I think it’s really fall here! At least this week . . . Tonight I went out to eat and had to wear a sweater and tights and was still a little bit cold. So far this season I’ve had two pumpkin spice lattes, and last night we had squash for dinner and then I made banana bread. Fall is definitely my favorite season, but isn’t it just about everyone’s?
Now that I can really wear warmer clothes I’ve been stalking the thrift and vintage shops, trying to check things off of my fall wishlist. I’ve been trying to avoid the newer shops because I’ve been on the broke side all month, but I’m finding that nearly everything I want to wear for fall and winter has a vintage counterpart. Like that felt hat above. I tried on this one at Madewell, but it didn’t look good enough on me to be worth 70 some dollars. But then two days later I found a very similar one at my favorite snooty antique mall, and it was only $12.50.
I found the Bass loafers at a thrift store a few weeks ago and was so excited since I’ve been looking for a good-looking pair of sensible shoes for an upcoming trip I’m going on. And I like how beat up they look too. Other thrift store finds? This black dress from the ’90s with the prettiest shape and sheer lace back–it’s from Contempo Casuals, a store I remember going to with my sister Ashley in the ’90s, so whenever I find their stuff in the thrift stores I get extra happy. I also found a little pair of tan corduroy shorts to wear with tights and the little aztec-ish print skirt that you might remember from my store a few weeks back. It was one of those things I saw myself wearing too much to part with, I guess.
Now I’m mainly on the lookout for sweaters. Which I seem to be every fall but maybe this year more than ever. Though if I can find a little thrift store version of Alexa Chung’s fisherman knit sweater I think I’ll end up wearing it so much that I won’t need another sweater.
I’ve been going to the library lots now ever since I officially became an Atlanta resident two months ago, and we have so many branches here that I don’t think I’ll have to buy another book for a long time. Right now I’m still reading that Eudora Welty biography along with her novel Delta Wedding, which I like a lot though not as much as a Carson McCullers book. And I finally tracked down a Clarence John Laughlin book and it’s making me want to do some more creepy photoshoots. Maybe with that black lace dress and a weird hillside cemetery Jamie told me about. . .
PS, thanks again for your nice words about the photoshoot. It really means a lot!
Photography: Jamie Hopper
Model: Madison O. at Factor
Hair and Makeup: Mara Z.
Styling: Rhiannon Leifheit
A few weeks back when it was absolutely hot outside I styled a fall-themed photoshoot for my friend and favorite Atlanta photographer Jamie Hopper. Which was a lot of fun to come up with outfits for, even though I felt bad for putting sweaters and jackets on our gorgeous model Madison, who made my job ten times easier by showing up for the shoot with a suitcase full of dream shoes from her closet . . . ankle boots, clogs, those elusive Swedish Hasbeen t-straps I can never seem to find both on sale and in my size . . .
It was a fun shoot. We just went to random spots in Atlanta; my favorite was the natural history museum with all its taxidermy, dinosaur bone replica weirdness.
PS . . . . We just added a styling portfolio button to the right if you’d like to check out the other shoots I styled for Jamie!
Outfit One: Madewell dress, vintage cardigan, Target socks, boots: model’s own; Outfit Two: Vintage shorts, vintage Coach bag, vintage sweater (stolen from Drew), necklace from Corvus Noir, Target socks, Madewell shoes: model’s own; Outfit Three: Wren dress, Madewell jacket, Karen Walker sunglasses, Target socks, Swedish Hasbeens: model’s own; Outfit Four: Wren skirt, vintage blouse, vintage Brooks Brother’s bag, Target socks, shoes: model’s own; Outfit Five: A.P.C. dress
My second favorite show at New Zealand Fashion Week was Ruby’s, if only because I have a sort of crush on their styling and their blog and the whole idea of their boutique. A few weeks ago when I was walking out of a thrift store here in town I ran into the cutest girl from New Zealand, and we got to talking about New Zealand fashion and she told me about the Ruby boutique and how lots of the girls around there dress kind of Ruby-ish, and it sounded like heaven. And it seemed really paranormal (in the best way possible) to be talking about New Zealand fashion in front of the thrift store I go to every single week. And what’s more amazing is that she and my sister Lauren ran into each other in Nashville a few days later!
