One and the Same

I have come across these two pictures of one and the same girl at The Fashionist and was sort of blown away.

Not only is she a girl with very gorgeous features, but I was especially fascinated by how she looked special either way. She evidently has the ability to slip from one style into another. While I think the most of us do stick to a certain style we think suits us best, it can be difficult to break out of firm patterns we developed that way. I think that is sad, but on the other hand it is an absolute necessity when it comes to dressing for every day. How much do we stick to those firm patterns when it comes to the shopping part alone, though. How easy could we make a change with only a statement piece that re-works the whole of an outfit. Only, do we ever think about doing so? So do you think there is a necessity to think not only out of the box of other peoples' perception, but our own box as well? Get out of what we are used to and look for something new that could just as well work for us? And if we did not, do you think that is boring?

____________________

EDIT:

Regarding our discussion and the posed question how well the girl above is at changing from style to style, I guess traum.tänzerin gave the decisive key hint:
Seeing this picture I am reminded that I had indeed seen her on Face Hunter before. Consistencies might still be undeniably there (this time the knee-high socks). However, with this one I am impressed all the more of her not so common ability to recreate everchanging and whole new images of herself. Because this is what she does in each picture, at least in my eyes.

Thank you a lot for this, traum.taenzerin.

Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall, now 85, who gained success through movies like "The Big Sleep" (a film noir par excellence), "How to Marry a Millionaire" (co-starring Betty Grable and Marylin Monroe), "Murder on the Orient Express" (co-starring Sean Connery or Ingrid Bergmann, among others), and more recently "Dogville" (co-starring Nicole Kidman) , has probably also been well known as Humphrey Bogarts wife until his death in 1957. I love her for her cool looks, her hard-boiled surface, but very feminine core. She has, over the years, barely lost her touch, and as beautiful as she had been in her early works, she still is in her later movies.

Wedding Ceremony

So I attended a very old school, traditional, Christian-Catholic wedding in the more rural Bavarian countryside yesterday. It was my first wedding I was personally invited to as a grown-up (not as the child of the invitees), and as a friend of the groom, a work mate of mine. Thus, I was very curious about the wedding as a festivity itself, but even more, I found myself as a curious onlooker of a real Christian ceremony according to the Christian traditions of Bavaria, the most conservative region of Germany. I and most of the people I surround myself with are not, or not very strongly attached to the Christian religion. Moreover, I would not consider myself, as well as my family and friends, the commonplace Bavarians (although I am living here for as long as I can think), also especially because we are from the city, and the rural regions are a whole other story altogether. So in the end, the Christian-Catholic wedding ceremony was a very special occasion for me, and it was interesting to see how it passed off, the procedures, and the things done and said during the ceremony. It sadly differed a lot from the kitschy churchly ceremonies I have watched in Hollywood movies - but they do not account for reality anyway, do they? It also quite differed from this procedural outline of a typical Christian wedding ceremony I found through googling "wedding ceremony". But I had never attended one before, and I most likely will not again (but who knows), so I consider it an unique, once-in-a-lifetime happening.

People at the wedding were also immediately able to tell that I and the people I came with were from the city, in contrast to the rest of the wedding party. Our attires must have revealed us.

All in all, everything was typically Bavarian, dare I say, and therefore very refreshing somehow. The guests could choose between Bavarian-style pork (Schweinebraten), duck or zander with typically Bavarian side dishes from a buffet - yummi! There was a massive amount of choices for dessert, and we could drink as much and whatever we wanted. The "DJ" was a corpulent, elder man in a beige linen blazer who was able to get all the people off the dancefloor within a few songs, except for this one couple who obviously had attended dancing lessons together and felt compelled to show their mastery off. It was hilarious. I would lie if I said I did not have a great deal of fun, though. Everything was nicely thought out and executed. I would say, the party was a success!

Here some "Poladroids" of their big day:

I am surprised how churches obviously go with the flow and how modern and updated they keep their equipment. This particular one had a digital display panel telling the audience which song and which verse in the textbook to sing. Wow! When the priest gave out the wafers, I had to think about this article in the newspaper reporting on the religious wafers' industries' economic distress. And I had to take a picture of this window painting which reminded me of designs by Ed Hardy (I do not want to be blasphemous, though!).

