A Preppy Wish List, Eco-Prep for the Young Master or Little Miss

Hello-Hello, and a happy day to everyone!

Whilst away at TQM’s (The Queen Mother’s) for a little social activity of the ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ kind, readers were treated to The Consort’s post showcasing runway trends for the Man of the House. We wanted to share a photo that wasn’t included in the post, an outfit that he really covets:

Giovanni Giannoni/WWD

This is a Spring 2010 look from Emanuel Ungaro, proof positive that yes, one can have too much pink. Now, if this were done in womenswear? Yours truly would be obsessed with each piece, including those shoes. Or the idea of each piece, perhaps not the reality.

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Back to reality here at the Palace, we begin with an inquiry from one of our favorite customers, the delightful Whale Flip-Flops in NYC. She gave us the okay to share her request with readers:

“I was wondering if it would be possible for you to create a wishlist option for your site? There are entirely too many things I want….”

From her mouth to The Consort’s ears our crack IT department (ahem).  May we ask for a drumroll??? Whoo-hoo Miss Flip-Flops, you may now create your very own list of goodies from the Princess store!

All that is required to make lists of your own is to scroll down the home page, on the left side you will see this button with a box underneath it.

Type any search term you like in the box underneath that button, and you will be taken to a page asking if you are a New or Returning Customer.  Once there you can login or sign up if not already registered (we never, ever sell or share your information with anyone, nor do we put you on our own internal mailing lists unless you specifically ask us to do so, we hate junk email as much as you do and respect your privacy) and as soon as you are at your personal account page you can start a shopping list.

Our favorite part? You can make as many lists as you like, and name them however you choose, be it by occasion or event (like Birthday or Graduation) or a type of merchandise, or specific category (like Lilly Pulitzer or stationery), it is entirely your choice how many lists to make and how to name them.

Thank you Miss Flip-Flops, for asking the question and nudging us to an improvement for the site!

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Next, the ongoing efforts of behalf of the Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.  Rather, one of the looks being sported (very. bad. pun.) by the women in our US delegation to the IOC meetings in Copenhagen.

Maria Pinto Courtesy Photo via WWD

There are a number of pieces in this special collection by Maria Pinto for the women; the male delegates have suits and separates by Chicago-based Hart Schaffner Marx. Below, Michelle Obama arrives in Copenhagen to join in the efforts.

Claus Bjoern Larsen, Polfoto

The President is also going to help make the case on behalf of the city, with competition coming from Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.  The IOC will choose the winning city in a vote on Friday Oct. 2.  Despite all of the intense lobbying on behalf of Chicago, our bet is on Rio landing the games.

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We close with an addition to our eco-prep line, more of our popular RuMe bags, but this time we have special bags for the younger set:

These are the RuMe Junior Totes, brand new at the store. We love them for everyday use, carrying books, toys, craft supplies, just about anything.  They are also ideal for your mini-prep to use on Halloween. One of the nicest things about these is being able to toss them in the wash machine, a huge plus for us when choosing reusable market bags. Besides, we are suckers for a cool Rocket Ship.

We also have a few new styles in these for the grown-up preps, the City Park line is now in stock:

We do love all of our eco-prep market bags and totes; we’re so grateful to have discovered these in bright and colorful prints and solids. We just didn’t want to replace plastic bags with something equally drab and dreary, let alone something that wouldn’t go over the shoulder or wasn’t machine washable.

With these cheery colors we say g’bye until next time, thank you for visiting!

Great Preppy Giveaway Week 3, Inaugural Dress Update

We must acknowledge acting somewhat like a Pouty Princess over the seemingly never-ending debacle going on here:

Until we realized we get to give away some preppy goodies! It is time to announce the winner of the Great Preppy Princess Giveaway winner for Week 2…. (drum roll):

verybusymomwith4

Whoo-hoo! Some may recall that our Thankful Thursday topic for last week’s giveaway was ‘one friend you are grateful for,” and Miss Lisa, founder and curator of VBMW4, shared this comment as her entry for the giveaway:

“I am thankful for my friend Julie who knows when to help me, when to advise me and when I need to listen. I am in awe of how she just knows how to act in every situation.”

As the winner Lisa receives a treasure trove of goodies from the Preppy Princess, including a Boatman Geller Carrie & Tuck personal stationery station and a fab Madras Refill Set! (This is so fun!)

Now for Week 3, our comment topic is anything for which you are thankful. How easy is that? Just leave a quick comment on something, someone, someplace you are grateful for… and voilà! You are entered!  Wonder what you can win this week? Read on.

Week 3 Great Giveaway goodies include this Perfect Circle Apron….

