Final Destination.

The time has come! And that time is the time to vote on our Dare To Design finalists!

I know we (I) am a few days behind in getting these designs up but, as usual, there were so many good options to choose from we wanted to take our time and pick the very best ones.

And, here they are! The Final 15.

You probably know the drill, but here it is again.

Look at the dresses.

Look again.

Think about it really hard.

Then head over to our voting survey and let us know which design is your favorite.

We'll count up the votes (and by "we" I mean that the computer will) and then we'll announce the big winner on September 15th.

Isn't this fun?

So, without further ado, here they are!


1. Unleash your inner Kate Middleton in Tulip, a royal-worthy purple frock from A Little Bit O Meghan.



2. Is there anything better than flirty polka dots (on a skirt!) from Little Season.



3. Turn heads in this racy, lacy pink dress from Made It On Monday. (Did she really, do you think?)



4. Dream a little dream in Daydreamer, a dreamy white maxi dress, from Lunt Family of Five.



5. Pop in poppy red (with a dash of honey), courtesy of Dianne Talley.



6. No need to choose between the dark side and the light side. Have it both ways in this white dress with black piping from Quite Contrary.



7. Put a swing in your step with this 50's inspired concoction from i am mai.



8. Be your own skipper in this nautical-inspired number.



9. Some peppy preppy from Fashion or Fiction.



10. Don't hide this dress, Take A Memo by Alyrenee, behind a desk all day.



11. Float, flutter and fly away with this scallop neck, asymmetrical dress from Bre's Baubles.



12. You'll certainly look like a doll in this patterned dress from My Fashion Dolly.



13. Won't you please Sail Away With Me, from icandy handmade.



14. Who doesn't need a not-so-simple black skirt, from The Orchard In Bloom.



15. You'll probably want to play dress up every day in The Dollhouse Dress from The Millar Memoir.



A big hand to all our participants, and congratulations to The Final 15.

Remember, hit up our voting survey to make your choice known. You only have until September 11th to get your vote in there!

May the best dress win!

Head(ed) In The Right Direction

I have been growing out my hair for the wedding (30 days!) but the fact of the matter is, it will not be that long, so I've been weighing my options over the last several weeks as far as wedding hair is concerned. Namely, I have been agonizing over what kind of headpiece I wanted. I have probably spent the equivalent of a full 40-hour work week looking through every single thing on Twigs and Honey, over and over, and over again.

At first I was thinking I might go with a birdcage veil. Those always seem like a good option for short hair.

There is, of course, the traditional birdcage veil: minimalist, chic, lovely.






But I was also quite taken with this double-layer birdcage veil. I really liked the varied texture and extra oomph.





But then I decided that I didn't want anything over my eyes.

So then, I toyed around for a while with this modern twist on the birdcage veil.





In the end, though, I decided it was a little too weird and didn't really fit the vibe of my dress.

So, back to the drawing board it was.

One easy solution seemed to be a simple feathered headband, like this one.





But that felt a little too simple. Plus my dress is ivory. Plus my dress has a lot of layers and flounce already, and something about a feather in my hair made me worry that it would look like a costume. Which is not the aesthetic I am going for.

And then, it happened.

I found this double-banded rhinestone tiara and all my woes were over.




I definitely had to work up to the idea of spending that amount of money on a headpiece, but I got it in the mail a couple weeks ago, and it is just right. It is fancy without being over the top, and the tone and colors are a perfect fit for the rest of my ensemble. I am ever so pleased.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with my hair itself. Lots of pins for an artsy up-do? Soft curls for a romantic down-do? Whatever it is, I definitely do not want to have to worry about it and mess around with it for the whole day.

Can you help?
What is your favorite hair for an off-white wedding?

Less Than Three

More from Miss Erin Clare in the City of Lights...

When you've got exactly Seventy Eight hours in Paris, every second counts. And though I was worried that taking a long weekend in the City of Lights might yield fewer artistic adventures, culinary delights, and fashion photo ops than my over-eager expectations had anticipated, the second I touched down, my fears were assuaged. Beautiful people everywhere! Perfect little sandwiches at the kiosk at the train station! Things were going to be just fine.

Less than three hours in after prying myself from the pressurized clutches of my rickety trans-Atlantic flight, having stuffed my weekend bag in a locker at Gare du Nord and changing into something a bit less I-just-got-off-a-red-eye-flight, I found myself at the Centre Pompidou--completely distracted from the art by this amazing young man:

Let's not talk about the perfectly Victorian vampire aesthetic with the elegantly coiffed hair, the long coat with tails and the fabulous trousers--can we go straight to the five-inch HEEL-LESS PLATFORMS on his feet?

The entire museum was a-buzz as he strut from room to room (because, really, you can't do anything BUT strut in those puppies) looking like he may have just stepped straight out of the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and strut his way across the runway of the Atlantic to end up in Paris, with people whispering and pointing, iPhones out trying to surreptitiously sneak a photo. After nonchalantly chasing him from room to room trying to get a shot of my own--I mean I'm on a fashion reconnaissance mission here--I finally gave up and just walked straight up to him, fingers crossed. "I'm sorry," I said in French, "But you look amazing....would you mind if I took a photo?"



