Change of Clothes

Getting back into the swing of things. Some things I love!

2008-12-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

There's nothing to say! I have no excuses, except that a whole ton of stuff has happened since I last wrote! I went to Europe for two weeks for work, moved in with my boyfriend, went to a three weddings and a funeral, took over for my boss while she's on maternity leave, but mostly it feels like my life has been consumed by the change in homestead. Just trying to make a new place feel like home is all-consuming.

In an attempt to get back on the bandwagon and get in a habit of writing regularly, let's do a little "Things I Love..." Probably, the whole gist of this blog is going to change in the next weeks. I'll start simple, though!

- IKEA! Um, there are of course the Swedish meatballs, but then of course there's the fact that you can spend hours there on a Saturday afternoon and fill your cart and check off a whole bunch of needs from your 'list.' That's a good Saturday in my book.

- Our Christmas tree. I've covered it in beautiful glass fruits, vegetables, flowers, bees, and a fireman. The fireman simply seems nostalgic to me. Did I once have a fireman ornament in my wee childhood? I don't remember, but he feels like he's been with me forever.

- Planning a party. I haven't had a real party at my own home for years. We're throwing a New Year's shindig that won't be crowded by any means, but we actually have about as many people as we think we can seat comfortably and a menu that makes our collective mouth water and tons of little candles and fun paper napkins.

- Clearing through my closet. I've got a clothing swap planned for January and am really into the idea of less is more, and trying to only keep the things that ACTUALLY work for me. All of the other stuff that I either never wear or wear when I'm feeling scruffy is just bunging up my view of my wardrobe as a whole. There's little I would like more than to just have things I absolutely love to wear in my closet. This means getting rid of the fancy silk designer shirt my grandmother gave me that just. doesn't. work.

AND... drinking a cold beer from a tiny glass; my new sheepskin that I've got draped over my molded plastic Eames eiffel chair; getting back into this!!; approaching the New Year ready to get some sh*t done, lists blazing; deciding what could make me feel the most like me, setting incremental goals and moving forward (is that the same thing? I don't care - I feel this churning determination starting up); Flight of the Conchords is starting up soon; The City is starting up soon - will it suck?; nearly being done paying off my credit card bills from too long ago; trying to get my mom to come over to see my place (she hasn't seen any of the places I've lived for a good eight years!); beginning my yoga routine again and making that gym membership worth it.

I can't imagine that anyone is out there now, but if you are, feel free to say hi!

XO,

Roro

2008-07-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing for a business trip to Europe and have started compiling a list of things to bring. Of course a huge concern of mine is what to wear from day to day, one experience to the next. I normally prefer to pack on the light side, and haven't even checked a bag in at least three years of travel. But this clearly calls for something a little bit different. During a nearly two week trip, I'm getting the feeling that even my pajamas will have to be just right. Does anyone travel regularly for work? What are your most treasured tricks for getting around in style, avoiding the I-just-pulled-this-from-a-suitcase look?

Probably Not Mutual

2008-07-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

A crush has been born. This one will not result in any romantic rendez-vous because the object of my adoration is not so into my type. My type being a girl. But it's nice to dream from afar, and especially to daydream about what got it all started. Some coworkers and I went to see a designer's studio today, and to say that I admire him is an understatement. He took his business from his bedroom as a one-man gig, to a beautiful studio in Dumbo with 160 employees. Wow. People like that get me thinking thinking thinking every time. How do they ever know that what they've got going on is enough to sustain themselves? There are always so many questions, doubts, problems to deal with when starting your own business, and they pushed past them and made it work. I think I could take a tour of a designer's studio to see their inspiration, their set-up, and the process that goes into production every day and be happy. Well, until I have enough energy built up to send me FLYing forward, ready to take on the world. I'm part way there already, just need some momentum to really get things going.

Torn

2008-07-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm terribly torn between being good and being bad. The hard part with this dilemma is that both sides leave me feeling satisfied in a different way. These days, being good means sticking to my goal of finishing off my credit card debt once and for all, so that I can go back to using credit cards only for what I'd originally intended them - large purchasese which I could pay off in one or two max billing cycles so that I get the good credit and the miles, and for emergencies. The last three years, my spending went out of control and then has never caught up enough to clean the slate. I'm close now, and I just made that first payment that took me to a balance of below a grand. Nice! Right? But that was yesterday, literally, and then today I've gone and bought two pairs of cute summer heels at my favorite shoe stores' summer sale. How could I not? Right? I'm still within reach of my goal before too long, but here is where we see that as good as being good felt - reaching goals, yeah! - having cute summer shoes feels good, too. I've been sadly without shoes that are not broken and that don't give me terrible blisters and make my feet into a furnace in what has suddenly become this hot summer. Spending, especially in the fashion lovers world... to do it or not to do it? I guess this won't kill me and I'll go back to saving... NOW.

