Please forgive me for my obsession with women that age with passion. I just can’t enough of them, and this article on CNN is spot on. I won’t rehash what they said, and I’ve said my piece before. Just watch, read and enjoy.

Have a great weekend!

I find it so refreshing to see how a woman sees other women.

All images are by Lillian Bassman.

This is what I think:

I think Today, which just happens to be a Tuesday but maybe when you read this it will be a Wednesday or a Saturday (it doesn’t matter), is Someday.

In other words, today is the day you’ve been saving your nice things for. I’m talking about the little things that you know will give you pleasure because you were a little nervous when you bought them but you told yourself that it was OK, because you’re going to take good care of them and you’ll use them Someday.

That thing. I think you should use it today.

It doesn’t matter what it is. Your wedding china. Really nice running socks. Those fancy chocolates that you bought for Someday when company would pop by unexpectedly. Pretty lingerie that you’re saving for a Special Date you will have Someday. A nice pen, maybe, that is drying up in a forgotten drawer as you read this.

Today is a great day to take that thing out and enjoy it.

(You’re probably like me and have many things saved for Someday. I think it’s a good idea to just use one thing today – we don’t want to get overwhelmed.)

Eventually, but not Someday, you will get used to it. Practice makes perfect.

Drink your orange juice from that nice crystal your aunt gave you. Wear those lovely shoes you never have the courage to because they’re so pretty and you love them so much. You shouldn’t love things – you should use them and enjoy them. Save your love for people. Write your grocery list on the nice paper pad someone gave you a long time ago. Don’t think about it too much and just do it.

It doesn’t make sense to be intimidated by your nice things. They don’t serve their purpose if they’re hidden away. If you allow yourself to use your nice things everyday you will get used to them. This is important. If you get used to your nice things, you will not feel like an impostor when you use them. They will just become a part of your life.

You deserve a life filled with nice things.

Eventually you will expect things to be nice. It’s not about turning into a snob. Eventually crappy things just won’t do, so you won’t be tempted by them. You will spend less money in the long run. You will be confident enough that when you do see something nice and beautiful and worthwhile you will buy it. There aren’t that many nice things in the world, so when you find something nice you won’t feel guilty. It’s OK, because you hardly ever buy things – you save your money and you can indulge when you want – and most importantly, you know what things bring you pleasure.

And you will realize that Someday is already here.

Pretty cool how the pinup actually resembles the model, huh?

I’m so depressed by the scary cyborg people in current ads/magazines. I like this version of augmented reality best…just a little fantasy is enough.

See more at Retronaut

You all know how I feel about growing older – and now you must meet Lynn Dell, who is my hero.

This video says it all — it’s chock-full of wisdom and wit. Take three minutes and be inspired to grow older and finally, truly, not give a fuck. I love her attitude X 1000 and so will you.

This post originally appeared at Blogher back in 2010 — it’s one of my favorites, so I thought I’d share it here as well!

I love Project Runway. I realize that this doesn’t make me terribly unique, but I’m human and I cannot resist its charms: I love the drama, I love the clothes and, like all of America, I love Tim Gunn. But what I love the most about the show is that beneath the cattiness and the glitz there are lessons to be learned if you’re willing to listen to Tim, Heidi, Nina and Michael.

MAKE IT WORK

Like the designers on Project Runway, you are limited in what materials and budget you have access to. Get over it. Can’t afford Saks Fifth Avenue? Get thee to Old Navy and Make It Work. More money doesn’t necessarily translate to better style; if last week’s episode (you know, the episode with the $500 budget, the Largest in The Show’s History, as Heidi so helpfully reminded us) taught us anything it was that a bigger budget doesn’t always buy you class, or as the judges would say, “taste level.”

STAY TRUE TO YOUR VISION

The cardinal rule of Project Runway is this: Know who you are, and make sure whatever you design reflects it. That’s great advice for any creative endeavor, and don’t fool yourself — how you present yourself (AKA your style) is a creative endeavor. Have a vision and let it guide you, but always remember to be yourself.

DON’T BE BORING

Boring gets you nowhere. Being boring is as much work as being unique, it just takes less courage. Be bold, and at the very least people will admire your courage. That’s the only explanation for Ping lasting as long as she did.

GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT

You’ve thought long and hard about what your vision is — now is not the time to hold back. If you have to explain that the look you’re going for is “Goth Sorority Girl at the Beach,” you’re doing it wrong. You know a designer’s in trouble when they have to stand in front of the judges and explain that they were going for X, but because of (insert excuse here) they ended up with this. Your style should speak for itself.

