Hillary Kerr

Business

Wild Wild Westward: Kate Spade New York's New Collab with Emily Current and Meritt Elliott

If Tuesday's earthquake taught us anything, it's that certain Californian elements just don't translate to the Atlantic coast--at least not without a lot of Twitter protest. But when we heard several months ago that Kate Spade New York, purveyor of all things preppy-pretty, was poised to team up with L.A. stylists Emily Current and Meritt Elliot (the same team behind those perfectly slouchy boyfriend jeans) for a special collection, our ears instantly perked up. On Wednesday night, we headed to Kate Spade New York's Broome Street boutique to witness the results. From leather-edged envelope clutches sparkling with charcoal-toned sequins to ostrich-skin shoulder bags and logo-free satchels sure to get even better with age and wear, every single piece in the duo's "Westward" lineup embodies heritage-steeped simplicity. In between sips of champagne and bites of sliders, we chatted with Kate Spade New York Creative Director Deborah Lloyd about how the collab came about. "It was all about joint admiration," she said, "plus, my own assistant wears Current/Elliott head-to-toe to work!" Lloyd explains that while us Manhattanites tend to go for a "matching, polished" aesthetic, she loved the notion of adding a Californian touch to her label's famously girly look. "It was all about the laid-back style and relaxed peace that they brought to the bags, the unusual materials and the mixing-up of things. But you still see those Kate Spade pops of polish and sweetness."

Style

Go Buy Who What Wear's New Book and Awesome Shoe Collection ASAP

Not only do I love Who What Wear for its daily dose of celebrity style and fashion inspiration, I also love the site's founders Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, because they're not only nice and adorable, but also inspiring. These two former magazine editors have taken a topic no one else really does well--celebrity fashion--and made it into something cool, but still accessible. So I was thrilled to hear that the duo was launching their second book, What to Wear Where: The How-to Handbook for Any Style Situation. I've always been a fan of their instructive videos explaining how to wear a certain look, whether it's a pleated skirt or high-waisted bell bottoms. (Just because I'm a fashion writer doesn't mean I'm a stylist!) The book is fantastic because it gives you outfit options for pretty much every situation, from a first date to your high school reunion. Even if you fancy yourself a super stylist, it's a good place to get ideas.

Shopping

Who What Wear Teams Up With Visa To Launch a New Online Shopping Tool

Attention online shopping addicts: Tired of keeping track of the items you like, trying to remember a million different passwords for different e-commerce sites, staying on top of orders, and constantly refilling shipment information? Your life just got easier. A new online shopping tool by Visa called Rightcliq, launching today, aims to simplify the online shopping experience. It allows you to consolidate all your browsing within one place so you can visually compare potential purchases, stores all your checkout and shipping information, and tracks all your purchases. Depending on your credit score, this could be a good or bad thing. The tool piqued our interest because Katherine Power and Hillary Kerr, the lovely ladies behind Who What Wear, are endorsing it. In fact, Power says Visa beat them to the chase on this one. "We never get out of the office during business hours so we do the majority of our shopping online," says Katherine Power. "We really thought about how we could build this ourselves for our site before this came along because it’s so necessary with all of the options for online shopping."