I got back yesterday from my trip to Kansas City to visit the boyfriend! We had a lot of fun doing things that involved giant dinosaurs, magical carriage rides, and lots of shopping and sillyness - more on that later. Here are some of the outfits I wore on the trip.
jacket: moschino via flea market white lace cami: pitaya skirt: forever 21 via wiwt_sales moccasins: same seller as skirt on wiwt_sales (thanks!) belt,necklace: vintage via flea market
White Embroidered Linen Jacket: Neiman Marcus via Flea Market Skirt: American Apparel Interlocking giant gold frogs necklace: vintage via flea market (great find) Gladiator sandals: TJ Maxx
Jacket: Moschino via flea market Cream raglan pullover: american apparel Dark wash high waisted skinnies: Banana Republic factory outlet (only $20!) Moccasins: wiwt_sales
Jacket, lace cami, and frog belt same as above. PVC/Vinyl Skirt: flea market! Wedges: Sears Beaded necklace: flea market
A preview of what we did (detailed write ups and an attraction guide to come)
We ate with dinosaurs rode in a magical carraige shopped (bestey johnson love!) imitated mannequins in forever 21 and pretended to be fish.
So, although I made a tutorial for flawless looking skin last year sometime (no link, it sucks) I much prefer watching other people's. My favorite ever is this:
I've been doing it for about a week now and have it all down to under 15 minutes, tops. Here's what I look like with it all on: What do I look like without makeup? Well, the pictures from when I was in the hospital are a good demonstration of the subpar quality of my skin, or you I can demonstrate it for you symbolically. Like that. Anyway I am really happy about this tutorial and some people asked me if I had all of the products that Kandy used, and what I used. While I had all of the products she used (Except a face highlighter), I did not use the same brands.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED: -2 foundations, whatever brand you like, one your natural shade and one that's 1 shade darker than what you usually use (it's useful to have a darker shade on hand for when you get tan anyway) -a powder to go on top of the liquid foundation and set it. I use a powder foundation and a translucent powder, but that's because I truly have awful skin and need that much crap to make it look smooth haha. -a concealer, i like yellow-toned because I have purple undereye circles, but if you mainly have redness you may want a greenish-toned one. -a bronzer -a blush -a highlight or whitish/cream eyeshadow -a neutral eyeshadow, but this is optional if you just want to leave them bare with some bronzer in the crease. -mascara -shadow or a pencil to fill in your eyebrows and of course brushes to apply them. I recommend picking up the $10 travel kit from CVS brand Essence of Beauty which covers the basics. Or there is a little zip-up case from the same brand which fits into a makeup bag and has even more good brush basics! optional: eyeliner, lipstick, primer
What I did/used: 1. Primer(optional, in my opinion, depending on how late you'll be out that day) I use a little free sample of sephora brand primer, OR monistat chafing gel (weird i know but look it up - same thing as primer :P) 2. almay skin healing foundation in 1 shade darker than my usual color for the outside of my face 3. revlon colorstay foundation in my usual color for the inner 0 of my face 4. clinique concealer (in a tube with a wand) in a yellowish color close to my natural color for my undereye circles, that triangle next to my nose, and all of my reddish acne spots 5. I wipe the sponge i use to apply these on my eyelids to get them covered as well, as she does in the video (I never use fingers though, ew) 6. after I apply all of that I add bare escentuals foundation to anywhere that is still red looking through the foundation using a concealer brush, and then just a light layer all over with a kabuki brush 7. bare escentuals mineral veil with a kabuki brush all over to set my foundation 8. NARS powder bronzer in my cheekbones and close to my forehead - then I used a little brush to apply those lines and the little V on my nose! Then I use the same brush/bronzer applied to the crease of my eyelid. 9. NARS blush in ORGASM on the apples of my cheeks, lightly 10. a yellow-white eyeshadow (smashbox brand in a brown pallette) right under the arch of my brow and in the inner corners of my eye, for highlight. (the only product i'm lacking is a highlight for my face, boo) 11. I fill in my eyebrows either with an eyebrow brush and a dark brown shadow , or a pencil 12. Apply Bare Escentuals flawless mascara 13. Cover lid up to brow with bare escentuals eyeshadow in glimpse - finesse; OR LORAC eyeshadow in Harmony, both very natural, neutral colors that almost match my skin but are shimmery and pretty! 14. if I'm going out I'll add liquid eyeliner, or sometimes waterline my top lids with black liner, and a neutral lipstick.
