Dig Out Your Soul

My self-imposed long weekend is over. As my luck would have it I woke up to the grey Toronto I know and, occasionally, even love: it's raining cats and dogs and my dollar store umbrella ceased functionality on my walk to work this morning (making my hair wet...I hate the feeling of having wet hair) but, lo and behold, I've maintained a cheery disposition. I did have a killer weekend full of more fun than I believe the written word to be capable of expressing, so that could have something to do with my general elation at being alive today.
G and I attended The Clothing Show on Friday which was a half-fantastic, half-disappointing experience. While I am now the proud owner of a inexplicably awesome Anita Pallenberg and/or Gucci FW07-08-esque vintage fur coat and a very amazing orange feathered fascinator headband (for less money than I can easily spend on a coffee run), there were also a lot of vendors which were frankly selling junk, and overpriced junk at that. With the eagle-eye for deals that I have seemingly developed I found everything I wanted to purchase within half an hour of being there, and as such proceeded on home for a cozy evening of homemade nachos and bad television. All in all, Friday night was a win in my books.
The rest of the weekend kind of went by in a blur, but a definite highlight of it was doing Starbucks with Ashleigh of Rantings of a Fashion Addict, who is honestly one of the prettiest, most stylish and genuinely nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Furthermore, we now have a little project in the works now, so keep a look out for that in the coming months!
I've been pretty transparent thus far about my adoration of plaid - it's obviously great that it's trendy right now, but I've loved it all along and will undoubtedly continue to long after its proverbial moment in the sun passes. Similarly, I love, love, love black and always will and I wasn't allowed - again, self-imposed - to wear it last week. Unsurprising then that this is one of my favourite outfits ever.

Wearing

Jacket: Danier

Dress: H&M

Tights: The Bay

Shoes: F21

Purse: vintage

G.

I found the "G" theme more challenging outfit-wise than any of the other Harajuku girls, as Gwen Stefani has represented so many different styles and things over the years that it becomes somewhat challenging to pick one specifically and claim that it embodies her even in the slightest. In lieu of this predicament I made the executive decision to not even try to re-create Gwen's style or anything about her and instead just wear things that I love and feel good in - in my opinion, that's kind of what Gwen is all about anyways, hence the highly individual and personalized fashion choices she's become known for.
I'm aware that a tutu is an odd choice for an outfit post, but I spent a great deal of my formative years in one, and the feeling of being wrapped up in stiff tulle is quite probably one which I will adore until I cease to exist. I've had a penchant for the theatrical for as far back as I can recall, and I highly doubt that my lifelong passion for outrageously fabulous dramatic clothing is going to leave me anytime soon.
The black tights and patent oxford booties are obviously a bit dichotomous with the floral-print cardigan (an homage to "G" the fragrance, which is truly a tropical and sunny delight...but more on that later) and white tutu...but, then again, I'm a bit dichotomous too. I'm a huge fan of classicism and grunge, which I understand totally doesn't make any sense theoretically, but it somehow makes perfect sense to me so I can live with being alone in that theory if I must.
Back to the fragrance: the Harajuku Lovers scent "G" is my personal favourite of the set. It's strongest note is coconut (which I loathe the taste of but am absolutely in love with the smell of) and, as it wears, develops lighter notes of cottonwood, apple and mandarin which are lovely and refreshing when combined with the heavy sweetness of the coconut. More than the fact that "G" just smells wonderful, I also think that it also suits me better than any of the others.
Now this may be my roundabout way of attempting to dodge the 'why it suits me best' part of the equation, but I always feel somewhat uncomfortable when trying to describe myself or my style...it's such a daunting task, particularly in consideration of the fact that I believe no one is capable of seeing themselves as they truly are.
But I'm going to stop myself before I get too philosophical and introspective: I think that "G" is edgy, deep, feminine and unique, which I suppose implies that I believe myself to be these things...so that's just that then.
Today's "G" is the last installment of this past week's Harajuku Lovers theme, which has been marvelous fun for [my] G and I, and has resulted in some pretty awesome photos if I do say so myself - it's quite fun to get a little bit focused and directional with things!
Wearing
Cardigan: vintage
Tutu: my own
Tights: H&M
Shoes: F21
P.S. If you, my beloved readers, have any opinions whatsoever about anything G and I have done on Modern-Guilt this past week it would be absolutely AMAZING if you followed through to this survey where the lovely people who gave me the opportunity to get the pre-release of the fragrances and share it with you are collecting responses and opinions and whatnot, good or bad.

