5 Favorites

I know I know, I'm awful at posting during the summer. I'm working on it I absolutely and wholeheartedly swear!

It's been a rough couple of weeks with construction, work, and general life happening all at once so I thought I might start up again with a post about 5 of my favorite things of the moment (in no particular order of course):

1. Maurine by Say Hi

I have no idea what it is about this song, but it just gives me all the feels. Lately I've been listening to it nonstop at work.

2. Giambattista Valli's Fall 2014 Couture Collection

Can't stop won't stop looking at these runway photos. This collection is everything I love about fashion, it's playful, elegant, vintage inspired, and straight up awesome.

3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

A bit fluffier than my usual book choices, but it's got some heft to it at times. Love, loss, growth, and understanding, I highly suggest it for a quality beach read.

4. Food Instagrams

It's literally the widest known fact that I love food, and even more so than that, that I love beautiful food. In the last couple weeks I've gone on a following binge, adding dozens of new people to follow on Insta and droooooling over their phenomenal cooking/plating/all around coolness.

These are some of my recent favorites:

@semivegan

Gorgeous photos, yummy smoothies, fruits of all sorts

@lifeofavegetarian

Best lunch boxes I have ever seen in my entire life

@roadtoeverywhere

Lovely food styling in every single photo and some seriously inspiring meals

@funkyforestfood

SO MUCH COLOR! So much yum

5. The Happier App

I discovered this app a couple weeks ago and have been trying to use it at least once a day since. It's along the lines of this post in the sense that it's all about noticing and remembering the little things in every day that make you happy. I love it!

Summer in the City

For the last week or so, I've been interning for a very cool jewelry designer in New York (Robin Rotenier, check him out). The studio is located right in the middle of the diamond district in midtown Manhattan, aka between Times Square and Grand Central. PLUS, across the street is the Conde Nast headquarters. What with the jewelry people and the magazine people, there is always very fashionable crowd out and about while I'm working. As an avid people watcher, I'm constantly paying attention to what everyone is wearing in order to find some inspiration for dressing like a fashion person when the temperatures are climbing above 80 in New York City.

Most of these fashion editors look very thrown-together-at-the-last-minute chic. There's usually a solid amount of walking involved in the job, so I spot a ton of flats and comfortable wedges. Also, of course in New York, all black is often a staple with accents of leopard, denim, or gold. SO! Here is my example of how to dress like a New York fashion editor, without giving your feet blisters, sweating in the summer heat, or over-dressing:

I paired a sporty tank top with a very on-trend perforated skirt, all black of course. Leopard flats for comfort and style with a statement choker necklace and stacking rings. And on top we have a distressed denim jacket for those chillier rainy mornings!

1. Theyskens Theory tank from Net-A-Porter, 2. Kaneo laser cut skirt, 3. Jessica Simpson flats from Lord & Taylor, 4. Necklace from Baublebar.com, 5. Stacking rings from Baublebar.com, 6. Denim jacket from Topshop

THE MET GALA AT LAST

As usual, my apologies for the pause on posting... the end of year wrap up was (as it always seems to be) more busy than normal. But at long last the night of my beloved Met Gala has arrived and inspired be to find the time to post again! The Met Gala, my favorite red carpet event of the year, always brings out the best in sartorial craziness and I look forward to it every time spring rolls around. This year's theme was "white tie with decorations" (whatever the heck that means) hollywood, artists, and designers alike totally brought their A game. Plus, HONY was there taking pictures and collecting fun facts about all the awesome attendees, check out the coverage here.

Here are my favorite looks from the night with my first thought upon seeing them (to keep things short and sweet) :

Tabitha Simmons in Dolce and Gabbana

"Like a dewey forest nymph with great hair."

Gabrielle Union in Prada

"Thought there'd be more crop tops... this one's cool though"

 Liu Wen in Zac Posen
"HOW is it even possible to be so beautiful?"

 Dree Hemingway in Proenza Schouler
"Some kind of majestic 70's goddess action going on here"

Dakota Johnson in Jason Wu
"Be my friend. Give me your hair."

Georgia May Jagger in Thierry Mugler

"AWESOME. Wait is any skin even covered? Hang on."

Rachel McAdams in Ralph Lauren

"It's like it's just your skin... how do you do that and look so good, Rachel? How?"

Katie Holmes in Marchesa

"Katie? Is that you? You look like a runaway Versailles princess with amazing taste."

