There Will Be Feasting And Dancing In Jerusalem Next Year

I returned a few hours ago from a brief but very nice family trip to Washington. We stayed on the fringes of Georgetown, which is such an adorable and fun area for shopping and walking around, and our hotel was magnificent. It's always nice to go somewhere.

I feel like the blog might start to take a different direction soon, but I am not exactly sure how. I have been thinking a lot about fashion recently, and how I feel about it, and how it connects to other parts of my life, and I feel like I might need some time away from fashion and blogging to think about the other creative things that are important to me. I feel really good about my clothes lately, and obviously that's the most important part of personal style, but I am starting to think that deep down the fashion I am all about is not especially innovative or provocative, and therefore not entirely blogworthy. This is all sort of difficult to explain.

Lately I am not sure whether my dedication to my personal fashion is waning or waxing. By that I mean, I have been wearing a lot of simple, comfortable clothes lately, none that feel quite special enough to share on the blog but all that I love to wear. Basically, I think I need to start setting slightly lower expectations for myself in terms of what I wear on a daily basis, and then coming up with things to show off on the blog will seem much less (or hopefully not at all) stressful. I just want to be happy with what I post here, and then hopefully you all will be too.

I apologize if I sound maudlin at all. With the end of the year right around the corner, I have been feeling extremely pensive lately about every aspect of my life - friends, romance, writing, blogging, school, college, and everything beyond that. I think I just need to sort myself out a little.

All photos from The Cherry Blossom Girl. The above picture was taken at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, a place of which I have very fond memories. And the post title is from "This Year" by The Mountain Goats, my favorite and most mood-appropriate song lately.

About a week ago I started a Tumblr, which I will probably be updating more frequently than the blog at least for a little while. Please do not take this as an abandonment of the blog! Please! I just need to relieve myself of some blogging responsibility for a bit. And no matter what happens here, I will continue to read your blogs as I always do.

Catchup

To begin, I actually had the most insanely fun time at our homecoming game on Friday. Rather than actually watch the game, I helped sell hot cider and popcorn to raise money for our theater club. We doled out drinks for a dollar each from portable burners and sang at the top of our lungs to any customers and admirers who would listen (mostly Beatles tunes and perfectly harmonized renditions of "Happy Birthday"). After the game, a bunch of friends and I piled into various cars and went for chocolate chip pancakes and milkshakes at the local diner. In short, it was a perfect night.

The second I saw this photo of Alix, I think I literally squealed out loud. We share a love for vintage floral combat boots! Magnificent.


I am so excited to see Coco Avant Chanel. Does it seem to anyone else that Audrey Tatou appears in every single film that is vaguely related to being French? Well, not that I have a problem with it, considering how adorable and quintessentially française she is. These photos are from a terrific interview on the Elle website with Catherine Leterrier, the costume designer. Definitely take a few minutes to read it and check out the rest of the pictures!


I first came across Purple Label on some blog or another, and after just a few looks at their simple, flattering, and insanely reasonably priced pieces, I am positively in love with this brand. All the tanks and shirts drape so beautifully, and the muted color palette is absolutely lovely. My favorite Purple Label piece by far is that grey jumpsuit. A casual crop top and slouchy harem pants combined into one versatile and crazily affordable piece = perfect on all counts. I hope to get my hands on it soon.

If you have never picked up a copy of Details, please do so immediately. It's more sharply written and chock full of useful lifestyle tips than most (and maybe all) women's magazines, not to mention the fact that there is usually some smoldering celebrity on the cover. The most recent issue I read included a gorgeous spread of camel coats, an article about James McAvoy, and a brief interview with Consuelo Castiglioni about men's fashion. Get yourself a copy, please!


Viktor & Rolf blew me away. Oh my goodness. They literally must be psychically tuned into my color preferences because every single one of my favorite colors is represented here. My jaw dropped when I saw that fluffy coral dress in the last row. In my book, they definitely made up for a lackluster collection last season, and made up for it about ten times over.


Karl Lagerfeld actually made me sigh. I love how the collection is centered around shorts and everything still feels like the most classic and ladylike clothes anybody could put on. The silhouettes are absolutely perfect, and here are my favorite colors again! This has gotten me so psyched for Chanel.
Some other favorites collections lately: Fendi, Marni, Lanvin, and Isabel Marant. I will refrain (at least for now) from posting in detail about these, so suffice it to say that I loved just about every single look in all of them. How has Fashion Week Month been treating you all?

On Saturday I discovered the most incredible piece at the thrift store that, the second I held it up in front of me, reminded me instantly of last season Yohji Yamamoto. I have started playing around with it and you will definitely see it soon! It's much more dramatic than what I normally wear, but it's such a gorgeous thing. I might even ink black hearts on my legs to really get in the spirit!

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Amid the dozens of stunning collections at New York Fashion Week, I have finally pulled together my favorites. Truly almost every collection featured something I liked (especially the glittery blazer at 3.1 Phillip Lim, the fabulous array of slouchy trousers at Ralph Lauren, and those three fluffy dresses that closed the Jason Wu show), but for me these four were extra special.

Julian Louie has shown me the breathtaking power of a monochromatic outfit sans black. The sunset colors in his collection are gorgeous beyond belief, and I think the balance between body conscious and more flowing pieces is just right. Totally digging the vintage-inspired separates in the first two looks, and the construction of that little peach dress is perfect. The girliness of the collection is awesomely spot on: springy and feminine, but with enough cleanly structured pieces to prevent it from looking sickly sweet. Aces!

Chris Benz has created one of the most unapologetically fun and amazingly fresh collections I have seen in a long time. I adore the juxtaposition of elegant forties-inspired pieces (like that perfectly clingy pink dress) with the totally outrageous sequined items, and the fact that the simpler parts of the collection stand up to its glitzy highlights makes Benz's work that much more impressive. Whether I am in the mood for understated or grandiose partywear, something in this collection will fit the bill, which I think is a very rare feat.

Gary Graham pulls off the ethereal, undone Victorian look to the tee. The collection is gorgeous but not quite pretty, thanks to loose pieces and haphazard belting (not to mention those killer black boots). The first four dresses have a fairylike, wood-nymph feel to them that I adore, but my favorite look is the filmy orange corset and cropped black trousers. The riot of sunset colors and slouchy cut of the pants are the perfect counterpoints to the leather boots and sharp structure of the corset. I really love how untrendy and comfortable everything looks.

Rachel Comey is undoubtedly my favorite New York collection this season. It might not be especially groundbreaking or irreverent, but who says great fashion needs to be? (I know, I know, I am completely not cut out to work in the world of high fashion. I apologize for just liking pretty clothes. Actually, wait... I don't apologize!) In judging how much I like a collection, my criteria are stupidly simple: are the clothes pleasing to the eye, and would I wear them? In the case of Rachel Comey, the answers to these questions are both enthusiastically yes. I adore the pairing of tiny crop tops with roomy bottoms, her color palette is cohesive and lovely, and every look has just the right dose of hipster-granny quirkiness that I look for in daywear.

Of course, I loved and appreciated many of the traditional best in show. Marc by Marc Jacobs was kooky and adorable as always, Rodarte blew my mind with their elaborate conception and prodigiously detailed dresses, and Alexander Wang once again nailed the fresh sportswear with too many fashionable twists to count.

But here I would rather share the collections that fulfill what I personally love about and look for in fashion. Every single look I have posted above I would wear in a heartbeat, and that's what makes a collection a favorite for me. So tell me - what collections have you loved because you can totally see your own style reflected in them?

I might post some more New York favorites soon, but coming up next is my one hundredth post so I have something special planned. Stay tuned!