ON HIGHER GROUND

I crossed one major to do in Scotland off my list and that was getting a chance to tour the highlands. We started our trip visiting Doune Castle which apparently is one of the only untouched castles left in Scotland with the others lying in ruin due to the British. Then we pressed on into the thick of the highlands. Completely not what I expected at all. My only impression of the highlands was one of rolling hills probably in a similar vein to the Great Plains in the midwest with a bit of a rougher feel perhaps, maybe a colder wind. And there was a good amount of that (mainly dotted with giant, fluffy, Scottish sheep) but the highlands that I saw was something far more cinematic and epic. I saw massive, snow-topped mountains. These mountains were even more bizarre to me as they gradually faded from opaque white snow on the top to lush grasslands as their base. It felt like you could be driving though the tundra at some points and just change back to mild hilltop in an instant. We stayed overnight at Fort Augustus as the mouth of Loch Ness, basically at the most famous view. Then we drove through Inverness which was quite a strange place to me too as it was a fully developed, cosmopolitain city just randomly set up in the midst of these harsh mountains and northern highlands. I got to see Culloden battlefield which vaguely reminded me of home in Virginia with all the Civil War battlefields. Then we finished our journey at the Hermitage. It was an amazing trip given how much I saw that I probably would not get to experience on my own.

So this time, for this post, I wanted to experiment with a different format for my photos. Some will be the same that they have always been, but others are formatted slightly differently.

This is Doune Castle built and owned by Robert Stewart Duke of Albany in the 1400s. It is not so famous for it’s day but it is currently for it’s use on shows like Outlander, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and one episode of Game of Thrones as the very first Winterfell.

You quickly realize as you tour it’s interior that Doune Castle is not the most luxurious of castles. 

I think few people can understand how happy it made me that I decided to wear that sweater that day because it looks incredible against the Loch. The cable knitting almost looks like the water itself. 

Even though I wore red, I was not rooting for a side…I swear!

Every brick on that wall that sticks out slightly represents a fallen soldier.

This flag was one of the positions held by the government forces. The blue flags for the Scottish Jacobites were too far away given the amount of time we were given to explore.

The Hermitage is located in Birnam Wood, which is famous as the wood that moved in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that ultimately led to Macbeth’s demise.

LATE FALL FALLEN LEAVES

I needed an opportunity to post photos with all of the fall vibes of a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Thank goodness that Halloween has passed, and so the pumpkin craze has gone the way of actual pumpkins rotting on November 1st doorsteps.

I thrifted this sweater a week ago and I am simply in love with it. It is a men’s sweater so it is oversized on me. And to be honest, I think I need oversized everything this winter because I cannot seem to produce my own body heat. With so much extra fabric overflowing from my closet this winter, it will be hard to pack up in a suitcase when I bring it home for the summer or travel anywhere this coming winter. But I honestly feel that I need so much extra fabric. I want so much fabric in my clothes, that I want to be able to wrap it around my body at least five times! Just layers on top of layers so that I can pretend that I am still in my warm bed.

My issues with winter aside, my friend, Bailey and I, went to Cold Harbor Battlefield in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The leaves were so pretty on our hike through the fields. And the trenches were so deep that you can almost imagine the soldiers huddled under them for weeks.

Great day of adventure getting away from Richmond for at least a few hours.

MIDTERM MODE

I am so deep into the semester that I am growing so lazy of leisure. The things that need to get done get priority and then everything else gets chipped away at slowly. But so is the life of a fashion design student. I know that I have already shared this top that I altered from my father’s shirt, but I still really wanted to show it off!

This time however, I wanted to take my top to it’s masculine roots and give it a preppy edge. The theme of this look was French private school boy from the 30s. Then again, the top still features plenty of fraying along the raw edges so an element of grunge sneaks it’s way in. I paired my top with my mid-thigh wool shorts which definitely bring in that 30s schoolboy look. It is hard to wear these shorts however as they can so easily make me feel too masculine if I do not wear them with some type of heeled shoe. So I wore my pleather black heeled booties that elevate pretty much every outfit. And the finishing touch was using a black ribbon as my tie. I actually really love the concept of tying ribbons as ties. But I need to actually learn how to tie them and not ask my father every time. It resembled the skinny tie made famous by the Beatles. All I need to do is pull my hair back into a slick ponytail to complete the whole vision.

REI-CATION

Unfortunately, the exhibit closed September 4 so I am sharing old photos. However, the exhibit was so beautiful that I have to document it.

All summer, I was waiting to see the Rei Kawakubo, Art of the In-Between exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York City. Finally, my family was able to indulge me with a long awaited weekend trip to the city. When you are a fashion major, exhibits like this are worth an entire mini-vacation. And boy, was it worth it!

