Time to Be Thankful

I've never really bought into the whole one-day-a-year-to-give-thanks thing. It's a nice idea, but. . . well, doesn't giving thanks feel like something one should do a bit more often? Gala and the iCiNG community do this every Thursday, and even though I don't participate on my blog, I like to keep the "Things I Love Thursday" badge on my sidebar to show my support and whatnot. But, since today is both Thanksgiving and a Thursday, I think it's time to run the first ever Fashion-y Blog TILT. It will be body-related and not in list form, but it's a TILT all the same. Can you dig it?

Today I am thankful for my appearance. It sounds vain, I know, and it pretty much is, but let me explain.

This photo is a bit of an older one (hence the bangs and sandals that would allow for frostbite should I wear them now); details on the outfit can be found here.

Over the past few years, I've become a lot more comfortable with my body. I was never one of those girls who stands in front of the mirror for the sole purpose of bashing every body part, but I've definitely had a mental list of my physical "flaws"at any given time - large nose, knobby knees, a non-flat stomach, over-large boobs - but nothing I've ever found particularly horrific. It may seem weird to list those "flaws" here where everyone can look at my photos and critique how I look, but the fact is I've been appreciating these so-called physical imperfections a lot more lately. Large nose? Not such a deformity after all. Gives my face character, I think. Knobby knees? I think I'm the only one who even notices these, to be honest. I am now nonplussed by them. Non-flat stomach? It's not really natural for most women to have flat stomachs. Even with large amounts of exercise I've never been able to achieve this, because it's a tiny curve I'm meant to have. And curves are a pleasing shape, after all. And my boobs? Again, curves are pleasing to the eye. I think I like 'em after all, even if they make bikini shopping quite difficult.

Yes, I feel a little awkward having written about my chest size knowing that classmates, family members, friends, and the like read this, but I'll let it be. Not something to be embarassed about, really. I've been thinking a lot about body image and how it shouldn't be considered vain or taboo to appreciate the way we look in all its uniqueness. Why should it be? Isn't it a much healthier mindset to find the beauty in ourselves and be proud of that than to be vocal about our hated features while keeping quiet about our loved features? I think so. And for that matter, since I'm spewing out random thoughts as it is, I wish compliments could be given more freely in our society. I often compliment strangers on their clothing or accessories, which never fails to elicit a smile and some friendly vibes (if not friendly conversation), but why is it inappropriate to tell a stranger, "Hi, I just wanted to say I think you have the most amazing legs"? Why can't we receive compliments like these without feeling overly scrutinized or hit on? The fact is, we all notice the way people look, albeit not to the same degree we notice our personal appearances, and it would be good for us to be more vocal about this in a positive way when we live in a society full of eating disorders, idolized stick-thin models, and obesity.

For now, I stick to the safe appearance-related compliments when I want to brighten someone else's day. Eyes and hair, folks, eyes and hair.

I would also like to add that, having spent the last 20 minutes or so ranting about body image, I think the preoccupation our society has with physical appearance is kind of ridiculous. Let's also take the time to appreciate the fact that our bodies are the vessels that keep us alive, that they pump blood, take in oxygen, fight illness, allow us to move and think and experience joy, and generally give us everything we have.

That's my long, rambling, tangent-filled TILT. I hope it didn't make me sound disgustingly positive, disgustingly appearance-obsessed, or disgustingly vain.

What do you love and appreciate about your body? It's a great exercise to list your "flaws" and then think of reasons to appreciate them, but I would also love to hear about what you find absolutely gorgeous about yourself. A collection of positive comments always seems to induce extreme happiness (another reason why Miss Gala's site is so fantastic), so let's make it happen. Go forth and comment, anonymously if you so choose, or proudly under your name. I am thankful for this in advance, haha.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Have a good night! And if you want more positive reading material, check out SARK. I'm currently reading her book Succulent Wild Woman (in tandem with Joseph Campbell's fascinating The Power of Myth, which you should also take a look at) and wow is that woman incredible.

Provocative Dressing

"To Vivien dressing was almost a religion, a ritual. On rainy days when everybody wore mousy or moth-eaten clothes she came out in a shining and vivid raincoat. She dressed in defiance of the elements rather than in submission to them. Anita could see that her dressing was almost a provocation to calmer inhabitants; things were bound to happen to Vivien, different things than happened to most women, she was always so dressed for it, for the unexpected, the adventurous. Her dressing roused in people an uneasiness similar to the feeling they had when looking over trip literature and pamphlets, a kind of wanderlust, a desire to flee from the familiar and the conventional. Whatever the stage possessed that enslaved the imagination Vivien had applied to her daily life. Between her setting and costume, and the homes of other women and their costume lay a pit as wide as the orchestra pit in the theatre, and spotlights such as she directed on herself found her audaciously keyed up, as they found the professional actress."

