Erika Peña : I am a designer, an entrepreneur and, above all, a dreamer. I was born in Puerto Rico, after my parents, Juan Isidro Peña and Maritza Milagros Peña, had emigrated from the Dominican Republic. On my 18th birthday, I moved to New York to study at Parsons School of Design. This is where my adventure begins.

In New York, my focus was fashion design where I worked with many designers, most notably Donna Karen and Josie Natori. Following my work with these talented women, I was inspired to launch a clothing line called “epe”. It was during this period, when I was collaborating with a number of different designers on various projects, that I started looking to the future for my inspiration and this led me on the path to launching the Erika Peña line.

The inspiration of my jewelry line comes from my move from Manhattan to Puerto Rico. I wanted to convey this experience through my jewelry, which is part rough and edgy like New York, and light and airy like the Caribbean. In 2006, I joined forces with my sister Bielka Peña-Bevillard, with her financial background and my creativity we are building our clientele and expanding the Erika Peña Brand.
In spring 2008, I launched my first men’s line, Simon & Simone. This collection centered on cultural, religious and magical icons combined with the force of energy from the love between men and women; the ying and the yang to create a powerful form of wearable art for both.
Currently, on my ninth collection I have plans of launching Erika Peña Handbags and eventually a clothing collection.

Here are some thoughts about trying skinny jeans:

Skinny jeans, when they fit properly, can give you a long, lean line, and are fitted all the way through the calf.  Two places that they are not tight are at the knee, and the ankle. 

The thickest part of the calf is in the upper back of your shin, so the legs are going to be a little looser at the knee to accommodate, especially when you have to bend your knee.

As shown in a Red Book Magazine spread, you should wear your skinny jeans with a loose top. Not only is this proportion more balanced, but you can also get away with wearing a waistband a little tighter than usual.  A flowing loose top allows you to hide any waist-pudge above your waistline. I feel that it is better to have skinny jeans fit very tight on top so you don’t have to constantly hike them up when the waistband loosens up, so feel free to choose a smaller fit in the waist for skinny jeans.

The last part of your jean that must fit on a skinny jean is at the leg opening and length.

There are several length options to choose for your new skinny jeans:

-You can cut them off at the ankle.

-You can also leave the hem slightly longer than you think. 

Since skinny jeans are so narrow, it’s ok to have scrunches around the ankle if they’re too long, which is how some of the more vertically challenged celebrities are doing it. If you wear heels with them, eventually that scrunch will work its way around the heels of your shoes if they’re too long. Enjoy feeling skinny!

Connie Chen
Technical Designer (clothing)
True Jeans Guest Blogger

 

Jerry Hall for Chanel, shot by Karl Lagerfeld.The return of nineties supermodels Christy Turlington for Bally or Claudia Schiffer for Yves Saint Laurent — isn’t a trend we’re getting tired of anytime soon. In fact, we say keep them coming. These women look smoking, and it gives us mortals some hope of aging gracefully in the era of incessant Botox. Jerry Hall, 52, is the latest beauty to resurface, appearing in the Chanel accessories catalogue, shot by Karl Lagerfeld, the photos of which premiered today online. Hall plays the older woman in a boudoir fantasy, which is inspired by the Chéri novel by Colette. And it gets steamy. She’s draped in silk lingerie, tumbling under bedsheets covered in Chanel bags, and tugging at the necklace of her hot young lover, Baptiste Giabiconi (who, might we add, has the sexiest tousled hair). It’s a convincing postcoital shot if we ever saw one. See, Madonna? You’re not the only one who can bag a hot young thing. Age doesn’t matter when sex always sells.

Just In: Jerry Hall’s Chanel Shots [Grazia]

You know things are bad when the Queen of Bling scales back her fashion show. Kimora Lee Simmons is cutting the guest list for her usually flashtacular Friday-night Baby Phat show by half, to approximately 800. She’s moving from Roseland Ballroom to the smaller Gotham Hall and only holding a small cocktail reception instead of her regular massive after-party. “Now’s not the time to be running all over and flaunting the money that we don’t have,” she told Heard on the Runway. What? Does this not go against the principle of fabulosity the label was founded on? Which we’ve always understood to mean trying to show you have money in order to compensate for something else you feel is lacking within? “Now’s not the time to have all these people come to the show who are coming because they’re your best friends — the people who need to be there are the buyers who need to see the clothes, the editors,” Kimora continued. This season her show will take place on a Tuesday, so that international buyers who often leave New York before her old Friday-night slot can see the clothes. Okay, great. So they’ll be there. But they will not understand the true essence of fabulosity, which is a tragedy. We hope she doesn’t skimp on the hair extensions or acrylics for the models. These foreigners need at least a taste of fabulosity.

Baby Phat Tones Down Glitz This Season [Heard on the Runway/WSJ]