all we are saying

along with my tendency to indulge in too many magazines, too many clothes, and too many shoes, i also have a major thing for books. i can't quite put my finger on exactly what kind of books i prefer.. i like what i like and there's really no rhyme or reason to the process. i like the classics, but i have to be inspired in a very particular way to read one. i love contemporary novels, but i'll often get bored halfway through for no real reason. i thought i hated biographies, but there's a growing list of people whose life stories i'd love to read. i do like how-to books, but they have to be somewhat engaging and humorous.. choosing what to read is a random process, but it works out in the end.

one thing that almost always gets me, though - and this goes against everything my mother taught me - is a pretty cover. there, i said it: i judge books by their covers, which makes coffee table books practically always a sure thing. eye-catching covers, stunning imagery inside, glossy pages that remind me of my beloved magazines.. it's almost too good to be true. imagine my excitement when my friend taylor surprised me with a hefty coffee-table book titled peace: 50 years of protest. not only does it meet all of my superficial criteria for a good read, its subject matter also includes a few of my favorite things, like history, the fifties and sixties, fashion, hippies, art, and social protest. it starts out with a history of the symbol itself and goes on to address its universal popularity. english artist gerald holtom created the symbol in 1958 for the campaign for nuclear disarmament (cnd) protest march from london to aldermaston, home of england's atomic weapon establishment. made up of the semaphoric symbols for n and d and enclosed in a circle, it quickly came to represent the nuclear diasarmament cause as well as a worldwide initiative for peace.

now why am i consulting the history books for a post on a fashion blog? because i've always loved the peace symbol, i appreciate it even more since reading the book, and i've been on a seemingly eternal quest to find a great piece of peace symbol jewelry, preferably earrings or a necklace. but for some reason or another, it's damn near impossible to find any that meet my standards: simple, unadorned (read: no sparkles, rhinestones, or bling of any kind), not too big and/or gaudy, and true to form.. no ovals or overextended lines, etc. the august 2008 issue of vogue had tanya dziahileva masquerading as tonne goodman, wearing an absolutely perfect saundra messinger peace symbol necklace and earrings, but as luck would have it, i learned that the prices weren't so perfect. then while i was trolling the target website for some dorm room necessities, i noticed that dean harris has a collection with some great and inexpensive peace sign jewelry. i ruled out the ring and earrings; the lines were a bit too twiggy for my taste. on second glance, i realized that the charm bracelet and necklace had the same problem.. which left that simple, unadorned, not too big or gaudy, true to form peace sign cuff. eighty dollars. is it worth it? i'm still considering it, seeing as how this is the closest i've ever come to finding what i want. ebay's results continue to disappoint. oh, and i still want that sophomore tee.

while i was doing google searches for this post, i found this article, which got me thinking about the ethical implications of the annexation of the peace symbol by the fashion industry. in my opinion, pretty much all's fair in design and fashion, as long you're adopting or tweaking an entity or aesthetic with a certain degree of respect, a nod to the originator of the design in question, and a purity of intent - that is, the pursuit of artistic creation (unlike the keffiyeh, for example: unless you've really done your homework on the subject, i feel like that square of patterned cloth is far too entrenched in a history of political and military conflict for a pretty young western thing to drape it about her neck as the perfect summer accessory. any other print would do just fine.). the article laments the fact that holtom never copyrighted his symbol, but according to the book, this was a conscious decision. though not everyone knows the nuclear disarmament roots of the symbol today, mostly everyone does know that it represents peace, and i don't think placing it on an expensive garment really exploits or violates that message (i do hope that these companies make donations to cnd, as the organization encourages artists and designers to do).

fashion's treatment of the peace symbol is indeed "a far cry from the thrift-store aesthetic of the original hippies," as the article phrases it, but we're not the original hippies (no matter how much i wish i were). therefore, designers don't choose to reimagine and recreate the hippie aesthetic, it's the only thing they can do. besides, the peace symbol is only a representation of hippie culture in retrospect. the hippies took the peace symbol and reappropriated it for their own purposes, much like designers are now doing with hippie style, albeit for a profit. the peace symbol has become an undeniably permanent fixture within a global cultural lexicon, but it's impossible to overlook the fashion industry's significant role in perpetuating the symbol's widespread appeal and relevance.

that said, i'm so looking forward to barney's "have a hippy holiday" campaign! nicolas ghesquière, alber elbaz, phillip lim, and alexander wang create peace sign-inspired dresses? yes, yes, yes, and yes.

