the clothes 2011

Last September I dropped by the Family Affairs studio while I was in New York and Nina (the designer) let me see her fall collection and preview some of her Spring/Summer 2011 pieces. Now her collection is on the site and I couldn't be happier to get my hands on the perfect chambray dress I tried on in her studio more than six months ago. This outfit is the epitome of how I would like to dress all spring and summer. Why aren't I attending any festivals? I hear that flower crowns are quite acceptable at them...

I've been dying to get my hands on a maxi dress for ages, but I'm also 5'1" and I hate purchasing dresses I know I have to hem (I'm lazy that way). So, I was super excited to get this maxi dress in the mail by Singapore label, Club Couture that required no hemming. It's super comfortable and I like how the skirt is sheer, but has a little half slip too. All the pieces I received from the store remind me of the shopping I did when I studied in Japan. It's really such a relief as a petite person to shop in a store where things are cut for your height and proportions. The smalls on this site fit more like US xsmalls. Even the jacket (a size small) hits me perfectly on the shoulders, which nearly never happens! All of that to say, I'm happy I found a good maxi dress for me so I can try out a new style.

Outfit details:

vintage feather fascinator

Club Couture distressed jacket

Club Couture maxi dress

Marais USA flats

Deux Lux purse

Bijules ring via Gilt

necklace from Yellowstone gift shop

I recently received this headband from my sponsor Absolute Queen and I'm so pleased with it. I love everything studded and this mustard-y shade so I wasn't too surprised to realize how perfectly it matched one of my purses. The quality is superb; I really love the weight to it and the feel of the suede. I built the outfit around the headband, just pulling rather soft and easy pieces. As the weather gets warmer I'm happy to turn to more accessories rather than layers. I especially can't wait to start wearing rings again (they can be so painful in the winter the way metal attracts/holds coldness).

It's beginning to look like spring and my blue obsession is re-emerging. All I want to wear lately is some shade of my favorite color. Although this dress from my sponsor Spotted Moth is technically black and white, it felt like a denim to me and I thought it would be a nice mix of patterns with my new trench coat. I'm celebrating spring sunshine with my necklace, also from Spotted Moth, that reminds me of bunting. Add a pop of red and this outfit really couldn't get any more nautical...

I just bought myself this lovely little blue dress and decided I had to granny-fy it. Or basically take a pretty dress and destroy some of the obvious beauty with things an old lady might wear. The orange coat also seemed so necessary as this color combination felt very Jonathan Saunders F/W 2011 to me. The coat is also new-to-me and I'm quite excited about it's color and shape. Warmer weather might be on the horizon and while I'm very excited to shed my winter layers, for some reason I'm still feeling very drawn to pretty coats.

I received this dress from my sponsor Bohemian Bisoux Vintage and I couldn't be happier about it. The eyelet fabric makes it so perfect for spring and the shape is obviously, one of my favorites. The details and quality of the dress are just a couple of the reasons I love vintage; the fabric is so nice and everything was made to last. Not that it's really a new thing, but I really hope these types of dresses will be one of my staples this summer. I especially love how pulled-together they look when they're such a simple pieces and look nice with minimal accessories which suits summer weather.

P.S. First picture, totally candid. I was off-balance and about to fall over, so I started laughing at myself...and voila, self-timer!

Outfit details:

vintage feather fascinator

UO jacket

vintage dress c/o Bohemian Bisoux Vintage

Jeffrey Campbell heels c/o Modcloth

Rebecca Minkoff purse

A couple of weeks ago I received the most interesting e-mail from someone named Matthew who is in a band called For The Birds. As he explained in his e-mail, his girlfriend Caitlyn, is the band's singer and apparently reads my blog! Wonders of wonders, one of my blogtitles (this one) became a key lyric in one of their original songs, entitled A Round "Room." It was a pretty crazy and very cool e-mail to receive; quite unexpected, but in the best possible way. I even enjoy the song! So, that's my little 'life's crazy' story for today. You can check out their myspace here where the song is available for a listen, if you like.

After taking these pictures I was quite dissatisfied with the final product; both the outfit and the photographs themselves. I almost never capture in a photograph exactly what I would like; I'm always reaching for some strange, intangible and seemingly unattainable goal, but I do usually come to some acceptance of my final product. This post however was on the virtual chopping block. The tights especially seemed so jarringly bright, there was something juvenile about them and I wondered why I had chosen to wear them instead of some more understated color (sometimes it is after I take pictures that I realize an outfit doesn't work the way I had envisioned it). Then I remembered the yellow tights in Balenciaga's Pre-Fall 2010 collection and those just at Fendi's F/W 2011 runway. So, while my personal styling is hardly as crisp and fresh as either of those collections, I decided to let the pictures remain. Even the outfits I don't enjoy in retrospect were worn and since I blog, recorded.