Did you know that, circa 1910, women went wild for a skirt so narrow at the hem that they could barely walk in it? This garment, Paul Poiret’s aptly termed “hobble skirt,” has thankfully shuffled out of style, and design elements like today’s featured Fashion Dictionary term have walked into the spotlight! Ladies, put your hands together for the kick pleat!
Kick pleats are those little flap-covered slits found at the rear hem of many a fitted skirt. This little inverted pleats give us the ability to walk with ease, and look good doing it!
After twenty inches of snow and fifty hours inside this weekend, I was ready to escape the increasingly annoying indoors for a friend’s Super Bowl extravaganza and a fine feast of turkey chili last night! Unfortunately, the roads were definitely not ready for me.
After running into five snowbanks, sliding down four hills, having to get out of the car to push it twice, falling down while trying to push the car once, and one sensational Saints’ win, I somehow managed to survive the snowpocalypse relatively unscathed.
This morning, a lingering exhaust scent remained on my jeans, but I must say — the Super Bowl Snowbank Chili was worth it!
Find the recipe for Super Bowl Snowbank Chili, after the jump!
Ah, modern design. It’s clean, colorful, light, airy, and uh, have you noticed? Empty. Unhappy Hipsters makes light of the people who occupy these über sleek, über chic landscapes, taking beautiful photos from popular design mags and giving them humorous captions. It reads like “The Farside” with a cast of the cooler-than-thou. If you have an appreciation for all things modern, and a good sense of humor, you’ll love these daily doses of droll.
Forget clashing patterns, a bright neon palette, or acid washed denim – I’m going to go on the record and say that pulling off leopard print could be the most challenging endeavor facing today’s trendsetters.
Above you’ll see a stellar, shining example of the exotic print executed to perfection. Tamu McPherson, the photographer behind All the Pretty Birds, maintained the focus of her ensemble on the leopard print coat by pairing it with a simple black turtleneck, opaque black tights, super chic black suede wedges, and one of my favorite accessories, a vintage turban in the perfect neutral shade. Tamu’s look is effortlessly cool and minimal, with just the right amount of spots to keep things interesting.
When it comes to clothing and accessories, do you have a favorite animal print?
I don’t think I even need to explain why this outfit is so bad, am I right? Kelis’ milkshake might bring all the boys to the yard, but not this look! I like her pink and black color scheme, and her structured blazer, but not much else. For my version, I retained the color palette but rethought the silhouette, opting for the Wavering Dress and The Desmond Blazer. Kelis’ Alexander McQueen shoes are pretty crazy-awesome, but I chose the more practical Pink Champagne Peep Toe Wedges. And rather than accessorizing with a “crown,” I topped the outfit off with the playful Martinique Necklace and The Cheshire Clutch.
We know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but these dust jackets by graphics designer and illustrator Igor Udushlivyare too good to pass up. Instead of keeping bookmarks and covers in their separate spaces, Udushlivy decided to use them together to playfully and creatively “expand the book’s space.”
Today’s Outfit of the Week is extra special! From Jan. 11 – 28, we held our Model Your ModCloth Contest on our Flickr Style Exchange account. Outfit photos submitted to this contest had to contain at least one ModCloth item, qualifying them to be chosen as our featured ModLife outfit of the week! And the winner is (drumroll)…Tran from Austin, Texas!
Find out more about Trans’ chic style and fashionable blog, keep reading!
I really like scarves. They add a nice twist to any outfit. So, why have I never thought of wearing more than one at once? I don’t know! After seeing the gal above, though, and taking in her wild, yet wonderful mix scarves, that’s going to change. So, scarves of my wardrobe, beware! You’re about to be mixed and matched like you’ve never experienced before!
Do you have a scarf-wearing specialty that will inspire people? Let us know!
I became obsessed with finding the perfect boater hat after seeing the totally inspired Marc Jacobs Spring ‘09 collection — and it’s finally here! I can’t wait for spring to arrive so I can start pairing it with pretty dresses and shorts.
We’ve been talking about feminism a lot lately. Many people don’t learn much about feminism or the women’s movement until college – however, one of today’s youngest and most prominent fashion bloggers has decided to dip her toe into the feminist pool!
After the jump, find out what style blogger Tavi has to say about feminism…
Stop keeping your daydreams at bay; open up the golden gates of your imagination, and set your sights on San Francisco! From a booming Chinatown to the windiest street in the world, this city is crammed with so much wonderful stuff that it will make you quake at the knees! So, read these five rip-roaringly righteous recommendations, and fill a few hours with some California dreaming.
Secret: I don’t think fashion magazines are all that.
That isn’t to say I don’t love them — I do, dearly. But in a magazine cage match, those glamorous glossies have nothing on a National Geographic. This month was no exception.
Instead of coaxing the same bland questions out of already-overexposed Hollywood starlets, this issue of National Geographic tackled a question far more ambitious: “How much life can you find in one cubic foot?”
The answer is the spectacular, 20-page spread “One Cubic Foot,” a miniature biodiversity survey of various ecosystems, from a French Polynesian coral reef to a clump of dirt in Central Park. Using a 12-inch metal cube, photographer David Liittschwager marked out a space in each setting, and snapped anything that lived or wandered through that one-foot space. Over the span of several months, Liittschwager and his team documented over a thousand organisms, revealing a stunning wealth of creatures in every imaginable shape, color, and size.
And somehow, all those images of spindly-legged insects and pucker-mouthed fish got me thinking about fashion…
The other day on a road trip from Pittsburgh to Punxsatawney, I switched between Lady Gaga’s Fame Monster album and Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, which apparently means that I fit right in with the rest of the Gaga-loving demographic Pittsburgh! However, if I were living somewhere else in the world, say a city in Germany, or perhaps Sydney, Australia, chances are, I could have been driving to the beat of another tune!
Using this fun little find on the web, My City vs. Your City, you can input your city (or any), and compare your regional top music artists to that of a list of cities around the world! Based on data taken from last.fm, the site then calculates the similarity of the two cities to come up with a number of how similar the two locations are in musical tastes. There is no winner, but apparently Pittsburgh and Sydney, even though we are a fair distance and many oceans apart, hold a 38% compatibility in the music we listen to!
In addition to your current city, if you were to hop in the car and go for a road trip, what would you pop in the stereo system?
Not a day goes by that I don’t miss the awesomeness that was ABC’s TGIF. From the genius that was Urkel to the family love on Step by Step, how was I to choose something for Stuff We Miss, when I am missing so much great stuff all the time? In the end,Dinosaurs, the sitcom about a regular family just trying to make it in the year 60,000,003 B.C., won out.
[Image Above: Miss Darling Dress]![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
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