Wednesday, August 20, 2014

There's No Right Time

Courtesy of Google Images
High school, and even college can be kind of challenging at times cause they are years of physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental growth. Everyone’s maturing and developing aka puberty, and this doesn't all occur at the same time.

The public school system puts an incredible amount of pressure on teenagers to grow up, to be mature before they are actually there and ready yet. I took my cousin to her freshman material pickup earlier in the summer, and I was floored to see these 9th grade girls. In comparison my little cousin is a 5th grader, she’s the same age as all of them but man…she doesn’t look it. These girls wear tons of makeup, and are wearing crop tops and booty-hanging-out Hollister shorts and it all just felt so wrong.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Omo Edition: College Clothing Essentials

Courtesy of Tommy Hilfiger 
I have a few items I think belong in every college girls closet, however depending on what region you’re going to school in you’ll need different stuff. If you're in the south, then you’re going to need some southern belle prepster essentials. You got to have the game day clothes, almost every school in the south will put on their Sunday best for game day, in the appropriate color of course. You'll need some essentials  few items Vineyard Vines, Lily Pulitzer, J Crew, some Jack Rogers, bean boots, some hunters. If you don’t know what those things are and you’re planning for 4 years in the south, learn them now. If you’re going to the sunny west coast, just bring summer clothes. Don’t even bring a sweater or jacket. Snow boots, what a joke. You’ll never know what snow is out there. I hate you guys.

   1.)    UNDERWEAR
         Just buy more underwear, and when you are done, buy some more. If you are already at school and think you have enough underwear, you don’t. If you take more than one shower a day, good luck. There is nothing more annoying to me than when I have to do laundry earlier than I need to because I ran out of underwear. And laundry isn't free, so if you don’t need to do it, avoid it. You’re going to think this isn't that important and won’t follow this advice, but if anything this is THE most important piece of advice. I bought 24 new pairs of underwear this summer going into sophomore year. I learned.

Monday, August 18, 2014

September

Courtesy of Vogue.com

September is like this fantastical time of creative energy.  I gather all the September issues of fashion magazines from my local Walgreens (where Walgreens lacks Barnes and Nobles provides) and immerse myself in what I love.

I remember when I was a kid we had this style/fashion channel on the television, all they would do was show runway shows and interviews with designers. I learned what art was from sitting there and watching that. I learned what art was from flipping through the pages of Vogue at 10 years old. Fashion, style, it’s more than just clothing. It’s art. It’s beauty. It’s sending a message to the world about who you are, whether that’s today or always, without speaking.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Life: What I Know Thus Far

Courtesy Lovetpd.com

Now I’m newly 19 years old so by no means do I think I have the “secret to life”, “the meaning to life” if you ask most people I’ve barely lived yet. But what I do know through experience, and through a class I took that was able to contextualize something I always thought, there is no MEANING to life, but there are ways to live a MEANINGFUL life.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Let's Get Real

Courtesy of Google Images

Nobody’s perfect, you’re not perfect, I’m not perfect, nobody. And I think that’s where some of the beauty of life stems from, were all flawed individuals.

Were all flawed, we all have issues and we all go through really hard stuff that can knock us down sometimes.

WE ALL DO.

Yet I feel there’s a lack of people talking about it. Yes no one likes someone exceedingly self-deprecating, or that complains. However there’s a lot of things like anxiety over social situations, or living up to expectations, or stress from school that like EVERYONE goes through yet NO ONE talks about.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Birthdays Should Be About People Not Gifts

Courtesy of Google Images 

Now I am all down for being showered with gifts, I think gifts small or large are just great tokens to give to people to show love. It’s not that the gift itself matters that much, but the thought, that you put in the effort to get someone one, unless your buying Chanel...Chanel matters, 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Omo Edition: 10 Things To Know Going Into Your Freshman Year of College

It’s okay if you don’t know what you’re doing, just be freshman.

Courtesy of Google Images

Fifty Shades Has Arrived

Ew.com 
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week you've heard about the upcoming 50 Shades of Grey Trailer which premiered today. The internet was definitely buzzing with the arrival of E L James bestseller finally getting the Hollywood treatment.

Now I read the book after a couple months of it being EVERYWHERE my junior year of high school. It was smut. So. Much. Smut. But it was still a really enticing read, you didn't want to put it down. The movie has to be rated R, and is going to be, but even so I still don’t know how they’re going to put it on a movie screen. I’m fascinated to watch it and just to see how the adaptation transfers to the screen. 


