Getting Started in Fashion + Taking Shortcuts When Necessary: Amuze.com

As crazy and mindblowing as LA is, it keeps trying to set me up to lead a lifestyle that I can't really afford yet. People wear Yohji Yamamoto like sweats and spend $45+ on (unpasteurized!!! think of your health!!!) juice but I'm still counting out quarters to see when I can do a load of laundry. I've seen some casual, meet up for a cup of coffee to go over work, snack bills that reached into the triple digits.

The reality of working in fashion is this: you're not going to make a lot of money until you've earned your (hopefully well-coordinated and seasonally appropriate) stripes. In the meantime, you put in hard work, meet as many people as you can, learn to accept favors gracefully... and never pass up a discount. 

When I was intro'd to Amuze.com, I clicked around the site with progressively wider and wider anime eyes. The discount is strong with this one, you guys. It's a member's-only, flash sale website, a familiar concept at this point, but the difference is they have serious designer pieces -- not names that you haven't heard of but the price point makes you wonder if you should -- but names that you definitely know (and if not we can't be friends. sry.) Gucci. Valentino. Jimmy Choo. Saint Laurent. Amuze.com means serious business. 

Exhibit A: the perfect summer shoe, Leather & Polka Dot Wedge Sandal by Red Valentino, originally $425, now $90, on Amuze. 

Go check it out & don't forget to tell me what you score!

Mid-Week Pick Up

Congrats, you've made it through most of the week! I did it via tooth and nail, but I hear there's some seriously wonky business going on in the universe so if you struggled too, give yourself a pass. 

Here's some mid-week motivation delivered in overly optimistic, supaa kawaiii packages. I'm an eternal pessimist, but the cute things always get to me. 

Art by Chibird!

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VAMPS Halloween Party 2013

I love it when two of my favorite things come together in perfect harmony -- like good makeup products for cheap, adorable monsters, or black & white. This round of yin-yang swirled lollipop perfection is.... JAPANESE STREET FASHION + HALLOWEEN.

There's this Japanese rockstar dude named Hyde (if you've spent more than five minutes watching anime in your life, you probably have heard of him) that puts on huge Halloween parties because he's a Japanese rockstar and Halloween is the best, and why not? Seems pretty straightforward to me. The party attendees get together their best looks, amp it up with a spooky twist, then serve it on a silver platter of fierceness to their rock god.

The good people at Tokyo Fashion caught street snaps of the parties for the last two years, and I've picked out my favorites. Maybe they'll give you some inspiration for your own looks!

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YOU KNOW YOU LIVE IN HOLLYWOOD WHEN ....

..... your very first project gets axed.

It gets metaphorically packed up and driven away in a truck like this picture.

I've talked to so many people who tell me stories like, "I played lead against David Spade in an pilot episode for Fox," or, "We spent six hours getting into wardrobe and makeup for the battle scene!" I get excited and ask, "cool, what show was that??" and they sort of eyeball the ground, shrug and say, "oh, well, it didn't get picked up," "they cut that scene out of the movie," or "it was never released."

So it happens. A lot.

LA River: once Hilary Duff landed a spaceship here?

I spent a day hanging out by the LA river after answering a casting call to be a "bad kid" in a music video for an upcoming musician. There were about ten of us in the bad kid family pack, and together we roamed under bridges, into tunnels, and across train tracks. We swung weaponry we found on playgrounds or stole out of sheds and generally did our best to look fierce at all times.

The crew was legit. There were cookies.

I was faceless until the nice artist painted it on.

To be fair, the production had a quality of Doomed From the Start about it: we were kicked out of places due to lack of appropriate filming permits, nearly became felons by hanging out on train tracks, and all wore lingering expressions of, "wait, what are we supposed to be doing now?" 

Most of the bad kids, looking fierce even before getting makeup/hair done.

I did a lot of dancing, fist pumping, weapon banging, and dirt kicking that I presume looked awesome on camera (how could it not) but shall never see the light of a public screen. A few weeks after we filmed, I saw the artist at an event, bounced over happily to ask on the status of the music video, and was handed the bad news instead: they were going to reshoot it. Everything we shot had been cut.

Our director is definitely going to hit the A-list some day. You can tell by the way that he points.

Why was it cut? Creative differences. It's always creative differences. 

Cue my sadface. Regardless, I got to hang out with really neat crew members, get makeup did, dance around silly, and visit some parts of Los Angeles that most people don't get to see. (Because they're not legal.)

Note that I was also having the best. hair day. ever.

Here's a still from the never-before-seen, never-to-be-seen music video, and here's hoping that none of my other projects get cut, right?!

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Interlude

Back home. I stomped all over the Garment District in Los Angeles and feel a bit like I got stomped over myself, but I made some KILLER clothing finds. For now, ciao until I have more energy for words!

Sky Ferreira, Bu$y Dayz, & Pageants

I haven't been this excited since Lana Del Rey was featured in H&M's winter campaign last year. For the festival season, Forever 21 has snagged Sky Ferreira as the face of the 2013 Festival Capsule Collection. I love this girl's music, her style, her take on glamour-grunge. The bright colors and prints are a change of pace from her usual style (and mine) but I'm not hating it.

I have a few favorite pieces from the collection (that launches in stores TODAY) like this studded denim baseball cap, bull skull muscle tee, and my most coveted piece -- the studded linen jacket.

You can browse the whole collection here, or just click to see Sky being fierce. Either way.

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I was asked to be a guest judge for the 2013 Miss Teen Salt Lake City pageant, so I'm headed off to do personal interviews in a few hours. After that I get to wind down and see Anjelah Johnson, of hilarious nail salon fame. Excited.