- Anais Nin, "The Slippery Floor," Waste of Timelessness and Other Early Stories

Echo, Violet & Claire

The Francesca Lia Block obsession continues. I checked Echo and Violet & Claire out of the library, yesterday, and I devoured them each in a few hours. Nothing can live up to the beloved Weetzie Bat series, but I can't help but marvel at the beautiful language and imagery that is characteristic of Block's books. I'm also slightly enamoured of the fact that the characters always have unique and edgy fashions that seem to fit their personalities perfectly.

If you haven't guessed it by now, I'm sharing fashionable Francesca Lia Block quotes again. Get ready for inspiration!

Echo:

♥ "Her eyes seem naturally kohl-lined, her hair naturally hennaed. She is not particularly into fashion. She only needs a few gauzy dresses that she makes herself and some bare Grecian sandals that lace up her long amber legs. High-priced fashion would be a waste on her; it would be extraneous."

This quote makes me want to wear gauzy dresses and Grecian sandals. It also makes me jealous of the woman the quote is describing, at least appearance-wise.

♥ "On weekends we took drives along the coast, jogged in the hills, went to museums and flea markets where I bought deteriorating silk slip dresses from the forties."

Not only do the slip dresses really fit the character, but I find the whole idea of wearing vintage slip dresses to be sort of fairytale-ish.

♥ "...all my vintage stuff was ghosts..."

Love this line. Describing "deteriorating silk slip dresses from the forties" as "ghosts" is just perfect.

♥ "L.A. is a beautiful prostitute with bougainvillea-blossom-pink lips, hair extensions to her waist, stiletto heels straining the muscles in her calves. Promising opiate dazzle if you pay enough."

Okay, so this isn't really a fashion quote, but it makes me want to paint my lips "bougainvillea-blossom-pink."


Violet & Claire:

♥ "The girls in the Red Cherry were tremendous. Emerging from clouds of red smoke, they looked like superfreak goddesses with the longest legs and manes of synthetic hair. I was just wondering if any of them would be interested in sharing their stories when ESMERALDA . . . rolled up to us in her wheelchair. Her makeup looked like cake frosting applied with a spatuula, and she wore a cherry-red bubble wig. Her emaciated, twisted body was sheathed in a revealing black cocktail dress, and there were spike heels on her gnarled feet."

What an interesting image! You can put on all the glamorous clothing and makeup you want, but it will never hide the real you.

♥ ". . . a hugely muscled six foot tall bleach blond African American trans slunk over on sinewy expresso legs in shimmery sheer cream stockings."

I suddenly want to have "sinewy expresso legs." I guess I'll settle for "shimmery sheer cream stockings," though.

Reading is In

Is it just me, or does reading seem to be "in" these days? I keep seeing photo shoot after photo shoot featuring whimsically-dressed girls and their well-loved books.

I don't know if this qualifies as a trend, but I'm loving it. I wish the fashion mags could have seen me yesterday as I lugged ten books to the check-out counter at the library. I was whimsically dressed, and apparently in vogue.

I've already read three of those books. I am so stylish. (wink, wink)


Do you read me?, found via Photo Decadent


Kate Spade ad


Anthropologie catalogue


A Lovely Bookworm, Vogue Girl

Necklace of Kisses

I just finished reading Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block. The sequel to the Weetzie Bat series, it is totally magical. Fashion takes more of a front seat in this book, and although a lot of the inspiration can be found from Weetzie's outfits and her "brief history of fashion," there are some style tips/fashion commentary hidden in the pages that I just love. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Vintage clothing is magical because all the clothes have histories.

"Weetzie loved the old dresses she found and sold, because they had their own secret histories. She always wondered where, when, and how they had been worn. What they had seen. Old dresses were like old ladies."

2. It's all in the details.

"Honey, the details are everything. You know that. A ginger ale on ice. It's really good if you put sushi ginger in the glass. A white trench belted with a studded punk number. I mean, look at the rhinestones on your toenails."

3. A little grooming makes all the difference.

"If her toes and fingers were shiny and cuticle-free, she always felt a bit brighter and lighter, even when her heart had darkened and sunken heavily into her chest."

4. Fashion has power.

"She imagined that each piece of clothing would have little secret spells written into the lining - incantations that would make the wearer feel her beauty and her power. That was what clothing could do . . . It could seduce, soothe, enhance, disguise, protect. It could empower. Like magic."

