Greyscale

In the absence of the usual outfit posts, I'm taking a leaf out of Karla's blog and sharing my latest style inspirations.  I'm taking a break from my (brief) foray into color and returning to the much loved grays and whites.  Currently I'm somewhat obsessed with sleek, plain, and sexy one pieces, the simplicity is much more attractive than those skimpy, push-up, neon pink, barely there two pieces.  I'm trying to muster up the courage and the money to buy a pair of easy jeans and fray the cuffs or the patience to thrift a pair that won't murder my wallet.  The whole jean on jean thing is really growing on me too, especially with these pencil-fitted jean skirts.  Succulents/cacti are more of an ongoing fixation and I'm not-so-jokingly considering selling my soul for a pair of Anthropologie flatforms, since that's about how expensive they tend to run.  I spend hours wistfully scrolling through Pinterest pictures of white hair, knowing its a color I won't be able to pull off for another 40 years.  Ideally, my summer will look like the real-life version of this Polyvore collage but knowing me, a collage of root beer floats, big white t-shirts, and stacks of books would have been more accurate.

How to Wear Colors; A Guide For Your Fashion Monochromist

In a break from my norm, I present you with some COLOR.  Sorry to disappoint any fellow neutral enthusiasts, but this has been long overdue.  Don't worry though, I kept everything else as basic and colorless as humanly possible.  I've actually had this jacket for a while, but I took a long time getting around to removing the enormous shoulder pads that made my shoulders appear as though they were ending up somewhere around my ears.  Looking back, I should've donned my clip-on earrings and teased my hair a bit -just to complete the look.

Note to the public: I ripped a hole in these jeans before tearing out the knees of expensive jeans was socially acceptable so I decided to destroy the whole thing.  Little did I know, ruining nice jeans would soon become a Kylie Jenner fad...

Thanks to Shay for the pictures.

Dress Codes

     For the past couple years, I've been extremely passionate on the subject of dress codes.  Having been dress coded many times, for showing legs, chest, or -god forbid- shoulders, I get extremely involved when it comes to discussions on this topic, but I want to cover it in a calm and logical fashion rather than getting all riled up and forgetting English.

     Having gotten into arguments centered around this topic many times, I understand that there are certain social norms that we're expected to adhere to as well as basic understanding of practicality   You wouldn't wear a swimsuit to a funeral just as you wouldn't wear a pair of five inch heels on a hike.  However, there's a difference between that and telling a five year old that she can't wear a sphagetti strap shirt.  It's a hard line to draw, I will give you that.  Exactly when do a girls shorts become "too short" or her shirts straps become "too revealing"?  At the same time, however, what makes people feel that this is line that needs to be defined and what do they think gives them the right to make that distinction?  

    While I understand that young girls can't walk around naked in schools, for the obvious legal purposes, that's not the point I'm trying to make.  My view is simply that telling girls from a young age what they can and can't wear is dangerous to their self esteem.  If girls are given dress codes from grade school through high school, then they spend the critical period of puberty worrying that what the clothes they like and feel comfortable in might offend someone else.  By implementing this mind set from a young age, this sets this young women up for a life time of insecurity and constant anxiety about appearances and the need to meet the standards of others.  It's a dangerous mind set to instill in the future leaders of America.  How can we tell girls that they need to be strong and take initiative while simultaneously telling them that they always need to be double checking that they aren't making someone uncomfortable, that they fit in, that they're showing just the right amount of skin?

    Additionally, I would like to admit that my school's dress code is nowhere near as stringent as many other private schools'.  While the student handbook prohibits students from wearing leggings as pants, and skirts/shorts/dresses despite the weather conditions, these rules are not enforced and administration generally acknowledges that many of the students' clothing choices are made based on comfort.  However, there are still many flaws within this system, both within my own school community and outside,  Girls who are considered "larger" or more well-endowed are often dress coded more stringently than smaller or skinnier girls.  Girls are often dress coded for wearing tank tops when the weather climbs into the 80's and 90's near the end of the school year yet I have only ever heard of one male being dress-coded for the tank tops that are in violation of the dress code.

     In short, I am not asking for the abolition of dress codes.  I agree that having dress codes in place to prevent the wearing of gang colors or dangerous jewelry during gym class is simply logical.  However, I ask that administration take a second before dress coding a student to question whether they would treat a male student the same way, whether the body part being shown is unnecessarily sexualized, whether the student in question is simply being targeted due to their body type.  And if they believe a dress code truly is necessary, to do it in a respectful manner.  Please do not threaten to send the student home before questioning what they think about their outfit, do not call them out in front of their peers, and please listen to what they have to say.


Below are a few outfits I was dress coded and a bit of background, my apologies for the bad quality pictures.

A teacher informed me that a slip was considered underwear despite the fact that it reached my knees and was therefore not appropriate for a school setting.

A close friend's male teacher told her to cover up which she did and kept her after class for a discussion which made her feel uncomfortable.  When she asked to leave after she believed he was done talking, he allowed her too but later deducted points from her grade for "walking away when he was talking" and "violation of dress code".  

