Fashion Resolution.

My New Year's Fashion Resolution (everyone should have one!) is to only buy and wear things that I love, things that call my name. I want my wardrobe to sing to me, to make my heart jump, to make me feel expressed and in love and hot. I want my wardrobe to be filled with a curated collection of what makes me feel most like me; shoes that are shaped perfectly, tops that I could hang on my wall as art, pants that...fit. I have a long way to go. My shopping M.O. has always been to buy things that make the most sense in my budget. The rubric for grading purchases has been more wallet-based than anything, and while I know that is important--a girl needs to eat--so is feeling good in my clothes. I've also always suffered from Fashion Phobic Fat Girl-itis which is marked by acute symptoms of self-criticism and the overriding thought that I should wait until I lose the weight and LOVE every inch of my body before I spend more than the minimum money on clothes. Well, I call an end to that bull shizz! I do love myself, body and all. It's an amazing feeling and I'm going to celebrate by raising the bar on what I let into my closet. (Somehow I'm hoping this sets a precedent for my love life to. I'm raising bars all around.) No more misfitting items just cuz they are on sale. No more boring colors because they are left in the pile of discounts. No more! No more! I will dress to express. I will shop to love. I will invest. I will spend time cultivating my personal style and I will honor that, not my miserly side. I will, damnit! And I'm going to start with purchasing things from a site that Donna K. sent my way. Have you guys heard of Need Supply Co.? It's filled with coolness for moderate prices. It's my new aesthetic in an online store. Love it. Above and below are some looks.

How badass is all of that gear? I apparently want to be a lil more crazy cool in the '10s too. I'm especially wanting that penknife necklace. I could open some serious mail with that thing.

Happy New Decade!

The Story of Donna K. And The Cutest Clay Dress Ever!

Donna K. I think she made that shirt.

My fabulously talented friend Donna K. just participated in an art/literary combo project that resulted in the creation of the cutest claymation dress ever. The project is called Single Sentence Animation and it's produced by the progressively hip literary journal Electric Literature, which publishes its issues in each and every way (via paper, Kindle, iPod, Tweet, etc.) effectively utilizing the Interwebs and new technology without bemoaning the state of the printed word. The Single Sentence project teams a writer with an animator and asks one to bring visual life to the other's work. Donna's piece is based on a sentence by Lydia Davis. It's about cows and it's equal parts cute and intriguing:



How wonderful are the cow thought bubbles? Randy and hungry, that's all that really matters, isn't it? Also, I'm not kidding when I say I want that clay dress. I love the stripes.

So, initially I was just going to show you Donna's piece above, but why stop there? The girl--ahem, woman--is full of talent. Her art is homespun and seriously handmade; from the stop motion projects she scripts, sculpts, scores, and films; to the paper pieces she puts together with old magazine photos and hand-set typeface. I'm such a fan of it all.

A selection of Donna's works on paper.

Donna is currently working on a project with her boyfriend/partner in crime Brent Green which involves a giant set that they've built by hand in the backyard of their barn in the woods in Pennsylvania. I can't wait to see the finished product. In fact, I can't wait to see the thing in progress. Donna keeps telling me amazing stories about their shooting adventures (like say, "There are ten little kids in the front yard fishing in holes we dug and stocked," or, "I'm on stilts!") and I keep threatening to show up on set. If only it weren't in The Middle of Nowhere, PA, then I'd be there all the time. Until I can make the trek, I have Donna's Flickr Stream to keep me company. Thank God for modern technology! Here are some Donna short film pieces, which all make me want wings:







She's good, right? The best part: She's sweet as pie.

All images are Donna's work and can be found on her Flickr Photostream.