A friend tried to teach us to play tennis about seven years ago, but after a few hours of chasing errant balls around neighboring courts, he resigned as our coach. Since then, (we think) our game has improved enough to earn us the right to fashionable tennis attire, so we have eagerly awaited the adidas by Stella McCartney fall/winter 2009 collection. Danish tennis sensation Caroline Wozniacki, who is currently ranked No. 8 in the world, will be wearing the Tennis Image Jacket in dark grape during the U.S. Open, which kicks off Aug. 31 and runs through Sept. 13.

Read Article

For years, we’ve shopped the men’s and boys’ departments, worn our sleeves rolled up, and made do with separates from “regular” size women’s stores, hunting for pants with generous or unfinished hems to cover our giraffelike legs. In the past, if you counted yourself among the less than 1 percent of the female population over 5′10″, your options were limited. Thank goodness that’s changed! “Since I started shopping only at tall stores my wardrobe is much nicer,” says 6-foot-3-inch Arianne Cohen, author of The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life on High (Bloomsbury, 2009). “I have a very small wardrobe, but it all fits.”

Read Article

On a recent trip to Puglia we learned some down and dirty little secrets you should know next time you’re shopping for olive oil. First, Italy does not produce enough olives for all the olive oil it exports. This means lots of olive oil from Italy is blended with — gasp — oils from other countries, like Greece and Spain. These countries produce excellent olive oil, but it’s not Italian. Sneaky manufacturers get away with this by bottling the foreign oil in Italy, so make sure to check that the oil is made from olives grown and pressed in Italy if you’re aiming to splurge on Italian.

Read Article

We were a bit nervous heading to our first Hoopilates class in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. As a child, we couldn’t keep hula hoops on our hips, so instead we rolled them up and down the driveway. But to our surprise, we were soon hooping it up, under the direction of Jen Bleier, a Pilates instructor who combines hula hooping with stability exercises, spine rotation, extension, flexion and balance work. It also helped that Hoopilates — one of the latest in an increasing number of hula-hoop workouts — uses heavier Circle Candy hoops that makes keeping it aloft slightly easier. “I think hooping is on the rise because it is absolutely joyful and contagious,” Bleier says.

Read Article

Whenever our artist friends drop by, no piece of art goes unexamined, from a favorite quirky painting to a modern wire piece. Even functional art, such as our glazed ceramic cat bowls, don’t escape their notice. Artists seem to see the world differently, creatively processing the shapes, colors and textures of their surroundings. So it made sense that M.A.C (aka Make-Up Art Cosmetics) tapped the visions of three artists — illustrator Maira Kalman, painter Richard Phillips and photographer Marilyn Minter — and asked them to create works inspired by the company’s fall ’09 collection.

Read Article

We’re enjoying this month’s must-see TV (Mad Men, Project Runway), and now we’re intrigued by the latest news from HBO: The premium cable channel is developing a comedy starring Diane Keaton as a feminist icon who seeks to revitalize the women’s movement by starting a female-friendly sex magazine! Feminists, porn and comedy? In lesser hands the combination might be cringeworthy. But the trio of talented women behind this as-yet-untitled show makes us think it may well earn a spot on our TiVo. (Photo credit: Jemal Countess/Getty)

Read Article

When watching travel and nature programs, we often long to voyage to the same exotic locales. Now replicating a trip seen on a Discovery Channel show such as Man Vs. Wild or Discovery Atlas has become easier with the Discovery Adventures travel program. Choose from 18 destinations and 31 itineraries offering accessible, yet unique adventure travel experiences around the globe, from the Amazon to Zambia. The tours, which recently have been made available to book, begin departures in December.

Read Article

Rejoice, fashionistas — our long wait is over! Deprived of our TV couture fix since October ‘08 due to internetwork legal wrangling, we can now resume our roles as armchair judges as Project Runway returns for its sixth season tonight with Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn in a new city (Los Angeles), on a new network (Lifetime), with a new crop of designers vying for line-launching cash and priceless exposure. This time, there are two women in their 40s to root for.

Read Article

We look forward to the holiday market that pops up in New York City’s Union Square every November and December — it’s always packed with unique handmade crafts and accessories that make great gifts. So we were excited to hear about Indagare’s pop-up souk at the Hamptons outpost of sustainable luxury goods shop SURevolution. Maybe now we can get a jump-start on our holiday shopping!

Read Article

The spanking-new Odacité skin-care line includes a familiar list of products — cleanser, moisturizer, serum, masque, body lotion, eye cream, exfoliant — plus a couple that are a bit unusual (paper-thin facial sponges, a purse atomizer that comes with a tiny funnel for filling it with Rose Floral Water) and one beauty product we’ve never come across before: a mini fridge. Kind of like a wine cellar for skin care, the sleek unit ($120) keeps the products at an optimal 54–59° F, or approximately 20 degrees above the temperature of your kitchen fridge.

Read Article