fall – Page 14 – L'ensemble du jour

September 28, 2017 – #Artsy (OOTD #123)

Published on October 4, 2017February 14, 2018 by lensembledujour3 Comments

I’d just like to let you know that as I’m sitting here writing this blog, I’m listening to a YouTube video called “the music of memes,” so that’s where the money my parents are spending on my tuition is going.

Anyway, other than getting distracted and wasting my life on the Internet, I’ve been spending a lot of time recently reading. I think that’s about the only kind of homework I receive anymore. I can’t decide if I like this development or not – in one sense, it’s nice not never having to pull out my hair over math problems or chemistry formulas. In other sense, it’s kind of quiet and boring spending so much time in isolation looking at words on a page.

What I probably miss most deeply though is having an art class. I wanted to be placed in one this semester, but it didn’t work out into my schedule. At first, I didn’t think I would even notice the absence – in fact, at the end of high school, I felt like I was getting kind-of burnt out on art classes, and that I needed a break from them.

But alas, I was wrong. Without question, I need art in my life. I mean, it’s not like I’m dying or anything, and it’s also not like I am completely without it either – I do like to doodle a little in boring lecture classes – but I can definitely feel its absence.

Notre Dame’s a lovely school, full of brilliant and talented people, but for whatever reason, it’s kind-of lacking in art kids. I discussed this issue a little in a previous blog, in which I was the most goth kid on campus by simply wearing all-black and Wednesday Adams braids, so I’ll save you the repetition here. Let’s just say that, while I’m very happy here and wouldn’t change a thing about that, I am the teensiest bit jealous of my friends who went to large state schools where the arts programs are more prominent.

It’s alright, though. I’ll make it into my art class next semester, and then I’ll have to find more things to complain about to fill space for these blogs. If you couldn’t tell by the My Chemical Romance t-shirt and billowy burgundy scarf, I consider myself quite the tortured soul.

(Erm…that was meant to be sarcastic, by the way. I assume you could probably tell that, but like, just in case…)

Anyway, my video about the music of memes is over, so I guess I ought to get back to work now. 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!

Jacket: Forever21

Shirt: Hot Topic

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.

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!

Shirt: Altar’d State

Pants: The LOFT

September 26, 2017 – Vaguely 60s (OOTD #121)

Published on October 2, 2017October 2, 2017 by lensembledujour6 Comments

I love vintage-inspired fashion.

Take a little glance through the “vintage” tag here on this blog and you’ll see – there’s no shortage of old clothes in my wardrobe. I love the exhilaration of a hunt for a good piece in the bargain bin of a second-hand shop; alternatively, I also love the feeling of walking into a trendy vintage shop full of high-end designer items. There are so many ways to enjoy vintage clothing; there’s no “one” way of doing vintage.

Unlike, say, trendy fashion, in which there is usually has a very clear and defined method of wearing the trend, vintage fashion throws the rules out the window. You can do whatever you want, as long as you make it work.

And how does one make it work? My preference is to pair them with contemporary pieces to create a remixed look that’s stylish without being too basic. Current trends tend to borrow from history, so, given the right vintage piece, it’s no trouble at all to make it look modern.

Take this outfit, for example. This dress comes from the greatest vintage fashion market I’ve ever seen – the Brick Lane Market in Shoreditch, London. I talked about it extensively on the blog from day that I visited there, and I have been talking about it extensively ever since. I’m pretty sure I’m going to still be talking about it when I’m on my deathbed.

Anyway, the dress is vintage, but the styling is not. My bag, thigh-high socks, sunglasses, and shoes are all contemporary, and thus, the outfit doesn’t come off as a 60s costume.

For extra flair, I went for the closest thing to a 60s-inspired Bridgette Bardot ponytail that I could get without a curling iron and without teasing my hair. In other words – it was a pretty sad excuse for a Bridgette Bardot ponytail, but it’s the best I could do. Do I get my participation medal now?

TL; DR: Vintage pieces are such a great way to stand out from the standard fashion trends, while still being stylish. I like them and you should too.

Dress: Vintage

September 23, 2017 – How Do You Like Them Apples? (OOTD #120)

Published on October 1, 2017 by lensembledujour7 Comments

You know…I have absolutely no idea what that references.

