The Effort for the Effortlessness

Today I offer up my apologizes for the millionth time in conjunction to the fact that I suck at blogging on a regular basis.  Today I blame it on having had strep last week, which is one of my better excuses, if I do say so.

In my battles of the all that ill, I still tried to look half-way decent--as I had a few friends visiting from far off states for only the weekend...I could not lie in bed ALL day.  I tried for the "effortless" look with a long skirt...and lots of blush and a hefty dose of mascara on my face to aid in looking more human.

Great for me, I was only going to family (other families...not my own, mind you) barbecues and other more casual things.  I wanted to look put together as not to embarass my friends, but you never wanna stick out like a sore thumb in such situations either!

Effortlessness can most easily be defined by a piece of clothing by the "maxi skirt".  She's a thing of beauty and a thing of real terror.  Generally I feel like a taller lump of a few limbs than I already am in a maxi...so I haven't worn one in years.  This maxi skirt i recently picked up, however, has a undeniable movement to the bottom of the skirt that bandaged all my fears and made me a believer again.  I felt alive (but it was probably all of these prescriptions for my infection).

So if you wanna be comfortable and look put together, I suggest a somewhat fitted and flared maxi for such occasions as the family meet-and-greet.

Give it a twirl.

Give it a whirl.

Be Back Soon <3<3

MIX & MATCH : STRIPES

You know the name of the game-- mix & match.

but my favorite take?  the same matching pattern with some mixing....

To me, a striped shirt can go nautical very quickly (not that that's a

 bad thing sometimes!)  but when you want to feel a little less in the 

safe, mixing up the scale of a stripe can do wonders

* you'll want to make sure there's quite a bit of difference is size of

the stripes if you are only doing two pieces of clothing...you'll just 

look messy, if so >.<

xo

Alex

FASHION: AN EXPERIMENT

As I’ve defined my idea of what “style” is many-a-time, the most encompassing and poignant way to identify style is to merely deem it as... AN EXPERIMENT.

Today we experiment with how to wear a sweater. Sounds really uneventful, right?

Sometimes experiments can go wrong, but sometimes you can cure your cold with a mixture of strange elixirs and home remedies that don't make sense.  Does fashion make sense? More often than not, no. So let's get to experimenting:

Today's blog post is inspired by a look (above) from Christophe Lemaire's Fall RTW collection seen in Paris just a couple of weeks ago.  I know there's huff-and-puff about the change of seasons in fashion-that the shows are merely projections of what will be happening come Fall (in this case).  Is it wrong to draw inspiration immediately?  I don't know, but I also do not care...today it is 40 degrees and I can wear fall-like things if I want.

One of my favorite ways to change up my wardrobe is figuring out new ways of wearing things I already have.  
A good example of such an idea that immediately comes to mind is the Alexander Wang Spring 14 RTW collection where regularly structured button-downs are only buttoned at the very top...creating a whole new thing--

I have a dress that I only ever wear backwards now.  And doing weird things like that excite me.

So, although my wardrobe is highly limited (as I still find my clothes living in three places) I couldn't get that look by Christophe Lemaire out of my mind.  I had to try it.  

Wanna see the results of my experiment

?

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A sweater as a scarf?

I CAN VIBE

There are many people out there that are "Scarf People"while I find myself in a mess of knots when I attempt to "rock a scarf."  The sweater-scarf may look a little silly when people figure out what you are doing....but they also know that you know that you just did that--you are wearing a damn sweater as a scarf...THEY BETTER RESPECT U

Most importantly, in the whole scheme of things is...you have a sweater with you if it gets too cold out :)

You bet I looked a mad fool when I was trying out different sweaters to "wear" but if you want to try the look yourself, it is going to take some trial and error.  This sweater is cropped and very bulky so it didn't look much like the inspiration, but I think it still worked.  The cool thing too is you can use the sleeves in different ways, leaving them loose to hang over your shoulders in front (v. preppy!) or tie them up for a more finished look.

...and maybe scarf people must just be hat people, too.  It makes sense now.

For kicks and giggles and the sake of experimenting, I decided to try out the sweater-scarf idea with a basic crewneck.  It doesn't look too stupid, ~~~only maybe just a little ~~~

What's the conclusion? That I'm here for your entertainment, per usual

--Alex