altar’d state – Page 3 – L'ensemble du jour

October 20, 2017 – Last Day of Fall Break (OOTD #140)

Published on October 25, 2017 by lensembledujour2 Comments

Fall break went too fast.

I guess all breaks go quickly, but this one seems to be particularly speedy. I guess it was because I was so busy – carving pumpkins, going shopping, catching up with my friends, and studying for some exams that are due after break is over. It was a good busy though, except for the maybe the studying part. That was significantly less fun.

I spent most of Friday lazing around in my pajamas – in fact, I spend most of any day over fall break when I didn’t have any reason not go outside in my pajamas. I also didn’t once exercise, and I took every opportunity I was offered to eat junk food. Ramen, pasta, french fries – you name it, and I probably felt no need to deny myself it.

I like to think I’m usually a pretty healthy person, so I decided to take a few cheat days during the holiday. Or…okay, it was more like a cheat week. It was probably bad, and I probably should’ve have done it with such vigor but I had fun.

So what was so special about Friday that I decided to put real clothes on?

A Goodwill trip, that’s what! I love Goodwill because I love hunting for thrift clothes, so I never pass up on an opportunity to go out to one. My mother hates Goodwill – she thinks it’s dirty and disorganized – but my father and I love it. Or at least, I love it. I think my dad just loves me.

I didn’t find anything too exciting there – I was hoping for something retro and 90s trendy, like what they sell at Urban Outfitters for $100, but n such luck. I did find a cute tank top, though, which was pretty cool.

Afterwards, my parents and I went out to dinner at a barbecue place, and I cried a little on the inside because I still had to finish packing all of my crap to return to Notre Dame. With the exception of that packing bit, it was a very nice last day of fall break in Lexington.

Poncho: Altar’d State

Boots: Target

October 17, 2017 – The Most October Day (OOTD #138)

Published on October 23, 2017October 23, 2017 by lensembledujour9 Comments

This is it folks: the day I finally got to do all of the stereotypical American fall things I’ve been prattling on about for the last month.

Last year, my senior year of high school, my father and I went out to a local orchard for an afternoon to pick pumpkins. As it turned out, we didn’t pick any pumpkins – by the time we went, I guess it was too late into the season and all of the good pumpkins were gone – but we did have a lot of fun wandering around, picking apples, and going through the corn maze.

Thus, being a sap for anything nostalgic, even if it’s only from a year ago, I requested that, when I went back for fall break, my father and I go back to the same orchard.

It was a rather different experience this time, though – we went on a Tuesday, when all of the Fayette County schools were still in session and all of the kids were stuck in classrooms doing work (heh, suckers), whereas last year, we went on a weekend, when it was super busy and crawling with children. Thus, it was pretty nice to be there when it was fairly quiet – I got to climb up on the jungle gym since there were no kids there, which was pretty sweet, and there was no line for the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch or the corn maze, which was also pretty sweet.

The best part of any farm adventure, in my opinion, is eating a caramel apple. I rambled on about my love of caramel apples for a while in a blog from a few days ago, so I’m not going to do that here, but allow me to say: a caramel apple from a farm is the best caramel apple you can get.

Also, if you don’t eat your caramel apples with nuts, I don’t know what you are (unless you have a peanut allergy – then it’s acceptable).

I don’t necessarily know how Kentucky farms compare to farms in Idaho or New York (or really anywhere else in the US, or the world), but if I had to make an overarching generalization based on little evidence and/or experience, I would have to say that Kentucky farms are the best in the world. There are hills, for one, which I know you don’t get in some parts of the Midwest (South Bend Indiana, I’m looking at you), and chances are, if you’re heading out to a farm in Kentucky in October, it’s probably still warm enough to go without a jacket.

I must say though – latitudes further North do have better leaf colors in October. I do suppose that would be one gripe about my farm adventure, that there wasn’t much color in the trees other than green and a touch of brown. It’s really odd, coming back to Kentucky after having been in Indiana, as the weather is so different, despite only being one state over.

