A few months later...

A few months later, and here I am, reading over my last entry. Unfortunately I'm not that great at keeping resolutions and my idea to blog every week about my experience in school didn't go over too well. I'm actually really bummed about it, but the semester turned out to be so busy that the only free time that I had was usually spent on sleeping or trying to maintain a semblance of a relationship with hubby and our friends (I think they still remember my name...I hope). And in the time that I was not writing, I was super busy keeping up with homework and acquiring new skills! And yes, I still love, love, love my hw, there was just a lot, lot, lot of it!

Since I spend so much time working, I decided to post some of my work here on this blog, especially my final projects. I really like how they came out and I'm very proud of myself for all the work that went in them, and the results that came out! I'm still in the process of making all the files blog-friendly (converting the files from PSD to JPEG), so in the meanwhile, here are some pics that my husband took of my final Drawing and Color Theory projects, and of me working :)

Drawing, inspired by Ballet Russes Romeo & Juliet sets, created by Max Ernst and Joan Miro:
Color Theory, inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's Series I paintings and the color orange:
Me at work :)

So here it is, a glimpse into what I have accomplished this semester. More to come soon :)

week 1

So. I survived the first week. It wasn't too bad actually. I took 8 classes, spent the week running around trying to get supplies, started on a tremendous pile of homework that I think will only keep on growing as the semester goes on, and I keep getting more and more excited every day. I LOVE my homework! How crazy does that sound?! Have you ever heard anybody saying that? That they actually love their homework? Well, here it is, the first time ever - I love my homework, I really do. But let me explain why - I am learning about colors, how we perceive them and the meanings that colors hold for us. I am learning how to draw fashion figures, how to start mood boards and swatch collections that will later serve to inspire my designs. I am designing and drawing my own logo (awesome!), I am learning how to sew, and am analyzing designers, their lines and stores. Did I mention that this is AWESOME! And I have to say, and this will sound cheesy, but I feel like the creative side of me is starting to come out again. Playing with pencils and markers and colors for a week without sitting at a computer unless you want to will kind of do it to anyone I think, but it's pretty exciting, and I'm psyched to see it happening.

I think that's all I have to say so far. Maybe I'll post later, but for now, I think I'm going to go study!!

It's been a while...

It's been a long, long time since my last post, over two years in fact. I didn't mean to stay away for so long, but one thing led to another, and two long years of internet silence resulted. Many things happened. I traveled to Serbia, Montenegro, UK, Morocco, Amsterdam, Jamaica, Florida, California and Nevada. I moved twice, shopped way too much, and wore some amazing outfits. I continued working and then decided that I had enough of it. Most importantly, I got engaged and got married. That was and still is an amazing time, and maybe I'll talk about it some more another time. But right now, I want to talk about my job, deciding that I am not happy with it, and doing something about it!

Sounds pretty boring, right, blogging about work? But it explains how I got to where I am now. I was unhappy, unsatisfied and quite honestly downright miserable. And after many attempts to change my situation while staying in the same career, without any positive results, I decided to change everything. I applied to the AAS program in Fashion Studies at Parsons. And I was accepted.

And now here it is,schooltime. After months and days and hours of waiting and waiting and eagerly counting down the moments until classes would start, here it is, that amazing wonderful moment when the process towards everything I have wanted and dreamed of will begin. I will now not only be eating, living, breathing and talking about fashion, I will also be making it, hopefully. Pretty cool, huh?

So what's the point of yet another long rant on seemingly nothing relevant? Well, I decided that I want to blog about my experience at Parsons, and share with you, the world, everything that I will experience and go through during my time there. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this and post at least once a week.

Wish me luck!

Two parties, two outfits, and nothing to wear

So here's what happened. Last Tuesday I had two completely different parties to go to. First was a cocktail party at Henri Bendel, second, a b-day party at tenjune. With no time to come home and change in between, I had to choose an outfit that would work for both. The two options were either a baby-doll cut little black dress with black tight and gray patent leather and suede T-strap shoes, or, black jeans with a black tank and a long gold sequined top with patent leather booties (hot gold sequined top, not trashy looking, shiny gold sequined top). I chose the little black dress.

The problem started when at the cocktail party, at least ten other girls were wearing the exact same outfit - with various styles of black dresses. Call it classy, call it lack of originality or call it nothing else to wear, but I was seriously regretting my wardrobe decision that evening, and it was only 9:30pm. Fast forward to the club, what do we see as soon as we settled down at our table? Not one, not two, but four girls dressed in tight jeans and sequined tops. And a half an hour later another girl showed up in the exact same outfit. Talk about being happy about what I was not wearing! It's one thing to be in a little black dress at a cocktail party, but being in the same outfit as five other girls at a small and still trendy club! It hurts to even think about it! (For the record, all of their tops were tacky with shiny sequins.)

