i usually avoid nit-picky fashion commentary, but i'll roll with ya here because i think this topic is fascinating...even if the outfit were on a Young Babe, it's un peu too much. to my eye (which is a very fashion-inundated eye, i grant you) she's working that Paris Vogue thing that's fashionable right now -- whether that's her intention or not, that's what it's invoking right now. the hosiery and the bootie are not working together with everything else. i think you're right, the jacket is distinctive enough without everything else distracting from it. the boots are just wrong, wrong, wrong.

it's an outfit that is similar to something Carine Roitfeld might do, but Carine would never do the necklace, hosiery and shoe. it's worth looking at the fact that Carine Roitfeld and Martha Nussbaum are not that far apart in age (they're certainly within a generation of one another) and both are hot stuff in their own particular way. but this type of outfit (i.e., slightly dom-y) would feel at home on Carine but just a tiny bit uneasy on Martha, and it's fascinating to surmise upon the discrepancy.