This year, my father and I did manage to find some decently-sized, attractive, and carvable pumpkins at the orchard, so I will be sure to show you guys what our Jack-o-Lanterns turn out looking like as soon as we get them done. We also found some apples, a bale of hay, an abandoned flag football belt, and the joy of…something, I don’t know, I was trying to come up with a charming and insightful, but I’m not good at that. All I can do is point to my own inadequacies and hope people laugh.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life here at Notre Dame. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Vest: Altar’d State

Sweater: Target

Shirt: American Eagle

Boots: LL Bean

October 16, 2017 – In Which Meilin Forgets When The Sun Goes Down (OOTD #137)

Published on October 22, 2017 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I’ve discussed this so many times already, but allow me to say it again, in case you missed it: lighting really makes the photo.

Over the summer, I was in the habit of taking my fashion photos after dinner, around 7:00pm or so. At 7, the sun was just beginning to set, making for some lovely golden natural light for my photos.

And now that I’m in school, I’m in the habit of taking my fashion photos around lunchtime, maybe noon or so, due to the convenience of asking the friends I eat lunch with “hey, would you mind to take pictures of my outfit real quick before you head to class?” At noon, I don’t quite get the beautiful fading light, but, since it’s usually overcast in South Bend, I don’t have to worry about weird shadows.

So over fall break, I was back home again, and, since I don’t think anything through, I just figured I could do my pictures around 7:00pm after dinner, just as I was doing in the summer, and get the same golden light effect.

Not so much.

To my surprise, when I looked out the window as my family was beginning to clean up from dinner, the sun was completely down. I had forgotten that it’s late October, and by late October in Kentucky, it’s getting fairly dark fairly fast.

Flash photography to the rescue.

Of sorts. Flash photography didn’t quite solve my problems, and my photos from Monday suffered from having to be taken in the dark. I got some taken outside with the flash on, some taken by a garage light, and some taken indoors. It’s not the best work I’ve ever done, but hey, tomorrow’s another day. At least I got this nice selfie with my mom.

Ah well. I’ll call it “artsy” and we can pretend this is all intentional, right?

Sweater: Unknown (thrifted)

Scarf: Altar’d State

October 3, 2017 – Generic Autumn Outfit (OOTD #127)

Published on October 9, 2017October 9, 2017 by lensembledujour7 Comments

You know how I went on waxing poetic about how much I loved falling the last blog?

I’m going to spare your ears (eyes?) and not do that again here, even though my outfit is so painfully obviously a manifestation of my love of fall. I mean, just look at those oranges and greens – is there even a doubt in anyone’s mind in what season I bought this at Target?

(Plot twist: it was actually spring, and my parents got it for me for Easter. Pretty sure it was on sale…but the point still stands)

Lol, fall’s not even my favorite season – winter is. I guess I just really love the changing seasons and getting to talk about it. I can even get into summer a little at the very beginning in June when it’s just getting warm enough to start wearing shorts and flip flops without being chilly in the mornings.

Midterms week is beginning to kick in here at College ™ , and it’s beginning to kick my…my parents read this, so I’m going to say “butt” to spare their mentalities. I don’t even have that many midterms this week – my godawful testing week actually fell about two weeks ago, when I had a few papers and a few pre-fall break exams all at once. I do have one in Astronomy, which I am 4394308% not looking forward to as well as a short essay for my Chinese history class, but that’s really not bad compared to what some people have. One of my roommates has five exams this week – bless her soul.

I think it’s just the overall vibe of stress that’s getting to me. Like I said, I don’t really have much of a reason to be stressed – especially since it’s October and October is a part of the holy trinity of holiday months – but seeing other people be stressed makes me feel like I ought to be as well.

In a few days though, it’ll be all over and I’ll be back home in Kentucky for fall break, which should be fun. Not sure what I’ll be doing for that whole week – probably just contemplating how unappreciative I was of Lexington and its status as a city. I used to complain about how Lexington was small and there was nothing to do, but I see now I was wrong: South Bend is small and has nothing to do. Lexington might as well be New York City in comparison.

I’m exaggerating of course – but I do rather miss being just a short car ride away from things like the mall, the movie theater, downtown, etc. South Bend, I assume, has all of those things too, but, without a car, I would never know that. You’re saying there’s a world outside of Notre Dame’s campus? Are you sure?

Dress: Target

Sweater: Altar’d State

September 29, 2017 – Feeling Witchy (OOTD #124)

Published on October 5, 2017 by lensembledujour6 Comments

Wow, okay, I love this dress.

If I remember correctly, I purchased it from Altar’d State in one of their after-Christmas-Thanksgiving-Independence Day sales. Actually, I think I found it in a lone size medium first, misplaced in the size small section. I really liked it, but I knew it wouldn’t fit, so I sadly put it back – only to find the same dress in a size small misplaced in the size medium section. Isn’t it nice how life turns out sometimes?

