How To Style Bold Printed Leggings part II

For the second part of the series on how to style bold printed leggings with two looks, I’m wearing what’s got to be one of the most amazing designs on a pair of leggings I’ve ever come across.

Let me pause for a moment and explain to everyone how I really believe I might have missed my calling in life as an art history major (although I majored in English, I did take two elective art classes which partly satisfied my obsession.) I love art. I love old art, I love modern art. I love almost every style of art in the textbooks. I think my most perfect date would be going to an art museum. I’ve always loved this painting from Gustav Klimt for its abstract romance – a couple encompassed by a vibrant art nouveau design, the male softly kissing the woman’s cheek, her graceful expression, the decadence of the gold leaf surrounding them – it is one of his more popular ones, after all.

Before I go further, I do feel I owe my readers full disclosure on the matter of how I came across these leggings. I was sincerely debating how I would answer someone if they asked me where I bought these leggings. Here’s the plain truth: I came across these leggings on an Etsy shop for a great deal (it was two for the price of one: the other leggings I bought from this source will be in the next post in this series.) They were shipped from China and that’s virtually all I knew at the time. I was so impressed with the quality and design of these leggings that I went back to order more because they had tons of different designs. When I went back, the Etsy shop was completely gone. Vanished. I did some research online months later and discovered I very unfortunately might have bought a duped or discontinued pair because these leggings might actually be from Black Milk, but are no longer around – here’s my evidence. There’s no tag on the inside of these leggings to indicate what company actually produced them, nor any evidence of a tag removal. Although I’m still unsure of what the whole deal is with these, I do feel I owe it to the manufacturers to link interested readers to a reliable source. After my experience though, I'm very reluctant to label one site or place as an official or reliable source, since I'm still not sure what the deal is. Since I've determined these leggings are no longer in production, the old pairs must be circulating in places like eBay or Amazon or what have you. A simple “Gustav Klimt The Kiss leggings” google search should result in some findings - I'll let you determine what's best. Now that that's out of the way, here's the looks I came up with!

Look One

For the first look, I went for a real party look. Black plain crop top to balance the leggings (the back of the top has a cute but simple strap design that is not pictured) and a hairstyle I can tell right now that I will frequently wear this coming summer. I call it the Grecian goddess hair. All you have to do is wear a headband hippie-style across your forehead and roll and tuck your hair in (it’s better when the hair slightly damp with some mousse, I learned quickly.) After wearing it all day, you’ll have some nice heat-free curly hair that evening. I forewent most accessories and opted for a long pair of earrings. I'm banking on people to know the painting and make this connection, but I totally picked out the gold wedges because it reminded me of the gold leaf around the painting. Alright, alright, I know, it's so minute, but it made me happy matching those items.

Look Two

The second look is ideal for cooler weather. Wanting to incorporate some other pattern instead of a solid color as I’ve been doing, I went for a thin gray striped sweater which was some awesome embroidery on the sleeves. I thought in this case with an intense graphic on the pant, stripes would be the only other visual design I could incorporate. I went straight for a flashy red pair of heels.

Stay tuned for the next and final look which is coming soon!

Sun & Moon

scarf, blouse, belt - thrifted, skirt - banana republic, earrings - vintage

So I recently wrote a story for one of my classes about a guy that sees butterflies

No seriously. This was my second story due for an assignment, my first one I was proud with, but didn't feel it was necessarily a "break through" - ie didn't really do what crazy things run through my mind on a daily basis much justice. Sometimes I humor myself and pretend I know what I'm doing, using intuition as my own critic.

So I wrote this story, right? It was about this crazy guy who hallucinates, written from his point of view. You really can't decipher what's real and what's not (or at least, I like to think.) I'm very drawn to psychedelic things thanks to my renewed obsession fascination with the Led Zeppelin film "The Song Remains the Same" and I decided to jump in head first. 

So the day it's due, and we're all critiquing each others stories (me with my pink pen of doom) and I see my story being passed around and I get to briefly take a glimpse...and I see it covered in writing from all different handwriting. Ugh. Fine then, I think to myself. Some things work and some don't. I made a mental note to scrap the idea entirely. I was incredibly worried this was too specific of a theme for a general audience - not everyone finds what weird things I find interesting. 

A day passes and I get my story back. Turns out the writing all over the page wasn't endless criticism, like I thought. It was actually praise! Everyone loved it! I was floating on cloud nine the rest of my day, even took the next class to reread the comments people made. If there's been one immediate affect this writing class has had on me, it's coming face to face with my worst demon, even more than writer's block - the fear of having my baby torn apart and ridiculed. This is yet another aspect I've fully emerged myself into, in hopes of breaking this habit - I practically throw my writing to anyone with eyes. I used to be so secretive. It's a great feeling. 

I tell this story not to "brag" of any writing skill I might possess, but rather, to update on a thought I posed a while ago. I opened up, honestly for the first time ever on this blog, about some rather personal feelings I was battling with - mostly about inadequacies and struggling with a real vision for my artistic endeavors. I'm nearing very important life deadlines, mostly regarding college and career choices. I'm at my absolute wit's end with decision making (god knows I'm horrible at it...I think I found a demon to challenge that other one...) and I'm telling you all this to explain the beauty of falling so low you can't fall any further. At this point, all you have is instinct and primal need. And I thought, what's my absolute most basic need? Writing. I want to do nothing more in life than write to my little heart's content. 

