Archive for the ‘ fashion ’ Category

existential crises of communication.

Listening to: Modest Mouse — Perpetual Motion Machine

First, something superficial: the #1 taboo of boarding school roommates is to never match. Usually, my roommate and I — two people with completely different styles and different wardrobes — avoid this pretty well. Until yesterday when, having not seen each other until first period math, we realized, horrified that we were both wearing the exact same dress (which I was going to link to, but apparently it’s no longer on forever 21′s website), with gray sweaters and black boots. The boots and sweater part wasn’t so bad, since I wear black boots and/or a gray sweater about 75% of the time, but the situation was rather awkward, and made even more so by the fact that the two of us aren’t really close as in “matching-buddies” close. Or at all, really. Crisis (and English class, God) was averted by my roommate’s decision to get changed between classes, which was only fair because I got dressed first. But what was ironic was that we were talking about probability in class, and we’d just figured out that the probability of one person with three shirts, skirts and pairs of shoes running out of distinct outfits was almost infinitesimal.

Okay. Superficiality out. I guess I’ll have to talk about my spiffy new shoes at some later time.

Something you may or may not have inferred about me is that I have a deep love of modernist architecture, especially of the glass-walled open-spaces neighbor-irritating variety. I’d live in one of said houses if I hadn’t already decided that I’m living in a minimalist loft/studio/penthouse. So recently I’ve been thinking about architecture as my Future Plan, since I’d be able to marry art/design and science and get to Create Stuff. The only snag here is that I can only draw diagonal lines, not horizontal or vertical ones, which might not be such a problem if I’m going to be all modern and such.

Also, the dance troupe has just been alerted that our upcoming performance is going to be black box-style, which is both cool and intimidating. One of the sections of the piece we’re working on is to Yael Naim’s cover of “Toxic”, which is a really good cover of a questionable song except that it ends in pan-fluting. The dance itself is this half-burlesque half-broken doll/clown/ballerina doll clown type thing, which actually looks a lot better than whatever the hell I just described. We practiced it yesterday in tutus, except that my tutu was actually a crinoline so it was rather difficult to roll around the floor in. Today I will have to act fast and take one of the normal tutus, so I don’t spend the entire practice hiking up my skirt.

Speaking of dances, though, this coming lack-of-weekend is going to be party central around here. Friday’s our previously Winter, but postponed until Spring Formal, which is awkward because there’s still school the next day. But Saturday, there’s a GSA-hosted interschool dance somewhere else, so by Sunday I expect that my feet will be quite sore. Last year I was even more socially awkward than I am this year, and so dances of all kinds were rather uncomfortable for me (I was dragged along, nevertheless, by my dear friend the Hungarian), but I’m determined to make them better this time around.

I have so much awkward free time right now that I’m procrastinating my procrastination. I’m actually starting to resent it, it and the uncomfortable rain that hasn’t got the memo to STOP ALREADY.

hammerpants.

Listening to: Peter Gabriel — In Your Eyes

Happy spring, bloglings! I love spring. Except that I don’t have a functional umbrella and it’s raining 24/7, this season is pretty sick. Before it started raining, Blé and I got to working on our photo shoot. And it was a real Fashion Shoot this time, as evidenced by the fact that the clothes didn’t fit.

So, without further ado, authoraiINK is proud to present a selection  of “hammerpants.” Please note that the title of the shoot has little to do with the content of the following images.

it’s only the end of the world.

Listening to: Panic! At the Disco — Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks

Let me begin with a complaint: my coccyx aches. I just had my weave taken out and my hair wrangled into single braids, so now I’m blonder than ever. Firefox crashed every time I tried to upload this header photo and every time I turn on any sort of media all I hear about is news of death and destruction and even more impending doom. Maybe we set the year 0A.D. too far back and it’s already the Mayans’ 2012, and we’re all going to die (well, we are anyway, eventually, and I don’t actually believe that 2012 is Armageddon because Ragnarok should totally come on a February 31st).

On Saturday I went house shopping with my aunt and cousin and enjoyed petting other people’s cats and debating doors vs. windows as sniper targets (my cousin doesn’t want to live in a house with lots of windows, because “nobody’s ever been shot through a door;” I told her I was going to shoot her through a door just to prove her wrong). I won a silver medal for a double exposure LC-A+ print in the national Scholastic Art Awards, despite my photography teacher’s telling me not to hold my breath waiting to win anything. And I’ve planned an epic photoshoot with Blé for Friday inspired by:

but in suburbia and with cheaper clothes (obviously, since stylist/photographer anwa has a nonexistent clothes budget and all the shmancy vintage dresses she just inherited from her mother are at the cleaner’s). Have I ever mentioned that I love love love Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, possibly definitely even more than I love Annie Leibovitz (okay, definitely definitely more)? But I’m having a crisis of method in deciding whether to shoot this shoot in digital or in film, but I’m kind of leaning towards the film because then I get to use all of my better lenses AND I will take a “behind the scenes” little photo-movie with my new Flip camera to make up for the fact that it’ll take way too long to get the prints developed.

some things look better inside of the store.

