Inspiration: James Jean

Ever since I saw his artwork on the cover of the comic book series Fables, I was instantly in love. His work is fluid, romantic, creepy, organic....it's got so much soul and imagination to it that I'm just constantly mesmerized by the work he does. I definitely would not mind having my walls covered in his prints and my room littered with his gorgeous journals, although it seems as if a lot of his collected art books are ridiculously priced. ($300 for the collection of Fables covers?! Give me a break!)

I'm hoping you all will be as inspired by him as I am! More of his lovely work can be seen at http://jamesjean.com, including some work he did for the Prada store. (Oh, and did I mention he integrated some of his artwork into Prada merchandise like scarves and dresses? If only I could wrap my hands around one!)











As a sidenote, I do plan on redoing my ClosetBug layout. I've had this for nearly two full years! It's time for a change, and fast.

Monday Jan 25th - Lost in Wonderland

As some of you may know I was rehired back onto the Fashion Quarterly staff, which is this fashion and lifestyle magazine on campus. I figured it would be a great opportunity to start writing again and network with a bunch of other students that would share the same interest in the general fashion world.

Last Monday, we threw together a little launch party for our Winter 2010 issue, and it was quite the experience! Not to mention I was exposed to this amazing designer by the name of Eleanore Santos for her Garden Party Clothing line. As the name suggests, the clothing is all sorts of sweet, romantic, and feminine. I was in love! I'm definitely going to be custom ordering some pretty dresses and pieces from her.

Night was filled with new friends, gorgeously dressed ladies, and many comments on the "Alice in Wonderland" vibe I was giving off. I would have to say I was pleased with the comparison.







Blue Dress: Rodarte for Target $40
White Cardigan: Forever 21 $$Gift
White Purse: Vintage Working Wardrobes $5
White Kitten Heels: Vintage Salvation Army $7

You can check out more photos from the launch party HERE

Thursday January 21st - Birds of a Feather

It's been raining cats and dogs this week! I don't think San Diego has seen such horrific rain...at least while I've been a resident here. But this weather phenomenon provides opportunities for other leisurely pursuits, such as indulging in Orson Scott Card's Enchantment, which is this lovely book concerning magical realism. I absolutely adore it!

On a side note, the lineup for Coachella came out the other day, and I'm utterly excited to attend! My plan is to go for all 3 days this year, so there's much to look forward to. (I'm especially excited to see She & Him! What a thrilling experience it must be finally see Zooey Deschanel sing!)

Tomorrow calls for a rushed trip to Joann's Arts & Crafts in order to pick up art supplies for a much procrastinated art project, as well as some craft projects I've had in mind for some accessories. One of them includes possibly making some clips with small origami cranes. It seems charming, no?




Leather Jacket - Foreign Exchange $22
Pink Blouse - Vintage Salvation Army $5
Black Skirt - Buffalo Exchange $7
Black Boots - Vintage Working Wardrobes $15
Tights - Target $5

Oh, and if you take a closer peek, you may see some of my loots from my flea market raid last week! An Alphonse Mucha print, a dainty vintage purse, and a little golden jewelry/stamp box.

Thursday January 15th - From Day & Night

The alarm goes off. I wake up feeling refreshed, energized, and slightly amused at how little time I have to actually get ready for the daily work grind. Once I began to throw on my work-ready ensemble (which consisted of a pair of pants...something I haven't worn in MONTHS), I realized how fun it would be to have a small blog feature about transforming my basic "look" from daytime work wear to night time fun. It did take me some thinking time to plan out a basic night time look for a concert I was headed to that night, but throughout the day my plans just fell right into place.


Day: Blouse-Gap ($12), Blazer-Foreign Exchange ($22), Jeans-???, Brogues-Salvation Army Vintage ($19)
Night: Blouse-Gap ($12), Blazer-Foreign Exchange ($22), Skirt-Urban Outfitters ($10), Wedges-Urban Outfitters/Dean&Ozzy ($30), Bib Necklace-Gift/Etsy ($19)

Staple pieces in my work outfit were the blazer and the white top. These were both recent purchases over my winter break in Orange County, and loved the combination! It was just baggy, loose, comfortable, and the little pleating details just add so much girliness to the other bold basic pieces. Paired with a demure braid-bun (in which I braided my hair and flipped it around to make a sweet little back bun), I had a very comfy and heart-worthy work outfit.