I know it sounds like a lot but it actually takes me like 15 minutes tops to apply all of this. Post pics if you try this look!
Found this New York & Co. Blazer at the flea market yesterday. Didn't buy it because it was $25 and I'm broke, but now I'm really wanting to go back and get it. Reminds me of:
SHOULD I GO BACK AND GET IT TOMORROW??? I'm kind of thinking I should!
So right now I'm sitting in my parent's house in Louisville, cuddling with my kitty and relaxing. I got back to Louisville on Friday and have been having a great time ever since, save the conflict with my parents about where to put all of my "stuff." Apparently I have too much "stuff" (though it can't possibly be THAT much - I have fit it all into a dorm room for the past 3 years, haven't I??) and my parents want to stick it in storage all summer!! But I refuse to part with my belongings, so instead they sit in the garage until I sort through them all in the next couple of weeks.
I've been spending a lot of time with my Louisville friends who I haven't seen practically all semester!! It's awesome to finally get to relax and hang out doing nothing again. For example last night Richie and I spent a good 4 hours listening to music on his itunes that we'd never heard, watching videos on youtube and taking webcam pictures/videos of us being ridiculous. And we were completely sober. It was a blast!!
On Thursday I'm headed to Kansas City to visit Flobee, aka the boyfriend. He moved out there earlier this semester for an awesome career opportunity (his first job out of college!!) He is thriving and apparently the entire city already worships him (which is not surprising if you've ever met this guy or seen him around campus - he has a huge fan club, everyone loves him because he is amazing and hilarious. I mean his name is Flobee what do you expect.) I'm excited because I've never been to Kansas City before! I'll definetly bring a camera. Then in 3 weeks my sister is having her wedding here at the house, which is going to be really lovely. Then I'm off to Boston for my fashion design internship with Bennett & Company, a lingerie designer! It's turning out to be quite an exciting summer.
Some aforementioned pics of me and Richie: I'll spare you from the videos we made >.< haha.
So remember the shirt my friend was modelling in the last post? Here it is again if you missed it, along with a very special facial expression. .... verrrry special :D Well anyway, this is one of the 3 items that I constructed this semester and incorporated into my final design line. I have yet to post the design line but it's coming soon! In the meantime enjoy this sneak preview! The shirt itself is made of white cotton seersucker and is adapted from a man's button up shirt pattern and has all of the typical accoutrement's of a man's shirt: a placket on the sleeve, interfaced under collar, flat felled seams, you know the usual. I adapted the shirt to be slightly more womanly (my apologies to Richie, its new owner!) by changing the buttons in the front to fasten woman's style instead of man's style (woman's clothing buttons right over left, man's clothing buttons left over right!) I also changed the collar to be rounded instead of pointed, added french cuffes with purple lining, and used the same Egyptian cotton purple lining for the undercollar. If you turn the collar up it's purple too :) I wanted little hints of purple everywhere. The buttons are also purple of course. Then the back yoke has a chevron bias cut for stretch and a little design interest. I incorporated it into my design line twice, once with on the black jacket that I also constructed this semester ... more on that once I upload some pics of it! I will explain every outfit that I designed in future posts.... and you will understand what I'm talking about best if you have ever read the book White Oleander, or seen the movie - both of which are my FAVORITE EVER OMG. SO GOOD. More to come!!
