Women I Love - Part 4

Sigh.  Joni Mitchell is the best.  I've loved her since I was a little kid and I remember my mom singing her songs to me.  She's an icon, and she really defines talent me.  Can you imagine some of the pop stars today having a thriving and influential career in thirty years?  She's self-taught, a singer, a musician, a poet, a painter.  Karl and I have lots of her albums on vinyl, and that's my favorite way to listen to her music.  Her songs are so honest and personal and passionate.  I think she's the poster child for developing your own style and voice and signature.  In her career she has fearlessly experimented with so many different genres but has always maintained her integrity and unique point of view.

When she started out, she was just the prettiest little fresh faced ingenue in flowy dresses and cotton tunics.  Now her face has matured into such a striking beauty with those intense eyes, and always the long blond hair, always the silver jewellery.

Random Pictures

OK. in case you are curious about the end product of my stress at work, check of the video of Jessica and Luca's wedding here.

All I can take partial credit for is the bride's dress, all the bridesmaids' dresses, and the flowergirls' dresses.  It was a pretty over the top wedding, but I'm glad to see she's smiling.  She wasn't doing a whole lot of that in the month before the wedding!

And it's been several months of blogging without a picture of my cat.  How could I be so neglectful of what the people want.  This is the least bitchy looking face in all of the dozen pictures I took.  Someone has a bit of an attitude problem.

We went over to visit my grandparents on the weekend and for once we didn't pick a rainy day!  Even got a nice walk on the beach in front of their house.  Maybe we'll get there one day when it's hot enough to swim.

Pretty berry blossoms on the beach...

Just a picture I love.  Love the wallpaper, the makeup, the turtle-bag thing; the whole look of it makes me happy.

Not too shabby

I do have to thank the fashion gods when an item which is so easy to DIY becomes ultra-trendy.  Perfect example: these Balmain jeans, which have everyone and their grandmother reaching for the bleach to re-create.  And who am I to deny...

I decided not to do the ripping and slashing that many folks are.  I might do that later, but I think I'll wait until I get bored of them as they are.  So I bought two pairs of jeans at Value Village (usually a chore, but I just buckled down and tried on like fifteen pairs).  They were both $7.99, so not a huge investment.  These first ones are American Eagle, and already had kind of a bleached detail on the back pocket.  However, there were no back view shots that I was not very displeased with...

These ones are Dish, with a slightly looser leg.  It's hard to see with the shadows and light, but some of the bleaching on the back turned out really well.

I'd say it was a pretty successful venture.  Maybe I'll cop a Lily Donaldson and wear them with big shoulders like in the Balmain show.  Do you guys like one pair better than the other?

Something new and eatable

These pictures are from a website called Eatable of Many Orders.  They make really cool clothing and accessories, operating on the theory that everything should be presented like menu.  Therefore, all of the "ingredients" and processes used are listed, because they feel that it is important to know these things before "consuming".  It's a pretty great concept, and the website is worth checking out, just to see a different way of doing fashion.

Friends and Food

Two of my favorite things!

Last night we went out for Kara's birthday to a great African restaurant on Main called Nyala.  It was so delicious!  Even when I am feeling poor I don't mind spending money on good food and a night out with friends.  And I'd never had this kind of African food before and I think that makes it even more worthwhile.

I have to post two almost identical photos because we can't all look good in one photo, can we?

You can't really see, but I'm wearing my jacket with the massive shoulders, hopefully a la Balmain-ish.  It felt so funny though; I keep bumping into people with them.

Ha ha, no one let Tyler look at this picture of himself, OK?

And as if that wasn't enough decadence, tonight Karl and I (mostly Karl) made homemade raviolis with goats cheese, sun dried tomato and chipotle filling.  Deeee-lish!

Roll the pasta.

Fill it up.

Make the little raviolis.

Boil, serve with olive oil and Parmesan.

Sit on the couch and watch the Canucks.  Enjoy!

Women I Love - Part 3

How beautiful is Georgia O'Keeffe?  I'm so attracted to female feature with that strong bone structure and distinctive nose.  She' s not a typical beauty, but over the course of their marriage, her husband Alfred Stieglitz took hundreds of gorgeous photographs of her.

