Simply Vera at Kohl's

In case you missed her on Oprah, another major fashion star has gone mass market--Vera Wang for Kohl's.

Primarily known for gorgeous, simple wedding dresses, Wang branched out into lingerie, china, crystal, and, of all things, mattresses:


I guess she's interested in All Things Bridal. Even the wedding night. (Just so you know, that little beauty is available exclusively at NM for $2,999.)

To me, Vera Wang's design have always been simple, clean, architectural, ladylike--sort of like Balenciaga, if Balenciaga had been a girl.

Like this:

or this:
(Both on the NM website.)

How does Vera do as a mass market designer? If you head over to the Kohl's website, you can click on a slide show of head-to-toe Simply Vera looks.

Frankly, with Simply Vera, head-to-toe is not working for me. A few of the pieces are interesting--for me, the skirts are standouts--but a whole outfit doesn't work. Better to slot in something here and there with stuff you bought elsewhere, because an entire outfit has a kind of ragamuffin appearance.

The standouts for me are the sleepwear

This little robe is marked down from $40 to $27.99!

and lingerie.

This bra is marked down to $25.99

A lot of it's on sale, so check it out.

Neiman Marcus is Dead; Long Live Neiman Marcus

Remember how I was just saying that Neiman Marcus can be kind of tacky? And then whined about how much I lusted after their exclusive 100th anniversary Salvatore Ferragamo shoes?

Well, the Ferragamo shoes are on back-order. I can whine as much as I want; they're not showing up in my mailbox any time soon.

So I ordered these Kate Spade beauties.

The Katarina pump. Named, I have no doubt, for the Empress of Russia.

I'm adding my own pictures so you can see the skyscraper heels, which came as something of a surprise.

As you can see from the NM picture, they're not really in evidence on the web site.

I wore my Catherine-the-Greats to a very arty benefit on Saturday night. The kind of arty benefit where the men are little and skinny and have creative facial hair and wear architect glasses and either gel their hair or shave it all off and carry man bags, and the women wear something Arty, which on the young ones is usually short and many layered and sticky-outy so they look kind of like a frill at the end of a lamb chop bone--and on the older ones is longer and many layered and monk-like with a big artistic necklace.

And I showed up looking like the back end of the bourgeoisie in a little black dress and some nice jewelry.

But I had on some truly fierce shoes.

And they were comfortable! OK, they weren't all bad, considering the amount of time I spent standing around staring at art.

I attribute this to the extreme Minnie Mouse roundness of the toes:



Sadly enough, these shoes are shaped like my feet. No, I'm not Cinderella's ugly stepsister who went to extreme lengths to make the shoes fit. My toes really are that short.

Oh, and how do you like my leopard print carpet? Somebody cut off my toes, but damn! I'm still sex-ay.

Neiman Marcus's 100th anniversary

OK, let's face it. When it comes to Neiman Marcus--brick-and-mortar or catalog/on-line, it's not all gold in them thar hills.

There's a lot that is way too trendy. Gaudy. Tasteless. Even--dare I say it? Tacky.


For the prim receptionist who moonlights as a hooker, this D&G checked jacket and shimmer skinny jeans.


This is what you come up with when Britney Spears is your muse.


While Juicy Couture continues to be inspired by Paris Hilton. Note the faux fur trim on a dog coat--how delightfully ironic and self-referential!

In short, all too often, Neiman Marcus illustrates the adage that money can't buy taste.

But I logged on the other day and discovered that Neiman's is celebrating its 100th anniversary with some exclusive merchandise.

Like these Ferragamo shoes.



These are so gorgeous, so old-skool Ferragamo, that I immediately fell in lust. That is, if bookmarking the page and obsessively checking them several times a day qualifies as lust.

The whole thing leaves me wondering whether, if I ask my husband to buy them for me for our anniversary, would it be the equivalent of asking him to bankroll a gigolo.