august – Page 6 – L'ensemble du jour

August 26, 2017 – Waking Up To A Choir Of Angels (OOTD #96)

Published on August 28, 2017August 28, 2017 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

The chaos never quiets at Notre Dame.

Saturday, which began my first weekend alone here, saw me waking up late after having been out at party (that I lasted a whopping 30 minutes at before calling it quits) the night prior. I actually awoke to the sound of the choir practicing practically outside my window on South Quad – prompting me to wonder if perhaps I hadn’t made it home Friday night, and that maybe angels were welcoming me into heaven.

Nope, I’m just at Catholic school, and the full choir practicing out on South Quad at 9 AM in the morning is a perfectly normal occurrence.

Maybe it’s not perfectly normal – actually, it was part of a celebration for Notre Dame’s 175th anniversary, which happened to fall on my freshman year. They did a 3 mile walk in the morning, followed by a mass (which was what the choir was practicing for), and then a picnic for everyone to enjoy.

Needless to say, I hit up that picnic in the afternoon – there’s no way that I, a broke college kid, am going to ever refuse free food.

It’s very pleasing to be able to finally consider myself amongst the proverbial “broke college kids.” I even made a post dedicated to that aesthetic for yesterday’s OOTD – check it out here. “Broke high school kid” just doesn’t the same weight, doesn’t conjure up the same image. It’s like up until college, no one takes your complaints and general teenage angst about life seriously – then, in college, you finally gain the ability to be pessimistic and grumpy with the adults.

Other than the picnic, my day was pretty much empty to do whatever I wanted. I can’t imagine I’ll continue to have this much free time as the weeks go on in the semester – can I? I don’t even know. I feel like I’m doing something wrong, not having work or homework or some kind of task that needs to be done looming over my head, but I guess that’s just the way it is for this first week of school.

I even had time to go out with some girls from my dorm, pictured below:

I’m sure the stress will set in eventually and I’ll have plenty of time to wallow in my own misery then! And no one can tell me I can’t because I’m an adult now with responsibilities and problems with the best of them!

I kid, of course. I can wallow in misery without any stress to trigger the reaction!

Kidding, again.

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!

Top: H&M

Shorts: PacSun

Jacket: Forever21

Boots: Ralph Lauren

August 25, 2017 – Lazy College Student Aesthetic (OOTD #95)

Published on August 27, 2017 by lensembledujour5 Comments

I’ve been in college for a whole four days and I’m already getting lazy with my clothes.

For real, today I woke up, gazed into my tiny closet, and came to the conclusion that none of the nice outfits I had come up with before I came to Notre Dame were right. I don’t know, it was Friday, I was feeling lazy, and I just wasn’t the mood to wear a skirt (and for some reason, it seemed like all the outfits I had come up with prior to starting school involved skirts).

So instead, I came up with a lazy day outfit with shorts, a baseball tee, and an Adidas windbreaker. I don’t know if it really counts as full “lazy college student style” – I think that requires sweatpants and a greasy topknot at the very least – but I definitely looked less put-together than I had for the past few days.

My hair was definitely pulling off that lazy college student aesthetic though. It’s been a while since it’s been washed, and it’s seen better days.

So far, I’ve had enough motivation to get myself out of bed at 7:30 every morning to go running, giving me about an hour to get dressed and get ready before classes begin at 9:30. It’s been pretty nice. We’ll see how much longer I manage to keep up this motivation – I know that in my senior year of high school, I slacked off on the running quite a bit by spring semester – but for now, I’m liking my routine.

At the end of the day, I headed over to the football field for a showing of Rudy. I’ve actually never seen that film before, so it was pretty cool to see it for the first time on the actual Notre Dame football field. It was particularly weird seeing all of these campus locations that I pass everyday as backgrounds and settings in the movie, though, haha.

Also, did you know that the dude who plays the titular character in Rudy also plays Sam in the LOTR films? I didn’t realize it until after the film was over, when I was looking it up on IMDb (because that’s what I do), and I saw the cast list.

Top: Zumiez

Jacket: Adidas (thrifted)

Shorts: H&M

August 24, 2017 – In Which Meilin Looks Like a Southerner For Once (OOTD #94)

Published on August 26, 2017 by lensembledujour2 Comments

How Southern am I?

Well, for starters, this dress is Lilly Pulitzer.

