A City Made Prominent By This Medieval University

WHAT IS OXFORD?! And you know what Alex Trebek would say? Chelsea, that is correct.

There is something both feminine and masculine about oxfords that I adore. The shoes that is. Now, I have no idea what the difference between oxfords and saddle shoes are but I, personally, think they're all the same so please bare with me shoe aficionados, this is just a fashion blog.

My obsession with oxfords began a few days after I moved to New York City when my friend Olivia's sister Amanda took me with her to Garden State Plaza in New Jersey and we walked into an Aldo. I had always thought Aldo was kind of a joke but they really do have amazing shoes and their ad campaign is shot by Terry Richardson, who is by far my favorite fashion photographer.

Basically I bought myself a pair of simple black matte oxfords that I wore until the heels and soles were falling off. In April, my Mom came to visit and bought me a brand new pair of shiny black oxfords from Nine West which I have already worn out in the three months I've owned them. The time has come for me to purchase new oxfords and while I feel like I should just go to Soho and get a crappy $25 pair since I know how fast I'll tear through them, I can't help but fall in love with the Bass Loves Rachel Antonoff collaboration. Here are my favorites for you to enjoy as much as I did!

From top to bottom: Lady in Cream/ Black, $109; Alice in Navy, $129; and Odette in Cream/ Red, $109.

A Pairing for Style Champions

It's amazing the kinds of things you discover as you slowly finish finals and have this weird thing called free time. Like today I had time to go to Style.com and check out more Resort 2011 and fell in love with Proenza Schouler's collection. Later, my browsing brought me to Osborn, a company that makes shoes out of recycled materials. And in a wacky and crazy turn of events, the two go together perfectly! Both include ethnic inspired prints (something included in my senior collection) and remind me of something you could buy in Tijuana... and I mean that in the best way possible.

Doc Kitty

The search for adorable can stop here. Doc Martens and Sanrio are collaborating to create boots and mary janes with a Hello Kitty theme for Sanrio's 50th anniversary. Below is my favorite pair on the far left (and the ones I hope to get for my birthday) and the other two to the right of those:
Update: According to Fred Flare, they debut in September!

Jimmy Choo for H&M

While browsing the internet, I found an article that will make all true accessory lovers swoon. Jimmy Choo is designing a line of shoes and bags for H&M. And not only that, Jimmy Choo has also designed a line of clothing inspired by the accessories. Again, clothing inspired by the accessories, not the other way around. And even more exciting is that this collaboration also includes a line of men's shoes, bags and other accessories.

Above: A sneak peak of the Jimmy Choo line for H&M.

Update: Jimmy Choo for H&M will be available in stores November 14th!

Photoshoot!

At the beginning of this quarter, I decided that I wanted some cool pictures taken of me for this blog and I am just now getting around to putting them up... two months later. Better late than never is my new motto!

Modeling turned out to be a lot harder than I anticipated! I had watched America's Next Top Model for years (before getting sick of Tyra Banks' ego) and wondered why some of those girls just couldn't take a good picture. But it is not about smiling and looking pretty. You have to get the perfect angle so it doesn't make you look like you're missing a limb or something.

Above: In the Art Institute's Photography Studio.

Dress: Betsey Johnson's Vintage Re-issue
Leggings: Target
Shoes: Delicious

Hair and Make-up: Jake Treat

These three pictures were pretty much the only three that came out but that was enough for me! Standing in heels on a concrete floor for an hour or so is not my gig. But not only do I now have a cool profile picture, I can upload them to Lookbook.nu, and use them as outfit pictures on here!

Jelly, Jelly, Jelly Time!

Lately, I've been going window shopping in Nordstrom to do a little trend research for myself and for a little design inspiration. What I've been noticing, not only when I go shopping but also when I scour my fashion magazines, is that jelly sandals are making a comeback.

The first time I noticed them I was shopping with my friend, fellow fashion designer and blogger, Eunice. We were admiring the designer shoes when we, inevitably, walked to the Chanel and saw black jelly flip flops with a big white flower on top. My immediate reaction was "Oh, that's just Karl Lagerfeld for you..." But a few weeks later, I missed my bus so I walked into Nordstrom to kill some time. Again, I walked by the shoes and some Tory Burch flats caught my eye. When I got closer I saw that they were jelly flats! That was when I realized that this was no wacky Karl Lagerfeld reinvention.


Then just a few days ago I was reading the Spring 2009 V magazine and came across an advertisement for Melissa Plastic Dreams, a shoe company based out of Brazil that makes all of their shoes out of plastic.


While doing a little more digging into the Melissa website, I saw that she has had an ongoing collaboration with one of the most infamous fashion designers around, Vivienne Westwood. It took me about three clicks to even notice that this shoe was a bi-product of Vivienne Westwood; what attracted me to the shoe was that it's red and blue and has a big heart on it! So not only does it include one of my favorite color combinations but this shoe also toes the line of fashion becoming Pop art, which serves as one of my main inspirations.

All in all, I'm really excited for these jelly sandals. They've slowly been making their way back into our summer wardrobes and now that they're being designed by the likes of Tory Burch and Karl Lagerfeld, it is much to my delight that I bust out my own.

First Post!

It's time to celebrate! Well for me anyway. Just this past week, I've gotten really excited about starting a blog around the realm of fashion and how it relates to what I'm doing. And now I've decided to do it; albeit I really have no idea how to get my page to look quite how I would like it to, but that will be fixed soon enough.

As I type, this is my 7th quarter in college, so technically, I'm a junior. This quarter's class load is a little rough especially with the added responsibility of perfecting my portfolio within the next four weeks. I've decided to re-do every technical board in Adobe Illustrator, apply for an internship, two scholarships and enter the Report Shoe design contest, all while holding down my part-time job at Urban Outfitters.This week is all about finalizing my plan for getting everything done by the time grades are due and we are out for our three week summer break.

I already have three to four blog posts planned out, so stay tuned! Besides those posts, one thing I definitely want to do is keep my camera on me at all times and take pictures of people whose outfits inspire me in some way. Also, I want to try to pick out noteworthy clothing and accessories that coincide with my sense of design and post them here.

Everything will be worth your while, I swear!