Young Pop Things

It's somewhat rare to come across a person to consider a style icon, especially one with whom your style is shared. It's obvious why I love Lykke Li: her drapey and witchy black clothes, tiny shorts, sparkly shit, necklaces with a bunch of junk hanging off of them, black nail polish, and messy, center-parted hair that is, in some pictures, a similar color to mine. The first time I saw her, I was flipping through channels and saw a Stevie Nicks-ish figure playing live on some late show. I stopped, and I was hooked. While she doesn't have those raw edges I seek from music, her songs do make me dance, and when we watched her at Coachella, she certainly entertained. (On a personal note, the first picture was taken by an old Portland friend of mine, Chloe Richard. Isn't it always nice to see the work of your friends when you least expect it?)

Last Nite I Met A Costume

This past weekend Rae and I went to Coachella and had a great time. Today a friend tipped me off to Style.com's Coachella Street Style coverage and what do you know, the woman who snapped our pictures and asked for some info was working for them! 

She got my name wrong (we're not both named Rachel) but whatever! (That's Rachel in white and me in black, fyi.)

Graveyard Girl

In case you didn't already know by now, I love black. I also love metallics, really high heels, and fur. I can never get enough structure, draping, or glamour. My favorite thing to wear is something that turns heads and makes eyes pop. 

(Those who know me will probably roll their eyes, because I usually wear jeans, but while I am not too concerned with what is apropos, it is more of an obstacle than anything else to show up at the playground with a freakishly energetic two-year-old wearing a skirt up to here and shoes with two-inch platforms. Not that I haven't, but the safety I must surrender accompanied by the strange looks I get from the stroller brigade tipped the scales in favor of less "statement-making" outfits during my working hours.)

Actual usefulness aside, garments with these qualities send me into a tizzy. Lanvin's Pre-Fall 2009 collection practically sent me into cardiac arrest. It. Is. Gorgeous. It is the collection for the ages for me. These are clothes I want to wear now, and the way I want to dress when I'm old and my children are grown and I'm a crazy cat lady like Edith Ewing Bouvier. 

Black Is Black

I hate that feeling of being totally out of the loop, and that's how I feel now that I've discovered this gorgeous Burberry Knight bag. Huge, black leather, extraneous straps, and most importantly, studs. A girl in my French class last night was carrying the best bag ever, and when I asked her who made it, her answer hardly surprised me. 

Rachel and I have been looking for good new bags, and thought we had done a decent job of it... Not so. I'm pretty certain everyone but me already knows about this bag. Whatevs. It's fucking fantastic. I now have my next project... all I need is some leather dye and a big bag of studs.... Who knew punk would become priss (and not completely suck)?

The Kids Want A Little Action

Say WHAAAAAAAAAT???? Alexander McQueen for TARGET!? Ohhh, sweet baby Jesus I am so ready. Thakoon's line for Target was terrifically boring, and before that, my favorite mass retailer went through a design dry spell for months. This is probably the best collaboration possible to win back our fashion-addicted, bargain-hungry hearts.

The line, entitled McQ (which, for some reason, I read as M-C-Q, hence the MC5 reference in the title), explodes into stores, then out of stores and into my closet, this March. That's perfect, seeing as how Rachel and I will be scraping around for dough after our respective trips to New York and San Francisco next month... 

The line features shirts, dresses, circle skirts, jeans, shorts, bathing suits, jackets, and vests, all designed with that "rebellious, nostalgic flare." McQueen took inspiration from his muse, Leila Moss, and her band the Duke Spirit, whose distorted blues sound brings to mind a gritty road trip to nowhere with the wind whipping through your hair and few places to bathe. McQ's sensibility is a little punk, a little fem, and a LOT of McQueen. The devil is in the details, like in the sleeveless button up with bondage-y straps, or the one-shoulder dress with criss-crossed draping and a wide black sash holding it all in. The palate of grey, charcoal, and black stays true to McQueen's typical downtown aesthetic, with bursts of color in shades of electric blue and hot pink.

That grey motorcycle jacket with double lapels is going to be mine this spring... so, in the immortal words of the MC5, you better get out of the way. 

Wish List

Vena Cava continues to blow us away with beautiful, inventive pieces. Rachel bought a gorgeous V.C. dress yesterday (we'll post our recent acquisitions soon!) and I am dying for this: 

Beautiful. Silk, Limited Edition, printed with a hot lady's nude form... what more could you want from a dress? At $211 on sale, I'm wondering why it's not in my closet.... Oh yeah, rent.

