Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

TBD Recap & a DC on Heels Throwback!

This week Markette tackles wines with funny names (care for a glass of "Bad Boy Red" or "Bitch")? Meanwhile, Vanessa explains the theory behind "Deals for Deeds."

Also on this week's DC on Heels TV segment: Prince George's Prince of Parkour and the ShoeDazzle.com Hot Heels of the Week!

Ah, you know the dress I wore on yesterday's show brings back memories of when Vanessa and I first started our blog and TV show on cable access back in 2009. 

You see, we did this whole makeover segment with DC-based designer Aidah Fontenot where we went from "drab" to "fab" and the dress I wore yesterday on TBD TV was my makeover dress! Check out this DC on Heels BLAST from the PAST: 
We've come a long way baby! This, I know for sure. Stay tuned in 2011 as we continue to give you the local hook-up on food, fashion & fun in the nation's capital!

xoxo,

Markette
Let's Connect!


    

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

DC on Heels Fashion Police

The Golden Globes may have come and gone, but unflattering fashion is forever! 

Natalie Portman's salmon pink "moo moo" gown adorned with a red applique rose is STILL imprinted in my head! But since she's preggers, I'll go ahead and give her a pass.  The DC on Heels fashion police will issue a standard warning... but we won't be so kind to some of the other celebrities who made fashion faux pas. 

Yesterday, TBD TV and our good friend MoJo gave me and Vanessa cop badges and free reign to go through our list of BEST and WORST dressed at the 68th Annual Golden Globes. 

Take a look at the vid below to see our choices and leave us a comment letting us know if you AGREE or DISAGREE with our choices:


Shout out to ShoeDazzle.com for hooking us up with fab shoes for this segment!
(Click here to get the deets on Vanessa's cool grey booties and my red hot wedges!)

xoxo,

Markette
Let's Connect!


    

Saturday, January 8, 2011

How the iPhone Has Revolutionized Accessories

There's a great line from the movie Steel Magnolias when Olympia Dukakis says:

 "What separates man from animal is our ability to accessorize."

How true, how true! It is a distinctly human trait to adorn one's fingers with shiny, sparkly things; to add a flower to one's ear; or place a feather in one's cap.

But with the advent of touch-screen technology, man's innate ability to accessorize has reached a new sophistication... Glittens!

A Columbia Heights man sports a pair of
glittens while searching for iPhone apps.
Glittens are a hybrid of fingerless gloves and mittens, and they are quickly becoming a necessary winter accessory for the tech-obsessed and everyone who has an iPhone or any other touch-screen mobile device.

Williams shows of his glittens. 
Jeffrey Williams of Columbia Heights says when the weather cooled down this season, it became hard to Tweet, text and download from the Mac App Store while he was on the go. He says he was so eager to find a pair of gloves that would allow him use his iPhone in the cold weather that he resorted to going to where no man has (willingly) gone before.

"I bought these from the women's accessories department at Target," he said.

But who could blame him? While he was comfortably checking his e-mail on the corner of 14th and Irving Streets in Northwest Washington... other people stuck texting on the go with traditional gloves (including myself) were being left out in the cold.
Don't let the smile fool you.
I was FREEZING out there!
I soon went out and bought myself a pair fleece-lined glittens... which I have grown to like so much, that I actually wore them while typing this blog entry!

These Glittens set me back about $18. 
Not since Madonna's Like a Virgin has fingerless gloves been all the rage.

Classic Madonna - circa 1984 - in white
lace fingerless gloves.
But iPhones aren't the only use for glittens...

These Etre Touchy gloves retail for $31.70
(Photo Credit: Etre Touchy)
According to fingerless glove manufacturer, Etre Touchy (which literally means "To Be Touchy" when translated from French), glittens can be used for a variety of cold-weather actions and transactions, including:
  • Bank ATM machines
  • Kiosks
  • Sony PlayStation PSP, Nintendo GameBoy Advance and other handheld video games systems
  • Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and other e-Book readers
  • Cameras with touch-screen technology
  • Flip video cam and other camcorders
  • Fishing/angling equipment
  • Braille
  • Picking noses (using a tissue is at the discretion of the glitten wearer)
And this is not the end. As technology evolves, so will man and his ability to accessorize.

Stay-tuned, as I will continue to update you on new developments in touch-screen glove technology... and all things food, fashion & fun in the nation's capital!

xoxo,

Markette
Let's Connect!
    

Thursday, December 30, 2010

11 Little Black Dresses for 2011

The Little Black Dress of the year... 


Belongs to Harry Potter's Emma Watson, who wore this flirty feathery frock by Spanish designer Rafael Lopez to the November 2010 premiere of 'Deathly Hallows.' 