Baby.

I'll admit it: today's theme is not all that far-fetched for me. I often dress and act as though I am approximately 4 years old, as evidenced by my intense and long-standing love for things such as rompers, frilly and/or colourful socks, rice pudding and juice boxes.
And speaking of socks, here's a fun little factoid about me: I own about 30 pairs, and not one single pair is a 'normal' colour or pattern. I have socks for every holiday, including the best one of all - Hallowe'en - socks with my initials on them (the ones I'm wearing in these photos actually), socks in every animal print known to man, and the list goes on. I've tried to buy a standard white or black pair many a time, and I've not yet been capable of bringing myself to do it. I've no idea why this is.

So I just want to put this out there: playgrounds are fun. Adults should hang out in playgrounds more often...that is if it weren't a super creepy thing to do when actual children are around. However there were no children in this particular playground this morning and as such G and I had a fantastic time.
I'd kind of forgotten how much fun it is climb up the ladder to a gigantic twisty slide (which, for the record, really isn't as gigantic as you remember it being the last time you were on it) and, better yet, sliding down such twisty slide!
And while slides may appear smaller and the ride down them shorter because, well, you've gotten bigger, it's at least good to know that some things never change: 15 years later and I still cannot for the life of me manage to get across a set of monkey bars without assistance. For one, they terrify me and did even more so when I was 3 feet tall and therefore quite a bit higher off the ground in hanging position.
Way more pleasant than my monkey bars terror is 'Baby', the Harajuku Lovers fragrance. It's expected given its name but really nice nonetheless; there's a strong baby powder aspect to 'Baby', but it's nicely offset with a fresh, clean floral base and hint of musk. It's absolutely the kind of scent I can imagine myself wearing for date nights, anniversaries, playground trips and any other event which is flirty, romantic or just simple fun. So while 'Baby' may not turn out to be on the heavy rotation shelf in my washroom, G and I both love it and it's therefore a definite special occasion keeper.
Wearing
Top: Erin Fetherston for Target
Dress: vintage
"S" socks: Goodness knows. Someplace nuts undoubtedly.
Shoes: F21
Bag: Harajuku Lovers

Music.

I've made no secret of the fact that music, above all other expressive art forms, is a massive part of and influence upon my life. I could have chosen a billion different types of outfits (okay, that's obviously an exaggeration) to go with this theme, but I wound up in my favourite leopard print dress, leather jacket and bright stockings...why?...
I suppose if I'm to be entirely honest I like to think that this is what I would have worn had I existed in my current capacity in the mid 90's and was going to watch a Jarvis Cocker gig in a really cool, hyper-mod disco in London whilst downing gin martinis. Or something along those lines.

I will admit that I found it somewhat difficult to encapsulate the concept of 'music' into one, singular outfit. As I have mentioned before, I dress for the music I'm listening to virtually every single day of my life, so to sum all of that up with one garment choice was more than slightly daunting for me. That is, until I came to the conclusion that it simply cannot be boiled down so easily, and that whatever I chose would be but a tiny, minuscule slice of my feelings towards the topic in question.
When taking a whiff of 'Music', the Harajuku Lovers scent, I felt as though the fragrance designer of must have faced the exact same dilemma as I did with my outfit choice. 'Love', 'Angel' and 'Baby' are all pretty straightforward briefs to follow - they only have so many connotations and meanings and types, whereas 'Music' has more than I believe anyone on earth is capable of keeping track of. A directional decision had to be made in order to keep the fragrance from becoming a total mess akin to the various LPs scattered about my apartment floor, and I think that they definitely succeeded in doing this while keeping things somewhat open to interpretation.
From my perspective, the scent of 'Music' is what I would refer to as 'modern bohemian' - it's modern and refreshing in the sense that it's clean and not agedly musky, but quite classic in that it's understatedly floral and pretty as well. It would have been very easy for this one to go sloppily downhill, but as it turns out it's one of my favourites of the entire set and something I will undoubtedly continue to wear for many months to come.
Wearing
Jacket: Danier (yes, I know I caved and that it's black...but I am doing two themes at once here so cut me some slack?)
Dress: F21
Tights: Winners
Shoes: F21

Angel.

