It's over. Summer is where warm sands, white gauzy dresses and concerts in the park are. August is like Epiphany and takes all the holidays away. It's back-to-school, back-to-work and back to fashion week. if September flashes in bold in your agenda, it means being first-row-bound, scheduling early wake up calls to catch the runways streamlined and undergoing a juice cleanse, like right now. It shares similarities with the first day of school.

The smell of new coloring pencils and the new Hello Kitty academic diary is as vivid as the first time I would wear the new sweater in September. Those good intentions like "this year I will maintain the notebooks impeccable" or in older age "this season is all about Mod makeup, I have to learn the Twiggy eye" go hand in hand. They also lasted nearly only a month, but the resolutions were there. Fashion week is nothing short of it - same cozy feel mixed with adrenaline rush. As young as a teen, I remember cork boards covered by cutouts stolen from my mom's magazines and trying to replicate them delving in my grandmother's armoire, in an effort of disguising the evidence that yes, it was me ripping the pages from the crispy new mags.

“Fashion week is nothing short of it - same cozy feel mixed with adrenaline rush ”

It was dress-up doll, then, what it's now serious business. My daughter is the one in the classroom and I am changing my closet - no more romanticism of dreaming for a longer summer, forget forgiving Miami for forcing me to coexist with hellish temperatures. It's time for action - let's to put in practice what we saw and loved and ignore what we hated at the time last February.

It's confession time: the trends I LOVE, that I would like to see in the streets and I wish that everyone would adopt and adapt to their personality so that the world would be more harmonious and chic.

The Blazer

Tailoring and button-holes sophistication, smooth and generous shoulders are the season's spin on the blazer. Masculine, bespoke, elegant, chic.

The Scarf

Do you wear it on your face, 'cowboy' style? On your neck, head or wrist? The cools wear it on their ankle, peacock Pitti style.

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The Fedora Hat

Borrowed from the boys

The Culottes

Elsa Schiaparelli used to wear them, does that mean they belong to artists or intellectuals? No, but they are indeed an item that requires application in order to look good. Here's whom I will be trying to emulate to rock a swell culotte look. In real life ...

... and from the runways

The Sweater & the Big Skirt

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So what now? I have to come to the realization that I am not in fashion central, I live in the Southern Riviera, how we named Miami Beach in an effort to embellish our mind and convince ourselves that 'you are never overdressed or over-educated'. The glory of living in the tropics, however, is that those concerts in the park I have mentioned st the beginning are about to begin, every fashionably conscious soul comes back and we can play dress-up with our new wardrobe.

chic, niche, style, trends

Wo-man pants

Francesca B. · July 3, 2014

There's that ease mixed with chic comfort in wearing (wo)man pants.

can I have everything, please? those pendants ...

leather top and over-sized pants with lots of hardware

trends, style, chic

Prints: to mix or not to mix?

Francesca B. · May 23, 2014

Floral prints are the THING this season, alas I am resisting them. I have always been a monochromatic, solid girl, it's easy in the morning: all navy, navy and white, all black, black and camel, white on white, camel and grey.

Let's put the cards on the table: if we consider stripes as a 'print' then I am game.

some stripes-on-stripes therapy (Dries does it perfect)

Taylor Tomasi Hills mastering some casual raggedy stripes mixing

As I was saying, no florals catch my eye this season and less the ones that everyone seem glorifying. They look good on Solange and on a slew of bloggers, those Alta Moda Dolce & Gabbana floral marvels we saw at the MET Gala were incredible.

After reconsidering the parameters, maybe instead of floral + floral, how about mixing prints?

Dare the unknown, act at the edges of your possibilities, take your mind to the edge and dive, trust the waterfall and go for it, take a leap of faith and enjoy what comes ...

florals + stripes

geometric + stripes+ checkers

Stella Jean is what I have in mind

Do you mix or not?

chic, style, trends, niche

The boyfriend long shorts: fascination for contradiction

Francesca B. · April 27, 2014

What can be casual, work-appropriate and feminine at the same time?

The long short, bermuda, boyfriend short.

Shall we call it that not-too-sexy item that can be squeezed into the season's looks? It only needs to be pulled off nonchalantly.

Observing the masters will come handy: watch how they werq it and give all your best to emulate.

Above are my favorite looks from the runway shows back in September. Marc Jacobs and Dries Van Noten have come up with the coolest swag. Unless you prefer someone else, then please tell me.

Below you got the street-style magister ludi of the likes of Miroslava Duma, Taylor Thomas Hill (as seen in Who What Wear) and their interpretations: dress-up doll, casual weekend errands, first-row worth buyer for example.

And now what? How do we DYI?

Craftsmanship, initiative and will to commit mistakes are the ingredients. Finally we all succeed.

You can search through thrift stores, or consignment boutiques, you never know how many of those coulottes invented by Elsa Schiaparelli and adored by Mrs. Chanel are still hiding in remote corners.

To make it easier, here's a line up of my go-to online places (you will recognize them, I prefer not to give credit as I am just an independent blogger and I am not affiliated with anyone other than my own style)

Now here's an Italian brand (to which I am not affiliated neither) that I adore and follow closely. 'It talks to me', it grasps my concepts and translates them into clothing: Semi-Couture by Erika Cavallini. Whenever I think of a piece or a collection I imagine a story, the mood of the look. That is how I have been trained when receiving the presentations of the collections back in the days. Cavallini, collection after collection, does that.

