OOTD – California Edition

On our way home to Santa Cruz after an all day date in San Francisco, Soul Mate and I stopped a few times along Hwy 1 to take in the foggy air and scenery.  I am certain that I will always be in love with this place.

Here I am appreciating the waves, as well as the surfers who are looking nice and doing a really good job of not dying in what seemed like some violent waves.  I will definitely never be a surfer –  I’m such a klutz that it would have been completely normal for me to trip over my own feet and fail at just standing near the edge of this cliff.

Even though it was something terrible like a sweltering 40 *C in Toronto this same afternoon, I had to pick up this awesome shawl to have as an extra layer.  Haven’t worn it once since we’ve been back though, too dang humid!

 

Right after we took these pictures, we got back in the car and continued driving along a dangerously foggy Hwy. 1.  We hadn’t been driving more than 15 minutes when a giant owl (!!)  flew out of a roadside tree, across the hwy and landed in the tree on the other side.  It was fucking majestic.

Happy, happy vacation times.

 

We just never get tired of this place!

Outfit:

Shawl – Ross

Crop Tee – Urban Outfitters, Santa Cruz

Maxi – Old Navy

Sandals – Body Blue, Toronto

OOTD – Lace Tights, Sepia Nights

So it’s  been too long; soul mate and I had the fortunate privilege to spend our vacation traveling down the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego over the past two weeks.  Thought I’d do a little outfit post featuring a couple of the things I picked up while away.

Here I am putting my game face on in the elevator.

Always awkward about doing these things, we snuck into a sketchy little area in our building for some spooky, yellow light.  We finally bought a Canon Rebel DSLR while we were away (after saving up our change for a year…it works, people!), and were experimenting with some darker lighting.

I love over-accessorizing!  Rings from left: Silver Tigers Eye permanently borrowed from soul mate, jasper locket ring he bought for me in San Diego, two-finger stainless steel number from Etsy, wood cocktail ring that I picked up from Drysdale & Co.

Linen shirt and Jersey Dress – Old Navy

Lace stockings – Payless in Capitola, CA

Vegan Oxfords – Target in L.A.

Belt – Sweet garage sale score!

Bag – Thrifted

OOTD – When in doubt, knot that shit up!

So here I am at sundown, killing a little time while we wait for our friends to meet us for delish Greek food on the Danforth.  The restaurant we usually go to employs leery men who try very hard to ogle my boobs in the most obvious ways possible.  This has become a ridiculous joke between soul mate and I, so I decided to make it easy for them this time, with a little low-cut action/semi transparent top.

And some patent, straight up 1987 heels.

I didn’t feel like going over the top with my jewellery, so I loaded on some chunky vintage gold bracelets and some white OPI Shatter nail polish over OPI Onyx something.  Please excuse the cat scratches and iron burns from playtime and sewing time (respectively).

I’ll just never be graceful in heels!

Shirt: Truly Madly Deeply – Urban Outfitters

Skirt – H & M

Tights – Some Winners-type store in California

1987 Footwear: Value Village

Bracelets: Hibou Accessories

Sunshine smiles with the greatest guy around!

Now getting sucked into the Tumblr time void.

Here I am, cozy in my favourite old couch print sweater – not knowing that I’m about to be completely consumed by the delightful void that is Tumblr.  I had resisted, with the knowledge that once committed I would have yet another enjoyable time sucker calling my name when I should be sewing and doing productive things.  I have made that commitment.  I regret nothing.

Follow me! http://ursamajorfashion.tumblr.com/

OOTD – Holiday Bliss

Had a lovely Canada Day with the mister this weekend, doing completely relaxing things.  It’s very difficult for me to take it easy; I’m always working on something – even when I’m watching the most ridiculous of vapid television shows which I try to watch to turn the ol’ grey matter off.  So it was nice to be able to run around, eat sushi, take pictures and act like an idiot with the soul mate.  It was fantastic.

It was ridiculously hot out so I wore these things:

Maxi Dress – Old Navy

T-Shirt – American Apparel

Shoes – Urban Outfitters

Bag – Vintage Coach

Camera – Holga

Earrings – Vintage

Necklace – Made by me, right before we left!

See, I am capable of more than just leggings!

Xoxo Amarina

First Shoot Part Two

 

So here is Rebecca in the third look from the shoot we did.  She’s wearing an Alternative Apparel tank top from Tabula Rasa, skirt from H&M, tights from target, jewellery from Hibou Accessories and an Ursa Major tote that I printed myself.

