Photo Credit: Jerritt Clarke
Strut, The Fashionable Mom
Fashion Follow Up
By: Kelly Ross
Jet setting starting now! The MOMS Denise and Melissa pull off CHIC CHIC this week.
Denise and Melissa got up close and personal with Tina Fey aka. Miss Bossypants this week at an exclusive screening of the movie “Admission“. Producer Paul Weitz gives a nod to the film for his advice for other parents. “One realization I’ve come to is that there is no one way to form a family in the proper way and this film is very much about that,” he said. The movie opens on March 22nd.
While we’re on the topic of parenting, Denise asked Fey about what advice she could impart to new mothers. She said, “The advice I always try to give for a mom is… Whatever you do breastfeeding-wise — great. Great. Whatever.” What advise do you have for new mothers? Sound off in the comments below and to see more of The MOMS conversation with Fey, click here.
And then The MOMS took off to be on the set of Raising America from the home base studio at CNN and HLN headquarters in Atlanta. What fun they had on set with Kyra Phillips, Doug Scott and Josh Levs.
La Marque Rag & Bone Baublebar DKNY Minnie Mortimer Bod & Christensen BCBG GAP Stuart Weitzman
Denise in a Minnie Mortimer top and La Marque jacket. Melissa in a BCBG top and GAP skirt.
Denise wearing Rag & Bone and Baublebar. And Melissa wearing a hot color Minnie Mortimer dress.
On the streets of Atlanta, Denise wearing La Marque jacket, Baublebar for DKNY bling and a Rag & Bone top. Melissa in a Minnie Mortimer top and a Bod & Christensen jacket.
Melissa in
Denise wearing a La Marque Jacket and a DKNY scarf! Melissa in a La Marque jacket.
Strut Style: Anatomy of our outfits
For over the past year, we have brought you our Fashion Friday pieces where we showcased the looks we wore on our television show, Moms and the City and A Dad Named David. But, since the success of Strut, The Fashionable Mom Show, we’ve decided to bring you Strut Style, with our first post: Anatomy of our Outfits. Because it really all began with Fashion Friday….but now it’s so much more.
What is the perfect outfit for a mom? For me, the outfits I wore to Strut the runway at The Fashionable Mom Show are the three perfect outfits for the transformable mom. Some people may think that once you reach a certain age, there are some things that you can’t pull off. Maybe that is true, but it’s all about how you feel when you wear something. Whether you’ve decided to rock a Louis Vuitton Fake bag instead of spending thousands on the real thing, or you want to wear your doc martens with skinny jeans, that is completely up to you! You can turn anything into the perfect outfit. If you are more of an alternative style dresser then there is fashion out there for you that can make you feel good, for instance, items such as skull clothing might be up your alley, if so, take a look at what is available and go from there to create your own outfit.
This is the rocker in me. It’s an outfit I would rock to work and then for a night out. My top was from Macy’s, and my hot leather pants were Helmut Lang from Bloomingdales.
/p>This is me — everyday. Gap T shirt, Gap jeans, comfy yet stylish boots, a Gap leather jacket, and accessories that make school drop-off easy and transformation to a meeting do-able. I like the appearance of these and the fact that I can extend it to other occasions if I need to! Boots have always been a favorite of mine. I especially like to strut around in a pair of knee high boots feeling like I’m the boss. They give you so much confidence and character it’s uncanny. Perhaps these kinds of boots wouldn’t work for a school drop-off, but a night on the town? Absolutely.
And anyway, there are more reserved styles to choose from. I just love boots. Along with boots, I might consider purchasing a beautiful leather bag for myself. While purchasing a new leather bag, I may need to conduct proper research as these bags are generally highly-priced, and putting up my money on an unsuitable bag might not be a good idea. Nowadays, there are various types of the leather present in the market like full-grain, split grain, and caviar leather (check out Chanel Caviar Leather: Definition, Uses, Care and Maintenance – LeatherProfy).
And there’s no better way to end a day unless you’re in a dress by Laundry. And this is the perfect color and perfect fit — for this fashionable mom!
Strut-ing with Iman
We’ve spent years in the television business interviewing celebrities. But there’s something different when you’re working together. And this week, we learned what that feels like while we shot a video for Strut, The Fashionable Mom Show with Iman and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the Fashion Director of Lincoln Center.
Iman was just one of the girls. Just another hard working mom fitting the shoot into her busy life. Just another woman supporting something she believes in.
And we’re honored she believes in The Fashionable Mom Show. There’s no one better to Strut with.
Stay tuned for the video….
How some random moms got a show in fashion week….
