The Utilitarian Dress

My sister and I have become obsessed with the concept of the shift dress recently. We made moodboards on both a physical cork board and Pinterest for the shift dress of our dreams, which is a vague prototype of a 1997 Liz Claiborne sleeveless dress that my sister wore until puberty and that my mom wears to this day. Though a crew neck shift dress would make the ideal weekday uniform, I've seen a another style of sixties dress on the Spring 2015 runways with a practical cut that I could definitely get behind. I'm not sure what the exact term is called, but it resembles a men's henley in t-shirt dress form with a military and utilitarian vibe. It's the half button-down tomboyish front that gets me, and I'll take with or without collar. It reminds me of the shirt that Jude Law wears in Cold Mountain, ya know? 

Derek Lam Spring 2015, image via Style.com

Marc Jacobs Spring 2015, image via Style.com

Image via Pinterest

In Which I Spend the Rest of My Life Watching Rent

I was about to watch a Sundance-y indie movie on Netflix the other day (the home of all Sundance-y indie movies), but right before I pressed play, I saw Rent next to it in the queue. You know when you're about to watch a movie, and you ask yourself some variation of the question, "can I sit through this for two hours without scrolling through Instagram?" I couldn't imagine doing anything better with my time than sitting on my couch and singing-a-long to Rent for two hours. Or even four. Or the rest of my life.

I really really really most ardently love sing-a-longs. I usually conduct my own to Grease, Hairspray, and Funny Girl. I was just thinking today how much fun I had with myself not too many months ago when I ordered Chinese food from my favorite B-graded establishment, rented Hairspray and danced in front of the TV in between bites of chicken and broccoli. Things I do alone: that.

Of course the first cousin once removed to sing-a-longs is caroling, and its better half, caroling parties. My mom and I once snagged an invite to our neighbor's Christmas caroling party, where we found ourselves standing around a piano with once and future Broadway stars and the cast of an eighties crime show. I can't remember the name of the show but I know it was a hit because my dad had heard of it--a pop culture feat because he thought Beyonce was the name of a Westfield High Class of 09 graduate. The caroling party was uncomfortable for a lot of reasons, one being that tone deafness is evidently hereditary on the maternal side, the other being that my mom planted me in a conversation with a socially awkward nineteen year old boy and I couldn't figure out how to carol my way out. Worth noting we didn't get invited to the next year's caroling party.

I'm writing all of this during Marc, Roger et al's lulls in singing, and I'm dead in amazement at how this movie musical gets me every time.

I saw the movie version of Rent in high school and I remember a) crying out of the theater b) wanting to channel a cracked-out Rosario Dawson. I've decided upon rewatching though that my new style icon is a hybrid of Roger and Collins (who I never realized until five minutes ago was a philosophy professor). Grungy with a beanie but also rocker with a leather jacket and mom jeans. Mmhhmm.

My last note is this: I still resent my mom for not letting me get the "No Day But Today" Rent t-shirt that all the popular girls in chorus had. I try to remember that I didn't have Solows to wear it with and it wouldn't have looked good with the adjustable-waist Gap Kids jeans (#latebloomer) I thought were cutting edge.

Okay, TTFN.

Overalls!!

One of my friends turned me on to the prospect of overalls a couple of weeks ago when she recommended I watch In A World. Lake Bell's wardrobe in the movie isn't anything to write home about, but she does sport a pair of overalls that look really comfy and chic in a late '90s kind of way.

I was also watching Mamma Mia on the plane the other day, a movie that could either be construed as the best or worst thing ever. I've seen it maybe 15 times because I own it in my iTunes (I have no idea how it got there), and each time I watch it, I get the urge to break out in song in a pair of overalls à la Meryl Streep. Worth noting that I get the urge to break out in song like, 10 times a day.

To state the obvious, I really want a pair of overalls. I don't consider them to be appropriate attire for the typical 9 to 5 work environment--although they could be at my place of work where lucky for me and the paisley printed velvet pants I wore the other day, anything goes. I feel like overalls are best for a walking the dog occasion, which happens to be one of my least favorite activities unless I have the intention of using my #pudge to meet/stalk/attract members of the opposite sex...in which case I probably shouldn't be wearing a pair of baggy overalls.

