The Shock of the Lightning

Not only did it miserably rain all weekend, there was also a ridiculous propane-fueled explosion in the north end early yesterday morning, making it one of the most thoroughly strange stay at home weekends I've ever had. Our photo shoot plans for outdoors were obviously nixed by the gross weather, and the only 'apparel' I purchased was a pair of utilitarian putrid light blue wellies for $10 because my gladiators were getting entirely ruined outside. Ugh.
Cabin fever led to G and I drawing some inspiration from old photographic magazines laying about the apartment. Flipping through lots and lots of articles about overpriced light reflectors and other techniques to brighten up spaces led to an agreement upon the creation of a tinfoil wall in our apartment - one Dollarama trip later and this set of photos is what happened...It was a team effort - I taped, G crumpled, flattened and placed, and in my opinion the results turned out awesomely creepy in an art house film/Factory Girl sort of way. Moreover, I've always found that it makes me feel better to dress up when I'm not feeling the best, hence the evening dress pictured, which I wore around the apartment all night while watching Canada suck at the Olympics, eating Grand Camembert and the best cherries I've ever tasted in my life (thank you, Pusateri's!) and daydreaming about one day owning a Fromagerie and having a pet pig named Petit Oursant.

Oh, and as a brief aside: it just me or do I look somewhat like a vampire in this photo set? Not that that's a bad thing - in fact, it might just be the best thing EVER, but yeah...

Wearing

Jacket: Danier (you can't really see the crazy 'Queen of Darkness' collar on it, but trust me when I say that it may be the coolest/most intimidating/wicked hot thing I own)

Dress: F21 (which is cool, because I never wear it and as such am pleased that I spent very little on it)

Shoes: vintage (or at the very least I bought them at a secondhand shop. I'm unsure as to whether or not they classify as actual vintage however)

Don't Fight It, Feel It

Someone I am acquainted with went on an NYC trip last week, and arrived back yesterday with a little and completely unexpected Uniqlo shopping bag which shocked the pants off of me...figuratively of course, as I wasn't actually wearing pants yesterday.

Within the adorable paper bag featuring a green-haired, underwear-clad anime chick was the t-shirt you see in today's pictures - yes, it's just a t-shirt and nothing to entirely fawn over, but it is a limited edition Basquiat print and, more importantly, my first Uniqlo piece. Uniqlo, which I have heard and read so much good about, but never experienced firsthand - until now. The strangest and most wonderful part about this likely underwhelming story is that I've realized that people who you don't think are listening to you or care about your interests whatsoever are actually listening sometimes, and can surprise you in the nicest of ways.
Anyways. I jaunted over to Forever 21 after work yesterday (because once I get one new article of clothing I find it difficult to leave it at that, plus I felt like walking downtown during pedestrian rush hour while listening to Primal Scream because that always makes me happy on some weird, me-centric level) and was sorely disappointed in pretty much everything they currently have in stock. Early August generally seems to be an awful time in retail...which, lucky as it may be for the well-being of my savings account, is horrendously frustrating for me. However, I did scour H&M's Men's section shortly thereafter and found a black men's cardigan which just may be my new favourite article of clothing ever. I'm certain it will make its way onto here at some point...and by 'some point' I mean 'probably Monday'.
Most importantly of all news in the realm of my life for all intensive blogging-related purposes, the amazing-albeit-currently-gigantic thrifted Burberry trench is in my closet staring at me disdainfully, reminding me that its potential glory days of September are merely 23 days away, and that any tailor worth his/her salt will take at least that long to mold it perfectly to every inch of my body...I'm going to get on that like now before it jumps out of the closet and smothers me to death or something, as it's getting increasingly aggressive.Oh, as a quick FYI: I won't be blogging this weekend - a multitude of exciting people, places, things and whatever other nouns exist will be going on, and sometimes you just have to roll with it, y'know? But (and you will learn with me that there is virtually always a consequential 'but' to any statement I make) G and I are getting some really super exciting and fabulous photographs in the vault for next week, so be sure to come back on Monday and check them out, read whatever outrageousness I've come up with by then, etc.

If there's not a post, however, know that I did not in fact call the tailor today and the Burberry attacked me in my sleep...and um, call the cops I guess?

