Ready Go Recycle!

Inspired by a conversation I had the other day, I got to thinking about sustainability and what we can do to make a difference, even if at first small. While the obvious things come to mind like recycling, not using your car as often (which by this point most people should be doing these things on the regular) there are so many more things we can do to make sustainability cool and relevant to us. While most of us can't rebuild our apartments so that they run on solar energy and water power, we can think about the way we buy clothes. I know coming from an individual who loves buying and buying clothes, even the most obsessed have to think about the future of our planet. Buying vintage clothes is just one way that you can begin to personally cut down on the use of resources. Clothes that already exist i.e. used clothes are not using up any more resources or materials, they are here and waiting to get their chance in the spotlight all over again. Now, I know for many people the idea of having to sort through a vintage store can be, well, intimidating. But that's why the greater powers invented eBay. My favorite favorite store on eBay for vintage is mama stone vintage. There are soo many amazing things on this website, the only downside is that you have to bid, but hey you can't have everything!

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Hopelessly Devoted To...

Print, Prints Prints!! I love nothing more than intense extreme prints. I think that the summer is a time to throw convention and sanity out the window, and welcome in freedom and creative expression. And what do I always say about fashion...you are what you wear! Let go of stress and pretension and embrace the wilder side of clothing, the wilder side of yourself. Who says you can't wear something totally outrageous to a party, a bar, your office (heh heh proceed with caution lambs). Sometimes you just need to let loose and let freedom reign, and what better time to do it than the summer time. While on my quest to discover fab fab prints, I came across a designer that I barely knew (gasp!). Her name is Samantha Treacy, and she has some adorable treasures.

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Totally rad! While these prints are not as bold as you could go, they are a good step in the right direction. These dresses are a perfect way to ease into the insanity of print wearing without really taking the full plunge. Louise Goldin another precious print maven, uses color blocks and asymmetrical lines of color to animate her Spring 08 ready wear line.

Find more Louise Goldin at Style.com

And for those of us who are daring and willing to try a little more than the rest...

Courtesy of the phenomenal Jeremy Scott

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words...

Well so they say...There are some photographic spreads that you just can't help but feel envious over. Envious that a) you are not in it b) that you didn't take it or c) because...well because! I usually can be found in the folds of my comforter pining over the perfectly styled, directed, edited photo spreads of fashion magazines. However, today it occurred to me that the way we present fashion is changing, much like the rest of the world. With the conquest of the online warriors over most of the planet complete, the fashion world has moved into waters that are unfamiliar to many, unnatural to most. The idea of buying clothing over the Internet without trying it on, analyzing, critiquing, asking a thousand people for their opinions is somewhat daunting. The days of fitting room lines are drawing to an end. But what does this mean for the fashion marketer? The Visual merchandiser? The magazine stylist? Are we seeing the slow decline of tangible marketing? Is the world on its way to becoming an online virtual reality? Maybe. I don't have all the answers, but one thing is for certain, that we need to start looking at the way online stores, fashion mags, what have you, merchandise their wares to us. Just because we are not turning the glossy delicate pages of a magazine in our bed, does not mean that the images we are scrolling through should not be magnificently photographed, laid out, touched up etc. If we are expected to participate in the world of online consumerism then we should continue to be catered to visually, if not more so. Here are some online fashion spreads that I feel are worth noting. La Garconne

If you are unable to visit the legendary Bergdorf Goodman in NYC, then their amazing shop by floor website is close (kinda) to the next best thing.

To me these websites work because they are a) great to look at and b) they are easy to navigate. They are simple to figure out. You don't have to be Bill Gates minus those glasses and poor choice in sweaters (JK Bill...kisses), to navigate and find what you are looking for. Beauty and Simplicity are what make an online store website great. Now go put your government stimuli to good use and spend!

Shutter Bug...

