if you don't love tulle, you're a fulle

sigh...to be french. i'm pretty sure they just dance around all day, lauding their own beauty and whimsicality, smoking and drinking coffee, and never ever getting fat.

found this editorial on karla's closet...just another reminder of why i long to be parisian.







i love all the tulle in this editorial. and the magnificent poses...so, "here i am, hanging out, wearing tulle, with athletic paraphernalia just chillin' next to me." you know, a typical afternoon dressed in haute couture ballet-inspired ensembles.

i've been seeing some summer looks incorporating tulle, and i'm kind of jonesin' to concoct a look of my own. preferably as something to wear to the grocery store, or maybe out for sushi...places that don't require tulle, but that i'm sure would appreciate my vibrant spirit.

vogue paris 2003

punky b: straight color biznass

2 things:

1. thank you to my friend erin for introducing me to punky b's fashion diary. she's garance dore's bff, and it definitely shows. i love bff's who both have remarkably successful and entirely unpretentious fashion blogs -- linguistically and visually brilliant in every possible way.

2. i was out enjoying the summer's eve with some lovely girlfriends of mine tonight -- all of whom possess wonderful and articulate personal style. we were discussing the evolution of our wardrobe's color palate as we've gotten older, each noting our signature color. amongst the gold, blue and pink beauties around me, i was, of course...black. of this i am entirely unapologetic...i love wearing black, and embrace it as part of the essence of my personal style. but, as erin astutely pointed out, i do not adapt the inherent urbanity of my wardrobe very effectively to the summer months. that being said...i do appreciate and love the integration of color and brightness into summer wardrobes, and love a good style icon who exhibits this effortlessly.

as i perused punky b tonight (this morning), i was struck by how seamlessly she infuses summer colors and styles into her everyday wardrobe. her outfits are impeccably chic, and continue to fully represent her personal style as she transitions into the emerging tones of a new season.

she's worth taking cues from. and although i'll always embrace my favorite palate noir...i'm definitely looking to steal some of the tricks up her uber-stylish sleeve.



sailor stripes with open-toed shoes...such a good transitional outfit.


all about cerulean...my favorite shade of blue (and one of my favorite colors) ever.



gingham, tie-dye, and a beautiful salmon-y bag. summa summatime!


need some good color? punky says add a yellow ribbon. i say...okay punky, you're right.


those red shoes...in love. and seriously, who pulls off blatant red and green in the middle of summer without looking like some sort of an awkwardly-out-of-season christmas decoration?

winter-to-summer: pair your black bomber with some pink cuffed pants.


i'm all about jumpsuits. i own two short jumpsuits...one floral, one black.

so maybe i rarely wear the floral one, but at least i bought it.

diy gloriousness

i would pay some serious dolla dolla bills to have the creativity and natural ability to di(m)y(self). unfortunately...crafts and creating things just aren't my thing. i don't have an eye for it, i don't have the patience for it, and, as tragic as all that is, at least there are people out there whose stunning creations i can at least admire from afar, or, even purchase, if i'm feeling randy.

all that aside, let me introduce you to my most current girl/blog crush: glamourai.

not only is she completely stunning, with the most elegant/trendy/quirky/utterly chic sense of style ever, she's also a designer whose jewelry and diy pieces are utterly fabulous. i just spent quite a good while perusing through her photos, and i love how she also posts photos of cultural images/people that inspire her. she recently was very inspired by holly golightly and breakfast at tiffany's, and i love her question of "what film fuels your imagination?" inspiration is undoubtedly the very root of creativity, and i love seeing what sparks brilliance and ideas in others.



i love love love this necklace. i think it's absolutely divine and completely beautiful, in every sense of both those words. seriously...to be able to sit at your house and just create pieces like this (okay, right, that's what designers do) all day long -- what an extraordinary gift! no need to outsource looking fabulous, you could just make something perfect real quick, no big deal.


diy necklace and earrings




let's be real here...i could post pictures of this goddess woman all day long. go to her site and fall deep, deep in love.

hope that something inspires you on this overcast day! my mom's coming into town to visit me and we have a full weekend planned of shopping, alfresco dining, and diy (there's something i can do!) pedicures. moscato for her, cabernet for me...it's going to be a lovely weekend.

xoxo, mis amores!

the art of seduction

so, this month's acne paper is eroticism-themed...and you all know how much i love the sexy fash.



the mag also interviewed carine roitfeld, and i love her perspective on the french art of flirting: "The flirt is a very French speciality. You like to seduce, even for nothing. It's a good experiment to realize you have power over someone. The French consider la séduction to be one of the arts of living."

and, yet again, carine pinpoints precisely why my soul is french.

i think that's amazing. flirting, seduction, confidence, passion...they're all parts of a whole, and, god, what an art it is. my self confidence, and the image of myself that i presented, really soared when i became interested in fashion. because to have truly great style, and to astutely understand fashion, you need to know your body, you need to know yourself, and you need to be comfortable enough with what those things are to create, develop and project them.

