GARBAGE DRESS: August 2010

8/31/10

LOVE

I am so lucky to have a jetsetting mom who is able to stop in New York in between Edinburgh and Chicago to have birthday brunch and a girl talk.

8/30/10

Short blogbreak due to birthday shenanigans (I am 22 today!). Excessive consumption of the liquid in my right hand & some much needed pampering in the form of the seaweed face mask above. Back to the grind tomorrow, I promise!

8/28/10

A CHANGE OF SEASON

(Jacket - Helmut Lang / Top - Rick Owens / Shorts - H&M / Boots - Veronique Branquinho / Harness - Zana Bayne Leather)

So the outfit about if slightly fictitious - the heat has come back and I can't quite don leather yet, but there was one day last week when it was cold and my jacket and I had a sweet reunion...I am hoping for a sudden autumn so we can be together once again.

In the meantime, I've been dreaming of knits - wide knits, sheer, oversized, heavy & delicate alike. It was pure serendipity that I stumbled upon my dream pullover today while investigating a shop for the first time. Cameron told me about Change of Season yesterday while discussing Rick Owens shoes (hurry - they have a few pairs of the wedges for a ridiculously good price!). The concept of the store is to stock past season merchandise of very select labels such as Givenchy, Rick, Margiela & Vivienne Westwood to name a few, at 50-70% off of retail value. And as I am a sucker for a good deal, I didn't waste a moment checking it out.

After thumbing through the racks and playing with the Rick Shoes, one of the owners Clinton procured a minty white sheer tunic by Rick Owens that had a curved diagonal line of open knit. He chimed in, "this is 40 percent off!" And the rest became history.

Skull ring - Meadowlark / Spike ring - Leviticus / Long talon ring - Zana Bayne X Meadowlark

8/25/10

SMOKE YOU OUT

Its not quite my birthday yet (August 30, the big two-two), but that doesn't mean its too early to start buying myself birthday gifts! While compulsively browsing online shops for deals I tripped over THE SS10 Rick Owens DRKSHDW smoke shirt, for a heftily discounted price. I didn't contemplate long. I knew it was waiting for me. And now that it has landed in my hands, I can say it is not just a t-shirt, but a beautiful diaphanous square of wonder fit for the upcoming (and much anticipated) changing of seasons in New York. Euphoria!

My brain.

Ladies & gentlemen, it floowwwwwwwws!

Once it gets a little bit cooler out, I'm going to break out my new jacket by Harputs Own, the "3-hole-blazer" that has an asymmetric panel with an armhole, good for hours of entertainment. Worn with American Apparel shorts (I swear I NEVER wear stockings as pants), Chloe shoes, and various bracelets & bangles.

8/24/10

CONTINUOUS LOOKBOOK: KRISTIN GALLEGOS

4-Strap Belt

Kristin & I have been trying to coordinate a shooting for the past month, but as she is a makeup artist extraordinaire and I have my own fussy schedule, we kept missing each other. That is, until the past weekend. I've always admired her personal style and didn't want to post any further photos from my continuous lookbook until I shot her!

Basic Harness - Raw

Epaulet Harness

Pentagram Harness

8/21/10

BY NOW I SHOULD KNOW BETTER...

...than to begin meticulous labor-intensive unimportant self-centered projects when I have so much else to do!!! But I can not deny the call of the wild, so here I go again. This project is pretty heavily influenced by a pair of studded Preen trousers that I encountered online, and the idea was further solidified by seeing the detail shot of a pair of Givenchy leggings from FW10. I've had a bag fully of the tiniest pyramid studs, but haven't had anything to stick them into. I decided on spray painting them black because A) I love torturing myself with tedious prep work and B) enjoy the subtlety of their texture against black leather. I'm hoping to be done in the next day or two!

The inspirations

The original color of the studs. Don't you keep your hardware in wine glasses too?

My solution for spray painting the studs. Yes, they are individually pushed into a piece of cardboard. Probably the most annoying part of the process yet completely unavoidable.

One leg done, one left to go.

8/20/10

A NEW FRIEND

(Dress - Helmut Lang / Leather Leggings - Audrey Cantwell / Boots - Alice & Olivia for Payless)

Yesterday I allowed myself the luxury of a day off from my day off (no job, no leather). Pure .indulgence, AKA shopping!!! Mind you, I was not running around with my arms filled with bags overflowing with impulse buys due to the dangerous nature of retail therapy. I remained picky and ended up with one new thing, as well as 2 things that had been in repair for the past couple of months (I completely neglected them). As I wrote in an earlier post, my favorite sorts of places to shop these days are designer consignment stores. My success was found at Tokio 7, where I rescued this knit Helmut Lang dress for less than $100. Mission accomplished, spirits lifted & collection of black dresses increased!

This is a very special key. Found in a castle & gifted to me by my favorite person in Berlin.

8/18/10

MARGIELA MASTURBATORY MATERIAL

Just when I thought I was working real hard, I revisited this look from the most recent Maison Martin Margiela artisanal collection and realized that I could work much, much harder.

8/17/10

YOU ARE ALWAYS ON MY MIND...

A possible mood-board of my brain? Featuring Rick Owens furniture, Rodarte, Alexander McQueen, Mark Fast, Givenchy, Wendy O Williams, Jean-Pierre Braganza, Francois Robert, and Sandra Backlund.

8/16/10

ZANA BAYNE LEATHER SPRING 2011 PREVIEW

Although I'm still working on my fall lookbook images (see the images so far on ZANABAYNE.COM or FACEBOOK PAGE) I couldn't help but make a little teaser for what I'm concocting these days...

8/15/10

FORGOTTEN DRESSES

As a creature of habit, I often psych myself into wearing the same favorite clothing items over and over again. Bored of the repetition, I remembered how much I loved this Ideen dress this morning. Worn with the loves of my life, the triple-lace Ann Demeulemeester boots.

8/12/10

T-SHIRT & JEANS

(T - Blood Is The New Black / Pants - Tripp / Boots - Veronique Branquinho)

Thanks to subtle subway changes, I can now take the M train right from my apartment to the garment district without transferring lines. Not that any of you care, but it makes a difference for me! Now for a quick morning run to pick up O-rings, I couldn't be bothered with anything too fancy (ha ha ha) so I threw on my equivalent to the true-blue American "jeans & a t". Thanks to the lovely folks at Blood Is The New Black I have clean shirts to wear that are fitted nicely, a good weight of cotton and are pretty cool to look at. No accessories needed. BITNB has been infiltrating the NY blogger scene pretty efficiently, and although we all chose a few different designs, we also were all attracted to the "Hex Mex" shirt that I'm wearing above! Check it out on Tiffany of Six Six Sick and William of Dripping Lazers.

TOP THIS

After a short nightlife hiatus I dove back without second thought last night. The wild was calling, and I instinctively howled back. The lovely & talented Greko Sklavounos was in town for a couple of days, and since I usually don't get to see him outside of fashion week, we had to make it a fancy affair! I met up with him & Char for dinner and cocktails, and when we were trying to figure out what to do afterwards the general consensus was that we needed to go "somewhere really gay".

There was no other choice but to go Amanda Lepore's Big Top; a weekly extravaganza at Carnival. It was my first time going. I think the photos will speak for themselves.