Lula Looks

Today, I am angry at Pepsi and Barnes & Noble.

Why, you ask? Well, I was stuck behind a mind-numbingly slow Pepsi truck on the way to school today, so that accounts for the Pepsi hatred. But Barnes & Noble, a store I normally think of lovingly, appears to have stopped carrying Lula Magazine. And so I must hate it. Having looked at tFS to pore over editorials from the latest issue, I feel that B&N is doing me a great disservice.

And so, it is with Lula on my mind that I share those new cut-offs with you. I like 'em lots. They may be a simple, ratty garment, but sometimes those are the best parts of your wardrobe. It just depends on how you style them.

See if you can spot the Lula "influence" in these photos. Har, har. I must admit that I'm rather proud of myself.

Wearing:

♥ Artfully torn cut-offs

♥ New T sent over by the lovely people at Alternative Apparel after seeing the post I did on AltA. Reviews and such of the gear they sent coming up soon. . .

♥ Strap detached from a bag and worn as a belt

♥ Beautiful necklace brought back from Spain by my wonderful brother

♥ Combat boots

♥ Over-the-knee socks folded down

♥ Randomly puffy half-ponytail hairstyle

♥ A wee bit of attitude

Clickity clack, indeed.

No, I don't believe that comment made any sense. But it needed to be said.

The best part of this outfit is that the $25 boots were the most expensive part. Works for me!

Ramble, Ramble

Well, grasshoppers, the days are finally getting colder! On the one hand, I'm delighted to pull out my fall/winter wardrobe, which I've always preferred, but on the other, I don't exactly adore freezing my (stylishly-clad) tush off.

Well, we can't have everything. I prefer to see the cliche, metaphorical glass as half full.

My cold weather wardrobe is a bit sloppy and oh-so-comfy. Long sweaters, plaid flannel, leather boots, black leggings, etc. Last night I hacked the legs off a pair of jeans (RIP Resurrected Jeans; Welcome, New Shorts.) to make some sweet denim cut-offs to layer over tights this fall. Armed with a razor, tweezers, nail scissors, and basically anything else I could think of, I settled down to do some artful shredding as a finishing touch.

Cut to me three hours later, jolted from some weird fashion trance by the trill of my cell phone. It is the dead of night and I am surrounded by a flurry of denim threads, my white-knuckled fingers wrapped around the handle of the razor in a serious death grip, face and hair completely wild. When I rush to grab the phone, the sleepy voice of my mother quietly informs me that my antics have woken the entire household.

Whoops.

So you see, even if my posting is a bit slow these days, fashion is still quite a presence in my life. I am searching for the perfect, affordable (faux) leather jacket, and I plan to prove to my mother that those shorts were totally worth it by putting together the rockingest outfit you ever did see. And despite the fact that I'm about $20 short of broke, a few more flannel shirts and this courderoy dress will make their way into my closet.

Like I said, I'm a glass-half-full kinda girl.

Tough as Nails

I'm currently loving the styling of Alternative Apparel's "Alternative Earth" collection as shown on the website. It has a sort of desert/military theme, and I think it looks laid-back, grungy, and slightly badass. In other words, it's just plain cool.

The clothing may be eco-friendly gym wear (although, to be honest, I'd wear it on a day-to-day basis), but what I love is how the accessories bring it to the next level. Fingerless leather gloves, long-strapped leather bags, and gauzy beige scarves make me think of Tank Girl, a certain type of casual Israeli style, the military, and hiking. White smudges and dirty-clean tousled hair are a nice finishing touch. I'm really fighting the urge to wear goggles on my head tomorrow; how cool does that look? And fingerless leather gloves - well, those I've been wanting for over a year now. Must find perfect pair.

At the very least, I plan to pull out my cargo pants, stomp around in my combat boots, and blast my bedhead with hairspray come morning. Which, of course, will lead me to drink black coffee and snarl single-word responses to any questions. When a girl looks tough as nails, she's gotta act the part. You know how it is.

