Avon has dominated the beauty category on a global level whether salon products like the Advanced Techniques lotus shield (best frizz control product) or the increasingly popular among my generation, mark makeup line. Awhile back I was invited to an Avon summer preview, so naturally, without looking too much into the invite, I assumed it’d be new beauty products. Upon arriving to the Avon showroom, I was welcomed by a pleasant surprise – a room full of summer dresses, jewelry, accessories and shoes!

Now, if your only experience with Avon is through your mom or grandma, you might expect the clothes to target an older demographic….not in this case! They sent guests home with an adorable boho maxi dress, gold cuffs, earrings and a summer tote. Check out the dress and some of the jewelry:

As shown in the top picture of this post, I receive the pair of AMAZING, vibrant jewel tone earrings at the Fashion 2.0 anniversary party earlier this summer. Unfortunately for me, I can’t wear most earrings, but I decided to surprise one of my BFF’s, Maggie from San Diego, with the loot when we reunited in Seattle a couple of weeks ago.

Avon also have shoes and I’m eyeing these over-the-knee suede boots. They are only $44.99 and comfort is one of the key features. You can check out all of Avon’s fashion offerings (including some cute jewelry for fall) here.

Leave it to Wendy Brandes to steal my heart again with her “talk to the hand” jewelry smarts (you might recall her swear rings). The newest additions to her sterling silver collection are the OMG and LOLz rings, now available for pre-order. The best part is that she is selling them through Kickstarter, a great site where people share businesses/passions they want to pursue where others can help fund…because every little bit helps.

Above: Wendy rocking the OMG rings

Wendy, being the smarty she is, realized producing the rings in the US would cost buyers over $1,000 per set. Producing the sets overseas reduces the cost dramatically, but in order do so, Wendy needs to commit to a $7,000 minimum order. Using Kickstarter allows her customers to pre-order the new styles and/or purchase other styles in the form of pledges, which helps track her progress to creating the new styles.

Guess what? She only launched a few days ago and has already reached her goal! You can still purchase via her Kickstarter for 26 days. Who knows, if she doubles her goal, maybe we’ll see even more Wendy Brandes designs later this year! You can get the OMG rings for a $300 pledge and the LOLZ rings for a $400 pledge. Pledges start at $20 and jewelry is sent to pledges starting at $50. Go here to see more about the designs and purchase.

Photo Credits: Jennine Jacob of The Coveted, Wendy Brandes

You might recall the behind the scenes post I wrote last week about my American Living for JC Penney shoot. Well, here it is! The video plays on the American Living “Made for….” campaign and highlights my favorite moment of every week – catching up with my girlfriends over brunch. In this case, I invited Amy from Midtown Girl and Julia DiNardo from Fashion Pulse. Yuli of My It Things/Style Coalition (producer of this project) and Jennine from The Coveted (she was the fab photog) joined us after we were done shooting.

Psst…to enter the $250 gift card giveaway, leave a comment here with your “Made For” moment and what you would wear from the American Living collection (more details below).

What I especially love about the white eyelet dress I wore  from the American Living summer collection is that in addition to being cute and versatile, it’s lightweight enough to sit outside at brunch without turning into a hot sticky mess. I was a little worried about it during the filming because it was over 90 degrees with no breeze…but no sweat! The best part about the footage of us at brunch was we didn’t even realize we were being filmed until he was almost done! Special thanks to Candela Candela in the East Village for letting us take over a few tables on the patio.

As mentioned in my previous post, nine other amazing style bloggers designed their own “Made for…” American Living segments. Mine is the last in the series, but here are all 10 in order:

1. What I Wore: Made for a morning cup of coffee
2. Style Bakery: Made for doing it all
3. The Budget Babe: Made for shopping at the farmer’s market
4. Gala Darling: Made for enjoying the fresh air and sunshine
5. The Coveted: Made for riding my bike
6. Corporette: Made for a power play
7. StyleMom: Made for a play date
8. SecondCityStyle: Made for shopping in the city
9. College Fashion: Made for date night
10. Clutch22: Made for brunch with the girls

$250 Gift Card Contest – Best Moment Wins!

Here’s where you come in! All you have to do is leave a comment and I’m going to pick the best answer to win! Details are below:

• Comment with your “Made for” moment and choose what you would wear from the American Living collection
• Leave your comment by this Saturday, July 31st, 11:59 pm EDT
• By entering, you’ll also be automatically entered into a $1,500 shopping spress from JC Penney
• Visit Style Coalition for the official sweepstakes rules (for the Clutch22 and grand prize)

Thanks in advance for entering and for anyone who passes this on to friends!

A little birdie gave me a heads up that Madison Avenue Couture is debuting on Rue La La this week, which will include several Chanel pieces. GASP! It opens on Rue La La this Thursday, July 22, at 11am EST. I’m trying to get an idea of what prices will start at. Stay tuned…

Here’s a preview of what to expect. One thing for sure – vintage usually means limited quantities, so be prepared to act fast if there is something specific you want to snag. If you don’t already have a Rue La La account, feel free to use my invite link to sign up: http://www.ruelala.com/invite/clutch22.

The bottom right image is the epitome of Midtown Girl’s style. Amy, you better get on that!

Photo Credit: Rue La La

Exciting news! I’ve been working with American Living, a playful designer collection at JCPenney, and the Style Coalition on a cool video campaign. A handful of other fabulous blogs, as shown in the video mash-up, are also participating including Gala Darling, The Coveted, College Fashion, Second City Style, What I Wore, Style Mom, Corporette, Style Bakery and The Budget Babe. In short, the campaign involves a series of mini-webisodes highlighting a special ”moment” from each our lives. For my moment, I chose brunch in NYC with the girls, Julia and Amy. It’s something new to my routine that I look forward to every week, which made filming super quick and easy…we even stayed for an hour after we were done filming doing the exact same thing! 

I chose a piece from the American Living summer collection that reflected my moment. Given it’s so hot in NYC right now, a white cotton eyelet dress was my pick for a sunny sidewalk brunch with friends. It’s on sale for $29.99 from $100! To add my own “flair,” I wore a hot orange belt, chunky wedges and my favorite rings. Julia wore one of the maxi dresses from the summer collection and Amy showed off her preppy side with a pink cardigan and mini beach tote. Here are the behind-the-scenes photos from my shoot, taken by the fabulous Jennine Jacob of The Coveted.

Wearing:

Dress: American Living @ JCPenney

Belt: Borrowed from a Twelve by Twelve Forever 21 dress

Shoes: United Nude

Rings: Topshop and Forever 21

I also want to give a shout-out to Tara Drake for working her magic on hair/make-up despite the blazing heat (I was seriously melting).

The video series is sponsored by JCPenney and produced by Style Coalition