PANDORA'S CLOSET

houses in motion

2012-02-08T12:52:00.004-05:00

"i felt impotent and out of control - which i really, really hate! i had to find sanctuary in a place where i could gather my thoughts and regain my strength..."

after a long hiatus, i decided to start over - hope to see you over at my new spot!

if i invite a boy some night to dine on my fine finnan haddie

2011-09-26T18:20:00.001-04:00

fact: when it comes to television, i'm a sucker for anything that vaguely resembles a plot. even if every other aspect of the show is subpar, all i need is a bit of sexual tension or dangling threat of scandal to keep me tuning in indefinitely. gossip girl lost its luster seasons ago, how to make it in america arguably never had any to begin with, and don't even get me started on pretty little liars, but until each and every character's conflicts are resolved, i will stick with these shows like captain edward john smith and the rms titanic.

i should never have watched the playboy club in the first place. aside from the setting, nothing about the buildup to the show really sparked my interest. i'd already planned on using pan am as my period piece placeholder to tide me over until the return of mad men, but when hulu basically offered up the playboy club pilot on a scrolling main menu platter, i took the bait. expectations weren't exactly high, but the visuals were surprisingly lackluster. in fact, my aesthetic lust radar only flared up during one scene in the entire episode: the bunny meeting in which the girls are seen in their street clothes. i'm pretty sure i saw some orange ladypants in there, but with nothing but tight shots to work with, my interest dissipated pretty quickly.

between the eerily similar voices of nick dalton and don draper and the hearty sprinkling of quaint, pointedly un-pc remarks just to drive the whole "back in the day" thing home, i've gotta say - the whole thing was pretty meh. who am i kidding, though? what they lacked in costumes and script, they made up for with a big old mob boss murder and a gay liberation subplot. i guess i'm in it for the long haul, unless of course, the bunnies have anything to say about it.

[via time]

all alone, i sit home by the phone waiting for you

2011-09-19T00:46:00.005-04:00

dylan was a little bit bummed that he missed out on all the new york fashion week fanfare, so he got dressed up and begged me to take his picture, catorialist-style. i couldn't say no.

i'm irresistible, you fool

2011-09-15T11:27:00.002-04:00

paris is the kind of city that sweeps you off your feet with oodles of charm, romance and impossibly pretty desserts - so i've heard. i wouldn't know. when it came time for me to make my first visit, reality decided to beat paris to the punch and just dropkick me instead. within an hour of landing at charles de gaulle, i got robbed by an itinerant newspaper vendor. later, i nearly came to blows with a middle-aged man at a nightclub after he threatened, in broken english, to attack us with his elbows. instead of a twilight stroll along the seine, i had to use the river as a rudimentary compass to guide a violently ill classmate back to our hostel, stopping for frequent vomit sessions along the way. despite my study abroad program's strict code of cultural immersion, i quickly gave up trying to speak french outside the classroom, unable to get any of the locals to respond to me in kind.

nevertheless, i thoroughly enjoyed paris. i got a big kick out of the city's tourist hot spots, met a group of amazing people, and one or two french women even complimented me on my outfits, which did wonders for my confidence - if i couldn't speak one of their languages, at least i was picking up another with ease. still, for some reason, that fabled parisian magic always felt fleeting at best.

i can't remember if someone sent me to musee carnavalet or if i just wandered in while bumming around le marais, but once i laid eyes on les parisiennes de kiraz, i knew i was going to be there for a while. all sulky sex appeal bottled up in curiously leggy, bottom-heavy bodies, i immediately identified with their silhouettes. still, these gouache women looked as if they led more exciting lives on decades-old canvas than i could ever dream of. blithe, flippant, and casually provocative, the intangible allure of their fictional lifestyle felt much more magical than anything i'd seen in so far in this gallic metropolis. the best part was that none of their attributes really seemed specific to the city. if i wanted to, i could take it home with me.

up until then, i didn't know you could have a girl crush on art. i had to be dragged away from the exhibit. luckily, its accompanying book came home with me and has since become a well-loved addition to my collection. sometimes i flip through it for tips on how to build an outfit around these thighs, but more often than not, i just settle on one piece and study it intensely, hoping to acquire some of that cavalier charisma for myself. reality need not apply.

and i just know we'll have a good time

2011-09-12T16:49:00.004-04:00

i know fashion week has got everybody running around town like well-heeled chickens with their heads cut off, but to be completely honest, i've got other things on my mind. what, you ask, could possibly be more enthralling than runway recaps and a massive surge of street style photography? well, in just a couple of weeks, i will be heading to disney world.

some people make pilgrimages to mecca. i go to disney world. it doesn't happen nearly as often as i'd like, so when the occasion arises, i like to be prepared. this time around, the boy and i are making the trek to celebrate our fifth anniversary, and my to-do list has been sitting untouched. i have to draft an itinerary - not a moment is left to chance - figure out my wardrobe and, perhaps most importantly, start working on a costume. i'm used to visiting disney during the summer, but our late september departure happens to line up with mickey's not-so-scary halloween party and we've decided to go as a young carl and ellie from up. i'm too excited to sleep.

[via heckyeahup]

heaven help me, i didn't see the devil in your eye

2011-09-07T10:15:00.003-04:00

"my mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so i could play jazz tunes. i wish i had learned, but i was too busy getting into trouble." - etta james

"i like speed, yellow convertibles, empty churches, food, occasional parties and dancing. i detest insects, hypocrites, giggly girls, elevators, rigid conformists and men who boast of their innumerable conquests.” - connie francis

misses jamesetta hawkins and concetta rosa maria franconero have been on heavy rotation around these parts lately. they both have an uncanny ability to sing songs about the sweet splendor of love without sounding the least bit docile. in fact, they seem like the kind of girls that could drink you under the table in a heartbeat. i get the feeling they'd make great weekend companions.

it's the latest, it's the greatest

2011-09-06T15:09:00.004-04:00

for a self-proclaimed aesthetic enthusiast, i put surprisingly little effort into choosing the one accessory that sits on my face all day long. i used to take eyewear pretty seriously, but every time i found a batch of flattering frames in theory, i'd put them on and be shocked at how bad they looked in practice. by the end of the ordeal, i'd inevitably be sporting something basic just to end the ordeal and save face. i convinced myself that an interesting wardrobe would make up for my nonexistent optical steez.

my apathy reached new heights after my last eye exam, when i actually asked my mother - the woman whom i won't trust to buy my socks - to choose some glasses for me. she came up with pair of perfectly respectable black rectangle frames, and i've been underwhelming the masses with them ever since. then i moved to the east village, where you can't swing a purse without hitting six people wearing amazing glasses, apparently all acquired from fabulous fanny's. yesterday, curiosity got the best of me, as did these frames. for starters, they're not black, they're not boring, and they suit me (i think). my face is feeling more captivating already.

be prepared for the murkiest scam

2011-08-26T19:59:00.005-04:00

"we can joke about this on monday morning. but until then, it's a matter of life and death." as long as we remain calmer than our mayor, i think we'll be all right this weekend. [via twitter]

'pastel plaid,' welcome to my short list of etsy search terms. i'll pass on the snakeskin boots, though. [via i love wildfox]

the latest addictions piece is up! [via stylelikeu]

now that i have a fledgling tumblr of my own, i'm getting the biggest kick out of finding gems like this. is it bad that i would still wear at least thirty percent of this stuff today? [via]

irene brought these shoes to my attention and, along with the charlotte olympia kitty flats i've been pining for, this is just too much to handle. [via]

[via terra new york]

all i want is a delorean, if i could go just like that

2011-08-19T00:27:00.005-04:00

[i have a new tumblr, so if you like cool/pretty pictures, you should take a look. that's the long story made short. the long story made less short is below.]

growing up with my nose always in a book, i learned early on that moving away, switching schools and/or divorce were some of the worst things that could happen to a kid. copious amounts of judy blume warned me that these sorts of decisions were usually made by parents, their consequences wreaking havoc on your life suddenly and irreversibly. so when my mother calmly asked one day if i wanted to transfer to a another school, i hesitated. was this a set-up? had i done something wrong? jesus christ, were we moving?

"no?" panic crept into my voice, punctuating the response with a quivering lilt. sensing my confusion, she elaborated: "maybe...you'd like to go to a school with a few more little black girls? children that look like you?"

another pause, as i tried to relax and approach the question with the wisdom of my years - all seven of them. "no?"

being the only black girl in all of my classes never felt like a particularly good or bad thing. it was just one fact among others, including but not limited to: i liked my teachers, i got good grades, and i had a solid group of friends, shyness and bookworm tendencies notwithstanding. the prospect of starting over in foreign territory just to even out the playing field of diversity frankly seemed a bit extreme. she nodded, and the brief but strange conversation came to an abrupt end and the topic was never mentioned again. i felt i'd dodged a bullet.

over the years, i learned that despite her occasional qualms, my mother had made a conscious decision to send me to schools where the caucasian percentage of the student body was high, as long as the graduation rate was even higher. still, i never regretted my decision to stay put. maybe it was my multi-culti doll collection, reading list or favorite tv shows, but for the most part, i simply accepted my plainly obvious otherness among my peers. it's not like being one of the few people of color in the classroom was a constant walk in the park, but at the end of the day, it always seemed like a matter of demographics and not much else - i did grow up on staten island, after all.

higher education yielded cultural diversity in spades, so i focused instead on the few academic pursuits that didn't bore me to death: literature, fashion, social history, journalism and twentieth century americana. thankfully, the classes that covered these topics were phenomenal, and i relished every chance to immerse myself in a wealth of new knowledge, which, for the first time in my academic career, included a comprehensive examination of the black american experience. it certainly wasn't the first time i was learning about the marginalization of minorities throughout history. i was, however, intrigued to find out just how pervasive the consequences of these methods could be.

even trawling my favorite vintage stores soon became an exercise in curiosity. i'd find a blush pink cropped angora sweater in the back corner of my favorite haunt and notice that the narrative i dreamt up for the original owner of the garment inevitably featured a white woman. do a google image search for '60s fashion,' and it's not until page twenty that any women of color - diana ross and the supremes, to be exact - show up. american history shakes its head reproachfully at the injustices suffered by its minorities, but we don't need to wallow in our remorse. it's not like black people's entire existence was a feedback loop of trials and tribulations. the wringing of hands has gotten to the point that we forget to include people of color in our gauzy recollections of the good old days. even when i went searching for evidence to the contrary, the results were scattered at best. i decided to cobble together a collection of the best vintage imagery of black folk i could find - the sorts of images that i would post on this blog, if i were into image-heavy posts with negligible commentary - and a tumblr was born.

a couple of days into my research, i discovered other fantastic tumblrs like of another fashion and vintage black glamour. i considered leaving the task to their able hands, but then reconsidered, deciding that sharing the beauty of vintage photographs is hardly a novelty, whether or not they've been largely overlooked until now. some theme tinkering and a bit more research later, and i've got vintage noire. enjoy.

don’t know how it all got started, i don’t know what they do with their lives

2011-08-10T23:26:00.002-04:00

my telephone usage hit an all-time high at some point between the years of 1999 and 2001. looking back, i blame it on tweendom, which at the time was just about reaching a shrieking fever pitch, and a blossoming friendship with my cousin josie, just a year older than me and equally enthralled by endless discussions of boys, boy bands, boyfriends... you get the picture. unfortunately, all our parents got was the bill.

as the length of our conversations increased exponentially, we developed a practice of painstakingly tracing the convoluted trajectories of our lengthy discussions. for some reason, we got a huge kick out of dissecting the paths less traveled that our dialogue had chosen - how did we go from gushing over carson daly to vigorously critiquing the catholic church anyway, what with all the frequent bouts of giggles and tidbits of breathless gossip? (the answer: carson daly once aspired to be a priest.) like so much of what went down between the years of 1999 and 2001, the ritual was simultaneously enjoyable and slightly inane. as it turns out, though, my erratic behavior still requires in-depth investigations to this day. case in point: a serious-ass sartorial blue period, which has got me typing 'cobalt' into every e-retail search bar in sight, even though i've never been able to count blue among my favorite colors.

back in college, when i tossed around the idea of starting a campus fashion publication, one my favorite potential titles was cobalt. the project never took off, but for awhile there, i had a great time looking up cobalt glass creations. all things pretty and blue were soon forgotten until i received "the ellements of style" for christmas, featuring christina hendricks in pair of blue ladypants that haunt me to this day. the final push came about a month ago, when i clicked on lucie porges' closet feature on slu. her wardrobe initially triggered an infatuation with all things pauline trigère, but it was an obsession i quickly learned my finances couldn't support. unwilling to give up pauline's ghost, i finally stumbled upon the holy grail: a boxy coat from the early '60s, with hidden gold buttons and a sculpted mandarin collar. only sixty-five dollars - sold. a silky cerise lining read pauline trigère in jaunty cursive, but the color of the coat itself is what truly held my attention.

i held out for all of ten days before i fell right back down the brilliant blue rabbit hole. having already scoured the internet for affordable pauline pieces, i shelved that particular obsession for wealthier days and set about trying to recapture that eye-widening hue. first came a maxi dress with yet another mandarin collar, followed by a chunky cableknit pullover, which prompted a sudden intervention, staged and executed by my languishing bank account.

