Flower Power: How To Wear This Year’s Hottest Floral Accessories

By Colette Bouchez for CountryDutchess.com
It’s not just the tulips that are blooming ! As warm weather finally arrives – with summer not far behind – the blossoms of spring-summer  fashion accessories are blooming in every store, poised and ready to be the hot fashion trend of the season.
Indeed, from shoes to belts, bags to scarves, even pins and earrings are bursting with flower power, using a combination of prints and bright colors to help make our dreary East Coast winter a distant memory.
Of course one of the best ways to add the flower power look to your spring outfit is by, well, adding a flower! And nothing does it prettier and more stylishly than these leopard print silk flower pins from CountryDutchess.com ( pictured above). And, they also double as a hair clip or a ponytail holder – in six spring summer shades!
But before your run out and raid the garden, here are a few tips to wear your spring flowers with grace and style.

1. Don’t overcrowd the blooms!  While it may be chic to mix certain prints, it’s not okay to mix florals. Instead max out your look with one powerful floral accessory at a time.
2. Go with the color flow -- to maximize your floral accessory, let it play on your other pieces. For example, if your accessory floral is predominantly pink, either pair it with shades of pink clothing or use it to colorize black, white or khaki.
3. It’s okay to wear a flowery shoe with a floral dress – if the shoe is a solid color. What you want to avoid: A brightly colored floral dress and brightly colored floral shoes.
4. If you’re wearing a floral dress, skip the floral handbag. What makes a stunning duo, however, is a flowered dress or skirt with a solid color handbag adorned with a flower.
5. Turn any handbag into a spring floral by attaching one, two or even three silk flower pins to that plain white or black clutch. If your bag is leather, you can avoid pin pricks by attaching the flowers to the bag’s hardware, using double sided Velcro dots available at any craft store.

For round-the-clock fabulous time & money saving beauty and style advice visit CheapChicDiary.com - or visit us anytime at CountryDutchess.com - Your Source For Fabulous!
Copyright by Elle Media  2011.
All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this CheapChicDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license elements. The owners and contributors to this blog may or may not benefit from the products or services mentioned.- The original version of this article appeared in Examiner.com

Jewelry Lovers Rejoice: A Style Lesson You Won’t Want To Miss!

Attention all  fashionistas and jewelry lovers alike:  If the sudden surge of summer heat is melting your lash glue and causing your make-up to run, head on over to a nicely air conditioned Barnes and Noble  and check out the book   "Vintage Jewelry Design : Classics To Collect and Wear" by Caroline Cox ( Lark Crafts, April 2011) .

Written by the virtual professor of fashionista (no kidding, she really is!) this is a coffee table book to beat all coffee table books! Featuring a glorious100 year  history of jewelry  fashion and style dating from Victorian times to the present, it is a virtual whirlwind of fashion expertise you just can't find any in any magazine.

In addition to the hundreds of dazzling  full color photos (some extremely rare) the book is  also filled with the most fascinating jewelry facts you'll ever read. This includes not just design tips from some of the major jewelry creators of our time, but also  juicy (dare we say  close to scandlous) revelations about some of  New Yorks Fifth Avenue's  most fascinating jewelers - including Tiffany, Cartier,  Boucheron, even Harry Winston.

What kind of revelations you ask?  Well for starters,  did you know that the diamond engagement ring became America's classic way to say  "I Love You"  only after the diamond industry cut a deal with Warner Brothers Studios?  It's true! 

A Diamond Means Forever ...In Hollywood

According to Cox, following the Great Depression of the 1930's  many of the top selling diamond merchants realized  that the tradtiional customers for these high priced gems were in, shall we say, a bit of a financial slump? 

To help save the diamond market  the International Diamond Merchants first went to Coco Chanel and begged her to turn her formidable fashion jewerly design skills (and popularity with the masses)  from faux gemstones to real ones.  But when that idea flopped - no one could afford to buy what she made  - the diamond merchants got the idea to bring in the cavalry.  The Hollywood cavalry that is!

Indeed, major diamond dealers like DeBeers turned to Warner Brothers  and cut a deal that would feature all the major fashionistas of the time - glamour dolls like  Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo and Marlena Dietrich  to name a few - in movies and movie magazines dripping in dazzling diamond jewelry. 

But it didn't stop here!  According to Cox, the diamond gurus also persuaded screen writers to inject scenes into movies where diamonds were given as a token of romance, signifying a man's emotional as well as financial investment in love. And voila,  the rest as they say is sparkling motion picture history. 

Indeed, Cox reports that by 1941 the sale of diamonds went up by 55 percent, and by the following year,  80 percent of all American women were celebrating their engagement with a diamond solitaire, just like in the movies!

Continue reading on Examiner.com Jewelry lovers rejoice: Some style lessons you won’t want to miss - New York accessories | Examiner.com

Copyright by Elle Media  2011.
All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this CheapChicDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license elements. The owners and contributors to this blog may or may not benefit from the products or services mentioned.- The original version of this article appeared in Examiner.com

Sunglasses Go Retro-Chic This Summer

By Colette Bouchez for CountryDutchess.com
If the new Paris runway shows are any indication of what’s to come …and you know they are :) - expect to see sunglasses crossing over from a protect-your-eyes necessity to a wow-fashion-statement for summer 2011.

Indeed, sunglasses completed the look for many major designers – and retro seemed to be the theme taking center stage. Styles headed to  our way in the upcoming season  ranged from Dior’s  Lucille Ball cat eye look of the 50’s, to  a return of the Gloria Steinem aviator of the 60’s from Dries Van Noten and Paul et Joe, to Rochas updated  John Lennon wire rounds of the 70’s –  also featured by Lanvin.

Pierre Cardin  went for the Sony 3D look, with futuristic styling  that oddly enough also had a kind of Jetson’s retro look, while  Stella McCartney took us back to those giant school-girl glasses of the 80’s – updated in bright solid colors – while Sonia Rykeil went Beach Blanket Bingo with large, round glasses with cookie cutter edges.

The one great thing about having all these different styles is that they are indeed different from one another. And that means  finding the style to suit your face shape will be easier than ever this season.

Here are a few tips when shopping for your fashion sun glass look this spring:

1. Round faces look best in squared glasses, while long faces look best in round glasses. Oval faces can wear any frame shape, while square and heart faces need the softer lines of aviator or round glasses.
2. Choosing a frame that’s too small for your head makes your face look larger and heavier – so when choosing a frame bigger really is better. Rule of thumb: The tip of the frame on either side should extend out from your head just a bit. If you can see the sides of your face peeking out from the edges of the glasses, the frame is too small.
3. Making sure the lenses are approved to filter out both UVA and UVB is a given. But also make sure that the lenses provide full coverage of your eyes and the area just underneath. That’s key to reducing your risk of wrinkles!
4. And finally, if you can only afford to buy one pair of sunglasses this season; pick a neutral color frame – like tortoise, black, or white – so they go with every outfit.  If you can afford two pair, get the second one in a flashy fashion color which this season will include pink, yellow, red and green.

Where To Buy: While we can’t say for sure yet which New York stores will feature which new designs, in general you can find Dior glasses at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, Dries Van Noten and Paul & Joe  at Barney’s New York, while you can nab a nifty pair of Stella McCartney sunglasses at Sunglass Hut, with shops located throughout Manhattan.

Colette Bouchez is the style director of CountryDutchess.com

Copyright by Elle Media  2011.
All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this CheapChicDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. All Formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license elements. The owners and contributors to this blog may or may not benefit from the products or services mentioned. - The original version of this article appeared in Examiner.com