Gone Thrifting

Could it be true? Has my bad shopping curse been lifted? Mindful of my past mistakes and newly invigorated to reduce the bummy quotient of my general appearance for next year (senior prom is at stake) I took another go at back to school fashion in Santa Monica. The Third Street Promenade is well known for its ambiance of corporate urbanity, stores like Anthropologie and Miss Sixty converging with generously zoned and refreshingly hygenic street performers and psychics. The whole "street scene" is pretty contrived, but it admittedly makes for a less anxious shopping experience compared to the real deal. But while third street was fun for window shopping and starbucks, it was lesser known fourth street where I really hit my shopping stride. After having a delicious salsa and chip snack at the Border Grill, I hit my two favorite vintage shops in the area: Crossroads Trading Co. and Wasteland. Starting at Wasteland, a slightly snotty high end hipster vintage store that mixes new designer with used designer, I followed my own advice and began tackling the racks with a clear head and specific goals: to find an all purpose light sweater, some kind of bottoms, and heels if possible. Not only did I manage, but everything I picked up seemed to be miraculously color coordinated! My final purchases: a fitted grey Benetton cardigan, a grey and white plaid summer dress, and white heels - the heels pricing as the most expensive at $26! When I met my friends later in the new outfit they were instantly awed by how mature, put together, and (of course) fashionable I looked. Then at Crossroads, a more humble and color coordinated thrift store, I picked up my first pair of 7 jeans and super wearable, comfy, and surprisingly sleek baby phat (I know I know, but I swear they're not hoochie) mid length shorts with a slight gaucho flare. It was my most successful shopping trip in recent memory, and let's hope it wasn't just a fluke!

Confessions of a Bad Shopper

(This is what looking through aisles and aisles fof clothes feels like to me)
I think it is important that I be clear about something if I'm going to delve into the world of fashion blogging: I am a bad shopper.
Now the phenomenom of bad shopping has nothing to do with taste, because, if it was not already evident from my prior two entries, taste is not something I lack (although certain young and in style stepsisters might disagree). It has to do with having the ability to scan a selection, pick out flattering, compatible pieces, while at the same time keeping prices and pulse rates low.
Now let me profile a typical store visit for me, a chronically ill fated shopper, and maybe you can learn from my mistakes:
1) After wandering in (a step that not uncommonly features me colliding into some kind of door, shelf, or fellow shopper) I find myself dazed, overwhelmed by all the choices, all the possibilities. And if it is a diamond in the rough kind of situation I find myself similarly overwhelmed by all the lack of choices. Now this is a rookie mistake. Excellent shopping requires the kind of cool composure and clear-headedness that i've never been able to master, in or outside of a store.
2) After fumbling around with complete aimlesness for a brief time, I decide to pick out any piece that strikes me as at all intriguing, regardless of price or fit. These decisions, I decide, can all be made post dressing-room. Yet a good shopper knows that this strategy is setting yourself up for failure. Why bog down your dressing room experience when choices can be eliminated before you even step in?
3) Finally, after discouraging try-ons, I pick out the cheapest, least embarassing piece and, flustered, hand over my rumpled stack of rejects shamefully over to a storekeeper. I then pay quickly, without fully considering how the piece will fit into my disjointed wardrobe, and get the hell out, often repeating the fumbles of step #1. Any seasoned shopper can see the mistakes here. You have to weigh cost and benefit. Sometimes it's ok to splurge on something if it has the looks of a staple, and only after complete confidence in a selection should any purchase be made.
Now what do I get when it comes to translating that piece into my basic wardrobe? It's hit and miss. Sometimes, despite all the obstacles, I really did snag a good piece. Other times I am baffled by what was my judgment. So learn shoppers, learn. And maybe one day you and I alike will be shopping with skill among scores and scores of bioluminescent creatures. It's possible, right?

Hello Kitty, Welcome to Sushi

SUSHI ART.
I know, genius. Just when you thought there was no possible way the Japanese could further incorporate cutesy anime into their culture, they gone did it again, and this time the japanese people are literally consuming it. Not to mention it looks delicious (or at least adorable!)

Now for some shirts that I'm obsessed with and that Emma will hate:
ALAKAZAM! More than just a dramatic transition, it is also the name of the british clothing and graphic novel label http://alakazamlabel.com/ Is it too hipster? Are witty shirt sayings as over as Jojo's career? Maybe. But it tingles at my aesthetic sense and makes me smile, an effect that compensates for its frown-uponable kitsch.

*ehem* yes that is the flying dog thing from the neverending story. and yes it is riding a scooter.

M.I.Luminescent.

Welcome to "How to Bioluminesce!" the blog dedicated to finding fashion, music, movies and anything and everything else that will make you glow from the inside with inspiration and glee!

To kick it off, here is an example of bioluminescence as it goes down in nature:

And here's bioluminescence as it goes down on the streets:

Which brings me to my first BIOLUMINSCENT SPECIMEN: M.I.A.

Born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, the fiery musical juggernaut now known as "M.I.A." injects so much life and color into dance clubs and hipster's ipods across the world that it is only natural that her style has the same energetic force as her beats. An iridescent fusion of Sri Lanka, England, Africa and her own outrageous self, M.I.A. acheives the coveted "effortless cool" without in any way resembling a bag lady (an impressive feat in the MK&A age.) I am in awe of the dangerous way she busts tacky into tribal, combining things that by all the unwritten rules of "not looking like a whore" should never be combined, yet pulling it off with the confidence of a ctenophore (see biolumenescence web page)

Here is my humble attempt to match her shine:

Pair this ill Stussy shirt with some sequined insanity, add some magenta tights and color-blocked sneakers and I guarentee rays of light will be circling you within the hour.

Some other M.I.A. inspired choices:
These redunkulous Irregular Choice shoes

Alex & Chloe necklace