Other LBDs that top the charts in terms of style, simplicity and elegance?

Well, I'm no Robin Givhan, but if I were then I'd start with Washingtonian (by way of Chicago) Michelle Obama and the TDF (to die for) vintage 1950s Norman Norell cocktail dress she wore to the December 2010 Christmas in Washington event at the White House.
The First Lady in vintage Norell.
Dresses like this are valued at $250,000 and are usually only on display at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to the Vintage Style Files
You can look, but don't touch
this 1955 Norell vintage dress.
It is on display at the Met,
reports the Vintage Style Files.
Another first lady (of Spice, that is) who doesn't disappoint in the LBD category is Victoria Beckham, seen below in this ruffled black mini. The World's Most Glamourous Celebrity, according to a 2010 Max Factor poll, wore the frock to a lunch in the Piccadilly neighborhood of London in May of 2010.

Style Tip: Tan heels with a little black
dress makes the legs look longer.

But no one with multiple children from multiple nations is more stunning than Angelina Jolie in this sequined Armani LBD, which she wore to the premiere of Salt in July of 2010.
Stunning!
Here's how some other celebs are rocking their little black dresses... 
And if you want to know how you can rock a pret-a-porter LBD of your own, then check out the hottest off-the-rack styles at Refinery29.com.

Happy New Year!

Markette
Let's Connect!

    



Friday, November 19, 2010

Royal Wedding? Not On This Budget!

Various media outlets are reporting that Prince William and Kate Middleton could walk down the aisle as soon as March.


Their royal wedding is rumored to have a budget of $40 million.

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But in this -- the worst recession since the Great Depression -- chances are the royal elders won't be so quick to flash their money and wealth around as they did with Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana's elaborate 1981 wedding that spared no expense (i.e. - Lady Di's 25-foot long wedding gown train).


But if you are a bride with a caviar taste... 


... on a Kool-Aid budget, then a royal wedding, even a royal-ish wedding is simply out of the question.

That was the feeling that Vienna, Va.-based event planner VaLorie Fogle got every time she interacted with brides on a budget since the recession hit. The brides had Cinderella dreams, but a pauper's pocket book.

The heartbreaking reality was they were going to have to do the running of the brides at Filene's Basement in order to afford a designer dress, or settle for a knock-off from the David's Bridal $99 dress sale.

So Miss Fogle... desperately wanting to help others, while waiting for her own knight in shining armor to come along...

VaLorie Fogle, founder & CEO of
WinningBride.com
...had the idea to start an online auction where brides-to-be on a budget could bid on designer gowns for as little as $20 (kind of like eBay, but for wedding dresses).

Et voila! WinningBride.com was born!


Just three months into the launch of her business, and Fogle has already expanded her inventory to include wedding veils, garter belts and...

VaLorie and Markette exchange garter belt
tales from weddings past.
... and what Fogle likes to call "Second Bliss" items, such as wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses and accessories put up for auction by ladies who've already "jumped the broom" as they say it in her home state of Arkansas and various other parts of the South.   

A bride in waiting: all that's missing is the dress!

One of the more sassy veils available
on WinningBride.com.
And with this new concept, Fogle hopes that brides can now say, "YES!" to the dress of their dreams... even if it is a Vera Wang!

xoxo,

Markette
Let's Connect!

Related Posts:

    

Friday, October 15, 2010

Fashion Fights Poverty: Photo Highlights

Having a blast: DC on Heels with FFP
Fashion Director Elaine Mensah
Check out our photo highlights from the 6th Annual Fashion Fights Poverty non-runway event. Yes, you read that right. Runways are so 2008.

This years FFP was all about models in the raw... live action... up close and very personal. Scroll below to see just what a non-runway fashion event  looks like.

Kadreika Maiden (center), co-founder & VP of FFP 
Jive recording artist Matisse
with FFP President Chris Belisle
M & V flank Real Housewives of DC's Ebong Eka
and DC newswoman Beverly Kirk
The event was held at the Artisphere in Arlington, Va.
T-shirts with an Attitude
designed by Crooked Monkey.

In place of a runway...
models stood perched atop pedestals.
Life imitating art as the models
pose in local designer labels. 
Funky, yet feminine threads by Chez Kevito.


The look of Pakistani designer Nomi Ansari.

Micheal Dumlao, Chief Creative Officer of FFP,
sporting goggles and a mask!

Afua Sam of Studio D-Maxsi

M and V strike a pose!
Model Behavior:
M and V sandwich a model after the show! 

Stay tuned to DC on Heels. Video highlights to come!

xoxo,

Markette