[via etsy]

i got the feelin' i'm a-fallin'

2011-08-05T00:13:00.001-04:00

i don't mean to be dramatic, but if you could boil my very aura down to its essential elements and then reconstruct those mercurial intangibles into a pair of shoes, this would be it.

if anyone needs me, i'll be staring at my bank account and intermittently scribbling furiously on a piece of scrap paper, trying to see if i can justify an eight hundred dollar pair of flats.

[via charlotte olympia]

they know i'm the king of the cool jerks

2011-07-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

off to rhode island with alley to see the newport folk festival - be back in a jiffy.

ain't got time to take a fast train

2011-07-26T00:13:00.004-04:00

stumbled across cliff muskiet's incredible collection of flight attendant uniforms while doing research for work - i'll spare you the wistful rant about how things just aren't as good/stylish/awesome as they used to be. the pictures speak for themselves.

[via knoppen]

turn like a wheel inside a wheel

2011-07-24T12:12:00.002-04:00

oh, hello, wardrobe of my dreams! didn't see ya hiding out there in the pages of v magazine - good thing alley pointed you out to me! [via les yeux sans visage]

i'm about to start listing kiernan shipka as one my style icons. hers is by far one of the best features i've seen on the coveteur yet. [via]

i saw ryan gosling walking his dog the other day, which led to the rediscovery of this gem. [via]

this article made cringe on multiple occasions. for the record, i've been a victim and perpetrator of this particular crime. [via nyt]

miss griesser, you had me at striped romper and emerald green headscarf. [via backyard bill]

[via vmag]

wearing next to nothing 'cause it's hot as an oven

2011-07-22T02:05:00.006-04:00

they're saying temperatures are gonna reach one hundred degrees today and as my friend louis so eloquently put it, "it's humid as a nutsack in the jungle," so i'm throwing caution (and modesty) to the wind and rocking a black bra-cum-camisole as a top today. paired with high-waisted vintage sasson jeans and white keds, i'm directly channeling janet in "love will never do (without you)," but this perpetual sweaty sheen i've got going on is much more reminiscent of "got 'til it's gone." oh well.

give me time to realize my crime

2011-07-19T16:20:00.001-04:00

i can still remember sitting cross-legged on my mother's bed at four years old, watching her get dressed. it was 1992, and invitations to ritzy soirees weren't exactly flooding our staten island mailbox, but her stirrup leggings and acid wash trenchcoats have remained lodged in my memory the way i imagine evening gowns and ornate atomizers do for daughters of different tax brackets. evidence of my mother's past life sat in golden frames on top of the piano and between pages of forgotten photo albums - lacy white gloves and perfectly coiffed hair and from an even earlier era, a bared midriff and printed two-piece playsuit - but she was the sort of woman who'd wholeheartedly thrown seemingly every bit of her being into motherhood, trading high heels for trainers if it meant that i could have the finest dress shoes on the block.

i was an incredibly shy child, crumbling into a teary mess when prompted to shake a stranger's hand and clinging desperately to my mother at nearly every social function, but at home, i was all too aware of my princess status and acted accordingly, skipping over starry-eyed admiration of my mother's fashion sense and offering scathing fashion commentary instead. to her credit, she took my critiques in stride, laughing it off when i told her in no uncertain terms that shoulder pads made her look like a quarterback and casually dismissing my unsolicited advice. if i wasn't buying into her aesthetic, then her aloof response to my commentary would influence me in any case - by the age of seven, i would already have made a habit of ignoring her fashion advice, as well.

for the record, i still hate shoulder pads.

we got a little lot of what we want

2011-07-17T10:58:00.010-04:00

there's no such thing as showing up early to opening day at brimfield. by sunrise, a dedicated cadre of collectors and aesthetic enthusiasts have been scouring twenty-three fields along a mile-long stretch of us rt. twenty for hours, looking to breathe new life into those pieces that evoke that visceral and gloriously ephemeral reaction - when it happens, you just know.

this quest is not a task taken lightly. when alley i showed up to do interviews - admittedly late to the party at six am - it took the best of our powers of persuasion to pry folks away from the fields for just a five minute chat. ladies and gentlemen - for your consideration, the fruits of our labor.

fun fact: the opener on this video is a picture of all the stuff alley and i took home at the end of two days at brimfield - we did damage. and then i went back for a third day.

[via stylelikeu]

i'm through, can you sing the song for me, boo?

2011-05-21T20:14:00.001-04:00

this is a stupidly cute video accompanying a stupidly cute song, sung by a stupidly cute girl surrounded by stupidly cute extras doing stupidly cute things in stupidly cute outfits. sometimes a hearty helping concentrated cuteness really turns me off. this is not one of those times.

moats and boats and waterfalls, alleyways and pay phone calls

2011-05-17T22:13:00.002-04:00

made my very first trip out to brimfield last tuesday and wednesday on assignment for stylelikeu, and i loved it so much that i traveled all the way back to go again on sunday. consider me hooked.

we dance to the beat of love lost and then won back

2011-04-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

there was a time when i would buy pretty much any piece of clothing that had a disney character on it, with the exception of especially saccharine pieces from theme parks and the like. as a result, friends and family began to snatch up disney memorabilia indiscriminately on my behalf, resulting in a collection consisting of a few gems and a whole lot of filler.

learning to incorporate my ongoing disney obsession into my wardrobe has forced me to calm my trigger finger, but when i wandered into funky fanny's at the brooklyn flea, i knew i'd found some kindred spirits. after snatching up a beauteous mickey cap, which is being reserved for an especially bright and sunny day this summer, i headed over to their online outpost, where they have an entire shopping section dedicated to the mouse. there, i found the mickey sweatshirt of my dreams, vaguely varsity-esque stripes, loose fit, and felt mickey appliqué and all. of course, it didn't hurt that it's the exact one that one of my major girl crushes happens to own.

winning abounds.

[via funky fanny's]

burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?

2011-03-27T11:12:00.003-04:00

every now and then, it occurs to me that i'm essentially a walking public service announcement for the old adage that you should be careful what you wish for.

i was that girl who cited season affective disorder as a (frequent) excuse for skipping class, only to find that when warmer days came around, it was far too pretty outdoors to waste precious hours of daylight in a lecture hall. i complained about having to wear a variety of catholic school uniforms for a solid fifteen years until i graduated from high school and fell into my own uniform of jeans, flats, and t-shirts - a blessedly brief phase. and after lamenting intermittently over the fact that i couldn't rustle up anything dynamic enough to write about, i now find myself immersed in a job that serves up an overwhelming amount of inspiration on a daily basis while simultaneously leaving me with little to no time to do anything else.

still, one good adage deserves another, so if i underestimated the side effects of the lifestyle i hoped for, then i say, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

[via the whistles]

sweet dream, sweet dream, strange magic

2011-03-02T22:36:00.001-05:00

i catch a lot of side eye when i profess my love for kate spade, but i'm not really sure why. most of her clothing isn't really for me, but these accessories are like pure joy bathed in sunshine on a cloudless spring day.

[via kate spade]

we're so in love when we hug we become paralyzed

2011-02-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

an early valentine from me to all of you. you're welcome.

p.s.: "yo, l, stop frontin', you know you wanna get ill, boy. come on, man, what's up?!" should win an award for longest string of slang non-sequiturs ever.

des paniers, des bouteilles, des paquets, et la radio

2011-01-10T00:00:00.001-05:00

october 2010

as you can see, i still love this sweater and the concept of striking a proper pose still cracks me up.

jammin' on the one

2011-01-07T12:02:00.007-05:00

while i'd need a bit more time to sort through the countless hours of television that i either rotted or enriched my mind with during my childhood - depends on how you look at it - i'm willing to bet that this is one of best opening sequences ever. i actually keep this song in periodic rotation on my itunes. best elevator music i've ever heard too, cliff!

(the variety of knitwear on display in this clip is phenomenal.)

while a good portion of the series was a bit too twee for me, i'm still incredibly proud of the fact that i own nearly the same pants that denise is rocking in this very sequence, mostly because denise was definitely the edgiest part of the show. i found them by chance at a sweet little vintage shop in st. pete - coincidence, not channeling - but i have been actively coveting lisa bonet's locks lately. the seed of the idea was planted over the summer when i began spotting lizzy okpo of opening ceremony on the staten island ferry. call me a fashion fiend if you like, but even if i weren't oc-obsessed, the girl is stunning and nearly impossible to miss. anyway, i never got up the nerve to say anything to her, but her style and presence is phenomenal and i found myself creepily checking her out from afar like a starstruck fangirl and marveling at her knee-length braids for so long that it was only a matter of time until i started wanting them for myself.

unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that i have pretty short hair to begin with and i've been known to beg for freedom after just a few weeks wearing less intense forms of hair extensions in the past, so the chances of this particular look coming to fruition might have to wait. luckily, pretty much every other aspect of lisa bonet's style is just as desirable, so i can always keep myself busy with that.

in other news, raven-symone was mind-bogglingly adorable. i mean, look at her.

p.s.: i'm going to get my chance to meet her after all - we're shooting lizzy and her sister, darlene, today for an upcoming slu feature!

[via inside the mind of suz]

so lonely now, just let me off downtown

2011-01-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

stop it, where are my scissors? i think i just found the solution to my black maxi dress-based ennui..

[via youtube]

i was born in a house with the television always on

2011-01-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

today marks the official end of holiday vacation and a return to stylelikeu's brand-spankin' new offices, which means that my epic television show marathon must come to an end.

i started by resurrecting last christmas' alfred hitchcock presents binge, making my way into the beginning of season three, stopping briefly to watch a few episodes of the cosby show and the wonder years, and that was all before i even ventured away from my laptop and actually turned on an actual television. i was all set to watch bewitched, but then i noticed that tabitha was walking and talking, which meant that the episode was going to be one of those godawful episodes featuring the mean darren, so i kept clicking away until i saw major nelson's beautiful face flash before my eyes - score.

i don't say this about very many men, but larry hagman is just an absolute dream. i mean, really - i would probably set up shop at his place and wait on him hand and foot too if i got the chance.. you know, pre-dallas/senescence.

