Taylor Swift on Marie Claire

American's sweetheart, Taylor Swift, looks stunning in her photo shoot with Marie Claire.  Taylor's always been gorgeous, but I love how her soft loose curl gives her a more grown up whimsical look.

Photo Credit: Mark Abrahams / Marie Claire

UV Fashion Statements

California gets a lot of sun all year-round.  The balmy weather averages around the 70s with dips into the 50s during "winter" and peaks at 90s in the summer.  Given the amount of sun California receives, I started to notice a lot of Asian women wearing oversize visors.

Unlike a typical "hatted" visor, this visor is over thrice the size of a usual visor and made of anti-UV plastic.  Most importantly, the visor is attached to a hinge which makes it adjustable.  Visor wearing women often adjust these visors to a 90 degree downward angle in order to shield their entire face from the sun.  During the summer months, you'll see numerous women shopping, driving and going about their days wearing these visors like welding masks.  This is probably illegal inconvenient when it comes to bank errands.

Here they are below:

And now, they come with anti-UV face shields (for men too).

What do you think of these visors?

Wishlist: Elsa Leather Clutch by Derek Lam

I'm really liking the Elsa Leather Clutch by Derek Lam.

I love how this is a fairly roomy clutch (measures 11" x 7"); I adore both the electronic aquamarine hue and the adorable gold trimmed tassel.  I became a fan of the tassels this season with Gucci's 2010 Spring Summer line (I own the large black leather hobo).

Currently on sale at Saks for $553, originally $790.  The only thing stopping me from hitting "check out" is a shoulder strap.  I haven't got it together enough to not lose anything that's not attached to me. Sigh.

Awful Subject Lines

First and foremost, Saks and Barneys are both having their designer sales at up to 40% off.  I spent a good hour purveying through the goodies on both sites, and the deals are pretty solid.  Premium designer handbags retailing for over $2k are going at just under a grand.  Some of the same handbags are listed for more on Bluefly.  Unfortunately, the handbag I wanted sold out just as I hit "add to cart" (fate was kind enough to interfere).

With that said... I have been receiving a lot of emails from Barneys lately with the subject line of "[Whatever-sale-is-going-on-here] -- HELLO!!!"...  Why do they  need to add "HELLO!!!" at the end?  The first time this was done, I thought it was a cheesey, but a successful gimmick. Now, I'm just annoyed.

Balenciaga City Patchwork

Balenciaga released their latest design "Patchwork" for their famous city bags.  Patchwork comes in two different colors, navy and beige.

The Patchwork retails around $2,300. 

What do we think about this?  Yay or nay?

The new Patchwork is...

Balenciaga Exhibition

The US museum is to host an exhibit of 100 works by the Getaria-born designer Cristobal Balenciaga, who was dubbed by Christian Dior as "the master of us all".

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are to host an exhibition planned for 2011 in which 100 pieces created by Basque designer Cristobal Balenciaga will be on show.

Balenciaga was born in Getaria in 1895 and founded his fashion house in 1914. He was famous as a couturier for his very strict standards, as well as the modern shapes and unusual female designs that became the trademark of the Balenciaga label.

The exhibition, showing at the M.H. de Young Museum, will be curated by Vogue European Editor Hamish Bowles who previously worked with the museum on its 2008-2009 Yves Saint Laurent retrospective.

Entitled "Balenciaga and Spain" the 100-piece display brings together designs normally housed in museums or belonging to private collectors all over the world.

from Olwen Mears at e!tb.com