[photo credits: google image search (1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6), fashionologie, target, sophomore, style.com]

odds and ends

it's another lazy day at home for me, futzing around on my laptop, reading books and magazines, and sleeping as much as humanly possible before heading back to campus. a few random, interesting tidbits:

-project east. read about it, vote for it, come see the show. i can't begin to describe how much it means to me, and how much of a difference it will make.

- the reading list feature on blogger's dashboard is a godsend. if you're on my link list and notice me obsessively keeping up with your posts, you now know why.

- i've been playing around with the labels on my posts, making it easier for myself (and hopefully, by extension, you) to find posts relevant to a certain interest. below, for the sake of clarification:

*acquisitions (future): clothes, shoes, magazines, hairstyles, etc. that i'd like to obtain at some point in the future. this can run the gamut from a $16 aa tee to a $1,450 marc jacobs satchel. a girl can dream.
*acquisitions (recent): things i've acquired. recently.
*bloggery: i blog, you blog, he blogs, she blogs.. stuff about the direction/layout/future of this blog, other people's blogs i like.. you get the idea.
*bookish: on the subject of books.
*excursions/events: trips i've taken, trips i'm about to take, concerts, parties, happenings, good times.
*face paint: i still don't wear make-up. if i ever start, you all will be the first to know. until then, if i ever offer up some commentary on other people's make-up, it's here.
*glossies: because i have an addiction.
*hearsay: quotes and gossip andbits of dialogue taken from all over.
*in the closet: what i'm wearing these days.
*not fashion: things that are..not fashion.
*on the tube: they say it'll rot your brain.
*photo finish: any post that has pictures taken by me gets this label.
*playing dress-up: in the vein of my disney post, channeling a character/vibe/mood/etc.
*silver screen, *street style
*style crush: i like your style. call it a style crush.
*the shows: fashion, that is.
*the sound of music
*time warp: we're gonna go back. way back..back into time. writing about it, anyway.

- it's times like these that really make me wish i had an iphone. or an invitation to fashion week. either one.

- once upon at time, i sent an idle wish into the world wide web:
"until [american apparel] starts manufacturing shoes (which whould be unprecedentedly awesome, by the way), i'm on my own when it comes to finding simple, unadorned shoe styles."
now, it seems possible that my wish might be coming true. fingers crossed.

- when i was a younger pandora, i'd hole up in my room, tearing through piles of books at breakneck speed while lamenting the fact that one day, it would be impossible to even remember the titles of all the lovely stories i'd read, let alone their content. i'm trying to counteract that inevitable forgetfulness with pandora's bookshelf. yesterday i tried to remember some of my favorite titles from the past year and added links to them underneath my blogroll. i won't include books that i didn't thoroughly enjoy, so feel free to check any of them out (the titles are linked to barnes&noble's website) and share your opinions. i'd love to hear them. the last title on the list is the book that i'm currently reading.

save the nest for last

every now and then, i really wish i had my own place. to be fair, i'm up in cambridge for about nine months a year at school, but this isn't quite what i'm after. i'm talking about my own place, with no move-out date or dormitory rules in sight. a place where i can paint the walls on a whim and pair antique furniture with modern accents, a space where i can hammer, organize and tweak my way towards my own version of domestic paradise.

unlike my magazine addiction, which i've always been keenly aware of, i have no idea how this little proclivity snuck up on me. during 'tweenage visits to macy's, i used to nag my mother incessantly until she stopped browsing through bedsheets and bathroom rugs and accompanied me to my preferred areas: namely, the juniors and shoe sections. as of a few weeks ago, however, while hitting the city pavement with two of my term-time roommates, we stopped into the herald square macy's and found ourselves inexpicably drawn to the home section, seriously contemplating splitting the costs of glassware sets, a cocktail shaker, and a blender priced in the hundreds (looking back on my past couple of posts, maybe i simply have spending issues in general). sara, one of my blender purchase co-conspirators, has confided in me that she too harbors similar longings for a place of her own and describes the desire as a "nesting urge," though not so much "an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for [a] new baby" as an urge to bypass the college dorm room, throw blanketed-futon, postered-wall, dining hall and take out, beer-fueled social scene of our late teens and early twenties, skipping ahead to a more mature and elegant lifestyle, sans plastic dinnerware. given the relative newness of my nesting urge, i have to admit that my home style icons are few and far between. i have yet to see the inside of karl lagerfeld's living space, and what i've seen on mtv cribs leaves much to be desired. instead, i prefer to emulate a couple of women who represent a sort of elaborate minimalism, in the realms of both reality and fiction: kate spade and holly golightly.


