good morning midnight

I guess “witchy ballerina vibes” is kind of a thing I get behind once in a while?

shirt free people
skirt zara
boots surface to air

dress complex geometries
boots h+m (the lisbeth salander collection, don’t tell anyone i bought them. i’ve superglued the wedges back on to the boot body twice now, ughck)

NYFW DAY 1 (TUESDAY) a.k.a. 2K9/10 fashungoth throwback vibez a.k.a. “this dress is honestly the most comfortable thing I own and my almost-stylish equivalent of wearing pajamas to work,” since I can’t imagine anything more comfortable than a giant hooded sack of uber-soft worn-in jersey that I’ve been wearing a few times a month since I first got it.  Totally fine with that.

This NYFW is the first one in a while where I opted not to have any responsibilities for other publications, which has honestly been kind of nice: I’ve wandered around to a few things, gone to all the shows I’ve been somehow involved with, but mostly I’ve been hella laid back instead of frantically cabbing it back and forth from Milk to Lincoln Center fourteen times a day. And rather than shooting 400 photos per hour on my digital camera, I’ve been shooting film, which is kind of awesome and a totally different approach than the OMFG PUT IT ON TWITTER RIGHT NOW steeze I’ve gotten so used to. (So you’ll see the best of them once I develop it all next week!)  I guess I’ve been dressing lazier too, or at least just more like myself: all the silly hats and polka dot suits and Litas galore running around Soho are great and all, but I feel way better in my worn-in favourites and go-to basics topped off with my epic leopard coat.

skirt gretchen jones
shirt nudie jeans
jacket wilson
boots surface to air

One of the perks of working in fashion is that when, say, you’re wearing a leeeeettle-bit-too-short-skirt and your stockings suddenly bust open in a giant run, like, an unforgivable totally not-cute underwear-baring gaping nightmare run of horror and shame, not that these things happen to me ALL THE GODDAMNED TIME, WHY, WHY TIGHTS, WHY DO YOU HATE ME, there’s usually a rack of samples somewhere in the office to come to the rescue for the rest of the day before you steam them and return them safely to their rack with a sigh of relief before running home to hide from the universe and bemoan your ability (or lack thereof) to ever be a real grownup. Anyhow!

This Gretchen Jones skirt saved me last week, and, goddamnit, I think I’m going to have to get it for real now because I kind of love it. It was one of those things I’d really liked on the rack but never thought it would work on me — it just seemed a little more girly and boho than I usually roll, and I tend to have a hard time with prints.  But it worked fortuitously well with the outfit I had on that day — which originally had included a black wool mini instead — and fit in oddly well with my otherwise chains-and-leather-and-grungy-beanie steeze.

We may also notice that I bought another pair of those Surface to Air wedges that we saw me covet and eventually buy here like in 2009 and after wearing the old ones to three separate deaths, each time resurrected by a shoemaker with a little less vitality until finally they were beyond hope, they popped up on Gilt for, well, cheap. SO I JUST BOUGHT THE SAME PAIR OF SHOES AGAIN. Which feels sort of stupid, but whatever, I’m way psyched about it.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this skirt before (EDIT: OOPS, LIES, I did last year) — another one of my most prized thrift store finds.  It’s Jil Stuart and gorgeous greyish-mauve silk, and cost me probably less than what I spend on coffee in a week. I have to wear a knee-length slip underneath to make it work-appropriate, since the front of the skirt is 4 separate panels with slits that go up to almost hip-height, but the movement on it is seriously amazing.

teeshirt sharpied American-Apparel-turned-YSL
skirt Jil Stuart
jacket April 77
boots Surface To Air

photos (again) by Erwin

Faux fur leopard coat redux — but this time all mine! After a few days of puttering around Zara and whatever trying to find a decent one and frowning over crappily-constructed not-very-warm made-in-China weirdly-fit $150+ coats, I walked into a Buffalo Exchange and the first thing I saw was this baby (Calvin Klein and super soft and clean-smelling and satin-lined and my size and all) just hangin’ out on a rack for, like, $60.  HELL YES. 

Photos, again, by Erwin.

