Hufflepuff x Grotto NYFW Launch Party

With only two days left until New York Fashion Week officially begins (as well as Fashion Month as a whole), the entire city is alight with fashion talk, kick-off parties, and lots of models. ...If you can 'alight' something with skinny people. The first of many events I'm going to be attending in the next week or so--that wasn't intended to sound so pretentious, I swear--was last night, the Grotto NYFW Launch Party. I'm still not quite sure why I was invited, but I was über pumped when I was, of course. Firstly because it was a fashion week party, and secondly because Anya from Project Runway was debuting her Spring 2013 collection there. Hell yeah. 

I got myself all dolled up for the occasion...only to stand in line in the rain for about forty-five minutes. I got inside eventually--after seeing and briefly conversing with several Project Runway veterans, one of whom invited me to their runway show next week--and stayed for about twenty minutes speaking to a lovely couple from New Zealand. By the time I got inside, Anya's show was over. Mondo bummer. (That was a Project Runway pun right there!) It was at the Norwood Club in Chelsea, which is really just a freaking fancy townhouse with bars on every floor. It was very much intended for adults. And then there was me. 

I took some pictures of what I wore once I got home, painfully slipping back into my heels for the photos. Only for you guys. Literally. I would never have done that otherwise. Two syllables: blisters. 

[Photos by yours truly.]

Dress: vintage Jones New York via my mom's closet (classiq mama)

Heels: thrifted 

Bracelet: a store in Old Town

Watch: gift shop in Giverny 

Ring: Venice Beach 

I'm wearing the Hufflepuff house colors, black and gold, on purpose. I'm showing my house pride. Don't let anyone tell you Hufflepuffs are lame, because if they do I will come and slap them with my mental bitch-slapping hand. I have a hand that is especially for bitch-slapping because there are too many HuffPuff haters in the world. 

Cross-body bag: my great-grandma's with my gold belt attached with safety pins as a strap--classy, I know

Earrings: birthday present from my mom 

Those earrings are possibly the most painful things to get in. You have to drag a chain through the piercing in order to wear them properly. Mmmm.

It has a secret slit! I felt like Angelina Jolie all night, really. It goes higher, trust me. I just wanted to keep things PG. 

I had a few technical difficulties with my self-timer. 

It took several hours, a shiz ton of black nail polish, and a borderline poisonous amount of Absorbine Jr. (or Horse Juice, as I like to call it) to get my nails to look like that. Lola and I tried most of the ones from this post before realizing that splattering your nails with paint can in fact possibly go wrong.

I have one final day before school officially starts. DearGodsaveme. I had an awesome summer though, and hopefully you did, too. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons (because we have so many to choose from), so I'm getting quite excited about it. I am so done with walking around with a perpetual coat of perspiration on my body.

Merry Fashion Week! Let the games begin.

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Nailed It

In addition to McKayla Maroney's stick landing in the Olympics, other things that have been nailed: nails of the finger variety. I've always been intrigued by painted phalanges, but recently I've been particularly drawn (no pun intended--jaykay, my puns are always intended) to the artistry of them. The possibilities are becoming progressively more endless as people begin to open their minds to the prospect of neon-glitter nails and intense designs. The door to the industry of nail art has swung open wide, and with it has come a sea of people ready to jump on the band wagon. WAH Nails, for example, is a company that opened in 2009 in England and has now expanded to New York. Blogs have been posting nail art tutorials and DIYs left and right, so all of the sudden--as in at the beginning of the summer--I've become enamored with the idea of painting my fingers in fancy and inventive ways. When I paint my nails, they better be a work of art or I rub the lacquer off and start again. Remember these red sparkle explosions from the winter? Those made an incredible statement even when I wore the most boring of outfits (which I tried to keep to a minimum).

Fashion Week is creeping up upon us quite rapidly, so in light of that, I thought I'd inspire you all--and myself--with a lilabet (lilabet = a little bit; courtesy of Elly Goetz) of photos displaying nail art in its prime. I intend to try several/all of these out, at least one before my internship (what?!).

The Cherry Blossom Girl's Alix is one of the most put-together and classy-as-hayl people I've ever seen. I tried to rock the same design as she did on my nails before I realized that she had done it(I even used gold in the same place she did), but it was a complete failure.

Find her tutorial here.

Shini from Park & Cube has some surrious skillz when it comes to decorating fingernails. Those gradients are dainty and painterly. 

Find her tutorial here. 

Annabel Wendt of LoveMore is one of the coolest Australians I've seen to date (although I know some pretty cool Australians), and her extremities are no exception. These nails are so recreate-able that I just might have to do it. 

Ivania of Love Aesthetics is a whiz at doing crazy shiz to her fingers. Exhibit A: paint-splattered nails. So Jackson Pollock. 

Find her instructions here.

Ivania does it again, this time with an even simpler, more minimalistic design. These are a perfect example of a "Hey, I can do that!" sort of project. 

Find her instructions here. 

Don't leave your nails naked. You wouldn't want to walk out of the house with nothing on, right? Don't answer that question.

It's the weekend! Olympics? Beach? Burritos?

P.S. Expect a DIY minus the D, the I, and the Y (unless you are masochistic or own a darning needle and a shizton of time and patience) in the near future.

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