THECLOUDSAREREALLYLOWANDTHEYOVERFLOWWITH COTTONCANDY

Sorry for the lack of updates guys, I've been "busy" (or rather distracted) and I haven't had time to take pictures for the blog. Plus you don't want me churning out some half witted outfits anyway, I don't even get dressed on days I don't leave the house. It's not from lack of inspiration, but more endemic from laziness. I don't always have to get my fashion fix from dressing up, but I digress.

I spent some time styling the hat, I started off with outfits with jeans and other articles of clothing that aren't appropriate for the 90's weather we're experiencing (and the fact that it's 20 degrees hotter up in my annex aka my room with the computer in it). Then I figured, damnit, we're gonna be experiencing heat for at least another two months, because in Orange County summer likes to overstay its welcome and torture us until about early October. So I'm gonna have to get used to styling shorts to fit my fancy. So I whipped up this outfit which is a more summer friendly version of an outfit I styled with jeans and such and such.




I'm wearing a thrifted polka dot shirt and bag, handed down shirt, belt, bracelet, and hat, homemade buffalo tooth necklace, Target shorts, blue leather cuff from a flea market, and Stacey Adams shoes.
Inspired by the usuals, Hendrix, The Man With No Name, and other random influences, ya know.


Here's a more casual rendition without the hat, I was gonna untuck the shirt but I forgot. I'm quite on top of things. I love playing with long shirts, they're flowing and fun to wear. Plus they keep you cool in the summer and help you stay single.




Here's a close up of the necklace, you can also see the details on the shirt. It's so soft you guys.

You know you want to enter to win the jeans. I mean, if you're greedy and have an infinite amount of jeans and want to enter, hey, I'm not gonna judge you, I'm just gonna pick my favorite. I think I broke my comma record with that sentence. But I really think you should:
ENTREZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT
ENTREZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT
ENTREZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT
ENTREZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT
ENTREZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT
ENTREZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT


-Cruz

Hats: Dangerous Waters

It's not that we don't like hats in the fashion world, it's just when you're already a spectacle of your friends, family, and peers for what you wear, you don't necessarily want to draw even more attention to yourself by going beyond over the top. Not that it can't be done right, hats do have a cherry-on-top effect to outfits, but sometimes it ends up looking like this...


Ummmm no.
These aren't necessarily the women I'm talking about, because I couldn't find a picture of Paula Abdul with a hat on.

I can't really find a good example of the kind of woman I'm talking about, but they're all over the luxury malls here in the OC. I've never liked this woman. She probably lives in Laguna Beach or Newport Beach and may or may not be exploited on a Bravo reality show. She has money, but blows it on clothes from boutiques that sell clothes that cost way more than H&M, but not as much as actual designer clothes. Now I'm a firm believer in wear what you like, but I just don't get why you want to look like a spoiled 13-year-old girl when you're forty-something. But I digress...

So a style of hat like the newspaper boy cap can be very dangerous waters, not that it can't be done well (All fashion has potential of being good fashion), but it's an example of how fast you can become a fashion victim. Now, just because wearing hats can be over the top doesn't mean that it's wrong. That usually makes a stylish person's outfit iconic. But it's hard to find hats that are flexible with daily life, I assume if you're reading this you also have to deal with normal life like me (and if you don't, bless your heart for taking the time out of your life to read this lilttle ol blog). Fedora's play well in everyday life, but THANK YOU HIPSTERS for claiming the style and shitting all over it. It's hard for me to style anything with a fedora without feeling like a hipster by the end of it, if that's just weak styling skills on my part I guess that's my bad.


One of my dad's hats.


Now my dad and grandpa have tons of hats (fedoras, newsboy caps, the whole shabang), but I've always had a hard time having them work for me when I errr "borrow" them. They look great in them, but that's because the hats fit them better. I think men usually look better in hats than younger people do (caps aside), call it an unfair generalization if you must but that's how I feel. Like a teenager in a suit. If you have a baby face forget about it, you're screwed. You're gonna look like your younger cousin at a wedding whether you like it or not. Usually men's hats are more adult styles, which look better on a more mature looking being.

But I have a hat of my dad's that's a wide brimmed fedora that I've been eyeing. It's more of a western style hat than a fedora though. Style icons of mine like The Man With No Name, Jimi Hendrix, and George Harrison have worn wide brimmed hats, and the hats brought their looks to the next level. They'd just be missing something without their hats. So naturally I want to emulate their style, but what business of mine do I have donning such an extravagant hat?


"Style icons of mine like The Man With No Name, Jimi Hendrix, and George Harrison have worn wide brimmed hats, and the hats brought their looks to the next level."
(I guess they're both smoking a cigarette?)


Well in truth is, I don't. The truth about hats for all us bourgeois folks is that whether or not you think you're playing it safe with hats, you're going to look over the top to someone. You can't please everyone, so you might as well please yourself instead. That goes for all aspects of your sense of style, I learned this long ago and I'm glad I did. Hats have a mystical, fantastical, cartoon like quality to them, and that's their power. That's what brings stylish looks to the next level, the power of fantasy. Of course you're going to look kind of silly, but that's the point. So if you made it this far in this sea of word diarrhea, thanks for reading and expect to see me in my dad's hat soon.

Have a great weekend everybody

P.S.
ENTER!
ENTER!
ENTER!
ENTER!
ENTER!
ENTER!


-Cruz

SNAKESKIN




I'm wearing my new vintage (oxymoron?) snakeskin boots with a red button up of my dad's, American Apparel tank top, skull bracelets from a flea market in the mountains, belt from a flea market at sea level, watch of my dad's, and Cheap Monday pants. I think I'm a bit sunburned here from SF. Doesn't matter though, I'm a blogger not a model.



