all american by Alexander Wang

it's fashion week

Well haven't I just disappeared for the last month of summer. There is a reason, I swear. I spent most of August preparing my Boston apartment for me to move on outta there and move back home with my mom in New Jersey. It seems I got to really love Boston the most during my last few months living there. It's been a great home for four years, but going in between New Jersey/New York and Boston constantly has made me really antsy to find a stable, more permanent home. So for now- I'll be a visitor!

This past week was my training week for my new job as well. This is where I put the "appropriate work-wear" into practice. For a while, I have been trying to figure out exactly what a female photographer is supposed to wear. At work, our dress code is business casual. If I were going to be sitting in an office all day, I would absolutely wear skirts and some nice tops and would have had a blast trying on different shoes. Realistically though, my job entails me lugging around 100 lbs of equipment, running up and down steps, and standing all day to take pictures. If I were a guy, I'd wear some nice skinny slacks, button down shirts, and sweet shoes to maintain the dress code and still feel comfortable enough to move around a ton. I could just wear khakis and a button down shirt, but that just isn't me. My first day, I did wear a more traditional business casual look. As the week went on - I was able to feel out how lenient the place is with dress codes and got to play a bit more. I think I managed to look more like an adult and still maintained my own unique sense of style.


I didn't actually wear the heels to work--not did I really wear this outfit. I wore this out for fashion's night out though. And I love these pants.


I wore this with a flowy cardigan and some pointy black flats.. but i got lazy and didnt wanna wear them in the picture haha.


first day outfit. meh.


Here are some pictures of my Boston apartment before I had to leave it =[ I didn't get to post from there at all because I was spending so much time with Micah and didn't ever get a chance to really take pictures. For my first apartment - I think I did a good job decorating. I miss it a lot. This apartment was also featured on the Boston Globe- I managed to stuff 6 people in it for graduation weekend haha. good times.

Project Runway season 6

Project Runway this season is set in a different city and broadcasted on a different network. I've been used to seeing the New York City scape for their intro, but it'll definitely be interesting how much Hollywood will be incorporated into the challenges. The first week's challenge was to create a red carpet look that also showcased the designer's personal style. To be honest, I am beginning to feel like they are casting more based on personality than on the quality of clothes the designers produce. Maybe I just feel this way because it's just the first episode--everyone's warming up to that extreme amount of pressure. I was really happy that Christopher Straub won the first challenge-- and after watching Project Runway spinoff "Models on the Runway," I wish they had sent Mitchell home with his unfinished dress instead of Ari, whose design was just too out of this world for the judges to figure out.

Speaking of the models' new show, I'm not sure how interesting it could possibly be without them throwing in some gimmicks like winning mini prizes every time a model's designer wins a challenge. These girls are professional models and there isn't really much in their power. It will be quite a different situation I suppose when each designer is given the opportunity to switch models each week. I have always been curious to see what goes on backstage at the runway with the frantic designers and surely equally frantic models, but I'm glad the models' show is only 30 minutes long.

ANYWAY. Pictures tomorrow. I keep forgetting my camera and its card reader. I had a whole summer weather post too. I'll need to dig up more past pictures.

Cheers all. xx

how i spent a week of vacation

My boyfriend and I had a fun filled week last week, which is why I wasn't able to update at all. We went to Atlantic City with my family, baked a cake for my cousin's birthday, stayed up until 5 a.m. in AC, went canoeing down the Delaware River, played a ton in the city, and went to Dorney Park. For a staycation, we actually had a lot of fun and saved money just staying with my mom. It was a much different week than my constant travels from city to city in Europe earlier this summer. I will surely miss having three months off of life to relax. I'm determined to find a way to keep these kinds of vacation days whilst still enjoying my work. crossing my fingers.

funemployment

i don't ever want to be required to wear a suit to work. the end. This is all I could think of today because I have been applying to jobs and it's getting obnoxious. I found one ad for a junior photographer at net-a-porter.com and it sounded perfect. I'd be taking pictures of models,mannequins, and clothes all day, possibly traveling back and forth between New York and London, and doing almost what I did at MILK the other half of the time. Things I already know how to do. But until they hire me, I'm enjoying my funemployment. I think this might be the last 3 month vacation I take for a long time.


bcbg shorts, aldo shoes, rampage suit jackage that I bought and refound in my closet from 2001, and an urban tank top that i cut up.

I need to find a better background. I also came up with a great idea for my photography future. In the mean time.. I'm thinking of hoaxing a wedding with all my friends so I can build my wedding portfolio. I love fashion photography but you know.. gotta make money somehow.

uniform violations

Last night, I had a little reunion with my friends from high school. It's so nice to have friends that can pick up conversations right where you left off. We stayed out until 2 a.m, which was pretty damn late for all of us considering most of us were in bed by midnight most nights at this point (can you imagine what we'll be like when we're actually all employed?) Although, saying the conversations picked up where they left off is a bit of a misstatement, cause we didn't talk as seriously about careers and marriage in the past.

Anyway, I went to an all girls Catholic high school, and yes we had to wear uniforms, and yes there were such things as uniform violations. I think uniforms allowed us to express ourselves differently. We learned to accessorize. Of course my accessorizing back then consisted of wearing a million jelly bangles on my arm and wearing some crazy punked out saddle shoes and putting all sorts of thick (of course polka dotted) headbands in my hair. So my outfit today is an homage to my high school uniform-wearing days.



This is my face = I can't help it. I wish I had thought to wear a head piece like this in high school.




Okay so I had to dig up a "then" picture. It's kind of hard considering I was careful about taking pictures of friends in class.

This is back when I had a 2.0 megapixel camera. We were inappropriate then. Who am I kidding we're inappropriate now too.


This is unrelated. But everyone's in uniforms! and this was during an English class. I think we had asked the teacher for a five minute nap.

commence the journaling

My outfit today: two things I love. graphic tees and tapered trousers. perhaps it would look less young with a blouse, but i'm telling you.. i LOVE graphic tees.





Yes I realize I am glowing and blurry. I hate point and shoot cameras and I don't have my dslr home with me. i took 11 blurry self-timed shots and overexposed shots. hopefully dropping the camera in coca-cola didn't damage it too badly. heh.

edit: also my arms are NOT that skinny.

new closet

I'm in the process of moving back home after spending four years going back and forth between my apartment in Boston and my mother's home in New Jersey. The person I've known the last four years is not the person who exists in my old high school bedroom in Jersey. I have collected so many journals, stray pieces of paper with notes on it, and clothes. These are all things I can never get rid of for they all carry some sort of sentimental value. They represent my growth from a slightly tomboyish, obnoxious, risk-taking teenager to a still slightly tomboyish, but confident, and well-informed young woman.

Aside from being reacquainted with my old self, it's been fun seeing the awful pieces of clothing I used to put myself into. For example, there are band tshirts sized kids 14-16 that I would wear as a senior in high school, rainbow tube-tops that scream adolescence, and I found so many polka dotted items to last me every day of the week.

I used to think I wore them so well. I suppose my style now is still extremely eclectic and not quite as sophisticated as I'd like. But I'm going to keep a style journal and try. See how well I transition into adulthood. I mean come on.. I'm only 21. I'm allowed to have fun still aren't I?


Below are my variations over the years of the skirt over tights look. A lot of me is still the same I guess. I'm just trying to readjust so that I don't look so crazy but can still be myself. I hope I keep this blog til I'm 30!


me in high school with more polka dots and .. I honestly don't know how my mother let me out of the house looking like this.


me at 18 with one of my favorite polka dot items. em love the hair.


Me very recently in London. I'm working on it. okay?