My outfits for different occasions

Here's something a little different! Using my favorite fashion collage site Polyvore, I've put together a few recreations of what I wear on a daily basis without showing you grainy pictures of my mug. Observe:

For an average day going to class (Well, maybe not heels to class. But I could if I really wanted to...). Sheer black tops are my new favorite thing, I have 3 at the moment.

This is what I wore last week to my internship at the BG, almost exactly. Same concept. I try not to be too boring without completely scaring people. *This is the only time I have to think about being appropriate for a certain environment. You never know with internships, do you...

This is what I'll wear for a weekend day of doing homework at Newhouse and running errands, exactly the outfit I wore today, exception being that my black sweatshirt is shaped like a peacoat and not like this one. What's with the red hearts on the gingham top? I sewed red heart buttons on mine. :] Also wore my hair in a bun with a bandanna Rosie the Riveter style.

An outfit for sitting around at home, I have everything exactly in this pic down to that same issue of Nylon. My blue teddy bear is one of my favorite things and I prefer thigh highs with shorts over pants in the spring. I won't put my contacts in unless I'm leaving my house and I drink tea continuously pretty much ALL day. 

Welcome to the life :P

DIY Dip Dye

Hey everyone! I'm back from a lovely spring break in the Chi with a backlog of DIYs to share.

I finally found a white collared shirt to dip dye! It's made of 100% cotton, which is best for taking dye. And I used navy blue RIT dye (the bottled kind), although my shirt turned out purple. How did that happen? I don't know. I also don't really mind either. My wardrobe could use more color.

I found the tutorial on Refinery29 and followed it almost exactly. The part where I always skimp on is mixing the dye... fail. You should probably measure out your dye and make correct dye-to-water ratios and know how much salt you need. I usually just dump some dye into a glass bowl of hot water and throw as much salt in as I feel like. DIY stands for Do-It-(MY WAY). The fun of DIY is making things up as you go along!

The only important rules to follow are to wet and ring out your shirt to the point where you want your dye to run up to.

Leave it hanging in the dye for at least 2 hours. After a half hour, pour water down the shirt to encourage the dye to spread upwards. I found that the dye really liked running up the seams, making my front seam like a stripe.

After a few hours, rise your shirt until the water runs clear through it. Use gloves unless you want stained hands. Yes, this will take forever. Patience, grasshopper. Wash it separately from the rest of your clothes; I wouldn't be surprised if dye kept seeping out no matter how much you think it rinsed out.

Here's how mine turned out...  bit more purple than navy blue usually is! I like it :] I wore it with my purple cameo ring and DIY suede chain bracelet.

Geisha

I realized that I never made a geisha photodump yet... how odd. Fixing that now.

I love geisha and maiko. I've done 2 research projects on them for separate classes, including of course, reading and watching Memoirs of a Geisha (don't get me started on them. OH the inaccuracies of both the book and the movie) and I've read Mineko Iwasaki's autobiography that sets her record straight.

Before I get any further here, let's shoot down the popular myth: THEY ARE NOT PROSTITUTES. Got it? If anyone wants to say contrary, I will drop kick you instantly. Geisha are artists trained in everything from dance, conversation, music, flower arranging, etiquette, etc. They train longer in their craft than Olympic athletes and share the same lifelong devotion to their profession. 

Side note: This picture was titled "Two Japans." Too right. Look at how they're looking at her! It's like time travel- present looking at past.

And I think they are the most beautiful, artful people. Their outfits coordinate with the seasons, as do their hair ornaments. It takes them hours to get dressed, including traditional rituals that are followed every time they leave their house. Every detail in their appearance has a meaning: for example, a maiko (geisha in training) changes hairstyles with important landmarks that she reaches through her training. It's said that maiko wear more elaborate kimonos, hairstyles, and ornaments because they are still in training and learning about their performances. A full-feldged geisha's beauty comes from her skills rather than her clothes and decorations, so she dresses in a much simpler fashion.

They are, above all, graceful. At least, that's what I always take away from photos.

Flickr is a goldmine for geisha paparazzi and probably the most accurate sources for authentic geisha pictures. Anyone can throw on a kimono and claim to be a geisha... posers, all of them. I snagged pictures from Onihide, Momoyama, and Milestone, all of whom have excellent galleries. I can scroll through their flickrs for hours.

The whole exotic mystery surrounding geisha is that you don't know what goes on behind closed doors (until Mineko Iwasaki told us, and I'm sure that wasn't everything). A geisha's time is very expensive and they only cater to a small margin of important people, none of which include Westerners (most of the time). You have to be super important to be invited to a tea house with geisha company. And super lucky. 

You can dress a model up in the latest fashions, make her pose unnaturally, and it'll never be anything close to this kind of traditional beauty.  

Elly Jackson (aka La Roux)

Style dissection time! Elly is the front woman of electropop band La Roux. Famous songs you've probably heard: “In For the Kill” and “I'm Not Your Toy.”

And here she is. Not surprisingly, her look has raised some eyebrows in a world dominated by famous ladies in pumps and frilly frocks. Elly's androgynous looks have branded her significantly. How many women wear blazers and oxford style shoes on the red carpet? Well, maybe some do sometimes, but every time? Only masters of style.

Personally, I love her juxtaposing outfits. Her music is electronic and pop-y, club music to a certain extent. Club clothes can be completely random: short, tight, spandex, clothes that cover very little of the body. Very interesting that she chooses to remain extremely covered. No low cut shirts, no leg, no platform heels. She also has short hair with an amazing... mowhawk? Windswept hairdo? Whatever it is, it's fabulous. The amount of spray or gel or whatever she uses must be astronomical. Bravo.

Of course, wearing pants and having short hair makes people instantly question her sexuality. Dang, she's got to be a lesbian... Sorry, no. Remember when women wore pants to (gasp) jobs in the 1940s during WWII? It's been in our culture for quite some time now. Get over it. Dresses are easy. Just wish you were awesome enough to pull off separates as well as Elly can.

Something I noticed while snagging some of her pictures online is the prevalence of this cameo that she always wears (designed by Sylvie Markovina). I found that intriguing. Cameos necklaces of a similar style were trendy in the Victorian and Edwardian Era. They depicted Greek Goddesses or were commissioned portraits of themselves for women to wear. The figure has classical features and was a symbol of feminine beauty. Fashions and trends in these ages were so detailed and so rigidly followed that to be out of style was social suicide. Keeping this in mind, I love that Elly wears such a feminine piece of jewelry to contrast with her “boyish” look.

Rock the pants, girl. Why be just like everyone else in their slinky dresses? 

Yesstyle.com haul

I woke up on this snowy Syracuse morning to a yesstyle box! It could not have come at a better time, as the leggings I ordered fit my snowy landscape perfectly and I will wear them today. Shipping from Hong Kong consistently takes less time than ANY domestic shipping. Figure that one out.

First is this Peter Pan style crochet collar top. It's cute. She looks like a pumpkin!

I've had my eye on this simple color blocked top for months... pretty sure it was from the summer collections. Oh well. It looks terrible on me at the moment since my paleness is akin to the white paint on my walls. (Why are there no tanning places around SU? I can name 5 tanning places that sandwiched ISU's campus. Hm.)

Last is this pair of snowflake leggings! I'm 5'8 so they're really short on me, almost like those leggings that stop mid-calf. I plan on wearing them with boots anyway so that doesn't matter much. I chose the left pattern.