DIY gone awry!

When I was in elementary school, I read a lot of books in lieu of having friends. (Awww.....) But since I learned all my new vocabulary from books, I didn't get a chance to hear these new words out loud until years later, so I spent my formative years thinking the word "awry" was pronounced "aw'-ree." I felt so embarrassed until my piano teacher in college (who had taught my mom in college) told me a story about how she mispronounced "archipelago" at a dinner party and was so embarrassed. See, we all do it!

You know what else we all do? Botch up DIYs! Luckily this one still had good results!

HOW (not) TO DIP-DYE/BLEACH A DENIM SKIRT

1. Find a skirt! Mine was on super sale at J.Crew and is a happy bright neon pink. Get it in store, $60 is too much!

Step I skipped: Make sure it's 100% cotton! The skirt below is about 87% cotton and the rest is rayon and spandex, making for a very comfy skirt that WILL NOT bleach the way you think it will.

overpriced J.Crew skirt

2. Get out your $2 off-brand bleach!

ultra!!! TO THE MAX!

3. Pour some into a bowl, dye pot, or pot that you don't plan to use for cooking again. Mix in some water. I went with a half/half ratio to start with because I wasn't sure how fast the bleach would work. You can start there and add more bleach if you think you need it.

4. Put your hand up on your hip, and do the dip!

When I dip, you dip, we dip.

Things may not start to happen right away! Depending on the type of fabric, the type of dye, and your bleach mixture, you may want to dip it, get it pretty saturated, and then hang it up or let it sit there in the bleach for a bit. I've bleached items that needed five minutes and some that needed at least 30. Keep an eye on it, and remember that after you machine wash, your item will be a shade lighter than what you're seeing.

5. Let it lie in wait.

6. Wear it, wrinkle it, walk by a bodega, and squint your eyes up!

Dear New York, please stop raining.

7. Go to Muji for room shoes.

I need those.

As you can see, the bleach made my skirt darker and more purple/fuschia than neon pink. Not what I had planned, but still really cute!

I saw a cotton denim men's shirt in Uniqlo on sale, so this DIY may have a part two in the near future! Are you going to try it?

Jcrew Spring 2012

I'm kind of late with this post, but Jcrew had that special access pass awhile ago to pre-order their new spring stuff. Here are their style predictions for spring:

1. Sweaty pits
 


I adore the middle and right-side shorts and bags. But I don't quite get why the models are wearing shorts and open-toe pumps with three layers minimum on top! I can't imagine having the volume of a tank, shirt, sweater, then jacket on top when my legs are totally bare. The Sartorialist just posted something about this very issue, although he favors the imbalance in the name of fashion, and feels it's still practical since our lives usually involve a variety of environments and temperatures during a day. That's true, but personally I like a slightly more even temperature from head to toe.  Moving on to...

2. The Half Tuck



I am all for the half tuck, and have been rocking it for quite awhile! The difference with these shots is partly in the pretty pastels and partly in the sheer volume of the shirt that's being halfly tucked. Also, I generally find that for me, it doesn't work with high-waisted things like the two skirts, because I feel like it draws too much attention to my frontal crotchal region. Next up...

3. Big Pants

 

I love shots like these, but they also depress the shit out of me. I am a grown-ass woman with a grown-ass woman's ass, and my pants do not look like this when I wear them. Flowy pants just don't work for me. The pants on the right don't even look like the right size for the model! I also think that only the thinnest of women can wear the middle look, big pants AND big shirt, and not look like a short, squat tent.

Speaking of squat, please, please click on this link to Simon Doonan's story, the Fear of Squat, at The Moth. It's an amazing tale of love, betrayal, guilt, and jazzercise. Which leads us to....

4. Mumsy


 

How much skirt is too much? It's the eternal question. If you go too far, sometimes even sparkles can't bring you back. The paisley skirt looks like it's a snake eating its prey. And the middle look is like some sort of cross between a doctor's coat and a kaftan.

What do you think? Will you draw any inspiration from these looks?

I don't want to grow up...

I picked up the new Jcrew catalog this weekend, and I only want to wear the kids' clothes!



Pretty color schemes, comfy-looking clothes! I think I can knit the sweater dress.



I hope my future daughter is this cute. In the meantime, I really want to wear casual sequins and star-print dresses. You can't see it in the pic, but she's wearing the outfit with desert boots (which I have, naturally)!



Once again, future baby and style icon. I've been wanting that overnight duffle bag for awhile (monogrammed, of course).



The outfit on the left is the only women's version I was really into, and I love that there's a child's version that's almost the same except for the colors. I'll do a combo of the two with my navy coat and some neon arm warmers!

Mining the sale

God I hate it when shopping sites/magazines use the phrase "mining the sale." Yet that's what I'm doing.

Here's a few things I like in the current Jcrew sale:



I think if I got this sweater, I'd spring for the $10 monogramming.



Is it a boot? Is it a pump? I don't care, I still love it.



A trench cape is my dream, but in the meantime I suppose I could make do with this trench vest.



