And picked the daisies fine...

It's time to say a long-awaited farewell to a year that wasn't all that great. I'm talking fashion-wise and personally.

Fashion-wise, I would like to bid farewell to the following:

(And as always these are my own personal opinions so take no offense)

Tight clothing, aka people who don't know what size they wear

Denim jackets (denim is for jeans)

Denim skirts (again, denim is for jeans)

Political-themed clothing (W's gone, Palin's an idiot and Obama won, get over it)

T-shirts with stupid slogans on the front (or back)

Tennis shoes worn with jeans (I can't even go into this one...)

Backless anything

Showing too much skin (see above)

Stores with mood-lighting, thumping music, clothes that smell like they have been soaked in cologne and half-naked high school students pretending to be models standing out front (you know who you are)

Linen pants for men (breathable? yes. attractive? no.)

Hot pants as work attire (you think I'm kidding)

Boots with high heels (or as my uncle likes to call them - "hooker boots")

I could go on....


Personally, I would like to say goodbye to:

A job that makes me cringe

People who don't know when to say goodbye

Unequality

Feeling restless and frustrated

And of course, those two lovely ladies who meant so much to me


Happy New Year to all! I hope that 2009 brings everyone possibility, happiness, new shoes and purses, and no denim in any form but blue jeans (and only if not worn with tennis shoes).

Merry and Bright

Imagine, if you will, a glamorous Christmas party. The kind that a multi-million dollar corporation would hold for its employees. Suits and ties, cocktail dresses, yummy drinks, fancy food and dancing. Now let me paint you a picture of my work Christmas party on Friday. Cheap Mexican restaurant, middle age men in mismatched suits and ties, girls in their early twenties with too-tall heels and too-short dresses, and let's not forget...public humiliation. The Men's Product Development Christmas party would make a nice episode of the Office.

Let me give you a brief recap of the festivities. First, we got to guess our Secret Santas and open our final presents. I guessed mine correctly and unfortunately the person I had guessed me because I'm not as sneaky as I like to think I am. Everyone who guessed correctly was in the running for...one free day off. So ten of us girls had to stand in front of the entire resaurant and answer Christmas trivia questions until we were narrowed down to 5 people, myself included. Then our cruel boss made us sing Silent Night in front of 30 coworkers and various other Las Palmas patrons. Now this contest had nothing to do with ability...it was all about performance and wow factor and in case you didn't know - wow factor is my middle name. I had props and hand gestures and pretty much just yelled the song as loud as possible. Now that I think about it, I should have just busted out into the "Sisters" routine from White Christmas and thrown everyone off but I wasn't thinking that quickly. Anyway, audience applause gauged the best two performances and fittingly, the 2 remaining contestants were Moona and myself. So what better way to decide the winner for a free day off then a dance-off between 2 coworkers/neighbors/friends? Needless to say, public humiliation does not phase me when I'm competing for another vacation day...so of course, I won by shaking what Santa gave me. Woohoo! This experience has taught me 3 things:

1. I have no shame. I would rather drop it like it's hot in front of the people I work with everyday as well as an entire restaurant than risk losing a free day off.
2. I feel as though there might be something inappropriate about the VP of Menswear asking 2 young girls to dance for their prize. That obviously didn't bother us though (see number 1).
3. I need a film crew following me at all times just so that people will actually believe these stories.

Speaking of Christmas parties, I went to some nice ones on Saturday, these were less humiliating and somewhat fancier. I saw all kinds of people and all kinds of outfits, some very nice and some very wrong, and it made me think that there should be rules given when dressing for this type of party. Let's discuss some do's and dont's of Christmas party attire:

DO dress up. I don't know why I have to keep reminding people that dressing up is fun. You don't have to wear a tux or a ball gown, but you could at least put on a clean shirt. Jeans at a Christmas party are questionable...unless the invitation says casual.

DO dress festively. Festiveness can be portrayed best by color. For some reason, men don't like to wear red but red means Christmas. Put on a red tie or sweater or something. Christmas ties are ok...especially if they are mostly covered by a vest or sweater.

DON'T go overboard with the festiveness. Christmas tie? Ok. Red dress? Ok. Christmas sweater with santa's face on it? Not so much. Jewelry made out of jingle bells? Not so much.

DON'T give it all away. Christmas is in December and December is typically a cold month. When you walk into a party with a halter cleavage-baring dress, there is no one there who doesn't think your stupid...and cold.

Happy Christmas!

Drag Queens, Prom Parties and Secret Santa...Oh My

I have a few pictures for you...first up...

