Lou and Lu

We've seen practically every famous twentysomething girl in Leger but Lou takes the cake - she even makes the purple light seem like an accessory. I'm actually even loving how minimal she went on the jewelry front to emphasize all the body con glory. And I of course had to include a shot of Lou in her usual scruffier attire...she makes that palm leaf whipstitched vintage bag look weirdly good.

Anyway, I'm finally almost all the way better, the store has been updated, and outfit posts will commence - tomorrow Lulu and I are doing something we secretly don't love as much as we probably should - shopping. This should be fun. And potentially very expensive.

Sources: misshapes, wwd, purepeople

Lanphear does cheap chic

I always look forward to seeing Kate Lanphear's work in Elle, though not as much as I do to seeing random street style snaps of her on The Sartorialist and Style.com - her futuristic crop of white hair is always perfectly set off by her grungy/edgy style. If you thought there were only so many ways to wear black, just check out her thread at The Fashion Spot.

Last week, when airport boredom led me to the magazine stand, I stopped obnoxiously lingering and flipping and purchased the issue on the spot after seeing this editorial featuring her styling work. The pieces she used are ridiculously cheap, the details listing off brands such as Forever 21, Fruit of the Loom, and Converse for Target, though they are spruced up by thousands and thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. Gotta keep it high fashion somehow, duh. The pieces she used are very familiar (lamé leggings, denim shorts/vest, leather jacket) but taken to another level. I dug out my scanner that I haven't touched for about two years to share these, so sorry if they're crooked, horridly done, etc. - I can seriously never manage to align the pages properly. Now to find those amazing stripey knit shorts...

Inspiration board

Sources: foto decadent, tfs

Summer lovin'

Sources: foto decadent, TFS (scans by a.t., rox_yr_sox, mojopin)

Dandyhorse

I do my fair share of internet roving and thought that I had peered at about every Paris fashion street style documentation that there was to be had, so when I stumbled across Dandyhorse I was rather delighted at being able to ogle more angles and immaculately disheveled looks. Though it's kind of making me sick to look at all these photos of tights and jeans when it's 90 degrees out, these are too good to not share. Now if only the site was updated more often...



Julia von Boehm is an eternal favorite..what a fabulous way to wear all black. Love how comfortable she looks in this gear.



This is sort of a fun interpretation of the motorcycle jacket/skinny jean/fierce heel combination which is pretty much the 07/08 uniform.



Gray is one of the few (only?) colors that I feel right mixing tones in. Those pants could have been so bad but they're..not.



I think those were the ones I wanted. Hmph.



This is so Diane Kruger's doing. At my high school there was this guy that everyone called Pacey because they thought he looked like this character. It was pretty annoying.



Julia Restoin-Roitfeld is one of those people where I just want ALL THEIR SHOES. I bet she's a 7.5 too....



I always enjoy concentrated coolness.

Today's inspiration

Sources: dandyhorse, tfs, foto decadent

A study in black and white

I thought Daria was sailing around the world? Anyway, love her. From Vogue Brazil May.

scanned by xPedro @ TFS

Get set for summer

One year mark

There's something about French Vogue editorials that makes them not seem dated when you look at them a significant amount of time later. In this case, exactly a year. I think it's because they don't replicate entire runway looks. The brilliance of Daria, Terry Richardson, and Emmanuelle Alt working together is hot sex. Knowing that Daria's such a tomboy makes it that much better.

Source: tfs

Today's inspiration

Sources: foto decadent and model couture

Jak & Jill: Part Two

I warbled briefly about the Jak & Jil site briefly in March and can't resist posting my favorites from the newer photos. What other site offers such indulgently shoe-exclusive shots? I mean, if you think about it, it is odd that we recognize our fellow human by only about 10% of their physicality. Perhaps we should look into making feet the new face.

I imagine these to be what a fashionable alien that played mental neo-soccer with red giants would wear (Jan Arnold in Pierre Hardy):



Adorning the feet of the opposing team (Marie-Amélie Sauvé in Balenciaga):



Honestly. I would wear these with EVERYTHING. Pleeease show up on eBay! (Kate Langley in Chloé)



I can't say I like white pumps, but I'm falling hard for all things cutout, oxford-y, and hewn of white patent (Emma Elwick in Givenchy):



Kate Lanphear is pure sex (in Gucci):



Almost too good to be looked at directly, Emmanuelle Alt in THE BALMAIN FRINGE ANKLE BOOTS. These are pretty much my ultimate boot. And I will never own them. Whimper.



Visit their blog if you want to die some more. Can't wait for updates Tommy!

