HIKING WEAR FASHION

What do you wear when you hike in a hot place like Mexico? All I can say is how lucky I am to have a good guy that convinces me that a lighter weight sandal/hiking shoe is a necessity for summer water hikes. And man has he been right. I wear these things all of the time, hiking up to waterfalls, through rivers, I even used them as a lighter shoe to walk around the Grand canyon. Don't get me wrong I've got my hard core boots that I hike the big stuff in, but these are perfect when you know water and immense heat are involved (I just hate the take off the boots and socks, get wet feet, then attempt to put the socks back on syndrome). These I got a couple of years ago half off but they still sell them here. Now onto the shorts. These are men's shorts from Walmart and I absolutely LOVE them. They are so comfy. Seriously, has anyone noticed how deep men's pockets are? I could fit all of the contents of my bag into them. Well I guess that's the point for the guys. And lastly, the glasses are $5 from Walmart. I needed a pair I could trash and it needed to possibly be unisex since someone in my life has a problem losing and breaking glasses.  All in all, I must say I was pretty dang comfortable even while wearing a one piece swimsuit underneath (man those heat up pretty quickly). Oh and the top (and hat) are Forever 21(comfy, comfy).

FASHION GONE ROGUE

The Jill Sander wool dress up top completely stole our attention the other day. This is from a photo shoot done by Fashion Gone Rogue. They've done quite a few smaller shoots exclusively for their site which are pretty dang cool. This one in particular is sort of a preview of some of the things they were seeing coming down the fall runways. The leg up they have over the hard-core magazines on the stand is that they're a blog able to do these magazine worthy shoots before the other magazines have even had time to pull their looks together. For instance, this was put together back in March right after the February shows. Let's just say their incredibly quick. Don't get us wrong, we're not going to be abandoning Vogue any time soon, but we do really enjoy viewing what they're doing over there! On a side note, we are loving the mustard dress up top. We too have a mustard dress you'll see soon from a company we are getting ready to proudly promote. So keep an eye out!

SOFT PINK

OK we're not gonna lie. This dress is almost too pretty or too "precious" for its own good. I couldn't resist picking it up vintage because it was literally $4. But every time I wear it, it seems difficult in my mind since everything from the color to the cut screams 'sweetness'.  How do you harden something like this up? This has been the question I ask myself every time I wear it. Finally I gave up. I took the edgier necklaces off that I tried to use to make it less sweet, and just let it be. You might remember me talking about a Grace Kelly look that I had a while back? Well here it is. Take it or leave it, but as a little girl I would've loved it.  And I must admit in the few times I've worn it I had one women tell me it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen and another who said it was "the perfect modest dress". Well, what do you guys think? Is it too tame? Or could it sort of fit in with some of the Valentino looks below (notably the simple white button-down dress)?

VALENTINO RESORT 2013 - What we're seeing....

In case you haven't noticed, designers LOVE designing dresses. It's funny because in this whole collection of 49 looks, most are dresses. Yes there are maybe two pairs of shorts and maybe 8 pant looks, but the vast majority are like these. And what beautiful dresses they are! We know a lot of you don't prefer to wear dresses or skirts, thinking they somehow look "dressy," but sometimes we get confused since what else do you wear when the weather gets hotter than our bodies can take? Here's the predicament for the modest girl...she's either wearing longer shorts to still look casual, or suffering in her jeans. If you're sick of these two options let's offer you some more. OK, so a lot of these dresses are, well "dressy," but putting on a skirt or dress doesn't have to always mean that. Look at the Mexico post below. I'd feel pretty embarrassed showing up to a dressier occasion wearing all that. So let's keep it casual...how? Flat sandals, flouncy skirts (pencils start dressing things up a bit, unless they look less pencil and more straight like this), casual t-shirt or button down dresses with things like a fedora, or lighter colors...a white or yellow skirt with a loose t-shirt, stripes or denim. Take the 4th look here, the white button down dress, for example. Put on a flat sandal and fedora; or the 8th look (the floral print dress) a flat sandal and a casual bag. Get the idea?