Obviously, I’m sitting here in front of a computer, so I could totally look it up and solve the mystery (well, the mystery to me anyway), but I don’t really feel like it. It kind of spoils the magic of the thing. Ignorance is bliss, as they say…though I’m pretty sure that’s not how that saying usually is usually meant…

Anyway, I’m back with the photos that I wasn’t able to post on Friday! For a more detailed description of the conundrum, you can read my post from a few days ago, but the short version is that I had to post my outfit from September 25 before my outfit from September 23 because I hadn’t received the Sept 23 photos from the photographer yet. That’s all behind us now, though – on to the description of my apple-picking adventures.

As I mentioned in the Saturday Musings + Coffee post from September 23, I went out with a group of girls from my residence hall to pick apples at a local farm. And you know what? It was absolutely heavenly.

Okay…well…maybe it not. It was swelteringly hot, and that kind of ruined the “heavenly” effect, but it was still a lot of fun, especially considering that September 23 was actually the second day of fall. And what better place to spend the beginning of fall than a farm?

Maybe a farm with air conditioning, but that’s beside the point.

It wasn’t a huge farm, not like the kinds I’m used to in Kentucky, but it was charming anyway. As far as I could tell, they had a couple of rows of apple trees, some grape vines, and maybe some other fruits that weren’t currently in season. No pumpkin patch, corn maze, or hay rides, unfortunately. Guess I’ll have to wait for fall break when I’m back in Lexington for that.

But what they did have in abundance were good photo-taking opportunities, and you can bet that I took advantage of as many of those as possible. My roommate, Mariana (in the orange dress next to me in the second photo below) had her DSLR camera with her, meaning I was bothering her every three minutes to take pictures of me. I think she was perhaps more interested in taking pictures of the scenery and the plants…but she was still willing to indulge my narcissism every once in a while, and for that I’m grateful.

I’ll be sure to get her a nice Christmas present or something.

I wish we could have spent longer there, but sadly, the sun was getting higher in the sky and it was getting hotter with every passing minute. Honestly, you can probably even see the beads of sweat on my face in some of these photos. It’s okay though – it just makes me all the more excited for fall weather and for the chance to go home and do even more fall weather things.

Jacket: Lilly Pulitzer

Top: ASOS

Shorts: PacSun

Photo creds: Mariana and her lovely DSLR camera

Saturday Musings + Coffee – First Pumpkin Spice of the Season

Published on September 30, 2017September 30, 2017 by lensembledujour1 Comment

Call me basic, but there’s nothing more I love in the fall season than a good pumpkin spice coffee.

I distinctly remember the first time I ever got one – I was a freshman in high school, and I had just started using Twitter. I had followed one of those “Basic White Girl” humor accounts, and I started seeing a lot of mentions to the mythical pumpkin spice latte. At that time, I wasn’t a huge coffee drinker, but I liked it well enough, so, one day when I was out with my parents in early fall, hitting up some neighborhood yard sales, I decided to stop in Starbucks and give one a shot.

I even remember what I was wearing – an oversized knit sweater from Hollister, black leggings, and Uggs – that was how earth-shattering of an experience drinking this coffee was for me.

The thing is, I didn’t even like it that much. Like, it was good enough, but in terms of decadent Starbucks coffees, I still think their Christmastime salted caramel latte is 10 times better.

I think what was such a big deal to me, was that it was one of my first experiences buying into an image. I didn’t necessarily like the pumpkin spice lattes themselves, but I did like the image of a Starbucks-guzzling, PINK yoga pants-wearing, messy bun-sporting basic teenage girl. Maybe it had something to do with being a freshman in high school who was still enchanted with the concept of being in high school.

At any rate, pumpkin spice lattes have since become a staple in my fall lifestyle. I still don’t love them, but I like to have one or two before Thanksgiving rolls around.

Today, I had my first one of the season – though actually, it wasn’t a real latte…it was just a pumpkin spice-flavored black coffee from a café at Notre Dame called Waddick’s. It wasn’t quite as good as the legendary Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, but it it was half the price of Starbucks, so it worked for me.

