So much is happening!!!

Welcome back to school, kiddos. Last week I took a break from almost all things technological, lest a few tweets. It was pretty refreshing, consider doing something similar when you have the chance. But now it's full speed ahead with a new semester officially underway.

While I was away from LVEV, so much happened (hence the title of this posts)! As far as my magazines go two issues of W and the September Elle came in last week - not to mention the September Vogue, which came in this weekend, just not to my apartment here in Waco. However (or maybe that should be "sadly"), I haven't been able to crack a single one of them - that's on the agenda for later today. On Saturday, after the timely death of my previous phone's earpiece, I upgraded to the Palm Pree. To know just how incredible that is you should know I wasn't eligible for the upgrade until September 1. They gave it to me anyway. And the premiere of The September Issue was a few days ago. Last week was basically the most eventful week to have left the fashion blogosphere. It's good to be back.

Speaking of The September Issue's premiere let me share images of my favorite red carpet moments. And I need to vent about how much I hate Bee Shaffer's slouch - Mommy Wintour taught you better than that. Vent over, enjoy these pictures!

Chanel Iman
Zoe Kazan

Cynthia Rowley
Vera Wang

Needless to say, clicking through endless red carpet clips made me even more anxious to see this film. So I got on my handy Pre and loaded my Fandango app only to learn that, shocker!, Waco won't be getting The September Issue anytime soon. Who wants to roadtrip to Austin or Dallas with me in a few weeks?

In (much) happier news, my advanced magazine editing class will be pure heaven every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:15 to 12:05. Oh yeah, Anna Wintour is on David Letterman tonight, you know I'll tune in!

Until tomorrow, read this Elle Fashion Spotlight. The image drew me in and the copy kept me there.

And these are a few of my favorite things

Summer is winding down, classes will start soon, and the season will change (although in Texas this won't happen for a few more months). Just like everyone else I'm trying to figure out what pieces I can wear just slightly differently in order for them to make a smooth and sartorially accurate transition. And while all this is happening I need to make sure I'm staying true to my own personal style.

Since I've been packing the last few days (I move into my apartment tomorrow!), I've really been focusing on this concept. It's been made easier - thank God - by my love for certain accessories/necessities. I really doubt that no matter the season these few items will always make my wardrobe cut.

Scarves
Even in the blistering heat of a Texas summer I still wear my scarves. I have solid-colored, striped and even plaid scarves. I think my favorite thing about scarves is that I can get them for $12 at Spice and for $60 at some department store and they both look great! I love pairing them with a white t-shirt in the summer and a long-sleeve cardigan in the fall/Texas winter.
Vests
My aesthetic is possibly far too girly for my own health (some might say my summer uniform is a dress), but I one of my favorite trends happens to be the androgyny of menswear for women. Enter the vest. It instantly creates a beautiful silhouette without being a tired belt. Expect to see me wearing my vests buttoned or unbuttoned and sometimes paired with a scarf.
Cherry Chapstick
Sometimes I leave my phone at home (heaven forbid!). Sometimes I forget to wear my watch (hopefully not the same day I forget my phone at home). And I might even forget to put on deodorant (but I always shower or wear some perfume to cover that up...). But you will never, ever catch me without a tube of cherry chapstick in my purse. And I usually apply it every 20 minutes or so. It's a lifeline for me.

Selena Gomez, anyone?

Who else is loving Selena Gomez right now? While there was a notable uprising from the sartorial blogosphere about one thing or another involving her Teen Vogue cover (everything from "I'm tired of Disney stars on the cover" to terms like "overstyled" were thrown around), this Texan-turned-tween icon wins my heart every time she comes out looking the way a 16-year-old ought to look: cute, a little sophisticated and totes adorable.

I happened to love her Teen Vogue cover. She's the most fashionable of all the Disney stars to grace this teen zine. As for remarks about her being overstyled, flip through some older Teen Vogues and check out the styling. It's a trend for Teen Vogue covers to be eclectically layered - I like it. It's a fashion point of view that teens don't get in any other teen mag and I for one remember spending hours in my high school band classes mesmerized reading the fashion credits on all the editorial spreads in my Teen Vogues. I doubt I would have been quite as intrigued in fashion as an industry if it wasn't for Teen Vogue's unique and consistent way of styling its covers and models inside. It's actually the reason that, at age 20, I still subscribe to Teen Vogue even when I'm cancelling my Vogue subscription.

Right now, I'm in love with Selena's TCA look. I wish I had a dress like that in my wardrobe four years ago. Hell, I wish I had a dress like that in my wardrobe today! There's a reason she won the Choice Red Carpet Fashion Icon at the TCAs, and she didn't fail to deserve it at the show. I was even more impressed when I read that her dress was Baby Phat (I love ya Kimora, but I don't know how well I could pull off a lot of your stuff). The t-strap shoes are just darling and the earrings are an appropriate touch. The hemline was the exact right length (ahem, Miley). This look is just another reason to fall in love with this pint-sized fashion right.

Luscious lips that last

This post was inspired by an Elle News Blog post about Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain. You know, the one Drew Barrymore applies in her cute flirty pink ensemble on the commercial - I like what the stylist did in that ad more than what CG is advertising.


