Oct 13, 2009 | Fashion
(DIY pierced sweatshirt, Claire’s gloves and illusion floating necklace, handmade beaded bracelets,
Hot Topic watch, H & M jeans chain, 7 for All Mankind Ginger LA jeans, Metro7 wedge boots)
Last day of Portland Fashion Week! (Whew! I was soooo ready for it to be done.)
Shooting my own photos again today, so had to be comfy. I bought this (Champion? I think it was) cross-front sweatshirt off the rack, then punched holes randomly around the edge with my rotary leather punch, and added 12 mm jumprings in some of the holes so the fabric looks “pierced.” I then added a black satin ribbon so it looks a little like those tied wrap tops ballet dancers wear. A little. Okay, no.
I think my brother had a pair of gloves like this back in 1984. They were his “Terminator” gloves…and he was 6.
I made all the beaded bracelets on my right arm, just cause I wanted some sparkle and jangle. Good to have when you’re moving a camera around in other people’s faces.
I love these jeans. I want to marry these jeans. These make me look skinnier and like my legs are miles long. Love that I scored then for $67 from BlueBee.com while they were on sale. (And they routinely mark down designer jeans to that price! Originally these ones retail for $190. Right now they have some Earnest Sewns for under $60 and some Frankie Bs for $62…and some Helmut Langs for $82 – marked down from $275!! Holy moley.)
Gotta start on my Fashion Week writeups…coming soon, promise.:-)
xoxo
Carly
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Oct 11, 2009 | DIY, Fashion
(DIY flowered neckpiece, Kenneth Cole new york shirt, J. Crew boxers,
Hudson shorts, unknown tights, Spiral Girl shoes)
As soon as I saw the J. Crew catalog featuring the quirky model below wearing that flower necklace, I knew I had to DIY my own.
Just a combination of silk flowers from the craft store, pearl-edged lace ribbon, a pom-pon, and rolled fabric roses – all hot-glued onto a strip of peach satin voile, and finished with cream satin ribbons. I could wear it as a belt too.
I like my version a lot better than the J. Crew one, which isn’t even available to buy from them anyway.
I also took another cue from the catalog and layered a pair of Hub’s boxers under my shorts. I think white with thin stripes may look better; the blue blends in too much with the denim. I know it’s weird, but I also felt the shirt looked better tucked in to the boxers.
(Claire’s stretch rhinestone bracelets and ring, jumpring tool, and Cartier and Tiffany wedding rings)
My $20 freakin-awesome Spiral Girl studded cone-heel pumps. Full disclosure: I switched these out to the flat boots I wore on Day 2 since I was shooting my own photos this night.
I also went for a little bit of an Edward Scissorhands-look to my hair. It didn’t stay as wet-looking as I wanted it though.
Hope you’re all having a great weekend!
xoxo
Carly
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Oct 10, 2009 | Fashion
(Forever21 shirt, DIY chain harness, DIY zipper cuff bracelet, Hot Topic watch, leggings from Japan,
Sam Edelman Zoe Platform Booties, Icing by Claire’s “Dream” knuckle duster ring,
Cartier and Tiffany rings, jumpring opening ring tool)Woohoo! Post #250 already!
Day #3 of Portland Fashion Week saw me in this – since I was only going to be covering a few designers for the shows that night, I decided to finally try out my brand-spanking-new Sam Edelman’s, from Amazon.com (and thanks to that gift card I’d been holding onto for 3 months!).
It was already getting pretty dark out while we were shooting…in retrospect, we should have upped the ISO since everything turned out slightly blurry. Anyway, you get the picture.
What to say? I got tons of compliments on the boots, but my metatarsal bones were hating me after just an hour. 5 3/4″ heels really put alot of strain on the foot. Anyway.
Zipper cuff is my DIY version of the Kate Cusack cuff that’s been out there for awhile…I left the zipper pull on the teeth for interest. You can buy the original for $110 at her Etsy store.
I fell in love with this two-finger ring from Icing by Claire’s the moment I saw it…they also had “Love” and “Peace” versions, both silver and gold. I love that it’s a knuckle duster that says “Dream.” How ridiculous is that??
