Erin Fetherston silk dress, £236 Alexander McQueen platform high heels, $750 Valextra envelope clutch, $1,320 Benefit cosmetic, $29 Revlon nail polish, $5.49
“I believe that there’s always going to be a group of girls who still want to look pretty and feminine. I think you can be directional and edgy and not look like you’ve been dragged through the gutter.”
-Erin Fetherston
I was trying to write, but I just ended up posing with a book about jazz guitar like I always do.
See by Chloé t-shirt, American Apparel skirt, Forever 21 sandals, old jewelry
I promise some substantial posts will be on the way as soon as I push through the last of this semester.
A garage was a slightly better setting for an all-black outfit than the following pretty, tiled background. I mean, butterflies.
Vintage tee, 2BWU jeans, vintage boots via Buffalo Exchange, Forever 21 cuff, rings and arrowhead necklace
Urban Outfitters skull ring, Hue leopard print socks, stone necklace given to me by a vagrant in Buffalo, NY
I’m smushing my face, taking a “selfie,” and using new vocabulary.
It was fun to revisit my middle school style and try to do it over. Unique white boots take the place of knee-high combat boots and none of the excessive jewelry involves pony beads or guitar picks this time.
How did you dress in your early teens? Do you hold on to certain things or cringe at all of it?
…just a suburban teen-looking interpretation of her appeal.
Target top, Forever 21 shorts, Aldo belt, Payless shoes, anonymous bracelets. High end 4 lyfe.
I love the perforation on these. Are they shoes? Boots? “Shooties?” (Shudder.)
I did some reporting yesterday for an article on the Sustainable Food Center’s new East Austin farmers market. They’re doing some great things for people who live in a “food desert” and qualify for government food assistance. I had to skip my usual take-me-seriously blazer and heels combo for this assignment.
What to wear for a gloomy vernal equinox at the farmers market and the library?
Fake pearl earrings, a floral western shirt (from my Goodwill Outlet expedition), Gap grey denim leggings, Wanted tassel loafers, and Jason Wu for Target handbag
Ah, the soft geometry of Jason Wu. Raffia has never looked so proper. It must be the boxy structure and leather piping. I kept the tags on this thing for the longest time, worried I might have to return it to pay for groceries or bills. But I love it more than I hate eating Ramen noodles frequently. The American Dream could never get me like the Vogue Dream can.
Sometimes you just want pastels.
Energie top, vintage rosary, Express shorts, Payless wedges
I excavated these from the depths of my dresser. I know embellished denim from Express doesn’t scream “cool,” but these are just what I want in a pair of shorts this season: light wash, ripped, studded, but not too much of any of the above. Plus, I like the flip indecency of an exposed pocket or two.
I call this my secular rosary since the cross fell off. Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn’t be appropriating a sacred relic for fashion.
By keeping one eye on the SXSW Interactive conference and spending some spring break leisure time perusing blogs, I finally accepted that the most (only?) viable form of fashion blog is the “personal style blog.” I haven’t posted many pictures of myself and my own outfits on Aesthetic Etiquette, mainly because it seemed awkward, but it’s not. It’s the simplest way to share inspiration and ideas with others when it comes to style. I still want to do more substantive posts in which writing is the focus, but I think inserting some outfit posts will make regular updates less daunting. This should be the case even though I don’t own a camera except for a janky Polaroid that eats gold for film and the one on my phone. I won’t even go into how I constructed a tripod (hint: it involved a TV stand, one shoe, and two Bingo daubbers.)
So, here’s what I wore yesterday when the sun came out after a three-day rainstorm. It needed some warmth modification for when I went out at night with a couple friends. We ended up just getting rice balls at the Love Balls truck and watching episodes of Archer.
Just, you know, half-smiling about doing a model-y stretch pose in sepia tone. I talked to a co-worker the other night about how the decade of a photograph can be guessed by the “feel” of it. That look is a product of technology, but perhaps one of taste, too.
We compared megapixels and I said how funny it was that phones come equipped with better cameras in the mini Age of Instagram. We take better pictures to subsequently run through apps that blur them and distort them to charming badness.
In color! Vintage denim shirt, American Apparel miniskirt, Michael Kors platforms
Wear something tangerine. Pantone says so.
I usually like denim shirts for their ability to toughen up an outfit, but I love how girly this one is with its eyelet lace trim and lack of collar.
Essie nail polish in Coat Azure
A higher power left me these sandals on a Goodwill rack last summer. Mixed natural materials, chains and nails, AND that awesome cutout in the wedge? Dreams do come true.
These are shots from recent experimentation outside the Communication building. Really just a bunch of writers trying to figure out how cameras work. I quickly gave in to the fact that my favorite visual subject is clothing, not nature (or even the grungy construction site nearby.)
Doc Martens, Material Girl shorts and crop top I bought 3 sizes too big for maximum swing
If I had a dollar for every day I wore black shorts…
but as Charles Bukowski once said, “Something about the legs makes you dream.” And who paid more attention to Women?
Boots are grate. Get it?