I'm super excited about these boots, there's something so alluring to me about snakeskin. Sexy and rock and roll at the same time, especially in a sharp ankle boot form. You guys should be excited too, because you get to see a whole lot of them here! Maybe not too soon though, since it's scorching here. Anyway, here's some snakeskin inspiration of mine:






Raquel Zimmerman in an editorial styled by Carine Roitfeld and shot by Juergen Teller from Paris Vogue mai 2009. Check out the whole editorial over at les scans de Diorette. The whole issue has a lot of snakeskin inspired fashions in it, if you're a fan I suggest taking a look at the issue.




Jane from Sea of Shoes with her Maison Martin Margiela python clutch.

Chauss from Je Ne Sais Quoi with her Rick Owens snakeskin sharkfinned ankle boots (A bit of a mouthful, non?).

Hanh from Life in Travel wears a snakeskin Prada top and belt with her Marni snakeskin pumps.



This is barely scratching the surface of snakeskin, but it's some of the essentials. My mind is buzzing with inspiration. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

-Cruz

Haight-Ashbury Summer '09

I was overjoyed that I was able to return to The Haight, a district in San Francisco rich in counterculture history and home to many great shops (mostly vintage) and restaurants. I decided to do some vintage espionage here with my camera phone. Why I take pictures of the stuff I do is inexplicable, since sometimes I forget to photograph some stuff I really liked. I guess I take more pictures of stuff I haven't made up my mind about.

I met up and went with one of my best friends Mia and her friend Abby, who's now my friend haha.


First off, here's a feeble attempt of mine to capture some street style. This group of kids was walking in front of my friends and I immediately went into jakandjil mode. I loved everything about these kids' looks, take notice of the guy's tail on the far right. I love it when normal people wear outfits that are 10x better than something in a fashion magazine. Power to people! ;-)

Loved this guy's style too, not really sure if he was homeless or not...

We stopped at the Goodwill, and I saw these leather short shorts for 30 bucks. I liked them but what the fuck? 30 bucks at a Goodwill? I'm not havin it.

They had this llama vest there... I kinda stared at it for a bit then decided to take a picture for further analysis. Llamas...on a vest... okay cool.

Saw this jacket in a random vintage store. I love the color, the fringe, I think I need something of this variety in my closet.

This was in a rack of pseudo-band jackets and I think I like it, but it kinda reminds me of this. Wait, that's exactly what that is.

Saw this fur vest, very painful to leave behind because I've been hunting for one for so long. Although it was a tad large and it was 50 bucks. If you're getting rid of your fur vest, call me please?

Loved the texture of these boots but the top was too wide for me.

We walked into a store with cute little shirts like these... I like pancakes. I think they're cute, but you probably hate them. The shirts not pancakes. :|

Pretty cool denim and corduroy shirt. If you're thinking: "Why didn't you get any of these things?", well it's 'cause I'm poor.

I'm pretty sure these boots are trying to be my boots, cept they're not as hot or skinny as mine. ;-) I do0o like the fur but i wish they were in a more slender ankle boot form.

After shopping we stopped off at a cafe for a snack and some shenanigans...


All in all a fantastic day. Oh yeah, my snakeskin ankle boots.

Well I bewilderingly stumbled into Wasteland and came across them sitting in the men's shoe area. Before I knew it they were on my feet and I was excitedly calling my dad to tell him of my find. I mean they're seriously amazing shoes down to the smallest detail. Though there is an issue, they're a bit small. I can walk in them without pain though, I walked from Lombard street down to the Wharf and back without any real discomfort. Anyway, a small sacrifice to make for such perfect shoes, and they were only 45 bucks! The lady working there said they should have been 150, so I really lucked out. I'm gonna do a post with them very soon, I just thought it'd be picture overload to squeeze em both together so keep stopping by!

P.S. In case you wanted to see what I wore to Harry Potter last night, here it is in all it's blurry camera phone glory. What did I think of the movie you ask? I could go on and on forever because my nerdiness is pretty socially crippling, but in short, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will say, though, that if you are someone who wants the movie to be exactly like the book, then stay the hell away from this movie because you're going to leave the theater complaining to anyone in earshot about the replaced scenes and the completely new scenes. But you guys know you love getting off on complaining about that stuff anyways. :p

-Cruz

Back From San Francisco

I had a fantastic time in San Francisco. It's always been, without a doubt, one of my favorite places. This post is gonna be a bit all over the place, but here's some moments from my trip I captured.

My family and I hung out around the bridge from behind it, underneath it, and on top of it. On top of it not being the best place to be reminded of your uneasiness with heights...




My SF uniform, it was quite cold the whole time. A nice vacation from, well, the warmer weather of Summer vacation here in Orange County. I'm wearing a secondhand coat-jacket-cardigan-thing, sword pin from my dad, thrifted messenger, with my K.K. Slider cellphone charm attached if you have super micro vision, H&M jeans, Stacey Adam boots, and a tri-blend shirt from American Apparel somewhere under there.

Wall art from The Black Magic, my dad and his band played there.


We took a cable car to China Town on Sunday...


I wanted every toy in this store haha, excuse the poor quality of my paparazzi shot.

This store had tons of little zombie dolls, they were so cute.



I have a thing for sunsets, so of course I love wandering Fisherman's Wharf as the sun begins to sink over the horizon. Mother Nature paints the prettiest pictures.



I usually layered the ensemble with a brown hoodie underneath my coat and with an American Apparel scarf. It was quite fun wearing the scarf because it was quite windy on Sunday and it danced in the wind.








Stay tuned for my trip to The Haight...



P.S. Got my Ravenclaw outfit picked out for the Harry Potter midnight showing tomorrow LOL. Take the sorting hat quiz and tell me what house you get, Ravenclaws represent! Click to out nerd yourself!

-Cruz