Saturday, February 28, 2009

crafty times

Yesterday, I met J. Marie and Jasmine at the Fix to grab a coffee, then we went to Michael's to get some crafty supplies to make some crazy head pieces for their photo shoot that I will be styling on Sunday. We ended up taking over the living room at the Darling Mansion with tulle, ribbon, glue, glitter, bows, birds...There will be a video of the experience soon.





Here are some of the fruits of my labor. This one started as a head band from H&M that I bought years ago for a Halloween costume. I added more tulle, tons of feathers, and the vintage brooch.



This one started as a plastic Goody Headband! I think it is la pièce de résistance...





I am seriously considering opening an Etsy store, filled with my various crafty things (cake toppers, headbands, decorations...) Considering I have no income, it would be nice to get 40 dollars here and there.

Friday, February 27, 2009

christopher bailey, will you marry me?

Leave it to the Italian shows to renew my faith in fashion. After the giant disappointment of London, Milan is kicking it up a notch.

Christopher Bailey presented an awesome collection for Burberry Prorsum that was part prairie, part Gothic, part Victorian bag lady. It was super dark and sombre, yet at the same time totally youthful.







(wwd.com)

He brought the hemlines down to right below the knee, with flowing, dirndl skirts coming out of slim and shrunken bodices. Refreshing after all the bandage dress bullshit, no? The white dresses with the gray tights and crazy platform sneaker booties are so simple, yet perfect. I wish I could describe them better, they are sort of baby doll, but not really. My costume history is failing me right now. And I love the felted wool cowls with the heavy sweaters, I just cant imagine how ginormous they were before they were felted. The fur cowls are lined in the Burberry plaid, it's a nice ode to classic Burberry.

Check out these crazy shoes. Crazy.



(style.com)

ermanno scervino, i'm sort of obsessed with you

I was browsing the Milan shows, and came across a name I'd never heard before. The Ermanno Scervino show is a funny mix of bad-ass boots and party dresses with rad jackets and cheesy charmeuse red carpet dresses. This weird combination can be found a lot in Milan; as much as the Italians are the masters of tailoring, they have a major cheese factor, especially with the lesser known brands. But when you take out the cheesy and not very well done red carpet dresses you are left with some awesome tailored winter coats and hot hot dresses. And let's not forget those boots.







(wwd.com)

I know the combination of puffer jacket and fancy dress has been done before, but these puffer jackets are just too cool. And I might just have to kill someone to get one of those knit collared coats.

Off to be crafty with some ladies! Michael's here we come!!!

london fahsion week: good riddance

I just caught up on London Fashion Week. It is just me, or was it a giant disappointment. There was not one collection that blew me away, barely even any collections where I was impressed with more than one look, and as far as I could tell they all chose Balenciaga as their main reference. And not old school Balenciaga, but last season Nicolas Ghesquiere Balenciaga, who, by the way, I think must dream in robots.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

polyvore: absolute genius

So, I got an email from my friend Katie the other day, talking about Polyvore and the DIY trend boards that the site offers. I'd heard of Polyvore as a trend forecasting site, and sort of explored it myself, but never really realized that you could make these!!!! Totally genius.





They are called "sets" and Polyvore pulls for multiple online resources to find the images, including retail and image sharing websites. You can search by color or silhouette, and if you don't want to use an item immediately, you can save them to a file. There is also the option to upload your own images. Then you can search other users and look at their sets. It's essentially another online fashion community, but instead of just posting photos of you daily outfits, you get to express your creativity beyond styling.

I LOVE making collages. Probably more than designing or styling clothes. That is the reason I was so interested in trend forecasting, because I saw it as basically getting to make collages all day long - I know that's not totally true - but it's what I find most exciting and interesting in the design process. Being a trend forecaster has all the elements of design that appeal to me. But the research is just so fun for me, and then the process of cutting out the images, arranging them, and gluing them, is just so calming and satisfying.

I am still getting used to the process of collages on the computer, the subtleties and texture of the different papers, and you can't be as precise on Polyvore as you could be with Photoshop. It's just not the same as working with paper, scissors and glue, and you can tell from my sets that I'm a little rusty with digital collages. But, I predict lots of time spent on Polyvore making more of these.



(my collages via polyvore.com)

insanity at the gold room, coffee the next day to discuss said insanity

Last night was one big circus. Random dude followed me to a bar, where I was chillin' with my friends. I was mortified. I couldn't stop laughing. I was horrified. OMG. It was like we were in a movie, as Jasmine said, that stuff couldn't be written. She does have it on film, but it was awfully painful to watch, as my voice is slightly abrasive and it's mainly me and J. Marie laughing, while Jasmine and Cory call Creep-0 a creep. I'm new to this whole, giving boys my number thing. It was one of those instances when I was half way through reciting my number, I had this sinking feeling that it was not a good idea. But instead of being smooth and throwing in a different number, I gave him the real thing. Boy did that backfire. Lesson learned, and once again the Gold Room never fails to disappoint.

Here is what I wore to what turned into a hysterical disaster. I have decided that it is much more fun to wear dresses at night, and since I have about 300 of them, I should only wear dresses after dark. So, goodbye jeans with heels!



(Vanessa Bruno Jacket, Urban Outfitters t-shirt, Marc by Marc Jacobs jeans, DIY Target shoes, antique ivory bracelet, mom's pocket watch, vintage LOVE ring)


Today, after a very uneventful morning, I met J. Marie and Jasmine for coffee at the Fix. I also sampled the ladies' signature lavender honey latte; it was amazing. The honey and the lavender go perfectly together and taste good with the coffee. I also brought some of the amazing vegan cookies from TJ's as a little treat for us. I know it is totally inappropriate to BYO cookies to a coffee shop, but when the coffee is 5 dollars, I think it's less offensive.