I chased this individual down for wearing the hair feather trend so well.
…and you stopped being disturbed long enough to enjoy the Rodarte costumes and get interested in ballet-inspired fashion?
It’s not a new or radical inspiration for designers/people-staring-into-closets, but ballerina-approved pieces are one of my favorite ways to look feminine and polished.
Here are a few ideas, from head to toe:
(photo of cute Portland girl from her blog, clevernettle.com)
A low bun, smooth or messy, is always straight up chic, but there’s been a more recent resurgence of the high, crown-level version. It’s called a topknot, and according to a poll conducted by Glamour, a slight majority of men don’t like it. But come on. If I dressed for men I wouldn’t be wearing a top that’s a couple sizes too big and a ring shaped like a bird’s skull right now.
Forever 21 “lightly studded” leotard, $8.80
Leos are good for layering and they’re perfection with high-waisted skirts or pants. I love the look of a tucked-in shirt, but there’s the problem of shorter shirts slipping out or longer shirts causing bulges and bunching. Ta-da: the one piece wonder. Look for styles that have a snap closure at the crotch (not necessarily racy, but practical!) if you don’t feel like basically getting naked and then redressing each time you go to the ladies room.
Perhaps you don’t have the perfect innocence of the white swan or the lesbianic fantasies and hysteric rampages of the black swan. The skirt above by Cynthia Rowley will suit a gray swan just fine.
Tutu-esque skirts with a sheer layer or two of tulle, chiffon, netting, etc. can be styled to look casual, professional, or party-ready. Just don’t ask the DJ if he has any Tchaikovsky.
Capezio Ultra Soft footed tight, $14
One thing I’ve always been happy to wear outside the studio is Capezio tights. It’s hard to imagine bothering with regular pantyhose (especially in winter!) after wearing these thicker, more opaque tights designed for dancers to wear and wash frequently. They’re also virtually snag proof!
Most necessary in plain black, but a dance retailer is also a good place to look for fishnets (subtly sexy in nude, with soles done geniously in a solid fabric for comfort) or a pair with rhinestones down the back seams if you’re Cher enough to handle it.
And I’ll just state the obvious here:
BALLET FLATS
They prevent foot pain. So does this:
Capezio lamb’s wool, $6.50 per box (free if you can find a sheep to shave)
Lamb’s wool is used for stuffing pointe shoes to make the wood-block-pushing-toenail-back-into-foot experience a little more pleasant. But I tried putting this stuff in my regular high heels, and I’m pretty sure it was the only thing that allowed me to bop comfortably through a Sunset Rubdown show that I saw 4 inches more of than I would have otherwise. Resin not recommended for slip-proofing everything, though I haven’t tried it…
So I’m a fan.
On my way to a recent party I realized I was wearing opaque tights, a leotard, and a chiffon skirt. Oops. But it looked quite balanced with cage heels and a bomber jacket…plus you never know when you’ll need to drop everything and do a petit allegro, right?
Aside from indulging my near-fetish for nautical jewelry (anchors, rope, and starfish, oh my!), summer fashion doesn’t float my…boat. Shorts and sun dresses are comfortable, yes, but they get boring quickly. Mostly I’m welcoming the shift from summer to fall footwear.
First of all, I kind of hate flip flops. Last time I got a pedicure, I had to walk out of the salon in those disposable foam flip flops because I didn’t own any real ones. That’s because footwear should involve some component besides rubber and not annihilate your swagger. See how Crocs also fall into this category? And more controversially, rain boots? (Galoshes are good when they’re Burberry good, but have the potential to be so bad. Also, I bitterly abstain because when I started wearing them back in ye olde 2006 I got made fun of. WHO’S LAUGHING NOW? …Not me, still.)
So bad:
Ed Hardy, $32.99 on Amazon, but generally a waste of much more money than that.
Burberry good:
Burberry Riding Rubber Rain Boot, $275
Stomp through muddy puddles and still look sophisticated! Great for when a gentleman has not yet laid his jacket down for you to walk on because he didn’t realize you’re the classiest little thing ever.
Galosh tangent aside, I’ll go a step further: I prefer closed-toe everything. Why highlight your squished up toes? Why?
Regardless, I tried to be an open-minded participant this summer by buying a pair of flat, brown leather sandals at the start of the season. I think I wore them literally twice.
Fall will be a nice change. By “change” I mean I will continue to wear boots all the time, but now I will feel less hot and more seasonable.
The Archive leather boot by Madewell, $298
Mmmm. So simple, I’d probably want to wear them with everything.
I’m equally looking forward to fall clothing. And jackets! Military, trench, blazer, biker…I have to remind myself that the thermometer is still hitting 95 degrees here.
At least I managed to stay away from leggings and tights for several months. I’m kind of looking forward to the return of when doing the week’s laundry meant washing 7 pairs of black tights.
You don’t see any pictures of Edie Sedgwick in cutoffs now do you, hm?
Also, a fond farewell to bronzers. May your complexions get less Jersey Shore, more True Blood. Amen.