Jay-Z and Beyonce in Givenchy

"-makes happy crying noise-"

Emma Stone in Thakoon

"So much pink! SO MUCH PINK! So much wonderful. Oh and also more crop top!"

Amber Heard in Giambatista Valli

"You are so cool, so elegant, and so so stylin'."

via Lucky.com

Crop Tops and Neon and Rompers Oh My! Coachella is Here!

Though I'm not a huge music festival goer (extensive periods of sun exposure and general lack of funds tend to hold me back), I absolutely love stalking their street style pics to find summer fashion inspiration. Festivals like Coachella tend to bring out all the craziest out fit combinations that celebrities and fashion darlings can come up with making it an awesome place to find ideas for how to stand out once warmer weather finally hits.

This year I noticed lots of print mixing, 90's style sundresses, bright bright colors, rompers, and cut outs (plus the obligatory handful of overalls). While this stuff might not be too practical for your corporate summer job, it's definitely a great way to find something awesome to wear to have a little fun on your days off.

via Refinery 29

Spring Has Sprung (almost)

At long last we've finally seen the sun following what feels like an entire year of a Polar Vortex ridden winter. This week the temperature rose above 50 (so warm!) and my mind immediately flew to the spring trends I've been DYING to wear but have been unable to as a result of the parka permanently attached to my body. While I know this warm front probably won't last as long as I hope, these trends won't be leaving my mind any time soon.

Crop Tops

Though they require very very careful execution, crop tops are still everywhere right now. Paired with a high waisted skirt to show a little sliver of skin, crop tops are both cooling (super handy for those unexpectedly hot spring days) and fashionable.

via Pursuit of Shoes

Layers

When will layers ever not be in? For spring I love layering a light jacket or long sleeves on top of shorts or a skirt. It keeps you warm for the cool spring morning, it's easy to remove later on, and the balance between less skin showing on top and more on bottom always works out well.

via Sincerely Jules

Statement Pants

In the world of fashion everything can be a "statement" something. Right now, It's pants. And I don't hate it. I've got a pair of awesome silk pants from H&M that have been calling my name all week. Once the temperatures are officially on the rise, find yourself some crazy looking pants and rock them all the way through the summer.

Via Anthropologie

Mini-Dresses and Sky High Heels

Yet another trend that never goes out of style, mini-dresses, especially those with a higher neckline, are always awesome. Paired with some chunky, towering heels this look makes your legs go on forever and it's absolutely perfect for the warmer weather.

via PopSugar

Fighting the Photoshop Battle

I recently saw this post on Upworthy about a picture that Lorde found of one of her latest performances that was obviously edited to adjust the appearance of her skin. The singer then tweeted the photoshopped image alongside an un-edited picture from the same day to show what she really looked like on stage.

I'm a huge fan of photoshop as a creative medium; it's a fantastic way to put together digital designs or edit the lighting or focus of a photo. But so frequently the media abuses this awesome tool to alter the appearance of women to promote a physically unattainable standard. It's one thing to adjust the lighting or focus of a photograph, but quite another to completely change the appearance of the person in question. Though I love fashion magazines, they are often the culprit behind these nipped waists and smoothed skin-tones, and I find myself constantly upset by many of the images they publish. At what point did we begin to think it makes sense to make already beautiful people look more like this "beauty ideal"? Comedian and Girl Code contributor Jessimae Peluso put it well when she pointed out that these celebrities and models don't even look like the final image! Oftentimes, in the worst of photoshop errors, they fail to look even human in the final, edited photograph.

Lorde's tweet, though short and sweet, is something that I find to be really impressive, especially because so many obvious photoshop errors are made every day in magazines and across the web that go unmentioned (her small act of defiance even prompted the creation of an inspiring, accepting playlist). Body image among adolescent girls has become so insanely distorted in large part as a result of this false portrayal of the female body in the media. Even something as small as Lorde's recognition of editing done to her un-even skin tone can make the difference in how young women view their own bodies.

What we need now in order to counteract this effect of altering the portrayal of women's bodies in the media is this influence (no matter if it's through major statements or minor tweets) of people in this spotlight, the very women whose bodies are being changed before they are shown to the world. Women like Lorde and Adele, Lena Dunham and Zooey Deschanel are making such a difference by pointing out failures in the presentation of women in the media. With encouraging words and brave actions, women like these, the very victims of these crazy photoshop incidents, are helping to bring to light the effects of such digital alterations. We need to listen to these voices and encourage the contribution of others, because it's true, the girl in the magazine doesn't look like the girl in the magazine and what's more important is that you should look like you, not anyone else.

