image via Vosges

Luisa Casati was an odd duck, socialite and muse to artists from Jean Cocteau to Jack Kerouac back in her day. Not only did the Italian heiress enjoy leading her pet cheetahs around Venice on a leash, she was also mad about pearls. Vosges Chocolate's new Luxe Marchesa Casati Collection immortalizes the legend with an homage to that obsession.

The newly-launched gift box features a dozen dark chocolate, caramel truffles, packaged in a lucite gift box, studded with freshwater pearls. Not luxurious enough for your taste? The truffles are also coated in a layer of edible pearl dust. And, at $275, each of the chocolates cost about as much as a full tank of gas.

Chocolate--or anything edible, for that matter--usually doesn't make it to the top of my most-wanted gift list. (I think thoughtful presents should have not only sentiment but staying power.) But this clever box, which would make a beautiful addition to a coffee or dressing table once the contents are long gone, makes this a gift as unique and lasting as Casati's kooky legacy.

photograph by ines garcia baltar

Sorry y'all. All us fashion bloggers got a threatening memo promising that if we fail to write about ómbre hair, our sites will be shut down by the Style Authority.

Seriously, though, I'm frustrated that I keep seeing the same three photos of fade-haired folk recycled in every post about this look. Lucky for me, I didn't have to do much digging to find some stellar examples of less celebrated ómbre hombres and ladies (one of whom is my lovely friend Peter Oquendo.)

photographs by ian markell, Denimology, Garance Dore

Obviously, all of my favorites iterations of this trend have a common thread. They're all achieved with natural colors and on hair with a lot of texture. Usually I'm all for extremes, but there's something unkempt and less literal about this way of wearing it. Something I find far more aesthetically pleasing than white hair that looks like it was aggressively dip-dyed in India ink. Agreed?

images via three dots

I'm not renouncing wildly exaggerated shoulders by any means. If a trend gets the stamp of approval from Michael Jackson, Bianca Jagger and Joan Crawford, I will follow it. Blindly.

But sometimes my shoulders need a break from the tiring business of being so violently padded and sculpted into submission. Sometimes, they would simply like to make an impromptu visit to Del Taco without without drawing unwanted attention.

Surprisingly enough, three dots has found a way to distill this rather in-your-face trend into something really casual. (Definitely not what I would have expected from a line that I associate with sleepwear and comfy yoga-time duds.) Their new sculpted shoulder tops make those lazy T-shirt and jeans days seem a lot more hopeful--which might be why they appear to be selling out like mad.

image via Dazed Digital

"I don’t know, maybe I am just creating for, you know, the one character that survives."

(Laura Mulleavy to Dazed on how her love of horror films influences Rodarte.)