Jury duty continues to drag on, and I continue to be amazed by my fellow juror who comes in wearing white lace shirts with nothing but a white bra beneath. My boy thought it was strange that I bothered wearing anything decent at all, saying if he didn't have to go to work he would look like a slob. I enjoy dressing up! This is my chance to have more time in the morning to put together fun outfits. It's giving me an inspirational buzz that I hope to hold on to.

A Collection of Thoughts

2008-06-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Do you know how when you go away to a new place, it often requires a new mode of dress? And if you're there for long enough, you find that coming back to the reality you knew before and what your usual life requires in dress to be difficult to get used to again? I remember this very distinctly when I moved to Washington, DC for about five months. Coming back to New York involved changing characters, in a way. No offense to DCers out there, but I had felt that our Nation's capital had sort of sapped me of my fashion mojo. I had become too used to plain gray slacks with button-ups or sweater set type ensembles that my work seemed to require. It was a sad state of affairs.

More recently, I went on a trip to Costa Rica and found, of course, that the laid back, connected-to-nature lifestyle there required that I get used to walking around unshowered, slathered in sunscreen, with something not too fussy covering my bikini beneath. At first I resisted, but by the end I had worn the same dress days in a row until it got splattered with mud and didn't want to have to think about the day I would return and need to figure out what belt to wear with my top or what shoes to wear to make my outfit work appropriate. Ugh. I do love fashion, but it really is a habit of sorts. When I was away, not only did I see the beauty behind leaving all of this fun stuff behind, but I also returned to find myself terribly bored of fashion mags and blogs. In the end, I'm back to reading nearly every one of my old standbys again, but I've streamlined the whole thing a bit. Rather than read every one that has any validity in my mind, I read only the ones that really seem inspirational and thus, worthy of my time.

In the name of looking at the habit that is fashion/fashion-reading, I am also going to do what I can to write here more often. Rather than expect myself to create a slew of readable posts that tie together and are well-illustrated with drool-worthy pics, I'll just try to let the words flow and see where this takes me. After all, I'm always telling myself that I want to write more, make more art, but I get stunted and don't write or make a thing for fear that what I make will be a failure. That's a bad way to think and never the way that any artist has gotten ahead. So that said, excuse me as I make this partially fashion, partially just personal rambling.

I am serving on a Grand Jury these next two weeks, and it's a small piece of hell, in that I have to sit for hours on end doing nearly nothing. I can't speak about the cases themselves, but they are not fun things to hear about. I guess the gravity of the cases makes it feel more worthwhile - we actually have the power to change a life, to help to bring justice to those who deserve it. I don't think it had hit any of us how serious this business was until the first witness came to the stand and suddenly... This is not someone smoking a doobie in a park. The Jury is made up of an incredibly strange mix of people. I seem to be the only one who can keep our simple lunch and break schedule straight, which worries me slightly. If they can't do that, then... But one thing I find very interesting is seeing each character's unique approach to the idea of "appropriate" attire. One man sits warmly in a suit all day (though it is chilly in those courthouses), a nearby woman swans about (well actually, we all do a lot of sitting, I just like that word) in a spaghetti strap tank, no bra. There is one woman with a closely shorn head of non-hair, enormous black glasses and dramatic tribal earrings.

I recently purchased a beautiful new phone, which I would highly recommend to anyone and everyone. It is the PalmCentro. I love it.

To wrap this all up in a neat package and say once and for all if I haven't here yet, I am so looking forward to moving to a new place with my boy. We are ridiculously happy, something which has never been more true than now, and planning this all out has been such a great thing to anticipate. Not only will I be living with my best buddy and making a wonderful little home, but I will have an art studio (which should mean DIY coming the blog's way), and I will have all of my clothing reunited in one place. If there is any situation that has altered my dress, it is having half of my closet in one place, half in the other. I may want to wear a certain dress at my house, but can't because the only bra that works with it is at his house; or I may have only one pair of shoes that will work in the downpour I wasn't expecting (worse, no shoes! Then I have to figure out which pair to sacrafice). I feel as though I'm constantly camping out and having to make do, and I'm constantly lugging an enormous second bag with me to try to avoid these "catastrophes" that somehow manage to happen all the time regardless.

Love,
Rora

2008-04-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

This jacket by APC from La Garconne made my mouth drop open. The opening image on the page is of the jacket tucked in, and when you zoom this photo pops up.... This is exactly the loose but tailored look I want. So simple but still all about the details. Mm. Out of my budget but a girl can dream, right?

