Cedar Chest Jewels

We have this old chest in the basement somewhere that is full of old clothes and blankets and sheets and what not that is like a history in fabric of my mother’s side of the family. It’s at our old condo, and mum just brought 2 dresses back earlier today.

This black gown belonged to my great great grandmother. When I was taking the photos, I realized how much more at ease I am posing in an older or older-styled gowns and costumes than in more modern clothes.

The red silk dress is Albert Nipon. My mum bought it in her twenties and is confused that it is now considered vintage. I would want it shortened.

New York City!

I headed into the city with my mother by train.  I didn’t have much intention of finding anything, for reasons of price, fit, and general style.  But I was proven completely wrong.

J. Crew’s cropped skinny cords.  Saw them in the catalogue, thought that since they were cropped they might work well on my short legs.  They do fit, slouch a little, which lends a very casually misfitting air (which I usually don’t like but which sometimes works) to them.  I got navy because I figured it could pass with many colors just like black but still look incredibly royal and velvet-y.

Two tops from Anthropologie..

The ultimate win of the trip: two dresses from Topshop for $35 TOTAL.
$10, for disco:



$25. I never thought I would ever look good in this style, and I am sure for many it is still questionable, but it is SUCH a fun dress to wear with that puffy skirt!

And a dress from the Junior’s section of Macy’s (who would have thunk that I would ever fit into anything from a junior section anywhere?)


I am still looking for shoes for this one. Would another zipper detail on the shoes be WAY too redundant? I was thinking some sort of a high pewter sandal.

For non-clothing photos of the weekend, click this!

Fall Wishlist

Because of the recession, the organization of trends has gone to hell. In my latest InStyle, they list the trends, and literally, right next to each other are The Trend: Country and The Trend: City. We also have a page full of how bright coats are in, but if our eyes wander to the right of the spread, there is a chunk talking about how your good ol’ camel coat is still a wonderful classic. I guess they want to make their readers feel good about using what they have, which I am all for, but it is still frustrating to zero in on anything.

So, I apologize, my loves, but as far as this fall winter season goes, I am winging it, taking my own path, and seeing wherever it leads me. I will update you along the way.

Summer

It might be evident from my only summer posting being about fall clothing, period fashion, stuff from France, or a black sweater dress that summer fashion is not my favorite thing in the whole wide world. I’m not entirely sure why not. I mean, it could be some sort of an issue with exposing all that skin (but I don’t think so) or it might be all the bright colors (not that I object to bright colors..and not that you can’t wear grey all through summer. *cough*). And I have sort of embraced summer clothing this year by actually wearing shorts (so maybe it used to be a body issue).

And as far as my actual summer was concerned, I cannot even begin to explain to you how incredible it has been (and I refer to it in the past because there are only a few weeks left and I am hoping that they go really damn fast since I have nothing to do in them). I mean, I thought that it was a big deal having all that independence in France and empowering with the language, but after CTY was over, I came back home slightly miserable, but after that I have felt incredibly settled in who I am and what I have to do next, if not ever so slightly lost in the sadness of leaving CTY.

So yeah, over the time, I have thrown together some not so bad ensembles, but nothing particularly note worthy that was not already noted.

A day after CTY I went off into the country side for a week to take care of my cousins’ children. I was totally isolated, hardly any cell service let alone wifi. It was pretty fun, ultimately, but I think I had an allergic reaction to something up there.

I got back into the swelterting heat of the valley and submerged myself in the beauty of my new house’s air conditioning. But I was cold in my simple shorts and T shirt so I threw on some stuff I found on my bed room floor and ended up with this.

Tshirt: Target
Shorts: Old Navy
Plaid Shirt: PacSun (the men’s section–only thing I own from there)
Booties: Zanna

I am so ready for fall to start up again. I will try to get a clothing wish list up by the end of the week.

They made fun of me for dressing like a Grandmother. Well I’ll show them.

When I was in middle school and showed up wearing a high waisted skirt and a shawl draped over my elbows, everybody teased me for dressing like a grandmother.  Well, in your face, as they say.

Refinery 29 Pipeline post on “V Magazine’s Smoky, Old-School Editorial Makes Grandma’s Duds look Cool Again”

France Haul

As I may have mentioned before, I was in France for one of the twice-a-year sales (“les soldes”) in France.  Everything is marked down up to 70% in some cases.  It was glorious.

I wore this to a musical the other night.  Sorry about the wet hair.  It makes me look awkward and I don’t like it, but we were rushing out, so what can I do right…

The dress is a sweater dress by Avant Premiere.  The scarf is from Eurodif, which sells clothing similar to maybe target: a few gems, but mostly “creative” basics.  The scarf was one of those gems.  It is lace, with pom poms on the edges, which of course sounds completely ridiculous, but in reality is fantastic.  I was a little sad when I came home, went to a boutique downtown, and saw a scarf almost identical to it.  But mine was cheaper   Shoes are aerosoles.

