Prettiness

So I am deep in the throes of finals. Yay. What that means is I have not been up to anything remotely interesting the last couple days. So, instead of an outfit or something of the sort, I thought I'd show you guys some of the coolest pictures I've ever taken. This first few will be ones that have not been retouched, then I'll show you some of the ones that picnik and iPiccy have made beautiful.

The non-retouched pictures:

When I showed Melisa the last one, she asked if I had taken it in Zambia. Nope! It was shot through my dorm room window!

These are some of the photos that have been "picniked" (I was so sad when Picnik closed! :'( but iPiccy seems to be an ok substitute.)

As I told a friend one night, "I love creating beauty". :) So which one is your favorite?

All photos taken by me. Please don't steal them. ;)
The camera used was a Canon PowerShot SX120 IS.

Green Fashion Show 2012

Wednesday was the annual Ashland University Green Fashion Show. The idea is that all designs entered are made from recyclable materials. The show was great. I myself didn't enter, but some of my friends did, and there were a ton of gorgeous, wearable garments on display! (Click on the photos for a larger version)

Picture by Meredith Liedtke

 The decorations on the front of this one are CDs. How cool is that?

Picture by me

Who would have thought bubble wrap could look this amazing?? I would totally wear this!

Picture by Meredith Liedtke

 I'm not sure what this one is made of (paper bags, perhaps?) but it's really cool!

Picture by me

The skirt on this one is made of hand-glued coffee filters! It moved beautifully on the runway. (I apologize for the weird lighting. They had the lights really low in Redwood.)

Picture by me

This is another coffee filter dress. Isn't it amazing how it looks completely different than the other one? People are so creative. ;)

Picture by me

Again, I'm not sure what this is made of (my guess is tissue paper) but it's really fun.

Picture by me

This was the winning design in the Fashion Merchandising category. I thought it was cool, but it wasn't my favorite. I loved the model's hair, though.

Picture by me

This is one of my fellow Fashion Merchandising majors with his model. Cute skirt alert!

Picture by Meredith Liedtke

I think this one might have been made out of toilet paper. I found it absolutely stunning. And HOW did she make the bodice so neat and sturdy??

Picture by Meredith Liedtke

 This was my favorite outfit from the whole evening. She made that dress out of records! How cool is that!! And I don't know what the skirt is made of, but it matches perfectly. I LOVE the headpiece. I think it is basically a melted record. You can't see it in this picture, but she also had a train with sparkly CDs on them. Here's another picture so you can see it better:

Picture by me

How cute is that? (And how cute are my two friends in this picture?? ;D)

 And thank you to Meredith, whose pictures I have used.

New Favorite Store. Oh Dear...

Yesterday my family and I went out shopping, and I discovered a sweet store. If my style could be summed up and put into a boutique franchise, it would be Vanity. The have almost every facet of my fashion sense. From lace, to neons, to blazers, to fluffy chiffon. It was so hard to walk out without buying anything! Sadly, most items in the store were between $20-$40. A little expensive for me. :( I am experiencing a llittle bit of buyers remorse for not getting this skirt:

Lace Belted Maxi Skirt

The picture really doesn't do it justice. It's more of an off white color (at least it was in the store) and it's made of lace. It was ADORABLE. Sadly, it was also $30. So I left without it. Maybe sometime in the future I'll find it on a sale rack.

Mirror Mirror (2012)

This weekend, my sister, cousin, and I went to see Mirror Mirror starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, and Armie Hammer. It's a retelling of Snow White. I really enjoyed it; the plot was decent, the aerobatic sword fights were entertaining (watch out for those giant dwarves!), and there was a minimum of crudeness/vulgarity.

But the best part was the costumes. Hands down. Fabulous. Spectacular. Breathtaking.

The costume designer was Eiko Ishioka. Sadly, Mirror Mirror was her last film; she died of pancreatic cancer in January 2012. Her work on it was absolutely stunning, however; she knew how to combine and use bright colors, with a fantastic attention to detail.

From what I could gather, the costumes are vaguely based on an Elizabethan time period crossed with a french revolution/Marie Antoinette mash-up, i.e., corsets, panniers and extreme opulence.

See? (Click on the picture for a larger view)

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Just look at that skirt. Wow. Love! The way it poofs up around her hips means she probably is wearing panniers, which are hoop skirts that are more oval shaped, rather than circular, in order to emphasize the hips.

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This scene is during the Costume Ball (hence the bunny ears). The Evil Queen (Julia Roberts) is a peacock, but a stunning, satiny, red one.The embroidery on the front of that dress is beautifully intricate. I am impressed with the stand-up sleeves- I don't know what they are made of, but they match the dress perfectly.

Here's a peek at what's underneath (at least in the movie):

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This looks like a corset/hoop skirt made of oisers, or willow bark. In the movie, she is cinched down as far as she can possibly go, but I personally didn't think it was really that tight. It didn't seem to define her waist nearly as much as a real, properly cinched, corset would.

While they were not as elaborate as the Evil Queen's, Snow White also had some beautiful costumes.

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This is one of the more obviously Elizabethan dresses in the film. The flat bodice, lowish neckline, fabric folds at the waist, and full, hooped skirt all scream Elizabethan England.

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I LOVE this cape. The color, the fullness, the bows...it's so feminine! It's fascinating- Lily Collins' color season is most likely winter, and winters don't normally look good in bright, warm colors like this yellow. But  Eiko Ishioka found a shade that looks great on her.

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Snow White shows off her rebel side with this pirate-inspired look. This is such a difference from the style of the Queen, that it really shows Snow White's transformation from a small, cowed girl in the shadow of her stepmother to a confident, self-reliant woman who is the rightful Queen.

And that is what Mirror Mirror is all about.

I'll leave you with the most beautiful costume in the whole movie:

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