PreppyPrincess.com

Accompanied by the matching gloves; clearly one cannot risk a fashion disaster in their own kitchen.

PreppyPrincess.com

Of course, if Cook is handling the duties, and you have no worries about keeping the splish-splash off your cocktail dress, then the Apron/Gloves Set always make the perfect gift for someone else.

Also for the lucky winner, the understated elegance of the Trey’s Stripes notecards. Naturally the Princess will personalize the set of 10 cards, per your wishes.

PreppyPrincess.com

Don’t forget that if you mention the Great Giveaway on your blog or home page a Bonus Gift goes to anyone you choose! Because it wasn’t won this past week, we’ll roll over the Week 2 Bonus Prize Pack.

The Bonus Prize includes the Laguna Beach apron, along with one of our favorite books, Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart.

So don’t forget… scroll down and make a quick comment!  “I am thankful for ______.”

Leave your comments before midnight next Wednesday, the 26th, and you are entered in the Giveaway.  And because sharing is caring, *do* think about mentioning the Giveaway on your blog, or your Facebook or MySpace page, whatever works for you (in a good, clean fun kind of way) so you can share the Bonus Prizes with someone near and dear.

Our first comment comes from Legally Heidi, here is part of what she shared:

“i’m thankful for my pal Liz. Her and i have had a rough friendship but we’ve always come out on top She’s the one friend i know i could call at 2am upset and she’d listen to me.”

Do let TP know if you have any questions…that is why we are here!

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A quick update to our most recent post on the search for an appropriate prep school for Malia and Sasha Obama.  We reported that our intuition pointed to Maret being out of the mix, with the choice down to either Georgetown Day School or Sidwell Friends.  The Post (Washington) seems to confirm this:

“… school search appears to have narrowed… and the much-buzzed-about Maret School is apparently out of the running.”

Also, we promised to let you know what we discovered about Michelle Obama’s attire seen in the CBS 60 Minutes Interview:

Aaron Tomlinson/CBS News Handout/Reuters

As speculated, the pieces were by Maria Pinto, who seems to have achieved ‘Most Favored Nation’ status when it comes to the future First Lady’s fashion choices, IOHO.  According to the Trib:

“… wore the “Eme” top and “Rani” skirt in an iris color, designed by Chicago’s Maria Pinto. The ensemble is from Pinto’s spring collection, but rendered in tweed for Obama, a loyal Pinto client. The sleeveless element was retained from the original design.”

We continue to see sketches of possible inaugural ball gowns from varying designers; here is one from Tracey Reese, as seen in this story from the Detroit Free Press.  We simply love that look, the dress is absolutely beautiful.

Tracey Reese

BTW, today’s Times (NY) had an excellent story about price wars between online retailers and the  tactics they employ to move merchandise.  For example, we had no idea Zappos uses a sister site for its discounted and marked down products…did you? (If interested, it is 6pm.com)  And 6pm does carry most, if not all, of the name brands Zappos stocks.

Also, Steve & Barry’s will be gone permanently.  After being bailed out of an earlier bankruptcy three months back, yesterday the company filed for liquidation in New York. We have no news yet on what will happen with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line of clothing, currently sold at the retailer.

Happy-Happy!

Obama Fashion & Prep School Updates, Worst Concealers Ever List

Hello-Hello on a busy Tuesday!

We start with an update to our initial story on the Obama school search.

The ongoing effort to find the best school for Malia and Sasha Obama moved to the next level yesterday when Michelle Obama took Malia and Sasha for a two-hour visit at Georgetown Day School.

Georgetown Day Lower School

Before you know it we may be seeing a run on these:

Georgetown Day School

Today the girls and the next First Lady are expected to repeat that exercise at the Sidwell Friends campus.  Below, a photo from the Time magazine story that says Sidwell is the “…greenest school” in the United States.

PHOTO: David Burnett for TIME

Writer Margaret Carlson has an interesting perspective on the schools in her recent Bloomberg story.

“The car pool line at Sidwell runs to Mercedes and BMWs. At Maret, where journalists’ children abound, and at GDS, where students call teachers by their first names, you see more Volvos and Priuses. At Sidwell you might see a Palin Valentino. At Maret, Banana Republic.”

The article discusses Maret, a school we discussed very little in our previous post, as as we don’t believe it to be in serious consideration at this point.

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The discussion continues regarding the dress Mrs. Obama wore for the 60 minutes interview that aired Sunday.

PHOTO: Aaron Tomlinson/CBS News Handout

Many are suggesting it is another Maria Pinto design, primarily because of the color and lines. When we find out we will let you know.

