Whenever I get email updates from Pixie Market, I dutifully click to see their new arrivals, and inevitably I am horrified. It’s not the items they sell, but how they are put together. Why would anyone want any of the garments in the pictures above?
Let’s say I wanted a floppy white sweater. After seeing it as part of this horrible ensemble, ugh, forget it! Why the dead animal boots and the stupid hat?
Look at this Pixie Market girl. I can’t remember which item is supposed to be on display…the jacket, maybe?…but the horrible styling just repels me. Is the stylist blind or is she having a little private laugh?
More and more, I’m aware that it’s the styling I respond to, not the product. The styling is everything; it promotes a fantasy you want to buy into, if it succeeds. If it fails, as in Pixie Market, there’s almost no way you’ll spend your money.
Here’s some trousers I’ve been ogling for weeks. Don’t worry, I’m broke. But I’m drawn to the trousers because of the elegant no-nonsense styling. This girl says to me, “If you buy these trousers, you’ll be a young Lauren Bacall, so carefree that your shirt cuffs won’t even match! You’ll be sloppy but pulled together! You’ll get to wear your men’s shoes but still exude confident femininity!”
This brand, Hope, really knows what they’re doing. Whereas the Pixie Market people, I’m not getting their message unless it’s “Buy this stuff if you wanna look not only unsophisticated but also blind and crazy!”
Those Hope trousers are SUPER DUPER nice. What is it with your blog calling attention to things I friggin’ love. I think I may start putting away $20 a week for them.
Did I tell you about the time I yelled at a friend’s teenager for wearing men’s shoes? She was complaining that a dress didn’t look cute enough on her and I was like, “That’s because you have to change your fucking shoes!” I think I’m going to start hiring myself out for things like that. If you want to yell at your child for dressing crappily but don’t have the nerve, I’ll do it for you for a small fee. If you want me to call her a whore, that will cost extra.
I’m told the teenager still refers to me as “the lady who yelled at me.”
Aja – But maybe if we got some baggy men’s trousers from a thrift shop, we could style ourselves into looking just as super duper??
WendyB – My own teenager refers to me that way.
Soooooooooo you don’t like the wookie boots…?
And I’d hire WendyB to yell at children for all sorts of reasons. I think she’d be ok with it.
Pixie Market need me, I need money, I’m a stylist I’ll put togehter their shit for them – mind you individual analysis of garments doesn’t hold out much hope! Now Hope that is one look I need right now….
Remove the racoons/whatever other animal’s fur that was from pic#1 and 2. and they’d look a lot better. I actually like Pixie Market’s stuff, mostly, but those first two are just a joke.
And I like men’s shoes, a lot actually. Anything that has heft enough to make it hurt when I kick in a pervert’s shins while not making me topple over, is good by me.
“But maybe if we got some baggy men’s trousers from a thrift shop, we could style ourselves into looking just as super duper??”
No doubt.
‘Sis’, I need some help here, please.
Apparently the First (the only?) Lady who let it be known during the campaign that she only ever wore cheapo clothes bought from some shop called ‘J.Crew’ (never heard of it) has just ordered herself, not one, but two pairs of hand-made, thigh-length boots (hope they’re good and wide at the top) from some ‘surrender monkey’ called Robert Clergerie. Apparantly the $540 Lanvin tennis shoes she bought earlier this year, after the polls had closed, have worn out.
So what I need to know is what you and the ‘Sisterhood’ think of these boots which you can inspect here:
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/j-crew-booted-michelle-obama-orders-custom-thigh-high-leather-boots-from-expensive-french-designer
My favorite styling is La Garconne. Always monochrome ensembles, and even though the models look moody and anemic, everything looks expensive and luxurious. Which I think is key– if you’re going to spend real money, you want the thing your buying to feel like treasure. EVERYTHING (almost) that they show on Pixie Market looks cheap.
David Duff-the boots are wonderful, but they sure demand a perfect pair of legs. I love when your First Lady annoys the prude! Tax money well spent!
SW- Hope never looked better, but you are right about the thrift shop version, I’m wearing man’s baggy trousers right now. All you have to do is take them in a bit in the back and hop(e) you go!
