Things That Inspire Me: The Olsens

What's not to love?! Their fashion sense is impeccable, they WORK (hard, at that), and they are both responsible for an amazing fashion line, The Row. Routinely, they inspire me to wear more rings and bracelets before I leave the house. I'm conflicted between Chanel's "before you leave the house, take one thing off" and Ashley and Mary Kate's casual, but over-the-top Boho rings and bangles aesthetic. I fancy myself a little less classic and conservative than Ms. Chanel, so the Olsens typically win that silent battle.

This is from The Row's 2011 collection

Hair Inspiration

At some point I had a moment where I realized that for the better part of my life, I had sported the same hair. Long, dark, parted to the side and either worn curly, straight or back (it's back most days- -Hey! I work in an insurance office!). Every other part of my life is defined by sporadic decisions, impulse, and pseudo craziness, but my hair has always been so utterly safe. I've been completely reticent to alter anything about it, and once I had that realization that my hair was the one tell-tale thing about my deeply-hidden inner reservedness, I decided it had to be changed. I think this realization happened simultaneously to discovering that Daphne Guinness was a person...and an awesome one at that. So, my hair went from long and straight/curly or pulled back to my own version of this:

Et voila! After four or five months, I grew bored with that. It was a lot of upkeep to make quintessentially dark brown hair try to be platinum. So...it was the moment that I saw this image on the design sponge blog that I decided to adopt this hair style. It was bold, drastic and this chick looks like someone I would hang out with. 8" of hair loss, hair color, and bangs later...one of my friends came up to me at a very quiet bar and started introducing themselves before they realized it was me. Tomorrow's hair adventure is less exciting- -but this is the gal that's inspiring it. No more framing bangs- -blunted, straight across, and I'll take the cigarette while I'm at it.

And, here it is....

LOVE: THIS Outfit!

This is an "oldie but goodie" from The Sartorialist (who is the reigning champ of my favorite eye-candy style blogs).
I love that this dress is like the cream filling of a delicious violet cookie. This makes me want to buy leggings and matching cardigans.

LOVE: Lookbook

I love looking at photos, but I find myself utterly bored with fashion/style blogs that involve the same person outfit-after-outfit, day-after-day. The poses get cliche, the expressions, the style. I don't find that anyone has style that's so ecclectic that I'm interested in looking at them every day (which is why I cheat on my fashion blogs....shhhhh).
It's for that reason that Lookbook seems to maintain my interest. It's different people from all over the world- -I mean, the poses get a little redundant and it seems like a futile creativity competition, because "guess what?" everyone is a winner in this situation.

Feast your eyes on some of my more recent faves!

This is more about the stripes than anything

This gives me ideas for my own new bangs

Again with the stripes...and the red

Where do I even start?! I love the whole damn thing...

It's mostly about the hair for me on this one

The skirt...and that's all. Well, maybe the shoes.

The hair, the stylish comfort, the contrast of the bag....

Um, can we be best friends?

More Old Hollywood!!

LOVE: Sea of Shoes

Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes made me realize that I don't love shoes as much as I thought I did. I love shoes, but she LOVES SHOES!!!!!

I mostly-obsessively sorted through every entry of her blog over the course of a few days during lunch breaks at my day job, and here are my favorites.

Her mom is ridiculously stylish

Fashion erection