big red

oh, hm, let’s see. right on the heels of that post about red, i’ve already rediscovered a little something in my closet that just happens to fit in! definitely inspired by the spring 2009 luella collection. it was love at first sight, and i knew that i would need like a million of these for my own personal collection. good thing for me, you can find them for very good prices on ebay, and i usually see them here and in the local antique shops. the only sad part is that i often forget to add a hat, so most of mine are just collecting dust in my closet. you should have seen the little cloud of particles that went flying across my room when i picked this up today!

and can you tell? i was so cold today that i actually wore pants. in one of my recent posts, rebecca of the clothes horse asked me, “how cold could it possibly be over there?” and well, i have an answer. this is the forecast for today:

i should really never complain, right? but seriously, i don’t have a point of reference. i only visit the snow on day trips to mountainous areas. how cold does it get where you all live?

ok, enough with the small talk about weather. i’m like a little old lady over here! instead i will tell you a little something about red that i should have included in my last post. when i was a little kid, i used to tell my mom that red was my favorite color because it is the color of ketchup!

wearing:
vintage red velvet bow hat, ebay
cashmere cardigan, j.crew
lark and wolff by steven alan sailor tunic, urban outfitters
bullhead solana extreme skinny jeans, courtesy of pac sun
woven platform sandals, steve madden

a pop of color

lately, i’ve been wearing an awful lot of neutrals. oh who am i kidding? i always wear a lot of neutrals! i’ve got tons of black, navy, gray, cream, and white with a few browns and florals for good measure. it’s not really intentional, it just happens that way. and i’m feeling like i’m in a bit of a rut when it comes to color, so i’ve found myself a solution: red. it’s such a perfect compliment to an otherwise neutral palette. you can make a statement in a nice red coat or add just a touch of interest with a little red bow.

gah, and ever since the wren fall lookbook came out featuring that beautiful red cashmere cardigan, it’s all i can think about. too bad i can’t drop $300 on a sweater right now, or it would be mine in a heartbeat.

anyway, here are some pieces of inspiration i’ve been collecting lately to get me in the mood for more of this crimson color.

column a: built by wendy fall 2009, library of congress, jill wilcott, turned out, johanna carlson.

column b: milagr., natalie wood, wren fall 2009, library of congress, source unknown.

do your homework

ok, today is probably not the best day for me to be focusing energy on the blog. saturday marks the end of the semester for me and i kinda have like 5 papers to write. this is all compounded by the fact that i was sick last weekend and missed a couple of classes, so i’m feeling especially lost about what all of these papers entail. i really should be a better student and start asking questions, but sometimes i get embarrassed when i fall behind and i can’t seem to speak up. so bad. in fact, this whole semester has been really bad and i can’t wait for it to be over so i can take a little break and re-evaluate my situation; get some focus and energy back before i start again in the spring.

so maybe all this thought about academia has influenced this outfit. geek chic anyone? actually, it’s probably just the latest trends taking hold of me. i just can’t help myself! i am head over heels for thigh high boots, i’ll always love a good blazer, and i’m a california girl, so cut off shorts are required. anyway, i don’t have the money to spend on thigh high boots, so i opted for socks pulled over my knees instead. it kinda works, no?

and what is this? can you believe i ventured off my roof and onto the street? i live in an urban area, but my house is in a residential neighborhood. let me just tell you, i don’t know how well this outfit will fly over here. i’m not generally shy about taking photos in public or anything, but the maintenance dudes were staring at us and some random duder just decided to stop on the sidewalk and watch us while we took photos. i felt creepy and my boyfriend agreed. we slowly walked away, and i found myself unsure of my sartorial decisions…

wearing:
vintage wool j.crew blazer, ebay
pinstripe ruffle blouse, j.crew
vintage levi’s cut off shorts, thrifted
sheer stockings & over the knee socks, drugstore
blimey oxfords, seychelles
vintage dooney & bourke purse, thrifted

one two buckle my shoe

oh hello there! it’s just little ol’ me on my rooftop again, insisting that i wear a mini skirt every single day even though it’s high time that i admit that i need to pull on some wool stockings underneath and throw on some cashmere. in fact, that’s just what i’ll have to do because i was finally just too cold to wear this today. have i ever told you how much i love cashmere? if j.crew comes out with them again this year, i am buying a cashmere union suit and wearing it every day at home. seriously.

so this is a variation on my last outfit. blouse, mini skirt, patterned tights. this is the way my outfits transition. tomorrow i really want to wear a romantic blouse with high rise skinnies, but i don’t yet have the perfect pair. except i have to let you in on this: i ordered a custom pair from indidenim and i’m going to go visit their offices to pick them up some time this week! there will be a blog post about it.

anyway, i’m finding that my style is slowly floating over to the 60’s. i think it has everything to do with this haircut. i sometimes fancy myself as a minor character in one of my favorite godard films, brushing past anna karina or jean paul belmondo or jean seberg as they traipse around france. so i pulled out this silly old pair of flats that i think i bought two years ago from juicy couture of all places. random, yes, but 60’s inspired they are. though i would much prefer a pair of vintage salvatore ferragamos with the little bows. i have a pair in nude, but have yet to snag a pair in black. wish me luck; maybe i’ll get lucky and find some at a thrift store!



