Collegiate couture

I decided to take some artistic liberties and chose what college each pre-fall 2010 collection corresponds to...it's completely unrealistic that any college student would be wearing designer duds, but imagining is so much fun.
The feminine and elegant clothes of this collection could easily make its way into any fashion-savvy Vassar student's closet. The red lips are another nice touch that speak to Vassar's dramatic flair.

A paisely jumpsuit? Yes, it would indeed be Berkley student who would line up to purchase this look...if only it was made of recycled hemp instead of silk.

These clothes definitely have an urban minimalist vibe, and if you're student at U of Chicago the chances of having extraneous time to conjure up elaborate outfits would be limited, so Devi Kroell would be an excellent option.

The Chloé pre-fall just screams East coast preppiness, and what better a school than Princeton to find that nerdy sophistication? The jackets should have a minimum IQ requirement to avoid posers.

Young, fresh, and so L.A. ADAM's pre-fall collection could seamlessly weave its way into the Calfornian Occidental culture; too bad the bags are too small to hold textbooks.

The sunglasses, the too-cool-for-school looks, the bold fabric and color choices clearly belong in the city, New York City to be exact.
My absolute favorite pre-fall collection: Proenza Schouler can do no wrong. The clothes are trendy, yet preppy and translate perfectly for the senatorial internships of Georgetown students.

Airplane poetry

Last year four scared kids sat next to each other on a plane ride to Panama, the country they would be living in for the next six months or a year. They passed around my orange leather journal taking turns writing lines of poetry. What we got was experimental, at times cheesy, yet bursting with raw emotion. What we got was this:

The softness of the morning

echoes off the stark darkness of night.

Dreams rewind into reali life.

Remembering is like riding a

bike; you never forget

the stick aroma of nightmares

constrasting the bittersweet feeling

of good dreams ending.

Some dreams won't end soon

enough.

You wanted it to last forever, but

nothing lasts forever...so it's your nothing

your only escape from

your safe haven, your perfect insanity.

Mysteries are there forever

never to be answered or never

to be questioned

like the time capsule nestled deep

within your mind

that spreads thoughts of uncertainty,

of forgetting regrets,

remembering mistakes, unpaid debts.

The lights flicker, you're pitched into

the opaque.

Your only glimmer of hope is the shining

crescent moon.

Release your memories, your dreams;

don't regret, repent.

The shallow waters of joy never satisfy.

The hungers of sin are never sated, yet

the dark tip of guilt relaxes you,

takes you back to the impish pleasures

of childhood when

ignorance truly was bliss.

The innocence triumphs with a resounding cry.

Why must we battle the monsters

that impossibly exist?

We battle the parietal sanctuary

we live in, desperately seeking solace

in the caverns of those who wound us.

Snail mail

Before there was myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, G-mail, and cell phones there were letters. Imagine if in The Notebook Ally's mom had been deleting Noah's e-mails professing his love instead of confiscating his letters, how completely unromantic. In this era where it takes five seconds to write on someone's wall on Facebook and it instantaneously becomes available to them, letter writing seems tedious and unnecessary. Yet, the higher the number of unread e-mails I have in my inbox, the more I dread reading them. Contrarily, when I get a letter from a friend (not the bank mind you) I literally want to jump up and down. The tangibility of the letter, the time it took for someone to write it, the 44 cents they spent to send it holds an amount of meaning exponentially greater than that of an e-mail or Facebook message.


So I've decided to try my hardest to shun Facebook and alternatively turn to letter writing. I will try to post any especially noteworthy creations as all of the letters I send are in envelopes I make from recycled magazines. I like imagining the smiles a mere envelope can elicit from friends all over the world.

If dreams came true...

My hands down favorite dress from the Golden Globes. Chloe Sevigny and Maggie Gyllenhaal looked stunning as well, but Anna Paquin's gold Stella McCartney left me in modish shock. If only my prom dress could look like this...

Shades of grey

January classically has been a dull month, usually full of unmotivated students returning from the holiday break facing the monotony of schedules and homework. I find that my wardrobe choices often mirrors this mindset as well as the gloomy weather. When I first put this on I didn't even bother with the blue scarf and immediately my sister gave me the once over that alerted me that something was definitely missing from my ensemble. Why do we fear color during the winter months? Why must we confine color to specific times of the year? So in the midst of daunting school papers and finnicky weather color should be a necessity, not a sometimes treat. And like everyone else, I plead guilty to the shades of grey syndrome.

For minds cluttered with imagination

I am doing horribly with my resolution to have more outfit posts, nevertheless; they are coming! In the meantime, after many mindless hours scouring weheartit, tumblr, and vi.susualize.us I have found some gems. I find that beautiful photographs are often accidental. Often times I click five photos within ten seconds of one another and they are all completely different and unique. Anyways, I can only hope that these photos aren't just products of excellent photo editing, but rather those precious accidental moments of camera genius.

What do we stand for anymore?