My biology teacher walked up to me and pulled up my shirt herself instead of asking me to pull it up myself.

While wearing this, I ran into my principal who had the following conversation with me

Principal: Where do you think you're going?

Me: To my locker to put away my gym bag.

Principal: No you're not, you're going home.

Instead of prefacing the conversation by a request to cover up my stomach, which was mostly covered up anyways, she immediately tried to send me home in a rude and abrupt manner.  When I asked if I could zip up my sweater over it instead of going home, she agreed angrily and walked away.

This one I included simply because of how ludicrous I thought the dress coding was.  I was wearing a floor length skirt, a long sleeved shirt, and another scarf that was actually even bigger than the one in the picture.  A teacher told me that my exposed shoulders *GASP* were inappropriate and I needed to cover them up.

One of a Million

When I initially began blogging, almost two years ago, I thought that my age would set me apart.  Sure, what I was doing wasn't very original, but hey I was half the age of most other bloggers out there.  Now I've almost lost that edge, not that it was much of an edge to begin with, and I've started wondering what sets me apart as a blogger.  Of my favorite bloggers, each has their own little quirk that makes them different from the hundreds of thousands of fashion bloggers out there churning days on days of outfit posts.  Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller posts about social/modern/pop culture issues along with pieces on fashion, Karla from Karla's Closet posts bi-weekly moodboards, and Ivania Carpio from Love Aesthetics religiously adheres to her dress code of white, black, and grey.  Its easy to post #ootds or tips on how to wear your favorite pair of jeans.  Its a lot more difficult to find your unique voice, to find ways to make your blogging style so particular to you that readers would recognize it without a title or an author listed.  And personally, I think developing that voice is infinitely more important than gaining thousands of followers.  An intelligent and individual voice attracts intelligent and individual followers, or so I'd like to think.  So that's my goal.  Developing my voice.  That is my goal.  Not for the next month, or the next year, or maybe not even by the end of college.  But gradually, over the next however many years, until I can look back and be proud of who I am as a writer, as fashiony/stylishy person (I hate the word fashionista), and maybe just as a person in general.  I want to read through my blog and  think about several social issues, admire some outfit choices, and laugh a little at some self-deprecating humor.  So often I find myself slipping unnoticed into generic and blahblah-plain blogger speak.  After spending hours every day reading blog post on blog post, the blanket fashion statements creep into my writing and soon enough I look back and find that the paragraph I've just written could have easily been found on a thousand other blogs.  So I'd like to avoid that.  In short, I'm working on finding me.

P.S.  Am I ready to rock the Tommy Hilfiger runway or what??

                                                                       

 

Thanks to Shay for the pictures, she's fab

Street Style

For those of you who are still unable to process how utterly and mindblowingly awesome the runway was at Chanel, here's some food for thought that will hopefully return your ability to form coherent sentences.  While Fashion Week was originally centered around the fashions sent down the runway, these days the fashionistas seen hailing cabs and walking the streets of New York in stylish yet seasonally appropriate ensembles have become an even bigger source of inspiration for those of us not lucky enough to snag even a back row seat.  While undeniably a crucial source of inspiration for the upcoming season, many times runway looks lack accessibility, making these designs less relatable to those who aren't deeply invested in the fashion industry.   Instead of checking in to see the latest designs sent down the runway at Dior or Valentino, style enthusiasts are avidly discussing the extremely wide leg trousers that Leandra Medine wore out and about during New York fashion week.  While the high-end designers will, eventually, come out with their ready-to-wear styles, media and fashion week followers are more interested in the creative and innovative outfits hustling from one show to another, outfits already in their ready-to-wear state.  Being one of these street style enthusiasts, I've been ardently following trends seen off the runway for the past few weeks.  Without further ado, a few of my favorites (disclaimer - they may or may not be related to fashion week).

  

  

  

  

Resolvedly Resoluting

This is me keeping up (or trying to) with my New Year's Resolution.  Two times a month is often enough, right?  Well, at the very least, its an improvement from last year.  

So remember that post from a couple months ago about coats?  If not, I don't blame you.  It was around October, sometime after Fashion Week, and I posted about all the super awesome coats being seen out and about.  I decided to join the ranks of these sensibly fashionable women and here we are.  In addition, I found a pair of shoes where the infamous socks + heels combination actually seemed to work out for me.  I'd heard tales of such pairings where the wearer didn't end up looking like a preschooler, but believed them to be false.  However, I'm a true convert now.  Side note: these shoes may or may not have contributed to the re-spraining of my ankle, but they're adorable so its all good.

ALSO, one last thing I promise.  I'm currently in the running for an internship in New York and I need votes.  Any and all help is appreciated, plus then you get the privilege of being the recipient of my unconditional love (shh yes that's not a condition, don't question it).  All you need is a Facebook, a computer, and 3.456 seconds.

http://www.fameandpartners.com/fashionitgirl2015?cf=home 

(Scroll to the bottom and my name will either be one of the more recent ones or you can search for it).