David Duff: while I sometimes enjoy your conservative comments as an amusing counterpoint to the other opinions expressed on this blog, I have to say that if you have never heard of J. Crew, you have no business commenting about clothes, fashion, or the First Lady.
I don’t believe Michelle Obama ever declared herself dedicated to “cheapo” clothes like Sarah Palin did, so I see no hypocrisy in a successful woman spending her money however she pleases. Michelle Obama wore expensive, exclusive designers like Isabel Toledo, mixed with stuff from J. Crew and Gap from the very beginning of the presidential campaign. Every first lady from Jackie (Oleg Cassini) to Nancy Reagan (Adolfo) to Laura Bush (Oscar de la Renta) has worn costly designer clothes in the White House. It’s not at all comparable to Palin’s use of RNC money to furnish a $150,000 wardrobe from Neiman Marcus during the campaign, while constantly claiming to be a regular-folks-woman of the people who shopped at Alaskan thrift stores.
Is it just me or does it seem a little bit inappropriate for the first lady to wear thigh high boots?
‘IHF’, I wasn’t “commenting about clothes”, I was merely relaying what those impertinent rascals at ‘I Hate The Media’ reported, and seeking guidance as to whether the ‘Sisterhood’ approved of these boots (which do not appear to be made for walking) or not.
And don’t have a go at me for not knowing ‘J. Crew’, you’ve never heard of ‘Wayne Pullen, Butcher’, but I can tell you he’s very famous where I come from!
Jill, you raise a very pertinent and rather exciting point – hmnn . . .
Hey Sister Wolf, think I might have found some even more deeply sad – oops, deeply tanned styling: http://www.paleisthenewtan.com/ Surely deserving of a juicy post or three? Especially this post!
Sweet Christ on a cracker, that second outfit is horrid.
There was a sort of theme going with the itchy, smelly-looking 80’s sweater and scratchy 70’s kitchen window curtain. But then they just had to throw in the Davy Crockett hat. The model’s pose and expression are perfect – she looks like she’s just escaped from a mental institution and is listening for the pursuing hospital aides.
I think this is definitely an outfit our dear poofy-lipped Kemp Muhl would wear.
Total eye-rape site, wow!
They suck at collage and photoshop as well:
http://www.pixiemarket.com/store/page.html?id=10
And what’s with the perpetual zoom-out? It’s like on A League of Their Own when frumpy outfielder Marla Hooch is forced to have her picture taken from eighty paces just to make her look potentially less frightening among the lipsticked Madonnas and Geena Davises. At least the photog is trying to mitigate the styling eyesores with the panorama option. Way to channel kid sister catcher and future Tank Girl Kitt, trouser girl. Very Patti.
meh! to both. xx
(yes thrift store the baggy men pants and I am certain you have a tan leather belt hoarded somewhere hmmm?)
maybe because with model’s style and vibe and insouciance, the way her makeup and hair is done – she looks exactly like a young carine roitfeld?
HOPE looks great. Thanks for that suggestion!
I think the FIrst Lady can wear whatever she wants. The Queen of England has been wearing awful hats for years. It’s her prerogative. Besides, I doubt those boots ever make it out of the boudoir, which makes them none of our business.
You know, styling is key. I completely agree that the styling for pixie market is pretty bad. The best way to sell clothes is to cut off the head of the models, and style simply. It’s honestly the best way to sell!!
You know Sister Wolf, I’ve got down the men’s trouser road several times from thrift store and I just can’t seem to find the perfect pair which compliment my shape and don’t make me look like Laurel and Hardy. I am at that point where shelling out for a pair which look nice doesn’t seem so far fetched.
Does nobody here recognize the bad Pixie styling as an attempt to appeal to young hipster girls? The kind that wear fake moustaches and date boys with mountain man beards (a la Zack Galifianakis or Iron & Wine)? I went to a concert the other night that primarily drew a young hipster audience, and that is exactly what most of the girls looked like. Well, minus the fur — but only because this is New Orleans and it rarely gets cold enough for that.
Ugly and retardedly mismatched is hipstery! Get with it people!
Meanwhile, I like the manpants too.