While white is technically the absence of colour, I nonetheless deem it appropriate for my Colour Challenge '08. The challenge's raison d'être is, in fact, that I refrain from wearing black (which I'm pretty certain is technically all of the colours in the universe jumbled together or something along those lines). I probably should have paid more attention in kindergarten as opposed to happily and ignorantly making masterpieces out of playdough, because I actually just googled this to confirm that my colour-jumbling theory wasn't way out of left field. Moving on, albeit slightly shamefully...

Today's Harajuku Lovers theme is Angel or, as the perfume's actual name suggests, ('Lil) Angel. I am not particularly little - though I suppose when standing next to certain people I am - but I believe I got the angel thing down pretty well, at least externally speaking. Yesterday's outfit was definitely in underwear-as-outerwear territory which most 'normal' folk tend to shy away from/not understand/look down upon, but I think that, if done correctly and in the appropriate setting, why not? Not very angelic of me perhaps, but I've got to have my fun right?
The fragrance itself is a clean, citrusy floral with a really fruity kick to it, and I find it to be the most unique of the bunch. There's not much which I personally find to connotative of angel in the actual scent, but then again I would probably dislike that more, as 'connotative of angel' from my perspective means sugary, powdery and grossly sweet.
Angel is extremely pleasant and wearable and something I would definitely not mind being stuck in an elevator with (if you have never had the misfortune of being stuck in an elevator with an individual who reeks of knockoff designer perfume as I did this morning and have many a time prior, then I seriously envy you), but probably not the one which suits me and my style best. I cannot, however, say that I wouldn't buy it - as the tag line of the Harajuku Lovers product line blatantly suggests, the set of characters is irresistibly adorable.
Yesterday after work was spent in this beautiful park I discovered while walking home from work, which I cannot believe I've passed by without a thought all this time. I always find it interesting to find green spaces in the heart of downtown - it's so dichotomous and fun to see a skyscraper next to a tree and just spend some time enjoying where you are when you're there and not thinking about all of the crazy, busy, exciting, non-exciting, etc. things in life that generally consume 99.99% of one's brain space. In short, it's really nice.
Wearing
Tank and slip: La Vie En Rose
Pants: Rock & Republic
Shoes: Juicy Couture
Necklace: thrifted
Pins: the "S" pin with the angel on it (which you can see in the above photo) was given to me a long time ago as a gift. It's something I rarely if ever wear, but I felt it to be highly appropriate given the theme.

Bag: Chanel, vintage

Love.

This week's theme (as alluded to on Friday) is not only colour, but also the new Harajuku Lovers perfumes which I was recently given the opportunity to try out prior to the Canadian launch of the product; you may or may not be familiar with them already, but in short there are five fragrances (Love, Angel, Music, Baby and G), each of which comes in a super adorable little character bottle representative of the accompanying scent.
I personally consider scent to be an integral aspect of fashion and style, and as such generally keep about five different perfumes in heavy rotation at any given time, the wear of which is determined by what I'm wearing or feeling or thinking or whatever else. It's very much like getting dressed for me, only easier and without as many decisions to make.

