wedding looks for grown up mall goths

Some quick snaps from London again for you -- like I said my last London update, my camera wasn't very helpful so these are from my phone. I also forgot to bring any makeup besides lipstick and CC cream so I look different than I'd like, I feel like this look would have been killer with a really bizarre eyeliner situation but alas. We look totally miserable by default but I swear we were actually happy. I'M SORRY I'M AN IRL DARIA. Anyway! I've been saving this Junya Watanabe dress that I scored at the last CDG Sample Sale for months and months -- I got it at a bargain price, still made me hyperventilate at the register but when it comes to once in a lifetime dresses, I kind of just grit my teeth and remind myself I work to buy things I dream of.  Still, it's just so much LOOK, you know? 

When it comes to such a bizarre dress, it's really important for my own enjoyment of wearing the garment to research it's history. It's pretty far removed from traditional dresses, literally made from parachute fabric, and the most practical reference I have for it is like a high fashion version of those Tripp NYC Baggy bondage pants all the mall goths used to wear when I went to high school. I love the images of this season from Junya:

(via)

When we went to Selfridges to try on pretty things (well, actually for me to frolic in the La Fille D'o lingerie section) it was very funny, because I tried on the red leather Junya Watanabe leather jacket I linked up above and it looked virtually the same as my vintage leather jacket I'm wearing in these photos, though mine was less than 1/7th the price. Goes to show you you don't necessarily need to buy the label to buy the look. Though when it comes to some items like this parachute dress, sometimes you just can't find imitations. Even with the Junya jacket, it had knitwear detailing and super stiff, corset leather which is very different from this jacket. Still, it's all in the details. Even the vintage and thrifted things I buy are very on-brand...it's about weird proportions and cuts, and you can find those things in the most unexpected places. Want a CDG tricot look? Go into the school uniform section of your children's apparel store and frolic. Few people would know the difference if you style it right. In fact, it's even more admirable if you can achieve the look without buying into it, sometimes, I think. It's important to me that when I'm thrifting and come across the occasional designer label, that I don't buy the thing just because of the label. Would I really wear it? Really? Even if it's CDG, is the the specific aesthetic of CDG (for there are many) that I obsess over or is it just a pretty tag? And I usually put it down and move on. I haven't regretted many sartorial decisions because of it. 

knitwear, basquiat, and barbara kruger

Went to Central Saint Martin's with Scott my last full day in London (can't believe it's been a few weeks by now), wore this particular creation of his on the trip there. It's a spectacular dress isn't it? Can you believe he's only been doing knitwear for a year, about? UNREAL. This dress was inspired by Basqiuat and other influences, I think he did a good job of making his intentions known. We'd gone to the Tate Modern the day before and the influence was startling. Unfortunately CSM was closed when I went -- I am cursed apparently, every time I try to go to a fashion themed library it never happens -- but the entrance hall was open and the lighting was killer so we snapped a few pictures together. I'm lucky with finding light. The clouds moved on immediately after we took these pictures, so it was great timing after a lot of dawling elsewhere being frustrated that we weren't getting what we wanted out of the day.

 I love photography and framing and lighting a lot, it lets me find something very intentional about everywhere I go. We're always walking around doing one thing or the other and when you're on the lookout for a good picture, you see things differently. It's nice to capture an ordinary moment and being able to invest something into it. A nondescript concrete wall can be beautiful too. 

I'm horrible at modeling though, definitely fall into the good ol' awkward blogger standby's, so trying to show the back of this dress without looking like I'm drawing on the wall or peeing is too hard for me. Whatever, I'm not signed to Ford, I don't gotta worry bout that stuff. 

I will try hard, however, to always be a better creative person though, which means I'm never going to stop experimenting with this here blog for as long as I have it, pushing my ideas and my techniques and exploring collaborations. I do read every comment and every email and every criticism and fanmail even if it's hard to answer them all, and I try to channel them into something even better and more productive for myself because it's just the only way I know how to live fully and happily. I am very young and have been able to do many things already so there is a constant worry of me wondering -- have I peaked already? is this it? -- but I think it's more productive for me to just hustle and try harder forever. The universe is expanding and nothing will be enough, but I think working towards being enough is fun while I have the chance. The meaning of life, as Kruger points out, is that it stops. So basically: *Jesse Pinkman voice* carpe diem, bitches.

the irony of perfect destruction

This outfit doubles as a London outfit post AND shows you what I wore to the first day of NYFW, haha. Quick phone snaps of my current 'practical' 'every day' fave outfit, I've worn it at least once a week for a month. Dress by Comme des Garcons, everything else is from wholesale liquidators and/or Goodwill. The most literal high/low mix and pretty descriptive of my actual style....I buy from Goodwill every six or eight months or something if something I've worn for awhile is worn out, and save the rest for the yearly CDG sample sales. My focus for my future is to consume less but better. This dress is surprisingly versatile and good for this idea because of the half sheerness, and the lack of structure (or rather, the more unusual kind of structure) of the top, so I can wear it tucked into pants, or with shorts, or with another layer of skirts, or backwards, etc. A lot of possibilities. It would be completely hideous if the actual techniques used weren't perfect. Comme is so interesting because it uses the rules of tailoring, patterncutting, etc, and completely distorts the approach. It reformulates the rules on it's own terms. I like this particular take on it a lot for it's playful dark geometry....if I bothered going to my senior prom, I'd have gladly worn this.

