Things That Made Me Smile

So it's been a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been smiling! Here's my list of things I appreciate and am grateful for in the past few weeks.

Getting my first short-short story published on Airplane Reading * Getting my pitches to Jezebel green lighted (Look ma, I'm a real writer!) * Being asked to style for the 25 Most Beautiful Atlantans issue of Jezebel (my name will be all up in that mag next month!) * Meeting my newest most spiritual tribe member, Kindra Gans. Girl is super gifted * Hanging up proof of my achievements in my entry way * Green smoothies!!! * No coffee for two weeks now * Hanging with my boo for life at the Alternative Apparel event * Oh the topic of the Alternative event, checking in as media for my blog baby Gamine and not one of the 50 million other spots I write for * Michael Kors wedge booties * Cami Cakes * Having the time to focus on me * My boyfriend * Dinner with my family * Finally getting this life thing figured out * Spirit Junkie! * Detoxing with red wine * Urban Daddy's amazing event at the Goat Farm that featured real plates not lite bites! * My work * My allowance card finally getting here! Yay $100 to blow on work clothes * Detox done = CARBS!!! * Unexpected checks in my mailbox * Sneakers when my feet hurt * A quiet cell phone * A new coffee table * Getting an actual LETTER from my HS reunion planning committee--still not sure about my attendance.

Oh and this...

Fun with Polyvore and Photoshop

Here are a few sets and such that I put together with the help of my besties Polyvore and Photoshop. Some of these were created from my blood, sweat, and tears (just kidding, I don't bleed blood) others were edited by me as a part of duites over at Gamine. Either way...enjoy!

Gamine's favorite things for August

Conceived by Lola, refined (edited) by Moi for Gamine's What to Wear When...Is It Fall Yet?

Gamine's inspiration board...cupcakes, class, and sass!

Compiled by Lola, edited by Moi for Gamine's What to Wear When..Hanging on the Stoop.

Gamine's Mood of the Month, February 2011

Ask Ana: Bad Chick that Wants to Look Like Eva Mendes

I can't find the link to this for some reason...but it was put together by Liz and refined by yours truly for Gamine.

Memorial Day Must-Haves for Examiner.com

Life According to Gamine: Vampire Envy

This is a Gamine original and since I own Gamine, I also own all the rights to this. To see it in its original format go to Life According to Gamine: Vampire Envy.

Like every twenty-something approaching 30, I have begun to contemplate my own immortality. Instead of dwelling on the fact that one day my boobs will start to head south for the winter and that my coolness quotient, being tied to how close I am to 25, will being to drop exponentially the second I blow out the candles on my 27th birthday cake, I have become obsessed with exploring my options for forever delaying my inevitable slip into old age and eventually the coffin. I’ve toyed around with having kids as an attempt at immortality, like most people, but they are damn expensive and require me to have some semblance of a career with health insurance and sanity. I have even begun to explore the fact that my choice to become a writer is more influenced by my narcissistic need to live forever than my desire to write, but writing doesn’t pay until it does. So after careful consideration I’m turning to vampirism, more specifically I’m begging the vampires of Bon Temps–wherever that is–to come and get it.

I’ve really thought this trough after being a student of the vampire myth my entire life, and watching every episode of True Blood. I’d be totally ok with never seeing the sun again, I have a permanent tan thanks to having ancestors from west Africa, and I’d look great frozen at 26 for the next however many years until the world ends, Buffy stakes me, or I meet the true death at the hands of an angry vampire king. I also already wear a ton of black and would have no problem living off of blood–its like a juice fast but jucier.

My decision to embrace life as the undead has pretty much been accepted by everyone except my boyfriend who thinks my dreams of biting necks, glamoring fools, and hanging with Vampire Bill and Eric are no more than teenage fangirl fantasies. I acknowledge that at the heart of my desire are fangirl fantasies where I am less like True Blood’s resident backwoods Barbie and more like the chicly dressed but tough ass nails lady vampires who do nothing but sleep all day and wear vintage Dior at night. While some part of me would love to have one of the show’s main man vamps bite and turn me, another larger part of me refuses to accept that death is begin to blow his icy breath on the back of my neck–my bad that was the a/c. Either way, I am on a mission to join the undead in their quest to do whatever it is that they spend immortality doing, as long as I don’t get stuck hanging with lames like Vampire Bill and this new sensitive Eric Northman who would win me over in real life as a vampire, because thats what vampires do, but would probably annoy the heck out of the vampire me and the real me if he were the real him. (The real Eric Northman is Swedish and no offense but I don’t know anything to come out of Sweden that isn’t a little bit odd. Think about it, Ikea, H&M, Abba, Ace of Base…all odd.)

