The Street's Best of 2013's SXSW

As Austin,TX is deserted of all the predictably provocative street style at the first major music festival of the year, so comes on it's heels preparation for that other hot and massive festival on the West Coast, Coachella. Here's the best of the web's SXSW street style and maybe some inspiration for what to wear for your tramp over to Indio next month.

Tatiana Pajkovic shot by Christy Kurtz
Refinery29's actual Best of Street Style We Spotted at SXSW slideshow is a bit of a dud overall but has one or two gems, like their inclusion of Noamy Henriquez who also appears in R29's First Up For Festival Fashion: SXSW. The First Up slideshow is exactly the kind of festival street style you want your eye's to chew on. With two appearances of pleated foil skirts, long and short, I think it's safe to say this lightweight trend is super appropriate for festival heat.
Here's four online options for pleated foil skirts:
1. Enza Costa's Foiled Maxi Skirt, $192.50USD
2. Pixie Market's Gunmetal Pleated Skirt, $60USD
3. River Island's Silver Foil Pleated Skirt, $40USD
4. Nasty Gal's Outer Limits Skirt, $38USD

Ben Skiar for NYTimes
The New York Time's has some of the best street style scouts out there. From linen shirts with tiny printed sunglasses to thorough documentation of SXSW's sock and shoe combination, this Style at SXSW is a perfect showcase of the interesting, eclectic and highly patterned festival goers. The leather hotpants epidemic that's been on the street and runways for a couple of seasons is much loved but are in fact sweat traps in these hot and closely quartered festivals. However, baggier, longer and lined leather shorts have been making their appearance known which is good news for those who love their leather (or faux, "vegan" leather like me).
Here's four online options for baggy leather shorts:
1. Alexander Wang's Croc-Effect Leather Shorts, $850USD
2. Topshop's Premium Leather Shorts, $130USD
3. Lucca Couture's Faux Leather Runner Short, $59USD (worn above)
4. Vila's Leather Look Shorts, $20.35USD

Justin Bridges for GQ
GQ's SXSW Street Style 2013 slideshow of men's style had the best selection I went through. It was full of diverse combinations that I was hoping to see delivered in all of the street style compilations. Abound on the dusty sidewalks of Austin were crisp white shirts, copies and originals of Jeremy Scott's Bart motif, tight and tie-dyed jeans, and exceptionally lady-like prints, like cherries and Renaissance scrollwork, on masculine silhouettes.

Other solid SXSW style browsing and inspiration is ELLE's Street Chic: SXSW, GQ's Wandering Eye: SXSW (which is all ladies), WWD's They are Wearing: South By Southwest, and the New York Time's article On the Clothes Watch at SXSW which has a couple more great slideshows.

Sweats in the Snow

Scarf and Jacket, J. Crew. Shirt, Splendid. Sweatpants, L'Agence. Shoes, Converse.
A couple weeks ago I found a pair of deeply discounted faux leather sweatpants at Neiman's Last Call. I was hooked as soon as I pulled them on and felt the silky lining, played with the heavy metal side zips and twirled the extra long drawstrings. I was thrilled since I've been envying Jayne Min, a designer for the Hundreds and blogger at STOP IT RIGHT NOW, of her perfectly slouchy leather pants from Mango. 

I went to Tahoe last week and while there was snow on the ground, the weather was so mild I didn't need any of the excessive amount of furs I packed. Of course these sweatpants were perfect for the weather (because right now they're perfect for everything).
Beautiful Tahoe waters, the picture doesn't do the lakes vibrant blues justice.

A Paper Bag

 Despite all the outrage expressed over the 290$ price tage on Jil Sander's Paper Bag from her F/W 2012 line, I kind of liked the simplicity of the idea. Happily there have been many replicas produced and today I spotted a particularly good one at Zara. 
If you like the look of a purse that looks rolled up sack lunch, this version is quite accessibly priced at 35.90USD. Handily this faux leather version also has a shoulder strap, some nice basic zippered pockets inside, and comes in black and brown just like Jil Sander's.

Brand and Re-Brand We Go

 I've been loving the puns on designer labels that have been popping up in street wear as well as on major fashion players and when I bought my own punny piece, I started wondering about where this trend came from.

Interview Magazine, Feb 2012
Unknown by his name but famous for his work, Russ Karablin is the original creator of the Commes Des Fuckdown line, a play on the brand Commes des Garcons, that exploded globally in early 2012 after it was seen on members of the A$VP crew. The line was originally developed in the early 2000's as part of one of Karablin's other labels, The Cut, but saw a re-release last year as its own line. The timing for Karablin's second time around couldn't have been more prime for his designer parody. As a world overexposed and aspiring for the high fashion  of the elite, I feel like my generation couldn't be more happy to personalize and ridicule the names of the labels we most desire. 

Shirt by C.O.I. NYC, Photo by Tommy Ton
This concept of rebranding high fashion into high-street fashion puns is being used popular young names like Brian Lichtenberg and Conflict of Interest NYC. These baby brands have found fame and showed up in the parade of street style at New York and Paris's recent 2013 F/W shows and so the endless cycles and re-cycles of style continue.

Top Row, Brian Lichtenberg. Bottom Row, Conflict of Interest NYC.
It makes me even more happy that this trend is completely and totally androgynous. 


Everyday Makeup

Clockwise: Fresh Sugar Lemon Eau de Parfum, Sephora Atomic Volume Mascara, Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment SPF 15, Sephora Rose Petal Blush, Almay Black Liquid Eyeliner, Dior Blush Brush, Givenchy Rouge Satin Lipstick, and Kiehl's Eye Alert
I've been sick for a bit and haven't been feeling up to posting, I'm still looking bleh but I thought I would share some of the products I use to make myself look presentable.

When I was younger my best friend's mother had cancer for a big part of my childhood and I remember watching her carefully applying liquid eyeliner out of the corner. No matter however sick she must have felt, it always made her whole face appear put together and chic. When I fell ill at 16 a couple years later, one of my greatest frustrations in the hospital was actually looking sickly. When showering was a struggle, liquid eyeliner saved my face.

Truly straight winged eyeliner is not a skill acquired easily but after 7 years of practice, I've acquired a few tricks. The key to the crispness of my corner eye wing is buying a new tube every month so that the felt tip is always sharp and at 7$ a bottle, Almay's hypoallergenic liquid eyeliner works perfectly. To fix up my eyes a little more I apply a small dot of Kiehl's Eye Alert which has caffeine and tightens up my under eye bags.

 I don't really pay much attention to the rest of my face because I think the eyeliner pretty much takes care of making me look put together but Sephora brand has served me well for my basics and when I'm trying to look really made up I add a few quick strokes of their mascara and blush. I've never really tried other brushes but I love the softness of my Dior blush brush that I stole from mom and it never seems to need any cleaning, all product kind of just falls off it with a tissue.

I also stole Fresh's Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment from my mom and use it like a regular chapstick. It smells amazing and softens up my always dry lips right away. I really really love the luxurious thick satin-y smooth feel of Givenchy's lipsticks, I tried one on a whim once and every other lipstick feels terrible to me now. It doesn't smudge easily, looks fine without a lipliner, and doesn't crack or get gross on my lips after a couple hours. 

I'm really into Fresh products because they're so beautifully scented and so of course I love their perfume's as well. I like a really light citrus-y scent and their Sugar Lemon Eau de Parfum makes me feel like I smell as though I just got out of a clean sweet lemon bath.

Photo by Meher Siegle




« Previous Entries