Excuses

2008-04-03T16:11:00.001-07:00

I've been so bad at this whole blogging thing. Then I feel like all I have to write about are excuses for not writing. Absurd and boring.

Instead of lamenting the fact that I haven't gotten it together to make this what I want, I'm going to write about random crap and let it morph as it goes. At least I'll be writing.

I went for a walk with the boyfriend to Prospect Park yesterday evening. When we got there he ran and I used his camera to take photos until he was done. It is still rather nippy, but buds were out on the trees and bushes and it made me happy. The camera time really got me thinking about how much more creative I could be if I just incorporated that into my life - looking at everything looking for a composition helps you to see interesting scale, perspective, color contrasts and light play. It also made me realize that I wish I was inheriting an SLR instead of a point and shoot, whenever that happens. When there wasn't enough light, as the sun was setting, the camera was wonky and slowed the shutter speed down to take it all in, and when I used the flash to help that it looked horendous most of the time. Sometimes it helped but it often made my compositions lose everything I was shooting them for. Beggars can't be choosers of course so I'll take what I can get. Again, whenever that happens. The operative words.

Also, I watched the end of The Departed. I never saw the beginning but R tells me it is better. The only things I could pay attention to were
- The constant use of cell phones. My goodness. For real. They were going off all the time. I couldn't help but think to the future when we all have chips in our arms to communicate instead of cell phones, and how that feature is really going to date the movie. Not that it's a bad thing, but it could seriously look retro even though it's clearly trying too hard now to seem relevant and with the times.
- Leonardo had a terrible Boston accent.

And: I just discovered my new favorite blog. I will have to write about it. My blog reading has been inspiring and I've been obsessive about it, but I think this might be the one that is actually going to make me change my life, find my calling, all that good stuff. But right now I have to force myself to go the gym for the first time in, um, 4 months? I'll be very honest and say that yes, I've been throwing my money away.

Handsome Girl Modeling School

2008-03-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

Late last year I was asked to model for my company's catalog. This is not something I tried to let get to my head, as they generally do ask whoever in the office happens to be reasonably thin, tall and who has a pair of shoulders to hang a garment on. I'm not in the extreme department of these features that allows me to go out in the real world of modeling, but it was fun for a day to pretend.

One of the best parts was just showing up at the loft space of the photographer before the shoot started to have my hair and makeup done. Walking through the loft building, it did feel like I was part of this other world for the day. It certainly wasn't the corporate environment I usually schlep through to get to my cube and Aeron chair each day. What I found out was that modeling - it's harder than you'd imagine.

Even getting my makeup done was an experience. I've had my makeup done a time or two before, once as a secret shopper at Henry Bendel (fun + free stuff!), but those times it was for my enjoyment. This time, I could tell that when you have it done enough, you learn what to do. The makeup artist was clearly having to slow down to my pace as I didn't know that after she smears something here and sprinkles something there I'm supposed to look straight up so she can get right in there under my eye or pull at my lashes. There were many little things like that. And then she painted my lips. She really painted them. Now that the catalog is out, that's all anyone can say - "Wow, those lips!" I've also never had anyone put eyedrops on a qtip and jab into the corners of my eye. Good trick, though! Gets any last sleepy stuff that the finger or face washing won't get out of there and makeup looks flawless.

Posing was another challenge. One that I wanted to take on with gusto, a la ANTM, but once up there... it's easy to become deflated. What, no mirror so I can see what I'm doing? If you're in profile, you find that the photographer loses your far shoulder. So while it would have been nice to act all natural like, moving from one look to the next with ease, what I thought looked good sometimes didn't show off the garment I was supposed to be displaying in a way that made sense to the viewer. So I learned all kinds of tricks about "cheating" your far shoulder forward.

In the end, what felt like a very contorted, strange pose, looks normal - I think. I've looked at these soo many times (is that me?), I've lost my sense of what it looks like.

Enjoy!!

Getting to know my wardrobe. Spring cleaning.

2008-03-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

Many bloggers out there have posted about doing a major overhaul of their wardrobes. Of course to do this there should be a method to the madness, or you may end up tossing things that you're sick of at the moment, only to yearn for them again some day in the distant future. I think the most important part of the whole thing for me is trying to figure out what flatters my figure, what is easy to wear, what needs to be paired with what. Styling a wardrobe takes effort and a good amount of time devoted to just trying one thing on with another.