So this is all very exciting stuff in my books, and I therefore figured why not incorporate my excitement towards this venture into my daily blogging by dressing somewhat thematically? As I have mentioned before, I rarely turn down the opportunity to play dress-up, however in this case I wanted to ensure that my thematic outfits were still wearable so I've set one rule for myself: that I must wear the daily outfit all day with no exceptions granted - if it can't be worn normally throughout the duration of my normal days it's not really worth doing, is it?
Today's theme, as per the post title, is LOVE. I'm quite surprised at how much I like this fragrance, as it's pretty much a rule of thumb with me + perfume that I intensely dislike anything particularly flowery, sweet or girlish. As a matter of fact I've been known on occasion to don G's colognes...Prada by Prada for Men is fantastically genderless and probably my favourite scent ever, but I admittedly had to stop wearing it so often after G kindly informed me that he prefers to not be scent-twins.
Nonetheless, one can consider my preference for Prada cologne to be a barometer for all things which I like in a scent: crisp, clean, musky, subtle and long lasting on my strangely perfume-resistant skin. I'm quite obviously not a perfume expert and know very little about the technicalities which go into creating scents, but I do know that Love, which I was fully expecting it to go into overbearing and sickly sweet floral territory, fits all of my requirements and is something I will continue to wear long past this project's end. Love does have a really strong top note of rose petal but not annoyingly so, and I've found that this wears off after about half an hour of wear and turns into a really lovely feminine rose-musk-thing that I enjoy.
Moreover, yesterday's theme ended up being fitting on a number of levels - after a wild Saturday night out and about G and I ended up having a very lovely day consisting of walks through the city, furniture browsing, coffee on park benches and, finally, some heavy-duty housework which made us both feel pretty accomplished I think. In fact, you can even see G (kind of) in the photo below for what I believe is the first time ever on Modern Guilt. Well, there may have been one similar time long ago, but who's counting, right? As you can see from the photo, I am tiny and silly and blonde to his tall and serious-looking (deceptively so) and dark. We're a funny but good pair for sure.
Wearing

Sweater: Erin Fetherston for Target (I know, I know, it's grey and I promised all-colour-all-week...but it was cold outside and this has little heart buttons on it, so it's kind of still valid?)

Dress: F21

Tights: Winners

Shoes: the purple suede ones are from David's, and patent black flats are from a cottage-country dollar store - romantic walks in the city mean carrying a pair of comfy flats in your bag!

Bag: Chanel, vintage

Come In, Come Out Tonight.

In today's outfit I really feel as though I am a fictional character out of an early 19th century novel who has an extremely distinguished royal title and a stable full of the horses and such. Alas, this is obviously not the case, but it is sometimes good fun to play dress up and live out certain silly fantasies like the aforementioned one.
The Pink Tartan blazer I'm wearing is a recent purchase and one which I do not regret in the slightest. Everything about it is absolute perfection - the fit, the cut, the texture, the colour, the weight. I feel as though I'll be getting some proper mileage out of a piece like this in the coming winter months. The skirt, on the other hand, has been sitting in my closet for longer than I care to recall. It's not that I don't love it (I do, hence the reason it hasn't gone to consignment or the bin yet), it's more that I can't actually walk with my normal gait in it. The weird, fishtail-like hem on this skirt, while flattering, is shockingly restricting at the knees and as such is just not something I can manage to tolerate for longer than a few hours at a time - my upcoming closet reorganization extravaganza just may be its final death knell.
Speaking of restricting garments, I most definitely won't be wearing anything of the sort this upcoming weekend, as I have a billion and one things to do (figuratively speaking of course) and only 48 hours to do them. First on my agenda is a direly needed hair appointment tomorrow morning, meaning Monday morning's photos won't feature my unsightly re-growth, which is always a plus in my books.On that note, G and I have some really exciting stuff planned for next week's photos (including the Colour Challenge 08) which I honestly can't wait for all of you to see. It'll be a very conceptual week, which we have not done yet on Modern Guilt, so be sure to check back bright and early on Monday to see what we have in store.

Wishing everyone a wonderful, happy and of course chic weekend!

Wearing

Blazer: Pink Tartan

Skirt: Club Monaco

Shoes: Aldo

Love burns inside me

Collection I'm currently madly infatuated with: Christopher Kane Spring 09 Ready-to-Wear

