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 i've relocated! to montreal, quebec and to this new blog!

Tag, You're It

Today's agenda: endorsing brands!

Who cares about brands when you're vintage shopping or thrifting? Errrrybody!

Why? When you're out thrifting, you're bound to run into old brands that have retired to a quiet obscurity at your neighborhood secondhand shop. Consider yourself in the presence of some pretty rad kitsch. 

On the other hand, if you're like me, you won't collect just the rad old brands. You'll also end up stocking your closet with vintage mom-brands like Jones New York and Karen Scott. These brands are still current. If you're a mom.

Ever had a moment when you were looking at a clothing item with interest and then recoiled in horror because you realized it was maternity? One of those, oh crap, did anyone spy me checking out those mommy clothes? It's a bummer, my friend. Keep reading if you have, Liz Lemons, because there's a good chance this one's for you.

Here are some fascinating brand names that no longer exist, except in my heart. And my closet.

Whenever I wear this polyester tank top, I'm safe in the knowledge that I'm not just wearing knitwear. Oh no. I'm wearing knitwear WITH CLASS. 

I love this shirt. And I love that some guy with a name like Malettor Cross made it with tender loving care. If I ever write a romance novel, the cast of characters will include a hot villain named Malettor Cross who manufactures women's clothing. And breaks their hearts. And maybe eats them.

Papell Boutique? Is that an accent over the e? Sounds classy to me! I bought this sequin top without trying it on. That's how hardcore serious I am about sequins. 

Alfred Dunner is the shiz. That's pretty much all I have to say about that.

Stenay, eh? Man, sequined shirts with accented brands must have been a thing in the '80s. 

Jamesons! I just think the tag design is cute. And I love the intense acid wash on this denim skirt.

I saved the best for last! Oh baby, did I. The best part about this clothing item: that is a lingerie top, my friends. And it is a size 18. And I do not own it. But I found it at my local Salvo Army. And there it remains.

Important Life Decisions: Band T-shirts

There comes a time in every teen's life when she feels the oh-so-adorable urge to qualify her music tastes through her wardrobe. But what happens when you're not a teenager anymore? And aren't band t-shirts so 2004? What about jumping on the bandwagon of silk-screened band dresses? These are the important life questions, y'all. Moreover, should I buy this Joy Division tube top dress,

Via Etsy.

or this Blondie maxi dress?

Via Etsy.

If you don't vote, I'll be making this incredibly important decision without the input of people on the Internet!!! Heck, I think I just did!

Girl After My Own Heart

While hardly a girl at age 58, Cindy Sherman is definitely one of my favorite artists ever. She's a photographer who designs and stars in all of her own shots! She did some crazy cool photo portraits in the '70s! She once dated Talking Heads frontman David Byrne! 

And who knew she hung out with some of the movers and shakers in high fashion? Hey, I had no clue. Read about Cindy here in this month's issue of Harper's Bazaar!

One of my favorite photos from Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills" series, 1977-1980.

Ex-power couple Cindy Sherman and David Byrne.

I got this shit mailed to my house, since I'm that lucky girl who still receives her magazine subscriptions via snail mail. And I read the article at a coffee shop. And at the coffee shop, there was a silent film playing on the wall that nobody was watching. It was just there, like a monocle, totally pointless and apparently cool. Nobody ever said my life isn't sometimes like a hilariously bad indie movie!

"You're A Lumberjack, and Here I'm Talking Dresses To You."

What's better than octogenarians with an eye for style? How about an octogenarian who's one of the original artists living in the Carnegie Hall studios in New York City? (By the way, the resident artists' eviction from Carnegie Hall in 2010 is the topic of a fascinating documentary.) But I'm soapboxin' about this particular film: Bill Cunningham New York, a documentary that came out March 2011 about New York Times fashion photographer (and all around awesome old guy) Bill Cunningham. I'd been waiting to see it forever, and it's now available on Netflix!

When it comes to fashion, Bill is not interested in celebrity and spectacle, but rather how ordinary people transform their style into something notable, interesting, and weird. At one point, Bill talks about the old days of Carnegie Hall: "Ginger Rogers used to come, and Joan Crawford. Marilyn Monroe was one. And I had no interest because they weren't stylish."
Who does he find stylish? Turns out that some of Bill's favorite fashionistas to photograph are marvelous (and super eccentric) old ladies like Anna Piaggi and Iris Apfel.

"It's really hard to describe one's self because I think one lives very often in other people's visions. I see myself as the world's oldest living teenager because I have such a good time, and I try to get as much of a kick out of things as possible." - Iris Apfel (Screen capture from BIll Cunningham New York)

Good ol' Bill is the epitome of down-to-earth. He's an unpretentious lover of fashion who has devoted his life to his work, so much so that in a very personal moment in the documentary, he admits he has never had a romantic relationship - he simply never had the time.
I think for any other old man, you'd feel sad about his lifelong lack of romance, but Bill is such an optimist that you can't feel anything but endeared and amused.