To satisfy my boyfriend’s curiosity and annoyance with my geeked out fangirl tendencies–he’s sat through Harry Potter and Twilight with me and indulged my comparisons of both series to the ultimate geek trilogy, The Lord of the Rings–he will be the first person I turn as a new vampire. He will also be responsible for turning me if he becomes a vampire first. However we come to vampirism, we will have forever to figure out our careers, how we’ll afford to live, and whatever else you’re supposed to figure out before 30 because I have the same ideas about being an adult at 26 as I had at 16.

The Making of a Coveted Closet

This is a Gamine original, which means it belongs to me as both the co-founder and Fearless Leader of Gamine and the writer of this piece. To see it in it's original format go to Spring Cleaning"The Making of a Coveted Closet.

Initially this spring cleaning post was all about cleaning out your mind, body and wardrobe, however after a very sobering trip to Lenox Square-for an event that lead to me window shopping-I decided to dedicate it to something that all of the Gamine Girls can relate to, transitioning your wardrobe. I don’t mean moving from spring to summer to fall, I mean transitioning from college to intern to entry level or in my case college to intern to professional blogger. As a persnickety, style obsessed, true to my sign Virgo I could think of no one better than myself to guide you through the journey from co-ed to coveted, a journey that I’m actually beginning now.

Before you run to your closet and start throwing away everything that screams undergrad and book it to your nearest J Crew, take a deep breath and inventory your sartorial influences. As you get older the things that influence you change, or should change, due mostly in part to the fact that you’re experiences should have broadened your range of things to draw inspiration from. When I was 21 my style crushes were J Lo, Simple Life Nicole Richie and Carrie Bradshaw, which made for a very trend focused schizophrenic closet. Now that I’m rounding the corner to 27 I love Nicole Richie even more, especially since she’s toned it down a bit, but I’m also a huge fan of Bianca Jagger, Anna Dello Russo and Genevieve Jones with a little bit of 90s grunge/indigenous/art deco thrown in, which makes for an even more nutty wardrobe that actually works. Just because your influences have changed doesn’t mean that you should throw out all of the clothes you’ve collected during your “not a girl not yet a woman” stage. I still have quite a bit of stuff from college that still fits me and style personality, with a few tweaks. So once you’ve gotten a hold on your style personality, its time to physically inventory your closet.

Mix up a batch of margaritas, or pop open the bubbly, crank up your favorite Pandora station and go at your closet like a surgeon doing lipo. First figure out what you actually wear, if you’ve worn something in the past month or so leave it where it hangs because you obviously love it. Stuff that you haven’t worn for 6 months should not be chucked but reevaluated to figure out why you haven’t worn it. If its too big or too small, toss it! If you bought it to pair with something and you still haven’t found its mate, toss it! If you have no idea how to wear it, toss it! The only things you should keep from your 6 month pile are things that you know how to work into your wardrobe, unless you have a stylish friend who can help you figure it out. After your 6 month pile, move on to the things you haven’t worn in a year and TOSS THEM! If you haven’t worn something in a year you obviously don’t know that you have it/how to wear it/it probably doesn’t fit. Now that you have some empty hangers and a pile of clothes on your floor, grab those rejects and list them on ebay. You’d be surprised at how much money I’ve made selling my cast offs on ebay. If having an online yard sale isn’t your thing, gather your girls together for a clothes swap and get some new goods for the price of your old rejects. Be careful with this and only invite pals who you know have great taste or they’ll clean you out and you’ll be left with nothing.