 

For the last shot we had some fun with a vintage suitcase and my Polaroid camera (that I found at Value Village for $5 with original film still in it!).  Rebecca is wearing an Ursa Major lace tunic, her own bra, acid wash jeggings from Forever 21, and Hibou Accessories earrings.

All in all we had a great time and I can’t wait for the next shoot!  I want to thank Rebecca for being such a freaking babe and helping me out with my first photo shoot ever.  I’d been contemplating taking the Fashion Photography course offered by my school as one of my general education classes and after this I am taking it for sure!

xoxo Amarina

Styling My First Photoshoot

 

 

Babe.

Here’s the first batch of photos from my premiere photo shoot.  I styled the looks, took the pictures, made some of the clothes and all of the jewellery myself.  The gorgeous model is my dear friend Rebecca, a talented quadruple threat who can sing, dance, act AND model with the best of them.  I dare you to look at these pictures and not want to shave her head and make a wig of her hair for  yourself.

For the first look above I put her in a colourful vintage shirt dress (that I let her keep for being such a babe in it), some simple footless tights, a vintage Hibou Accessories bag and belt, and Hibou Accessories earrings.  In typical first time – have to figure it all out – mindspace, I completely forgot about shoes!  She wore her own but trust me friends, I won’t be making that oversight again. Towering heels for all next time!

 

 

For Rebecca’s second look, I was thinking about festival fashion (Glastonbury anyone? I’ll give her wellies next time).  She’s in a sun hat from Drysdale & Co, vintage crochet fringe vest and floral maxi skirt, simple black tee from Old Navy and accessories by Hibou Accessories.  Two more looks to come.

I welcome any feedback on my shots as well!

xoxo Amarina

My Very First Design is Almost Done!

Here are some quick shots from my phone of my nearly completed skirt.  It’s the first garment that I designed and drew out, drafted a pattern for and sewed the whole damn thing.  The core of the skirt was made from military-grade black twill that I acid washed in an ombre-ish kind of effect. I thought I had ruined it at first but managed to save it and only get trace amounts of bleach in my eyes and lungs.  Then I charmed my uber-talented friend Jenn at Tabula Rasa into generously hooking me up with some vintage leather pants that I deconstructed and used for the back pockets and some piping in front.  In the back I added a double-ended zipper that can be adjusted to your desired slit size (and it can get slutty real real fast if you’re on the go).  Please ignore the shabby hem job, it’s the last thing I had to do!

Now I just have to design a top to go with it and some mannequin out there can be head to toe in Ursa Major.

xoxo Amarina

Custom Fashion Croquis

The end of the first half of our condensed 7 week semester is coming up and I’ve had little time to sleep, let alone blog.  Alas, here I am in a frazzled state, showing off my custom croquis.  What the hell are croquis you might ask?  They are slightly stretched fashion figures used for sketching when a designer is trying to get their ideas down on paper.  I had been scouring the internet looking for nice plus-size croquis and had no success finding some that were inspiring to me.   Luckily, I have my endlessly talented soul mate who happily got to work on creating something that I could work on.  He came up with these BRILLIANT croquis, one of which was inspired by the luscious Marquita in the V Magazine Size Issue (can you spot which one it is?).

I’m so fortunate to have an amazing artist lingering around our apartment, but not everyone is as lucky as me!  If you’re interested in getting a copy of these, shoot me an email at hibouaccessories@gmail.com  and I’ll send them your way for the best price on Earth (free!).

xoxo Amarina

**UPDATE March 2012**

I want to thank everyone for their interest in the croquis!  It is so amazing to hear from people all over the world who are looking for more representation of body diversity in the fashion world and are working on their own fashion projects.  I just want to let you all know that I will still definitely send you the croquis at no charge but I am in my last semester of a fashion design program and I am really overwhelmed with work for my final collection (I will post pictures!).  So if I don’t get back to right away it’s because I’m sitting at the sewing machine/serger/drafting table weeping.  Thanks for your patience and happy designing!

Calling All Chubbies!

Whenever my boss comes across all things related to size, she sends it my way.  She came across this throwback ad from Lane Bryant on Pinterest today and I thought it was so interesting.  What would happen if they came out with an ad like this today?

Also note to self, get on Pinterest.  Thanks Susan!

xoxo Amarina