megan gave me kate spade's style book in passing one day during high school, offhandedly remarking, "it was a gift. i think it's more your style than mine. keep it, you'll like it." and i did. i bought manners and occasions days later and have since lost count of many times i've thumbed through their pages, in pursuit (and eventual discovery) of that perfect tip or idea. her modus operandi is clearly void of fuss and frills, and the punchy simplicity that penetrates her handbag, shoe, and home collections is a characteristic i aim to translate to my future space. breakfast at tiffany's the novella came before breakfast at tiffany's the movie for me, and though the apartment as depicted on film is something of an icon it's own right - that refrigerator and the surprises inside, the split bathtub as couch - it's truman capote's own description of holly's place that represents a bit of the ambiance i so adore:

"the room in which we stood (we were standing because there was nothing to sit on) seemed as though it were being just moved into; you expected to smell wet paint. suitcases and unpacked crates were the only furniture. the crates served as tables. one supported the mixings of a martini; another a lamp, a Libertyphone, Holly's red cat and a bowl of yellow roses. bookcases, covering one wall, boasted a half-shelf of literature. i warmed to the room at once, i liked its fly-by-night look."

oj berman disapproves of holly's digs, saying, "this is a dump. this is unbelievable. but the kid don't know how to live even when she's got the dough." but there's something to be said for a room that's airy and a bit flighty, sharing it's square footage with furniture without ever being weighed down by it. even when i've "got the dough," so to speak, i never want it to be visible within my habitat. i've no need for stuffy patterns and furniture sets, heavy drapery and lush carpeting. all i want is high ceilings, an abundance of light, fresh flowers and a hardwood floor. the rest will fall into place.

now i could sit on all these ideas and continue to fashion glass houses and crystal castles in my mind's eye until 2010, when i'll leave dorm life (hopefully) for good, or i can do trial runs during my remaining time at school, learning what works and what doesn't, and how to make the best of the limited space allotted to me. unfortunately, i can't make any predictions until i see this year's room in september. updates to come. until then, i'll be on the lookout for a few pieces of fly-by-night decor.

SOLDES!

someone once told me that if you don't expect anything, you'll never be disappointed. as a rule, i tend to habitually ignore this piece of advice, so before i left for france, i must admit that my expectations were sky high. after years of watching movies about paris, studying kiraz illustrations, and scouring french fashion blogs, i was convinced that the moment i set foot within city boundaries, i'd be utterly overwhelmed by a preponderance of chic. i expected the streets to be littered with beautiful people, the shopping akin to a spiritual experience.

but alas, 'twas not to be. it's not that i wasn't impressed by the architecture and selection of les grands magasins or the impossibly lean parisiennes. it's just that the h&m and zara stores all over the place kind of put a damper on my wide-eyed fashion experience. i love those places just as much as the next girl, but i started to get the impression that there weren't many things in paris that i couldn't get in new york, and for less money, to boot. of course this isn't true, and so i began to hunt down independent boutiques and vintage stores with renewed fervor. unfortunately, where the store chains don't get you, high prices will. refuge came, or so i thought, in the form of soldes, when all of paris essentially goes on sale. but with the exchange rate looking the way it does (read: crappy) and taxes included, all those beautiful dresses and perfect flats turned out to be cheaper, but not necessarily affordable. with grant money to burn, i could have made the purchases in theory, but that just didn't feel right. my conscience tends to pick the finest times to make itself felt.


nevertheless, i did spend five weeks in the city, and, truth be told, all qualms and hesitations aside, i simply love a good purchase. so what did i get in the end? first and foremost, lots and lots of reading material. even though i brought a small library with me to paris, i'm a true bookworm, and i couldn't help buying tons of magazines and books, despite the danger of overweight luggage fees looming in the distance. i picked up an old disney magazine along the seine, i.n.r.i. at mona lisait in the marais, a retelling of the new testament complemented by modern photograohy and a really interesting read, a book on kiraz and his parisiennes from his exhibit at the musee de carnavalet, the black issue of vogue italia.. my lovely roommate bought me the june/july 2008 issue of french vogue for my birthday, which came with a mini-novel called comment je me suis casse le nez (ma vie de mannequin).. the list goes on.

