A Little Obsessed

So I may have made it my life's mission to dress like Kate Middleton, or at least don some fancy hats!!

Check out my latest purchase toward that end, my new winter hat.  Yup, that's what I'll be walking around the streets of Chicago in this winter.  Do I look royal yet?

London Shopping - Jermyn Street

Once upon a time a few years ago, I bought Mr. EWP a Thomas Pink shirt for a gift.  And that day a love of English tailors was born.  The man has been obsessed with the Jermyn street shirtmakers ever since.  So after my day of shopping in Paris, Mr. EWP got his very own day of shopping in London.  We headed to Jermyn Street and went from old shirtmaker to old shirtmaker. You could see the tradition of tailoring dripping from the shelves and bolts of cloth.  It really was interesting to see.  We even went to the royal family official shirtmaker, not surprisingly they didn't have anything off the rack for Mr. EWP to purchase, but some other shirt stores did - Harvie & Hudson, T. M. Lewin, and Charles Tyrwhitt.

But what Mr. EWP was most excited about, the place he has been talking about one day going to for years, was Edward Green.  Think of them as the Louboutins of men's shoes.  Or so Mr. EWP says. I choose to just take his word for it. They were rather pretty, I'll admit. For men's shoes that is.

There really is nothing like them. And you can only get them in London or Paris, they're not available online and they only have 3 stores -the ones in London and Paris.  
 While Mr. EWP tried on boring fine shoe after fine shoe, BabyWP and I decided we'd annoy the snooty sales staff by playing on the floor.  I have a policy that if I'm ponying up the money for your expensive items, then I get to do whatever I want in your store, and what I wanted to do was play with my baby and do a photoshoot. 

After buying a lifetime's supply of dress shirts, ties, and cufflinks, we took a break from Mr. EWP Shopping Day to make one little stop for me - to a fancy milliner.  I've been a little this side of obsessed with fancy hats since the Royal Wedding.

 And these ones were positively works of art.  I drooled my little heart out, but I had made my indulgent purchase the day before, so no hat for me.  And, let's be honest, I'll use that bag WAY more than I ever would a fancy fascinator.

But it sure was fun to try one on!  It was seriously SO GORGEOUS.  Absolutely a showpiece.  And only $1000.  To her credit, the saleswoman didn't scream when I grabbed it and tried it on and took a bunch of pictures of myself. 

Coming up - my London purchases.  And to make it to purchases, I'm including Mr. EWP's shoes.  I, myself, only bought one thing in London. Can you believe it?

Do I Look Like Kate Middleton Yet?

I may or may not be obsessed with headwear since the royal wedding. I mean, I always head a thing for it before, but now I reeeeeeally am obsessed. My latest style inspiration Kate Middleton has me thinking hats and fascinators. Which led to the following purchases:

Francesca's, $34

Now that's what I call sun protection!

Now for my super exciting purchase. Y'all, I have looked high and low and could NOT find a for realsies British-esque fascinator. None of this headband with feathers nonsense, I wanted something artistic and on the side of my head. And look what I found. I'm in heaven.

Charming Charlie, $14.97

So what do you think? Am I British yet?

Royal Wedding Week - Fascinating Fascinators

There were two things that I was looking forward to seeing at the Royal Wedding this past Friday: 1) Catherine's wedding gown, and 2) the crazy hats Brits wear to weddings. And, honestly, not necessarily in that order.

And, oh me oh my, I was not disappointed. The guests brought out their headtopping best and craziest for the event. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we really need to bring back wearing hats to American weddings. It would be SO fun. Also, who is this Philip Treacy character? Because almost everyone wore hats by him. I want one!

And without further ado, I give you the Royal Wedding's most fascinating fascinators, with some EWP grades.

Zara Phillips, William's cousin, is the next royal to be getting married. She was a vision in a black hat by Philip Treacy. A

I have no idea who these women are, but apparently they're sisters. And they go all out when it comes to hats (and nose jobs. Seriously, I can't take my eyes off the blue woman's nose. Palmer-Tomkinson is the nosey one in blue, topping her Deborah Milner off-the-shoulder dress and matching Nicholas Kirkwood shoes with a rosette-topped fascinator by Philip Treacy, while her sister matches her multi-color Stephen Jones fascinator to her purple sheath dress and fur stole. And seriously, that Palmer-Tomkinson character brought it. There was no forgetting that crazy blue boat. B- for the purple, A- for the blue



Prince William's cousins – Amelia, Eliza and Kitty Spencer. These were my second favorite hats of the night. Seriously, these fascinators are to die for. I want them all! A+


Lady Frederick Windsor, born Sophie Winkleman, the daughter-in-law of the Duke and Duchess of Kent. This structural masterpiece has me swooning. A


Sophie Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward's wife, stayed neutral in a beige Bruce Oldfield dress and coat with a rosette spray from Jane Taylor perched on the side of her blonde hair. A-


Sally Bercow, the wife of the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow. This lady is very unfortunate looking, with her bad eyeshadow choice and washed out lip. And her dull hair does nothing for this funny little fascinator. C


Queen Sofia of Spain. B


Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. This lady looks like so much fun, doesn't she? Look at that grin! B-


Grandmother to the groom, Queen Elizabeth II in a design by her personal assistant Angela Kelly. One does not grade the Queen, lest she yell to off my head.


