April 20, 2010

Seven Days of Style: Lizzy Foydel

Welcome to the second installment of Seven Days of Style, featuring Lizzy Foydel (CC ‘12). Lizzy is a Columbia Daily Spectator News staff writer and beat chief, as well as an A&E staff writer and beat chief. Outside of journalism, she is also involved in the CU Student Global AIDS Campaign, and tutors for Community Impact.

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Tuesday 4-13-2010
J.Crew shirt, Silence+Noise skirt, Marc Jacobs flats, vintage necklace

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Wednesday 4-14-2010

J.Crew striped tee, J.Crew mini skirt, Cacharel bag, vintage necklace and bracelets

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Thursday 4-15-2010
 J.Crew skirt, J.Crew flats, J.Crew headband, vintage pearls

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Friday 4-16-2010
J.Crew menswear shirt, Benetton coat, Marc by Marc Jacobs bag, Hunter wellies

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Saturday 4-17-2010
Ralph Lauren Rugby dress, Seychelles flats, Marc by Marc Jacobs bag

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Sunday 4-18-2010
Bdg shirtdress, J.Crew flats

Helen Chen (SEAS '13)

Monday 4-19-2010
J.Crew mini skirt, J.Crew belt, Marc by Marc Jacobs bag, Steve Madden flats, vintage bracelets

How would you describe your style?
Preppy, but not overly put-together. I am a huge Francophile and I think that manifests itself in what I wear.

When did you first become interested in fashion?
When I was maybe six, I would steal copies of Vogue from the grocery store when my mother didn’t want to buy them for me.

Where do you take your style inspiration from? What are you currently inspired by?
Movies, usually old movies. French New Wave girls in Godard, Truffaut and Lelouch films, with cat eyeliner. Anything Audrey – I adore little cocktail sheaths and ballet flats. Ingrid Bergman in a classic trench coat. Love Story’s Jenny Cavalleri is so collegiate, which is fitting at the moment, and more recently, Audrey Tatou in Coco Before Chanel. Also Carla Bruni!

Where are your favorite places to shop?
J.Crew is my go-to, but I also love Ralph Lauren Rugby, Barneys Co-Op, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Rag & Bone. Cacharel, Tara Jarmon, and Repetto in Paris, which are all hard to track down here! Vena Cava and Phillip Lim make the most beautiful silk dresses. At home in Chicago, I like boutiques like Eskell and Ouest. I love to window-shop Chanel and Lanvin. And vintage, especially for jewelry.

Tell us about how you put together an outfit.
I usually pick out one piece I want to wear that day and build around it. I’d like to say I try to figure the weather into that equation, but the truth is that if I wake up in the morning wanting to wear a miniskirt in the middle of January (which is often), I just go out with bare legs.

What are your “wardrobe basics?”
Black tights, black ballet flats, white or sailor-striped tees, oxford shirts, printed dresses, basic mini skirts. Toggle and trench coats for winter, headbands, knotted and layered strands of pearls.

What is your spring must-have item?
I’m looking for a white sundress and a pair of espadrilles.

Helen Chen
Fashion Market Editor

posted by Helen Chen on 04/20/10 @ 7:27 pm Comments (1)
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March 29, 2010

La Mode Française: President Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

Getty Images

President Nicolas Sarkozy of the French Republic came to speak at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum today — and to the joyful surprise of the fashion-obsessed community (and, well, straight male population) on campus, his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was in attendance too. The event was overbooked and our very own Parisian and Menswear Editor, Martin Hamery (CC ‘13), was unable to get in for this reason, but our Features Director, Allison Malecha (CC ‘13), was able to snag a second row, center seat and our Co-Editor in Chief, Noel Duan (CC ‘13), was able to snag a fourth row seat — right behind Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy! The former supermodel was sporting an elegant but simple chignon, plain conservative black top, and formfitting but classic gray pencil skirt.

While we may not all agree with the calls for change in Sarkozy’s speech — from the instigation of a new international monetary order to reformation of structure in the United Nations Security Council — we can tell that Sarkozy has a lot of charisma and belief in his ideas. He refused to read from a speech and prompted a lot of laughter from the audience, in spite of the political controversies happening in France and the economic and political problems around the world.

Eric Kutscher

For more information about Sarkozy’s actual speech, look to recaps from Bwog and Columbia Daily Spectator. He will be dining privately with President Barack Obama tomorrow — “Please extend to him our very best regards from his alma mater,” added our dear President Lee Bollinger. We’re doing everything we can to get back on Mr. President’s good side.

However, First Lady fashion is rarely over looked. In the United States, we venerate Michelle Obama and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, but Bruni-Sarkozy was one of the top twenty highest paid models in the world, back in the ’90s. Italian-born but Swiss boarding school-bred, she signed with City Models at age nineteen and has worked with designers and fashion houses such as Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent. She is also a singer, with three albums to date. “You are my dope. More deadly than Afghan heroin. More dangerous than Colombian white powder,” is a selection from the lyrics of the song, “Ma Came” (“My Dope”). Dedicated to Sarkozy himself, in fact.

She is even going to be a guest editor for Madame Figaro, a French fashion magazine.

New York Magazine

Nowadays, she may wear ballet flats in order to not upstage her husband and grace her hair with tight buns, but once upon a time, this international cover girl let loose. And we’re glad that the First Lady of France knows how to have fun.

Noel Duan
Co-Editor in Chief

posted by Noel Duan on 03/29/10 @ 8:53 pm Comments (2)
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