What Wendy Wore: Double Vintage to the WJA Gala

The Women’s Jewelry Association’s 2015 Awards for Excellence Gala took place last Monday. If you’re in the jewelry biz, it’s a great organization to join. WJA’s mission, as described on its website, is, “To help women in the jewelry and watch industries advance and develop professionally through networking, education, leadership development and the provision of member services.” Men can join too!

All kinds of exciting things happened at the gala. It was great to know that one of WJA’s earliest — and oldest — members was there. Peggy Kirby is now 102 years old! My friend Peggy Jo Donahue posed for an Instagram photo with Peggy Kirby and noted that the latter “remembers what it was like to be a young working woman in the jewelry industry in the 1930s! Peggy endured … and led the way for the rest of us. I am proud to share her name.”

There were two award winners at my table. Deborah Nicodemus, the chief executive officer of online luxury retailer Moda Operandi, won for nontraditional retail, while my gorgeous friend Monica Stephenson won the editorial award for her website, iDazzle.com. I got to celebrate a second time with Monica later in the week, but that’s a story for another blog post. In the meantime, check out the very lovely and true comments from Barbara Palumbo of Adornmentality in this Instagram caption.

This photo by Bart Gorin of @idazzle accepting her award for Excellence in Media at this year’s @womensjewelryassociation Awards for Excellence epitomizes how much grace this woman has. Monica, I’m a believer that the word “love” has become a “throw away” word these days, and that it’s overused and has lost the luster once saved for genuine adoration and truly heartfelt endearment. Having said that, I love you. I really love you, and I’m so proud of you. Congratulations. #wjaawards15 #photo #winning #media #editorial #amazeballs #myfriend #soproud #womenrule #empoweroneanother #makeitmeansomething #theresnothinggreater #jewelrypeople #writers #bloggers

A photo posted by Adornmentality.com (@adornmentality) on Jul 29, 2015 at 11:32am PDT

Barbara and I met up in the ladies’ room for our traditional duckface pose …

A photo posted by Wendy Brandes (@wendybrandes) on Jul 28, 2015 at 3:19pm PDT

… and also got in a snuggle.

A photo posted by Wendy Brandes (@wendybrandes) on Aug 2, 2015 at 4:02am PDT

In yesterday’s post, I shared a close-up of the peridot and diamond earrings that I wore. Now it’s time for the rest of the outfit.

What Wendy Wore
Dress: Vintage Lillie Rubin (acquired 2006-ish)
Purse: Patricia Field (2015)
Shoes:  Badgley Mischka (pre-2005)
Jewelry: My own designs, of course!
Hair: Julie Matos of Warren-Tricomi
Makeup: Josie Torres

My ruffled/feathered/bedazzled 50 Shades of Green look (check out the matching eyeshadow!) was a bit over the top but I was determined to wear this vintage Lillie Rubin dress to something this summer. The last time I wore it was in 2007.  That makes it double vintage: Vintage by nature and vintage in terms of how long I’ve owned it. Here’s how it looked the last time I wore it.

And here’s how it looked on actress Gina Gershon when she wore it to a theater event in 2005.

View image | gettyimages.com

That’s not the same style dress on Gina. That’s the actual dress that I now own. Gina borrowed it for her event and, a while later, I bought it. (Gina is clearly much thriftier than I am!) I bumped into her around the time I last wore it and we had a polite little chat about our mutual dress. Hey, Gina! If you ever want to borrow this again, holla at me!