The results are in!

Unable to decide between much shorter, and maintaining, I went asymmetrical.


She and I discussed my Ginger Aspirations... we'll see. I so strongly feel like a "blonde" now that toying with my hair color isn't as appealing as it was as a teenager. But maybe I could be a strawberry blonde like my earliest fashion heroine, Nancy Drew... ?

Well, off to pack, folks! It's so much easier when you love what you're packing things into. This vintage suitcase is part of a matching pair and has a fluorescent pink/orange lining. I actually gasped when I saw the two together, out in the open yet neglected at a vintage shop and for only $40 for the set!


Travel really hit the apex of its chic in the Sixties, eh?


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PS-- I'll be in Denver until September, doing secret (positive!) things at the Democratic National Convention. I'll try to find a computer to leave a couple of updates, but if not... I wish you all well and see you next week-ish!

On-demand hair advice

One other thing I need before I go to Denver is some hair-sprucing. The week when everyone starts telling me my hair looks great is always the week before I seriously need a haircut. That week is this one, and much to my amazement, I was able to book a hair appointment justthissecond, for an hour from now. I'm feelin' some change (unintentional Obama tie-in), so before I hop off for a snip, I'll leave you with a few of my hastily researched options.



Not too incredibly different from what I have now, aside from the color, although I've always wanted to be a hot ginge. Might take me in a punkier direction, which I never mind.



I love love love this and the one below it. The longer top keeps it feminine, and slightly flappery when it's not styled so Paul Mitchell-y. The only problem is that I do have very thick hair, and this cut can grow out strangely on me. We'll see.


So, so feminine, which to me is definitely important in a short cut. The only downside to supershort hair like this, is it's difficult to not look incredibly butch when you're at the gym, especially if it's a day you're in glasses, and a t-shirt with the sides slashed down ultra-low (my typical gym uniform. Freedom of movement, damn it!)


Um, yeah... cute... I kinda do hate that "Alfalfa" touch at the top there, though. Does anyone know of a site that has hair inspirations that are a little less Glamour Shots? I looked through a few Flickr groups and came up empty, and Mad Rad Hair had long been a lost cause...


I actually did have my hair like this at one point; it was very dark brown at the time and one of my all-time favorite looks. My style at the time though was a little more rocker boy-ish, and suiting. Not so much at present.



... and just for the lols... I was honestly shocked to find this on a website touting cutting-edge styles. Maybe they meant "Cutting Edge", as in figure skating?

Well, I'm off for now--- if any of you out there have some amazing hair inspirations to share, my self of 8 weeks from now would love to hear them!

[images via www.short-hairstyles.com]

Let's get political!

Tomorrow begins one of my busier weeks: exams, working a bunch more than usual and finding someone to watch my Catling because Friday I'm going to Denver for the Democratic National Convention! I'm so pumped!

It's going to be crazy in Denver though; when we tried to book a hotel 3 weeks ago, they were all taken so we ended up renting a house!

Here's what I hope to be sporting:



Every time I see the "Emo for Obama" pin I die laughing!

If you are into this country not imploding on itself in a squirming, steaming pile of gluttony, consumerism, oil-lust and plutocracy (redundancy be damned!), you're probably into Obama. You could be into Nader, too, but that's like wishing for a unicorn to save us all! The pins I found at Democratic Stuff are not only one red dollar apiece, but frickin' hilarious, and represent pretty much any and all interests (their roster is growing daily!).

The Toms Shoes are just the ticket, and will not leave my feet, save for floral doc breaks, throughout the fall. I just have to convince myself to pay for the expedited shipping... ugh!


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Wanted: Pudding, not meat.

I've been feeling very Pink Floyd about education lately. Choosing courses is like looking at a delicious smorgasbord and being told you can only eat foods that end in "-ato". There are so many things in this world I'd love to learn more about, and I thought that college would be the place to learn them: history, literature, creative writing, theater, music...

"Atriuum" via Wardrobe Remix. Zany, looks like she took a paintbrush to her dress, and I love that a structured jacket is paired with the super wrinkly frock and impetuous scarf.

