Why Not Do a Little Dazzle?

After a lot of inspirational posts from many a lovely blogger, my senses have now turned to the thought of not being afraid to sparkle. Or at least letting your clothes sparkle. In my Spring fashion review for VOX, I noted sequins and many other glitzy accessories were runway staples. So I thought, why not practice what I preach?
Take a look at these glammed-up editorials. Whether it's a subtle accessory, or the outfit itself, each look inspires dazzle.


from Vogue China

from Flair Magazine



From Dazed&Confused

from Zink Magazine

from Volt Magazine

Let's not forget about the addiction-worthy Balmain!




This last dress makes me wish I was a ballerina

These photos from style.com

While we're on the topic of lovely, shiny things, I stumbled across this contest. A director from the LuShae Jewelry site told me that "The competition is drawn every month and there are no limitations on the number of entries or how long you can remain entered..." The odds seem pretty fair. Why not frost yourself for free? (technically by winning)...

Inspired to Ice yourself yet? ;)
xoxo Mo

Take Me Away...

Though this editorial is a bit old, every time I look at it, I'm inspired to become more of a globetrotter than a jet setter. I'm talking about "Spirited Away", an editorial in Marie Claire's November 2007 featuring Kate Walsh. Though I've always thought of the magazine as a "softer" type of high-fashion magazine, I was really blown away by the inspiring styles, yet thoughtful-almost intellectual locations. I guess you could call it "smart fashion."

"Today’s young traveler takes the high road," it reads. "Forgoing waves in Malibu for enlightenment in Bhutan. Her style? A global mix of luxe fabrics and timeless patterns."





I think this one is my favorite.
















How about you? Loving it or hating it? Bored or inspired?

xoxo Mo

For details and image sourcing, go to MarieClaire.com

I've Been Tagged!

(yes random...but these are a few of my favorite things...it's my new desktop :)

I’ve been tagged by awesome Esther from Rhapsody in Boots


What is your current obsession?
Black and white photography, Short Filmmaking (like fashion commercials- Bruno Aveillan is incredible!), Pop Art , Collages, Europe travel and Art History


What is your weirdest obsession?
I’m in love with the moon, and I’m falling for dark fantasy. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that…

What are you wearing today?
Just getting over the stomach flu, so I’m pretty lazy in jeans and a white t-shirt that says “when I said I liked you, I was “Lion” (with a picture of a lion, cheesy but it works )

What’s for dinner today?
Hmm… food right now makes my stomach bubble so I’ve been getting through the day with two granny smith apples and a handful of grapes, maybe I’ll attempt pizza.

Why is today special?
Because I’m alive and sore from yoga and kickboxing with my editors yesterday…somehow that’s significant. It’s also Thursday of my Spring Break and tomorrow, I get to job-shadow the associate editor of a magazine in Atlanta…super excited!

What would you like to learn to do?
Play piano and guitar because I write songs but have no singing skills. And learn to rock Photoshop.

What’s the last thing you bought?
A ticket for the train -in Atlanta, it’s called ‘MARTA’ but everywhere else it’s the Metro, I go downtown a lot because I write for a teen newspaper called VOX and my parents refuse to drive to the city 3 times a week in Atlanta traffic

What are you listening to right now?
My baby sister cry, she thinks someone ate her cookies but she already ate them. But otherwise “Faith” by Bittersweet, it’s so sultry

What is your favorite weather?
Thunderstorms! They help me think, lazy rainy weather…the occasional sunny day. Funny enough, I was born in Nigeria in the middle of May but I’m not that fond of the sun. Go figure.

What is your most challenging goal right now?
Similar to Esther’s, deciding exactly what I want to do. I love writing but I’m afraid if I become an editor for a magazine (my most likely choice), I can’t do photography for other ones, plus I also want to produce films, possibly work in PR. My definite industries are fashion, media &communications, but can barely narrow it down from there. Also, finding an agency before I turn 16 on May 12, time is flying and I haven't actually started searching

What do you think about the person who tagged you?
She’s very funny; Esther’s got amazing style, taste and an equally incredible personality,. (and also my little cousin’s and my grandmother’s name :) Bloggers are the best!

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
London or SoHo, New York

What would you like to have in your hands right now?
A letter from Anna Wintour saying that she thinks I’d be an awesome addition to the Vogue family and should move to NYC instantly….a girl can dream, no?

What would you like to get rid of?
The SATs and other standardized tests, I ‘m a sophomore so I don’t have to take too many yet, but I could live without them. 3 inches off my waist wouldn’t hurt either, I’m so close to a size two and there’s a dress I’d like to wear for an upcoming wedding…

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Hmm…The Met or the New York Public Library… I love libraries and art museums!