Wearing

T-shirt: Uniqlo

Jeans: Rock & Republic

Shoes: Nine West

Even In Your Lightest Day

Another day, another dress. Through this blog I've begun to realize just how many dresses I currently possess...in fact I don't believe I've repeated one yet, and that's not even beginning to touch on my fall and winter dress collection. I can perhaps understand why my friends and family scoff and roll their eyes at me when I whine about having nothing to wear. That being said, they kind of just don't get it, whereas I'm certain many of you do - when you spend an excessive amount of time poring over magazines, websites and photographs concerning 'style', enough is never enough. It's not so much about trends or popularity as it is the development of a complete, tirelessly unique personal aesthetic, the kind seemingly only achieved by the likes of Marianne Faithfull and Carine Roitfeld, and even they repeat an outfit occasionally I gather.
In the past year I have discovered that my love for dresses is rivaled only by my love of well worn-in cardigans - put the two together and, in my opinion, you have a wicked kind of fashion magic going on. For quite a while I wondered what all of the Alexa Chung hullabaloo was about ('hullabaloo' was the first word that came to mind, but really, who ever uses that word?!), but as soon as I happened upon a photo of her wearing a cardigan over a black silk evening dress at the NME Awards, I knew that she was a sort of kindred fashion spirit and hence developed a certain degree of respect for the girl.
In other news, G and I saw 'The Wackness' last night with some friends and it was surprisingly brilliant. I had a feeling I would enjoy it, as I'm virtually guaranteed to like almost anything set in the 90's (for the record: the 60's, the 90's and fictionalizations of a dystopic future are good, pretty much everything else...not so much), but my only complaint would be that is was rooted in the hip-hop culture of New York City in 1994, and I'm personally more interested in the emergence of Britpop in 1994 (um, Definitely Maybe anyone?). But really, whatever, Olivia Thirlby nonetheless wore some really dope and jealously-inducing liberty print florals in it, and MK Olsen's ten minutes onscreen as a tiny, flighty hippie was worth the admission price even if the rest of the film had sucked, which it enjoyably did the opposite of.
Wearing
Dress: Aritzia
Cardigan: vintage
Shoes: Hermes, vintage
Belt: The Bay, children's section

It's up with my heart when it skips a beat.

Okay, I may have just started hyperventilating.
Alexander. Wang. Diffusion. Line. (And. Shoes.) Oh. My. Effing. God.

This is quite possibly the best fashion news I've heard all year. No longer will I have to say my outfit was "Alex Wang 'inspired'", now I can just be all like "it is Alex Wang...diffusion" and feel insanely cool in an Erin Wasson-esque way. A Holt Renfrew salesgirl and I recently bonded over a love for Alexander Wang's simple, lazy and perfectly cut garments and lamented the price tags of such utterly beautiful things. No more will we have to do this.

Mind you I haven't even touched base on the shoes yet, of which there will be "five styles, each a variation on the platform sandal". These will apparently wholesale between $125 and $250 which in my books is entirely reasonable for shoes...I may have a great deal of difficulty paying astronomical bundles of money for clothing, but I do believe fabulous shoes (and hair for that matter) are always worth the expense.

This definitely gets bestowed the 'life is awesome' tag.

P.S. How badly do I want his desk in the photo above?!

Credit: WWDFashion

Only Shallow

The boots finally arrived!!! Thanks to international shipping and Canada Post's nightmarish service standard the delivery of the boots took much longer than expected, but that's alright and I'm over it because they are also quite a bit more stunning than I suspected they would be in real life.
The thing I love about a pair of boots like these, amongst a million other things, is that one can wear exclusively basics save for the footwear, and the outfit still comes out looking interesting and planned. Such is the case with last evening's ensemble: when I tore open the shipping box I was all at once intimidated and joyful at the prospect of wearing them...but yeah, I will not pretend that the intimidation factor wasn't there somewhat.
Oh, and I still stand by my strongly held belief that they look like figure skates. Regardless of the fact that I went way basic with my clothing so that the boots could hog the attention which they intrinsically command, I did attempt to incorporate a little bit of this in with the bowed ribbon in my hair which I tore off an old tutu gathering dust in my closet. G believes they look more like stripper shoes, which I can kind of see the logic in, so perhaps I'm sending off some kind of figure-skater-who-streetwalks-to-be-able-to-afford-the-best-Russian-coach-in-the-world-who-will-help-her-achieve-her-Olympic-dream vibe? God I hope not, but even if I do, whatever. I am of the mind that the awesomeness of the boots outweighs any negative connotation that could potentially be associated with them.
I believe that these are actually going to be easier to wear in the fall and winter (well, the parts of winter when there's not horrendous grey slush and ice everywhere you turn) with opaque tights as per the following Teen Vogue editorial, which I have no idea when or where I found, but have nonetheless dubbed "Canadiana Chic" in one of my many desktop folders. Mind you my new boots aren't closed-toe, beige/black, or Marc Jacobs for that matter, but potato-potahhhto as they say.
As a brief reprieve from my boot diatribe: it was rainy, staying-in kind of weather last night, so in lieu of that I made the best pizza in the entire universe of all time last night. No, seriously.

