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Hello all!! We leave you for the next couple of days as we bring in the New Year with a little cheer and relaxation. While we’re out, enjoy some of LupRock’s Gossip archives! We raise our glass of bubbly to you, and wish you a happy ‘08!
See You Next Year!
Happy Wearing!
Of the many fashion blogs and daily newsletters that occupy our server and fill our mailboxes there is one that we hold near and dear for their always dependable and interesting trend spotting and reporting. We speak of course of WhoWhatWear Daily, or WWWD as it is called by real fashion gossip addicts– like us!
We loved a pre-holiday newsletter dedicated to WWWD Tips, and we’re specifically fond of the featured vintage earrings seen on Mary Kate Olsen. While WWWD reporters recommend for all of us to “Try A Vintage Touch,” most of us need that little extra help locating such said goodies. WWWD provided these options from Day-Lab, but we thought we would help you out with just a few more…Enjoy!
If you have the guts to pierce the fabric of your much anticipated holiday dress then you must do so with any of these vintage-inspired pins by Somos Creations.
For the perfect touch of gold we recommend any of the pieces by Ashley Morgan Designs.
With a drink in hand all night you will not want to be caught dead with bare fingers. We recommend any of these vintage rings by Julie Erwin Jewels circa – who cares, they are so rad! (Don't make fun...if we are talking about vintage jewelry I reserve the right to use vintage slang!)
Don’t forget with New Years just around the corner you will need the perfect jewelry and accessories to go with that amazing LBD you have waiting in you closet for its big party debut. With the biggest night for taste makers fastly approaching we want to remind you of one of the golden rules: add a little glimmer and shine to swing into a bright New Year! To get great ideas for those perfect extras that take you from bleak to chic check out the many designers at LupRocks.com!
Though I'm sure you've heard plenty of news about infamous celebrity couples and their pregnancies, this LupRocks post comes to you forecasting a different trend. Instead of popping out kids, it looks like this season more and more couples, both famous and not-so-famous, will be popping the question. According to a survey by Modern Bride, November and December months account for 26% of all marriage proposals! Celebs included in the trend are Nicky Hilton, who we hear will be getting engaged to her boyfriend of a year, David Katzenberg over Christmas.
If you want to seize this holiday season to propose to your honey, LupRocks is here to take a little bit of the burden off of your proposal by helping you pick the perfect engagement ring. In this article from TheKnot.com, which also appears on MSN Lifestyle they note a few major engagement ring trends to help guide your decision. At the top of the list is one of our favorites: natural color diamonds! Included in their post is a breathtaking olive natural color diamond ring by LupRocks designer AMGAD.
Also, to ease you in your hunt for the perfect engagement ring, LupRocks offers a complete virtual showroom of designers who specialize in Bridal Jewelry. We have something for every taste, and every budget, so if you're still stumped, check us out.
I am well aware that Santa is making his list, checking it twice and all, so I truly hope he forgives me for the naughty gossip and reprimanding I am about to unload. It must be said: If I have to see one more girl walking around the style filled streets of New York wearing Uggs paired with fancy tights or fishnets, I am going to turn Carrie on them. No not the fabulous Carrie Bradshaw, the scary possessed Carrie who will send you to the depths of hell where your outfit came from. Fancy tights that add flare to your favorite LBD are a great trend, and are fast becoming one of my favorite accessories. However, when you put on a cute dress, struggle into tights, and then stick that cute outfit into a pair of Uggs, and then show up in my elevator at work or on the streets of the Upper West, you ruin my perfectly good day as a hip New York gal with your devastatingly wrong fashion choices. I understand that Uggs keep your toesees snuggled when facing the bitter cold that has finally befallen us, but realize it does so at the expense of your sense of style – although I guess that was minimal to begin with.
Listen it is not like I am totally against the ugly Uggs. I own a pair, but they serve as a large pair of pj slippers, and are paired with the casual clothes that I wear to the laundry room. So, when you read blogs on the celebrity approval for Uggs (like this,"I'm Not Obsessed," which I found while surveying Google for people with my shared frustration), understand that these celebrities, like the featured Reese Witherspoon, run on a different set of rules. Not to mention the fact that no one in all of Hollywood’s glam has paired them with tights. Shame on you.
P.S. Santa – This is not actually naughty when you consider that I may be saving girls from fashion no-no’s. You can reward my kindness by sending the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume down my chimney. Oh, who am I kidding…I am New Yorker – just leave it with doorman.
