From LookBook Looker to LookBook Booker??

Whatever you want to call it, I basically made the transition from just hyping other peoples' looks to posting my own goofy pictures for others to judge.

I was told I "Looked Like Summer Today". Agree? Disagree?

Are you on Lookbook? Send me a link! I'll check you out!

Want to be on Lookbook? I have an invite that I am just dying to give out away. If you want it tell me in the comments below.

The Girl With Love on Her Forehead

No Point for Me to Drop Acid - I Have Disney Movies!!!

Case in Point:

Remember me saying I was scared of Disney movies as a wee one? Yeah... this scene was the reason why I only saw Dumbo once until I hit a double digit age. And I didn't fully appreciate it until I was 18. Forgive my past ignorance. I'm a late bloomer in many, many ways.

What's your favorite Disney trip-tastic moment? Are Disney Movies your Anti-Drug? Holla back in the comments, dearies!

Tons o'Disney Love, 

The Girl With Love (and Pink Elephants!) on Her Forehead

And All Shall Know the Wonder of Purple Summer

Happy Summer Solstice! 
It certainly has been a very happy few days lately. 

Top 3 Things That Happened to Me This Weekend:

1. My family came to visit and I got to take them on a tour of my Not-So-Secret-Garden and my Hogwarts-like campus. They loved it!

2. I got paid!!!! And splurged at Sephora. I'm like a kid in a candy store in Sephora. Dropped about 1/3 of my paycheck on makeup (some of which is photographed below)

3. Heard back from Zephyr, the editor in chief of CollegeFashion.net and I was selected out of $#@%-tons of girls to be a Looks On Campus Contributor. So I guess if you want to read more of my style ramblings, you can head there in a few weeks and read what I have to say about the fashionistas and fashionistos on campus. 

I figured I need to get used to my camera again since I'm going to be photoging AND writing for CF, so I took a few shots of my First Day of Summer/Purple Summer (From Spring Awakening - Any musical freaks out there?) inspired makeup I'll be wearing out tonight. The gold-ish purple turns into light purple which turns into a blue purple, like the sky during a really cool sunset (see picture above). Unfortunately, my camera takes great photos of others and horrible ones of me so the colors are not as cool as they look in real life.

Do you like it? Does is scream "Purple Summer" or Does it look too cray-cray?

(p.s. forgive my eyebrows, they are naturally super thick and look insanely caterpillar like really close up, aaaand I promise I have pupils even though you cannot see them. My eye color is extremely dark brown and is almost a black as my actual pupil :P)

Once again, Happy First Day of Summer! 

Comment on how your summer is going! I would love to hear! :) 

The Girl with Love on Her Forehead

Naturalment - Work it like an Aristocat!

The Aristocats is one of my favorite Disney movies. When I was little the word "Disney" was synonymous to "Music!" and "SCARY!!!". My mother bought me the sing-a-long videos so I knew every Disney song when I was 5 years old. (Lame Alert! Get ready...) However, I didn't see most of the movies until I was over 10 years old because I was terrified of 3/4ths of the films. They had such creepy characters!! I couldn't watch Alice in Wonderland (that creepy cat), Pinocchio (that terrifying whale), Snow White (that mean witch), the list goes on and on and on. 

However I COULD watch the Aristocats.

I loved the pretty little Parisian kitties, Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz, with their caring and kind Madame. I also took comfort that the Mama Cat, Duchess, sounded like Lisa from Green Acres. And that was because she WAS Lisa from Green Acres, Eva Gabor. 

Today I show my Aristocat love by 1. Having an ADORABLE pink shower cover-up with Marie on it and 2. Taking the time to wear an outfit or two inspired by the movie. 

I have worn my inspired Duchess outfit for awhile, however the inspiration to write about it came from the CollegeFashion.net article on Fashion Inspiration: Walt Disney's Snow White.

My Duchess outfit is a Winter look. It gets incredibly hot in the Summer here, but the Winters are almost unbearable. (p.s. When I say unbearable I mean that I've only seen snow 5 times in my life so I'm not used to the cold AT ALL.)

I don't have any pictures of the look and I couldn't find exactly the same things that I wear, but what I Polyvore-ed together looks pretty close!

