maybe she's born with it

"Some people come to New York to achieve fabulousness; some come and find fabulousness thrust upon them. . . .

'There was  a time when, as long as you brought the party, nothing else mattered,' said Charlie Brown, a hairstylist who, despite his own crew cut, often coifs his friends to go out clubbing. 'That's what's changed about night life. People got jaded and bored with what was going on. You need to get people excited, and dressing up is something that can get people going.'

Despite their devotion to fashion, the party hoppers of the last decade who went to club nights like Misshapes were pretty low-key; their signature look was skinny jeans, a designer T-shirt and bangs in their eyes. Now, with even middle-of-the-road young people dressing more smartly, that look is changing. The last year saw rumblings of a return of club-kid finery and the kinds of madcap outfits that were a mainstay of the 1980s and early 1990s nightclub scene."

- "Dress Codes: Going Gaga" (NYTimes)

pants are overrated

[Photo credit: Vogue US, September 2009]

Latest winter obsession: over-the-knee boots.

I bought a pair yesterday in black suede.

And the best part (besides them being ridiculously warm and allowing you to wear high hemlines in the winter) is that the top part (normally) folds down so that they become below-the-knee cuffed boots too.

which one of these is not like the other

Photo 7 in the slideshow for "Crimson and Green" (NYTimes) on Harvard's new clothing line.

cut copy

“Back in the 1960s, the only important thing was length,” said Michael McDonald, the costume (and hair) designer for the “Hair” Broadway revival. “It wasn’t until the 1970s, and the disco era, that men’s hair started to really have ‘style.’ And then every moment had its look, so that now, in the 21st century, we’ve pretty much seen everything wacky you can do to your hair. It’s all there to go back to and interpret.”

Mr. McDonald can generally spot the inspirations. “There’s a little bit of everything,” he said. “Maybe it’s a little Flock of Seagulls, maybe a little Backstreet Boys.” But there the trail goes dead. If the hair is goth, the clothes might be skater-cum-prep, and the shoes rockabilly. “It’s all mixed up so beautifully,” he said. “It’s really neat the way they can just cut and paste.”

- "Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair" (NYTimes)

Five points if you can spot the Duke reference.

devil with the blue dress

Harvard is starting its own fashion line with Wearwolf Group, to be called Harvard Yard, to save itself from financial ruin. The line will target "fans of the university" and draw inspiration from the "Harvard prep lifestyle," according to Fashionista.

...Seriously? It just sounds like a more pretentious J. Crew.

But it did get me thinking: if Duke were to make a fashion line, what would it look like?

Free T-shirts and sweatpants?

Lily Pulitzer and pearls?

Plaid and knock-off Ray-Bans?

Or maybe it'd just be a costume shop.

I can't wait for senior year Tailgate.

cotton spandex jersey bodysuit

Fashion victim confession: last summer I bought a bodysuit (in the color "raspberry") from American Apparel.

PROS:
1) versatility (can be worn as a bodysuit, a halter top, or high-waisted shorts, depending on how you choose to tie and layer it) makes it great for Tailgate, themed parties, shows, and general going outage
2) great color

CONS:
1) everything will be shown
2) it makes going to the bathroom way more complicated

just being utilitarian

I suppose everyone has to starve at some point in their life.

And my time is definitely now.

After what I can only describe as a painfully frustrating last dinner at home before I fly out tomorrow morning, I got my budget laid out for me for my upcoming semester abroad. And as everyone knows, the beauty of living life free of food points is that the money allotted for food no longer necessarily needs to go towards food. Granted, this is also a major policy problem when applied to larger government projects, but in the case of little ol' me, life sans a meal plan has taught me one great fact of my life:

I'm willing to starve for cute clothes and trips to faraway places.

I mean, it builds character, right? Didn't we learn in economics that consumers should maximize their utility per dollar spent? I'm just being efficient here.

people watching in foreign places

Let's talk fashion.

Although I only got to spend three days in Bangkok, I was still struck by how different Thai fashion was from the Vietnamese fashion I'd seen so far, not just in the merchandise sold in the markets but also in street wear. Apart from the mere existence of a Bangkok street style already saying a lot in and of itself (I haven't particularly noticed one so far during my stay in Hanoi), the Vietnamese have an interesting sense of dressing conservative. Clothes here aren't low-cut, but they can come completely sheer, with girls going totally cookies 'n cream (when you wear a dark bra with a light, sheer top). Thai people more or less dressed pretty Western, and I definitely felt like I blended in a lot more (or maybe they're just way more used to tourists).

That said, when I say that Thai people dressed more Western, that doesn't mean they schlepped around in jeans and T-shirts like Americans do. In a previous post, I talked about the "all or nothing" make-up trend in Viet Nam, but in Bangkok (and this could just be because it is a major city), the women were definitely done over completely -- hair, nails, make up, everything.