It’s funny – for the longest time, I’ve detested the title of “Southerner.” I hate sweet tea, country music, and I don’t have the accent (actually, ask some of my friends, and they think I sound vaguely British – but I don’t).

For context, my father is from Philadelphia and my mother is from Chicago, so neither of them are really “Southerners,” and they made no attempt to raise me as one. Even in my elementary school (which I visited recently – check out the blog I wrote about it) , most people were not really Southern into culture, despite the fact that we were in a rural part of Kentucky. I might have had one friend growing up who had the stereotypical accent.

But when I moved to Lexington in seventh grade, everything changed – suddenly, everyone had that “Southern belle” quality about them. All the girls wore Vineyard Vines and carried Lilly Pulitzer planners and got excited about going to University of Kentucky football games in the fall.

Now, I have an appreciation for Southern culture, don’t get me wrong – I love Lilly Pulitzer (in moderation), I think fried chicken is delicious, and I love how the people all smile at you when you pass them on the street. But that was never me, and I think that was mostly because it was never my parents either. They were city people, and even though I’ve never lived in a real city, I think I am too – or at the very least, will be someday.

So it was weird when I came here to Notre Dame and there were actual city people here, actual people who could claim to be from cool places like New York and Chicago and LA. Southerners are actually a minority here – maybe because the snow that South Bend gets scares them off – and I find that I’m actually missing them quite a bit. It’s odd because for so long, I couldn’t wait to get out of the South (for the record, Kentucky’s not even that Southern – it’s not like the Deep South), and now, I want to go back. I still don’t call it “home” – the closest thing to that would be New York, and I’ve never lived there – but I felt myself craving a little Southern charm here in South Bend.

So today, I wore my Lilly Pulitzer dress in honor of being a pseudo-Southerner and kind-of-sort-of-missing it. It’s bright and colorful and feminine, everything a typical Southern belle girl at my high school was. I don’t know if any of the South Bend people were impressed with it (one girl told me I looked like a stylish kindergarten teacher…I think that was a compliment?), but it reminded me of Kentucky and that’s all I needed.

Dress: Lilly Pulitzer (thrifted)

Jacket: vintage

August 23, 2017 – Bringing Shoreditch to South Bend (OOTD #93)

Published on August 25, 2017 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Can you believe it’s already been basically two months since I was in London?

Yep – on this day, two months ago, I was preparing myself for my trip and beginning to plan out what I wanted to do with Amanda. That all already feels so far away, though – like another lifetime.

In a way, it feels like I’ve passed through at least two separate lifetimes since I was in London. My time working at the hardware store over the summer was definitely a unique experience, and of course, Welcome Weekend at Notre Dame was another thing entirely. London, my summer job, Welcome Weekend – they literally only happened within about two months of each other, but I’m pretty sure I was a different person entirely during each era.

Now classes have begun, which feels like another existence in and of itself, completely separate from Welcome Weekend. I remember complaining a lot during Welcome Weekend about all the activities we had to do and all the forced socialization. Now I realize I should have been grateful for the time when it was just freshmen on campus whose only job was to mingle and get acclimated to life.

Because, of course, now I still have the job of mingling and getting acclimated to campus life, but with the added responsibility of being a semi-adult who attends six stress-indcucing classes.

So today, my second day of class, I decided to bring back a little bit of the London Meilin, the one who had a mean fake British accent and could use the Underground like a local. I bought this denim dress in a thrift shop in Shoreditch, which was probably one of my favorite days of the entire trip. And that’s saying something, given how London was perhaps some of my favorite days of my life.

For real though, just wearing my Shoreditch dress made me feel a little more relaxed and at home here at Notre Dame. I wasn’t quite able to transport myself back to London and the mentality I had there, but it helped.

One of these days, I’ll really have to make a point of taking a day trip into Chicago. South Bend is, if I’m honest, pretty lame as a city (even more so than Lexington), and I’m craving the urban vibe. I think there’s a way I can grab a shuttle into a train station, and then catch a train into the city. At some point when I’m not laden with homework (Will there ever be a point when I’m not laden with homework? Hopefully lol), I need to figure that out.

Dress: Blitz (vintage)

Top: Free People

August 22, 2017 – Class Act (OOTD #92)

Published on August 24, 2017 by lensembledujour5 Comments

Welp, I started classes today.

