Our dedicated yoga practice is finally ready for a spring debut and to further lengthen our lovely stems, we can celebrate the return of nude shoes. Last season we matched our skin to our footwear in the form of spiky stilettos (namely Louboutin), and pranced around Soho trying not to fall over. This season has been more gracious as nude shoes are showing up in platforms, wedges, sandals and slightly subtle brogues.

Best of all, this season’s nudes command attention. They kind of make us want to use jazz hands. Whether tipped in glitter like Top Shop’s nude brogues or a twisted heel like Jeffery Campbell’s Michelle pump (left), twenty ten takes us out of our comfort zone and into Wonderland…or Pandora. It’s a season to mix, math and make believe that your legs really are four feet long…even in flats. So don’t be tempted by multicolored, heavy black or school-girl browns come Spring shopping season. For your feetsies, go nude. Matching the neutral shade to your skin tone is even better. You’re legs will thank you…and so will your boyfriend, your neighbor, your deli guy, your office crush and your UPS man.

To celebrate winter melting into Spring, we booked our social calendars tight with early weddings and event galas, and now we need something to wear. If you are in the market for a fifteen hundred dollar cocktail dress for around three seventy five (and who isn’t?), this is your week. Our two choice sales offer the best (and recent) cocktail and ready-to-wear for deeply discounted prices. World renown luxe designer Issey Miyake, the grandfather of Pleats, is over seventy years old now, but his designs are as fresh today as they were in the 30’s. The Issey Miyake Sample Sale, March 16th, showcases his classic Pleats Please collection, casual but detailed ready-to-wear Cauliflower collection as well as Miyake’s menswear. Prices for this sale are up to 80% off retail value with a $1,500 silk blend dress marked down to $315 (pictured). Bring your boyfriend because a Fall 2009 menswear is also deeply discounted from about $1,500 to just around $300.

Milanese designer, Orlandi Luca’s then five-year-old brand, Luca Luca, took New York Fashion Week by storm in ‘97 with an eye for feminine detail and the forever coveted cocktail dress. Rampant on the New York social scene and a Barney’s favorite, Luca Luca now includes suits and impeccably tailored sportswear along with their signature dresses.

For Thursday’s one-day sample sale, Luca Luca steeply discounted some of Fall 2009’s favorites. Yes, favorites. While many designer sample sales discount slow-selling merchandise for their sample sales, pawning off random sizes and/or damaged goods, Luca Luca offers best-selling cocktail dresses, awesome suits and timeless pieces with ubiquitous sizes and impeccable quality. How? Some of their merchandise came in late in the season past prime selling point. Lucky for us because we love Luca Luca’s rich colors and solid staying power. Buy a dress now and you can still wear it in ten years. Sample prices for this sale include a beaded black cocktail dress (bottom right), which sold last fall for about $2,200 for $550. The single shoulder cranberry cocktail dress (bottom left) was $1,350, now $350.

Emma Dinzebach

WHAT: Issey Miyake Warehouse Sale 

WHY: Up to 80% off retail from this past Autumn/Winter 09 collection. Men’s, Women’s and Pleats Please. 

HEN: 3/16, Tuesday (8-7) 

WHERE: The Metropolitan Pavilion, 123 West 18 Street, 4th Floor 

WHAT: Luca Luca Sample Sale 

WHY: Up to 90% off retail this past Autumn/Winter 09 collection. 

HEN: 3/18, Thursday (10-6) 

WHERE: 19^th West 36^th Street 4^th Floor 

Most beauty posts last week focused on the Academy Awards dress, jewelry, make-up and hair. But take a second look and you might notice white. Ubiquitous, er rampant, white. Maybe celebs lathered on sunscreen during their winter vacations so the rest of America wouldn’t feel raging jealousy that their monetary status lends blizzard escapes. Or they are trying to show Jersey Shore lovers that guns don’t kill people, tanning beds kill people.

But seriously, the amount of red carpet white was stunning. Skin looked exfoliated, scrubbed and very well protected from the big bad sun. The cheeks were quite bare - just a swipe of shimmery pink or the teeniest hint of tan. “It’s an entire movement towards a more pure lifestyle,” said my favorite Bliss facialist. Keeping skin safe from UVA rays (see also: anti-melanoma trend) is a lifestyle choice. And as much as we love J Wow and Snookie, skin cancer, we don’t want age spots and wrinkles in our future. We’re fine with glowing white faces for our gala’s this spring. So as the sun starts to show it’s pretty face, lather up liberally ladies. Lather up.

Emma Dinzebach

So I got sucked into the show after one episode for several reasons one being I love the Destin Pfaff’s mohawk, but also because Patti is positively sublime. For years my friends have  been warning me away from guys who might catch my eye the first few times around, but aren’t well-suited for long term love. While I was running around town choosing men based on their cool careers and shoe type, my friends were desperately trying to set me up with men who might actually be Mr. Right.

But I didn’t listen because I wasn’t ready. The men and women on Millionaire Matchmaker don’t listen because something is wrong with them in their insides. Mostly the men. Sometimes the millionairesses cannot find a mate because it’s legit hard to meet their match. (I have sent several exes Patti’s way. I hope she helps them.)

When it came to my own team of dedicated matchmakers (the best matchmakers are Jewish), I blew them off and did whatever I damn well pleased. Each time I ignored their heeding, I ended up in break-up land. Not that it’s so bad, rebounds are great and I you get to belt out Christina, Carrie and Kelly. But ugh, the cycle. Then you get used to the cycle and start to think that vicious cycle is the way dating is. Like it or lump it. But, like the show’s millionaires, you are wrong. And you aren’t getting on television.

That neurotic, anxiety-ridden, delusional dating served a purpose for me, provided me with material for my book. But never again will I date that way. Nope. Never. (I’m also not currently dating because, like I told one guy this evening, I do not want to have a strong feeling - lustful or disdain, one way or the other - about anything until I am finished writing this book.) When it is time for me to date someone (assuming I have to go back to dating) I will date with a much more direct intention. Because, like Patti says, we all want the red sea to part and the angles to trumpet and the angles to cantillate Alleluia, but in reality, sometimes we have to just swim across the damned thing. Tons of mates fall out of the sky, it’s knowing how to pick the right one - the mate who possesses your no exceptions qualifications and is (mainly) free of internal torment - that makes all the difference.

Emma Dinzebach