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Sitting in the Yellow Leaves

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10.28.10 – Thursday

Finally!  This is where the new header came from.  I think I’m going to keep it… until it’s winter, then I’ll make a new one.  Anyway.  Recently — okay not that recently, I’m totally behind with this post, Terra (Stylish White Female) blogged about vegetarianism and faux fur and Kendra (Closet Confections) scored an amazing faux shearling jacket.  And I might have seen some other posts about fur but I can’t remember.  So I thought… it’s really past time that I think about wearing fur/shearling/leather.  And I have no idea how I feel about cruelty to silkworms.  I really enjoy my silk pieces. 

I actually own… not a lot of fur, but more than you would probably expect, considering its cost.  I own: 

  • magenta rabbit scarf (not kidding), gift
  • black puffer with coyote ruff, gift
  • pink woven rabbit scarf, purchased in fall 2007 from a local boutique that went out of business last year
  • black rabbit scarf, a gift  

I’m fairly certain that’s everything.  And I gave away the magenta scarf last year.  It didn’t really go with any of my coats and it wasn’t the type of scarf that you could just throw on with a sweater.  

So…. about fur I already own… the animal is already dead, I may as well honor it by wearing the scarf/coat/whatever and thanking it for keeping me warm.  And I would probably buy vintage fur as well (same idea, it was killed a long time ago) but I would never buy new fur.  I wouldn’t care if someone else bought new fur, but I feel… it’s too unethical (I can’t believe I just said that) and I wouldn’t be able to wear it without feeling sad.  Something that probably no one on the interwebs knows about me is that I was a vegetarian for almost a year in college, and vegan for about a month and a half.  I have two digestive disorders meaning (1) I cannot eat anything and (2) I cannot eat anything.  I am not supposed to eat a huge list of things (although sometimes I do anyway).  And when I say not supposed to eat I mean I’ve had gastrointestinal bleeding kinds of not supposed to eat.  The list includes about 97% of vegetables… so you can guess how that didn’t quite work out for me.  I dropped to 0/2 from 4/6, was dizzy and falling asleep all the time…   And I really like vegetables.  All I really want to do is eat a spinach salad.  

But. 

Anyway. 

I own a lot of leather.  

…thoughts for another day.  

Last Photos of Summery Fall

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10.27.10 – Wednesday

As much as I love sunny days… overcast ones make for fantastic lighting :)  Less problems with exposure (at least I think so).  I used to have major issues with lighting in my photos, but I gradually got better through trial and error + taking thousands of photos + photography blogs + photography book.  I like to use natural light whenever I can but sometimes… I would really like one of those umbrellas to direct light where I want it!  

Last week temperatures were still fairly warm but I was the only person I saw going around without tights/pants.  I’m actually extremely immune to temperature changes so I can go far into winter still wearing short sleeves and no sweaters.  I don’t get cold easily and hot weather is not extremely bothersome to me either (although you won’t see me wearing layers and sweaters during the summer, everyone does that in Japan, they must be even less susceptible to temperature than I am).  I actually barely own any long sleeve shirts and most of my wardrobe can be worn during any season with the addition of tights and sweaters.  Although I’m practically notorious for wearing sleeveless things in January and disliking all sweaters except for cardigans.  

Anthropologie shirt, LOFT skirt, Gap mohair socks, Frye boots.  

Your Socks Are Showing

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10.24.10 – Sunday – Brunch/Theatre

I posted out of order because of Halloween so now I’m resuming regular, in order of appearance photos!  Last week it was still warm enough to go out with bare legs and I had to take the sweater off eventually because I was too hot.  I guess bare leg weather is over now, it didn’t even break fifty degrees today.  This sweater is really old, maybe five or six years old?  I’m trying to decide to keep it or give it away.  It’s huge, and so heavy that it actually doesn’t stay on.  I think it actually weighs about six pounds and is bigger than a standard pillow when folded up!  I think I wear it about once a year… so it may be time for it to go.  

I’ve never really done socks sticking out of shoes before, not even the socks and sandals trend.  I actually have all these tall socks for underneath boots but I hardly ever use them/never pull them up out of boots.  I discovered I like it though, and maybe next time I’ll try it with tights?  

P. S. Any thoughts on the blog header?  I’m not really sure that I like it, I can’t seem to get the lettering to stand out without resorting to neon colors, and I honestly feel redundant on the header and then in the photos.  I might change it to a photo without me in it.  What do you think about photo headers?  

