A smile is the prettiest thing you can wear.

Actually I think it’s more accurate to say that a genuine smile is the prettiest thing you can wear!

In a study published in the Academy of Management Journal last year, scientists tracked bus drivers, who smile at a whole bunch of people every day. It turns out that when they were “fake smiling” their moods deteriorated, but when they thought about pleasant things and offered genuine smiles to their riders, their moods improved and their productivity increased. And the effect was even greater for women than for men.

But while it’s possible to control your own smile and thus affect your mood, how good are you at detecting fake smiles in others?

The BBC has a quick test to see just how good you are at detecting a fake smile from a real one. I scored a 19/20 but I already knew the trick. And I’ll share it with you after you click the pic below and take the test yourself.

How did you do?  Did you figure out the secret?

Paul Ekman, a recognized guru of facial expressions, says that a genuine smile involves two facial muscles, the zygomatic major and the outer part of the obicularis oculi. Fake smiles only involve the zygomatic major.

Since the obicularis oculi muscle contracts spontaneously and only when you’re actually enjoying yourself, there’s just no way to force the movement. As Duchenne de Boulogne, a French neurologist who pioneered work in this area back in the late 1800s put it, the obicularis oculi muscle is “only put into play by the sweet emotions of the soul.”

And since this obicularis oculi is the muscle that pulls down the eyebrows and pulls up the skin below the eye, it makes it easy to focus on someone’s eyes and detect if they are faking a smile. If you still find it challenging to notice the difference, try taking the test again and covering up all other parts of the face except the eyes.

This newfound ability to detect fake smiles can certainly give you an edge with your relationships and negotiations moving forward, but don’t forget that others may be looking at your eyes and judging your own authenticity, too!

Of course, as a vintage fashionista, differentiating fake smiles from genuine ones is actually easier than differentiating fake handbags these days. And while you could take a whole lot of time learning all the distinguishing characteristics of all the different designer brands, it’s far simpler to just make any purchases from trusted sources who do the authenticating for you.

Grab either of today’s VPODs, two fab vintage 1980s Chanel handbags in classic camel or navy, and they’re guaranteed to put a genuine smile on the face of a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Portero.

(Image Credit: Akbar Sim, Flickr | To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

Trompe l’oeil is French for “deceive the eye” and refers to an art technique that can create optical illusions that appear very realistic. But the idea of trompe l’oeil isn’t only applied to art. It also finds its way into fashion.

Fashion, by nature, is often used to “deceive the eye” with prescriptions for looking taller, thinner, or more proportional by wearing stripes or wider belts or smaller prints or narrower trousers.

But there isn’t a combination of separates on the planet that can “deceive the eye” into believing that you are a better person than you are.

You may dress like a Queen but if you act like a Wicked Witch, no designer logo, couture jacket or fresh-off-the-runway anything can hide the real you. Rude is rude even if you’re decked out in Chanel.

The point is this:

Are you living as good as you look?

Sometimes I think that we spend so much time and effort to LOOK good that we forget to BE good. To be polite. To be considerate. To have empathy. To remember what’s important.

Yesterday, for instance, I was shopping at The Grove and witnessed two sides of fashionably dressed human nature:

First, I was one of fifteen people waiting in line to check out at Barnes and Noble with only one person—yes, just ONE!—working the register. Sure I may have wanted a word with management to suggest better staffing, but I also wanted to give a standing ovation to the fourteen souls who waited patiently and pleasantly with me in the spirit of the season.

Unfortunately, this concern for my fellow man didn’t extend to the parking lot where I was nearly taken out by someone channeling Mario Andretti in a Prius. Here the sweet sound of Christmas carols was overshadowed by a cacophony of blaring horns and squealing brakes.

Now I understand that you have important people to see and important places to go and important things to do. And I realize that parents with young children, the elderly, and the handicapped may all take a tad more time entering and exiting their vehicles and crossing over the pathways designated for vehicles. But living as good as you look means having as much patience in a parking lot as you do when you’re trying on swimsuits or jeans.

Living as good as you look also means choosing to wear and use products that align with your values. And purchasing those products from companies who have values that align with yours, too.

And living as good as you look means realizing that your personal style isn’t just an assessment of what you wear but is also greatly impacted by things like your tone of voice, your vocabulary, your manners, your morals, your behavior and your ethics.

