olivia palermo style

Ever see a celebrity photo and then get totally inspired fashion-wise?  It happened to me the other day when I ran into this shot of Olivia Palermo.  Olivia is probably my favorite style star.  I think she achieves a great balance between being classy and edgy, trendy yet classic. I’m often inspired by her as you can see in my other style diary post which was inspired by an Olivia Palermo outfit.

Seeing Olivia in this black vest reminded me of the black Bebe vest that I had sitting in my closet.  It was a piece that sort of dumbfounded me.  I got in a styling rut with it and it has sat in the back of my closet yearning for attention.  That is until now.  I layered it over a feminine dress that hit the knee similar to what Olivia paired her vest with and wore it with a pair of fall booties.

My booties are from Aldo, the dress is from H&M and the chain necklace is Express – all pretty cheap finds proving that you don’t have to spend a lot to create a stylish outfit.  Looking at this now, I wish I had a pair of black leather motorcycle gloves to go with the outfit.

Do you ever see someone’s outfit and get inspired to wear something similar i.e. copy someone else’s look?

I find that this sometimes happens subliminally.  You see a red dress on a co-worker and for some reason the red dress in your closet pops out at you the very next day.  Sometimes though, you admire someone’s outfit and pick it apart, analyzing the pieces that correspond to your own wardrobe, teaching and reminding yourself that you could create a similar look.  That’s what happened when I ran into this photo of Olivia Palermo – one of my style inspirations.

I was inspired by this because though I’m a fan of the cardigan+dress+belt work look, I would not have thought about pairing the camel color with the black/white dress.  So here is my Olivia Palermo inspired work outfit using my own patterned black and white H&M dress (bought on sale for $15), paired with a vintage belt and camel colored cardigan from Express(bought on sale for $19.99).  Booties are from a NY boutique.

The necklace is from Bloomies.

Can you see the inspiration?  What do you think of my outfit?

And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my blog’s vintage dress giveaway!

In my last nerd fashion post, I spoke about how nerds ruled the runway and how nerds were featured as popular ad campaigns.  As a continuation, this post features revenge of the nerds on the real-way.  How are real people interpreting the trend?

To me, nerd fashion can be summed up as

nerd=Striped cardigan+ high waisted shorts+ white socks pulled up+ hats with the brims folded up+ round collared shirts+ loafers+ oversized or black rimmed glasses.

Here are pictures of real fashionistas who rocked the nerd look.  Below is Keiko Lynn from Brooklyn, a fellow Chictopian making black framed glasses look ultra sexy.


Another Chictopian pictured above and below, amanda brohman who is wearing white-delias-shirt, blue-cardigan, blue-jeans-brown-mossimo-shoes.

Is anyone else intrigued by this Nerd trend?

And would YOU rock the nerd glasses?

Olivia Palermo, my style icon, rocked the nerd glasses at a NY fashion show recently.

Here’s how fellow Polyvore fashionistas interpreted the trend through online collage sets.  And you know how much I love collages!

This post is about one dress and one purse, both frugal and fab.

I noticed after purchasing my work tote at a Korean boutique that it was a replica of a Balenciaga tote that Olivia Palermo carries.  The Balenciaga bag looks like this.

I love Olivia Palermo’s style so it’s not surprising I was drawn to a similar bag.  Below are my outfit posts with a replica bag that I didn’t even realize was a replica.

In the above picture I’m wearing:

  • dress and blazer – H&M (about $50)
  • belt – vintage ($20)
  • shoes – Aldo ($60)
  • purse – from a Korean boutique (about $80)
  • necklace – from a Korean boutique (about $20)

  • dress – H&M ($50?)
  • hat ($30)
  • belt ($20)
  • shoes – Aldo ($30)
  • tote – bought from a Korean boutique

I loved how this polka dotted dress had such a vintage feel.  I saw it on a mannequin at H&M, immediately did a bee-line towards the dress and charged the $50 faster than you could say “frugal and fab.”  I was so excited to start styling it that I styled the two outfits pictured above as soon as I returned home.  I can imagine also wearing it with brown boots and belt.  It’s a great transition dress that works at the workplace as well as outside of it.  What do you think?

You’ve seen my photo with Olivia at New York’s Fashion Week.   Now see her daily outfits this month at Vogue’s UK site!

photo from Vogue.com (topshop skirt N shoes, ann taylor necklace, mulberry bag)

photo from Vogue.com (vintage skirt, comptoir des cottoniers top, kurt geiger shoes)

photo from Vogue (altered dress markus lupfer leather pants from daryl k converse shoes, Hermes purse, vintage scarf)

photo from Vogue (jacket jeans adn shoes from topshop and Rebecca taylor tshirt, hermes bag, rolex watch)

I’ve always admired Olivia Palermo’s fashion sense and personal style as I think she dresses in a classy, fashionable manner – kind of sophisticated for her age too.  So it was interesting and refreshing to see how she mixes the high and low on a daily basis (something I try to do daily).  It seems she has a penchant for designer purses i.e. Hermes, and Chloe, and effortlessly mixes in vintage finds with Ann Taylor and Zara!  Here are a couple of my other favorite looks from Olivia.

Thanks to the fashion spot, we’ve got a couple examples on how anyone can copy her look for less.

photo from fashion spot.BROWN BLAZER, $42 at Yoox SCOOP-NECK SLIP, $38 at Yesstyle BIB NECKLACE, $21.44 at Kohl's BUMBLE BEE STUDS, $15 at Topshop TWEED TROUSERS, $25 at Spiegel CLASSIC RED POLISH, $7.49 at Walgreens

NAVY BLAZER, $27 at Forever 21 GOLD SQUARE NECKLACE, $100 at Anthropologie SILK TWIST-SLEEVE SLIP, $55 at Bluefly GEM STONE BELT, $37.61 at Asos JACQUARD PENCIL SKIRT, $112 at Anne Klein T-STRAP PLATFORMS, $50 at DSW OVERSIZED CLUTCH, $36 at Zara

And if you’d like more inspiration from Olivia Palermo’s wardrobe, you can actually search her name in Polyvore.com and find sets inspired by her outfits then learn where to buy each piece!

She has since moved out of her Tribeca 1bedroom but this is the only available picture of Olivia Palermo’s closet which was 63 sq. ft and made with Elfa shelves.  You know how I love the sneak peek into celebrity closets!  Here are two other recent entries about celebrity closets if you want to see more. 1. 2.

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