Chicago Slutwalk 2012

Is this an update?! IT IS!!

Two weekends ago I attended Chicago's SlutWalk with a friend and covered it for my ChicagoNow blog. (Read that post here). I had planned on putting up a photo gallery of the great outfits worn by fellow attendees but I decided against it for... reasons.

Unfortunately yet not unexpectedly, I received a bunch of comments of the post telling me how women shouldn't "provoke" men by dressing in a revealing fashion and that they should "protect" themselves by dressing conservatively.

I'm not the type to release my fury on readers and respond with my disagreement. Basically, they missed the point. I'm just talking about CLOTHES as freedom of expression. Of course a heterosexual man will stare at a women dressed in a short skirt and a bustier, as one commented pointed out. Sure, you can look if you want. But raping someone because of their short skirt is not ok. It's clothes, not a banner that says violate me without permission. Clothes are not to blame, the rapist is. (duh.) It's ridiculous to me that we should have to edit ourselves to keep men off us. Rape is their wrong move, not ours.

Anyway, I decided to photodump my gallery of outfits here instead because I would undoubtedly have a slew of commentors saying how terrible it is that people are dressing in this way. What do I have to say to that? GTFO. These people are rad and wicked brave for dressing this way.

 

...more after the break!

An Explanation of Absence

If you haven't noticed, I've been a bit absent on this blog as of late... and I have a real reason! I've started blogging for ChicagoNow. My posts are going to be mainly street fashion in the city alongside original DIYs that I create. So obviously, they don't like me posting DIYs in two places and their site claims priority. So. If you miss my blog, by all means, visit my other blog, Chicago Fashion & Flair, here:

http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-fashion-flair

I have 3 new DIYs queued up, so make sure to check them out! See, here's me hard at work on one of them...

I hope you'll check the site out and support other Chicago bloggers!

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

Grad School: NYC, Chicago, and the Future

I'm feeling rather melancholy this Sunday morning as I'm thinking about the homework I should be doing if I could be bothered to drag myself the 5 feet out of bed to where my radio book is sitting on the floor. That final is all that stands between me and graduation. Graduation. Again.

The 17^th grade is to be my last year of school. I love learning and always will, but I'm ready for Real Life now. One full year of information-packed graduate school was enough to fill my brain with things I didn't know I desperately needed to learn. Still, it's going to feel weird to have no papers to write, no tests to study for. I'm 22 years old. School has been all I've ever known.

I'm generally a quiet person who is extremely attached to my closest friends. Moving 4 states away to a place where I know nobody has been a huge test for me. In many ways it worked, in some ways it didn't. I did the whole internship in NYC like everybody else and I'm still not sure if I'd call it a success or not. Mostly, I'm disappointed in myself that I was mentally and physically unable to keep commuting the whole time, and switched to telecommuting halfway through.

I didn't see much of New York City. I've said it before, being very grounded in the landlocked Midwest made me prideful about where I come from, so I had a horrible outlook on NYC from the start. I interned there and that was it. I didn't go to Central Park, I only came within a far sight of the State of Liberty, and I never made it to the Ground Zero Memorial (which is what I'm most upset about. I wanted to see that. Every American should.). But honestly... I don't really care about the place. I wasn't happy there. NYC has the most opportunities in the magazine industry. That's where I should be working if I want to go far in my field. But it's not what I want. I want my real friends back and my family and the place I feel familiar and most comfortable with. And that's Chicago.

I've had this city-country-suburban struggle my entire life. I live in the burbs but am close enough to Chicago to go there whenever I want, and half my family lives 3 hours away in small town farmland Wisconsin, where I've spent a lot of time every school break. I'm as at home at the Metropolitan Opera House as I am drinking a beer around a bonfire while listening to a Sunday NASCAR race. And that's really confusing, but I like it that way. I'm not willing to give up my city or country side, and my suburban location makes that possible.

This is the last picture I took in NYC, out the window of my hostel on 14^th Street. It was an unusually warm day and all the trees were beginning to bud and flower. This is how I'm preferring to remember the city. Maybe I'll get back there one day, maybe not.