Free People huge monster sweater, Free People dress, Charlotte Russe belt, Gap socks, Frye boots, Cole Haan wristlet. 

I Still See Your Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes

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10.30.10 to 10.31.10 – Halloween 

Happy Halloween!  This is the second costume for Halloween 2010… and can I tell you that I was at a surprise 60th birthday party… in a biker bar… and it was a Mardi Gras party (but the invitation said masquerade, apparently that is the same thing out in the boonies)… and I was wearing this gypsy costume (about 2% of total guests were in costume).  I should have worn my leather and chains, I certainly have enough of those, but I didn’t know that it was going to be… yeah.  I just put on an extra layer of red lipstick.  

Do you like my Marie Antoinette-inspired mask?  I put it together in the afternoon with ribbons from A. C. Moore.  I didn’t really wear it at the birthday party, so I hope I get the change to go to a real masquerade sometime soon!  I didn’t wear it when I went out to party #2 later either.  When I got there gypsy was the next song they played after I walked in… hahhahahaha.  

Actually I quite like this skirt and I may wear it for real sometime!  

Thrifted blouse with lace, thrifted blouse with double collar, thrifted skirt, scarf from Dubrovnik, A. C. Moore leather ribbon belt, mask composed of ribbon from A. C. Moore, Frye boots.  

The Ghost of Scary Faery Says Happy Almost Halloween

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Scary Faery is creeping around hoping to scare someone inside… 

No one is looking!  Oh well… photoshoot!  

10.29.10 – Friday – Halloween Eve Eve – This Post Is Photo Heavy So I’ve Broken It Up

Yes, I know I said photos Sunday but yesterday I decided to throw together another costume… I’m so used to having multiples from being in school, and I’ve always wanted to be a gothic/dark fairy.  I made those wings from wire hangers from the dry cleaner and some stockings that I destroyed… and I’m wearing stockings I destroyed too.  I’m really bad with them, I currently don’t own any that are in general wearable condition.  Unless of course the ripped stocking thing is what you’re going for.  And it’s totally what I was going for as a scary faery!  

Edit: apparently the break isn’t working for me… this is where it was supposed to go.  Oh well.   

Despite the costume, the tattered wings, studs, chains, etc., a number of people were very upset for me about the ripped stockings.  Apparently ripped stockings are serious business.  

Sooooo dramatic!  What is it about a costume that frees me to do such crazy things?  Is it because I already think hey, I’ve got giant fairy wings on my back, no way I can possibly look sillier/more insane/worse?  Or is it because I almost feel like I’m on stage?  (I spent ten years in classical dance training and dabbled in theatre.)  Putting the wings on really made me feel like being a fairy.  In the last two photos I was thinking to myself about what a fairy would do… and I came up with (1) look generally dramatic and (2) fly around.  Maybe later I’ll load blooper “flying” photos to flickr for everyone to see.  They are um… interesting… 

Right, what am I wearing?  I pulled all of this straight from my closet.  

Foundation pieces:

  • Forever 21 dress and necklace
  • Target black lace skirt (under the dress, I like how it turned out especially because that dress is ridiculously short even for F21)
  • Aldo studded sandals
  • Assets by Sara Blakely stockings that have huge runs
  • b-side by ken and dana gunmetal chain bracelet
  • black pearl bracelet from Thailand
  • Make Up For Ever red lip pencil — serious staying power!

Wings (the most important part): 

  • wire hangers from the dry cleaner
  • thin decorative craft wire (to tie all four hangers together)
  • old stockings I snagged/put my hand through/otherwise rendered unwearable to work
  • LOFT double wrap belt

If you were inclined to make your own wings you would probably also need a wire cutter and pliers (at least I did) and luckily those were located in the garage!  

There you have it!  Look for another costume post tomorrow!  

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

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Happy Halloween Weekend!  

Halloween photos are going up Sunday — I have a surprise birthday/costume party Saturday night, but today I wanted to share the discussion about weardrobe/chictopia/hypeed/lookbook that’s been developing all week.  If you haven’t read about it yet definitely devote some time to these awesome posts!  

And, in the same (inexplicable) spirit of the post before this one, here are some photos from Halloweens best left in the past.  

Clockwise from top left: flapper, schoolgirl, devil, pirate (2007-2009). 

P.S.  Does anyone know how to remove that border?  Or get tumblr to not override my html coding?  

Your Sunglasses Are Crooked (A Walk Down Memory Lane)

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10.21.10 – Thursday – Nowhere – Warning: Photos Circa 2005

Romeo + Juliet Couture shirt, scarf from an art museum in Charleston, Joe’s Jeans denim shorts, stockings…?, LOFT belt, Forever 21 sunglasses, Aldo shoes.  

