2010 June | Mascara or Motoroil

in which I reference Orchid Grey a whole bunch

Last night I received an offer from Nathan Hurst, the founder of Cincinnati Fashion Week to be a writer for the “blogitorial” style lookbook that he’s putting together, and I must say I’m pretty excited. I’ll keep you in the loop as I hear more!

This post is really going to be me complaining about the quality and selection of clothing that is available at a reasonable price, so I hope you don’t find that too off-putting. Recently I was reading a post of Orchid Grey‘s in which she talked about how dissatisfied she’s been lately with high street chains, namely Forever 21 and H&M. Now we all know how much Forever 21 pieces I have and I must admit that I love H&M, however I have to say that I agree with her. As time has gone on there have been fewer and fewer things on the F21 site that I like, and forget about going to the actual store. Every time I ever go into the shop I am instantly swarmed in high schools kids and I can never find anything that I’m looking for, both complaints that I have heard from many people. In her next entry Julie said something really interesting that may explain part of our dissatisfaction:

“Maybe it’s due to the backlash F21 has been receiving in regards to copyright infringement, I know I would be livid if I was a designer and saw my work cheaply copied by a mass-retailer. Perhaps they’re reacting to that and cutting back on how blatantly they copy designers and popular fashion.”

I hadn’t really heard about this, but it totally makes sense to me. Many a time I have been scanning the F21 website only to see something that I know is a total Modcloth ripoff. (See this post)

As for H&M, I always find stuff that I like when I go there, but again that requires a trip to the mall which I absolutely DREAD. I wish H&M had a selection of things that you could at least view on their website without going to the Scandinavian page.

Morally I have a problem with things like H&M destroying unsold merchandise instead of donating it to someone who could use it. Also cheap clothing often comes at the cost of sweatshops, however the only way to really ensure that you’re not buying the products of sweatshops is to only buy things made in the US. And let me tell you unless you have some serious expendable income for clothing, it’s pretty fucking hard.

A lot of the responses the Orchid Grey’s original post were about how much people love stores like Banana Republic and Anthropologie, which I can definitely understand. I haven’t actually bought anything from either or these stores, but every time I find some of their stuff at thrift stores I’m always really happy with the quality. I just can’t justify spending hundreds of dollars on a single item of clothing. The general feel of Banana Republic especially is more classic and clean than my personal style so I always feel the need to intensely funk up anything I get from them.

I suppose for me this leaves stores like Gabriel Brothers and outlet malls. And of course, more thrifting!

I did actually find something on the F21 website today that I want realllllllly bad.

‘

I had been scoping a similar pair from Aldo, but they mysteriously disappeared from their website. **EDIT** I found the Aldo version! Although they are obviously much nicer, they’re also almost $60 more. The F21 pair will be mine very soon….

fun with filters!

What a great weekend it was! The Eco Go-Go fashion show went really well, and there will be some amazing pictures soon! We had all been so busy sewing and getting ready for the show that once it was over I realized that I hadn’t thought a single moment passed the show. That to me meant that I was owed a very large drink, which is exactly what we did.

The big bummer of the weekend though was that my camera stopped turning on. *insert sad trombone here* All that really means is that I’ll be borrowing Maya’s camera more and saving furiously for a DSLR. Speaking of Maya’s camera, I borrowed it today to snap a few at the park. Today I decided to play around with some filters, so you’ll notice a lack of continuity in the coloring and such. Lemme know what you think!!

It's fun to have your boyfriend as your photographer!

WHAT: silk poppy scarf, chicken lays an egg

lace dress, forever 21

skinny leather belt, chicken lays an egg

sunglasses, chicken lays an egg

vintage floral bag, my gramma

big black ring, forever 21

socks, thrift

brown oxfords, macy’s

WHERE: playing at the park and work at chicken, then PIZZA!

WHEN: tuesday, june 22

We played around with Jacob’s iPhone Hipstamatic app a little too, which produced some pretty cool shots!

Thanks for looking!!

come pick me up

Whew! This week has been kicking my ass! We’re putting together all the last minute stuff for the Eco Go-Go fashion show on Saturday, plus yesterday was my business partner and roommate Maya’s birthday. We all went out on Tuesday for live band karaoke and then myself and some friends threw her a surprise party last night. I’d never put one together before and it was more stressful than I thought it would be! Not so much that there was a lot of work for me, it just made me kind of jittery and nervous all day. Thankfully I have the best friends ever and they all helped so so much, it went off without a hitch! Seriously though, I deserve an Oscar for my acting this week- she didn’t expect anything. Thank you of course to Dana and Maya’s amazingly sweet dude Brendan, I could not have done it without you!!

Today’s outfit makes me really want to listen to Ryan Adams. Luckily I have a nice little bus ride home ahead of me, so that’s just what I’ll do. I picked up this dress at the thrift store recently but I think this is the first time I’ve worn it. I would have to say that I was surprised to find a piece of Laura Ashley clothing that I liked this much. The straps are oddly long on it though, so I pinned them up in the back so they would fit. I just like the way it looks though, so instead of shortening the straps the traditional way I’m think I’m going to throw a few stitches in where the safety pin is. I absolutely love the sweetheart neckline and the way the yoke mimics that same shape too. All in all it was a nice comfy outfit for a semi-lazy day.