Drapery

Overexcess of fabrics, tucking it here, draping it there, layers. Instant drama! And that is why I love it.

Jane from Sea of Shoes // Streetpeeper // D from Men are from Mars (he can now be found on Monsieur, You're Chic) // Drop Snap

Have You Heard It?

It is always good to have a parallel outfit ready. And with that I mean good outerwear options. Since I am running around town most of the time, most people I meet will only see me well packed up. It sure is a shame that what lies underneath stays unbeknownst to most of them. But I can make sure that what is outside does not look to shabby either.

So I have several coats for all kinds of temperatures. Some better than others, but each certainly with potential to be pimped up properly with the right accessories.Thick scarves, hats and gloves are essential anyway. German winter can be nice, but tends to get nasty at its best.

The coat is from Forever21 in Tampa, Florida. The scarf is from H&M Men, as is the hat with zippers at the side.

By now, I am involved in this whole fashion-blogger thing for almost two years already (oh my! time flies!). I have drawn so many inspirations from blogs and their authors, it is pretty amazing. However, while my primary intention was to look for fashion and style inspirations, I could not help but be inspired by something else as well: the music. Whether it was through flash-players setting off the second you entered their blogs, through random links or embedded youtube.com-vids, through mere recommendations, or through this meme some while ago, I was always picking up some of what was out there along the way. Some of the music I gathered that way has become longlasting favorites, tunes that will always stay dear to me, and keep on lingering in my ear!

So I have carried the best of them together and compiled a playlist I uploaded for you to listen to and judge for yourself (no worries, the uploading services are tried and tested, just click on one of the links provided).

And here is the (pretty accurate) stories to the songs:

Bats for Lashes - "What's a Girl to Do": I do not how I came across this for the very first time and where exactly, but it stuck somewhere. And justly so!
CSS - "F***off is Not the Only Thing You Have to Show": I have read so many bloggers ranting about them, so I just was curious and listened to their album, which was no good at all. But this particular song was worth keeping!
Spinnerette - "Ghetto Love": The newest discovery I just made today at Mayk All Day Every Day. It is really wicked!
The Radio Dept. - "Pulling Our Weight": Knew the band, but was not really interested in what they did overall. Until I browsed through several playlists set up by bloggers in consequence of this meme and fell in love with this particular song. It also inspired me to listen to their complete discography. Since then, they are one of my most favorite bands (they play along the lines of Death Cab for Cutie, The Cardigans and Camera Obscura).
The Teenagers - "French Kiss": One of my favorite stories. I tagged Gille Krivich to list six songs, and this one song of her playlist immediately got up to one of my favorite tunes for the whole subsequent time. I love Gille's style and taste in music!
The Bad Plus - "Lithium": The Dead Fleurette sometimes puts her own playlists online for download. The whole idea with compiling a playlist comes from her, actually! This was one song of one of her compilations. It is a nice re-interpretation of one of Nirvana's evergreens. I like the change in tempos.
Janelle Monáe - "Metropolis": Good style can translate into good taste in music. Must be the case for Ca, by whom I was inspired to look up Janelle Monáe. Good I did!
Beyoncé - "Halo": It is likely that I would have come across this anyway, but No Good For Me helped speeding up the process!
Crystal Castles - "Untrust Us": From musical newcomer to style icon to star. That is the way it can go. Pretty in Black helped spreading the love by declaring Alice Glass, front singer of Crystal Castles, as style icon!
The Knife - "Marble House": Gille K. did it again! She casually posted Neverland by The Knife and inspired me to listen to their most recent album, Silent Shout, of which almost all tracks are intensely good!
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - "On the Low": This song is so slow, it runs backward. From The Only Place to Be is Next to You.
Jens Lekman - "I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You": Knew this guy, but never really listened to any of his albums. Until Sanna recommended Night Falls Over Kortedala.
Girl in a Coma - "Their Cell": The first track in her flash-player that greeted you on Adeline-Mai's blog for a while.
Lykke Li - "Little Bit": I would even presume her fame primarily comes from all the blog-love she received the very first months she released her debut, Youth Novels. And it is an outstanding album indeed. The link leads you to the incredibly good CSS-Remix.
Superpitcher - "Lover's Rock": Daul's Happy New Year song.

