ABW Challenge: Day 18

Made it by 2 minutes!

Day 19

This is one of my favorite shirts that I thought years ago was lost in the abyss that is my room back home. Luckily, my mother came across it in the laundry, and I knew I had to try and incorporate it in an outfit this week. 

I was inspired by the shirt to go with more of a punk rocker looker. I tucked the large shirt into my black body con, with a little going over the top to give it a little volume. You may not be able to tell in the pictures, but the tights have a great leopard print that I found at Target awhile back. I put the look together with some arm candy and a Jac Vanek bracelet (Alex DeLeon of The Cab). 

Shopping List:

• INSPIRE Bracelet: Jac Vanek
• Joker tee shirt: Hot Topic

Pinterest Inspiration

 

                                                                              Source: elisamclaughlin.com via Noelle on Pinterest

I love the idea of tucking hair into a headband. I decide to make it look more like a ponytail as opposed to a bun. The headband also gave the hair volume, which I definitely liked.

ABW Challenge: Day 16

So comes to a close Week 4!

Day 16

This not-quite-a-poncho top is one of the oddest, but favorite items I own. I think I mostly like it because I have never seen anything like it. I found it on sale at Rainbow a few years ago, and was a bit confused as to what to make of it. But it was on sale, and I was eager to buy something, so I went with it. 

The top has dolman sleeves and made of a sweater knit material. I sometimes like to pair it with a waist belt, making the top into a cute tunic. It's comfy, but not to the point where I feel like I look sloppy. I thought it worked great with the long necklace and combat boots I wore with it. 

I did a quick version of the vintage hair. This time, I french braided one half of my hair, and didn't leave the curls in as long as I normally would. The first few pictures were taken by the time my hair was a little flatter because I had to tie it back to dance, but you can see in the other pictures that the curls had a lot of volume!

Shopping List:

• Leggings: Pink by Victoria's Secret
• Dolman top: Rainbow

ABW Challenge: Day 8

Day 8

Nearly didn't post this! Now because I forgot.. well, sort of. When I was done with class, I wanted to hurry and do my laundry before other people in my hall claimed it. Nearly put detergent on the top before I realized I had not taken any pictures yet!

Without realizing it, this ENTIRE week was filled with striped tops. Literally. Every day. This is not typical for me, but it happens. 

I love this top I recently got from Forever 21. It's a simple top, and by now you have heard me rant about how much I love horizontal stripes. Unlike the other outfits from this week, these stripes are thicker. I was originally going to pair it with dark pants, but I instead went with these electric blue jeggings and my combat boots.  I also wore my favorite scarf from New York and Company. Originally, I was not sure how I wanted to tie it. I was going to tie it in the back to make it look like an infinity scarf, but did not really like the knot at the back of my neck. Instead, I went with knotting it at the front. 

I also wore pretty little violet heart and bow earrings I got  a while ago on Etsy. Unfortunately, the shop closed, but I have found a few others that are very similar.

Swarovski hearts with bow earrings from violleville

Shopping List:

• Striped Button Tab Top: Forever 21 
• Scarf: New York and Company
• Jeggings: TJ Maxx 

Pinterest Inspiration

                                                                                   Source: todieforblog.blogspot.com via Noelle on Pinterest

This awesome tutorial was found over at the To Die For Blog. It's a great way to add volume and texture to the traditional sock bun!

ABW Challenge: Day 6

Day 6 

 

Today, I knew I had to look semi professional for multiple reasons. Not only did I have a meeting with a campus office and try to recruit people for a on campus club, but I just came back from the first newspaper meeting where I have been instated as an editor! Instead of going with business casual or even a skirt or dress, I used this fun blazer-esque top. It's more of a tee shirt material than anything, but the cut and shape give off the jacket appeal. I love the horizontal stripes in it; usually I try and steer clear from them, but I think because of the cut, it does not give the "wider" illusion that is usually associated with it. 

To make it a little more me, I paired it with my beloved combat boots. This time, I folded them over so that the floral print was visible. 