Monday, July 14, 2014

You'll Know Better When You're Older

Humansofnewyork.com

As someone who is still young herself it’s funny how I can use the phrase, "you'll know better when you're older." I hated that phrase growing up, if felt so belittling every time some adult would say it.  I would think who are you acting all high and mighty.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Fall 2014 Couture: Chanel


Photos Courtesy Style.com
Little Miss Jenner makes her couture debut.

Photo Courtesy of Style.com
But I digress, this post is less about another K-named member of the Kardashian clan, and more about another K, Karl. When It comes to Karl Lagerfeld and his Chanel shows you never know what to expect. Lagerfeld season to season, haute couture to ready to wear, changes it up so every show is a new delight. 

With Lagerfeld's latest installment he ditched the theatrics, and the heels. The show was tamed and much simpler in comparison to walking down a supermarket runway. There was not a single heel in sight as the models all adorned bowed thong sandals or flat boots. 

The collection was a delight, the tweed we envision when the name Chanel is stated was present, as well as furs, (a wool/cashmere blend?) and intricate beading. What I found specifically interesting was that many of the dresses and jackets had shorts adorned underneath. For the dresses I think it's a lovely separate to include, it enhanced many of them and added another dimension. With the coats I loved the way that shorts played around with the longer silhouette. It made a cold look, look very spring which sounds odd, but it looked quite lovely. 

The best looks I believe were all the intricately beaded white ensembles. They reminded me of a fanciful wedding ceremony, with the bridesmaids and guests all following the bride in their own variation of a white hot look. 

Photos Courtesy of Style.com

Full collection can be viewed at Style.com

Monday, July 7, 2014

Fall 2014 Couture: Christian Dior



Courtesy Style.com


Coats, jumpsuits and separates.

Raf Simons latest couture collection again goes against the grain of being filled solely with intricate handcrafted gowns. Simmons since his first couture collection for Dior in 2012 has been bending the perception of couture. 

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Absinthe Truffle #CHOLATEWASTED


I’m not going to discuss where this happened because it's a little mom and pop shop and they were probably supposed to card me and didn't.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

You Are not Living, You are Alive

Being alive, taking up space in this world is not living.

Living, having real life is vulnerability. It's taking of the mask, relinquishing the sarcasm and defenses and letting whatever wants to enter, enter.

Living is lowering a defense. It's not only knowing you aren't always right, but allowing yourself to be wrong.

Living is compassion. It's knowing you do not have to be there for others, but you chose to anyway. You chose to sacrifice of yourself to bring help, to bring joy.

Living is steeping down from a pedestal and allowing others to see you. Vulnerability, insecurities, scars and all. Living is not hiding who you are under a crafted facade.

Living is knowing that an ego is the worst thing to have. That your space in this world is not greater than any others.

Living is being free. Living is openness. Having true life means stripping all those preconceived notions and being able to free yourself of the burden of tomorrow. Living is knowing that today is what is promised, that today is not even promised.

Living is knowing that tomorrow will occur, but tomorrow is not guaranteed.

Living is peace that if you were to die today, you had life; You were not merely alive.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Critique, Review, And Advice: Just KeKe

yyyyy
Courtesy of Google Images

Finally got around to watching Just KeKe. For some reason I kept missing it, and no one was putting the recording online...well nowhere I could find it. 

I think it's such a cool idea to have someone a part of our generation, actually being the one talking about OUR GENERATION. KeKe Palmer has a strong social media following, and appears as someone you could kick back with. She's a 20 year old girl who's comes off as just a normal person.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

When You Get Frustrated With Your Sport, Coach.


I've been doing track for the past 5 years, which isn't a super long time, however I ended up just feeling really run down after the past season.

I was doing better workouts and doing more strength work to make my body stronger, however I felt I wasn't getting the results I wanted ( or felt I deserved. I hate the word DESERVED, it breeds entitlement) I was just stressed out and, was putting so much pressure on myself and it wasn't fun.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Palermo and Huebl Wed

Oliviapalermo.com
She might have played the bitch back in the days of The City, but I adore Olivia Palermo.. and her wedding ensemble.

Palermo wore a cream sweater, white shorts, and a tulle skirt all designed by Carolina Herrera for her special occasion. Girl makes opting out of a traditional wedding gown look good.

  
Oliviapalermo.com
Her sense of style is so clean, sophisticated and classy. It's a step up from just being classically preppy, and a lot more accessible. She is (and has been for a while) one of my biggest style icons. I don't think I personally have a specific style, I take inspiration from wherever it comes. However there are certain people no matter what they wear you just look at them and say, "Yes. That's it. That's me, that's what I want to look like."

