Spring buys

There's only a month left until spring begins, and that means we're getting close to ditching our winter coats and scarves (and yes, turtlenecks). The good news is, spring has a bunch of new styles up it's decently shorter sleeve.

Here are five of my spring 2015 favorites including links, so you can go online shopping and daydream about warmer weather as you are hiding from the cold!


1. Wide leg pants and culottes are going to be huge (ha) this spring as the runway has been reinventing the 70s. I'll be pairing mine with tighter fitted tops as well as sportswear influenced t-shirts (see: number 4) to avoid looking too much like my clothing came straight off Party City shelves. Culottes are also a bit like glorified gauchos, and a nod to the mess that is the early-mid 2000s clothing is always interesting.

Zara culottes. $59.90
2. Midi skirts are one of my favorite spring wardrobe additions. I got into midi's last year after ordering this white ASOS gem and lusting after a tutu inspired one (which are likely to still be seen on the streets come April). This season, however, I've fallen for the more polished look of the fitted midi, which can be paired and layered with just about anything so you can feel justified spending your money on it.
3. Off the shoulder tops, as seen on the Michael Kors spring runway and in American Apparels near you, will be a popular new way to get yelled at in high schools across America as even more shoulder is shown in class.
4. Athletic shoes/socks/clothes/everything will return again to the mainstream after becoming widely popular on street style blogs last year. Neutral colored athletic shoes (Nike or Adidas brand are favorites) can be paired with almost any outfit imaginable, and adding athletic socks to a usually fancy outfit can be a way to dress down clothing. On the runway, sportswear can be seen through lots of mesh paneling, which is perfect for keeping (and looking?) cool as spring and summer start merging together and you begin to melt. 
5. Neoprene fabric isn't just for wet suits and the ultra cool Triangl bikinis found all over Instagram. This season, we can see the material (also known as scuba) as the main ingredient in beautifully structured skirts, dresses, and tops. The thick material is is perfect for pleating and also poking when you get bored.

ASOS Scuba Midi skirt. $70  $45

What are you looking forward to wearing this spring?

There's snow way this is a bad pun

The south doesn't handle snow very well.
It was a bit icy on the roads recently, so I've been out of school almost all week.

To fight the cold (while wearing a skirt...), I went with my black over the knee boots and a really puffy scarf to keep warm. I also decided it was a good day to rock the man bun. My relationship with the man bun is a rocky one--although I kind of do hate it, it reminds me of Mulan and my hair options are kind of limited ever since I chopped off all my locks.
You do what you can.







Target sweater | Target skirt |  Vintage jacket (similar: ASOS) | Target scarf | Rack room boots (here) 

I'm apparently very Target today. I'll refrain from adding yet another bad pun to this post.

Tying together dots + stripes

Pattern mixing is like a challenge: what are the weirdest patterns you can wear together without looking a little too weird yourself?

I definitely consider myself a competitive person, just like most of the other runners I know. Actually, I don't think I know a single runner who runs just for the sake of running. It's the idea of competition and new challenges that drive us--and I can sometimes bring this mentality into other aspects of my life (ex: when, after being rejected to National Honor Society junior year, I reapplied senior year to show 'em who the true winner was [spoiler: probably still not me]).

In terms of getting dressed and choosing outfits, I think one of the most challenging things is taking two items that shouldn't be mixed, and mixing them well.

One of the easiest ways to pattern mix is by matching color, and that's the simple route I took with this combination. I've donned my polka dot winter crop top (???) and striped skirt, both of which feature an easy-to-mix black base. Dots and stripes are such a classic unmatched duo.







Nordstrom crop top | Target skirt | F21 socks | Target flats | Vintage wrist scarf?


Now let's talk winter crop tops for a second.
What.

Betsey with Red Lips

I'm completely in love with my Betsey Johnson X Urban Outfitters dress. It was part of a 2014 summer collection that I snagged for $16 on sale, and I've sneakily found ways to wear it in any season (although wearing it in this sunny mid-January day wasn't actually that difficult a feat--it was at least 60 degrees outside in these pictures. Yay for the South!).
In order to not freeze later in the night, I brought one of my favorite Free People sweaters with me and left it tied around my waist while it was still warm, which, paired with some black combat boots, made me feel at least a little bit more January. 

