FEELING FUTURISTIC


Vintage jacket, sharkskin shirt, belt, and boots, Cheap Monday jeans

Despite the amount of vintage clothes threaded into this blog, I actually (humorously?) consider myself to be an adamant futurist. This isn't to say I reflect that philosophy everyday with what I wear, because paradoxically I'm a sucker for nostalgia as well. But even if I'm resurrecting ghosts from the world history of style and the much shorter history of my style, I always try to do it with a twist so that I'm not bored with what I'm wearing.

I'm a huge fan of designers like Nicolas Ghesquière, Jun Takahashi, Walter Van Beirendonck, Hussein Chalayan, and Raf Simons, whose collections from the past and present have evoked feelings of the future. Unfortunately, futuristic gems don't often turn up during my sartorial excavations (garbage diving) and clothes of tomorrow off the rack in my price range don't usually cut it design and quality wise, but the vintage sharkskin shirt I'm wearing in this post fits the bill. When it's not shimmering, unbuttoned around my waist during the summer months, I try to dress it up like so. I thought I'd try out the asymmetrical shirt tucking from last spring's Balenciaga show while I was at it as well.


These boots have some pretty spacey details. I like to think of them as a scuffed pair of boots a space cowboy left here on earth. It's like wearing the future on my feet!

-Cruz

MUSTARD GLINT



I took a stroll down to the neighborhood farmer's market the other day and bought... a pair of boots! I was elated to have stumbled upon this pop of yellow amongst the usual roundup of black and brown leather bores. I have a reckless insistence of trying to cram in yellow pieces into my wardrobe. Styling the color yellow can be like capping an outpour of golden rays, but in more subtle shades like mustard, yellow can be surprising easy to integrate into your day. Especially when you can stomp down those golden rays until they're just a mustard glint at your toes. Okay, even I'm lost in all this imagery - onto the details! Everything I have on is vintage, by the way!




These two buttons have joined harmoniously with my Lee jacket. I knicked the Eddie Cochran from my dad's collection, he's one of my favorite 50s rock-n-rollers. I love the green and orange combo on the Arizona pin and my love for cattle skulls is known throughout the moors and heaths.


I like wearing necklaces under really tight shirts, so that the pendant shows through subtly, but enough to occupy the negative space on my chest.


My attempt at making digital look like a photo you might scrape off the bottom of a chest in your attic. I'll take better detail shots next time I'm back home.


Thanks for readin!

-Cruz

MY FIRST STITCHES




Micro mesh top from American Apparel, vintage belt, necklace and shoes, Levis cutoffs altered by myself

I like to cram in as much art into my day as possible, even if that means drawing a crudely sketched mural on my English 101 notes. One way in particular I like to act arty, is by knitting!

I've posted some of my, uh, "creations" before. I usually start with a project, abandon it, then take the salvaged pieces and make them into something else! I knitted this mint green swatch you see dripping down my knee way back when I picked up my knitting needles for the first time. It was just a practice swatch, but I thought it was a perfect match for the split in those Levis cutoffs, so I sewed them together in DIY matrimony.






Very cool vintage medallion, most likely an Aries, zodiac medallion. I'm a Virgo, by the way, I just like rams.


This picture was taken by accident when one of my loose threads got caught on my tripod, causing me to stumble! So I guess if you're loony enough to wear loose threads like me, be forewarned that you may kiss the pavement.


-Cruz

TWISTED ORANGE


Vintage raglan, Levi's corduroy shirt, Maverick shorts, leather cuff, braided leather belt, and Stacey Adams shoes.

I decided to try twisting some Southern California vintage (Burnt orange raglan), beach (Sandy colored Maverick shorts), and skater (70's Levi's corduroy shirt) motifs. It's surprising how some small adjustments can make a familiar outfit make you go "huh?", like by coiling some braided leather around your waist. I gotta divulge to you guys that I was looking through the entire Balenciaga archive and thinking about classic aviation at the time of styling this too. Again, what makes sense to me is something you guys might be able to see, too?


-Cruz

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU


Vintage shirt and boots, Gap leather pants, Ishi necklace, and bracelet from a flea market in Big Bear lake California

Another outfit churned out through my tunes-to-threads personification mechanism. I figure the best way to capture Screamin Jay Hawkin's "I Put a Spell on You" is with African inspired apparel, black leather, and trinkets reminiscent of African, animistic religions.




-Cruz