The United Kingdom of Awesome

So, it is my second week across the pond and already I've purchased some brilliant items.

Lime green tights from Next
Pink bow headband from Miss Selfridge's

I also purchased a dress from Internacionale  and a scarf from Topshop.

Will post those later!

Cheers, L

no thanks.

I'd rather not look like an alien/pod person. I can understand fashion for the sake of fashion/beauty, but this looks neither functional nor pretty.

cheers

Hello world! I am in England for my term abroad and have little to no time to blog. BUT when I see something worth sharing I've got to post it. Here are some gems I found on Urban Outfitters UK.

Starry jazz shoes. I didn't begin as a fan of this somewhat menswear inspired shoe, but now I see it as a sensible flat. A little fancier than my standard Chuck Taylors.
Another nice flat shoe. Blue snakeskin, I think, would add the perfect punch of color to my rather brown fall wardrobe.
I have no idea if I would actually wear these, but giraffe print instead of leopard is a neat and different way to incorporate animal print.
Lastly, some smashing leather booties. Almost no heel and wrapped up in itself, these look perfect for just about EVERYTHING.

Cheers!

L

time's a'wastin'

Busy busy busy! College trips and hospital stays and sunny beaches, oh my!

Summer has been lame this year. Not only did I get cheated out of a month (it rained basically ALL of June) I lost another two weeks in the hospital and then when I left the hospital, I wasn't better! And unfortunately, I am still sick. Like I said, totally lame.

It's weird. Being in a hospital has really made me consider being a doctor or a nurse. I personally would like to understand as much as possible when it comes to my malfunctioning body. However, it is frustrating when the answer just points back to the ever vague: "It's genetic." Meaning: "There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Ever. AND you can't blame anybody or anything."

Okay, enough about that. 

As you may have read on another fabulous blog (COFFEEMILK), another blogger and I headed down to NYC last week to take in some museums. While there, we managed to find some delightful thrift stores on the Upper East Side with very reasonable prices for brand name and unique items. If you're headed that way, we visited: Goodwill, Arthritis Thrift Store, Council House Thrift, .... 

The museums were also neat-o. The Cooper-Hewitt Museum had this great exhibit on felt and its many uses. The felt also apparently has its own blog. Check it.

earth rocks!

Hello, L here. I am currently chillin' at the hospital and understandably have had very little motivation to post anything. Good thing about having a partner in blog-dom is that they are always posting so the blog lives on.

Anyway, last night I couldn't sleep and ended up watching Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon. 

Now, on Jimmy Fallon's show, Elmo was a guest and they showed this uber cute clip from Sesame Street with Paul Rudd, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby.

Enjoy!

H&M Fall/Winter '09

C here. Check out H&M's Lookbook for Fall/Winter '09. I browsed through them when they were first posted here, but merely thought, oh, those are pretty. I revisited them today and realized its quite the collection. Here are the highlights (for me, at least).

First off, everything is so beige and black, but that's OK. I like both those colors. And they're winter clothing, I can't handle too much color when its all snowy.



The first look is wicked hot. All black is sick but the sleeves, the belt, and the tights are siick to the maxx. Just about every look had a belt in it, which is usually an item I stray away from, but I'm definitely itching to try it out in the near future after seeing this collection. The second look I love the skinny trousers. Those are hot. I'm getting tired of skinny jeans. I can't believe I just said that, but I am. Plus, I mean, it takes me a while to put those suckers on, getting my calves and my thighs into them, packing everything in, making sure nothing's spilling over. Yeesh, fuck runner's-legs. But anyway, I don't know why, but I wouldn't mind squeezing into those bad boys up there. And in the third I like the crop top, if that is one (?) or it may be a tucked in shirt. Either way.


WOW. I'm going to wear my hair like that for the rest of my life. In the fourth look, the only thing I really like is the fur (let's hope it faux) tucked into the belt. In the fifth, I absolutely love chunky knits. And even though that scarf looks a bit like a neckbrace at first glance, its still impelling me to pick up my needles and yarn and start knittin' away. And in the sixth: bottoms tucked into socks/leggings? That's legit.


Seventh: more chunky knits, yesss. In the eighth, ahh, pants tucked into boots which aren't UGGS. What a beautiful sight. And in the last, its really just the head I enjoy. The big hair and the hat. Sweet.

P.S. Check out this song. Its so sick, and like trance-tastic. Plus I'm like, obsessed with Disney. Puurrr-fect.

Lake Placid and MJ

C here, and I've returned from my extremely rainy trip from Lake Placid. I hiked, I kayaked, I gardened at my summer house with my mother, but unfortunately I did not shop. And the movie poster above, wrong Lake Placid. That shitastic movie takes place in FL, I think. If you're in for a laugh or two at bad acting and poor "special FX" and mechanical alligator, by all means watch it.

Every summer my old theatre company at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY puts on their Outdoor Shakespeare Performances, where a merry troupe of actors travels to different scenic outdoor venues and acts out a work of Sir William Shakespeare himself. This year they are doing A Midsummer Night's Dream (one of my top 3). At these plays everyone sits on the lawn on their blankets, dressed in their best dresses, and eats cheese and drinks wines and unloads their picnic baskets. I need to think of my outfit.

