Stripe Up the Brand: 2 Lips Too, Too Much, Nice Clutch

 Darling Deco Bow Necklace

Top: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney

Skirt: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: 2 Lips Too, JCPenney

Bag: Fred Flare

Belt: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Sunglasses: JCPenney

No doubt about it, this post title is a mouthful.  But then, how else to laud labels that have got the gamed licked?  Yes, it's mid-priced mainstays 2 Lips Too and Bisou Bisou (French for "kiss, kiss!") puckered up into one puckish package.  Both brands hail from JCPenney.  Well, the online version anyway, which is often much snazzier than its stuck-in-the-1990s brick and mortar mother.  Failing department store chain or not, JCP still has an appetite for awesome, yet enough restraint to maintain its girlish figure.  That's right; this retailer has returned to the discount game.  Thanks to a clearance sale and a $10 rewards certificate, I got three pairs of these stripey stilettos for the price of one.  I'd been stalking them for what seemed like forever, waiting for just such an opportunity.  Who could blame me?  They're so distinctive and different and doll-like. 

I especially love their clear plastic inserts in contrasting colors.  They're like little slabs of stained glass in the windows of what I imagine to be Barbie's Disco Dance Party play set.  The disco ball would descend to the (mirrored!) dance floor and open up into a vanity for those sweaty, post-Hustle touch-ups.  (Are you listening, Mattel?  I'm sitting on a goldmine here.)

What I'm really (okay, always) saying is, accessories make the mood/party/outfit.  Which is why this Merry Berry Cherry Necklace, with its lipstick-red rhinestone cherry pendant, is such a fun, fruity finishing touch for this loudmouth ensemble.  What's that?  This isn't the Merry Berry Cherry Necklace, but the Darling Deco Bow Necklace?  Well, you caught me; it turns out that the cherry necklace didn't go with this outfit after all.  That sort of snafu sometimes happens here at the Trove.  Good thing I have a never-ending supply of sparkly subs to step in.

Cherries or no cherries, it would be really rad if Mattel could come up with an enchanted forest called the Ornate Orchard.

Hey, a squirrel can dream.