A long time ago, youth culture and rebellion meant something. There was a cause. In the sixties and the seventies people protested against the war; the clothing connected with the hippies symbolized their belonging to a certain cultural group. In the summer of 1967 over 100,000 people flocked to the San Francisco area to celebrate the cultural and political revolution that had they, the youth population, had begun. Celebrating the freedom of youth, hippies created an unprecedented cultural phenomenon.

Nowadays American youth sit locked in their bedrooms spending mindless hours on Facebook and texting. Everything is hand-fed to us and no one appreciates any of it; we really are the 'teacup' generation. Political activism is no longer for the hipsters, but for the debate geeks. Fashion itself is an entire new culture thanks to online blogging and sites like Lookbook.nu.

It may just be that I feel guilty (guilty!) writing and blogging about fashion when people in Haiti struggle to find a clean water source. But this is a call to arms for the fashion world, an encouragement to make fashion the vessel through which you promote your cause. Because without a cause, what do we stand for anymore?

Sleep is for the weak

Urban Outfitters top, F21 dress, Jeffrey Campbell boots, vintage tights and ring, H&M flower

The dean of students recently made an announcement to my school body that you need 9.25 hours of sleep a night for your brain to function at its highest potential. I rarely, if ever, get that much sleep. This fun little fact made me wonder what would happen if I started to make a concerted effort to sleep more and tinker less. Would I get better grades? Would I make better decisions? Probably not. As I read the Twilight books the one thing that stuck with me the most was the jealousy I felt for the vampires who never had to sleep. Yet, the amount of time I spend sleeping isn't wasted time at all. Sometimes, dreams can be the most inspiring media. Other times you go to bed with that one lingering question and in the morning you know the answer. While I will never commit to sleeping 9.25 hours a night, I can recognize that, whether I like it or not, some of the best things happen while sleeping.

The daily inspirational

This photo is too amazing not to share.

Some songs to make your January that much better...

Cousins - Vampire Weekend

How Lucky We Are - Meiko

Audience - Cold War Kids

Fried My Little Brains - The Kills

Electric Twist - A Fine Frenzy

Juicebox - The Strokes

The General Specific - Band of Horses

I and Love and You -The Avett Brothers

Sometime Around Midnight - The Airborne Toxic Event

Pushing Oars - Whispertown 2000

Messages - Xavier Rudd

Natural Disaster - Andrew Bird

I've rediscovered how much I love the sound of acoustic guitar. I can sit at my computer listening to my iTunes and feel like there is someone sitting next to me playing the guitar. Okay, that's a little exaggerated, but on rainy nights nothing seems homier than the sound of acoustic guitar.

How ugly must it be to be pretty?

The hat I am wearing in this photo is ugly. It may seem awkwardly blunt to say, but I don't don the hat thinking 'what a beautiful accessory this is' or 'this really highlights my hair color.' In the airport a couple of days ago I was reading about how these hats are one of the ugliest trends right now and that they flatter virtually no one. That being said, I like the challenge of pulling one off, even if it is ugly.

For your information

One of my style icons, Twiggy

Since I have spent hours upon hours in the past few months on college applications and unfortunately significantly less time on my blog, I thought I would share one of my essays that really explicates the purposes of my blog. Like regifting, I normally frown upon 'rewriting', but this time it is just too perfect. I hope you like it...

The film director Sofia Coppola said “you’re considered superficial and silly if you’re interested in fashion, but I think you can be substantial and still be interested in frivolity.” I completely agree with her. Regardless of whether it makes me superficial, I am obsessed with aesthetics, particularly fashion. After I returned home from spending a semester abroad in Panamá someone asked my father if I had changed and he responded by saying “Well, she still cares about fashion.” This comment surprised me; I knew I had indeed changed, but I also knew that my anticipation for picking out tomorrow’s outfit would never dissipate. My unique personal style is a crucial part of who I am, in fact I wouldn’t be Stephanie Roush without it. While most of my friends wear Lululemon sweats and American Apparel hoodies to school everyday, I wear a smorgasbord of ridiculous, pretty, and glamorous outfits because, well, I can. Sometimes I wish I could let my clothes do the talking for me, but I cannot suppress the need to express myself literarily as well. Last year, in an attempt to channel my enthusiasm and passion for style, I created a blog. When faced with hours of homework, long sports practices, and drama rehearsals, I use my blog as a creative outlet through which I can express myself as well as have fun writing about something I love. While many people in the fashion industry are deeply superficial, I am not. To me, style doesn’t mean donning designer jeans or wearing $500 shoes; fashion is most fun when an eclectic combination of thrift store finds and items found in my mother’s closet can become something fabulous. Wearing a pink silk tulip skirt and a leopard sweater with chunky suede heels accented with a zipper I must try twice as hard to prove that caring about what I wear doesn’t make me a less intelligent or substantial person, it just makes me a more interesting one.

Twist and shout

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. Here is a sampling of my outfit for new year's eve. The lady at the organic grocery store in southern California told me I looked like a princess; I was pretty happy about it. Albeit, I was a little disappointed in myself for not wearing any sequins or sparkles or glitter. The bracelet I'm wearing here (which you can barely see in this photo) currently has me under its spell. Goal for 2010: more outfit posts.