Rei Kawakubo is first and foremost, my all-time favorite designer. She is the founder of the design house, Comme des Garçons, which means “like the boys” in French. I consider her work to be some of the most complex, meaningful, impactful, and visually stunning that I have ever come across. I believe her to be a feminist in the design world and if nothing else, a true artist. Something I hope to emulate in my designs as well as she does is her eye for detail and her storytelling. I could go on for hours about her and her legacy but I would recommend researching her further because there is so much to learn about her designs.

I decided to wear a new top that I had just altered that was my father’s work short and then I added some ruffles to it. i am quite pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to wear something with a lot of drama to attempt to match the type of drama seen in Kawakubo’s designs. I strongly emphasize the word “attempt” however, because I honestly do not know how to match the drama and boldness that is Comme des Garçons. But I was dressed slightly more eccentric than your average museum visitor, so that was nice:)

I hope to design clothing that makes the wearer feel and look like they are from another planet! Much like these wonderful ladies look like aliens in the best way possible.

This jacket has two sets of sleeves and I am still in awe. Who even comes up with stuff like that?

This collection featured garments that are a bunch of different fabrics sewn together.

I had to get some shots down in the subway before I left. The subway stations are a lot nicer than I remember. I am quite proud of good ole’ NYC!

LAST GARDEN PARTY

Sherwood Gardens, you will not look the same when I return home again. Taking winter’s lead, you will slowly desaturate yourself until you fade completely to greyscale.

As sound as it sounds right now, Sherwood Gardens, I think you will be right on trend.

Personally, I am already seeing my wardrobe shedding colors since this moment of peak bright colors. I wore my teal tee-shirt once again and already it seemed too bright for this moment in late summer/fall. Hopefully when I do return home again, I will come back to Sherwood Gardens and take many more pictures. The gardens and I will still be matching in our desaturated winter looks:)

Goodbye my photo husband; you were the only man to match clothes with me so perfectly!

Well here is my bag trying to be extra. Just hurling itself into matching flowers wherever they are!

FASHION FIELDS

Can I be Titania, the fairy queen, so that I can return to midsummer? I do not want this summer to end, nor do I want to say goodbye to my amazing friends. But I suppose I must go back to school to see all of my other friends.

I received an old white lacy gown(see pictured below) from my friend, Kara. Since I cannot easily pull off a white gown in my everyday wardrobe, so I deconstructed it to fashion a new off the shoulder white lace crop top. I used the original bodice, but the skirt of the dress was turned into bell sleeves. I had a chance to use elastic effectively for the first time. I love that I can wear something completely unique that happens to be trendy as well. I have seen so many girls walking around in an array of off the shoulder crop tops. I love looking at them as they really flatter the neck, shoulders and collarbones. there is something very romantic about bare shoulders. After a while though, all of the tops that other girls wear start to blend together and become repetitive. Most of the blouses I see also share the same problem of falling or slipping up or down the shoulders and not staying in place. There is restricted mobility in the arms as well. But with designing my own off the shoulder blouse and controlling the elastic sizing. I love how it turned out! It is the perfect summer crop top!

So to encapsulate this bohemian perfection, Kara, Nick and I went out into a horse field in Catonsville, MD to photograph on these rolling fields. Aside from the dead deer on the edge of the field, the light was so perfect and there were too many beautiful shots to single out the images we ended up using. Please enjoy our summer moments!

Nick had a problem staying grounded during this shoot!

With the help of friends, you can really soar!!!

Long shot of our field of dreams

This is the dress I started with!

That’s a wrap on this post, now I walk into the sunset!

TOWARD TORONTO

Toronto is about two hours away from Niagara which was convenient because we were able to stop by Niagara on the lake on the way there.

I loved the look of the water, it was so blue and the sky was so clear! The indigo in my denim culottes also looked great against the blue of the water. It had such a vintage summer vibe to me.