Anyhow last week one of you mentioned in a comment that what makes New Zealand Fashion Week so refreshing is how wearable most of its clothes are, and that’s exactly what I like about this collection. There’s nothing too dramatic or showy–just great pieces put together in interesting ways.
A/W 2011 lookbook now available on the Ruby website.
Photos by Drew
Dress: Wren
Socks: Sock Dreams (I think?)
Shoes: Madewell
Bag: thrift store
Necklace: Corvus Noir
The title of this is kind of misleading since I was extra lazy this weekend and didn’t do any Appalachian Trail hiking–especially not in heels. Drew on the other hand rode his bike all day today (in the rain!) for the Six Gap Century, so yesterday we went to Dahlonega, Georgia to get him signed in. When I go to places like Dahlonega I wonder why we don’t go up to the mountains more often. It’s only an hour away from Atlanta, but when we’re there it feels like we’re on vacation in some place it takes all day to drive to.
Drew drove us up the mountains to show me where he rides his bike, and just when I was getting dizzy and half-sick from all the twists and turns of the road we got to the old stone shelter on top of Blood Mountain, which happens to be much prettier than its name. There is a little store and hostel in an old stone building that was built (well, rebuilt–it was originally a log cabin) in the ’30s by F.D.R.’s Civilian Conservation Corps. The Appalachian Trail goes right through a stone breezeway and up in back to a rocky lookout, with little white flowers everywhere. It was beautiful, though slightly treacherous if you’re silly enough to wear heels.
I wore a dress I’d been waiting ’till fall to wear. I’ve been in love with the label Wren ever since I read that designer Melissa Coker named it after a Charles Dickens character, so when they sent me a few things in the mail I felt like the luckiest person in the world. I still do. This dress was definitely my favorite–it’s such a fall dream dress that I wouldn’t let myself wear it ’till it was officially fall. Did it feel like fall yesterday? No . . . though it was in the 80s instead of our usual 90s. But today it was in the low 60s and I wore tights and a jacket out of necessity and I was so happy, even though rain had to come along with it. I spent most of the day very lazy, reading Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty and wishing I weren’t too nervous to drive around Atlanta in the rain.
Photos by Drew
Dress: Eve Gravel
Socks: Target
Shoes: Topshop
I think this might be my biggest giveaway yet. If you’ve seen Eve Gravel pieces on other bloggers all week it’s because the Canadian designer is teaming up with bloggers to show off and give away some things from her new fall collection. I like a bunch of the collection–mainly the dark, moody things, since I have a tendency to gravitate towards that stuff in the wintertime. So I decided on the Serpant a Sonnette dress to wear once and give away–it’s a perfect October dress. Puffed sleeves, cinched waist, detailed neckline . . .
I happened to get the dress in the mail on the day I discovered Clarence John Laughlin’s photographs online, so when I opened the package and saw a black dress I knew right away what sort of feel I wanted the photos to have. We took these at the old abandoned Candler mansion that sits on one of the Emory campuses. The mansion and greenhouses around it were built in the 1920s and are all of them were run down and eerie, and it wasn’t hard to get creepy photos out of it. I think Clarence would have liked the place (though I’m sure that in his time it was so Coca-Cola heir-fancy that he wouldn’t have cared for it).
If you’re interested in winning this dress in a size small all you have to do is visit the Eve Gravel store and pick out your favorite thing, and then post it in a comment here. Anyone can enter–it doesn’t matter where you live. I’ll be announcing the winner on October 1st, so you have a week to get your comments in. Best of luck!
