Inspiration DIY

Original look: Jak&Jil

The second I saw this I knew I needed to create a similar look. It's almost as if she were in Terminator or something and a layer of prosthetic skin was ripped off in an overly-aggressive battle, most probably involving some sort of automatic machine gun and/or flaming hot magma, revealing the inner mechanics of her robotic being. Anyway, in the words of Tim Gunn, I "took a trip to Mood" (although most definitely not on the same budget) and bought some studs. Ok, they DID have the larger, square ones, but I felt as though the smaller round ones were nicer and would look more detailed. Of course, this is something I regret insofar as it probably took me about 3 times longer to get them on the jeans than I would've had I bought the bigger ones. However, I am happy I got through them all - with a little motherly help of course, thanks mom! - although my left index finger seems to be permanently indented. Photos of the finished version to come soon. Take THAT Schwartzy!

Rings of Valor

Disclaimer: no, I do not play World Of Warcraft nor am I a level-7 death knight (although I wish I had that kind of brute power).

This is a ring. Believe it. Love it. It's the ghettoblaster.

Today I will be discussing the magic of rings. Note: they're all silver and/or gold because there are too many rings in the world to get to all of them. Rings are small (and/or medium-sized, spiked, sparkly, excessively large, diamond-encrusted, gold, silver, platinum, round, square, dragon-shaped etc...) accoutrements for your delicate phalanges of love. Personally, I wear four rings everyday. I have a specific pattern of taking them off every night and putting all four back on in the morning. I have one gold snake coiled around my left ring finger, one golden criss-cross on my left middle finger, one silver slate on which is inscribed berber lettering on my right index and one silver mesh Tiffany's ring on my right middle finger. Of course, all have significant meaning - as do so many pieces of jewelry we each wear - which I will spare you of at this moment. I've looked around and I think I've come up with a nice set of rings that range from fun to funny to scary to beautiful to simply ridiculous (or ridiculously priced...).

Sssssssweet ring you ssssay? I must sssimply agree (and cackle at my sssstupid ssserpent alliterationssss). 

The two-finger name ring I've wanted for so long. Too bad it's by Lauren Conrad - the Hills is like, totally, like NOT my fave. 
Pretty Gully rings - by Bijulesnyc. $177. Two-finger rings are straight bad ass though - you can kill two birds with one stone, or two fingers with one ring or one person with one punch to the face with this one ring on. Or, even better, with THIS ring on:
Now we get into bad-ass zone. Not quite Death Knights yet, but I'm pretty sure you could seriously injure someone with this. It's also beautiful and the studs in gold make it look hard and pretty all in one - now that's a two-fer. Kenneth Jay Lane Studded Dome Ring - $60.
I reaaaalllllly didn't want to go into engagement rings, but I just couldn't resist with this one. It's so simple and discreet and sweet and neat and ... he won't cheat? unless he wants to... eat? some ... wheat? or meat? 
DOPE ring. Also a great procrastination device and all around boredom prevention system. 
This one is stunning. And exceedingly expensive. Just my luck.
Same goes for this beauty.
Annnnnnnnd this one. Check them all out on the Barney's website.
And this one is my FAVE. put them together and they'll make the whole mouth! Edward cullen at your fingertips! MUAHAHHAHAHHA I GOT YOU NOW!

I found that one on Bittersweetsny.com - a great site with really cool items - some are blatantly morbid and some are literal translations of sweet metaphorical idioms: 

Get it? Wearing your heart on your sleeve? Or I guess here it's supposed to be on your cuff...

There are so many other rings that are worth mentioning, so I can't put them all but if I do see more that are insanely amazing, I will throw them on the pile.

Velvet is back

A classic velvet look... I wouldn't exactly recommend.

I want to call this trend-spotting but I'm not 100% sure yet. I've seen it around and I've seen it incorporated into every sort of outfit possible. Jackets, button-down shirts, small details on blazers, whole pants (no, I'm NOT talking about the tacky kind that give inappropriate superlatives to your derriere such as "tasty" or "Juicy") and shoes.

I think it's better to classify these as lounge loafers.

Christine Centenera, Fashion Editor at Australian Harpers Bazaar. I found her through Wide Awake Thoughts, who found her on aperfectguide.se. I find her stunningly classy and chic, just like her velvet dress.
Cropped jacket. $260 at TopShop. Thanks, Kate.

The trimming on the lapels adds sophisticated flare... DAMNIT D&G, why can't I buy you?

I like this Elizabeth and James version at $545. FYI: E&J = one of the Olsen Twins' lines, named after their siblings; how sweet of them to incorporate the other members of their family into their glamorous lives! (not bitter, promise)

As a final side comment, I'd like to note that I've seen several different versions of male-worn velvet. One friend has a wonderful velvet blazer with satin lapels, all in black. It's a really great jacket and looks classy, dressed up and dressed down all at the same time. Another has what we call the Hef (as seen in the first photo) - it's burgundy but thankfully doesn't look like he just walked out of the Grotto with seven Bunnies clad in ears and tails. I wish I had photo evidence of this back-and-shoulder-magic (It's all about the shoulders and back in a men's blazer, gentlemen (in my opinion)).

Demarcation Nation

Last weekend I made a short excursion to Binghamton, NY to visit my sister and attend a concert at Cornell University in Ithaca, which is a surprisingly beautiful yet quaint place. We ended up getting a bite to eat at a small Thai restaurant, which was right next to a tapas place which had a small terrace area. The terrace area in question was demarcated by the street art above, which I find genius. I wanted to sit down and put the right hind leg of the chair right in the nook of the spray painted knife and fork. Magic.