[via google]

dr. everything'll-be-alright will make everything go wrong

2011-01-01T13:55:00.001-05:00

get organized. relearn french. maintain/rekindle relationships (facebook doesn't count). purge your wardrobe of unwanted/unused things. join a mentoring program. exercise every now and then, ya slackass. try out a new look. learn to play harmonica...or drums...or guitar. overcome your aversion to wheels and learn to drive and ride a bike.. and maybe skateboard, while you're at it. stop shopping with abandon. don't talk about it, be about it. take more pictures - now that your camera is fixed, you have no excuse.

addendum: learn to cook..something, anything. the delivery guys are great, but you've become far too familiar with them lately.

in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee

2010-12-31T12:07:00.000-05:00

at a work-sanctioned party, one of the only kinds i attend these days.

once upon a time, i lived nocturnally just for the hell of it. i juggled four or five courses plus a part-time job and whatever extracurricular activities struck my fancy, but come friday night, there were few things that could keep me indoors. it's not like the campus nightlife scene was particularly riveting, but i'm prone to nighttime bursts of energy, the kinds that don't sit well with academic pursuits.

my wide-eyed nighttime endeavors went beyond the weekends. at dusk, i dangled jovial prospects in front of my friends, luring them away from their books for indefinite "study breaks" and soldiering on into the night long after they'd drifted off into sweet slumber.

so you can imagine my surprise (and dismay) when i realized a couple of months ago that i was having trouble staying up past midnight, whether for work or play. it pained me to admit it, but i think i've gone soft. of course, it's a happy predicament of sorts - skipping multiple classes during college left me with energy to spare, but now i'm lucky enough to work at a place that i enjoy getting up early and staying in late for, so i could potentially relish my well-deserved sleep at the end of the day, but...no. among a few other things - relearning french, devising at least a loose workout regimen, purging my wardrobe of unused pieces - i feel like pandora needs to get her groove back in 2011. this whole adulthood spiel is really taking it out of me, but the nights, as they say, are still young.

happy new year, kids!

[via kirill was here]

who needs a house out in hackensack

2010-12-27T21:31:00.006-05:00

about a week ago, i set about the depressing task of setting aside the vast majority of my paycheck for rent/assorted bills and was surprised to find that i had a bit more than the usual pittance left over.

while the archives of this blog reveal a ridiculous chronicle of my undergraduate habit of receiving and blowing paychecks over the course of one day, the past three months have been a seeerious strugglefest with only two garment purchases - totaling less than forty dollars, no less - to report. i decided to let myself buy a thing or two, dusted the cobwebs off my credit card, and started hitting up my old e-commerce haunts.

and then a funny thing happened.. nothing seemed worth purchasing. several things caught my eye, but every time i tried to settle on an item and proceed to checkout, i balked. i began to worry that my shopping muscles had completely atrophied, especially when i couldn't bring myself to buy anything five days later, even with extra christmas cash in tow.

today, i finally zeroed in on a wool backpack and two pairs of vintage short shorts and made the leap. two of the three items may not have been the most practical things in the world to buy, but i was serious about getting a head start on that summer wardrobe

what snowstorm?

[via urban outfitters, ramona west]

my moschino ho, my versace hottie

2010-11-29T22:42:00.003-05:00

real talk: once i have an actual salary, i am going to raid this store with a vengeance.

[via claire inc]

the revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal

2010-11-29T10:05:00.003-05:00

somehow i managed to squeeze four movies, mostly documentaries, into my sunday, and now i'm just devouring information like my life depends on it. and the images that accompany the research have got me completely floored.

[via google]

bikes suffice they’re so nice like priceless

2010-11-22T21:23:00.007-05:00

there are still leaves left on branches here in the city, but if you're anything like me, it's never too early to start longing for the sweet return of summer. what can i say? i have a thing for daylight.

while i'd love to start planning an epic excursion, the whole process is pretty speculative, since i'm funneling about ninety-eight percent of my income into paying rent these days. i'm far too lazy to start working on a beach bod - not now, not ever - so i'm left with no choice but to start piecing together next year's warm weather wardrobe.

enter los angeles-based veloce hats, who dropped me a line earlier today* announcing their noir '10 collection, cue infatuation. granted, they had me at "cycling caps," since i've been into them since the days of mars "is it the shoes?" blackmon (see my poster handiwork below) and white men can't jump. the colors of the original partyme collection added fuel to the fire, making a host of '90s-inspired outfit dreams materialize before my very eyes, just before the noir collection came along and doused the flames of my neon premonition with a cool splash of black and charcoal.

let's just say my inner fly girl is very, very excited about this.

[via veloce hats]

*i rarely ever post about anything the day i receive an email about it, so this was seriously love at first sight.

ain't nothin to it but to do it

2010-11-05T12:15:00.008-04:00

as of today, pandora's closet is a whopping three (!) years old. in just under eleven hundred days, this blog has witnessed my many, many obsessions, personal essays, outfit shots, travel tales, and.. a whole lot of deadbeat bloggery.

while i usually go on blog hiatus for school, personal issues, and/or general exhaustion, this most recent absence marks the worst kind of negligence - i've been cheating on my blog. as i mentioned in my last post, i recently joined the team at stylelikeu (check the masthead, kids!) and i'm loving every minute of it. still, all the time i'm dedicating to relaunching their blog leaves little to no time at the end of the day for this one. i've been thinking about how to proceed for a couple of weeks now, but once i saw this fanfuckintasic video by my cousin* p.blackk, the solution was clear.

as my boss (and idol) elisa goodkind says, "the more you do, the more you do." time to buckle down and do what i love. happy birthday, pandora's closet - can't wait to see what year four brings.

*i mean this in a literal sense. as in, this is my little cousin's new video. pride abounds.

**oh, and file this under 'best things ever:' i usually don't get too crazy over twitter, but lori goldstein shouted me out via #ff today. lori. gold. stein.

people are strange when you're a stranger

2010-10-13T12:10:00.000-04:00

i haven't been able to get this image out of my head since the moment i laid eyes on it. all those vibrant colors paired with such glorious light - i'm floored. it speaks volumes about the person attached, and when the person herself begins to speak, she conveys that same bold vigor tenfold.

please take a look - you won't be disappointed. i would have been a fan even if she didn't happen to collect mickey mouse memorabilia.

[via stylelikeu, where i feel blessed to count myself among the executive staff! more info to come..]

good to good to good to go solo

2010-10-01T11:39:00.004-04:00

earlier this week, the lovely isquisofrenia rocked an oversized blazer with what looked like a black body suit underneath. freaking out commenced.

"is that a bodysuit beneath the blazer? the only way this look could get any better is if you're rocking a bodysuit."

good news, guys: it was a bodysuit! yes, lady gaga might have done it to death, but i still love to see a ballsy broad rocking a shrink-fitted bodysuit in a cool way. still, the time has come to bring in the male contingent. i wanna see some downtown dudes rocking singlets and/or bike shorts with suspenders, stat. see above for inspiration.

hipsters, make this happen. if anyone needs me, i'll be writing my name down the length of my blazer sleeve with iron-on transfers.

but with nothing to consider they forget my name

2010-09-28T00:57:00.006-04:00

when people used to compare me to carrie bradshaw - and during college it happened quite a bit - i usually replied with something monosyllabic and noncommittal. add a forced smile and a bit of feigned laughter, and in the right light, it almost seemed like i was pleased by the comparison.

despite my attempts to appear cordial, the cynic inside me seethed at that tenuous connection between she and i. "what, because i like fashion and own a laptop? that's the best they can come up with?" i took comfort in the fact that those who know me well, like josie, my cousin and de facto sister, think i'm more of a morgendorfer than a bradshaw. surely the only people who would rely on such a weak personality parallel must reside on the outer perimeters of my social circle, i told myself.

and then one day, it suddenly occurred to me that i didn't know a damn thing about this fashion-mad work of fiction. all this time, i'd assumed that i was being compared to some frothy ditz, but i didn't have any evidence to support that claim. growing up, our cable subscription didn't include hbo, and i'd never bothered to get acquainted with the series even after it went into syndication. curiosity was calling. i decided to attack the situation like a scholar and unravel the carrie bradshaw persona once and for all.

i began my research with the first sex and the city movie, since it was conveniently just arriving in theaters at the time. i worried that i wouldn't be able to follow the plot, having never watched the show, but a couple of rabid fans assured me that i would enjoy myself nonetheless. emerging from the theater a couple of hours later, i wondered if perhaps i'd been rash. carrie was a tad frothy around the edges, sure, but i couldn't deny the woman's great style and she seemed generally likable - not a bad introduction.

it was time to watch the series.

[via tijger melk]

i guess that this must be the place

2010-09-22T11:39:00.008-04:00

just when i thought an imminent drop in temperature was the biggest issue on my horizon, life stepped in to show me what real problems look like. if i knew anything about baseball, now would be an appropriate time to make a poignant comment about curveballs, but you get the idea.

to make a long story short: i moved into manhattan, took on a daunting roster of internships and part-time jobs, and lost my grandmother, all in the span of one week. i've always been pretty vocal about the significance of fashion, but for a while there, i just couldn't rustle up the will to talk shop - hence the extended silence on this end.

it took some time, but a lot of contemplation and reassessment has put me in a good place to return to writing. so let's begin again, shall we?

[via foto_decadent]

the dog days are over

2010-09-06T15:31:00.004-04:00

all weekend, everyone's been talking about the "nice" and "refreshing" breeze, but i know what it really is - the beginning of the end. it won't be long until that cool breeze becomes a freezing wind, so enjoy the sunshine while we've got it.

[via i love wildfox]

enough is enough of this garbage

2010-09-03T07:09:00.001-04:00

since the majority of my posts this week had a nineties vibe, i figured this video was appropriate, but let's be real: there's never a bad time for michael.

i don't even know where to begin describing my obsession with this man. i love sequined glove, smooth criminal-michael as much as anyone, but when it comes to angry, sassin' the police-michael?

i die.

i'm so dumb for not asking one of my friends to search for an olodum tee when they were studying in brazil. ebay, don't fail me now.

p.s. check out the alternate version of this vid to see how pop superstars did prison music videos pre-gaga.

all the bandits that you turned your other cheek to

2010-09-02T05:15:00.000-04:00

sad but true: i used to acquire jewelry the way i acquire my clothing - that is, with some semblance of a game plan at first, but ultimately snatched up in a heady bout of gotta-have-it mania. it was sort of an issue.

then last summer, my entire jewelry collection went missing for a few months, and my period of mourning gave me a bit of perspective and restraint. suddenly, i was researching pieces thoroughly, trying to determine what would actually be a worthy addition to my wardrobe. as a result of this careful consideration, i discovered a pretty rad collection or two and made some informed purchases before my things magically resurfaced in the fall.

since then, i've been pretty picky about what baubles i wear, especially since i tend to veer between understated and alexis bittar-style bold pieces. but when i opened an email from new york city-based jewelry line kueen, i found a welcome balance between those two extremes, and i have to say i'm hooked. the latest collection features grungy bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and body chains that are meant to suit men and women alike (hence, the name). the unstudied, androgynous appeal of the pieces, which are made from a blend of new and recycled materials, is irresistible.

i'm particularly drawn to the haphazardly rad vibe of the chains & handcuffs and hanging cross bracelets. eye-catching but still simple enough to slip on and forget about, i can't wait to put them into seriously heavy rotation.

spin around and where it stops you've got to pack your bags and go

2010-09-01T07:23:00.003-04:00

[clockwise, from top left: fossil, $148; aqua, $175; fossil, $218; coach, $378; roxy, $52]

this is probably the sort of thing i should be talking to a chiropractor about, but here goes:

every time i carry a purse for more than an hour, no matter how heavy it is, i start to experience this searing pain in whatever shoulder blade is carrying the bag. switching the weight to the other shoulder only makes the pain take up residence on that side of my back. at this point, although i have no photographic evidence to prove this assumption, i'm pretty sure i start to resemble an downtrodden ogre, hunching my back and continuously rolling my shoulders as i try to ward off the fiery intensity that is blazing throughout my entire back. at this point, even handing off the bag to someone else does me no good. i have no choice but to put on a brave face and just hobble around until the pain subsides.

yes, i should probably get this checked out. no, i don't have the time to do that right now. the solution? backpacks.

