Amalia Fashionista Accessorizes

Since  she passed her second birthday and moved from Miami to Manhattan, granddaughter Amalia has revised and refined  her fashion vibe. 

 Leaving the bikinis and sundresses behind, she’s transformed her wardrobe for winter in the Big Apple.  And like Coco Chanel, whose ever-present pearls are an inspiration, Amalia believes, “The ability to accessorize is what separates us from the animals.”

Like many New Yorkers, Amalia often wears black.

Especially when working with penguins --one of her favorite animals.  She often visits them at the Central Park Zoo.)

This brown outfit needed something to make it pop—she decided to add her lime green owl backpack.

For eating a mini-cupcake in a diner, she wore her shiny red Minnie Mouse boots and a white hooded jacket.

She has to pick the right workout clothes for Tuesdays (hip-hop dance class) and Thursdays (yoga) at the nearby store “Sprout.”

This outfit was a favorite of her yoga partner.

For a casual Sunday brunch, she picks her cozy Hello Kitty robe, Dora socks and her favorite baseball hat—worn backwards.

Fake glasses add a note of gravitas when you’re playing doctor.

A new Poochie Purse inspired her “Snow fun” top and multiple necklaces.

For working on her I-Pad, Amalia chose black galoshes and her cupcake-topped tutu, but she felt there was something missing.

Her old faithful Dora baseball cap!

This outfit, with the matching knitted leggings, needed no embellishment

For baking and eating Valentine cookies, she picked her LOVE shirt with a heart on it.

Choosing the right purse for an outfit is critical.

Watching Dora videos on Yiayia’s computer called for some butterfly wings and a tutu, along with her penguin top.

On Valentine’s Day,  Amalia baked heart cupcakes and entertained Uncle Bob and Auntie Robin in a black outfit with hearts and a hat worn backwards for a cloche effect.

Last week’s storm, which caused havoc in New York, prevented some child models from getting to a photographer’s studio in the building where her Mommy works, so Amalia was pressed into service for a catalogue shoot. 

Here she is getting ready in hair and make-up.

She liked the outfit they put on her, but if she were accessorizing the photo shoot herself, she would have added a poochie purse and a baseball cap—backwards, of course!

Amalía Fashionista Wraps up Summer

 Amalia wears a maxi dress in a tropical print while informing her staff that it's time for her afternoon snack.

For Suri Cruise, fashion guru of the pre-school set, it’s been a pretty crumby summer, what with her parents splitting up and then her Mom, Katie Holmes, refusing to buy her that puppy that she fell  in love with.  So she threw a tantrum. In public. 

 Between avoiding the paparazzi  and worrying about being kidnapped by Scientologists, Suri  was forced to hide out with her Mom in their new Manhattan digs and didn’t provide much fodder for the blogs devoted to her fashion choices.

For our granddaughter Amalia, however, 11-month-old fashion guru of the pre-potty-trained set, it was a summer of jetting about, from Manhattan to San Francisco to Nicaragua to Miami to Worcester, MA, where she celebrated her baptism on July 8, surrounded by 131 close friends and relatives.

This peripatetic summer called for swift, cutting-edge fashion decisions and packing skills and  challenged Amalía’s innate gift for accessorizing.  Here’s what the country’s youngest fashionista was seen wearing in the Summer of  2012:

The bathing suit is, of course, the most important summer fashion decision, and Amalía rocked these three.  The one-shouldered black suit embellished with a large camellia may make you think "Chanel", but in fact it's from Baby Gap.

They were perfect for Amalia's first dip in the ocean, in the water park, and in Papou's pool, where she floated in her very own turtle boat.

She chose an embroidered dress from Nicaragua for Father's Day brunch with Papi, and a patriotic frock for the Fourth of July party in Massachusetts, where she happily ripped a flag-printed paper napkin to shreds.

On the day before her baptism, in the company of Abuela Carmen Oyanguren, Amalía wore a nautical number while surveying all the goodies ready for the party, including Greek sweets, a large candle for the ceremony and a basket holding her new after-baptism outfit brought from Corfu by her godmother Areti Vraka.

She danced at her baptism party wearing the new dress, then added its jacket for taking communion in Miami on the second Sunday after the christening. (It's expected for the baby to take communion for the three Sundays following the baptism.  On the first Sunday Amalía was in Managua, Nicaragua, and on the second and third in Miami Beach.) The outfit worked equally well for driving around the supermarket on the way home.

Romper, skort, shorts and a sun dress were her choices for climbing a wall, strolling in the park, browsing through cookbooks and indulging in a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.

Here's what she wore for catching butterflies and balloons, hanging out in Central Park with Mommy, and dashing off to Lincoln Road for some serious shopping.  Notice the eclectic accessorizing of the elephant-embellished romper with the turquoise handbag and the lime hair bow. 

Daring fashion choices for sightseeing, blowing bubbles, phoning Grandma on speed dial and programming the I-Pad.

Like Queen Elizabeth, Amalía has mastered the royal wave to acknowledge her fans and the paparazzi.  She can even do it while reading a book upside down.

But life is not unbroken parties, parks and fun in Amalía's world.  Sometimes she has a bad hair day, which enrages her until she rips out her barrette and throws it on the street.  And some mornings, especially on weekends, her parents like to lounge in bed instead of taking her  for a walk, which causes her to climb into their bed and say, "I'm bored.  There's nothing to do around here."