Do not become bad from SHEER goodness

Here's a trend I've been noticing recently. I first saw it at Club Monaco at the shoulders of a tight black fitted (and semi-corsette-ish, if I recall correctly) top and yesterday at American Apparel. I love the sheer - it's delightfully reminiscent of lingerie in that it's a sexy sneak peak with out being too revealing (of course, this needs to be done gracefully and proportionally). The sheer-er does NOT equal the sexier.
The bumblebee look.
I really do like this look - and the heart shaped bust completes it. American Apparel has some other nice patterns for the dress as well. This one, however, is oddly reminiscent of that optical illusion where you're supposed to see the gray dots between the squares...

The next group of pictures are from the Charlotte Ronson Spring 2010 collection, and I find the injections of sheer material into the designs subtle and peek-a-boo feminine.



Ronson said her collection was meant to be "classic meets street". I especially love the reinvented sheer biker shorts and the sheer top with just the pockets acting as the bra. Sneaky-chic!
These are from the Alexander Wang S2010 show - sheer genius!

Cuff-It-Up

Maybe it's all the Wonder Woman halloween costumes I saw last weekend, or it could be this picture I saw of Victoria Beckham that I can't seem to find, but I'm suddenly in love with cuffs. Not just one big bangle cuff, but two - one on each wrist. I know, it could potentially look like a scene straight out of Gladiator, but I think that when done correctly, they look classy with an edge. Wonder Woman's cuffs are très cool, but I did some looking around and I think I've got a nice little collection of potential wrist awesomeness.

I can't seem to find who created these leafy cuffs, but I love the twisty snake look around the wrist - I wish I could see the entire model's outfit because I would love to know what the stylists paired twin serpent leaves with.

I found this sparkly, studded cuff at ALICE+OLIVIA, on 41st between 5th and 6th, if I'm not mistaken. It has just the right amount of girly sparkles and punky spikes which I think looks great with a girly, frilly layered mini-dress and could definitely work with the simple jeans-and-a-t-shirt look.

These two are similar albeit the slight indent in the first one, but I think that the simple silver would be perfect over the wrists - shiny yet understated.

I must admit that this one's a little Gladiator-esque, but I love it anyway - it might also be hard to pull off and probably dangerous in some cases (WARNING: if you are the type of person who talks with your hands, do NOT wear this cuff, ESPECIALLY not on both wrists - double the pleasure is NOT double the fun here).

I think these are absolutely stunning - they have a North-Africa feel to them (like much of the jewelry I have from Morocco) and I love that the silver isn't finished - they're long and would probably cover about half of the forearm, I bet you could even wear them over a long-sleeved shirt or jacket.

Now. Let's talk about cuffs that are already on the jackets, or at the end of the sleeves:

This is Jessie. She's my brother's girlfriend from Australia and has the most amazing style. You can check out her blog: wideawakethoughts.wordpress.com. She also has the most amazing shoe collection, but that's for another day. Today, we're talking about the amazingness that is at the end of her sleeves. It looks heavy and fabulous and is exactly what I'm going to figure out how to DIY on one of my blazers.

Not the picture I was looking for (of the bracelets), but I think Victoria Beckham's style in this look is... other-worldly. Not to sound cliché or anything of course. I'm not 100% I would wear it, but it's interesting and certainly eye catching (almost as eye catching as those SHOES), and therefore deserves to be mentioned.

Once again - and I'm sorry I'm so bad at this - I forget what show this is from, but I love the collection of bracelets here - there's so many of them and they're so sparkly and shiny and delicious and I think they look great with all those geometrically shaped colors in the garment.

The military cuff is commonplace. But for Balmain, they are astonishing accompaniments to amazing shoulder pads and tiny waistlines. What I love about these "cuffs" are the color. They're almost industrial and raw. The silver is an almost grey, which I think is complimentary with the light color jean because it doesn't over power as a shiny, finished silver would.

No Glove, No Love

It's getting chilly. It's also getting dark at 4pm, which isn't so fun. But more important is the chilly part. Which is why I've decided to go around looking at the glove trends because, as we all know, keeping your extremities warm is the lynchpin to keeping your entire body warm. Above are my favorite gloves on the planet: Smittens. They're mittens for you and your significant other. Apparently, the woman who created them was walking in the mountains with her husband and tried to hold his hand but her mittens were too bulky and the hand-holding therefore wasn't very fun. She decided to create mittens wherein both their hands could fit. I'm not 100% sure she asked her husband how he felt about being in public this way, but I find them to be hilariously genius.

I tried on these soft and delicious cashmere gloves at UNIQLO a couple weeks ago, but decided against them because cashmere is soft and warm, but doesn't block the wind - therefore, they are useless for the extremities-theory.

I really do love the punky, short leather look, with cut outs on the knuckles - I think it has a certain edge yet stays feminine with the sleekness of the leather along slim fingers.

Fingerless gloves are also badass - although not ideal for the cold, they always look cool - I especially love the sparkly, studded ones by Valentino (the black ones on top are by Uncle Karl at Chanel).

Speaking of fingerless gloves, someone knit these interesting gloves, specifically designed for iPod and iPhone users...

These are another pair of interesting... gloves? Are those hands NAKED under those handerpants? (Ironically enough, I screen-captured the word "NEXT").

I really like these lacy ones - they definitely do absolutely nothing to protect your hands/arms from the cold and/or wind, but they look very pretty - 80s Madonna even. They're lacy and fragile and delicate.

These are what I've been seeing a lot of, though - long AND fingerless gloves. Think of them as the modern day leg warmer, for the arm.

So basically you should be opting for a nice pair of short, bad-ass looking leather gloves and a long pair of arm-warmers. Or, if you REALLY want to feel the burn, go for something more like this:

They seriously exist.