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!

DIY Necklace for ChicagoNow

Hey! Want some proof that I really have been blogging and not just skiving off posting here? Visit my latest post for Chicago Fashion and Flair for instructions to make a klanky metal necklace. This metal hunk was once a purse handle, now it's 2 necklaces.

See? Ch-Check it out! I'm not supposed to re-post blogs in different locations... so if you could just head over to that site, it would be greatly appreciated. :]

 

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

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. 

Kate Middleton + HATS

It's the eve of my grad school graduation and I find myself... cruising through a Kate Middleton lookbook from Nylon Magazine. I ignored the whole royal wedding when it was actually occurring, which is surprising, given my involvement in the bridal industry. It was on a Friday (I think?) and started like something like 5am. No, thank you.

But I finally caved and checked out her style. She dresses how I'd expect British royalty to dress: preppy, classy, and generally fabulous. But the one thing that struck me about her coords were her hats! She wears a ton of them, and they're not boring either. Maybe it's just a British thing, but I would loooooove to see people incorporating hats back into evening looks or when attending events. They just make an outfit twice as interesting. Hats in America have basically evolved into baseball caps and knitted winter berets. Pretty unfortunate, compared to what hats used to mean back in the early twentieth century.

A Favorite Blogger: Paula Ilona Viktoria

I'm taking some time out from the recent slew of personal posts (surprising, right?) to feature another one of my favorite bloggers. I love intruding you all to the people I follow because... sometimes they can be my inspiration and I love sharing their unique styles with whoever I can.

This is Paula Ilona Viktoria of Intergalactic Radio Station from Finland, as about half of the people I follow are from Finland. Why is that? I have no idea. It must be a super fashionable country. Not to mention dedicated; it's snowy and freezing there nearly all winter and they still can pull together amazing outfits all the time. I live in the snowiest city in America (which is at a record low of snowfall this year anyway) so I should never blame snow for getting in the way of outfit plans.

I found her by scrolling through Lookbook one day and her bright pink hair stopped me instantly.

I love that she wears a lot of black but her hair is this childish bubblegum pink. It's such a contrast. She pulls it off really well.

This outfit is perfection. All those belts...! Wearing all black at once has the potential to become very flat and boring. She keeps that from happening by wearing different textures: chiffon, jersey, leather... all of that keeps it interesting. And how great is the closeup picture on the left? The snowy blackground makes her really stand out.

**Keep an eye out for a new DIY coming soon! It'll also be on Craftista's inspiration blog.

Ruffley Coats

I came across Laura Galic's etsy of AMAZING coats the other day. These are a brilliant mix of feminine “ruffles” (if you could call them that) and also structured tailoring. Look at these gorgeous pleats! I can only assume how difficult it is to make even overlaps with a thick fabric like wool.

There's something a little dark or Victorian or vampy about these suits/coats. It must be the high collars, the puffy shoulders... details like that give a piece a bit of edge.

(I think this one might be my favorite. Baby doll, ruffley, and a BOW)

I would totally wear something like this to work if I ever had an occasion to wear business professional. I can never get over people wearing horribly boring clothes when business causal (or professional) is called for. That is NOT an excuse to be drab! Keep it interesting.

Side note: Here's a sneak peek of a boutonnière DIY that I did for my internship. It's in the works for being on the website soon. :]

Emilio Pucci Pre-Fall 2012

I'm been neglecting runway stuff lately. Sorry. I popped over to style.com today to check out what was going on since pre-fall has been blowing up my tumblr dashboard lately anyway. I clicked on Emilio Pucci because, and I'm admitting this right now (no regrets), I think Emilio Pucci might be my favorite fashion house. Or at least in my top five. And this set proves why: Pucci designs clothes that I see myself wearing. The silhouettes are interesting enough but simple at the same time. Fabric choice is what makes them more special than simple. And actually, a lot of these designs remind me of things I already have, just better and much more luxurious. It feels slightly nostalgic and wayyyyy my style (except maybe more elegant :)

This reminds me of what I wore to my pinning ceremony for Phi Sigma Pi four years ago. No, really. Here, I'll even show you a picture:

Teehee, stretchy shirt has so much stretch it's almost glowing. Yech! Anyway...

I have a sweater with this kind of tie-your-own bow top.

I have a lacy dress! This is more form fitting and a bit longer than mine.

Burgundy velvet blazer. I believe I've already expressed my love for this design multiple times. 

A Favorite Blogger: Shan

This is one of my favorite bloggers: Shan from Tiny Toadstool! She doesn't host through blogger so I always forget to check out her site, but when I do, I spend sooooo long scrolling through all her outfits because they are completely adorable. She's a master pattern mixer and connoisseur of frilly underskirts.

She's a knitter and crafter and this is her master creation... look at that embroidery!

I actually used her as an example for a paper that I had to write this year about how museum curators create their own visual story and narrative through every art exhibition they put together. How is this related to fashion blogging? Shan created this felted beret along with a project called “Hello Tiny Toadstool.”

She sends this hat all around the world to different fashion and style bloggers who create their own outfit around the hat. It has evolved into a kind of nationalistic pride for each blogger, since they usually take their pictures at famous landmarks of their city or places that are generally special to them. What a fun way to connect fashion bloggers all over the world!

She always shoots pictures of herself jumping and never really hows her face directly. She's definitely created her own “brand” through her blog (which is something beaten in our heads in journalism).

Such as inspiration but she never looks at us... how modest.

MY New Years Eve Outfit

Remember my previous post about how NYE is black, gold, and bling and then I created polyvore collages? Well, I took my own advice by wearing something completely opposite. Typical. I was going to wear a black dress but the outfit looked too black and fancy for the bar that I frequently go to. My NYE plans usually happen at the last minute and with half of my closet 700 miles away, I do the best I can with what I have to work with. So I decided to wear light pink. IdowhatIwant.

UGH, this was a decent pic but photobombing was the theme of the night and this guy got me. That's my displeased face.

dress: yesstyle.com

slipdress: yesstyle.com

tights: ?

glitter heels: DIY