Because I haven’t shown any photos of shoes in a while, and because Julie and I just went shopping and she picked up these awesome black leather ankle boots to wear to the Neiman Marcus pre-opening charity party we’re going to tomorrow night, I present the following:
Neiman Marcus is opening its first location in Washington state on September 11th of this year — and that’s just a few days away. Despite the flattening economy (Neiman Marcus reported a 27% drop in revenue for the last quarter), they’re putting on a brave face, setting their best foot forward and carrying on with the show.
I was planning on going casual, until Louise decided to inform me last minute that the tickets state: “Black Tie Attire” — gulp! I don’t even own an ordinary everyday tie, much less anything formal. Louise is already a regular passenger on her own social whirl and so has plenty of appropriate wardrobe choices at her disposal, but Julie and I have been scrambling over the last several days to spiff up what’s ordinarily our very casual approach to going out (Seattle is famous — or infamous, depending on your point of view — for its relaxed dress codes).
It’s fairly easy for men to dress things up: a nice pair of slacks, a somber silk tie, a well-cut blazer and voila! “That’ll do, pig — that’ll do.” Taking it up a notch up for the females, however, is an infinitely more involved proposition and requires serious time, thought and effort (I had no idea how much effort), but after several days of hitting the retail beat (and many hours of soaking my tired, sore feet later), I think Julie and I managed to come up with an ensemble that just might comfortably slide her right through the evening.
First off, the dress. After several hours of combing through racks and exhausting the poor sales assistant with all the running back and forth between the dressing room and the sales floor, we settled on a classic black sheath with cap sleeves, a scoop neck and a skirt length that ends just below the knee. It was the most flattering of the cuts and offered a blank (albeit well tailored) slate upon which we could accessorize for the final, finishing touches.
Because the dress is fairly sleek and fitted, we opted to soften its somewhat severe silhouette with the pictured pair of ruched Prada booties.
Now, I’m not always the biggest fan of Miuccia Prada’s designs, but she admittedly has a way of mixing feminine flourishes into utilitarian forms that can result in surprisingly wearable items. The ankle boots are a perfect example of that — tidy lines, a heel that’s not too spiky and not too tall (well, not too Gucci tall, at least), and with that unexpected touch of leather ruffling at the ankle.
So the basics were covered — but what about those embellishments . . . additions of color and/or sparkle that can steer a somewhat generic look in a more personal direction?
Okay, well, she already has a great clutch that her boyfriend gave her for Christmas, and that certainly satisfied the color requirement, but we were still short of sparkle — that’s where Barney’s came into the picture.
When you walk through the huge glass doors of Seattle’s Barney’s, you’re first greeted by cases of high-end designer jewelry, luxe handbags, exclusive cosmetic brands and niche perfumes. We eyed the pearl and ribbon necklaces from Lanvin, the bakelite bangles from Mark Davis, the precious gem encrusted pendants that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, but no. They’re all beautiful (understatement of the year) but way (way!) too spendy, especially when all we really needed was a great piece of costume jewelry.
Then I remembered that our local Barneys has a case of contemporary costume pieces in their trendier (and thankfully much less expensive) upstairs section, so we trundled up the stairs and found ourselves oooohing and aaaaahing over several pieces from Italian design firm Iosselliani.
Faced with such loveliness, it didn’t take long before we decided to forgo the necklace idea and settle instead on a pair of slinky chandelier earrings that would complement the vertical flow of the sheath while adding some interest to the neckline — then we figured that, since we were heading in such a dominantly feminine direction with the shoes, the bag and earrings, maybe it might be nice to toughen it up a little. You know, just to throw off the wolves a little.
That’s when we spied this little beauté from a company named Fallon:
Now, seriously, who could resist? I know, I know — there are probably about a million of you out there vociferously resisting and in no uncertain terms, but for our purposes, this punk flavored + vintage influenced crystal embellished cuff was just about made to order. A little bit girly, a lot bit rock and roll — maybe even a tad bit self-defense, should the occasion merit.
So now we’re ready for drinks, food and an advance peak at the new Neiman Marcus opening up at the very ambitious (especially for the times) Braven development in Bellevue. I’m smuggling in my camera. I mean, I kind of need to get at least a few pictures of the ensemble in action . . . am I right?
***Note: a heartfelt “Thank You!” to Leslie Castanha in the designer boutique at the downtown location of Nordstrom. She
ran her a** off trying to help us find the right dress for Julie, plus other items to potentially go along with it. I don’t know what we would have done without her.