Which language do you want to learn?
Yoruba (my native tongue that I’ve never learned to speak), French, Italian, [Brazilian] Portuguese and German so I can better understand Tokio Hotel

What did you dream of last night?
It was a virtually sleepless night, but I think I drifted away and my whole school came down with the stomach flu, we all suffered and recovered together. How’s that for school spirit?

Who do you want to meet in person?
The list is endless... Jesus Christ, probably Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld- generally all the editors of Vogue, Cory Kennedy- she has this effortless ‘cool’ I admire

What’s your favorite type of music?
That changes, it’s more like favorite artists…I like Tokio Hotel, Simple Plan, Lil Wayne, MIA, Bittersweet, Frank Sinatra, The Veronicas and from my childish days- Chris Brown and Rihanna. I’m always on the lookout for new music/artists since I can rarely make up my mind to what I really like

What’s the favorite piece of clothing in your own closet?
Grey skinny jeans and my black leather jacket, it was love at first wear…

What is your dream job?
Fashion editor, photographer, director, writer, possibly a model, PR

Any favorite photographers?
Definitely Newton and Penn, Demarchelier, Meisel and Testino are incredible. But as of recent I seriously adore Cameron Krone and James Mountford. Black and white is my obsession, and I’ve followed their work since reading about them on Pony Ryder

If you had £100 now what would you spend it on?
A day at Starbucks, my mum won’t let me have coffee anymore and subscriptions to British and French Vogue, Dazed and Confused

Fashion pet peeve?
Not dressing for your size…if it’s that small for you and you can’t figure out how to make it work (lol Tim Gunn moment), let it go

Do you admire anyone’s style?
Practically everyone on lookbook.nu  the style there is endless, Carine Roitfeld, Coco Rocha (the model-off-duty look is my fave.), Rihanna, Kate Moss, Zoe Kravitz, the Olsen Twins (sometimes), Rumi Neely from Fashion Toast, Pharell Williams (love skater boys!) there’s many more I just can’t think of at the moment

Describe your personal style
As you can see in the previous post, it changes with my mood. Some days I’m all emo-cool and wearing black, others when I’m lazy: a pair of frayed shorts, an oversized shirt or tank a la Alexander Wang, chunky heels or slouchy boots and thigh high socks, occasionally I get all ‘Devil Wears Prada’ and pretend like I just came straight out of the Sartorialist during fashion week… yeah. I can’t really choose one


Okay, here's the rules:

1. Respond and rework: answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.

2. Tag eight other people.
I'm doing nine :)
My lovely victims: (cough) oops I mean the bloggers I'll tag:

La Couturier
Daphne
Kandace
Ida
Ryder
Hanna of Little Miss Dress Up
Rosanna of Little Miss Dress Up
Pretty Neons
Dawn

The Life of a Male Model

(from elq-magazine.blogspot.com)
"Sometimes I'll see another model on the street and we will nod 'hey' to each other. It's like a club." I want to join! Lol
- male model Petey Wright from Ford

In New York Magazine's article,
"Petey and the Boys:
The wandering days and bunk-bed nights of Fashion Week’s handsome rookies"

I read about the life of a male model. I never realized how expensive modeling is, (for both sexes)

Excerpts:

"Financially speaking, male modeling is not unlike being a straight-male porn star: The men have always made less than the women, and very few become big names. For most magazine work, models are paid less than $250. Twenty percent of that goes to the agency, which also bills models for their board and expenses. “Sometimes you get charged for things you never thought of,” says Petey, “like $30 a month to be on the website.”

Almost all of the male models I meet seem straight. “Gay models will go down in history as the biggest misconception about the male modeling world,” says Ferguson.

But being straight doesn’t seem to make any difference backstage, where the female models are avoiding the male models like at recess in elementary school. The women are preened over by stylists, surrounded by fashion reporters, while the guys just hang around and smoke. Maybe it’s the discrepancy in income and age—the girls all seem to be highly paid 15-year-olds. “They seem, I don’t know, really serious,” says AJ.

Ford maintains two male-model apartments—one in Greenpoint and one in a high-rise in Chinatown—but agencies have them all over the city. In the Greenpoint apartment, there are five bedrooms, each with at least two sets of bunk beds, plus a central room with a large kitchen and living room that contains a Chuck Norris–style exercise machine. A model named Will Anderson found the place and persuaded Ford to let him be the super and manager. At 36 years old, he is like the stern Mrs. Garrett in the house. He has lived in model apartments for ten years now, and in 2006 he self-published a coffee-table photo book called Apt. 301, a collection of his snapshots of sexy boy models sleeping, eating, and horsing around in messy rooms and rumpled sheets."


