Raising the Bar (Rinse and Repeat)

In Case of Emergency (Break Glass)

Or, how to make sure you never find yourself in that position

On Trying To Find A Prom Dress

As a (vaguely snobby) fashion conscious teenager in a town that could hardly be described as a shopping mecca, finding a prom dress is always a bit of an upward battle. For me, at least, with my overly high expectations of the specific reaction my ever-elusive dream dress should evoke, attempting to find a dress in my own town is next to impossible. The department stores are overrun with sparkly gowns festooned with sequins and then bedazzled, of which one can choose from two styles: short or shorter. Although I would never be one to put down my town, which does have some very cool stores, including a boutique that is not a far cry from being "hipster", it's just not the place to find a prom dress, especially if you share my fashion sensibilities and (adorably?) high-strung attitude. Braving the interwebs, however, is equally treacherous.

Besides the obvious pitfalls of internet shopping (sketchy sizing, misleading photography, un-refundable merchandise), there is the simple fact that one may not be seeing anything different from what is in the stores. Shopping for dresses tagged "prom" will only pull up thousands more images of the aforementioned glitter factory explosions in pastel, while other gowns of equal formality and attractiveness are not exactly cheap. I often find myself stuck between a million forgettable dresses that I actually CAN afford, and some creation from Paris that I can barely afford to look at. The internet, in short, is a mixed bag that must be raided through with care and caution.

Occasionally, however, one finds a dress worth stopping to stare at. A dress worth gaping at and drooling over and crying about. That is the dress that I will continue to seek out. I vow to ignore every spray of sequins and jewel encrusted bodice in my way. I will find my dream dress or die trying (okay, not really, but you get the picture). In the end, finding a good prom dress is an intensely personal journey. It is not so much about finding a dress that everyone else will find commercially pleasing, but instead about finding something that works for your budget, your body (by which I mean that you feel comfortable in it - screw what other people say), and your life. Prom is a shared night, but the piece you come away with is intrinsically yours. Take ownership of that piece. 

A Bit of An Update

Hello Everyone! Seeing as I have been out of commission for a year now (though I continued to tumblr and pinterest throughout my hiatus), I should probably fill you guys in. As I said before, my blog was confronted with a copyrighting issue that very nearly turned into a legal battle, which made me very afraid to blog for a long time. Even after the issue was settled, and I had found a new name for my blog, I remained disenchanted with blogger and stayed away. I continued to write through other mediums, posting on tumblr on a near daily basis and contributing to blogs in my local area (I was even featured on the Fashion Week of Rochester blog!!!). After a very protracted absence, I've finally decided that I miss having my own blog too much. I miss my readers and I miss having this creative outlet.

I never really talked about this much in the past, as I kept the topic of the blog pretty strictly fashion-specific (which will probably end up changing), but it has been my goal for many years now to work in journalism. For a long time I was convinced that I belonged in fashion journalism, and I still love fashion and love writing, reading, and talking about it, but I have opened up to more mainstream journalism as well. Basically, I'm in love with it all. There is nothing more amazing than learning about how the world works, going behind the scenes, and making knowledge accessible to everyone. How cool is that?!

Unfortunately, there is no newspaper at my school. Editing for the literary magazine (I love reading other people's work) and collaborating with the yearbook committee has been fun, but I would really love to have a more concrete journalistic perspective at my school. We do technically have a sort of parent newsletter, but there are so many amazing student voices and opinions at my tiny private school (some might say too many), and it is such a shame that those voices aren't always heard, even simply by the administration. The problem, however, is that many of these people love to talk about the issues, but have not been very interested in the idea of actually having to write about them. In addition, the teachers and administration have not been very encouraging of my repeated requests for permission to start a school paper, even on a trial basis.

My new year's resolution is to write more (hence restarting the blog), but I'm really hoping I can add creating my school's first newspaper to that list. Writing and journalism are so important to me, and there is just so much not being properly publicized happening in my school's tiny community alone. We shall see what happens.

Finally, as I am currently in my junior year of high school, I have been thrust full force into the search for the perfect journalism school. For my parents, that school will always be Cornell, no matter what major I am interested in. Personally, I have been dreaming of going to Northwestern for many years. Their journalism school is one of the best in the country (read: impossible to get accepted to). I've been hoping to get into their high school summer journalism program ever since I read about it several years ago, but I'm now being faced with the crippling anxiety that I won't get in. Many of the people accepted there are editors of high school newspapers and the like, an opportunity I just don't have. Granted, I do have you, my lovely readers, and the other blogs that have been generous enough to accept me, but that just doesn't seem like enough.

Regardless, I am sending in my application, and staying positive. Whether I get in or not, this is my year to improve my writing and really focus on journalism. I have you guys to thank for inspiring me to refocus and redouble my efforts, so really, thank you. Your comments and your readership keeps me going on days when I feel like no one is listening. So, I'm officially back. Get ready.

NY Fashion Week - Some Musings

Hello Internet! Welcome to my new blog, Awkward Glamour (previously Wardrobe Hazard). Copywriting issues and other problems have FINALLY been worked out, so I can get back to bugging you guys on a daily basis. As you may or may not know, New York Fashion Week is currently underway. Not only is this incredibly exciting news for any devoted style.com stalker such as myself, but it is the fall/winter season, my personal favorite.

                       

Wallpaper Pants

The ugly, true, awkward before-story

Zara Sale Picks

       

A how-to guide for maxing out your credit card

Tapestry Shoes

Weaving together fashion, history, and raw emotion

The Lush Life

Birthday Wishlist

Picks for Fall

Aka sweaters. A lot of sweaters.

"The Tents" Review

Go watch it. Now.

Guest Blogger: Style and Cheek

Your new obsession.