A Challenge Entry & The Little Black Book of Style

Here's a late entry for the Blogging Society Challenge to enjoy over the weekend:

Aldina:



"I bought a soft cotton shirt, crisp white color, and the biggest one I could find so I could have room for scissor mistakes. I even looked specifically for one with a breast pocket. I laid it on the floor with a form-fitting pencil dress over it, and cut out the form of the hips and waist. I cut the sleeves off to elbow length so I could have room for mind-changing and mistakes (those go hand in hand for me :)). I knew I wanted to keep the dress feel of the shirt - dressy, crisp, business-like, and masculine, but I also wanted to show my flirty & girly style so I went with a nautical theme. I chose dark blue pinstripe soft cotton material to accent the dress with, and I first added it to the hem of the dress, that way I can actually wear it in public :). I kept the "swoosh" circular hem, like what it was on the actual shirt. Then I added to the sleeves, I kind of added a mock-fold to them, but I really wanted it to be wide so it balances out the wideband at the hem. I contemplated what to do next, but I finally the pinstripe fabric to the collar, and played around with the fabric belt I had, whether to use it as a belt, a tie, or a handkerchief in the breast pocket. It worked out just right as a tie, with red stockings,and blue wedge shoes. The dress was done in 4 hours, the first week of the challenge, and it was all sewn, no glue, pins, etc."

Good work, Aldina! What a fantastically cute outfit!

I recieved The Little Black Book of Style by Nina Garcia in the mail today (thanks ShopDiary!), and I must say I absolutely adore it. It is written in a casual conversational tone (not unlike the tone used by the more down-to-Earth-yet-fabulous fashion bloggers), and it's full of solid advice. This book isn't for fashion disasters or the fashionably clueless, but rather for the stylish woman looking to refine her closet and gain a better sense of self. With beautiful illustrations by Ruben Toledo, advice from designers and fashion insiders, and lots of fashion history (Nina Garcia really knows her stuff!) to accompany the general body of the book, The Little Black Book of Style is truly a must-read!

I'm not sure if I'm legally allowed to do this, but here's an excerpt from the book on men's button-down shirts that I think is a perfect supplement to this Challenge post. If I get yelled at/threatened I'll take it down...

"A classic men's white shirt:
The classic white shirt is as key to American style as blue jeans. It is chic and simple. Practical and unpretentious. It can be paired with jeans (Jackie O. in Hyannis), black pants (Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction), a long skirt (Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday), a gown (Sharon Stone on the red carpet). It is also uncredibly useful to cover up a bad outfit when entering a good hotel (Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman).

The test of time:
Nobody knows who the first woman to throw on the man's shirt was, but she is the kind of woman I'd like to meet. You know she understood the appeal of effortlessness and a complete lack of pretension. As early as the 1920s, during the birth of the garconne look, women were photographed in men's shirts. In the 1950s, Audrey Hepburn liked to wear a man's shirt and tie the tails twice around her tiny waist. In 1977, Diane Keaton's eponymous character in Annie Hall wore the shirt, several sizes too large - and incited a craze. And in 1998, Sharon Stone stepped onto the red carpet in a lavender Vera Wang skirt and her husband's white shirt, tied back with a dragonfly pin. Don't say you weren't impressed. The white shirt has endured decade after decade. Any time a cool girl or a designer throws a man's white shirt into the mix, we are reminded of the power that comes with that crisp simplicity. And is there anything quite so sensual as seeing a woman in a man's white shirt?"

Fashion Book Craze

My Amazon.com wish list started out small. Then it grew. And grew. And grew. Gradually I added novels, then the sequels to those novels. And then I discovered fashion books, and I added those too.

Needless to say, my wish list is pretty damn long by now.

I purchase a few of my desired novels every now and then, but most of the coveted fashion books are just too expensive to splurge on.

Today the existence of the library finally occurred to me. I logged on to the library network, and - lo and behold - the fashion books are available at various nearby libraries! Woohoo! It seems like a fairly obvious solution, but I've sort of avoided the library since I realized at about age 7 that I preferred to own books so I could read them over and over again.

Anyway, I plan to hit the library in the near future and then spend hours holed up in my room, pouring over tomes like In Vogue: the illustrated history of the world's most famous fashion magazine and 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. If I really wanna go crazy, I might pick up a sewing book or two and try to teach myself how to sew a bit better than my current pathetic sewing state. I'm totally psyched.

Speaking of fashion books, I won Nina Garcia's The Little Black Book of Style from ShopDiary (Eee!), so as soon as it arrives in the mail, I'll be posting a review!

