Urban Explorer

Hat: vintage

Belt: Free People

Denim cutoffs: Levi's 550s

T-Shirt: Gap

Shoes: Aerosoles

This was me headed out to 'No Lights No Lycra' - a dance party that's 100% in the DARK.  NBD. This belt/fanny pack came in real handy so I could have my hands free to get down to the fullest.  It's too bad that the party was in the dark because these Levi's 550s, that I cut off into the shortest shorts known to man, oops, deserve to have some light shed on them.

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Perfection

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I Die Friday: things I want so badly it might kill me

 

Sonia Rykiel, striped top

Acne Push Belt, red

Flutter by Jill Golden, Duncan Necklace

Rag & Bone Maxi Desert Skirt

River Island, Sofina Ankle Western Boots

Illesteva Lenox sunnies, tortoise

Raffia Cowgirl Hat, REI

 A little interpretive take on the red, white and blue theme that's going on all over the blogosphere right now. I think it goes hand and hand with the country Western theme that's also pretty popular, so I threw in some western elements like these short boots and a feminine cowboy hat.  I'm actually really purchasing these short boots- I finally decided on a pair! They're on the way in the mail right now. Pretty excited. Happy I Die Friday!    

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Southern Design brought to NYC: sustainable and green

 Mickey Lynn Jewelry

 Amoena Lingerie

Smart Glass Art 

Suzeseams, milliner

 

Fashionable Notes, reusable maket bags

Moo Moo Designs

 

Sushistyle

Mark Edge Jewelry

Amy Bubes Jewelry

Yesterday I attended an event hosted by Southern Designer Collections.  The annual event  presents a very selct group of southern designers to New York City media, stylists, and industry insiders. I was excited to be invited as I have soft spot in my heart for all things Southern since I did my undergraduate degree at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (see this and this).

Yesterday I was very impressed by the high level of design and craftsmanship but I was even more impressed by the huge focus on sustainability in much of the work.  It looks like Southern designers have fully embraced the concept of "green," perhaps even more so than New York designers.  Kathleen Plate designs all her "Smart Glass Art" using recycled glass, Mark Edge designs using only reclaimed metals, and Juan Hernandez of Moo Moo Designs uses all "green" materials, dyes and finishes- including the use of gorgeous animal hides and horns sourced only from animals that have already been used for meat.  Not to mention Fashionable Notes, a cute and reusable market totes line in lovely sherbet colors.

On another note, I'm completely flipping out about Amoena Lingerie.  Get this: beautiful lingerie for the full busted woman. Yes, I said 'beautiful'. They even have sizes for smaller rib cages.  I am a 32DD and, since puberty, it has been like looking for a needle in a haystack to find a supportive bra that is also pretty.  Ladies like me know that it is next to impossible to find a bra that keeps everything in place but doesn't look like a bra you stole from your grandmother's underwear drawer.  Our choices are pretty much limited to bras that look like parachutes held up by 5 inch thick bungee straps.  Believe me, Victoria's secret bras don't cut it- their straps are too thin and their bras are just not made for women who have large breasts.  Breasts that are real anyways, where the laws of gravity apply. With large fake breasts, bra type doesn't really matter. They stand on command.   Anyways, the Amoeba bras are gorgeous and also use a hi tech fabric that regulates your body temperature- cooling you when you need it and transferring heat back to you when you're cold.  AMAZING!  I am just upset that I can't get my hands on one of these bras before August- that's when they hit retail stores. 

Enough about breasts, I also must add mention the other designers. Sushistyle, a really cool little company where all the designs are inspired by sushi!  I loved their furniture especially and would love to get my hands on one of these pieces when I move into my new place in October- so fun, sleek, cute and modern!  And Amy Bubes Jewelry was very pretty,  all one of a kind, hand crafted aregentium sterling silver where no two pieces are alike.  Amy and I shared our love for combining silver and gold jewelry together. So there you have it, it is jeweler confirmed: mixing gold and silver jewelry is ALLOWED. Mickey Lynn  Jewelry was very 'on trend'- employing the use of crystals galore.  Absolutely gorgeous.  And Finally, Suzeseams had unique handcrafted millinery.  Southern women just know how to do hats! 

