Making fall fashion dreams reality

A couple of posts ago I was waxing poetic on the dreamy vintage romance of fall fashion. I snapped back to affordable reality when I received the new White House Black Market catalog. They nail it. I get the same feel--ruffles, jackets, cloche hats, rows of pearls--with an updated modern sensibility that I'll feel good in while eating sushi outside at Raku. And we're lucky here in MoCo. There's a new White House in Wisconsin Place in Chevy Chase and another (with tons of free parking) at Congressional Plaza in Rockville. I'm off to the races. (Plus, the prices sure beat haute couture. Now I can get a matching gamine haircut... )

Asking Amy at Eileen Fisher

Fans of flowing Eileen Fisher clothing flocked to Wisconsin Place last night to welcome the new store to the hood and meet syndicated columnist "Ask Amy" Dickinson, who in addition to writing her daily syndicated column (not daily in the Post) just came out with a memoir, The Mighty Queens of Freeville. In addition to Freeville, Dickinson spent time in DC, where daughter Emily, now 20, attended the Maret school. (Amy's dress was a fun homemade find from Georgetown's Christ Church Thrift Shop.) Local ties established, she then read from the book and recounted some misadventures while on her book tour, including - the fan favorite - her adventures with the crew on "The View." I had to know, so I asked Amy, "How Do You Know Everything?" She said mostly life experience, suggesting the answer lies in the book... Natch. She knows a lot; she's also a regular on NPR's "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!" The crowd loved her: the store was filled with mostly Fisher-clad women who after enjoying crab cakes and white wine left with full shopping bags, a copy of the book and a New Yorker, where Amy worked as a receptionist after college.