an introduction

After four different attempts to come up with the "perfect" first blog post, I've decided to just show you one of my favorite pictures and tell you directly about all of my little obsessions. Rather than write out some long inspirational drawl about why I love fashion and why my opinions are important, or try to indirectly show you all the things I like with pictures I can't seem to format correctly, it looks like the easiest and most straight forward route is to list them off.

I am obsessed with glitter.

Now that we got that out of the way, I think I'll just briefly go over what types of things tend to be in my aesthetic, what sort of things you can expect me to write about, and other nonsense like that.

I am fascinated by the color white. As someone who wants to be a bridal designer, I think the challenge of making something different using the biggest color limitation in the fashion industry is so much fun. Texture is the best way to go about this, in my opinion, or just straight up perfectly clean, architectural lines that know what they are doing.

However, my favorite color is highlighter yellow. While it is a little hard to look at sometimes, I can't help but buy things in that color the moment I see them. It's a no fail formula for me. There's just something about taking a neutral outfit and adding a highlighter yellow (or chartreuse, as J Crew or more sophisticated versions of it seem to end up being) bracelet or belt or heck, a sweatshirt. I own the latter, and every time I wear it to class I get a "How was work at the construction site today?" comment.

Femininity is something I am a little obsessed with. I didn't wear jeans for a whole year in high school because I couldn't manage to feel feminine enough in them. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that as a child I had no hair until I was three, and strangers still said I was a cute little boy when wearing a pink dress and hat, to cover up the no hair. I guess this still subliminally affects me. I wear pants now, of course, and I am a huge fan of the new menswear-on-women trend, but every time I go to put on an oversized gold watch at the store I think it looks "bad" on me, but I don't think watches can really look bad on anyone. And as much as I would love to try the trouser look (rolled up, with heels) I can't bring myself to do it. Someday I'll figure this out. But for now, it's bows and lace and dresses in my closet, and trousers and watches and blazer pictures in the folders on my laptop.

I absolutely love knitwear, and I am very glad it seems to be coming back in again. I love fat, chunky knits - big sweaters that drip off of your shoulders, oversized pom-pons on hats, loosely knitted tops that allow a tank underneath to be seen, that sort of thing. I do knit, and admit to having other grandma-like hobbies I won't mention at the moment, and I am beyond excited to take a knitwear class next year. I am currently knitting a hat.

One last thing I seem to be partial to at the moment is the general hair accessory. I worked at a costume shop this summer and was allowed to take home a couple flowers and beaded sequined appliques to do with what I may, and they will undoubtedly become hair things. As someone who hates to wear her hair up because it seems too "casual" (yet another thing I need to get over), a giant flower always seems to fix that problem.

But I suppose the most important thing I should mention is how I like to design. My designs exude a very sharp femininity that tends to accentuate the human body, heavily influenced by my few years in ballet and the obsession for it I still seem to have. My favorite focal point has over time proved to be the small of the back or the shoulder - in ballet, my favorite thing to do was always to bend myself back at the waist as far as I could until my upper torso was parallel with the floor. I think that this negative space is beautiful. I love backless designs - possibly also influenced by the fact that I myself haven't much of a chest and love to show off other assets instead, but it also has a lot to do with the fact that the place the muscles in the back meet with the shoulder blade, neck, and arm is a very beautiful place. I tend to design diagonally, and I very much love detail - hand sewing, more specifically, like beading or perfectly invisible hems or pin tucks and things. I love sheer fabrics more than anything, and I find French seams captivating because they feel like a skeleton of the garment when held up to the light.

Well, I promised myself this wouldn't become a blog that is all words because quite frankly, I refuse to read those, so I'll stop now. I hope this is the last time I edit and then delete this first post because it is getting difficult to sound interesting or new. But that is all for now.

R