My only complaint is that it’s not the most versatile dress in my wardrobe – I can really only wear it by itself. Sure, I can add accessories – different shoes, different jewelry, etc. – but due to its billowy structure, I can’t really layer it under or over any shirts or jackets. This makes making outfits out of it very simple, but at the same time, kind-of boring.

Not to repeat myself for the 3432nd time, but I really like layering.

Though it’s not the most versatile in its wearability, I do find it very versatile for different seasons and styles. In the summer and spring, it makes for a nice boho gypsy look, with tousled hair and tons of jewelry. In the fall and winter, it can lean for a more witchy, boho goth look, with boots and tights.

In this styling, I didn’t fully commit to either the summer or the fall version of this dress – kind of like how the weather here hasn’t committed to summer or fall yet. The hair screams summer music festival; the boots scream fall festival.

A more snobbish fashion devotee may call that inconsistency; I call it versatility.

You know what else I love? This photo location outside of SDH with nice red flowers. I’ve used it once before, so I’m trying not to overuse it, but it’s just such a lovely backdrop. The plants both frame the photo nicely and add a pop of color against the plain brick, and I wish there were more photo locations like this on campus.

I’ll close this blog with a picture of some of my friends and me at an Applebee’s off campus. One of my friend’s parents were visiting for a football game, so they offered to take us all out for a meal. Better than the food itself and even the company I ate with was getting off campus – ND is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and unless you have a car, you’re kind-of stranded on campus. It was nice to remember that there’s a world outside of here.

Dress: Altar’d State

September 27, 2017 – Waiting On My Growth Spurt (OOTD #122)

Published on October 3, 2017December 28, 2017 by lensembledujour10 Comments

It is no secret – I am very short.

I’m not going to bother telling you my actual height, but suffice to say – it’s not a very big number. I’m still waiting on my miracle growth spurt to push me up into the six foot range, but something tells me I shouldn’t hold my breath.

Actually, as a kid, I never thought I was going to be short my whole life. My parents were both pretty tall, so I figured I’d grow up and eventually be of equal height to them. The problem with that logic, though? They’re white, and I’m Asian: I was adopted. And unfortunately, when you’re adopted, you don’t get any share of your parents’ genes, including their genes for height.

So alas, whomever my Asian parents were, they did not offer me any genes for height. Even with heels, I’m just barely pushing “average petite” height – without heels, I’m on the more extreme end of the short spectrum.

RIP my burgeoning career as a runway model.

Where am I going with this? I’m really not sure. Maybe I was thinking I looked I little short (ba-dum tshhhhh…) in the photos for today’s post, likely due to the way the billowy blouse is too long next to my pants, making my legs look shorter.

Eh, whatever. The colors look lovely next to each other – bright and vibrant and classy – so I can deal with some awkward proportions. Besides, that’s what sitting poses are for! No one can tell if you’re short or not.

In other news, fall break is in a little more than two weeks, and I’m slowly becoming excited to go home. Notre Dame is wonderful, especially now that the leaves are beginning to turn, but it’ll be nice to sleep in my own bed. I want to do nothing/be a social recluse at home rather than doing nothing/being a social recluse at school.

I didn’t think there was any conceivable way I could possibly miss Kentucky, but yet…here I am, missing Kentucky. I even, in a strange way, miss the Southern accent. It used to annoy me, but I’ve gone without hearing one for so long, that it’s like I’m developing an affinity for it.

Also, if I hear one more Midwesterner call soda “pop,” I’m going to lose it.

Shirt: Altar’d State

Pants: The LOFT

September 20, 2017 – Wake Me Up When…You Get the Point (OOTD #116)

Published on September 26, 2017 by lensembledujour4 Comments

…when September ends?

I do hope you got the point, at least. If not, then you weren’t a proper emo kid from the early 2000s. Actually, I wasn’t even an emo kid in the early 2000s…I was just a kid. What is my point here?

“Wake Me Up When September Ends” is a good song, I couldn’t think of a better blog title, and it would have been a crime to let September pass without referencing it once in this blog.

