Shin Guards

Could shin guards be the new trend? Rhianna wore the KTZ for Kokon to Zai shin guards for the Super Bowl and there are so many other options. I'm not saying I'm heading to my local Model's anytime soon to pick up some soccer gear, but this is certainly quite the particular style. I guess someone's gotta do it. I also sort of recall Jay making some for his battle against Mila on Project Runway - they were surprisingly very cool and Michael Kors approved, so you know it's good. It's also sort of awesome because Romans used to do it and they totally kicked ass but I'm not sure Paris Hilton really kicks ass. Ever. So, yeah. I'm into it only if you go all the way with the outfit and work it (or if you wear Lucette's embellished stockings, pictured below - LOVE). Katerina Graham with shin guards and a super girly mini dress? Not so much. I need to see these paired with more outfits!

Song of the day: Tesla Boy - Fire

Fishtail Braids

Big beautiful braid

OB = Olsen braid.

I remember back in the glory days when Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears were at the peaks of their teen pop sensation careers, basking in the golden rays of fame. I speak more of Christina Aguilera in this particular case because I'm thinking of a very specific interview in which her hair caught my pre-adolescent eye. It was messy and braided to the side in a quickly thrown-together kind of way. Now, we all know that it probably took 6 hairstylists 3 hours to create the look, but the point is that it didn't look like that one bit. The braid part is really struck me, though. It was a fishtail braid, one of my favorite kinds of braids that I love doing in my own hair because its not too hard and looks unique. I can't seem to find a picture of Ms. Aguilera from that interview but I've posted some photos for you to catch a peek at the sweet style. I've been loving braids in general, anyways - they're like the fringe I posted about, only twisted together! There's something very natural and unpretentious about braids, perhaps even hippie-esque and dating back to the 70s, that makes for an "I did it myself" feeling. I like that.

Clean fishtail braid

Braided belt by Jay from Project Runway (episode 7)

Messier fishtail braid by Fergie

A random braid of tires in Chelsea on the west side of NYC

Song of the day: Seth Troxler - Aphrika

Newspaper

This one's actually made from pages out of a telephone book.

Creative people rock.

Now I know this is surely an idea older than the Roman Empire (yes it is, and don't call me Shirley), but I wanted to share with you a collection of garments created entirely out of newspaper by some very imaginative designers. Feel free to contribute to the visual goodness if you have any other suggestions (a.k.a. links, images, entire sites devoted to this kind of genius?)

First three are the highest scorers on last season's Project Runway, when they had the designers create a look using only newspaper, glue and dye (if they chose to color the newspaper).

Irina Shabayeva

Gordana Gehlhausen

Christopher Straub

Izaac Mizrahi

Gary Harvey

Hugo Boss

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! (yeah... i know...)

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!