And the Times has another story about the J. Crew ensemble the future First Lady wore for her Tonight Show appearance.

“A spokeswoman for the J. Crew Group said the company had no idea Mrs. Obama would wear J. Crew until it began seeing teasers of her “Tonight Show” appearance. But it moved quickly to capitalize on it.

Marketers bought “Michelle Obama” keywords on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, built a page on the jcrew.com Web site that promoted her outfit, and told call-center representatives how to handle queries about Mrs. Obama’s fashion.”

For one of our previous posts with photos, descriptions of the pieces and links to those items at J. Crew, just click here.  BTW, J. Crew is now promoting a 25% off regular-priced Women’s shoes through tomorrow night.  The promo code is SHOESALE.

J. Crew

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Ladies, you know we try to maintain proper etiquette standards here in our corner condo at Princess HQ, especially when it comes to issues of bloggage. Therefore TP is a tad timid; we fear we are treading dangerously close to the ‘poor taste’ line with our next topic: dark circles under one’s eyes. Does anyone else suffer from this wretched phenomenon?

The good folks at Total Beauty have a quick little slide show on the “Worst Concealers Ever” that is simply fascinating! We couldn’t not share the link with you! Please don’t think less of us, the UTP (Urge to Post) was overwhelming and we couldn’t help ourselves! We do feel better knowing we are not the only who struggles with this.

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Hayden-Harnett at Target Sneak Peek, A Gossip Girl on the Cover of W and ‘Prep Run Amok’

Good evening everyone!

Here at the Prepatorium we experienced several hours of white-out snow this afternoon.

It was Just. So. Dreary.

Therefore we decided a sneak peek at the Hayden-Harnett line for Target might provide a quick pick-me-up. Below, the Canvas Hobo in Multicolor; it will retail at $39.99.

Hayden-Harnett for Target

A matching umbrella will sell at $22.99.

Hayden-Harnett for Target

The collection hits December 28th, running through March 15.  Below, the Chain Bag in black, expected to sell at $44.99.

Hayden-Harnett for Target

There are some utterly divine pieces available now at the Hayden-Harnett website.  We love the Capri glasses case, but this photo forces us to call for a reader response: is the fabric slightly crooked in the frame, tilting to the right? Or is TP more off-kilter than normal?

Courtesy Hayden-Harnett

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Just when we thought the frenzy over all things Gossip Girl might be calming down, we read about the following on a gazillion websites:

Courtesy W

G2 star Blake Lively, who plays Serena van der Woodsen on the hit show, has landed the December W cover, no small feat for a star on the small screen. The story by writer Dana Wood makes the contention:

“…Levelheaded Blake Lively is emerging as the buzziest (and busiest) of the Gossip Girl gang.”

Photo: Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin

The W Editor’s Blog has a fabulous brief about co-star Ed Westwick,

“…I couldn’t resist asking about my favorite Gossip guy: Ed Westwick, aka the sinister Chuck Bass. Sliming his way through every episode in one insane, prep-run-amok ensemble after another, he’s emerged as the show’s true fashion scene-stealer.”

Some readers may recall our post mentioning that Mr.Westwick is to be the new face of the K-Swiss advertising campaign.  Below, Mr. Westwick in photos of the shoot for those ads, courtesy of the Just Jared website.

Courtesy Just Jared

Courtesy Just Jared

No mentions that TP noticed of the alleged Feud between Ms. Blakely and co-star Leighton Meester.

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We know that Kate over at the always wonderful Nautical by Nature will be clicking over to Refinery 29 faster than we can all say “bye-bye” to her; they have an entire post, “Life Aquatic – Nautical Themes Sail into Spring” that we think might appeal to her.

Courtesy Refinery 29

Above left is the Gathered Sweater by Steven Alan, and on the right, the Sailor Pullover, available at A.P.C. online. Not all of the featured items are ideal for the Princess, but one never knows until they look for themselves, so enjoy the window-shopping!

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Having already visited the Boutique Tarzshay today, we shall minimize our online surf time and share this men’s sweater for our Argyle Update.

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Most of you know of our obsession with adoration of bows. After all, our motto here at the Preppy Princess is “Because Life is Better with a Bow.”  And it is better, don’t you think? Below we offer one of our new favorites, the Betsey Johnson BJ7026 watch in blue, $67.50 at Zappos.

Betsey Johnson BJ7026

It is also available in red at Amazon for $73.50.

Betsey Johnson BJ7026

It is almost time to tune in for this:

Aaron Tomlinson/CBS News Handout/Reuters

We are talking about the CBS 60 Minutes Interview with President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.  We apologize, but we do not have a clue as to who Ms. Obama is wearing; we only know the story was shot last week at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago. Here is one exchange from the interview:

“… And I looked at him and said, ‘You are the 44th president of the United States of America. Wow. What a country we live in.'”

