medium–rare.com

Not even a complete outfit, but it’s got the double belt idea that I’ve been using so much these days.  Really feels like you’re wearing one thicker belt.  An economical, environmentally friendly repurposing, eh?  You can blame the poor picture quality on my new amazing iMac photobooth!  

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I think this man is trying to break my heart.

Tags: Andrew Bird, Fat Possum, pitchfork.tv.

I’m settling into work and my new schedule.  Here’s another onesie to hold you all over!  This one’s from Forevs — you rike?

i b

Tags: Forever 21.

Amazing styling job above, no?  My friend Kooan and I are seriously near opposites.  Maybe that’s why I’m always so impressed with what he does.

You can buy Jonte’s song on iTunes.  Pick up some moves while you’re at it because there are few better dancers on this planet.  Bitch, you betta!

Tags: Bitch You Betta, Jonte, Kooan.

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Post-graduation blues are the best.

I have a few vague goals in life and very little idea of how to get there. It’s all good. I’m loaded with a fabulous arsenal of family, friends and my dearest companion who has been with me through the darkest times of my life, my private confidant with whom I share my secret aspirations and every nasty face I possess, a lover who can only betray me when I betray myself, the means through which I experience creativity, freedom and the world — yeah, you’ve got it — fashion.

Thank you all for your patience during my hiatus. Between graduation, hospitalization and a trip to California, I could do little more than catch my breath. For the next week I’ll be enjoying the California sun with my true raison d’être.

Be back in June!
i b

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that Annie Leibovitz is my commencement speaker!!!!!!!!!! (The ten exclamation points are an understatement!)

Clockwise from top:

1. Coppola family for Louis Vuitton ‘Core Values’ campaign, 2008
2. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer from Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life exhibition, 1990
3. Natalia Vodianova and John Galliano for US Vogue, December 2003
4. John Lennon and Yoko Ono for Rolling Stone, 1981

Yes yes yes,
i b

Tags: Annie Leibovitz.

I’m wearing the same denim skirt from my previous outfit post.  The tee from Gap you’ve also already seen.  I guess it’s time for you to meet my Uniqlo cardigan and Camper shoes.  They are absolute essentials in the collective junk called my wardrobe.  I seriously manage to use them almost every day.  Really not the most spectacular look, but I got good responses for the way I attached my suspenders to my cardigan.

It’s my fun new bracelet that’s really of interest.  Again, my friend Jiao made it for me, this time out of scrap material found at school.  Its use of cheap plastic with gleamier, more expensive looking metals reminds me of Michael Graves — only her products don’t belong in Target.  (Just kidding.  I love Michael Graves for Target!)  I’ll update you all when Jiao’s work becomes available.  Seriously, guys, there is so much more you have to see…

<3 my Campers

Until next time,
i b

Postscript — Next time will be something spectacular.  I already bought it… it’s too exciting for words.  I promise!

Tags: Camper, Michael Graves, the Gap.

(Made by Nikki via notcouture.com)

An interest in lingerie should not be resigned to the trashy, tasteless and tarts.  Though it’s the less disciplined sides of ourselves that tend to enjoy it the most, let’s not forget the waist trainers, the performers and even the generations prior that relied on undergarments as a source of strength and support.

Technology freed us from girdles.  Women’s liberation freed us from bras.  Bless them both, but the result is that more restrictive lingerie is no longer a necessity.  And when something is no longer a necessity it becomes a frivolity.  And those who love the frivolous?  Not the most respected folks in town in modern times.

I’m not proposing that we stuff ourselves into corsets and girdles again.  I just like the idea of wearing lingerie to express discipline instead of frivolity.  When we think of a girl who loves lingerie, she’s usually not an ascetic.  She may be dark and aggresive á la Helmut Newton, but disciplined?  I think it’s a fun idea!  It’s also a bit of a the vibe I get from today’s images.

The Made by Nikki piece above just has such great seam lines, and that extra bit of flare really goes a long way.  (Thank you, notcouture for the fun lead!)  The cropped shots of Richard Nicoll’s Fall 2009 RTW line below are among my favorite details from the show.  I love how garters are used in two subtly different ways.  The first is that they’re found in unexpected places such as on a severe little cropped shirt and an eye mask.  The other is that they are exactly where they belong in terms of placement but still out of place, like on the skirt below.  Another bit I like: It’s hard to tell that there is boning on the cropped shirt just above the wearer’s breasts, which — of course — is not somewhere we normally see boning.  It’s as if he deconstructed (a word I probably use too liberally — yikes!) an innerwear ensemble and rearranged it as outerwear.  Not the first time it’s been done as our beloved Jean Paul Gaultier has robbed everybody of the opportunity of doing anything new, but still fantastic!

By the way, the trashy, tasteless and tarts are my favorites among our population.

(images via style.com)

With terribly much love,
i b

Tags: Made by Nikki, notcouture, Richard Nicoll.

Since we don’t get to celebrate May Day here in the US, today is my self declared Play Day!  Who better to spend the day with than my beautiful Brown Nose Bear, who is not a brown noser.  His brown nose is of natural origins.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about how one benefit of aging is growing into one’s jewelry and accessories.  Age lends a look of worldliness that really legitimizes clusters of baubles, doodads and whatnots.  Unfortunately (or fortunately!?), I’m not there yet, so today I tried to wear a few pieces that are a bit youthful and inane.  I think they sit pretty well together.  The rest of the outfit is built for fun.  The silk-chiffon top is from a great French website that no longer sells to the US, and I got the skirt with suspenders from a market in Beijing last summer.  A simple replacement of the terrible glittery plastic buttons with the simple wooden buttons you see now… and VOILA!  A wearable skirt!

Here’s a closer look… grouse foot kilt pin from eBay, thrifted enamel gold ring, thrifted leaf/stone necklace, thrifted screw necklace (formerly plated in 24k gold).  I got the kilt pin at a steep discount because it’s pretty old and it shows.  I’m really happy with the creepy old vibe it gives off.  Plus, ones in mint condition will run you around $180.

Bon week-end, everybody!
i b

Tags: grouse foot, kilt pin.