A few general trends I noticed (as always, click to enlarge any photos): bright colors, especially as accents; flowing silhouettes; graphic tees; a punk vibe; asymmetrical/blunt/otherwise interesting haircuts; clashing patterns; big bags; and fun shoes.

Side note: the murse ("man purse") has also hit Asia. Hard.

going to san francisco with flowers in my hair

Shopping in southeast Asia is singlehandedly turning me into a flower child.

maybe that's why korean movies are so big here

"The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy."

- Yves Saint Laurent

In a conversation with some of the Vietnamese roommates a few days ago, we asked the boys to pick between dating an intelligent but ugly girl or a beautiful but stupid one. One of the Vietnamese guys responded very frankly, "The intelligent one."

"Why?" we asked.

"Because the intelligent girl can get plastic surgery. The stupid but beautiful girl can't do anything to make herself intelligent."

"But what if the intelligent girl doesn't want plastic surgery?"

"Then she's not actually intelligent."

The other day, my friend Yi linked me an article from the New York Times titled "Sans Makeup, S'il Vous Plaît," which praises the French, natural approach to make-up. It criticizes the overdone look that Americans tend to prefer, covering their faces with foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, eyebrow pencil, lipstick, lipliner, blush, bronzer, and more. Not one little detail on the all-American face is overlooked and the result is something not so much beautiful as fake and plastic.

Without going into the cliche rant about accepting and embracing your body's flaws and faults, the article does make a good point about different standards of beauty and how make-up trends are reflective of them. The American obsession with self-perfecting starts at an early age, with glittery, sugary lipgloss substitutes becoming popular even before kindergarten (hi, Bonne Bell), Bath & Body Works dominating (and suffocating) the junior high girls' locker rooms, and fake and bake tans becoming the must-have pre-Spring Break accessory (because nobody wants to be the one pale person on the beach in Cancun, obvi).

From living and working in Hanoi, I've noticed that the Asian approach to make-up here is a strange blend of American and French, almost an "all or nothing" type policy. Although my workplace dress code is "business casual" (which is also possibly the vaguest term ever invented), women here don't normally wear make-up in the office. Most women rarely wear make-up in daily life either, which makes sense since 1) make-up is still a luxury good and 2) it's so hot that any make-up worn during the day would probably be sweated or melted off the face by noon. The nighttime club scene is more half-and-half split between the natural and the made up, but the general trend I've noticed seems to be that when make-up is worn, a lot is put on.

In a country obsessed with beauty pageants, the attention Americans heap on make-up products is instead shifted onto skin products in Asia. Case in point: it took me about 20 minutes at Intimex (the local, international superstore) to find the one brand of body lotion that did not contain skin-whitening product. While I spent the daytime hours of Spring Break 2008 laying out on the beach, the Asian female population here hides under umbrellas during the daytime, covers their faces with masks to hide from the sunlight (and all the air pollution), and lathers on the sunblock. The same story is true in China, where essentially tan skin implies that you work outside, which implies that you're doing manual labor, which implies that you're part of the working class.

At any rate, there have been so many studies done that show that more attractive individuals get better jobs, higher pay, and better treatment in society in general, that it's hard to write off beauty trends as just a stupid superficiality, although plastic surgery, as our Vietnamese friend mentioned, might be a bit extreme.

too bad i hate wearing glasses on principle

NEW SPECS.

guilty pleasure #25: i secretly love it when lyrics describe my current state of being

And all I do is talk, talk, talk all day
I'm laughing my life away
I'm staring at the sun again
Till everything's fading

It's like a swollen summer
What if I'm getting dumber?
What if I'm in denial?
What if they come and cop my style?

Downtown in the clear
All I know is nothing ever changes here
And I know there's no excuse and no defense
But my summertime never ends.

-- The Bravery, "Swollen Summer"

Since I really have nothing of meaning to say (because, let's face it, I've done absolutely nothing productive since I've come home for the summer and I intend to keep it that way until I leave for Viet Nam), I'll just put up pictures.

Here's the background for my desktop at the moment:


Which replaced this one:

The colors for some reason are messed up for my Andy Warhol one, but you get the general idea.

I'm always slightly curious about what people have as their desktop backgrounds, I guess because it says a lot about the owner's personality in the same way dorm room decorations tell a lot about a person. (Side note: It's weird to think that my best friends in college, when they leave campus for vacation, go home to places, houses, rooms that I've -- for the most part -- never seen. It's like seeing only the end result without knowing what shaped it. I love it when you learn about how somebody grew up or meet their family and it instantly clicks as to why they are who they are. But I guess, in general, I'm a pretty visual learner, so as much as I like hearing stories, it never really becomes fully "real" to me until I've seen pictures.)

Speaking of pictures, this will be me when I'm living in Prague: