Wicked Whimsy

Archive for February, 2010

Project Beyond the Runway

Edited by Fashion Pulse Daily

Reading through the links this week, I realized that fashion week or no fashion week, fashion will most certainly go on! A winter snowstorm couldn’t even slow down New York Fashion Week, and the links below are testament to the wonderful style that exists beyond the runway, such as Ode to Awe‘s jewelry discovery, how to look chic while lounging by Cafe Fashionista, and tips for vintage shoe shopping by Wicked Whimsy. Don’t get me wrong, I love being ‘in the know’ on runway looks and trends, but how you interpret them and work them into your personal style is so much more important than remembering which designers showed one-shoulder looks this season!

As expected, there was a fabulous round-up of links in the forum as well, all worthy of your eyeballs!

Links à la Mode : February 25th

39th and Broadway – A Side of the Industry Unknown by Most: Life as a Corporate Fashion Designer
British Style Bloggers – Cherish forever what makes you unique, ‘cos you’re a yawn once it’s gone
Cafe Fashionista - A step-by-step guide to looking luxurious even when lounging
Clutch22 -Up close and personal with Vivienne Tam as she expands her fashion+tech innovations to a new category
CMYKaboom – Independent Fashion Bloggers (IFB) ‘Tweet Up in the Tents’ event
Debutante Clothing - Vintage Jewelry: Q&A with Lucite line Circa Sixty Three
Fabulous Finds Gal – Moonstuck at the opera with photographer Bersa
Fashion Pulse Daily – Sonia Rykiel Pour H&M; the debut and the review
Holier Than Now – New Take on Florals (5 Under $50)
Idiosyncratic Style - A Girl’s Guide to Maternity Style
Independent Fashion Bloggers : Evolving Influence Recap : Part One
Individual Chic: – Would you have wanted a Computer Engineer Barbie when you were smaller? Or would you love one now?
Night Watch – 10 Questions with Model Clara Zapffe
Ode to Awe - Denmark based Alidra Alic’s Alice-inspired jewelry
Oranges and Apples – Rules for advertising and sponsorship on blogs
Retro Chick – The Ethics of Blogging
Smiles Go with Everything -10 Tips for Shopping on Ebay: How to find great deals on awesome duds.
The Coveted – Visits Nine West HQ for a sneak peak of AW10 shoe collections!
The Style PA – Gives Henry Holland a grilling ahead of his House of Holland show.
The Sunday Best – Do men get better service when they shop?
Wicked Whimsy -What to look for when buying vintage shoes
Workchic – Fall 2010 NY Fashion week collections: recreated runway to the office outfits

I need to stop writing these posts when I’m tired, so I can come up with witty titles!

HOKAY. So here we have: T-shirt from Rock N Swap & then dyed unevenly (more on that in a second), H&M hacked up skirt, JUMP booties, Tarina Tarantino bracelet is from BX, secondhand necklace, no idea where I got the teensy pentacle necklace, heart ring is off eBay, Hyde belt.

Jewelry detail:

And as you’ve probably noticed, I went and changed up my hurr:

It’s SFX Sonic Green mixed with a bit of Splat blue. The dark chunk on the right side of the photo is SFX Deep Purple, but it is currently being disagreeable and choosing to just show up as almost black in most lights/photos. It took me a few days to get used to it (I stuck with the purple so long, for me! I think anything would have been a bit of a shock), but I’ve decided I like it. I was originally attempting platinum with chunks of turquoise but my hair (and the remnants of the purple dye) had other ideas in mind, SO.

Anyways, this is what I wore to see Amanda play at a benefit for the Boys & Girls Club!

I am continually amazed by the great photos I get with this camera under most conditions. Unfortunately, zoomed in from 20-30 feet away using the flash at night is apparently not one of those conditions. Who knew! If you want to see more photos, check out Amanda’s website.

She’s really good! Totally undersells herself. She’s only been playing three months and has already mastered one Dixie Chicks song, at least. (Psst. Amanda. I vote for “Earl Had to Die” next time!) This is all mysterious magic to me, the person for whom reading music notes is like trying to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Worse, actually, I think I have a better handle on the Egyptian!

