Friday, July 22, 2011

Happy Friday!

Ah!  Nothing puts a spring in your step like wearing a new dress!  Especially when it's a cute vintage dress you picked up for a buck fiddy!   I seriously love the thrift stores up here!   This was my best attempt at photographing it, kinda rough but you get the idea.  But yeah it's a cool dress because it looks kinda 1950's but it's actually from the early 80's so it's made out of jersey and is way comfortable.  Once I removed the shoulder pads that is!  Anyways, I'm off to a friends cabin this evening!  Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hipster Photography


I just picked up a little vintage gem at the Salvation Army for 99 cents today, a plastic magazine promotional camera.  It's almost identical to the one pictured above except mine says LIFE on the corner and doesn't have the plastic molded grip on the right.  I picked it up on a whim, knowing that I still had some old rolls of unused film, and after scouring the internet for more information about it I'm getting excited to try it out this weekend!

One of the many Diana reproductions offered by Urban Outfitters.
I know I'm going to get some crap from my friends at the lake this weekend.  They'll tease me about becoming a city hipster.  My response will be something about how unlike actual city hipsters (who are in many cases actually phonies) I did not buy a Diana repro from Urban Outfitters for $80.  I have no idea if my little camera will produce the same dreamy photographs so well loved by Lomographers and die-hard Diana fans.  I can only hope.

Source

If you're not familiar with the famed Diana's or Holgas so popular with hipster artists, in a nut shell it goes like this: In the 1960's there were a variety of cheap plastic cameras, many made in the Soviet & Hong Kong.  They had rather poor construction and they were also ALL plastic including the lens.  This crummy plastic lens produced a blurred effect and also didn't capture color accurately. Add to that light leakage around the seams and you've got one cheap, shitty-ass camera!  Or so you'd think!

Wouldn't you know it, all those defects create one perfectly lovely effect!  One that still is darn near impossible to create in photoshop.  Our hearts flutter with false nostalgia over hazy visions of simple objects we forgot we knew and of places we've never visited.  It's like a Hollywood flashback.  The photographs are not our fuzzy memories but we accept the emotions they invoke because they appear the way our own distant memories appear.  Tilted tints and tones color our lives and off-kilter objects reflect the warping of our perception over the passing of time.

We remember the sun being brighter than it really was.

Above 4 photos from Kameron Elisabeth

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Workwear Wednesday

Okay so admittedly my working wardrobe has become pretty relaxed in the past week since it's as hot as the depths of hell and twice as humid.  It's pretty much wear whatever you'll sweat the least in.  But the heatwave is supposed to break by Sunday so it'll be back to sittin' pretty in actual grown-up attire.  Still it's summer so I'd like to focus on clothes that you could actually wear when it's 80 degrees out!  I'm talkin' sleeveless and not a pair of long pants in sight!


Let's dissect this outfit shall we?  This shorts/tank combo works for several reasons.  1) Chose shorts with an inseam no shorter than 4 inches, preferably 6 inches.  2)These are nicely tailored shorts with no frayed edges or distressing.  3)Although it's a tank, it isn't revealing or skin tight.  The higher neckline balances out the bare shoulders.  4)Wearing an elevated heal with shorts ups the formality.  Save the flip-flops for the beach.  5)Wisely chosen accessories again help keep the formality office appropriate.

Here are some other great examples for when there's no way in hell you're wearing even a 3/4 sleeve linen blazer.

This is another great example of how to wear shorts to work!
Source

Monday, July 18, 2011

Happy Monday!

Good Morning Lovelies!   I am back and very happy this morning!  I am well rested thanks to an air conditioner in our bedroom (it's getting to 99 degrees today and a huge storm has made our humidity as a rain forest!), AND once I ship a package this morning I have almost two whole weeks to just work on the new collection!!!!   And that is what I am the most happy about!   Also that I will have time to blog again!   Over the weekend I finished a gown design (woot!) and started another one which is going very well so far. If I can stand this heat there will more sneak peeks from the new collection soon so stay tuned.  That's all for now.  See ya tomorrow!