Though Shelton Clothiers generally is a men's suiting store, they will host their second women's custom suit event TOMORROW from 5 - 9 p.m. Suits are available from $695 to $895 and pieces include custom jackets, pants, and skirts. Wine and hors d'oeuvres will be served, and for every suit you buy, you'll get a $150 gift certificate.

The newest store from Divine Rags is The White Horse at the Avenue Carriage Crossing in Collierville. The White Horse's Grand Splash is this Saturday, November 21st. If you go in before then, you will get 10 percent off, and I believe there will be specials Saturday, as well.

While not technically clothing related, I also want to mention MCA's 60th Annual Holiday Bazaar this Friday, November 20th, from 6 - 9 p.m., and Saturday, November 21st, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. The Bazaar features food, cash bar, photos with Santa and his elves, and original artwork by MCA students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Also, the Flyer's next Work It Wednesday event will be held at the Beauty Shop in Cooper Young December 2nd. Specials include 10 percent off all menu items, $5 house wine, and $2.50 domestic beer.

I love the light, that little bite in the air, and the way you can go outside without immediately passing out from heat stroke.

Actually, what I like most is the way you can wear sweaters and such sans outerwear. Or with outerwear. Or whatever makes you most comfortable. It's really a very versatile time.

Take kindergarten teacher Jamie Thompson, for instance.

She is wearing a light, long-sleeved green-on-green argyle sweater with plaid slacks, sunglasses, and pumps.

To me, this seems very versatile: she could easily wear this just about anywhere and be comfortable: inside, outside, to lunch, to the office, or for doing what she was doing: watching her two small children play outside of City Hall.

When we ran into her outside of the COGIC convention last week, she was wearing a green cardigan layered over a black lacey tee, a banded skirt, and black boots (Everyone has been wearing boots lately! I know they were in last year bigtime, but it seems like they've only gotten bigger since then!)

"I don't like to be confined," she says of her outfit. "I didn't want to walk around and tiptoe in some heels. ... I can be comfortable and praise the Lord at the same time."

I bet some of you ladies who don't like heels are giving her an "Amen" right now.

Just guess what Valencia Woods' favorite color is.

I'll give you a hint: There's an Aerosmith song by the same name. And a pop star with a Top 40 hit right now on the pop charts. And a Victoria's Secret clothing line.

"I wear pink every day," says Woods. "I love pink."

She will generally pair her pink with black — like she did on this day — or she'll pair it with lime green or purple.

With that, Memphis will lose its access to fabulous November fashion. I mean, let's be honest, the convention is known as much for hats as its economic impact or spiritual message.

So the other day, Justin let me tag along with him. Unfortunately, it was mid-morning and there weren't that many hats out and about, but on the other hand, a lot of the outfits sparkled in the mid-morning sun. There were diamonds and rhinestones, iridescent fabrics, beads, sequins, jewelry. Take Shelia Sewell's outfit, for example.

She was wearing a cream-colored three-piece skirt suit in lace. But her leopard print hat includes a big satin bow and a rhinestone trim.

And her jacket clasp is completely inlaid with rhinestones, as well. Which matches her necklace and earrings.

Cute little Faith Jackson was in town from Chicago to attend the convention and wore this gray skirt with a short-sleeved black cotton blouse because she thought it was going to be hot.

(Funny how our perceptions change depending on what we're used to. See the next item.)

"My skirt looks like it's wool, but it's actually cotton," she says.

She says her style is simple, but sophisticated. I especially liked her silver name necklace.

Texan Christin Gordon was one of the vendors out on the Main Street Mall this week.

(I think I'll let you guess what she was selling.)

I loved her mix of high and low — what she called her "Chicago" coat, the stripey tee and jeans, and her Texas A&M/Aggie camo cap.

"I wanted to be warm," she said. "It's beautiful now, but when the wind starts to blow, it gets cold."

She also brought a number of different scarves with her, not just to Memphis, but to the booth.

"I love scarves. I have a bunch," she says. "You can still be cute in the cold."

No doubt inspired by the many hours I have helped him shop for shoes, or my recent "shoes that pop" posts, or even the shoes I am wearing today ...

he was kind enough to bring me back a little something ... shoes that REALLY pop.

I mean: elf toes, puff balls, gold trim? I'm not sure where exactly I can wear them, but they definitely raise the bar for the rest of my footwear.

Thanks, PD!

From the flyer, it looks like 10 percent of sales from Ovadafut, Robert Graham, Eton, Antique Jewelry Box, Torino, Jose Luis Leather, Frye Boots, Shin Choi, Christopher Fischer, Ava, Minnie Rose, Repeat, Magaschoni, White + Warren, Cullen, and Kinross will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Memphis.

Speaking of fun, here are some other pictures of Ovadafut socks.

Seriously, the Convention and Visitors Bureau should hire us. We've met people from Sweden, Los Angeles, Denver, and Las Vegas, among others.