The quality of these photos is a bit of a  bummer but we shot & edited them on my phone, so you win some and lose some. These photos were taken on the side streets of Brick Lane in London, such a cute neighborhood, so much cool art and interesting shops.  A nice mix of  dollar bagels and Yohji Yamamoto gloves -- the best mix, really.

Edit: Thought it would be cool to show that yeah, I literally do just completely recycle outfits shamelessly. Here's outside Lincoln Center w/ my cutie internet bud Ben. He let me print his photos in my queer/fashion/feminsm zine I did a while back (but have yet to sell online, because I'm horrible), he's really talented:

Yay, friends!!! Aren't his shoes the illest? Ignore the fact I am a scrub and not looking in the right camera. Oops. 

a trip to tatty devine

I was so excited to go to London not only to visit my best friend but also pop by to visit some brands and designers I have loved and worked with for awhile. Tatty Devine is one of them, I have admired their work for a long time and was so bummed when my schedule didn't work out when they came to the States a few months back to visit.

 When they heard I was visiting London for a few days they invited me to one of their stores and made me some necklaces. It was really fun to watch the process in person and also to watch customers buy in store. I'm a creep and love all aspects of consuming -- I love looking at linesheets and markups, and wholesale prices, and development processes, and seeing people take time and decide what to buy, too. Being a fashion blogger has given me privileged access to many aspects of the industry and it's never not fun to see every side. Customers at Tatty know exactly what they want and buy very quickly! It was a different experience than I've seen in most jewelry stores, I was really surprised.

we can get in trouble just by going free flow

The second to last day in London, Scott and I just went everywhere with me in his creations. This is from his White Project from last year, I remember listening to his development process on Skype while he was working on it. I've seen Scott develop a lot as a designer through his sketchbooks and the signature aspects of his creations are always heavy, intensive knits and large volume. I love the distortion of the body and how I end up moving in his work - the best words for it might be an angelic monstrosity, you know? Some dresses float like on air, and that is a really powerful, sexy experience. But this defies that kind of movement and you as the wearer are forced to experience your clothes in a different way, and I love that. Some of it is stiff and other parts are floaty...it's ethereal in it's own way, it's a very alienating experience. It's always on the right side of absurd for me, I never feel uncomfortable in his stuff. If I try to describe how I feel in it, it's more like a hand is being extended to take me on a good trip. There is a lot of goodness involved.

 I think it's because we come from the same place aesthetics wise and share similar backgrounds. Scott's my designer just as much as CDG is, if not more, because I actually have an influence on what he creates. It's very fulfilling to have someone to collaborate with on ideas and to see them run with it and being able to wear the results in the end is a unique, rad experience. We like the same things to the point we never have to explain our influences to each other. We might not talk for weeks at a time, but then we'll talk for hours and share moodboards and they'll always have a few of the same main inspirations out of coincidence. And since we come from similar class circumstances, we get what the other person is trying to do. Because despite us being fashion kids -- him being a cutthroat kid at Central Saint Martins, me being a blogger-student juggling work and school forever -- we're still not secure or successful in the ways a lot of fashion kids are who come from money. We're always dipping into luxury art and fashion realms but our actual daily realm is eating 99cent muffins for dinner because we're too broke to afford real food because student loans, and materials for our work. So we're always drawn to bringing our aesthetics into our neighborhoods, it's a visual representation of the weird juggling act we're constantly participating in. Photographing his work and our collaborations in neighborhoods that don't match up visually -- that's just our lives, really. We don't match up to the expectations our clothes -- or dreams -- tell us we should have. And I personally enjoy that very much. 

We took a lot of pictures in this dress so it was hard to narrow it down -- you'll likely see different iterations of our approach in the future in this, I want to show you how fun it is to wear. Anyway -- hope all is well and you are safe and sound. 

kentish town calling

Hi darlings! I'm blogging this from my phone in London, so I apologize for  weird coding, blogger isn't the best for mobile blogging. I love London, it's just as fast paced as Nyc but there are more pubs and cute accents here. -My best friend Scott, who I'm visiting, took these photos and then my camera promptly decided to flash low battery and die and my charger isn't a fan of uk adapters. The dress is from Choies c/o and I picked it specifically for this trip. I think it was the perfect decision, right?

This neighborhood is so cute, I saw pictures of it literally hours before I left NYC and immediately knew thishad to be the first place I visited. I am not a very good tourist, I haven't done any of the requisite landmarks yet though I will force myself to sometime during my trip, probably...hopefully...maybe.

Anyway, I'm starving so I'm going to go eat some leftover pizza and plan my day. I'm sorry I am a bit slow in responding to emails at the moment, I'll be back in the states soon. (edit Actually, this post is going up from my bed at home! Anyway.) Hope all is well.