Wearing

Top and bandeau: American Apparel

Jeans: Moto

Boots: Urban Original

Hair ribbon: mine

All the Hurry and Wait

I spent the majority of my time this past holiday weekend reading real-crime murder mysteries and drinking white wine spritzers on the lounge chair below...
Yesterday a sense of normalcy returned to my life, what with being back in the city. It is unfair to refer to yesterday as 'normal' though, because it was so much better than what 'normalcy' indicates. Copious amounts of sangria, obtaining some impressive Primal Scream acetate and last, but definitely not least, not having to go to work all contributed in a significant way to one of the loveliest Mondays I've experienced in recent history.
G and I caught up with the charming, entertaining and just generally awesome LJ of (the equally awesome) NoGoodForMe and much photographed fun was had everywhere from Kensington Market to the Annex to downtown yuppie pubs. As such, my cowboy boots have finally made their debut appearance onto Modern Guilt - unreasonable walking shoes were simply out of the question yesterday, and these boots are a long standing favourite for pretty much any casual activity you can dream up (I am going to resist the glaringly obvious and painstakingly cheesy Nancy Sinatra reference I could make here.)
Life is back to normal today, but it's the good kind of normal that comes from having an enjoyable and diverse weekend combined with an adequate amount of sleep. I have many things to plan and figure out over the next few days, and as a result I may have some extraordinarily exciting news to be sharing very soon...
Wearing
Top: Chinatown
Leggings: Aritzia
Boots: vintage, from a friend's mom's youth
Jewelry: Everything from candy machine dispenser junk to vintage family heirlooms

On LJ: I know that the shoes are Vans and that the t-shirt is vintage, but the shortalls are still a mystery to me. That being said, I'm kind of obsessed with them.

See how they fly like Lucy in the sky, see how they run

Whenever I am confronted with a large, open space with hardwood flooring I develop a powerful and imminent urge to dance, jump, leap, lay down, run, somersault, and so on. Perhaps spending hours upon hours in a dance studio throughout one's formative years is the cause of this odd quirk, but regardless of its antecedent, it is above all else super, super FUN. In fact, this was probably the most fun photo shoot ever...and by ever I mean that I don't think anyone who has ever lived has had this much fun on a photo shoot in the history of the world. Pretty intense, no?
Entirely impromptu, I jumped about and G captured an entire album's worth of pictures ranging from impressive to downright silly. It was suffocatingly hot at this point in the day, so naturally I chose to wear comfortable, loose clothing that I could move around in (which for me, 9 times out of 10, means a sheath dress). But perhaps I had some type of psychic prescient brainwave yesterday, because I chose jean shorts, a top made of basically a semi-sheer nothingness printed fabric, and my favourite headscarf (which my mother informed me yesterday she purchased when she was the exact same age as I currently am), which was much more conducive to jumping about than a sheath dress could have ever been.
Surprisingly (in the best possible way), the rest of the day that followed this photo shoot actually lived up to the awesomeness that the photo shoot had set the bar for. Lots of stuff happened, including: ground round burritos, finding the most perfect pair of jeans to ever grace my body at the most unlikely of stores, more frustration towards American Apparel employees, balcony fun, Coors Light in a downtown park in fancy dress, Frisata-filled conversation and so on. Some of these events will undoubtedly be expanded upon in future diatribes, but for the time being I do not have pictorial evidence at hand and it is therefore best left a mystery for the time being.

Wearing
Top: F21
Shorts: Moto
Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell
Headscarf: vintage