shopping

With the snow starting to melt away and that big orange thing in the sky finally revealing itself, I’ve been scouring fashion magazines and websites with abandon, trying to get a taste of the trends for spring to plan my wardrobe for the upcoming season.

To get help in finding looks that are both fashion-forward and easy for a busy mom to pull off, celebrated St. Louis fashion stylist and personal shopper, Jan Leach of Jan Leach Style, shared with me five hot trends for spring 2011. And along with Natalie Woods, owner of Daisy Clover Boutique in Webster Groves, explained via email how anyone can pull them off so us moms can look and feel our best.

At the end of summer, my friend and I were discussing our fashion needs for fall and mentioned our mutual desire to pick up some skinny jeans. While I didn’t think the skinny jeans/flats combo worked on my body, I was excited to pair them with some knee-high boots I had stuffed away in the closet. All was right in Mommy Land.

However, a couple of days later, my friend went on Facebook and questioned her decision to purchase said skinny jeans. That’s when the floodgates opened and all hell broke loose in Mommy Land. By the responses she received, you would expect my friend to be parading down the street in a Lady Gaga meat dress. Almost all of our fellow mommies rallied against the purchase of the skinny jeans and noted how silly they look on women our age.

Yikes! My friend and I both flew into a tizzy (yes, I said tizzy) which fueled our nonstop skinny jean debate – “Should we buy them? Will we look dumb? Maybe I’ll just purchase a cheap pair from Old Navy and see how they work.”

I know, I know. Stressing over a stupid pair of jeans – it’s ridiculous. But it got me thinking – why can’t a mom still follow fashion trends, within reason, after the baby arrives?

I’m going to sound really old here, but my first memories of food co-ops go waaaay back to the ‘70s and ‘80s. The upside was healthy, nutritious (and, for us, exotic) foods like dried papaya and carob chips. The downside was pen-and-paper ordering, tallying and record-keeping. Those poor volunteers, including my mom, really toiled over their calculators at delivery time.

Nowadays, ordering is online and you don’t even have to break out a pen – unless you need to jot a reminder note about your pick-up date and time. The foods are still healthy and nutritious, but the focus has shifted to locally produced wares.

I walked through the sign-up process at Community Helpings Coop a few days ago, and it was so easy that I asked one of the organizers, Tracy Gruener, if I had missed something.

With cooler weather around the corner, many moms begin thinking of cute fall clothes. However, our kids’ needs come first, leaving little left over for us to update our wardrobes.

So until daycare is free and groceries cost a smile, I needed to figure out how to freshen up my working mom’s attire without breaking out the credit card.

I could be like Marisa from New Dress a Day who uncovers $1 finds at thrift stores and transforms them into runway-worthy designs. But my sewing skills are nil. Really – I make my husband sew on buttons and hem pants.

Or, I could try the Six Items or Less plan, living off six pieces of clothing for one month. But that would necessitate doing laundry more than once a week.

To curb my dilemma, I turned to two St. Louis experts to help me on my quest for cuteness. With their advice and a little extra work on my part, I’m headed on the right track to an affordable wardrobe rework.

Getting my first bra in fifth grade was a little on the humiliating side because 1) I had developed earlier than my more petite friends who teased me about my growing chest (which unfortunately did not keep on pace with the rest of my body as I got older), and 2) My mom picked out a stark white bra wrapped up in plastic from JCPenney which today reminds me of the Seinfeld “bro” (or “manziere” if you lean toward Frank Costanza) or an Ace bandage.

Today’s bras are nothing like ours from the 1980s. Department and specialty stores are packed with an abundance of padded, push-up and lace bras that tweens can choose from, but at the same time, leave their parents sobbing in the aisles over their little girls’ quickly diminishing childhoods. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the British retailer Primark pulled its padded bras off its shelves after media and customer outrage accused the store of sexualizing young teens.