hel looks: jenni
this outfit totally makes me rethink my casual weekend outfits. this is jeans, a hoodie, and a jacket done sooo right. the combination of colors and little details like rolled cuffs and a cute little fringe just boggles the mind.

mr. newton: paris in the spring
ok, so i don’t have legs for days, but this outfit is still seriously tempting me to get some teeny tiny pastel shorts to prance around in when the weather gets warm. wait. it should be warm right now! what is up with the weather, dude?!

loulou loves you:magic garden, flowers for you
gah! this week lou lou of loulou loves you came out with her collection of one-off floral headbands, and she styled up this pretty outfit to give us a peek. not only do i want every single headband, but i die a million deaths thinking about how amazing that dress is. this summer will be the summer that i find the perfect lace dress!

stay fancy free: what we got up to
ok, don’t you want these two lovely ladies to show up on your doorstep and take you out for a night on the town? i don’t even have to break down all the reasons why they look all kinds of awesome. i just want to go out for a beer with them!

radar zine: daily
i kinda cheated on this one. it wasn’t from this past week, but it just came round my tumblr dashboard thanks to darling days this week and i just really love the way her hair matches her coat and she has the coolest pair of white tights! want.

hanneli mustaparta: cream on white
indeed, this simple combo of cream on white is something i’ve been meaning to try for ages. they’re two colors i never think to put together, but they really are quite nice side by side. oh, and her awesome cape, sunglasses, and confident strut are definitely helping.

after seeing a number of different examples of interestingly adorned tights, i have finally decided to embark on my very own little d.i.y. tights project! over the past several months, i’ve come across a few exceptional examples of really creative tights that have inspired me to finally try them out for myself. i find myself particularly enamored with decorated knees, either painted or appliqued as shown in the examples above. i won’t tell you my plans just yet, for fear of jinxing myself, but i promise to show them off in upcoming outfit posts! until then, i will leave you with my inspiration:

from top left, miss ukon spring 2010 lookbook, the clothes horse, vintage photograph (i will give you a cookie if you can find me the source!), style bubble, and cocorosa.

after writing a post about wallet searching a couple weeks ago, i got to thinking about my ideal handbag. i tend to go for pieces that are uncomplicated, simple in design, high quality, and practical. the only problem is that they don’t tend to come cheap! my solution to this problem is still the one that i recommend the most: vintage! my absolute favorite purses are vintage coach because they are made with super thick, high quality leather. i mean, they’ve already lasted this long… and they pop up in thrift shops all of the time for really affordable prices. i have a solid collection that i’ve been building up over the past several years, and while many of them are starting to look a little worse for the wear, i discovered that they can easily be refurbished with a bit of leather dye, as demonstrated by little ocean annie.

so while i know i’ll continue buying my favorite vintage purses, i can’t help but notice that there are some pretty awesome handbags with the same promise as my old standbys. they clock in at a bit of a higher price, but they’re not going to set you back nearly as much as your typical “it bags.” so after a lot of searching, i’ve whittled it down to my top 4 picks (in no particular order) for simple, practical, and high quality handbags:

clare vivier messenger tote: the most notable aspect of this bag, besides it’s clean and simple design, is that it is made of reclaimed leather! it’s the next best thing to thrifting a handbag, only without all of the tireless hunting. when this style is available in brown, i think i just might have to make an investment!

cambridge satchel: made of a thick and sturdy leather, you know that this baby will take at least a year of wear and tear before the leather begins to soften. then once you’ve broken it in, you know it will last for years more to come.

foley + corrina mid city tote: i have always been drawn to this twofer tote! i like that you can carry it with the shoulder strap as a purse, but that it unfolds to become a larger tote with handles if you decide to fill it up with a few goodies on a shopping expedition.

radley london grosvenor: their spring lookbook caught my eye when it featured these lovely bags being worn by equally lovely ladies riding around on pashley bikes. once i was drawn in, i recognized that this satchel style purse is actually quite nice! all of the pockets and compartments are certainly convenient for storing all sorts of little accoutrements.

i know that the rachel comey spring 2010 collection isn’t anything new for those of you who follow the runway shows or spend time browsing through the items for sale at shops like opening ceremony (read: people like yours truly). but i realized that with all of my cycling, hiking, and camping love, i hadn’t done a proper post about one of my favorite spring collections! while in the past, i have placed a bit more focus on functional clothes that you could actually wear on a hike, seen here, i’m also a huge fan of fashionable clothing inspired by some of my favorite outdoor activities! enter rachel comey. a camping and hiking enthusiast herself, she created a fun collection with outdoor chic in mind.

while i certainly love the styling in the collection: lots of separates with attention to cool patterns and utilitarian details, i’m also really appreciating her unique accessories. i don’t think i can afford to go out and pay full price for one of her cool backpacks or clutches, but they’re definitely vintage inspired pieces that can be found on thrifting expeditions or at the estate sales, so i’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled. and as for the shoes, well, a girl can dream!

find the pieces above at la garconne.

glam canyon: new york: a thing for linen
seeing this perfectly casual outfit completely changed my views on linen. i actually own a linen skirt and always got overly frustrated at the wrinkly and unmanageable fabric, but now i think i understand. you just gotta be free and let it do it’s super casual, natural thing. very well done!

style is style: band practice
so it’s no secret that i’m a major fan of lydia’s quirky style. she always has the most awesome and unexpected combinations in all of her outfits that lead me to ooh and ahh week after week. i love how she took 3 of my favorite pieces: stripes, chambray, and a military jacket, and turned them into the best outfit ever!