Her paintings of close-up flowers are probably her best know, but my favorites are from later in her career, when she was living in New Mexico and painting animal bones and skulls, adobe architecture, and vast cloudscapes.  

To me she is such an icon of the American West.  She is recognized as one of the first American female painters to influence European art, and in the 1920's her paintings were already fetching record prices.  Her artistic style is so unique and pure and modern, and although her personal style isn't focused on much, I think she looks unique and pure and modern too.  Slightly masculine, like the original Ralph Lauren model.  If anyone can pull off years in the desert without sunscreen it's her, I have to admit.  I love her white hair and angular features.  I remember seeing a photo of her hands when she was in her seventies, and they were a work of art in themselves.  

Retail therapy!

I had a crazy stressful day at work and resorted to buying shoes to cheer myself up.  They're H&M, were relatively cheap, and probably not going to be comfortable, but it was a quick fix for a bad day.

I am a bit of a late-comer to the wet-look leggings bandwagon, but after reading Lydia's great tribute to Beth Ditto, I thought screw it, I'll wear what I want and try not to compare myself to size 0 thighs.

Oh, also check out the Eco-Challenge at Granville magazine.  It's pretty cool to see other people's interpretation of the look, and I don't feel like I got put to shame.

Good dumb fun

I got some new sun glasses yesterday, finally.  I have such a hard time finding sunglasses that don't give me a headache or make me feel wobbly and seasick.  I think it has something to do with the curve of the lenses.  Many a disappointment.  But this might just work.  I do love a teal accent, and they aren't huge, aren't too tight, didn't cost much.  My old ones got lightly mauled by my parents' dog.  

Polyvore.com is just a great time waster for me. In a good way. If I'm tired and lazy, but kind of want to doodle around with something, it does the trick. I did this one last week when it was starting to feel like summer might come.

Seaworthy by alison-adorn featuring Miss Real shorts

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative"

-Oscar Wilde

A blouse with a bow is a good thing.  It helps one feel office-y and ladylike, and those are things I need help with on occasion.

I think that my outfits with too many colours (see above - I lost track of the auto-timer) may often be a result of the purple jeans.  I think of jeans as neutral and pair them with anything, forgetting that purple jeans don't fall into that category.  But that's OK, the rest of Vancouver wears enough neutrals to make up for my lack.

My parents were visiting this weekend and it was so awesome to see them.  We did a major garden project or five.  My mom is the master gardener, so she helped me pick out lots of new plants, and we all dug and planted and weeded all day Sunday and half of Monday.  I love the way the front garden looks now, and will post more pictures when the sun returns.  These are just a couple of close ups of the new magnolia.

And I love the colour of this tulip.  It's like a dragonfruit-mango smoothie.  Yum.

We went out to dinner Sunday night to a fantastic new restaurant on Main Street called Campagnolo.  Excellent Italian food!  Highly recommended for fans of quality locally-sourced food, great decor, friendly service, good value.  Try the ling cod and leeks!

Happy Birthday Kara!

Fun birthday pictures for the fun birthday girl.  Have a good one!

Challenges of the Rich and Famous

Now, keep in mind I'm pretty reluctant to find anything to pity the celebrosphere for, but these days getting dressed might be a little tricky.  With all the tabloids and blogs and the inexplicable interest in EVERYTHING stars do, wear, eat, etc. they must know that every outfit will be photographed, dissected and judged.  Even if it's just a running-to-the-corner-store outfit, which for me can be pretty close to pyjamas.  I think that this is resulting in the homogenization and bland-ification of celebrity fashion.

I love Go Fug Yourself.  It's super funny and I look at it almost every day.  But risk taking is not rewarded.  They slam Sarah Jessica Parker for wearing Martin Margiela.  If she can't get away with it, who can?  She can afford it, for one thing, and she does have the reputation for being pretty fashion forward, and everything looks good on her.  I'm sure she doesn't care, but if you were a young starlette, that kind of reaction might keep you from branching out beyond Kitson or wherever they buy their skinny jeans and designer t-shirts.

