There is no joy in Buxomville--

--Betsey Johnson has gone out of business.

OK, maybe not the line, but the stores are all closing. Everything's on sale, which would ordinarily be wonderful, but damn it, I'm going to miss those stores.

I've loved Betsey Johnson since the mid-1970s when she was designing for Alley Cat. Seventeen magazine ran these great little black and white ads that Betsey drew, and I loved them so much I carefully cut them out of the magazine and saved them.

Apparently, I'm not the only person who did that. (Courtesy of The Paper Collector)

Cutting out the ads was the closest I was ever going to get to owning anything by Betsey Johnson. My mother was a New England tightwad whos was completely uninterested in fashion. She would never have spent that kind of money on me. I was her third daughter, and she's ruthlessly practical. Given the circumstances, frankly, I'm surprised my middle name isn't Hand Me Down.

(I'm sure this is why I rebelled and became the frivolous creature you know today.)

Call me an over-compensating Baby Boomer. Say it's the female equivalent of a red Ferrari convertible. But I've had such fun taking my daughter shopping in Betsey Johnson stores.

She's interested in Japanese street fashion and Vocaloid music, and I'm obsessed with Chanel and Hermes. But we found middle ground in Betsey Johnson's designs. To be in a hot pink Betsey Johnson store packed to the rafters with short, pink tulle skirts, leopard print, and rhinestone-studded skulls was for us, very heaven. We would ooh and ah over the girly, punky craziness of it all. 

This is true even though there is nothing like a Betsy Johnson store to make me conscious of the passage of time. The vintage-inspired dresses are exactly the sort of thing I would have loved to have worn at one time ... but now, they would just make me look ... vintage. I am womanly, and they are girly, which means they are officially Too Young For Me.

Luckily, they are perfect for my daughter. And I suppose that's part of the pleasure of buying them for her. Even as I try to find more ways to flatter my aging body, I rejoice in her ability to look fabulous in everything she tries on. Here she is, head to toe Betsy, for a dance she went to last February.

Betsey Johnson dress, shoes, cape, and bracelet.

(Just so you know, the tragic look wasn't unhappiness; she was disguising her braces.)

And yes, Betsey's prices are insane, particularly when you're young enough to still grow out of your clothes. But for fresh designs with a vintage point of view, amazing attention to detail, and tiny dressmaker details, there is nothing marketed to young women that can touch Betsey Johnson.

So the following came home with Miss Buxom and me:

For those times when you really need to get down to the Petite Trianon and milk the cows.

When it's time for Rosie the Riveter to go out dancing.

To audition for the role of Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street

We also brought home some jewelry. A set of stacking rings:

 

A two-finger ring:

 A nautical statement necklace:

Which would be perfect with this very Katy Perry bathing suit.

Betty Grable?

... eat your heart out.

After six months, an update

What have I been up to, you wonder. I mean, Blogger has a brand new (to me) interface--surely something has changed chez Buxom.

Well, not to sound like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof ("I have FIVE DAUGHTERS!") but we have two teenagers--so mostly I've been hunkered down in our foxhole, waiting for properly uniformed officials to sound the All Clear.

While there, I noticed that I had gotten kind of fat. While I wasn't paying attention, my weight had crept up to 192 pounds of pure buxom--again. I'm sure you'll agree that once you've come--at 5'6" and change--to within striking distance of the big 2-0-0, it's time to do something. So I'm back on Weight Watchers. And I noticed that while sitting on my sofa streaming episodes of The Biggest Loser is inspiring, it doesn't burn many calories. So I've started going to the gym. Also? What I'm eating is so unbelievably healthy, it would bring a tear to the eye of the editor of Prevention magazine. It's salmon and whole grains and protein smoothies and hardly a refined carbohydrate around here.

I'm down 11 pounds.

I haven't been buying a lot of clothes, but I did pop for a new evening gown.

Tadashi Shoji cap-sleeve twisted gown

Nylon/Spandex 

Neiman Marcus, on sale for $235

And I've gone a little crazy for Chanel cosmetics, particularly nailpolishes. Here I am modelling Quartz

which looks a lot better when Temptalia is photographing/wearing it.

All I know is that it will look AWESOME with my new flap, a Mother's Day present from Mr. Buxom.

Hope springs eternal, or, on-line shopping

Oof, I just went to the post office with a huge box of stuff to send back ... the long black dress that everyone admired as well as a couple of other lovely things. Everything was wonderful, but nothing fit.

There's only one word that comes to mind if you shop on line and when it comes time to try them on, only Eileen Fisher's clothes (famously easy and body-skimming) actually fit.

That word is diet.

So I swore off on-line shopping. But then I followed a link in a blog and discovered these boots

Apepazzo Strasburgo booties in black from Goldyn

which were on sale. And when I went to order, I discover a coupon code for an additional 30 percent off.

So $189 boots for $92.61, free shipping and no tax? Sold!

I just hope my feet haven't gained weight.

Confessions of a Product Whore, or, these Boots are made for shopping

My love for the combination of my Clarisonic Mia and Cetaphil cleanser continues. It's keeping my skin clean, clear, and soft.  My other skin products are making me happy, too.

But no matter how happy I am with my current regimen, I can't resist the lure of new beauty products. This is particularly true when I travel and see stuff I can't find in the States. Which explains the £200 I spent at Boots when I was in England last August.

That's the equivalent of $350. What can I say? Product junkies are like sharks. We must keep moving forward or we die.

So anyway, here's some of the additions I made to my batterie de toilette. Heh. To start off, I got a pot of German Nivea.