My ideal overalls outfit would be a combined channeling of Lake Bell in In A World and myself in 2nd grade when I had a different pair for each day of the week. If a pair of overalls were in my closet right now, I'd wear them to work today with a long-sleeved crewneck shirt and my new Adidas. Add a plaid shirt around my waist for the grunge effect. And an ear cuff. So into ear cuffs right now. And def a backpack.

Adidas Campus shoes, Frame denim overalls, Gap long sleeve crewneck, LL Bean flannel, Campbell ear cuff, The Row backpack

What's the difference between like and love? Because I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack.

I love my Skechers.

That's because you don't have a Prada backpack.

In a World...

A few things just happened.

First of all, I'm babysitting. I love babysitting, although I recently found out that what I actually do is called 'babyguarding' because I don't actually see the babies, I just sit on an Upper West Side couch while the babies are sleeping. My mom came over about an hour ago and delivered me some frozen yogurt, and we had a lawwf because she has the same blue Patagonia puffy jacket as one of the babies. His is smaller, obvi. Also shout out to my mom for creating the perfectly blended cup of frozen yogurt, I couldn't have asked for a better balance of cookie dough chunks and almond mocha delight swirl.

Then I watched In a World, starring one of my ultimate girl crushes, Lake Bell. I'm the target demographic for In a World so it's a good thing that I effing loved it. One of my friends told me there would be a scene that would make me swoon and run around the room squealing. It did. "Do you have any more of those sleeping pills?" Whatta line!! (That is the scene you were talking about, right JB?)

Then I looked at Los Angeles apartments and jobs on Craigslist. Whenever I watch a romantic comedy set in Los Angeles, I immediately want to move there. Los Angeles is my dream city, and I did have a grand plan to move there at the beginning of February, aka this month, aka 15 days ago, but things happened, like I spent a good portion of my "fuck you money" as my dad refers to a chunk of savings on an upcoming trip to Paris. More on that later.

I can't really tell if this blog post is coherent or not but I've kind of run out of things to do and there isn't any good food to snack/binge on and there may/may not be a blizzard outside so I'm blogging. I do have a hefty Vanity Fair I could read. I'd go back and watch In a World again but my mom just texted me asking if she could stream it now, so nvm.

Oh, a text message!

It's Alyssa. She just landed in...LA. Nooooo. She says, "no snow, amirite." Yah rub it in. She also says that her day can't be ruined because she's in the city of angels. Hard no. New York blows right now.

Introducing: Earl of Knit

Here's the thing about sweaters:

Sweaters can be worn in any weather

Heavy and chunky or light as a feather

Sweaters pull an outfit together.

And so began my sister's new blog, Earl of Knit. 

I'd argue that a sweater brings more value to an outfit than any other article of clothing (excluding shoes). As the poem above espouses, sweaters are practical and tasteful and can dress an outfit up or down, depending on the temperature and occasion. Sweaters rock, which is why my sister has dedicated a blog to them. 

One of my sister's and my favorite sweater in pop culture is the one worn by Ann Margret in Bye Bye Birdie. I can't remember if it's blue or yellow, but either way, it looks unbelievably comfortable. Similar to the way I compare every guy I'm attracted to to Daniel Day Lewis, I compare every sweater I buy to the one from Bye Bye Birdie. 

If you haven't seen Bye Bye Birdie, you're doing something wrong. Go watch it, and go read my sister's blogue. 

I'd be content if I went through life as a member of the Bye Bye Birdie ensemble. 

Inside Llewyn Davis

This blog was initially conceived as a merger between my two interests in fashion and movies, but I feel that I unfairly abandoned the movie aspect long ago. I didn't even write posts commemorating Brad Pitt's 50th birthday or You've Got Mail's 15th anniversary last week, WHO AM I? (Answer: here). As Oscar movies are coming out left and right though, it's time to get crackin' on the reviews.

I woke up Sunday morning on the hungover side of things, and while I intended to go buy Christmas sweaters for various family members, the only place I could find myself at peace from tourists and fellow holiday shoppers was in a movie theater. I opted for Inside Llewyn Davis--I had wanted to see it since I streamed the soundtrack on NPR's website a few months ago, and my unwavering devotion to Justin Timberlake leaves me obligated to see all (most) of his movies.

