Summer break.

So, we are basically going to go ahead and claim August as our blog-cation month. Posting will likely be sporadic for the next few weeks. We wish we could say it's because we're off sunning ourselves by the roof pool, but really, it's 'cause the next few weeks look to be a blur of deadline after deadline after deadline (though, okay, we are squeezing in a few more beach trips before our summer share runs out). It's so frustrating, because we've got so many posts rattling around our head (our fall wishlist! patent platforms! intense love for Helmut Lang shorts!) but no time to sit and sort them out. We promise to post whenever we can.

And on top of all that, I had to have a wisdom tooth out this week, so I've spent much of the past few days in an uncomfortable, super-swollen haze. In short, it looks like the left side of my face is wearing a fat suit. So not cute.

In case you missed it…

Here are a few images from Friday's Washington Post Express piece: It was one of my favorite stories to work on in recent memory, not only because I had so much fun styling the cover shot (above), but because it was a shopping challenge about putting together a complete outfit solely from thrift, secondhand, and vintage stores. Heaven! That's my finished look below. And, yes, that's my new $7.50 Diane von Furstenberg dress.

Oooooh… shoes…

Meanwhile, back in Singapore: Our friend Lee Meng has *just* debuted her new shoe shop Eve Boutique over on Club Street. It looks like the kind of unique shoe store we wish existed when we lived in the big Sing for the insanely high drool-factor: There are lots and lots of gorgeous styles from boutique brands (and local exclusives) like Georgina Goodman, Hetty Rose, Rupert Sanderson and Finsk. Swoon.

Solid proof of busyness.

Boy, I do hate those weeks when its suddenly Friday and I realize I haven't checked in with y'all on the blog. It's been a crazy-busy couple of days. Let's recap!

+ I got a new haircut! Photos are forthcoming, but I loooooove Chris at new U Street salon Parlour. We are moving solidly in a Katie Holmesian direction. Two thumbs up!

+ Like a good little groupie, I've been following my Favorite Band Ever, the Old 97s, through the mid-Atlantic region this week. First up was Tuesday at the 9:30 Club, with super-cute opening band The Spring Standards, which was sold out and seriously crowded but a rocking good show. (We were sliiiightly late after being sidetracked by Drag Queen Bingo at nearby Nellie's, which I totally want to go back for next week. Takers?) Last night we caught the band at the Bottle & Cork in Dewey, which was just fantastic because you could basically walk right up to the stage and rock with Rhett. (Who I thought might pass out, he was rocking so hard.) Plus, I haven't heard "Wish the Worst" in concert in for-ev-er (although my request for "Singular Girl" was completely dismissed by Ken). Still. Good times, good times.

+ Oh, and then there was the Ice Cream Social! I ended up inviting my neighbors up to the roofdeck to polish off all that Edy's, and it was waaaay fun.

+ Plus! Project Runway! What did you think? Here's my recap.

+ Oh and finally! I've got the cover story in the style section of the Washington Post Express today (unfortunately, no pics online). I haven't seen it myself yet, 'cause I'm still at the beach. But can you guess which thrifted ensemble is mine?

+ Excuse me, I have to go have Thrasher's now.

Happy, happy Sunday.

There's just something about these new ads for Valentino—the first batch under designer Alessandra Facchinetti—that just made me smile. Angela Lindvall + windblown pink = intensely, perfectly pretty.

Come with me…

A friend dropped me a note this week and posed this question: Is a fashion "staycation" where you dress as you would in the place you'd most like to be?

I love the idea and, since my upcoming vacation plans are limited to a few quick jaunts to the Delaware and Jersey shores {whoo}, I am contemplating a glamorous fashion staycation very soon. Where should I "go"? India? (Boho skirts, bright colors and piles of beads!) Paris? (Hmmm… lots of black, light scarves, heels constantly, smoky eyes, some Dior here and there.) Mr. Valentino's yacht? (Bikinis, heels and breezy tunics. And probably a spray-tan.) Can I take a staycation through time, to Paris Fashion Week perhaps? (Intensely glam, Sartorialist-worthy ensembles. Every. Day! Heaven…)

The best part? Unlike a regular vacation, I can bring my entire shoe collection with me.