I feel that it is time to take a moment and pay homage to a very important and prolific individual, Helmut Newton. Helmut Newton's work has forced us, the audience, to break free from our conventions of beauty and art. He has elevated the mere idea of snapping a models photograph to capturing a perfect moment in a characters life. A character who wears the clothes that illuminate her identity, her circumstance. These are the images we remember, the images that give life to the inanimate creations of the designer. Light, flesh, emotion, these are what we as the audience yearn for, what makes us believe that that frozen slice of life is attainable to perhaps us. These photographs are what makes buying a fashion magazine thrilling. The voyeurism that we are publicly allowed to savor as we turn glossy page after glossy page. Helmut Newton made this interesting, he made it taboo. Born on October 31st 1920, he was interested in photography from a very young age. In 1961 he moved to Paris and began working primarily as a fashion photographer for French Vogue. During his time at Vogue he became notable for his highly erotic and stylised scenes. Throughout the 1980's, Helumt Newton gained fame and notoriety with his "Big Nudes". He died in 2004 after he crashed his car into the side of Chateau Marmont on Sunset BLVD. His work, however, remains important and influential to all.

Photographs courtesy of lazy Monday & Vogue

Modern Romance

I love how Top Shop merchandises their web site. They make it so incredibly easy to become completely broke in less than 3 minutes. The adorable black polka dotted background, the convenient categories so that everyone can find a little something. Whoever is in charge of merchandising this website is a total genius! My favorite little slice of categorical perfection is Modern Romance. Part Jane Austin Novel, part Jane Birkin. It's a little sweet and a lot of sexy. To me this line is the quintessential girly girl look. Smoldering eye liner, tops with ruffles, short skirts, and Oxford style shoes, these are the perfect staples for a sweet and sexy Spring wardrobe.

The Lovely Jane Birkin

On Foot Freedom...

Today I woke up to sunshine, a fresh breeze, and the thrilling possibility of wearing open toed shoes. The sandal season is now upon us and it has never felt better. That first day of leaving socks tucked away neatly in their draws, of casting boots aside, and slipping on a perfectly molded pair of flip flops or sandals is in short intoxicating. That alone makes getting up easier. However, with the good always comes the bad. Now for the first time in months pale un-pedicured feet emerge from their cotton enclosed tombs to greet the day, as well as a thousand stares of disgust. Stale, beach stained flip flops haphazardly shuffle across corporate offices, attempting to fit in. The truth is that sandal wearing requires just as much thought and dignity as business casual dressing. Just because the design is simple does not mean that sandals should be regarded as such. There are plenty of different styles that you can wear this spring and summer that won't lump you into the beach bum category. These first two styles can be found at La Garconne








Personally I think the hottest sandals are at barney's right now, check out these delicious slices of footwear heaven!!!

Fierce as in Grrrrrr

I am enraptured with what British Vogue has dubbed the "Warrior Queen" look. The idea of typically sweet and soft summer dresses now becoming fierce and powerful, like some kind of mythological warrior woman is for lack of a better phrase f-ing awesome. I can just see it, a mass of ultra hot girls strutting around town in perfectly draped dresses yielding bows and arrows and some kind of club, PERFECT! What this tells me is that the industry is now realizing that being hot is a state of mind, it's the attitude that wears the clothes, that gives them movement and meaning. The idea that a woman can be a warrior and still retain her femininity is a beautiful concept. Not to get all girl power on everyone but it is a pretty profound idea in a world where you can usually just be one or the other. You can't be hot and intelligent, and you can't become powerful unless you use your sex appeal to get you there. These are the conventions that I am more than happy to throw out the window. OK having stood on my soap box for long enough here are some rigs that exemplify the "Warrior Queen" look.

Here are some "Warrior Queen" ideas for the girl on a budget (like myself) from your friendly neighborhood Urban Outfitters

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

If the weather refuses to see eye to eye with your dreams of clear blue days and warm temperatures, then take matters into your own hands. I am in love with this seasons big floral prints. They are a perfect way to add color and liven even the most sun deprived spirits. Of course for many people there is some hesitation about wearing a "floral" print. For me the first thing that came to mind was some hideous dress my Nana wore in the late 70's...gasp puke...strange hibiscus flowers that beckon surf boards and hula skirts, in short ugly. But, then the old adage came to mind, "don't knock it till you try it". So I began my research by hitting the streets and seeing what is happening in floral prints. First stop Anthropologie.