...now that I'm six months away from ending my program with zero wiggle room for courses other than what I have to take (Dullardism 101 and the like) I'm beginning to resent not knowing much more about what I would really like to learn. I suppose that could be my fault, but really, without majoring in history or literature or creative writing, you're really not going to be able to take classes other than the most basic ones that make up your core.

Andre 3000, one of my all-time favorite dressers, whose style I classify as "Spiffunk".

I feel like most of my classes are like asking a weightlifter to stand in for a gymnast at the Olympics. Sure, he's strong, but he's not designed for that kind of activity. Nor is my mind -- and many other minds-- designed for memorizing endless lists of things I don't need and will forget anyway. I feel as though I being trained to be bourgeois. To know enough to get a job, but to be educated in a manner so hostile to intellectualism or even joy of learning so as to be of no threat to the status quo. To just be grateful you got through it and take your mid-wage earning job and all the minor, white bread pains-in-the-ass of being middle class and just be happy with it.

via the Sartorialist. Red and shiny, head to toe? This dude is making it happen.

So now what? Pay yet more for additional classes in things I'd like to learn more about? Read every book ever published? Do yoga in the desert? Sit under a tree for 40 days? I've been considering going to grad school, but wouldn't it just be more of the same? A monkey machine of lists to choke down, a bad hangover, and the same job you had before?

"Vitamininmotion" via Wardrobe Remix models dissonance, pulled together.

For your consideration, today's photos are of people whose style rejects what is proscribed by fashion squares and comes out on top.

"Stine" via Wardrobe Remix. I can't explain it, but I love this outfit for being completely teenaged in the most darling way possible.

via Facehunter. Sure I'll peg my pants, wear women's loafers, a child's sweatshirt and frost my hair. And look awesome. It's because of my ankles. They're sexy ankles.

The lovely and talented .Yokoo appears in the blog once more, modeling another one of her scarves. I love her tomboyish style with a hint of seemingly perfunctory femininity, the "art hair" that manages to be unpretentious and those glasses (!).

A couple of other opinions. Tropic Thunder had moments where I definitely laughed harder than I have at a movie in a long time, but the depictions of "Stupid Jack" and some of the Vietnamese really were squirm-inducing. Painfully so. Also, while the American team is technically very good, cain't nobody strike a pose like that Jiang Yuyuan.


[images: www.wardroberemix.com, Facehunter, the Sartorialist, www.fashiongraduatejpw.blogspot.com.]

Odds and ends

Lately, I think because I've been thinking mostly of the store when I thrift, I've been picking up things that look like others will enjoy them. I've been feeling a little burnt out on the thrift and the last couple of times I've gone, have done so with a bit of reluctance. Which, to someone who derives much of their pleasure from thrifting is deeply disturbing.

Determined to re-instate my love of the thrift, I went on a weekday and forbade myself from buying anything that was filtered through the "yeah, but would someone else pay for this?" lens.


I ended up with some gloriously comfortable, 1940s style pumps with a mini Cuban heel, some blousy culottes whose art nouveau-ish pattern you see in the foreground, a 1950s bracelet, a tartan bangle (which is as far as I will take the whole "Vivienne Westwood Again" fall trend) and possibly the sweetest album cover I've ever seen (and which reminds me of a certain Paraphernalia necklace that's been on my wishlist for ages). I can't decide whether to frame it, or turn it into a photo album cover. I also ended up with an early 1980's reversible green/white whale print on navy slicker, a pair of purple leopard zooba pants, and yet another Madras skirt...

Coolest thing at the thrift store that I didn't buy?


A gold spray-painted boombox, at home in the thrift's "cool stuff" vignette with the lava lamp. Kinda regretting this now, but alas, I have no space and no tapes.

What would you do with a functionless, gold boombox?

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Do ya read meh?

I just got done with Nevermore, a graphic novel interpretation of several Edgar Allan Poe stories, my favorite being the re-imagining of "The Tell-Tale Heart", starring a peculiarly paranoid blind girl.



It's a good summer-reading alternative to all those books about overweight girls finally finding love or a fashion journalist's drunken sexcapades. I especially recommend it to girls who spend their summers feeling not quite right.

Cardigan: thrifted. Necklace: thrifted. Dress: American Apparel. Flats: Etienne Aigner.

"It won't....stop... beating!"

P.S.--- some more creepy/pretty illustrations.

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