what, me worry?

It gave me great joy to debut this dress today. I'd been saving it for a good low seventies temperature, where bare arms would work but maybe not so much bare legs. It's from an Italian label called Cultura, and that's about all I can tell you about that since Google totally failed me in my quest to learn more.

It's pretty rare with me that I buy something that doesn't look like anything else in my wardrobe, but that was definitely the case here. It may actually be the only incidence of orange in my entire closet, and I certainly don't have anything else that's sheer in this particular way, but something about it kept me coming back as I roamed through Wasteland, and when I tried it on it just pleased me so much to wear it. So here we are.


Dress, Cultura. Sandals, Isaac Mizrahi for Target. Dweeby aw shucks grin, me.



Hope the weather is treating you all as well. :)

dream dream dream

1920s Lanvin-attributed flapper dress, $2600 at Shrimpton Couture

Posting this here so I can finally close the tab and stop letting it distract me from other things. More pictures at the source. More daydreams in my mind.

Gonna watch The Flapper later. I've been hunting fruitlessly for a good place to watch/download 1920s movies, any tips?

garden of earthly delights

I'm in another vintage phase. It tends to come and go along with what I'm reading and where I'm shopping (lots of magazines and blogs usually translates to more high-end shopping), and this recent mania was inspired by the following book:



- which is, in case you were wondering, pretty freaking awesome. I always like historical works that put the past into context with today and humanize it (this is why I adore Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, because she's painted as the party girl she was, and girl, I get it), but there was just so much to identify with in this book. Modern America as we understand it really started in the 1920s, and it's nuts to find out just how true that is, especially with regard to the consumerism that led us to where we are today. (Said the girl with the fashion blog, oh ho.)

Anyway, rather than go on about how alluring I find the F. Scott Fitzgerald/Zelda Fitzgerald pairing even though they ended up dying of alcoholism/in an asylum, I'm going to paste my favorite bit of the book:

Many female college students found themselves "smashed" on other women. "When a Vassar girl takes a shine to another," explained a student in 1873, "she straightaway enters upon a regular course of bouquet sendings, interspersed with tinted notes, mysterious packages of 'Ridley's Mixed Candies,' locks of hair perhaps, and many other tender tokens, until at last the object of her attentions is captured, the two become inseparable, and the aggressor is considered by her circle of acquaintances as - smashed.
- Flapper, Joshua Zeitz

♥! Goodness, I could take a hundred more stories like that. During the course of antique shopping I picked up The Fabulous Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Louis Verneuil, published in 1942. It is, so far, fabulous. Part of this is because Verneuil basically admits up front to being a ridiculous fanboy who finally insinuates himself into Sarah's life when she's in her seventies by writing a play especially for her. Amazing.

Thus I'm all wrapped up in an obsession with the aesthetics of the past, which has so far manifested itself in the following purchases: three vintage hats, a 1940s crepe skirt of the absolutely perfect length, and a handful of skinny vintage ties that will likely find themselves serving as belts. My grandparents kindly took me to a few antique shops this last week, resulting in the abovementioned spoils, and now I'm back home in Henderson, satisfying my craving for more cups of tea than anyone really needs, and updating this blog.

Here are a couple of shots that I had my mom take of me in the backyard when I was visiting home. Featured: my favorite of the hat purchases. The black veil kills me. I want to wear it with everything. And I will. Oh, I will.




Dress, Mise en Scene by Ruffian. Hat, vintage. Thigh-highs, American Apparel.

dead leaves and the dirty ground

Fashion month is over! I've been saving things here and there, so soon there will be a rundown of my favorite looks. I tend to be more of a collection person than loving a particular designer, except for Christopher Kane, who does something totally different/bonkers every seen and I seem to love it unfailingly. Many designers are one collection on/one off for me, which sometimes is great (Louis Vuitton is SO much better this season!) and sometimes sucks (How could they have topped Miu Miu SS10? Well, they didn't).

