What's that jacket, Margiela?

 

I present to you the trinity of "Most Played" on my iTunes.

swag = intrinsic talent + personal style + a sick tailor

Being a huge fan of the understated and anti-flashy, I'm loving the current adherence to simple, well-cut, and high quality trends of men's fashion in hip-hop.

Can't stop won't stop.

ありがとうございます。

I skimmed through a documentary on Haruki Murakami and the narrator said something along the lines of, "something in your brain changes when you read your first Murakami novel". I enthusiastically agree. I've read 4 of his novels in the past 2 months or so and I can't get enough - I unashamedly scoured the New York Public Library catalog and placed holds on the rest of his works. 

He is aesthetically the best modern writer in our world. Ugh so good: his concise, subtlety eerie, and detached style combined with ever-present existentialist themes. His novels make me want to learn Japanese to fluency, so I can reread them in their original expression. He approaches his native culture with such reverence that I want to visit Japan again and explore the country with a different perspective (read: non-dumb-dumb-tourist). 

I could do without the weird sexual references, for sure. Other than that, he blows my mind. 

Dior Spring 2011

Once I realized and respected fashion design as an art form, I began appreciating its timelessness regardless of the season. This Dior collection still continues to inspire me. It's haunting yet playful, outlandish yet ladylike. The saturation and gradient of color is absolutely gorgeous.

    
-images from style.com-

Kelly Cutrone is kinda badass

This book kinda changed my life. Or it contributed to and catalyzed my move to Manhattan as well as my career pursuit of fashion. It's not particularly eloquent or stylistic, but Cutrone's life is pretty freakin' amazing. She's one of those free spirits that managed to live up her youth and work her way up the corporate ladder simultaneously. While I definitely couldn't handle or desire her exact experiences, it was eye-opening. A strong testament to human will. 

I remember reading my library copy while I was volunteering in an hospital ER last year, as I did every Sunday evening so I could add yet another pretty line or two on my medical school applications. Huh.

Beyond learning about the fashion industry, I realized, and still continue to realize, that everyone has a story. Everyone has overcome terrible tragedies and achieved wonderful happiness throughout their narratives - learning to respect and love people regardless of their history is pretty much the essence of growing up.

She also wears only black, which is slowly becoming my thing, too.

these are a few (if not all) of my favorite things

I'm not the biggest fan of sitting in front of a screen and passively absorbing information. It rots your brain (prototypical Debbie Downer here) and I'd rather read.

But this. This. I will spend $15 on a movie ticket and sit in an overcrowded movie theater for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Baz Luhrmann. Arguably the best American novel + my favorite director? Yes please. Leonardo DiCaprio is icing on the cake. The fact that the trailer opens with "No Church In The Wild" is the light dusting of crack* and 24 karat gold leaf.

*I have never done drugs. Crack is indeed, wack. But rainbow sprinkles weren't going to get my message across.

I do realize this isn't coming out until Christmas Day. I've been waiting since fall of last year. I sound/am neurotic.