First Fashion Post!

by B Condon 4:03 PM

When I was a little kid all I ever wanted to do was draw models with defined chins, large cheekbones in Award Show like dresses full of drapery and Greek Goddess like fashions. And when I wasn't drawing curvy women I was using this amazing Barbie fashion template. I remember back then I loved mixing the slightly boyish fashions with full skirts and t-shirts, boy jackets with mini skirts and sneakers. I never thought back then it would really be anything: I do not have an eye for numbers or measurements, so I resorted to just describing clothes in my stories and letting my mother dress me as for her power games.

Then it finally happened...


... I got a debit card.


About nineteen years later, I am still inept at the making of fashion; but since Nylon Magazine, the fashion section of BUST Magazine (oh and living in the island of hipsters, aka. Iowa City), as well as my introduction to my own personal fashion heroines that range from...

Natasha Khan (aka. Bat for Lashes)

and...

Sharin Foo of "The Raveonettes"

I have adapted my love of drawing clothes to the building of my own wardrobe to look as hipster as my icons. So here are five outfits and the back story on them hoping that I, in fact, have spent under 25 dollars on each of them. In other words, I feel like bragging but who doesn't?

Hipster Cartoon Character

 I fell in love with this outfit as soon as I put it on Tuesday night the day of buying the leggings. I wear my black winter boots with this outfit, mostly because while I love clothes, I abhor shoes! Badly. Although no one else was dressed all hipsterish at the karaoke I was going to, I was pleasantly surprised how well the gold coat and the purple go together! I feel like a hipster cartoon character... Ramona from Scott Pilgrim maybe. I didn't wear my glasses for this one and scattered my side bangs over my forehead to give more of a hipster look from the neck up.

Immediate Love

It was a special night I bought the white bubble dress, having to usher for the Gallery Walk in the historical theater, I wanted to buy something downtown that was date-worthy for my late appetizer dinner with my girlfriend. Unfortunately I froze underneath it even with the almost translucent jacket. I love this jacket.. even though it was not love at first sight. Thank God for having a birthday the week after Black Friday. But it was truly immediate love when I first laid my eyes on the bowler hat, and although sometimes accessories don't work on me (my Aunt disagrees with this verily) but as soon as I put it on (in the store that I am OBSESSED over. Moreso than Revival and Ragstock combined) it was immediate love. So like everything else I enjoy I stalked it until I had the resources to buy it. I actually would wear this outfit with black leggings and (you can't see them in the picture) but a matching pair of wheat colored fashion boots to go with the hat.

 Cry Baby Chic

Everyone I know LOVES this gun dress. I correlate it with my leather jacket as an homage to John Waters's "Cry Baby" for some reason.  In fact it has a pretty great back story to it. The day I bought it was the day a friend dumped me for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL. Maybe it was my collegiate PTSD and she as a student could not understand that. So, I was dumped by the closest friend I ever got (at the time before the girlfriend). So after crying into a bowl of gelato with another good friend who I wasn't able to see as often, telling me things that felt good such as the dumped friend looked like a hobbit and put eyeliner on like crayons. It was a feel-good, so before hitching a ride back on the bus, I headed over to Revival without thinking I would find anything and found this gem. After which, I saw one of my karaoke friends in broad daylight while she was at work and my day became immediately better.

Black Swan Love

This is actually my favorite picture out of all of them. There's really not a huge story behind this dress, other than the fact that it is clinically amazing, and if I had a picture of the back, it's like Alice in Wonderland's key hole and you can see all of my tattoos. The day I bought the tights (unfortunately... I prefer leggings but it's so hard to find colored leggings!) I also wore this combination the first time with lots of white beaded necklaces to karaoke that night. <3 Have I mentioned I love this dress? When I was a little kid I was obsessed with the idea of tutus as skirts and now I'm living out my dream.

 I have been waiting my WHOLE LIFE for a cute retro umbrella, in fact, it took me two years to find the perfect one as of a month ago. It only took a friend to see it at first glance, laugh and say, "That is so YOU" which is the exact statement I got yesterday after buying the Victorian-necked Dollhouse shirt, my first ever clothing purchase at a local artist store. Multiple < 3's . I have quite an obsession with Victorian style shirts, that is possibly a blog for another day, much like my topic of nail polish. Silver Spider, my addiction, isn't necessarily the cheapest nail polish but the brand they carry, KleanColor, is quite possibly most candified colors out of any you'll find at a drug store. This is a drug-store color, but Confetti is probably my second brand of choice. It's hard to find the perfect nail color that looks natural yet candy at the same time when you have a darker complexion.


What's everyone's favorites?