Girl's Not Grey

So, I was in a very bad mood today, extremely tired, and all around not feeling the inspiration. Nonetheless, I think I did a damn good job. I actually added some gray in for irony, and added some delicate touches with the makeup and accessories

Cardigan is Xhileration, and honestly one of my favorite Target purchases of the year
Green blouse is from Japan
Necklace was on sale for $3 at Target about 4 years ago, and I thought it was cute
Earrings were purchased at a gift shop in Leavenworth, WA, and the emeralds set into them are from the ash of the Mt. St. Helens eruption. I'm fairly obsessed with the whole idea of this, for a couple reasons... first off, I'm a May baby, so emeralds are my birthstone... second, my birthday, May 18th, fell on the 9th anniversary of the famous eruption. Therefore, when I saw 'em, I had to have 'em




Tomorrow will be inspired by the song Good Gone Girl by Mika.
This should be fun. The entire premise of the song is basically the good girl who is bored with being good, and tries to use people... (kinda reminds me of Allison in Cry-Baby). If I can't find inspiration for that, well then I don't know what's wrong with me these days.

Grace Kelly

What do you get when you mix a very tired girl who has been gone and not able to dress up for more than 12 hours of her day with a fashion challenge involving a favorite song?
A VERY weak attempt at classic Hollywood glam. I'm sorry. The dress is what I intended to use all along, but I did not have the energy to accessorize or do my hair as I'd originally thought I would.
I took three lines of inspiration from the song:
"I tried to be like Grace Kelly, but all her looks were too sad"
"I've gone identity mad"
And, there's one bit where the lyrics list off a bunch of different colors, so I picked one, and it is blue. Because that matches my dress.
Note, I am not directly going for a Grace Kelly look, but my own, updated take on a classic, quaint dress.




Please note: the dress is Zac Posen for Target, the spring '10 Target/designer collaboration. I spent a lot of money on it, but it was my 21st birthday dress, and SO worth it. Rarely do I find a dress that fits solidly through the waist and flares out with a sort of full skirt. And with the details, it has just enough "would be punk rocker" to suit me perfectly. Best $70 I ever spent

Tomorrow's outfit will be inspired by Girl's Not Grey by afi. Please check out the super amazing song and video.
There are so many things I can do with this song, but as is so plainly put by the title, it needs COLOR... therefore it is an AFTER WORK outfit, and I will do my best to come up with something worthy tomorrow after 4, in time to see my boyfriend (therefore we all know I will do everything in my power to look my absolute best.)

Bitter for Sweet

Alright, I went with a pretty "literal from the title" thing for today's outfit
The sweet portion is characterized by elegant blouse, the super feminine accessories, and the sideswept hairstyle
The bitter part is where I went for "tough" rather than "bitter"... a sort of "jaded to the ways of the world" sort of bitter. Thus the edgier aspects to the outfit... the dark makeup, the boots, the jeggings, the way it all fits together.
And, as promised yesterday, 100% wearable for normal daily activities. That counts as casual in my book







So, a few details to point out... first off, the jeggings I'm wearing were featured in a quick blurb sans pictures a few weeks back. As you can see, they totally look like normal skinny jeans, except they fit better, are way more wearable and comfy, and the comparison to leggings is totally unfair. Nonetheless, I'm going to be making a habit of buying these while they're still in style, because I'm a skinny jeans sort of girl, and am getting tired of the fact that the non stretch ones just don't fit me right.
Also, the makeup... instead of my usual dry powder, layering of shades look for eyeshadow, I went for something a little more dramatic... I mixed one of my favorite loose powder shadows with water to give it a texture that feels like really watery paint... it goes on amazingly and creates super vibrant color. I used silver rather than my usual off-white on the upper half of the eyelid to do something a little more dramatic/almost smokey.
Finally, the hair. To get it to lay sort of flat but in pieces, and with some of my natural waves intact, I simply ran a straightener lightly through it, pressing harder closer to my scalp to get rid of some of the bumps this style of ponytail was creating, and eased up towards the end to keep my natural curls intact towards the bottom. I do this every great once in a while when my hair is just too bushy to manage but I'm not feeling fully straightened hair. Note: This works best on thick, wavy hair. Doesn't really work on thin hair at all. (It does, however, work on FINE hair. People frequently get confused when I talk about having thick hair, because my hair is so fine. There is a big distinction between thick, meaning I have a lot of hair, and coarse, referring to people whose individual strands are thick. A good example of coarse hair is Asian hair... the individual strands are usually thicker and tougher, and don't tend to cooperate with updos or excess styling, which is why choppy, layered hair tends to be very popular among Asian girls... some of my past photos of Lara showcase her normally unstyleable hair, though it should be noted Lara is a genius at getting her hair to stay in curls)

Tomorrow's outfit will be inspired by the song Grace Kelly by Mika (my favorite pop musician, for the record...)... check out the song and the super awesome video right here
Naturally, it's got to be something very old movie star glamorous plus a little bit weird and flashy... this is definitely NOT a work outfit song, and since I'll be working in the morning and have plans after, I will do my best to get a photo shoot up in the evening. This should be fun

Chocolate

As mentioned yesterday, I was going for naivete meets the real world, to complement certain lines in the song
Crediting Snow Patrol follow for all the following lyrics, I'd like to mention what some of those lines are:
"I can make my first steps as a child of 25"
"A simple mistake starts the hardest time"
"Just because I'm sorry doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it at the time"

Because this is about what I'd wear, I made it into a very me outfit, but tried to do a bit of a "innocent young girl" meets "ready for the grown up world" outfit... lots of lace and sweet accessories, a bit edgier with the jeans and shoes... here's what I came up with.







Pretty sure I've covered most of this before, but not the shirt... it's Anna Sui for Target, the special Fall '09 designer collaboration featured at Target... I like how it's casual enough to wear at work, but the lacy sailor-esque collar makes it special and super feminine at the same time
I think I've mentioned the earrings before, but in case I haven't, they are Betsey Johnson, so I think I'm entitled to brag a little about them, even if I did find 'em quite cheap at Nordstrom Rack

Tomorrow's featured song will be Bitter for Sweet, by Blaqk Audio, which you can check out right here
I'm thinking of going for something that manages to be edgy, dressy, and casual all at once. We shall see what happens.