I truly applaud the stance designers are taking on counterfeit and copycat fast-fashion design - by producing collections based on expensive and difficult to mass manufacture materials and cuts, they're essentially disabling outlets like Forever 21 from recreating their pieces on the cheap. It's not only quite clever and subversive, it also 'ups the luxury ante' so to speak, which in my opinion cannot possibly be a bad thing.
All of this being said, visions of Christopher Kane's latest collection have been dancing through my head a mile a minute in recent days and I just can't help but be saddened by the fact that I will undoubtedly never, ever walk into Zara or the like and find anything even remotely akin to the laser-cut scalloped perfection he most recently sent down the runway at London Fashion Week.
I adore that this collection is extremely ethereal yet really very modern, and that there's a wonderful use of unusual colour but it doesn't come off as garish or unwearable in the slightest. Oh, and I don't adore that I will not be able to afford anything from it or like it in the foreseeable future. I have, however, decided that I will find a way to wear the little white dress as pictured below on my wedding day:
P.S. Outfit du jour photos will be coming up a bit later today than usual, and will admittedly not include anything as to-die-for wonderful as the ensembles shown in this post. Nonetheless, I do have a pretty awesomely amazing Pink Tartan blazer on today which was a recent purchase and requires all of your lovely - or perhaps not-so-lovely - opinions as soon as possible. Until then, happy Friday everyone!

P.P.S. Does anyone have any insight as to where I will be able to find the amazing and wicked shoe-boots from Christopher Kane's collection?

We got our backs to the wall...

G has come down with the stomach flu and as such taking good photographs was naturally lowest on the priority list yesterday evening, hence the worse-than-usual quality of the ones in today's post. We'll hopefully be back to form tomorrow, provided G is feeling better.
In lieu of this situation, I was pretty much left to my own devices last night which somehow resulted in me cleaning our apartment top to bottom into the wee hours of the morning (and consequently ruining the ruffled shirt as pictured in today's photos with Vim). Can anyone relate to this once-every-3-months obsessive-compulsive-cleaning tendency? I'm on a huge living space organization kick at the moment, which is fortunately assisting me in my goal of not spending all of my money on clothing all of the time; I am instead preoccupied with kitchen gadgets and baskets and shelves and so on and so forth.

Moreover, I've decided that the Closet Re-Organization '08 which I've been planning for a little while now is going to be fully documented and blogged about because really, isn't a beautiful place to put one's clothes almost as important as a beautiful way of putting such clothes together? Well, perhaps not, but I am also self-aware enough to recognize that I work well under pressure and that the added impetus of blogging will inspire me to do the job better and faster than I would otherwise.

Wearing

Blouse: a very Bride-of-Dracula 100% silk piece I found for 0.50 cents while thrifting a couple of months ago, now ruined by my own Vim-happy ways.

Vest: F21

Trousers: They're Club Monaco, and much more flattering than these photos give them credit for.

Shoes: vintage and SO wonderfully 90's...they'll definitely be worn more often in the coming months.

Pure Phase

In continuing with this week's theme...surprise, surpise, I yet again wore predominantly black yesterday! I've decided that I'm going to allow myself to finish out the week on this note, but force myself into entirely switching it up and not wearing anything even remotely black Monday through Friday of next week with the exception of undergarments, hosiery and an accessory here or there. It's undoubtedly a little bit petty to challenge myself to such an endeavour to begin with but really, what else am I going to do to amuse myself?
Fashion is clearly an interest and hobby for me, and just as those who enjoy playing soccer tend to go out and play the sport on occasion, I think up little personal ways to express my interest in fashion, hence the inception of Modern Guilt to begin with. See how I manage to justify and convince myself of things? It's quite a nice skill to have if I do say so myself...
Well then. While I'm not a big television person by any means (truly...I haven't had cable for about a year now), I've found what I believe to be one of the most hilarious British comedies in current existence. It's called 'How Not To Live Your Life', and I admittedly spent the majority of yesterday evening being a couch potato and watching it. The only reason I mention this is because I've noticed that British television personalities tend to dress much better and/or more interestingly than their North American counterparts. Well, obviously there's no 'better' since it really comes down to a matter of personal taste, but I really cannot resist the lovely slim-fit mod suits and perfectly distressed leather bomber jackets and the like.
If it weren't the most expensive place on the planet I would undoubtedly move to London in a heartbeat. Alas, that's just going to have to wait until I figure out how to grow a money tree on my current high-rise balcony.

Wearing

Jacket: Urban Planet

Cardigan: Club Monaco

Skirt: thrifted

Tights: H&M