all falled up

Hello fellow fashion-lovers!

Sorry it's been a while. As impossible as this seems, I've already had a midterm and have several coming up in the next few weeks so it's been a little hectic! So, one thing that seems to be a recurring question in everyone's mind is, how on earth do I translate pieces from my summer wardrobe to my autumn one? I mean, if you think about a little white dress, you think about beaches and sunset and showing off a tan. But the great thing about white is that it's a neutral color and when styled well, it can look superbly fall-esque. 

I love cardigans as an option for this transition. The great thing is that if you're working with a solid-colored dress you can be more playful with other things you pair with it. Personally I almost never opt for black and white, but by warming it up with the brown boots and red lipstick it was more fun to play with. The patterning of the cardigan is genius and the seams on the dress are a nice complement. Fall is a time for layering and mixing and experimenting and reinventing 

Samira gets credit for photos this week, love you girl <3

Outfit Details:

Cardigan: Staring at Stars

Dress: Free People

Rings: So Good

Boots: Nature Breeze 

Disclaimer: stole the cardigan and boots from Mira because she took my boots for the weekend 

Until next time, 

Keep Calm and Chiffon

crossed

Hello lovely readers!

You know what the great thing about fall is? You'll always be good to go with jeans. They are a no-fail option for chilly autumn days. Plus they come in so many different colors and washes and styles and cuts and lengths and silhouettes it's IMPOSSIBLE not to fall in love with them. 

I love college so far. The people here are so awesome and happy and friendly. Plus everyone seems to have their own "thing."  There are jocks and DJs and aspiring actress and directors and fantasy footballers and hipsters and scientists. In high school I guess you could call them cliques or superlatives, but here it's nice because everyone is so interested in what everyone else has to say. And I'm just loving meeting all of these people. It's also amazing how quickly you get close with people here. My whole floor has really bonded which great and we all hang out which makes me smile. 

Okay enough of me blabbering on about my life. I hope you have enjoyed my posts from New York Fashion Week! As I mentioned in previous posts, if you want to see ALL of my favorites and not just the highlights visit keepcalmandchiffon.tumblr.com to get the full effect. I hope to do the same for London, Paris and Milan, but I wanted to make sure I got New York done because as much as I would love to sit around and blog about this all day, I go to school and have work that needs to get done (I know, shocking.)

Hi Steph and Jessie! :)

Shout out to Becca for helping me with this post! Love you girl <3

Outfit Details:

Top: Forever 21

Jeans: JBrand

Boots: Sam Edelman

Bracelet: Forever 21

Ring: So Good

Until next time, 

Keep Calm and Chiffon

from lincoln center part 2

My next 10 picks from New York Fashion Week at Lincoln Center

10) Alice and Olivia

9) Reed Krakoff

8) Marc Jacobs

7) Betsey Johnson

6) Rodarte

5) Michael Kors

4) Rachel Zoe

3) Oscar de la Renta 

2) Vera Wang 

1) Tory Burch 

Trends Spotted:

Clean Lines

Geometric Shapes

Head-to-toe color

Polished Bottoms

Nomadic

Until next time, 

Keep Calm and Chiffon

from lincoln center part 1

Happy Monday!

(Or maybe not) 

Although it's only September, in the fashion world that means we are already looking ahead to spring of 2013! How crazy is that? And alas, that's the way the fashion world works. One great thing about the internet is that bloggers and fashionistas who don't get to experience the shows in person can still see the collections and get complete looks and access to professional reviews and summaries and all of this other great, amazing stuff. You just have to know where to look. One of my favorite websites is www.style.com which is an invaluable resource for keeping up with the shows. Another great source is Women's Wear Daily (my mom got me a subscription for my birthday! :) Thanks, mom!) although to get the full experience from them you should get a subscription. Also, if you're interested to see what people are wearing on the streets at Lincoln Center check out Refinery 29's snapshot collection. 

So, without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite looks from New York Fashion Week thus far:

10) Zac Posen 

9) Rag & Bone

8) Thakoon 

7) Altuzarra

6) Diane von Furstenberg 

5) Christian Siriano

4) Helmut Lang

3) 3.1 Phillip Lim 

2) BCBG Max Azria 

1) Alexander Wang

Trends spotted so far:

1) Cut-outs

2) Ballerina

3) Sheers

4) Black...lots of black 

5) Hard (structured) vs soft (draped)

Photos courtesy of www.style.com .

