Walking In Sunshine!

My favorite tree/outdoor meditation spot

Those of you who live in Chicago know how rare sunny days are in Autumn/Winter, even more rare are mild weather days. It just so happens that for this "photo shoot" in the Sculpture Park, I got very lucky!

Many thanks to my BFF and the greatest love of my life (besides my children and Alexander Wang) for shooting these awesome photos. 

Now on to the OOTD...

This recycled blazer and scarf may look familiar because I love them and wore them together here, lol. 

Notice the mixed patterns and colors? Yeeeeah, I'm experimenting y'all, lol!

Scarf from F21

I love wrapping this scarf around my neck/shoulders. Look at my crooked smile, so endearing :-)

Gold earrings were a gift from my Grandmother.

Full length of the entire outfit.

From the back.

Me next to one of my fave sculptures in the entire park.

Another of my fave sculptures.

Sunnies from Target ($5)

 My skin was all kinds of yuck in these pictures. It's clearing up little by little though. I'll blog about my skin care regimen sometime in the near future.

Don't the booties look 3D, lol? Want a closer look?

You like? I've worn these once and I'm pretty sure I'll never wear them again. My feet are way to big and wide for these babies :-(


I'm creating a shop to sell some of the items I can't/don't wear or use. My Pink Clarisonic Classic will be another one of the items in the shop. I paid $195 for that brush and can't use it, my skin is just way too sensitive :-(

Blazerless and enjoying the weather and scenery.

Now let's look at the accessories...

Closer?

The Deets:


Leopard Satchel = Alloy.com
Necklace = F21
Leopard Print Faux Pony Hair Belt = ASOS
"Gold" Flake Ring = Charlotte Russe
Faux Stone Ring = F21
"Gold" Three Row Spike Bracelet = Gift from my bestie Shan
"Gold" Pyramid Stud Bracelet = F21
BDG Shirt = Crossroads Trading Company
Kate Hill Blazer = Crossroads Trading Company
Super Skinny Twill Pants = Delias.com 
Brown Booties = Alloy.com
Sunnies = Target
Tribal Print Scarf = F21
Gold Earrings = Gift from my Grandmother

And that's that. What do you think of this outfit? I love what I did here as far as the mixing and matching goes, uber proud of my self :-D


Though I'm sure you've seen enough of my pictures, here are some bonus shots!

Don't they look all Secret Garden-ish, lol? My BFF did a totally FAWESOME job with the camera, I was honored and impressed. He made editing the pictures for this blog super hard (as evidenced by the amount of pictures in this blog, lol). In honor of him and his work, I'm posting his picture...

Well not him exactly, lol. Those are his custom Nikes that he designed and received shortly before the shoot. He's so in love with those shoes it's kind of ridiculous, lol. He even has his name on the back of them (you can just barely see it).


Okey dokey, that's enough. Do you like the outfit I put together? Dislike it? Let a sistah know!

Eye Spy Oliva Palermo!

That’s right, Olivia Palermo (of MTV’s “The City” fame) and renowned fashion blog Refinery 29, hosted a holiday shopping party at TopShop’s flagship Chicago store. The bigger than life, luxe fashion hub is located on Michigan Avenue downtown Chicago on the historic “Magnificent Mile”. Yours truly was in attendance snapping pics, sipping delish non-alcoholic cocktails and schmoozing with all kinds of impeccably dressed style hounds. Caution: This is a very pic heavy post!

Let me start by saying that this store is three stories of completely FAWESOME glass/mirror and wall-to-wall dreamy clothing, accessories, footwear and makeup nirvana! There was so much to see, so much to look at that I do believe I went into sensory overload! I wanted several of everything…and that’s no exaggeration, lol. The best part about this store was the tall sizes department. Though very small (ha, a small tall department, lol) I was super impressed that they had it at all. Most stores only carry their specialty sizes online. I foresee a TopShop shopping spree in my future.

Now let’s get on to Miss Palermo and her styling session. Though I think her looks are a 50/50 mix of hits and misses, many style hounds love her. The event opened with Olivia bringing out 4 models that she’d styled using some of her favorite TopShop pieces from the latest collection:

Close up on the model wearing the chainmail-esque...thingy that I loved...

Closer...

Slightly better pic...

I loved all the looks the models wore…with the exception of the fugly furry pink clutch the purple velvet bootied/goldenrod ankle trousers adorned model is wearing. Oh, those purple velvet booties and goldenrod ankle trousers? I want! I actually want all the pieces the models are wearing, jewelry included, lol. Olivia herself was wearing a very interesting combo:

They aren’t pieces I’d wear together, but I’d mos def wear them. How do I look standing next to Olivia?

I'm wearing: F21 tribal top, Crossroads Trading Company blazer, Alloy stretch super skinny twill trousers, F21 tribal scarf, thrifted gifted necklace, gifted triple row spike bracelet, F21 single row pyramid bracelet, Crossroads Trading Company keyhole ring, Crossroads Trading Company clutch, thrifted tribal earrings, ASOS open toe booties and black Target socks.

She's tiny compared to me, lol. Here are some of the abfab mannequins:

To entice attendees into a buying frenzy, there were free manis, makeovers by professional makeup artists and even hairstylists. I partook of a makeover by a wonderful soul named Matthew. I swear he reminds me of the YouTube “guru” Wayne Goss (GossMakeupArtist). Matthew took me from this…

To this…

I felt pretty damn glam when he was done. Matthew was a true sweetheart and I’m mos def going to keep in touch with him. here are the two of us together:

He resembles Wayne Goss (GossMakeupArtist from YouTube) right?

My homegirl Liesbeth also had a makeover:

My homegirl Nicold (blogger and up and coming Chi-Town accessories designer) had her nails madeover…

After my makeover, I made my way around the room snapping some shots of some snazzily dressed Chicago style hounds:

Jason (in the fur vest) and Bryan both work for the H&M reginal office. They stopped by TopShop to see the haps.

Brittannie (blue beanie and fab Marc Jacobs sneakers) and Bretagne look like Chi-Town style hound royalty.

Kaira(a contributing fashion editor for Design Bureau) was giving me everything in her almost totally vintage shopped 'fit. She's super duper fly!

Sarah (a fashion editor/stylist/fashion show producer) was werrrrrking! You probably can't see them, but her shoes were killing it! Awesome sauce! Her accessories were awe inspiring too...

 

After eating, drinking and seeing my fill of the first floor, I made my way to the lower level shoe haven. Wait until you see all the goo gobs of shoegasmic shoe porn this place has to offer! Wait for it…wait for it…

Want more?

I thought I’d pass out from the sheer awesomeness of it all! I want E V E R Y T H I N G ! ! !

After I just couldn’t take anymore, I made my way back upstairs to the first floor (I didn’t check out TopMan on the third floor) and snapped some shots of some of the accessories…

The jewelry looks like the fare at F21 (although F21is much much cheaper). The prices were too exorbitant IMO considering it’s costume and it'll eventually turn.

And the hit spinning DJ (she was dope)…

And shortly afterwards it was time to go. I hated to leave without spending a single penny, but I spent mucho dinero on Black Friday (post to come later). After being zipped back to the north side by my wonderful BFF, we decided to hang out at my other homegirl’s house and dish on the haps. And that my dears, is a wrap.

Is there a TopShop in your area? Have you been there or bought from the TopShop website? Let a sistah know!