Anywhooze, it was ah-mah-zing! And I don't even like folk music! JK, I do now. Oscar Isaac should win an Oscar, if only because of all the bad jokes and word plays that will abound post-win (especially on this blog). Carey Mulligan and JT rocked, as did Garrett Hedlund (remember Country Strong? Neither do a lot of people) and John Goodman.

I spent a good portion of the movie fixated on one of Carey Mulligan's vneck sweaters. It's the loose-fitted, boyfriend vneck sweater of my dreams, which makes sense because Justin Timberlake plays her boyfriend (maybe husband?) in the movie. It's in a musky blue tone, a color that shares a spot with burnt orange and burgundy as colors that only look good when worn by actors in 60s era movies. The top half of the sweater is shown below, but can't you tell from the structure of the V how great the rest of it is?

I'd report more on the movie, but I'm not a tough critic and I just got a seltzer maker for Christmas that needs my care/attention. Appliances, the millennial Christmas gift, AMIRITE? Nope.

Two comment-worthy questions for you people to answer: Did you see the movie? Did you get anything good for the holidayze?

Chapeaux

One of my galpals texted me last week to tell me that she bought a new hat--a "John Mayer hat." Luckily I'm in tune with John Mayer's sartorial choices so I knew exactly what she was talking about, and the accompanying picture confirmed that the hat has the power to give its wearer an uncanny resemblance to John Mayer. My lack of milliner terminology leaves me at a loss for the hat's official name, but I've always referred to such hats as chapeaux. In my mind, all chapeaux are hats, but not all hats are chapeaux. Ya know?

I've wanted a hat of the chapeau variety since I watched Seven Years in Tibet on Netflix during one of my excruciatingly long winter breaks in college. I went through a pretty strange phase that year in which I only watched movies that starred a young Brad Pitt in picturesque settings doing outdoorsy things. There are only three of these movies, each of which is no less than 2.5 hours long. I watched them all, cried in them all, watched them again, and quoted them out of context with the off-chance that someone would know what I was talking about. Usually nobody did.

In Seven Years in Tibet, Brad Pitt plays an Austrian mountaineer who, instead of partaking in Nazi activities during World War II, went to Tibet to climb Mount Everest. The best part of the movie is in the first five minutes when the man who broke J. An's heart, wearing a flawless complexion and a chapeau, says in a brutal Austrian accent, "I vant to hike ze Him-ah-lie-ahns." After watching the movie, I tried to insert the quote in public situations, but when you're at a party and you say something like "I vant to hike ze Him-ah-lie-ahns," you remember why you're single. Ouch.

It's mah blog, I can say whuttiwant.

Go buy a chapeau so we can all channel John Mayer and/or Brad Pitt. C'est comme tu veux, beetchez!

Grey. Gardens.

First, go to this website and watch the clip below. Then read the rest of the post.

I saw Grey Gardens for the first time during one of my high school summers--when the most stressful part of my too-humid-to-move days was how to switch between episodes of Dawson's Creek on TBS and The OC/One Tree Hill on Soapnet without missing the plot-heavy segments of each respective teen melodrama. I must have taken a break to scroll through Comcast On Demand movies, where I stumbled upon Grey Gardens, which I immediately purchased because it had eccentric written all over it.

The TV movie, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, is based on the original 1975 documentary of the same name that uncovered the squalid and isolated lives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' relatives in their East Hampton mansion, Grey Gardens. Once booming socialites, Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter--Big Edie and Little Edie--lost their wealth but clung to their house, their material possessions, and their idiosyncrasies. Little Edie also lost her hair to alopecia, thus the headscarf.

The plot of the movie is eh, which is probably due to its being adapted from a somewhat boring documentary, but two points make the movie unbelievably entertaining: the ridiculous and nonsensical things that come out of the characters mouthes in offensively thick New York accents, and the ridiculous and nonsensical things that the characters wear around their truly filthy living quarters.

While it may be a little insensitive to channel a seemingly bald crazy lady, Little Edie's ensembles are too good to throw into an asylum. Pieces that are crucial to channeling Drew Barrymore as Edie include a fur coat and/or a cape, a patterned dress with a turtleneck layered underneath it, and a head scarf. See below.

