Happy Birthday Diane von Furstenberg

Diane Von Furstenberg will celebrate her birthday with 63 candles on her cake.  Diane is interesting because in 1969 she married Prince Egon of Furstenberg, making her a princess. (When they divorced, I think she no longer qualified as a princess.)  When she married Egon, she decided she did not want to be a “plain little girl who married beyond her desserts.”  In 1970 she began designing women’s clothing, hitting a design home-run with a wrap dress in 1973. I had the Vogue pattern for that dress and made about three dresses.

I also had the same dress leave me half dressed when the tie came undone.

Here are some Diane von Furstenberg shoes to admire.

Dock $160 to $200 AT Zappos

Rand $460 at Zappos

Zia $284 at Zappos

I think I will carefully wear my wrap dress for tonight’s party to celebrate.

REMINDER: Today is the last day to enter the ShoeBlog Holiday Giveaway.  We are giving away a $150 and $50 gift certificate to Zappos, Endless, or Amazon.

Would You Wear a Designer’s Clothing or Shoes to His or Her Show?

What do you think about wearing the designer’s clothes or shoes to their show? Is it like wearing a band’s t-shirt to their show? Would you wear Zanotti to go meet Zanotti, or Manolo to meet the master?

Adorable (but has perhaps gotten too skinny, as is sadly not unusual of course for young starlets on their way up) Rachel Bilson, who first stole our hearts on The O.C., has fashion sense as zingy and hip as her characters. She and Michelle Williams are some of my favorite young starlets who know how to dress in the crossroads of young, edgy and hip, designer fashionable and somewhat tasteful and classic.

I love Ms. Bilson in DVF, but I’m not sure about this dress. Would definitely look tacky on a blonde, but I feel like it’s saved by her being a brunette. She wore this DVF resort dress to the DVF Spring 2010 show. Many other stars did the same for their favorite designers. It seems to be a pledge of allegiance and a show of financial/media/moral support in hard times.

What do you think about the etiquette of to wear or not to wear the designer’s clothes to his or her show? And do you dig the black booties with the colorful dress?

Love DVF’s clothes, but I was at her store on Fashion’s Night Out and am still not extremely digging the accessories excepting the Molto sandals with her traditional emblem, the love knot, on sale at Bluefly for $135.15. They’re classic, and you’ll definitely wear them if you’re going on vacation this winter.

The bags I looked at on Fashion’s Night Out were a bit furrily frightening, and the shoes have a way to go. The shoes this model and many of the other models sported are, however, interesting. (Sadly, they are not available on her website yet, though by winter resort time I assume they will be. Many people think this is what’s wrong with the fashion industry — that by the time the clothes and accessories are produced, you’re over them because you’ve been looking at them for months online, and they’re old hat to you.)

Not at all bothered if you feel differently, dear readers. It’s fun to wear what’s au courant. But I personally would pick a middle ground by wearing something vintage by that designer that’s not so recent or in circulation, or by wearing a little known designer friend to give him or her attention. But as for wearing the designer to the show, I just would feel like I couldn’t compete with those models and their height, and even as a starlet, I think they look a little silly posing as fashion plates of the most recent clothes the designer made. But I guess I like my things vintage and old!

Three cheers for DVF for resort, anyhow. It’s been out for months but I still love it. I think the collection is much lovelier than the regular Spring collection, even with the giant head bows hats. If I end up actually going on vacation this winter, I’ll be considering her resort clothes!

Diane von Furstenberg Pickford granny booties

I know this is the dead of summer and way too early to be thinking of booties, but indulge me for a moment here, especially as it’s so hot in this part of the world (the American Northeast) that I can’t stand to be outside for more than 15 min at a time. I’m longing for a little chill in my day, is what I’m saying. And for such a day, I imagine I’d be really stylish in these:

A new fall arrival, these are just as elegant as can be, in a deep forest-olive green (which is quite popular this season, so far as I’ve seen), and bonus points, they have a zipper at the back so you can slip in and out of them without doing and undoing all those pesky laces. The only kink is that the price is a little steep: the DvF “Pickford” granny booties are currently $795 at Shopbop.

Sale Alert at Joseph’s!

*woop woop woop*

The red lights are flashing and the sirens are blaring.

Joseph’s, who we’ve talked about before, has marked a whole lot of their shoes down to 50% off!

That includes such “Previously Seen on Shoeblog” treats as the Taryn Rose Kaelyn (now only $226):

These Georgina Goodman low-heeled pumps (now just $203)

 And the super comfy Diane von Furstenberg Milano’s I wore for the DvF photoshoot (now only $146).

 Act fast, since sizes are limited.  Go forth and sale shop, Shoeblog readers.

Shoeblog X DvF

You may have already seen posts about this if you’re a faithful Coutorture reader. But if not, here’s the skinny. On Tuesday night this week, a few lucky NYC fashion bloggers were treated (by a combined Coutorture and Diane von Furstenberg effort) to a chic and super-glam photoshoot at the DvF store in the Meatpacking District.

Not only did we get to pick out whatever DvF spring clothes we wanted to wear (and, oh, was that a torturously difficult decision), but then we were put through professional hair and makeup and shot by professional photographers (grazie mille, Franco Lacosta). The very helpful DvF sales ladies (thanks, Val) professed that they were having the most fun with it, but I have to beg to differ, because I can’t imagine anyone having more fun than the bloggers.

While I started out the evening in the deliciously comfortable teal Milano sandals (on sale for $196 at Shopbop in teal, lavender, and black)…

the brilliant Coutorture and DvF ladies helping us all out had the clever thought to bring out all the DvF footwear goodies that were there for the drooling over.

By the way, those adorable green and red Brussels flats in the front there with the classic DvF knotwork details on the toes? Snap ‘em up for cheap ($158) right now on sale at Joseph, which I talked about yesterday.I’m sure you can tell by the giant grin on my face, but there’s nothing like putting on gorgeous clothes and gorgeous shoes and gorgeous jewelry, too (fyi, that gold chain? $7,600!), and it was fantastic.

There’s more coverage up at Coutorture, including a page for each of the bloggers who were there, all of whom were great and were lots of fun to play dress up with. There are a couple shots of me with one of the Daily Obsession team in another DvF dress I loved and a pair of the Per Se pumps, which are on sale for $176 at Nordstrom (also note my dear companion’s Louboutins, which she brought to the shoot with her).

There are shots of each of the lovely ladies (or the models they chose to style): Shopalicious, See Pretty Things, Clothes-Pin, and plenty more, along with quotes from some of us lucky bloggers. So check it out. And a gigantic thanks to the Coutorture team and the DvF team respectively and collectively for putting this whole thing together and making us feel so welcome and happily pampered.