I know I’ve kept everyone waiting a long time for this one.  Hopefully no one is running around naked in the interim. Thanks for bearing with me.  Here’s the best of fall fashion.  As usual, please weigh in.  Add your own bright spots because I’m sure I’ll miss many.  Isn’t fashion fun?

1. Ruffles.  After 20 years of basic t-shirts lining everything from hoodies to suits, women have a tee all their own.  Ruffles appear everywhere and in some irreverant ways.  Some ruffles are made from frayed fabric and others are intentionally pressed flat, not full.  They’re splendid beneath cardigans and blazers, both of which feature ruffles too.  Because the look is so free, you can layer ruffles upon ruffles and it works.

Ruffles cardigan by Minnie Rose

2. Cardigan sweaters.  Finally, a comfortable and flexible alternative to the blazer, and a more feminine one to boot.  Today a cardigan works in all but the most conservative careers.  Cardigans follow the longer, leaner silhouette that is everywhere this year and to add some definition, they can be cinched at the waist with a thin little belt. Credit First Lady Michelle Obama for that trend.  Despite the wide range of looks in cardigans now, you’ll want to avoid the old “twin set” of matching sweater and shell.  It’s too prim in these layered, unstructured times.

By Burberry, more weekend than office, but one of hundreds of styles in cardigans

3. Longer length tops.  Everything is thankfully longer now, so that women over the age of 40, or anyone who has given birth can feel confident in not revealing too much.  Go ahead and replace all those cropped tops in your dresser.  Stores like Old Navy and Target practically give their shirts away.

If you wanted to tuck it in, at least now you can. By Akris Punto

4. Navy blue.  For at least ten years, the only navy to be found was in haute couture or at Ralph Lauren in the spring.  The rest of the fashion houses which clothe 99.9 percent of the population has offered only black or brown.   Navy is poised to return big time and we’re starting to see it in slivers.  Traditionally a color offered only in the warm weather months, Navy is long overdue.

Coat in navy by Add Down

5. Shoes, shoes, shoes.  They’re bigger and more important, often the most important element in an outfit.  The severely pointed toes first worn by Hollywood stars in the early 1960s and more recently featured as an additional star on Sex and the City seem so yesterday.  Shoes are my personal weakness and I’ll feed my family mac and cheese for a week to afford a great pair.  This season offers the best array of footwear in a long, long time. Toes are rounder, and often elevated by platforms.  Zippers running up the back of a shoe add a sexy edge.  Skinny “kitten” heels are here and there, but mostly subplanted by wedges or one-inch thick stacked heels to balance the bigger structure overall.  Shoes of today are reminiscent of the 1930s and the 1970s when they provided counterweight to the giant shawl collars from the depression and the big loose curls of the 70s.  Remember Farah Fawcett? In fact, big shoes seem to coincide with a down economy.    Today loose curls on longer hair are back, bank accounts are suffering and chunkier shoes are in.

6. Opaque tights.  For the little girl in everyone.  There was a time when boys wore shorts and girls wore “tights” to dress up, as sheer nylons,makeup, pierced ears and smoking had to wait till later years.  Aside from their practicality in keeping us warm and hiding the sins of what happens after those later years like veins and lumpy knees, opaques create a longer silhouette by continuing the color from the skirt or dress, right through to the shoes if you wear shoes in a matching shade.  Younger women layer these with ankle or knee socks and high-heeled ankle “booties” and in that case, contrasting colors are funky and appropriate.  For everyone else, opaques should be black, or the same shade of gray or brown as the rest of the outfit.

Tights by Wolford

7. Buckles.  Lots of them, everywhere.  On belts, purses, boots, jewelry, you can never have enough buckles this season.  Most of them don’t have any function, they’re just there to bring out the biker in all of us.  If you want to update just one item this year, buy something with a buckle or two or five on it, and you’ll look completely current.

Stunning, buckled bootie by Dior

8. Ballet flats.  Laura Petrie of the old Dick Van Dyke Show wore black ones, beneath short, black skinny slacks.  Today ballets in all colors team up with the new matchstick legs on jeans.   When I was in New York City earlier this month it seemed every woman wore ballets.  They’re comfy, classic and they won’t break the bank.  Every shoe department in Syracuse currently has a huge selection.  Keep in mind, ballets are not for skirts unless the skirt is a mini.

Ballet Flats in lambskin by Repetto

9. Bootleg hangs on.  I welcome the new skinny leg on slacks, but the bootleg is hands down more flattering for everyone.  When even bone thin models look a little hippy in matchsticks, you can imagine what these pants do to the rest of us.  Matchsticks are a fun alternative but I’m glad I still see as many bootlegs available in premium denim.

J Brand bootleg denim

10.  Leopard print.  Leopard never really goes out of style, but this fall it’s especially pretty in small doses like thin belts and shoes.   Adding to the smaller scale of the silhouette, the dots themselves are smaller which makes the look even more sophisticated.   A camel coat, black tights and leopard shoes are a wonderfully tailored, classic and updated look for the colder months.

W. Kleinberg calf hair belt

On our way to the checkout at Kmart, our arms loaded with fabric softener, toilet bowl cleaner and makeup foundation, my daughter Natalie glanced at the clothing and said  “Quick.  Pick out the best outfit you can, one that would impress a guy on the first date, and do it two minutes.”  Faster than I could giggle at such a challenge, Natalie disappeared among the racks. She is like that; creative and spontaneous and always ready for an offbeat kind of fun.