These are the songs I thought I include simply because they are so good and I think you should have heard about these ^^ :
Ingrid Michaelson - "Die Alone"
Bloc Party - "Trojan Horse"
Vampire Weekend - "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance"
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2 in C-minor, Op.18, 2nd movement (one of my most favorite classic works! SO SO good!).

Download the playlist!

Good fight, good night.

Take Me Out

Have been to bed far before 0h lately (I am usually up until at least 1, 2am every night). And then I was still tired during the day and took naps. I even skipped a lesson today >< (did not plan to! promise!!!). I always feel pangs of remorse when I do it, but I got over it by now. At least I have made important appointments with everyone I was supposed to this morning - my dentist, eye specialist, property management, etc. etc. I have not been out of the house the whole day, though. Maybe bf will take me out later on. Then at least I would not have dressed up in vain today.

overlength cardigan by Zara // dress by Charlotte Russe from the US // Topshop-necklace // old belt from my teenage days // flats by H&M // you cannot tell very well, but I braided one side of my hair, which I really like to do lately

If you were wondering what I was preparing in the last picture in the last post, I think the following two pics give insightful hints:

This One Particular Sweater

I am a lazy bum. I said I wanted to dress comely again, but all I have done is literally living in this one particular sweater. Been dressing it up and down, been wearing it with various variations, been holding talks, been baking brownies, been sleeping in it. I am a lazy bum.

Actually this H&M-sweater is supposed to be way too large for me, since I am usually an EU34, but only a size EU42 was left on sale. This did not bother me too much, though. Size is nothing but a number ^^

Just Layer It Well!

Somehow winter effectively freezes creative outfit ideas to a bunch of fabrics unsightly covered in a bulky coat devoid of any hint of style or styles. Oh, I only wish I could do better in any kind of weather conditions. But gray, misty skies, icy streets, and an ubiquitous fear of influenzal infection do not make it any easier (I always have my mother's reproachful glances in mind when she catches me underdressed for German winter weather). However, now that temperatures have risen from -20°C to at least -6°C (makes a huge difference!), I may resume my daily exercise of dressing up comely. It is about time! I am fed up being only a formless bundle.

Streetpeeper // Style Scout



from Japanese Fashion mags



Garance Doré // Streetpeeper // Gade Mode



unknown // Facehunter

Links can be found in my links-list "In Which They Take It to the Streets" to the right hand side of the blog. Oh, and sorry for the grainy-ness of the pics.

What My Mother Did

When I was a little child, for my mom, the choice of my clothes stood under very pragmatical aspects. She used to buy me the same pants in several different colors, chose robust materials for everything, and mostly went for sales items in discount stores. Only in 4th grade, when I had my choir solo in front of the whole school, she realized that a girl maybe should be dressed in more than only practical clothing, and she felt pangs of remorse. After this, she redressed her error. In my teens, she would never refuse me the craziest or most expensive of trends I wanted to buy. My dad would always scold her for buying me 200DM pants, but she somehow deemed it necessary, and I did too at that time. Even today, now that I pay for all my clothes myself, she would offer to help me out on things I like but are slightly out of my budget. I always thought that this was general motherly behaviour, to do me good once in a while (though she does me good all the time in all possible ways). Only today she told me everything behind it. I thought it so cute, because it definitely made me the clothes horse and style fetishist that I am today. A lot of trials, a lot of errors were made that way, too, because however dull the trend, she would never constrain me in my fashion ways. But you live and you learn, and you have to follow first in order to make your own rules later on. My mom did give me exactly that opportunity. And I am forever thankful.

some blue sports jacket a work mate gave me // gray dress from Tokyo // black leggings by American Apparel // boots by Deichmann //hat by H&M