Inspiration: Asobi Seksu - Thursday (YOUTUBE)

Switch over to the night scene, I was getting ready to head out to an Asobi Seksu concert. (If you haven't heard of them, you must check out their music! I provided a youtube link prior to this paragraph!) I kept the key top and blazer, and instead substituted it for a girly skirt, tights, and my new Dean & Ozzy wedges. All together it was a very minor wardrobe change, and I darkened my makeup and threw on some fiery lipstick. (In detail, I mixed Taihiti Red and Scarlett from MAC to create my color!)

Overall...excellent day. And my dear partner-in-crime helped take photos of me like a "mini photoshoot" right after the show. It was so silly and fun! Especially when he started following me and taking photos of me just walking about.


Me being silly (photo thanks to Rachel)







I hope you all enjoyed my post! Honestly, it may seem most advantageous for me to resolve blogging more. Hopefully this may yield fruitful results! Ciao!

Designer Loves & Zooey Deschanel

I recently saw this video, and am utterly in love with it! Of course, the bias of Zooey Deschanel is a part of why I adore it so much, but really it's just a well put together video. And isn't Matt Costa just adorable? I saw him before during a music festival at school, and he's just utterly a doll. But that's besides the point. The point is, all these costume changes and hairstyles and Zooey being utterly adorable just makes me giddy and ache for her wardrobe.



On that side note, I had considered buying a form mannequin for the future use of sewing. Unfortunately, it dawned on me that my current talent for sewing is rather poor and that I should really focus on advancing my technique with the machine. But it was an exciting fleeting thought!

While I pondered over the purchase of the $50 form mannequin, I also browsed though a mess of pretty seasonal clothes from various designers such as Wren and Secret Squirrel. I'm simply in love with these pieces!



Eco friendly fashion at Sublet


Beautiful pieces by Willow



Fun prints at Secret Squirrel





Inspiring photos by Dear Creatures

so this is the new year...

As this new 2009 year is closing, I feel like it's really important to really look back on the year and see how one has grown as a person. I know for sure that a lot has happened to me in the past year.

Things seemed to have really flown by for me, it seems just like yesterday I was having my New Year's kiss in Downtown Disney, that I celebrated Valentine's Day at Disneyland, that I relaxed under the sun and sounds of music at Coachella and SunGod, and that I started a new life in my new San Diego townhome. Yet here I am at the tail end of 2009 musing over other trivial things such as how my style has changed over the year.



Although the only real change I can see is that my look seems to have refined a bit, no? However some fascinations never seem to die out. (Note the ever persistent presence of the skirt, and the unwavering silhouette!)



And with that, I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and a happy new year!

Tues Dec 1st - Back on FashionQuarterly!

I'm so glad! Last quarter I was a part of an on-campus fashion & lifestyle magazine called Secret Scholar, and I was a print writer doing little things such as study upcoming trends and give recommendations. However, due to my time constraints I dropped out, only to rejoin again this quarter. Luckily I made it in! So although they renamed to Fashion Quarterly, it's still the same flavor and style of how it used to be. I'm currently a web writer, so it'll be very neat to write up some articles for the website.

Hopefully this is a beautiful step closer to really landing an internship in fashion journalism somewhere. Keeping my fingers crossed for the best!

Finals week is looming up, and although finals have never stopped me from doing my daily life activities...I have a feeling there will be many bummy days studying indoors and very little worthwhile outfits to post up. I'll still be around blogging up a mini storm though!







Black Coat - Forever 21 ($40)
Blouse - Urban Outfitters ($10)
Black Skirt - Buffalo Exchange ($7)
Dotted Tights - Ebay ($5)
Silver Wedges - Seychelles (???)