Just 'cause you're lucky don't mean I'm wrong ...

Josey may be on a vacation far away (come around and talk it o-o-ver), but the EveryDay Diva was recently trippin' to an entirely different tune: travelin' to the LaLa -- and more importantly back in time -- for the Annual Retro Disco St. Patty's Day Party held at Chez MeowMeow (my former LA abode, thus named for the preponderance of felines who lived there at the time). Lest this get too
"MySpace-y", I will only say that THE 80s ROCKED. And so do the 70s.



In addition to G. and friends above, A. came dressed as Adam Ant complete with velvet pirate coat, for which I could have kissed him. OK, actually I did ... but only on the cheek. Other featured finery included a "yak-hair" coat, orange Elton shades, skinny ties, leopard prints and feather-duster earrings galore. Yours truly wore a Pucci print micro-mini and purple suede wedge boots (yes, yes, like everything else cheap and fine: Newport News... get yours now).



But the most interesting part -- as one friend commented, "You wore that yesterday didn't you?" And, well, truth be told ... I had. Not yesterday per se, but earlier that week. And got many compliments, thankyouverymuch. With VERY few exceptions, everyone's "costumes" were perfectly appropriate streetwear of the moment.

Seriously... have you seen the new what-the-rich-kids-wore-in-high-school "preppy chic" stuff edging its way into the collective fashion consciousness again? March/April mags are full of it. Yuh. You can say that again -- they ARE full of it! "Preppy" and "chic" cannot go in the same sentence. That's like saying "Talbots" and "J Crew" are edgy -- and you so will NOT see me wearing Bass Weejun penny loafers with anything I got at Neiman's. Ever.

That said, it is quite the interesting phenom to watch the marketing mavens quietly working in the background of the American shopper's psyche.

There are now "hip" new ads circulating around that look a lot like those controversial quasi-porno Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns of 2004 -- but these are for IZOD, for Chrissakes. Yep, the alligator is alive and well and living at Vogue. Egads. Stay tuned for the return of many more animals-on-shirts. Not on MY shirts, mind you, unless they're ripped to shreds and I'm wearing them to dance class -- but mark my words. Preppy is back. Ick. I grew up in New England where preppy (you DO know it stands for "prep school" right??) was born. Lisa Birnbach's Official Preppy Handbook was written by a chick from Philly's Main Line, dontcha know.

Oh, and ditto for kelly green -- color fave of conservative Republicans who summer on the Maine coast. It's on everything from designer gowns to GAP jackets this season. Which actually sort of makes it OK since its not generally on the Republicans. (Oops -- pardon my politics!)

Retro redux flashback: take all the elitist preppy crap and turn it PUNK. Yeehaw. For example, I did succumb last week to the kelly green cropped jacket from the new Luella Bartley for Target collection. She's often described as Joey Ramone meets Pollyanna. My kinda girl. So I had to do it. Even in kelly green. I modified the preppy horror, just as I would have after sneaking out my parents' door to go to the "library" in 1982 -- with a pair of yellow, high-heel Sam Edelman moccasins and Stella McCartney skinny jeans (from Stella for H&M) with zippers on the ankles. That made it OK. I think Luella would have loved it. Now I remember how I survived the 80s fashion wars. So there you wretched reptile.

Hey, if the preppy trend works for you or ON you, or ever did, knock yourself out. But do remember -- just 'cause you're lucky don't mean I'm wrong, Josey.

Anyway, all of this simply proves to me that you actually CAN go home again. (strains of that new song by Jon Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles -- um, who? -- Who Says You Can't Go Home? not me, JBJ.) -- sartorially AND apparently musically. A whole new wave (pun intended) of radio stations have gone retro -- from "Jack FM" in LA and Bakersfield & Fresno (um, Bakersfield and Fresno ... are you serious??? I may have to reconsider being this average). The new 95.7 MaxFM up here in the Bay Area is playing a mix of 70s, 80s and "whatever we want." OK, ya ... the tag phrase and mildly-in-your-face-but-not-really attitude is getting old. But hey, what's old is, after all, new again. So here I am driving my almost-40-year-old butt along the freeway to my ever more respectable client jobs, and I'm humming (alright already -- that WAS me singing at the top of my lungs) to the same tunes my almost-20-year-old self bopped to on the way to my oh-so-much-less-responsible Burger King job.

Wow. So long ago back in the day. Almost like it was, well, yesterday.