Shorts are very difficult to find for me. First off, I REFUSE to wear low-rise anything. Not only because a low-rise pant is ill-fitting on all but the smallest of people, but also because low-rise shorts tend to be about 6 inches too short on me as I am almost 5'10''. I prefer my pants and shorts to have a rise of at least 9 inches! ("Rise" refers to the amount of fabric from right between your legs where that 4-way seam between legs/center front/back meets, and the front top part of your pants, like where they close. A low rise is usually around 6-7 inches, and a mid to high rise can be anywhere from 8-11" - the higher the rise, the closer the top of the pants are to your natural waist.) Anyway, I was lucky enough this season to score 3 awesome well-fitting shorts: a black pair of Juicy Couture shorts from Ebay, and a dark wash denim pair and a khaki pair from TJ Maxx (my favorite store in the universe). Here are some ways that I have paired them so far!
I went walking around Bloomington with my best friend Richie and wore this outfit with a white seersucker blazer and gladiator sandals: sorry for the crappy webcam pic. Richie and I matched because he was wearing the white seersucker men's shirt that I made this semester! It has purple lined french cuffs that you can't see because he rolled them up. We wandered around on the railroad tracks! And another shorts outfit, from a carnival at my dorm a few weeks ago. my shorts were wrinkly, ew. Then it got cold so I put on a blazer (love blazers!) and boots. Boyfriend looked cute too :)
In Lia's Fashion Designers Spotlight this week is Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973). Schiaparelli, a designer who reached the peak of her career around the 1920-40s, is one of my favorite designers of all time if not the absolute favorite. One thing you may notice about her website is that it is PINK. One would even call it "shocking pink" - a term that Schiaparelli invented, coined, and embodied perfectly. Now as you probably have noticed, I love pink. My site is pink. My hair is pink. Even my dorm room is pink! So of course, I idolize a woman who could come up with a pink so incredible as to be referred to as "shocking."
In addition to that amazing factoid, Schiaparelli was a fabulously creative designer. In the era of Poiret and Chanel - Chanel was her great rival at the time - Schiaparelli was in a category completely her own. She had many firsts: the wraparound dress; the use of brand new man-made fibers; adding brightly colored visible plastic zippers to her clothing; sewing on any notion that caught her eye: buttons shaped like hands, peanuts, bumblebees, and rams' heads; light-up plastic doo-dads, and other ephemera. Schiaparelli saw herself as an artist, creating art, rather than a fashion designer, creating clothing. This idea led her to collaborate on clothing with other artists, such as Christian Bérard, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dali, who painted her legendary lobster dress and helped her design the shoe hat. Her innovations broke down the wall dividing art and fashion and she pioneered many ideas still used in avant-garde design. She was bold and unapologetically out-of-the-box.
"“In difficult times fashion is always outrageous.” - Elsa Schiaparell
SEA OF SHOES The blogger, Jane Aldridge, captioned this pic with "the Chanel satin patent cap toe pumps I got as a gift from Chanel when I had my fitting for my gown." Omg, who is this girl and can I please be her??? She's only 17 and insanely amazing. She wears all designer clothing, which I am pleased to be able to recognize and identify now that I've aced my costume history class :P
YOUNG, FAT AND FABULOUS
This blog is so inspirational for me as a curvy woman! Never sacrificing fashion for body-consciousness, the blogger, Gabi, always looks fierce and amazing. She has a lot of great pictures of curvy fashion models and links to curvy-friendly fashion designers.
KEIKO LYNN Keiko Lynn has been one of my fashion idols for a few years, ever since I discovered her fashion design company Postlapsaria. She supports herself by blogging and sewing, which I would LOVE to do (and may try for a couple of years after I graduate, just to see if I can!) She's also gorgeous and has an amazing, fun, childishly sweet personality which reminds me a little of myself, since I'm actually a 6 year old stuck in a 20 year old body!
I love the inspiration that these women give me in my career and at school as I study fashion design. What are your favorite fashion blogs? What inspires you in regards to fashion?
