Suited Up in Style : The same skirt and jacket but four different looks. How? Individual panache.
Some women just have a knack for recognizing what goes together and what doesn’t; they can combine the old with the new, the expensive with the cheap to great effect.
Or, to put it another way: They understand both the art and science of shopping.
To explore the quirks of personal style, The Times asked four women of diverse ages, professions and sizes to personalize the same basic black suit: a lightweight wool gabardine Clubhouse Essentials skirt ($89 in misses and petite, $99 in large size) and jacket ($148 in misses and petite, $179 in large) from Bullock’s in Sherman Oaks.
The women then went to various stores to accessorize their outfits with only one piece of advice: Be true to your style.
Here’s what happened:
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Susana Miller seems like a quintessential Angeleno. She waits tables at Spago when she’s not working as a part-time stylist, and she puts her money where it counts: a cool car (midnight blue ’52 Chevy deluxe coupe), great sunglasses, eclectic earrings and contemporary shoes. Where she usually skimps? On the clothing.
“I usually wear men’s jackets that people oooh and aaah over. I highly recommend Salvation Army and Goodwill,” said Miller, a Size 8. “You can get them for $2.95 to $10, and the old stuff is better constructed.”
The 40-year-old West Hollywood resident said the best way to negotiate thrift shops, yard sales and flea markets is “to first look for good fabrics--sheers, flannels, Pendleton wools, cottons and crochet. Skip old polyesters because they hold odors.
“I don’t buy worn vintage shoes,” she added. “Only the kind that were left in a closet until they were out of style.” One recent find were just-like-new 1950s brown leather and white buckskin golf shoes for $6. She paid another $6 to have the spikes removed, and the result was a pair of spectator oxfords that she says are worthy of an Armani ad.
When Miller set out to accessorize her black suit to wear to a cocktail party, she visited the vintage and new boutiques and the shoe shop at American Rag Cie on La Brea Avenue. She chose a vintage blouse in sheer white seersucker with rhinestone buttons, $19.95; Cutler and Gross sunglasses from England, $99.95; eccentric Scooter rhinestone loop earrings, $119.95, and the shoes of the moment--black suede lace-up platforms, by Audley for $99.95.
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“I shop two ways,” said L.A. resident Betsy Hunter. “There’s the serious way, when I look in my closet and realize I’ve worn out last year’s black jacket and need a new one. I always go by myself, first thing in the morning when no one is in the stores. I pirouette through to find what I need.
“The other shopping is like sightseeing, when I’m not looking for anything. That’s when I find the perfect, oddball things.”
Hunter’s “classic with a touch of the off-beat” approach is evident at first glance. She has bucked prevailing trends and let her hair go both gray and long. “I like it more now than any other hair color,” she said. “Before, I was just another blonde from California.”
Hunter, 48, is in business with Robert Lahaye, an artist who designs jewelry. (Typically, she wears some of his contemporary gold necklaces and earrings.) She has worked as a fashion coordinator and merchandiser for I. Magnin and May Co.
She shops everywhere--department stores, and specialty and resale shops as well as the Gap, American Rag Cie and Ice.
Jackets are the pivotal pieces in her wardrobe. “I might spend $400 to $500 for a great jacket,” said Hunter, a petite Size 4. “I have a black gabardine Calvin Klein from eight years ago that I’ll wear until it falls off me.”
At Nordstrom in Westside Pavilion, Hunter individualized the basic black suit with a pair of brown and black suede shoes by Ellen Tracy, $145. The brown in the shoes led her to a large brown (with other colors mixed in) English Eccentrics silk scarf, $145, that she wrapped as a shawl, and Citi’s tobacco silk blouse, $165. The other details: Anne Klein’s black basket pattern hose, $12; Jaded’s matte gold museum-look earrings, $95, and Anne Klein’s matte gold cross pendant, $45.
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In building a wardrobe, Nzinga Ratibisha Heru chooses to follow some fashion “rules” and ignore others. She observes the corporate dress code of her employer, IBM, by wearing dark, conservative suits and skirts rather than pants. But she acknowledges her interest in African folklore by wearing certain colors on certain days of the week “to match my energy with the Earth.”
Heru, a Size 20, draws the line at following any of fashion’s dictates for larger women. “I don’t like polyester,” she said. “I don’t follow any of those rules on stripes or bright colors. The best thing is to put something on and look in the mirror and let the mirror decide.”
While it’s easy for Heru to find good-looking large-size business suits at Bullock’s or August Max Woman, “it’s hard to find things beyond suits, so that’s when I turned to having things made.
“I bought mud cloth when I went to Mali and kente when I went to Kumasi in Ghana. Back here, I have them made into what I want.”
Heru, 46, gives her outfits an Afro-centric twist in other ways: She may drape handwoven fabrics as scarves or wrap them as headpieces or she may don a traditional cloth hat--or crown--for dressy occasions. She does her hair in twists and keeps it out of her eyes with gold barrettes, and she wears gold jewelry with ethnic designs.
On her shopping expedition to accessorize the black suit, Heru picked up items from Design Network International in the Crenshaw area. Among them: a handwoven strip of fabric from Senegal to drape over the shoulders, $375; fabric-covered barrettes, $25 each; a made-to-order black silk drape-collar blouse by local African-American designer Ahneva Ahneva, $175, and 24-karat gold-plate filigree earrings from the Ivory Coast, $85.
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Paula Valenzuela shops once or twice a month, but when she shops, she displays the stamina of, well, a marathon runner.
“I go for hours,” said the 23-year-old secretary and mother who lives in Whittier. “I usually go by myself because no one likes to shop with me. I really take my time. I’m looking for versatile pieces I can wear lots of ways, and usually I buy an outfit at a time.
“I like what’s in style,” Valenzuela said. “Trendy, but not too trendy. I don’t wear basics.”
She does, however, have a weakness for vests, and one favorite in her closet is a black leather, zip-front number.
Valenzuela pores over fashion magazines to memorize current looks. When she’s out in shops such as Judy’s or Contempo Casuals, she can spot a high-fashion look-alike at 50 paces. With the right cut, the right collar or the right heel, her wanna-be designer looks can hit the mark at a fraction of the designer prices.
Valenzuela spent $129 at Judy’s in Los Cerritos Center to make her basic black suit conform to her style. Her purchases included Judy’s private-label black rayon vest, $45; Rampage cream polyester/cotton knit sleeveless blouse, $36; necklace, $7; earrings, $5; cream hose, $7, and black nubuck platform shoes, $29.
4 OF A KIND
Ask four different women to accessorize the same black suit and what do you get? Four different looks, of course. Meet:
1) Nzinga Ratibisha Heru, who chose accessories that reflect her African-American heritage; 2) Susana Miller, who searches out great sunglasses, earrings and shoes; 3) Betsy Hunter, who bucks prevailing trends, and 4) Paula Valenzuela, who eschews the basics.