Elle's Beauty Director, Emily Dougherty, has recommended many a good beauty product. She reviewed Cover Girl's new Outlast Lipstain and called it "my kind of magic marker." In my opinion this lipstain does not, as Dougherty says, "[last] longer than every other lip pen on the market." I bought this product back in June because I dislike the feeling lipstick and lip gloss have, but need something with a little more color than my faithful cherry chapstick. A lipstain seemed the perfect remedy, and since I'm such a fan of CG's outlast lipsticks for actually outlasting anything else (minus the whole lipsick-y feeling) I didn't think this could possibly be a bad idea. Au Contraire. From my first application I was disappointed. I don't think I've ever regretted a $9 purchase more. The first time I applied the shade, Flirty Nude to be exact, the pen seemed dry and when I looked at my reflection my lips didn't seem much more pigmented than when I wear my trusty cherry chapstick (even when there was color it didn't last long enough for me to get my car keys and go to work). I gave it a few more chances before totally giving up.

Two weeks ago I walked into Sephora on a mission to find a lipstain that would give me a permanently 'just-bitten' lip look. After about 30 minutes of seriously examining my choices I found a strong contender. Benefit Cosmetics Benetint Pocket Pal ($20) offers the lipstain on one end (it looks eerily like a vile of blood with a wand, but no worries) and a gloss on the other. Needless to say I don't use the gloss at all, instead slapping some cherry chapstick over the lipstain. It took me a few times of experimenting to get the color right - you can achieve anything from a dainty-pink pout to a Gwen Stefani-worthy statement lip just based on how much you apply. This one small tint-to-go has saved me from a life of color-less lips.


If you're interested in some other options Lorac and Stila make similar products. In the future I may try Benefit's Benetint Lip Balm.

What's up, BlackBook?

I'm doing my morning thing, you know: checking e-mail, browsing Facebook, and re-loading Twitter when I find this post from Ed2010News "Ed hears that after Blackbook Media Corp.'s EIC and editorial director has resigned." The post also included a link to a WWD article published today.

WWD reported that Ray Rogers is definitely leaving the mag. The article also reported that Rogers helped redesign the mag - this is also true and the finished product looks great. But also in the article are un-confirmed statements that anonymous sources made about the positions Rogers took on. I do know that last November or thereabouts the Creative Director left (sad) and two of the kiddos I interned with now have positions (hooray) on the masthead. While WWD reports that Elizabeth Sulcer was moved from Fashion Director to Editor-at-Large, the website does not reflect this transition (and I haven't gone to look at the August issue masthead to see what it says). If this is true I'd love to see the lovely Bryan Levandowski take on Sulcer's former position.

So I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but maybe the October issue and its masthead will give us some hints (Rogers' last issue is September). And maybe I'll talk to Bryan and get the dirt from him.

My favorite ANTM judge

Twiggy is beautiful, articulate and extremely well-poised, not to mention 60 years old. You wouldn't think so if you saw the her UK ad for Olay Definity. In fact, here's that image.

Did you recognize her at first glance? I sure didn't, I actually had to see her name in the bottom left corner to know who I was looking at. And this is what she looks like when not under the influence of photoshop.

Honestly, if I can age this beautifully and still have hair like that when I'm her age I'll be ecstatic. Twiggy is in the same boat as Julie Andrews and Meryl Streep of women who have aged gracefully.

I know I wrote about photoshopping earlier this summer, so I won't regurgitate that post. It's just frustrating to see images like those ads. Shouldn't they have something at the bottom that says *photo illustration*. It's certainly not within the bounds of ethical journalism (yes, ads are certainly forms of journalism) to distribute images without accurately giving credit to what people are seeing is not only wrong, but unethical. Seriously, go read your stylebook.

And so many people think that tabloids posting unphotoshopped images of what these people really look like is an invasion of privacy. Now, I'm not defending tabloids, but sit down and really look at the situation. Yes, everyone wants to look better and if you had the chance you would probably want to photoshop yourself. But is that really ture? Think for a minute and look at how many pictures of you there are on Facebook and then see how many of them are photoshopped. I'm not guessing very many. So, why is photoshopping such an accepted norm? Give it some thought and please leave your opinion.

Oh, how I wish

The weather in Texas could catch up with my fashion season barometer. While the last week of non-stop thunderstorms have done wonders to cool the sweltering late-July/early-August heat, the truth is that summer will be in full force for the next few months. Poor me. Working retail not only means working in heaven because we get new stuff so often, but it also means that when the rest of the country is stocking their closets with fall must-haves like our store now offers, in Texas we're still stuck with ghastly high temperatures. But, amidst all that heat, humidity and sweat - yuck! - I am falling in love with clothes for fall. I swear I don't mean to be a walking advert for Ann Taylor LOFT (corporate is surely glad I am), everything I'm currently wearing is LOFT. And I love it, so really I'm not ashamed at all. I'm just upset that I can't wear it outside of our very-necessarily-air-conditioned store.

Credits: LOFT modern skinny jean, LOFT shirt dress, Target belt, Anne Klein flats