mr. newton: spring awakening!
i love the easy simplicity of this look. it’s a pretty vintage dress with a cardigan and flats, but i love the unexpected pale print of her sweater and that epic hair style. she reminds me that you don’t need a million different elements to make a super chic outfit.

the sf style: hiking around sf
i’m always drawn to these types of super casual and perfectly tousled looks. little details like am elegantly wrapped scarf and cuffed skinnies with cool boots and a cute bag are a definite win.

turned out: breton
ok guys, i know, i know. i’m stripes obsessed over here. but how perfect is that over-sized breton stripe shirt with the perfect shade of brown? too much goodness. this post also includes a beautiful collage with even more inspiration.

mademoiselle robot loves elizabeth lau
so this is a shot of the designer elizabeth lau via an interview at mademoiselle robot. it’s a great read and an awesome introduction to a cool designer. and i cannot get over her personal style! this shot makes me wanna run to the fabric store for some heart buttons to do a d.i.y. coat this instant!

i may have a pretty strong collection of vintage coach purses, but whenever i reach into my fancy bag to make a purchase, i pull out a raggedy old nylon wallet bursting at the seams full of useless cards and old receipts. i’ve had that thing so long, i can no longer remember when or where i got it. and while i don’t necessarily think about it too often, i am occasionally embarrassed when i pull it out and secretly wonder if that snobby shop clerk just shot me a disapproving glare, and there i am, feeling like i’m reenacting a scene from an episode of seinfeld, worried about what people think about my crappy wallet!

so, i finally decided to do some browsing and upgrade to something leather. a quick search through the selection at some of my favorite online department stores, and i quickly recognized that buying a leather wallet can be quite the investment, with prices easily reaching $100 or more for such a simple little accessory. and then i remembered everyone’s favorite online marketplace and did a long search through the pages on etsy and came up with quite a few affordable and handmade wallets, coin purses, and clutches. now i just have to choose…

marketa, jujie, gogo vivi, office of minor details, marketa, ray design.

this week i decided to change things up a little bit, so you’ll notice a slight change. i usually do a blog favorites roundup on fridays to give a little shout out the people who inspire me. then i do street style saturday on, well, saturday. but i feel like i would prefer to focus more on blogs and outfits that i love, rather than just posting images from the same street style sites week after week. so now they’ll just fit into this same category to free up some space on saturdays for fun new features like (wait for it…) cycle chic saturday! more on that tomorrow. now let’s get back to my favorites this week:

hannah karina
bright and cheery polka dots with a lovely straw hat and perfect mustard cardigan? this girl has so many beautiful pieces all combined to make a killer spring outfit. i die. on a side note, i didn’t know exactly where to direct you for this image. this lovely lady has a blog and a tumblr, but i found this outfit on her flickr.

kansas couture: please mr. postman
first off, i have to brag a little because i had the opportunity to meet katy in the fall during nyfw and she’s such a doll! and we’re kinda like hair twinsies coz we both got pixie cuts on possibly the same day? anyway, i am in love with the way she styled this cute little dress with a huge statement necklace and crazy cool sunglasses. a work of art!

mademoiselle robot: a pretty dress… and the most boring shoes ever.
dang, girl! that is a pretty dress. and the shoes aren’t boring in my opinion! i must say that not only do i love laëtitia’s sense of style, but i also love her sense of humor and the incredible, unique content on her blog.

turned out: lauren
ok, this is probably my absolute favorite outfit of the week. her look is perfect, from the mustard jeans to that amazing vintage pendleton to those round sunnies. i actually have a similar jacket and i’m feeling inspired to try an outfit like to this (though not nearly as good)!

stockholm street style: outside victor & rolf fashion show
i will always and forever be a sucker for these inky blue and black color palettes. but what makes this so unexpectedly awesome is that she’s wearing a denim jacket under that coat and her skirt has that quirky pattern. too cool for school.

love ship: sotw (cont.)
i am dying over how incredible this vintage lace dress is. and to make things even better, she got it for $5 at a thrift shop. that’s right, $5. these are the kind of amazing thrifted finds that make us live for the hunt. every once in a while you come out with something that is not only undeniable awesome but that also gives you bragging rights for weeks!

this year, i’ve been completely obsessed with finding the perfect pair of shorts. and not just one pair, i kinda want like several pairs of incredible high rise shorts in different fabrics with different cool little embellishments like paper bag waist ties and pleats, but most importantly: scallops! hard to believe, right? ha, you know me. and i know this is old news since these perfect shorts were seen walking down the chloe spring 2009 runway over a year ago, but ever since i laid my eyes on that collection, i have not been able to get scalloped edges out of my mind! but as with most runway trends, i knew it would only be a matter of time before we saw all sorts of imitations, knock offs, and homages. not that chloe is, like, the owner of scalloped edges or anything (i have been collecting a number of vintage pieces with scalloped edges), but you know what i mean. i just don’t happen to be able to afford chloe.

unfortunately, for whatever reason, when it comes to obtaining a pair of these amazing shorts, it’s been my personal shopping fail. i saw them pop up at urban outfitters in black for under $50 and i hesitated until they were out of stock in my size. and neneee has been whipping up some custom pairs refashioned from vintage shorts, yet i have yet to snag a pair of those either. and well, i’ve seen others and still don’t have a pair. so i guess i’ll just keep on sitting here, waiting patiently for the universe to drop them on top of my head. or rear, i suppose.

chloë sevigny wearing chloé, neneee, the cherry blossom girl wearing a pair from the queen’s wardrobe, kloset, urban outfitters, a look from the chloé spring 2009 runway.