For my hair, I went with a french braided headband that I will admit to finally mastering. Unfortunately, I have not found a tutorial on Pintrest or YouTube that adequately shows how to make it as easy as I have for myself. I tried to do it where it is two braids on either side that come together in the front, but because of my medium hair length, it can be a bit challenging. When I first tried the french braid technique after seeing pictures of other people doing it, it kept coming out out bumpy and uneven and took such a long time that my hands and neck would kill. Now, I'm down to it only taking me about two minutes at most because of some tricks I learned myself! Maybe one of these days I will make a tutorial for it!

ABW (Already Been Worn) Challenge: Day 1

I just started a new semester at school, and this time around, I wanted to try and challenge myself: How many days can I go without repeating an outfit? Although it's not a major, life altering or mind bending experience, attempting it last semester was pretty fun and was able to get my mind off of burning out from lack of sleep/stress/studying/the usual debilitating college problems. Hopefully, I'll be able to do this for all four days a week I have classes, but if something crazy happens or I'm swamped, I'll try and make sets instead of taking photos.

Day #1
 

In truth, this was not the outfit I had in mind. We had a warm front just yesterday, and our usual winter weather went up to 65 degrees. When I tried to see the weather for the next day, I mistakenly thought it'd be warm again, making me choose to wear a grey pencil skirt and studded oxfords in place of the black jeggings and combat boots. But I still liked how the outfit came together, mostly because I got to wear my blazer (one of my most worn and favorite things in my wardrobe). I also decided to add the pearls just as something different. The bag is courtesy of YesStyle.com, and is my everyday backpack. It was inexpensive and has lasted me one semester so far without any tears or mishaps.

Shopping List

• Light pink blazer: Forever 21
• Leopard tank: Zara
• Bralet: Pink by Victoria's Secret
• Bag: Yes Style
• Jeggings and Combat boots: Marshall's

Cinema Style: Lisbeth

This set was completely unexpected.  I knew that I wanted to move on from The Dark Knight Trilogy for some more movie sets, but I was at a standstill as to what movie or character I was going to review next. Luckily, my Netflix Instant Queue led me to the answer.

I have always had a love for a good crime mystery. When I was younger, I used to watch the Murder, She Wrote series starring Angela Lansbury, even though many of the episodes originally aired years before I was born. I went on to watching Law and Order, which introduced me to Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Although not as popular as the Special Victims Unit series, it still remains one of my favorite television shows. It was not just the complex crimes and search for who did it (many times, it is revealed to the audience early on who the killer in question is); it was the performance of Vincent D'Onofrio as the character Robert "Bobby" Goren. His complex back story revealed throughout the series sheds light on his unorthodox methods to seek justice. Though he is many times questioned by his colleagues and partner about his actions, his search for the truth always serves as his redemption.

Vincent D'Onofrio as Robert Goren

My love for Lisbeth is similar to that of Bobby. She is someone who has been through tragedy, hardships, and stripped of her rights as a free person because of her search for justice against her father. And yet, though she appears to be stone cold and apathetic to the average person, she has a great capacity for love. She demonstrates this throughout the series, whether it is the scene where she feeds her former guardian Holgar after he suffers from a stroke, or saving Mikael's life towards the end of the first film. What is equally remarkable are the sacrifices the characters who are close to her are willing to go through in order to protect her. Mikael puts his career and relationships on the line in order to seek justice for her. Paolo and Miriam nearly burn to death in a barn, though they could have at anytime revealed what they knew of Lisbeth's whereabouts. Her own doctor Anders goes against the prosecutor's wishes in order to help Lisbeth while she is confined to the hospital.

So what makes these characters do this? How can some people so easily hate and wish her harm while others seem to almost gravitate to her? Noomi Rapace does a remarkable job of telling the story through body language and looks rather than language (In comparison to other protagonist or actors that are first billed, Rapace does not seem to have as many lines as would be expected). Although she may spit venom with nearly every word she speaks, her gestures tell another story; her holding Mikael's hand as they lay together, the brief smile she gives Anders, the nod she gestures towards her lawyer Annika signaling their triumph.