Here’s the good news – I made it to all of my classes! I didn’t trip over my feet! I got to talk to new people and made a new friend who was willing to take photos of my outfits! I went to bed at a decent time!

But here’s the bad news – my Chinese history class is intimidating! I have 70 pages of reading to do in my textbook within two days! I spent almost all of my spare time today doing homework and had no time to do anything else!

Here’s more good news though – I overall feel okay. I finished the 70 pages of reading, even though it took forever, and I think it’s manageable if I adjust my note-taking strategies a bit.

In the end, it was a positive day. I’m exhausted, and I’m trying my best not to think about how I have three more classes to get to tomorrow with even more work and likely more intense reading sessions, but that’s fine. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

On another note, I really liked my outfit today! I’ve known for months that I wanted to do a sheer top with embroidered flower appliqués as my “first day of school” outfit, and I’m happy with how the concept turned out.

I actually saw this top for the first time in London in an Oxford St. Zara – and I didn’t buy it. Not for myself, at least; it went to my best friend, Jane. It just looked so much like her, and I couldn’t keep it for myself when it was clearly meant for her.

Luckily, there’s this amazing little app called Poshmark for buying secondhand clothes, and I was able to pick up a black version for myself even after I went back to the States. I paired it with another Zara skirt from Poshmark, this one which I bought a year ago for my first day of senior year. In the end, it made for an edgy, but still feminine, Zara-centric outfit that focused on my favorite color – black.

I love first day of school outfits, and I hate them at the same time. Everyone gets dressed a little nicer for the first day of school, so it’s a little harder to stand out, but at the same time, everyone is paying a little closer attention to appearances, so you want to look nice. Hopefully, I was able to make a good impression with my outfit today of a stylish, confident young woman, or, at the very least, someone who makes a conscious effort to look different.

Or maybe I just looked weird. Honestly, I’d be okay with that too.

Anyway, I really ought to be getting to bed – want to get a decent amount of sleep for classes and all. 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!

Top: Zara

Skirt: Zara

Bralette: Aerie

August 20, 2017 – The Blog Post Of Posing With My Hand On My Sunglasses (OOTD #90)

Published on August 22, 2017 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Look, posing for photos is hard.

The best poses are dynamic, but dynamic poses draw attention, which is not always what I want, especially when I’m doing my best to fly under the radar at my new school and not make too much a fool of myself. That’s why I wound up with a ton of photos with my hand on my sunglasses today – it’s a simple pose isn’t embarrassing. I’m already a freshman, which is just about the dorkiest thing to be; I don’t also want to be a dorky freshman posing dramatically for photos in front of my class buildings.

But I can’t help it – the buildings here at Notre Dame are so pretty. I want to pose with all of them and take photos, strange though that may be. Maybe things will change once I’ve gone inside some of these buildings and begin to associate them with the stresses of school, but for now, I’m still in awe of the beauty of this place.

Today was the day my parents – all the parents, really – left. I love those guys, and I’m unspeakably appreciative of all they’ve done for me, so it was far from easy to say goodbye. I did though, and so did they, with very minimal fanfare involved. That was the best way, I think – prolonging things would have served no purpose.

On another note, with my parents went their photography skills and non-judgmental nature, so for a few hours there, I had absolutely no means of doing my pictures for my blog post. Thankfully, one of my three roommates has been cool enough to agree to do my OOTD photos for now, at least until I can hunt down someone else who’s willing to do it consistently and long-term.

Also thankfully, this awesome roommate has some pretty sweet camera skills – and an iPhone 7 that takes those cool portraits with the blurry backgrounds. I’ve always wanted to do those things!

But for real, I can’t keep bothering my roommate to take pictures of me everyday – she’s busy and I’m sure she doesn’t want to be bothered to do work for my blog when I’m not paying her. I’m considering now buying a tripod and a remote and trying to do photos on my own? I’ve heard of some fashion bloggers who do that.

Do you have any suggestions for what I should do about taking my pictures? Are any of you fashion bloggers who take their own photos – and if so, what’s your technique? I’ll take any advice you can give me!

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!

Blouse: ASOS

Sweater: Unknown (thrifted)

Skirt: Forever21

August 19, 2017 – How To Wear A Generic T-Shirt That Your Dorm Makes You Wear (OOTD #89)

Published on August 21, 2017 by lensembledujour7 Comments

Notre Dame, day 2.