{Photo from here.}

The big winners! Plus, other stuff.

Thanks everyone for entering the big book drawing. I wish I had books and smokey eye kits for all of you! Unfortunately, I do not. Boo. But, here are the winners!

The copy of the book goes to Ms. Dip! (Full disclosure: Ms. Dip is one of my Very Favorite People Who I Used to Live in China With Who Now Lives in Bulgaria and someday, we also aspire to start a Fashion Referee show where we issue red cards to style violations on the street. Wouldn't that be so much fun? But I digress.)

The smokey eye kit goes to Elena in Washington! Elena, drop me a note so you can get started on your glam eyes.

There's another contest coming *almost immediately!* In the meantime, may we offer:

+Some fun DC events happening this weekend! We're hoping to pop by both the Listopad party and the Lily Lily! event.

+My weekly Project Runway recap! It's leathah.

+The wonderful bubble photo above, which was found here. It seems like the perfect day to get out there and blow some, no?

Then & Now

I absolutely love that Princess Anne wore the same dress to a wedding last month that she wore to Charles and Di's wedding back in 1981. She seems to be getting a lot of flack for it, but I think she absolutely pulled it off. (Really, the dress looks great—if not even better now that she's done away with the pearl choker—and oh! That hat is just fantastic! I so wish I was British if only for the regular hat factor.) In retrospect, however, perhaps she should stick to recycling outfits from sliiiightly less high-profile events.

Princess Margaret's seriously peach ensemble, on the other hand, probably wouldn't translate quite as well if she decided to resurrect it. Via the DC Goodwill Fashionista, who was also quite inspired.

Happiness is…

…this movie, quite obviously. As soon as I saw the trailer, I was smitten. If it's not in a theater near you (grumble, DC, grumble}, it's out on DVD next month. I cannot wait. Via the lovely One Good Bumblebee blog.

An open letter.

Dear Mr. Louboutin,

We would just like you to know that we think your Armadillo d'Orsay heels are the epitome of perfection, and we are prepared to try and brave the 120mm heel for the privilege of wearing them.

Love and shoes,
Ms. Spinach

PS) And please feel absolutely free to send along some of your classic black patent Simple Pumps while you're at it. We admit we kind of pine after the walkable 70mm version, but that low of a heel seems to go against your very core, so we'll hope instead for the 85mm. Also, love what you're doing with the New Simple Pumps. Maybe royal blue? Mwah!

Credit where it is due.

We have never been big InStyle fans. It always just seemed a little too—how do we put this politely?—safe for our style tendencies. It's not that we don't like celeb fashion, but we are much more interested in true personal style. And we prefer a quirky-indie twist with our trends, a la Lucky, or a seriously insider voice, a la Vogue.

And so we didn't set out to enjoy InStyle's long-awaited redesign—as seen in the new August issue with Rihanna on the cover—but we really did. There's a solid mix of fun items, stylish features, good tips and enough indie designer cred to satisfy our style needs. Truly, we were hooked by page 52, at this picture of Charlize Theron in the most fabulous Sally Tseng fitted tuxedo jacket. Which has apparently sold out. (Which is fine, because we really can't afford it.) The slouchy sleeves, the skinny lapel… swoon.

Luckily, there are about 19 other tuxedo-style jackets featured in the issue—truly, if InStyle wants you to have one item for fall, it is the shrunken tuxedo-y blazer!—so we will look to get our fix elsewhere.

Just in time for your summer vacation!

We spent Wednesday night feting our brilliant author friend Cathy (we have several brilliant author friends, but this is Cathy's big week), who was celebrating the launch of her very fun, funny memoir, Up for Renewal, about devotedly following women's magazine advice for a year.