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I am ready to give them a shot.

classics, chic, niche, style

11 sexy ways to wear THE shirt, the ultimate (spring) top

Francesca B. · April 14, 2014

A cocktail to revisit the button-down shirt this season:

1/4 of Italian sensuality,

1/4 of fast fashion

50% of your own sense of style

Think blue

When you say the blue shirt the collective imaginary says 'boring'. This season it's a re-birth, a joyful, sexy and playful one. Spruce it up from your man's closet, like Camille Charriere suggests in her interpretation of the man's shirt or reinterpret your own.

with a leather mini-skirt and flat sandals
with skinny black jeans and Gucci loafers
fasten the first button and let the rest unbuttoned like at the Alexander Wang's runways
wear it over a pair of skinny khakis
buy a sophisticated, feminine painter's version like in Valentino's print ad
bell bottom denim and heels

If you don't own a blue one, when you buy one just remember a few key points:

it should be fitted,
made of a delicate, soft and gauzy cotton, ideally chambray,
the color should resemble a light denim blue.

The white essential shirt

Ok here is classics department. There's no limit to how many white shirts you must own. No less than three is a standard: fitted, button down and oversized.

oversized over cropped khakis and slip-ons
painter's shirt over denim shorts with Birks
fitted raised collar and an high waisted long full skirt. here you can go flats or heels, chic as hell
french collar, one extra button opened tucked in a pencil skirt and heels
french collar, cuffed denim, penny loafers and car coat: a spring winner

chic, style, trends, niche, classics

Stan Smith, Adidas Originals: so iconic it doesn't even realize

Francesca B. · April 6, 2014

The Stan Smith and their legacy multiplied by millions. Everyone has one or infinite definite memories laced to them.

it all started here: blue and flag green

Those beaten up Stan stand with pride in the sneakers section of your shoe closet. Every time you look at them a picture, snapshot of that field trip you took in 10th grade, the smell of freshly baked spanakopita of that summer you ended up in Greece.

The revealing moment when you see a piece of your life as a rewinded movie behind a garment is when you got the fashion bug.

That's when you know you are the proud owner of pieces in your closet that will stay there forever and survive no matter how many times you move, sizes you change, years are gone by.

Check all that apply.

Converse, that size 25 Levis 501, your first Porselli, the Panama hat, the black biker jacket, the Burberry trench coat. It's a mini museum of yourself, a retrospective to dive into with a sigh, a teary eye and a Monalisa smile all together. Nobody will take them away from you.

This spring the award goes to the Stan Smith Adidas Originals. They have walked miles from their birth, we may or not still have them.

The new generation has evolved.

Bloggers wear them, they are featured online and in magazines as the seasonal trend.

They have their own Twitter handle and they have a life on their own. That is why a series of limited editions have started trickling down, with meticulous science.

Adidas Originals Stan Smith embossed reptile

And then the bomb. As if we weren't excited enough for having put our hands on the embossed reptile Consortiums and having found the ostrich version at Dover Street Market, Pharrell announces a collaboration.

The man who auctioned for charity and sold for $44 K a Vivienne Westwood hat, opens the imagination to infinite possibilities. At the press conference he talked about reinterpreting the Stans and the tracksuit with the 3 stripes and, for the conscious consumer, using fabrics recycled from ocean's plastic debris.

Are we hyped enough?

Wait until you see this: did you see him wearing Custom Crystal Swarowski Stans at SNL??? Bedazzled! He only knows what we are set to expect from such a statement.

classics, style, trends, chic

The army jacket: the spring essential revisited

Francesca B. · March 26, 2014

It's been there for a couple of decades: don't fall into the temptation of getting rid of it. Time to wear it and be chic about it.

Do you own an utility jacket? One of those military green short coats with lots of pockets?

You (or your boyfriend) should have it in the closet, it's a staple, that is how stylists call those elements of a wardrobe that loyally stay, move with you, hibernate during winter and wake up again for summer, be landed to a friend with a ransom in place if she will not consider returning it and never end up in the Salvation Army pile. As for that, you should go to Salvation Army to look for one. Consignment and vintage stores are the best source for the military jacket.

Why?

Because fashion is a recurring river of reinvented innovations and you should never #consciouslyuncouple from the investment pieces. You may have bought it in the '90s in a flea market and then it wasn't cool anymore. You should at least have one (5 if your name is Garance Dore). Pull it off the corner of the closet where it took the dust of the year, take it to the dry cleaner and be prepared: the army jacket is back.

How to wear it [and don't look like an extra from MASH]

Use it as a disruptive element, to spice up a conservative pant suit with distressed gold brogues and give some attitude to an eyelet pleated dress with single sole strappy sandals.
Just because it was born as an utility instrument to use at war or training camps, it doesn't mean it cannot be worn at work. Wear a LDB with heels (avoid boots, remember MASH) and throw the jacket on your shoulders. Like Miroslava Doma does in the streets of Paris.
The jacket has some character no doubt, but if you think outside the box, dust off its masculine flair, you'll end up a chic winner.
Trick here is to borrow it from the boys with a twist

Where to buy it?

Anyone can send you to Ralph Lauren and hurt your credit card for generations to come (sorry buddy, dear Ralph we love you and would not survive without you at fashion week, but the only way we can splurge on you is at the outlet store).

You can buy a cool timeworn look for the best of your bucks at TopShop, J. Crew, H&M, Zara (some on sale now);
consignment stores, flea market, Salvation Army have the best digs. Look for character, history, patina, personality. And enjoy now and forever ...