Olivia Palermo and her model/photographer hubby Johannes Huebl wed in a civil service in Bedford, New York over the past weekend.

I can't get over how cute they look, they just look so editorial. I mean they're both models in their own right, which makes that easier, but gosh I feel like there wedding photos deserve the glossy treatment. I liked those shots from Brides Magazine, but this is just, it's different, and more her.

For those wondering, cause I Immediately thought this after seeing her solo shot, those are the shoes from the
first Sex and the City movie. I knew immediately those were the same Manolo Blahnik shoes Carrie wed Big in. (I love me some SATC.) A very beautiful, and fitting something blue.



Sunday, June 29, 2014

Hannah Montana Had One Thing Right

Courtesy of Pintrest
Life’s what you make it so let’s make it rock.

Those may be lines from Miley Cyrus’s alter ego but, Hannah Montana was right.

There are no perfect situations I’ve come to find, and the things you think will be perfect hardly turnout to be so.

I’ve been searching for something better, thinking another place and scenario will be better, but it’s not places that make us better, but people. If you surround yourself with the right kind of people and you put all your energy on making your current situation better, and not looking for better elsewhere, I think you’ll find it.

I think when you’re young you want so bad to make sure you live a life that matters. For me I always I had to do more, be more, succeed more to feel like I’m having an impact. But, you can create an impact and matter wherever you are. It’s about being a good person, putting out the right kind of energy and living a righteous life.

If you decide to be better, and make active changes to live a better life, your life will be better. How you frame a situation in your mind determines how you'll feel about it.  You don’t always have to seek somewhere else out. Use what you have now, and make your life rock. 



Saturday, June 28, 2014

Live, College Will Always Be There

Courtesy of Somewhere on Instagram
1.) My little sister is in 7th grade (according to her she's just an inbetweener and has no grade till August) and she's already stressing over college. No, I don’t like this. She has talked about wanting to go to a boarding school for high school, which I always thought stemmed from Zoey 101 reruns, turns out I was wrong. She made a list, it's actually sitting on the table in front of me, documenting reasons why. Her reasons:

* College Preparation
* Independent living

Now at first I was just shocked she was 12 and cares about independent living...weird. But then, I really thought about the first thing on that list, college preparation. She's not even wanting this experience to meet friends like Quinn and Chase, and do something crazy like make designer backpacks or a Banapple tree, but to prepare for college. Now it's great she has that kind of foresight, but also incredibly troubling and sad. 6 years before she even gets to college, 2 years before she's even in high school this is what she's worrying about. We make college this be all end all, and to me a 12 year old saying this, my sister writing this, just breaks my heart. There's a huge flaw in the system, she should be enjoying youth, not worrying about university before secondary school beings. 

2.) There's this huge 'Appblr' community on tumblr which I just discovered. Actually wish there was an active community around like this when I was applying, because it's pretty useful and informative. Anyway, someone a part of this community was talking about how he/she has a summer internship currently. They are in the summer before they're junior year. Again, great that you have the foresight to do something like that but, a bit troubling as well. I wasn't even 16 till the end of the summer before my junior year, internships were the last thing from my mind. And I’m glad, because 16 year old me didn’t know what she wanted to do enough to have an internship. I think it's great people are preparing for the future but so many kids are forgetting to live, to really live and have life. They just prepare. They just do what will help them get ahead, tomorrow. We’re not in tomorrow though, were here today. 

I brought a book for people to write in on the final day of high school. The College Guidance counselor I volunteered with throughout the school year said this, "Live in the present but with an eye towards the future. Be prepared for what's coming next, for there is always a next. However we don't know when our last next will arrive, so always be present, and live.” Just because there is a next doesn’t mean we stop being silly, and youthful now.

People need to stop preparing to live, and actually start living. 

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

You're emotions are valid, and you don't need to know it all right now.

So this is going to be really difficult to write. I can already feel that, and I haven't even started. But I still think that it needs to be written, and I need to just get my thoughts out a little. 