The latest was Toronto resident Rachel Hilton.

We first noticed her lovely Virginia Johnson silk-screened scarf — "it's cold in Canada," she said — then her simple cloth and sequin necklace.

"I like jeans and t-shirts, but we've been wearing those all week," she said. "We're going to dinner and McEwen's and we thought we'd put on something nice."

We quickly signaled the bartender for our tab and struggled to get our stuff together — cameras, notepads, pens — before we lost her.

"It's no use," Justin said and sighed. "She's walking at a pretty good clip."

"But you just ran a marathon," I reminded him. "And finished! You can probably catch her. Just leave me here. I'll be okay."

He looked back toward the street as if to assess the situation, but she was already gone.

[That's basically what happened anyway.]

We had already gathered up all our stuff and paid our tab, so we wandered into the streets of downtown, and who should we see a little while later but the same woman, Meredy Carnahan? Only this time she was joined by her four-legged friend, Idgie.

Carnahan, an interior designer with Looney Ricks Kiss, was wearing an American Eagle vest, a Free People hoodie, a tank, a skirt from H&M, and Camper boots.

"I wanted to wear my boots," she said of the outfit. "This is the first time I've worn them this season."

I have to admit: With just a chill in the air, it was perfect weather for layering and boots with skirts. I especially loved the cute little beads hanging from the zipper of Carnahan's hoodie. So fun!

Idgie is wearing a collar Carnahan bought off etsy.com.

She got both her pants and her embroidered tunic from Plato's Closet while her little ballerina flats came from Shoe-Nami. And her shell necklace, which I really liked, was from Florida. The whole thing — especially with the color and detailing of the tunic — is so casual cool.

"I'm a single mom so I don't buy anything more than $20. It's a rule," she said.

She said her style was kind of Midtown, but not too indie or provocative.

"I like to look like a mom, but at the same time, I'm 23," she said. "It's hard to pull off."

I think that might make these "mom jeans" but in a good way.]]> [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Until then, you can enjoy this preview. (Also you might have seen 7 Diamonds in the Flyer's fall fashion issue. I love the shirts and generally use at least one each year.)

I would *like* to talk about shoes that POP! because these definitely do, but I can't because I guess I didn't notice that they POPPED! until I saw this photo. And frankly, looking at my chicken scratch notes, who knows if cute little Sarah Piazza told me anything about her shoes?

(Note to blog readers: If you see Justin and me out and we want to take your picture and your shoes POP!, do me a favor and say, "Hey, have you noticed my shoes? They POP!" Thank you. And now we will return to your regularly scheduled blog post.)

Piazza came to party with us at the Flyer's Best of Memphis party a few weeks back, choosing an almost-basic black dress that she got from Plato's Closet.

"I collect black dresses," she says. "You can do anything to them."

In this particular case, she has tied a scarf around her waist as a belt.

"I didn't like how loose it was. It was kind of boring," she says of the dress.

But add a belt and a warm-toned shoe and, voila! not boring.

And in this particular case, I actually got some information about them (though I'm sure through no fault of my own).

"Everything I'm wearing is ancient and put together at the last minute," Emily Halpern told me. "I wore black because I wanted to be understated."

The top came from Sachi, while the jean jacket is from the Gap. Those were paired with Uniqlo jeans and red Calvin Klein heels.

"It was fairly monochromatic until I added the shoes," she says.

They add a nice POP!, no?

Halpern also mentions a rule of fashion: Keep the classics in your closet, even after they've gone out of style. Her jean jacket, for instance, is about six years old.

"I like to hold onto things. For a while, they might not look good, but after some time, they work."

We could also talk about Halpern's J. Crew shirt and uniqlo jeans, or the fact that Style Sessions is making an effort to be more inclusive of dudes, but let's talk about the boots.

He says he's had them for three years, and when we ran into him, he had just had them resoled that week.

"When you find a good pair of boots, you keep them," he says.

[I personally could not agree more. I've got a pair I've had since high school and you know that was a long time ago.]

Unfortunately, I cannot read my notes as to where he got these boots (Best of Memphis was kind of an anomaly. Usually my notes are very neat.) but he did say that they were one of the "biggest investments" he's made.

Just to give you a little taste, here are some images from the company's website:

(For more examples, you can check out the Flyer's Flickr set here.)

Smith is the owner of Crazy Beautiful, the winner for Best Women's Clothing Store for two years in a row. For the party, she and her friends all dressed in these cute, petticoat dresses from Hell Bunny.

"We like to step it up a notch," Smith says.

She paired the Hell Bunny dress with bling from Gasoline Glamour. But it's the petticoats that are the real stand out, pun fully intended. Smith says they're selling very well this fall.

"We've been selling them in the store to girls who are conservative and even they're rocking them," she says.

