Behind The Scenes / Winter Whimsy

November 25, 20144 Comments

On Saturday I made my way over to Brantford, ON to style and work on another photoshoot with Gerald, Annya and our model Emma. About 1 month ago I was given some pieces from Mode Laboratory’s SS 2015 collection and was waiting for the perfect time to use them. While the pieces are indeed Spring/Summer I thought they worked splendidly with our wintery photoshoot. There is something so magical about winter landscapes and a model adorned in white and pastel pieces. Mode Laboratory’s pieces are whimsical in and of themselves and I think they were a match made in heaven for the work that Gerald produces. I’m uncertain when I’ll be able to show you the final images, but for now, here are a few behind the scene photos I took during the shoot.

Assuming An Identity

November 24, 20144 Comments

When I put this outfit on I thought to myself “Okay, you’ve become a librarian or a Sunday School teacher, or both. Maybe you’re a librarian during the work week and Sunday School teacher on…Sundays. Either way, you look like someone with a seemingly stuffy and boring profession.” Not really a fair judgement of either occupation – singing songs with children on Sundays is probably a lot of fun and being surrounded by books all day would also be awesome – but you get what I mean. All this to say, the way I dress now seems incredibly reserved to the way I used to dress as a teenager. I like thinking about how we as humans are always changing and evolving. Some people do it a rapid rate, others seemingly stay the same way for a long time as if they have been certain of themselves all along. I’ve always been a person of change. My appearance and dressing myself has always felt like art to me, and as soon as I grow tired of the art I’m producing I change it up, taking on a new aesthetic. I think thats why I love vintage so much. There is always something new to learn about how people used to present themselves. We can take cues from the past and present them in a modern way or we can just downright look like we teleported from “insert your favourite era”. Either way, it feels like a mindful way of getting dressed. Instead of just allowing present trends to dictate the things we wear, we can assume identity through a myriad of pieces that no longer fall under a category.

Blouse & skirt: thrifted vintage
Cardigan: Larkspur Vintage
Hat: Shop Ruche
Purse: vintage via Public Butter
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Bow tie: handmade

Break The Cycle

November 18, 20145 Comments

I’m not sure if it’s the weather or some other factor unbeknownst to me, but I’ve been feeling a bit down of late. That down feeling usually manifests into obsessing over some particular thing in my life that I believe needs fixing. In this case, my home. Moving is always a transition, and while it’s been over 1 month, I still don’t feel like everything is as it should be. Our home leaves a lot to be desired – there are many things about the construction and interior of the house that have left me a bit baffled. It’s small things like maybe repainting some cupboards and reorganizing some rooms that could make the whole place better suited to my taste. But the problem I have – and have always had – is I never look at each thing that needs to be tackled as a separate. I look at everything all at once, as a whole, and it makes me feel like there is an endless amount of things that need to be done, and how can little ol’ me do ALL of those things right now?! It’s a horrible way to look at a problem when you need to tackle something. It becomes this cycle of not doing because you are thinking about how much needs doing, and you become so overwhelmed by it that nothing ever comes to fruition. Sheesh, right!? Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe even tips on how to get out of this cycle? At this point I’ve taken to reading Not That Kind of Girl (not the book I’m holding in these pictures, but this one is way prettier – sometimes I buy old books just for their pretty covers), listening to Serial podcast and re-watching the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer just to get my mind off my new-found obsession with wandering around my apartment thinking of all the things I’d love to fix and then wanting to run away from my house because I’ve made myself incredibly overwhelmed.

Anyways, a day in the life, I suppose. I hope you’ve all been having a far more cheerful time, and if you’re not, at the very least, you know you are not alone.

Pinafore: TLO
Blouse: thrifted
Cardigan: thrifted
Tights: Target
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy
Bow tie: handmade

Sur Ma Tête / The Ethel

November 12, 2014November 12, 20144 Comments

Meet Ethel, probably the silliest gal of all my hats. Silly mostly because she sits right atop my head (kind of like a turban) making sure you don’t miss her for even a second – she is in no way understated. Another pillbox hat, which I probably have a thing for. This one is an old girl, and you can tell – there is some staining (as you can see in the second picture below), and the ribbon and twisted straw that has been basket woven together are coming a bit undone in some places, but I love her all the same. I got her at an antique mall in NY State. I saw her just wasting away on top of a shelf and knew if I didn’t take her home, someone probably wouldn’t, although I can’t be sure of that because she’s pretty awesome.

Name: Ethel
Age: 60-65yrs (1950s)
Talents: stands out of the crowd, doesn’t give a shit what nobody thinks, has a darling bow to make her tough exterior a little more sweet, when worn she shares her wisdom from her many years of experience, and just a real hoot!

Dress & hat: vintage via antique mall in NY State

Mine Eyes Deceive Me

November 10, 2014November 11, 20144 Comments

It’s interesting to look at these photos and see how feminine I look and how, quite often, I don’t feel that feminine. If we are generalizing femininity, outwardly I am quite a feminine person – long hair, makeup, painted nails, dress. And it’s interesting how this type of look will lead people to draw conclusions about your personality, even if it may be very far from who you actually are. I remember after Ryan and I started dating, he had told me when we first met, he thought he was going to have to do a lot to impress me. Essentially, that based on the way I looked, I would probably be a high-maintenance, sort of elitist person (I’m speculating here, those may not be the words he would choose). I’m not pointing the finger at him, because most, if not all people jump to conclusions about who a person must be based on the way they dress/look (I do, you do…) But still, I was almost shocked that he thought this about me, because I have always thought of myself as a very low to medium maintenance girl, and truthfully – if we are again generalizing femininity – I don’t act much like a textbook version of a girl (or the 1950s version of a woman) – I think poop jokes are funny, farts make me laugh, I swear a lot more than I care to admit, if I’m at home I sit in the least lady-like positions as possible…you get the idea. The most feminine thing about me is the way I look. I can be incredibly emotional, which a lot of people regard as a female trait, but I feel it has nothing to do with being a girl and more to do with being a Cancer (or a human being). I like wearing dresses and skirts, but that’s because they are just categorically better than pants (you can argue me on that). But what’s even more interesting to me is that almost inherently, we have learned to categorize almost every type of person out there solely on how they choose to dress. Maybe movies did this to us – made us assign a personality type to every style there is, so there is no need to actually get to know a person. Heck, there are probably times when people actually assume they would not get along with someone just based on the way they dress/look. How sad is that?! That we may prevent ourselves from getting to know someone who may actually be awesome. The world is a strange place. I often wonder if the conclusions we jump to is a nature vs. nurture thing. Most likely nurture, but maybe it has been so much about nurture and engraved into our brains that it has actually become nature over time. Anyways, food for thought.