Guilt by Association

This dress so perfectly fits my style, especially as it has evolved over the last couple of years. More and more I'm leaning towards outfits that have fewer items and less complexity, so a dress that has built-in visual interest and needs little accessorizing is perfect. I can throw it on in the morning, add a couple of foolproof pieces of jewelry, and go. The fact that it has some stretch to it and doesn't easily wrinkle makes it comfy and wearable all day.

I love how the shape of the panels at the hips hint at a peplum without actually being one. I love peplums on jackets and tops but I'm not generally a fan of them dresses or skirts except in rare cases. To my eye they often look like an afterthought, just stuck on there and interrupting the flow of the garment. Plus they just bring back way too many 80's flashbacks for me, like this purple number below. Not something I would've worn even in the 80's, but I suppose I feel a bit of guilt by association.




Dress: Helmut Lang
Necklace: Wendy Brandes
Bracelet, rings: Metal Pointu
Bag: Botkier
Boots: Brako

Lazy Gal

I've concluded after a few tries that this is about the closest my hair will get to the 1960's-European-actress look I wrote about a few months ago. It comes out alright, but it's generally more work than I want to put in every day, which is why I usually wear it straight.

To achieve this style I put in a little Blow it Up while my hair is wet, then dry it until it's barely dry. Then I put my hair up in thermal self grip rollers. It takes about 5-7 minutes to put all my hair up, since the rollers just stick in the hair by themselves and don't have to be clipped in place. Then I just hit each roller carefully with the hair dryer on the lowest velocity and highest heat. The metal core of the roller heats up and curls the hair, and then letting it cool thoroughly locks the curls in place.

Before I take the rollers out I spritz on a little light hold hairspray just to keep the curls in place while I work with them. It's important not to use too stiff a hairspray or else the rollers won't come out. Then I just run my fingers through a couple of times, arrange the curls the way I want, and finish with my favorite strong hold hairspray. If the curls are a bit frizzy I might scrunch in a little Aerate or Water Wax before the last coat of hairspray to give it more smoothness and shine.

It sounds like a lot of products and a lot of time, but in total I'd say this takes me about 15 to 20 minutes instead of my usual 5. Not bad, but I'm sort of a lazy gal when it comes to my hair, so I can't be bothered to go to all that trouble every day. It's nice when I'm feeling a little euro inspired though -- if only I had a vintage Vespa to drive to work on. Ciao bella!


Blazer: Helmut Lang
Top: thrifted
Pants: Rag & Bone
Boots: Brako
Bag: Boktier

Biohazard

I was very excited to get my hands on this Stacy Lomman t-shirt, because I knew just how I would wear it first --as part of a simple jeans-and-tee outfit dressed up with a blazer. Since the colors went so well with my McQueen skull scarf, I figured I'd really go all out and add some bright red nails and lips. I love how the blazer is cut deeply enough to show part of the logo, particularly the "biohazard" part, which is especially fitting given the line of work I'm in. It took a little doing to tie the scarf up high enough to show the t-shirt logo, but through trial and error I made it work.

Speaking of Stacy Lomman, I was so happy to see that she successfully achieved her Kickstarter goal and put on another great runway show. I just love the mod references in her new line; my favorites are the red cutout dress with the long feather vest, the skinny white pants/cropped jacket combo, and the sheath dress with the British flag cutout in the back -- so creative! Click here to check out the video.

T-Shirt: Stacy Lomman
Blazer: Helmut Lang
Scarf: Alexander McQueen
Ring: Metal Pointu
Jeans: Joe's
Shoes: Simple

Coldish

Last week it got cold-ish for a couple of days, so I pulled my winter items out from storage. These leather pants haven't seen the light of day for quite some time, and frankly I'm starting to worry that this might be one of the only wears they get this winter. I thought they went beautifully with the blazer and boots.

I tried out some of the new shatter nail polish from OPI, and I quite like the effect. It was remarkably easy to do; you just apply it over any regular nail polish and within a few seconds it starts to crack. It doesn't even have to be applied evenly or very thick, because when the polish cracks it clumps together and becomes more opaque. Recently I read that gold nails are big for spring, and this is one trend I can certainly get on board with. It's not a huge investment, it looks good on everyone, and it's a great way to mix metals if most of your jewelry happens to be silver, as mine is. 