You know what else works for me? White backgrounds for photos. Seriously, I love them, so much so that I walked a whole extra 10 minutes after I got my coffee to the library so I could sit at a white table and take pictures of it. On the way, I picked some flower petals to add some color to my photos, and I had a nice little photoshoot right there in the library foyer. Call me extra.

Anyway, it’s probably time for me to get back to work now. We’ve got a home game tonight at five, which means that my entire evening is basically going to be consumed by football. You’d think my professors would let up on homework for football weekends, considering that this is a huge football school…but no.

Two weeks to fall break. I can do this.

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.

September 6, 2017 – Topknots and Tan (OOTD #105)

Published on September 12, 2017February 14, 2018 by lensembledujour5 Comments

I owe this hairstyle to my dear friend, Jane.

A long, long time ago, when I was just a little 13 year-old who could use a flat iron but couldn’t French braid her hair to save her life, Jane taught me the way of the topknot.

I don’t even know exactly where Jane learned to do the hairstyle – given the time period, it was probably a copy of Seventeen borrowed from the local library, or maybe a YouTube video from macbarbie07. At any rate, she learned it – the way you twist your hair onto your head, leaving a tuft of it poofed around your crown for volume, then pin it in place with as many bobby pins as possible – and then she taught the ancient art to me.

Since then, the topknot has always been in rotation in my hairstyle catalogue. In particular, I find it useful for days when my hair is a few days old – too dirty to be left down but not dirty enough to warrant a shower. The only time it doesn’t work is when my roots have grown in several inches…but nothing really works with my hair then.

But what about the other part of this blog’s title – the “tan?” Actually, I probably wouldn’t have even called it “tan” but for the need for alliteration; personally, I consider it more of a camel.

A while back, I wrote a blog post dedicated solely to my love of camel – especially when paired with black – likening the color combination to a luxury sedan. My thoughts have not changed since then. Camel and black is still probably my favorite color palette – though I may have to rethink my use of it now that I’m here at Notre Dame, where I think just about every building is the same golden beige color.

Too much of a good thing isn’t good, right?

Jacket: Hollister

Sweater: Forever21

August 30, 2017 – Overslept and Overdressed (OOTD #99)

Published on August 31, 2017February 14, 2018 by lensembledujourLeave a comment

I experienced yet another college “first” on Wednesday – oversleeping an alarm.

Thankfully, it didn’t end up having any bearing on my actual day – I still made it to class on time, got to work out for a little in the morning, and had enough time to get dressed and make myself look presentable. Still, I was definitely in a more rushed mode than usual, if the fact that I wore leggings is any indication.

Wednesdays are one of my more busy days – I have two classes back-to-back that begin at 9:30 and end at 11:30, followed by few hours break, followed up a lecture at 2:00 that ends at 3:15. It’s not bad – certainly less strenuous than high school – but it’s still a far cry from my Friday schedule, which begins at 9:30 and ends at 11:30, meaning my weekend begins before noon even hits.

This particular Wednesday though, I didn’t have as much of an opportunity to rest as usual, as I ended up working on a paper in the library with a friend from the time my second class ended to when my third began (allowing for a little break for lunch), meaning I didn’t get back to my dorm until late in the afternoon. Then, I had a little time to work on some reading and homework before I had to head back out again at 7:00, taking dinner by myself before heading out for a club meeting that lasted basically until 10:00.

But so far, I’m liking college more than high school. There’s more homework but fewer classes, which (right now) is something I appreciate. Granted, I’ve also fallen asleep while doing homework several times now, which has been super fun, but at least it’s been while sitting in a bean bag. Honestly, the bean bag may be more comfortable than my bunk bed.

As for today’s outfit, you might notice it’s not entirely different from one I posted rather early on in my blog-writing career (you know, which began a whopping four months ago). I wasn’t a huge fan with how it turned out, though, in terms of pictures, as that was from a time when I was still taking my own pictures by setting up my iPhone with a timer. Thus, I decided to remix it, taking what I did rather enjoy about the outfit – the combination of a simple black pair of leggings with the bright, colorful top – adding some new elements – the navy blazer – and then photographing it with an actual camera.

Was that my actual thought process? Or maybe I was just lazy this morning and unconsciously chose an outfit that resembled one I had worn before because I was lacking in creativity…you decide. 😉

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!

Jacket: Chaps

Top: Pitaya