We bring you our final installment of the ultimate Holiday Gift Guide: Go Green. For those of you just tuning in here’s the scoop: We know that your server is on overload from all your favorite go to sources wonderfully crafted gift guides for Dad, Mom, your guy, your dog, your neighbors dog …Ok, maybe we are taking it too far, but you get the point. All mockery aside, New York Magazine’s host of different lists will help you no matter which picky relative or has-everything-friend you are shopping for, and even includes a “With Seconds to Spare” list by Aja Mangum & Doria Santlofer for the procrastinators out there (don’t kid yourself, you know who you are). So, we at Lup HQ decided to bring you the ultimate advice on what to keep, what to return, and what to re-gift.
We end today with Go Green! Sure you have given the ol’ eye-roll when hearing this term thrown around among the eco-friendly show-offs, but you too can partake in this recycling pretentiousness. No, you are not actually helping the environment by passing along gifts, but you are helping to reduce the use of the two most important resources: time and money. So consider re-gifting these holiday staple gifts and you will save yourself some shopping stress and money better spent on the $5 Pinkberry or Starbucks latte you insist on getting everyday, all while not tarnishing your rep as a smart gift giver.
1)Gift Certificates: Whether your relatives are lazy or your friends are just fed up trying to shop for you, gift cards with dreidles for Chanukah and trees for Christmas seem to pileup during this joyful season, thickening your wallet and pressuring you to go out shopping in the cold windy weather when you should be at home in your PJ’s with some hot cocoa. Not to mention the fact that between your expensive taste and your cheap family you will probably end up picking something more expensive then the value of your gift card. Also these are impersonal enough that your re-giftee will be non-the-wiser and probably very pleased.
2)Food: every year we promise ourselves we are going to limit the fatty fried and sugar packed treats we stuff in our bellys. Say it with me: I will not gain weight during the Holiday! (Repeat as many times as necessary.) Just remember, as a dedicated fashionista we know you have some fierce holiday cocktail dresses waiting in the closet, and it would be a shame to look bloated in the dress you bought pre-cookie season. Pass along all cookies, chocolate, and other treats even though it pains you to do so, and you know the receiver will be just as delighted as you were before you gave up your tasty, yet fattening, treats.
Any clothing, jewelry, or accessories that were picked out for you personally should be kept or returned depending on where it ranks in the ugly/fabulous scale. Hope this helped, and we wish you a very happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
No matter how much time you spend sourcing out that perfect special something for everyone on your list, sometimes when it comes to receiving gifts, your cheery "Ho Ho Ho's" turn into woeful "Oh No No No's!" This installation of our holiday gift guide reveals those ill-chosen gifts that absolutely without-a-doubt must go back to where they came from. We hope we can relieve you of some guilt involved in returning these gifts, because when you bling them back, you'll find a much better use for the cold hard cash than letting those less-than-savvy styles slowly decompose in your closet.
1) "UGG"ly boots: Though whoever bought this gift probably imagined you wearing these boots in all sorts of unfriendly weather, for all practical intentions, Ugg-boots and their offshoots (that means you too, Mucklucks and Emus!) have long since been ruled out as acceptable footwear. They might keep your tootsies toasty, but unless you're living in an area that gets three feet of snow on a regular basis and you can spy elk passing by your window, we would advise returning these fuzzy monsters and using the cash to buy a much more practical pair of booties.
2) Flashy and Trashy: We know you love your friends, but sometime their fashion sense may be a bit ambitious for your taste. This winter, make your closet happy by blinging back anything that is a little too over the top. No one wants to pull a Posh Spice, or even worse--a Britney, by revealing too much skin. Also to be avoided is anything that takes the trends too much to heart. This includes anything from jackets and dresses with too much metallic, to shoes and handbags with too much patent leather, to anything with a too high waist. Taking "mom pants" to a whole new level are these jeans by Cheap Monday's, and more reflective than a solar panel is this trench coat by Gwen Stefani's line L.A.M.B., both of which you should bling back without a second thought.
3) Knock-Off No No's: More than anything else, anything that smacks of a knock off has got to go. Though a fake Louis Vuitton handbag is easy to spot, some other knock offs are a bit more subtle. House of Holland is a sassy label that has made its mark by creating bright t-shirts with equally colorful quotations on them in bright bold lettering. The clever catchphrases have inspired other companies like Urban Outfitters, Top Shop and Forever 21 to follow suit with somewhat less witty sayings. Try to avoid these soon-to-be forgotten fakies.
Also, as any good accessories guru knows, a piece of jewelry with cubic zirconia is one of the
biggest fashion crimes one could ever commit. If you find yourself
being gifted a piece with CZ as a present, you can politely (or
sneakily) return it for a more tasteful option, such as a piece with
rock crystal, Swarovski crystals, or other semiprecious stones such as freshwater
pearls. In the event of this fashion tragedy LupRocks already does most of the searching for you, providing for you a selection of Fashion Jewelry designers with much nicer options in our crystal and semiprecious stones categories.
