Throwback Time

Does this count as a leg pop, Princess Mia?

I am dancing...

Ay, I see you!

This was a couple weeks back when I was all hype on chocolate cake from Benjy's.  I was meeting some Igbo peeps for Happy Hour and didn't know how to dress.  Up or down?  Maybe this is dressy casual (that black Goody headband ensures the casual part, I believe).  Because the last time I wore this BCBG skirt it was casual to the max. 

I hope you all are as happy and optimistic as I appear in these photos.  Right now I'm supposed to be seriously grinding.  This grad school business...three papers due within the next two weeks.  And on that note, good day all. xoxo

What I'm Wearing

Express cami // Classiques Entier jacket // BCBG Max Azria skirt// Seychelles wedge boots // Rebecca Minkoff MAC bag // JewelMint Florals necklace

Wrap Your Head Around It

So I've been experimenting with headscarves and headwraps.  Joy Adaeze from Joy Loves Fashion first got me fascinated with them.  It's become her signature since she was a teenager.  There's just something really beautiful about turbans, headwraps and coverings.  To throw out more adjectives: cool and regal come to mind.

This Monday when I unearthed my warmer clothes (and they all smelled like storage), I found this brown scarf that one of my college suitemates gave me in our freshman year.  For some reason, I don't like scarves around my neck, so the few that I have are always hidden away and neglected.  But scarves around my head?  All for it.  I tried to tie the scarf up in an untraditional way, which means making it all up as I go.  The fringe of the scarf peeked out and I thought I looked like a gypsy.  Then I went to the grocery store and willed myself not to be self-conscious about my handiwork. [DoItInPublicOrYou'reFake]*

About my natural hair.  Some days I hate it -- when it looks like rubbish tied up or let "loose."  Now I know that in those situations I could make a so-so puff or just wrap it up!  I woke up with ten flat twists radiating from the center of my head.  After untwisting the result was disappointingly unmagical.  I did the same style on Monday and it looked magnificent then.  But today...  I grabbed this scarf and tried to configure something new.  Something like Ashley Blaine Featherson, with my hair peeking out, but without the laid edges.  A tie in the front, wrap around to the back, then another tie, and lastly, tucking in the ends on the sides.  And done.  How do you like it?

What I'm Wearing

(But really, just a schweater, jeans and boots :P)

Forever 21 sweater // Kut from the Kloth Diana skinny jeans // BX by Bronx boots // purplely scarf of unknown origin // NYX Butter Lipstick in Hunk 

*j/k, you're not fake.  

Do what makes you comfortable but not so much that you're always stuck in the same old box.  

I think, that's what they would say.

Stand Down

This time last year, I attended the Veterans Day Stand Down in San Antonio, an event for homeless veterans.  I took the lead in the Tuberculosis Control Program's participation in it.  We had a table with educational materials on TB, a tri-fold poster, and fruit to giveaway.  I should have brought more fruit and I wished that we could have done more.  Many other tables were giving away necessities, offering services or providing health screenings.  And all we could give were information sheets and apples (TB testing is only recommended if you're a contact to someone with TB and usually required if you work in a healthcare facility).

I heard stories of struggle and hope, words and expressions of gratitude.  And as a life-long people watcher, I observed every one who visited our table.  The life in their faces, their clothes, visible disabilities, mannerisms.  All that I saw that day spurred some thoughts once I got home after work.  I had recently started this blog and given in to my slight obsession with clothes and style and stuff.  One year ago, I typed out these thoughts and they've been trapped in a blog post draft ever since.  

♥

I have clothes for the basic necessity.  I'm able to think beyond that and think about clothes for the design, for the look, the style.  And not for the function.

There's something about fashion that feels so trivial to me.  To talk about this shoe or this on-trend color, or how to wear an embellished top...it's such a eye-opener to privilege.  It also introduces levels of fortune.  The phrase is to think of others "less fortunate."  You're so fortunate to be alive.  You're so fortunate to have a roof over your head and food to eat.  You're so fortunate to have a loving family.  You're so fortunate to go to college, to that Ivy League school, to study abroad.  You're so fortunate to live in that mansion, to fly first-class, to own those cars. [Other people do not have what you have, so be thankful.  Other people have more than you have, but still, be thankful]

How to reconcile this?  We're not meant to be at the same denominator.  Am I not allowed to express frustration when my biggest problem is social anxiety/awkwardness, while someone else's biggest problem is having enough food to eat?  Am I allowed to indulge in my interests (fashion, photography) when others work literally 24/7 and to have a hobby is not a thing?  But these so-called "first-world" problems would probably become the problems of the most disadvantaged, if in some utopia we were all equal (with the same basic survival needs met).  Problems are problems; they belong to the person experiencing them.  Some may be truly serious, some may be minor, but in the context of that individual's life, the problem likely aligns appropriately.
♥
Those are some very incomplete thoughts, but I decided not to alter them or add to them.  I still wonder what to do about them, what to think about certain things, and how I am supposed to be a player in this world.  Not so I can win the game, but so more people may even play the game.  And I'm still working on not being embarrassed or ashamed about the things I like.  To be shameless...that's another idea to explore another day.
xoxo
Happy Monday and Happy Veterans Day Tomorrow