then came the wayfarers. it was my fourth day in the city when the group decided to head towards the champs-elysees. i immediately pictured fred astaire strolling along the same stretch of road, shouting his touristic glee from the rooftops in funny face. upon arrival, i knew i had to do something to commemorate the event. there are a bunch of eyewear shops located in a relatively small cluster along the avenue, and as i poked around each of them, the faint whisper became a clear command: get the wayfarers already. i've lusted after them for months, and had resigned myself to living without them on my student budget, but the paris air did something to me, and all of a sudden i had a pair in my possession. i found that the standard-issue frames sit awkwardly on my face and obstruct my smiling and laughing pattern, so i got the new wayfarers with smaller frames because, well, i laugh a lot.


i was wandering around le bon marche rive gauche, contemplating the chloé by chloé fragrance while exploring the rest of the store. i know it's supposed to not smell so great, but chloe, anja, clemence, and that beautiful bottle tell me otherwise. the good news: i didn't get the perfume. the not-so-bad news: i spent more than i've ever spent on a t-shirt. french artist roman moriceau created "kate in...", an image of kate moss, "realised with stamps of the labels of all the brands she has been representing in advertising campaigns," and then released a limited series of 100 t-shirts silk printed with the image. couldn't say no.. then there was the relatively cheap tee i bought at the store next door to my school building, with the herald tribune logo. jean seberg in breathless, anyone?

but my biggest expense probably turned out to be the souvenirs that i bought for loved ones. calendars and candles for my roommates and our amazing duplexes next year, a handbag for my mom, hermes cologne for pops, ladurée macarons, kiraz posters.. i'm really against bringing home eiffel tower keychains, paris t-shirts, and other useless, tacky items that don't really convey any degree of affection or thoughtfulness, so i spent a lot of time and euros hunting down "the perfect gift" for each of the people on my list, making my both my time and money in paris very well-spent.

1, 2, 3, 4

once upon a time in high school megan and i used to write notes to each other.. like, all day long. elaborate, hand-written notes with pictures, confessions, good news, secrets and nonsense, written out during several morning classes and passed along in the hallway to be replied to as soon as possible. i suspect we did it because, just getting to be friends at the time, we were shocked at how much we had in common. i know we did it because we were bored and couldn't stand to listen to what actually went on in class. we probably did it as a form of therapy, and i'm guessing we did it because it was a lot of fun.

one ubiquitous feature of our notes was the 'reasons to live' list, though we later changed the title to 'reasons to smile,' reasoning that reasons to live sounded a little dark, a little suicidal. anyway, the reasons ranged from 'spring is coming!' to 'going shopping this afternoon!', to '(insert boy's name here) is amazing' or 'step practice today!'.. and though the items on the list were usually things that made the writer smile, i think it always had the same effect on the reader, as well. it was a simple gesture that always seemed to put things in perspective and make things seem a little brighter. and because today is literally not bright, and this final stretch of papers and exams and whatnot has really got me down, i'm brushing the dust off the old 'reasons to smile' list and giving it another shot.

Reasons to Smile

1. spring time: despite the rain and a slight chill, it is spring, and that is a beautiful thing. the winter could not have lasted longer, and now we're only a stone's throw from summer..

2. speaking of springtime, i bought the most amazing vintage dress last week.. everything about it screams sunshine and happiness. i may be exaggerating, but this is a great dress. unfortunately, the lining was absolutely wrecked so i had to have it fixed, but i'm picking it up today! pictures to come.

3. and on the topic of pictures, i'm starting a picture-a-day project.. of anything, just so that i don't turn on my camera and wonder why i haven't documented anything in the past month or two.

4. i'm tempering my excitement until i hear back from my grant application, but i won't lie, the prospect of a month in france does make me smile whenever it crosses my mind.

5. i don't really know how last summer got away from me in terms of reading, but this summer i've got so many great books that i want to read! an excerpt from yesterday's conversation with taylor pretty much sums it up:
me :: TAYL i got the most awesome of awesome books yesterday you're gonna love them and we're gonna go to central park in the sunshine and read them while eating ice cream and dipping our feet in the filthy ponds
tayl :: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS OH MAN YOU JUST GOT ME SO EXCITED

6. regardless of whether or not i end up going to paris, summer in the city of new york.. yes. scouring the island for vintage finds with jessica, flea markets, driving around with taylor with loud music and windows down, muggy nights, lazy days.. yes.

7. and sophie and sarah are spending the entire summer in new york as well, which is sure to make for great times.





8. summer dressing: dresses and sandals and short sleeves and sunnies neons and florals and NO COATS OR SWEATERS

9. cameron bought me a new sketchbook = start drawing again

10. cameron in general

11. rock the bells = kid sister and the cool kids again = joy

12. taylor says to expect a painting from her in the mail soon.. i don't know to what i owe this great pleasure, but i'm glad to receive it

13. the i-D magazine i just bought.

