mommy fashion-able

i recently took my niece and nephew into L.A. last week to visit some museums...while waiting for LACMA to open i took them (okay dragged them more like it) into my old office. we got to go into the office where Glamour and some of the other mags are made and it brought back floods of memories...fashionable memories...child-less memories...of when i experimented with my clothes and had NO money but an ounce of creativity and a cheapy sewing machine and my weight still registered in the 20s...and we were going FOR FREE to New York and Hollywood event parties where Ethan Hawke inappropriately touched my fur-lined coat and i would giggle just being near Robert Sean Leonard and Bryan sat next to Marissa Tomei and gawked at Selma Hayak...she is striking in person...i believe i gawked as well...anyway...

flash forward to the present...carrying a 10 month old in my ergo and pushing Bryson in a stroller through that same elevator and down those same halls and feeling very much like a mom and not a fashion forward 20 something in the publishing world. what is funny is that i didnt feel dowdy or out of place or resentful or anything negative...just a little giggly that i was that person and my life is so different now...that my values and priorities and direction is so different...wonderfully different...and out of place at the same time.

i think my fashion sense has always been a little off of the "main stream" - in high school i changed my style about as often as i changed my underwear...i was a ska girl, a swing dancer, a preppie, a tom-boy...i dressed with my passions and moods...not much off from now...but i think i was always trying to find my "style" - there have been several occasions where people have bought me clothes saying, "i saw this and it just was so YOU!" and then i would open it and suppress my gag reflex and think...who do you think I am???? my mom once told me that when she bought me clothes she would look for the ugliest thing she could find and buy me that...thanks mom...

but its not just my mom...its my husband too! he can NOT pin down my sense...after 8 years of marriage he still does not know if i would find something repulsive or attractive. he is constantly surprised when i am in LOVE with a piece of clothing or art and constantly says that if he picked it out i would hate it...although for some reason i think it is so romantic when a husband buys an outfit for his wife...but i agree - i am quite picky and he is probably better off either a) accompanying me on a shopping trip or b) skipping that all together and getting me a gift certificate and a special bonus c) getting me the gift certificate and sending me ALONE on a shopping trip for the afternoon...maybe a pedi even...okay...now we are on the right track!

i guess the point in all this is realizing how important it was to me pre-children how i looked...in a world where i had no money and worked in the fashion world and felt like i had to constantly try....to now - where i am more concerned with comfort above all...but i still try to portray my self through my style...not sure where it all fits in...being a mom and loving fashion...and not wanting to spend MONEY on it...

i think not just being a mom...but anyone who is post-high school and college and perhaps trying to still figure out their style can relate...i am curious - where do you love to shop? what is your fashion credo? what are your fashion challenges?

here are some of my current faves...off the top of my head...i am sure this will grow in the week to come!

Nick And Moe Clothing
Lamixx Clothing
My Baju
Anthropologie
Urban Outfitters
Buffalo Exchange
H&M

Also - dont forget to enter my give-away - ends tomorrow night (thur!)