i'm drawn to the blood, the flight of a one winged dove

the sensation of being lost: i took two really long roadtrips through the midwest in april, and i'm still thinking about them. it was around the same time that i was studying  a lot of entomology, and gaining a strange sort of appreciation for the insects that usually make me really uncomfortable.

(odonata via)

i became really obsessed with the endless valleys and plains outside the window, and the general color combination this reminds me of: a faded yellow, brown, and baby blue. the horizontal intersection of a warm sunset with a valley full of flowers. 

or a few days ago when i was sitting on the floor of my room (as a hopeless teen does) and the light was streaming in and bathing the entire place in an orange as deep as the california fruit. i tried to get a picture, but my phone just whitewashed the entire scene. it either mean that i need to learn to appreciate the ephemeral when i can, or that i need an actual camera. 

(death valley)

• the scene in papillon where elsa looks at a mountain scene and says that it looks like it's part of a scenery calendar, and the grandpa replies that it's better than a calendar. 
• it might not be possible to get the same effect from looking at nature pics online bc there's an underlying tone that it's not real until you live it and see it w your own eyes (and even then its being filtered and interpreted). 
• the part in dandelion wine where thomas realizes that he's alive and the whole world seems to be exploding before him
• sometimes the entire world is so vivid and loud and overwhelming it's hard to believe that you're a real part of it all. 

(my dream french home from an old school project via)

there's also the feeling of getting lost, mostly the way its expressed in picnic at hanging rock. the unavoidable mountain faces, the daze of the heat, the physical manifestation of a deep internal confusion. 

(via)

the (metropolitan) yellow sweater , white (elle) sandals and the brown (villager) purse are thrifted, (bdg) mom jeans are uo

thank you! what are you guys feeling right now? 

-=-

kanyinsola 

we should never say that we drifted far

reservoir / metromony

it just occurred to me that i never really talked about the fact that i took a fashion class for this entire past year even though this is a fashion... blog (i think?) but it was a really cool, positive experience and i learned and grew a lot through it.

i've already posted pictures of the skirt i made for my first fashion show. my last show was supposed to be for aw inspired by this moodboard i made at the beginning:

i was kind of surprised that i was the only one in my class who went this route for being inspired by winter because most of the other moodboards were like "bringing color into the winter," but like winter is cold and hard, and the sooner we deal the sooner we get to spring lol.

i made all the following stuff (i'm pretty proud of myself you guys!) from the end of 1st semester to 2nd semester of 8th grade, except for the black pants worn by the model in the last photo-- those are from express.

(this dress is so poor quality honestly don't look @ it too hard, bc i wanted to do it for a while but only really decided to do it the day before the show smh)

i'm looking forward to making clothes and improving the quality of the stuff i make, and i should also take this chance to say that i'm extremely thankful to have this platform and all of you guys to share my ideas and work with. thank you for reading this!

-=-

kanyinsola

photos in order of appearance:

(1): geoffrey bawa / (2): favorite houseplants, better homes and gardens 1976 / (3): venice through a kaleidoscope via / (4): via

could i be the sky on the fourth of july

 

this outfit isn't at all weather appropriate but whatevr. the red sweater is from my childhood, the white shirt is my dad's, and the blue jeans are express.

i was kind of saving these for an end of the month playlist thing but these are just really good albums that are like the soundtrack to the summer months for me.

june: 

AM . arctic monkeys. i listened to so much arctic monkeys in 7th grade oh my gosh. it was on a lot of best albums of 2014 lists so you may have already heard about it, but it definitely deserves all of the praise it got. the writing is all incredibly sleek and clever, the sound is like a funkier rock than their previous stuff i guess. i put it in june because of the way it kind of captures the brazen coolness of the first month of freedom (favorite song - snap out of it).

july: 

the only place . best coast has been my go-to summer album for a while because it's all laying at the beach, waiting for nothing to happen, angsty sleepy rock and it basically just plays in the background 24/7. (favorite song - do you love me like you used to)

august:

mala . devandra banhart. this album is swingy and lazy and hot and sticky thoughtful folk-rock which, not to sound ridiculous, is all i want to listen to when anything is winding down and i'm thinking about how i feel. but this album has also been the background to me just working, which is sometimes inconvenient because i just end up JAMMING. it's sweet and funny and completely unexpectedly beautiful. (favorite song - fur hildegard von bingen and because i'm a cheater, a gain)

also another really amazing album, but kind of feels more like spring and the attached concept of rebirth: the title of this song is from carrie & lowell by sufjan stevens which i refuse to shut up about... what summer albums do you reccomend?

-=-

kanyinsola 

the mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me

i read great expectations in my english class, and was honestly not interested in pip at all.. but i did love reading about estella and miss havisham (the scene where they scream at each other and estella spouts those metaphors about knowing the darkness is just ughhhhhh). there was something immensely attractive about the entire setting of satis house, derelict surroundings of a woman who stopped time in mourning of the person she loved.

the book first describes her as dressed in rich "satins, and lace, and silks" that that were once white but have now become "faded and yellow," like the flowers in her hair and on her gaunt skin; the most fascinating character visually and in my opinion the most complex character in the entire book.(please email me if u want to talk about her!)

this is what the 2012 movie says she looks like.