I’m a sucker for good styling; it will get me to try and buy items I never would have looked at twice hanging on a rack.
David, you should read the articles to which you link. She ordered “one pair of flat black boots and another pair of calf-length boots in beige buckskin”. I Hate The Media Dot Com just seems to have plucked the most provocative sample picture off the Robert Clergerie website to incite reflexive right-wing indignation.
Successfully, looks like…
Who says I was indignant? Actually, I was rather excited, trembling even, and I can’t wait to see the First Lady wearing them for suitable photo-op occasions, you know, like doling out meals at a soup-kitchen, or planting a cute little tree in the White House garden as a carbon off-set. And at least some poor cow died for her to have those boots, so that’s one more methane farting critter gone. It all goes to show that the new black is green!
I went to read that little blurb Duffster. I have to say, I don’t understand why it’s anyone’s business if it’s purchased with her own money. And then, the way they’re all going on about how she “used” to shop at J. Crew. Newsflash uninformed haters, Ms. O. STILL buys a lot of things from J. Crew. Why do you think Jenna Lyons (the creative director of J. Crew) got a million dollar bonus?
Aja, you mean if you can induce “Mrs. O” to buy something you earn a million? I must tell Wayne the Butcher in my village, of whom, and I know you will find this hard to believe, one of the utterly ignorant commenters here had never heard!
Anyway, still not one of you ‘fashionistas’ has told me whether I am supposed to like those boots or not. I mean, If Mrs. palin had bought them I have just a teensy-weensy feeling that opinions would come thick and fast, arguably mostly thick!
You know Duff, I don’t care what Ms. Palin does as long as she’s not my VP. Actually I would smile if she bought ’em. She could stand to loosen up a little.
PS – No I don’t like those boots. They might grow on me but they haven’t yet!
Thank you, Aja, I am obliged, as m’ learned friends put it ‘over here’.
And please don’t worry, Mrs Palin is never going to be your VP, er, but she might well be your P.
Oh, and the name’s ‘David’ – I thought all you Americans were supposed to be friendly!
Nope, not MY president, Duffster. After she’s finished being mocked by this book she’ll be lucky if she ever sits in any power welding position again.
The ones she got are flat, and suede, Duff. (I’m Canadian. We’re supposed to be polite.) According to another blog, they are these: http://www.shopbop.com/fissaw-over-knee-boots-stretch/vp/v=1/845524441849447.htm?folderID=2534374302153372&extid=affprg-2882490-RCSHO2004112867
which as far as I can tell, are terribly fashionable, not particularly reminiscent of dominatrices, and will look snazzy with trousers or skirts, including ones from J.Crew, as long as she doesn’t wear them in the rain. Also, get over it, $850 every now and then is a little pricey, but not that out of line for a high-level professional couple’s budget, which, even without being “First Couple”, the Obamas are. I personally have no idea what you’re trying to start here in a perfectly innocent post about heinous hipster styling and nice Nordic trousers.
Actually the cost of the boots are no different to those on sale in Russell and Bromley or L.K. Bennett – both established UK high street brands. The cost of goods have been creeping up and up and women’s fashion is probably the most pricey it has ever been within a mass market global economy.
It actually doesn’t matter whether one person interested in the aesthetic look of the boots approves or disapproves, this is not pertinent to fashion. Different looks, trends and so much choice allows people to select what they like much the same as at the butchers. Currently there is a specific trend for offal, and belly pork was all the rage 18 months ago. Kenny Eve Ewell Village (butcher) is stocking up on goose, turkey and all manner of Christmas favourites in much the same way party frocks are gracing the fashion retailers.
I’ve always been partial to venison and wild boar but the latter I think of as my Chanel 2.55 – something to save up for and savour. Meanwhile J Crew is a nice comfort sausages ( with mash and savoy cabbage of course). Therefore the Robert Clergerie boots are potentially the sartorial equivalent of Mark Hix’s veal chop with borlotti beans and offal – something you’ll either savour or spit out.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/veal-chop-with-borlotti-beans-and-offal-955341.html
I tend to have complete tunnel vision when it comes to clothing and no bad ho-ey, tacky, godawful styling is going to stop me from buying something if I’m lusting after it….