Joseph fur coat, Dolce & Gabbana cape, Rebecca Taylor dress, J.Crew turtleneck, Givenchy scarf

Burgundy is the New Black, Said No One

It's Sunday morning, it's October, and it's finally dawning on me that such is life. Vague nonsense sounding observation, but point being that for the first October, like ever, I don't have any papers or problem sets to do over the weekend. I'm sorry, I'm still acclimating myself to the life of a post-undergrad. An exciting addition to my new non-student routine is HBO Go, motha effas. It was very out of character for my family to buy HBO given that we didn't get the Disney channel until I was a senior in high school, and that my current TV repertoire is filled with Masterpiece murder mysteries on PBS.

SO! I've decided to spend my semi/not at all-monumental first Sunday morning in October watching Argo on HBO. When I first saw Argo a couple of months ago, I happened upon a few serious life decisions: I realized that my career ambitions entailed being both in the CIA and a movie producer (damn you, Ben Affleck, you have it all), and that I needed to dress in 1970s attire in a nonironic way.

Argo 1970s is a little conservative and utilitarian--a corduroy situation, if you will. As such, a pair of corduroy pants and a sweater vest in burgundy, rust, brown, or in any other hue that resembles a bowel movement are incremental to the outfit. Add in a button-down shirt underneath the vest and a shearling jacket over it, plus a pair of glasses and a foulard around the neck, and you're a regular fugitive. (too far?). Oops, forgot about shoes: brown booties will do, but if you really want to be authentic, the Frye Campus Boots are the way to go.

(v. bad photo resolution - #workingonit)

Uniqlo button down
Citizens of Humanity corduroy pants
Brooks Brothers sweater vest
Acne jacket
Warby Parker glasses
Fendi neck scarf 
Acne booties

Channeling: Meryl Streep in Heartburn

Those of you who have a Netflix subscription and similarly feel that you've cornered the entire market for romantic comedies have undeniably seen Heartburn more than once. It’s the one Nora Ephron movie that doesn’t mysteriously appear and disappear from Netflix Instant every couple of months. (what happened to You’ve Got Mail, punks?). So when I came down with a bout of fatigue after a grueling weekend of reliving my #college days, I plunked down on my couch and watched the underrated Meryl Streep/Jack Nicholson/Jeff Daniels/Stockard Channing flick. As expected, it was amazing.

Whereas most of us should conceivably run away with flailing arms from shoulder pads, fake pearl necklaces, and similar eighties garb, I was completely enamored with Meryl’s wardrobe. She makes me want to tease my hair and wear chunky jewelry for non-theme party purposes, although the below items would fare well for an eighties bash. Included is a flashy ring in honor of one of my favorite scenes from the movie. 

Joseph Silk Blazer

Isabel Marant Caleen Boots
Lafayette 148 New York Pleated Trousers
Equipment Signature Blouse
House of Lavande 1950’s Aquamarine Ring

Sidenote: if you haven’t read the book Heartburn, then omg il faut! A supa supa quick read in which Ephron includes recipes of various foods that become characters in themselves. I've made the Heartburn balsamic vinaigrette every night since I first read the book two years ago.

Channeling: You've Got Mail

I've racked my imagination to create an outfit that channels Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail. The key piece? A pair of loose and baggy khakis.

I've been on the hunt for a pair of cargo pants. I found myself wandering into the men's side of the Gap the other day, where I came across a pair of men's cargo pants. Rolled up a little above the ankle and they make the perfect fall boyfriend khaki. Wahoo!

I remember when the boyfriend pant was in its nascent days--it was 2006, I was reading People, and Jennifer Aniston was wearing them in every Star Tracks shot. I'm still reading People and J. An is still wearing them, and the only difference between now and then as far as boyfriend pants go is that it's become completely acceptable to wear figure-hiding ripped jeans. When I logged into my Dell Inspiron in 2006 and looked up ways to wear boyfriend jeans, the celebrity style blog I came across said it was taboo to wear them with a loose shirt. Taboo is taking it too far, but I agree that loose on loose outfits only look good on models and/or stick figures. So, I'm opting to pair the men's cargo pants with a fitted crew neck sweater (or sweater set to fully channel 90s Meg Ryan).

