Tag: red

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the crop top

 Red is black.

                            – Rei Kawakubo

In a way, a long-sleeved crop top makes no sense….

Perhaps that is what I like so much about it?

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And what could be a more fitting companion than the high-waisted pencil skirt? I like the surprise of the midriff in the otherwise conservative silhouette, and the way the shape of the bared section shifts as the body moves.

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Is it me or do I look kind of…scary here? Maneaterish? Evidently this is how I look sometimes.

Express high waist midi pencil skirt*, crop top from Asos, Cole Haan pumps, dupatta/scarf (giftshop), Breil Milano watch (thrifted), Mulberry Roxanne handbag (thrifted).

*Exactly the kind of pencil skirt I’ve been looking for: friendly amount of stretch, above-the-navel, below-the-knee, hugging but not without structure, not clinging. I got it in gray, too.

This is my favored bag of the moment. It has that functional, built-to-last professorial look I often like paired with a traditional aesthetic that also feels luxurious. A bit of a fashion quest tracking it down, many patient months of unwavering preoccupation, searching and waiting, waiting and searching.

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the bold lip

Here’s a peek of the face situation for a look going up later in the week. I wanted to dwell on the lipstick for a moment.

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A bold lip is great for autumn/winter, yes, that’s true…but perhaps you’ve noticed how it’s always great, all the time?

I followed the principles of this tutorial by Lisa Eldridge (who we love*), which counsels neutralizing any redness in the face before going for a dark red or bordeaux lip – as any red or purple tones will be highlighted and amplified next to it – then tips for how to approach the task, which can indeed be daunting.

*here is another favorite lip-centric tutorial

I colored in the lips with MAC brick pencil and then went in, straight from the bullet, with MAC Dubonnet lipstick, a beautiful dark claret. Part of the idea of the pencil is to work out the shape of the lips with the more precise tip, which you then follow with the lipstick, coloring inside the lines, as it were. You can do corrections with a pencil – most people’s lips are somewhat wonky, mine definitely so – but I don’t often bother. It’s a lot of work (I find it really hard to figure out which is the part that needs fixing, my face is too familiar),  looks even stranger than the actual shape up close, and…these are my lips. They look nice and human this way. Part of wearing bold lipstick is doing your best and then embracing that harmonious state of mind wherein you let these things (and all the other things that can go wrong) go. OR I go for that vague hazy stain approach, where you pat on the lipstick in a cloud of color, blot most of it away and leave the edges fuzzy: much more forgiving, and it has its own charm.

It takes me kind of a long time to do a bright/bold lip color…I am pretty slow anyway, and like to fuss and fiddle with the intensity and the edges (which are still wonky, after all that…). But I ask myself, do I want to wear it or not? I do, I do, I do.