This is really just a conceptual look, I actually didn’t go anywhere in it.  And I definitely would have pulled up the stockings and maybe switched shoes if I had gone somewhere.  Considering it was like 3 pm.  I’ve been pushing myself more lately, wearing some crazy things (to me these are things that I just wouldn’t normally wear) like shirts tucked in to slim skirts, open unbelted long cardigan (which I hated), a one shoulder dress, oxfords… I’ve been such a huge style chameleon for the past few years.  It’s just been… crazy.  I’ve been trying to pin down a style for me but I can’t to stick with anything.  I might want a vintage-y full skirt with a cardigan one day and some kind of frilly bohemian gothic getup the next.  

So in an effort to help me (maybe) settle down a little bit, I give you the edited past five years of my life in clothing.  And apologies for the quality of the photos, cameras only came in 7 megapixel or so back in the day.  And some of these were stolen from Facebook.  

June 2005.  Um.  A pink blazer with a pink and white striped shirt (J. Crew) underneath.  And jeans (Seven).  Because everyone else wore jeans all the time.  The designer denim wars were going on, and I remember that blazers were really big that year.  I had like five of them and my favorite was white.  

September 2006.  College.  Yes, that is a triple strand faux pearl necklace (Forever 21).  I really liked it a lot at the time.  But I have no words for the silver pinstripe tube top (Forever 21).  None at all.  

May 2007.  Yeah, look left.  All the way left in the corner.  White short sleeved shirt (J. Crew), AG jeans that were my absolute favorite with huge holes, Rainbows.  The only interesting thing is the bag, and that is because it’s Marc Jacobs Collection.  Really thrilling original look, self.  I mean, not that I wouldn’t wear that next summer or anything…

May 2007 again.  Actually I still have that dress (bought somewhere in LA) and I wanted to wear it over the summer but it is way too tight in the chest now.  I guess this one is an example of consistent style but that is a very standard sundress.  And wow I really had a lot of hair.  

April 2008.  Purple and white striped shirt (J. Crew) that I still have and also wish still fit.  I used to think buttons downs were totally fancy.  I was wearing grey jeans that I loved and black flats.  Flats.  And look at my sort of curly hair and bangs.  I had bangs for a really long time and am thinking of going back to them.  Also, I want my curly hair back.  That’s a folded up Burberry scarf in my hair.  I was really, really into headbands (and scarves).  I have loads from J. Crew that mostly collect dust in my room although I do bring one out every so often.  

March 2009.  Gossip Girl extra?  One of my first ever style blogger photos.  And one of the only photos I have taken by someone else — this was taken by my friend Shivani outside of the library.  Wearing uncomfortable but pretty stilettos (Luccia G. from the SoHo emerging designers collective), and LV bag from Japan.  That trench coat is from Japan (the tights are too) and the best $35 I ever spent on outerwear.  Those shorts are the last thing I ever bought at Abercrombie & Fitch, the sweater is Forever 21, and the yellow camisole is Old Navy.  I hardly ever do shorts over tights but I really like it and here it is twice in one post!  

July 2009.  I have a lot more photos of myself starting in 2009, which I suppose was the year I really started developing my personal style.  I was also extremely tan last year, now I wonder how I did that.  Anyway… snore. ZZZzzzzZZZZzzzzzzz.  A little bit rocker, but then again not quite.  Guess I couldn’t come up with anything better than a Forever 21 necklace and dress.  And Clarks (from the Tokyo flagship store) sandals.  

February 14, 2010.  Big pink shirt with pearl buttons (Ralph Lauren), crazy floral skirt (Forever 21), tights from Japan, tan suede boots (Arturo Chiang?).  And the green eyeshadow, I’ve been wearing green eyeshadow on and off since I was eighteen.  I liked this outfit a lot but I don’t know if I’d wear it now.  It seems like it’s not exactly me.  But honestly, sometimes I go from floral/pink/pastel monster…

February 20, 2010 (six days later).  …to black/liquid leggings/ribbons/idon’tevenknow (H&M and Francesca’s/Romeo + Juliet Couture/J. Crew/Anne Klein).  I love black and white photography and this photo makes me want to do more with it, maybe another series or something.  Maybe when it snows again I’ll revisit the idea.  My hair’s curly although I helped it, I can tell.  Can you tell that I want my curly hair back?  I really really really do.  

