style

Boots are a perennial cold-weather staple, and this year sees them punched up with special details, such as embossed leather, soft suede, buttons, zippers and straps. Looking for new kicks? A few tips: Short stuff: Last year's hot pick is back in action this year. "Booties are still raging," said Erin Keltner, owner of Swank Boutique in Columbia, S.C. Although there Read more...

The start of a new fashion season is the signal to re-create one's look, and color is the starting point to restyling that image. This season there's plenty of black (eternally chic), necessary neutrals (as seen in natural foliage and flowers, stones and the earth itself) and every possible gradation of gray, the season's easy glue that holds color combinations together. But the berry Read more...

ORLANDO, Fla.  -- Miniskirts are back in vogue. So are halter tops, skinny jeans and patterned tights. On a 20-year-old, those items are cute and trendy. On her mother, they likely look more trashy. On her grandmother, they're simply ridiculous. It's unfair and frustrating, but it's a fact: Outfits that look adorable, or at least forgivable, on the young simply don't cut it on older Read more...

Q: When patent leather came into vogue about a year ago, I became a total fashion victim. I have collected a load of patent-leather shoes, handbags and belts in a rainbow of colors. They are starting to show a little wear and tear. Some are scuffed, others are just losing their luster. How do I restore them to their former glory? Also, I wear this stuff year-round, but my mother says it is Read more...

Paris may be the capital of fashion at its most elaborate - from painstaking haute couture to Christian Louboutin's exquisite needle heels - yet when it comes to handbags, the City of Light has long incorporated a practical approach. Far from the world of the tiny beaded clutch, iconic French bags combine quality and quantity - think the chunky Louis Vuitton Speedy, the spacious YSL Muse or the Read more...

Sep. 22, 2008 -- Silver and bronze take second and third place to gold, the winning metallic tone for fall. Metallic came in decades ago and, while it took awhile for some to be convinced we'd wear anything shiny during the day, metallic has become a constant detail in clothing, trim and accessories. This fall, designers struck gold in everything from fabrics shot with a gold thread Read more...

We know all fashion trends are repeated at some point in time, but we expected a few more years to go by before this current trend became popular again (if it did at all). It's the vest, which was a wardrobe staple in the early to mid '90s. It's back again, looking to be one of the must-haves for fall. There are a few differences in the vest of the millenium. Previously the vest had been a Read more...

Prepare to be dazzled. You know all about "pink is the navy blue of India" and "wash your blond child's hair with dead champagne" and "the bikini is the most important invention since the H-bomb", but you may have been busy elsewhere when Diana Vreeland's memoir appeared. Well, the former fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and the onetime editor-in-chief of Read more...

If you needed any more evidence that we're in an economic slowdown, search no more. Hemlines are falling and hair styles are softening -- both bellwethers of declining economic fortunes, according to Barbara Middleton, one of Wine Country's leading hair and fashion experts. "Tradition is that when the economy goes south, so do women's hemlines. Longer hemlines demand more glamorous Read more...