Pastel Aliens

This is pretty much what I’m feeling right now.

Tee- Wildfox Couture //Bracelet- Dannijo //Shorts- Matthew Williamson //Lipstick- No She Didn’t by Lime Crime //Polish- Fairy Lights by Butter London //Boots- Miista //Scarf- ASOS

Purity Ring- Obedear

On having staple pieces that are not staples…

There’s always that post about “X Amount of Staple Pieces YOU Need in Your Closet.” Isn’t fashion and personal style about being an individual? We don’t all need “One great pair of jeans!” I don’t like jeans, and I don’t need one great pair in my closet taking up space and gathering dust. I define staple pieces as pieces that you own and go with everything else in your closet. These are items that, say you have five, you could grab any outfit you own and at least two of them would work with that outfit. They allow you to play around with your style and try out trends without losing yourself and your individuality.

Now, please forgive my terrible quality bathroom mirror photos, they are the best examples I have of my own staples.

Plaid!

I love plaid, and for me plaid goes very far. Whether its like above, sheer plaid paired with leggings and some boots for comfy and cool, or tucked into a dressy skirt and paired with heels for a night out. I also love plaid shirts as something to just throw on unbuttoned when I feel like I’m just missing something. Vintage men’s plaid has a special place in my heart.

Jackets and Cardigans!

 

I may or may not be an old man. In addition to plaid, I love cardigans. As seen in my example, I’m wearing a girly floral dress. My trusty black cardi keeps it closer to my personal style, but also works with the 90s feel of a ditsy floral dress. Of course there is my striped jacket that is perfect for pairing with good accessories to help dress up a basic outfit base.

T-Shirts and Dressy Dresses!

I don’t mean to brag, but I have a pretty great collection of tees and I love to pair them with everything. T-shirts are probably the most essential staple in my wardrobe because I do so much with them. And lastly, a piece that is not necessarily meant to be paired with anything else, but is something I think I need in my closet: a dressy dress. It stands alone, but isn’t something I wear too often. I think it’s important to have a couple of really killer options, so when I do get very dressed up, I don’t have to try too hard.

All of the pieces follow along with my personal style, but allow me to step out of my zone every once in a while, but still feel comfortable with what I’m wearing. If you’re more of a girly girl and go all out in leather and studs, you just won’t feel like yourself. But something covered in studs that comes in a girly color? Go for that shit.

Fashionably Lost It

Let me just go ahead and warn you that this may come across as some hipster, anti-corporation, stuck up white girl rant. Seriously, if you replace the words “fashion” and “clothes” with “groceries” and “local” I might as well just quit showering, invest in some thrift store overalls, and adopt a pit bull named Garfunkel. Let me also mention that I’m not talking about runway fashion, the beautiful breathtaking art that designers are still sending out at Fashion Weeks across the world have not let me down. 

 

Omg black lipstick? NO WAY.

So it’s been a while, whatever, who cares. Over that. What I’m also over, is what happened to fashion you guys? I’m young, but in the number of years that I’ve been conscious as to what exactly “fashion” is and how that whole world works, things have changed. I remember when I was an adolescent, social outcast who went to a small southern high school filled with kids in cargo shorts and Birkenstocks. I’d spend my afternoons hidden in my room looking over old Vivienne Westwood runway photos while simultaneously watching the Hills and looking at what girls in cool Brooklyn-based bands were wearing. “Oh shit, LC wore bike shorts under her floral top? How Blossom meets Claire of her.”

A thing like bike shorts instead of real shorts or leggings, would be a short-lived trend that would come and go before you could figure out what to wear with the pair you paid $48 for at Urban Outfitters.(But wasn’t that like 2009 or something?) There were little things like that, small trends that would pick up quickly after some socialite or semi-famous cool girl tried it out one day and posted it to ChicTopia, then they would be dead by the next season. Urban Outfitters and their strained attempt at trying to be on the cusp of what is SUPER COOL ATM was the most mainstream it got when it came to those trends.

This is exactly what I expected to happen when galaxy print leggings made an appearance. I thought “Ok, do I want to spend too much money on a pair of leggings that I think are hella cool when everybody is just going to look at me weird in three months?”  But that didn’t happen. I didn’t buy them, I decided I’d rather pay rent on time that month than be hip. Quite some time later I was wandering through Target with my arms full of things I didn’t need when something caught my eye. Was it? No. Couldn’t be. This isn’t Wasteland, or Nasty Gal. But there they were, galaxy leggings for a mere $14. Now I know Target has cool clothes, I own way too many of them, they also have their designer collaborations and bring fast fashion to the masses, but this? It had spread far and wide, and was showing no signs of giving up life anytime soon. Just like an actual galaxy I suppose.

Then it transformed into Hi-Low skirts and dresses at Buy-Everything-for-Super-Effing-Cheap mega conglomerate corporate soul sucking chain Wal-Mart. The mullet trend, still seen on the likes of the Man Repeller and applied to nearly every type of clothing one can imagine at the aforementioned Urban Outfitters, was at Wally World right next to white denim capris with little palm trees embroidered on them.

Where did the creativity and originality go? Where did “oh my god you don’t understand I NEED riding pants RIGHT NOW because they’ll be over soon,” go? To me it feels like a waste to spend too much money on some studded loafers just to see them for 1/8 of the price at some mall store a week later. Is it that there is no “cool girl” anymore or that we are all now cool girls despite our budget or social standing?

