BASEBALL

While Desirae stayed home after our barbecue the evening of the 4th, Melody went out with family to a baseball game that so perfectly ended with fireworks.  She thought about going obvious and wearing a baseball tee like this, but settled for stripes after searching her closet to no avail. Maybe it was best since the reference would have been pretty strong anyway. (But now you can bet that she'll be looking for one....) 

     Overall, sometimes you just wanna to keep life easy and casual. This is not an "I'm attending fashion week" type of outfit. It's not meant to look impeccable. Gold and khaki accessories jazzed things up a bit while the fedora was thrown on when the sun was overwhelming (what a lifesaver hats can be! No wonder humanity has worn them in every age. It's actually strange that we women rarely wear them any more.) But really, fashion aside, sometimes it's fun just to have the camera around to pick up some extra shots of life along the way.  And you know what? How fun are summer night baseball games?!

KATE MIDDLETON WIMBLEDON

Speaking of "Kates" this week, here is what the Duchess wore to Wimbledon last week. We would say it's very 'tennis appropriate'. The picture below is actually her wearing the same dress last year on her Canada tour after their wedding. We have absolutely NOTHING against her wearing the same clothes (contrary to the media who always seem to chide her about it). We actually think it's awesome because we all do it. But we wanted to see the dress better, so we went ahead and put up the full length look from last year. And guess who the designer is...take a wild guess....  

Alexander McQueen

RED AND STRIPES

The 4th was pretty laid back for us. We decided to take the day off of rehearsals together and practice solely on our own. Later on we met up for a barbecue (to which instead of bringing her own meat, Melody brought Mexican soup? We don't know what country she was celebrating). Anyway, Desirae decided to keep it casual, yet semi-festive in her red jeans paired with stripes. Instead of the overly patriotic stars she added a hint of paisley and donned her Michael Kors platforms. We'd say the look achieved what it was meant for... the casual, suburban, all-american(?) barbecue.

KATE LANPHEAR

Sometimes you need a little of a different "Kate" in your wardrobe. This is Kate Lanphear...the queen of edge/grunge/and all things rocker/chic. She's also otherwise known as the Style Director of Elle Magazine. I thought of her constantly the other day as I was staring at the perfect black leather jacket on a hanger at Forever 21. Seriously, the fit and look were amazing (even the price was perfect at $30!). But I couldn't get myself to take the plunge because of my stupid self-imposed budgeting (all monies...even $30 are to be saved for the extensive home renovation that is almost done in my life. I've come to realize that even a measly $30 can buy pipe, trim or paint). Yet I keep telling myself that the fight is not over. We left town the day after I saw it so it's probably gone by now (perfect things don't stay long). The verdict is still out though. I will let it go when I see it gone.

So here's the thing, just like when we see things from the runway that inspire us, obviously other dressers inspire us and our looks. The second to last look (although the skirt's a bit short) totally inspired this look a while back. Although we wouldn't wear EVERYTHING she's got on, we definitely take away a lot of ideas. In the end, even though I didn't buy the jacket, I did buy a leather studded cuff (bracelet). I've always wanted something to achieve a harder look on my arm and now I actually have one (obviously not as dangerous as her's looks, but still fun).

BLUE MOOD - Valentino Couture Fall 2012

Seriously ...we know you keep hearing us say it, but VALENTINO! We are so inspired by this. We're going to start pulling out all of the navy we have...and we have the PERFECT dress to show you. It's funny how these things inspire us so much. Couture week is known for some pretty dressy/hollywood/celebrity/REALLY expensive looks. But what we like to do is take the mood, the cuts, the types of fabrics and bring them down to our every day level. We have a look already in our heads inspired by the Giambattista Valli post and now one for this one. We'll let you know when you're seeing our versions! Until then, happy viewing!

MUSTARD DRESS - Eshakti.com

Oh my goodness you guys, we are absolutely in LOVE with this company. Eshakti is simply genius. Remember how we told you we were getting ready to promote a company in this post (inspired by the Jil Sander mustard dress)? Well here it is. They contacted us a while back about possibly featuring one of their dresses, and reluctantly we went to the site to check it out. It's been a while since we were pleasantly surprised to find an awesome idea and company take off. So here's the thing... you can take any dress on the site (this is the one we picked) and even if it's sleeveless, short, or lower cut in the picture, you can modify it with multiple types of sleeves, lengths, necklines etc. So pretty much you can modify ANY dress on the site to fit your needs. The greatest part about it, is that there are quite a few cute dresses to choose from. It definitely got us pumped to order ours. We must admit we were a tiny bit skeptical how it would turn out (since the dress was definitely cute on its own), but when it arrived we now think our dress (with sleeves) is maybe even cuter than the one pictured! Let's just say that we whole-heartedly stand behind this company. What a great concept.

One great thing is that this dress can be dressed up or down. We decided to dress it down here.  Remember what we were saying about dressing down looks in the Valentino Resort post? Well here's an example of this. You can achieve it by pairing with flats, fedoras and casual bags.

P.S. We have been wanting a mustard dress for a LONG time. We almost bought this one from Zara last year, then decided on one from Ebay that we lost in bidding. Eventually we kinda gave up...until now! And of course we're so excited to pair this with jackets and sweaters come fall like this.