ack!

soooo olsen.

sweet.

"jofurlong."

new hair; funny face.

happy thanksgiving, buddies.

worn out at threadbanger...

click for threadbanger and my worn out: street style picks!

the found shop.

as a visual merchandiser i consider myself pretty OCD when it comes to noticing how things are arranged (or aren't), especially when it comes to environments that exist outside the store i work in approximately one billion hours per week. my recent leanings towards all things  home (thanks, the selby, for taking over my LIFE) has pushed these tendencies into overdrive.

saturday night we were invited to a dinner party at a deardeardear friend's home in columbia heights. DC is a city of group houses, all of which see a constantly rotating cast of roommates - all of whom leave any number of things behind when they move out. this leads to a variety of STUFF, which, if you're lucky, will lend itself to a day of rainy-day exploring in the basement or shed or attic. if you're REALLY lucky then the mishmash of left behind objects will settle in and take shape around you in the form of the above - which, as i'm sure you can imagine, is only about one one-hundredth of the strange/neat/amazing little vignettes that abounded.

my entire life i've been the kind of person who asks to see your room or go through your stuff when i come over to your house; now i realize that it's far worse than that: i have turned out to be the kind of person who not only asks to go through your stuff but to photograph it as well. it was only a matter of time.

if you wanna shine them on it's hasta la vista, baby.

while i should probably post a picture of myself here (instead of this magical, magical equation), i just can't bring myself to take a picture in the mirror, friendster 2k2 style. even though i really want to.

i woke up saturday morning to an epiphany: my hair, which i've been growing out for the last THREE YEARS, would never achieve its aspirational goals. the longer it got the less i was doing with it, and try as i might, no amount of wishing was going to get me THIS. having a sister who is a stylist means that major hair decisions can be put into effect with lightning speed; she had an opening and by 1PM that afternoon she had fulfilled my request for a haircut that was equal parts johanna from stylista/asjine and eddie furlong in T2. i totally have a new lease on life. 

120 minutes (x2).

i wrote my BYT post this week on 90s style inspirations in preparation for 240 minutes - my friends kenny and phil's 90s alternative dance night. having been born in 1981 and then spending my formative years staring at MTV and loyally attending HFStivals, it was basically as if i'd been preparing for friday night at sticky rice MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE . here are just a FEW of the bands they played, all of which eventually led to dancing on top of booths and full-bar-singalongs:
no doubt
nirvana
hole
hum
toad the wet sprocket
tripping daisy
the offspring
and green day.
it was 4 hours of complete, total, eighth grade-style satisfaction, and richmond is lucky to have kenneth and phil residing there full time. here's hoping they bring 240 minutes northward more often...

norwegian wood.

the cold weather seems more permanent now than it did a few weeks ago, and it's definitely inspired some closet-digging - and some style adjustments. the british, rock & roll vibe i've been going for seems slowly to be ticking more towards "the beatles go to india," and i'm blaming both my current obsession with worn indian rugs and this portait, which i photographed at the beginning of last month. some wardrobe-mining made for the above collage of key pieces (look, try not to be TOO blown away/don't act like you're not impressed by my highly mediocre photoshop skillz); i'm planning on skewing this concept a bit casual, so don't let the sparkle and the heels fool you - some knees-blown-out-skinny denim, tees, and busted up flats will be making their way into the mix, for sure.

clockwise from upper left: i got this richard chai-for-target top after the collection was marked down and i've yet to wear it - but i'm still a little obsessed with orange; this military pin belongs to my friend kathryn, and now i will most likely have to give it back; equal parts john, george, paul, ringo, and maharishi - i thrifted this jacket for $4; my new target watch; an insanely-marked-down anthropologie dress; both pairs nine west; my parents bought me this coat from the remix for my 20th birthday; pants from h&m - the khaki i really didn't wear ENOUGH this summer, and the black pair are ever-so-slightly dropcrotch (and i'm not ashamed); f21 jewels; and an ELEGANTLY/AWESOMELY sequinned thrift store jacket.

