(via: notebookdoodles)

Smartphone Etiquette for the 21st century. You know that commercial where the people walking around have pop-up bubbles that show their thoughts and what they are really thinking about when in differing situations where their attention should really be on the task at hand… Well, I think that smartphones create those bubbles around us all the time- everywhere we go. Like any smartphone newbie it really is infectious and you almost can’t help checking your email, because, well, you can. Let the luster fade- it is time we lay some ground rules:

1. When you are meeting with an individual, group of people for drinks or a meal, or are attending a smallish meeting (less than 20 people) put the smartphone away, on silent, out of sight. Check it at the end of  your meeting or if you must, excuse yourself to the restroom for a quick check during a meal. Bottom line: give your full attention to people. It is respectful and what you would ask in return.

2. Check-in after. Especially if you are a girl, you need to be a little conscious about broadcasting your whereabouts. If you wait to check-in after the fact, you will likely have a witty comment to attach to your experience too.

3. Don’t bring the blackberry to bed. Many of us use our smartphones as our alarm clocks, but the danger is having it so handy will lead to texting, emailing and twitter surfing when you should be shutting your body down. Try a good old fashioned alarm clock and designate a ‘1 hour no electronics before bed’ rule. You will sleep better and let your mind disconnect.

Any other tips you would add?…

(picture via littleteaspoon)

It seems we all float in and out of periods of time in our lives in which making decisions is immanent. I happen to be going through one such time. Making a decision is exciting and can sometimes be stressful, but as a very good friend of mine once (and continues to say) said, “These are good problems to have!” Agreed. Making a decision and having the options that surround it is, indeed, a good problem to have. Yet, there remains the actual decision making…

It was recently suggested to me to use a scoring matrix to help guide my choices. Basically, you list the top ten things that are important to you in say… accepting a new job, looking for a new job, deciding where you want to live, what school you want to go to, who you want to date, who you want in your life in general! You get the picture.

I think it is really advantageous to make these lists before you are faced with the decision- that way your vision remains unbiased and you can always revert to that list when wondering about what you really want.

You make list of the top ten things that are most important to you for the corresponding category you are addressing (ie: job, school, living situation, mate…). This list becomes your point of reference. When a job, school, living situation or person comes along you can score them against your list. For each of the ten points you’ve previously deemed as most important, you rank your candidate in each point with a score between 1- 10. If by the end your potential suitor doesn’t score in the 80 or above percentile, you have clearly eliminated a choice that doesn’t live up to your standards or hopes.

It is that simple, and if you try to talk yourself into allowing a less than 80er into your life, chances are you will acknowledge their shortcomings later on and know that you already knew that from your scoring matrix… Just sayin’. So, good luck people. I hope the scoring matrix will help bring clarity to your decisions as I am employing it to do for mine.

Fashion bloggers have been redefining themselves over the past couple of years. Many receive sponsorships from brands that translate to ‘in feed’ endorsements. Some host events with these brands. Others come on board and act as their social media specialist. I think the newest title fashion bloggers should take is brand ambassador. 

Truly, they are a link between what the brand stands for and how the consumer identifies themselves. It is like providing a big sister role model to show consumers how their brand works and why it is such a great fit for them.

Brands really need to wrap their heads around that and promote it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: super models are over, so are celebrities- now is the time for relatable people with killer style to come through and offer inspiration. I hope that brands use these influencers to their full capacity. 

I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s infamous book Blink, and was particularly intrigued by the bit about speed dating and a study that Columbia University did in New York City. The whole basis of Gladwell’s book is that the first impression of a situation or a person- that passage of time that is just a blink- is more insightful and accurate than any other means of accessing someone or something for the first time. Ok, so how that links back into speed dating is that you are only given two minutes to get to know the person sitting across from you and then you switch and have another two minutes with someone else, and so on and so forth.

The interesting part is that the study found that what people say they want or are looking for in a mate is often different to what they actually respond to- especially in first time encounters. Hm, for me that begs the question, “Are we really that good at knowing what we really want?”

It seems to me that a lot of us have decided what our “type” is and what attributes we want our significant other to possess. I am not discounting the past experiences we have had to learn those preferences or to help ‘weed out’ some of the people we know are not right for us. I guess what I am saying is that we still need to hold ourselves open. The next time you interact with someone for the first time and feel something there- it should not be overlooked. Vice versa, if it’s not there, it’s not. This is true for friendships and of course relationships. 

Bottom line: intellectualizing things is fine and dandy, but don’t forget to listen to that internal nudge too.

In January, I attended the Key To Shift conference in Berlin, which specifically focused on sustainable fashion and how designers, distributers and consumers could identify it and purchase or produce it. A speaker from the Organic Exchange stated that there were about 70 different ‘eco- labels’ out there meant for the retail division alone. 

Unfortunately, that figure has only increased along with the confusion about what is eco and why. With no overriding piece of legislation or body to regulate the standards for eco- production, companies take it upon themselves to create their own standards. Or, ethical organizations form them. And even publications get in on the labeling to create their own seals of approval. While this is admirable and often helpful, the main result is little consistency and a barrier to the ease of eco-fashion infiltration into the mainstream fashion realm.

What is quickly becoming the norm is a crossing over from organic food labels into fashion standards- hence the recognizable FairTrade badge on hangtags. Yet, the trouble with this is that our clothing doesn’t require (nor can it afford!) to have the same highest level of purity. 