14. happiness, health, and great clothes!

geeking out across the galaxy

DISCLAIMER: majorly non-fashion related post below..


wednesdays this semester are my hell days: class from 10-3, then 4-5, meetings in the evening, and work from 10-midnight.

today was particularly hellish, i attempted to stay up all night yesterday, finishing wuthering heights, writing a response paper on it, reading for my wgs class, and completing french homework, but then i passed out about halfway through my first task, and woke up at 9, leaving me about a half hour to write my paper, and rush to the library to get it printed before 10.

there was no food to be had all day. even my usually free 3 o'clock hour was taken up by office hours with my wgs teaching fellow.

but the silver lining of my long day, which isn't over, by the way, was my english seminar. the course is mandatory for my concentration and the title is literature and the mediated self. the class and readings are pretty interesting, but with only five students and a professor in class, it sometimes can be a bit daunting, a little bit of a drag at times (clocking in at two hours per class).

but today we had library tours for the purpose of showing us resources for future research papers, etc. etc. the first stop was widener, which of course is a grand, majestic hulk of a building, very immense and all that, but we sat in a seminar room while the librarian showed us online research tools, and i could barely keep my eyes open.

then the next stop was houghton library, which i had heard of but didn't know where it was or what it was for. turns out it's a stone's throw from lamont, where i work, and it just so happens to be the rare books and manuscripts library.

the building itself was so old-fashioned and welcoming (although the library itself isn't.. you have to have a specific purpose for being there, unlike my library, which is maybe one of the most social spots on campus. go figure.), and to see books that were made by gutenberg's printing press (!) blew my mind. but it got better.

in the emily dickinson room, they have her actual bureau, desk, and chair, which are so tiny, i can only imagine that she must have been a quite petite woman. and then our tour guide opened a closet and pulled out her fascicles, emily dickinson's own fascicles, written and bound by her own hand, and placed them on her own desk, and let us decipher her handwriting. i read emily dickinson's poetry in her own hand, on the very desk that she wrote it on! but it got better!

she placed three torn little books on a display case and told us to flip through them and see if we could figure out what it was. it was handwritten in pencil, the dates were in the late 1800s.. definitely a journal of some sort.. there were mentions of monkeys and trees and low lands and rivers, and maps drawn in margins.. turns out it was a journal that joseph conrad wrote on a trip to the congo. which inspired him to write heart of darkness.

i have flipped through joseph conrad's journal. and read emily dickinson's poetry on her own desk. and looked at keats' copy of shakespeare's works.

and that's what i came to this college for. not to be stressed out and depressed and frazzled all the time, but because it's older than dirt (or at least this country) and it's got history for miles. if i could do something like that every day, i'd be a much happier student.

anyway, file this under the scholarly chronicles. and now back to our fashionably scheduled programming.

veritas inlustrat,

an impeccably crafted double-edged sword

today was a very stereotypically-me kind of day, a relapse into bad habits.

i tried my hardest last night to get all of my reading done for the next day, but simply didn’t have enough time/had too much to do in one night, and had to skim some passages and push aside some work for catching up on later.

i woke up early to try and do some more reading and didn’t eat breakfast. i had class straight through from eleven to three, and fought to stave off hunger and lightheadedness throughout the day.

if my mother knew what went on up here, she’d say i have no discipline. i'd argue, at least for this semester, that i'm too disciplined in some respects.. or at least too driven. but don't these negative side-effects affect me in the exact same way, whether discipline is lacking or in excess?


i recently finished reading gioia diliberto's the collection about a provincial french seamstress named isabelle varlet that goes to paris after world war i to work for mademoiselle herself, coco chanel. i loved every minute of the story, and only wanted to put it down when i realized that i was tearing through it too quickly, as i didn't want it to end. but maybe a third of the way in, i realized that the whole isabelle/coco dynamic was beginning to resemble another well-known fashion-centric novel relationship, that of andrea vs. miranda priestly in the devil wears prada. though isabelle is initially drawn to coco because of her modern designs and celebrity status, she soon gets to the witness the hardened and ugly underbelly of the success-driven female powerhouse.



perhaps the more severe the work ethic, the more beautiful the outcome. the backbreaking work that went into the creating of the collection in question propelled chanel to worldwide acclaim, and though i stay up all night more often than ever, blinking away the burning sensation in my eyes to continue reading, knowing that i'm on top of my workload makes it all feel oddly okay, and these days, during fashion week, the no doubt incredibly hard work that all the designers put into their collections will make itself visible on the runways.

taking a break,