[clockwise, from top left: clava, $144; marc by marc jacobs, $298; slow and steady wins the race, $402; leatherbay, $240; dooney & bourke, $265]

thankfully, this is a welcome necessity, as i'm rather fond of using backpacks to stand in for shoulder bags, crippling back pain aside (um, have i mentioned that i love the 90s?). the tricky part is finding the right one. having been made to carry my purses on numerous occasions, the boy got me a trusty striped canvas dusen dusen backapck that can really take a beating, but i'm looking for something a bite more refined, something i can carry to work that won't look out of place with my office.

trouble is, i still need something large enough to fit my laptop. and at this stage of my financial history, i need something affordable...like, ultra affordable. time to hit the vintage circuit.

we're the coolest kids, we know

2010-08-30T10:28:00.001-04:00

just for a moment, i'm going to shelve the visions of camel coats and murderously slim black cropped trousers that have been running rampant through my mind at full speed lately.

on this first leg of what's sure to be a long and interesting sartorial journey, i've found that even when the current trends on tap fit like a glove, i will always, always be partial to those sometimes gaudy, but never boring idiosyncrasies of the nineties - something to chat about with chloe sevigny if i ever get the chance, i guess.

my undying love for the decade has nothing to do with a lifelong appreciation for minimalism or anything like that. after all, i was only eleven years old by the time we weathered the y2k storm and while i've always loved fashion, i was no tavi at that age. instead, my devotion emerged by default. the nineties encompassed the bulk of my childhood, those magical moments that allowed me to soak up every bit of aesthetic information without judgment or anxiety of influence, and i've been trying to recapture that chimera ever since.

i love reading up on what's next as much as the next girl, but let me at a crop top, pair of overalls, oversized flannel, or scoopneck floral minidress, and you'll really see my eyes light up - extra points if i never got to/wasn't allowed to wear said piece back in the day.

given my almost irrational preference to the clothing of my own childhood, my latest journalism gig makes a lot of sense. starting this morning ('sup, scheduled posts), i'll be interning part-time at earnshaw's, a nearly century-old children's apparel trade magazine. this gig marks a couple of firsts for me: my first time writing about fashion on the production/sales side of things, my first real exploration of the children's sector of the market, and my first time working at a print publication (!). there will certainly be a lot to learn, but if my first experience with children's apparel was any indication, this may turn out be quite the well of inspiration for me.

[via interview magazine]

| timely/timeless | some like it hot to a fever pitch

2010-08-17T06:08:00.002-04:00

(ferragamo slides, $360; mulberry neely bag, about $1016)

with the exception of a few artfully mussed coifs and some decidedly vixenish eye makeup, a lot of september issue editorials are looking as if they were ripped straight out of a magazine published at the height of the nifty fifties.

considering that my first true style icon was none other than the inimitable audrey hepburn, i'm particularly eager to try on something ladylike this fall (that, and the fact that i could never fully get behind the whole bodycon-bedazzled-with-a-dash-o'-hooker-heel wave we've been riding for the past few seasons, courtesy of balmain).

i'll probably be going for more slim-cut pedal pushers than wasp waist full skirts, but i have to watch myself when it comes to accessories. i can't walk properly in spindly stilettos to save my life, but i'm a firm believer that kitten heels are for people in their fifties. i happen to have some lacy black kitten heels that i bust out on days when i'm feeling a bit grande damesque (it happens), but i'm pretty sure that they'll be my one and only pair. after all, they were originally purchased to be worn at a funeral, which says a lot.

on the other hand, i'd happily fork over more money than i should for a piece that will last me into my fifties, like this mulberry neely bag. pure perfection, no matter what the trend forecast says.

i'll start saving up.

gonna run your body right into the ground

2010-08-09T00:07:00.000-04:00

what do you get when you spend eight hours a day, five days a week chasing after forty or so little ones?

frequent headaches and a hopelessly battered pair of keds, not to mention an epic tan. i believe this is what they call 'burning the candle at both ends.'

i've been pretty good about saving my money lately - the prospect of shelling out broker fees on an apartment will turn you into a pennypincher quickly - but when i stopped to observe the sorry state of my once-pristine white keds, i decided to quell my inner scrooge and find some suitable replacements.

i'm adamant about the bottoms my sneakers being as thin as possible, which has led me to run through more pairs of flimsy urban outfitters canvas lace-ups than i like to admit. so when my future roommate, jess, sported a pair of delightfully slim-soled kicks last weekend, i immediately pounced, demanding details. i was surprised to learn that they were converse, since they seemed so much more refined than the slightly clunky star-stamped high tops i sported back in high school.

i wasted no time - one week later, i was in a no-name soho shoe store, snapping up a pair of size eights for myself. i've still got one week of camp left, but these bright whites are will be staying home until i find a slightly lower-risk environment for their debut.

these slippery people help us understand

2010-07-26T04:13:00.002-04:00

"you can tell the state of civilisation by the way people dress. if the people who fought two world wars came back to 2010 and saw all of us running around in tracksuits, what would they think? it is just about being sloppy. and it is not about the money - it is a mindset."

-daphne guinness

amen.

[via past seasons ghosts]

there was a factory, now there are mountains and rivers, pt. 2

2010-07-15T03:09:00.007-04:00

when i mentioned to my coworkers a couple of weeks ago that i was going up to the catskills for my birthday, i received a few blank stares. "there's nothing to do up there," one of them pointed out.

country getaways have never been too high on my to-do list, but i figured if there was absolutely nothing to occupy us, i could at least catch up on some rest. but what do you know - we ended up having a (sort of) packed schedule!

so exactly what does one do in the catskills? i've taken it upon myself to let you all know. don't worry, you can thank me later.

1: eat.

there are more than enough diners and restaurants in the area to go around, but since our cabin came with a kitchenette, the boy and i decided to try our hand at some home cookin'. and by "our," i mean "his." i kept myself busy documenting the process and offering moral support. this delicious cajun-spiced chicken dinner was actually the first meal the boy had ever cooked. thank god he has a knack for the kitchen, otherwise i'm pretty sure we would have starved.

the next morning we concocted a literal interpretation of brunch and ate eggs and hot dogs in bed with goofy cartoons on the tube. raspberry ginger ale, martinelli's sparkling apple cider, beer, and twisted teas flowed freely throughout the weekend. how's that for adulthood?

2: go hiking.

it should be pretty obvious that this was the boy's idea. i've gone hiking exactly two times in my life, and i don't remember either of them being particularly enjoyable, but i agreed. i'm a good sport like that.

after slathering myself in bug spray and bracing myself mentally, i set out on the trail.. and immediately began spazzing out. i'm talking about flailing my arms and shrieking every time a bug came nearby, compulsively brushing myself off, and checking my back constantly for axe murderers. but if you can believe it, i actually had fun. that look on my face is a mixture of pride, exhaustion, and an overblown sense of accomplishment. oh, and sweat. a whole lot of sweat.

3: go to woodstock.

i didn't expect woodstock to be so hippietastic, considering that the festival didn't actually take place there, but i'm not complaining. i didn't explore as many of the stores there as i'd hoped, but i did score a fantastic vintage ralph lauren scarf and browse through a lovely flea market.

side note: once upon a time, i bought a silk paoli scarf at screaming mimi's for $32, but never wore it. i brought it upstate with me and decided to finally break it in, only to find the same exact scarf that day at a woodstock vintage shop for $8, same condition. screw you, screaming mimi's.

the minute i saw this house on the highway, i made the boy pull over so i could take a picture. but when i got out, i suddenly got nervous - i mean, sure, there's colorful peace signs all over, but what if the owner of the house came barreling out the front door with a rifle, telling me to get off his property? (these are the thoughts that run through my mind.) i sheepishly took a quick picture and ran back to the car.

4: play dress up.

nobody puts pandora in a corner.

5: take a moonlight train ride.

our first stop was the railway museum in phoenicia, where we were greeted by earl pardini and the slide mountain string band. they played until the sun went down and then finished their set aboard the train. bliss.

say something once, why say it again?

2010-07-14T04:19:00.005-04:00

the writer in me rejoiced when garance doré's latest post popped up on my google reader yesterday. although her heavily punctuated, charmingly hyperbolic commentary on velour magazine's list of banished words is hilarious, it also touches on a lot of ideas that i've been kicking around lately. as an aspiring fashion journalist, i have a natural tendency to emulate my predecessors, but as a reader, i find myself harboring criticism towards those same methods. i've been collecting fashion magazines since 2002 - that is, if seventeen can be considered the foundation of a proper fashion magazine collection - and if i had a dime for every time someone or something was referred to as an 'icon' or 'chic,' i'd probably be able to afford a whole lot of the things featured in those pretty little editorials.

i think it's safe to say that among fashion professionals and spectators alike, the general consensus is that the frivolity associated with the industry is just as potent as its ability to influence millions of consumers and remain at the forefront of the ever-changing cultural frontier. so if a professor can piece together a compelling narrative on the social implications of denim, for instance, then why can't fashion's biggest titles come up with anything more innovative than "true blues" or "get the skinny?"**

of course, fashion and academic writing are worlds apart in terms of tone, length, and audience, among several other factors (and fresh out of college, i'll be the first to reveal that academic writing is quite flawed in its own way). but when it comes to stringing together stimulating ideas and syntax, the chasm between the two products is so wide that it warrants a second glance. i'm not suggesting that subscribers are itching to read a dissertation-length analysis of the recent clog resurgence or anything, but we're hardly the lowest common denominator, either. there has to be more to fashion writing than 'glam,' 'fabulous,' and slapping '-ista' onto the end of every buzz word du jour.

while we're on the topic of clichés, though, they say you shouldn't throw stones if you live in a glass house, so i'm willing to put my money where my mouth is. this budding writer is going to adhere to a no-fly list of fashion vocabulary, too. come to think of it, most of these words - celeb, must-have, trendy - kinda make my skin crawl anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard.

**i've never understood why eighty-five percent of fashion editorial/article titles are puns. i swear to god, it's like my dad is sneaking into condé nast at night and writing the headlines himself.

[via the fashion spot]

there was a factory, now there are mountains and rivers, pt. 1

2010-07-13T00:01:00.002-04:00

allow me to be frank. when it comes to a executing a theme, i know no boundaries. i've been known to stuff myself into a pair of vintage sasson jeans with zero percent spandex and scour ebay for hours, looking for appropriately weathered license plates from red states, if there's a lowbrow throwdown on the horizon. the thrill of pulling off a vibe is worth the trouble, but i know my rabid enthusiasm can be taxing on my friends and family once i lock in to theme mode.

when the boy and i pulled into kate's lazy meadow friday evening, i felt as if i'd stepped into the domain of a kindred spirit. the kitsch factor is certainly high throughout the resort, but i'll be damned if every last christmas light, garden gnome, and tchotchke isn't absolutely essential to the look of the place. i still can't get the whimsical interiors out of my head, so i thought i'd share some shots of our cabin suite.

look, a themed key! we're off to a good start.

i was slightly obsessed, photographically speaking, with this tiki/totem dude guarding our sakajawiya suite. he's only about a foot tall, but you should see the creepy shadow he casts at night. evil spirits? banished.

i took this picture right before crashing the first night. i'm happy to report that that bed is just as comfortable as it looks.

when i was nine years old, i declared that purple and orange were my favorite colors. i quickly changed my mind when i realized that the two hues almost always look witchy and jarring against one another. so i love how the spicy orange paint featured above clashed joyously with lavender corrugated metal panels in the bathroom.

and this sign out back led to...