Back to the dyeing. Yeah, so, in my infinite wisdom I decided that, instead of trying to find a plug for our kitchen sink and putting the clothes in that one at a time, I’d just tump them all in the bathtub, since I’ve decided I kind of like the unevenly dyed look. And tote some boiling water in from the kitchen, since the water’s supposed to be super hot. Well, that part resulted in a burn, and while the clothes turned out okay (I’m sure you’ll see the rest of them soon), the bathtub…hmm.

I have dubbed it the Zombie Bathtub. Which of course, prompted a debate between Matt and I about how a zombie bathtub would spread its zombification. The odd stripes on the bottom are from masking tape – I had put some on the shirt to attempt leaving some spots totally white. I was unaware that when the masking tape hit the super hot dye-bath it would be all “EFF THIS NOISE” and immediately sink to the bottom of the tub. Thanks a lot, masking tape, you fail at life.

All I’ve got to say is that I damn well better get a lot of wear out of the clothes I dyed, since not only did I get a burn but I’m going to have to scrub and bleach the bathtub after I just cleaned the whole bathroom a week ago! I’m sure I’ll be able to get it out, but just a PSA for other adventurous crafters: bathtub dyeing = bad idea.

Pull the plug, lady!

I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath to hear the results of the internet diet & my thoughts on it after finishing! I ended up just doing one hour a day; thirty minutes in the morning and thirty minutes at night. I was originally going to do two hours a day, but figured I might as well do as little as possible. Without further ado…

The good:

• Once I had a time limit established, it was really, really easy to stay under that time and still get done everything I needed done. A large part of this might be due to my personal situation (I know a lot of other people get more email/comments and are subscribed to more blogs than I am), but with 30 minutes I managed to check my email, check job listings, read comments/delete spam, read a blog entry or three, and even tweet a couple of times.
• I found it a lot easier to stick to my morning routine of doing yoga before anything else. I’m not sure why, maybe because I knew I’d be closing the laptop after 30 minutes, and then I’d end up doing the yoga anyways.
• I generally found myself less stressed out throughout the week.
• Lots more time for reading.
• And for some reason, I slept much better than usual!

The bad:

There wasn’t any bad, actually! Except coming back to a large backlog of blog posts in my Google Reader. And missing my Twitter buddies.

Thoughts & reactions:

I think the weirdest thing for me was realizing how not-bad it is to only check email twice a day. I had this vision of my email inbox overflowing, with me frantically trying to keep up, and in reality? Not so much. I don’t know if it’s because checking your email every ten minutes gives the illusion of receiving many more messages than there actually are, or what, but there you have it.

The main thing I decided is that I need to cut down my intake of internet-based media, pure and simple. I’ve already cleaned up my reader by some 30%, and I’m unsubscribing from email lists left and right. I think a large part of the reason I’ve been feeling very stale and in somewhat of a rut lately is that most of the things I read or look at are internet based – this isn’t bad in and of itself, but for my brain to have a large reservoir of inspiration to draw from, more variety is needed.

The problem is, as I noted last time, the totally frickin’ addictive nature of the internet. My eventual goal is to try and get everything internet related that needs done in two or three days a week. All the internet-based writing, blog maintenance, email reading/replying, that good stuff. The rest of the time, I’ll be keeping it down to two hours a day. And I’m going to keep only checking my email 2-3 times a day, as well as stay off the computer for an hour or two before bed since it seems to have made me sleep so much better.

Oh, and as far as the direction of the site? I decided I’d just write what I wanted to, and make up new categories all willy-nilly as needed. Which means there is a strong possibility of non-fashion/style related posts in the future, just a heads up!

Another short one this week! Still getting caught up after the end of the internet diet and all.

• How to be miserable as an artist.
• 100 ways you can start loving yourself right now. (Note that turning off technology was on there. I’m totally ahead of the curve!)
• Simon Doonan’s tribute to McQueen is one of the best I’ve read yet.

How awesome is THIS?! (found via Fashion Pirates)

• 6 Steps for Totally Nailing a Job Interview.
• The ethics of blogging – definitely a good read!
• Also, I have to add, we got a Swiffer this weekend, and it is AWESOME. Need to keep a broom around for particles too big for it to pick up, and I think we’ll of course keep the mop & mop bucket for heavy duty cleaning, but I am amazed by this thing. It picks up approximately 536% more cat hair than a broom, which of course makes me happy. I’m convinced that cat hair is made up of microscopic ninjas, it somehow finds a way to hide everywhere.

