A woman we admire for her incredible talents in the fashion industry (her boutique, Yasmin Cho was voted one of the top five most influential three times over, was the buying director at Browns and is the creative consultant for Liberty), her fantastic personal style (love her understated-and-yet-always-makes-a-statement style) and of course, her gorgeous hair….hair that I just dream about.

images via Tumbler, Style and the city, Getty, The Sartorialist, Garance Dore

We have been obsessed with those slouchy ankle socks from Prada since we first started seeing them in ‘08. We cannot for the life of us find what collection they are from and are starting to think that maybe they weren’t Prada after all. The only thing we’re sure of is that we saw them. Somewhere.

It never occurred to us to actually invest in them. I guess we both thought, they’re just socks. We can get socks anywhere. Well, little did we know what a task we had tasked ourselves with! For the past year and a half or so, we have been searching high and low for the perfect slouchy ankle socks. We’ve been to Target, to American Apparel, to Bloomingdales, H&M, Urban Outfitters… We’ve bought countless pairs of socks and tried to DIY our own Prada slouchy sock, but to no avail.

Then, we were at Bloomies looking for tights for an upcoming shoot and came across these little guys from Betsey Johnson…

We definitely were not looking for pink glitter Betsey Johnson socks, but they were seriously calling out to me. So we got them. And they’re perfect…

Mason anorak, Gar-de Penn henley, Opening Ceremony high-waisted skirt, Betsey Johnson socks, 1st season Louis Vuitton pumps

Since starting on this post, I’ve done a lot of research in my quest to find that elusive little slouchy ankle sock and my search has unearthed some of the internet’s most stylish ladies rockin’ all kinds of socks. So, thought I’d collect a few of them and give you a tribute to the Sock.

Susie Bubble with her collage from Prada’s SS07 collection along with some shots of her DIY version

The Aldridge ladies, Judy and Jane, sporting a variety of sock/shoe combos…

Alix, the cherry blossom girl…

Emily of Cupcakes and Cashmere…

and our new friend, Erin, doing a delightful job of mixing her colors…

Long live the sock!!

images via Style Bubble, Atlantis Home, Sea of Shoes, The Cherry Blossom Girl, and Cupcakes and Cashmere.

So, as you can probably tell, Arlene and I have been less than inspired lately, so we’d like to give a giant shout-out to Ms. Carine Roitfeld for bringing us out of our funk. In addition to writing 2 blogs, Arlene and I run an online boutique. There are just 2 of us — we write everything, buy everything, ship everything, style everything, conceive everything… you get the picture. Well, the jobs that we’ve created for ourselves — which we love — require that we be creative and inspired pretty much all the time. A scary proposition.

Anyway, today something finally caught my attention. The 2009 French Vogue calendar, shot by Terry Richardson and styled by Carine Roitfeld. Ms. Roitfeld gets a lot of props for her confident personal style, but we don’t hear that much about her as an editor and stylist. Well, to browse through these shots, her talent is clear. 

And from what I’ve gleaned from the things I’ve read about her, this is 100% her. It’s perfect down to the finest details — a kitty in the crotch???? With a jaunty little straw boater?? I mean, come on. 

Anyway, thank you Carine. Thank you for your inspired personal style, for your amazing creativity and talent, and for always managing to bring inspiration to both Arlene and me when we need it the most.

images from Fashionologie.

We do love our fashion editors — Giovanna Battaglia, Carine Roitfeld, et al.  These ladies all have such incredible style and we thank the likes of Scott Schuman and Tommy Ton for bringing their style to our attention. One of the editors that has always been high on my radar is Elle’s Kate Lanphear. Kate’s style is 100% rocker, but somehow she manages to do it in an approachable way. As with Giovanna and Carine, her style seems effortless and totally and completely her. I just love that she always manages to rock black and grey, leather, studs, zippers and chains without looking harsh.

In that last shot, Kate is wearing the Chia jacket from a new favorite of ours, Gar-de. It comes as no surprise to us that she’s a fan — the lady does have great taste! And after our spring buying trip to NYC, we can assure you all — and Kate, too — that Gar-de is just getting better and better as they go along. Their collection for Spring 10 really took our breath away — leathers, jerseys and silks all with their eye for unique details and top-of-the-line craftsmanship. 