Duchess is a white cat with "eyes like Sapphires". I would wear my plush, faux-fur lined and cuffed, snow white swing coat with sapphire colored earrings. Her collar sometimes looks red, sometimes looks reddish-gold. I just wear a golden pearl necklace that is really close to my neck, almost like a collar necklace or choker. Underneath the coat I wear a black and white Parisian-stripe looking top with a black skirt. Finally to represent the pink ears I wear a pink beret.

As much as I love Duchess, Marie is my favorite girl character in the movie. Seeing that CF article really inspired me to do a new Disney look, but I can't do my Duchess look because coats and 100 degree weather do not mix very well. So for my Marie look I made it a Summer outfit.

This look has the cute and classy lwd (lil white dress). The white dress and white sandals are great for Summer and they work for representing Marie's fur. The big pink bow on my head will be for pink ears. 

Like Duchess, Sapphire eyes represented by pretty Sapphire earrings I found on Etsy.

To represent her bow/collar on her neck I will wear a pink choker necklace I also found on Etsy.

Or instead of wearing a bow on my head, I could be super otaku and wear white plastic Neko (Japanese for Cat) Ears with pink fur inside...Nah. I think I'll save the ears for when I go to anime cons. :P

I haven't ordered the items yet to make this Marie look, but I will soon!

What do you think of my looks for Duchess and Marie? Should I do anything differently to show my Parisian kitty style? They say "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat". I know that I do! Do you? :) 

Let me know dowwwwwn below. 

(--> French Accent) Ze Girl Weeth Lahv en 'Air Forehead

Thank You For Being a Friend Part 3: Blanche Devereaux

This is part three to Thank You For Being a Friend, my tribute to The Golden Girls. Part One on Sophia Petrillo can be seen here  and Part Two for Dorothy Zbornak here. :)

 

Blanche Devereaux 

 

Recently passed ( =( ) Rue McClanahan brought the sultry, sexy, Georgia girl known as Blanche Devereaux to life. Blanche, age...???? - she NEVER told her age and if she did, it was always under 45. Though in the Mother's Day episode she said she was 17 in 1949 which would make her 54 in 1985. (Caught ya Blanche!) She  always mentions how much younger and prettier she is than her roommates (Fun fact: She actually WAS over ten years younger than Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, and Betty White.). This often gets on their nerves, but they brush it off. Though she is very hung up on her looks and frequently brags about sleeping with a new man every other day, the girls love her vivaciousness and generosity. Blanche values being sensual and sexy. She also values being Southern and feminine. Her quips about living in the South and being from Georgia are the best (fellow GA girl here - holla! :) ), only second in hilarity to Sophia's quips about Blanche being a slut. She is certainly the life of the party at their Miami house.At the same time she is a  good friend and when she opens her heart she can do some really sweet things.

Her outfits definitely bring out her personality. She wears dresses in the show that even I don't have the figure to pull of - and Rue M was over 50 years old! (Hope I'm that hawt when I'm fifty...) Blanche is daring enough to wear something short, tight, low cut, backless - anything! She's proud of her body and wants the people of Miami to be proud of it too.

She's on the left wearing a sassy and short black dress with shoulder embellishment.

 Red is one of Blanche's go-to colors during a special event (Including her own wedding dress! See second picture below). It brings out the Miami tan. She is also not afraid to wear sparkles and sequins.

Her more everyday wear consisted of wearing dresses with blazers. Normally the dress would be patterned and the blazer would be a pretty pastel color. Sometimes instead of a dress, she would wear a skirt with a lacy top under a blazer.

I also noticed that she would often wear the same color from head to toe. Her jacket would match her shirt which matched her pants. 

From color to pattern she would be the same. 

Finally, the one item that Blanche almost ALWAYS rocks is heels. She wants to be feminine and sexy at all times. She wears heels with pants, skirts, dresses, even with her nightgown and bathrobe. The only time I can remember me not seeing her in heels on the show was when she came back from playing a baseball game, and that was 1 episode out of almost 200.  She has 3 different pairs (that I can recall). 1 pair that criss-crosses across the toes that was a nude color, a matching style shoe in black, and heels with feathery stuff on top for bedtime.