Ugh….Fall

Thank you for finally beginning your long-awaited arrival Fall. It’s about time. I get all awkward during warmer months and nearly every summer I make some attempt at wearing lighter colors and saying to myself, “You can totally do this whole girly summer style thing!” Then I just end up feeling fake and frustrated because of the heat. But it’s cooling down! The thing I’m looking forward to this fall is anything but black (though black and I have agreed to remain good friends).

 

 Tee: Wildfox Couture, Slouchy jacket: Dorothy Perkins, Skirt: TopShop, Boots: H&M, Bag: Zara

All of these pieces and colors would pair amazingly well with an all-black ensemble. I love slouchy pieces paired with simple, leather accessories, just Mary Kate it up then surprise them with sleek leather booties. It’s kind of witchy…

 

 

Rise or Fall?

Steven Meisel's high-low shoot for Vogue Italia

    Is the Fashion Industry one that will someday die? In our current economic state, certain industries are falling. Most noticeably so the print industry. With the rise of the internet, social media and blogging there is hardly any need to pick up a magazine or a newspaper. Why pay someone to write an article when someone just as capable is uploading it to WordPress for free? Why pay people to photograph celebrities when there are ten people with iPhones uploading the same photos to Facebook before People Magazine can put the ink on paper?

While the fashion industry in print form is definitely in trouble, is the fashion/clothing industry as a whole? People will always care what they put on their bodies. Clothing is a form of expression, whether you personally intend it to be or not. Even the people who “don’t care” about style still show a bit about who they are through what they wear. We are living in an era where image is an obsession, one that is becoming easier to get.

Being trendy is becoming a trend itself. Target’s designer collaborations are both sustaining the fashion industry and making it more accessible. Now the middle-class woman can deck herself out in Missoni and emulate the photos of celebrities splashed throughout tabloids. Affordable designer collabs like Vera Wang for Kohl’s, Versace for H&M, and Christopher Kane for TopShop are taking some of the mystery and glamour out of high end fashion, but also keeping it in business. It’s become such an empire, something so wanted and craved for that they can put a Rodarte tag on any old dress and thousands of girls will flock to buy it. It is the idea of it that is making people continue to swipe their credit cards.

With the way clothing is mass produced now and trends are still ever-changing I think the clothing industry will be just fine, at least in my lifetime. Who knows if in the future we will all be wearing matching space-age jumpsuits (though I do love a good jumpsuit). The real problem though, is luxury fashion. It has been flip-flopping for the past few years. While Karl Lagerfeld has defended Chanel and other large fashion houses, we all remember Alexander McQueen’s Fall ’09 collection, the trash-filled comment on luxury exuberance. During the 2008 economic crisis, Betsey Johnson, Carmen Marc Valvo and Vera Wang were not to be seen in Bryant Park during fashion week. Just a few years later, the infamous $39,000 backpack from luxury brand The Row sold out. While the overall appeal may be dwindling, I don’t think luxury brands are going anywhere either.

Clothing in every price range continues to stimulate our economy. Looks like I’m working my way up the right ladder.

Hiatus

I’ll be taking a short hiatus so I can get some things taken care of. I’d rather announce a hiatus than just not post and seem neglectful.

Thanks to all 4 of you who read this.

-Meg

 

Ok, so I realized my real stress relief is getting to come home and work on this. I’ve had all these crazy things going on and this is the part that is going right, so I can’t put it aside. I’m so much more than back.

How To: Make a Crop Top Work

It’s officially Summer and the crop top is everywhere. I think it’s a versatile piece that isn’t just meant for midriff-baring, and can be worn by almost anyone. To be lazy, and because I’m obsessed; everything is from TopShop.

First up, the crops:

Wear them with:

High Waist Shorts/Skirt/Jeans:

Pairing a cropped shirt with anything high waisted is the most universally flattering and perfect if you only want to show a bit of skin.

Pair the tee with a body-con skirt, the bustier with flared jeans, the lace with skinny jeans, and the shirt with shorts.

Bare it All – Hide it All:

If you’re comfortable with showing off your midriff, the classic way to wear a cropped shirt is with anything low-waisted. Which is obvious. But if you aren’t or don’t have the svelte figure to do so, there is a simple solution. The fitted tank.

Find one that fits well and isn’t loose. Tuck it in,  don’t wear it un-tucked or your look will seem unfinished and somewhat sloppy.  Avoid white and nude. This also doesn’t work with every sort of crop top.

Wear the cropped tank in a solid color with a colorful tank underneath to create a color blocking effect. Pair the lace with black for a more romantic and sophisticated look. The fringe works well with any color, the tank underneath just pulls it together.

This is also a good opportunity to show off a fabulous belt!

Wear Over a Dress:

Don’t have the right skirt? A dress will do.

Pair the tank or tee over a dress where the skirt begins right at the waist, to match up with the top. Or pair the tee or the lace over a sleek maxi dress to break it up.

Below is an outfit I styled earlier with a Free People dress and Furst of a Kind top.

So, got any other ideas on how to wear a crop top?

Summer Shoes!

Ego & Greed

$100

Jeffrey Campbell

$175

Maurie & Eve

$250

Trippen

$215

Finsk

$650

Messeca

$170

 

 

Photos: SoleStruck

 

 

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Thank You, ASOS Curve…

…for having decently priced, fashionable clothing for the curvy gal.

 

$101.56

$59.09

 

$46.16

Now I’m off to empty my bank account.

 All images: ASOS