We hope you liked our Bling it Back edition of our holiday gift guide! Check back for our third and final installment, with just the tips to help you go green, and save plenty of green by finding a brand new home for your less than perfect gifts.
With Chanukah finally over, and Christmas looming on the horizon, shopping, gifts, and spending is all the buzz. However, what really concerns any real material girl during this Chrismakaha lapse is the age old question: Which gifts do I keep, which are on the fast express to returnville, and which will be re-gifted saving you time, money, and the bad publicly you’ll get if you keep it for yourself? So with all our Chanukah gifts already in and sorted, and all of our Christmas shopping completed (don’t be jealous, our OCD lead us to complete this inevitable task early this year), we here at Lup HQ are here to help you with those o’ so tough decisions. So today we bring you the first of three installments: Rock It, Bling Back, and Go Green. Check back each day this week for the remaining verdicts, and you’ll come out a big winner this holiday season!
Rock It: Seems you ditched the naughty fashionista in you, causing Santa or Bubbie to award your good behavior with these definite keepers:
1)Charm bracelets have reentered their long standing spotlight. So whether your mom gifted you with her vintage bracelet from childhood, (like the gold one I received for Chanukah), or you received more fashion forward bracelets, like ones from fresh LupRocks.com designers Gabriella Francesca's or Heather Moore, this holiday “present” is one you will want to rock out in the very near future.
2)April showers bring May flowers early this year causing florals to pop up all over the pages of our fave go to source for fashion gossip – duh! W Magazine. We especially loved the featured Nancy Hankin gold flower ring, but any floral adornment this Spring will prove you are envogue. Another way to bloom up on the fashion-conscious radar is by wearing delicate leaves like these Nicole Landaw gold leaf hoops, or the flowers and dragonflies Shaill ring available at Neminas.
Check in tomorrow to hear our list of Bling Backs – because it won’t be a season of ho, ho, ho if you are caught wearing or re-gifting these fashion no, no, no's.
Women’s Wear Daily has established itsef as the long time go-to source for full fashion, jewelry and accessories reporting. They tell us which companies are thriving and which ones are on their way to Ch.11. They fill us in on all the gossip about brands old and new, and keep a strong thumb on the pulse of the multi billion dollar fashion, retail, beauty, accessories, and textiles industries. But what makes us really hold WWD near and dear is today's Dec. 11 issue, jam packed with the much anticipated “WWD Year in Fashion, 2007.” So, extend your coffee/paper break and turn off your phones, because with a whole year's worth of juicy gossip packed into one issue you’ll need the extra time to stay nose deep in pages.
Warning: For all person(s) who choose to read WWD on the subway ride home, we recommend taking extra caution so as not to miss your stop. Repeat - do not let the gorgeous threads and shocking sell-topers suck you in. You will miss your stop. WWD assumes no responsibility for work that is procrastinated, significant others who are ignored, subway rides that are mistakenly extended due to exposure to content.
The annual supplement kicks off with the “Greatest Show on Earth” and ends with a big “Photo Finish.” However, every page in between is filled with newsworthy text that you won’t want to be without. So pick up your issue today, or check it out online.
Remember the good old days when you had to actually brave the hoards of snappy shoppers in pursuit of your wardrobe? Well, it looks like those days are numbered. According to a recent article in Women's Wear Daily, internet fashion sales are skyrocketing. From well known chains like Urban Outfitters now boasting websites with a plethora of fashions, and items exclusive to their web store-- to internet start-ups like ShopBop.com with their arsenal of popular young designers-- to the new invitation-only website Gilt Groupe, that brings the designer sample sales to you, the internet has become the next frontier for fashion finds. According to WWD, online sales of apparel, accessories and footwear are projected to total $22.1 billion, this year, up $3.8 billion from 2006. For some designers, internet sales have even surpassed revenues from freestanding stores! Small designers also find that creating an internet store is the perfect cost-effective way to build their brand and reach a broader market.
Though it's difficult to compete with the ease that internet shopping brings, some websites become successful because they offer features that freestanding stores cannot. At American Apparel online, users are invited to comment and rate articles of clothing, encouraging a sense of community among faithful buyers of the brand. Though far from an online boutique, LupRocks.com is ahead of internet trends, with our showcase of a variety of large and small designers alike. Not only that, LupRocks assists in building a community among media members and accessories designers by encouraging designers to post upcoming events, allowing media members to place a direct call out for specific products in our "Desperately Seeking" section, and even offering exciting promotions, like our Product of the Month, in which every month a piece of fine jewelry, handbag, or accessory is given to a lucky LupRocks visitor who submits their email to the site. With so many cool features, LupRocks is definitely an up-and-coming site to keep an eye on.