Bottom line is that I was going to whine and rant about how there's no more originality left in fashion and how everything is exactly the same and everyone dresses exactly alike (I still love you H&M). But no! I refuse to believe that. I'll just have to work harder next time and put more thought into what I wear. Because feeling tired and lazy when getting dressed is just no excuse for looking average. And so what if the outfit is just a little bit forced. At least you'll be the only one in the room wearing that gold taffeta skirt, blue polka dot top and pink shoes (sometime originality and creativity closely border tackiness and what-the-hell-was-she-thinking, but that's a whole different blog).

Hey this almost works:





top from target.com, skirt from jcrew.com, shoes bcbg from zappos.com

France 2

I'm back in New York! France was amazing! Beautiful, charming, stylish and so so very tasty, it was everything I expected it to be and more! And as for the fashion, it was every where! On people of all ages, in large towns, the tiniest little villages, kids, and sometimes even dogs!There were so many adorable boutiques that I seriously think I almost got whiplash from staring at all the window displays for too long. I loved that girls did not wear sneakers unless they were actually exercising. Guys didn't wear sneakers too often either. Everyone looked comfortable but dressed to impress at the same time - cute jeans, flats, a nice shirt and a tailored jacket, jewlery, makeup - easy, effortless, but very clearly pulled together and oh so cheek. Dark colors ruled, on the streets and in stores it was black and grey only. And I loved that H&M and Zara were everywhere, talk about universal style! These stores are so popular that in Monte Carlo, Zara was literally around the corner from YSL...go figure. But my favorite part, the absolute and total fashion love of my vacation was this coat from Custo Barcelona:

It's a little hard to see in the picture, the website images are better: http://www.custo-barcelona-store.com/index_flash.php?idioma=ING&tienda=85 but this coat is just so beautiful and unique! The red and grey fabric will let you stand out in any crowd, the cut makes it very girly but the fur sleeves give it a sophisticated edge! Just like everything else on that website, this coat is really one of a kind, and inspired the fashion part of my vacation!

Forcing what you wear

This morning while doing my usual routine of pulling random clothes out of the closet and somehow turning them into a wearable, office-appropriate outfit, my sister, who stayed over at my apartment the night before, turned around, looked at me in slight amazement, and said
- you always look so good when you dress for work, do you plan your outfits? It's so hard for me to get dressed, I always have to try things on the night before to make sure that the outfit works.

Now obviously I didn't have a tape recorder so I'm paraphrasing. And obviously I have my bad work-outfit days too. And although I don't try clothes on at night, I do think about what I want to wear the next day. And I also have plenty of days when I'm running out of my apartment at 8:50 screaming "I'm late" because I couldn't think of what to wear or because the outfit that I planned on wearing just didn't work. But the point is that the comment made me think about how long it takes me to get dressed and whether the time I spend getting dressed has an impact on the outcome of my outfit (very scientific, I know, but w/e, I'm bored at work).

And here's what I came up with: in general, the less time I spend on an outfit, the better it looks. It comes together naturally, showing my own unique style. On the other hand, when I spend two hours putting together a 'look', it becomes exactly that, a 'look' rather then something that's really me. It might look good, or even fabulous, but it's forced, and that always shows. The extra piece of jewelry, the over-the-top shoes, the scarves, belts, whatever it is, if you see a girl or a guy with just a little too much on, you know that they spent way too much time getting dressed before leaving the house and their outfit is forced.

Unfortunately amazing outfits don't always happen in 5 minutes and sometimes making something work takes forever, but here's the deal - after you're finally fully dressed and ready to go, get rid of as many accessories as possible, or at least take off the very last thing that you put on. Because after all, less is more!

One of my favorite shoes

I always thought that fashion exists on the Upper West Side. After all, just because you have to look for it doesn't mean that it's not there. I was once again proved right yesterday. While out shopping for a b-day present, I couldn't help doing a serious double take when I saw a girl wearing these Tashkent by Cheyenne platform wedges:

I've been in love with these shoes since the first time I saw them last April. The style is so unique and funky, the holes in the back add a little bit of edge and the variety of colors (they come in grey, black, burgundy, and deep blue) means that there's a pair for any one's wardrobe. My personal fave is the grey. The girl I saw was wearing them with a Burberry-ish plaid mini-dress, but these can be worn with jeans, leggings, shorts, skirts, or whatever else comes to mind. With shoes like this, you just can't go wrong!

Image and details from shopbop.com