It was a great party and we chatted all night with fun writer-types and also ate approximately nine pounds of cheese, but our favorite story of the evening was an anecdote Cathy told about her Today Show appearance last week. (Also, apparently Kathie Lee is really pretty in person! Who knew?) There was a small shoe debacle, as the shoes Cathy had set to wear on the show got ruined, and the producers sent her to Barney's and told her to pick out whatever she wanted. Can you imagine? That might just be better than being on national TV. {Of course, I was all "Louboutins! Louboutins!" but apparently, they don't quite fit Cathy's feet, so she ended up with some great sandals. Still. Like a dream come true.}

But we digress. Since we already owned a copy of Cathy's book, we've decided to give away our copy from the party goody bag. All you have to do is leave a comment here with your first name {you might want to include your last initial or your hometown if your name is something really popular—I'd hate to have a situation where I had to mediate between Jessicas} and—in the spirit of the book—your favorite magazine to be entered into the drawing. We offer as an example:

Hi, I'm Betsy, and I'm a Vogue-aholic.

Or perhaps just:

Betsy loves Elle Decoration (UK).

Or maybe:

Betsy. Lucky.

{No, I just cannot decide.}

But wait. There's more! We'll also have a second prize: your very own Sephora's Smokey Eye Kit, which we recently-ish got sent two of. Even if you're not into the smokey eye, you still get a lot of useful makeup brushes, which is totally great.

So, leave your name and mag of choice in the comments; we'll do a drawing in a few days; one of you will be the owner of Cathy's fab book, which is the perfect summery poolside read, and another one of you will be doing your own glam eye makeup in no time.

While we're at it, here's what we wore to the party: Flowered silk Tuleh dress, plucked from the racks at local high-end consignment store Inga's for me by Cathy herself. It still had the Neiman's tags on it, but cost me less than 10 percent of the original price. It is one of my all-time favorites. And yes, I do know that I say that about almost every dress.




Um, I also had a lot of fun playing with the mirrors.

Me, elsewhere.

It's a busy, busy day here in Spinach HQ, only compounded by the fact that I popped by the magazine store today – News World on the north side of Farragut Square, which always has the latest mags waaaay before anyone else – and they had the new In Style (Rihanna and a long-awaited redesign!), Harper's Bazaar (Jessica Biel, eh) and Marie Claire (love that Maggie Gyllenhaal). Okay, and also US Weekly, which I totally bought for poolside reading this weekend. Gyllenspoon! Brangelina! No, I cannot get enough.

For now, you can find me elsewhere at the following locations:
+My Project Runway recap over on the Washingtonian. I nearly died when Austin came skipping across the street in his little scarf. {I also have a play-by-play version, in the style of my Gossip Girl recaps, that I'll be posting here later today.}

+A Q&A with Armani beauty guru Tim Quinn, who was in DC earlier this month. {Loved him! And honestly, within days of adopting a few of his beauty suggestions, a friend asked what I was doing to my skin because she thought it looked amazing. So, thank you, Tim. You might make a beauty devotee out of me yet!}

+And of course, my weekly fashion event picks at both Washingtonian and Lucky mag. {Sigh. RIP, Pop.}

+Back soon with an exciting giveaway!

A public service announcement: Set your Tivos!

We are so excited about this that we have not even been able to get our of our jammies yet today. Okay, okay, that's mostly out of laziness. But still: Project Runway is back tonight! They've only just revealed the cast, who look appropriately moody/funky/talented. 9pm, kids!

Also, it looks like there's a new Tim Gunn Bobblehead out. (And it talks too!) They've really dapper-ed him up from the first version, and yet, it still looks nothing like Tim. Otherwise, I would probably have to buy it. And perch it on my closet shelf, of course.

Your Spinach Tip o' the Day

The thing about shopping for vintage shoes is that, while they can be extremely adorable, they also can be kind of cruddy, smelly and usually three sizes too small. A few years ago, I found an old designer pair I loved at the thrift store—which, of course, didn't fit my non-vintage feet—so I clipped off the cool cluster of little leather balls on the front, super-super-glued them to some leftover bow shoe clips (thanks, mom!; thanks, '80s!) and voila! I just add them to my own black heels whenever the mood strikes.


Keep an eye out for thrifted pairs with bows, flowers and other appliques that you can DIY into your own shoe clips. And that has been your handy Spinach tip for today.


