Here I am, caught in a moment of juggling my very busy schedule and updating my datebook (and was I trying to do a young Chanel here or something?) Judging by the gift bag, the frilly socks, and the polyester pouchette with my name on it, I'd say this was on my birthday. So for the birthday edition of MSTN I picked an outfit made of things I want for my birthday.
And even though that bag doesn't have my name it, IT HAS MY NAME ON IT, nah, meen?
This is me standing in front of a collage I made in college that is still hanging on my wall is that weird?
This is me on the day it was 21º after going to my friend Logan's awesome dance performance. I wore my new shoes.
This is my new shirt that has a pastoral scene on it and it's vintage. This jacket is from Opening Ceremony.
These are some random pictures because I don't have many good pics from the last week. I'm going back to Portland on Sunday! Hooray! Right now I'm watching Stella.
Ahhh the holidays. It kind of blows my mind how fake this picture looks... but this moment really happened. This is at Christmas at my grandparents house, and that is my Aunt Kakie on the left and Aunt Alicia on the right. I'm not sure why I'm so "dressed down," although I do seem to recall that there were a few years when I didn't get that into dressing up on Christmas (here's hoping I can find a photo of the time I wore my Palladium boots with an Earth Day t-shirt over a thermal). I'm obsessed with this disco-in-the-city fantasy outfit, btw, even if it isn't winter appropriate.
I have a couple holiday/birthday photos to enter into the MSTN archives over the next weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. By they way, my birthday is December 21 (solstice! shortest day of the year!) in case you want to turn any of these fantasy outfits into IRL outfits for moi.
Supreme hat / rando LA hat / Jeremy Fish x UP hat / New York Kings hat
These are some pictures I took this weekend when I was being lazy around the house. I have some cool hats but I don't wear them that much anymore partly because I guess I thought my head was smaller than it is cause many of them don't fit. Also these bamboo gold hoops are rad, they have little butterflies on the sides and are secretly part of the Disney Couture jewelry collection. Well not secretly, but you know what I mean.
Why does my head look not attached to my body in all of these pictures?
Topshop poncho and wedges / Gap jeans and shirt / Ray Ban sunnies / BDG hat
This was kind of Portland-y weather today and I was kind of loving it. This weekend I made a bunch of Christmas cookies with the buds, ate a bunch of them, watched TWO Harry Potter movies since the boyf needed to catch up, and now we're in the processes of slow cooking some pulled pork for tacos tonight. Woo woo! Also these are some of my favorite wedges that I own 'cause they're kind of Proenza-y. To my right in all these photos is where they bottle the Manhattan Special, which is a coffee-flavored soda that I have never tried but sounds really nasty.
I started tumbling too, and DANG but it's addicting. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day creating fantasy wishlists from a million stores online and reading Real Simple.
This is a very rough history of N.W.A. told with vids and images.
First, Dr Dre was in a group called World Class Wreckin' Cru, recording super sessual 1980s Electro-hop R&B jammers like "Turn off the Lights:"
At that time, he looked like this:
Then Eazy E swooped in on Dre and Ice Cube who were buddies and both performing at a club called Eve's After Dark on a regular basis, and N.W.A. was formed (other members included DJ Yella, Arabian Prince and MC Ren).
It all started with this...
"Straight Outta Compton" recorded by N.W.A. in 1990. Then, Eazy E gave $2,500 to the Republican Party and had lunch with George H. W. Bush. – but that's just an aside. He was a cutthroat businessman who saw hip hop as the best new way to make a buck, and make a buck he did, despite rapidly losing his cred because of his shady business tactics and inflammatory statements to press.
Then Ice Cube said, Eff this I'm out (he wrote about half the lyrics on platinum-selling "Straight Outta Compton" and got well under $100k of the $650 it grossed), and recorded the incredibly awesome/harsh diss track, "No Vaseline."
Next up Dre ditched N.W.A. for Suge Knight and Death Row after similar issues with Eazy E, and recorded this:
"Dre Day." Oh hey Snoop! This song is another epic Eazy diss but also PLEASE WATCH the video at minute 3:38 and look closely at the 9 year old white girl dancing in the background. Umm.
Eazy came back at Dre with "Real Muthaphuckkin Gs" (censored version: "Real Compton City Gs"):
You can't really be mad at Eazy for using pics of Dre from his WCWC days in this video...
