Festival Fashion: The Perfect Dress

Ever since I heard about the lineup for the Sasquatch Music Festival, I have been planning my outfits for the fest. Seriously. It's not until the end of May, but I'm already trying to figure out what I'm going to wear on those four days. And since SXSW is happening this week and Coachella is next month, I thought I'd start my festival fashion series now so anyone else can start getting ideas.

I've been scouring web boutiques for maxi dresses under $50, and to be honest it's been quite hard to find something that will work for me. I'll explain in a minute. Here are a few that I've been ogling at the last couple of days from favourite online shops Karmaloop and Nastygal.

The two dresses on top are gorgeous (and both on sale on Nastygal), but the sizing is iffy on that website. I'm a 38DD in bra size, and a size 10 in pants and dresses, so neither of these at a size 8 would work. Sigh.

 

These next two would probably be a lot easier to fit because of the naturally loose fit, but the one main problem here is that I can't wear a bra with them. I ain't that confident to walk around Sasquatch with my sweater puppies bouncing all around. Sigh.

 

There is one on Karmaloop that I might give in after my next paycheck and get if there's a coupon code that I can use. I've said this before - I'm cheap.

Why have I been looking for a maxi dress specifically? Well, I hate my legs when they're bare. I have eczema all over my calves and they make me self conscious, so I don't rock short dresses without tights very much. Urban Outfitters has a whole festival fashion lookbook right now on their site that I've been drooling over.

I've been especially loving the flower headwrap look, and it will definitely go with my hair once I get this red out of it and I'm back to my natural dirty blonde and my bangs grow out a bit. I'm bored with this hair so much.

There are a couple of pieces that I have already for the festival - a rather ugly collared maxi dress I got from the Goodwill today that is too small for me to button up, but I'll wear it as a duster vest. And I got a fringe mesh (yeah both of them) tank from H&M. At some point I'll be doing an outfit post with these, hence the "part 1" at the beginning of this post.

But there are a couple of pieces that I've got my eye on from Ebay. This one in particular I LOVE. It's not a maxi dress by any means, but the pattern is so vibrant that it would detract any sort of attention from the red splotches on my calves. Plus it looks uber comfy. 

This whole shop Meat Market, on Ebay, is amazing. I'm also watching a pair of Dolce Vita heels from their shop as well.

I've never shopped on Ebay before besides one of my camera lenses, but I might have to look more, because I've found that the prices are cheaper than Etsy.

One last thing that I'm excited to add to my festival gear is this tank I just ordered today (when I say festival gear, I basically mean summer, I'll be dressing for Sasquatch all summer to be honest).

I've literally been looking for a tank top like this for months, and I finally found one on Nastygal for not an obscene amount of money, and it will look super cute with a pair of jeans and wedges for days when I'm not running up and down dusty hills with a giant camera.

Once I have found the perfect maxi dress (that's relatively cheap), hopefully I'll have more planned out for the fest and I can do a part 2!

Best wishes!
-Abby

Gettin' Thrifty With It: Pretty Peplum

Sarah and I had been dying to shoot down at the Spanish Steps by the old Elks Temple, and when we got there, we found this old decrepit white wall at the end of the building, so we decided to shoot there. It was a beautiful day - cold as all hell - but beautiful and sunny just the same. Also, my hair was kind of wonky.

These shoes are the newest addition to my collection, so I was incredibly excited to shoot them with an outfit. They are called the Florence Shoe, and they're by Matiko. Also, they were originally $175. Guess how much I got them off Karmaloop? $32. Can you say great deal? I love finding great sales online, and I don't think I've actually ever bought a pair of shoes online at full price. If I can hold out for a quality pair of shoes when they're 50% off rather than buying 10 pairs of shoes from F21 that will fall apart, I'll take the sale any day. These heels definitely take some getting used to walking in, but they are relatively comfortable for how tall they are because of the small platform.

 I like to think of this as my "office" outfit, even though I haven't worked in an office since I was the editor of my college paper, and even then our version of an office was microwave popcorn at 11 p.m. on a Friday.

Wishful Thinking: January

1. UNIF Abbey Skirt - Dolls Kill // 2. Matiko The Florence - Miss KL // 3. Clover Joyed Dress - Modcloth // 

4. Makeup Forever Aqua Rouge - Sephora // 5. MINKPINK Jazz Club Legging - Urban Outfitters

I thought about doing a monthly wish list for things that I've been particularly ogling over on the many online boutiques that I browse on the daily. 

Seriously, it's getting to be unhealthy.

This month there really isn't any rhyme or reason to the products that I have my eyes on (these posts definitely don't meant that they will all be mine). I saw Rachel make a video recently about the Makeup Forever Aqua Rouge, and I have been looking for a kiss-proof lipstick lately, so I might have to drop by Sephora one of these days to check out the colors.

Also, I just have to say that MINKPINK is definitely one of my favourite new brands. I find myself wanting to buy all the things, either at Karmaloop or Urban Outfitters. It's bad for my bank account.

Speaking of bank account, I'm trying to fund my whole way to Vidcon this year, so if you are in need of a wedding photographer (I charge no more than $1000), a baby photographer, a concert photographer, or just general portraits, shoot me a line and we'll get something set up.

Don't forget to check out Sarah's blog Lady Go Lightly Vintage! She just posted an all-thrifted look that we shot yesterday. We decided to do a thrifted theme for the shoot this week. I like that theme. I need to try some new thrift stores, by the way. Anyone got any great ones in Tacoma or Seattle?

Best wishes!

-Abby

Frankenstein Shoes

When I first bought these shoes on Black Friday, I'd been wanting a pair of stand out shoes for awhile, and like I said in my last post - I can't really do the whole Lita thing, because I would even more giant than I already am. But after a friend of mine from YouTube bought her Creepers, I fell in love with them. They reminded me of like 80s punk rock and sca bands. I don't know why. And now that I look at them in photos, they don't look as "mondo" as the title suggests. 

When I first put them on, my mom said they looked like "Frankenstein shoes." I can't say I disagree, but a really fashion forward Frankenstein.

 

It was raining that day when Sarah and I were shooting, so we were in and out of her little dollhouse, but thankfully I was wearing a damn rain coat anyway.

 

The coat is John Rocha from Debenhams, but funnily enough I found it at the Goodwill in Bellingham. Someone had put a seam through the sleeves to make the wrist opening smaller, but I took a seam ripper to them to loosen them up.

The vest is Cabela's, but I can assure you that it hasn't seen any elk or pheasant deaths. At least I don't think so. I "borrowed" it from my sister's closet, but we do that a lot.