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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Summer Days

        Now that all of my friends are back home from college, summer has officially begun. While being home is great, my friends and I have all been struggling a bit from the lack of things to do. We live in a small town that doesn't offer much for teenagers, but the biggest problem we've all found is trying to find activities that don't cost a ton of money. While all of us have jobs, none of our jobs provide too much money, and personally for me the majority of the money I make has been going straight to my car payments. So from the combination of lack of money and lack of any activities to do anyways, we've all been kind of missing college and the constant presence of friends and excitement.
        That all sounded very pessimistic and depressing, but that has been the problem for my group of friends, and I think I could confidently guess that this is a problem many other returning college students have had to deal with. But now that I have that out of the way, I'll get on to activities my friends and I have been able to find for summer days and nights, and outfit ideas that I've thought up.
        Whenever I think of summer, I think of tanning by the pool or on the beach. Before any of our pools were open, my friends and I would have a picnic and tan in the public park my town provides. When we do, I always try to wear a loose, comfortable outfit over a bathing suit like this outfit below. I absolutely love this bathing suit from Urban Outfitters, from the ruffles to the gorgeous light blue color. To wear over the bathing suit I picked a really cute, flowing black top from Mod Cloth, and these Bermuda-length jean shorts from American Eagle. I actually own these exact shorts, and not only are they comfortable but they look great on. I'm a pretty petite girl, but I've always been very self-conscious when wearing short shorts and so I was incredibly happy when this year's trend of longer shorts came around. To finish the look off, I paired it with some simple pink flower earrings that will pop with both the dark outfit and will add more color to the pastel bathing suit. And for shoes I chose simple black sandals with a black flower.  


  Outfit 1: Tanning by the Pool



         This next outfit is for a casual day with friends, maybe having lunch or grabbing an iced coffee. I have yet to find a romper that looks good on me, with is unfortunate because I love the trend. But this black one sleeved romper is probably my favorite, I love the ruffles on the sleeve and how the top makes the outfit sophisticated yet casual. I added the belt to emphasize the waist, and the gold owl ring and gold bracelet to add some shine. Since it's an outfit for a casual day I added a flat sandal for a cute and comfortable look, and I loved this pink bag to add a splash of color to the black outfit. 

Outfit 2: Casual Lunch with Friends


        This next outfit could be dressed up or down as a casual summer dress during the day or a fun dress to wear out for a night with your friends. I think this post has made it obvious that I love ruffles, because I'm just realizing ever outfit in this has some kind of ruffle. Whoops. Anyways, my favorite parts of this dress are the halter top as well as the exposed back to the dress. I used very muted colors for the outfit, with mostly pink and brown which really reminded me of summer. The belt, bag and shoe are all different shades of brown, and the ring has a little pop of pink. For a night out I'd maybe change the brown items to black ones, but really you can dress it up many different ways. 


Outfit 3: Summer Dress


        This final outfit is for a dinner with friends. It's casual, but still fun and sexy. My absolute favorite part of this top is the back. If you go to Mod Cloth's website, you can see that the back is actually almost completely exposed, so you add some skin to an otherwise very sophisticated top. I paired the top with a dark jean that would really make the white top stand out. I added some adorable brown wedges to give a little bit of height to the outfit, and you can also wear this cute gold headband and gold earrings that go well with the top. The blue bracelet and ring add some color to the outfit and make it even more visually interesting. This it probably my favorite of the four outfits, because I love dressing up a little, and I am honestly in love with this top. This is an outfit I would definitely wear to dinner or to a night out with my friends, and if you take away some of the jewelry and switch the wedges for flat sandals, I think this outfit could also be dressed down for daytime. 

Outfit 4: Dinner with Friends
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Monday, June 7, 2010

Inspired by Emma Watson

        Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, between coming home for the summer, seeing all my friends and working several days a week I've been keeping myself pretty busy. Speaking of my job, working in a clothing store has been a lot more difficult than I could have imagined, for several reasons. The worst one, however, is the impulse to buy everything in the store. When you're stuck in a store for seven hours at a time, it's impossible not to pick out some favorite items. I've had experience working in retail before, when I worked for a year and a half at a local shoe store. Luckily for me, I was never a big shoe fanatic, so I never went too crazy with the merchandise there. But now working at Zara's all I want to do is buy everything in sight! I got my paycheck on Friday and I'm embarrassed to admit that I've already spent half of it. That's the downside to working in a mall, when I get an hour long break I choose to spend my time browsing around H&M and Forever 21 and inevitably buying more than I should. 
        Anyways, I plan on doing a post in the near future about new purchases I've made. But what I wanted to write about for this post was one of my many fashion inspirations, the actress Emma Watson. I think Emma's style is so relatable to me because she is all about looking polished and put together, but she's also a fellow college student so her outfits are still youthful and fun. I came up with three looks inspired by outfits Emma has worn.
        The first look is actually based around the exact dress that Emma was photographed wearing a few weeks ago. I saw the photo on a blog a little while back and absolutely loved her dress, although assumed it would be some expensive designer label since Emma is a celebrity. Because of this I was very surprised when searching on ModCloth to find the exact dress for a fairly reasonable price. Unfortunately it's currently sold out, so here's hoping it gets restocked soon! Anyways, I love the color of the dress and the button detail down the middle. The material also looks great and comfortable, and if Emma was able to wear it for a day in Florida's brutally humid weather than I would guess it must be a cool enough material to wear on a hot summer day. I paired the dress with a simple necklace and sandal because I felt the dress should absolutely be the main focus of the outfit. 

Look 1: Hanging Out With Friends




        For this outfit I paired the gorgeous halter top with a pair of dark wash jeans, for a look perfect for a cool summer day or night. Emma has worn many tops and dresses with a similar neckline to this one, and I felt that the outfit went along with Emma's combination of always looking put together yet casual. The top is a little more fancy, but the jeans make it wearable for a casual day. I paired the outfit with strappy wedge sandals, which I felt would go well with the long jeans. And for just a little bit of jewelry I added a braided golden bracelet for a pit of sparkle.
Look 2: Cool Summer Day




        The dress in this last look is actually from Emma Watson's clothing line for People Tree (which is great, and you can check it out here). This dress is my favorite from her collection, because I absolutely love the ruffled one-sleeve top. I've had the dress in my favorites for so long, and actually ended up buying a similar dress from Zara's with this one in mind. Anyways, the one shoulder design reminded me of a casual version of Emma's dress at the Met Gala Ball. I paired the dress with a belt to define the waist, and reflective shoes from Anthropologie that I loved. I also added a bright pink bag, which I realize makes the outfit look very cotton candy-y, but I thought the added girly-ness to the outfit could be something Emma would do. While I named the outfit a night out with friends, the great thing about the material and look of the dress is that it could also be made very casual. I feel like this look could very well be taken from day to night. 
Look 3: Night Out With Friends





        Hope you enjoyed this post, and I promise I will try to update more in the future! I have plans for many more "Inspired By..." posts, as well as posts about outfits I have bought and tried. Thanks for reading! 
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