Amalía Does San Francisco (Part One)

 Recently People magazine had a page of photos of Suri Cruise, fashion guru of the pre-school set, hitting the hot spots in Manhattan with a stuffed giraffe as her constant escort (although he looks more like a deer to me.)

During the same week, my granddaughter Amalía, eight months old, fashion guru of the pre-walking set, flew to  San Francisco with her Mommy and Yiayia Joanie to hang out with her Aunt Marina (known as "Tia Marina"), attend a book event presenting her Mommy’s new novel “Other Waters” and take a quick tour of Wine Country and a hike through a redwood  forest.

She didn’t have a stuffed animal as an escort, although a teddy bear was seen atop her head at the Fairmont Hotel, and a certain mooing cow went AWOL before the flight back, but Amalía still managed to flaunt the latest fashions while partying like a rock star on the  Left Coast.

She chose psychedelic clashing colors for brunching at the famous (since 1918) St. Francis Diner in the Mission District near Tia Marina's apartment.

It was Cinco de Mayo, so there was a lot of celebrating (including dancing Skeletons) in the streets.

Amalía admired the fabulous murals on nearly every wall in the Mission District.

She took in the view from the roof of Tia Marina's building in the Mission.

And in downtown San Francisco, on the roof of the buiding where Tia Marina works for BAR Architects, there was a giant heart.

From the Fairmont Amalía walked with Yiayia Joanie to Chinatown.  (It was a very steep hill.)

One day her Mommy spoke at Book Passage in the Ferry Building, about her new novel "Other Waters." That's the Ferry Building in the background below.

Afterward some friends stayed for dinner at a restaurant in the same building.

That night there was a wine and cheese pajama party at the Fairmont, but Amalía, in her jammies, was all partied out.

(Tomorrow--Partying through wine country and the Redwood forest.)

Amalía Fashionista – the Easter Parade

Granddaughter Amalía, the self-appointed fashion guru to the pre-potty-trained set, just as Suri Cruise is to the pre-school set, knew that she would have to pull out all the fashion stops during this past Easter season, especially since she celebrated two Easters in two different cities.

(Speaking of Suri Cruise, let us pause to wish her a happy sixth birthday today and say that we’re frantic to find out how the Cruises are celebrating—especially since they spent over $100,000 on Suri’s second birthday bash, threw a lavish tea party in their Beverly Hills mansion last year for her fifth, and this year have arrived in Manhattan by helicopter to prepare for today’s festivities.  The whole fashion world is in a frenzy of anticipation to learn how Suri, who already wears high heels, celebrates and what she wears.)

Back to Amalía, who is now seven and a half MONTHS old.  She celebrated her first (Catholic) Easter on April 8 in Manhattan with her Mommy, Papi and Abuelita Carmen, who had come all the way from Nicaragua bearing the lovely hand-smocked pink dress (above) with blue embroidery and a matching pink straw hat.  (Amalía did put on shoes and socks for church.)  After church and lunch at Fulton resturant on the upper East Side, Amalia and her entourage joined the Easter Parade in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and had their photos taken at Rockefeller Center against a background of giant flowered eggs and topiary bunnies.

 And in a moment of pre-Easter silliness, Amalia donned bunny ears and showed off her first two teeth.

 Then Amalia and her parents and Abuela drove to Yiayia and Papou’s house in Grafton MA in time for the many rituals celebrating Orthodox Easter, which this year was on April 15.

Holy Saturday begins, for the Orthodox, with Communion after seven weeks of fasting (or at least one week of fasting for the less observant.)  The early morning Communion service at St. Spridon Cathedral in Worcester is followed by a rush to the Pancake House to indulge in the eggs and dairy that had been forbidden for so long.  Only meat is still verboten until the midnight Resurrection service. Of course Amalía didn’t fast or take communion, because she hasn’t yet been baptised.

 For Holy Saturday services, Amalia chose to wear this classic white dress with black trim accessorized with a white cardigan and a cloche hat, both in white with lavender trim

For casual wear she rocked this kimono-style onesie decorated with anime-style mermaids.

 Or this little pink frock for a trip to the park with Abuelita Carmen,

 A highlight of Easter breakfast is the sweet braided Tsoureki bread with a red egg on top.  It was Amalía’s introduction to this Easter tradition, and it became a favorite of hers at first taste.

 On Orthodox Easter Sunday, Amalía chose to make an entrance in this flowery dress with a yellow straw hat. She sat at the head of a table of 10, laden with roasted lamb, moussaka,  spinach- and cheese pies and even lobster-filled crepes  But she fell asleep before the  dessert course.

 In retrospect, Amalía decided that the only fashion faux pas she committed was this dress which she wore  while counting the eggs in her Easter Basket.   She made a mental note:  horizontal stripes are not her best fashion choice because  she’s short and they tend to make her look fat.

 On the next day, Monday April 16, Amalía headed back to New York City, mentally regretting that she’d left most of her summer sundresses hanging in the closet of their South Beach apartment in Miami.  How was she going to deal with all the social obligations that lie ahead during this freakishly warm New York weather?

 Back in New York

(For a further report on Amalía’s cross-cultural Pascal experiences, see her mommy’s blog post “Amalía has two Easters.”)