Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Detour

Ok, the exciting splurge post is forthcoming, but I had to post some pictures from this editorial first:

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I'm tempted to adopt this Indiana-Jones-In-His-Professorial-Disguise look (minus the mom jeans in the third image) as soon as the weather allows me. Everything about this speaks to me! And in the voice of Harrison Ford, no less.

I have some passable equivalent of everything in these pictures, except 1] Anna Jagodzinska's hot face (damn), 2] those ugly bags (mine are better), and 3] the glasses. . . and hey! Guess what? I totally lost my old ones and have been restricted to a rigorous contacts only program for months! Damn, dirty, attractive eyeball-revealing contacts. I am therefore in dire need of some specs to ugly things up. And by ugly, I mean awesome.

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Resistance Is Futile

I’m not going to apologize for my absence. I’ve been sailing uncharted seas, escaping from cannibals, saving hot dudes from horrible monsters, and poking Cyclopes in the eye. Are you reading this, hot dudes? You’re welcome!

Oh… and I’ve also put myself on a shopping ban. You can see how such a thing might dampen my enthusiasm for lovely material desires. But a combination of factors beyond my control (having a weak willpower muscle, discovering an exciting new brand, general greed) are now threatening to stomp all over my shopping ban, leaving behind only a pile of dust and a sensation of deep and sudden poverty behind. More about these specific desires in my next post.

For now, feast on this sampling of excellent black and whites that have been shaking up my inspiration folder, inspiring the heck out of me.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

July Five: Things That I Must Have

Somehow, you will all be mine!

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1. Men's polo, J.Crew
2. Necklace (planning to DIY)
3. Gratian blazer, Theory
4. Egoiste platnium, Chanel
5. Lace slipdress

Saturday, July 11, 2009

July Five: Men in Suits

You just can't beat 'em.
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Monday, July 6, 2009

July Five: Cruelty Free Beauty Recommendations

Somewhere in the world, there is a withered old gypsy who has cursed me to forever run out of all my beauty products at the same exact time. A scrub here, a soap there - restocking it doesn’t hurt you unless you are dropping Big Bucks on overpriced designer hoo-hah, in which case you deserve the pain. But when everything you ever use is suddenly empty, it causes major damage to the deep recesses of my wallet. I’m talking all makeup, all skincare, all bath products, even mouthwash! Deodorant! Things you cannot go days and weeks and months without, telling yourself you’ll restock in more lucrative times. This is stuff you needed yesterday.

The only possible ray of sunshine in this cloud of helpless moneyspending is that you can justify trying out new exciting products . . . which is exactly what I've been doing this past month, and now I am here to share my recommendations with you, dear readers. And all of these brands are cruelty free!

In no particular order:
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Brand: Juice Beauty
Product: Antioxidant Serum
Bonus: 100% Certified Organic

If I had a nickel for anytime a face cream claimed to work "like magic", then I would have enough money to buy lots and lots of face creams or even a whole face cream conglomerate. But I don't, I'm guessing you don't either. So just buy this one. I got a free sample from Sephora, tried it out, and my skin was suddenly clear and glowing and moisturized - like magic. Then I used up my sample, and it went back to normal. But to be sure I wasn't fluking myself out, I went back a few months later, and tried again. AGAIN. MAGICAL PERFECTION. I don't know what spells they cast on this witch's brew, but it works, goddamnit. Also, it's 100% certified organic. Technically this is a "serum" which means you use it under your regular day or night cream. I use it at night, since I like to have as little on my face as possible during the day to minimize oiliness, etc.
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Brand: The Body Shop
Product: Nature's Minerals Foundation (Shade 01)
Bonus: SPF 15

For some reason, my Swedish-Dutch-Native-American skin refuses to match 99.9% percent of all makeup products. When you take into account that I would only purchase cruelty-free stuff, the search becomes even more fruitless. UNTIL LAST YEAR. A great year in human history. A year in which the Body Shop came out with their mineral foundation, which goes on "like buttah" except obviously not literally like butter because that would be disgusting. Also, I can only speak for myself with regard to shade matching, since everyone's skin is obviously different by degrees of impossible minuteness. But I would encourage you to go to a store and check it out.
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Brand: 100% Pure
Product: Pomegranate Antioxidant Hydration (SPF 20)
Bonus: SPF 20

Really, this is all I'll ever use on my face during daytime ever again, unless they stop making it or change it somehow. And even then I will buy up all the remaining bottles on ebay or through private auctions, until I have enough to sustain me for a hundred years.
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Brand: 100% Pure
Product: Seaweed Facial Mask
Bonus: Vegan

Okay, this is actually a repeat buy and therefore not a beauty discovery per-say, but whatever. This is not rocket science! It's regular science! The kind where you mix a powdered seaweed concoction with water and apply it all over your face until it dries and then you rinse it off with a washcloth and BEHOLD - your skin, it gloweth! God, I love science so much. Please note: this does, in fact, contain real seaweed and therefore smells like REAL SEAWEED. If you read some of the reviews on beauty.com, you will see occasional complaints about this from people who were surprised to find that a product comprised mostly of seaweed did not smell like perfumed flower petals. Do you really trust these people to advise your purchases? If you hate the smell of seaweed, don't buy this. If you don't, DO BUY THIS.
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Brand: C.O. Bigelow
Product: Rose Salve
Bonus: $5.50!