Rodarte's SS 09 show didn't break my "I like it, but not that much" streak, however they did feature some pretty awesome clothes.



While I'm not in the market for an ethereal gown, like the gorgeously artistic one shown above, I am on the look-out for a good leather jacket. I have one that's okay, but I need a motorcycle cut. I love that Rodarte's interpretation of the classic style has a vertical zipper instead of a diagonal one, but keeps the wide collar. I would most certainly pair that jacket with the Vena Cava dress, black tights, and these shoes:
The straps on these Dolce Vita Chastity heels compliment the S&M look perfectly (after all, the Vena Cava dress was created for OAK's "Bondage" event), and what's more conceptually synonymous with sexual domination than leather? The perfect place to wear this digital dream outfit would be a leather bar... Wolf's, why did you have to close???

Overly Tired; All Black

I've been awake too long to think of a subject for this post, so consider this a spazz sess.


Anzevino and Florence have done it again with this gargantuan silk cardigan that comes down to your knees. But you're not a model so your legs aren't about 12 inches longer than everyone else's, which means this cardigan comes down to your ankles. (Hobbit.) You know, this reminds me of the shirt/dress thing I concocted from three old black t-shirts... Cassie, your boyfriend made fun of me and asked if a fat man had been hula-hooping in my shirt; what that means I am still trying to figure out... And I didn't buy it for $268, I made it, so it was free.... But I digress.

This Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair dress also reminds me of the aforementioned hula-hooping shirt a bit... What's fun about this thing is that wearing it is like you raided the closet of a really tall guy with elephantitis on half his body... meaning half fits like a normal shirt, just really long, and the other half is incredibly oversized. It looks good the way the model is holding it, but if she let it go, it'd be down to her knees and I'm not sure how into that part I am. 

These Manolos are pretty fun. They are similar to the Burberry Prorsum heels from Spring 08 RTW that Rachel and I spent literally hours searching for on the internet. No decent pictures are available, so you'll just have to grab your glasses, go here and squint at the models' ankles. (I am so obsessed with those shoes that I am on the verge of buying some lower-platformed stripper heels, taking them to a cobbler, and instructing them to make me my own pair. Anyone know of a shoe-making class in Southern California?) This ankle cuff trend is reminiscent of electronic monitoring anklets. See Rachel's Bonne Annee post? Those shoes are very House Arrest.

Costume International

I have always been a huge fan of anything over the top. Blame it on the ballet, maybe, but for whatever reason, sequins, lame, studs, and fringe have made my heart beat a little faster. Honestly, the hooker shoe trend had me jumping up and down and searching obsessively for the highest platform this side of El Cajon Blvd (San Diego's working girl playground, for the out-of-towners). Two inches is as high as I got, but I haven't given up. 

Fringe Benefits

Several designers are showcasing fringey looks for SS09, and I couldn't be happier. I've been so inspired by this trend that I've already done my own ombre fringe dress (pictures to come soon!) and I have plans for several other fringed pieces.

Eden dress, BonaDrag.com; White dress, Jil Sander SS09; Fringe blouse, Centimetre, PixieMarket.com

Hey There, Stud....

We were all teenage punks, right? My love of studs and spikes has stuck around and here I am, dying for Burberry Prorsum and Rodarte.

Cut It Out

I was getting kind of sick of all the cut out booties coming out, but there are a few which are truly beautiful. More and more labels are coming out with cut out clothing, something that makes me think of the big booty hoes in 2 Live Crew videos (Have you seen them? They dance around in parking lots wearing bike shorts with huge holes down the front and back!). A few choice pieces, however, have changed my immediate association with the phrase, "cut-out".

Photo from PixieMarket.com; Dolce Vita Cher bootie; Versace SS09 Heart Dress

Cloaked Out

Fall has officially arrived. While our fair city of San Diego doesn't see the changing of the seasons the same way other climates do, it does get chilly, and I find it comforting to wrap myself up in capes, scarves, and coats when the weather turns cold. With Lindsey Thornburg's appropriately named line, I can now add Cloaks to that list.



Thornburg hails from Aspen, studied philosophy in Santa Barbara, and moved to New York City in 2003. For her latest collection, she traveled to Peru and derived inspiration for her cloaks from the inhabitants of the Machu Picchu region. Her designs are available in several patterns of wool, all lined with silk, for the most luxurious wear. She presents in this line three lengths of cloak, from Mini to Full Length, a dress, a satchel (not out yet), and even a Druid Hood. These pieces are truly beautiful and beg to be loved. Cloaks, I hear your cry.