Safe or smokin': Put some lead in your pencil (skirt)

For 2011, I resolve to buy three pieces that add snap or sizzle, to choose the spirit-elevating instead of the stalwart. Only three, not counting staples.

My first item: I'm looking for a skirt, and dadgummit, will not permit myself the stultifying sameness of another black pencil. (I had five, all black.)

Talbot's wool pencil

Safe: A nice, well-cut pencil: most of us own one, or its gored or A-line cousins. Here's Talbot's seasonless wool blend version, charming enough thanks to two little pleats at the hem. Price, $99.

if you, like me are resolved to break the safe skirt habit, I've found some break-the-mold examples at various price points. (If pencil's not your shape, the same ideas apply for A-line or gored styles.)


Smokin' pencils 

Try lace by day, worn with a simple cashmere or fine cotton knit tee. You are grown up enough to carry it with distinction. 

Talbot's version is on sale this week on the web site for $90, in misses, petites and womens' sizes. I might change the lining from bronze to charcoal, so it's more day-wearable, not a complicated alteration. Or I'd leave the bronze and wear it with a black tights.

Talbot's lace pencil

Lafayette 148's sexy lace skirt, shown with a silk charmeuse blouse, is also offered in misses and women's sizes. Dressier than Talbot's but also wearable beyond evening; price, $328. 

Lafayette 148 lace

Live a little! Swap your hardworking neutral for a cheeky colour, like this Malene Birger Marly satin pencil skirt, $265 from net-a-porter. If red's not your fave, have one made in steel blue, leaf green, dreamy wisteria.

Red satin pencil skirt

Rock it in leather. This one is from Danier, on sale (sizes 2-14) on their web site for $129. Superb for kicking it up a notch, and the supple lambskin is a three-season weight. Would look fab with booties; shoe on model is not what I'd suggest.

Lambskin from Danier

Print with that pencil!

Jean Paul Gaultier's ruched rose print is eminently wearable but hardly dull. The indistinct print does not add bulk and keeps the eye moving, rather like those strategic swimsuits. The open braid detail means I'd wear it with tights, or add a barely opaque lining to that section.

Priced well for JPG: $430 from Bergdorf Goodman. Worth a click to see this one in zoom view.

Talbot's crysanthemum print also needs a hipper shoe, caramel boot now, pink pump for spring. Price, $89 from Talbot's. (Their skirts shown are too short for me, but right for you average-to-petite lovelies.)

Crysanthemum brocade from Talbot's

I don't know where I'll find the skirt (or the other idiosyncratic items), but am looking forward buying with more focus–and to enjoying what I have.

May 2011 be a healthy, happy, peaceful year for you... and may our closets be free of just-okay clothes!