But onto what we're seeing in these looks. Valentino is amazing right now. We've been saying it for quite some time, but do you see how many looks we can put up? That's because almost all of the collection are what we could label pretty modest. We love the longer cap sleeve shown on many of the looks. And here's the "what we're looking at" segment (since of course we can't afford all these magnificent creations)... the collar under dresses. Yes their collars are attached, but we think we can get a similar look. Skinny belts over dresses, pairing the cigarette pant with a peplum, and trying out the "kitten heel" or lower heel. We'll see what the Spring looks bring for Valentino, but we're thinking there might be some similar elements. Stay tuned for fashion week in September....

HEATHER FROM "LATTER DAY STYLE"

 

 

 

 

OK, so I don't know if you're like us, but we were just in awe over these little fashion illustrations! Heather over at Latter Day Style is amazing. She contacted us a while back about possibly doing an interview for her blog, but we had no idea she was working on these on the side! When she sent over the questions we have to admit we were pretty impressed. The questions were all so thoughtful and in depth, not only into what makes us tick in our fashion choices, but also some specifics regarding our music and career. Here's just one of the questions she posed (along with our answer)...

I doubt either of you have stay at home kind of
days, but some days being a stay at home mom, I don’t really have anywhere to
go, or anything to dress up for. What is your advice for looking chic on all occasions?
What type of outfit would you wear for a day like that?

Are you kidding me? Everyone has those days. Not to mention many of those days for us are practice days where you know you won't leave the confines of your piano bench. Here's where we can't stress enough to buy nicer clothing that is COMFORTABLE. Sometimes all I want to buy are things that are beautiful on the hanger, and bypass the perfect fitting loose t-shirt just because it seems boring, or less exciting. And yet THAT is what you end up wearing most days. There was a top that both of us bought at Zara for $15 that has been our uniform ever since we bought it. It's so effortless to throw on with almost any pant or skirt. We both wish we had bought 5 more....

We don't want to spoil the rest of the interview, so check it out here. She has quite the talent in illustrating and we're definitely excited to see her blog taking shape. My sister-in-law now even wants to see if she'd do little illustrations of her daughters! Might have to talk to Heather about that one. Regardless, thanks Heather for being so awesome! (and seriously guys, she's the sweetest person ever....)

"OH MEXICO!"

Yeah, it's a bit hard not to sing some James Taylor while you're down there. It's also really hard not to get sunburned. Lets just say by the end of it I wanted to throw the sunscreen over board. But I did it! I survived Mexico without the infamous burns. Thanks to you guys on Facebook I was reminded to get a hat, which helped this burn-less vacation immensely. I found this one (which I literally wore EVERY day) at Forever 21. I must admit it's pretty nice to be able to depend on their store for having a nice, cheap, good-looking (I hope) hat. While I was there I picked up the loose white T ($10) I'm wearing and the sandals. I was looking for some good flat sandals (I even posted on twitter how frustrated I was in not finding any) and then there was a wall of sandals there for $7.50! I picked up two pairs...one in the brown (pictured) and one in metallic. Man, so glad I hit Forever 21 before I left. Also I was pretty proud of my packing this trip. I was happy to see that everything went with everything, the true test of packing. One day we'll do a packing post on here...it's taken us years to figure out how to pack well. Lastly, the bag was $5 at Walmart. I can't exactly recommend it since by the end of the trip it completely fell a apart (and I mean the whole thing ripped in the front), but then again I did have a huge camera and massive water bottle in it. It definitely couldn't take the weight. But if you want a great, cheap and light beach bag, this is the one. Sadly not many pictures of outfits were taken in Mexico (C'mon! It was a vacation!), so here's one of only two. I swear, we need to start posting you guys on here and your vacations....

P.S....the skirt is thrifted.