Brick Lane

The vibrancy of this girl's outfit provides a nice balance for the gloomy weather of Brick Lane, one of my favorite areas of London.

Brick Lane has a rough-around-the-edges feel and attracts all kinds of dyed, pierced, tattooed, perpetually smoking, friendly and fashionable people. It's a nice break from the more posh and touristy areas of the city.

Brick Lane is also home to amazing Indian food and bagels.

(pic courtesy of Facehunter)

Pleating

Alberta Ferretti's Resort line is a study in pleats. From sundresses to cocktail dresses to red carpet attire, Ferretti's pleats are crisp and impeccable. With dresses this expertly tailored, it's no wonder the girls were able to walk the runway with sprouty chignons.

(pics from style.com)

Wooden Gladiator Shoes

I wouldn't describe myself as a "shoe girl" - at least not in the Carrie Bradshaw sense. However, I have a particular penchant for wooden heels. It started a few years ago when I lived in L.A. and I bought a pair of Frye mules. I wore them everywhere and with anything. I wore them as house slippers. Eventually I wore the heel completely off of them. I've forever been trying to replace them.

I bought a pair of Michael Kors wooden heels last year, but they're not quite the same. And though I love them dearly, they just can't function as house slippers.

BUT... yesterday, when I was out shopping for a dress to wear to my brother's wedding, I happened upon my new favorite shoes, proving my belief that the best finds are always random, never planned.

Flashback

This is a look a lot of starlets attempt, but it's so much classier on Lily Daché.

Stuck In A Rut

Today is a beautiful spring day and it will probably be in the 70s this afternoon. But I've come down with a bug and a fever, so I'm indoors consuming zinc lozenges and Airborne tablets.

Because I've been so busy with school, or maybe just because I'm lazy, I'm completely stuck in a fashion rut. I'm too tired to even bother with pulling my spring/summer clothes out of storage. I've been wearing some variation on flannel and cardigan every day. It's awful. The last two times I've gone out (once to an art show, once to a concert) I've been the most underdressed person there. Which, I suppose, suits me more than being the most overdressed. But still... I'm beginning to bore myself. Look at these pictures taken in the last month:

Are you noticing the theme? I need to get in gear, get out my sundresses, and quit dressing like a farmer.

Rouge

Contrary to what's being dictated to me in magazines right now, red is the color I'm reveling in. Although it's not a traditionally spring-y color (Easter egg blues and yellows are), I'm finding it very fun (see previous posts on the Met Ball and My New Dress). I've especially been enjoying red lip colors (Aveda's Claret, Geranium and Rambutan colors), fiery red nail polish by Spa Ritual, and a red beret. Maybe it's overkill, but it's punchy. Whenever I wear red lipstick people come up to me and say, "I wish I could wear red!" I say, "Do it! Wear red!"

For some reason, many people think they don't have the right pigmentation for red. But I'm here to say, I've been a makeup artist long enough to assure you that there are actually very few people who can't wear red. There are so many variations of red... so experiment. Find your red. And if you can't do red lips, do red nails.

The Sartorialist snapped a picture of this girl in Stockholm, making the most of shades of red.

(pic courtesy of style.com)

My New $6 Dress

I had some time between classes today and I popped into a consignment store to look for a dress. I found an amazing vintage Saks Fifth Avenue dress circa 1970 for $10, but it was significantly damaged. Then I found this handmade dress and tried it on. It's nearly a perfect fit, except it puckers a bit in the back. But for $6, who can complain?

Very Berry Gala

So many beautiful berry-colored gowns at the Costume Gala. Who wears berry best - Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Rosario Dawson, Ellen Barkin, Ginnifer Goodwin or Sarah Wynter?


(pics from style.com)

Cameron Diaz

I'm not normally a fan of Cameron Diaz's street style, but I do tend to like her red (or green) carpet fashion (minus her Oscar getup). She avoids banal ensembles by always adding something that's a little incongruous, like vibrant heels or asymmetrical patterns. She's so striking looking that it would be a shame for her to try to conform to cookie cutter looks with barrel-curled platinum locks and mahogany faux tans, and it's refreshing that she doesn't.

