upgrades: new shoelaces (laces are so cheap!)

An inexpensive way to brighten and refresh your shoes? New laces! More to the point, contrasting laces.

For standard, flat, sneaker-style laces I recommend Converse laces, which come in a few lengths and many, many colors. ~$2!

For sturdy, round, boot-style laces, check out Doc Marten’s. ~$3!

[Make sure to get the correct length]

before & after:

pumas before
pumas before
pumas after
pumas after

 

converse before
converse before
converse after
converse after
docs before
docs before
docs after
docs after
IMG_2033
and after
and after
and after
and afer
and after

 

See what I mean?

(Which color would you go for with the doc martens? Tough call, right?)

N.B. New white laces tend to make broken-in shoes look especially tired.

crafted: patched beanie

This generic stocking cap/beanie has been sitting in my closet for years, forgotten (why did I ever get it in the first place?), but I came across it on a bad hair day recently and what do you know, I like it. It has the effect [like baldness, or very short hair, or a swimming cap] of isolating and so throwing a spotlight on the face, which results in a whole new set of instincts about presentation. Namely, I want to wear unprecedented volumes of eyeliner.

After years of passively owning both the stocking cap and this cute little whale patch (which I think I got when I was 10 or so, and have somehow preserved all this time), I finally happened to think of them both in the same moment, gathered needle and thread (I sewed a thing!), and lo, a new and improved hat was born.

I inherited this thread from my great grandmother...
I inherited this thread from my great grandmother…

Theorize that part of me has the precise aesthetic appreciation of a little Korean girlchild*.

*Exhibit A: my current cellphone charm is a stuffed baby turtle:

IMG_1041

I want to wear it all the time now, provided eyeliner. And black eyeliner, too, which I almost never wear. Like so:

Urban Decay 24/7 liner in zero
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in zero

I like accessories like this; something slightly out of my normal style range that inspires me not to look like myself and to experiment with entirely new patterns. Thus expanding my range and allowing for still greater expansion.

The only thing is, once I put it on, I am committed. Can’t really take it off…disaster underneath. [This is the trouble with hats, for me. Also my head is kind of big?]

Still, satisfying to have raised a dormant object up into a state of usability.