I have no idea why German Nivea is supposed to be so much better than the Nivea you get in America, which is made in Mexico. But it has become kind of cult-y. Bloggers and reviewers on Makeup Alley and Amazon are claiming it's as effective as Crème de la Mer, which costs $165/oz. All I know is that my grandmother used Nivea Skin Oil and had beautiful skin, so into the basket it went. And I love it. It's much fluffier than Eucerin, but just as wonderful for soothing super dry skin.

I also bought a bottle of Therapist's Secret Facial Oil, from the Sanctuary Spa line carried at Boots. It's a mixture of many different pure oils: sunflower seed, rosehip, wheat germ, and jojoba seed, with some essential oils of rose and frankincense, which leaves it smelling like midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

It's meant to be used a drop at a time, alone or as a first layer under your regular moisturizer. It's fantastic, especially considering how dry my skin is getting now that the weather is getting chilly.

I also bought a pot of The Secret is Out Lift Lift & Repair Night Cream by Dr. Nick Lowe:

I picked it out because I was pretty sure I couldn't get it in the States. Also, it has Sodium Hyaluronate, Hexapeptide-9, various anti-oxidant fruit ingredients--but no retinols or acids. Because I wanted a nice moisturizing cream that didn't make me peel. More on that later.

Oh, and in my States side wanderings, I picked up a bottle of DHC Mild Touch Cleansing Oil at a local branch of Mitsuwa, a big Japanese grocery store chain.

When I'm wearing RuPaul levels of spackle, I like to double cleanse--one step to dissolve the makeup and another go to get clean. This oil is great at dissolving and rinsing away makeup as a first step before I use the Clarisonic with Cetaphil.

Mindless extravagance or canny shopping? You be the judge in my next post, when I reveal my plans for these products.

What I Wore Today--in poetic form

The three piece Eileen Fisher outfit I ordered from Neiman Marcus has arrived, been tried on, and worn to three different events: a board meeting, a cocktail party, and a memorial service. If I were tracking cost-per-wear, I'd be pleased.

However, I'll admit that I had to use costume tape to hold the dress in place. The dress fits beautifully, but that Balcony of mine is so crowded that my underpinnings are always threatening to embarrass me. Also, the neckline isn't that low, but somehow, I seem to come equipped with too much cleavage.

At times like this, my BFF is Hollywood Fashion Tape.

This stuff is the velvet rope that controls the crowds on your Balcony.

I wore these shoes with it

from Taryn Rose's new line. You know, the foot doctor who became a shoe designer? Apparently she sold the rights to her name and then turned around and started Haute Fouture. The shoes are rather old lady ... but in a way I like.

These are wonderfully comfortable when you put them on. The leather is soft, the wedge is comfortable, and the elastic straps accommodate my high instep. However, a cocktail party is a cocktail party, and honestly, I think a thoughtful hostess should greet everyone with a nice pair of fluffy slippers. Because after a couple of hours of standing, even these shoes hurt.

Oh, I also carried my vintage Chanel bag with the giant gold interlocking CCs.

Where's the poem, you ask. Well. You know the old rhyme about what a bride should wear on her wedding day? Here's my version:

Something old (last summer's semi-orthopedic Taryn Rose-designed old lady shoes)
Something new (the dress, belt, and sweater)
Something vintage (my bag)

Something glue (Hollywood Fashion Tape)

Some inspiration to start your weekend ... Cindy Joseph's second act

Cindy Joseph, a pioneering over-50 model, has started a makeup line called Boom. How can a self-respecting Beauty Boomer not want to celebrate that? View the video and enjoy!

Happy weekend, everybody!

Short-waisted in a sea of belts

Garnet Hill printed cardigan and gray suede obi that would look terrible on me

Ordinarily, I eschew belts. I'm short-waisted, meaning there was a mix-up at the parts factory. I'm 5' 7", and apparently (and I'm not blaming anyone, parents) someone took a torso designed for someone who is 5' 5", and matched it with a pair of 5' 8" legs. I'm not complaining about having long legs, exactly, but being both short-waisted and busty creates quite a wardrobe challenge.

What Not to Wear if you're busty

Short answer? Everything.

OK, seriously, here's what I try to avoid wearing anywhere near my balcony: pleats, ruffles, pockets, shirring, or gathers over the bustline. Huge collars. Decorative appliqued rosettes. Big splashy prints (yes, I love Lilly, but not the blouses.) Anything double-breasted. Those long necklaces that you see all over the place these days. Statement necklaces unless they end at the collarbone.

Basically, everything that's been in style for the past five years.

What Not to Wear if you're short-waisted

Here's what I don't wear because I'm short-waisted: tuck-in tops. Belts. And suspenders, no matter how adorable and Urkel-ish I'd look in them.

But this outfit from Eileen Fisher has a great work-around.

Eileen Fisher sleeveless ponte dress, leather obi belt, and merino wool shawl-collared cardigan from Neiman Marcus

Yes, it has a belt, but it's an obi, meaning there are no belt loops. That means I can place the belt slightly below my actual waistline. And it's much narrower than the gray one from Garnet Hill. Also, in this case, the belt is the same color as the dress. Contrasting colors break you up and make you look shorter and wider. Wearing all one color head-to-toe is the most slimming and lengthening thing you can do. The long laces hang down in the front, adding to the vertical effect. Also, only the center of the belt is showing, because the whole thing is covered by a 3/4 length shawl-collared cardigan.

I'm delighted with this outfit because I took a chance and ordered it on-line, but it works brilliantly, so no trip to the post office, yay!

Also because I went through the entire line of reasoning in the paragraph above, and it turns out I was right, which proves I'm smart.

Also all of the pieces will work with other things in my wardrobe. Except maybe the belt. It might not play well with others.

Hmmm. I'll be keeping an eye on that belt.