So if you want to deceive the eye of the masses with a little fashion trompe l’oeil, just carry a fun little vintage 1970s tote bag like today’s VPOD by Roberta di Camerino. But realize that any deception stops there.

You’re not fooling anyone if you’re dressing to look good but not living as good as you look.

And that’s true for all Vintage Crusaders!

Available at thekaliman.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

Long before upcycling was a word, Will Hardy was salvaging material from the nose cones of damaged WWII airplanes and turning it into magnificent handbags.

Soon Lucite, Dupont’s trade name for acrylic resin, became a popular material of choice for a host of handbag manufacturers who produced plastic handbags that were dotted with rhinestones, glittered with confetti or designed to appear as basketweave fabric.

Why women even embraced the idea of completely clear Lucite purses! Of course, not wanting to put the content of their purses on display for all to see, they began inserting colorful scarves or hankies to hide the items they carried inside. And so a trend was born.

Many more interesting facts about Lucite handbags are shared by Ben Marks in his Collectors Weekly article, Lucite in the Sky with Diamonds, where he interviews Janice Berkson of Deco Jewels in NYC, an avid collector, expert and author of several books on the topic.

Be sure to check out the article for some breathtaking pictures from Janice Berkson’s collection.

And if you’re not into carrying one of these beauties on your arm today (I realize they aren’t fashion-forward enough for some), do remember that they can do double-duty as fabulous catchalls for doodads on your dressing table, in a powder room, in a dining room or even on a desk.

Today’s VPOD by Patricia of Miami, for example, is a style that has been featured in two books on Lucite handbags and is a particularly fine choice if you prefer to have these bags spice up your home decor instead of your wardrobe.

It’s just another way to think outside the purse if you’re a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Mom’s Vintage Treasures.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

In the 1964 court case Jacobellis v. Ohio, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart declared his now-famous definition of pornography: I know it when I see it.

The same could be said about kitsch.

Look up definitions of the word and you’ll find adjectives like tawdry, undiscriminating, inferior, or tasteless.

But recently when I was asked to describe the types of vintage items I look to acquire, I naturally listed elegant, classic, timeless pieces that can easily be integrated into a modern wardrobe.

I also listed pieces with extraordinary details or craftsmanship.

Then there are the important historic and iconic pieces.

And finally, I added, pieces that are so kitschy that they’re cool.

That’s right. I believe kitschy can be cool. Like today’s VPOD for instance.

Now I know there are gals out there who wouldn’t think of carrying this baby on their arm. I mean, a vintage 1950s leather handbag with a needlepoint nature scene featuring a deer? Come on!

But what if…what if…Prada revived this style and paraded something similar down their runway?

I believe many of the same gals who might mock someone carrying this bag today would knock her over on their way to the checkout to happily fork over ten or twenty times the price of this bag for the Prada version.

And so you have what I call the Kitsch-to-Cool cycle.

What yesterday was considered tawdry or undiscriminating is declared cool by someone cool and…voila! Kitsch has become cool.

But I say it’s time to turn this cycle on its head and make it Cool-to-Kitsch!

See I believe the girl who’s brave enough to embrace what she loves, what she thinks is cool, what makes her smile, is far more fashion-forward and stylish than someone who lines up behind the masses for a fashion-industry-declared hot new thing.

And that’s what makes this kitschy bag a fab find for a daring vintage fashionista!

Available at LapineOurs Vintage.

(To receive the VPOD via email along with detailed size, price and purchase information, sign up for my growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)

What’s living at the bottom of YOUR handbag?

Today’s LA Times reports that a Georgia woman recently decided to clean out her purse and discovered an old lottery ticket worth $189,302 hiding out down there!

And while I can’t promise that cleaning out your own handbag would be as exciting as this, I can promise that taking five minutes today to remove all the old receipts, gum wrappers, and other detritus will give you a small sense of accomplishment and a big boost of organization.

In fact, it just might motivate you to hit the trunk of your car, the pantry and yes, even your closet, as it kicks off a Spring Cleaning frenzy.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to keep clutter under control when you limit the size of your bag from the get-go. So take a look at today’s VPOD.

What this vintage 1960s alligator handbag by Lederer lacks in size it makes up with a huge boost of classic style.

It’s a winning find all its own for a vintage fashionista!

Available at Shelli’s Treasures. | Discovered at TheFind.com.

(To receive the VPOD via email along with detailed size, price and purchase information, sign up for my growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.)