He sounds a little weary, and lonely. “You get up and get on a plane, go through customs alone, your cell phone doesn’t work, you don’t talk to your friends. I’m in a weird state right now. I’m not sure what I really want.”

He’d mostly prefer to stay in Nashville, especially now that he’s trying to rekindle things with Sally.

But his agents are urging him to get back to New York, fast. “They told me it’s a vital time in my career,” he says. Vman and Ford just announced the winners of the second-annual Model Search, and the model apartments will soon be filled with a new crop of pretty faces. Last year’s boys will have to hustle. "
Ouch

___________
But Petey's cute, and he looks like he'll last. I really do hope he's successful.


(photos found on Google)

XOXO
-Mo

Reflections of a Wonderul Night

Lovefool - Cardigans Lovefool at school



In VOX's latest issue, I wrote 3 articles. One is like me trying to be the Sartorialist found here
The second was an artist spotlight of Tokio Hotel found here
_________________________
And the third was about my first photo shoot in November. It's my favorite. Found here excerpts...

"I have always dreamed of being on a professional photo shoot because of my love for magazine editorials and curiosity to see how they’re put together. So, when Atlanta Magazine partnered with VOX for a high school-themed spread in its current issue, I took advantage of the opportunity. It was a dream come true. Along with me, 26 other VOX writers gave the magazine an insider’s look at what it’s like to be in high school today. In addition to writing, we also got a little taste of the model’s life. We got our makeup professionally done, hair styled and wardrobe readied for the glossy pages."
________________________________
A little tap of foundation, a brush of blush and a smooth dab of lipstick later, I was ready for my shoot.

"You know, Alex, she's a fashion girl," one of the assistants told the photographer. He looked at me with an Oh really? expression.
"Who's your favorite designer?" he asked, snapping a test shot of me.
"John Galliano!" I replied, hoping the picture would come out nice. I loved the small talk because it showed me the crew wanted to have fun like I did.
"I realized that everything was near perfect for me when “Lovefool” by The Cardigans came on. It was the song I always pictured playing at my first photo shoot. It was all too surreal. Nervous excitement sent chills down my spine when it hit me that this shoot was indeed real.
Before I knew it, the photographer was clicking away. Tyra always says smile with your eyes. Chanel Iman says turn this way to catch the light. Coco Rocha says to make sure your eyes don’t have shadows. I thought of some of my favorite models’ advice. I combined their words with the photographer’s directions, tried my CoverGirl smile and used my best angles to strike perfect poses.
“Yes, right there, hold it,” Alex said.

At first, I was nervous as he moved closer with the camera, but soon it was as easy as strolling through a park. More and more, I held gaze with the lens and pretended it was my best friend. Closer and closer the camera came, the lights flashed, and I twisted, turned, smiled and did what I’d watched great models like Jessica Stam and Sasha Pivovarova do.

I observed that the photographer was nothing like photographers are portrayed in the movies (like I hoped). There was none of that, "Yes, yes, you're fierce! You're a tiger! You're a lion — roar, darling, roar!" like we see in "America's Next Top Model," which paints a limited picture of the modeling world. Alex was straightforward but fun. Though I could see his serious passion for photography when I noticed his focus with the camera, I also walked away feeling like he wanted us to enjoy the shoot. Every couple of seconds on the set, we'd all burst out into laughter because the photographer made a joke or did a funny movement to make us VOXers feel comfortable. He wanted the perfect shot, and hopefully, we gave it to him.

Taking part in this photo shoot gave me a peek into modeling and the fast-paced fashion editorial world. The wonderful thrill I felt from the crew’s vibrant energy and flashing lights and from being in front of the lens made the experience an unforgettable one that I’d happily go through again."
____________________

I can't even find the final photo online, lol
The actual article I wrote for Atlanta Magazine is here

This was my outfit, from my closet

A black suit blazer, a blue ruffled blouse with sliver stripes, a silver belt and a pair of black boots

Some random behind the scenes pics...



the empty set


Doing that shoot was probably one of the best moments of my life...
A very satisfied girl...

Vogue September 2008

(I actually am not a big fan of this cover though, the outfit doesn't work for me, I prefer this one) .

In my 15 years of life, the best 5 dollars I’ve ever spent went to American Vogue’s fall fashion September 2008 issue. “798 pages of brilliant fall fashion” is a wonderful and precise description of the mag, seeing as how it was bigger than some of my textbooks. I loved the editorials; my favorite being Sasha Pivovarova’s Alexander McQueen spread (I heart Sasha!!!!!) and Caroline Trentini’s graceful poses with the Billy Elliot boys. But of course, I can’t forget what made up at least half of the issue and what I truly study, the ADS!!!!!!!!