"Oh! Merci! wow, I don't really speak French but yes, Sure. Thanks!" He said, in English. Turns out that Nicolas, who is Dutch, is also one of the sweetest fashionistas I've ever met. We chatted for a bit while he tottered on his heels and he let me snap a couple quick shots on my phone before we traded cards and bisous, and I was free to bask in the lapis glow of Yves Klein and drink in the atmosphere of one of my favorite Rothkos while the rest of the museum-goers were craning their necks to get a better look at lovely Nicolas.

Oh Paris, I love you...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Everyone's favorite new princess, that's Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge to you, is already lighting all kinds of fashion trends on fire, including sheer pantyhose and lace-topped wedding dresses. Not to mention knock-off sapphire engagement rings.

The girl has serious style chops, to be sure. But the thing I am most taken with is her penchant for shopping in her own closet. She seems to be the princess of the artful re-wear, and I like what I see.

Most recently, she recycled two wardrobe pieces, a green DVF dress that she debuted on her North American adventure, and a cream colored coat that she sported to a friend's wedding several years ago, for William's cousin Zara Phillip's wedding in Scotland.







And, while we're talking about that North American adventure, not all Kate's travel clothes were new. In fact, she re-wore the cream Reiss dress made famous by her engagement portraits. The fascinator was different, but the hard-to-miss engagement sparkler was the same.





Personally, I think it's a fashion-savvy move. With a closet full of such fabulous things, why not get a lot of use out of them? And it's a PR-savvy move as well. Especially in an age of tighter belts and thinner wallets, who doesn't love a princess who displays some budget-consciousness herself?

But, maybe it's just me.
What do you think of Kate Middleton's fashion recycling: princess or pauper?
And what are the items in your closet you wear over and over again?

The (Second) Best Travel Companion

Today we are checking back in with Miss Erin Brown, who sends more love from her Parisian adventure. Read on, mon amis!

My best friend and I met on a boat. On a lake. In Siberia. It was the summer before our junior year of college, and we were gliding through the icy waters of Lake Baikal on a 60-foot Soviet cutter with a group of ecologists, a gaggle of other research assistants and 15 Russian sailors. When we survived a month of close quarters, salted fish and no real showers without wanting to kill one another, we knew it was meant to be. Since then we've been besties, and, more importantly, travel companions-- rambling from Paris to Prague to the Balkans and through the woods of Maine, Pennsylvania and Utah together, laughing, adventuring, eating lots of pastries and meeting amazing people along the way-- without a single fight or argument. She's dragged me to gypsy bars, raced me through the hall of Italian art at the Louvre, made me drink salty yogurt, blown up my stove in Paris, and chased me down some pretty intense ski runs. She's basically the best thing since quinoa.

Now that we are living semi-boring, semi-responsible, more than semi-budgeted lives in New York, we have to do a lot more armchair traveling. Luckily, she happens to work for a publishing house, which means free books galore! Tonight she handed me Paris To The Moon, a new book by Adam Gopnik for me to take with me on my trip to Paris this week. Thumbing its pages got me thinking about my favorite places and the books that describe them oh-so-well. I cannot take a vacation without at least one slim volume in my bag to keep me company on the plane and in cafes or laundromats or train platforms, and I started making a list of my favorites. So whether you're planning a trip to one of these destinations any time soon, or just looking to do a little armchair traveling yourself, I'd highly recommend these wonderful traveling companions...

{Image found here.}

For a trip to Eastern Europe, be sure to pack along Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Set in Soviet-era Prague, it is a gorgeously-crafted story of love, loss and art. As the characters lives intertwine with the civil unrest and politics of the time and place, life loses its sense of grounding and beautiful heartbreak ensues.

If you're heading south of the border, take along Like Water For Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, a gorgeous work of magical realism that will have you glued to your beach chair reading all day, hungry for love AND some good home-cooked Mexican food.

Going North? Norwegian author Erland Loe's little Naive, Super has been one of my favorites since I bought it at the Red Wheelbarrow bookstore in Paris and did not get off the metro until I had finished reading it on my way home. It has passed from traveler to traveler in my life for years. A good one for a wanderer in search of an elusive something.

If you're heading to my home base, NYC, pick up the slim little book Here Is New York by EB White (of Charlotte's Web and The Elements of Style fame). It perfectly captures the energy and excitement of the city, even several decades on.

{Image found here.}

A trip to Turkey would be incomplete without the literary stylings of Orhan Pamuk. I loved My Name Is Red, which deals with 14th century illuminations in the sultan's workshops, but his novels is set in contemporary Turkey, such as Snow and The Museum of Innocence are marvelous, too.

Since I can't bring my bestie along with me, Paris To The Moon will have to do. But tell me, what are YOUR favorite travel-worthy books?

Dare To Design: The Clock Is Ticking!

Today's post brought to you by the lovely Kimberly Duncan. Enjoy!

Hello everyone and happy Monday!

Did we all have a good weekend? I headed to the beach and soaked up some R&R in the sun with family and friends.

And in my beach bag was a sketch pad and some freshly sharpened pencils. Why, you might ask? Because the Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest deadline is quickly approaching! Only 9 days, my friends.

So for those creative procrastinators out there, I’ve found some amazing sketches by famous wedding dress designers to get you going. Remember, we’re looking for dresses, blouses, and skirts for our Spring 2012 collection. And who knows, after glancing through this inspiration, you might just surprise yourself once you unleash your inner fashion designer.

For a refreshers on the dates, guidelines and rules of Dare to Design, click here.

For all the sketches and designs you see below, click here.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!