Blazer: Helmut Lang
Shirt: All Saints
Necklace: Manu Lizarralde
Pants: Firetrap
Boots: Brako

Intuitive

I resisted the urge to throw on my McQueen skull scarf with this outfit, mainly because I feel like I've repeated that particular item a lot lately (I also just wore it with this exact same blazer). But come fall, won't this dress/blazer combo be spectacular with the scarf, plus my Hero tights and Miu Miu pumps? That's an outfit that's been floating around in my head for several months. For now though, I've gone with a scaled down, slightly more summery version by leaving my neck and legs bare.

This is a great example of how clothes that truly fit your style can magically end up looking like they were made to go together. I was drawn to both the dress and the blazer because of the asymmetric draping, and it's that very detail that marries the two so perfectly. The folds of the blazer draw the eye smoothly down to the corresponding folds of the dress. I also tend to like tops or dresses that have interesting details at the neckline such as the ruching on this dress, so the fact that the blazer is cut low enough to reveal those details makes it a great fit for my wardrobe.

I actually didn't have to try on this outfit in advance to know that the dress and blazer would work perfectly together. This one was completely intuitive.

Dress: Valentino
Blazer: Helmut Lang
Necklace: Ambiance on Haight Street
Ring: Wendy Mink
Sandals: Michael Kors

Duran Duran

Here's another one of our outdoor locations; this is outside our back door, in front of the awesome wall of bamboo that towers over the property line. This is on the second floor of the building and you can see that the bamboo extends well above where I'm standing. When it's windy it makes the most beautiful rustling sound.

And yes, I tucked my tie into my shirt. It wasn't quite the way Duran Duran used to do it (owing to the fact that the shirt has a zipper up the front instead of buttons), but hey, it worked for me.

As an aside, Mark and I saw Duran Duran live at the Fillmore a few weeks back, and they were awesome. They looked great, they sounded great, and it was a blast to see them at such an intimate venue. Back in the day I saw them at the Oakland Coliseum, which involved considerably more shoving and being squashed than I could ever deal with these days. The recent show was far more civilized; you can tell an audience is mostly 40+ when the cocktail waitress can walk right through the crowd and deliver drinks all the way up at the front.
















Blazer: Helmut Lang
Shirt: J. Peterman
Tie: thrifted
Harem pants: Vera Wang
Sandals: Kors Michael Kors

Asymmetry, Balance, and Flow

I finally got this dress dry cleaned so that I could wear it; this is the Helmut Lang dress I alluded to earlier, and now that I've worn it I love it even more than I did when I brought it home. Behold how the asymmetrical neckline dips down to perfectly frame my snake tattoo -- did I tell you this company designs clothes just for me, or what?

I didn't feel like this dress needed much additional embellishment, and in keeping with the Helmut Lang minimalist aesthetic I kept my makeup fairly light and even went without lipstick. The jacket added plenty of interesting detail though, and the cropped length worked beautifully with the dress without hiding any of that gorgeous draping at the waist.

Dress: Helmut Lang
Leather jacket: Skin Graft
Shoes: Tsubo



I want to talk for a moment about asymmetry in clothing, because a comment from my Fashion Week post the other day got me thinking about why I love asymmetry in certain garments and abhor it in others. What it comes down to is balance and flow. If you look carefully at the dress I have on here, you'll see that on the top half the visual "weight" of the dress is skewed to the side with the sleeve; however on the bottom half that weight shifts to the other side, where draping gathers into the long sash.  Now consider these two one-shoulder dresses:

 Sorry Giuliana Rancic, but I think your dress sucks. Also, I have no fucking idea who you are. 

What are you doing at the Oscars if I have no fucking idea who you are?

