Merchandise It: Texture Frenzy

The Lori's Insider Report

—Ashley Lacey, Lori's staff and author of Stiletto-Chic

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to "merchandise it up" in the words of my fashion icon, the über-fab Carrie Bradshaw. (I am well aware that she is fictional but to me, she lives.)

I love to create a multi-dimensional look centered around one core item. It is paramount to have a statement piece, whether it be a pair of platforms, a necklace, a bracelet or a bag. Pick an item to be the center of attention and make it the star of the show!

When picking your pieces be sure to incorporate texture. Add items that don't seem to match. This trend is epic right now. Match a dressier item, such a sequin top or a light weight chiffon skirt, with a blazer or edgier boot as seen below on Gwyneth Paltrow. Her amped-up boots are obviously the main attraction! Get her sexy combat boot look with our Vancouver boot by Sam Edelman.

No need to match your belt with your pumps. No need to wear only complementary colors. Take a look at my fave "mix-n-match" runway Fall 2010 looks [courtesy of Harper's Bazaar]. These looks illustrate color remixing, the pairing of items of various textures, layering and the dominance of a muted color palette.

How does one style a "statement piece"?  How much is too much? You decide! Exercise your own judgment. I believe that fashion has no rules. Adorn yourself with fur (faux fur if you prefer), ethnic or Geo prints and texturized tights. Wear what your fashionable heart desires!

Hue tights, Boutique 9 wedge booties, earrings, and Cut N' Paste bag all available at Lori's

Beyonce and Jay-Z Are Married

After rumors and speculation, Jay-Z and Beyonce have tied the knot. While there's no official confirmation, sources have reported that the twosome wed in an intimate, extravagant ceremony in Tribeca, New York City. The ceremony was followed by a posh party at Jay-Z's Manhattan home. Guests included Beyonce's family, her Destiny's Child pals, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Gwyneth's reality show venture

The woman once known for her alcohol-free, macrobiotic diet - and then admitted to a weakness for pinot noirs - has loosened up even further. Gwyneth Paltrow plans to eat her way through Spain. "I am 'supercontenta' to be here," the 35-year-old actress said Tuesday at a Madrid press conference to announce her upcoming gastronomic reality series for PBS, Spain...on the Road Again. Still, the longtime advocate for all things organic is not completely abandoning her old food restrictions. "I think my Spanish father will kill me when I refuse to eat jamon Jabugo," Paltrow admitted, referring to the specially cured ham from the black Iberian pig - as well as to the patriarch of a Spanish family she lived with when she was a high-school exchange student. "[But] I haven't eaten anything from a four-footed animal since I was about 15," she added. Paltrow will film the 13-week series with famed chef Mario Batali, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman and Spanish TV actress Claudia Bassols. The show, to debut in late 2008, will document the group's adventures in search of the perfect meal, and it was Batali who initially spoon-fed the venture to Paltrow. "I was having dinner with Mario, and he was talking about this project," the actress said. "I told him, 'If you want me, I'm with you.' He thought I was joking, and I had to persuade him I was serious. So here I am in Madrid - my friends are all jealous."

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Unlikely BFFs: Gwyneth and Ross

The Tonight Show's Ross "the Intern" Mathews gushed about his friendship with A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow at a fashion event in LA over the weekend. "She has the raunchiest sense of humor," he said. "I think we click because I can be quite dirty and filthy. Like I have the mouth of a sailor, and she really appreciates that." The unlikely BFFs began a friendship after Mathews saw her at an Oscar party about five years ago. "I was covering the Vanity Fair party, and she was walking down the red carpet and I said, 'Will you be my best friend?' And she said 'Yes!' And I gave her my email address and the next morning had an email from her. And we have emailed now for...it's been going five years. And whenever she's in town, we get together and have dinner, lunch and I go visit her on set and I even went to London to hang out with her. It's crazy... Well, we've been through everything like from relationships and breakups and our fathers died around the same time, and so we've run the gamut of sort of like emotions. And so it went from being sort of like a funny 'Oh my god, Gwyneth Paltrow's my friend!' to like she's someone I can talk to about this and that I can't really talk to a lot of people about. And we've really grown to relate and love each other, and it's wonderful."

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Former NYC waitress dishes on celeb tipping

In a new book called Rules for Saying Goodbye, a former waitress uses real-life details about celebrities and their tipping habits - or lack of. She dishes she once received a 15% tip from Gwyneth Paltrow, describing her as "not stingy, only stupid. I thought she probably couldn't calculate 15%," but says David Byrne tops the list of lousy tippers because he "never tipped in any of the three bars where I worked in New York." Though the book is fiction, the writer confirmed to her publisher that she previously worked as a West Village bartender and that all celebrity anecdotes in the book are true. "Rupert Everett, Parker Posey, Madonna, no tip. Tobey Maguire...Barbra Streisand, John Travolta's wife. Almost no tips at all." She also adds: "Paul McCartney was once too drunk to tip."

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Celebrity playdates

Apple and Moses Martin certainly have some A-list playdates. "I have friends like Stella McCartney or Madonna, and very often our children get together to play," mom Gwyneth Paltrow tells Spanish Vogue. "Although usually we leave them in bed and stay to drink a glass of wine." Paltrow also says her kids love living in a musical household with their Coldplay-frontman dad Chris Martin. "The house is always full of music, whether it is Chris playing or not, and the children love it." Of aging, the Oscar-winning actress says, "When I look at my daughter's skin, it's the most beautiful and perfect in the world. You lose that with age, of course. But as you grow older you gain character, wisdom and beauty in your soul. A mature woman knows herself, and that is sexy."

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Gwyneth ready to get back to work

Gwyneth Paltrow showed her support for people battling cancer by hosting a diamond jewelry auction in NYC last night to raise money for Hope Lodge, which provides free housing for adult cancer patients undergoing treatment. "My life has been affected by cancer in so many different ways," said the actress, who lost her father to the disease in 2002. "When my father had cancer, he found it so isolating. It's very difficult to empathize with if you haven't gone through it." The mom of two children, Apple and Moses, with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, says she's ready to step back into the acting world. "I haven't done a real part in a long time," she said. "I'm going back to work now... When I had kids, I just wanted to be with them."

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