AllyG: Happy Tuesday everyone. It’s 6:00am, I’m on vacation, and I’m up. I have no idea either. I bolted out of bed this morning with a burning question for our readers. Tunics? Or no tunics? I’m thinking that tunics might be a great transition item as I go from Shamu to Yummy Mummy (think Angelina Jolie. I’m going to look exactly like her. You’ll all be like, “whaaa? Angie’s in town shooting a flick? No! Wait! That’s AllyG!”. Shocking, my friends, SHOCKING). I went to polyvore (which is the most fun you can have on a website. It’s like colouring for grown ups) to select a few tunics for your perusal. Check it.

The tunics above are all fairly sheer, so they would need to be paired with a cami underneath. No probs on that front. My favourite is the pink tunic from Calypso St. Barth. Gorgeous, non? You have to check out the website. I think I want everything there, particularly the dresses. The black adorable pumps are from Lori’s Shoes – The Sole of Chicago and the purple suede lovelies are Steve Madden (do you not love that you can find great Steve Madden shoes at Winners? I love!)

I also love the leggings, which is why I am so psyched that H&M is in town. They have a fabulous selection of leggings (the pink ones above are H&M).  I also adore Charlotte Russe’s liquid leggings. You pour yourself into a glass of marvelous with those dandies.

Not sure if they are appropriate after 30, not sure that I care.

As for the tunic, my test on any fashion item is WSMWI? Meaning, Would Sienna Miller Wear It? She would!

Now, that’s a fancy pants tunic, but I dig it. Who else can pull off a tunic?

This is Kate Hud in 3.1 Phillip Lim. I loves, however, I believe this is the dress that set off the “pregnancy watch”. Now, if she paired with leggings to suck ‘er all in, she wouldn’t have that problem.

This is such a complete fail. I’m not even going to waste my time on this. Even though I have nothing but time these days. NOTHING.

So, L-A? Thoughts on le tunic and le leggings? Good? Or am I trying to dress myself as I should be dressing BabyG if it’s a girl?

L-A: Ha! I don’t think a tunic will make you look like the same as if you’re dressing BabyG to convince everyone that it’s a girl.

But seriously. I like tunics. In theory. I like how they look on skinny minnie celebs like Alexa or Kate.

I like how they look on hangers or mannequins.

I like how they look on models.

I do not like how they look on me. And there is no picture for that. Because you do not want to see me squeezed into leggings and wearing a tunic that makes me look like a box. Because that’s the problem for me. I think it may be called pear shaped: I’m bigger on bottom than I am on top.  I can buy dresses/skirts in far littler sizes than I buy pants because I don’t have to take into account getting them up over my hips (unless we’re talking pencil skirts). Fitting both my hips and my waist off the rack is impossible. (I know, Stacey and Clinton would yell at me about getting to a tailor. Whatevs. They’re not working on a grad student’s budget). So no matter what the shape of the tunic, even if it does have a bit of a waist in it, if it has to go over my hips, it will look like I’m wearing a king sized pillow case.

Having said that, if you can wear a tunic, then go for it! I envy you. And here are some tunics and tunic wearers that I like.  I’ve been intrigued by Roland Mouret’s multipurpose creation, the TTD, or Top-Tunic-Dress.

Honestly, I’m not convinced it can work as a “top”, but it looks like it’d be a very pretty tunic or dress. My trouble about the top idea is if a real person, sans stylist or person to dress you, is trying to tuck all that fabric into pants. I don’t understand how it works. Roland thinks it totally works:

Kate Moss is a fan of the tunic and usually does it well:

I like how she belts them and gives it more of waist. I’m not in love with this particular tunic (the pattern is meh in my books. I hate the puffy sleeve poking out of the jacket: one or the other Kate!), but I like where she was going with that. Although, her belting of tunics could lead to one of my worst nightmares: that your skirt comes up so high, your butt is showing.  That is the kind of thing I’d read about in YM Say Anything moments and want to die at the thought of walking down the hallways of my high school with my drawers showing. Even with leggings on it is nightmare material for me. Regardless of the embarrassment cringe potential, I do love what she’s doing with the jacket and boots. Judging by the various photos of her and Alexa Chung in tunics, this is the way to go with your tunic. I like that it makes the tunic go from summer to fall. It can be all summery and beachy on it’s own, but when the temperature drops (and it will. Oh yes. I suffer in the heat now, but I know it’ll be over soon enough), you can pull on tights or leggings and your favourite boots et voila! Fall wardrobe.

But for those of us without the budget to shop on Net-a-Porter or with a pocketbook as fat as Kate’s, here are two tunics by dace (Canadian!) that I also enjoy (but will never wear, for the reasons stated above. sigh) and both look like they’d make that summer into fall transition quite well:

Pretty! The first one is at Love, Me and both are available in the online shop. Does anyone know who else in Halifax carries this designer? The website doesn’t tell me. I will investigate and get back to you (I couldn’t investigate in time for this post because I was sweating it out at the Modest Mouse concert at the Forum last night).

So I say: tunic = yay!  if you can pull it off. And dollars to donuts, Ally will look like a total Yummy Mummy in one of these as she strolls around Bedford with BabyG. Just get yourself some killer boots lady and some tights and there will be golf claps from the neighbours.