Craving: Faux Fur and '70s Glamour

{Kate Hudson as the heart-breaking Band-Aid Penny Lane in Almost Famous}
By now, everyone in my immediate sphere knows and is tired of hearing that I can't wait for this weekend so I can head to Massachusetts with friends (there aren't a lot of reasons I would do this) to go to the Big E, aka the Eastern States Expositon, aka New England's famed Fall Fair, for mountains of fried food and spicy-sweet beverages. I'm not really sure how I can be such a born-and-bred, die-hard New Englander and fall-season enthusiast and have never been before. Oh wait, yes I am - incredibly stubborn immigrant parents who made many steadfastly negative and often politically incorrect comments about such affairs. I won't get into all that. Suffice it to say, I'm incredibly excited - and so glad that it's raining buckets as I write this, breaking the wave of heat and humidity that has been harshing my autumn mellow in a major way. I don't think it will dip below 60' this Sunday, but that will work much better than 80'.
When the crisp weather finally does hit, I am hoping to have scored, at long last, the perfect faux-fur coat. The '70s resurgence has hit yet again, ushering in long, nappy vests and Marianne Faithfull-esque bell-bottoms. While the latter just brings far too many memories of ill-cut middle-school bangs and too many shared-among-friends Lip Smackers, I find myself hit anew by a long-standing craving for the perfect, decidedly downtown, deliciously cozy faux topper, preferably in a caramel hue and a slightly boxy cut, like this one:
{Vintage rabbit-fur, Etsy.com}
While Kate Hudson's incredibly poignant, tender, and (probably the 20 millionth time this word has been to applied to either the character or the actress) effervescent portrayal of Penny Lane was as influential as Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly, almost everything she did afterward, in my opinion, was bubble-gum-scented crap. Still, the charm of that film and everything about it would definitely make it into my Top Favorites list any day. Who can forget the adorable groupie as she glides around the room full of rock stars draped over chaises, smoking pot and strumming guitars? As she spins in a giddy, drunken circle while champagne spills from a long-necked bottle onto her naked torso, covered only by her deeply fabulous fur-trimmed coat? I love the cigarette-holes-and-smoky-glitter glamour and the "It-Girl" factor, especially paired with some broken-in jeans and loose, flowing hair. I would rock the right one (it's got to be faux - I've become one of those people who weeps the moment a Humane Society commercial comes on) with ripped skinny jeans, my amazing new Dolce Vita desert-gray booties (via T.J. Maxx), scarlet lipstick, and loads of metal jewelry. I think combining some unexpected elements would keep it from looking too costumey and take it into modern day-or-night. However, part of the beauty of a furry coat is its versatility - I love the less grungy, more stage-presence idea of wearing it over a slinky black dress or body-con romper with shades, a belt, and a sexy attitude, a la Francoise Hardy:

Here's Kate Hudson looking gorgeous in updated versions. I'm particularly taken with the one on the left, with its slimmer silhouette and lush, high collar. The chick may star in obnoxiously trite movies, but she is just so beautiful, and she'll always be the reason I watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days any/every time it comes on.

Here's another, and to my mind far less annoying, Kate - the incomparable Kate Moss, showing us two looks: straight boho, up-all-night with no makeup drinking with hipster musician friends, and ritzy evening soiree with a cat eye and precisely applied coppery bronzer. I am digging the party-girl swagger with which both women wear their coats - no Junior League or white-girl dancing here, but some free booze and sexily smuged eye-makeup for sure.

{These 3 images: LovelyBohemia.blogspot.com}

I'll be scouring eBay, thrift stores, and my mom's friends' closets (why don't they want this stuff?!.. Hmm, perhaps for similar reasons as my "diluted bell-bottom" aversion ... some times are better revered in memory than re-lived) for the right item. In the meantime and in-between time, I'll have to be content with the last of the warm days - but I'm still hoping for a chill in the air at the New England Fair.

-xoxo