Welcome Weekend is a strange experience – it’s almost like a summer camp. Everyone walks around in packs, led by older and wiser mentors who direct you where to go, no one really has any friends so it’s a constant stream of “Hi, my name is ___ and I’m from ____”, and, in the case of Notre Dame, you are even forced to wear matching t-shirts with your dorm name.

So my dorm got this pretty generic baby blue design with bright yellow accents – by no definition ugly, but by no definition very interesting. It reminds me of those Simply Southern shirts that all the preppy girls in my high school would wear with leggings and Hunter boots. In one sense, it’s very nice because it allows you to find people from your dorm no matter what event you’re at, but in another, well, it’s kind of hard to stand out in terms of fashion.

But I like to try, so this is my attempt at making my ND dorm room t-shirt into a more interesting outfit than just a t-shirt and shorts (which is what pretty much everyone went for). I began with the t-shirt and shorts template, but then I added my absolute favorite jacket – this tan utility coat with a ton of pockets – over top and a Notre Dame baseball on my head.

In particular, I liked the way the tan of the jacket picked up the gold in the hat – I’m going to have to remember this combo for game days when I need something school spirit-y and still fashionable to wear. One of my roommates apparently already has all of her tailgating outfits picked out, while meanwhile, I’m still struggling to figure out wha I’m going to wear tomorrow.

My parents were still around for this day, but not for much longer. I’m definitely going to miss them – and their photography skills. I really hate to bother people about taking pictures of me (it comes off as super narcissistic, right?), but I think I’m just going to have to go for it. I love this blog and I don’t want to give it up (heck, I’m writing this one at 2:30 in the morning, after I finished all my homework and the welcome activities for the day), but there’s no way for me to get decent quality OOTD photos without a photographer.

For real – why isn’t there? It’s the 21st century and we still have to rely upon other people to take photos of us like animals. I need like, a remote-controlled drone that I can set up to follow me around and snap pictures of my outfit.

If that existed it, I would give it inventor all of my money. And then demand that he or she invent a way to solve the world’s second most pressing problem – coffee grinds in the bottom of your cup and Leggos that you step on in the middle of the night.

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!

Jacket: Forever21

Shirt: Notre Dame

Hat: Notre Dame

Shorts: Abercrombie

August 18, 2017- First Day at ND (OOTD #88)

Published on August 20, 2017 by lensembledujour12 Comments

Today I did what was, just a few days ago, practically unthinkable to me – moved into my college dorm room.

This was probably the bit I was most excited for in the whole beginning college ordeal. I’ve (or should I say, my parents) been buying things in preparation for this day for weeks. Granted, I’ve got some friends who have been preparing for months, and good for them, but I’m more of a “fly by the seat of your pants” and “live in a state of denial whenever a big change is approaching” type of girl, so my excitement didn’t have that much time to fester.

But it did anyway, and every time I looked at my handprinted Indian bedding it festered (there’s your Scrabble word of the day) a little more. That’s really what got me through the ugly packing process followed by the 6 hour car drive up to South Bend on Thursday.

I’m not sure how I feel about this whole living situation at Notre Dame – I’m in a two-room quad, meaning there’s a little tiny back bedroom, where our four beds and four wardrobes sit, and then a much larger social space, with our desks and not much else. I actually don’t mind the space part, since I’ve managed to fit pretty much all the clothes I’d been wanting to bring (it’s still only about half of my full wardrobe), I’m just a little apprehensive about living with 3 other girls.

People exhaust me, and I need time by myself every day in order to restore my energy. How is that going to happen in this quad? I’m sure there will be plenty of secluded places for going off and studying in peace, but I really need a quiet, safe place where I can rest. I’m sure it’ll all turn out okay, the question is just when.

Another key issue: who’s going to take my OOTD photos now that I’m here? Fingers crossed that one of my roommates will be chill with it. Otherwise….maybe it’s time to invest in a tripod? Or make friends with an actual photographer? 😂

We’ll see. Hopefully it’s not long before I can connect with the artsy kids and we can mull over our own pretentious, artistic endeavors together.