A Seasonally Appropriate Mixtape

It might just be me, I'll admit that is a definite possibility, but I feel like some seasons call for specific genres of music.  For instance, fall feels more like some jam-able rock music followed by some easy alternative (maybe some Little Hurricane and NONONO or Cage the Elephant and Bronze Radio Return) whereas spring is more of a pensive indie that makes you want to praise the earth gods for all the green things that magically appear outside (Bon Iver or Young the Giant anyone??).  Or maybe I'm a pompous music geek.  Either way, I prefer to sort music by mood and even more specifically - season.  On days like today, the bitterly cold days that are somehow made even colder by the bright sun, I prefer some electronic-y alternative.  Not the depressing kind, but the kind with a killer bass line that makes you think - but not in a bad way.  The kind of thinking where you don't go far enough to get sad, but just far enough to feel wise and learned.  Its a very specific frame, perhaps I've set myself up for a bit of a failure, but now that I've taken the time to explain this whole crazy system I might as well give it a shot.

1. Artist: James Blake
Songs : Lindisfarne II, Unluck

2. Artist: Lo-Fang
Songs: Permutations II, You're the One That I Want

3. Artist: Glass Animals
Songs: Gooey, Black Mambo

4. Artist: Chet Faker
Songs: No Diggity, Talk is Cheap

5. Artist: Typhoon
Songs:  Hunger and Thirst, The Lake

6. Artist: Ratatat
Songs: Lex, Loud Pipes

7. Artist: Polica
Songs: Smug, Amongster


That's all for now children.  I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't then feel free to ignore all future music suggestions that I may chose to dole out.

Bikinis in January

We've rung the New Year in, hung up the Christmas decorations, made our resolutions, entered the post-break real world once again, and now we're sitting here wondering what the next move is (because its definitely not the homework you should be doing).  As the department stores would like you to think, in fact, as any clothing store in or near the continental U.S. as well as many abroad would like you to think, its bikini buying time!  As you sit sipping your tea, browsing Pinterest, and glancing outside in hopes that the snow has magically disappeared and left you magically surrounded by the warm breeze of summer weather, you might as well be buying next summer's bikini.  No time like the present, right?  Well, the best time is actually after summer when everything goes on sale, but lets not get wrapped up in the details, shall we?  Besides, the endless days of bone-chilling, soul-crushing, mood-ruining, and numbing weather have nothing on the joys of searching for summer clothing.  Each cute bikini top is a little spot of warmth in my soul, or so I tell myself.  Regardless of whether its the bikini tops or the bulky sweater I have on, its time to talk suits.  I know its a little late to be bringing this up as a new trend, but it is relatively new to this style - high waisted bikinis.  Not only do they make you look like you keep up with the Kardashians and have secret fashion insider knowledge, they also do a really good job of covering up the unwanted fleshy area otherwise referred to as the "muffin top".  Also, I like the whole idea of mixing and matching.  The days of coordinating bikini tops and bottoms is over, from now on its watermelon print with pinstripes, checks with plaid.  Or, in this case, a more demure pairing of neon yellow with hounds tooth.

Resolutions

For the last few months, I've been putting off blog posts for several reasons.  I had to focus on college apps, I had to focus on keeping up my grades, I had to focus on my last season of club soccer.  But does it ever really get any less busy?  Even now that I'm done with the worst of it, I can see a fresh bundle of stress and furious ice cream binge sessions lurking just around the corner.  So, as part of my New Year's resolution, I've decided to view blogging as a way to treat myself rather than as a long and painful task I feel obligated to take part in, somewhat akin to visiting the dentist. That's not to say I don't enjoy it, but sometimes even the thought of going through the process of photographing and writing can leave me worn out.  From now on, I resolve to squirrel away precious free time for blogging, I resolve to look forward to it, I resolve to spend hours planning ahead for my next post instead of doing my homework.  Well, perhaps not that last one, but we'll see.

In addition to that specific goal, here's a few of my others:

1. Sing out loud more; in the shower, washing the dishes, walking the dog.  Sing more and sing louder.

2. Wear lipstick to school, not just pinks and browns, but dark purple or blindingly-bright red.

3.  Be nicer (less hitting my brother and more talking to strangers sitting next to me on the train)

4. Last, but not least; wear denim on denim, dye my hair crazy(er) colors, go swimming at 2 am, wear witch hats inside school, refuse to speak for a day, make duct tape clutches a thing, make guacamole on a Tuesday night, eat only carrots for a day, teach my dog to speak French, tell my principal her hair looks nice, and secretly pass out chapstick to the entire senior class.

  

One last note, I've decided to do away with listing the brands of every article of clothing I'm wearing in the post.  As a completely broke teenager, I don't have money to purchase up and coming or trendy brands.  Instead, I prefer to focus on styling and developing my sense of style with the materials that I have.  I've decided to quit the whole listing of brands thing in an attempt to convince myself that I actually mean this.  Besides, how many times can you really stand to see me list Target, American Apparel, and vintage?

Thanks to Shay Basa for the pictures