Browsing Tag

fashion

Fashion/Design

When Alternative Apparel Has a Sale, I’m Happy

One of my all-time favorite clothing brands is Alternative Apparel. Not only is the clothing line stylish and comfy, but socially conscious too (no forced labor, fair compensation, safe working conditions and they follow all environmental laws).

Some of my favorite articles of clothing have come from there. This is their Slummy Tee Dress:

Right now Alternative Apparel is having an additional 30% off their sale items (use the code: Spring). This is kind of awesome since their t-shirts alone range from $30-60, with many items being close to $100.

I bought the Annie Henley in White and Dawson Skirt in Black for $49 total including shipping (original price would have been $126).

Dawson Skirt

They have a lot of other great items on sale, but I was trying to control myself. Here are my must check out styles:

Looking Glass Maxi Dress, $98, now $41.99

Cara Dress, $78, now $24.49

Willow Sweater $58, now $20.99

April 3, 2012 by
Fashion/Design, Hipstercrite Life

85 Year-Old Fashion

My grandmother is the most fashionable lady I know. To this day, through all the aches and pains, she still makes sure to be completely polished and presentable. She owned a woman’s clothing store for 35 years so she is no stranger to women’s fashion. Her closet and basement is filled with wonderful articles from the past the six decades. Her house is equally stylized, almost museum-like. While I was home I took the liberty to shoot some photos of her home and of her. She will be 85 years old at the end of November. She speaks about how she is disgusted with herself: how she could let her body get old? She feels ugly. I wish I could make her not feel this way. How can she not see how beautiful she is? If only we could all look this good at 85. As for her secret? This woman eats like a bird, worries so much she barely sleeps and smoked for many years. She uses cold cream to remove her foundation and Vaseline to remove her eye make-up. I’m guessing it’s just good Eastern European genes.

November 7, 2011 by
Fashion/Design

Fashion: Too Damn Hot to Wear Suits

I truly hate this time of year in Austin. My sense of fashion flies out the window. Hats, scarves, cardigans- everything I love I can not wear unless I want to melt like this playground here:

source

I’m from the North so my idea of fashion involves layers. I like sleek, tailored and imaginative. Actually, I really just like wearing suits. Full-on dude’s suits. Been wearing them since I was a little girl. Probably the first time I realized I loved wearing suits was the day I dressed as Rod Serling for no reason. It felt so good to put on a jacket and tie and impersonate my writing hero. Serling always looked so cool and collected up on the TV screen and that’s how I wanted to look.

This sounds like the beginning of a Born This Way blog post, the day I realized when I was a boy trapped in a girl’s body, but alas, it’s not that interesting. I just really like suits. Love them. Love the way they look on me and other women. I don’t just fancy suits either- ties, bowties (more…)

August 16, 2011 by
Fashion/Design

How To Stay Stylish in Clothing Melting Heat

While cataclysm of Waterworld-esque proportions keeps happening in other parts of the country, here in Austin, Texas we’ve been as bone dry as two teenagers humping after marching band practice. It’s also been a cool 104 degrees with a steady 90% humidity AT ALL TIMES. These two facts combined together make day-to-day living extremely difficult. Being from New York, my body can’t handle such zenith. Our bodies are predestined to be weak, capable of only handling such weather-related hardship as translucent skin and Eddie Bauer fashion. When my native New Yorker father visited me in Austin this weekend and ran across the molten blacktop barefooted, I saw his feet explode into an awesome ray of light while native Texans idly strolled by. I’m convinced that Texans are part of their own tribe, capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and skinning squirrels with their eyesight.

I am three years into living in Texas and I’m still sufficiently stunned when the summer approaches. I cry (more…)

June 23, 2011 by
Fashion/Design

The Rise and Fall of American Apparel

I have a secret to tell you.
I worked off and on at American Apparel for three years.

It’s true.
I was one of them.

I often felt this fact was a tiny mar on my resume and should be excluded from the story of my life. For a long time I simply didn’t tell anyone that I worked for the company. I was kind of embarrassed. I knew what many people thought of the company, but more importantly I knew what people thought that we, the employees, thought about ourselves. Which is that we are all stuck-up, pretentious hipsters who would rather stare at the ceiling and flash side-boob instead of smile at a customer. I mean, I think of ourselves that way sometimes. Having visited a number of American Apparels I can tell you that in some cases that statement is accurate. The company is not known for their customer service training. In fact, there is zero customer training other than looking “hip”. However, if the company is lucky enough to hire employees that already understand that greeting (more…)

May 16, 2011 by