Wrapped in blue

The infectiously charming Hanneli Mustaparta wearing Proenza Schouler platform ankle boots.

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Fashionable front line

Ready for a style reconnaissance, Barbara Martello assumes position outside the Chloe show in a Rick Owens shearling and Balmain cargo pants and lace-up boots.

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From shoulder to toe

I love how the silhouette of Rory Satran's look narrows from her shoulders to the tips of her booties. Her Etoile by Isabel Marant graphic jacket hems just where her paper-bag-waist trousers start to narrow. And the trousers marvelously skim the folds of her slouchy booties. Great revisit of eighties volume. Much softer. Rory is the managing editor of Self Service.

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No nonsense heart of gold

I have a friend from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her name is Anna. I met her while I was completing a self-imposed fashion purgatory over at Fordham Business School. She is one of the most impressive people I have ever met in my life. She is brilliant, beautiful, generous and sweet, but she is also one tough cookie. She is a no nonsense kind of woman with a heart of gold- a combination of qualities that I find enormously endearing.

Anna was my first adult, Russian, female friend. And over the years, I have been fortunate to meet other Russian women who share the same qualities that define her. Vika Gazinskaya is one of them.

Vika is an emerging Russian fashion designer of impeccable style. She is often photographed in pieces from her eponymous line or in incredibly researched vintage pieces. She has a serious penchant for Roger Vivier pumps. And as seen here in a traditional Russian foulard and trench style coat during New York Fashion Week, her look is sleek, sophisticated and flavored with the right hint of stylistic spice.

A woman with a passion for the theater, Vika opts out of the traditional runway show format and stages theatrical presentations back home in Moscow. Pictured below, she adds a little drama to Paris Fashion Week in a dress from her Spring/Summer 2009 collection.

The pieces from her collections are superbly cut and often cast architectural shadows. Here she towers in a look from her Spring/Summer 2010 collection.

Detail oriented, her make-up is always perfect down to the last eyelash.

Seen here with best friend Miroslava, another painfully stylish creature, she wears a hat, top and skirt from her Fall/Winter 2011 collection.

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Jaguars, Leopards and Cheetahs

This past winter I was reading the credits for an editorial and saw the term jaguar print used to describe a particular spotted item. I thought to myself: Oh god, how am I going to tell the difference now. Why do designers have to be so fancy? Can't we just stick with leopard print? Well, even after a little Wikipedia research, I still can't keep it straight. So I'm sticking with leopard print!

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Clutch

The beautiful Chi-Young Bang of Glamour Germany in a jacket by Haus, Louis Vuitton scarf and oversize Chloe clutch.

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Wide-Brim

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Double Denim

I'm totally inspired by Refinery 29's Connie Wangs' double denim from this past New York fashion week. Thanks to visits to the Gap and Madewell (someone actually mistook my Madewell overalls for the Ralph Lauren version), I've been living the look for the past month. I even pulled out a pair of flair jeans that I scored at the Gap two years ago to channel the seventies child in me. I'm a 1976 baby after all, so I think I can pull off the 2010-hippie look. Another reason to snap up those Celine flat sandals that I saw at Corso Como 10. (Wink) Did you know that I love to wink? Wierd? Been doing it ever since I learned how. And I'm also chronically tangential. Back to my point: Viva double denim!!!!

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Baby blue mix it up

Caroline Sieber outside Louis Vuitton in a jacket and blouse combo from the house's Spring Summer 2010 collection.

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Red ruffle bridge

Beyond chic, Giovanna Battaglia takes an elegant step in this gorgeous ruffled trench and YSL bridge-heeled sandals.

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