Gwen Stefani: still quirky SoCal

Gwen Stefani has gone through a massive personal transformation in the last 10 years, moving on from London, her marriage to Blake Shelton, The Voice, and spending a lot of time on a ranch in Oklahoma. When someone’s life goes through such a big change, oftentimes their style can change and one thing I can appreciate about Gwen is that she has stuck with her aesthetic. She adds in touches of “country” but she didn’t switch from fishnets to bootcut jeans to match Blake Shelton. (And Blake Shelton isn’t switching from cowboy boots to Vans, either.) 

 

Her styling team is great at layering – here she’s wearing fishnets, a lace bustier, track pants, tons of gold jewelry and a white lace bowling shirt. This is for The Today Show. Not a lot of people are pulling out this kind of mix for morning TV. As for the shirt, it’s a Dolce & Gabbana lace-insert bowling shirt and it’s $2745 (Canadian). I’m not linking to it because in I cannot recommend this shirt in good conscience. Gwen Stefani can wear it once as a novelty piece, but really no one should be investing in this for the long term. 

 

Jennifer Garner’s charm offensive

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Jennifer Garner has mom charm. She’s the perfect mix of earnest, self-effacing, warm and enthusiastic. She’s domestic but not in a creepy tradwife way, and she doesn’t edit her videos to try to be perfect. Of course, that is more personal and interesting than perfection (or at least it feels that way through the screen).

Do I think Jennifer Garner is just an “awwww shucks” kinda gal? Sure, but she’s also a movie star and it takes work to get there and very hard work to sustain that position and I don’t think she does things by accident. She’s pretty savvy about her image, which means that part of this is a performance. But it’s a performance I appreciate. 

 

She’s recently gone viral (do celebrities “go” viral or are they just viral all the time? That’s another discussion) for her nut bag. She pulled out several bags of nuts and candy from her backpack and it’s cute. Also, she’s reading two novels with her kids and I could totally see her becoming a book influencer like Reese.

While she’s just a regular mom, those nuts are in a Bruno Cucinelli backpack, which is currently on sale for around $3400USD. Stars, they aren’t like us!

Still, a solid leather backpack should be a “for life” purchase. They are practical, never go out of style and a good quality backpack should be able to take a beating. I bought someone a Rebecca Minkoff leather backpack as a gift about four years ago and she uses it daily and it barely shows any wear and tear. 

Some current options that are the same shape as Jen’s designer bag: this leather Fossil bag, a vegan Brodiee bag from Call It Spring and the faux leather Sheila from Michael Kors. If you want, take advantage of those lingering Black Friday sales.

 

Drew’s grandpa cardigan

The Drew Barrymore Show has had a pretty bumpy few months but one thing that hasn’t wavered is her wardrobe. This show has budget! She wears a lot of Chloe, Celine, Marc Jacobs, Gabriela Hearst, L’Agence, Stella McCartney, Toteme – you get the idea. She’s big into suits with wide leg pants or A-line skirts paired with blouse and blazer and, unlike many TV hosts, Drew doesn’t shy away from prints like checkers, houndstooth and argyle. 

In her spare time, she dresses with that same kind of homey comfort and while the dog is the star of this show, the cardigan is by Lingua Franca. It’s currently on sale for $524 (Canadian). It also comes a minty sage and yellow version. Lingua Franca is expensive and it touts itself as “ethically sourced” cashmere but as always, do your own research because to be frank I don’t trust any brand to tell me its ethics. This isn’t a knock on Lingua Franca, but green washing in fashion is a very real thing so consumers can and should carry some responsibility to look beyond the label. 

 

Also, I can appreciate Drew’s cardigan but I think I have a bias against this brand because they do lot of cringey slogan sweaters. I admit it OK!

Here's Gwen performing at the APEC Summit in San Francisco earlier this month.