Next up: outerwear. My dream coat of late is this motorcycle gem from Barbour, but aside from being overpriced for its American flag detailing, it's too boxy for this outfit. Instead, a cocoon-ish coat would pull the outfit together more. Meanwhile, the chapeau gives the outfit an extra kick and transitions it seamlessly from You've Got Mail to When Harry Met Sally.

As for shoes--who needs heels when you can wear metallic loafers? Amirite? Imrite. Also adding a semi-statement necklace for $400 kicks. 

1. Isabel Marant Etoile Dulcie Coat

2. Rag & Bone Becca Top 

3. Dannijo Talford Necklace

4. Gap Cargo pant

5. J. Crew Collection Metallic Penny Loafers

6. Orvis Heathered Felt Hat

Image sources: You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally 

Lob Season

My favorite date, September 21, marks the end of summer, the beginning of fall, and a nine month hiatus from humidity, or so I hope because I lobbed my hair. The lob--long bob--is a risky chop for the naturally curly, mainly because we have to commit to straightening our hair more often than not or we risk it frizzing into the shape of a yield sign (stole that one from The Princess Diaries series, Mia Thermapolis, YGG).

I last lobbed my hair off two years ago. I was watching You've Got Mail with a friend, and aside from being unbelievably enamored with Kathleen Kelly's partiality for pleated chinos and periwinkle sweater sets, we couldn't stop focusing on her haircut. Granted, her hair sways more to the 'choppy bob' side of the short hair spectrum. Nonetheless, she inspired me to chop my hair off (and take up on AOL pen pal. JK, didn't do that, but maybe I should).

After watching You've Got Mail for the umpteenth time, I searched Google for images of the original lobbers: Olivia Palermo, Sophia Coppola, Jessica Alba. I semi-collaged the pictures and brought them to the hair salon, but was too passive/uncommunicative and let the stylist give me too many layers. Lesson learned: speak up when going after a straight lob.

Once again, I found myself loosely inspired by Kathleen Kelly to cut my hair. I went to the salon, got six or so inches off, and went back to Supercuts the next day to take off another inch. Lob accomplished. I was accompanied by the same co-founding friend of the Kathleen Kelly fan club, and post-lob she enumerated the merits of a short haircut, one being the sweater-lob look. To be the subject of a forthcoming post.

Images via Google image

Inspired by: Frances Baby Houseman

The whole concept of the blog traces back to the vow I used to make at the beginning of every summer: I'm channeling Baby from Dirty Dancing, I used to announce unsolicited to anyone who took an interest in what I was wearing.

By pretending that a pair of denim cut-offs and a striped shirt were taken straight from the set of Dirty Dancing, I managed to give an otherwise boring outfit character. It didn't stand out to any stranger on the subway, but it did for me, because I was Baby, and nobody puts Baby in the corner. (There was no way I was going to leave that quote out of this post).

In honor of the movie that I once watched every day on TV during the month of June (blame the channel E!), I've concocted a shrine-worthy collage to Baby and her wardrobe. Not sorry about it, shout out to Google image for providing me with a plethora of screenshots.

Taking a Cue from Hallie Parker

Mid-June never fails to make me nostalgic for the last days of school and the first days of summer--when my thighs stuck to my desk chair in a humid classroom, when I carried around a Poland Spring water bottle that I had kept in the freezer the night before (which has unofficially revealed itself to be a carcinogenic habit). When school ended at the end of June, I headed straight to Camp Stay-At-Home, the summer camp equivalent of homeschool for the socially anxious. One of the many perks of Camp Stay-At-Home was that mornings I spent my mornings on the couch, watching TV and eating popsicles for breakfast. While my peers were doing summer camp things that I knew I was missing out on (making out with boys), late bloomers of my kind were living vicariously through two Lindsay Lohans, in between episodes of The Nanny and Saved by the Bell. And so, in homage to LiLo's arguably best performance, I'm wearing loose tees and patterned bottoms, homemade friendship bracelets, and nails painted in alternating colors. In your honor, a royal flush. 

ACK Surf JFK graphic tee, Topshop oversize denim jacket, Isabel Marant Étoile shorts, Oakley Frogskins, Supergas, Hipanema bracelets, Essie nail polish in Bikini so teeny