The Big Transition

Nothing is harder than sorting out what to wear during those in-between months. Y'know when you can feel the next season coming, and with it a whole slew of fashion trends, but it's not quite here yet? These are the months in which I manically search my wardrobe for something that both looks relatively normal, if not stylish, and manages to carry me through the ever-changing temperatures/precipitations of the day. For the most part, I rely on a carefully thought out layering system to get me through, but on the days when I find the motivation to really dress to impress, here's some of my go-to winter-spring transitional tips.

I'm a huge fan of stripes and florals both as an outfit combination and as transitional pieces in general (each in all shapes, sizes, and colors as well). It's important to keep in mind when mixing patterns, however, that the size of each needs to balance the other, like how the slimmer stripes on this Alice & Olivia tee blend seamlessly with the big, bold florals of the J.Crew skirt. Another awesome way to find the middle ground between overly spring-y florals and all-black winter darks, is to blend the two with a floral print on the cooler side of the color spectrum. I love a dark floral year round, but it works especially well as a transition piece through the months of March, April, and May. As far as shoes go, it's probably best to play it by ear, swapping booties for flats for heels depending on the weather, but who could resist these Zara pumps with this outfit? Not me, clearly. Throw on some geometric Madewell jewels and top it all off with the god of all transition seasons, a classic Gap denim jacket. Warm, durable, and easily removable, this jacket will get you through the morning rain and look just as cool tied around your waist (ooh so 90's) later in the day.

1. Gap denim jacket, 2. J.Crew floral skirt, 3. Alice and Olivia cropped striped shirt, 4. Zara heels, 5. Madewell studs, 6. Madewell necklace, 7. Madewell rings

Toppers

I've always had an on and off flirtation with hats. One year I love them the next my head is suddenly the wrong shape for them. Lately I just haven't had the confidence to seek out a stylish hat that actually fits, despite my current love for them. This new Janessa Leon Spring 2014 collection may be changing some of that. With it's mix of classic shapes and modern materials, this collection has absolutely everything a hat lover might need.

via Honestly WTF

Illustrated

As an artist myself, I'm always on the lookout for new inspirational creators to discover. Lately I've been particularly interested in illustration and have been consequently stalking a lot of awesome artists' blogs/Tumblrs/general work. Here are my current favorites, in no particular order:

1. Noel Badges Pugh

This guy sparked my desire to write this post about inspirational illustrators. I stumbled upon his work on Tumblr yesterday and absolutely fell in love with his attention to detail and unique hand. For the most part he does insanely delicate ink and water color illustrations of flowers, with the occasional scientific study of a bee thrown in for good measure.

2. Katie Rogers of Paper Fashion

I've probably been admiring Katie's work for the longest out of this group, seeing as her illustrations pertain to fashion and have therefore gotten a lot of attention on the many blogs I follow besides her own. What I really like about her style is that it's simultaneously classic in line, much like sketches of Dior or Chanel gowns from the 50's, and modern in execution, with the use of things like sequins and glitter in many of her pieces.

3. Kelli Murray 

I'm a huge fan of Kelli Murray's blog, mostly because she has a totally awesome badass-boho style and her daughter is adorable, but also because her artwork is fantastic. Including a lot of braided hair, cute animals, and colorful floral bouquets, her illustration style is feminine and natural.

4. Mel Stringer

Another Tumblr find, I love Mel's style because it's at once extremely girly, cool, and cartoonish. All that combines to create neon cute illustrations of cool girls being cool girls.

5. Kelly Smith of Birdy and Me

Kelly Smith is yet another fashion illustrator who has become very popular in the industry. Her drawings are hyper realistic pencil illustrations with pops of color in clothing and flowers. I love how she combines this intensely detailed portraiture with quick brushstrokes to imply clothing or accessories.

A New Twist on a Favorite Game

After discovering Cards Against Humanity, I have to say Apples to Apples has never been the same. This dark humored version of the popular kids game is downright hilarious in the most questionable way. And the only thing that could make it even better? Fashion jokes. With topics from Lagerfeld to Vogue to the all denim ensembles of the 90's, these cards on Who What Wear definitely need to be added to my box set of Cards Against Humanity.

via Who What Wear