I'm doing a bit of that myself right now, and it's been a slow process. I took everything that wasn't an obvious winner, whether that means I never wear it or I wear it all the time but hate it, out of my closet and stacked it on my chair. This stack has been moved from my chair to my bed and back for.... weeks now. A sad state of affairs. But I'm hacking away at it slowly, trying to figure out why I don't wear certain things, and trying to convince myself to part with the items I do wear because they're TOO easy, even though they don't look so hot. I've found some interesting combinations I quite like because of this, and hope to debut my Dries Van Noten hand-me-down ruffle shirt one of these days. I've had it for three years!!!

Also, I'm trying to find a way to like a cropped vintage Biba jacket I got on eBay for not much more than a tenner. If I had a camera, I would ask you peeps to help me figure out if it is real. That day is coming sooner rather than later!! I hear word that there is a hand-me-down camera waiting for me at my aunt's. Oh family.

Post edits to come - pictures and links to the lovely ladies who inspired this closet overhaul.

Force of Habit

2008-03-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today as I was starting up on what I fear will be the return of one of my worst habits, I thought about my blog. It's been with a lot of consideration that I decided to actually start writing, and sadly, it's been a week since my first momentous (in my mind) post. This, too, will need to become a habit or it will never go anywhere. Note to self!!

Onto the fun, my persistent habit that has resurfaced against my better judgement. Shopping. It is no surprise I'm sure that I enjoy shopping - this here's a fashion blog, no? But what seems to be the problem is that as soon as the weather becomes bareable and it's still light when I leave the office and find myself spit out into Midtown's hustle and bustle, I get the urge to do something. Anything, really! Without plans I find myself sucked into Rockefeller's Anthropologie. Oh, all reason goes out the window. I try not to be tempted, but while everything in the store is perfectly fine, easy and girly, it only really has me locked in when it's in the sale room. My rule against fast fashion gets grey and fuzzy when I'm in that room. I wouldn't call that fast fashion, exactly, but once everything is suddenly sort of affordable (I stress 'sort of' here), I start to feel like I'm adding something lovely and pricier to my wardrobe at a great discount.

And suddenly I'm spending $250!!!

I'm still trying to think up my best excuse for keeping the Tracy Reese dress I've been drooling over and finally purchased. Meanwhile, I'll keep the receipt safe and sound.

Hello

2008-03-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

I finally realized what it was that was causing my rather serious-feeling wardrobe break-down.

I've been reading blogs, fashion blogs and design blogs in particular for over a year, obsessively. It started out feeling like a hobby, but it's started to feel like it could spur some serious bouts of creativity if I have a way to interact more directly. Just lurking is no longer enough. Plus, being so embedded in it, I've grown this vocabulary and knowledge of smaller designers that I might not have otherwise. It's meant that when I talk to my friends who are not such cyber girls, they don't have the same frames of reference, and it's a lonely fashion world without someone else with whom I can try to justify the hours spent pouring over beautiful things, not to mention justifying dollars spent. How did it happen that the people I love have never heard of Acne jeans, never heard of Vena Cava?

We're not just talking about a love for the above mentioned brands and wishing I had more to spend on such things. There's plenty of that, but what really gets me going is an appreciation for being able to dress up in, essentially, the "costume" for the day to express your mood or tell a story. The fashion blogging world is like a community of my soul sisters (and brothers) who also feel that the perfect shoe holds within its sole (haha!) much more than meets the eye. It's a way of life, man.

Finally, as a former minor dabbler in fashion, now feeling much more entrenched in all of it, I know that there are trends, and trends inform what we will see on the racks at most of the stores out there. Now, I feel that part of my dissatisfaction with my current wardrobe stems from the fact that some time ago I saw the trends each season and was tempted in, no matter the poor quality. Lately, my mantra has been more along the lines of "Quality over Quantity." This is not anything new, and is the general idea behind the much touted change that needs to happen worldwide. This, strangely enough, is largely according to some of the very people who are creating the goods that we are so eagerly snatching up. It is manufacturers, designers, who are taking on the green way and trying to use that to appeal to a customer. Thus causing us to buy more, to help us feel like we're part of a cause. A bit hypocritical and this could spur a blog of its own entirely!!! I'm not here to do that. But being in product development myself, I am accutely aware of this dilemma and hope to explore it further.

I do believe though that I would be happier wearing a simple classic set of what could almost be described as uniforms, though, rather than having a closet (and half of my boyfriend's closet) stuffed to the brim with "nothing to wear." It's going to happen. It's got to happen. Not to the extent of a uniform because that's no fun, but I need a change for the better. I like to think of this as a part of growing up and refining my tastes, a way to express what I hope will be some creative moments as it happens, and a way to legitimize some of this and stop making myself feel like this is a fruitless obsession I've entrenched myself in.

Clothes. Sigh.