 

commes des garcons (fw05)

 patchwork-looking victorian lace and tulle shreds + the exaggerated paleness of the models' faces in this context add something ghastly. i really love the collars and the ruffles on the first jacket. they both have that timeworn yellow color.

 

miss havisham is also described in the book as having the look of a waxwork statue, and the silvery dustings in john galliano fw09 add to that image. the whole thing is really slinky and mysterious / rotting flowers are like miss havisham's jam; there's no train on the second dress, but it just feels like something that would be worn by someone absentmindedly dragging along random bits and pieces of rotting things with their dress.

 

these two are kind of more modern interpretations: i love the sleeves of the shirt for the velour magazine one on the left. the fabric in tao ss07 is really innocent and the bows and ruffles at the bottom add extravagance to the overall clean shape. 

 

 

i feel like the last four (chanel s15 couture; cdg fw1990; cdg s12; junya watanabe fw2000)all have a really similar look in their drama. the pilled material that seems like it's stuffed onto the  first and second ones looks like really soft insulation. the headpieces of 1 and 3 just make me think of the word goop (and seem to relate to mis havisham's decaying pile of wedding cake). also, they're all really obstructive, so the wearer is keeping everyone who wants to get close to her far away which is literally her entire character. 

--

i don't have a tattered wedding dress :((( so i kind of had to pull together my interpretation of what miss havisham would wear (the best photo is the last one): i DIYed the white button-up shirt (lol i found it in my fashion classroom and then i shortened and hemmed it, and drew on it), it kind of has a scalloped collar, and i thought that was really cute;  i just found the lace camisole, which was a softened layer; the shirt as skirt is my dad's to add layers; and i wore the skirt i made underneath because i thought the strings would make it look like more tattered. white sandal block heels for like, stomping on hearts n stuff. i also wore this silver necklace with a circular pendant that i've had since childhood. 

 

-=-

kanyinsola

we didn't realize that we had arrived at high tide

 marathon by tennis

the movie picnic at hanging rock is a really interesting movie about a valentine's day disappearance at an australian boarding school. i'm not a horror movie person, but this was one of those weird psychological creeping ones that i just loved even if i screamed when edith screamed. it's compared to the virgin suicides a lot because of the treatment of teenage grls and the unresolved sinister something going on behind the scenes. 

i have a weird memory of the movie because i watched it for the first time while making a bunch of yellow flower crowns as a costume for a school project, so now whenever i smell hot glue, i think of the movie (isn't science great!). another thing that reminds me of the movie is junya watanabe s2003 rtw (how bad was that segue?) 

   

 

 

 

• the florals and polka dots and airy blues just remind me of the summery innocent beauty that was a main part of the girls' characters. 
• the umbrella hats are reminiscent of the ones they carried to their picnic. 
• there were a lot of parachute straps wrapped around the models that seem like an interesting representation of the way that the girls at the school were confined.
• the backpacks and shoes, and the way that some of the fabrics were hitched up into pants that make me think someone made them when they were forced to climb or run somewhere and physically couldn't do it in their skirts all make me think of like, something frantic or desperate. 

if you guys have seen the movie, please let me know what you thought of it, or this collection's relation to it, and feel free to send me an email with your conspiracy theories of what happened in the movie because i love reading those oh my gosh!

-=-

kanyinsola

your hands have lost the grip on their prize

i wore the outfit to the left last year with a kind of grey, utilitarian aesthetic in mind. the striped shirt is thrifted, both sweaters are from when i was younger, the one on the bottom is like knit, and i'm not sure what fabric the top one is but it feels really slick and smooth, like something i would wear if i was ryan gosling in a movie where i end up leaning thoughtfully on a car idk. the belt thing is just a shoelace. 

when i kind of rearranged some parts of the outfit to align more with the look of a thom browne rtw12 (below), i tied the sweaters together and around my legs (not at all practical for... walking... or moving) and the gray jacket on top is my mom's. LOVE YOU MOM!






can i just say that i'm 100% pro wool bullet bras. the idea of exaggerating the parts of the body that already protrude reminds me visually of rei kawakubo's lumps and bumps. i also love the shape of those shoes.i guess most of his clothes are like menswear and coat materials, and seeing the little satin collar at the top of this dress that looks like the lining of a coat made me smile a lot and think the words "thom browne you sly dog." in other news...



this is like the answer to a jeapordy category called wes anderson movies and couture clothing: fantastic mr. fox fur stoles. also, the layering! the combinations of materials and shapes!




this is one of my favorite thom browne collections: it maintains what i see as the aesthetic of his brand (disfigured, exaggerated silhouettes and his macabre color palette), but it also feels really exploratory, more relaxed. the tweeds and the elegant shapes of some of the looks also adds a feeling of couture wear that's interesting.



this is incredibly cool, it kind of reminds me of saint laurent in some ways, maybe it's just like the elegance of it all, or the thing that almost looks like a neck-bow thing.






maybe it's the collar or the ruffles, but this reminds me a lot of marie antoinette and just the general costume of the aristocracy. this dress is SO beautiful: the layers and layers of tulle, and the hundreds (thousands?) of little mirrors on there ughhhh.






the draping and shapes in this collection are amazing.

--
what do you guys think?

-=-

kanyinsola