K-mart's Fall Fashion line featured on Vogue magazine Ads

If years ago anybody had told me that K-mart would be placing ads in Vogue magazine to promote their fall line I'm sure I would've fallen flat on my... hhmmm behind. But things do change! Available now at K-mart - Fashion Forward Fall 2010. Military jackets, Skinny jeans & Rocker Chic Bomber jackets are at hand's reach at your local stores. Very reasonable prices! Nothing is more than $100.00.  I have to admit, K-mart has never been my first choice when I think of shopping for clothing, but this line has put them on my top 20 for sure!  

Kathy Huynh, VP of Women’s Apparel Design, says “We want fresh fashion that’s on-trend but also understandable and affordable. It’s about buying those few new pieces and incorporating them into your wardrobe to give everything else a fresh lift.”   

Now that coat season is almost here, I want to talk about my favorite style of coat - The Military Jacket. There is something very nostalgic about Military jackets that makes me love them. The Sgt. Pepper style makes them both casual or elegant but always fabulous, which is the reason I love to wear them. If you need to go with the casual look: depending on how cold it is outside, you can wear a shirt underneath, skinny jeans and you may wear flats (I don't think I have flats, but that's what works for me) or flat boots. This same look can work with a cute skirt and leggings. Make sure your jacket is the same length or a little shorter than your skirt. If you need a more elegant look: make sure the jacket is buttoned, wear pants (dark jeans work too), high heels - they don't have to be 4 inches - and give it a nice touch with a scarf or a hat. The idea is to let the jacket be the center of attention. You won't need a lot of accessories since usually the buttons on the jacket serve this purpose.

Go check out your local store, and if you buy something, send me a picture! Would love to see how you are pairing your fabulous Jackets.  Happy Shopping! 

Stay tuned. In the next few weeks I'll be blogging about H&M's 2010 Collaboration with Lanvin!! Ohh the anticipation is so big, I may go camping in front of the store the night before!  See you next week.

It's all right here in Ocala:

Layaway?? Downtown? Super cool!

Shanon Roth Collection and Olivia & Co

Ease the burden of holiday shopping with 8 weeks to pay for your holiday purchases.  NO FEES, No interest charges!  They'll make it easy for you to make everyone on your list happy! Call 690-2121 for info.

Looking Good on Halloween isn't Tricky

Ahhhh Halloween, that one night of the year where we girls let our inner frisky-girl out (in public, that is). If you are like me, you absolutely love Halloween. I love dressing up and I love candy. The real trick here is, what to wear? We need to make sure we look like a nice treat!  

Whatever you decide, make it sexy and fun. Find the a costume you like and give it your own flavor. Get creative, have fun with it and embrace it! If you are buying your costume at a store don't forget to try it on, costumes are known for running smaller than regular clothing. See what items you have already at home to save money when shopping. After all, you'll probably only going to wear it for one night. If you can, stay away from cliché costumes everybody wears year after year like sexy nurse, nun, military brat, witch or kitten. Attitude is everything when dressing up, so make sure you feel comfortable in your costume. Whatever you decide to wear, stay away from sexy children's characters. Nothing creeps me out more than a grown woman on a sexy Elmo costume! Ugh!  

The trend this year seems to be Lady Gaga and Jersey Shore character costumes. If a meat dress costume isn't scary enough, I don't what is. Getting your hair like Snooki from Jersey Shore maybe? 

Yours truly is going to be a very sexy Queen of Hearts and my daughter will be Alice in Wonderland. If you want to get really creative try involving more people. I have a friend who once went as a Tequila shot. She had 3 other friends with her - one as a lime, one as a salt shaker, and the third as a shot glass. She was the Tequila bottle. That's being original! Not a lot of money spent and it sure was a lot of fun.     

Not really feeling like dressing up this year? Wear some Halloween themed items instead of a costume. Spider rings, skull earrings, pumpkin bracelet. There are a lot of Halloween cheap and chic items that will still give you the spirit without spending a ton of money.  

It's all right here in Ocala:

Looking for something different to do on Halloween weekend? 

Check out Ocala's First "Vampire Ball" – Benefiting the Humane Society of Marion County. 

October 29th, 2010 hosted by Jumbolair. Prizes for the best costume and a very special fashion show. 21 and up only. 

That same night, Femme Addiction Fitness Studio is going to be hosting a Halloween party 

from 7:00pm-9:00pm where you can come see and pole dancing demonstration and learn a chair dance routine. 

Talk about being a nice treat for Halloween!  

The logo that is not closing the Gap

This past week the major clothing retailer, Gap, unveiled their new logo. To the surprise of the company, it caused some major discussions - and not the positive ones I'm sure they were hoping for. In my opinion, the new logo has nothing to do with what's inside the stores.  It looks like a group of high school kids were very late for a design homework and this is what they came up with. 

I don't know about you, but I love the Gap. It is part of who I am, and part of what I grew up with. Gap has always been distinguished for their classy ad campaigns. Who doesn't get excited about Christmas when you get to see their lovely Winter clothing campaigns?  All these years Gap has been seen as a classic brand. Is the place you go shop for business casual but you can also find the "fun in the sun" clothing. It's the logo we don't mind wearing on shirts, caps and cozy sweaters. We wear it because we love the brand much more than the clothes, we wear it because we can relate.

The only thing this new logo says to me is "you are too old to shop here, get out and go to Banana Republic." When I first saw it I couldn't help to think about the Old Navy logo. Old Navy is the more casual, disposable clothing sister store of Gap and Banana Republic. Is this really what the new Gap is going to become?  

The Huffington Post published a letter from Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America. Kudos to Marka for joining the public discussion right away! She explains in there that the new logo is the first of many changes they are looking to implement during the next coming months. More modern stores and a rebranding of the clothing. If the store is changing to reflect the logo, I can't really see myself shopping there anymore. All that I love about the store is changing, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.  I've seen the campaign for the new black pants and I love it.  It still says classy, elegant, stylish. Everything Gap is. I do hope the Gap people listen to the popular opinion and while change is good and can be difficult sometimes, this logo is not really closing the gap.