Fashionable Reads

Are you sick of fashion blogs yet? I hope not, because I really love having readers (it makes me feel special), but sometimes it's nice to read about fashion somewhere other than on your computer screen. In honor of Fashion Through Literature Week (which, by the way, was a crappy idea because I keep finding things I want to write about that I can't relate to literature), here are some stylish books to flip through when the mood strikes.


Eye candy alert! Here is a beautiful book full of Andy Warhol's fashion drawings. If tearing pages out of books didn't feel sacreligious, I would rip out all my favorites and hang them on my wall.


You've probably already read this, but if you haven't you should. A hilarious, fun, and easy read that is perfect for a lazy summer day.


I've heard good things about this one. Tricia from Bits and Bobbins posted a great review of it, praising the tremendously creative wardrobe of Iris Apfel. Apparently the photos are fabulous.


If you're anything like me, then you enjoyed the movie Marie Antoinette solely because of the magnificent costumes. But what did Marie Antoinette really wear? (If you think the movie was accurate, I beg you to remember that a pair of Chuck Taylors had a short cameo). Read this book and find out!


Okay, the world has seen the movie based on this book, and I think most people have read the book. But if you haven't, pick this up for a fun read about an unfashionable girl's experience working at a fashion magazine. And no, this is nothing like Ugly Betty.


I remember Susie Bubble writing about this book a while back. I think the gist of her post was that it encouraged the development of a unique personal style.

Well, dear readers, read on!

Memoirs of a Geisha: Getting into Character

If you haven't read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, then you should pick it up immediately. The movie is excellent, and the book is even better. When reading it, I'm always struck by the fact that the image of a geisha is such a powerful thing. Without her geisha makeup and attire, the main character Sayuri is just an unloved woman unable to survive on her own, but when in costume she is beautiful, desired, and valuable. I don't really like this idea, mostly because I believe women should be respected and loved as themselves, but I do think that it holds a certain truth. Clothing, hair, and makeup make a difference in how we are perceived, how we feel, and how we behave. This is part of the reason for my obsession/ fascination with fashion, and I find it to be strongly connected to my love of theater. Getting dressed each morning means choosing my character for the day. Do I want to be a nerd, a goddess, or a glamazon? Do I want to be wild, fabulous, or soulful? Just as getting into costume before acting in a play helps me to embrace the character I am portraying, getting dressed in the morning helps me decide which facet of myself I want to be. It's a never-ending game of dress-up with the world as my stage. And/or runway.

How fun is that?

For added enjoyment, exaggerate your character for the day. Usually, our clothes help us take on a persona without our knowledge. If you feel smokin' in your slinky party dress, you tend to strut a little and enter a room with confidence. It's not a conscious decision, but it happens just the same. My suggestion is to recognize the effect that your wardrobe has on you, choose your outfit accordingly, and commit yourself fully to the role you decide to take on. Don't just strut in that party dress- dance when the mood strikes you, use big gestures when you talk, and treat your fabulous self to what it deserves (chocolate mousse, anyone?). Just have fun with it!

Today my character is a punked out hippy with a hint of chicness. I've been waving to strangers and returning confused glances with a shrug and raised eyebrows all day. In my somewhat bizarre version of reality, that's what punky-chic hippy chicks do.


*This post has been part of Fashion Through Literature Week at The Fashion-y Blog*

Fashion through Literature Week and Bejewelled Things

I officially declare it Fashion through Literature Week at The Fashion-y Blog.

Yes, reading is fashionable, people! For the entire week, most, (if not all) of my posts will be inspired by books I've read. My fashion choices have often been inspired by my reading material, so now I'll share that joy with you. My first post on the subject starts now.

----------------------------------------------------

One of my favorite books as a kid was Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. There's a quote from that book that has stuck in my mind:

"Should you spy a carriage that surpasses all others, peer inside. You'll
find me within, smiling at my jewels and laughing at the world."

This quote seems like a perfect way to describe my recent infatuation with jewels and rhinestones, the bigger and less tasteful, the better. The reason that the quote stayed with me is because it sounded so cold and horrible (at least within the context of the book), but I suddenly have a new appreciation for it. You see, piling on the bling makes me feel giddy and fabulous. I tend to laugh joyfully at the queen-like, sparkling things that I am wearing. I see no reason why not to, as long as the price is right.

Here are my bejweled picks:


Cocktail rings, Fred Flare


Headband, Wet Seal


Gladiator sandals, Topshop


Bracelet, Forever 21

Also, Fashionista has a great DIY article on how to make those dazzling Marc Jacobs headbands that we've all been coveting.

Oh, to be young and encrusted with rhinestones!