Once you’ve cleaned your closet and earned a little cash from selling the stuff you absolutely didn’t need or want, hit the mall yall! The thing about building a wardrobe is that you want to look for pieces that work together to create a couple of looks not just pieces. Try to create an outfit that can be broken up into three more outfits. In all honesty I’m a piece shopper but before I buy anything I always ask myself “What else will I wear this with?” if I can’t answer that I leave it. Times are too hard for 20 somethings these days for us to go out and waste money on things that we’ll only wear once, NAGL!

Unless you are rolling in the dough, or a guest on TLC’s What Not To Wear, going through each of these steps and building a wardrobe that is worthy of The Coveteur takes time-ever wonder why they feature so many fashion people, people who work in fashion get freebies and a crash course in style from the moment they start interning. Not only do you need the money to replace everything but you need the time to develop your personal style. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be on your way to owning a coveted closet in no time, as soon as that salary position comes through.

Cherchez La Gamine

These are from March when the Gamine girls met Jamie Hopper for coffee, tea and a mini photo shoot for our new banner.

Photographer: Jamie Hopper

Creative Director: Anastasia Nicole

Set styling: Patrice

Models:Anastasia, Liz, and Patrice all in their own clothes

I don't really have anything else to say, I just thought it looked a little strange to have our feet right under our bodies looking all disconnected. That's all.

www.cherchezlagamine.com

Ask Ana!

For some reason the people that I know think I’m some sort of stylist/fashion savant/a go to person for all things fashion and style related and although I know a thing or two about a ting or two, I am not any of those things. However, since I get at least one style related question a month via twitter, facebook or my inbox-not counting the in person/text requests I get-I’ve decided that I’d just go with it. So if any of you lovely readers have any fashion/style related questions shoot them my way. I may not be Rachel Zoe but I have a pretty solid vocabulary of fashion terms stored in my long term memory, I get dressed almost everyday and I’m honest in a “Yes, those jeans definitely make your ass look huge, because it is” kinda way. I can’t guarantee that every bit of advice I give will be perfect but again I’m just a girl giving her opinion on stuff.

If you have a fashion/style question send it over to submissions@cherchezlagamine.com, subject ASK ANA and I’ll do my best to answer it. Send your other life questions to the same address but put Is That Normal? in the subject line and Patrice will do something with it.

xo
Ana “Its not you its the clothes” B

Yay Spring!

Or pre-spring at least...here are some polyvore sets I threw together in anticipation of warmer weather. There is content to go with these guys at Gamine.

Lazy Girl Chic!

*This post was done for Gamine, my personal pet project, to view it in its original form go to DIY Adventures: Lazy Girl Chic.

Despite that fact that I manage to look pretty decent 95% of the time that I am out on the town having coffee at various places and doing whatever else it is I pretend to do, I am very lazy at heart when it comes to fashion. I love clothes and I can navigate any shop like its my second home however, the effort required to shop, maintain a closet-I’m an uber virgo who color codes her clothes by function-and plan outfits on the reg always eludes me. For these reasons, and because I find it incredibly vain and narcissistic oh and lame, I have never nor will I ever keep a blog dedicated to daily outfits and my personal style, I’ll leave that to the folks at Lookbook.nu. What I have mastered in my years of being a procrastinating perfectionist is how to get dressed in under 15 minutes and come out looking like a winner and I owe it to two things, the dress and my winning addtiude.

To master the “I just rolled out of bed and threw on the first thing I saw but I look great” look all you need is a few work horse dresses, I call them my old faithfuls, that you can dress up or down. A great basic dress to start with is this one from AA. Say you have a cocktail type thing to go to and you’re running late, all you need is this dress, a killer pair of heels, a blazer and a swipe of red lipstick-blazers and red lipstick confuse people into thinking you’re polished with little work-and bam instant outfit. Now say you have a day date with someone you kinda want to impress, take the same dress and pair it with a denim vest, gladiators, a cute but not too big bag, and pile your hair into a top knot with a swipe of lipstick-seriously whenever I don’t feel like putting on make-up I put on lipstick it really fools people-and there you are lunch date/internship/general day time activities ready.