gigantic love.

after having google-image searched elizabeth taylor for my BYT post this week (eye roll: on owning your own style - written in response to this crazy list of craziness about how women should avoid wearing "trendy clothes" in order to - ready? - "GET PLAY." but anyways.), it seemed fateful that last night giant was on PBS. i didn't watch the whole thing (mainly because it's 3 1/2 HOURS LONG), but what i did see of it was gorgeous - not least of all taylor. the film follows one generation of a texas cattle family (including all the accompanying social/economic/racial strife one can imagine), with rock hudson and elizabeth taylor at the center of the story; james dean also stars (for the last time) as cowboy-turned-oil tycoon jett rink. 

after spending some time looking at photos of the filming of the movie i can honestly say that i'm starting to understand the obsession over both dean and taylor. it's probably really easy to romanticize photos like the above when we're living in the age of THIS, but basically their INHERENT GLAMOUR knocked me out and i think i need to go find a highball glass and set my hair in rollers like now.     

hello, hello craft! at threadbanger...

head to threadbanger for hello, hello craft; after that, of course, you should click over to hellocraft.com to meet the newest member of DC's handmade community. we're lucky to have them!  

worn out at threadbanger...

click for threadbanger and this week's worn out!

kooky.

i love them so much that it's kind of killing me.

BITE IT at BYT...

i'm a legionnaire.

i'm so unbelievably stoked on my brand new rapscallion by samantha pleet cape/dress combo. accordingly, i'm keeping good thoughts out for ACTUAL, REAL-LIFE fall weather this weekend...

OMFG INDEED.

today WWD announced that alexander mcqueen will design an upcoming "designer initiative" collection - based on his McQ line - for target...

"The collection will have rock 'n' roll influences and edgy details such as studs and tattoo-print fabrics. Designer Initiative is a separate program from Target's Go International, which focuses on young or emerging designers. Target said additional Designer Collaborations will be announced in the future. Each collection will be available in stores for a limited time." (via the cut).

...we're all just going to have to trust (with fingers crossed, and while wearing thakoon-for-GO.international, obviously) that the entire line is less about "edgy details" and more about the above, because "tattoo print fabrics" sounds like a certain brand of hot topic-scary that i just cannot get down with.

cry baby berry johnson.

last week i had the PLEASURE of interviewing nilay lawson for BYT; her solo show, if you didn't know what this was, would you know what this is? opened saturday evening at transformer to a packed little house. the show is gorgeous and fun and full of surprises, the neatest of which was looking down and realizing that nilay had literally installed her very own handpainted floor into the gallery. amazing. the show runs through december 6 so hightail it over there sometime this month to check it out - just keep your hands off of cry baby berry johnson, because it's totally mine. yes, i bought art. i am an ADULT.
the party at transformer was friend-filled to the max and such a blast, and after the show we met up with EVEN MORE FRIENDS and headed to black cat to watch drink up buttercup. i missed them last month when they played with my friends new rock church of fire and i'm so glad to have caught them this time - they sound like a really happy man man, and i was stoked.
after leaving black cat we headed to 7th & rhode island to meet up with nilay for post-opening celebrations, which happened to be at quite literally the biggest apartment i have ever been in in my life. ben and i agreed that the whole experience was just completely surreal - the hallways were like mazes leading inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs; the ceilings in some of the rooms were at least 20 feet high and there was a balcony inside the bedroom that overlooked the main floor of the party, which was completely full of what seemed like hundreds of people in their halloween costumes. AND there was a candlelit shrine to elvis. it felt like a funhouse. luckily i had a pair of flats in my bag, because the rest of the night was spent running around that crazy apartment and dancing to hits from the 70s. it completely made up for having fallen asleep before midnight (while watching urban legend 2: final cut, NO LESS) on halloween proper.
basically, saturday was the best day/night ever, and i'm not even including the wildly successful target trip i took earlier in the day (where i scored the dress i wore that night) OR my residual glow from the excellent luck i had thrifting the previous afternoon...more on that later...