On another note, it was perhaps a bad decision to wear a long white coat on an 80 degree day when you and your parents are hauling boxes across campus and up three flights of stairs, but I can’t help it – I just really want to look nice while I’m here. It’s not even so much the fact that it’s my first day on campus and I want to impress people; on the contrary, I feel like the first week of school is a terrible time to bust out your nicest outfits, since everyone’s distracted by the first day of school stuff. Plus, they’re probably a little nicer dressed than usual too. so it’s more difficult to stand out.

#PrayforMei – Lord knows I need it.

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!

Jacket: Vintage

Skirt: H&M

Bralette: Aerie

August 15, 2017 – See You Kentucky, It’s Been Weird (OOTD #87)

Published on August 19, 2017 by lensembledujour9 Comments

But it’s been a good weird…I think?

It’s hard to believe it, but before long, I’ll be beginning classes at Notre Dame. By August 18, I’ll be in South Bend, IN, by August 19, I’ll be moved into my dorm, and by August 22, I’ll be starting my first class.

Not to be cliché (but I am being cliché, and that’s totally fine with me here), but I feel like the time between the start of senior year and now has just flown by. How does that work – time seeming to move so quickly in retrospect but pass so slowly as it’s happening?

It’s hard to imagine myself as a college student, living in a dorm room with 3 other people, sharing a bathroom with like 15, and a campus with 10,000. So I’m not going to – not yet. There will be time for me to worry about my classes and my rooming situation and making friends, but now is the time for denial.

So nope, I’m not really leaving Kentucky, and these balloons aren’t really for my going away, and I didn’t wear this outfit because I wanted to look nice for going out to get ice cream with Amanda and Zach for the last time. It’s just a normal summer day in Lexington – hanging out with friends, being a little festive, and being extra fashionable.

For real though, I do rather like this outfit – I think the delicate white lace top looks particularly nice with the white wrap skirt and my white hair. Maybe I’m biased, being both the creator and the wearer of the outfit, but I like to think I’m honest with myself regarding how I look. I know when an ensemble looks good, and I know when it doesn’t, and I try not to act like things are any different.

The balloons, of course, add a nice touch. My mother brought them home “for me” – actually, she got them for a picnic she’s having at work, but I decided to pretend they were mine. Surprisingly, it’s not easy posing with balloons in photos, as any even slight breeze means they’re floating in front of your face or off in some other awkward location. I’m glad they were there though – added a nice pop of color to the shots.

Welp, guess that’s it for today! I’ll see you in the next blog post, when I’ll definitely still be living in Lexington, and I’ll definitely still be with all my friends, and I’ll definitely still be enjoying a lazy summer! Nothing out of the ordinary going on here!

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!

Top: Altar’d State

Skirt: Pitaya

August 14, 2017 – Walgreens Photos (OOTD #86)

Published on August 18, 2017August 19, 2017 by lensembledujour2 Comments

There are two relevancies of the title “Walgreens photos” to this blog post – 1) I had some photos to print at Walgreens for a little project that I’ll show off a little later, and 2) I literally took my OOTD photos outside of Walgreens.

Is Walgreens a glamorous photo location? Well, no. It’s no Shoreditch or abandoned school building, and you’re more likely than at Shoreditch or an abandoned school building to good weird glances from people who don’t know why you’re posing for photos in front of a drugstore.

But what does Walgreens have? Well, a pretty dope two-toned wall that complemented my sweater well and a praying mantis.

Here’s the thing about taking photos for a fashion blog – you don’t want your background to overwhelm your outfit. That’s really the important part here; cool backgrounds are neat and all but you can’t let them distract from the “fashion” bit of your fashion blog. The best backgrounds make your outfit pop, such as the red in the Walgreens wall that pulls from the orange in my sweater, and aren’t so busy that they overwhelm you. Grass and trees tend to do this, especially if you’re wearing a cool color like green.

Am I saying that I should be the center of attention for my photos?

Well…yeah? I guess.

But not all the time! I often like to include pictures of my friends here – like this praying mantis I found chilling on the wall next to me. This dude was absolutely huge, probably the size of my fist. He didn’t seem to mind me standing near him, and even posed for a photo or two.

Speaking of friends, the reason why I went to Walgreens in the first place was to have some photos of my friends printed for a little photo board I wanted to put together for my dorm room. I put a photo below – I think it turned out really well! My hope is that I’ll be able to add more photos of my new friends that I make in college.So I guess that’s it for today! 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!