Princess Victoria donned a sweet peach straw hat. She looks absolutely lovely and understated. I, however, would want people to remember that I was the last royal wedding and that I looked darn good at it too and probably would've worn the most ridiculous fascinator I could find. This is why I'm not the Princess of Sweden. C


Princess Michael of Kent. I'm seriously digging the swath of teal fabric on the big white hat. B+


Princess Mathilde of Belgium in a Philip Treacy hat. C-


Princess Anne. Love this very homely woman. I thank her for breaking out a print and a fun color. B+


Miriam Gonzalez, wife of the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The Spanish beauty definitely had a feel of her home country in this headpiece, but it was just a little too Carmen Miranda for me. C


Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece. The fixture on international best-dressed lists wore a pewter Philip Treacy hat with sprays of roses. A


Lorna Brooking. I have no idea who she is but she gets points for bright purple. B-


Justine Thornton. Also don't know who this woman is, but the hat is so sweet and soft looking. B+


Frances Osborne, the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. D

Duchess of Kent - The wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, accents her Catherine Walker pink dress with a feather-bedecked fascinator from Philip Treacy. C-


Claudia Bradby - wife of some random journalist. B-


Prince Harry's date, pig-faced Chelsy Davy, donned beige netting-topped fascinator that I would actually love to wear in real life. A-


Mother of the bride Carole Middleton donned a sky blue hat byBerkshire based milliner Jane Corbett. It was just so lovely. A-


Royal stepmother to the Prince, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall also in a Philip Treacy hat. B


The Beckhams both donned Philip Treacy headgear. Love Posh Spice for wearing not only 9 inch heels while preggers but also that crazy hat. Heart. A


Sisters and cousins to the groom, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of Kent wore hands down my favest hats of the wedding, both by Philip Treacy. I mean, look at Beatrice's, it's a ribboned toilet seat!!! I love these girls. I would love to go party with them. And by I, I mean 24 year old EWP. Twenty-nine-year-old-with-a-baby EWP is tired just thinking about partying with these two. A++


What did you think? Who was your favorite? Least favorite? Wish you could wear fascinators to weddings too?

What Will You Be Wearing To The Royal Wedding?

I'm back!

There's nothing to bring an EWP out of her maternity leave like wedding season. And tomorrow we have THE wedding of all weddings - the royal wedding of William and Catherine! Yes, it's airing at 4AM CST, but that's why God was kind enough to invent DVR for us.

I have many wedding attired posts coming up, but first the most important - what will you be "wearing" to the wedding? I can assure you while in my head I will be dressed up whilst I have my tea and scones, in reality I'll most likely be wearing jeans and a nursing top. But pretend dress up is oh so fun.

This is what I'll be "wearing" for the royal wedding:

A simple dress because I have something else up my sleeve to focus on... or my head rather...

J.Crew, $225 @

A simple shoe with a little glitz

Manolo Blahnik, $715 @

And a very very fantastic hat. What royal British wedding is complete without a lovely fascinator or ridiculous headgear of some kind? I really think we in America should bring back wearing hats to weddings. It would be oh so fun.

JC Penney, was $120, sale $99.99

@ Available in more colors.

So what will you be wearing?

EWP Giveaway!

Since I was leaving you on your own for 5 days and I knew you'd be oh so sad, I thought I'd make it up to you by having a giveaway!

I am beyond obsessed with headbands. They can dress up a boring ponytail in no time flat and can add some flair to any outfit. I love love love headbands and own a million.

Today I thought I'd share my love with one of you dear readers. Today I'm giving away this adorable black headband from Aldo. Techinically it's probably more of a fascinator, but we love fascinators too. Lots of drama, but not so much at the same time. The black tones it down, the details tone it up. It really is to die for.

A close up of the detail just because I like using my macro lens.

And me modeling it for you. But not totally modeling it, I didn't put it on. I didn't want to stretch out the band with my giant head. Have I ever mentioned that my head is ginormous? Because it is.

You will look fantastic in this headband. I promise!

All you have to do to enter is drop a comment and let me know:

Do you dye your hair?

Why do I want to know? I have no idea. Maybe because I decided to try out highlights yesterday (you can see them in the picture, they're totally new!). Maybe because I'm nosey. I dunno. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. Just leave a comment saying I should mind my own business.

Winner will be announced when I get back from sunning myself in Miami.

This giveaway was not sponsored by Aldo. Aside from me going in and buying the occasional accessory, they have no idea who I am. This giveaway was funded out of my own EWP pockets.