Endless.com Discount for Lucky Subscribers

If you've gotten your August issue of Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping and Style, turn to the Lucky Breaks section page 162 for a discount code for 25% off at endless.com. And don't forget to shop endless through Lucky Rewards--you'll get 10% cash back.

Endless is currently having a big summer sale. Coupled with the Lucky Breaks discount, you can get some really sweet deals on footwear and bags. Here's a link to designers shoe deals.

Here are a few on-sale designer sandals that I like--a bone and black platform, a low-heel sandal with a great pattern, a rock star slingback, and a strappy cork platform. (Click on the shoes to link to them on endless).

My Very First Pair of Keds--Should I Keep Them?

With the Clarks sandals I got from Zappos yesterday came the most darling pair of Keds. I've never owned a pair of Keds in my life--the basic white sneaker thing never did much for me. But I saw this pair on Mischa Barton in one of her Keds ads (you can find it in Lucky and Vogue) and I had to have them.


They are so very very cute for spring. This red wedge would be perfect with many of my skirts, casual dresses, shorts, and even my baggy Gap khakis. My mom and Cheapy both really like them. But they sorta squish my big toe a little. Should I send them back? Does canvas give at all? I have no Keds/canvas shoe experience (even my Chuck Taylors are leather). Guide me fellow shoppers.

I Actually Bought Something at Forever 21

It was actually XXI, which is pretty much the same thing.

Last night Cheapy, Cheapy Jr., and I went to see Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (some fine work by Jim Carrey and Steve Carell). The XXI store at The Mall is very close to the movie theater, and while the boys were going up and down the escalators, I was drawn into XXI by a cute jacket. It was 10 minutes before closing (let me tell ya the place was packed--there were nine girls in the checkout line and I was for sure old enough to be their mother) and they already had a gate down, so I walked way around and found my way to the cute blue cotton jacket that had caught my eye. I took off my Anthropologie jacket, tried on the XXI one, loved it, and stood in line for 10 minutes to pay for it (last one in my size).

I can't find the jacket online. It's dark blue, big collar, slight swing, sort of cropped, three-quarter sleeves, and doesn't look like it cost $27 and change. I've picked out a few other cute and highly affordable jackets from the Forever 21 website.


Safari done a little cuter and a little more subtle than Old Navy did it. Price: $24.80.


I love the stripes and the little bows on the pockets. Price: $27.80.


Perfect for spring with three-quarter sleeves and a rounded collar. Price: $29.80.

Yellow is very on-trend right now and this is a great shade and a cute cut. Price: $27.80


I was really surprised to see a lot of items I liked at XXI (mixed in with cheesy/cheap looking and/or way too young for me stuff). Pretty much every issue of Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping & Style includes at least one Forever 21 piece--an ensemble consisting of $285 skirt, $550 jacket, $425 pair of shoes, $2500 bag and a tank from Forever 21 that costs $17.50. I plan on hitting XXI again in the near future for some cheap-and-trendy.

Style Book Review

The Lucky Shopping Manual:
Building and Improving Your Wardrobe Piece by Piece
by Kim France and Andrea Linett
(Melcher Media)





Rating: Five out of a possible five Jimmy Choo pumps


I've seen The Lucky Shopping Manual advertised in Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping and Style for quite a while (it was published in 2003) and I always thought What could I possibly learn from this book that I don't get from the mag? So I resisted buying it despite the compellingly simple yet striking cover.

Well, I love this book. (Although it took me a few minutes to get used to not seeing a price and a website listed next to each item pictured.) It's broken up into 14 chapters (for example Skirts, Tops, Pants, Jeans, Shoes, Jackets). There are also seven "Lucky Girl" profiles (one with designer Shoshanna Lonstein who really loves to wear white) which feature peaks at choice items from the ladies' closets, and author profiles of France and Linnet.

The intro talks about why these two fashion-lovers wrote the book: "We wanted to show real women how to put together realistic, truly chic looks with clothing already hanging in their closets (or shoved in the hamper), while inspiring them to go out and shop." Mission accomplished, says Material Girl.

Each chapter in the manual features tips on fit and styling, best shapes for various body types, how to wear items in multiple seasons, what to splurge on not and to save on, and what you really need in your closet from each category. I found the fit and styling tips particularly helpful (I just spent nearly $200 having some items tailored), as well as the recurring In the Fitting Room sidebars. (Example in the Pants chapter: They advise wearing the right shoes, taking a walk, having a seat, and listening to your legs when it comes fabric feel. Simple yet helpful.)