Half and half

This is extremely shallow but if I could just once model in Vivi I feel like my life would be complete. I've pored over, scrutinized, and straight out gazed for entire minutes at the sometimes cuckoo, always exuberant styling and photo after photo of gorgeous fellow halfies. I don't think any other publication dives so head first into trends large and small, check out the Gladiator Glossary!

This might come across as pitiful, or even worse, annoying, but when I was growing up I was the only half-Asian, let alone half-Japanese girl I knew, and I'll readily admit that I spent a good deal of time wishing I was a "normal" white girl. My mom tells me even when I was little and going to school in Tokyo and Hong Kong (both international schools and populated with every nationality imaginable), I would always befriend the prettiest blonde girls in the class..probably because I wanted to be them! My three best friends were British, Swedish, and French. Then I went through a phase wishing I was fully Japanese, at least then I wouldn't be so blatantly stared at in the Tokyo subways. When I discovered Vivi in high school one summer while bored in Tokyo, it was like coming across a personal and highly colorful bible. A magazine filled with nothing but half-Japanese girls! And they were all impossibly hot! I found this to be highly cool and was instantly hooked.I have long since stopped suffering from such indulgent identity ponderings but do still enjoy my monthly dose of the Vivs. (I do realize that it's a little odd for one of Japan's most popular fashion magazines to never use any fully Japanese models, but this is probably a whole separate topic...)

My favorite girl would have to be Jun, with her dark stare that makes me think she would be pretty intimidating in real life. I rank her as one of the most gorgeous people currently in existence on Earth. Lena and Chikako have that cutesy/sexy thing going on, and Marie pulls off a Vojtova-esque nose with aplomb. Now, if only I had paid more attention in my rigorously enforced Saturday Japanese school and subsequent "Japanese for bilingual speakers" class in college that was easily the single hardest, most time-consuming course I have ever been a reluctant part of. And slacking off wasn't an option since I was one of err three students.









Crazy fashion eye candy with pages chock-full of photos and weirdly awesome items:


I have the strangest feeling that Lucky isn't going to provide us with the following:


This post was completely due to reader Tali's comment informing me that the site of my dreams does exist, a livejournal community dedicated to Japanese glossies that posts scans of, like, entire magazines. You're stoked. I'm stoked. THANK YOU TALI!

Welcome to Musictown

When a reader delivered a lofty compliment this week proclaiming I looked like I could be in Empire Records in my unabashedly '90s outfit, my freakish amount of love for that movie came rushing back and I was left daydreaming about Liv Tyler in Doc Martens and a plaid mini to the beat of Sugar High ("I want to kiss myself goodbye!"). I wanted to be her a crazy amount, and had the plaid skirt collection to prove it. I rocked them to school with thigh highs from Wet Seal, which now that I am pontificating upon it, was pretty scandalous for my awkward age. Hmmm.

Unfortunately for me and the rest of the cultish Empire Records obsessers, the story unfolds throughout the course of one measly day, which equals exactly one look. We are left to imagine the assumed glory of Casey/Liv cavorting at the mall and eventually Harvard in Rampage dresses and high waisted shorts. I'm not saying I'm going to rock the cropped angora or anything, but my already existent desire for Doc Martens has probably increase tenfold due to these reminiscings and photos of Camille in her recently acquireds.

At least I had logic behind my idolatry, with these Liv ads staring at me from my Seventeens:


The setting:



Damn the man. Save the Empire.



The only time I ever did care about something Renee Zellweger did:



Oh Liv...Rex is all wrong in every last wavy blonde hair way imaginable.



There were like 50 of these kinds of girls at my middle school:



Warren: Stop calling me Warren! My name isn't FUCKING WARREN!
Eddie: His name isn't Warren.
Corey: His name isn't Warren.
Berko: His name isn't Warren.
Mark: I thought his name was Warren?



Liv exhibiting her charm in full, you really have to watch this:


Sources: moviescreenshots and bwgreyscale

The ultimate girlcrush

Source: clemence-poesy.niceboard

Cause don't we all want to be rock'n roll royalty?

Source: foto decadent

Current inspiration

All pics, TFS

Ruby Aldridge

From Jalouse March 08, scanned by cadg at TFS

Back to bohemia

Somehow this edit styled by Emmanuelle Alt in '05 feels relevant again...







Source: patrickdemarchelier

My spring lusts

Sources: shopbop, barney's, forever21, topshop, net-a-porter, madisonla, mycatwalk, thefashionspot

Destruction Zone: Martin Margiela

Sources: style, scans by kochie332, olsen-files, and magmtartists-vanderperre