I was thinking a nice linen dress, with some killer forest-green oxford flats, a floppy straw sun hat and my New-Wayfarer Ray-Bans (I don't see what's so different from last year's model, so if someone would explain that, super). What do you think? Perfect for wandering the gardens of Manchester, VT's Hildene!

Oh, and I found my old picnic basket in my cellar! Its about to get stuffed full of cheese, crackers, wine, iced tea, salads, and if I can help it, some Doritos.

By the way, I keep looking at photos from Marc Jacobs' Fall 09 runway. And I can't stop. It's an 80's punk revival — complete with fluorescent colors, cardigans, foufy mohawks, and loads of makeup.

In recreating 80's fashion, "Jacobs super-sized the shoulder pads wide enough to satisfy professional football equipment regulations." Yeee, I'm so in love, I guess.

Yee-haw! Enjoy your summer, folks! I know I will!
Love,
C

P.S. Looking for some new music? Try DJ Moondance's The Crash Album. Its Dave Matthews mixed with Jay Z. What more could you ask for? And its free! Just Google that shiiit.

P.P.S. Looking for a killer new swimsuit? Try Trina Turk. I just got a new two-piecer from her. She's the master of florals, swirls, patterns, and designs.

serendipitous

In my summer gross weather boredom I was perusing Style.com and found the Christian Dior Spring Couture Collection. And it reminded me a little bit of My Fair Lady. Big, whimsical skirts, intricate designs peeking out from underneath, and sumptuous fabrics. Plus, giant hats/hair pieces!

I love the shorter skirt in front and longer in back. It's like a display foe the shoes. This dress in particular is a little Asian-looking to me. I think the top reminds me of a kimono...
This just looks like a piece of candy curled up on a teacup or something.
That pattern underneath totally looks like a design from a china plate.
Same thing. Blue on white = fancy.
Love the bows.

These last two are kind of similar. But the swirling of the skirt is really unique. It looks as if the designer has made huge circle of fabric at the bottom that just perfectly attaches to the rest of the dress without looking like an unwieldy hoop.

Ooh, and the lace-up hair on the model you can see walking away is neat-o.

Pip pip cheerio!

L

hey ho, let's go.

Okay, okay. I may in fact be obsessed with Peru, but hear me out. I was watching the History Channel the other day and they had this show about the Nazca Lines. You know, those giant drawings that you can only see from an airplane?

But this is not about the Nazca Lines. There are these rocks called the "Ica Stones" that have drawings of complex medical procedures and people living with dinosaurs and some lost continent. At first I was like: "Whoa man! Real life Dinotopia! Swell!" But then I did some more research on good old Wikipedia and discovered they are in fact considered a hoax. Which I immediately should have realized once they mentioned people+dinosuars, but I'm gullible. The Professor who began collecting them believes that some extraterrestrials lived with dinosaurs and then genetically engineered the human race. Whack-a-doo. And a little too close to Indiana Jones IV.

So, here are some pictures to prove their awesomeness regardless of the craziness.
 

Wee!

Phew! Had to get that out of my system. Now, to fashion!

So there's this band called Coconut Records that our good friend over at Coffee Milk

absolutely adores. Basically, Jason Schwartzman cranks out a bunch of awesome tunes and gets guest stars like Zooey Deschanel and Kirsten Dunst. In short, the band has some great merchandise. Very cute. 

Definitely worth picking up. And the music is great too! Check out West Coast and Summer Day.

kings of the wild frontier

Want to go to Peru? Be sure to dress ridiculously impractical but super rad, kay? Check out those heels in the second picture. I don't even know what's going on there but it looks like multi-colored vines wrapped around her calves and I lovee shoes that come up the leg.

Oh, don't mind me. I'm on my way to Machu Picchu. Yeah, I though this cool ballerina skirt would, you know, cushion my fall if I fell. Oh, and these geometric-y tights? GREAT for confusing predators.

In all seriousness, the flouncy skirts look great with the bootie heels.

Now, what I really wanted to talk about was a general trend that I see around. I would label it as "tribal" or something but that doesn't really cover everything. I would put everything from harem pants to turquoise cuffs in that category. There's Peru style purses, lots of layers, colorful vests, tribal patterns, little bit of Native American thrown in. Whatever it is, it looks like something I want in a summer wardrobe. So here are some things I would include.

Pretty pink top by BB Dakota. The neck bit is quite unique. A simple way to stand out.
Here is an example of the Peru purses I was talking about. I have one that my aunt actually got me in Ecuador I believe and it has a wee little llama on it. Perfect for holding my camera.
This is a nifty little dress form Forever 21 with a geometric/tribal pattern on the bottom that I really like. And it's a steal for $17.80.
Nice little v-neck from Urban Outfitters with a "navajo" pattern.
Giraffe tights, also from Urban Outfitters.

Two tanks in different colors. again featuring a kind of "navajo" pattern. Also from Urban Outfitters.
Lovely cuff bracelet with turquoise stones. They (Urban Outfitters, of course) also have other colored stones that look just as good. I think the cuff bracelet suits me better than the bangle style bracelets because I'm always afraid bangles will fall off. Cuffs are good because you can bend them a bit to better fit your wrist/arm.
"Geo-tribal" tee from Delia's.

Louis Vuitton. They have those nice big statement necklaces and really nifty, almost obi style belts.

J Crew even gets in on the act with a neat pleated top and studded gladiator sandals.

ttyl,

L