On time, in style

Watches to Watch for Spring

Let's be honest: Aren't watches really just bracelets that also happen to tell time? Well, this spring accessories are all about glamour and color, and that holds true for watches too. Slip on one of these amazing new styles to go from so-so to so hot.

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Updo How-To's: 4 Quick & Easy Updos

Need a quick, great hairstyle? It's possible to give yourself a salonlike hairstyle at home. Joelle, senior stylist at Avon Salon & Spa, describes how, step-by-step. The most important rule of the updo is to keep it simple. "Sophisticated looks are usually the least complicated," she says. Another tip: "Hair doesn't always have to be clean. Sometimes if it's styled the day after washing, it holds its shape better." Check out these quick, formal looks on Lauren, Cassandra, Nancy and Lianne. To dress them up even more, add a sparkly colorful hair ornament to coordinate with your outfit.

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Girly Gadgets

We may need (or want) to be connected 24-7 with our cell phones, iPods and PDAs, but how we stay connected is totally up to us. So why not do it as stylishly as possible? Here are three of our favorite ways to accessorize the portables in our handbags.

Yoshida has launched a range of customized iPod cases. They've brilliantly asked celebrity designers and artists to contribute, resulting in very hip, very expensive accessories for your already pricey portable. This Genevieve Gauckler number costs $228. The über-hip Colette in Paris is stocking the cases, so get one now and you're guaranteed to be the first of your friends to rock these soon-to-be cult classics.

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Flower Power!

From miniature daisies to socking great blooms, there are colours and prints to suit every taste, says Hilary Alexander

The Siberian conditions that swept Britain earlier this month mean that fashion is one step ahead of Mother Nature - except in the Isles of Scilly, of course, where the narcissi growers have been picking since before Christmas.

Flower prints are everywhere this spring, which is blooming marvellous if you love florals, but might bring on a bad case of hay fever if you don't.

Fortunately, there is enough choice to suit all tastes, from miniature daisies to socking great blooms, and every colour from the palest blush of rose-pink to a full-on technicolour blast that would rival a municipal planting scheme.

Nor is flower-power restricted to clothes. Every accessory you could ever need is printed with flowers. There are shoes to match dresses, bags to match skirts and - if you're of an eccentric nature - shorts deliberately designed to mis-match tops. Necklaces, earrings and charm bracelets bristle with beaded flowers; hair accessories are decorated with sequinned blooms.

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Baby, You Can Park My Car

Early on a Monday evening, arriving for work outside a party in Beverly Hills, Kimberly Bowie got down to business by dabbing blush across the cheek of a coworker. She added sparkly pink eye shadow and a dollop of hair-grooming cream. Then she did the makeup of four other women. Adjusting her own sequined scarf, Ms. Bowie, a professional makeup artist by day, was ready for her night job - parking cars.

If the typical valet in Los Angeles is a man in a windbreaker or red vest, Ms. Bowie and the other employees of Valet of the Dolls, an all-woman parking service, aim to turn heads. That is why the company has a makeup artist on staff, and why its valets show up for work, depending on the job, in tank tops and Capri pants, lacey camisoles, miniskirts or costumes: naughty Santas, ski bunnies and burlesque dancers are all in their repertory.

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