Friday, June 20, 2014

Genius: 22 Jump Street


Courtesy of Google Images

This was one of the most clever movies I have ever seen. I was laughing throughout the whole entire film. The subtle double meaning in the dialogue laced throughout it was the best part.  Let's just say not only is it more of the stuff we have come to love from 21 Jump Street, but the dialogue, the DIALOGUE man if you really just listen and pay attention, you'll be laughing even harder. Maybe I am not watching the right movies, but i have never seen such a self aware film. It's a sequel about the fact that it is a sequel. We all know sequels tend to suck, and the dialogue jabs at that, without saying it. I can't even explain it perfectly, but so many scenes are just dripping with double and triple meanings and the fact I clued into them is what made it so much more enjoyable. Chris Miller and Phil Lord directed this perfectly so the humor was sometimes teetering on the border of just being silly and stupid, but never actually getting there. Even when I though a scene was stupid I would clue into the background music playing, or notice how it was framed, and realized how genius AND HILARIOUS it all was. Watch the movie. Pay the ticket price, grab some popcorn, and go lounge on that AMC recliner. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are the goofballs we love from the first installment but BIGGER, BETTER, STRONGER (like every good sequel).



Monday, June 16, 2014

MMVAs

Getty Images

This high rising double slit has got people buzzing. While I am not necessarily a fan of it, this isn’t the first time someone has worn a garment that goes way too high, or drops way to low ( I’m talking JLo's circa 2000 Grammy dress). However to answer the question the older Jenner sister posed on Instagram "why do one slit when you can do TWO!? #MMVAs" because one is enough.

This double slit dress designed by Fausto Puglisi looks to me to be just an expensive and glamorized version of a trend I absolutely hate at the moment. Walk into any teen/young adult fashion vender and you’ll find a gaudy double slit party dress, hanging on a rack not too far away. Ugh. I think they look cheap, and you thought ‘what’s better than one leg showing, TWO LEGS SHOWING’ and got a little scissor happy. One slit is hot, remember Angelina and that signature pose? Two slits...why do we need to see that much leg, and pelvis, and hip bone? We don't. 

Instagram
It’s not about the fact the slit goes very high or that her legs are out for full display, the outfit just seemed a little off. More fascinating to me than the double slit is why Jenner chose this dress. If no one noticed from that Instagram picture she posted her tatas look like pancakes. I ride the small chested train with you Kendall, however when you know you are going to be photographed in all angles, you make sure the dress works for your body. She either needed a bra, or some duct tape, to flatten them down completely. It just looks off. 

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Oh RiRi


I do not own  the rights to these images

From the now banned ad campaign for the Rogue perfume to the Swarovski encrusted Adam Selman dress Rihanna wore to the CFDA awards, we have known, and are constantly reminded that Rihanna does not care about social norms. Her fearless bearing it all approach to style has had people buzzing before, but when you step out in a see through dress just wearing a nude thong, people are going to talk even more. 

I would have been one of those people a few years back that said Rihanna was too much. She was hurting the feminist movement and not helping it. But you know what, she's not. I think anyone that shames her and makes statements that she is leading to the "thot culture" doesn't get what the whole feminist movement is. I think the reason people can't jump on the bandwagon of what feminism really is, is because people what everyone to fit their own brand of feminism. Whether it be Rihanna or Miley Cyrus, by being risky and taking ownership of their own bodies, they’re helping feminism. They are taking ownership and power over who they are. Just because I or you wouldn’t do the same doesn’t mean what they are doing is necessarily bad. We shouldn’t shame these people for being nude, because no one is forcing them to do it. It's their own choice, and they are consenting adults in an environment where other options exist. Many might not agree and I was a part of the many before, but just because someone doesn’t fit what you believe woman should wear or do, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Granted we can say Rihanna is in the public eye and young children and teens are looking to her and emulating the things she does. While that may be true I think that using that argument for a reason she needs to tone down is invalid. While media and celebrities do influence children, the main influences is the family and the way a child is raised. We need to stop putting the burden of the changing social landscape on the shoulders of celebrities and put it on the parents in the household. Rihanna did not make girls slutty, she didn’t make them thots. Famous or not people are their own entities, and they should be able to do whatever they want with their own body. Rihanna works in a sector that she can be risqué without fear of repercussion, she lives in a plane many cannot. So if she wants to be free and show her tits, why not? It's her body and there’s no boss to fire her for it later.

I might not personally dress like Rihanna does, but I love how she dresses. I love her approach to style and life and how she is just Rihanna. She's not trying to be a role model, she's not trying to be a feminist leader. She's a woman living her life. While power comes with being a public figure, it isn't her job to censor herself to make other people feel comfortable.

She won the award for being a style icon at the CFDA Awards and she is. That dress the styling, the makeup, whatever you want to say about it you cant deny that it was beautiful, it was enchanting. If you care about the fashion industry, care about fashion you can't deny that it was really just something spectacular. Maybe not an elegant spectacular as a Zac Posen dress coming down the runway, but something noteworthy none the less. 




