The solution to all of life's problems

Fact: I seldom wear pants. There's not any real reason for it, I just find myself wearing leggings and skirts more. I'm known in some circles as "the girl who doesn't wear pants."

Fact: I live in Canada. It's cold here. Especially in winter. It's winter right at this exact moment in time.

So my world was rocked the other day when I discovered these little suckers:

Plush tights, $35 at Shop Bop

They're fleece-lined tights! How ridiculously cool is that? Screw penicillen (seriously, I'm allergic to it and so I always had to have this gross strawberry medicine when I had ear infections as a child instead of the delicious banana-flavoured, penicillen-containing stuff), this is the greatest innovation of our time.

(Come to think of it, penicillen probably doesn't count as being part of our time. Hmm...Facebook? That singing mouse they cloned, which is disgusting, by the way? Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video? Whatever, this blows them all out of the water.)

(Also, lately I've been using parentheses like they're going out of style. I'd better kick this habit before school starts up again.)

Oh, Coco.

This makes me happy when skies are grey.

From the January 2011 issue of Elle Itailia. Shot by Michael Sanders and styled by Alberto Zanoletti. Taken from Fashion Gone Rogue.

Men of the world: I don't care what you think of my drop crotch pants.

Friends, I have been so late in joining the Man Repeller love (I just found out about the blog the other day. If you, like me, have been living under a rock, give it a read; it’s pretty awesome). Reading it has definitely made me think (which is really upsetting because it’s winter break and I’ve been trying to avoid thinking.)

I think ladymag articles informing women that men don’t like certain garments miss the point. I love that they always think that this is news to us. “What? Boys don’t find harem pants hot? I thought they loved the way these pants make my butt look horrendously misshapen!”

Shocker: These outfits aren't ideal for trolling for boys. (All pictures from The Sartorialist.)

I hate to make sweeping generalizations, but I think I’ll make one anyway. Dear magazines (and I love you, you should know that), I would say that 99% of women know how to dress to impress the average guy, if we choose to. We are smart enough to realize that (most) guys think we look better in a low-cut bandage dress than in jeggings and a sweater with linebacker shoulder pads.

Frankly, I wear what I do because it makes me happy. I might pick an outfit because it reminds me of a collection I liked, because I feel confident in it, or just because I like the way it looks. Women dress the way we do for all kinds of reasons. And yeah, some girls get dressed in the morning with the sole objective of impressing guys. That’s totally fine. But I don’t like when (usually female) writers for magazines act as if that’s all fashion’s about.

Gentleman, don’t get me wrong. I want you to think I’m pretty (or at least not repulsively unattractive). I want you to be impressed by my sparkling personality. I want to make you laugh. But I couldn’t give a damn what you think about my wardrobe.*

*Unless, of course, you are one of the super-cool, hyper-judgemental gay men who hangs out on the steps I pass on my way to campus. I really want you to think I’m cool so we can become best friends and give bitchy looks to passers-by together (you know, like the ones you give me when I’m on my way back from the gym and I’m wearing yoga pants and an old tee and have sweat dripping down my face?) and tell each other secrets and buy coffees and laugh uproariously together. You guys just look like a lot of fun.

Inspiration: Grunge

Images from (clockwise from top left:) Elle Sweden, fashiongonerogue.com, The Cobra Snake, Sassy, allmoviephotos.com, drmartens.com)

WWD Goes All "Say Yes to the Dress" On Us

WWD recently asked several designers to sketch a potential wedding dress for Kate Middleton (because when you work for WWD you can call up Karl Lagerfeld and be like “Hey, want to sketch a dress that’ll never be made?” and he won’t hang up on you). While it’s pretty much guaranteed that Kate will follow royal tradition and pick a British designer, like Bruce Oldfield, to design the real thing, some of the designs are amazing.

Gucci’s dress was my favourite. The simple, elegant design meshes well with K-Midd’s (shut up, I’m going to make “K-Midd” happen) personal style.

Another minimalist design was J. Crew’s. The company’s vice president of wedding and special occasion, Tom Mora, told WWD that he thinks “there will be so many comparisons to the late Princess Diana that her dress should be almost the opposite of what Diana’s was – modern, simple and very elegant.”

But the ultimate in simplicity was Kimberley Ovitz’s basic sketch of a tank dress.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was Lela Rose’s flouncy, apparently tiered gown. The floral detail on the veil is amazing.

Valentino’s design is dreamily beautiful. Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli told WWD that they “designed a ‘blossoming’ dress because [they] imagined her as the new Botticellian Venus. Gorgeous as the dress is, Botticelli’s Venus probably isn’t a look Sloaney Kate would go for, and it’s hard to imagine her going for boho details like the loose, off-the-shoulder sleeves.

Instead of a sketch, Christian Lacroix submitted a ridiculously cool mixed-media collage. The designer himself probably sums up his dress best, in his description of it for WWD: “Something old: Victorian skirt. Something new: patchwork gown. Something borrowed: Queen Elizabeth’s veil. Something red: Elizabethan top, as red was the wedding colour until 1900!”

All photos from WWD.com