Friday, December 31, 2010

Corduroy Blazers! And Happy New Year!









So, for a moment, let us assume that I am Super and hail from the planet Krypton. As we all know, my weakness would be Kryptonite. If you aren't a supernerd then, unlike the thousands of people out there who are (like me!), you probably wouldn't know that there is more than one kind of Kryptonite. So, to steer this post back towards corduroy blazers, lets just say that for me corduroy blazers are red Kryptonite and shoes are green Kryptonite. This long-winded analogy makes sense to me because blazers and shoes are my weaknesses and shoes are the only weakness (fashion-wise) that cause me physical pain :) Anyhoo! Corduroy blazers are great because, well, I'm not sure why. I'm just obsessed with them! They make me feel like a really cool investigative journalist who hangs out in a cafe. The greatest thing is that you can find them in almost any thrift store- usually in good condition! People take their blazers to the thrift store because 'omg they are sooo last season', not because there's actually anything wrong with them. SO, if you're like me and actually like and want to dress outside of the current trends, then you should really hit up that thrift store on the corner- especially Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul's. I have corduroy blazers in a wide assortment of colors (my goal is every color of the rainbow... AND BEYOND!) including: burgundy, khaki, berry, and teal. That isn't very many, I know, but I've also bought my sister a rust-colored one and desperately attempted to squeeze into billions of too-small ones and been basically drowned in too-large ones. They can be worn in many different ways. Yesterday I wore the berry one with a ruffly dusty-rose skirt, nude tights, and black combat boots. Weird? It was actually adorable (if clothes can be schizophrenic, mine are!). Today I'm wearing a teal blazer with jeans and brown riding boots (I'm being low-key today). An outfit is always in the details: jewelry, gasses (I meant to say glasses but I thought it was funny that I accidentally said gasses), socks, tights, belts, and even ponytail holders really do matter! Have fun, dears. BUT NOT TOO MUCH FUN!!! Be safe this New Years! Wow, can you believe it? 2011! My resolutions are to be happy, healthy, and do something worth doing (like have a gypsy summer traveling around or live in a tree and practice my archery [any other Robin Hood fanatics out there?]), oh yeah and do my knee exercises (I need to be doing those!). New Years really is a good time to make changes for the better! The trick is keeping those resolutions past January! Love,
Belle
PROPS TO: Kaboodle.com/zara.com for the Baby Corduroy Blazer with two buttons, lovemaegan.com for an adorable outfit example, flickr.com for another great vintage outfit, ivywanggg.blogspot.com for her outfit with American Eagle blazer, rag & bone from shopbop.com, washed corduroy blazer from victoriassecret.com, and tall corduroy campus blazer from bananarepublic.com

Thursday, December 30, 2010

SOCKS!












So! I haven't written in a while... I guess I was taking time off for Christmas and such:) Today I am posting my first post since, I think, December 18th, and it is on... socks. Yes, socks. Oh, how I adore socks! Since birth, I've very rarely ever worn matching socks because I think it's bad luck. And because, somehow, and unfalteringly (?), my sock drawer has only one of each of the billions of pairs of socks at a time. There is no way around this. I've tried EVERYTHING. But That's okay. The only times in life my socks have had to match have been: a.) Cheerleading (my school's squad was pretty darn into uniformity), and b.) when I wear knee high socks (because it would look funny if I had one cream cable knit sock that hit higher on my leg than one gray fair isle sock. The only time my knee highs shouldn't match is spirit week [and believe me, that is an exciting time for me! {mostly because I get to wear mismatched knee highs}] [Wow! That was a ramble!]) Here are some awesome pictures of socks! Enjoy, mon amis! Love always and forever with all my heart you darling readers of mine,
Belle
P.S.: (from top, going right) women.fashionbeans.com, unwindknitting.com, jcrewsocks @ thisnext.com, spottedmoth.com, sockdreams.com, circle of socks that I don't know where to find, leg avenue velvet thigh highs @ shoponline2011.com, salepricefinder.com, New Patterns from Three Irish Girls @ nuttycreations.wordpress.com, ravenclaw harry potter socks @ flickr.com, American Apparel socks @ shopstyle.com.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

how to wear animal print in a socially acceptable manner!:)














Okydoke. So after I wrote my last post on my dad's style law #1 I decided that I should write a post on how to wear animal print well instead of listening to my dad and looking like a deformed leopard that fell into a bucket of nasty. So... here are some pictures I found to delight and amaze you. Enjoy them. Done? Okay then, now go... eat a Popsicle or something, I don't know... Love,
Belle.
I've got to give props to modelmanagement.com and the blog: chicisimo for some of the pictures (I found one of the pics of a girl with leopard tights on chicisimo, and another pic of a girl with leopard tights on modelmanagement) . The weirdo with the cat on her head is my sister. Yep. The cat isn't exactly a leopard but what rulebook says animal print has to be leopard, why can't it be black cat and still alive? Definitely not dead because thar (thar? What am I? A pirate?) that would be horrible and sad. But alive? Why not? Okay. I'm actually done now. Good night, dears.

How to wear animal print according to my dad...







Okay. So I was inspired by the book Sh*t my Dad Says to write this post. The day after Thanksgiving we were eating leftovers for Dad's birthday and his fiance was wearing a gray leopard print shirt and she was a little self-conscious about it because she'd never really worn gray or leopard print, so it was definitely a stretch for her to wear both together. So my dad turns to her and says- in a voice that would give the impression that he really knows what he's talking about- that it works and is fashionable for her to wear animal print because it wasn't in the actual color of the animal fur. Now you really need to understand a little something about my dad for this to make sense: my dad is not a fashionisto. He wears Otomix pants and Otomix shoes with a fanny pack and- invariably- some martial arts t-shirt every day. When he said this I turned to my sister just as she turned to me and we both had this look like 'huh. reeally. you don't say, I didn't know Dad was an expert on fashion now'. I mean, okay, sure, so he bought his first pair of real pants, but an expert? So here is a post of different articles of clothing that follow my dad's Laws of Fashion. Law #1: animal prints are only acceptable if they are in a color other than the natural color of the animal. Love,
Belle

Sunday, December 12, 2010

How to... dance like a ballerina!





















Or at least dress like one. I've always loved the clothes that ballerinas wear to dance, especially the shoes. I, of course, cannot dance ballet; nor have I ever taken lessons in my life. But! I like to pretend to be a ballerina because I never really got over that fantasy as a little girl and I so wish I could look that graceful while doing something so painful. An awesome place to find really cheap ballet supplies is dance4less.com, but if you don't want to go as far as wearing real ballet slippers and costumes, there are many look-alikes out there. Go to Etsy.com and search The Generation under sellers. This Etsy shop sells organic ballet flats for a price tag much smaller than other organic flat sellers. When you think of ballerina clothes you might think of tutus, and yes they do wear tutus, but there are some beautiful- and wearable- tutu-esque skirts in the world. Ballerinas also wear legwarmers and wrap sweaters. When I think of ballet I think of that beautiful pale pink that is so typical of ballet shoes and everything else associated with ballet! Ballet-inspired everyday style clothes come in a variety of colors now but work best in romantic colors such as pale pink, nude, burgundy, cream, and black. Love,
Belle