or thee. Nicky The Chick is appealing to our daughters and granddaughters. I'm not a chick and don't wannabe. I think the line appeals to everyone and anyone who wants to be a chick when they're grown up or now that they're grown up. It's no style, really, to my way of thinking. It's just tight, ornamented jeans and T-shirts and ornamented hoodies. You can get this type stuff anywhere. It's a "So What?" line with a public figure's name on it. She says she's going to compliment her apparel line with her handbag line that debuted a while back. These handbags are all pouches in a price range of $250 and are blah, frankly. I guess she means to ornament them identical to the denims and T-shirts, a good merchandising idea. I'm sure she has marvelous consultants onboard and she is smart enough to listen to them when they tell her to coordinate two product lines.

Maybe I missed the ballyhoo about Judith Leiber extending their merchandise line to include sunglasses and shoes and boots, but there you have it. Thanks to an e-mail inquiry, I found the Company's website, http://www.judithleiber.com/, tucked away on Google, a nice website. I plunked around a bit and found out their line extensions. The sunglasses are not quietly elegant and as a result the price range is $350-$1,000, much to rich for my blood, but I imagine the workmanship is jewelry quality. I couldn't find any website selling these sunglasses other than e-bay. The shoes and boots are pointed toe, except for the ballerina style, which is box toe. The materials are luscious: kidsuede, satin, grosgrain, calfskin, crocodile, patent leather. The styles are mules ($375.00), pumps ($455.00), sling backs ($485.00), pumps ($485.00-$510.00), and ballerinas in crocodile ($995.00) Some shoe styles have crystals. The only place I found selling these shoes was http://couture.zappos.com.

My fashion information come from strolling the shops in the Gold Coast and Michigan Avenue, the neighborhood where The Daisy Shop resides, from http://style.com, my fave couture encyclopedia, occasional flipping through fashion magazines, studying Neiman Marcus' catalogs, and interesting questions from you, Dear Reader, which cause me to research for information in order to answer your questions. After 10+ years of information gathering from the same sources, I got to thinking: All my sources only talk about the 60+ talented couturiers who have made it to that high level of accomplishment...what about the thousands of ateliers out there who haven't yet made it to couturier level, but are talented and busy working on their lines in the hopes they'll make it to couturier status?

Thanks to the Internet and my fave search engine, Google, I was able to view fashion shows from other countries whose ateliers are showing at various Fashion Weeks that my sources don't report on. There are many such shows held throughout the year. In April India, Lisbon, Macedonia, Mexico, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Rio, China, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, Calcutta, Australia. (leRage.com was a good source of information.) ateliers showcased their lines. India's was very well publicized and Google images will show you what's what in India, but I selected an obscure fashion show held in Macedonia to report to you, Dear Reader, that wasn't publicized much and I chose it simply because Macedonia produced Philip II and his son, Alexander, who history decided to append "The Great." (As background, Macedonia used to be part of Yugoslavia. Now, it's south of Yugoslavia and north of Greece.) With such a bloodline, I wanted to know about their current aesthetic sense. Call it quirky, but that's what I did.

Much of the garments were lingerie, since Wolford and a couple of other lingerie companies sponsored the event. I had to dig and dig to find outerwear garments, but persistency is one of my virtues. I found two that were marvelous modern representations of their time old embroidery and weaving, which usually used red and black and blue and green with gold. I hope they find this folk embroidery their muse when some of them hit it big on the international stage of fashion.

The picture at left is detail from a bridal shift, early 20th Century from the area around Skopje. Isn't it wonderful?

The picture at right is one designer's interpretation.

Here's another at right. My apologies to the designer(s) whose name(s) I could not find on the webpage since the page was not written in English and the translation was too garbled to determine his\her name(s). I'll take a chance and say three Macedonian designers names and hope it's one of the three: Blazevska, Kostadinov, Sekirarski.

I wish them well and hope they can find a voice in the fashion industry. They're a very old and wonderful civilization who once had a very big voice in the ancient world. There's room in this 21st Century world for them, of course, and I've been missing them all my history bug life.

All Daisy Shop merchandise can be purchased at http://daisyshop.com

OF COURSE, I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT

CAMILLA PARKER-BOWLES MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR, PRINCESS OF WALES

As I write this, she and Prince Charles are newlyweds, still honeymooning at Hargrove Castle. Although both have pedigreed lineages in English circles, which causes them to be quite different type of people than you and me, they are newly weds, just as you and I were once or twice, etc., and they are 40-something and 50-something, respectively, just as you and I are or will be or were once, and they have gone through a helluvah lot to get to where they are now, just as some of us have, also.

I'm glad they married. It's tenderness I feel for these two people who have loved each other for thirty years. I wish them well.

Thanks to poor, misbegotten Diana's published ravings, I was aware of Camilla, her importance to Charles, and believed Diana to be the sad third person in a love triangle. The press was on Diana's side and I was, too. (The one who complains first, wins, if I remember correctly from my white-collar days.) The few photos I saw of Camilla during this time begged comparisons. She didn't dress well, her skin was leathery, her teeth were bad, and she never had her hair well styled; whereas, Diana was so spiffy lovely...and so publicly unhappy...and so very, very young. "What can Charles be thinking?" I thought. "How can he choose Camilla over Diana?"