N.W.A. was dissolved completely. Eazy then signed a Jewish rap duo called Blood of Abraham, and started doing a whole lotta good with the money he'd made, taking kids from Compton on trips to Disney Land, sponsoring community events and giving kids money for college. Outside of the public eye, he became a local hero.
Here are some amazing pictures of Eazy E / N.W.A.
Read Jeff Chang's incredible piece on Eazy E's story here.
If this video/song doesn't make you smile, you're in trouble. The Suzan is my favorite girl band of the moment. Read my interview/feature on them here and check out this sweet group shot:
These are pretty sweet. Pink, black and silver Air Max 90s that I bought on eBay. I think maybe the only thing I've ever bought on eBay. I placed the winning bid via my Blackberry during a smoke break when I was working at a dive bar called The Deck on the Columbia River one summer. It was a sweet gig. They are a bit snug but they still look fairly new-ish, so I try and take good care of them.
Also can I please have these Christopher Kane mens pieces asap?
Okay first of all... I finally learned to curl my hair.
This was a major triumph for me. I went to an event at Folica last night where some awesome stylists from White Plains taught us how do holiday hair – for real. We learned a "fancy bun" (the only one I've truly mastered), a Jessica Alba updo and a Taylor Swift updo. I also learned that all curls have different names. The above curls are Victoria's Secret curls slash Sarah Jessica Parker curls (cause they're really messy underneath). You should check out their blog, HairJunky, it has lots of practical advice if, like me, you suck at doing hair.
This is a picture of Ghostface Killah and Raekwon, who is also the guy in my banner.
Here's a good Raekwon download I found today. He even shouts out YSL and Ferragamo, so fashion lovers will like it too.
Here is an event better download that I found via Brittnee:
2 Live Crew
Yimmy Yayo's mixtape for The World's Best Ever. Read the tracklist and you'll get it:
01. Fantasy (Remix) by Mariah Carey
02. Holiday by Naughty by Nature
03. Poison by Bel Biv Devoe
04. I Wish by Skee Lo
05. This Is How We Do It by Montell Jordan
06. Got Your Money (Dirty) by Ol’ Dirty Bastard
07. 1,2,3,4 Get Your Woman On the Floor by Coolio
08. Informer by Snow
09. Push It by Salt N’ Pepa
10. Check Yo Self by Ice Cube
11. Here Comes the Hot Stepper by Ini Kamoze
12. The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground
13. Now That We’ve Found Love by Heavy D & The Boyz
14. Pop That Coochie by 2 Live Crew
15. C’Mon & Ride It (the Train) by Quad City DJs
16. Humping Around by Bobby Brown
17. Let Me Clear My Throat by DJ Kool
18. Too Close by Next
Got these puppies at DSW for about $30. They're definitely in MAJOR "homage" to the super gorgeous Gucci heels from their F/W 2008 collection (pictured below), but I couldn't resist them. There very comfy and even though they hit on a trend that is dying off a bit, I'll probably hold on to them for a long time. I have been thinking of starting an e-store for some of my shoes/stuff though... but I'm not sure if anyone would even want my stuff... ?
OH HEY! Behold, the incredibly beautiful Leora Kadisha, StyledOn's wonderful founder and CEO, in Sally Singer's debut issue of T Magazine. Wearing Proenza, of course. I've really enjoyed what I've read of the issue so far, from the arts/books features, to the REALLY REALLY good Zing! editorial styled by David Vandewal. But seeing Leora on those glossy pages was definitely the highlight.
On another note, this little getup from YSL seems to be an editor favorite this season (at left in Dec. Elle, at right in T) ... and while I am headoverheels in love with Alba's juicy stack of bangles, Nicki's attitude is killing it. #Win.
FCUK skirt / Gap shirt / Dad's sweater / Olsenboye shoes / Anne Klein coat / H&M sunnies / BDG hat
Wore this on a windy Saturday to fuel up at Sel de Mer before mainlining more Nip/Tuck (ppl say season 5 sucks, but I'm really into this Portia de Rossi / Bradley Cooper / Tia Carrera hot mess. Bring on the dram). I have had this skirt since high school and just recently had it tailored to fit better, but I think I've had it so long that I've lost all perspective on whether or not it's actually a cool skirt. Does this happen to you? I'm so used to seeing it my closet that I'm like, "Oh, you again. Do I even like you?" Is it really not cute and I just don't know it? ISSUES.