Let's talk about me! The next solid month or so will involve four trips out of town (two to LA; one to the Pacific Northwest, Auburn, WA, and Dundee, OR; and one to Chicago) so now is when I update the blog. I think I might try to line up some posts so it'll update automatically (you can do that, right?) and not be a vast wasteland between clusters of posts. I don't know, I'm not really talking about anything. It's supposed to get up to the mid-70s next week, thank GOD, so hopefully the cherry blossoms will last and I can get some decent shots outside.

Speaking of which, right now we're gonna do more from my shoot with Chanelle Berlin Johnson! I had my eye on this Diane von Furstenburg dress for ages, but didn't get it until it showed up at Neiman Marcus Last Call in my size - some things are fate, man. Paired first with Doc Martens and a vintage Gucci watch on a chain, a family heirloom.

















Then I switched shoes to the blue Louboutins (and briefly wrapped myself in an N Sync blanket - the day really wasn't warm enough for that dress, man).









Pictures by Chanelle Berlin Johnson, for more of her work, visit See Berlin Photography.

stand next to this money like

Oh, worst of all bloggers! Parts of this post have been brewing for a few weeks, but better late than never, right? So we have two related parts: 1. I went to the Lanvin store opening here! 2. I did a photoshoot with a friend, and some of the pictures are of me in my (one, only, treasured) Lanvin dress! Huzzah!

So the Lanvin opening was pretty rad, the store is gorgeous, the selection amazing - there's even bridal! Also, there were lychee martinis and generous pours of Veuve Cliquot, which is why post-party I wandered around Crystals for about two hours talking to various friends on the phone, with a long stint spent standing in front of the soon to open Miu Miu boutique (April 1st!!). Long enough, in fact, that a few Rockstar-swilling teenage boys approached to ask if I was in the model in the picture. I explained that no, I am not Lindsey Wixon, and they shuffled away. I could see the confusion, though, as I'm tall, fifteen years old, and a working model (note: only one of those things are true). I do like to look at pictures of myself though, so...I guess that one's not too out of character.

Though I failed (failed! I'm sorry!) to take any pictures inside the boutique, here are pictures of the invite, and the charming contents of the giftbag:


The invite!


Playing cards!


Alber!


Aaaand a pretty adorable keychain.

So that was that haul. The boutique had more than a few pieces in my general spending range, which is nice/dangerous for my wallet, including a totally bonkers necklace with the Lanvin logo cut out of mirrored glass. It was kind of surprisingly punk for the label, plus it was in the men's section, so Dear world, please deliver me a boyfriend who would wear a Lanvin necklace, love, Sara.

Back in February my friend Chanelle Berlin Johnson took some photos of me (this isn't all of them, and I'll be rolling out the rest over time), and I brought along this dress because I've always had a hell of a time trying to get a decent shot of it. Luckily these pictures are awesome.


Lanvin dress.


Worn, as usual, with my Doc Martens.

We'd just about wrapped up the shoot when the creative spirit overtook us, and a few more poses were had with my jacket:


Coat, Cole Haan.




Surprise! BFF


Probably my favorite shot!

Pictures by Chanelle Berlin Johnson, for more of her work, visit See Berlin Photography.

caped but not yet crusading

Okay dudes, I am doing something different tonight! I got this ridiculously rad 1920s black lace cape from Greedy Seagull Vintage on etsy, and something about it said to me "Don't just do your usual stand and look moody, try out some weird shit and see how it goes" and I was like "A TALKING CAPE, THIS IS INSANE" but when a great piece of clothing speaks to you, I say listen, ergo and thus! Here is a series of pictures (like, way more than usual, be warned) in my cape and a Trina Turk dress. Lip gloss is NARS in Diablo, in case you were curious.





















Feedback appreciated, let me know what you guys think. More pictures like this? Stick with what I've been doing? I am at your mercy, my dear sexy, handsome, ravishingly well-dressed readers! Let's do this!