And I was making jewelry that morning and forgot to remove my jumpring tool! It’s just a little ring [on left index finger] with slits in it for anchoring jumprings as you pry the other end open with pliers…and I realized, hey this is jewelry too! So I just left it on. Wearing some of my wedding rings which I rarely wear since they get scratched super-easily by coming in contact with just about anything. Who knew platinum was such a soft metal??? My $5 nickel jumpring tool is still shiny and perfect, whereas my platinum Cartier ring is a mess of scratches. What gives?
It’s Portland! I figured the tee slogan was particularly appropriate. [“To be Green is to Be Serene.” Made by Forever21, likely using non-green, non-ethical manufacturing practices. Super-irony.]
Chain harness is a copy of the one Norwegian Wood makes…I have the zipper and chains laying around, so I just DIY’ed my own. I am so in love with everything from that brand…and I’m saving up for a little bustle suspender set and feather-shoulder harness.
And then my son decided to take off his pants and get his picture taken too.
Mommy’s trying to look pretty, ok? Just…can you move over to this side…please…?
Oh, for goodness’ sakes.
Portland Fashion Week is…so far, interesting…somewhat of a letdown in the quality and innovation of the designs…a lot of it seems RTW straight off the Macy’s racks…
But that’s for another post…
Hope everyone’s enjoying their weekends!
xoxox
Carly
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Oct 9, 2009 | DIY
(Jacket from Japan; scarf from I forget; Claire’s wristbands, necklace, and armwarmers; handmade studded ring; DIY Chanel tee; Paris Blues Jeans; DIY’d GoJane boots)
It’s that time of year again when the leaves change color, Fall activities are well underway, and Portland Fashion Week presents 5 days of local and sustainable collections, presented in some warehouse practically off the map in a NW corner of the city. I skipped out on attending Day 1, so here I am on Day 2 of the Collections, as I like to say, since it sounds more frou-frou and New-York-wannabe.
I made this shirt the morning before the madness started – with a fabric pen. Because life definitely needs more cavorting! (The real version says “Cavour Roma” in case you were wondering – here’s a piccy below:)
(sorry I don’t remember the site I saw this on) Actually it was on KnightCat, I remembered, and a reader mentioned it was originally from Lookbook.nu. Thanks Danni!
I know armwarmers went out of style (or never came into style) like a decade ago, but my hands get cold easily and I often add them to an outfit. Yes, inside of me is a fashion-challenged 12-year old. With warm hands.
Even though it’s Fashion Week, when you’re covering the shows my best piece of advice is:
Wear comfortable shoes!
I wrapped a long strip of ultrasuede around these flat, scrunchy boots from GoJane and tied the ends. I’m all tied up!
Fashion Show coverage coming soon!
Have a lovely Friday!
xoxo
Carly
DIY Update: For those of you who were wondering how to make the shirt…
1. Take a white Men’s XL t-shirt and a black fabric pen (I used a FabricMate Chisel Tip
). Place your shirt over a piece of cardboard and apply a liberal spraying of Spray Laundry Starch
to make it literally “flat as a board.”
2. I used Photoshop to create the lettering (and added my initials as the double-C logo in the middle, haha), printed out the image, and placed the paper underneath my t-shirt on top of the board. Then I simply traced the letters and filled them in with the fabric marker (took awhile).
3. I cut off the hem a little higher in the front and lower at the sides so it makes “side-tails,” cut off the neck ribbing and the sleeves, and stretched the cut edges until they rolled slightly.
4. Then I washed it on the delicate cycle in the wash and laid flat to dry, to get rid of the starch and “set” the fabric marker paint.
So super-easy to make! I’d love to see everyone’s DIY versions!
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Shooting my own photos again today, so had to be comfy. I bought this (Champion? I think it was) cross-front sweatshirt off the rack, then punched holes randomly around the edge with my rotary leather punch, and added 12 mm jumprings in some of the holes so the fabric looks “pierced.” I then added a black satin ribbon so it looks a little like those tied wrap tops ballet dancers wear. A little. Okay, no.