Today, I think I'm going to re-lace some of my sneakers to fresh-en them up a bit, put together a much needed music post for the Roni, and do my christmas/birthday wishlist post (btw my birthday is December 21, I'm a solstice baby). That mayyyyy be a bit over ambitious, especially since I just discovered the holy grail of style sites that I can't stop clicking at.
I'll be honest. I haven't always been a big Tory Burch fan. Her ubiquitous logo flats just didn't do it for me, but as I've grown more familiar with her collections, and as her designs have started veering away from the logos, the more I've fallen in love with her clothes. Her resort collection is full of really awesome patterns, different textures and COLOR – my favorite.
This week I got the chance to join some other bloggers on behalf of StyledOn to style a look with pieces from the 2011 resort collection. Here's a look at my favorite shots from her lookbook, and the look that I styled:
The look I styled for Tory Burch.
I couldn't resist her monkey-patterned pajamas, so I used a top from the PJ set, a super soft cardi and an amazing neon three-strand necklace. Plus the bag is pretty sweet. I'm happy with the results, but I wish I could have done more more more! Makes me want to try more styling work – BUT LET'S NOT GET AHEAD OF OURSELVES.
Last night I briefly popped into Club Monaco for the Sugar and Cashmere event to launch their collaboration with Fresh, and stayed long enough to snap some shots of my Christmas wishlist items. Loving this hat, the velvet pants, chunky knits, and conductor striped shirt... read on for more pics of my favorites!
This pair of sneakers is pretty precious. They are probably in the best condition of all my high tops – they are special limited edition high tops with designs by Jeremy Fish who is a pretty fresh artist. They were given to me by a very close friend and I heart them. Here are a few examples of Jeremy's work, you may also recognize his handiwork from Aesop Rock album art and other fine duds at Upper Playground.
Guys, lets talk about this picture. I'm surrounded by boys dressed in pirate costumes, as this was clearly a pirate-themed birthday party, and I'm honoring the theme only vaguely with this outfit. (It should be noted that I have an adult-sized version of those exact same sneakers, stay tuned for the ATSIO coming up). Also, I'm standing with a stick in my hand, presumably to hit the rainbow pinata above me, while looking wistfully into the distance at god only knows what. The kids behind me are like "WTF are you doing!?!?" Haterz.
The outfit I but together is a little more pirate-y (slash Kate Lanphear-y) than my 6-year-old version. I think I would feel really badass in this outfit. Definitely.
Help! I suddenly find myself with a $100 Nordstrom gift certificate and too many shoes to choose from. I've narrowed it down to these four... but I need help! Please? Which ones?
Ah yes. I bought these for our company holiday party last year – as good an excuse to buy shoes as any, right? I should wear them more often, but they are a bit teetery.
This four-day weekend was seriously the best. I wish they came around more often. I'm currently in the throes of Nip/Tuck season four, the very beginning. Sort of can't deal with Mario Lopez's body... am I wrong? Also I can't watch any of the surgery on this show it's too gross.
Since it was Thanksgiving and I knew I would be doing a lot of cooking followed by a lot of eating, I picked this really comfy dress to wear and jazzed it up with some of my favorite gold jewelry. Oh and this red feathered hair clip that you can't really see in these pictures. We had 10 friends over for an early dinner, and it was a big success. We had all the turkey day favorites and an incredible spread of desserts. The whole day really did make me thankful for my incredible friends, they're simply the best.
Today, we recovered with a Nip/Tuck marathon (omg Brittany Snow the neo-nazi is too much to handle and WHEN is poor Kimber going to be reunited with Christian?), leftovers, and PJs. Four day weekends should be a once a month thing if you ask me.
What we have here is me, waiting at the foot of our driveway on the first day of school. I was extremely proud of this outfit, as you can tell by my bowl cut and the smirk on my face. I'm like, "Just WAIT til they see this."
And though I have outgrown the matching leggings + sweatshirt combo (or have I?) I would wear something very similar today, as I really do love a good matchymatch (so not cool, I know). These are all pieces I've been silently obsessed with for a while that I think would kick ass put together. Is it too much? Tell me the truth I can take it.
Finger Glasses / Bullwinkle / Bow No! / The Jig Is Up
These are all my gloves and some posing that I did tonight. I was watching Bored to Death which is my new favorite show. Watch it! Okay g2g see you guyz later.