Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Cabin Fever

I think I slept wrong on my eye.

Its sore, its not red-looking, so the only explanation is that I slept on my eye wrong, right?

Well, it hurts. I took my first spin class today (you know, that gym class where you ride a stationary bike all hardcore for an hour?) It was actually sort of fun....it reminded me that I REALLY need to exercise more...

I am also feeling cabin fever, I think, which causes me to have a million windows up of forever 21 shoes, drapey vests from Banana Republic...


Speaking of which, I am totally sure that if I do not get this vest from Banana Republic, I may explode (I have been wanting it for months now, even before it was in stores but ON A MANNEQUIN TO TORTURE ME).
All the vests I own are the fitted proper work vest-type sort. Its nice to cinch your middle with a fitted vest and billowy shirt sleeves-but what about a fitted shirt or trapeze top or crop top underneath a lovely flowing knit vest! With a great texture or reversible print!
I need this one from BR...I NEED IT...its sooo expensive....

A new rule: It is time to transition from drapy open cardigans to drapey open vests-works for both the spring and fall/winter!
Is that enough justification to buy this vest from BR??


We all have the movies that we watch simply for the clothes.
*cough! Marie Antoinette! Cough Cough!*
I watched "Easy Virture" for Colin Firth.
And then for the clothes.
LOOK how long Jessica Biel's legs are in those trousers! Amazing! That dazzling smile! That cloche hat! That adorable tiny furry sweater!
I had a hard time finding screen stills of clothing from the movie-thanks Google Images-but if you were curious, the film is 1920's era, lovely sleek evening gowns mingled with smart outfits. Brazen American infiltrates and upsets a stuffy British mansion/chateau/estate...totally worth it if you love Colin Firth.

I have the shortest legs, but thanks to these pants, or the camera angle, they look SO LONG!
Do you like the weird tying thing I did with the blue ribbon? I am sooo bad at posing, apologies.
I just wanna look as great as Jessica Biel, is that so wrong?!
Check out the bling! And these shoes...I have yet to find the perfect pair of red shoes...but raspberry wedges...ADORABLES!! The knot in the shoe echoes the knot of the ribbon of the shirt...I am a dork....

My mom found this for me in a garage sale for like 50 cents! Its super heavy and I have to be careful when I wear it. The black stone cameo, I get so afraid that I will chip that sucker.
I loved how navy blue and raspberry could go with a colorless top and neutral-colored trousers. Sort of letting the shoes and ring speak. Now it just looks sort of patriotic to me. Red, white and blue.

Top: Charlotte Russe (the ribbon + lovely collar shape + lace made me buy it)
Pants: Thrifted
Shoes: Thrifted
Ring: Gift from Mom!





I Heart Colors

I don't know when it started, but I have always been more of a color, less of a black/white kind of dresser.
I distinctly remember as a littl'un loving to dress myself in orange leggings, an orange stretchy skirt and yellow tank top. Thought I was the s***.
Even still, today there remain colors that I only watch and admire from afar, like yellow and neon any color. Deep purple. Pearl. Ecru.
Now I am just naming obscure wallpaper colors.
But during a recent thrifting stalk, I mean trip, I found a sweater in yellow that had my kind of neckline. I couldn't leave this sort of neckline all alone in the thriftstore! Even if it IS yellow.
I will now make it my duty to find multiple ways to wear it, whether I look good in the color or not, whether the sweater makes my arms look like muscle-y sausages or no!

So here is the first tentative attempt at yellow:
Apologies for my gut hanging out here.
My posing is always so painful (in case you couldn't tell) and self-conscious, so I thought I'd smile.
Ghastly.
I need to start wearing make-up for these shoots. Perhaps I would be less horrifying.
Isn't this jacket adorables?! Its a bit snug for my massive footballers shoulders, but I love it so! I am forever on the cusp of donating this to a lucky lady with teenier body type, but-HELLO! BROWN ADORABLE BLAZER IS TEH FUNCTIONAL! Worth its weight in gold.
The pockets slay me with their cuteness! I think this jacket was the beginning of my obsession, er, collection of blazers that I never wear...maybe obsession is the better word here. Sigh.
So...not great shots of the sweater itself but I plan to show more outfits with it, hopefully with better pix.
sweater: thrited
blazer: forever21
necklace: forever21
pants: gap
shoes: thrifted
I think it'd be really interesting to make a photo collage to see how people have changed their dressing style since they were wee...I know I want to do it for me! Except there were many years where I was camera shy...even now I kinda still am, but for my love of having others see the lovely clothings!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Quest for Irregularity

Okay, so the way that I unwind after work at home is by trolling the clothing web pages of my favorite places.

Looking at all the clothes and shoes relaxes me and energizes me. It also makes me drool a little.

I used to dismiss the website Free People because I went into their beautiful store once and saw their gorgeous clothes-a bit more than I could ever afford and a lot tinier than I could ever squeeze a leg into-and I felt the unbearable pain of unrequited love.

Regardless, I succumbed months ago and peeked at their site and saw these interesting shoes-they were so unique and different! They were clog boots! Totally smitten. Deep smit!

The online reviews of the shoes were a motley assortment-some people loved them, others complained of their epic pain! My love never wavered.
I researched the company that made the shoes, which I learned was called Irregular Choice, a British shoe company. Artists!

I was confused why the shoes were "called Lewis Clogs" on the Free People website, but on Irregular Choice, they were called "Long Lashes."
Perhaps when the shoes are being sold to a boutique or wherever, they are christened under a new name.

Anyway, I suffered and stalked Irregular Choice on the web-there are some of their shoes on e-bay, but not many, definitely not my beloved ewok clog boots!
Long story short-happy ending!!

I went with my friend and her sister to Daffy's-where I hadn't been in years (I've been mainly cruising the thrift stores for my fix)

AND THEY TOTALLY SELL THE BRAND-THANK GOD FOR JANUARY SALES!!!


I'm sure that they thought I was a little crazy-I was sort of spinning around happily, my arms full of shoes, two different shoes on my feet. They moved on to clothes, but I sort of stayed with the shoes, hardly able to believe my eyes. And, of course, I purchased a couple of pairs-on super sale!!

I am not one for the whole slouchy trend with boots-But I love this curved heel and I feel that the low slouch collar thing going on with these allows you to wear the boots with jeans, shorts, or a cute dress!

The shoe on the right is half a size bigger, yet the width is visually narrower-what is up with that? Is it because of the shoe style? Is that a thing thats normal with shoes? I feel as though I am going to study shoes more closely...
They have an adorable cushion lining thats sort of irridescent and the sole of the shoe (no tread whatsoever, so hopefully i don't walk on anything slippery) has a colorful cartoon with robots.

I wish I had another person there to video record me trying on all the irregular choice shoes-even the adorable size 6 boots that barely fit one foot, while my other monster right foot wouldn't even get into the boot at all so I hopped around, half praying half cursing.

I even briefly, blasphemely was thinking I should still get the size 6 boot for my size 8 feet-I could get leather stretchers. Thats how drunk I was on joy. The sacrilege.

I was just so in love with the design of the shoes of Irregular Choice and the construction, beautiful materials! Some of that season's shoes made me feel like a modern day superhero, with a sort of hot pink aluminum soft fabric! I can't find any pix, but in the next post I will put up some better pictures of Irregular Choice's beautiful designs!
The shoes I was lucky enough to buy were very sort of 'safe' designs...I recently saw Irregular Choice shoes on Modcloth.com, so I hope that they will become more accessible!
And, of course in the future I will feature many an outfit starring these lovely feet accessories!