Listening to: K-OS — FlyPaper

…But not these things! Sometimes it upsets me when I realize how fun I find mindless consumerism. But then I think, “Ooh, stuff!”  and stop worrying about it. I am deep.

For example, I spent the past three days trying really hard to spend three dollars on a milkshake, but the place was never open when I wanted some milky caloric goodness. Finally, thanks to a scheduling fluke (as in, how I spent most of this morning leaving really short classes), I finally got my Oreo milkshake. Now, I understand that it doesn’t seem that interesting once typed into blog post format, but, trust me, earlier this morning that milkshake was of vital importance to my existence.

But, of course, that is far from the most important thing I purchased today. No, that would be the Dec/Jan 2011 issue of Pop’Africana, which is a fashion/art/culture magazine for the African diaspora and, quite frankly, needs to come out more often. I was incredibly lucky that I found and was able to order it today, seeing as the pre-order deadline for the latest issue is midnight. Here’s a sample of work from the editor, Oroma Elewa:

Sick, no?

Also, as I’d sorta-promised earlier, an outfit. The lighting in my room was surprisingly not-ugly this morning, so I snapped a photo after breakfast:

insert here something meaningless in korean.

Listening to: Stars of Track and Field — End Of All Time

…for the record, that nail polish has since chipped off, I lost my pencil and broke the clasp on my beaded bracelet. Le sigh.

But guess who’s done with exams? Yes, that would be me. I bought a PopTart at the bookstore and snatched a banana from the dining hall, so now I’m gonna sleep until I leave tomorrow. When I get back, the middle of the three sticky notes on my desk — the one that says “Happy Christmas” in Korean — will no longer be relevant, but it will aid in confusing people along with the other two written by the same messenger, the first of which says “THANKS SO MUCH From the Asian :) ” and the second, which contains nothing more than nonsensical Korean vowels. I wish I spoke a language that didn’t use the Latin alphabet.

But I got a new pair of boots. They’re actually kind of spiffy, so I hope they’ll fit when they arrive.

I’ll admit that I was kinda inspired by the current Urban Outfitters catalog to find a pair of tough-looking boots, even if it’s unlikely that I’ll ever wear them with a sequined party dress.

 

a mammoth nonetheless.

Listening to: Florence + The Machine — Hurricane Drunk

The title is from a conversation I had earlier this evening. This post was going to be really long, but I suppose that it won’t be now.

In a comment left on my last post, the lovely Mae Lu of thereafterish. asked when I was going to do another outfit post. So here you are, daahlings: What Anwa Wore Today.

I don’t have English class on Fridays, so it wasn’t as if I could freak out my classmates by dressing in all black (here, at my School of Uber-Prep, any black clothing is a sign of OMG EMO KID IS SHE, LIKE, CUTTING HERSELF OR SOMETHING?), it was just one of those days when I felt like exploiting the fact that the majority of my wardrobe’s black and/or gray. The blazer’s from the Gap; the slouchy suede boots that you can’t see are from Naturalizer; the dress, believe it or not, is from Kmart. ‘Cuz I’m cool like that. I made the camera necklace myself with molding clay, and you can actually see through the viewfinder, which is pretty cool.

Also, yesterday, I received my very first ever fitting pair of skinny jeans in the mail from Gap. I had a picture of me wearing them, but it was awkward and such so I decided not to show you. They said that jeggings are supposed to be stretchy and whatnot, but that’s a LIE. Actually, the biggest problem I had in putting the jeans on was that my feet are so big, I have to  point my toes so that they fit through the tiny ankle hole. But having obscenely big feet is a good thing, I guess, when it comes to wearing heels; six inch heels on my feet aren’t nearly as uncomfortable as on someone who has a size 8 foot, since I can stand completely on the ball of my foot and comfortably have six inches of air space to spare.

Later, maybe I will share with you some photos and a short story or whatnot, because I’m gonna be published in my school’s art magazine for the 3rd time. But right now I have to deal with the fact that my weekend doesn’t start tonight, so that I can go to a bunch of hockey games and stuff my feet into skinny jeans tomorrow.

 

a teerific set of punny things.

Listening to: Tegan & Sara — Speak Slow

Halloooo out there! I realize that I didn’t post a Friday Foofaraw last week, and for that I apologize. I’m really bad at regularity like that.

