Monday, January 18, 2010

BEAUTY IN STYLE


Katsuhide Morimoto

Sometimes I would see her with her lovers
walking through the Village, the wind
strapped about her ankles.
Simply being, she fought
against the enemies of love and poetry
like Achilles in wrath.
Her tongue was not a lake,
but it lifted her lovers
with the gentle strength of a lake
that lifts a cove of waterlilies—
her blue eyes, the sky above them—
till night fell and the mysteries began.
My friend I love, poet I love,
if you are not reading or writing tonight
on your Underwood typewriter,
if no one is kissing you, death is real.
-Anonymous Poet, Stanley Moss









Preen Line
 


(I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so here are both! Also, randomly, these might be the most versatile tights ever. I love them so, they even have a little hole in the toe I've had to mend, and I could kick myself for not buying more of them. And they're almost 2 years old!)

 
 
I am still trying not to be too drawn-in by the nice weather, but if I were to be honest with myself, I am giddy with fifty-degrees and sun.







I haven't totally participated in spring outfits yet, I won't give up tights till it's totally necessary, and I still need sweaters and light jackets. Also, I am suffering from Phantom Coat Syndrome! It's so strange not to have one! I keep feeling like I've forgotten something.

I've also been having a hard time getting total-outfit shots, so here are some strange details! I've been wearing the funny lace collar backwards, I think it's prettier, and I love my floral sneakers so much I would talk to them if it wasn't totally strange.






memory takes some time to compose
itself into a story all of us want to believe,
although of course it wasn't like that.


-Richard Howard, from "The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Castor and Pollux" as it appeared in The Best American Poetry 2008, ed. Charles Wright.



Charles Anastase
 



Then, a few days ago John and I went to H&M and the aforementioned most perfect sweater was on SALE! I grabbed it, after hemming and hawing about the difference between small and medium (I went with medium), here it is in all its inspired glory:





It is, in fact, everything I hoped it would be!
 
I know that now that the weather is warmer (a note here: don't trust it! Not if you live where I do, in the Northeast, where it is almost always guaranteed that we will get one more snow storm in March right after it gets warm and our souls get all toasty and excited. Don't trust it, I warn you) I'm supposed to ache and hanker for all the little pastel and pretty light things that I've been pushing aside in favor of warm thick layers. The idea is that you pull on the edges of all the pretty little lace frocks, the incomprehensible cotton dresses, gauzy pointless sweaters and all that with pastel and color and a vivacity of patterns that make Easter eggs look like postage stamps.



But I'm feeling a spring that's a little darker. It's not exactly like fall, because then it's all about grabbing the heavy knits when we're not used to the shocks of cold, but it is the same kinds of colors--I think. Black at least, and maybe weird raspberries and browns. It's like, I want this spring to be made of the same materials as the last, but be in darker colors!





(I know, ahhh, I'm going to start saving the sources for these pictures. Originally I was just going to keep these inspiration things in my own little folder and it didn't matter, but now it does! I know that last one, at least, is from facehunter.)
 




I love paisleys. They are like happy little fish. I grabbed this dress a week ago (or was it two?) at Salvation Army. I spent a good chunk of time there and loved this little thing for its paisleys and colors. It was half-off day, but at 24.99 this was still going to set me back a few bucks (I'm unemployed and cheap!), and when I got to the register the lovely woman said the dress was marked incorrectly and gave it to me for 7$. I was overjoyed! I am thinking I will shorten it--as it is it's just the tiniest bit too long for me to want to wear it all the time--but we'll see if I ever get around to that!

I also believe this is the first actual picture of my favorite tweed blazer, gifted to me for Christmas by my boyfriend. I have a hard time not wearing it with everything. To solve this problem, I attempted to make it different by pulling the belt from the dress and tossing it on top!
Consequently, I do wear the scarf just about every day.

We're back to out-door pictures! We'll run back into the studio now-and-then, but I missed seeing my front walk and the little chronicling pictures of what the weather is doing.
 
Happy Belated Valentine's Day! My boyfriend and I tend to stretch the holiday, however faux-holiday it might be, over the weekend (mostly because we can't deal with the crowds at restaurants and things, trying to get reservations and all that mess!) so we're going out for dinner tonight instead of yesterday! I am excited because it means the heart-shaped cupcake tins at Target might be on sale.

The more important reason for this post though, is this girl:




  
 
On Sunday, my boyfriend took me to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We've been waiting to see it for ages, since we're both huge fans of the director's previous work, and the previews were just gorgeous. The movie did not disappoint. It was long, long, long in the kind of way where I am very aware of what could be cut and was unnecessary, and yet I didn't really mind it. I liked it much better than the short story and visually, I was entranced to insane points of reason.

Mostly though, I felt wistfully envious of Cate Blanchett's clothing. First, playing herself from a young 17ish on, was breathtaking. She is so incandescently, such a horribly overused word, beautiful that it pained me. There were moments where I wanted to look at nothing but her face.



This is not to mention her clothes, which had me reaching and sad that they were not mine. I loved, loved, loved her little dancer's leggings and yellow swing coat (that I couldn't find a picture of) and the funny beret she wears.







I want to do nothing more than dress like a dancer and wear hats made out of numerous rabbits or other adorable animals.
 
Hello! I hope everyone has, will have, and is having a wonderful holiday! I've taken my barely-spare time to do silly things like sleep in and clean--the piles of laundry were in danger of overtaking me if they decided to rebel--before enjoying things like Christmas.




My family, to no surprise, loves to gift each other with clothing! I think all the gifts I gave were clothes, and I received much as well! Above you see one of my new coats, delightful and edible (there is something very off about the wording of this post that irks me. I suppose I should not abandon my blogging duties!).

Similarly, I have spent a lot of time in the past few weeks reading. It is wonderful! I haven't loved much of what I've been reading, not in that heart-close way that breaks little bits of me (in a good way) but I've enjoyed it. At curiosity and behest of others I checked out Kafka on the Shore (which I had read a bit of my sophomore year in college, but forgot all about) and St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. I feel mixed on both. The real point though, is that several people asked my favorite books and while I've danced around that post and referenced things, I think it will soon be time for addressing that issue!

I will be back to regular, ridiculous, posting soon! Right now I must go pointless curl my hair--it's raining--and apply mascara before going out to the Opthamologist where we are buying new glasses! I will then appear appropriately bookish. 

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