(Now somewhere, back in the day, Ms. Bubble did something similar with Velcro and cute flats and I linked to it, but I just can't seem to find it anywhere in my archives. Which might just be a sign that I've been blogging for way. Too. Long.)

The summer (and likely fall) of the hat.

I've been pretty remiss about posting outfit photos up here, which is kind of a shame because I've actually been rocking some pretty fab vintage finds lately. (Voluminous skirts! Printed maxis! Stripey tennis-style mini-dresses! Trouble is, I'm usually running out the door and totally forget about documenting the look until later, when I'm tired out and my hair is fairly frizzy/disheveled. Damn you, humidity!)

Still, I recently decided I was all about the Sixties-style, Jackie O. hat—they've got an amazingly diverse, very affordable selection up at Polly Sue's Vintage Shop in Takoma Park, which totally inspired me—and have been running around town in little caps lately. (The Polly Sue's salesperson kindly informed me that you wear these toward the back of your head—not on top—which is a pretty key aspect of pulling it off.) I rocked a little black one to Miss Cathy's amazing book reading on Tuesday, and yesterday debuted a slightly more pillbox-y style in white (with oversized sunglasses, natch) for running around town doing worky errands (see below). They feel a bit costume-y, but in a good way. I'm pretty sure this will be one of my staples for a while--they give a simpler dress a little extra vintage kick.




The kitties so wanted in on the photo action. Plus, you can also see the details of this sweet little vintage dress—one of my Love, Allie finds.


Anyone else embracing a new mid-summer favorite to get you through the sweaty summer hump? Mid-July is always that time of year when I think our wardrobes could all use a kick of inspiration, so please comment away in hopes of helping out the rest of us…

Eeeeeeeeeeeee!*

*We shall now forever refer to this as "the time I squealed in Anthropologie."

I headed down to Georgetown yesterday morning to let the amazing Lance work some of his magic on my brows (seriously, I can't stop looking at them – they're so perfect!) and decided to head over to Anthropologie. I've been avoiding it for months—because really, I am trying to stick to this no-spend-summer thing and Anthopologie is generally just waaaay too dangerous to venture into--but I'd seen that really cute floral skirt on sale on their website and wanted to see if it was also in the store. (It was – just one, size 10.)

But then I got all distracted, because right there in front of me was a gorgeously colorful Manish Arora dress. On major sale. It was one of the pieces I'd loved way back at India Fashion Week in September 2006—and had actually tried to order from the designer, to no avail—and had kind of given up on ever owning something from that amazing collection. But now, through some benevolence from the fashion gods, I do. And it is perfect.

Blog contests = happiness.*

So, our adorable friends over at Bunnyshop are having a Jocasi bag giveaway contest, and we are a finalist! The deal is: You must present a fashiony question to the Bunnyshop readership masses, and the question that elicits the most answers in the comments section wins fabulous, buttery, beautiful Jocasi! {Like the envelope clutch above. Sah-woon.)

Now, we are definitely not saying you have to comment on our question and vote for us. (Unless you want to. And if you do, our question is: What is the last fabulous fashion item that you bought? We're loving the answers so far.) But really, we think you should go and lend your support to any and all of the questions you like, because they're really, really good. We present our very deserving competition:

+What is your favorite fashion moment from film history?

+What are your favorite staple clothing items?

+If you had your dream body, what would you buy immediately to wear?

+What's your all-time favorite clothing or accessory item?

+What's the best gift you've given, and what's your fallback gift?

+What three beauty "sins" do you regularly commit?

I think that's it so far. Great questions, with lots of great responses. We've personally left our answers on almost all of them over the past week. Go and comment away in the name of free beautiful bags everywhere!

*Do not fret. We know we promised one of our own, and it's forthcoming!

Your public transit read o' the day

I'm kind of completely in love with superstylist and Pop magazine editor Katie Grand after reading this profile of her. The Miuccia details alone are pretty much worth the click…

Artsy Endeavors

These dresses—created for an art installation by felt pens that bleed into the fabric—are supposed to be washed and redone with each wearing for infinite creativity, but I love the pattern they make so much that I think I just want one to stay that way permanently. Er, minus all those pens sticking out of it, of course. From designboom, via Swissmiss.