PUNISHING HEAT AND PANSIED HATS

One of my besties was leaving me this week for Europe!!! My girl, Kara is off to Denmark for a summer study abroad. This summer seems to be the perfect occasion for everyone to go far, far away…except me. I guess I was not thinking about this summer as the best time for me to go away. I assumed next summer or second semester junior year would be ideal. Every period of time seems to come with its setbacks though. I will admit it is isolating not traveling and having to discover all the adventures of my friends through social media. I would not equate this feeling to that of the little green monster, but often times, seeing other’s summer plans prompts a deep sigh. I am happy and relaxed at home! I do not have to raise my stress levels packing for a trip, flying across an ocean, learning the basics of a new language, and then spending my summer doing intensives not at my own leisure. Instead I am here trying to complete the work that I believe I will need before the start of the fall semester. In many ways, I enjoy this approach as I have no one but myself keeping my on the right track. I am able to work out and run everyday. But I need this time to myself to relax honestly. There are many benefits to not having too much to do in the summer. And yet, everyone will still make you feel as though you are the biggest, laziest slob on the planet! I swear, every time I talk to a family friend, they ask me about my summer plans without fail. I let them know that I plan to work on my website, that I am trying to produce a few fashion zines, and work out, and they never really know what to say. The worst part about not having solid plans in the summer, however, has got to be my mother’s nagging for me to find a job. Very few people seem to understand how difficult it is to find a job when you go to school out of state. No one wants to train me for months only to have me leave once I get the hang of it. And those people who can get a solid job over the summer only obtained them through their parent’s contacts. I really do not have that luxury! So its either travel or work, and neither are feasible for me. But even though I am here and everyone else is everywhere else, I am still so happy for my girl in Denmark!

I wanted to celebrate the last time I would see her with a trip to the inner harbor. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of pictures of the two of us as I may have made her take photos of me. But so is the life of a fashion blogger to eventually annoy every friend!

No one should be surprised that even though the weather was absolute death and I was standing in direct sunlight, I still managed the tote my thick, warm jacket. Come to think of it, I still do not know how I managed to not com out with a sunburn that day!

I embroidered this hat for a friend but I was not going to miss the opportunity to show it off in a photo! More process shots will be at the bottom of the post!

We got salads for lunch but I really just want to highlight the cutlery because that fork is the most aesthetic thing! 

We stopped off at the Sagamore Pendry in Fell’s Point. And man, that is one fancy hotel for sure!

This courtyard exists within the hotel! I was in fashion photography heaven!

If you can’t tell, the friend that I was making this hat for really likes pansies!

 

OFF SHOULDER AND OFF TO SUMMER

This may not be the most summery, sunny, fun-loving, #beachvibes post you will find to represent the commencement of summer, and yet I feel it makes complete sense for the start of my summer. I have recently concluded that i am in fact a lizard. I ave known this fact for a while now but I am really starting to admit it to myself. I just love to be warm. Therefore, spring and summer with never fail as my favorite seasons. It does not make sense for me to show off my fabulous new bikini, or adorable new flip flops. Instead I will present my trusty, ole’ skinny jeans in my favorite, heat-absorbing color of black. I mean, its not a total summer post miss; I am bearing shoulders in my off shoulder top. That’s a summer trend, right? It just also happens to be a three-quarter sleeve top and also…black. Can you not see me sitting poolside or lounging along a beach in this outfit?

I cannot be so cruel. I do want to show off one thing that actually does have to do with summer. I got new sunglasses for myself as a reward for the end of the semester! I have seen these sunglasses everywhere on social media except mainly in different colors. The two most common that I have seen are pink and yellow versions of these sunglasses. I love the frameless look and I will never not love oversized sunglasses. My sunglasses look good with everything in my closet. I also love how minimalist they look! I am so glad I purchased them for the start of summer and I cannot wait to wear them everywhere! Also…the are black!

FASHION IN THE MIDST OF FINALS

Finals are here and in full force. Luckily, I have not had to pull an all-nighter quite yet, but that does not mean that my days end before 1AM. Finals are a lot of work! Though I do feel blessed that I am loving the work and I feel creatively charged. More than anything else though, I am anticipating summer so much. When I used to play soccer in high school, my coaches would always tell my teammates and me to finish strong after our grueling runs. Despite how much our bodies were aching and all we wanted to do was collapse, my teammates and I were told to push ourselves that last quarter mile and at least act as though we hadn’t just run a million laps. I think applying that concept to running is actually more difficult than in terms of my finals work. I feel so good about my finals that I feel the need to finish strong.

Part of what finishing strong looks like for me is keeping up the effort in my clothing. Lucky for me, I always seem to save up all of my best outfits until the very end and therefore I have so many good outfits to wear right now. Along with looking good, I am a firm believer that wearing things that I really love empowers me. In the midst of finals, this feeling of confidence and strength is the best fuel. This is what I wore for the yesterday and today for two different critiques. The second dress was made by me and the dress that I was walking into class to critique. 

For my draping class, we constructed tent dresses. I loved the pattern I chose because, of course, it makes me think of summer:)

I had to wear clothes underneath my dress because I knew I would need to out it onto the dress form to be critiqued and graded. But I will never pass up an opportunity to photograph this jacket!