Former Charlie’s Angels star Jaclyn Smith lends her name and perhaps her design ideas to some of the clothing at Kmart.  Her name was prominent on the rounds of goods simultaneously pushing spring and bidding farewell to winter with markdowns.

In short fashion, no pun intended, I found two pieces that flatter my boyish figure.  I selected straight, narrow dark-washed jeans, dark enough for evening at a restaurant, and a filmy black drop-waist shirt in sheer cotton. It was the perfect silhouette to show off my slender arms and legs, and still mask the stomach that cannot lie about the four pregnancies I had or the food I love.

Natalie didn’t mention accessories, and without a shopping cart my arms were already taxed holding onto the toilet bowl cleaners, so I didn’t take precious time to walk to the other side of the store in search of shoes or jewelry, however I would have selected black gladiator sandals with grommets if I there were any, and a long large linked chain as a necklace.  The outfit was actually kind of elegant and it was certainly affordable.  Both pieces combined were about $18.00 on sale.

I yelled to Natalie asking if she found something and found her gliding around the other side of the department, her head moving quickly above the rounds like she was on a bike.  She expressed frustration that she couldn’t find anything but suddenly approached me with a very pretty, very long black and white dress that would look like a nightgown on me and a stunner on her.  Natalie and I have different body types; her curves and average height come from her father’s side of the family.   The dress she chose, for $19.99, would have looked gorgeous on her beautiful figure.

In that little ten minute exercise across from the checkouts at Kmart, I learned I have a spirited  daughter who turns the routine into something memorable, I learned you can do worse than get fashionable clothing from Kmart, and I realized if we ever decide to “impress guys”, we’ll likely make a pretty good impression for less than $40.00 for both of us.

President Obama is famously reversing many policies of the Bush administration; closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and funding global reproductive health programs, among others.

But he quietly changed something else within the first week of his Presidency which affects the people who work for him and in a broader sense, the rest of us in some way.  He relaxed the White House dress code, which to me says less about clothing and more about the hypocrisy of Number 43.

I read about the dress code adjustment in the New York Times, which also recently offered a fascinating item about the former White House photographers.  Three of them had been invited to show their favorite photographs from the Bush years and one photo in particular stuck with me.

Aware that President Bush once scolded a White House staffer for reporting for work on a Saturday in khakis and a button down shirt, the photo in question made me angry.

It was taken at the end of a long dirt road outside the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.  There had been a summit of some sort and against the backdrop of a flat and scorched Texas landscape, stood the President, Secretary of State Condoleezaa Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney and two others whom I do not recall.   There was Rice, all buttoned up in a navy blue jacket, navy blue skirt and navy blue pumps.  Cheney of course, was equally formal in suit and tie as were the other two gentlemen in the photo.  Front and center, there was our President, the one who insisted every one of his worn out staffers wear a jacket and tie on a weekend, standing among suits in blue jeans, cowboy boots and a wrinkled shirt.   Had you not known he was the President, you would assume he was the guy hired to drive the group up the road.

I don’t need another excuse to criticize the former President, and I’m looking forward to the hopeful administration of Barack Obama.  But that photo got under my skin.   Farewell George Bush,  the President, and the hypocritical demands of others.

Hit the age of 40 and you  stop paying attention to certain things, and if you think these things aren’t important, just talk to a teenager.   Their head will cock and their expression will read “you are so old you’re cute”.  This is because they know you listen to stuck music, wear stuck fashion, and count on stuck habits to conduct your life.   In other words, you know nothing about anything that matters.

I was reminded of this yet again when my best college pal vented her frustration in trying to convince her fellow artists in Virginia that their gallery would sell more if they moved to a new space around the corner.   My friend is meeting great resistance from the group that probably has an average age of 58.  My friend is 52, but she’s not stuck. She pays attention to the world whizzing by.   I don’t know the other members, but I would guess the women are still wearing waist-high jeans and the men wear slacks with double pleats and cinched ankles.  They don’t want to move in more ways than one.

When a 50 year old guy I was dating purchased a power boat a few years ago, he went to his buddies on the golf course for suggestions of CDs he should buy for the sound system.    To a person, everyone recommended music from the 1980s, which was the last time they cared. They were in their thirties in the 80s and the thirties is the last decade when progress comes to you naturally.   After that, you have to come to progress and if you don’t, you’ll be cute in that unflattering way.

I suppose there’s nothing wrong with acting one’s age in this way, but it sure isn’t very fun and these days it isn’t Presidential.  Barack Obama loaded his I-Pod with John Coltrane until his Body Man insisted on the campaign trail the candidate add some Jay-Z and Lil Wayne.  Obama is the coolest man ever to occupy the White House due in some part to having the cultural appetite of a person half his age.    I’m sure he’d think the move to a different gallery in Virginia would be a great idea.

Not sure if you’re stuck?

Tune in a Top 20 radio station and see if anything sounds familiar.  Points if you can identify the artist.

Drive to your local college or university and ask yourself if anything in your closet looks at all like what you see on the people walking around.  Forget brand names, just study the silhouette of the fashion and see if you match up.

Go to one of the celebrity sighting websites.  It’s more important than you think. Who are the paparazzi following?  It’s not Richard Dreyfuss and Jane Seymour.  You’ve got to know what makes Chloe Sevigny  famous and who  is Gavin Rossdale  married to.   It will come up in cocktail conversation somewhere that matters.  Trust me on this.

I’m not saying you should do any of this at the expense of the New York Times and CNBC.  Just don’t let the rest of the world pass you by as you brush up on current events and the stock market. Like so much else in life,  exercise will keep you going, and that includes exercising the pop culture muscle.