This is a truly tricky area to navigate. What seems undeniably necessary though, is a simplification of labels into one system with varying levels of ‘eco-friendliness’ with related entry points of cost. Much more easily said than done. 

(infographic via fast company)

Gilt Groupe, Rue La La and ideeli all cashed in on the surplus of luxury goods that distributers could not sell when the economy downturned. But as prospects for a profitable year ahead in the luxury sector, coupled with an adjusted business model that advocates a more tightly edited production to begin with, what does the future of such discount luxury shopping look like?

I hope that a) those luxury sample sites already sold or b) they have a flexible and proactive vision for the future. According to Saks Chairman and CEO Stephen Sadove, the luxury market had $1 billion dollars in excess inventory during the past two years of the recession, so Saks accelerated markdowns straight to 70%. Sadove said, “We took a bloodbath but got the problem behind us and generated cash.” Yet, this was a one-off event, not something on which to build a new business. Hmm. 

NYU Stern Business School students have given this conundrum some thought. Melanie Moore and Susanne Greenfield co-founded the new luxury discount site ToVieFor.com, which utilizes a dutch auction system and membership access fees. 

ToVieFor sells current season luxury handbags and women’s fashion accessories at 40 percent to 70 percent off retail prices, primarily through a dutch-auction process online. To place a bid, shoppers must become site members and pay $1 to $5 for each session. ToVieFor will work directly with the brands — not distributors — to obtain the luxury goods it sells (nytimes.com).

Sounds like a good start. Shoppers still get discounted designer items, that are current, and whether they are aware of it or not- they are caught up in the thrill of bidding and playing a ‘game’ to get what they are lusting after.

Another approach is to expand beyond luxury items to luxury experiences- like spa treatments, vacation packages, performance tickets and even restaurant discounts. Kind of sounds like GroupOn, or the more locally positioned sites like the Weekly Plus. Gilt Groupe is moving in this direction with the upcoming release of Gilt City.

We’ve combed through five boroughs, hundreds of neighborhoods and countless things to do, and boiled it all down to the city’s newest, most exciting and most convenient, just for you. Savor food whipped up by top chefs, score tickets to that soldout show you’ve been dying to see, and if you need dry-cleaning delivered to your door, yes, Gilt City can help with that, too (gilt.com).

Let’s take it one level further, how will these brands/ sites monetize the rapid expansion of location-based marketing provided through GPS social applications like FourSquare?

 It is a very curious area. When the supply dies down but the demand for discounted luxury is still there, what will these sites do and how will they embrace new technology and social media facets to facilitate their (hopefully) stayed growth?

(via thepoorlittlerichgirl)

Have I talked about Gala Darling yet? She is a fabulous fashion blogger whom I met in NYC at the Style Coalition Fashion 2.0 Awards in February. Amazing eccentric style tempered with a down to earth approach to life- both aspects of this lovely lady fill me up every time I visit her blog! Recently, I read the following quote on her site:

“I’m a really big believer that we all have this voice inside of us, & that voice is God talking to us, & we are all magical, & we all have something as specific to do as our fingerprint. & everybody should go out & do that. & I think between the ages of 15 & 32, don’t worry about getting married, don’t worry about settling down, don’t worry about having a baby. Give birth to yourself.” — Kelly Cutrone

Call it God, call it the Universe… or simply call it Dharma. Dharma is the sanskrit word that translates to finding the role you are meant to play in this world. It is not about asking, “What do I get out of this?” but more “How can I help here?” It is when you recognize your talents and the needs of the world and put the two together. Thereby, helping the world by doing what you are naturally good at and meant to do in this life. Little easier said than done…

I always find it a bit daunting to just sit down and map out your talents. So one way to do this is to ask your mom. Ask someone who knew you when you were growing up- about 8- 12 years old- and ask them what you were doing with your time. What lit you up? Those same unbiased interests are probably the ones you still hold and innately have an aptitude to preform. When you are doing those things, time passes without notice because you have a passion for what you are doing. I have been thinking a lot about this lately, and I really appreciate Kelly saying that a major life focus should be to find out who you are and what you are meant to do in this life. I could not agree more. How about you? What were you doing as child? What do you think your Dharma is?

Not so long ago, luxury was synonymous with scarcity. To be considered fashionable and of a certain elevated status, one simply advertised their wealth with material objects that were out of reach for others. Enter the birth of luxury brands. For example, a designer handbag provides access to a certain class and signals that belonging. Today, that handbag passport is still in existence, but the tribe has grown to include almost everyone. In Japan, 1 in 3 women own a Louis Vuitton bag- hmm, doesn’t sound very scarce to me… 

Somewhere along the line there was shift in brand strategy. Scarcity was no longer the objective, obtainability was. Brands sought to offer their luxury label at all levels with various entry points. This formula may have worked for awhile, but the times they are a changing. Good thing too- that is what fashion is all about, CHANGE! Barney’s Fashion Director, Julie Gilhart gets it. “One of the things with big brands right now is that the customer is really reacting to them in a sense that they’re so over-marketed. Customers don’t want that anymore. They don’t want to see what they’re buying everywhere,” said Gilhart in an interview for Style.com.

Burberry is onboard too. They just released an exclusive Japan-Only Black Label range. This is a smart move. It is the re-designing of luxury. If you have to travel all the way to Tokyo to get one of the exclusive pieces from the new Burberry line, I think you can safely describe that as luxury. Other big brands would do well to pay attention to the insight Gilhart has to offer and catch up to Burberry’s forward action.