Fashion Me Fabulous

Summer is my retro season. This may be because I want to beat the heat without showing too much skin. (And without my skin touching too much. I'm looking at you, burning hot benches!) What better inspiration than classic movie stars dressed for the summer? I am enamored with how Audrey tied this shirt. So enamored, I had to show you it again in color and with shoes. Those shorts make her wee legs look a million miles long. That's just stinkin' cute. Lolita Girl sells a bathing suit similar to Ava Gardner's. Liz. Lizzy. Lizbeth. Lana Turner, stop making me think a crop top, high waisted shorts and a turban are good ideas. You look so good! Reading James Joyce on the playground as you do. I think every woman has this outfit. Marylin looks so happy and alive and ready for a beach bonfire. Sundresses win. Not sure if those are Rita Hayworth's shorts or the bottoms of her bathing suit. Fab shoes. This bears a whiff o...

A few months ago, designer Hedi Slimane posted a series of pictures he'd taken of Frances Bean Cobain. She was decked out in grunge attire, tattoos, and a dense layer of smoke. To me, the images looked like a girl trying to connect to this god-like figure the public has made of her father, Kurt, who died while she was still very young. But that's not what other people saw. Other people were excited that she was "bringing grunge back" and were a-buzz about her potential as a fashion icon. Really? Most fashion icons are icons because people noticed their styles while they were busy being good at their other jobs. Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn were both fantastic actresses who had distinct fashion senses. Coco Chanel was a good designer who pushed her vision onto the masses. Jackie Kennedy's purpose was more than looking nice. But now we make people fashion icons because they model nice or because they paid a stylist to push them and their fledgling caree...

If you hadn't read the title (and maybe that didn't even help), wouldn't you think this was a modern picture? The mussed bob, one giant locket as an earring, girlish top, dramatic lipstick, and most of all the self-possessed stare all seem so now. She looks like the quirkiest of art students. But the image left is of Clara Bow -- flapper icon and Hollywood's first sex symbol -- in the early 1930s. Flirtatious and sassy, Clara wasn't a damsel to be saved. She was a star; not a star's accessory. While other actors at the time were still proffering their stage mugging for screen, she was intimate and familiar -- a person to be not a person behind a mask. Though her ten year career was prodigious and varied, Clara was often the screen's go-to bad girl. The consummate flapper, her short skirts, penciled eyebrows, and cupid's bow lips were copied by women everywhere. When a Hollywood celebrity magazine mentioned that her wavy bob was red, stores experienced a ...

Tomorrow the world will have a new Princess. Five-year-old me is running around in a fluffy pink dress and squealing with delight. I was a Disney Princess girl all the way (Of the princesses pictured here, Belle is my favorite. She's a brunette who reads). For all five-year-old yous out there in love with princess and all of you mourning the death of a teenage dream to marry Prince William, don't worry. We can still dress up in grown-up versions of our favorite princess looks. Princess Belle by Fashion becca Fabulous featuring summer wedge sandals Pictured: Spiced Dress, Anthropologie $188 Summer Wedge Sandal, Anthropologie, $128 Red Rose Ring, Forzieri $98 So Snow White by Fashion becca Fabulous featuring fancy blouses Pictured: Blue Sky Montana Top, Modcloth $40 San Pedro Pencil Skirt, Anthropologie $148 Poetic Licence Eyeconic Lemon Heels, Lori's $94 Shimmery Leather Bow Headband, 77Kids $5.95 Cinderella: If the Shoe Fits by Fashion becca Fabulous featuring jessic...

Elizabeth Taylor was an extraordinary beauty who could wear the simplest of slips or the most elaborate of costumes with the same stunning effect. Her personal style is a bit tricky to pin down as it evolved constantly throughout her career. Many times, especially early in her career, she chose to simply let her beauty shine in elegant gowns and simple accessories. Elizabeth Taylor : Simple Style by Fashion becca Fabulous featuring wrapped jewelry And sometimes she chose to go all out adorning herself in ornate jewels and over the top ensembles. Elizabeth Taylor : Party Style Gone Gaga by Fashion becca Fabulous featuring an emerald necklace Taylor's most famous accessory was the unique violet color of her eyes. In fact, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof was supposed to be filmed in black and white, which was considered more artistic. However, when Taylor and her violet eyes were cast along with Paul Newman and his sharp blue eyes, the director insisted on shooting in color. Elizabeth Tayl...

Every year, automobile enthusiasts from around the globe trek to Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise . To the uninitiated watching old cars drive up and down Woodward Ave in Metro Detroit may sound boring, even silly. But to a native Detroiter, former automotive journalist, and all around car lover (that would be me!), this is quite an event. People don't go half way for the Dream Cruise. Many people, women especially, can be spotted in era-appropriate garb when riding in their cars. I've never cruised in the Cruise before, but if I ever do ride in a classic car, I will dress the part. Here's a wishlist of cars* made each decade from the 1920s - 70s, and dresses to go with them**. There's really only one car from the 1920s anyone needs to know about, and that's a Duesenberg . Or should I say, "That's a Doozy" since we got the phrase from this automobile's grandeur. Every time I see this car, I can only say, "Now, THAT'S a car." The...

Christina Aguilera is in a situation, as becca mentioned Tuesday . She's routinely reinvented herself for each album -- teen poptart , skunk-haired dirrty girl , Marilyn Monroe , Donatella Versace *, and now a dominatrix . A dominatrix was a tired gimmick anyway, and it's made even more tired by writers and bloggers claiming that she's "trying to be Lady Gaga" and that the crazy rubber catsuits "whiff of desperation in a post-Gaga world." *She most likely wasn't going for Donatella, but that's all becca and I could think of with the blow out and heavy makeup. What the Gaga obsessed don't seem to remember is that many musicians, like Christina and a virtual unknown named Madonna, change their image with each album. (Although you could just say this is Christina's third foray into the dirrty girl persona.) Material Girl by BellaMarie featuring Barbara Bui shoes Others make distinct fashion splashes, like Lily Allen's prom dresses and ...