The Cultured Girl

Ever wondered what’s the best-selling item at Ikea? Or what really flies off the shelves at the overwhelmingly cool Conran Shop? For all the design-minded cultured girls out there, I.D. Magazine has uncovered the most popular items from a bevy of design emporiums, like ABC Carpet and Home, and manufacturers such as Kartell. You can see the results in this sleek slideshow published online at BusinessWeek. The winners range from the ubiquitous Umbra trash can (at left) to a $1,500 antler chandelier. It’s great idea fodder next time you need to buy a wedding gift that’s out of the ordinary but has mass appeal.

It seems every time I try to look cute and pulled together, something goes wrong: This morning I spilled coffee on a white skirt, and had I been wearing a black shirt, I would have inevitably tarnished it with deodorant marks no matter how carefully I slipped it over my head. Gal Pal’s “garment deodorant removers”—really nothing more than little pink sponges—are a ridiculously simple solution to the problem. Priced at $10 for a set of two, Gal Pals really do banish deodorant marks better than a wet washcloth or any other at-home fix. You can purchase them online here. Of course, you could easily buy a similar sponge — albeit without the cute packaging—and get the same effect at a lower cost, but I almost feel like I owe it to the makers of Gal Pal for discovering this solution.

I am typically loathe to spend lots of money on workout clothes. My philosophy tends to be: If they’re going to get grubby anyway, I might as well wear a ratty T-shirt from 8th grade and some Target shorts. I was especially biased against Lululemon Athletica — primarily a yoga brand — simply because it had such a stupid name. But when we got a bunch of Lululemon clothes into the office for a story, I began to realize what a little money can buy when it comes to athletic wear. The fabrics are so soft and light they feel nearly nonexistent, but the best thing about Lululemon is the attention to detail: thumbholes and long cuffs to keep your hands warm and your sleeves down, flat seems to prevent chafing, headphone ports and iPod pockets, and hoodies that are pre-shrunk so the zippers don’t bunch up. Once I was familiar with the brand, I started spotting Lululemon clothes everywhere, and anyone wearing them was downright fanatical about the products.

While visiting my grandfather this past weekend in Lumberton, Mississippi, my mom joked that I should do a write-up on the town for the Cultured Girl. But while shrinking former sawmill towns in the South aren’t exactly Cultured Destinations, Mississippi offers at least one hidden gem that no cultured girl should miss: Hudson’s Dirt Cheap and Treasure Hunt stores.

Stay with me here, because Hudson’s is a Mississippi Institution, and if you relish like the scavenger-hunt-like thrill of shopping at thrift stores and sample sales, these places will astonish you. They are sort of like T.J. Maxx, acting as clearinghouses for what other stores can’t sell, but Hudson’s goes a step further—it’s what CEO Bill Hudson JR. calls an “opportunistic purchasing company.” Hudson’s initially bought damaged merchandise from insurance companies; if a grocery or department store suffered a fire or a flood, Hudson’s would resell the goods in its stores. It later expanded the concept to include customer returns, irregulars, and goods damaged in freight or warehouses. Today, the company has 28 Dirt Cheap stores in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and six more sophisticated Treasure Hunt stores in Mississippi.

Both stores are great, with the grab-bag of merchandise changing daily, but each has its individual charms. At Treasure Hunt, you’re more likely to find designer steals from department stores: One Cultured Girl reader bought a stylish and well-made wedding dress for $180. But Dirt Cheap, which is more likely to have salvaged goods from Target and the like, is even more fun, with literally piles of smoke-tinged, out-of-the-box, and slightly damaged merchandise. (For example, you might find a set of four really cute martini glasses priced at $2 just because one of them is broken.) On my most recent trip, my mom and I got two bags of loot for $40, including a very nice lace bra and the perfect straw hat for $5 each.

I really dislike shopping for clothes. So when I do, I prefer to buy a whole bunch of stuff in one fell swoop. That’s why I love the endurance test that is the sample sale, wherein hundreds of women, toting pounds and pounds of clothes, strip down to their skivvies in the middle of hot warehouses to try on choice items before anyone else can get to them. Kind of like a thrift store, but way more expensive.