If you have seen my other two GG posts you know the drill: What I would wear to create a Blanche look for the hot-hot heat is on the left and on the right is what I think Blanche's younger trend following self would wear. I would try and keep it super feminine and at the same time flirty by wearing a short little red dress with flowers. I like the sweetheart neckline. It's girly and sexy at the same time (helloooooo clevage!). To emulate her blazer I would wear a light pink blazer over the dress with a similar color flower necklace. On my feet would be a pair of super tall and super strappy nude wedges to emulate her nude heels. 

I think Blanche's 2010 Spring/Summer trend would be Boudoir/Underwear-as-Outerwear. I gave her a party outfit instead of an everyday outfit. She would wear her trademark party look - sequins! And lots of red too! I can see her wearing a sparkly tunic with a red bandeau top underneath to give that "peek-a-boo" affect. The tunic would be over a pair of red skinny jeans. Also, she would wear platform heels with, of course, sequins. 

Do you think I captured Blanche's style? How would you recreate a Blanche look? Are you a Golden Girls fan? I'd love to hear from you!!!

The Girl With Love on Her Forehead

p.s. Want to see another approach to Blanche's look? Check this one out here at Southern Flair.

Midnight Movie - The Secret Garden

Tonight I watched the 1993 version of The Secret Garden. It is a movie that I loved when I was a little girl and I still love it now. I can only hope to one day have a home with a secret garden of my own. For now I have the Duke Gardens. It is a place which matches the beauty of the garden in the movie. Except...it's not a secret. :) Sadly it was incredibly hot today, a nice 95 degrees. I wanted to go outside and frolic in my Hogwarts (West Campus reminds me of Hogwarts so much!) Garden, but I didn't want to sweat or get rained on because it eventually rained. Gotta love icky Southern weather. 

I basically watched the movie to try to compensate, but of course nothing beats actual nature. I still have the itch to see a real garden. 

Maybe I'll go tomorrow. For now I'll just sit here in my room inspired.

I love the clothing style of the time period of The Secret Garden. I do believe it is supposed to be in the early 1900s. It was the time of pinafores and loose frocks up to the knee for girls. I think it is such a fun and free look. The early 1900s, around 1910, is when children were first given clothes that served as "play clothes" and looked less like what the adults were wearing.

Mary, the main character, wore these fun, simple girl clothes along with ribbons in her hair and on her clothes. Also, she often went out to play in a straw hat. 

Mary frequently had on neutral colors so I kept this look pretty neutral using just black and white. It is a simple skater dress that poofs out like Mary's did in the movie. Also I found a pinafore! They actually still make and sell them (thanks Modcloth!). It goes over the black dress. Of course I did not forget the straw hat with black trim and the trademark Mary ribbon. I included the knee stockings because she wore them. Yet the shoes reminded me of these really cool boots she wore one time and with the tights I'm pretty sure they add a little sass to the sweetness of the look. And Mary was a very sassy (or as the kids used to call her, 'contrary') girl so I think it works. :) 

The next look is Mary inspired and Garden inspired. It is a simple, flowy frock with colorful flowers! This time the bow is in a form of a belt instead of in the hair. The straw hat is to keep the England sun out of the face and the flat shoes are to ensure ultimate ease when going on adventures in the beloved Garden. So the key to unlock the Secret Garden is available at all times, it is on a necklace.

Simple outfits for an extraordinary amount of fun. 

Do you like the movie The Secret Garden? What do you think of my looks? What do you wear when frolicking in nature?

Let me know down below my dears. 

The Girl With Love (and flowers!) on Her Forehead

Musings on being Down to Earth - with a new link!

I posted this at the end of May but now I have a different, smaller clip so I'm putting it to the top for easy clickin. :)

Today I watched Rita Hayworth's Down to Earth, 1947 sequel to 1941 movie Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Miss Hayworth plays Terpsichore (my favorite Muse!!!!!), the Greek Muse of Song and Dance. She sees a musical about her and becomes outraged because of the way she is portrayed. The girl playing "Terpsichore" dances around like a "jezebel" and talks about how she is the one who "Puts the ants in the dancer's pants". All of this gyrating and talk is to attract the attention of a good lookin G.I.. Well the real Muse will NOT have it, so she goes Down to Earth to put a stop to the show by sneaking into the auditions and wowing the casting agents into giving her the part.

(This is her in SHOCK as she watches. LOVE HER HAT!!!)

She's beautiful!!! The dance number where she works her magic is below. 