Can’t wait to work that perfect motorcycle jacket into my wardrobe. Spring cannot come soon enough!

top 2 Kate Lanphear images borrowed from Jak & Jil; all other images courtesy of Gar-de.

We recently launched a new addition to the site where we alternately feature a guest stylist giving us their take on an item from our shop. Our latest contributor is the lovely Stefanie from Extra Skinny. The thing we really adore and admire about Stefanie is the way that she works her wardrobe. She really buys what she loves and wears what she loves. And when we say she wears what she loves, we mean she really wears that stuff!  Stefanie always finds numerous ways to wear all the pieces in her wardrobe. She. Is. Awesome. Here’s a sneak peek…

To see all of Stefanie’s takes on this cozy long cardi from Mason, click here.

We say it all the time, but we love the blogosphere. To have the opportunity to meet like-minded people from all over the country — and all over the world – is just so amazing. It’s so interesting to learn what people are doing in places other than the neighborhood in which we live (and in all honestly, it’s pretty damn boring where we are, from a fashion perspective, at least). So, we recently started reaching out to some of our stylish friends from the blogosphere to get their take on some of the pieces we carry. Our latest is from the lovely and smart Tramanh Phi of Phi-Style. We gave her the option of choosing anything from the shop to style and she chose this hot little number from Loeffler Randall. We just love the way she styled it and the way she so easily proves that even a strapless cocktail dress can be versatile.

It’s no secret to those who know me well that I’m a big, big fan of Queen Michelle from Kingdom of Style (not to overlook the fabulous Queen Marie, of whom I am also a very big fan). Queen Michelle is a crazy risk-taker. As she puts it, “ I like the challenge of pushing a piece of clothing to its limits, particularly for someone my age.” And pushing limits she does indeed.

One of today’s posts (It takes a lot of visits to keep up with those crazy blogging Queens!) was all about her new kitty mask. That’s right, you heard me — kitty mask. She talks about her love of playing dress-up and all it takes is one look at these images to know she’s having the time of her life. Thank you, Queen Michelle, for starting my week with a smile. 

To see Queen Michelle’s post in its entirety, click here.

We recently decided to add a new section to our website where we have a fabulous friend from the blogosphere style something from our shop. We are thrilled to unveil this little project with our first guest stylist, Sarah of Public Personae! We just adore Sarah. We discovered her a number of months ago when she was in the midst of her 30-day challenge. We were so impressed not only by her fantastic sense of style, but also by her sheer courage. She is a force to be reckoned with. She consistently brings new things - designers, trends, bloggers, artists, stores, and even cat photographers - to our attention. We love her smart, unique, yet practical take on fashion and are always interested to see what she’s into next. 

Here’s Sarah…

And here’s the item she styled for us…

One of Sarah’s takes…

See the rest of Sarah’s styles here. And don’t forget to check out her blog, Public Personae. She’s always up to something good! Thanks, Sarah!

The last style post of myself was so funny….from the comments, the image of midwest fashion seems rather dim (which, I guess, is probably 95% true)  So I’m here to try to save the day!  Again, don’t get too excited…I’m the basic one, remember??  I’m also hoping to share some Chicago streetstyle with y’all sometime SOON to show you there’s more to the midwest than corn and cheese!  One of my everyday’s from sometime last week….clearly this was donned purely for comfort!

my favorite clod hoppers by Chloe

               Loving it loose - Burberry blazer & hubby’s tee.  Jeans by Ever

On Monday, Arlene and I shot our July cover story 22 stories up on the outdoor patio at the Chicago Tribune building. It was all about menswear and it got me feeling kinda boyish. We borrowed a couple of newsboy caps from Hazel and ended up buying them both — a Goorin for me; a deLux for Arlene. I do love a hat! What better way to deal with a bad hair day??? Anyway, nothing glam, but this is my everyday, midwestern take on menswear. And my dog, Kuma. Isn’t he cute?

hat: Goorin; blouse: Phillip Lim; pants: ???; cuff: Barbara Bui; shoes: Gwendolyn Carrie; dog: Kuma