...a vintage airstream trailer park!

just a little somethin' to break the monotony

2010-07-09T06:42:00.001-04:00

heading upstate for the weekend with my boy - happy birthday to me!

i try to play god, do my best to keep the heat at bay

2010-07-07T19:40:00.005-04:00

[clockwise, from top left: fendi slingbacks, $476; kate spade luci slingbacks, $325; mar y sol marielle clutch, $75; asos sunny wedges, $42.27; kate spade narina flats, $260; ralph lauren blue label monogram belt, $595; fendi pumps, $695; topshop tapdance plimsolls, $30; asos raffia bow headband, $10.15]

it's been really, really hot this week. the past few days have been nothing but searing sunlight beating down mercilessly for hours on end, daring a cloud to try and get in its way.

so when i found myself - in defiance of all heat advisories - sitting out by a pool with no shade whatsoever on the first day of camp, my only line of defense was a bit of sunscreen and a floppy straw hat from j.crew that i picked up a couple of weeks ago. although i couldn't manage to stop my profuse sweating by sheer willpower, i felt grateful for the hat and its built-in shade, even though it probably looked pretty ridiculous paired with my standard issue camp staff tee and gym shorts.

that's when my brain must have started to sizzle, because then my thought process became tenuous, jumping from straw to wicker to hemp and finally settling on raffia. i was irrationally consumed by thoughts of raffia until i finally got home and satisfied the craving with some online window shopping. luckily, the ceiling fan in my bedroom kept temperatures cool enough to stop me from buying recklessly, but i can't be held responsible for sun-induced shopping if this heat wave doesn't let up soon.. just sayin'.

the first kick i took was when i hit the ground

2010-07-02T09:07:00.003-04:00

i'm going to be working furiously throughout the day* trying to eke out a carefree weekend for myself, so i thought this would be a good time to give you all a virtual salute and best wishes for a happy fourth of july!

plans are hazy at the moment, but we're thinking of staking out a spot somewhere along the hudson to see the fireworks. still, i'm looking for a backup plan in case manhattan's entire west side turns out to be a tourist circus. what are your holiday weekend plans?

*oh, and by "working furiously throughout the day," i mean "trying desperately to ward off my chronic procrastination habit just long enough to knock one or two things off my to-do list." whatever works.

[via i love wildfox!]

looks like she's poured into gold, she bad

2010-06-29T01:50:00.002-04:00

when i was younger, i used to regard my mother's newport news catalogs with a mixture of disdain and boredom. with its seemingly endless variety of frumpy slacks and sensible shoes, i shuffled it to the back of my mental file cabinet. still, every now and then when i'm scouring shopstyle, i'll find something particularly appealing (and affordable) that just so happens to come from newport news.

not one to leave any shopping stone unturned, i did a bit of research and was pleasantly surprised by what turned up. it seems like if you can get past things like this, you'll find pieces like this backpack ($44) and belt bag ($29). i've never considered rocking a fanny pack or anything like it, but after even an hour of walking around with a purse of any size, my back always begins to ache unbearably. i figure while the nineties are making their comeback, it's a good time to bring back the some of the decade's more innovative purse alternatives. this cream woven backpack gets bonus points for feeling slightly less cartoonish than a lot of others i've seen lately.

i've been into large, floppy hats since last summer, after i finally made the leap with a burlington thrift store find and learned that they looked pretty good with my short haircut after all. the long winter that followed put a stop to my growing straw hat collection, but i resumed my efforts this past weekend with j.crew version over the weekend. i love it, but i also love this even cheaper version ($29) as well as another topper ($29) that's less seaside than outback.

somewhere in my room, there's an ocean friends barbie - kira, actually - whose look i didn't know i was channeling until just now ($29). mission accomplished. and while i'm at it, i could so see this bow-tie bandeau suit ($19) going great with one of my wide-brimmed straw hats.

of course, i'm not declaring newport news the new topshop or anything, but there are definitely a couple of unexpectedly great pieces hiding beneath all of that mom-friendly stock. time to reshuffle that mental file cabinet, i guess.

such a fright seeing them in my dark cupboard with my great big cake

2010-06-15T08:32:00.004-04:00

there's something about holidays that sends my stress level skyrocketing.

i can pick any calendar day at random and hype it to the high heavens if it happens to coincide with something planned like a vacation, a party, or even a particularly exciting ups shipment, but when it comes to something that should inherently be kind of a big deal, like christmas or thanksgiving, i'm suddenly stricken by a major bout of performance anxiety.

i deal with the stage fright by compulsively downplaying imminent jubilees with a vengeance, but the irrationality hits a fever pitch when it comes to my birthday. i'm not being coy at all when i implore friends and family to treat my birthday like any other day. i'm a shy girl to begin with, so all of that annual attention and fanfare paired with my longstanding anxieties is about enough to send me scurrying into birthday hiding.

a peek inside pandora's closet, circa 1990.

it wasn't always like this - as the only girl and baby of the family, i have vivid memories of compiling a long list of birthday wishes (barbies, mostly) and expecting the full princess treatment on my special day. well, friends, i'm happy to report that at long last the pendulum is beginning to swing back. no, i'm not reverting back to spoiled brattiness, but i am actually excited about celebrating my birthday after several years of merely tolerating it.

" hop in my chrysler, it's as big as a whale,
and it's about to set sail... "

my boyfriend - mr. pandora? mandora? - and i will have been together for four years come september, but far-flung summer plans always prevent us from being together on my birthday. this year, he's taking me upstate to kate's lazy meadow, a cluster of quirky cabins and stationary airstream trailers in the catskills. all the "suites" are decked out in kitschy mid-century decor by owner kate pierson of the b-52s, and though the tinkerbell trailer we wanted is booked (top right), we're equally excited to hunker down in the sakajawiya suite instead.

to be perfectly honest, this whole great outdoors thing is pretty new to me, so i don't know exactly what to expect. still, when i let my imagination fill in the blanks, i see home-cooked meals, swimming in the lake, and breathtaking mountain views. so despite our lack of a trailer and my lack of cooking skills, i'm modeling my getaway wardrobe after lucille ball's tacy collini in the long, long trailer - all silk scarves and sunhats, cuffed button-downs, full skirts, and high-waisted slacks. i'm no good at playing the happy homemaker, but i can certainly dress the part if i put my mind to it.

i spotted this striped top when i was at monk in williamsburg the other day and couldn't let it pass by. just the night before, i had been browsing modcloth and lamenting the fact that a practically identical sea green version was already sold out. coincidence? hardly. and at fifteen dollars, i didn't even have to dip into my savings to bring it home with me. next on my list? a great straw hat and a picnic basket.

twenty-two days and counting..

[via lovely disco, we heartit, kate's lazy meadow, modcloth, google]

i'm on fire and now i think i'm ready to bust a move

2010-06-13T11:05:00.002-04:00

the first word that comes to mind when i think about the summer to come is "purgatory."

of course, i'm terribly thrilled to be done with school, back in new york, and finally a stone's throw away from my boy after three summer seasons spent a world apart. it's just that i'm spending the next two months at home. with my parents. need i say more?

add this minor setback to the fact that a serious spate of ebenezer scrooge-status penny pinching is just about my only hope of getting my own place in the fall, and i find myself indulging almost exclusively in autumnal fashion fantasies in spite of myself.

i've had coats in particular on the brain for the past week or so, which led me last week to isabella oliver to check on the status of my beloved shirt coat. to make a long story short, i've been drooling over this coat for almost an entire year. with a fantastic swing shape and all the easygoing nonchalance of one of my favorite oversized button-downs, i knew i had to have it - immediately, and in camel. but as it turns out, my paychecks flew by just as quick as senior year did, and several months later i found myself looking at the shirt coat in a new thirty-five percent off light.

we both know what happened next, right? bought it, gift boxed it, and wrote myself a cute little note to boot. naturally, this puts my aforementioned penny pinching mission in a time-out corner of shame, but i can't help feeling like this is the perfect start to a great fall season nonetheless.

back me up on this one. me and my savings account aren't on very good terms right now.

[via isabella oliver]

how soon is now?

2010-06-07T07:30:00.001-04:00

when i foresaw the nostalgia that's bound to engulf my memories of higher education in a rose-tinted haze over the years, i forgot to mention the essential first step of the process - the brief but heady rush of sentimentality that accompanies the closing of nearly every chapter of my life.

i'm talking about those premeditated, self-consciously sappy bonding sessions and the last-ditch attempts to document the final moments of an experience with a couple hundred photographs. i managed to stay fairly aloof during these last opportunities for wistful revelry - after all, i'm not planning to lose contact with anyone who's meant something to me during these past few years and all those senior events were getting to be pretty damn expensive - but i knew it'd be difficult to leave campus without snagging a bit of sartorial nostalgia.

the aesthete in me would like to pretend that i spent my time in the ivy league surrounded by people as enthusiastic about cultivating their personal appearances as they were about their scholarly endeavors, but the inconvenient truth is that sweats, uggs, leggings, flip-flops, and similar atrocities dominated the yard on a daily basis. even those who felt inclined to channel a classic prep vibe often botched the effort by either a) opting for a bastardized version of the look, complete with prominent logos and a horrific fit, or b) being an general douchebag. of course, there were more than a couple of my classmates who truly mastered their own style across a wide spectrum of genres, and whenever they crossed my path on the way to class, my eyes would silently thank them for rising above the frumpy fray.

in any case, on move-out day i packed up my things, stuffed it all into the back of my parents' rental truck and promptly requested that they take me to the coop. i wasn't sure exactly what i was looking for - since i'm not a huge fan of sweatpants with my alma mater emblazoned down the left leg, i'd become accustomed to avoiding the store's apparel section altogether. besides, i'd already picked up an alumni canvas and leather duffel a few days earlier and wasn't interested in spending too much more money on memorabilia.

and then i spied this gray and crimson raglan - casual with vintage appeal, i'm currently using it as a nightshirt, but i can also see it tucked into '70s style high-waisted shorts and chunky platforms like a collegiate jodie foster in taxi driver...or for a more traditional approach, maybe paired with a creamy cableknit cardigan when i head back to campus to see the game - wait, too soon?

[via drinkin' and dronin']

every sermon is not the gospel, babe

2010-06-05T00:44:00.008-04:00

after thirty-three courses, eight semesters, one summer in paris, and four long years, it seems i can finally call myself a college graduate.

as the future unfolds before me, i'm almost certain that the silent, hazy tendrils of nostalgia will eventually obscure the clarity of my mind's eye, transforming my college memories into a happy remembrance of great friendships, inspiring lectures, and a lively party scene, with the occasional all-nighter thrown in for good measure.

but just about a week after all the pomp and circumstance of commencement, i can still easily conjure up all the frustration, restlessness, feelings of isolation, and crippling stress that plagued me all too often during these past few years. so although i'm indebted to my college experience for a number of things, above all else, i feel incredibly relieved that it's over and i'm all too happy to walk away from it.

" They might break and they might fall, but the girls from New York City don't
They just start again, start again... "

the fact that i'm lucky enough to jump ship and land in new york? well, that's just the icing on the cake. i've felt hopelessly cut off from this city practically since the moment i left, so simply being here is a great first step in whatever direction i end up taking.

so what's next? honestly, your guess is as good as mine, but this blog should be a great place to check in for updates. without my stock excuse of " Sorry guys, school has just been out of control lately! " i think it's high time that Pandora's Closet undergo a revival (see new layout; still in progress), don't you?

let's talk soon.

i’ll look for you in old honolulu san francisco, ashtabula

2010-04-23T10:30:00.000-04:00

i have been listening to this song on a continuous loop for weeks. not sick of it yet.