The entire clip is here. (The dance number starts at 7:00 and lasts to the end.) 

It's obvious which girl in the chorus line she is. She is the one who exudes energy, vivaciousness, sexiness, grace, and class all at the same time. She floats in her green dress and absolutely KILLS the tap number while wearing heels.

My goodness I love her dress. I found a still shot of her twirling. She looks like an absolute dream in Chiffon (I am 95% sure that it's chiffon). Just look at the movement it has! Look at the picture below to see how the screen shot captured it. There is no shell underneath it so it is uninhibited by any other fabric. The chiffon goes where Rita Hayworth goes. The green color makes her red hair pop and her brown belt shimmer as she dances.

Sadly, not many dresses are made like that anymore. Mainly dance wear and beach cover-up style dresses have that kind of freedom.

But that does not mean you can't make it work and find similar pieces! Here is a pretty cover-up style dress that is crafted like Terpsichore's dress.  The lowcut neckline is similar and so are the sleeves.

It does not have enough fabric or the right cut to make the chiffon go up when you twirl in circles, but it still has a floaty, goddess like quality.

This tunic also reminded me of Terpsichore's dress.

It is very ethereal and the simple draping is elegant .

This dress, sadly, is just an image. It is very close to the original style. It has the plunging neckline, the chunky jeweled waist, and the chiffon bottom. However it has a shell so there will not be too much movement in the dress.

This too is just an image, but I thought it was such a nice similar pick. The waist is cinched and the chiffon is cut and ready for movement. I cannot tell if a shell is under the dress or not, but if it isn't, whoo boy could you twirl around in this dress!!! The color is beautiful too!

Below is a dress that still exists! Yay! It is a red, saucy little chiffon number that definitely can move. The "flyaway chiffon" is not attached to the shell so it can flow out, away from the dress.

Do you have a style that you wish was still in style? Do you love Rita Hayworth?

Comment below and let me know!

The Girl With Love on Her Forehead

Thank You For Being a Friend Part 2: Dorothy Zbornak

This is the part two to Thank You For Being a Friend, my tribute to The Golden Girls. Part One on Sophia Petrillo can be seen here. :) 

Dorothy Zbornak

Dorothy Zbornak, played by Bea Arthur, is "the smart one" of The Girls. She is snappy and sassy but more Brooklyn than her mother Sophia Petrillo. In The Golden Girls she is recently divorced to her husband of 38 years Stan Zbornak. She is a substitute teacher who loves to read. Often she is made fun of by the Blanche, Rose, and even her mom for not going out on dates as frequently as a single woman probably should. However she normally gets back at all of them by calling out on a flaw of their own, making them appreciate her by saving their butts from a jam or offering a smart solution to their problems.

Dorothy has the most masculine features of all of the ladies. She is very tall and has a beautiful, deep voice. This masculinity is reflected in her style. Even though she is in Miami she wears long sleeved tops. These tops are paired with scarves or jackets that have a fabric draped on them like a scarf. Sometimes she wears both. (See picture above) 

 In this picture, from one of my FAVORITE episodes EVER (Goodbye Mr. Gordon), she is wearing a scarf.

In the pictures below she is wearing a sweater and a men's style shirt over her tops.

She sometimes plays up the masculine style by wearing a bow tie. In the second picture below this, you see she even does it for formal wear.

Another one of Dorothy's common outfit picks is a cowl neck shirt. It is like the draping of a scarf, just without the tails. She often wears maxi skirts (see above photo) or wide legged, khaki or cotton trousers. She is rarely seen in heels. Dorothy mainly wears flat sandals.

The outfit on the left is what I would wear. Like I have said before, It's HOT here. So to keep with the Dorothy khaki, masculine, wide pants theme I would wear khaki, wide, bloomer style shorts. Also I would wear her trademark draped, cowl-neck by wearing a cowl-neck tank top. This would be under a slouchy boyfriend blazer. To be Dorothy like in footwear I would wear a flat sandal. To pay a tribute to her bow tie I would accessorize with a bow tie necklace.

Women rockin the masculine theme was ALL OVER the runway for Spring/Summer 2010 so I can see young, trendy Dorothy Zbornak wearing boyfriend jeans with a loose top. She would not wear anything to tight or too short. I chose the top because, to me, the big bow is an alternative to the bow tie. Also I can see her wearing a bow headband instead of a bow tie too. Instead of sandals with these pants I gave her some boat shoes.

