Situation, It's All Possible

Trekked into the city yesterday, I had big plans regarding shopping and vintage trolling and record store loitering, but we spent so long being held hostage by my father's eccentric and very lonely Harvard grad cousin. Every time I visit him it's like, "My God, why are we not bringing this poor man a casserole every weekend?!" So I only got to go, briefly, to Urban Outfitters. I bought a boring gray sweater, but it is the fuzziest sweater known to mankind. And a simple black miniskirt which I am now regretting. I mean, it's essentially thirty-eight dollars for a tube of cotton jersey. I keep thinking that second I decide to keep it and rip off the tags, I will find the exact same thing in Target for sixteen. Blech, I'm mulling. I think perhaps I should stick to online shopping, Urban Outfitters stores are always on a gigantic scale and it overwhelms me.

Forgive me for this incredibly poor outfit photo, my camera was dying, so no flash.

I have finally discovered the secret of the keffiyeh! It's like a cool version of a pashmina. It's big enough to be worn a billion different ways, and it's suprisingly warm. You can even use it as a very handy "travel blanket".

The skirt in question.

Photographing Fairies

"The Cottingley Fairies" is propably one of the most famous series of photographs of all time. Taken by young cousins Elise Wright and Francis Griffiths in 1917, the photographs of the young girls, frolicking with fairies, stirred up an enormous controversy at the time as to their authenticity. During the height of the Spiritualist movement, there was a great deal of effort put forward to prove that the supernatural and mythological in fact existed, and so many people, including most famously, devout spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It actually went on for quite some time, with a great many luminary figures championing the girls and their photographs. Real or not, you must admit, the girls' renditions of fairies are most clever.

Upon seeing this Erin Featherston DIY headband in Teen Vogue, it struck a chord with me. Ultra girlie/boho chick is not normally my millieu, but the headband was so resonant of my memory of the Cottingley photographs I simply had to try my hand at it.
It was absurdly easy to make and is quite fetching I think. Though, to be fair, I fully admit I've yet to wear it out and about. I simply can't find a way to wear it without appearing to be some kind of overgrown flowergirl. Ideas?

Can't Shake You Off

Oh yes...

Cheap Alloy Doctor Martens knock-offs....you shall be MINE.

(sorry for the sporadic blogging, but I've been busy. In the mean time, a question: what kind of posts would you like to see more of from me?) Please answer so I can be, as they say, the best blogger I can be!

The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio

I have a love of all things vintage or old-timey. An antique store for me is like the average girl in Macy's. I'm probably the only teenager you'll ever meet who knows how to operate a Victrola. And an antique Underwood typewriter competes with Marni shoes on my wishlist. So when I saw this photospread in Teen Vogue, my eyes naturally zeroed in on one thing:

The prize ribbons. They danced through my head like a line from a corps de ballet, visions of wearing a dozen at a time on messenger bag straps (a la band pins), jackets, pehaps even in my hair. Feverishly, I googled the designer, Jessica Grindstaff, and finally found them

They're luminous. They're perfect, made from vintage satin with gold-plated metal appliques. They're $77-$132 a peice. Now I realize that she's an artist and they're technically art peices and I respect that. But seriously, wtf Jessica?! Your answer to my high-priced conundrum is no doubt, "Pfft, go down to the craft store and buy real prize ribbons for two bucks a peice!" And normally I would agree. But the OCD part of me could simply not abide the cheap, easily fraying acetate from which they're made and the obnoxious "FIRST PLACE" emblazoned on their plastic buttons. I searched for antique prize ribbons, but came up with very little. So, I determined to make my own. I would spring for high quality ribbon in satin and grograin, and since here in the south, not unlike Starbucks, there is an antique store on every corner, it's not difficult to procure vintage pins and buttons at very little expense. I have figured out how to make the ribbons for the most part, except for the damned fan-pleated rosette! Can any of you fantastic, sewing-minded bloggers help me out?

Postscript: In other vintage accessory news, Lulu Frost, famous for her peices of recycled antique jewelry, is making an inexpensive line for Urban Outfitters! It comes out in December, and I hope I am not met with dissapointment in the form of cliche, lock-and-key tripe.

Mettero una gonna aderente per l'occasione

We all know that with people my age in particular, the miniskirt is practically the only fashion option considered when it comes to skirts. Whether it's a pencil skirt worn high on the waist, an obscene American Apparel fabric swatch passing for a mini, or those damn frilled Luella knockoffs. And don't get me wrong, I totally love them, anything to lengthen my stubby pins is a definite must. But they're not exactly practical, I'm always having to yank down the hem if I take too long a stride, and the other day I was sitting on a park bench to find some perverse little boy trying to look up my skirt! Which has brought me to contemplate a style I have not considered since highschool, when I was going through my hippie phase. The long skirt.

It's comfortable, forgiving, you don't have to worry about bending over when you drop your keys. But how does one wear it without looking like a reject from the year 2003? Stick to solid colours, patterns tend to recall either an aging art teacher, or a member of the Holiness sect. One of the biggest supporters of the long skirt was Olivier Theyskens when he worked at Rochas.

His designs look both terribly modern, and wonderfully romantic. I wouldn't suggest wearing them with a high neck or long sleeves. I fear you would too closely resemble a character from a du Maurier novel. If you have long hair like myself, don't wear it down, it will look too heavy. And unless you are super tall, wear long skirts with heels, but make sure the skirt isn't so long that you're tripping over it!

You can find a long silk ball skirt in pretty much any consignment shop in the country.

Keep it simple with a delicate tank top

And to keep it young, add a leather jacket and plenty of jewelry.

A Tribute

Probably the most beautiful Kazakh I've ever seen, lol. My parents are sad because she was 1) young 2) Russian (well, Soviet, but to them it's the same). I'm sad because tragedy seems to be striking models in mass numbers these days, I wonder who is next?I would sell my internal organs to pull off that hair.

Iconography

I think we as fashion bloggers do tend to share a unique knowledge outside of the mainstream, and the people whose personalities or tastes we admire is quite indicative of that. While I think we all have our own private style idols, the three women most every fashion blogger seem to all agree on having enviable tastes are Chloe Sevigny and our favourite Gallic siblings, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon. The Trinity, if you will. So intensely loved for their impeccable sense of dressing are they, that their style exploits have surpassed their films in noteriety. Sevigny's star is rising with "Big Love" and I've seen Gainsbourg in "The Science of Sleep" (she was quite charming) and as a rather miscast Jane Eyre. I've yet to see a single film with Lou Doillon in it. Can any one really say they are a great fan of their films? I wonder how they feel about this...

Were this traditional iconography, that of perhaps a crucifixion scene, I think Sevigny would take the persona of Mary Magdalene:

Like Mary, she is bold, a little dangerous, sexual, but in a way you can't really place your finger on, and above all, controversial.

In iconography, Mary Magdalene's attribute (an item or feature that identifies her as that particular saint) is an alabaster jar or box. Chloe's, given her penchant for constantly changing style, would be more difficult to spot, but if pressed I would say her long, blonde hair, one of her few constants.

Charlotte Gainsbourg would be the Virgin Mary. More conservative, traditional, but deeply, almost fanatically revered.

Charlotte's attribute would be her inimitable ability to wear jeans and tshirts and still look like she spent 3k. Something we all want, and can't seem to get.

And Lou Doillon would be John the Baptist. Wild, untamed, natural, disheveled and underrated:

Her attribute would be the wonderful way in which she pulls off hats: