sinful

Experiencing extreme hair envy over the ladies in these pictures...




From Copenhagen Street Style and Garance Dore.

she's a full-on Monet

When I was very little, a relative gave me this book:

...and a life-long love affair with the paintings of Claude Monet began. I remember didn't like the character of Linnea all that much (probably because she looks like a Cabbage-Patch Kid), but I remember being extremely jealous of her. I wanted to explore Monet's garden, too! Before I ever even understood what Paris was, I already knew that I wanted to live in Giverny.

I adore his romanticized women in elegant gowns, always out walking and drinking in the scenery...and the parasols!



And of course, the garden scenes. Walking across this bridge would be the culmination of my lifelong obsession with his Japanese bridge paintings.


I'm fairly certain that early exposure to this picture is responsible for my preference for waterlillies over all other flowers, too.

I think I'll go take a walk and pretend that the park is full of poppies...

osaka loop line

What's inspiring me this week:






photos from Garance Dore, Lanvin backstage (via vi.sualize), Irving Penn for Vogue, and luxirare.

imaginiff

If I was ever invited to the Oscars, or chosen as a debutante for the Crillon ball...

this is the dress I would wear.

why i am lucky

inspired by The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver), Half the Sky (Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn), and Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin)

1. I can take a hot shower whenever I want to, I can eat as much food as I'd like whenever I feel like it, and I am the recipient of a world-class education.
2. My parents have jobs, and we do not have to resort to hard labor, drug-dealing, begging, or prostitution to make ends meet.
3. My house has a roof.
4. I am surrounded by people who love me and support my choices and beliefs.
5. I have never gone hungry.
6. I can marry who I want, when I want, for love.
7. I am living in a culture where women and men are viewed as equals.
8. I am not sick, and possess a healthy, able body.
9. I have clean water to drink.
10. I can afford to put gas in my car, books on my shelf, and volumizer in my hair.
11. My country has a stable, fair, largely uncorrupted governmental system.
12. Neither my boyfriend nor my father would ever dream of hitting me.
13. I have so many pairs of shoes that some are reserved for special occasions and are highly impractical. None of them have holes in the bottom.
14. I have true friends.
15. I can afford to help others, because my needs are met.
16. I am at the top of Maslow's rediculous heirarchy.

Thank you, destiny.
Emily

more is more

I love this picture. I am not usually one to glorify excess and revel in consumerism, but something about this photo is just too enchanting for me to cynically reject. I love Marc Jacobs (which is probably the primary reason). I love his 2394057342987 rainbow-brite tattoos. I love his European muscle hunk husband. I love his European muscle hunk husband's ponytail. I love his 80's speedo, his beach Birkin, and their couple's LV towel set. I love the (not pictured) gold Rolex, mayyyyjor bling earrings, and sassy chain necklace Marc and Lorenzo are sporting. It all just makes me want to skip down to St. Bart's for a little taste of the beautiful life with the fabbest gays around...I guess excess, like everything else, is okay in moderation.

just a friendly chat...

Marc Jacobs and Anna Sui conversing over lunch...both articulate and so incredibly creative. Wish I could have been there.

Also, please note Marc's description of his latest tattoo. Not just ANY old Liz Taylor...

pas de deux

Lately, I've found myself drawn much more to skirts and dresses than boring old jeans. Dresses are much more fun and comfortable, and are perfect for lazy people like me. Just throw one on, and most of your outfit is finished! I've been looking for some pretty new frocks to wear with tights and sweaters this winter...there's just so many to choose from!

Anthropologie never disappoints...I love the sparkly details, I'm totally enchanted by anything beaded. All it needs is a fuzzy grey sweater and thick tights!

I would wear this dress every day. But with a little more clothing/modesty than that model. (American Apparel)

This dress would look rediculous on my body type, but I lovelovelove nautical stripes(honestly, I love anything having to do with the sea), and the sleeves remind me of Alexander Wang. (TBA)

I would totally play up the grittyness of this one with my ripped black tights and wooley socks tucked into big boots...I love the 90's Courtney Love vibe that the grey jersey and babydoll sillhouette impart. (TBA)

More Anthro. So so so charming.

How can I pick just one?

shhhhh

As we move into real wintertime, I've been longing to change up my style a little and make it more appropriate for l'hiver...but I've been lacking in inspiration. As luck would have it, today I found an amazing website dedicated solely to beautiful photographs of silent film stars! I've always been a little obsessed with the glamourous notion of silent film, and looking through these galleries make me want to buy some Bordeaux-tinted lipstick and learn how to make finger waves. Inspiration found!







Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Clara Bow, Charlie Chaplin,and Louise Brooks from silentladies.com

stretchy

I'm just...addicted. Tights from Bebaroque, Free People, We Love Colors, and American Apparel.

lost at sea

"These waters, thought Quoyle, haunted by lost ships, fishermen, explorers gurgled down into sea holes as black as a dog's throat. Bawling into salt broth. Vikings down the cracking winds, steering through fog by the polarized light of sun-stones. The Inuit in skin boats, breathing, breathing, rhythmic suck of frigid air, iced paddles dipping, spray freezing, sleek back rising, jostle, the boat torn, spiraling down. Millenial bergs from the glaciers, morbid, silent shorline where there was not shore. Foghorns, smothered gun reports along the coast. Ice welding land to sea. Frost smoke. Clouds mottled by reflections of water holes in the plains of ice. The glare of ice erasing dimension, distance, subjecting senses to mirage and illusion. A rare place."

from The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

flotilla

I love Tom Ford. I am IN love with Colin Firth. Absolutely a must-see. The cinematography will be so beautiful!

love is our homeland, why do we wander so?

I like pretty movies.
Stills from Marie Antoinette, Bright Star, Annie Hall, 500 Days of Summer,Moulin Rouge

116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

amanda ziller is my soul sister

story of my life.

flashbulb puff

I really love Juergen Teller. I named my violin in his honor.
Some of my personal favorites:

Obviously. Such perfect, simple geometry.

Rawrr.

One of my all-time favorite pictures, ever. I have a thing for artists who insert themselves into their own art...the shadow is brilliant, you don't even notice it the first time you see this ad.

I always wonder how he manages to get the light juuuust so...

don't look at me like that.

My spirit animal was on the front page of Bing today!
Red panda, AKA the lesser panda, the shining bear cat, or (my personal favorite) the firefox.

What is your spirit animal?

your childhood dreams are manifesting themselves in your present-day fixations

Today, I went downtown, and was swept up in the holiday madness...I love Christmastime!

I should have ridden this while I still had the chance...