I got the ring is amethyst and I got it at a boutique in Tours which I am pretty sure was called Les Souris Vertes, but I can’t remember.  The nailpolish is O.P.I. Edin-Burgundy.

Sorry I don’t have a photo of myself in the brown skirt.  And sorry the photo of me in the embroidered one is so sad.

Waistband

Lower embroidery

Worn: This photo was also taken after walking all over Versailles on the hottest day of our month long trip.  And I was pressed for fashion choices.  I prefer wearing it with a slimmer fitting simple black v-neck, but I am still messing around with my options, of course.

Tshirt: Alternative Apparel; Shoes: Gap (a few years ago); Sunnies: Coach

And the brown skirt.  This I tried on at a solde at les Galeries Lafayette and was horribly conflicted: it fit well, was very French, but I had no clue what I would where it with.  I ended up getting it, of course.  Suggestions for a top are welcome.

It’s a bitch to iron.  Both skirts are by Promod.

I also got a hold of some fake black pearl earrings and some earrings that fulfilled my craving for some old lady earrings, but you will see those as they show up, slowly but surely.  In a week, however, I am leaving for camp (aldfkajf;jf;ljdf;hea;kjf SO excited) and will be gone for 3 weeks.

John Galliano for Christian Dior Fall 2009

Oh how I wish that both physically and socially I could pull off this look. All the time. And you thought that last season’s “bra-lettes” were daring…

No Conditioner!

I may have mentioned earlier (or maybe it was my mom.  or my journal.  or my friend.) that I have been experimenting with different ways of doing my hair.  For a while, I was shampooing at night and then the next morning just doing conditioner, to save time in the mornings.  It had turned out too fluffy in many places, but nice in others.  Today, I figured I would experiment whole hog.  So I just shampooed with Redken Body Full Volumizing shampoo, then got out, dried off, rubbed my hair with a towel for a few seconds, ran a bit of mousse through my hair, coming with my fingers, then scrunched a bit, then put it in a turban with my towel for about five minutes.  Then I took the turban out and combed out a part.  This is all breaking rules I have trained myself to follow ever since I learned how to actually do my hair curly.  But look how it turned out!  Mum likes the softer curl.  It’s very nice and light for the hot weather, and goddamn easy.

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s/K’Naan/Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton

On my quest to turn this into a culture blog, focusing on fashion, here is a post with some music I am currently obsessed with.

Those within the D.A. Social Sphere might know three songs by K’Naan, or would at least recognize them if they heard them. The entirety of Troubadour is really a gem, but here are the three that people would know; they remind me of my spring term art elective because Alex Nicholson made us a mix CD that we listened to every day with them on it.

Wavin’ Flag

Fatima

And a few of my favorites…difficult to choose, though.  I like I said, a gem of an album.

Take A Minute

America

People Like Me

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Then there is Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s.  I was exposed to this band for the first time when I was searching for a concert to go see with my cousin at Pearl Street night club.  They stole my heart at the time, and then recaptured it a few days ago.  I could listen to their album, Not Animal on repeat all day.  Again, hard to choose favorites, specifically because of the way the album works together, but here you go.

A Children’s Crusade on Acid

German Motor Car

As Tall As Cliffs

Broadnipple is Burning

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Emily Haines.  I have loved the three songs of hers I have had (Our Hell, Doctor Blind, and The Lottery) for a while, but finally I got around to getting a hold of her entire album, Knives Don’t Have Your Back.  Again, it goes together so well that it is difficult to choose a few, but here’s an attempt…

a live recording of Reading In Bed

another live recording this time of Nothing & Nowhere

Alright.  Hope that wasn’t too overwhelming.  And keep watching out for a post with some clothing from les soldes (the huge sales where everything everywhere goes on mad reductions) in Paris and Tours!

France

this is a repeat from my other blog. But so will the posts mentioned.

I’m in France. Right now. LAWL. If there are any ridiculous typos forgive me, its these damn keyboards that are all different. How dare they. I wonder what makes the differencesyou know? Like, why azertyuiop instead of qwertyuiop?

So there isnt much to say because if I was going to say anything it would take for EVER. When I get back I will post several posts sort of accounting a little bit of the trip. I write in my journal what I do every day but that would be too much so I will summarize. But you will all have to wait for that. All I will tell you is I am eating lots of good food and seeing lots of interesting people and exploring the City of Tours as much as I can. Oh, and I am proud to announce that after not having ridden a bike for 2 or 3 years, I hopped onto one on Friday and rode a total of about 16 miles. And my legs don’t ache.

Soo that be about it. For now. I am here for a few more weeks. We are going to Normandy next weekend and then the weekend after that we leave Tours for Paris for 5 days and then home we go. I am blogging tonight because for some reason I am suddenly homesick. I havent been homesick the entire trip, I am again proud to announce, but tonight is different. Maybe because dinner was less formal and more like how our meals are back home.

Anyway. Love to you all.

Bisous,

Sarah