despite ms. roitfeld's claims that she's not a nymphomanic, here's "Série Noire," from this month's vogue paris. this editorial is amazing...so brazen and visceral and raw and passionate. i love her portrayal of the inherently animalistic and sexual aspects of human nature. it's so, so good.

fabulosity

you could not, for a hot second, tell me that their lives are not completely fabulous.

i might start arriving at my friend's houses wrapped in white tulle, while making all of my male friends wear silver gladiator heels. don't be alarmed.

jak and jil

it's a gold kind of world

le fashion

the chunkiness and tone of this gold jewelry is, in my opinion, exactly the way that gold should be. i like mine big, bright and shiny...i'd just want to add like, 15 more pieces.

hope everyone had a lovely memorial day...perhaps it wasn't as rainy in other parts of the world as it was in chicago. but, to be expected. chicago precipitation rarely considers what's convenient for its city-dwellers, sassy minx that it is.

I WANT THESE SHOES

can you tell when i get on a blogging roll? late at night, when i start blogging, it's usually because i haven't had the time recently, and then i go overboard and blog for hours. those are some of my favorite hours of the week.

just found these photos on wildfox...if i had these shoes, i would never, ever take them off. i would live and breathe for them and wear them until they were dead, and then continue wearing them until it became socially unacceptable. i LOVE them.



wildfox found the images from a piece of paper beside the bed, which now i'm also in love with.

sigh, i wish that perusing blogs could be my full-time job.

photos by henrik bulow. check it. he's brilliant.

it's a wide-legged world

LOVEEEEEEE this photo. the jacket is to DIE for, and i'm a big ole sucker for wide-legged pants that drag on the ground, even with heels. my favorite pair completely cover my shoes, even in my four-inchers.

outfits like this always make me wish that i could tuck things in. unfortunately when you're 5'3" and were born with a box for a torso, cute little tucked-in, high-waisted gems like this are more akin to a rectangular oompa loompa than chic styling.

punky b

the chloester

chloe sevigny gets so many mixed reviews when it comes to her fash. and i'll totally admit that, although i've come to truly love her vintage-y grandma-y + high fashion sort of style, there was definitely a time where i'd look at photos of her and go, "say whaaaa?" before i really developed an appreciation for how strong her sense of personal style really is.

thus, i LOVED her shoot with elle this month. it's impeccably styled, and i simply love the subtle details of everything she's wearing. the textured tights, the humongo gold accessories, perfect shoes...all founded in my very favorite thing -- an ebony palate. but what i love most is that as i paged through it, i was instantly inspired to create new combos from pieces in my own closet. like the beautiful scarf kate gave me than i want to style with my favorite black jumpsuit. and fabulous new ways to play with my oversized navy blazer (and the new tux black vest i acquired while thrifting earlier this week).

i really love an editorial that inspires new ideas and sartorial creativity...feels so good, doesn't it?











“I definitely spend the most money on shoes,” she admits. “Partly because vintage footwear can be a little funky—in a bad way. I like to keep things pretty simple up top and then go weird with the shoes.”

“I’m single, so I’m trying to do an overall overhaul,” she says with a laugh. “The look I’m going for is very ’80s supermodel. It’s time to be sexy."

love her. love love when people can articulate their personal style, or at least the journey they're making with it.

noir dior

love dior, love marion cotillard. really really love film noir.

twentythirtyforty maaaaagic

bbasically, i couldn't be more proud of twentythirtyforty.net. not only is the new editorial up -- it's sincerely amazing, and you must check it out. serious styling with brilliant pieces -- but they're kind of the most fabulous fashion mavens i know. and they're all over the blogosphere right now.

currently their loeffler randall bandeau top is being featured on extraskinny (featuring outfits that are muy brilliante, and photography that's to die for. if i lived my life dancing around like she does, i'm entirely positive that i would have zero problems).



isn't she adorable? i love her whimsical poses, and the way she dances through each of her outfit posts. she makes clothing so much fun. and although i find clothing more enjoyable than most things, there are many mornings (ie: today, when i put on a dress to go shopping with jack and he said that i looked like a mexican girl going to my quincenera) that i'm not all that into deciding what to wear. bless extraskinny for sharing her immense creativity in such a fab way, everyday.

my dear friend erin (and fellow, highly devoted, fash lover --her wonderful comments follow nearly every post) is moving in with me in july and we're discussing the addition of some sassafras outfit styling as an addition to the blog...i'm pretty excited. it's step that i'm really excited to take, even though it means totally outing myself. brandon and arlene and i have had maaaaaaaany conversations about this and its difficulty, considering brandon outed herself as alexander mcqueen in a bunny suit, and arlene chose a faceless photo of herself wearing a beautiful scarf. i mean, we love the fash...but still.

ANYway...i'm getting chatty. continue checking out public personae, as twentythirtyforty will be appearing there, too. AND, we're featured in this month's issue of lucky magazine!


sorry, this photo is super pixelated, but you get the idea. basically, buy the june issue of lucky because chicago is all over it, and twentythirtyforty is totally boppin'.

xoxoxo, lovies. happy friday!