But, anywho. With the end of soccer season came dance team tryouts, which so far have been… rigorous. And yesterday my English prof (yes, the one who heads the class where everyone thinks I’m a kidney-snatching killer) referred to sociopaths as “Anwa’s type of guys,” drawing upon me the ire of the males in my class and causing me to refer to the dictionary definition of

mor·ti·fi·ca·tion

–noun

1.

a feeling of humiliation or shame, as through some injury to one’s pride or self-respect.
But as I was collecting the shards of my self-esteem on the interwebs, I happened to stumble across Threadless, which in case you didn’t know is the most amazing website to ever offer “the best t-shirts in the world”. I spent at least an hour perusing the site before deciding to do a boarding-school and order clothes online, but it wasn’t really doing a boarding-school because 1) I didn’t order the same thing in five different colors, and it wasn’t really “trendy”, and 2) I had it shipped to Middle of Nowhere, Midwest, where I will be returning this Saturday to see Blé and such. And speaking of the Midwest, U.S of A, both of Threadless’s stores are located in Chicago, which is the Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere. This is the t-shirt that I ordered — it’s quite spiffy and I was glad that I snagged it before it went out of stock:

I was going to get the Communist Party shirt, too, but I could only order one and I’m so cool that I already have a Communist t-shirt. I’ve got to show it to you sometime — it’s my and Blé’s “how to upset border crossing” outfit.

apparently, fashion can be farm friendly, or something like that.

Listening to: Animal Collective — Guys Eyes

Well, yesterday I found the clip to my “borrowed” tripod — it was sitting on the bench out on the soccer field, in mint condition even after enduring the rain/snow/sleet these past few days. But I’ve been in the photographic doldrums lately, so there’s really nothing new from me in that regard… instead I thought I’d share a few whimsical shots from this month’s Anthropologie catalogue with you. Because nothing makes a cold and rainy November day better than a bit of whimsy.

 

 

my magazines are far more fashion-forward than your air-mail hunter boots.

Listening to: Flyleaf — Fully Alive

Don’t you love getting mail? I definitely do — it’s one of the small joys of boarding school, knowing that someone cares enough (or lets you use their credit card enough) to send you a package. Mostly girls here order Hunter boots in all colors of the rainbow, oversized J Crew sweaters, and floral dresses from Forever21; some international students buy food they can’t get Stateside; I don’t order anything, because I am broke. Which, in retrospect, kind of saddens me — there’s nowhere to shop for clothes here, and as winter nears I’ve been feeling like I need a bit of a wardrobe update. The girl you see in the photo above (who is now one of the about three people on campus who are willing to model for me, so props to her) has the most amazing clothes ever, and it always makes me think, “Well, I don’t think that I could pull off anything as flamboyant as that fur-elbowed blazer, but maybe a new plain black sweater  would be nice….”

Anyway. Back to the point, which was: mail. I was super excited today because I got a package in the mail, and inside, along with medicine and enough gum to last me until December, was the October issue of Nylon and… the 90th anniversary issue of Vogue Paris.

To say that I’m ecstatic would be a major understatement. I haven’t even touched the Vogue yet, in part because I’m saving the best for last and in part because it’s HUGE. But I know what I’m going to be doing this Sunday (other than playing the Sims for several mindless hours, of course).

In other news, I think that I might have, erm, misplaced the camera shoe of the tripod I was borrowing from the photo lab. Whoops….

a 101st post to celebrate halloween, also forgetting to celebrate the 100th post.

Listening to: Sade — Never as Good As The First Time

Happy Halloween!

I hope that your Hallo-weekend has been safe and fun and such. Mine’s certainly been busy, and fun too I suppose (even though I didn’t get to work at the haunted house with Blé this year, sigh). In fact, I’ve been so rushed that, even as I posted and edited this week’s Friday Foofaraw about four times, I completely missed that it was authoraiINK’s 100th post. So happy 101st post  now, I suppose!

Well. Yesterday was the day that everyone wore their costumes to class. I was a Man In Black/ Secret Agent/ Mafia member with my downstairs neighbor; but so few people got it that when people asked me what I was, I said, “intimidating.” I even had a gun-shaped hand-warmer (which you can see in the photo above) that, surprisingly, confused the people of my English class.

I like coming up with a “Halloween outfit” rather than buying a costume; it both gives you more options and forces you to be more creative. And even though I know that the general stereotype of female badasses is that they wear ridiculous heels (eg. Annie’s Louboutin heels in Covert Affairs, anything that Angelina Jolie has worn in any action movie ever), I thought that Converses were both more practical and more appropriate.

At night, for the dance, I dressed as an acid trip. I wore my knee-high Converse boots, bright red tights that I borrowed from my roommate, huge electric-blue heart earrings and an incredibly trippy dress of indescribable patterning. In the hectic rush of our little preparation party, I didn’t get a photo of the outfit, but one of my friends was kind enough to take a picture of the eye makeup for me.

I apologize for the awkward flash-employed photo — I was so  proud of my handiwork in person that I wasn’t that worried about how it looked on (fake) film. The eyeliner, which you can’t really see in this shot, was lime-green Revlon cream eyeshadow. The bluish shades of eyeshadow were from the same set, and the pink and purple were from a L’Oréal HIP color duo. The mascara is Maybelline  Lash Stiletto.

Anyway, I hope that you have an awesome/scary/whatever-you-want-it-to be Halloween! I got all of my partying done yesterday — the rest of my day, I’m afraid, is destined to be spent in front of my computer screen.

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