What I love about my job is constantly finding myself in the intersections of music, art, and fashion. As demonstrated by our recent feature with street wear fashion site Karmaloop TV, worlds have beautifully collided once again! Oh, and um. You can also check for the secret history of iLL-Literacy, as divulged by Drizzle Mania, who has bravely revealed our impending childhood stories of how iLL-literacy really started.
Finally. After all this mention of Alexander Wang (cool asian! it brings life to my heart!), I finally bring you…
One of my favorite designers, Alexander Wang’s work first caught my eye while browsing through a magazine and fell in love with the effortless, urban chic, laid back look of his line. I love his spin on everyday wear, a mixture of layers, menswear pieces paired with basics, a touch of gritty imperfection, and a cool downtown-edge.
Alexander comes from San Francisco, CA, and moved to NYC at age 18 to attend Parsons School of Design. By his sophomore year, he began designing his own line, which he debuted in 2006. Dubbed a prodigy by many fashion sites, 24-year old Alexander Wang is one of the youngest (and brilliant) new designers on the scene.
fashionista in training :: streamlining my winter look
As I brainstorm my winter pallette with my fashionista bestie Tezzy, I always insist that it is always less about fashion and more about style. My philosophy? It’s easy to make a $1,000 Prada sweater look good, but it takes some real flavor and style prowess to make a $7 thrift store find look FLY. Don’t get me wrong, one day, I will definitely be rockin the hell out of a Prada sweater, but for now, I’m testing my “fashionista-in-training” skills by putting together looks that combine thrift store finds, old clothes styled new again, and some new key pieces (ie. accessories, givenchy inspired necklaces, Cosby Sweateres, UNIQLO jeans, and chunky booties/sandals that btw, I need in my life- PRONTO.)
Here are some looks I emailed to Tezzy this morning, to help me streamline my winter look. The look consists of basic pieces with distinct detail (ie. black leggings that have texture; maybe even black lame’ or leatherish- very alexander wang a la fall/winter 08 collection http://www.alexanderwang.com/).
first 3 images via Chictopia.Com fashion site, via Patricia, who put me on to it (thank you Patty!), and the fourth one, with the 80s geometric print, is via SHOP NASTY Gal, a vintage online store that Papalodown put me on to.
My girls at MADE are starting the holiday sales early…a whopping 40% off!??! Blud…get yours! And as you should also know…Miss Universeis available on the site as well!
Besides the fact, that he is one cool asian fellow (I heart cool asians), Jeff Chang is an overall amazing superhuman.
Jeff Chang is an author, hip-hop historian, journalist, and American Book Award Winner for his 2005 book, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop”, a work that chronicles early hip-hop history. He is so gangster, in fact, that he recently won the “2008 USA Ford Fellow in Literature by United States Artists, a national arts advocacy organization that invests in America’s artists and illuminates the value of artists to society”. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including VIBE Magazine, The Village Voice, URB, and The San Francisco Bay Guardian.
I’m still awed and astounded. Riding with the momentum, still soaking in the buoyancy this election has instilled in me. Sure, the elections have been over for weeks now, and perhaps I can now be qualified under the “elections withdrawal syndrome”, but I still can’t stop watching my president. MY president (!). This is the first time I have ever claimed, have ever been personally invested, have ever cared enough about a politician to attached the word “my” in front of their title.
Dare I say, for the first time, I’m proud to be an American.
More than ever, hope has been thriving within me since Barack Obama became our country’s 44th president. His tenets of hope and change are not only applicable to the greater scope of this country and the world as a whole, but resonates deep in me, echoed in my own personal struggles and in my own quest for liberation. (more…)