LEARN TO DEAL WITH CRITICISM

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when Tim Gunn gives a designer advice and they ignore it they’re probably on the way out. It’s important to take advice from people who know what they’re talking about and who have your best interests at heart. But you also have to know when to ignore criticism — remember when Nina Garcia warned against doing an all-black collection and Irina went ahead and did one anyway and won? She took a bet that being true to her vision (of darkness and gloom!) would work, and it did. In the world of style, it always does.

STYLE IS EVERYWHERE

Inspiration comes from the unlikeliest of places — a museum, other designers, a burlap sack. Embrace it and have fun with it.

Did you hear? The Oscars were last night. I’m sure you’ve heard, but as a blogger my inbox is positively bursting with pitches about Oscar style and how to look like you are walking the red carpet and whatnot.

I honestly don’t see the point of these stories. I mean, if I was ever to be at a party with George Clooney and that Desjardins cutie patootie, then maybe I would be interested in how to wear a Dior gown with millions in diamonds. But since that hasn’t happened yet, I have to make do with what I wear in my real life.

Of course, that can be a bit depressing if you let it. Sometimes I find creative dressers on the internet or in magazines and I wonder why I don’t dress like that.

I have a uniform: simple, neutral clothes and bright accessories. It works for me.

Every time, and I mean every single time, I buy something outrageous I end up never wearing it. What’s the point of that?

I’ve had to learn to accept my simple tastes.

Do you know what your taste, or personal style is? I think you should. Here’s more on that:

How to define your personal style

Making it work

First, forget all the nonsense floating around about specific “moves” or costumes or stripper poles. You are not a hooker (probably, or you wouldn’t even bother reading this) — so forget all about tacky sequined crap and painful-looking acrobatics and for the love of Love, do not let anyone stuff a dollar bill down your pants.

Forget that.

Now think about having fun.

Yes, fun. This is essentially playtime for grownups.

Stripping for your lover is very easy and very fun. Just watch Sophia and Marcelo:

Isn’t that refreshing?

There’s no need to memorize crazy dance routines or offer yourself up as if you were submitting to a gynecological exam. Actually, did you notice that you almost don’t notice her body? (I said almost. It is Sophia Loren.)

It’s because her confidence and enjoyment is so damn contagious — it’s about the game, not showing off the body. So enjoy yourself before you undress — have dinner, a drink or two. That’s sexy.

You are not a plastic doll. You are a person. A person who is ready to have fun.

(Did I mention fun? Don’t do it if it’s not going to be fun.)

All you have to do is maintain eye contact, take your time, and lose yourself in the moment. A little music in the background helps, but you are not a cheerleader, OK. So keep the volume low and just sway to the music as you undress.

If you do it right, you can keep playing this game for thirty years and it will never get old.

Well, mostly.

PS – I actually hate the word striptease. It brings up so many unsexy images for me so I almost titled this how to undress, but then this very weird video from 1937 popped up. So! for simplicity’s sake, I called it strip tease.

My favorite sentence [fragment] from Jean-Claude Ellena’s Perfume:

…between their hands, perfume becomes a fashion accessory, an imponderable and indispensable flourish, the most essential of inessentials…

I love that description of perfume; I don’t need it, but I love it. Of all the frivolous things to pamper myself with, it’s the one that is most personal to me.

What’s your essential inessential?

“I’m not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe

So you all know how much I love Simon Doonan, right? (I got to call him at home this one time for an article I was working on – he didn’t pick up, but he did email me back and was very charming.)

So he has this new book out, which means that he has guest articles all over the place right now. I stumbled on this one about Marilyn Monroe of all people, and it’s ostensibly about whether or not she was fat, but it’s really about what you learn about people when you look at their material posessions.

It turns out that Marilyn Monroe, eternal fashion and sex icon, had very few clothes — and the ones she did have were well worn. It seems that instead of spending money on clothes, she spent her money on books (and, um, barbiturates, but while that’s sad, it doesn’t take away from the point: She was a fashion icon who rarely bought clothes.)

This stunning lack of materialism made me love and respect her more. What do you need in life other than a good book, a few capri pants, and a cotton sundress or two?

The point is, you don’t need money or a lot of clothes to have style. It’s more important to work on being, in Marilyn’s words, “wonderful.”

I found the lovely image above at Shopping Detox — a very charming blog.