What’s Your 2008 Style Manifesto?
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Thinking about the coming year forces you to reevaluate your priorities and set some personal goals. At the very least, it forces you to turn off the TV or step away from your BlackBerry and examine life as only you know it. Here is my Style Manifesto for 2008. I encourage you to comment below and even come up with your own personal Magna Carta.
10. Stop wearing tight jeans that leave an indented ring around my waist that looks deceptively like pie crust and makes me hungry for dessert.
9. Get my style inspiration from art, film and life rather than fashion magazines. Right about now, I am influenced by the promise of spring and my New Year’s resolution to buy fresh flowers every week. When I saw this dress by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein (pre-fall 2008), it reminded me of an inverted rose and the fact that the tulips in my kitchen are drier than toast. I’m off to buy roses, not the dress.
8. Stop looking down at my knees. They are misshapen and ugly. They are knees, for Christ’s sake! Let them bend in peace.
7. Memorize some damn poetry. If my brain can still retain the lyrics to every REM song from a decade ago, surely I can commit some Dylan Thomas -- like this excerpt from ‘Poem in October’-- to memory:
‘My birthday began with the water -
Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name
Above the farms and the white horses
And I rose
In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.’
5. Never let my age override my instincts. I wore my hair in low-slung ponytails on January 1st to remind myself that being 40 doesn’t mean that I must adhere to some kooky age-appropriate coda. I also had a mild-grade hangover and it was damn easy!
4. Screw trends. Do I really need a fringed vest because it’s all about ‘movement’ this spring? Hell, no. Rather, I will ‘buy smart’ -- which means investing in classic pieces like a black pencil skirt, crisp white blouse and camel riding boots that will serve me until I am dead.
3. Invest in monogrammed stationery that will spur me to send more notes to the people I adore and treasure. Not just ‘thank you’ notes either. I would like to be someone who corresponds for the pure joy of it. This vintage Schiaparelli stationery makes me want to buy stamps.
2. Organize a closet swap. My friends and I bemoan our ill-advised purchases of expensive shoes and purses that collect dust on our shelves. And who doesn’t have a few pairs of pants or blouses that refuse to cooperate and button? My goal is to get my pals together for a fancy flea market. We’ll each set up a ‘stall’ of our goods and swap or haggle. There will be wine.
1. Be more spontaneous. Living in Los Angeles can thwart whimsy, which is the best path to an epiphany. I plan to be more spontaneous about travel, my personal style, and even brunch plans. Put on a hat, book a flight, and wake up in Mexico. That’s my personal mantra for 2008. Put on a hat, book a flight, and wake up in Mexico.
Oh, and spend more time in bed, of course, when I’m not in Mexico.
And you?