September, for a long time, has been one of my least favorite months. Even as a kid, I kind-of despised it – September meant that awkward period after the end of summer break when you were stuck going to school in the sweltering heat, you hadn’t yet established who your best friends for the year were to be yet, you didn’t have a feel for how difficult your teachers and classes would be, and all the stores start putting out their Halloween decorations even though it’s not nearly cold enough to feel like “fall” yet. Even into high school, the same pattern of awkwardness and anxiety stuck around. For my senior year in particular, September was stressful because I was trying to get all my Common App college applications done in time for the November 1 early action deadline.

But guess what? For the first time in years, I don’t hate September. I don’t know what is is, but for some reason, the perpetual background anxiety I would feel for the entire month hasn’t reared its head. Maybe it’s because I’m so busy adjusting to college life that I haven’t had the time to feel sorry for myself? I’m not sure.

In fact, September’s been…almost nice?

At any rate, I enjoy not hating September for once. I hope I don’t end up hating October in its place now, lol. October is too lovely of a month to hate.

In celebration of my lack of hatred for September and of the start of fall, I went for a fall-like outfit. And by fall-like, I mean I just wore an orange dress and brown shoes. There have been, perhaps, less obvious interpretations of the standard “fall outfit,” but that’s for the Project Runway designers to think up, not me. Hey, I could have been wearing leaves and pumpkins, but I’ve got a touch more subtlety than that.

Also, I’m bitter, because the choker I’m wearing here broke when I took off. It was one of my favorites too. You’d think being from Madewell and costing like $15 it would last a little longer than a few months.

To quote the joke that both my mother and my friend Amanda made when I sent them a picture of the broken clasp: “…guess it wasn’t…made well!?!?”

Dress: Forever21

Sweater: Altar’d State

Choker: Not made well

September 14, 2017 – Goth Kid at Catholic School (OOTD #112)

Published on September 20, 2017September 20, 2017 by lensembledujour5 Comments

I spent a decent portion of my adolescence complaining about public school, but I have to give it this – it made for a nice, diverse collection of people.

You want art kids? Public school has those. You want jocks? Public school has those. You want people who fit any racial, cultural, or stereotype imaginable? Public school has you covered.

And the nice thing about my high school was (wow, never thought I’d use those words together…), you never had to stick to any particular group – people were pretty free to float around the different social categories at will. And there was really no such thing as rivalries between the groups – no Jets vs Sharks stories here. Or, I don’t know, maybe we did have gang fights with choreographed dance sequences, and I just never realized. It’s entirely possible that I just never learned the social structure of my high school in the four years I was there – just like I never learned anything about physics or how to pay taxes.

But here I am now at private Catholic school, and gone are the diverse social groups. I mean, I’ve only been here for a month, and maybe I just haven’t gotten a feel for them, but it’s definitely less likely that I’ll encounter anyone in a Black Veil Brides t-shirt or with rainbow hair here than I was in high school. And I miss that.

The typical Notre Dame kid is probably athletic, white, well-dressed (but not creatively dressed…I went to a party once and all I saw were Kylie Jenner wannabes), the son or daughter of an alumni, and from one of the suburbs of Chicago. If it’s a dude, he’s probably named Jack. If it’s a girl, she’s probably a Katie.

(Also, if I hear one more Midwestern kid with that nasally Chicago accent talk about which suburb they’re from, I’m gonna lose it. Why isn’t anyone from like, the actual city of Chicago? Do people even live in Chicago?)

Anyway, fed up with the perceived normalcy of my peers, I just had to go for an outfit that had a darker edge. You know, the commercial, non-offensive version of “darker edge” – basically, nu goth.

Essentially, I dressed in all black and put my hair in Wednesday Adams braids. Simple, but effective – I was basically edgiest kid on campus. Which, if you ask me, if pretty sad, considering a blonde girl in braids and a black hat is hardly edgy or goth. The architecture at Notre Dame is more goth than 99% of the student body, meaning I’m pretty sure the architecture would have the better taste in music than the student body – goth kids have great taste in music.

Top: Unknown (thrifted)

Pants: Altar’d State

Jacket: Forever21

Hat: Target

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August 28, 2017 – The First Pants Outfit (OOTD #97)

Published on August 29, 2017 by lensembledujour7 Comments

The day I finally wear pants to school usually denotes the day I finally give up on dressing up.

I lasted a whopping five days here at Notre Dame before I reached that point.