Ack

Movies in which characters dress in curtains:

1. The Sound of Music. It's okay 'cause the movie is quintessentially hokey. Plus, Maria is totally a curtain-ripping, guitar-strumming, convent-leaving rebel. Roar.

2. Cinderella. Again, allowed. It's a Disney movie, for chrissake. And let's face it - when mice and birds can sew a gown more quickly than Christian Siriano, no one cares that they used the window drapes.

3. Enchanted. Clearly allowed, since it's a parody of Disney princess movies. Not to mention that the resulting dress was adorable.

4. Lifetime's Coco Chanel.

That's right, you read correctly. Picture me, mouth wide open with shock, watching as a badly cast Coco Chanel spends a minute tearing apart a dress, pairing it with a piece of her own curtains, and talking solely in quotes from the real Chanel. Yep, the movie was that bad.

Oh, and did I mention the mystery of the ever-disappearing, horrifically fake French accents? And the stiff, terrible acting?

Then again, I must commend Shirley Maclaine for keeping a straight face while spewing out more quotes in a single breath than most people hear in a lifetime. Bravo, weirdly Americanized Coco!

Final consensus: Watch only for laughs.

Such a Stud

I'm spending my Saturday morning catching up on some of my favorite blogs, and when I found these Bebaroque studded tights on Kingdom of Style, I was blown away. I'm always drawn to studs, and studded tights are no exception. If only the exchange rate was better, I would be wearing these ridiculously often. Especially if my legs were as long and gorgeous as Queen Michelle's. . .

Photos: Bebaroque & KOS

Apparently I'm Shallow

I'm going to be very honest here:

There isn't a lot I wouldn't do for these shoes.

I think I felt my dignity slipping the second I clicked through the Style.com lookbook, to be replaced with pure, unadulterated shoelust. Carrie Bradshaw has nothing on me - well, nothing except for a wallet equiped with the means to buy such expensive footwear.

Anna Sui shoes. Photo sources: 1, 2.

I Won't Grow Up

I realize that I just wrote in my previous post about how I was fairly unimpressed with the recent collections from New York Fashion Week, but then something amazing happened.

I found coverage of Betsey Johnson's show.

She's a genius.

Now this - not Diane von Furstenberg's headbands - comes straight from Neverland. The theme was quite obviously children's bedtime stories, with playful models clad in pajama-esque garments, pirate garb, shepherdess dresses, full flouncy skirts, and ringmaster duds prancing down the runway in sparkle-studded glasses and brightly colored bobs.

Forget growing up. I want to be one of the girly, giggly, magical dreams that springs from Betsey's platinum blond, pink-lipsticked head.

Amazing photos from Zimbio.com.

Finishing Touches

Sooooooo. . . New York Fashion Week. . .

So far, no particular collection has completely caught my eye (I'm waiting for Anna Sui, my usual favorite), but the makeup at Diesel Black Gold and the headdresses at Diane Von Furstenberg were beyond stunning.

At Diesel Black Gold, makeup artist Val Garland explained the look. "It's very young. It's all about the eyebrow. There's a nod to Alice Cooper. It's all about magenta and peacock blue eyebrows."

I've always loved that scary circus clown pointed-line-through-the-eye thing, but the colored eyebrows take it above and beyond. I've never seen that before, and I think it looks fabulous. Very cool, very playful, very party-all-night. Love.

On a very different end of the spectrum, Diane von Furstenberg's models sported the most gorgeous fairytale headdresses.

I love that these are floral without being at all "flower girl." The addition of the leaves, the feathers, and the strands of ribbons look like they should belong in A Midsummer Night's Dream, or perhaps in Neverland. Very unexpected, I think, from the woman who brought us bright wrap dresses in a myriad of graphic prints. I wonder if this new softness is just another short exploration into a part of Diane's large range, or perhaps a facet of her personality she has finally seen fit to share with us. Either way, I'm blown away.