Even though her outfit at the Shrek 3 premiere (below) isn't particularly avant-garde or out-on-a-limb, she still manages to look unique. After flipping through red carpet pictures, everyone starts to look the same after a while, like they're all using the same stylist. Cameron Diaz always looks like herself.

A Mireille Moment

This is for the benefit of Anje, because I'm trying to convince her to do her hair like this. Here is an old LP by Mireille Mathieu, obviously, and her haircut looks very much like the work of Vidal Sassoon.

Danke Marlene

I spent three hours in the library this afternoon researching Marlene Dietrich for a paper I'm writing on her for my German Cultural History class. In the mid-1930s she traveled to Paris on a hiatus from her studio contract. (She was unwelcome in Berlin due to her anti-Nazi stance.) She arrived in a suit (she'd packed over twenty-five), tie and beret. A Parisian magistrate, offended by her garb, threatened to have her arrested for impersonating a man; but Marlene's former lover, Maurice Chevalier, came to her defense and said that every freedom-loving Frenchman should love Marlene Dietrich. (Below: Marlene in Chanel)

It's thanks in part to Marlene that women can walk down red carpets in beautifully tailored suits, looking smart and smashing, without being arrested. Kirsten Dunst look impeccable.

Pass The Buck

Really? Antlers? I rarely buy into fads, but I don't know who will buy into this. Will you?

As metaphor for a bucolic ideal, antlers are fine. But their proliferation in fashion (in jewelry and graphics on T-shirts and hoodies) and home design (as candlestick holders and chandeliers) suggests a deeper societal meaning. To be sure, in various cultures, antlers symbolize masculine aggression, regeneration, sacrifice, financial stability and, in some cases, Satanism (see Joan Fontaine in “The Witches”). In popular culture, they are likely to mean something else entirely, but what?

Guinness, The Wall

School and midterm-prep have been taking a toll on my fashion creativity. Living off of caffeine, Emergen-C and four hours of sleep isn't great for the body or mind. Lately I've been craving the perfect school clothes... easy, and above all, comfortable. I have a few t-shirts that are nearly translucent from use, and I love them dearly. The Guinness t-shirt that I'm wearing below has been a good friend to me for nine years. My outfits recently consist of (aforementioned) comfy t-shirts, cardigans or hoodies or a trenchcoat, baggy ripped-up old jeans and Converse.

I have just added a new favorite t-shirt to my collection. The shirt below is from The Ryde and is a perfect combination of stretchy and soft. So soft. So reminiscent of a certain Pink Floyd album. Check out The Ryde's other fun t-shirts, too; I can't emphasize enough just how amazing this shirt feels.

Who's Your Favorite?

Read and Discuss: Louisa May Alcott

Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone; it keeps us from ennui and mischief, is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion.

More Sailor Pants

Mancunian Musings

I once had a Mancunian roommate. She was hilarious, blunt and unaffected and had the very British sense of humor that I love so well. I wonder if Agyness Deyn (née Agnes Hollins) is still so Northern in her temperament?

My Francophile roots

I was attempting to explain to someone this week the roots of my francophilia. My mother, having lived in France as a child, endued me with a childhood full of baguettes and café au lait, Edith Piaf and the smells of Roger Gallet and Guerlain. One of my earlier memories is singing along to "Sur la Pont d'Avignon" as it played on the record player. When I got a little older, I'd swoon over the cover of my mother's Sacha Distel album as he crooned, "Je vends des pommes, des poires, Et des scoubidoubi-ou ah!" (Even as a child, I knew just how risqué the lyrics were.) Every evening around six, my mother would holler up the stairs to me and my siblings, "Á la table, sil vous plait!"

I understand that baguettes and the occasional 'svp' thrown in do not make me French. And appreciation for 1950s French music doesn't either. But French things remind me of my mother, and grandmother and my childhood. Being in France feels familiar and comfortable to me, despite the language barrier.

Here is a picture of my aunt (L) and mother (R) in Chambley, France, where they lived. My grandfather won an award for this picture in 1959.

The Wayfarer, The Aviator

Rosanna and me at the Sunday Fremont Market. I like the glasses.

America The Beautiful

America Ferrera in W Magazine