Millennium Trilogy movie posters

The set has the familiar lack of color that Lisbeth dons in the trilogy. A mix of punk rock and biker clothing pieces and accessories ties them all together. The hairspray is one which Lisbeth uses amply to create her head turning mohawk she displays at her trial. The stack of books represent the scientific DNA textbook she is given by her doctor in order to pass the time as she awaits her trial in her cell. The necklace was a special touch; I thought it was funny how she insisted on having some pizza to eat while she was recuperating, and Dr. Anders pulls enough strings to give her some, if just so that she can become stronger both physically and mentally. I did try and include three things to represent the three book titles: the dragon piercing, the Alicia Keys lyric from "Girl on Fire", and the Burt's Bees chapstick.

I always found it interesting that Lisbeth's father asserts himself to be a survivor, but through him alienating himself from those who have helped him, he ends up being killed. As a parallel, Lisbeth does not ask for help from anyone, but people come together in order to protect her, making Lisbeth the true survivor.

Cinema Style: Bane

To say I'm a big Nolan fan would be an understatement. It is only fitting that I create a set surrounding one of my favorite bad guys.

Even though I've made a number of other outfits inspired by movie characters (Ariadne, Bella), those were mainly based on me trying to get the outfit as close to what is worn in the movie as I could. With this set (and the others I will be creating in the series), I tried to concentrate more on the character rather than the costume. For instance, the shirt I chose for the Bane set reads "If not now, when?" which reminded me of the liberation he tried to inspire the struggling people of Gotham with. I did try and make the jacket as close to the one worn in the movie, just because I knew that there were already jackets that were similar to them. The watch is also a necessary component. It represents the timer for the bomb that will inevitably go off in Gotham, fulfilling Ra's al Ghul's original plan.

I will most likely make a couple of other sets around characters from The Dark Knight Trilogy (Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle) before movie onto other movies NOT by Nolan.

Boot Up for Fall

This set, so unlike the elaborate ones that I typically post on here, is what I made to go along with a newspaper article I wrote for my college. I was given the task of writing up trends that I saw around campus. I hadn't realized until I was actually observing people how difficult this would be, espcially on a small college campus. Girls typically throw on some yoga pants and a sweatshirt and call it a day. Those who don't are often times have their own indiviual style that is not main stream or are still wearing the trends from last spring.

Fortunately, I persevered and saw that one thing that was going to make an inevitable appearance this fall were boots. With all of the different boot trends that were introduced by designers for the fall 2012 season, I concentrated on just three.

The first one -and my personal favorite -are the lace up heeled boots. I like the shoe mostly because of its versatility. Though some from the front resemble combat boots, the heeled aspect gives it a more stylish touch. The platform versions with chunky heels that are in department stores remind me of a pair my older sister used to own a few years ago. By the time she moved out and left behind some of her stuff, I thought they were odd looking, seeming to just throw a sneaker and a heel together to make something only mildly coherent. Though I'm still not a fan of the chunky heel, I do think the stilleto versions give an outfit a sleek add on.

Knowing that me going on in 300 words about how much I love heels (and completely capable of running in them to my next class) was not going to be relatable to a college audience, I shifted to two other trends that were alternatives to the lace up heels. The first were combat boots. During the summer, I scowered eBay for a decent pair of Doc Martens that I could get my hands on. Though the $100-250 pricetag is well worth it -a woman I work with has had hers for 20 years, and they have hardly any visible wear and tear -my budget was not allowing me to partake in such expenditures. I found some over at Marshall's, and am satisfied with them (for the moment).

One other trend I came across was the biker boot, which I was not familar  with prior to this assignment. I knew they were out there, but did not realize they were a trend until I was comparing notes from Vogue's 55 Boots to Buy Now feature and store websites. They remind me of equestrian boots, except more... hardcore. I love the studded Christian Louboutin ones I featured in the set, and wish I could get my hands on a pair. I'll probably be on eBay this week to grab myself a pair.