Like I said – a short one this week, but hopefully the Lady Gaga + Star Trek mashup makes up for it! Have a freakin’ fabulous week!

Three out of four are Jeffrey Campbell. He’s fast approaching John Fluevog as far as “man who makes most awesome shoes”!

Sure, these aren’t anything revolutionary – but they are awesome.

These are apparently exclusive to Need Supply Co. – they come in black leather and gray suede. Personally, I like the black leather more.

Audi is to blame for my discovery of these freaking amazing boots. I don’t know if I should weep for my wallet or celebrate for my wardrobe.

I like these, although in a weird way. They’re almost one of those ugly-pretty (or pretty-ugly) shoes – they’ve got an odd sort of awkwardness. I’m kind of surprised that someone did buckled wedges after they were so HUGE last year; I would have thought they’d be “out” this year. Whatever, who cares as long as I can get my hands on some of these!

Vintage shoes are wonderful. You can get a unique shoe that not everyone else will have, usually for a fraction of the price that you’d pay today for shoes of similar quality. However, there are some things you need to watch out for when buying vintage shoes. These include:

• All leather construction. This means the shoes were higher quality to begin with and it generally makes them easier to repair.
• Remember that shoes can be stretched in width, but not in length. If they’re a little narrow, that can probably be fixed. If they’re too short – put ‘em back, ladies!
• Make sure the heel hasn’t been worn down to the metal spike inside. And this is an extra note even for new shoes: don’t walk on them if they’ve born worn down that far! That damages the shoe. Just go in and get your heels re-covered. (I think they’re called heel taps, but I felt stupid saying “get taps put on your heels”.)
• Examine the stitching and the buckles/holes on straps. Loose stitching can be easily fixed, but stretched out or torn holes can’t, really. A missing buckle might be hard to fix too, especially if the strap is an odd size or the buckle a specially made one.
• Look around the seams – the glue might have caused discoloration that’s hard to disguise. I know this from personal experience!
• Look for actual scratches or gouges in the leather – they can’t be disguised as easily as scuffs.
• If the shoe has any suede, examine it carefully – suede is generally more delicate and harder to repair than leather.

That about does it! Because of the varying sizing with older shoes, and the issues noted above (which can be easily disguised by unethical online sellers), I definitely recommend keeping your vintage shoe shopping to in-person. Every once in a while, though, something so awesome comes up that it can’t be passed on – and I get that! So just shop with caution! And goooood luck!

So, as I mentioned on Monday, all of this week I’ve been trying an experiment. I’ve restricted my internet access to 1-2 hours a day. That probably doesn’t sound huge, but I spend a lot of time online and it’s a drastic change for me!

Why?

The obvious question is what prompted me to go on an “internet diet”. Quite frankly, I’m feeling a little crazy crowded in my brain space, and I’m pretty sure that most of that comes from being near-constantly connected, in one way or another, to the internet and the vast amount of people on it. That can be a great thing, don’t get me wrong – I love all of my internet friends, I love talking to them and hearing their thoughts, I love that I can ask a completely random-ass question and immediately get a response. (People who answered my Picard vs. Data question: I’m looking at you!) I love having so many different viewpoints, and hearing about things as they happen.

But at the same time, I just feel surrounded by noise. I want some peace and quiet!

The Goals

Right after “why?” comes “what are you trying to accomplish?”.

Well…

• Peace and quiet! Like I said. No more noise.
• I want more time for non-internet-y things. It’s a tremendous time suck, and even if I really want to do something else, we’ve all experienced that phenomenon that consists of “Just 15 more minutes!” and then suddenly you look at your computer clock and it’s fifteen ’til midnight. Or, you know, much later. I just discovered the wonder that’s the local public library (it has FOUR FLOORS, y’all. this is a huge deal for me!) and have a stack of books to read through, I’d like to get back to meditating more, I have things to write and draw, and I have a stack of DIY projects waiting to be done. If nothing else, it’s supposed to be nice-ish outside next week, and I’d enjoy walking around and checking out some of the local parks.
• I want to think about the direction of things. Some personal things as well, but a large thing I want to think about is where Wicked Whimsy is going as a website. I love writing about style and fashion, and it’s a huge part of my life, but sometimes I feel like it gives a very one-sided view of me. Style and fashion aren’t all I care about; sometimes I want to think or write about business, personal issues (like inspiration or lack thereof), spirituality…any number of topics. And obviously, I don’t always stick to just fashion or style topics as is! So I don’t know if I want to go even more “off topic” in some posts, or set up a new domain/site for other thoughts. Thoughts from you, as a reader or a fellow blogger, are appreciated!