Weirdly, this was the most exciting discovery for me. Many moons ago, my mom bought a tin of that horribly omnipresent "Rosebud Salve" (you know, the one that comes similar tin to the one above) and I tried some. I can safely say that it was supergrosstastic, and moisturized my lips for about thirty seconds before evaporating, leaving my lips coated in a Vaseline-like glaze and somehow drier than ever. But this... this is a horse of a different color. It stays on for ages and ages. It comes in a huge tin. It costs next-to-nothing. Apparently, you can also use it on your elbows? But best of all, I haven't had dry lips since I started using it. Purchase this, and you will know the specific but immense and undeniable pleasure that I know whenever I see rosebud salve for sale or being used by some no-nothing who knows nothing. Sucker! If I were a nice person, I might feel badly for keeping such a delicious secret to myself.

But hey - I never claimed to be a nice person. Just a person with really, really great skin and lips and makeup and no money.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Endless Summer

I'm not too bothered by resort collections. I hate resorts. I hate summer. I hate being sweaty and hot and not being able to wear my fantastic fall clothes. But this time, Burberry has won me over:

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Trench coats, trousers, blazers!
The whole collection is a brilliant palate cleanser, and true to my vision of what summer should be.... fall.

Glass-Bottom Boat



Streaming through time, they see
out approach, we are plotted
in space, our light outlives our lives
and sends a signal far into
the future: the past is alive!
Dead and dark for a long time,
we are as starts to them,
stars wishing to be wished on.

___________________

From "Glass-Bottom Boat"
by Elizabeth Spires
(read the full text here)

Photo © Guido Mocafico

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Inspiring Me Now: The Shark Edition

I like the idea of weekly/monthly/seasonal fashion concepts. For lo these many years, I’ve gone around believing I was the only person to ever do something as ridiculous spend a week intentionally dressing to a “sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide roll away” theme, a-la Otis Redding.

But then I discovered that I am not alone, and it truly warms my glacial heart to know that others are inspired by more interesting material than Kate Moss or Erin Wasson. Laura Jane as John Lennon in Rishikesh is just so much better. Better by a margin too infinite to express. My own most recent fashion inspiration, as you might remember, was Perou. But love is fickle. The tides are a-changing.

For July, my concept is a simple one: shark.

The backbone of the shark concept is a shark dress. What is a shark dress? It is simple. It is grayscale. It does not nip in at the waist because sharks do not have waists. Patterns and embellishments are not allowed. A shark is a torpedo with teeth... and in a shark dress, so are you.

Here are some examples. The first, I think, is the best:

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Boring, you say? Bite your tongue! It's like being wrapped in a silk bedsheet, except with sharp lines and no volume.

This particular concept is also appealingly minimalist, because it removes the element of choice. Black ankle boots. Hair pulled back. A stroke or two of smoky grey eye makeup added to an otherwise bare face. Done.

No accessories allowed, with one appropriate exception:

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This is actually made from whale teeth and not shark teeth, but whatever - mine won't be made from real teeth anyway. I'm on the lookout for tooth-like beads... and if that fails, I'll make my own damn teeth out of oven-bake sculpey. I'm ridiculously excited about making this necklace. Is my excitement palpable? It's totally palpable!

I hope you are getting a mind picture of the shark look I'm going for.

And I also hope that when you get dressed tomorrow, you are inspired by something brilliant, unusual and magnificent. Mostly because you are magnificent. But also because dressing like a shark is a thousand times better than dressing like stupid Kate Moss.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Naked is Best

So there’s been a bit of a draught here, and not because I haven’t been thinking about clothes. I have. Frequently. Fondly.

But there is a problem. When I think about clothes, it is in the privacy of my own tiny brain, and no one around me needs to know. When I write about them, I am proclaiming a superficial interest from the proverbial rooftops.

There really is no excuse to put such a great deal of time and thought and effort into clothing. The justification is always along the line of “Clothes tell the world who you are! They help you form an identity! They give you confidence and make people take you seriously! OMG, clothes are like totally so important!”

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Well, no. Clothes don’t tell anyone who you are - they tell people what you prefer, aesthetically. Actions tell people who you are. No one idolizes mother Teresa because of her blue and ivory shawls. Your confidence and identity are reflected in your clothing choice - not the other way around. And really - if you turn up anywhere in camo pants, crocs, and a too-small tank top, then of course no one is going to take you seriously. But assuming that you have any taste at all and the ability to know if clothes fit you, no one who matters will ever disrespect you because your sartorial standards aren’t cool, creative, or expensive enough.

Clothes and shoes and style - it’s all fun. It’s entertainment. And there’s nothing wrong with indulging such superficial impulses, as long as one remembers not to take it seriously. When clothing becomes the basis for your identity, a way to one-up others, or the only thing that you can intelligently talk about for more than ten minutes… things have gone too far. I like to think of this as “The Emperor’s New Clothes” principle. Clothes are great fun to talk about and experiment with, so long we don’t forget that we’re all naked monkeys underneath.

So the point I’ve been coming to is this one, and I guess it can be expressed best as a disclaimer: no post on any style blog, including this one, is important in any way. I like reading posts written by others, and writing my own for you. But for the love of god, go out your friends! Spend time with your family. Eat something that makes your mouth water. Volunteer for a cause that you care about. Have sex with someone fantastic. And think about how happy you are to be doing exactly what you are doing, and how lucky you are to have such a fantastic moment of pleasure in your short life!

And I promise - if you do it right, you’ll totally forget what you’re wearing.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Waste Land

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A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.


___________________

From "The Waste Land"
by T. S. Eliot
(read the full poem
here)

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Model - Masha Novoselova
Images © Dutch Vogue

Monday, May 11, 2009

Look Closer

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Gaspard Yurkievich
Lace Top in Nero Argento

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Alexander Wang Oxford Top in Light Blue

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Future Classics Maxi Dress in Dipped Butterfly


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SteveJ & YoniP Front Belted Dress in Pink

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Vena Cava Netherworld Dress in Grey

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