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Limeade and Lace

BLHDN Decor

Celine, tote 

Opening Ceremony, Chantal platform

 Dolce & Gabbana, lace shift dress 

 

No matter how you cut it, textures are IN: lace, crochet, crazy weaves (not the hairdo).  I love all the nubby and fun to touch fabrics that are making clothing a truly 3D experience this spring and summer season.  I'm rather in love with a lime based, citrus-y color pallet to go with all the creamy crochet and laces that are popping up.  A pop of citrus yellow and green is just so fresh.  What do you think?  I'm going to put an outfit together based around this pallet and post it later this week.  Have you jumped on the texture bandwagon yet?  I'd love to hear your thoughts about this trend and how you might be wearing it! 

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Saturday Night Steez: channelling my inner pinup

Dress:  Grace 

Leather Biker Jacket:  vintage

Heels: Steve Madden

Lipstick: Maybelline 'Very Cherry'

Nails: OPI gel 'Big Apple Red'

Last night attended a co-worker's birthday party and decided to channel my inner pinup for the occasion.  I got my first gel manicure ever yesterday.  Lately I have admired several women's hands who all informed me that they had this type of manicure so I thought, it's KISMA, I have to get one too.  I always thought that gel manicures  were a tacky nail extension sort of deal but apparently not!  I learned that this type of manicure lasts WAY longer than a regular one and doesn't really chip-  it also thickens your nails.  Sold.  I chose the OPI gel color 'Big Apple Red'- a 1940s, very deep red.  The color inspired me to channel this same spirit for the rest of my outfit- of course with my own little edge. I wore a biker jacket that's actually a real biker jacket- sourced at a local thrift store several years ago for only $40.  In terms of makeup, I didn't actually wear very much, even though in the pics it kind of looks like I have a ton on for some reason.  I wore MAC foundation, a little blush,  and winged liner created using Bare Essentials black eyeliner applied with one of their eyeliner brushes.  I and also threw on a beautiful Maybelline lipstick shade,'Very Cherry', that matched the OPI nail color well. That's it. I think if you're going to wear winged liner AND red lips that you should skip any sort of eyeshadow or deep blush, etc.  It would be overkill! 

 The dress was given to my by my lovely roomie Jess.  She is a woman after my own heart and has a very full closet that she's trying to pare down.  Lucky for me she's constantly giving me beautiful clothes!  The dress came with a leopard print belt but I  decided to switch it up for a black one, just to break it up a little.  If you know me well you'll know that I take any chance I can get to wear animal prints.   I've been really digging a look that merges vintage 40's starlet with a 50's pinup look lately.  I think it fits my personality/figure/overall look well.  I'm going to continue exploring it.  What do you think?  

**The 4th image is of a pie box from 'The Bluestove' - this amazing bakery on Graham Ave. in my Williamsburg, Brooklyn neighborhood.  I got my co-worker a mini-pie as a birthday present.  I thought the box, stamp and bow were just darling.

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I Die Friday: things I want so badly it might kill me

Burberry robe

 Miu Miu heels (source: Sea of Shoes)

Proenza Schouler wallet

Hermes cuffs

Jeffrey Campbell, The Marlot Shoe

Everyone knows about my obsession with bathrobes and how I would wear them in public if it were socially acceptable. No? Well I would!  And this little Burberry number  might just be the answer to my prayers- it is so chic maybe no one would notice it was really a bathrobe.  All the other items are just awesome because they are.  Happy I Die Friday love bugs!!

xo

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‘Fabricly’: A Young Designer’s Wet Dream

 Caycee Black- Wailing Wind Cardigan

Last week Fabricly invited me to chat with their Creative Director, Alice Barlow, about their tightly curated and innovative web brand. In a nutshell Fabricly is a talented, emerging designer’s, wet dream: the designer designs and Fabricly does the rest- the production, the marketing, the PR.  They do any and everything, beyond the actual clothing design, to move clothes from concept to sold item. Fabricly also aims to create items that are wearable and affordable.