Saturday, April 26, 2014

Social Media: The Voice of a Minority

I deleted social media back in October for around 5 months, got it back, and now after 2(ish) months I'm just over it. I don't need to see what everyone is doing. Even when I got social media back I didn't really use it again fully. I think our society, our generation, is too attached to instant information and documenting. We just sit behind our computer and phone screens and document our lives, and in the process compare it to everyone else. It keeps us from being happy, truly happy. The happiness you can only experience in the moment, that touches your core and you can’t truly document because as suddenly as it comes, it leaves. And no 140 character tweet and perfectly filtered picture can embody true happiness.

When all we perpetually see on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are happy smiling faces, people seemingly having an insane amount of fun, we are left feeling mediocre. None of what I am saying is new knowledge, people have been saying these things and doing studies on them for years. It just fully resonated with me today. I'm 18 years old finishing up my freshman year at college and I can't say I am anymore happy after this school year than I was in high school. I would actually say I’m just more lost. Yet while I battle with all my existential angst, I am showing a different side on the internet.

In high school everyone is in the same building and taking about the same classes. We may participate in different sports and activities and get different grades that change the experience, and opportunities we have, but we are more or less on the same level. Now enters college. We aren't forced to walk the same crammed halls, following the same path. We are separated. And the world really does become our oasis. When watching your peers delve into different arenas and have seemingly more varied, and just simply fun experiences, all you can do is compare. Left with a feeling that you aren’t doing enough, that your life and experience post high school education just doesn’t stack up.

When you are so hung up on social media all you are doing is comparing your collegiate experience (hell your life in general) the so called "best years of your life" to others and seeing if it stacks up. People might not say it and consciously see it, but it all becomes a contest. Beyond just sharing your life and letting people know what going on, you’re trying to prove how fun, interesting, and cool your life is. Once you’ve really clued in to viewing social media in this way it just isn't all that fun or important. It’s supposed to be fun, but for me it ends up just feeling like work.

Twitter, and Instagram (more so than Facebook) have just become branding tools. While celebrity or not everyone's personal brand is important, it really isn’t all that vexing for us common folk. The amount of internet fame you have through likes, followers, and friends doesn’t really alter the real world in any way. I understand “it's just fun”, and I’ve probably thought about this more than the average person posting their daily selfie onto “Insta” does, but it doesn’t change the truth of the matter. 

It may be fun, but it all just feels a bit shallow, and fake. And if you truly cared about what outfit I wore Friday night, or the restaurant and club I was visiting Saturday night, you’d ask. My phone would vibrate, and I would respond.  

So I’m done. Goodbye Twitter, Goodbye Instagram. Facebook, you’re deactivated but might pop back up. I don’t hate social media, I’m just done with playing into the toxic environment it can bred.


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Goodbye Freshman Year

Courtesy of Google Images

I've been torn my whole first year in college about whether or not I was staying or going. Now that we are three weeks till the end, the decision to stay has been made. There are better universities out there, academically and athletically. There are more diverse universities out there. There are more universities that are a better match and suited to what I wanted out of college. However here I am, staying.

What I realize now that I didn't before was that no matter where you go, college is a transition. I can’t ever say I was homesick, I wasn't, I relished the freedom. The freedom though, and “college” just didn't live up to the grandeur I had envisioned. I got so caught up at looking at my friends at these grand football heavy SEC schools, and friends who left the Midwest for more interesting horizons of LA and NYC that I felt mediocre. I felt as if I was supposed to love where I was, and love it a lot. That a moment of clarity, an AHA moment of “yes this is the place, this is where I am supposed to be” would occur, and it never did. Reflecting now on my time over the last 9 months, and reflecting on life in general, I think you choose every day to decide that wherever you are in life is the right place for you.

This isn't to say you shouldn't have dreams, goals, and aspirations about where you want to be, but to never let where you want to be and the life you want to live hinder you from just enjoying and making the best of the life you have. Sometimes you have to accept the hand you are given, and just play it out till the next round.

Everyone said it to me before I got here, and reiterated it even more now that I am here: “college is the best years of your life”, “you’ll look back at these years and want them back”, “college will change you.” When I really think about this I find all of these statements to be less about college, and more about being young, growing up, and transitioning. There’s a reason people love these years, cause everything’s novel. You are old enough to make your own choices and understand them, unlike being a child. Yet still young enough to get away with excuses of ‘young and dumb’ sans all the responsibilities of adulthood.  College matters because our late teens and early twenties matter, they are a transitional period we just happen to spend (the majority of us) in higher learning.