I was titillated and on Diana's side, until tapes of Camilla and Charles' private conversations were leaked. My take on these tapes was that these are two people truly in love, truly responsible in their love, and have to resort to phone sex because that's all that's left for them. Then I stopped thinking in my shallow and plastic way and pondered. I realized why Camilla was as she was. Until she was 'outed' by Diana, she was not a public personality; rather, she was a tucked away pedigree person in a social circle of other pedigrees with whom Nobles socialized away from public scrutiny. Her style and looks were just fine in this social circle, but not fine in the public arena. Being 'outed' came as a surprise. She wasn't prepared.

Fast forward to the topic at hand: Camilla now dresses well, her skin glows, her teeth are fixed, her hair is lovely, her smile is radiant, her accessories are glorious. You see, all it took was spiffing up by the clothing atelier, Robinson Valentine, some facials by some professionals, some skin care regimen, some cosmetic dentistry, some hair salon professionals and hair care regimen, and some selection of jewelry from Wartski. She became a public personality about two years ago, and knew what to do. It was a superficial thing Camilla needed; she had the innards to sustain love with Charles, who thought she looked fine just as she was. You see, it was the press and you and me who thought she was a skank...and she was, compared to high maintenance, whiny Diana.

Both handled themselves as best they could while Diana was telling everyone she knew and didn't know about how unloved she felt and how mean she believed Charles to be. (I question whether he was truly mean. I think he was flummoxed by this tornado of torment she was, couldn't handle her private and public spewing, and was alarmed, dismayed, disheartened. I also question whether Diana listened and understood what the Queen Mum, Charles' grandmother, was saying to her before her engagement to Charles. Diana was not the smartest kid on the block. I don't think she listened or understood; otherwise, she wouldn't have been so unhappy after she agreed to be Princess. She centered on the romance aspect because that's what she needed. It would have been nice for the agreement to be romantic, but it was not a romantic agreement. It was a dynastic agreement between two pedigreed people, she higher up on the pedigree scale than Charles.)

Camilla and Charles have no dynastic agreement. Their marriage is truly romance, yet they know what duty means, I think, and she'll subscribe to the Mountbatten motto, "Ich dien.," which means "I serve." in English. They seem to be responsible people and will do right for England.

Frankly, it doesn't matter to me whether Charles will be King, and it doesn't matter to Camilla that she won't be Queen should Charles ascend after Queen Elizabeth dies. If he becomes King, he'll be a good, happily married king; if he doesn't become King, he'll remain a fine, happily married Prince. I wish them years and years of happiness together.

The atelier, Robinson Valentine, has a well done, user friendly website, http://robinsonvalentine.com/. Their garment stylings are lovely. It's a show piece website, not a catalog website.

Wartski, who designed Camilla's engagement ring for the Queen Mum (platinum mount, 8 carat emerald cut center diamond), has a website, http://wartski.com/, where they show a selection of estate jewelry amongst other things. You have to ask prices via e-mail and cannot purchase from the website. Camilla's ring on her hand is shown at left. Replicas of the engagement ring are already available online. Goto Google if you wanna purchase one in CZ, shown at right. If you desire real platinum and diamonds, a made-to-order ring will set you back $57,000. You can order online at asda.co.uk, press releases say, but I couldn't get into the catalog part of the website.

Perusing Wartski's website, I discovered that two of our estate costume jewelry pieces are similar for one of Wartski's pieces. At left is Wartski's platinum and diamond estate earrings. In middle and at left is our estate costume jewelry items.

Merchandise information appears at the bottom of the ezine.) Click the underlined words to GoTo the Merchandise Information.

WARM FUZZIES

To Ruth, one of our website customers, who took the time from her busy work schedule to come to the Shop and visit us during her business trip to Chicago; to Judy who keeps in touch; to Mina who sometimes keeps in touch; to Pam who rarely keeps in touch, lately; to our international visitors who came a far piece (Germany, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Netherlands, Singapore, Italy, France, Japan, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Argentina, Switzerland, Mexico, Finland, Norway); to Kevin who tries very hard to explain and please; to Sara who pointed out a computer glitch and told us before it became pervasive; to Chris who almost caught moi up short one Friday evening and made me laugh; to all who remembered our Shop's anniversary on June 10 and our 'little' shop at 49 East Oak, 2nd floor, and our opening at 11:00AM; to the tech support people at Microsoft and Dell for their help on our sickly, virus infested computer; to D012's husband, a techie nerd, whose off-handed comments and encouragement to hook up DSL and a network in a new tower rather than struggle with the sickly tower was followed and most appreciated, for his advise worked; to Eric whose fetch and carry efforts are most appreciated; to the family of Jack Casper, our condolences, and a thank you for the nice earring memento.

SOMETHING OLD: Bridal Accessories & Bridal Party Gifts

Wonderful, absolutely wonderful Vintage gloves for the Bridal Party and Vintage handkerchiefs, white lawn, with lace and\or embroidery and\or hand-tatting, for show or to weep into gently as the aisle is walked. Prices vary from $50.00-$75.00 for gloves, from $30.00-$126.00 for handkerchiefs.

For more ideas, GoTo our Brides & Bridal Party Gifting Department.