The Oscars have been getting progressively duller, dress wise, for years and this year was so boring.  Even the don't weren't very offensive.  Miley Cyrus is always wrong about everything, so no big surprise, but most of the ladies looked safe, tasteful and professionally styled from head to toe.  No personality.  Which is lame for an industry that is supposed to be about character, and larger-than-life personas.  Tilda Swinton always looks great, however.  Anyone who is a muse to Viktor & Rolf is a muse of mine (hello Tori Amos, my constant girl-crush).  And there are a couple of other actresses who rarely go wrong and seem to actually have some say when it comes to picking out their clothes.  Chloe Sevigny, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Zooey Deschanel; that's about all I can come up with off the top of my head.  The rest kind of look like clones.  Maybe they all share a stylist.

Would it really be so bad to take a risk and end up on a Worst Dressed list?  I guess they don't want to find out.  Maybe we should stop being so snarky.  There's a difference between badly dressed and stepping outside the norm, I think.  But if I had that kind of money, there's no way you could keep me from shopping where I want and wearing what I want.  Shouldn't that be part of the fun of being rich and famous?  Think of the style icon actresses of the past - I don't think that they had stylists assigning them their signature look.  Some of them worked with designers, but what if Katherine  had been told not to dress like such a tomboy, or Marliyn Monroe was told not to show so much cleavage?  I think we should be encouraging some of these beautiful young actresses to actually develop their own looks.

I miss Bjork in a swan.

Women I Love - Part 2

Judging by the number of fashion photoshoots I've seen on Foto Decadent that use Frida Kahlo as the inspiration, I'm obviously not the only one who finds her beautiful and fascinating.  Her paintings are so colourful and complex and full of magic and symbolism, and she herself seems almost mythical.  She has such a well crafted and consistant visual presentation of herself.  The red lipstick, the heavy brows, the stoic gaze.  She's unmistakable and fierce.  

She was also ahead of her time.  Despite being disabled by polio and a serious accident and living with terrible pain she studied medicine, was a prolific painter, and worked with her husband Diego Rivera on many socialist causes.

Style-wise, I love her bright colour combinations, and her intricate and bold jewelry.  If I had thick dark hair, I would totally wind it up with ribbons and flowers, with that straight part in the middle.

Ms. Natural

That's a Robert Crumb reference, in case you didn't get it.  When I wear these jeans and these shoes I feel kind of like one of his comics, minus the massive tits and ass, I guess.

I've never worn much yellow before, but I'm making an effort this spring.  I like it; it's a bit of a colour statement, without being red, which is pretty much the only colour I really can't wear.  These jeans are really high-waisted, meaning they are at my natural waist.  I got them at Topshop in Prague, kind of an impulse buy because Karl bought shoes and I was kind of jealous.  Also, I had totally worn out my other jeans I brought with me and tossed them out in Germany.  Anyway, I like them, but it's a commitment to the tummy.  Like, it's going to show and be kind of a focal point.  Jessica Simpson was wearing jeans almost identical to these in the pictures when everyone decided that she was "fat".  I think I've made peace with the gunt, but it's a compromise.  I do like the Dazed and Confused vibe. 

In this picture I am picking threads off my jeans.  I leave work covered in stray threads and fluff.  I'm not very meticulous about cleaning it off, and I wonder if people notice, and what they think.

I got these shoes at Aldo at least eight years ago and I thought maybe they were frivolous at the time, but they are comfortable and have served me well though the half-dozen or so times this look has been in.  They are getting a little beat up, but only in places you can see when I'm wearing them.  The best is great too.  The front has a big silver equestrian-style bit buckle and it's so small I can only wear it right up at my waist.  I got it at Value Village and told the guy I didn't think fourteen dollars was a reasonable price, so he let me have it for five.  But not without adding "You know, at a vintage store it would be like, thirty bucks."  And....?

Women I Love - Part 1

I recently read a great post on Style Rookie that featured some of Tavi's favorite style icons.  She had a great selection and it got me thinking about the women that I think have amazing style, or timeless beauty, or an elegance and depth that goes beyond their clothes and seems to come from within.  

Isn't Angelica Houston freaking gorgeous?  I can't handle how incredible her features are.  She has such regal poise, like her shit is together, and she has that sly smile.

In recent years she's had awesome roles in The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited.  I think she plays the best bossy, brainy, sexy, independent woman and Wes Anderson must have a crush on her.  Obviously I do!  I want to see more of her movies from the eighties, the pre-Morticia Addams days.