To see all of the looks I love from fashion week visit my tumblr feed at keepcalmandchiffon.tumblr.com you have to scroll back about four pages. Also for the first time ever I reached my "daily photo post limit" which apparently exists. So there will be more in the next few days and hopefully a part two to this post. If not, I'll rename it accordingly. 

Until next time,

Keep Calm and Chiffon 

insta-grand?

Happy Saturday everyone!

So the other day in my First-Year Seminar, we were talking about social media and the impact it can have in people's lives. It reminded me a lot of the effect that the Pop Art movement of the 1960's had on people's lives. Warhol, Litchenstein and other artists forced people to look at what was important or valuable to them because what they did was take pre-existing images or advertisements and reinterpret them. Suddenly people were elevating everyday images to the status of "art" which could include masterpieces from the Renaissance and classical antiquity. I've found that today we do the same thing with Instagram, where we find images that exist in everyday life, run a filter through them, and declare them to be photographs. Which begs the questions, what is art, and what effect does social media have on art?

Again, both Pop Art and Instagram deal with the concept of taking images you see every day and elevating them to an artistic status they don't necessarily deserve. Like how everyone uploads photos of their lo mein noodles from lunch. Yeah, I had a bacon cheeseburger, but you don't need to know that. It would be different if people used a camera and worked with the lenses and got an amazing picture but the editing is enhancement that anyone can do. Not that I know how to work a camera, but I have mad respect for people who do and we shouldn't discount what they do just because we have the technology that allows us to (for lack of a better term) take pretty pictures. And I'm not discrediting  the Pop Art movement or the app- I use Instagram constantly and love it, and Andy Warhol is one of my favorite artists of all time.

I'm just saying we shouldn't take it so seriously and we shouldn't forget there are people out there who really dedicate time to photography and have great results because of it. Instagram should be used to show people ordinary things in an extraordinary way. So Instagram away, just reconsider that fifth photo of you dog. Below I have provided some photos from my Instagram stream. You can follow me, @jane_aus10 .

Crushed paint pigments 

The Grand Canal

Venetian Graffiti 

San Vitale, Ravenna

Bicycle in Rome 

Jeffery Campbell Lita's

Nylon Magazine, August 2012

While we're on the subject of social media, you can find me on these sites: 

facebook: facebook.com/KeepCalmandChiffon

tumblr: tumblr.com/KeepCalmandChiffon

instagram: jane_aus10

pinterest: jane_aus10

and as always if you want to get in contact with me, send thoughts, comments, or anything to:

 keepcalmandchiffon@gmail.com

Until next time,

Keep Calm and Chiffon 

transit

Hi there!

Hope everybody's pretty much adjusted to being back in school now and that the initial shock of "wait, wait summer can't possibly be over" has passed and that everyone is looking forward to sweaters, jumping into piles of leaves and salted caramel lattes from Starbucks because I sure am!

So I was planning on doing this shoot today, but forgot I had Fitness & Wellness before. So I guess you could say this is also an unintentional "how to style wet hair" tutorial. What I decided to do was go with a messy braid and all I did was split my hair into three sections and I braided the back section, left the middle section undone and fishtailed the front section. Then I left half of it undone and sprayed it with Bumble and Bumble surf spray (that stuff works miracles). Super easy! Anyone can do it. And the great thing about working with wet hair is that frizz just isn't an issue. 

Shout out to my girl Emily who helped me with the shoot this week!

Outfit Details:

Top: Frenchi

Dress: Mimi Chica

Necklace: So Good 

Bangle: Florence market

Ring: Denise McGlynn (click here to read my post about her!)

Boots: stolen from my roommate Mira! Thanks Mir <3

I am so excited to share that I was accepted for the second year in a row to the Teen Vogue Fashion University!!! I have signed up for seminars with Grace Coddington, legendary creative director of Vogue magazine, Christian Siriano, winner of Project Runway season four, Nicole Richie, creative director of Winter Kate/ House of Harlow and Bryan Boy, legendary fashion blogger. I also signed up for a tour of the editorial spaces (yes this includes the CLOSET!!!!!) as well as a session on fashion in the digital age. 

In other news, can you believe that Joanna Coles after six years with Marie Claire has moved over to Cosmo as the editor-in-chief?! It will be really interesting to see what she does with the magazine. It will also be interesting to follow Kate White on her journey post-Cosmo and to see what Anne Fulenwider does with Marie Claire. According to Women's Wear Daily, Coles mentioned that she wanted to get front-row representation at fashion week for the magazine. And after all, there's nothing like a good, old-fashioned makeover to get us in the mood for fashion week!

Until next time,

Keep Calm and Chiffon