Faketastic Interview, Back on the List, Shop Till you Bop

Fun stuff today!

First off, the Blue Bloods series is back on the New York Times Best-seller List this week at numero otcho!!! That’s number eight in gringo.  (It will be printed on Sunday but the pub houses find out Wednesday night and you get an email from your editor telling you). Happy happy dance! And it’s also back on the USA Today Top 150 List as well! Oh-yeah-Oh-yeah-It’s-my-birthday-Oh-yeah… (Do you remember that? Whenever something happened that was good you’d sing It’s-ma-birthday-it’s-ma-birthday…blame Fitty! Or was that just me and my gay gang?)

I did an interview with the hilarious and awesome Alexa Young, author of the Frenemies series to celebrate the release of her new book FAKETASTIC. If you like The Ashleys, you’ll love Frenemies and Faketastic!!

And for those of you who ask for writing tips and aren’t content with the writing tips on this blog, I’ll point you to Ally Carter’s great blog post about how the publishing business if not for wusses and also her best advice for aspiring writers.

I’m so glad Ally is writing about writing because now I don’t have to. 😉 Because you know, what I really like to write about on my blog is shopping.

Remember shopping?? I’m sure YOU do. Because even in down economies, people like to make sure their kids have books and clothes. Yay, teens! Yay, parents!

Apparently we are all supposed to go shopping in our closet these days. Which is kind of fun when you think about it! And makes you really smug: Oh THIS old thing? It actually IS an old thing I pulled out of my closet! Last night I put on my vintage-looking black Libertine for Target dress that I’d never worn (I bought it a year ago for $39 but I like to let the fashion cycle pass, especially for the Go-from-Target line before wearing them. Because otherwise you end up seeing WAY too many people in the same clothes. Like this striped Proenza-for-Target coat I bought, I wore it when it first came out and I could not go anywhere in New York without seeing some other chick in my coat. So now I wait a year or two before wearing them.) Anyway, I wore my Libertine Target dress belted with my Hermes belt, my peep-toe heel Marni knee high boots, and my Balenciaga wool and suede jacket with the big military buttons that I bought a year ago for my January book tour, my multi-colored sheer Missoni scarft, and to complete the outfit: my YSL black oversize Muse bag.

I looked in the mirror and I was like, I LOOK FANTASTIC!! I had had my haircut that day at Warren Tricomi (Edward cut my hair for years in New York) and I looked like my old self. The one who used to go to Fashion Week and get photographed by Bill Cunningham.

So where was I going looking so fly?? You’ll laugh. Okay. We went to dinner. (But not anywhere where people are seen, you know, it was more like “the place around the corner” in Sex and the City lingo. As Carrie says: I’m NOT a neighborhood restaurant girl. I’m not either, but we didn’t feel like hiking all the way to Bev Hills for once.) And then we went to the movies. And I was sooooo uncomfortable in my outfit. I was sitting in the theater and slowly and surreptitiously began to take off the layers: first went the jacket and scarf. Then the belt. Then the boots. Unfortch, I could not take off what was really killing me: the Spanx. Nope. Those, of course, had to stay on.

Let’s just say I couldn’t wait for Revolutionary Road to end! And you know what, if I wanted to be entertained by fighting I could just stay home and fight with Mike. 😉 Kidding! (Sort of.)

But as for real shopping-shopping I have been taking advantage of all the sales (and also not. Also just buying spring clothes full-price. O’well. I can’t help it.) I bought my Oscar de la Renta dress. It is beyond. I mean: WOW. It is so well-crafted and SO flattering. Now I understand. His clothes make you look gorgeous! I have no waist. I’m a straight up-and-down girl. No hips. But no waist either. But in the de la Renta, I had this tiny nipped-in-waist. It was body-conscious without being at all unsightly. No bulges. No weird bumps. Just precision engineering. Amazing. I’m a convert. And seventy percent off!!! Mine is the brown tafetta one with gold flowers. I think I’ll wear it to my brother’s wedding in May.

I also bought two new Diane Von Furstenberg dresses for Spring. DVF is the pretty girl’s secret. My friend Minty who always looks perfect swears by them. The dresses are SO flattering and well-made. Designer genius all the way and they cost $300 on average. I never used to wear DVF. I always thought it was too I don’t know, feminine for me. I used to work at an edgy fashion site, I wore Daughters of the Whatever (I can’t remember the label’s pretentious name but it was something like that) and Bernhard Wilhem (Bjork’s favorite designer) and As Four (they are now Three As Four). I liked things that were…UGLY now in retrospect. I liked them more for the shock value and the fashion snobbery than actually looking good. I think I was able to pull off these clothes because 1) I was much younger and 2) I was much thinner. (See my earlier post about how young skinny people can look good in anything.)

But now I don’t want to look like a fashion freak. I want to look….nice. And in DVF you actually don’t just look nice, you do look a bit fashion-forward too, and most importantly, you look like yourself, only better. Not so fat. Not so washed-out. (And you know what I mean by not so fat. Even skinny girls feel fat. But please, don’t get all ana on me. Rexy ain’t sexy.)

What else have I bought: A new Zac Posen dress from the Spring line (another sexy skin-hugging dress. I think maybe all this sexy dress shopping is in response to all those blobby dresses I bought two years ago.) Green knit with flamenco neckline. Mike liked it and he almost never comments on my clothes. Stella MCartney sweater. This was outrageously expensive. It’s one of those drapey wrap-y sweaters but short-sleeve and you can wear it two ways (which halves the price, right?). Mine is in ivory, not navy. I wear it almost every day. So a good investment I think. I hope. And lots of Chloe. Chloe boots and pumps both at seventy off, you know the patent-and-suede pointy ones? This one in purple and the pumps are electric blue. A new Chloe sweater from the new collection. Also hideously pricey but again, I wear it all the time so worth it. Then went outlet shopping over the holidays and hit the Jimmy Choo outlet and snagged one of those evening bags that used to be $1500 for $400. Gold metallic leather with the signature buckle. And croc-embossed knee-high boots. And a sequin short mod shift dress from Banana Republic that was $50 from $200. Cap-sleeves and so cute and a lot of fashion for a little price as fashion editors like to say.

And did you guys get the Thakoon at Target line? I love this shirtdress. SO great on and at $39. But if you’re like me be smart and wear it in two years when no one remembers it!

xoxo
Mel