I love oxford shirts as much as I like subtle novelty detailing. /total lack of sarcasm

Jcrew Fall 2011

Can you guess the song for each lyric/caption?

THE HITS



Ever since I watched that one episode of Gossip Girl, I've been obsessed with brightly colored bottoms, especially the pink shorts Blair wears at W Magazine.



I love the combination of blues/greens in the first pic. The cobalt necklace with the light/sky blue sweater and the dark, muted teal trench. I also love the rich camel with the light blue in the second pic, although I'm wondering how good the outfit will look when the coat's off and you're left with the blue/gray chambray and the bright/light blue pants.



Fuschia looks good with anything! As if I had to say it. And I love the robin's egg blue pumps with the orange outfit!



The ladylike rock and roll details on these sort of push them over the edge! Leather sleeves on a sweater is something I've been wanting to knit/sew for awhile. I'm not sure about those stripey leggings though. What happens when you take off the smock?



I love the 70s career girl/news reporter look! I'm actually already knitting something like that gray sweater.

THE MISSES



Especially if the britches are as big and ill-fitting as these are. Pairing heels with oversized cargo pants doesn't necessarily make them chic! The color combo on the right is gorgeous, and it's ruined by the diaper the model looks like she's wearing under those awful high-waisted, pleated, tapered pants.



This poor girl on the right never gets to look good! If models look like this in these outfits, what are we normal people going to look like? Our first-grade teachers, that's who. Hi Mrs. Kinley (my favorite elementary school teacher)! Or I guess more specifically, we're going to look like that other fifth-grade teacher we were so relieved we never had because we heard she was so mean and then one day she had gastric bypass surgery and she went from whale size to tee-niny, but with all these folds of skin everywhere. Hi! I won't say her name because that's mean.

See the rest here!

Spring is coming...

Which means it's time to SHOP. Did you know that Leifsdottir makes shoes?

1. OOH, PRETTY



This isn't my favorite colorway of this shoe but the shot is gorgeous! Wildflowers! Clear plastic box! I can see them growing from the dirt, taking nutrients from the icky crappy stuff around and creating something beautiful. So inspirational, haha.



This shot I'm not so sure about. The whole series began with this one and was sort of dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, dusk, night. This one is dawn so I guess that's sort of a mist or something covering part of the moss, but it seems more swampy than romantic to me. Anyway I still love the shoe.

More to love:



Ilona heels. This is the colorway I love of the first shoe. It's so spring! I love black and white (with pops of color) for my clothes, but for some reason I really dislike most black and white shoes. I'm always in search of the perfect neutral heels though. I'm not sure why, since I almost never wear heels, but it's a quest of mine. In my dreams, I find the perfect ones and wear them every day, in a total change of look and lifestyle.



Lotta flats. I actually just bought a very similar shoe on sale for $25 at my local Naturalizer. Can I just say they have the absolute worst inventory system ever?

2. UM, EW



I actually do kind of like this shoe in theory, but in practice I'm not sure how it would work. I have a hard enough time walking around in flats and not tripping; do we really need to take away the part of the heel that supports me? Also, I love feathers, beads, snakeskin and cage shoes, but I'm not sure how much I love them together. They'd be amazing with just the right outfit, but I don't know if I own anything other than plain black that I could wear these with. Will they go with today's nautical Parisian look? Actually... maybe. Ok I love them, I take it back.

Next, Jcrew Spring 2011.

1. OOH, PRETTY



Love the monochrome tidily messy bagginess. Don't love the way her feet disappear.



I might knit this sweater! (I might already be knitting this sweater. I have a lot of unfinished ones on the needles.)



I am so going to experiment with stitch patterns so I can knit this! Also love the Uniqlo version.



Again, loving the monochrome and the way it goes from light to dark, top to bottom. Also, I've decided that shorts are going to be my new thing, year-round.



I LOVE these shorts. Or I did, until I saw somewhere else that they're Jcrew Collection and made of a very beautiful silk and are $400. The sweater I love too, but I think I can just get one and then put in the studs by myself.



Again with the monochrome! Love it! Not so much the shoes, but I love the neatly sloppy look of a sweatshirt over a button up (or button down, depending on what region you grew up in).

2. UM, EW.



I do not know what happened here. Suddenly monochrome seems like the worst idea ever, second only to the time I thought, "Sure, I can do a cartwheel." If you want to make sporty look cute, you should put a baseball cap on a girl with hair, and without strong sporty shoulders. I think this girl would look way better in something more feminine, whether strong or flirty. And I know socks with heels are the thing, but socks with expensive sandals is still socks with sandals.



I feel like I'm looking at an optical illusion where this girl's torso and arms have been made 20% bigger and her legs are still the same. How did they manage to make them look so short? Aren't those heels? Don't they know that the rule of the black ankle boot/bootie with the pale untight-ed leg is to show more leg, not less? (or way less, like a couple inches of ankle, tops)

More cute spring stuff coming up!