[via fashion gone rogue]

all over the world high school girls

2010-04-21T10:30:00.001-04:00

oh hey, wildfox. i see you.. yeah.

[via wildfox couture]

if we weren't in the show starting right away we'd be in the audience too

2010-04-19T11:54:00.001-04:00

um, does someone at elle spain want to be my new best friend? if so, the answer is a resounding YES.

[via miss at la playa]

you could smoke a spliff with a cliff but there's still no mountain hiiigh enough

2010-03-22T20:44:00.009-04:00

after slogging through an unfortunate series of airline delays, mechanical issues, fuel shortages, closed airports, and about fifteen hours in transit, intermittent drizzle and a gunmetal sky welcomed me back to the 02138 this morning. sheer exasperation alone kept my mood from plummeting accordingly - even the most dismal weather beats the inside of an airport, after all.

as for the blissful week i just spent in st. petersburg, florida, i have a bad habit of - or is it a handy knack for? - living in the moment rather than documenting it. as a result, i have absolutely no photographic evidence of my time spent watching french movies about french women, sifting through wedding dresses, falling into the baroque world of fernando botero, enjoying long walks on the beach, and reading lolita by the pool. trust me when i say that i gorged myself on the best gelato in the world, and just take my word for it that sara and i spent friday night rubbing elbows with a bunch of middle-aged women, jersey shore-types, crooklyn clan, and tone loc.

undocumented claims aside, i happen to have an abundance of st. pete souvenirs to make up for my total lack of vacation snapshots. naturally, all of these souvenirs happen to fall squarely into the sartorial realm - so much for a shopping system. i was planning on allowing myself to buy two more items for the month of march, and ended up with eight or nine new things, and that's not including the things i cajoled my dear mother into buying before even arriving in florida.. oops?

still, as heady as i felt slapping down the plastic time after time, i swear i wasn't acting completely on impulse. as i explained to a friend, i felt as if i were suddenly shopping for my postgraduate self - who can don something a bit dramatic without looking too over the top for, say, a seminar on protestantism in american literature - and it was a great feeling, indeed.

images to come, folks.

[via google]

you had to have the white hot spotlight

2010-03-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

speaking of my favorite male voices..

there's an infectious joy in this video that makes me smile whenever i watch it. sara and i are looking to explore st. pete nightlife tonight, so if things go well, i may find myself leaping up and down like mike on the dance floor in a few hours. of course, i'd need more than a few drinks to see those kinetic waves emanating from my body.

here's your ticket, pack your bag, time for jumpin' overboard

2010-03-14T23:59:00.006-04:00

reason #6279 why i can't get my own apartment soon enough:

i come home from school to find out that my father has slowly but surely been packing up and throwing out my magazine collection, books both brand new and old, and other treasured paper goods. effin' blasphemy.

i'm not really sure how to handle this, since past protests have fallen on deaf ears, but i'm so angry i can't see straight. graduation day can't come soon enough.

she's pure as new york snow

2010-03-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

it always takes me a little while to warm up to lady gaga videos, but once i do, it's full-blown obsession. at the moment, i'm enjoying 'telephone' more via stills than in motion - i think it's the choppy dialogue that's putting me off. pause it at nearly any moment though, and you'll see one kick-ass look after another. i'm really not the type of person who uses the word 'fierce' in any capacity, but it's hard to resist when it comes to gaga.

here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten

2010-03-12T02:32:00.002-05:00

i should probably start by saying george michael ranks high on my list of favorite male voices - like somewhere in the top five. still, even if for some reason i weren't a huge fan, it'd be hard to resist the vintage vogue editorials come to life that serve as his early nineties music videos.

this one felt particularly resonant as i officially greet spring break after a long stretch of midterms, deadlines, and papers - if i didn't have roommates, i'd probably dance around in my underwear à la naomi.

and since it's friday, let's have another, shall we?

[via google]

the elderly sales clerk won't eye us with suspicion

2010-03-08T02:32:00.001-05:00

coincidence or fate: just as i'm beginning to shake off my bad habit of making impulse buys, i realize that i should have just bought a certain piece i've been coveting the first time i saw it, because it's no longer available for purchase.

somehow i missed the "we won’t be taking orders for this range after feb 2nd" bit on the we are handsome site until just the other day, but with merchandise so stellar, i suppose it's not all that surprising that i wasn't focusing on the fine print.

i've never been a fan of bikinis - something about their overall scarcity of fabric leaves something to be desired in terms of design. that said, those little fabric triangles are by far the most prominent type of swimwear on the market, and i'm always looking for a one-piece suit that doesn't fall under the 'sporty' or 'plain' heading. since i lean towards styles that have a vintage feel, i fell hard for we are handsome's graphic interpretation of that vibe.

whether it's a west coast airport runway at sunset, a quaint and colorful guide to bird species, or a christopher kane-esque image of a lion's visage mid-roar, these cheeky limited edition images are a welcome departure from the all the suits i've become accustomed to. unfortunately, all of this admiration does me no good, since i can't get my hands on them anymore.

damn this newfound self-restraint of mine.

[via we are handsome]

my traveling companion is nine years old

2010-03-05T16:56:00.003-05:00

this movie comes totally out of left field, but it's an instant favorite.

happy friday.

the weather is good, the fishin' is fine, now what do you do with all of your time

2010-03-01T19:54:00.005-05:00

well, the good news is i got through last week unscathed. the bad news is that there's still another week and a half of heavy duty work to come. luckily, there's a sunbeam at the end of tunnel, and it's hovering just above the great state of florida, where i'll be heading for spring break in just over two weeks.

when it comes to traveling, it's always a thrill to dive headfirst into the sights, smells, and quirks of a completely new place, but i reserve a special sort of well-worn affection for locales that i've visited once or thrice before. i've been to florida so many times i've lost count, but instead of indulging in the bustling tourism of orlando or the semi-dilapidated art deco decadence of miami, i'll be heading back to st. petersburg, a spot i've been hankering to return to since the last time i left.

"stop jumpin' around, you'll run out of breath, why don't you sit back and calm yourself?"

st. pete doesn't offer too much in the way of high-octane entertainment, but what it lacks in roller coasters and fireworks, it certainly makes up for with scenery and charm. my last visit felt like one extended lazy sunday, with long strolls along the boardwalk, languorous museum outings, and daily trips to a gelato shop so divine that i couldn't find a better one during all my time in europe.

if this all sounds like a senior citizen's version of heaven, that's because it pretty much is. the elderly population of st. pete is booming to say the least, but oddly enough, that's where i'm drawing inspiration from as i put together my travel wardrobe. i already know that st. pete living is easy, so i'm aiming to dress the part.

i wanted a single piece to function as a layering canvas, but didn't really feel like rustling up a flattering jumpsuit, so i opted for this simple black maxi dress instead. i followed up that purchase with a black turban (my fifth and final purchase for the month of february) and i admit it's all a bit reminiscent of a certain gushing missive i once dashed off about carmen miranda, but i'm actually going for what might happen if katharine hepburn, dorothy zbornak, and janis joplin had to share closet space.

i'm thinking uninterrupted ankle-length silhouettes, billowy tops, boyish vests, and striking accessories, perfect for everything from self-administered pedicures by the pool to dinners at slightly tacky seaside restos. just a couple more essential pieces to get a hold of, fourteen more days and i'm there.

i can not wait.

p.s. any suggestions on where i can get my hands on a flattering one-piece swimsuit?

[via google, flickr, babooshka boutique, asos]

oh girl, your silhouette make me wanna light a cigarette

2010-02-26T18:07:00.003-05:00

spring break is fast approaching, guys.. time to get in shape.

like the new ipod just touch it and turn her on

2010-02-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

"actually, christie, they have nice lines, a fun, frisky use of color.. all and all, i'd have to say they're really.. not bad."

lately, i've been hoarding images from a website stocked solely with screencaps from the movie clueless, and i spent last weekend rewatching romy and michelle's high school reunion, so you can imagine how happy this picture makes me. it's overtly childish and feminine, with a dash of smut - five leggy lolitas of the me generation daring you to look away.

i've given myself a pretty ambitious to-do list for the week, so i'll be back as soon as time permits. adieu.

[via fashion gone rogue]

let your backbone slip, do the watusi like my little lucy

2010-02-18T03:00:00.001-05:00

hmm.. i suppose i should have seen this coming.

i thought the shopping list i laid out was firm, but if my two latest purchases are any indication, they were more like loose guidelines all along. i fully blame sarah, who likes to refer to me as her enabler, but took me along on a tuesday afternoon shopping spree that softened my steely resolve quicker than i could say 'frugal.'

sarah was the one who picked out both a pristine leather wallet and stellar pumpkin-hued sweater from heaps of vintage merchandise, convincingly proclaiming them "just my style," but once i took the wool and kid mohair confection for a test drive, there was no turning back.

a swingy, boxy cut paired with that punchy orange makes this the perfect love child of velma dinkley and laura petrie's sweater collections. every time i pull it on, i just want to pair it with black pedal pushers, curl up on a pistachio mid-century sofa, and crack open my first edition copy of "sex and the single girl." that said, it also works just as swimmingly in the present as it does in my retro fantasies, and since that's what's at the core of my shopping allotment system anyway, i guess i'm not doing so bad this month.

on another note, i'm learning that it's nearly impossible for me to give good face on cue - that brooding, pensive stare that fashion bloggers seem to have locked down. and on top of that, my posing abilities are just as reckless, so i can only predict more silly faces and randomness like this for the future. so it goes.

bowler: shotwell; earrings: vintage; glasses: charles jourdan (vintage) sweater: glasgo ltd. (vintage); pants: forever21; belt: h&m.

the tide is high but i'm holding on

2010-02-16T04:00:00.002-05:00

there's a familiar tingling in my veins that's been coursing through me lately. it comes without warning, and while i can usually keep myself busy enough to ignore it, the time has come to acknowledge it.

i need to go shopping.

with the imminent prospect of having to pay rent looming in the near future, i've been pretty good about hanging on to my paychecks - habitually deleting gilt groupe emails without reading them, never wandering into clothing stores without an express purpose - but now i've got it bad. worst of all, it seems no amount of glossy gazing is going to cure me this time. i need a fix.

still, all is not yet lost. in the interest of keeping myself from wildly sinking my bank account into the red on a single whim, i've devised a strict shopping allotment system.

last month, i bought or received six new pieces (which i'll post about if i ever get my california pictures uploaded). as referenced above, i have an annoying tendency to buy on impulse, and as a result, i usually only end up wearing about twenty percent of my new purchases. these latest acquisitions are turning out to have more staying power, as i've been wearing five of them on a pretty regular basis - it's simply too cold for the sixth piece, a pair of vintage high-waisted girl scout shorts. in any case, this sets my february buying threshold at five items or less.

if i happen to buy five things this month and none of them end up abandoned in the back of my closet, then i'll allow myself to purchase five more plus a bonus sixth item come march. of course, the things i can buy will be dictated by how much money i have, but this will force me to at least contextualize the things i want to buy in terms of my existing wardrobe, rather than buying something terribly incongruous just for a one-time wear.

with this system in place and an urge getting stronger every day, it goes without saying that i've been seriously contemplating my february allotment. after thinking it over, i've settled on a most wanted list that should help me get through my impending shopping frenzy.

lady trousers

although i'm quite happy with the things i picked up in california, my initial goal was to find the perfect pair of proper pants, or lady trousers, as i like to call them. this goal has been floating around in the back of my mind for what feels like forever, but due to the fact that i was blessed with a backside, i have trouble finding a pair that hangs as well on my frame as it does on the hanger.

i was almost convinced that my body was simply not made to fit the style, but i bought some from forever21 on a cheap whim and they work well, so now i'm hunting for a higher quality pair. i was all set to buy these cream beauties from french connection, but when i tried them on in person, it was an unlined nightmare that wreaked havoc on my shape. the search continues..

an elevated everyday shoe

i'm partial to flat shoes in a major way, and i'll probably never be able to swan through the streets atop spindly stilettos, but i do love my solid wedges and stacked heels, so i'm looking for something with some extra height that's simple enough to wear on a daily basis.

a new black pant

i somehow managed to splatter bleach on my favorite pair of slim black slacks. unfortunately, this doesn't make them look deconstructed-chic at all, and i need a new go-to pair.. like, immediately.

a flat shoe
in the morning, there's an eighty-five percent chance that out of all of the shoes i own, i'm going to pull on either a beat-up white pair of keds, my beat-up black oxfords, or a vintage pair of slouchy black beat-up leather boots. i have a wider range of flat shoes, of course, but these three pairs are just indispensable for some reason. still, it's no coincidence that all of these shoes are falling apart, so it's high time i add a fourth pair to the list. marais usa has a bunch of promising leads, but i'm interested to see what i'll be able to dig up in my favorite vintage shops.

some new frames
my everyday pair has served me well for the past few years, but they're begging to go into retirement and i can barely see through them anymore. i always seem to be a bit more experimental with my nonprescription frames, so i'm excited to go with something bigger and bolder than usual this time around.

and that's the short list, folks. let the games begin.

