American Made: Enduring style from the land of the free

It is Day 240 of Rachel Bethke's year of slow fashion, but her outfit is racing with personality. She wears a maxi skirt in a creamy floral print, highlighted with hits of pale pink, blue and tangerine.

Met Gala—Punk Couture: Never-Ending Fashion Irony

Sid Vicious definitely would not approve. But on May 6, the annual Costume Institute Gala at MOMA in New York celebrates the exhibition “Punk: Chaos to Couture.”

Breakfast at Tiffany's Style

The most recent reincarnation of this character on stage wears 25 different WWII fashions as interpreted by famous costume designer Colleen Atwood.

Lilly Pulitzer

The word iconic gets tossed around easily these days, but Lilly Pulitzer’s vibrant shift dresses were truly emblematic of a certain time and a certain lifestyle.

High Tech Winter Fashion

Baby, it's still cold outside. But that doesn't mean you can't stay connected.

Jason Wu Again and Again

It’s déjà vu all over again with designer Jason Wu’s new contemporary line Miss Wu, introduced on January 7 and being exclusively sold through Nordstrom [both in stores and online] for one year. That is, its mod girly vibe feels very 1960’s, an image Wu has played up by having his models pho…

Inauguration: Say yes to the (second) dress

A rarified group of First Ladies get to have a second chance at restyling themselves for such a momentous occasion.

Bee venom facials create a buzz

The latest buzz in the beauty world is a literal one: bee venom facials. Also known as apitherapy, bee venom is said by purveyors and devotees to have anti-aging properties.

This season blushing brides gravitate to another shade of pale

Today a blushing bride sounds like something out of a Jane Austen novel—charmingly quaint but definitely belonging to another century. Women in the U.S. are waiting longer to get married (the average age is now 27 years), which means higher education, careers, and traveling before settling d…

INTERVIEW: Maria Pinto's show at the museum

In a current show at Chicago’s Field Museum, fashion designer Maria Pinto indulges her inner anthropologist. Fashion and the Field Museum Collection—Maria Pinto (running through June 16, 2013) explores the universal world of design by mixing clothing from the museum’s collection hand-selecte…

Five Easy Pieces: Presto, a wardrobe!

In a dream world, we would throw out the contents of our closets every season and begin anew. We would wear only new, hip, trendy clothes—straight out of fashion magazines. After all, that’s what the stores and catalogs try to sell us: the idea that we need to completely revamp our look every year.

First lady fashion lights up debate stage

For the auspicious occasion of the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, both Michelle Obama and Ann Romney did what thousands of women do every day: they shopped their closets and turned up wearing outfits they already owned and had worn before.

THE LOOK: Perspective on fashion week

To those of us not attending the highly touted, uber-produced fashion shows in New York, Paris, London or Milan, the concept of a designated Fashion Week feels remote. It is easy to wonder: Do the current designs by Balenciaga or Valentino or Calvin Klein have anything to do with our everyda…

Designer Narciso Rodriguez goes with Kohl's

Narciso Rodriguez is a designer known as much for what he doesn’t do as for what he does. He doesn’t do girly or overworked clothes. No ruffles, no poufs, no fluff. What Rodriguez does offer is sophisticated simplicity, suitable for women of any age. Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue on…

Why Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris and Milan matter

To those of us not attending the highly touted, uber-produced fashion shows in New York, Paris, London or Milan, the concept of a designated Fashion Week feels remote. It is easy to wonder: Do the current designs by Balenciaga or Valentino or Calvin Klein have anything to do with our everyda…

Diana Vreeland: Style goes on forever

Style is not fashion, as the late legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland used to proclaim; fashion comes and goes, but style goes on forever. Much like Vreeland herself.

Student designers take to the runway to display their unique fashion sense

Chanel may not have named it specifically, but fashion is also on the shore. So much so that Shore named an event after it. The first annual Fashion on the Shore (FOTS), a runway event showcasing the top student designers from the Lake Michigan area, took place May 26. Founder and sponsor of…

Michelle Obama's clothes: Every minute, every hour, every day, for five years

Whenever she steps out—whether it is to host a state dinner or to walk Bo the dog—she is studied. No fashion detail is too small to escape worldwide scrutiny.