I wish I had taken more pictures of my lipstick! It's this gorgeous red color that lasts all day. When I first tried it on in stores, I had no intention of buying it. I have this habit of going into Sephora and trying on expensive makeup for no reason. Sales associates probably hate me. 
Little did I know, this specific expensive makeup would survive a full day of shopping and a slice of pizza, leaving me dreaming of spending my entire life in this perfect red shade and wearing it until my friends and family forgot that I even had normal colored lips (that has yet to happen, but whatever). 

    

    

  

    

           

    
If you ever need any tips on the art of dorky picture taking, I think I'm your girl.
    
Dress Betsey Johnson x Urban Outfitters | Sweater Free People | Bag Tommy Hilfiger | Shoes Target | Lipstick Lancome Rouge in Love in "Sequence of Love"

P.S.
These pictures were taken in South Carolina, just like my first ever blog post!

In defense of the turtleneck

     I feel like the blogger world would be totally supportive of my profound love for turtlenecks (especially of the circa 1996 Gap kind). I mean, if a version of the turtleneck is good enough for Chanel to send down the runway, I've got to say it's good enough for me, right?
     My suburban-preppy, Lilly Pulitzer obsessed high school would argue otherwise. I find myself tweeting out my love for turtlenecks on the regular, and this, at times, can lead to desperate attempts and tweet backs to stop the spread. Not that it's very effective in my case: just recently, I proudly sported a turtleneck and purple lipstick combo to school (a double whammy of the socially unacceptable). You can't stop me.

     So what is it about the turtleneck that scares people away so much? I can't figure it out. Instead, I've curated a list of the distinctive pros that turtlenecks can bring to the brave souls who wear them.

Low-quality turtleneck gif ft. my sister, a Gap turtleneck, tucked in hair, a facepalm...

1. The most obvious of all the pros is the comforting warmth that a turtleneck can bring wearers. Grandmothers often wear turtlenecks, and grandmothers really like to be comfortable. Is that not proof enough? A turtleneck is essentially a scarf and a long sleeve shirt all fit together, except you can wear more scarves on top without looking like you were consumed by one. And I think that's pretty handy.

2. One of my favorite items in defense of the turtleneck is it's ability to convince peers of a wearers fashion superiority. This may seem counterproductive, since, well.... turtlenecks...but I can assure you: if you can wear something with confidence, especially if it's something weird, people will automatically assume you know what you're doing. Case in point: socks with sandals. Weird. Usually not recommended, but totally. recommended. everywhere.

3. Yet another classic turtleneck pro is it's ability to cover up the double triple copious chins of the wearer. If you're me (and you probably are), there's a good chance you've accidentally mastered the art of the 7-layer chin selfie on snapchat. It's a pretty common side effect of the "secret" Snapchat (i.e. the Snapchat from the under-angle, often used in public situations where you don't want the people around you to know you're actually just sitting in class taking unattractive photos of your face). Since the turtleneck covers 99% of the upper body, these chins are sufficiently harder to create and view in pictures--and in the Golden Age of the Selfie, this is very important.
A turtleneck also covers up the entire neck, and if you wear it in black at night, you can maybe look like a floating head. That's just one more cool trick offered to wearers.

4. Possibly the single best pro of wearing such an apparently hated article of clothing is the possibility of superb turtleneck hair. If you don't know what that is, a) you're missing out, and b) you should google it immediately (or just check out the gif of my sister, who's being forced to rock it).
The never-ending quest to sport the ideal head of turtleneck hair is a very real thing. Think about it this way: there's no hairstyle better than a perfectly messy up-do that is out of the way of your face, but requires no effort. So what if you lost all of your ponytails? Just tuck it straight into your shirt.


Even after acknowledging all of the amazing positives that a simple turtleneck can bring you, I'm sure you have one thought lingering in your mind: what if your peers, like mine, still can't accept your choice of shirt?
Not to worry!
Your super high neckline can come in handy as you pull it from its scrunched-up resting position on your neck to consume your face. If you can't see the haters, they can't see you. Right?
...right?
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