The Wild Wild West (or How to be a Walking Ad Campaign for Isabel Marant)

In 2009, I fell in love with Isabel Marant. This Style.com slideshow was the shot heard round the world - or perhaps just around New York City and Paris. Nonetheless, it was a shot fired and one that would lead me down a rabbit hole of niche French designers to fall for (Vanessa Bruno's eponymous line and Jean Toitou's A.P.C. come to mind).

Isabel Marant's luxe-bohemian, Wild Wild West-twinged look was a new frontier in fashion. It nixed the frilly-dilly of bohemian looks in years past and gave it a sleek sophisticated je nes se quoi. Even the Wall Street Journal could not ignore the emergence of Miss Marant.  And when Isabel Marant would brought her vision to an H & M collaboration, it was the equivalent of seven Ben & Jerry's pints after a Master Cleanse - yup, that goood. But now that this is an thing of the past, it's time to try recreating the quintessential Marant look with some careful styling, attention to detail, and one piece from her lower-priced sister-line Etoile Isabel Marant. It's totally cowgirl but replace tumbleweed Montana with fashion capital Milan. Catch ma drift? 

Shop this Outfix:

Shirt by H & M, $10  /  Skirt by Etoile Isabel Marant, $300  /  Hat by Zara, $60  /  Clutch by Valentino, $1,595 (similar for under $200 here)  /  Shoes by H by Hudson, $285

Classic / Cool

There's fashion and then there's this. My eyes popped out of my head like a freakin' Looney Tune who has just spent the day on acid with Miley Cyrus when I laid eyes on a woman who dared to wear a Valentino bow-blouse and bohemian-riche skirt (both undoubtedly editorial hits of the season) with Nike Air Force 1s. She is freaking cool. It got me thinking about something else that's freaking cool: the Adidas Stan Smith - the unlikely 'It' shoe of this summer. Leandra Medine thinks so and I love her the way I love corn dogs after six margaritas which is to say - I love her more than is healthy.

I'm drinking the Kool Aid on these sneaks and this look packs a punch! Brief Interlude: I heretofore have gathered little to no information on the elusive Stan Smith other than that the being in question held a tennis raquet and was good at such an art form. I care for sports like the heterosexual male cares for Girls. Now that this tangent has taken its course, case-in-point time. A delightful knot-tie blouse + funky yet fab florals + Stan Smiths = classic yet cool, or cool yet classic - pick your poison, I'll pick mine. Like a middle-aged stripper moonlighting as a Pre-School teacher by day, this look may cause scratching of head (and inevitably dandruff along with that) but the fashion-frenzied girls who pronounce Proenza Schouler the right way, will know you got it. Just like this girl - yes, I'm still thinking about her - she who wears Valentino with Nikes and dates a bearded man presumably from Brooklyn but actually from Australia.

Shop this Outfix, fickle friends and fair-weathered family:

Blouse - H&M

Pants - Zara

Lips - Tom Ford

Sneakers - Adidas

Bag - J. Crew