Wallpaper Pants

You know what's up.

My Very Own Magic Crayons

Sadly they are not purple

Stoney Clover Lane

A party on your arm...

Lush Review : Take Two

Also known as me bragging about how much Lush I have...

The Dream-List

Cause' a girl's gotta dream...

Catherine Baba : Idiosyncratic Genius

Aka my favorite person ever...

The Real-List

Keep you feet on the ground and your head in the stars. Or something like that. 

Markus Lupfer Sweaters

A party for your....torso?

My OBSESSION with Lush Cosmetics: A review/accolade

A crazy rant.

Under the Sea

Don't you dare start singing. 

My Top Picks from Zara

Because you can't pick your friends...

Qi Wei's Exploded Flowers

A peaceful explosion of coolness.

Seamless Review

I recently watched the documentary Seamless on Netflix. It was AMAZING! Its all about the first ever Vogue/CFDA award, and follows three of ten young finalists. The finalists followed are Doo-ri Chung of Doo.Ri, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, and Alexandre Plokhov of Cloak.   Proenza Schouler won that year, with Alexandre as a runner up. It was interesting to see some of the other names in the mix that year, though, such as Peter Som and Derek Lam, both of whom are now fairly successful. Looking through the names of the finalists in past years of the award, its a weird mix of names that I immediately recognize (Altuzurra, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Rodarte, Jason Wu) and those that I have never even seen before. 

The movie also brought to my attention a little piece of reality my dreams of a career in fashion have blocked out. Many people in fashion are broke. Even designers that are succesfull and well known can be broke. Success does not necessarily mean money (in the fashion industry). For instance, one of the brands up for the award in 2011 was SUNO, a fairly well known, seemingly successful brand, that is a personal favorite of mine. The film details the "brokeness" of many designers, hence the hefty cash prize that comes with the award. However, there was one line that stood out to me. In defense of the fashion industry's profitablity, someone tells the crew to "go to the house of Valentino, and see what fashion can buy" (cut to shots of the ridiculously lavish mansion). 

Fashion is crazy difficult, but I believe in doing what you love. The movie highlighted both of those points, which I enjoyed. The cast of commentators is on par if not better than The September Issue (my all time favorite fashion movie), featuring tons of clips with Anna Wintour, Sally Singer (a personal favorite),   Tom Ford, and of course the designers themself, including the hilarious and adorable Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler. All in all, it was a GREAT movie. I highly recommend it. 

Kiss Kiss,
H

Jil Sander

I am absolutely IN LOVE with the looks at the Jil Sander fall rtw show. Gorgeous! Especially the opening look with the giant pink cloak. Raf Simons is a genius. It sucks that he was fired from Jil Sander. I have admired his work in the past few years. Its such a cool mix of minimalism and femininity in a way thats very wearable. The makeup is also minimal and feminine, very similar to the collection itself.

Whoever gets hired to design for Jil Sander had better be talented, they have big shoes to fill!

Kiss Kiss,
H

Guess who's back?!

I'm BAAAAAAAAAACK! I took a break from blogger for a while to try out tumblr, but i just didn't like it as much. This community is just more inviting, and I like it a lot better. So, hopefully I'll get a chance to post a lot more now. YAY :) Follow/comment if you feel like it, it means a lot!

My Favorite Blogs

Hey Guys!
I thought I'd just do a little post about my favorite fashion blogs, and I'd really LOVE to hear yours because I'm fairly new to this and don't know about a lot of them yet! Okay, so here goes, in no particular order:

The Style Rookie
Sea of Shoes
The Sartorialist
Who What Wear
BirchBox (blog section)
Polish and Pearls

Okay, thats about it as of right now. I'd really love to know your favorites! Any recommendations? Please comment below!

Luisa Beccaria

Because it's pretty.

Birch Box

It's my birthday on Monday! I'm getting a birch box subscription as a gift, and I'm so excited! I spend a ton of money at Sephora each year buying random gift sets for myself that I don't need, because I get bored and want something new. Hopefully birch box will give me that beauty fix!

For those of you who don't know what birch box is, it's this fabulous mail order beauty company. It's a lot like a magazine actually. You purchase a subscription, and then they send you a cute little box of beauty goodies every month. Each box has four "deluxe" samples (for those of you that are beauty insiders at Sephora, this is the size of the sample you receive after earning 100 points), and 1 just for fun extra thing. What I find most interesting is the variety of samples they give out.

These boxes can have anything from Nars orgasm to a granola bar. The samples usually fall into the categories of skincare, makeup, perfume or lifestyle (candles, food, etc.). They often have little helpful, odd, interesting things, like a lash card, as the extra. Whats nice is that these deluxe samples come at a VERY good price! Occasionally, you'll even receive a full sized container of product (I've been told). 

When you create your birch box account, they have you take a short quiz. This helps them customize your box with the items they think you'd prefer. They also give you recommendations for their store. You can purchase full sized products of whatever was in the box, or browse a wide variety of other products, many from previous months' boxes. What's nice is if you do love a sample you receive, if you buy it within the month you received it, shipping is free! Plus theres a points program that gives you 10 dollars off with every 100 points. 

Overall I'm VERY excited to get my first birchbox! I'll post about it as soon as it comes. If you want to learn more here is the birch box website. The beauty blog Polish and Pearls also has some fabulous reviews of previous boxes, if you want to see whats in them. 

Thats all for now, stay beautiful!

Back to School in a Whole New Fashion

This post is by the book.

Missoni for Target

Freak Out! *Trigger Music*

Mike Tyson's Abandoned Mansion

Because we're all stalkers on the inside.

Alexis Mabille

A woodland adventure.

Stepford Wife Inspiration

Go make me a sandwich.