"This used to be my old sofa, this jacket. And the pants used to be my ottoman." - Shail Upadhya, a style favorite of Bill Cunningham's. (Screen capture from BCNY.)

Movie rec? Definitely. You just can't go wrong with a guy who lives in a cramped studio chock-full of file cabinets containing his life's work, and who goes around saying things like: "Who the hell wants a kitchen and a bathroom? It's just more rooms to clean." Or alternately, "I just like fashion as an art form of dressing the body. If we all went out looking like a slob like me, it'd be a pretty dreary world."

Girls Who Make Music and Like Cats and Maybe Wear Glasses

I like the Internet okay. It has cats. 

You know what else? Felines and female singer-songwriters. It's a thing. Kind of like the theme of hot vampires, the motif of cute girls and cute cats is historical and enduring. So, I've decided to compile a few of my favorite cat-themed music videos by some of my favorite female musicians. Conclusion? Every chick worth her guitar pick should hire a mouser.

Bjork, "Triumph of A Heart," 2004

It's everyone's favorite (and the only one anybody knows) Icelandic pop songstress, in a video directed by the ever-awesome Spike Jonze. In the video, an asymmetrically pigtailled Bjork gets upset when her cat boyfriend (you read that right) is distant and unaffectionate one morning. Cat Boyfriend is sporting a wifebeater, so you know he must be an unruly cad. What else is a girl to do? Bjork goes out on the town with her friends and gets toasted on champagne. I don't want to ruin the plot, but it ends with a bizarre and adorable dance sequence that is sure to give you palpitations of the heart (unless you're not human, and don't like cats or Iceland or something.)

Lisa Loeb, "Stay (I Missed You)," 1994

Back in the '90s, Lisa Loeb pretty much invented the "girls with glasses and cats" aesthetic. QED. While the song "Stay" plumbs the difficulties of a romantic relationship, the video is a simple and pleasant one set in Ms. Loeb's empty apartment. "Stay (I Missed You)" is on this list thanks to the long opening shot of Lisa's cat chilling on a chair near a window. Sure, you say, but the cat's only a minor character. Well, I say, check out the album cover for "Tails":

"Tails" -- get it? Plus featuring more than one pun!

Best Coast, "Crazy For You," 2010

I think this video pretty much kills it when it comes to the "girls who make music and like cats" theme. Right? Kills it in a good way? Bethany Cosentino, who basically is Best Coast, has made no secret of the fact that her overfed domestic tiger Snacks is her BFF. In this charming video, Bethany surf-pops her heart out about some guy she's crazy for, while a gaggle of hard-working cats do the camera work. Best part: kitten in a red bandana doling out the muchies.

I'm sure I left out a bunch of cat-themed music videos with cat-loving frontwomen, but three's a nice number. In other news, my cat and I are currently working on our lo-fi synth-pop album, which will feature songs about our mutual love of sleeping, eating, and avoiding social occasions.

The Pose n' Pout

And ... I'm baaaaaack!

Not that I was really gone. 

I just popped over to my college town of Portland, Ore. for a little over a week's visit to see my best friends and to remind myself what the young urban lifestyle feels like. 

It feels kinda lame.  

Now, don't get me wrong. I love going dancing, and dining on salads and whiskey sours at nearly midnight at hipster bars that are all taxidermied out. I flipping love taxidermy. And whiskey. And bearded men in urban settings. But I can't stand that city livin' compulsion to always go out and be social, or else feel like you aren't really livin'. On the contrary, a quiet night in with your buds, or even by your lonesome, is sometimes the best night to be had.

As for the pros and cons of shopping: while in Portland, I successfully avoided hoarding at the Bins (by the way, the linked article makes the Bins sound way scarier than it actually is), where I would've most definitely acquired more crap than would fit in any normal human suitcase. 

I did, however, buy some stuff at a Mormon thrift store on 82nd Avenue (the most fun place on Earth). The friendly Mormon cashiers thought my friends and I were there to buy ugly Christmas sweaters. Whatever, friendly Mormon cashiers. This ain't my first rodeo and I ain't no debutante, if you know what I mean. I actually don't know what I mean either. But I did some real wardrobe shopping at that store: an ivory pleated skirt, a red velvet purse, and a Mormon women's league basketball jersey (with sleeves for modesty's sake). 

My first week's return to Houston brought me back to the comforts of Goodwill, where I purchased a size large sheer black blouse (excitingly knee-length), and back at home I promptly got down with the style blogger pose and pout:

I hope my future boyfriends appreciate how many pictures there are of me on the Internet in date-appropriate outfits. There's a treasure trove of possible wardrobe choices here, fellas. Just kidding, I plan to wear my Mormon b-ball jersey on all my future dates.

Just so you know, my best galpals have concluded that my style falls into the category of "some girl in a Prince impersonator's music video in Soviet Russia in the '80s." I'm so excited!