[via fashion gone rogue, the streethearts, jak&jil, marais usa, opening ceremony, stubbs & wootton, bass, bloomingdale's, pixie market, vanessa jackman, kate spade, moscot]

with every mistake we must surely be learning

2010-02-12T13:14:00.002-05:00

no sequence of words that i could possibly string together would help to make sense of this monumental loss. he'll be sorely missed.

wish i had a rabbit in a hat with a bat and a six-four impala

2010-02-11T08:39:00.001-05:00

i don't mean to harp on how amazing my classes are this semester, but i just feel the need to share the fact that this picture was actually discussed in lecture this week, accompanied by "white rabbit" on blast - as if the pretty woman clips weren't enough.

[via google]

if i knew picasso, i would buy myself a gray guitar and play

2010-02-09T18:21:00.008-05:00

-not gonna lie, i kinda feel like the sixth member of fleet foxes in this outfit, but i'm cool with that. word on the street is that mother nature is gonna dump a whole lot of snow on us come tomorrow, so i'm getting my kicks in tonight.

"pass me a bottle, mr. jones.."

in other news, i have a brand spanking new freelance gig, so expect links to that soon.

beanie: american apparel; earrings: vintage; vest: zara; shirt: urban outfitters; jeans: kill city.

a kiss with a fist is better than none

2010-02-03T15:39:00.003-05:00

due to my love of all things old, kitschy, and thoroughly american, i was thrilled to see today's google homepage image. happy birthday, norman rockwell!

on another note, can't you totally picture alexa chung rocking this look sans pigtails and bruises, with a shorter hemline, heels on those oxfords, and her namesake mulberry bag?

[via google]

let me see your earrings jingle, love

2010-02-02T23:29:00.005-05:00

i'm loving the fact that clips from both these movies were shown in lecture today.. and that i don't have class on wednesdays. senior spring is shaping up just fine.

there were conflicting reports on the groundhog front today, but i'm gonna claim hometown pride and go with staten island chuck's prediction of an early spring. bring on the florals and rising hemlines.

[via google]

and i write my school report on why i love my jeans

2010-01-29T17:00:00.002-05:00

you'd think eighteen years would be enough time for me to grow out of my barbie habit, but when i stumbled upon a treasure trove of vintage and contemporary commercials and promotional material, it was all i could do to stifle the giddy squeal rising up inside of me. after watching nearly every one, i found it tough to pick a favorite, so i pulled a couple of gems from each decade. equal parts hilarious and fantastic, i'd be lying if i said i'm not still harboring an urge to hit the ebay circuit and start snapping up some of these plastic stunners.

1962: okay, these outfits are actually all pretty killer, but i draw the line at cuffing my chin with glee and using the word "swell." chill out, girl.

1967: the trade-in offer (and that overenthused guy's rapping) is pretty sweet, but i don't think i would have been able to give up one of my beloved dolls to get a new one.. especially not to that creepy mechanical shopkeeper. and is that marcia brady? jan really couldn't catch a break..

1971: wait - orange skin, feather-thin arched brows, and obnoxiously large sunglasses? a couple of wardrobe tweaks and we're looking at jersey shore barbie here.

1973: so mustache = bad guy, but sideburns = hero. this must be why i have such mixed feelings about terry richardson. by the way, what is this doll's hair made out of, anyway? steel wool?

1984: also known as working girl barbie and bonfire of the vanities ken.

1988: very glamourai, no? but it seems sort of awkward to be cozying up to jungle animals while pretending to wear their skins. just sayin'.

1992: wow. well, fly girl threads aside, i really can't take this seriously until she works on those moves.. the spastic shuffle just isn't gonna cut it.

1992: and moving right along from the streets to the trailer park, we have the best-selling barbie of all-time. seriously - more than ten million people bought this very doll. no, i can't figure it out either.

such a dirty mind, i always get it up for the touch of the younger kind

2010-01-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

well, its the third day of the semester, so you probably all know what i'm going to say next - things are crazy, i'm getting it together, settling into the school schedule, and so on and so forth.. but what's really tripping me up is the fact that this is my last semester, which means that i'm now looking up jobs and freelance positions and churning out writing samples like a machine in addition to the usual academic hubbub. impending adulthood is indeed a scary thing.

but looking on the bright side, no hiatus is necessary, just give me a couple of days. i've got a couple of posts waiting in the wings for edits and images, so it won't be too long.

in other news, how wonderful is this riley keough spread? color me smitten, sis boom bah.

[via fashion gone rogue]

sense the rhythm humming in a frenzy all the way down her spine

2010-01-22T12:30:00.004-05:00

when a super meets up with a king under the direction of herb ritts, amazing things can happen. case in point: this 1992 sepia tone gem.

bon week-end.

wear your gold in the summer with your biking shorts

2010-01-20T03:59:00.001-05:00

in san francisco, sarah and i went to a trailer trash-themed bar called butter. we were understandably a bit apprehensive about it and showed up fairly early in order to sample the city's finer nightlife.

as we entered the fairly sketchy-looking building, old wwf wrestling matches and breakin' 2: electric boogaloo were being simultaneously projected onto the walls while an adorable girl dj churned out some grade a house party jams - needless to say, we stayed the entire night.

the only way it could have gotten any better is if i'd dressed for the occasion, pairing my skintight high-waisted sasson jeans with one of these fantastic vintage tees. i can't remember for the life of me where i found them, but i do remember that both were obscenely expensive, so i'll settle for soaking up the nostalgia through my computer screen.

young kentucky girl in a push-up bra

2010-01-16T22:13:00.000-05:00

with a face like that, those seven husbands probably fell right into her lap. and check out those eyebrows.

note to self: wear belted, high-waisted pants at the beach, preferably carelessly cuffed with bare feet.

headed back to new york tomorrow night, new posts coming shortly..

[via divas]

i'd be safe and warm if i was in l.a.

2010-01-07T03:39:00.002-05:00

it's about four am right now and i'm dead tired, but it's time to hit the road - california, here i come.

[via songs&fotos]

but thick as you are, pay attention

2010-01-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

for a timid bookworm with coke bottle glasses and an aversion to team sports, i somehow managed to get myself pretty scratched and bruised up during my formative years. whether i was gullibly accepting my older brother's ill-fated footrace challenges or skipping through the house with all the grace of a baby elephant, for a while it seemed like i couldn't go a day without drawing blood, breaking skin, or falling down. i still have the scars to commemorate my childhood clumsiness, but for the most part, i don't mind them.

still, there are a couple i could live without, most notably a nick to the eyebrow that refuses to correct itself. back in elementary school, wednesdays were half-days, and therefore the day of my weekly library visit. on one particular wednesday, i must have checked out some terribly exciting tome or other because once outside the library, i took off away from my mother in a giddy half-skip. naturally, i didn't even make it to the end of the block. my foot got caught on a chunk of broken sidewalk, and i pitched forward, nosediving into a cocktail of concrete and glass, as a broken bottle laying on the ground just missed my left eye and sliced into my brow instead.

after my mother got through cleaning me up, chewing me out, and praying over me, she began waiting for my now-sullied brow to grow back in and correct itself. unfortunately, that day never came. with age, my brows grew thicker and somewhat obscured the mark, but it's still there.

in the meantime, i've always been a sucker for audrey hepburn's almost cartoonishly thick eyebrows, and every time i visit the phenomenal cheap thrills, i find myself seriously envying the gorgeous raez's bold brows (and outfits, and poses, and photography..). my own brows aren't what i would call thin by any means, but lately my mission is the thicker, the better, so i ventured into the soho mac store a few weeks ago and bought an eyebrow pencil in stud. since i never wear makeup, this is quite a big step for me. i know better than to step out displaying my amateur handiwork just yet, but until then i'll consider it a minor new year's resolution to master bigger, badder, and better brows - scars be damned.

[via google, cheap thrills]

we need a resolution

2009-12-31T16:00:00.000-05:00

time to get glittery and revisit all those vices one last time before attempting a perfect '10.

[via basilio silva]

she was a long cool woman in a black dress

2009-12-27T12:15:00.001-05:00

when i picked up the latest issue of vogue at the newsstand, i was a bit startled by its super svelte heft. of course, unsubstantially-sized january mags are certainly standard fare, but something about this particular issue felt particularly flimsy between my fingers. in the end, though, it turns out that the next decade's first installment of vogue is the glossy equivalent of my personal candy crack, welch's fruit snacks - quick and sweet, but actually nutritious and worth revisiting.

still, despite all the reveling in the past and anticipating future fashions, it was a brief m.i.a. feature, tucked away towards the tail end of the magazine, that stopped me in my tracks. i've been a fan of miss arulpragasam's early nineties fly girl-meets-tribal acid trip vibe for what feels like forever, but year after year of wild style can easily lose its edge, and i hadn't thought about her in a sartorial sense for quite some time. now she's absolutely killing it with this sexy, subdued style, a perfect older sister to her former look that's cleverly described as "iranian-american princess/sade."

when i recovered my lost jewelry back in october, i did a gleeful reassessment of my pieces and found that gold made up the vast majority of the collection. still, i've always opted to wear no more than two golden baubles at once, so as not to veer into gaudy territory. now, i have a distinct urge to pile on as much as possible, forcing the boundaries of poor taste to mingle with a bold, unapologetic sort of elegance that straddles the late seventies and early eighties, reminiscent of tina chow and a young anjelica huston. and the best part is that everyone from topshop to tom binns loves to tinker around with gold, making this an incredibly simple look to emulate. in some cases, it seems that all that glitters really is gold.

[via tfs, topshop, eddie borgo, tom binns, google]

they're singing deck the halls, but it's not like christmas at all

2009-12-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

a very merry one to you and yours.

[via plan 59]

the mood is right, the spirit's up

2009-12-24T19:00:00.001-05:00

off to brooklyn for the evening with bob dylan's christmas album on heavy rotation. if this video is any indication, i really need to work on scoring an invite to one of his holiday shindigs.

[via plan59, fashion156]

out on bail fresh outta jail california dreamin'

2009-12-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

well, i slogged through the boundless mires of literary criticism and feminist theory and broke on through to the other side, and oh, how sweet it is. this year's christmas gift exchange with the boyfriend resulted in a slick and sturdy crosley record player, and i've been holed up in my room for days, bringing it all back home and revisiting highway 61 on vinyl.

of course, i could've been home in new york by now, but i'm sticking around for a few extra days to make extra cash for the long winter break ahead, which will include a trip to los angeles and san francisco. since i've never been further west than colorado, i'm incredibly excited and somewhat overwhelmed by the possibilities. i mean, we're talkingdisneyland, venice beach, cable cars, hollywood, haight-ashbury.. disneyland?! expectations are high, to say the least, but all the travel guides in the world aren't going to give me the juicy details that you all can. if you have any la/sf recommendations for vintage shopping, restaurants, cool areas, thrifting, people watching spots, and other generally cool things that stray from the typical tourist fare, get in touch - all tips would be much appreciated!