If You Don't Know By Now, I'm Talkin 'Bout Chi Town

Forgive me as I diverge from my usual fashion-y posts. But I'm going home today!!!! (so here are some Amy In Chicago pictures)

Honestly, I live closer to Wisconsin than I live to the city. I've had this split personality my entire life. I love the city because it's close enough for me to get to, it's BIG but not too big, there are always things to do there, etc. But half of my family lives out in farmland Wisconsin so I also feel completely at home listening to country music in the woods in our campsite nook that my Dad built into a hill and staring up at the thousands of stars you can only see in the backwoods where there aren't any lights.

I'm at Syracuse University for my master's program and haven't left since the end of August. For me that's the longest and probably farthest away from home I've ever been. My family doesn't travel often. Every time I'm on vacation, I'll enjoy it for a few days... and then I just want to be back in my own bed in the flat Midwest. I'm really homegrown at heart.

So I'll be on the overnight train back to Chi-City tonight. When I flew home midway through August, I nearly cried when I began to see the skyscrapers popping up on the other side of Lake Michigan.

I had never really considered Chicago my “home” until I left it... It was just always there and I didn't think about it much. Just a little bit away if I ever needed it. It's where my Dad's printing company on the South Side was with its terrifying wall-less freight elevator. It's where I used to look at the Marshall Field's window displays during Christmas (Macy's? WTF is that? Chicagoans call it Field's forever). It's the massive Sears Tower that I can see from Rand Rd by my house on a sunny, clear day (also, EFF the “Willis Tower.” Stop changing our landmarks. CoughComiskeycough coughRosemontHorizoncough)

It's home. And I want it to be home forever.

*pictures taken at the Chicago Cultural Center

cardigan- Urban Outfitters

dress- thrifted

tights- GAP

riding boots- OnCourse, Saddler's Row

necklace- gift

Wicker Park, Chi City

One of my main reasons for coming home for the 2 week break during the summer and fall semesters is to go thrifting in Chicago! My first stop on the thrifting circuit today in Wicker Park was Crossroads Trading Co. I've heard that this place is a slight step down from Buffalo Exchange. It did look like they had more items in their store, but tight racks made the sift a little more difficult. Yes, I did see some things that were a couple years ago-seeming style. But that is to be expected at most thrift stores, right?

Crossroads has some brand-new clothes near the front of the store that I didn't even bother looking at. That wasn't what I was there for. They also have a jewelry counter full of new necklaces and rings, which are worth a look.

I purchased only one top/dress (?) here after trying on some long sleeved tops that I decided I would probably never wear. Last time I was at Crossroads, I scored a pair of Oxfords that came through the door with their previous owner about 2 seconds after I did.  

(Sorry about general bad-looking photos. I'm working on it.)

Verdict: There definitely are good pieces to be found at Crossroads. Just not a ton all at once. They're also cheaper than Buffalo Exchange.

With one bag in hand, I gallivanted across the street to Buffalo Exchange, the entire reason I made the trekk into the City in the first place.

This store is top of the pile and I'm totally a fan of their organization. Overall, they have a smaller amount of clothes compared to other thrift stores in the few block stretch on Milwaukee Ave, but they're more selective for a reason. Here you will find pieces that you don't already have in your closet or have seen walking around on the street.

Their shoe selection is great (unless you have size Sasquatch, which I do), as are their blouses and dresses. Ok, pretty much everything is worth picking through.

I picked up 3 tops here, one of which I HAD to get because it looked perfect with the shorts I happened to be wearing at the time. Also picked up a flowy sweater which is made up of a lot more fabric than it looks like. I was thinking ahead for Syracuse winters. I don't have a picture of it as my camera made it look black when it is actually olive. But it has some wicked chains on the shoulders. And now I'm realizing that almost everything I bought is sheer. Thumbs up.

Verdict: Go here fa sho, you will find something. Or too many somethings for your wallet to handle. Most of their pieces are around $20, though t-shirts are less and some dresses tend to be more.

For lunch, I stopped at Two Amigos in Logan Square. My Dad (aka chauffeur for the day) knew the place, since he used to live down the street from it back in the day. Delicious, cheap, authentic Mexican food. The salsa is spicy and full of cilantro and the best I have tasted in a long, long time. It has the consistency of spaghetti sauce, which was a tad off putting at first, but I got over it quickly. It was perfect.