Take a look at this lovely woman:

That is a drag queen employed by the local gay club, Discovery, where Moona and Jennifer chose to celebrate their 26th birthday last weekend. Now, I've seen alot of drag queens and they don't usually dress in something flattering...but I have never seen a half naked drag queen with her questionable naughty parts hidden by a leotard/thong covered in feathers and glitter. That takes confidence my friend. Confidence that only a man could possess.

This is us watching said drag queen gyrate to Beyonce:

That was fun...

Now December birthdays must be popular because I had another birthday party to attend this past Friday night. This party had a theme and that theme was "Candice's Prom Party Extravaganza." That is an occassion to dress for if you ask me! As soon as I received this invitation...I thought of the perfect dress. A dress that has been hanging in my closet for 3 years and surprise surprise, has never been worn. A dress that would have been looked down upon at my own prom because let's face...that prom sucked royally. So the dress is by Luella, made of taffeta (what good prom dress isn't?) and is covered in blue and green tartan plaid. Are you excited?

Well behold......

Of course, I could barely breathe all night and it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to get the dress off, but it was totally worth it. More pics of my dress enjoying the party below...

Me and Moona:

Me and my fabulous boss JR:

No one does a better prom pose that Moona and an artsy gay man/coat designer:

Ok, enough pictures. I have one more thing left to say...tomorrow starts Secret Santa at work and I can hardly contain my excitement. One $5 gift a day and on Friday at our Christmas lunch, the final $15 gift. Now some people don't enjoy spending $30 on someone they might hardly know or hardly like but I make this game work to my advantage. I sweet-talked the VP's assistant into letting me draw and re-draw from the bag of names until I got the person I wanted and have since crafted a complicated cover story to throw them off my game. Got to keep the spirit alive people!

Shock

Five people were fired today. Three of which just so happened to be amazing friends of mine. Three very talented menswear designers who did not deserve to be let go 2 weeks before Christmas. My heart hurts and my hands are still shaking...and I don't like when people tell me "at least it wasn't you"...I don't feel that way. Do you have a work family? The people you spend 8 to 10 hours a day with, the people you share your lunch table with, the people who know everything about your personal life because you spend so much time together? The people I work with are like my surrogate family since I don't see my actual family as often as I'd like to. We're united by our love for fashion and our frustration for this hateful company. It's painful to think that my work family is slowly being dismantled by corporate America....who's next?

As usual, we weren't given reasons as to why these people were let go. The industry is bad, no one is shopping, our sales are rapidly decreasing every day. And now we all get to wait in fear that we're the next ones to get escorted out of the building. I don't understand...I thought everyone needed clothes?? Why aren't you people shopping? I guess I'm not shopping either which means we must be in a sad state of affairs. For some reason people thought that Black Friday was going to be our saving grace...it was a decent day for sales...we were up 130% on my biggest line but unfortunately that's just one day out of a very slow year. Sales completely came to a halt as soon as Black Friday was over and I don't see this getting any better as we approach Christmas. Who knows what that means...

It's a bad time to be the fluff of the job market people.

"Don't you think you could be my one and only?"

For those of you who don't know, I have a tendency to develop small obsessions with certain celebrities. Case in point...Hayes Carll. We went to see him play on Friday night in Ft. Worth and it was awesome...probably not as awesome as the other 2 times I've seen him, but close enough. My plan for the evening was to convince Hayes that I was the woman for him. I mean we have so much in common...he lived in and sang about LR and that's where I live now, he has a song about Beaumont and I've been to...Sourlake, he has a music festival at Crystal Beach and I used to summer in Port Aransas. Aren't we perfect for each other?? So at the show my brother and the reverend tried to come up with excuses for why I would need to ride with Hayes to Little Rock the next day (he was playing a gig there on Saturday...coincidence? I think not...). The boys thought of some good ones but it obviously didn't work out since I found myself at IHOP at 2 a.m. with two married couples, my cousin and an internet-ordained minister. Anyway, I did get a picture and although you may not see it in his eyes...I do believe that Hayes is smitten with me.


I showed this picture to my friend Amy who was lucky enough to attend the Little Rock show and she said that he wore that exact same shirt when he played on Saturday. Now...if that's not a cry for help, I don't know what is. He needs a stylist and that stylist could be me! Or he at least needs a woman to pick out clean shirts for him and that woman could be me! Amy's other comment was "I bet he smelled bad" and my response was "no...he spelled kind of like pot mixed with whiskey, but in a good way." Now that's love.