Marvelous Fashion-Remarkable Women 1

Hello Ladies,

Fashion is not only a celebration of clothes, shoes, accessories, and the designs that have made each item unique, but in my opinion, it is also a time to stop and look at the women inside the clothing. As Diana Vreeland said, " A new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress..."

So, I thought it would be just smashing to take a look at some of today's most extraordinary women...those who have made a difference...but still managed to look just glorious while doing it. Once per month, we'll explore three women who are working towards common goals: health, change, a powerful woman's voice...and of course...fashion.


Let's talk Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer...

So, first...really, she's no socialite. She's a powerful CEO and Creative Director following in her Grandamother, Estee's, footsteps, and looking just divine every step of the way. Why do we love Aerin so much? She lets her hair stay long, doesn't overpluck those eyebrows, she hardly wears any makeup at all, and still favors her Levi's over any pair of $280 designer jeans out there.

But most of all...she's making Estee Lauder into a revolutionary brand, making it to the front rows at Fashion week all while staying married and raising her children at the same time. This is one girl who absolutely, without a doubt, respects herself, and stays true to her own instincts.

From making a quiet transition at Estee Lauder, to the bold jump this Spring in picturing herself in the Tuberose ad campaign, it seems Aerin Lauder's charmed life is certainly one of her own making.


Queen Rania of Jordan. And, no this list is in not in any particular order, just the lovely ladies as they came into our head. Queen Rania is not only over-the-top gorgeous and elegant, but she has been a prominent figure in womens' rights across the world. She has a degree in Business Administration, she has been awarded an honorary colonel rank by her military, is the mother to four children, and is strong willed and confident enough to fight for causes that would other seem strange or possibly just unorganic...but not so with Rania. Even when she is debating on the stage, she remains collected.

One that we found particularly interesting was her support of the micro-fund movement--this is a reform in both education and finance for those with entrepreneurial hopes and desires. Truly, a brilliant move on her part, to appeal to both a conservative and liberal mindset...a way to feed both the hungry and needy and also thank the self-sufficient. She opened the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship in 10/04 as an expansion to the Princess Sumaya University of Technology, as a way to evolve and help foster the Jordan economy through "capacity building"...oh how fantastic...

As far as her fashion sense goes, she has never missed a beat. She doesn't wear anything that screams labels or logos, but her hair is always done and her manicure is always right. She makeup is always flawless, and her clothes...always flattering. And...we're not quite sure, how after four children, she is looking like that.

And last but not least, for today...

Let's mention Christy Turlington Burns. Christy screams fashion. She is fashion. She is an icon and one of the supermodels of the '90's who helped mold fashion into what it is today. Without the supermodels, without the Christy's, Cindy's, Naomi's and Eva's, women might not have the place in fashion that they have today...which was once a world with mainly a man's voice, for a woman's figure.

In my opinion, Christy also represents health in a way that other fashion icons have not. She is not that typified waif that meadered down the catwalk...no...not at all. In fact, she is full of vigor, and she a real woman, no afraid to stand up tall and hold her body up fully in every inch that it has.

Christy is also an activist and an entrepreur, campaigning for animal rights, anti-smoking ads, the hot new (Red) campaign for a better Africa, and also partnering in more than one company: the Fashion Cafe, Sundari (a line of ayurvedic cosmetics) and Puma's line of Yoga clothing, named "Nuala". Christy is the wife of Ed Burns, and recently the mother of Grace & Finn too.


Please let us know who you'd like to see pictured in our next Marvelous Fashion-Remarkable Women, and what you think of our picks this month!

What's your Hyde Park Style?

Welcome to Hyde Park Style.

I'd like to say, first, that Hyde Park is not actually one place--it is many. And, moreover, it is the collaboration of the effortless style that has emerged from the many Hyde Park's we have come to know and love.

Hyde Park Style has come to represent, over the years, the chic dwelling place inside of each of us at Hyde Park Shop and the Hyde Park Style Team.

New Hyde Park was where my father grew up in NY, one of the most stylish men I know, someone who reaches for the stars each time and never settled for anything less than his best.

Hyde Park is a small town beneath the Palm Trees in sunny Florida where I personally first learned to be a grown up, a pretty through back to Palm Beach and Boca shopping, with an effortless sense of sophistication among the Mom's there, as they stroll along the cobbled streets with their children.

Hyde Park, IL is a progressive neighborhood in Chicago, where political ideas abound and their own blog, Hyde Park Progress is a lofty election of thoughts on where exactly our country is headed in this strange and unpredictable time.

And then there is Hyde Park, UK...a brimming mecca of culture near London where I once lived too. Hyde Park there was somewhere, where as a 6 year old, I first saw women in Mink Coats stroll the city streets, and knew that fashion was the only thing for me.

Hyde Park has been not only a place that I have visited and coincidentally, lived many times. Hyde Park has also come to represent an inclusion of ideas and voices that represent style, glamour and just the right amount of edge too.

Here at Hyde Park Style, we know what our Hyde Parker looks like...a little Catherine Malandrino, a little Louis Vuitton, steamed soy in Starbucks, a Barbara Kingsolver book, and the New York City Street beneath our feet.

What does your Hyde Park Style look like? More importantly, what does it feel like?

VTY,

H. Parker

PS...Please note: we are not rich, nor are we famous, nor are we anything but everything and exactly what we should be which is just lovely indeed-like little girls dressing in a mother's closet...true little starlets and actresses in our own right...so please, let's play.

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." -Coco Chanel