[via basilio silva]

drowning in leather-studded kisses and literary theory

2009-12-11T18:40:00.005-05:00

oh hey.

i'm in the midst of exam period hell right now, but i wanted to drop a quick line, lest anyone think the silence around here since my last post means that the frenzy of black friday swallowed me up or anything like that. i really hate going weeks at a time without posting, though, so expect a ton of content and -dare i say? - features after the fourteenth, when i finally wrap up this godforsaken semester. speaking of features, my list of favorite videos on youtube is getting out of hand, so i'm thinking about a weekly video feature of sorts.. sartorially/aesthetically lovely music videos, musically lovely fashion videos, and things of that ilk, accompanied by my unfiltered rambling, naturally.

well, i hate to start on a terribly obvious note, but this song - not the album, but this song - is literally getting me through my stay in academic purgatory, not to mention that the video, also on heavy rotation, has yet to get old for me. and somehow the credits via nicola formichetti make everything that much better - now i can make a real go at hunting down that ethereally nurselike rachel barrett dress and that phenomenal red alex noble jumpsuit (i promise i could find an occasion for it). at this level of fangirl-status obsession, it's hard to believe that i used to detest lady gaga merely months ago.. enjoy! be back in a couple of days.

[via SONGS&FOTOS]

yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas today

2009-11-27T09:00:00.002-05:00

this is the best image i've stumbled upon in a long, long time. audrey was my first style icon and i never tire of returning to her classic gamine appeal.

hope you're all coming out of your post-thanksgiving food comas.. i've never been one to brave the madness that is black friday, but i've decided to venture out and see what i can rustle up this year. updates to come.

[via google image search]

yeah you got that something, i think you'll understand

2009-11-23T12:00:00.003-05:00

remember when fashion bloggers everywhere started flipping out over nine west last spring? during the two weeks between the end of my sophomore year and the beginning of my trip to paris, i made it my life's mission to acquire a pair of heech sandals. i talked about them so much that my friends went ahead and gave me a nine west gift certificate as an early birthday gift, although in retrospect, it very well might have been a crafty attempt at getting me to purchase the damn things already and stop rambling on incessantly about them.

the day i finally snagged a pair in black leather will go down in my personal fashion annals as one of my happiest sartorial moments, and to this day, i can't pass up a brown leather pair without seriously contemplating snatching them up. still, those heady days in hot pursuit of the heech actually mark my second love affair with nine west. way back in fourth or fifth grade - i'm talking about my crayola fashion design studio days here - i was completely obsessed with the brand. i nagged my mother until she caved and bought me a pair of strappy caramel platform sandals - so, so very nineties.

anyway, the point of all this is that i've just plunged headfirst into my third nine west crush with these boots. aptly titled 'elation,' these shoes are the epitome of everything i want in a boot: simple, unadorned and sturdy, with a bit of slouch. christmas cash, meet your destiny. but as usual, i'm torn. black? ivory? ..both?

[via nine west]

gets a taste in my mouth as desperation takes hold

2009-11-19T20:19:00.006-05:00

"when routine bites hard/ and ambitions are low/ and resentment rides high/ but emotions won't grow.."

it seems like i can barely find time to breathe lately. food and sleep have become luxuries as i struggle to keep up with a deluge of deadlines, bank statements, word counts, letter grades, job listings and such, and the urge to crawl into a dark corner and hibernate is strong. at this point, there's nothing surprising about the cycle. the gray skies begin to mirror my mood - or is it the other way around? - the sound advice of family and friends goes ignored, and frown lines plant themselves stubbornly and conspicuously upon my face as i wait impatiently for an upswing of some sort to occur of its own volition, hoisting me up out of melancholy in the process.

unfortunately, these episodes are not confined to wintry weather or even this campus, which has led to blood tests, awkward therapist interactions, and a series of tense family moments over the years. in times like these, i often attempt to counteract the overwhelming sense of monotony by losing myself between the glossy pages of some fashion magazine or another, firmly pushing gloomy thoughts out of mind, if only for a little while. escapism is the goal, but now this seems somewhat naive in light of the death of daul kim, one of these pages' brightest faces.

perhaps the world that i transport myself to in times of strife, one replete with impeccable ensembles, perfect pouts and no shortage of aesthetic pleasure, may one day materialize in the form of a career. still, i find myself motivated to seek solace in things less ephemeral until then. daulmonster never failed to inspire in life, and now, even in her incredibly tragic death, she's encouraged me to reevaluate, regroup, and retry. once more, with feeling-

"..and we're changing our ways/ taking different roads."

[via fashion gone rogue]

you should look as good as your outlook

2009-11-12T10:52:00.008-05:00

project east is coming to town! the annual charity fashion show is in its third year, and this year we're showing collections from derek lam, vera wang, giuliano fujiwara, and a stellar line-up of parsons designers.

saturday at 8. harvard university. shoot me an email for more details/tickets.. can't wait to see these looks gliding down the runway!

[image via: project east]

red squirrel in the morning, i'm coming to take you home

2009-11-04T09:34:00.002-05:00

a little bit strung out in the daybreak sun - this picture is a perfectly accurate representation of how i'm feeling this morning.

[image credit: foto_decadent]

a time to build up, a time to break down

2009-10-25T20:43:00.005-04:00

ask me what i'd like to receive for any special day, and i'll inevitably draw a blank, stalling for a moment or two before mumbling a "well, nothing really.." i'm not quite sure what elicits this noncommittal response from me, considering on any given day, i can conjure up a mile-long lists of wants and desires from the fantastical to the mundane, whether it's a pair of swashbuckling chloé thigh-high boots, some extra hours in my day, a personal assistant to help me get my life in order, or a lovely camel coat to take me through the winter.

luckily for me, cameron seems to know what i'm wishing for even when i don't have the gumption to say it out loud. just when i needed something revitalizing to hoist me out of my perennial pre-winter rut, he rented a mini cooper and whisked me off to salem for the day. it was just what i needed - the open road, changing leaves, sing-alongs in the car, hot chocolate, walks along the wharf, hunting for vintage gems alongside adorable gay couples at an antique shop, and the particularly colorful characters that frequent salem all during the month of october - and the perfect to start to an exhausting but lovely weekend, consisting of birthday dinner in the north end with friends and adopted family, revamping a friend's style with the blessing of his parents, observing freshmen follies with a mixture of amusement and dismay, chowing down on free burgers, and blissfully ignoring any and all responsibilities.

p.s.: i'm a firm believer that one of the best parts about having roommates is getting to borrow amazing pieces like this mustard bomber, courtesy of blair.

p.p.s.: best news ever - mama pandora called and said she found my lost jewelry, scarves, and handbags from the beginning of the summer!! rejoicing.

life springs eternal on a gaudy neon street

2009-10-22T16:52:00.005-04:00

a funny thing happened between the last post and this one.. first, the frenzy of midterms settled in, forcing literary analysis and memorization of key concepts to take the place of seeking sartorial inspiration and such. but when the dust had cleared, my backlog of bright ideas has seemingly vanished, only to be replaced with a somber stash of doldrums.

maybe it's the erratic weather we're having, or perhaps the collective anxieties of my peers as we all stare down into the barrel of the loaded gun waiting to blast us into the real world, but all of a sudden, i have this nagging feeling that everything is silently spinning out of control, despite appearances to the contrary.

of course, this just means that i have to hoist myself up out of this deep blue funk and quickly - it's a long year ahead, and my list of things to do is hardly about to get any shorter. i just have to find that thing that'll help me bounce back.. and it miiiiight just have to be a new winter coat.

by the way, these are snippets of the vintage paraphernalia collage that's slowly growing on my wall. the theme of my room is authentic late-sixties dorm, but it's tough acquiring all the proper ephemera piecemeal. i'm currently searching for some vintage luggage to double as a nightstand, all leads are appreciated.

moving on the floor now babe you're a bird of paradise

2009-10-09T00:20:00.003-04:00

whether it's slim-fitting denim cuffed at the ankle, a plaid button-down ripped off from cameron's closet, or my beat-up marc by marc leather cuff with the latin inscription, there's nothing like a potent dose of simplicity to woo me sartorially. yet i've always loved feasting my eyes on the bold, heavily styled looks of loud ladies like kid sister, la roux, and roisin murphy, so i suppose it's not all that outlandish that i've recently been obsessing over the brazilian bombshell herself, carmen miranda.

on the other hand, my latinophile roommate blair probably thought she was dreaming when i shook up my usual steady rotation of bob dylan to indulge in a bit of samba. as i sifted through youtube film footage of ms. miranda, she drifted out of her room like a charmed snake, quizzically pleased with my newfound interest and gushing with memories of her time in brazil.

but until i make my way down to bahia to see the sights for myself, i'm perfectly content to lose myself in carmen miranda's technicolor musical numbers and flamboyant charm. first off, there's the jewelry - despite the fact that i'm impossibly picky about which baubles i choose to adorn myself with, it's amazing how gaudiness practically dissolves into a buoyant elegance when trinkets are piled atop each other to excess.

i'm mesmerized by the way a simple swish of the hips becomes divinely exaggerated when hidden underneath a floor-length skirt - so mesmerized, in fact, that i just went ahead and bought a black velvet anne klein maxi skirt after multiple viewings of 'mamãe eu quero.' but perhaps even more fun than the instantly gypsy-esque feel that goes along with those long skirts are the shoes that go underneath. considering that i wobble like a young bambi on stilettos, i've long been a fan of the statement-making platform, which is why i'm loving carmen miranda's throughly chunky stacked affairs, preferably peep-toed with shiny hardware and glitz.

i spy oversized pyramid studs, crop tops, charm bracelets, bib necklaces, and statement pieces galore - definitely a posthumous style icon, but carmen set her trendsetter status way back in 1939 when saks created an accessory line inspired by the singer. i'm currently on a personal mission to get my hands on some of these pieces.. let the hunt begin.

some of the my favorite finds were images of ms. miranda's reappropriation of her look to suit wartime america - when not on a twentieth century fox set, that is. a shoulder-padded jacket pinned with multiple brooches, two sparkly earrings per ear, bulbous studs on lady's gloves, a flowing veil, and always those long lashes.

and because everything goes great with some disney, i was thrilled to find this clip of donald duck and jose carioca getting up close and personal with the lady in the tutti-frutti hat:

[image credits: google image search, topshop, barneys, marni]

pretty eyed, pirate smile

2009-10-07T14:30:00.001-04:00

my absolute favorite pair of jeans - the ones i wore every day like a uniform - recently kicked the bucket with a couple of humongous matching thigh rips, and after preserving their memory by tearing them into cutoffs, i found myself in no rush to replace them. i stumbled across these levi's while shopping with cameron, and i knew i had to have that rich cornflower hue, which screamed late sixties road trips and music festivals in the countryside. according to the tag reading 'seventies wash', i was little off, but i love them all the same.

anyway, i've been planning on posting about these jeans for awhile now, but i kept forgetting. these lovely shots were done by meg for her photography class and just happened to include them. i'm in love with the look of her photos.. miiiight have to get her do my outfit shots from now on.

[image credits: meaghan lyons]

generation next

2009-10-05T20:57:00.004-04:00

nineties party. 'nuff said.

[image credits: blair 'sunny' harshbarger/me]

p.s. homegirl wants to expand her blog circle - send me an email or comment if you want to exchange links?