Polo Ralph Lauren Wimbledon Collection, New J. Crew Accessories Shop

Hello-Hello everyone!

Did you know it is Milan Fashion Week? As in menswear and accessories for Spring/Summer 2010. While the temptation is to generally flip the ‘ignore’ switch, there are times we stumble upon fascinating newsbites and/or styles emanating from the event.

Guess who showed up for the Giorgio Armani show?

PHOTO: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty

Yes, one of the Gossip Guys, Chace Crawford.  (This probably means he wasn’t watching NYC Prep.)

Gossip Girl fans awaiting the release of the show’s second season on DVD now have a date: August 18.

Suggested retail for Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season is $59.98, but it may be pre-ordered now at Amazon for $38.99.

Speaking of idle gossip that serves no purpose whatsoever Mr. Crawford, WWD has an interesting story on what magazine covers are selling the best, more specifically the People Hottest Bachelor cover discussed in this space yesterday…

Courtesy People

Or this issue of In Touch Weekly …

Courtesy In Touch Weekly

…featuring Kate Gosselin of that hideous the Jon & Kate Plus 8 show; we admit ignorance here as neither TP or The Consort have viewed so much as one frame of video from this show.  (We do have a major ‘Help us Understand‘ question related to Ms. Gosselin’s hair style…? Is there some fundamental fact or background story we have missed on this topic?)

It may come as a surprise to learn this is not a pulication with which we are familiar; we are told one may see copies of the magazine when in line at the market.  Indeed.

To get to the point, apparently Mr. Crawford isn’t exactly the hottest-selling cover for People, especially when contrasted with the misfortunes of the Gosselin family.

“Editors at competing celebrity magazines questioned whether the 23-year-old television star was recognizable enough for People’s audience, or if they should have gone with a bigger name. Past “Bachelors” include Matthew McConaughey in 2007 and “American Idol” winner Taylor Hicks in 2006. Both issues sold 1.6 million copies each.”

Oh.

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We’ll quickly share an item that is what we generally refer to as ‘a little stale,’ meaning it is recent, but not anything of the “this just in” ilk.  (Although how frequently do we really encounter ‘breaking preppy news,” really, who are we kidding?)

At any rate, preppy retailer J. Crew has just opened their first accessories store in SoHo.

PHOTO: Thomas Iannaccone/WWD

Described as a standalone shop, the store actually leads right into the J. Crew women’s store. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler describes the new store’s customers to Women’s Wear Daily in this story:

“It’s the same customers shopping the designer stores.” They’re looking to spend less for products with style and of similar quality, he added.

Those spending time in the Hamptons will be pleased to know the retailer’s plans include an accessories shop-within-a-shop for its East Hampton store.

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We have been chatting about Wimbledon fashions as recently as this post yesterday, and almost forgot the Polo Ralph Lauren involvement with this event!

Wimbledon by Polo Ralph Lauren

For the exclusive Polo items available only from the Wimbledon folks, click here.

To shop the Polo Ralph Lauren tennis looks, click here to find items like this Silk-Tie Trimmed Blazer.

While not an ‘official Wimbledon item,’ the Limited Edition Fred Perry polo is now 20% off at Gargyle.

Gargyle.com

Use the discount code limited100 when asked for the promo code at checkout.

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One of the alltime fun summer happenings is this weekend:

If you’re anywhere near Litchfield (Conn.), we *highly* recommend it.

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We close with a note about All Things Southern & Preppy, a daily read that is always top-notch.  This fabulous blog is doing a 4th of July giveaway! The lucky winner will receive a set of our popular Traditions Placemats…

PreppyPrincess.com

And the matching Tiny Flowers napkins.  All of these are 100% Cotton, machine washable, and reversible, as well as being made right here in the USA.

PreppyPrincess.com

Toddle on over to visit ATS&P (aka Preppy 101) to enter her Giveaway!  And to see who won this from another favorite, Whale Flip Flops in NYC, just click here. (These are all too fun, we love doing this!)

And we’ll do something we generally avoid, mentioning tomorrow’s topic: pictures of the new Lilly Pulitzer Fall/Holiday 2009 Collection!

Enjoy the afternoon!

“Lilly-opoly” Lilly Pulitzer Monopoly Game, plus “A High Price on Preppy?”