wearing:
vintage blouse with peter pan collar, static vintage
polyester microfiber tulip skirt, american apparel
lace tights, target
flats, juicy couture from 2 years ago

let’s go shopping

i have to admit something. if i could, i might wear this plaid top with this cashmere cardigan and a pair of skinny jeans every day. something about the colder weather and the end of the semester has got me a little down, and it just makes me feel like being lazy and wearing some glorified version of pajamas all the time. since that isn’t quite acceptable, i can always fall back on this simple combination. then if i have to go out, i can swap out the jeans for a little skirt, some patterned tights and heels, and i’m ready to go!

yesterday was just one of those occasions. i got an incredibly late start after an evening of talking with friends and inadvertently drinking almost an entire bottle of wine, and i kinda just rolled out of bed and threw on the ol’ uniform to go out to breakfast. then i remembered that i had plans to go shopping in san francisco with the lovely jennie of going west. fortunately, i managed to pull myself together in time to hit a few shops with her and to do a little impromptu photo shoot on the roof before the sun set entirely. jennie took my photos for this post, and isn’t it silly how nervous i look? i’m so accustomed to getting photographed by my boyfriend that i get camera shy around almost everyone else.

anyway, it was good times! we went to the vintage shops on haight st. and i found an adorable cream blouse with lace details and a peter pan collar (which i am wearing today) while jennie found the most amazing lace blazer ever. then we went to the north beach/china town area where jennie took me to a cute little vegan restaurant before meeting up with shannon at indie industries, where i got a cool pair of patterned tights, which i am also wearing today. not bad.



wearing:
vintage plaid shirt, thrifted
cashmere cardigan, j.crew
polyester micro-fiber tulip skirt, american apparel
little heart tights, tabio
platform ankle boots, payless
vintage coach purse, thrifted

all photos by jennie of going west.

the cool bus

one of the things about blogging is that we do it from the comfort of our own homes, quietly typing away at our computers and merrily clicking away. it’s easy to imagine that all of us bloggers just sit indoors all day sans interaction with another soul, lest we happen to awkwardly pause as strangers pass by while we’re snapping self-portraits in front of a tripod. alright, maybe that’s just me i’m talking about, i don’t know. but what i can say is that we don’t get to interact with other bloggers all that often, so you can imagine how happy i am to have had the opportunity to meet the lovely diane of darling darling!

she actually came over last week and we enjoyed a nice afternoon talking shop and drinking a few pumpkin beers in a rose garden by my house, and we kinda sorta didn’t take any pictures. but i was lucky enough to get another visit from her today while she got her hair cut by mr. shannon dean, who is also my very own hair stylist. he worked his magic on her asymmetrical cut and she looks just as cute as can be.

afterward, we decided that we wouldn’t be good bloggers unless we did a little photo shoot, so shannon took us to a silly spot to see the “cool bus” which has also been featured in this post by his equally awesome girlfriend, jennie of going west. and then i almost had a heart attack after we left and i realized that i had left my camera hanging on a chain link fence near said bus. don’t worry, it was still there when we ran back. phew!

so here we are trying to look cool, sharing stories about trains, and nervously laughing in front of the camera.





more pictures from the shoot are at my flickr. all photographs by shannon dean who also furnished us with the bad, bad cigarettes. they’re bad.

calivintage on american apparel

oh, such small pleasures! if you check out the american apparel polyester micro-fiber tulip skirt, there’s a little section titled “seen on bloggers” with a teeny tiny picture of yours truly wearing said mini skirt. what a delightful little discovery! anyway, the picture is small but it does link back to the original post here. but i figured i would show you the outfit again anyway!

wearing:
vintage pink blouse, ebay
mauve sash, american apparel
polyester microfiber tulip skirt, american apparel
sheer flower tights, tabio
blimey oxfords, seychelles

fun in the sun

i just can’t get over this adorable video showcasing the lewis nyc spring 2010 collection. over here in the bay area, it’s a gloomy drizzly day, but i kinda can’t stand the idea of wearing boots and jeans and a thick sweater today. so i’ll escape into this cute video and dream about sunny springtime.

and i think it’s great inspiration for making a video of my own! i recently received a flip cam from the weardrobe conference and i’m excited to start making little videos for my blog! i’m a little overwhelmed at the prospect of embarking on a video project, but i think it will be fun. any suggestions?

oh, and here are a few images from the lookbook. oh, it puts me in just the right mood.

advanced style

i know it’s been a while since then, but during a conversation with some of the bloggers at the weardrobe conference, rebecca of the clothes horse called a certain website to my attention after i hinted that i occasionally take fashion tips from little old ladies riding the bus. yes, that’s right, sometimes i look to the geriatric for style inspiration, and i’m not ashamed. it’s where i first discovered the hat scarf (or snood, if you will. that’s a scarf with a hood, my friends) and it’s why i’ll always be very fond of a comfy cozy cardigan. in fact, these sophisticated older ladies and gentleman are the ones hoarding all that awesome vintage in their closets that us greedy vintage bloggers just can’t wait to get our hands on!

so since i didn’t exactly get dressed today, i decided to share with you some inspiration of the advanced style. which happens to be the name of a pretty cool blog with a nice collection of street style pictures from a more sophisticated age set. while browsing through the images on said blog, i noticed that a lot of images were taken from mister mort. so for the sake of giving the proper credit, all images from column a were pulled from advanced style, while the images on column b were taken from mister mort. here’s to dressing stylishly for many years to come!