Thankfully, Budget Fashionista today has a great primer on how to shop sample sales, which everyone should read before venturing into one. I highly recommend Billion Dollar Babes, a series of sample sales held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and other major cities featuring cut-rate wares from hundreds of designers. And be sure to check out the semi-annual Barney’s warehouse sale if you ever happen to be in New York at the opportune time: It’s a great place to find truly unique items that are often selling for chain-store prices.

Sick of your wardrobe? How about spicing things up with a bejeweled cockroach! This isn’t a joke. Jared Gold, Salt Lake City-based designer of Black Chandelier, is taking the term fashion bug to a whole new level. While designing his recent collection Glinka—a Russian-psychedelic-space-witch-themed show—he felt the need to find something that would push it over the top. (I’m not kidding. He didn’t think psychedelic Russian witches were enough) So Gold decided to adorn Madagascar hissing cockroaches with Swarovski crystals, put them on leashes, and attach them to brooches so that these 3-inch long insects could crawl all over the models. As if that weren’t gross enough, it turns out these roaches actually do hiss when startled or bothered—they supposedly sound like snakes.

While Cultured Girl doesn’t endorse wearing live animals as a fashion accessory, this isn’t the first time in history it’s happened. Victorian-era women used wear just about any animal dead or alive they could get their hands on. Society ladies were known to wear stuffed hummingbird earrings and beetle pins; they even put live fireflies in their hair and baby monkeys in their hats.

Still you might wondering: Who would pay $80 for an insect you’d normally squash as quickly as possible? Well, Gold says he’s churning them out just as fast as he can adorn them. He sells 25 fashion bugs a week to everyone from teenagers to school teachers. The roach has even made an appearance on America’s Next Top Model. In case you were wondering, here’s a word from Gold on how to care for his “little friends:”

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A beer bottle cap mounted in sterling silver might not be a suitable engagement ring, but Laura Beamer’s bottle-cap jewelry is the perfect accessory for Memorial Day barbecues and other summertime events. The Oregon-based artist finds cool retro bottlecaps or artful designs—like Newcastle’s classic star caps—and fashions them into sterling silver earrings, rings, bracelets, cufflinks, and necklaces. I myself own one of Beamer’s Diet Coke rings, which illicits more comments than any other piece of jewelry I own. You can order from her online store or email her if you’re looking for a specific design, since Beamer has thousands of bottle caps waiting in the wings. The only caveat: Since bottle caps aren’t as durable as diamonds, the designs can rub off eventually, so be careful not to chip them. The silver settings, however, are top of the line.

As gifts, blank journals are hit-or-miss: Everyone can use a nice notebook, even if it’s just at the office, but it can also be a pretty generic gift. That’s why I love the journals at Ex Libris Anonymous, which are fashioned from old book covers and even include a few original pages in the beginning and end.

The one-of-a-kind selections on the site change daily, and if you stumble upon one that’s perfect for a friend, a normally generic gift suddenly becomes highly personal. I bought one made from an old chemistry textbook for a friend who is getting a PhD in chemistry, and a cheesy 1950s tennis text for my sometime tennis partner. Plus, they are a total steal: just $12 apiece.

Most cultured girls are probably familiar with Hollywood Fashion Tape, the sticky double-sided strips that help skimpy clothes stay put. But since I saw it featured on SheFinds today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to remind everyone about this handy tool. It really does work, and it’s the easiest way to keep from flashing your fellow guests at summer weddings and barbecues.

One of the things I find most frustrating about apartment-living is not being allowed to paint. So I really love the idea of these stick-on decals that make a mural out of any boring white wall. If you move or get sick of the designs, you can just peel them off. For playful, poster-sized decals, there’s Blik, a company with a neat little story you can read about in Business 2.0. And Apartment Therapy just turned me on to the mod graphics of Vynil (pictured), which are more mural-like designs created by individual artists.