This post was written ahead of time; I wrote all of the posts for this week and scheduled them before starting the diet. I’ll do a recap post sometime next week with my thoughts on how it worked and any follow-up I’ll be doing – I’m thinking about continuing it for thirty days, to try and make all of these things a habit. To get better at making time for non-internet things. I think it’s interesting that it’s possible, but sometimes I wonder if it’s such a good thing to be plugged in all the time! (Anyone else ever read Feed?)

Thoughts or comments? I’d love to hear them!

Kind of short this week, but that’s ok! You’re all recovering from the weekend and don’t want to be bombarded with links, right? Right!

• Value You.
• I’m sure everyone has read Tanya Gold’s article and the responses to it. Here’s a belated one at Oranges & Apples that I thought was especially good!
• if you don’t ask, I won’t tell…touching & heartbreaking.
• This guy is hilarious. There isn’t a lot of his stuff online, but seriously, watch the video. It’ll be a very funny two and a half minutes.
• A well-deserved rant at crappy PR.
• Creating your very own paradise – always a good idea!
• Neil Gaiman quotes and colorful photographs? Count me in!
• Oh, and you should check out Conversations with Bianca – just discovered it, and anyone who features Heidi Minx is cool by me!

I won’t be around a lot this week – I’m doing a week-long “internet diet”. A post is scheduled for Wednesday explaining more about it and why I wanted to do it – but either way, I might be a bit slow to respond to comments or emails, so apologies in advance! I hope your week is off to a fabulous, hangover-free start!

PS: Glendy let me know she had some problems commenting – if any of you have problems, please email me and let me know! I will look into it and get it fixed.

This was supposed to be a video post, but it’s been so gray and dreary here the last few days that I can’t seem to get good lighting no matter where I go! So you’ll have to deal with text instead.

What is the oil cleansing method, you ask? And what kind of silly person came up with that idea? I mean, it’s OIL. Right?

Apparently it’s not that straightforward. Who knew?!

To get a total rundown of the idea, check out this website. They recommend using a blend of castor oil and extra virgin olive oil, but I use 100% jojoba oil and it’s worked fine for me so far.

The basic idea is that the oil breaks down the oil in your pores, and then it all washes away together. The specific method they recommend is steaming your face with a hot washcloth and then washing away with cold water, but I just put the oil on my face before getting in the shower. Before turning the water cold (which I do to wash my hair anyways!), I scrub my face really well with a washcloth.

It doesn’t sound like it would work well, but it’s done wonders for my skin. I’ve got ridiculously sensitive skin, that’s also combination and tends to get really oily in the t-zone. Except that it also has a tendency towards dryness, so what happens if I’m not really careful is gross oily skin with a layer of dry flaky skin on top. Ew! That doesn’t happen with the jojoba oil/OCM; when I get out of the shower my face feels nice and clean, but not tight. There’s no dryness and it’s even helped with my oiliness! I still get the occasional blemish, but it happens maybe once a month or once every two months – my skin is pretty clear, overall. It should be noted that I didn’t exactly have problem skin before; there was the dry/oily issue, but I’ve haven’t had too many problems with recurring zits in years.

It’s not expensive, either – I’m not sure what the price of castor oil and extra virgin olive oil would break down to, but I bought a ten dollar 4 oz bottle of jojoba oil from Whole Foods in the first or second week of November, and it’s still got somewhere between half and two thirds of the bottle left. There’s also the green benefit – no icky chemicals or weird fragrances going on your skin (this might be more of an issue for me than most people, as like I said, my skin’s sensitivity is near legend amongst my friends).

So – what do you think? Sound like something you’d like to try? Or are you going to stick with more conventional methods? And while I’m at it with the endless questions, what’s your best skincare tip?

Gala said it better than I…it was the first news I read this morning. Sad stuff.