What works for me in the Oscar de la Renta dress on the left is the fact that the visual weight shifts smoothly from one side to the other as your eye travels down the length of the garment; the shoulder side of the dress swoops across and flows naturally into the cascade of ruffles on the other side. This type of asymmetry gives a garment movement -- can't you just see the model's wiggle, even though this is a still photo? With the dress on the right however, the shoulder strap just looks weird and out of place. There's nothing to transition it to the bottom half of the dress, so it feels like an afterthought. And sure, there's that long train sticking out, but that's the back of the dress; if you looked at it straight on, it would be a big stupid tube with an awkward strap stuck on one side. Thus, I hate it. Giuliana, call me; I'll get you hooked up with a better dress for the next Oscars, and maybe by then I'll know what in the hell you're doing there.

Invincible

It isn't often I wear black from head to toe, but I figured it was time to give it a whirl. If you look at the window behind me you can see what a black and miserable day it was, and my mood when I got up wasn't a whole lot better, so I figured my outfit should follow suit.

Monochrome looks, whether they're black or some other color, are always more successful when the individual items have interesting detailing and differences in texture. For this outfit I started with my new Helmut Lang blazer because the draping at the waist creates a great silhouette. I added the chiffon top underneath because it gave the outfit some softer edges and also brought in the subtle dark blue pattern. The black leather trousers and studded boots added glossy texture and silver hardware.

I finished off the outfit with my Wendy Brandes swear rings, just in case there was still any doubt about how how I was feeling that day. In the end I think all the black actually improved my mood, because I felt rather invincible; my entire lower half was shielded against the driving rain and the rest of my outfit was closely-fitted and impervious to the high winds.     

Blazer: Helmut Lang
Top: Noa Noa
Trousers: Pepe Jeans
Boots: All Black
Rings: Wendy Brandes

The Last Straw

Here are Jess and I, all dolled up at our friend Lisa's wedding in Seattle. In the interest of wearing all the new stuff I bought in New York as quickly and as much as possible, I swapped the dress I brought with me to wear for this one, from the All Saints store in Chelsea. Jess looked fabulous in her 50's style wiggle dress, and I'm crazy about that burgundy Coach bag of hers. It's an evening bag, but it actually has room to hold stuff, unlike those pointless, tiny clutches that can barely hold your lipstick and some cash, let alone a camera. I ended up bringing a regular full sized bag, I got so frustrated trying to jam all my crap into my evening bag.

This was the night that I realized that these shoes have really got to go. I've had them for ages, and in many ways they're great, but no matter what modifications I try they destroy every pair of nylons or tights I wear with them. Just as usual, when I checked midway through the evening I had a run starting at one of the toes, even though I had chopped my toenails back as far as I reasonably could without drawing blood. I've bitched about these shoes before, but this time it was finally the last straw.

I also wore my new Helmut Lang jacket, since it was cold that evening. Looking at it now I feel like I could easily make this dress/blazer combo into a daytime outfit if I combined it with nude legs and something more casual than satin shoes.

Dress: All Saints
Blazer: Helmut Lang
Shoes: Steve Madden

Triumphant

Sorry to go MIA last week; I've been miserably sick and didn't have the energy to come up with anything even vaguely interesting to post. Here's an outfit from healthier days; it features my new Helmut Lang blazer, with which I returned triumphantly from New York.

As I told Sara, Sal, and K. Line when we were out shopping together at Barney's, I have long felt that Helmut Lang clothing is designed specifically with me in mind. Just look at the blazer's draping, asymmetry, and tailoring that is impeccably fitted but not constricting; it's perfect in every way. The fact that I snagged the very last one, that it was on sale, and that when the cashier rang it up it was further discounted to less than half the original price were all wonderful bonuses, but the fact is that I would've gladly forked out 100% of the original price, I loved it that much when I tried it on.

When it gets back from the dry cleaner I'll do a show and tell about the gorgeous Helmut Lang dress that I also got at Barney's for a fraction of the original price. I only wish I had K. Line's flair for storytelling; she tells my shopping story with so much more drama and excitement than I ever could. 

Also included in this outfit is a long, white slip that I found while thrift shopping with my mom in Salem, Oregon, which makes this long dress far more wearable with tights. The lacy hem poked out a little from the side slit, but I decided not to care; it was well worth it not to have the dress stick to the tights when I walked. 


Blazer: Helmut Lang
Dress: Forever 21
Boots: All Black
Necklace: local import store