Outfit & Redheads

I celebrated my one day off (and my bff's birthday) by hanging out on the near northside for food and drinks. We had originally planned on going to JBar, but the entire place was closed for a private party until 10pm... so lame! Instead, we walked around and found a fancy restaurant for dinner and surprise red velvet cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. We also happened across a piano bar called "The Redhead," so naturally it was fate for my ginger biffle.

I've been waiting to wear this leather vest since I acquired it from a friend's closet and this day was the perfect opportunity. It's kind of an awkward length for a vest as it's pretty long. My love of fashion juxtaposition pictured this hardcore biker vest with a frilly, girly vest and childish Mary Jane shoes. The only complaint I have with the vest is that the two lapels are also really long, therefor they keep flopping over (as you can see in the first picture). This calls for either strong double stick tape or my trusty bottle of superglue.

leather vest: ASOS

dress: H&M

hand harness: diy

mary janes: Urban Outfitters

bag: F21

This Picture...

I love tumblr as my aggregator of runway news and giving me some inspiring personal style shots at the same time. I don't know if this is just someone's picture they snapped for their flickr or for a lookbook or what. But at this moment, this is everything I love about fashion.

I haven't done a close reading of a photo here... or maybe at all. And I'm going to do one now that explains what I'm loving about this photo. Let's start at the top:

Hair: Bleached and dyed. But not “bleached” in the typical California blond way. I know from reading other blogs that this color of hair is particularly hard to achieve and therefor, pretty rare. You see a rainbow of dipdye at the moment. Solid grey/white dye is different. I like it.

Makeup: I wonder if this is airbrushed or photoshopped because her skin is flawless. No blush, just big lashes and a blended smoky eye. Black lipstick contrasts the whiteness of the photo. Usually black lipstick can stick out drastically but even compared to the photo's tone, I think it fits perfectly and isn't nearly as shocking as it generally is.

Clothes: My favorite part, big surprise! This one top describes my wardrobe in general. Lacey and girly and a bit of punky hardcore. Her top is as feminine as can be in a cream color with a lace neckline and a preppy collar. And then she studded the pocket and part of the collar with pyramid studs reminiscent of a punk rock belt that I had in my first few years of high school. It has that whole "hard yet soft" connotation that so many designers try to portray in their clothes. Fashion juxtaposition is so beautiful to me.

Tone: Minimalistic. Plain white, but it speaks volumes. She's not smiling or putting on a “model” face either, but just looking. This photo made me want to dive for my box of vanilla meringues and arrange them neatly on an antique silver platter.

Does that make sense?

Skulls

Sweet gothy goodness. I came across this picture on Masha Sedgwick's blog that floored me. 

I was scrolling through her latest post and just went “ooooo.” My eye instantly went to the anchor with the skull, of course.

Luckily there's a business card smack in the center of the photo so I scurried off to the website and spent about a half hour looking through picture of skulls and pendants. The site is originally German so unfortunately, I don't know much about the company or what materials they use. Their products range from gothy skull deco...

...to smaller and cheekier skull pendents. 

My personal favorite? These two intricately carved bone-colored skulls, especially the sugar skull style on the left.

Visit the store: Chapter 365

Charleston: Street Style

The three weeks I spent in Charleston were abnormally cool, or so I'm told. The people there dress so colorfully (hardly any black!) and seaside chic. It was refreshing to be in a place where summer lives year round and people are more experienced for dressing for the heat and humidity. I noticed the usual Charleston staples: straw summer hats and seersucker suits, but I also saw brave souls sweating in cowboy boots and sporting brightly patterned shorts. Here are a few of my street style photos I snapped during my coverage of the Spoleto Festival.