After returning to my desk from "grabbing a coffee" AKA running as fast as I could to Anthropologie. I started feeling the first true itches of spring fever. The bright colors and saturated designs had wooed me and now I needed more. So I got to thinking, if art can inspire a person and change a persons attitude than couldn't clothes also inspire and change a persons attitude? I absolutely think that it can! I believe that if you are feeling down and negative, and ready for winter to just be over, than all you have to do is put yourself in the right setting. If you change the way you look at yourself, by putting on clothes that are colorful and bright, and that slowly begin to revel the body we have been hiding beneath masses of sweater for what feels like forever, I am positive that your attitude and outlook will improve. I think mine slowly is...



Georgia O'Keeffe

The Art Of Business Casual

As I woke up this morning I was faced with the terrible realization that today was "dress business casual to work day". These are the days I loathe, the days when my eccentric and far too childish wardrobe is totally against me. I mean for all of us who work in a professional setting, being forced to wear an array of black pants and some kind of pseudo flattering skirt that goes below the knee and does nothing for the ass, is in short a nightmare. As I rode the bus into work (late because I couldn't get it together) I got to thinking, what really is Business Casual? Is it really this horrible world of monochromatic suits, button down shirts, god forbid khaki colored pants! Hideous loafer shoes, even worse the ones with a kitten heel. Is this the world that anyone who has some semblance of a career is supposed to live in, to endure in without going mildly insane? I say let's rebel against this idea of Business casual conformity and let us enter a new era of impossibly cool and with it career girls. We don't have to give up our individuality to exist or make it the corporate jungle. I began my quest by searching the ever fabulous La Garconne website and I found some pretty amazing things that would make any dull corporate office light up with your effervescent presence...or people might just think you are Hot...

I Love Love This!

As far as weekends goes, this one was by far one of the most relaxing. With spring completely missing Seattle, I was granted the rare opportunity of sitting down to watch some of my favorite movies. Marie Antoinette is visually by far one of my favorite movies. Sofia Coppola did a phenomenal job portraying the opulence and excess of Versailles. There are so many gorgeous elements in this movie, the costumes are an obvious first, but even the furnishings and the textiles are more than enough to leave your salivating for more. One thing in particular that has always stood out to me about this movie, is the wallpaper. So after doing some research I stumbled across one of the most gorgeous websites I have ever seen, for the European company de Gournay. de Gournay specializes in Chinoiserie (the really gorgeous wall coverings you see in 18th century French paintings and in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. And now a little historical background on Chinoiserie. During the 17th century The East India companies began trading and by the beginning of the 18th century Europe was obsessed with the watercolor paintings from China, and circa 1700 the first wallpapers were brought from China to Europe.

The Friday Night Outfit

Friday night. The night that we all look forward to. After a long week of working for someone else, stifling the bits of our true selves that just want to explode during a company meeting like some sort of banshee... Once the clock ticks 5' we are all free, and we are all on fire. For the better part of the day girls like myself contemplate the notorious Friday night outfit. The one outfit of the five day working week that expresses who we really are. Whether you are out to meet someone or not, this is the one outfit that takes the most thought, and the utmost consideration. I love the Friday night outfit. I love planning it, scheming it, putting all the elements together in my head, down to the last feather. And then as magic hour approaches the moment where it all materializes in the mirror......GASP! After that whatever. Now, where do I find the majority of ingredients for my Friday night masterpieces? AMERICAN APPAREL! This is the land of spandex, of luscious color palettes. Metallic colored hot shorts dance along the walls just begging to be taken to a night club, this is the place to find your Friday night inspiration. And for me this is the place the party always begins.