But what I really took away from this book is the notion of editing my closet. Reading this manual made me want to sort and purge and really consider quality and fit. You see, Material Girl is a hoarder. I have lots of stuff. Lots. And there's a fraction of it I seldom if ever wear. (Does this sound familiar, fellow shoppers?) One needs a short list of essential pieces and some fun stuff to go along with them. (You can never have too many accessories.) From Lucky mag you get ideas on how to put pieces together in ways you may not have considered. From The Lucky Shopping Manual you learn what those key pieces are and how they can best fit your body. This is a book you really will want to refer to again and again and an essential purchase for your fashion book shelf. Shop on lucky girls!

Link: Coupon and Sales Chart

Here's a helpful post from ShoeBlog.com listing a number of sales and offers from various retailers anxious for you to start your online holiday shopping.

If you set up accounts on websites of your favorite stores (which they usually ask you to do at checkout) you'll get emails about sales and promotions (free shipping, give-aways with purchase, etc.). And if you're registering to win Lucky Breaks sweepstakes, check the box allowing promotional emails. They don't take up much space in your inbox and they can save you some cash! Oh how I love online retailing.

Is It Just Me...

...or does Mandy Moore's head look GIGANTIC on this cover? (Cheapy thought she was Valerie Bertinelli.) Overall I give the October Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping and Style a grade of C minus. (The section on handbags saved it from a lower grade--loved the handbags styles they focused on. If only I could afford them.) Overall, however, I found many of the looks to be blah or two steps from ick--much like Mandy's cover look.

Stuff I Love in Lucky: Sequins

Maybe it's the band of embellishments on the dress I got for Donya's wedding. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen Desperately Seeking Susan like 25 times. Whatever the reason, when I saw that Hope Greenberg, Fashion Director of Lucky: the Magazine About Shopping and Style, choose sequins for her What I Want Now/Editor's Pick section (page 89 of the September issue)--well I said, "Yay!" (out loud--I think I startled the cat. Who, by the way, peed on my gym bag. Again.).

Material Girl loves sequins. Often I feel my two favorite colors are sparkly and shiny. I want sequins and I want them for both daytime and evening.

The average price of the items in Hope's picks is $325. (I love love the French Connection black sequin mini dress, with its "curving panels of shine" at $228.) Hello eBay. I'm thinking vintage! What happens when I decide sequins are my new thing for fall and I hit eBay? I buy too many. (Did I learn m lesson from the enamel flower pin phase? The Sarah Coventry phase? The I-need-more-trench-coats phase? No, I did not.) So, ladies, I am in danger of over-sequin-ation.

This weekend I won auction for three sequin items: A navy sequin cardigan, NWT (that's "new with tags" for you non-eBayers) for $18.50. It's from Talbots. That's right, I said Talbots. It's not just for the old and/or the Republican--occasionally I find something cute there.

I also bid on and won a vintage cropped zip-up-the-back sequin tank in white (at left) for $14.99 and a gold and black very disco sequin cardigan for $23.50.

P.S. I've spent several hours this evening flipping through the new Vogue. I want fall. I want fall now. Summer: I'm so over you. I want to layer dresses and sweaters and wear boots every day. I'm tired of pedicures and sandals and sweating.

Randomly (Yet Magazine Themed)

Biggest Vogue Ever: I just got back from my local independent bookseller with the September 2007 Vogue Extra-Extra Large 840-page issue. This is not a one-afternoon mag--this is a good two weeks. My arm got tired holding it in the checkout line. I don't think it will fit in the magazine rack next to my pink toilet. And I fear it will put my lap to sleep if I sit and read it too long. Run, don't walk, to your newsstand! (Here's what the Go Fug Yourself ladies had to say about the Sienna Miller cover.)

Fashionista Diaries: My summer guilty TV pleasure (other than LA Ink because I have a girl crush on Kat VonD) is SoapNet's Fashionista Diaries. It follows six interns in fashion-related businesses--two at Flirt! cosmetics, two at a PR firm, and two at Jane magazine. By like the third episode poor Nicole from Queens (when they asked who her favorite designer was in the first episode, she said "Juicy Couture") had resigned. She'll never make it in fashion--the women wore bad bad bad shoes. Bridget is all cute and spoiled-rich-girl-y and kind of full of herself and I really want to hate her but for some reason I can't. And I just feel bad for the two Jane interns who don't know the magazine will soon be folding. (I was not a fan of that mag.) I'm so hooked on this show.

Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping and Style: I've been perusing the September 2007 issue of Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping and Style and I've come up with a list of things I dig and things I definitely do not dig in this issue. More on that in a future post. I just signed up for Lucky Rewards--they do 10% back on Zappos purchases, and a up to 15% back on a slew of other online retailers (Gap, Macy's, Target, Saks, iTunes, Bluefly, Sephora...). Who knew! All you do is shop through a special link after you sign on the Lucky Rewards site. If you're a subscriber who loves online shopping as much as I do, check it out.