When my friend Erwin asked if I would help out with his photo portfolio and model for him, of course I said yes!  I bought this dress for next to nothing at a Buffalo Exchange last week and have been wearing it every opportunity since.

dress vintage
vest h+m
creepers underground
hat allsaints

photos by Erwin

This weekend’s brisk but sunny weather called for a trip up to Fort Tryon Park and The Cloisters, hands down one of my favourite places in the city. It’s unreal that somewhere that looks so old and mysterious is just half an hour north of midtown on the A train — the riverside gardens, arches, crumbling stone paths, castle, and ivy-covered stone walls look more like Vyšehrad in Prague or something than an Olmsted-planned park and branch of the Met plopped down on a former Revolutionary War fort.

jeans current elliot
tee, scarf american apparel
jacket april77
boots timberland 
sunglasses rayban 

(And for all of y’all who always request less-girlier styles here, significant otter @RXTURN3R is wearing Allsaints jeans, Jeremy Scott for Adidas shoes, French Connection coat, a Coal hat and Jeremy Tarian sunglasses.)

I told you so! (Scroll back two posts.) This year’s Pretentious Slutoween Because Hey I Won’t Have These Legs Forever costume was Diane Lane in Ladies and Gentlmen The Fabulous Stains, which seemed to be met with either blank stares or really, really enthusiastic recognition, which is half of what’s so fun about movie character costumes. (Though last year everyone seemed to think my Pris costume was, like, “Taylor Momsen.”)  

Shirt from American Apparel, tights from H+M, makeup and a bra and shoes and boyshort bikini bottoms and a coat I already had, and one exciting shopping expedition to get a wig plus some weave is all this one took.

I actually wore this way-back-when during NYFW but am a Lazy Blogger so didn’t post it until now. Oops.

shirt idk, but i shredded it
pants kaelen
shoes mesecca
necklace langoliers

Speaking of things I started almost a month ago during NYFW! That list I started compiling then?  Of somehow-alternative fashion blogs and tumblrs? I am still working on it! Because it is a monumental task! And I still want your recommendations! Please! More! There must be more!

You know, if you get told you look like Juliette Lewis at least once a week, like to the point where strangers on the street/in restaurants/in stores tell you this, to the point where you complete their sentence of “Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like — ” with “…Juliette Lewis, but like less wacky, I know,” and/or when you, irritated with the whole thing, post photos of her as your Facebook default, your friends actually Still Think It Is You, sometimes you just need to throw all modesty, self-consciousness, ambivalence and good taste to the wind and pull out the shortest, tightest, flashiest dress you own and mess your hair up and figure oh, what the hell, if it works for Juliette it works for me.  (Besides, I’m completely obsessed with these House of Holland socks, and there’s really no way to go for “subtle” when you’re wearing gartered/suspender overknee socks that look like the elastic on men’s underwear.)

dress american apparel
tights duane reade
garters & socks house of holland
jacket april77
creepers underground

This weekend, in between coats of paint in my living room, I ended up Netflixing The Wings of the Dove, which is of course a fantastically self-indulgent period piece based on a Henry James novel featuring Helena Bonham Carter in an infinite amount of silly hats and the long, flowing Grecian-style dresses, hobble skirts, and fancy umbrellas of the early 20th century.  (Which in turn lead to the usual internet k-hole of historical fashion research…expect a post-Victorian pre-20s image dump post soon!)  Though it wasn’t intentional, I think this was on my mind when I put this together — the Fortuny-esque pleats of the skirt and the wide V-neck definitely mimic those silhouettes that I’ve been compulsively saving to my hard drive for the past week.

I wore this to work with a frumpy cardigan and my crazy hair down and felt like it was really casual albeit a lil’ witchy, but once I braided my hair up (stupid half-grown out bangs and increasingly enormous mane can be solved by two things only: a series of messy french braids pulled back into a high bun, or 60s-esque teasing and a bottle of hairspray with a headband) it suddenly looked unexpectedly formal.  Same with my day-to-day makeup here: matte foundation, a slight cat-eye that starts only at the edge of your eye (rather than tracing the lid), a shimmery white powder at the inner corner of your eye, mascara, and a matte red lipstick takes about 4 minutes to do and with the right clothes seemed suddenly very classic Hollywood glamour. (Softboxed speedlite to improvise butterfly/George-Hurrell-esque lighting doesn’t hurt with photographing it that way, either — shh!)

skirt h+m
tank h+m
wedges opening ceremony