What would you wear to emulate Dorothy Zbornak? What would you see her trend following self wearing? Are you a Golden Girls fan? I'd love to hear from you!!!

The Girl With Love on Her Forehead

According To My Research: A Journey to Find a Cool Skirt

Remember Dorothy Ann on The Magic Schoolbus? She was the smart one. You ALWAYS knew she was about to say something smart because beforehand she would say "According To My Research" and then give her key fact that would help Miss Frizzle's crew in their adventure.

Found this pic from Amazon. Dorothy Ann is the one in the pink!

Yesterday I went on an adventure - on the internet! I hyped and added the look below to my Lookbook  favorites a looong time ago. And I FINALLY found skirts similar to the one she is wearing. 

She describes it as a "Stella High Wasted Layered Bubble Skirt"

 

Click to see the Lookbook.nu page

I looked it up and Stella is a brand in Australia. Sadly I could NOT find the website of the brand anywhere and there was not anything from the brand on ebay. So this forced me to look harder.

If you type in "High waist layered bubble skirt" to any online store, ShopStyle, even Google, you don't get ANYTHING that looks like her skirt. So I realized that the style terminology for the skirt had to be something different from what she said. I had to use my training at the Costume Shop and nerdy knowledge of fabrics and sewing techniques to help me on this one.

One thing I noticed is that the skirt has a hem that makes a half circle pattern around the bottom of the skirt. This is called a scalloped hem. The scalloped look has "layers". The curvy patterns are on an upper layer of the skirt. However this layer is not layered on top of the other one thus not making it "layered". Actually, the layer of scallops (?) is picked up or hitched up. Thus making the skirt a Pick Up style skirt or a Hitch skirt.

It doesn't end there! Notice how the skirt has more fabric around hips and then gets thinner toward the bottom. This is called a tulip skirt. Because the hem is tucked back and puckers out a little bit, it is a bubble hem.

So this skirt is actually a Stella high waist, scalloped bubble hem, tulip hitch skirt. That's FIVE styles AND a brand in one skirt. It is a VERY unique piece which is why I WANT IT. However, like I said before, I cannot find anything Stella so I needed to find an alternative. And I did!

I have to admit. I'm not the biggest fan of Bubble Hems. I remember when the Bubble Skirt hem was on almost every trendy dress imaginable. I thought it was cute when done right. However my mind was saying let's go! But my thighs were saying NO!

I did notice that if the hem was not straight across or if the skirt was a tulip style, my legs looked smaller. So the scallop and tulip style makes the lookbook-er's legs look small because it makes her hips rounder. The hitch style gives the skirt more volume and contributes to the roundness of the tulip look.

So I looked for skirts and dresses that had all or most of these elements. I found these...

All Saints Capella Skirt

 This skirt is dark blue, has the scalloped, bubble hem and the pick up effect that looks like layers. However I do not think it creates the tulip effect I am looking for. I think because it is round all over it will flare out instead of curve inward.

All Saints Draconis Skirt

This skirt too has the bubble hem. It is scalloped on the bottom but a bit pointier on the edges which means it will curve inward instead of out. This will have more of a tulip effect than the skirt above but it is not a tulip skirt or dark blue.

AX Paris Hitched Up Bustier Dress

This dress had the scalloped bubble hem and a hitched layer of fabric. It even has the effect of being larger in the hip area and then getting smaller, like a tulip skirt. Yet, it is a dress.

My best result:

This skirt I found on ebay has a scalloped bubble hem and has a hitched layer of fabric. It is a dark blue color AND from the way it is placed on the ground I can tell that it is a tulip skirt. See how it gets wider and then gradually curves and gets smaller?

I went ahead and bid for it on ebay so we shall see if it will be what I was looking for in  a few days! 

If my camera behaves I'll take pictures. (My camera LOVES to work for me until I have to take a picture of myself. Le sigh! Le weep!!!)

Do you think I did a good job finding similar pieces? What about the one I bought? Have you ever had to find an alternative for an item you just could NOT find? 

Let me know and comment below! Also, be sure to tell me your reaction! 

Lahv,

The Girl With Lahv On Her Forehead