I have to admit that not every occasion calls for dress that is so basic, in those cases I dress down a more formal dress. For example, I actually own this French Connection dress that is a bit of an anti-boner and in a period of two months I wore it twice styled very differently to two very different occasions and guess what? Winner! First, I wore it to Jeffrey’s Fashion Cares Atlanta where I belted it with a skinny belt only in the front, I was going for a Grecian godess meets belted huke look, added my over the knee riding boots and you guessed it red lipstick and was ready to meet Jack and Lazaro of Proenza Schouler in under 15 minutes. A couple of weeks later I wore the same dress with a pair of heels, no belt and a super old clutch from Banana Republic to a wedding of one of the BF’s college buddies. That night I got quite a bit of compliments and got ready in the time it took my nail polish to dry.

Here’s the thing about dress dressing, not every occasion calls for a dress but as a woman you have the option to make every occasion a dress occasion. I’ve pulled off many a tee-shirt/over-sized button down/tank and leggings/jeans/skirt combo without thinking to hard on it-benefits of a well organized closet and dresser-but its not as easy and putting on a dress and boots and causing all kinds of style crushes.

Mood of the Month: February

Gamine's February 2011 mood board...not everything that looks sweet is sweet.

Let's be best friends!

This one comes to us from Gamine, view it there in its entirety.

Dear Cassius (if I may call you that),

Last week I saw your lovely interview with the folks at the Opening Ceremony blog and based solely on the facts that you dress well and share a name with Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay, who was named after your ancestor, I decided that we should be friends, best friends. 

I’m not saying that we should be friends like you and Kanye are friends, I don’t generally pay people to dress me or go around reupholstering women’s lady bits to make them feel like fur pillows-you have to tell me how he does this FYI, or that we should be pals like Bette Midler and Barbra Hershey in Beaches, waaay too tragic right. I think we should be friends like Cher and Dione in Clueless because like us one was white and one was black and like us one of them way too old to be playing a teenager. We could sip tea and look at cupcakes, but not eat them, while you teach me how to turn a simple J Crew pull over into a top worthy of being snapped by the Sartorialist and I could teach you the benefits of living in a city that shuts down over a few inches of snow. 

While I don’t usually hang with people under 21, I am making an exception because not only are you the coolest thing to it my twitter feed in a while but with your New England upbringing and time spent around Yeezy I figured you and I would have tons to talk about, even though I’m not from New England, went to a state school, and would only hang out with Kanye if I got my groupie game up. I say we give our friendship a go beginning with a facebook wall post here and there and moving to a full fledged real life friendship before you decide who you’re taking with you to fashion week.

xo
Ana "Yeezy can't teach me much" b

Bright Young Thing: Megan Huntz

This post was produced for Gamine online and is therefore property of that publication, to view the post in its original format go to BYT: Megan Huntz

On the rare occasion that we actually get dressed up, you know for those nights we go grown-up places not dive bar hopping, the go to outfit of heels, jeans, and a cute top never cross our minds. Thankfully, this combo has crossed the mind of designer Megan Huntz whose hand dyed 100% silk dresses are set to become the foil of many a pair of jeans and heels. Huntz, a native of Atlanta, studied industrial design at Pratt and even worked in graphic design for a few years before moving to Milan in 2003 to begin graduate studies in fashion at the Domus Academy. After spending years working for the likes of Max Mara and Meltin’ Pot, one of Italy’s premier denim companies, Huntz decided to leave denim to the masses and design her own line based around the most fundamental piece of a woman’s wardrobe, the dress. “No matter what you do, you can always wear a dress,” says Huntz.



While Megan Huntz’s dresses may be handmade in limited runs from 100% silk, her dresses are meant to be worn and washed. Yes you can wash these dresses in the sink or the delicate cycle to get the same deconstructed look that you get after washing your favorite pair of jeans a few times, which is no accident since Huntz applied the same finishing techniques that she learned in her denim days to silk. Recently she even threw a batch of silk into the Gulf of Mexico to see what effect the water would have on the fabric and was so pleased with her little experiment that she cut ten dresses from it. As an artist turned designer turned fashion designer, there will be plenty more art projects and experiments, like the video she did for the opening of Modern Atlanta last June, in the future.

On top of her commitment to making quality handmade garments, her love of the art of fashion and design, and her thumbs down to Vogue for its penchant for celebrity covers, Megan Huntz makes dresses that look amazing with boots, which means we have to grab every style available