One piece to rule them all...

I am sure this happens to every good fashion lover. It was probably inevitable that some piece, some artful rearrangement of raw materials into some object, perhaps a coat...  It was probably predestined that some coat would finally drive a nail between my love for fashion and my love for thriftiness. Of course, my thin wallet shall always ensure victory for my thrift store hunting ways, but today designer lust at least makes a stand.

I dream of a coat by Balmain, it lingers in my thoughts as I lay on the brink of nightly unconscious, it peers at me from within complicated collages in glossy spreads, it boldly announces itself from one advertisement in my favorite fashion magazine. It is something I’ll never own, probably never wear even for an instant. But it’s like a Mona Lisa, with a wry smile, charming me, haunting me.  One wry, nine thousand dollar smile.

A handsome man...

My boyfriend is more stylish than I am...

He saw those glasses in a store window late one night and went back for them.  They are actually women's sun glasses with the lenses replaced with his prescription.  They are one of a kind titanium frames made by a belgian designer.

Missed Connections, except with objects instead of people

Holiday season poverty combined with the shift in shopping mentality from decorating my home to filling the empty space beneath my grandmother's tree has resulted in a lot more covert shopping photography.  Looking at this batch of photographs definitely caused me to think a few times, "Wait, why didn't I buy that?  Oh that's right, I can't afford a dollar thrift store hat because it's Christmas."

My friend Andrew, who is holding this picture, was terrified by it.

We had these exact same mugs in my house growing up.

I collect elephants and it was really hard to walk away without buying this whole batch.  I almost bought a few, but they were too expensive.

Ditto for this Collection of saints!  Apparently one of this store's donors collect all the same things as I do.  Ultimately the male saints were deemed too large, as a way of limiting what I took home.

I've been thinking about beautiful serving wear for my friend Emily's wedding, which I am planning!

And I have been thinking about owls for my friend Mark's apartment, which I have been hired to decorate!

This hat must have been simply too small for an adult head, or I most certaintly would've bought it.

Why didn't I buy this?

What a great combination of art; how appropriate it's the window display.

This guy seemed so lonely and holy in this dirty corner.

I love that couch!

After my last blog entry about unpurchased thrift store goodies, I ended up going back and buying the kitchy rose pattern knee high rain boots!  Maybe something from this batch of photos will be gone back for...

Fox Skylight Antiques Gallery

I've been once again curbing my appetite to shop by photographing the merchandise rather than buying it.  This requires extensive use of the deliciously covert iPhone camera.  These photographs were taken at an antique mall near my house, and so I had to be extra careful.  Antique dealers always think you're some sort of spy when you walk around snapping shots left and right.  So it looks like I'm one of those teen age technophiles texting constantly, and occassionally lifting my cell phone above my head to make sure I get a good angle, err, I mean better reception.

I was with an out of town guest so we spent more time wandering around than I'm used to, leaving plenty of time to find compositions hiding amongst all the pretty things.  It didn't hurt that the antique gallery seemed to be some kind of refurbished factory.  Three floors of pretty things!  And funny things...  and strange... and expensive...

For self portraits taken in mirrors for sale at Fox Skylight Antiques gallery, check out my art blog: The Lunatic and the Swan.

A stylish presidency.

During our last presidential primaries, I was ostracized on more than one occasion for my lack of Obama fever. I had admired his eloquence since first spotting him on C-Span as a junior senator, when presidential aspirations were a distant twinkle in his eye. But when he announced his candidacy, I didn’t tape photos of him on my wall like glossy idols ripped out of a Teen Beat Magazine. And my facebook status wasn’t a perpetual homage to my conjectures of his potential greatness. And I didn’t vote for him in the primaries. I didn’t vote in the primaries at all.

This is where I received the greatest criticism. How dare I? But I was faced with two awesome possibilities (first woman president versus first black president), neither of which would’ve disappointed me in the least. Even John McCain (before he announced his vice presidential candidate) seemed like a reasonable fellow.

But of course, I celebrated when Obama won. I watched his acceptance speech and cried. And I felt a deep sense of American pride.

And now I read the news with the kind of bias that befits a liberal democratic middle class college educated female in her mid twenties. But this blog isn’t about politics. I’m writing today because the Obama industry provided me with something special last week. Something that I relish, something upon which I gorge often: style. Buckets and buckets of style.

The White House's state dinner honoring India's Prime Minister Singh was absolutely gorgeous. Browsing the photographs was a chance to enjoy beautiful tablescapes and elegant formal wear. And reading some of the major news websites coverage of the event seemed more like an article from Martha Stewart’s magazine. CNN highlighted the fact that the menu included “greens from the White House garden, honey from White House bees.” They also pointed out that State Dinners are the most coveted invitations in Washington. I can imagine.

Photo from msnbc.com.  Charles Dharapak / AP

Photo from cbsnews.com.

Waifish little whisps living the dream...

While gorging on Style.com's video footage of New York Fashion Week in September, I kept noticing this waifish little whisp of a thing that could’ve been a girl or a boy, I couldn’t tell. This fresh faced imp was getting interviewed from the front row of dozens of runway shows. At the bottom of the screen, instead of the usual title of “Fashion Journalist” or “Fashion Designer” it just said “Fashion Rookie”. Then when I decided to go back and figure this iddy biddy enigma out, I couldn’t remember the kid’s name or figure out which videos the moppet had appeared in.

So when I accidentally ended up on the Teen Vogue site today (after clicking the wrong link on a blog I follow) I was pretty excited to see the prodigal child (a girl, apparently) with her name on the front page. Mystery solved.

So her name is Tavi Gevinson and she’s 13, and she writes a blog called Style Rookie. Apparently the Mulleavy sisters of the Rodarte label discovered her and whisked her away into a fairy tale world of fashion. And now, according to the article on Teen Vogue, she’s the new face of Target.

So naturally, needing to overwhelm envy with awe, I browsed her blog. It is obviously written by a 13 year old, albeit a very intelligent and culturally literate 13 year old. She’s all at once confident and self-deprecating. I see the appeal; she reminds me of myself at that age and I imagine a lot of people feel the same way. Still, the self consciousness palpable in her writing has clearly been tinged by her 15 minutes. So I went further back into her blog archives, and I found an effortlessness that was probably what attracted all of her readers in the first place. Not to mention her early self-portraits lack the “deer in headlights” look inherent to so many of the shots of her taken at shows.

So this pre-teen is definitely pretty cool although still entirely mysterious.  I hope the fashion industry doesn’t make a habit of this. Whatever makes this weird girl anomaly cute and quaint will make the next one trite. Kudos to this one, though. I’m jealous as hell, but equally impressed.

Unpurchased and unpurchaseable thrift store finds...

When I am thrift store shopping, and I want something that I cannot reasonably justify buying I take a picture of it with my handy dandy iPhone.  I also photograph things that amuse me that I would have no earthly business buying.  Here's a few examples from the last few months...

I wish I collected this technicolor kitsch stuff, I find so much of it.

Seeing all this jewelry excites me...

A pile of panties...

That's a lot of knives for not a lot of money.

Only a thrift store would have such a hilarious combination on the shelf.

Is it just me, or is this Virgin Mary wearing too much makeup?

I would've bought this in a heart beat if it wasn't stained.

These are so awesome, but they were too big!  I may go back and get them anyway.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a use for Lincoln...