Although this outfit gave me no waist definition, and sort of gives me the look of a beer belly, there was something about the simplicity that I loved. I am also trying to wear lipstick more often. But somehow it always ends up all over my face...



(Dusty t-shirt, Comptoir des Cotonniers skirt, L'Autre Chose shoes, vintage bracelet, fish bracelet from X-Mas popper)

bomb diggity

I was flipping through my March issue of Elle Magazine, silently analyzing the various fashion spreads, when I can across this one.






(scanned images from Elle Magazine)

I was thinking how it was by far the best one in the issue, and how her hair was amazing, and how I wanted that glittery, messy eyeliner, when it clicked. I remembered Darlene going to the desert on a shoot for Elle, and I was right when I guessed this was it. Of course, hers would be my fave. Stylist Sarah Richardson and photographer Richard Bush didn't do a bad job either. ; )
Yes, I just did a winky face.

It has also inspired my next haircut, that J. Marie has kindly agreed to do, as well as inspire me to get my super blond hair back, no more of this "natural looking" grow out for me. I want to be BLOND. Why is it that the word "blond" just doesn't look right to me without an "e" on the end, which is totally incorrect.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

2 day work week

Yay for me! I now have a job (internship) starting on Monday, 2 days a week. Yippee!!!! They even complimented my portfolio.

Here is what I wore. I thought I looked very stylish walking down Melrose Avenue, carrying my portfolio with my big sunglasses, reflected in the glass windows of stores. Do you ever wish you had a professional photographer following you around. Because, I mean, I can take a reflection pic myself, but the walking shot is just so much betters. Oh well, here are the living room self portraits. The second photo really looks like I'm not wearing anything underneath the dress. But I assure you, I am most definitely wearing a full slip. Those are not my bare boobs!



(Vena Cava dress, Abaco Paris belt, Mossimo Dutti jacket, unnamed cashmere scarf, Vince Camuto shoes, antique ivory (don't kill me) bracelet, vintage silver bracelet, and you cannot see it, but my lucky Eiffel Tower necklace)

I was telling my sister that good things are starting to happen, because she brought me back my Eiffel Tower necklace (the one that broke on my drive down here, causing all the doom that followed). But, maybe I just had to be patient. I'd rather give mad credit to the necklace though.

After a celebratory Pinkberry, for lunch, I went to Target for cat food, and left with a congratulatory necklace from the Erickson Beamon for Target collection.



(target.com)

I am dying over it. But, every time I look too closely I can see it's a bit of a piece of shit. But fab. So it cancels out the crap-ness. And I still want all the cocktail rings, which are totally amazing and impractical.

out of touch

For various reasons, I am not at all caught up with what is going on with the Fashion Weeks. I missed the last day of NY and the important shows that day held and I haven't even peaked at London. I will spend some time today or tomorrow catching up and give you my opinions then. Also I should probably mop my floor, as I'm still finding sticky spots from my party. Champagne makes people messy.

Now I am putting some finishing touches on my portfolio for an interview today!!!! Fingers crossed please!!

I will, of course, be wearing something fabulously stylish, like this outfit from Paris, taken at Place de la Concorde.


(Vivienne Westwood blazer, Anthropology top, Cheap Monday jeans, fabric scrap of scarf, Clements Ribeiro - never let me down - boots)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

monday night at the silverlake lounge

Last night, after I'd stuffed my face with all of the left over pizzas from my party, J. Marie called me and invited me to join her, Jasmine and Daven at the Silverlake Lounge to see some local bands. I said of course, because I no longer say no to social interaction and I've never been to the Silverlake Lounge, even though I've driven past it about a million times. Apparently they think music is salvation?



The first band we saw was Union Line, a band of 5 cute guys with lots of hair who all sang and banged on drums and played the harmonica. It was super entertaining. Apparently, the reason we went to the show was to see the Love Grenades, because their manager wants Oh Darling to play with them. Well, the Love Grenades were absolutely awful. The lead singer was clearly wasted and kept swearing and messing up, yelling "louder" to her keyboard guy, and stopping half way through songs to start over. The drummer sounded like he'd never played before, and the poor guy on guitar was so embarrassed he looked like he wanted to cry. The crowd cheered when she said it was their last song, and that is when we left. I can't complain though, because it was free.



We ended up at my favorite, The Gold Room, so the Darlings could experience the glory of the neon and glass panelled bar, free tacos and peanuts and old men named Pepe who "know about music." Awesome. Jasmine and J. Marie are sooooper fun, and they like to dress up in fabulous outfits like I do, which only makes things more fun!



(Photos of us girls courtesy of Jasmine)


Oh and did I mention that my b-day present from Juan is my ticket to Coachella!!! Dehydration here I come!!

Monday, February 23, 2009

b-day celebrations

CUPCAKES and candles!!!



My presents!!!!



From the photos, it looks like it was just me, all dressed up, celebrating my birthday by myself. But I promise you, I had a whole group of people over!



I wore a 3.1 Phillip Lim dress that I found at the Barney's sale. It is so fab. The front is all sophisticated and simple, but the "jewels" are covered in leather. Then the BACK, omg. It is mesh. SO hot.



Decorations made out of a road map of Los Angeles. I cut out the letters to spell my name, but I thought it wasn't appropriate to personalize it when I made them myself.



Star Gazer lillies and macarons. 2 of my favorite things! The macarons were no La Durée, but they were pretty tasty none the less! The caramel ones were by far the best.