Photos courtesy of Style.com and Fashionweekdaily.com, as well as the good cobrasnake man.

The Resurrection of the Pants

Several years ago, I ducked into a small Vermont thrift store. I was in the midst of a summer at camp, and most of my pants had drowned in the torrential rain that dominated my stay there. Strapped for cash and time, I prayed that the thrift store would yield some leg-covering fruits. And lo and behold, 15 minutes later I exited the shop clutching a perfectly faded, comfortable pair of jeans.

The jeans hit just above my ankle, which I found to be awkward, but I rolled the hems and wore them anyway. They graced my legs for the rest of the summer as I rode horses, swam, and made crafts projects, and I brought them out the next summer for the same purpose. When my waist, which had filled out a bit more by then, began to protest the ever-tightening waistband, I shoved them into a drawer and promptly forgot about them.

Until now.

For some unknown reason, I've lost a bit of weight over the past few weeks, so when I rediscovered the jeans in my wardrobe, they actually fit again. My immediate thought was that I should shred them a la Margiela or cut them into shorts so that the awkward length and generally odd cut would no longer plague me, but I put the idea on hold. "You know what?" I said to myself, "You can make these work. You're older now, you have more experience with fashion, and you should at least do some experimenting."

So I did.

In my first look, I decided to embrace the sort of casual slouchiness of the pants by pairing them with a draped top, beret, and combat boots. I tugged the jeans low on my hips, and printed belt kept the waist defined.

Not bad, right? This look is actually very "me."

My next attempt involved embracing another aspect of the pants. The cut was slightly different from what I'm used to, because they happen to be vintage. So I tugged up the waistline of the jeans and paired them with sleek retro items - a black romper, white plastic earrings, vintage white belt, and studded wedges - and felt very much the club kid. A touch of lipstick and hair piled on top of the head were finishing touches.

I was happy with how this one came out too. It wasn't quite my usual style, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So I guess I did, after all, make these bad boys work. However, I did manage to excite myself with the prospect of tearing them to shreds Margiela-style, so who knows how they'll end up. So many possibilities. . .

Suit Up

Finally - a real post! I'm ashamed that it's taken me so long, seeing as this blog is in no way a chore.

I'm slightly under the weather today, so I spent the afternoon ogling photos from magazine editorials at Faking Fashion. A particular Vogue Russia shoot featuring Ali Michael at her most adorable caught my eye:

At first, the thought that dominated my brain was, "Awwww," but after a moment I was able to look beyond Ali's cute antics and the tux-clad chimp, finally noticing the way the clothes were styled.

Business suits carry a lot of stigma for me. They make me think of dull office jobs, of uniformity and dress codes, of clunky briefcases and murky cups of coffee. Therefore, the fact that the above photos, all of which feature suits, are undeniably fun sets off a bit of a you-better-take-note-of-this alarm in my head.

So, how does one spice up a suit?

♥ A good start is to get yourself a brightly colored suit. Not absolutely necessary, but every little bit helps.

♥ Ditch the plain shirt underneath the jacket for a graphic t-shirt, or layer the t-shirt over the plain collared shirt. Please note that the look is now casual, and no longer appropriate for certain jobs.

♥ Accessorize! Driving gloves, chunky jewelry, belts, ties and bowties, hats - pile 'em on! I especially like a long belt looped around a pencil skirt and brightly colored fingerless driving gloves.

♥ Wearing basic pumps? Swap 'em for something wild to complete the look.

I was determined to take my own advice, so I dragged out my mom's old collection of '80s suits for a bit of experimentation. No pictures, because my room was sweltering and I gave up before I was satisfied with any one outfit, but I did learn that a fairly wide, below-the-knee length pencil skirt looks amazing with a studded belt giving it a paper bag waist. Yowza.

To make up for my lack of photos, I did a bit of editing to show you how much cooler Vivian could look in Pretty Woman. I mean, I liked the original outfit, but it didn't have a lot of personality. . .

See what I mean? I've gotta do some more experimenting. . .