Let me tell you a story: I’ve never hidden my enormous love for Alexa Chung and my consideration of her as one of my modern style icons. When she first signed a collection for Madewell (a collection that I LOVE!) I wasn’t blogging yet, but I remember writing to Madewell’s site to complain (or I’d say to cry!) about the fact that they didn’t ship to Europe, which was apparently a big problem for fashionistas all over the old continent! I understand their policies so I decided to move on and try to avoid seeing the same pieces on Ebay being sold for three times the original price! Last September when Alexa’s second collection for Madewell launched, I was a one-month old blogger, I shared the new pieces here and we discussed and compared them with the first collection! I also told you that our American correspondent KNAGUI has been sent on a mission to find my favorite piece from the collection: the gold lace blouse. This is what happened: the new collection had to be launched on the 21st of September and that same day KNAGUI had to fly to Italy for concerts and clinics but, he found the sweetest ladies at the Madewell’s Highland Park Mall shop in Dallas (Alicia and Liz, the store manager) who treated the order as an online order and shipped it to him. When KNAGUI got back home, he found the lovely package and sent it straight to me in Italy! It took some work and time, but when I received the lace blouse I was absolutely happy with it and thanked Alicia, Liz and of course KNAGUI for their kindness and diligence! As you can imagine, I’m now wearing it and have actually found that this is one of the most versatile pieces of my wardrobe: you can wear it dressed up or down, night or day, so I decided to share here three looks that I’m going to call: “The ’70s inspired”, “The Festival” and “The Ladylike” just to give you an idea of how many different looks you can create with it!
“The ’70s inspired” is definitely my favorite: I paired the blouse with a vintage high-waisted denim short, Jeffrey Campbell’s Foxy wedge-platforms, dark tights and grey socks! I also added some vintage amber rings, original ’70s jewellery!
I wore “The Festival” outfit for a party and the pictures all come from that night! (PS: Don’t be offended if I used a bottle of Southern Comfort and always drink responsibly, as I do). I’m using the lace blouse again with shorts, but this time they’re vintage velvet black shorts and a khaki parka from H&M. I added platform shoes from Zara (yes, very similar to the famous ones by Marni!) and a vintage long necklace.
“The Ladylike” outfit is probably the look where I didn’t wear vintage- but I tried to create a soft vintage effect! I paired the gold lace blouse here with a simple black Zara pencil skirt, and brown laced booties from Dolce & Gabbana (a real bargain, 50 euros in a shop that was clearing out!). I added my retro inspired Givenchy frames, gold Topshop earrings and Chanel red lips!