So not only is this a story of self discovery, but listening to your heart. It took me a while to find my own voice, especially with the "writing" medium. I took a lifeline and wrote about something uniquely inherent to myself and bit the bullet with my fear of criticism. I know I'm going to mess up in the future and write a less than perfect story, even to myself, but at least for now, I know what I'm capable of and have a steadier eye on the prize.

Oh, and the look today. SCARF. Love it. I love sun and moon things, saw this scarf, and have been planning a number of ways to wear it and show it off. Also, yellow colorblocking. Funnily enough, I dislike the color yellow on a regular basis, but the flow of colors and the spectrum I'm working with were appealing enough.

Thank goodness for swanky neighborhoods with fountains in the middle of the road.

-h.

Sometimes as I'm editing my photos, I feel like my cat is watching, so I let him do the decision making for me. He doesn't approve. 

A lesson in styling.

Blazer - borrowed, t-shirt - Urban Outfitters, jeans - f21, tights - Urban Outfitters, shoes - gifted

It finally happened.

I was truly mistaken for Emma Watson from someone ready to ask for an autograph. No, I'm still not down from cloud 9 yet. Why exactly a British starlet would be cruising around a small town in North Carolina in line at a pizza restaurant, I'm not exactly sure. But accordingly, a famous rap star was reportedly spotted around that area recently and this dear girl kept her eyes peeled in case anyone else famous prowled the scene. Don't blame her. Smart girl.

Should've faked an accent and gave her my autograph anyways. But I'm not that mean... So I'd like to think.

You know, I had absolutely no intention of relating this story to my latest look, but alas, perhaps I can make a cheap connection to the union jack on my chest. Bah ha!

So a lesson in styling:

I think we as fashion consumers have a habit of wanting to make all of our outfits perfectly match, bonding this idea with the notion it might look more "high fashion" and that we put more "effort" into it. I compare this with the days I search like an animal for clothes on my floor that are still clean when matching and style is the last thing on my mind rushing out the door for classes.

But when is matching, too matching? I nearly paired this shirt with some adorable union jack earrings borrowed from my mom. Looking in the mirror I thought, hmm. I'm already putting my focus on the union jack here. You don't need two. One's good. I also nearly wore red lipstick. Again, there's red in the shoes, the shirt, and even the nails.

I guess the rule of thumb here is...

• If you see one major focus color (red in this case) two times already, any more than that would look too centered on that color. You want complimenting colors, a palette full of choices, not a reoccurring theme.
• The goal is to look effortless, which I don't know about you, but it's a struggle for me. The more we try and put everything in our closet together that matches, the less "magic" we have in the look, I suppose. It looks rehearsed.
  
• These are all crude judgments forged by yours truly and her opinion, I could be speaking against what every person as a stylist with a career has ever fought for in her life. But I don't take back what I said - In a common, every day look, I think these are helpful tips. That are unisex. I've told my dad before that he was wearing too much of one color ("does a gray shirt, with gray pants and gray chucks look good?")
  

Funny enough, I used to only wear t-shirts at one point in my life, now I can't stand being caught in one if I'm not heading to bed. This was an exception. Blazers + t-shirts = makes any casual look just that cooler. I really like this look on guys. HINT.

Rambled enough, got homework to do.

-H.

MIND THE GAP

Glasses - Ray Bans, shirt - London airport, I honestly can't recall... skirt - thrifted, scarf - vintage

I will accept all nicknames such as "four eyes" and "dork" in the comments, please and thank you.

Yes, I am one of the unlucky vision impaired souls. Just recently updated my glasses, and I was set on finding a pair of cat eye glasses. I deeply preferred a pair of wayfarers by Ray Ban, but I came to accept I don't think I have the face shape for them... But I found these little gems instead. Glasses are cool, I won't hear otherwise!

Since it's obviously I primarily shop at thrift stores these days, it's my biggest peeve when I find an awesome item but is perhaps five sizes too big - I found a red leather pencil skirt a while ago, and much to my surprise, they were my exact size. It's like someone handed it over to me specifically. It's one of my favorite pieces, I just never get to wear it as much.

And lastly, the shirt. I want to say I found it at the London/Heathrow airport, but I can' be sure. That was back in 2007. Believe it or not, that's a size small. I had some fun with it and cut it to pieces, and now it's one of my favorite shirts. The End.

I'm not exactly sure how I will manage once classes resume in the fall - I've grown far too familiar with passing the morning by in the comfort of my sheets.

-h.

Little black dress

dress- Urban Outfitters, gloves - costume store?, necklace - jc penny, ring/braclet - borrowed, shoes - ross
Photos courtesy of Heather's Flickr

A little black dress is a woman's best friend. I found this little one shouldered wonder on sale too. I felt like channeling Jessica Rabbit and other cartoon beauties for this look - classy, edgy, diamond loving. Me and Heather, who continues to amaze me with the photography she produces, found the most astounding water fountain - we both had in common a dream of having a photoshoot by one eventually.

This was a very experiment shoot, I took some risks for it. The gloves, (I thought the gloves might have come off as too much, but everyone voted yes for them), I straight up dunked my hair in the fountain to get that sexy, wet, clingy look (yes, I've been waiting this entire post to drop the word "sexy" in there.)

Nothing thrifted in this look, hmm. Just occurred to me. Doesn't the shoe shot look like a magazine advert for some high end brand? And all I did was splash my foot in and out of the fountain, something I'm sure the keepers would have been pleased with....

Is it me or is the ginger re-emerging?

-H.