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Hello and Happy Day to everyone…we hope it’s simply sublime wherever you are.

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Speaking of sublime…how wonderful is this?

Lilly Pulitzer Monopoly Game

Looking for some property in Palm Beach? Perhaps you were hoping to buy the Breakers? (PB, not Myrtle Beach.) Well, your time has come. As we shared in previous posts, Hasbro has created a “Lilly-opoly” game in honor of the company’s 50th Anniversary.

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Perfect for any Lilly Pulitzer fan, this makes an outstanding holiday gift.  Other properties players can purchase include “Via Mizner,” “Lilly’s Jungle,” and “The Vintage Vault.”  And instead of the standard pewter tokens, there are options like a palm tree, a monkey, and (this is our favorite) a shift.  The game runs $50 and is scheduled for release in November, but already seems to be available for $50 at places like Under the Palm Tree.

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Also scheduled for release this month, that special Jeep Wrangler covered in pink and green and yellow Hibiscus, along with the Steinway anniversary piano in the same motif. Both are available by special order at any Lilly Via store and both are referred to as ‘limited editions.’

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Disregarding all the anniversary hoopla, we come back to basics – the lush designs and whimsical touches that are Lilly. It is completely Prepalicious and fun, fun, fun.

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Readers may recall our post earlier this week about über-preppy retailer J. Crew and some negative press in the Times.  The headline “J. Crew Gets Uppity” led into writer Eric Wilson’s column looking at the company’s new Women’s Collection store, merchandise price points, etc.

Courtesy J. Crew

A new column at the popular blog StyleList makes the statement as well: “The J.Crew Collection puts a high price on preppy.” Using merchandise like the $3500 Leopard Beaded dress shown above, yesterday’s column notes:

“We’ve always loved J.Crew for the fact that we can get quality, classic pieces at a decent price — a dress isn’t going to be cheap, but it won’t look or feel cheap, either. Still, the price tags were never enough to dissuade us from perusing the racks. At least, not until now.”

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The Leopard Beaded Dress is described by J Crew as “An opulent creation completely covered with thousands of precisely hand-sewn beads—it took an experienced couture artisan a month to craft this exquisite dress.”  We would suggest the item begs the question: is this preppy?  Is it what you go to J. Crew for?

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The column also shows the Printed calf-hair Astor jacket at $2200:

Courtesy J. Crew

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The caption for this photo in the story reads “Sure, it’s cute … but two grand?”  As the column continues writer Kristen Seymour says:

“Now, every prep’s favorite store is changing things up — they’ll still be offering the same kind of clothing they’ve always had, but they’re adding the J.Crew Collection, with price points that go higher. Much higher.”

What do you think? Is the J. Crew Collection concept a good idea? Bad idea? Doesn’t make any difference? TP is more than curious to hear your thoughts.

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Grins and giggles.

Talbots Bargains

Up above we have several items from Talbots. A word of advice about this retailer from the Princess: if you like their merchandise, run, don’t walk, to your nearest store or the website. (This also applies to J Jill since they own that chain as well.) Their ongoing struggles, as well as J Jill’s, do not seem to have diminished and they have fabulous markdowns on their sites. It’s not like their going to fail or declare Chapter 11, it’s just that it appears they are trying to shed a lot of merchandise. But don’t take my word for it – check out their Sale and Clearace pages. And yes, that unsolicited advice is worth exactly what you paid for it! 🙂 BTW, does anybody have any thoughts on their Talbots Collection line? It seems kind of, well, frumpy. Thoughts? Do share. Above: Talbots Girls skort $34; Embroidered Polos are priced 1 for $20, 2 for $32; and finally one I really like, Missy Drawstring Skirt for $48.

Hello-hello on a dismal Tuesday…arrrgghhh! Mother Nature needs to think about updating her resume; she is most definitely failing her whiny earthlings in the great midwest. Okay, enough griping. Just a little update for anyone curious about the “dueling blogs,” this one here on WordPress and the other at Blogspot. Here’s the deal: we started on Blogspot and then discovered WordPress which seems to have far more options available, at least for the technically-challenged Princess. So we are migrating that blog over here to WordPress. So that’s today’s totally boring tidbit.