“How about that?” President-elect Obama added. “Yeah. And then she said, ‘Are you going take the girls to school in the morning?'”

“I did not,” Michelle Obama replied, laughing. “I didn’t say that.”

In a bit of political trivia, here are the Secret Service code names assigned to the Obama family:

• President-elect Barack Obama: Renegade
• Michelle Obama: Renaissance
• Malia Obama: Radiance
• Sasha Obama Rosebud

Mrs. Obama has had her name since January. Vice president-elect Biden is “Celtic,” and Mrs. Biden is “Capri.”

Many readers will remember the interest in the dress Michelle Obama wore for her White House visit last week; it turned out to be by designer Maria Pinto.  As an added FYI for the political fashionistas it turns out First Lady Laura Bush was wearing Carolina Herrera.

PHOTO: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty

On that note, ‘night ‘night!

Election Night Fashions from Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain, Sarah Palin and More

Hello-hello everyone! We hope everyone is enjoying the soft and sunny weather we are experiencing today!

As we are more than a little swamped here at Princess HQ, we will offer a short post looking at the Narciso Rodriguez dress worn by Michelle Obama Monday evening.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty

Clearly not a Mario Pinto creation, as discussed in last night’s post, this was shown as part of the Rodriguez Spring 2009 Collection.

PHOTO: George Chinsee

The selection of this particular dress and cardigan brought some negative fashion feedback, unusual in and of itself as Mrs. Obama has been credited throughout the campaign for her fashion-forward style.

The issue? This is not considered a “good TV dress.”

PHOTO: Joe Raedle/Getty

PHOTO: Joe Raedle/Getty

While TP is convinced this is a stunning dress in person, it was probably not Ms. Obama’s finest fashion moment.  The ombre dot motif is exquisite in design and tres figure-enhancing but it doesn’t stand up well on television and in photographs.  And yes, the broadcasting & print careers influence our thought process on this topic, no doubt about it.

However, we think the First-Lady-To-Be is entitled to wear whatever strikes her fancy, whatever makes her feel good.  And no one can say the family was not color-coordinated last evening.

PHOTO: Jim Young/Reuters

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Rodriguez, here is a look at one of his more memorable gowns, Carolyn Bissette Kennedy’s wedding dress.

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NOTE: The following portion of the blog is INCORRECT!

On the other side of the aisle, Cindy McCain chose to wear the Oscar de la Renta silk suit she wore for her appearance with First Lady Laura Bush at the Republican Convention.

PHOTO: Chris Carlson/AP

Here is the CORRECT info: Below, a photo of the dress worn by Cindy McCain at the convention on September 1st. (Okay Princess, dress vs. suit…. how difficult can this be?! Perhaps it is time for a little Prozac pick-me-up, hhhmm?)

PHOTO: Mike Segar/Reuters

Thank you to the wonderful MOMX2 for alerting us in her ever-so-kind manner that we had a boo-boo in today’s post. She is too sweet and if you haven’t been over for a visit, you must reward yourself and pop in to say ‘hello.’

Now we must start our hunt for the designer behind last night’s Cindy McCain fashion; we still think we have seen this particular suit before, which is the thought process that started us on this slippery slope in the first place. But before we can do that, we must toddle along to our Tiara repair expert. We need to bring down the size of our Tiara a tad, as our head has shrunk just a bit in the last few hours. Silly Princess.

(Editor’s Note: We are leaving in our mistake deliberately to avoid any confusion we would create by simply correcting this in the ‘comments’ section.)

Back to your regularly scheduled programing now:

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Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was in an elegant deep navy cocktail suit.

PHOTO: Mike Blake/Reuters

We must include this photo of a rather woebegone Piper Palin last night, as she has definitely been one of those little delights that always brought a smile to our face during the long campaign…

PHOTO: Rick Wilking/Reuters

…as did Malia and Sasha Obama, no doubt thrilled to know they are getting the new puppy they were promised if their father was victorious in the election.

PHOTO: Jason Reed/Reuters

For those interested in a possible Inauguration Day look for Ms. Obama, last night’s late post touched upon that and also shared Oprah Winfrey’s plans for an Inauguration Day dress.

We close with a look at how the story was played elsewhere, starting with one of the President-elect’s hometown newspapers, the Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago Sun-Times

WaPo as TP refers to it, the Washington Post:

The Washington Post

The Times:

The New York Times

And USA Today:

USA Today

Out the door and simply *racing* to another function!