BY Denise Albert
We are beyond excited to announce Strut, The Fashionable Mom Show. We are thrilled, as entrepreneurs, to partner with such respectable businesswomen as are our partners, Holly Pavlika of MOM-entum/ Big Fuel, Audrey McClelland and Vera Sweeney of Getting Gorgeous and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Director of Fashion at Lincoln Center and Fashion Consultant to IMG.
Here’s our MOMmentary and how it all began.
DENISE
My passion for fashion began at a young age. In fact, my earliest real memory of my obsession was being bribed with two sweaters from the Gap in fourth grade in exchange for petting our family dog. (For someone with a fear of animals, that’s a big feat, but this is a whole other story entirely).
I remember my mom calling my dad while I was in high school to see if it was okay to buy a $60.00 fluorescent “hotdogger” top. It was the look of the moment, as horrifying as it may be (and I believe there are some yearbook photos as evidence!)
There wasn’t a trend I didn’t follow. NO matter how embarrassing it is to look back on today.
In college, I spent my first summer paycheck on a DKNY bag. (Or was it the money I made from a keg party at our house?) I can still picture it exactly. I hear my mother’s voice, “Why would you spend $125.00” on that! “Where did you get that from, certainly not from me. I’m a bargain shopper”.
I’ve always been the one among my peers to pull it all together. I’m the one my friends go to for fashion advice, the one always complimented on putting outfits together. The one who spends hours browsing sites like EziBuy.com trying to find the next hot deal.
Then when we began shooting our television show less than two years ago, as entrepreneurs and part of a startup, I wondered how we would be able to look and feel good on television every week with fresh new looks. After all, clothes are expensive, especially the best designer brands. Even if we were buying Faux Louis Vuitton accessories every week, which would lower the costs whilst still looking classy, I was still concerned on how we’d afford an entirely new outfit every week.
So I turned to the biggest go-getter I’d ever met, my partner Melissa. I said, “Melis, we can’t afford to buy new outfits every week, let’s talk to people whose clothes we like and wear their clothes and help them create a buzz about the moms.”
It was that little thought that opened our eyes into the world of fashion. Then this past summer, I thought, there’s never been a mom fashion show. So why not create one. Why not partner with the best in the biz. Why not bring together the worlds of social media and moms and combine it with what we know best, television and journalism and of course, fashion.
Fast forward to today.
Fashion has always been a passion, but never a profession.
Until now.
We have built our business and brand with the motto that anything is possible. We took our little idea and made it big. And that’s just the beginning of how we got a show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. It wasn’t long ago that I was looking into sites like Site Beginner to start blogging and now look, we’re talking about attending fashion week! Who would have thought?
I still shop at the Gap, I still have a DKNY bag, I likely won’t wear a hotdogger and will not take bribes associated with animals, but I also believe all of it had a hand in the creation of Strut, The Fashionable Mom Show.
MELISSA
I thought I had a sense of fashion until I moved to New York City which was almost 17 years ago. I remember walking the streets of the East Village when I attended N.Y.U. admiring everyone and thinking if I could only look that funky, stylish and cool. Even seeing some of the guys with a leather wallet or even staple jewellery pieces made me think about how cool everyone was in New York. I then started to realise that even accessories can make such a difference to anyone’s outfit. Even with my motorcycle boots that I saved up for, I still looked Melissa from Missouri.
Fast forward to my years as a news career woman and I could definitely rock a good suit and heels but I was always minus that fashion flair that so many women have. That easy breezy “oh I just threw this ensemble on” was something I never could seem to manage. I always felt that I looked like I was trying too hard or that the scarf I threw on looked as if it was choking me instead of draping effortlessly around my neck.
Then came motherhood times three. I always embraced the new styles whether it was the pashmina, or the wrap dress or the skinny jean and even the poncho. I always made the purchase but again it never felt fabulous on. I felt current and relevant but never stylish, that is until now.
When we landed our TV show with NBC and learned the fashion possibilities I suddenly understood what fashion was all about. It was about taking risks. I was now wearing new colors or adding belts and chunky jewelry, things I rarely ever did. I also learned quickly what styles and cuts and designs are best for my body and coloring.
So, with the announcement of our first ever Moms Fashion Show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week today, I do have to pinch myself. In a million years I would have never dreamed that I would be putting on an event like this.
I know I will never forget my Missouri sense of style. It still comes out. No one ever explained that red just doesn’t go well with burgundy shoes. At least they were Stuart Weitzman.
(Okay, I admit it — Denise tried to tell me the shoes didn’t go. I didn’t listen but when Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, The Director of Fashion at Lincoln Center chimed in, I had to accept it)