Spring Mix: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

Some of the ingredients for an amazing past few days!

(my boyfriend played the biggest role in making it awesome!)

So many ideas have been bouncing around my head for quite awhile now. While being immersed in the Portland culture for the past four days & five nights I have had countless things I have been wanting to delve more into. Luckily, the new October issue was on stands for me to grab before I got on my flight.

My tweet deck had been sending countless reminders of new lines that have been making their way down runways in Milan during my stay. Needless to say, I've been busy in between seeing the wonderful, wonderful sights that Oregon & Washington had to offer us.

Before I start getting into designer lines, I'll speak my mind about the fashion vibes in Portland. Wow, what a great city! Not only when it comes to funky fashion, but the people are just down right awesome. One of the first stops I had to make was Goodwill. I LOVE thifting. I think it is the best ways to create your outfits and you can really make something your own with what you find. It's like going shopping in 1,000 closets of people of all decades with different styles. I lucked out immensely with this particular one. Almost everything on the hangers was designer. I ended up with a divine purple polyester BCBG top with a long tie-wrap around the waist (reminds me of something you would find in the Ralph Lauren 2010 fall line) I got another top as well. I will have to post a picture;

...but the real winner of the bunch was a beautiful Pendleton coat (made in Oregon) in a deep red. I was absent minded and forgot my coat for the voyage, but knew that I would get to buy one whilst we were there. When I tried it on in the store, three people came up to me and said "You need to buy that coat, it's simply gorgeous and in perfect condition." I snagged this little luxury for only fifty dollars! I couldn't believe my luck, especially since I did not have the desire to spend more than that since I have plenty of coats floating around the house. "They" say never buy a red coat, but "they" can go to hell, it's perfect, especially for holiday time.

I actually just chopped even more of my hair off.

Professional shears are dangerous for me to have.

It more so resembles a longer bob now.

With such fabulous thrifting, so many people are decked out in the coolest threads. I loved that about Portland. Sort of that "Let your freak flag fly" mentality. Which of course, is my favourite.

On to the designers.... I checked out a few collections this past week as the updates rolled in from all over via fashion tweets. heh (this all sounds quite lame to me. I never. ever. ever thought that I would have a twitter, but I do and I love it. dammit.) A few stand out to me; for reasons good and bad. Jil Sander is one of those. I normally like things by Jil Sander. But only through ads I've seen in Vogue over the years. I actually saw one of her dresses in the September issue and I loved it. When I saw the tweet about the latest Jil Sander line, I tapped the screen with a finger and wasn't exactly "in love" with what I saw. I saw big horizontal stripes across the body, unflattering, no shape, etc. But to be fair, I came back to the spring 2011 line multiple times to see if my mind would change the more I saw it. You know, like music, the more you hear it, the more you like it (sometimes.) So here we go; half of page three & page four is probably their only highlights and that is mostly in reference to colour. A lot of it is used here and I love that, I just disdain the shape of the clothes.

This is really the only thing I liked.

Some of the ones I did not like. At All.

see?! no shape!

These clothes are so expensive. They are supposed to make a woman feel wonderful about herself. I cannot see myself ever paying a lot for these garments. The female form should be celebrated and or at least silhouetted in some way. This line didn't do it for me.

On the other hand...we have some lines that I will be lusting over for a long, long time. Hats off to Aquilano.Rimondi & Versus! I love the patterns, the colours, the plaid, the line...really everything! It was hard to only pick six from each that I loved. They just make me gush!

.VERSUS.

mmm. mmm. mmm.

Excuse me, plaid just became extremely sexy.

I have admired the plaid look going around for the past few years, but I was never really into the grunge look so I always hesitate with plaid. I think sometimes it looks dashing and sometimes I hate the look so much. It's all about the rest of the outfit and the occasion. This looks like 'Little
House On The Prairie' all sexed up. I want this whole line.

.Aquilano.Rimondi.

Just PERFECT for spring. This line gives me such a good vibe. It looks like something Margot Tenenbaum would wear if she were 30 years old in the 60's hipster era. However they look like things I would wear now. I also love the one length long hair on these models. It goes perfectly with the clothes and the mood of it all.

But I cannot get too caught up in spring clothes just yet. For the time is coming for tons and tons of layers for me, simply because my body cannot handle these Chicago Winters. It's a season for me where my whole closet gets to jump in the mix. The Versus line holds more inspiration for me now because of the plaids. Plaids have always gotten me into fall, whether or not I wore them or not. They just remind me of the leaves changing colours and the crisp fall air. I am SO EXCITED.

Ah. My thoughts are finally put in their place for now.

This sunny day is making me chipper! Normally it's the opposite.

Hope you all tuned into Dexter on Sunday.