Well.  Almost five years of personal style right here.  That was really interesting.  And fun!  It’s good to go through some old memories and laugh a little bit.  I can see now that I was a serious prepster for a while (mid-2005 to early 2009 at least).  Some of that was college, I think, although I do love J. Crew and started filling my wardrobe with it at age 15.  And I’ve said before that in high school I had a lot of really punk/rocker/underground? clothing and I think I’ve been returning to that ever since I finished school.  Even in middle school I had a lot of really avant garde pieces and was always looking at emerging designers.  I’ve promised photos of those years (the horror…) and that is definitely my next project, although as cameras took film (what? film? what is that?) back then I have to physically find the albums, wherever they may be.  And then probably have Target put the images on disks for me.  

Things that I think have not changed about my style are my penchant for minimal and delicate accessories (I don’t tend to wear big jewelry and I never have, and I really mean I never have, at three months I had tiny little baby bracelets), quality handbags, white sunglasses, black shirts/dresses/shoes/everything, and somewhat unusual colors (who wears orange?  and no one wore purple in 2008 except for fashion magazine editors).  As for everything else… well, it all goes on different directions.  I think I’ll settle into something eventually, but I don’t want to force myself in just one direction.  These are the years for experimenting and taking chances, when any outfit is possible!  

Cardigan Part Two: Night

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10.19.10 – Tuesday – Maybe I Should Have Worn Stockings

I added a belt!  And I think I like this sweater better over a straighter skirt, it’s a cleaner line.  I’m wearing my new black Sofft pumps from zappos.  I wear a lot of comfort shoes because I have problem feet from ten years of ballet when I was younger.  I have extremely high arches and my right foot is significantly wider than my left at the toes.  I suspect broken toes that I never got checked (can’t do anything anyway) but it could just be some kind of anomaly.  Anyway, I highly recommend Sofft for problem feet, or feet that just hurt, especially in heels!  I wear heels a lot, so Sofft is one of my standard brands for classic, wearable shoes.  I would wear flats a lot more if not for Sofft!  

A French bulldog is the perfect accessory for any outfit!  His name is Maxwell Edison, and he belongs to my cousin.  I think he leapt about two feet for the treat I had in my hand, and then he proceeded to walk out of the photo anyway!  Guess I’m just not much of a dog trainer, I never had much success with my dog either!

Banana Republic cardigan, LOFT belt, Anthropologie shirt, Ann Taylor skirt, Burberry scarf, Sofft shoes.  

Cardigan Part One: Daytime

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10.19.10 – Tuesday – I Don’t Know Why It Is So Warm

This is the first time I’ve ever worn this cardigan with something other than pants and the first time I’ve ever worn it open.  I think I would definitely like it better with a belt, so I changed for night later and added one.  

My friend is convinced that the title of this post should be Springtime for Hitler (yeah she was in theatre) because it looks like spring and apparently my sweater is Nazi red.  Yeah, not really sure that I saw it either.  But speaking of Hitler and Nazis, I just started reading Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut and and of course I’m totally obsessed.  I predict that I’ll probably finish the book by tomorrow.  I’ve read a lot of Vonnegut and even heard him speak — probably the best commencement speech ever!  

I’m messing with the blog layout again, and I may change the header.  I also enlarged the photos by 80 pixels and I’m finally using flickr for real!  Sorry about the mess though, it’s likely to continue all week.  

Banana Republic sweater, Anthropologie shirt, J. Crew skirt, Sofft shoes.  

Silver Evening

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10.16.10 – Saturday – Fall Wedding

Look at all those leaves!  I guess I’m going to have to rake them up soon.  I really miss jumping into huge leaf piles, I used to do that a lot when I was younger (and of course in college… usually at 2am…).  I last wore this dress to a gala in June and I had it lifted at the shoulder since then.  I think it fits much better now!  I should really have 60% of my clothing altered but unfortunately only about 20% really ends up going to the tailor.  So that would mean that 80% fits improperly (oops).  

I’ve finally broken out the cape!  Except that now it’s really too cold for the cape, and just about a week ago it was to hot.  There was a skip of an entire temperature range… the range for cape weather.  I actually wanted to wear a longer coat with sleeves but it squashed my dress, so appearance won over comfort as usual :)  Luckily I don’t tend to overheat or freeze easily, I think I must have some kind of superhuman internal temperature regulation system or something!  

Mossimo for Target cape, unknown gloves, Ralph Lauren small bag, Ellen Tracy dress, Nina shoes.