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

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.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was busy and didn’t feel like much of a weekend, but that’s life sometimes.

Dress: vintage
Bow Headband: vintage via Victory Mills
Lipstick: So Chaud by MAC
Nail polish: 5th Avenue by Essie

With A Little Help From My Friends

November 3, 2014November 11, 20143 Comments

No, sadly, this is not my home. But it is Meaghan and Nick’s new apartment! Gorgeous, right!? (and of course my blogger brain immediately sees a nice place and thinks of all the photos I could take inside it). On Saturday morning I headed over to check out their new, beautiful digs and drink coffee with Meg. I’m sure some of you out there are like, “ya, whatever, it’s an apartment…you should see MY apartment.” But what you don’t know – unless you live in Toronto – is that finding a place like this, is not easy. The rent is either horrifying, or it gets snatched up within seconds or they just never become available because no one is giving that shit up. But, what we have found is word of mouth is the best way to find a nice place in Toronto. The good places are usually rented to a friend if the current tenant is leaving, which makes sense. When I was leaving the Everglades I had lots of people interested in taking my apartment. Good places just never get listed because there will absolutely be someone you know who wants to snatch it from you. Anyways, that’s my piece of advice for the day. Wanna find a nice place? Tell the internet/fb/instagram/whatever.

This has sort of been my go-to outfit for the last little while – a button up blouse of some sort, and a wool tartan skirt. The cold weather rolls in, and I’m always giving off 60s librarian vibes. I think I said at one point that I prefer dressing for Summer (that was probably when Winter lasted forever and I was hating everything), but I lied. I like this much, much better. Once it got cold, and I started pulling out all my Fall/Winter clothes, I sort of felt like myself again.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was actually really great – one of those weekends where you get a lot accomplished, but also had time for friends and relaxation. I have the day off today, but I’ve got lots of photo taking to do, so I should get to that. Bye for now you lil’ freaks.

*photos by Meaghan

Blouse: thrifted
Skirt: vintage Pendleton via Public Butter
Belt: thrifted

All Hallows’ Eve

October 31, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Happy Halloween dear friends! I had some left over exposures on a roll of film in my Pentax back from the summer and thought it was due time I do a little shoot to finish off the roll. I had never shot in the dark, so Ryan and I were just kind of crossing our fingers hoping these would turn out. But that’s what I love about analog. Experimentation and not really knowing the outcome is all part of the fun with film.

I thought I’d go in a bit of a different direction with a Halloween post. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Halloween costume planned for today – I’ll likely throw something together last minute if we end up going out – so I couldn’t really do your standard Halloween costume photo shoot. I did however have this cape on hand, and this velvet dress that was dying to be worn, so I thought I’d just be a spooky little red riding hood/vampire/witch/scared/i dunno girl in the woods. Well, whatever I was, I think I succeeded with a bit of spooky vibes. I hope you enjoy!

All you gals and ghouls better have a terrorific Halloween.

*photos by Ryan

Dress: vintage via Public Butter
Cape: thrifted
Shoes: Sylvie and Shimmy

If The Shoe Fits

October 27, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Shoes are another item I don’t buy often. I own a lot of shoes, but most of them don’t get worn on a regular basis (and were bought years and years ago when I used to buy things just for the sake of buying something). In some respects, I am a hoarder of shoes. I have a very hard time letting go of them, so the huge shoe rack I have filled is mostly made up of shoes that I keep solely for “what if one day…” or for photo shoots I’m styling. I have the same few shoes in rotation on a day to day basis, and you see those on here quite often. Those shoes are the ones that I sought out after I saw them floating around the internet and fell totally in love (that’s sort of how I buy shoes now, I must be riveted by them first). The same goes for this pair I’m wearing. I follow a lot of local shops on instagram, one being Sylvie and Shimmy, a quaint boutique located in my old neighbourhood, Parkdale. I saw these shoes, (and another pair I ended up buying) on their instagram and knew I had to pop by. I was in luck that day. They had one pair left of each shoe, and both were my size, so I guess it was fate, or something like it. I now pretty well only by shoes I know will get a lot of wear, and slowly but surely I will hopefully start to let go of (or sell) the pairs that are collecting dust.