Now, I don’t mean to say you can’t have a perfectly nice outfit and still wear pants, because you can – some of the best put-together and most intelligently designed outfits I’ve ever worn have been pants outfits. But there’s something to be said about the effort it takes to shave you legs for a skirt, dress, or even pair of shorts – and no pants outfit will ever be able to compete with the level of dedication a bare legs outfit requires.

But at any rate, I totally lacked that level of dedication today. In fact, I had a whole 30 second mental dialogue with myself this morning in front of my wardrobe, debating whether or not to go for the skirt outfit or the pants outfit. It went a little like this:

Put-together, organized, motivated Meilin: You’ll look much nicer in the skirt ensemble. Those pants don’t even fit you properly.

Perpetually stressed, disorganized, lazy Meilin: But…shaving…

Put-together, organized, motivated Meilin: …only takes a few minutes.

Perpetually stressed, disorganized, lazy Meilin: But…it’s cold…

Put-together, organized, motivated Meilin: Not all day, it won’t be.

Perpetually stressed, disorganized, lazy Meilin: I don’t wanna…

We went back and worth like that for a while, but eventually, I had to get off to my 9:30 class, and the debate had to end. The winner was, of course, the pants outfit – perhaps only because by the time I had established the opening arguments of both sides, there wasn’t enough time to shave, whether I wanted to or not.

But it was okay in the end, because wearing the pants outfit meant I got to wear this asymmetric tunic I got from Psylo, a steampunk fashion shop in Camden Lock Market in London. Camden was probably second only to Shoreditch in terms of my favorite shopping locations in London (sorry Oxford St., but you’ve got nothing on this), and it was largely due to the presence of alternative fashion boutiques like Psylo.

There’s nothing in Lexington (and definitely nothing in South Bend) like this place. I want to think that even if you’re not into steampunk fashion (which I’m not really – not in the way some people are…I mean, I like the aesthetic, but I hardly dress in it everyday), you’d still be able to appreciate the artistry of the fashion that this store sold. The silhouettes, the designs – they very clearly demonstrated the effort and creativity that their creator put into their work. These pieces had heart, and that’s something you rarely find in a chain store like Forever21 or J. Crew.

So was the shirt probably overpriced for the materials that it was made of? Well, yeah. But originality is expensive, and I’m willing to drop more money on a piece if it’s something unique.

Whoops, didn’t mean to wax poetic about the artistry of fashion for so long. Guess I’ve been watching too much Project Runway, huh?

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Shirt: Psylo

Pants: Altar’d State

August 21, 2017 – Total Eclipse of the Heart (OOTD #91)

Published on August 23, 2017August 23, 2017 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Once upon a time there was light in my life…now there’s only light in the dark…

Fun fact – I actually became familiar with this song through Glee. It’s one of the only songs where I believe the Glee version is better than the original (no offense Bonnie Tyler – it’s just a little too 80s for me), and I probably know more of the lyrics than I would care to admit.

So Monday was eclipse day! Here in South Bend, I think we wound up getting about 89% totality, which, unfortunately, was a little less impressive than the 98% that I believe Lexington was supposed to get. Guess I should have stayed at home, huh?

Honestly, the eclipse as I experienced it was a little…how do I put this – lackluster? Disappointing? Sad? I’m not sure if I expected the heavens to open up and the angels to begin singing, but I did sort of expect a little darkness, maybe? I think it normally gets darker when a cloud covers the sun than when this eclipse happened though, lol.

I brought along my eclipse glasses that I purchased the glorious Home Depot before I left Lexington and sat out on the lawn with some girls from my dorm, munching on grapes, watching the people, and preparing myself for some kind of epic, earth shattering experience.

Unfortunately, it never came. At the point closest to totality, it did get a little shadowy-er over the quad, but honestly, if you had not told me that there was an eclipse going on, I might not have known.

But that’s okay! I got to hang out with some friends and chill, so that was pretty dope. For whatever reason, no one bothered to tell me that I didn’t need to be wearing my eclipse glasses in this photo though, so…maybe not that dope.

Overall, it was just a really relaxed day. Okay, perhaps I should rephrase that – it was really relaxed in comparison to the other Welcome Weekend days. I had some actual free time today to sit around and do homework, and I haven’t had any moments like that yet. Dare I say doing homework was almost nice?

Yeah…I don’t dare. Homework is never nice – it would be blasphemy to say so. 😏

I’ll see you in the next one. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Vest: Altar’d State

Shirt: H&M

Shorts: PacSun