The concept behind Fabricly is similar to Etsy .  Unlike Etsy, however, Fabricly is not simply a sales engine but also a guiding force behind product production. Aiming to remove daunting road blocks for someone new to the industry, Fabricly allows designers to focus on what they’re good at – designing. As a frustrated designer it is refreshing to know that there exists a place that will do the “dirty work”-  the work that independent designers often get bogged down by and often ultimately discouraged completely.   Often there is little desire and limited resources to handle these particular issues.  Not to mention the fact that the creative design mind does not always go hand in hand with great business saavy or production smarts. Plus there’s just not enough time in the day.

                      

               Eve Gravel- Gabrielle Tank

 

  

                            

Otis & Maclain- Open Back Tank


Alice Barlow is like a young designer’s champion, guardian angel, and savior. She’s a feisty, energetic, and passion filled young Australian who is inspired to do something to help frustrated young designers with little or no resources to bring their original concepts to sellable fruition. My kind of woman. With 10 years of solid fashion industry experience, Ms. Barlow earned her fashion chops not in class but at what she called “The School of Fred Segel”, going straight from high school into the buying department of an industry giant.

                       Alice as Alice Barlow

                     Me as Alice Barlow

  

Fabricly is currently introducing a new designer to their site at the break neck speed of one a month.  Items are moving so fast that it has been hard to keep them in stock. Ms. Barlow hopes that this model will be a way to keep new designers' names pumping into the industry. Additionally, Fabricly sells lines by foreign designers who are already established outside of the US but who might not have the exposure here yet that they deserve, such as ‘Ay Not Dead’, a line founded in 2003 by brothers in Argentina that mixes art & rock n’roll to create wearable basics with an edge. Basically Fabricly is the light in an often dark and unfair industry. I hope this spirit is infectious.

(Above) Ay Not Dead- Xul Tapiz Tank Top

*Currently purchases can be made through the Fabricly website and, in the Spring of 2012, wholesale through the showroom BOND . Ms. Barlow says that they are also working making items available through other apparel sites such as Shopbop.

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Goodbye Charleston/ Hello New York. Now I'm having a hair crisis.

I'm back in New York and after all my travels I'm on a mission to do something with my thin, scraggly, boring hair. I am currently growing it out but want to enhance the color, which is currently the brassy result of several mishaps.  I am naturally not too far off from my current color but just a more dirty blonde, so going lighter won't be that hard.  Do you think I should keep it a more natural shade and just lighten it a bit  or try something more extreme like the first photo, which I am kind of in love with. Or should I try something very different like a red or dark chestnut/reddy brown??  I kind of love Blake Lively's hair right now, but I also love the page girl hair cut AND color of the girl in the bottom photo .  Ahhhh HAIR CRISIS!  Is this an indication that I should put down the hair die and get a therapist instead??? ;)

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Pigging Out and Craft Shopping in Charleston, SC

 Heels: vintage Etienne Aigner

Jeans: Gap jeggings

Shirt: thrift
China Jewelry(image 6): China Baroque

The two  non-negotiable activities when you visit Charleston, SC are eating a truck load of fried foods and gooey treats, like those praline cookies in the 2nd image, and also going craft shopping.  The first image is of the plate I ordered our last night of vacation at the Cru Cafe.  It is fried chicken stuffed with mozzarella, over potatoes Au gratin- WHAT?!?!!  

There was a lot of jewelery that caught my eye and, me being the animal print fanatic that I am, I had to get that leopard ring. So cute, don't you think?   Also, look at all the jewelry made of china (?!) above.  Loved it!  I'm usually not usually attracted to sweet or overly feminine accessories but these were too pretty to pass up.  The company will actually use your old china to make things for you.  Neato!   I went to college in the south (Emory University) and have really fond memories whenever I return.  Do you all have any fun stories or memories about Charleston or visiting the South in general? 

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