Speaking of stepping it up a notch, even Justin and I cleaned up for the occasion. Of course, we didn't stop long enough to have it documented properly. But I can assure you, when we stood still, we looked very cute.
EDITOR'S NOTE: p.s. Justin doesn't have any sort of offensive mustache, or any mustache at all. Just so you know. Unless he's grown a beard since I've seen him last. This picture is somewhat misleading.

A few months ago, I happened to watch The Mentalist, and fell in love with both Simon Baker and the costume designer's use of three-piece suits sans tie. Hottt.

(Excuse me while I fan myself off for just a minute.)

I loved the look so much in fact that I wanted to find a slim-fitting, three-piece suit for the Flyer's fall fashion issue. Unfortunately, I was a little pressed for time this year and never came out up with anything.

At some point later on, I ran into the very charming Brett Magdovitz of Get Down and we started chatting, like you do, and though he is a connoisseur of the jumpsuit, he mentioned he owned several three-piece suits.

And then he said he would wear one to the Best of Memphis party. And I said that if he did, I would make Justin take a picture.

(To be completely accurate, Magdovitz didn't actually wear this to the party. He wore a Cuban shirt and some sort of pants, but I *might* have made him go home and change and come back. Maybe.)

"I'm bringing back three-piece suits and jumpsuits," he says of the two retro styles.

This was actually the first time Magdovitz had worn this suit (he accessorized it with an "Earl" belt-buckle, but you can't see it in the picture). And he would never have found it if he hadn't done a good deed.

He was driving near Highland and South Cooper one day when a hitchhiker waved at him to stop. He said he would give the guy a ride and the guy told him that he was needed to go to his best friend's estate sale. Apparently both the hitchhiker's best friend's mother and father had recently passed, and "there was all this unbelievable stuff."

Brett ended up getting a pair of boots, a hat box, and two other suits (This actually could be two other jumpsuits. My notes are unclear. What can I say? It was late in the party).

Gia Barsocchini was visiting from L.A. when we saw her at the BoM party.

She is wearing a dress from her friend's line, Bread & Butterflies, with cute Stella McCartney booties.

"It's the cutest little flirty summer dress," she says. "And it's very versatile."

The belt, though cute, is completely functional.

"The dress is a little too big on me," she says. "If I don't add a belt, it kind of hangs."

I assume putting September together can be rather stressful, especially at a place like Vogue, run by the legendary Anna Wintour.

You may remember that Wintour was the basis for the demanding editor-in-chief in The Devil Wear Prada, which came out a few years ago and starred Meryl Streep and that cute little Anne Hathaway. But if you want to see the real-life workings of Vogue, your fashion bible is here in The September Issue.

The September Issue is a documentary that chronicles Wintour's preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue. It weighed nearly five pounds and was the largest issue of the magazine ever published.

The September Issue opens Friday at Malco's Ridgeway Four.

"I wanted to design a piece for my boyfriend," she says. "He was a boy from Germantown so he was kind of conservative. He didn't wear a lot of jewelry."

She tried to make the necklace three times before getting it the way she wanted it. But, in the meantime, workers at the bead store she was frequenting told her she had an eye for jewelry and encouraged her to continue making it.

A quick wikipedia search about seersucker revels this: "The word came into English from Hindi, which originates from the Persian words 'shir o shekar,' meaning 'milk and sugar,' probably from the resemblance of its smooth and rough stripes to the smooth surface of milk and bumpy texture of sugar."

I'm sorry, if I liked seersucker before, the etymology alone makes me love it.

Craig Cardwell bought this seersucker suit for his daughter's wedding several years ago.

"I always wanted one," he says of the suit. "This is Memphis. You wear cotton."

His wife, Margaret, is also in cotton, with this cute shirtdress.

"I love plaid," she says. "Some people might say it's a throwback to preppy, but I was wearing it before it was preppy."

Ann-Sofie Johansson's mom loves Elvis. Which is how the two Swedes ended up walking around downtown Memphis on a rainy summer evening.

Now sometimes we (and of course here I mean "I") see tourists and we think something along these lines: That is really unflattering, but I guess it's comfortable and you're a visitor to our city and you're walking around and getting on buses and eating strange foods and you're just trying to be prepared. So, okay.

But this needs no translation. Or rationalization. It's lovely.

Johansson says she usually wears jeans and a sweater, but she and her mother were going to have dinner at Flight, so she decided to wear this white cotton dress and matching sandals.

I especially like the tie in the front.

Lena Davis-Brown's husband likes to tell her that she overdresses.

"He thinks I should have on a t-shirt and shorts," she says. "For me, this is dressing down."

When we ran into her in Cooper-Young last month, she said she originally was wearing Ellen Tracy pants, a chocolate halter top, and heels to go to the Taste of Cooper-Young. Then her husband reminded her they'd be walking.

Which is how she ended up in this lovely gradient-shift Laundry maxi dress.

But we think she probably would have looked good either way.