New York, New York!

Hello! So I just moved to New York, and I've been super busy trying to find a place to live (biggest life challenge yet) and organizing - read: budgeting - my fabulous frugal life. Here's a look at a spreadsheet I made today to help me. Note: a lady never shows her numbers. ;)

I promise to be back with fun things like hauls, fashion and how I'm dealing with this frigid weather! But I can't complain - I'm in New York!

SS13 Trends: Peplum continues

You know how (most) people hate celebrating the Christmas season before Thanksgiving? "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" was the first song of the Christmas season I heard the Monday prior Thanksgiving – six weeks before Christmas Eve. I listened to the perfect, starting-song in its entirety, and then promptly switched from the station known for extending the Christmas season well past any reasonable time span to another claiming to be a "mix," rotating of the top-20s from any of the past five years.

Zac Posen RTW SS13

Well, fashion doesn't follow the average person's resistance to celebrating too soon. Nope; you might be buying sweaters today, and next week, the Vogue you're reading at the airport on your way to grandma's house is telling you that while children dream of sugarplum fairies, you should be thinking of how to work short-shorts into your office attire. You may even sympathize with the poor models whose bare legs are stretched out on beach chairs on some urban rooftop in New York, who appear to be languidly sunning themselves but are in all actuality freezing and praying that the incoming cloud doesn't block their only source for warmth.

Zac Posen RTW SS13

But I digress. To keep up in fashion, without shopping yourself bankrupt, you have to consider the upcoming trends and what's on the way out (read: slouchy, flat boots). Harper's Bazaar is pretty good at giving it to you straight, if you don't have time to muse over the pondering of an editor you hope to never meet in public.

Thankfully, the fashion gods (Karl, Zac, Diane – this is starting to sound like a real, Mt. Olympus-themed editorial spread) have agreed that the peplum trend should continue (and fringe needs to go). Figure-flattering, varietal; the peplum is one of my favorite recurrences in fashion (heavy, stone-laden jewelry is a close second).

And, Zac Posen – whom I imagine as Hermes – has confirmed it will live on for at least SS13, but not as you imagine it. While you may be currently wearing a velvet, jersey or even wool peplum, he has incorporated a corset and caged organza and layered silk.

Below are some of my favorite looks from his SS13 Ready-to-Wear show at New York Fashion Week.

Zac Posen RTW SS13, No. 32

Zac Posen RTW SS13, No. 37

Zac Posen RTW SS13, No. 19

Zac Posen RTW SS13, No. 26

Zac Posen RTW SS13, No. 22

Zac Posen RTW SS13, No. 10

Zac Posen RTW SS13, finale, No. 38

Zac Posen with Naomi Campbell
and Coco Rocha

September: the start of the fashion year

You may be wondering why September is such a big month for fashion. After all, it's when magazines are at their heaviest (Vogue weighs in this month at 4 pounds!), the covers always await unveiling, and, there was even a documentary made about magazines during this month!

So what's the big deal?

September hosts S/S fashion shows for the coming year. It really is the big start of the fashion year since trends tend to last into the following spring and even years after that (remember the "cerulean" scene from The Devil Wears Prada?).

It seems strange that fashion shows in September premier collections for the spring and summer, right? Well, not really.

As soon as a show ends, buyers and stylists start pushing designers to get their hands on (and their clients' bodies into) those garments. Oh, and don't forget, once NYFW is over, quite a few of these designers and their crews hop the pond for Paris and Milan fashion weeks. Then, they leave the buying, selling and loaning in the capable hands of their managerial staff, and start working on the A/W collection.

Back to magazines - this is also the issue that monthly publications mark as their goal. They work all year long (often since the last September) to make a point of evaluating collections and deciding the trends that will epitomize this year's fashion. They really are the gatekeepers of fashion. Hence, journalists and designers alike cowering at the click of Anna Wintour's heels.

Vogue magazines are recognized as the authorities on fashion, though the U.S. and Paris publications have long battled for the title of magazine queen. This is also why it's such a scandal every time the magazines' queens are dethroned. Now that you know, I suggest you go back and watch The Devil Wears Prada, written by a former Vogue employee, and consider what you've learned today.