“Fashion fades; only style remains the same.”

Do you know who said that? Care to guess what it means? Well, my fellow fashionistas, allow me to enlighten you. It was that ultimate fashion icon, Coco Chanel. And what Coco was so classily saying is that you can buy all the $1,500 Prada handbags and $500 Jimmy Choos in the world—you might even look pretty enough, dripping in all that high-end artillery—but, darling, if you don’t have style, you simply don’t have style.

I’d like to tell that to all the slavish fashion victims prancing down Madison Avenue who’ve shamelessly copied their outfits off the mannequins at Barneys with nary a thought—and the Fashionista doesn’t like to name names, but I’m thinking of a certain Upper East Side prep-school princess who recently dropped $3,500 on an exercise outfit, even though the girl hasn’t worked out a day in her life. People, there’s more to fashion than being able to buy it.You’ve got to work it. Work it in a glamorous vintage flapper gown purchased at your local thrift store OR in some extravagant piece straight from the latest prêt-à-porter collections. Just know your style, own your look, and be true to your most fabulous self.

It seemed fitting to open my premiere blog with a nod to Coco Chanel—even though Coco was long gone before blogs ever arrived on the scene. Fashion, after all, is about reinvention, taking
something old and making it new again, taking a dress created by someone else, sliding it on, and making it look like it was made for you and only you. Of course, to do that, you need style. And that’s what I’m here for. More to come.

Your faithful Fashionista