Tag: lexington

January 9, 2018 – Strange Requests (OOTD #197)

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

“Hey, uh…would you mind taking some pictures in front of your garage door of my outfit? It’s just the uh…light is fading and I need pictures from today…”

That might have been one of the strangest requests I’ve ever made for the sake of this blog. But sometimes it’s 5:30 at night in the middle of winter and the sun is setting and you haven’t had any pictures taken of your outfit yet – and if you’re like me and you do outfits of the day every day, that’s a problem.

So I swallowed my pride and made the awkward request, tolerated the awkward look from my friend Amanda when she repeated “you want me to take pictures of you…in front of my garage?”

She agreed, thankfully – not that I really expected her to say no, but it could’ve been worse. I’ve had a few times at Notre Dame when I’ve asked someone to do my pictures for me and they’ve actually had a class to get to, so they agree but with reluctance. That’s always super awkward.

I’m not looking forward to next semester in the sense that I’m going to have to find all new people who are free during my lunch break to indulge my narcissism and take pictures of me. There’s that sort of weird conversation where I have to bring up that I have a fashion blog, and they give me that “oh, so you’re that pretentious type…” look, and then I have to prove that I’m not that pretentious type. Or admit that I am but that I’m still a tolerable presence.

In other news, Amanda and I went to the outlet mall in Kentucky, and it was a nice little day trip. We went on a weekday afternoon, so it was super quiet and almost eerie – but not in a bad way. Made me want to be a retired old lady so I can go to malls on weekday afternoons whenever I want.

January 7, 2018 – Average Teen at the Mall (OOTD #196)

Published on by lensembledujour3 Comments

The mall used to be one of my favorite places in the world.

Maybe it sort of was for every middle school girl – you know, when you’re in that phase when you’re just starting to shop for yourself, so getting to pick out clothes and put together your own outfits is a whole new experience? I distinctly remember getting really excited when my mother would agree to take me to the St. Matthew’s mall in Louisville because it was one of the only places to have both a Forever21 and a Hollister, which back then were my two favorite stores.

While malls aren’t as cool and interesting as they used to be for me, I do still rather like to shop. I find, now, that I tend to buy fewer things at a time – as a kid, I could go on a mall shopping spree and come out with five complete new outfits, but now, I tend to only buy a few things at a time.

Uh…minimalist living, I guess?

Alright, so not really – I love my excessive possessions and consumerist lifestyle as much as any American – but I do think I’m getting a touch better. Before I went to college, I actually went through my closet and got rid of a ton of stuff, which was something I hadn’t done for a while.

In fairness, I do believe I wear most of my clothes, even if they don’t get worn often. Take, for example this jacket – it was my dad’s originally, but he handed it down to me, meaning it’s huge and barely fits and I probably should have let him just give it to Goodwill. Regardless, I really liked the oversized look, and even though I have to roll up the sleeves like eight times and can’t move my arms normally when I wear it, I still choose wear it sometimes. I would just hate to get caught in a situation where I had an outfit that just needed an oversized denim jacket and I had given it away because I didn’t wear it often, you know?

…and that’s why I will perpetually live in clutter and disarray!

Thanks for reading, and 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: thrifted

Sweater: thrifted

January 6, 2018 – Amelia Earhart, Is That You? (OOTD #195)

Published on by lensembledujour1 Comment

Ha, I wish.

Sadly, I am no pilot – I can scarcely drive a car, can you imagine me trying to fly a plane? I’m confused enough with a vehicle that turns and accelerates; I’d be a wreck in a vehicle that turns, accelerates, and changes elevation. Probably literally.

So while I will likely never live out my dream of flying an airplane – or driving a car without crippling anxiety – I can at least dress like I do, right? And by dress like a pilot, I mean wear a brown leather jacket and sunglasses.

As much as I’d love to break out one of those cool aviator hats with the goggles, that would probably take things into the costume territory, which would have been slightly inappropriate for the day’s adventures like grocery shopping and putting away Christmas decorations.

On the plus side, such everyday aviator chic as what I sported in this outfit is not likely to end up with me disappearing in the Pacific Ocean. I’m also probably not going to go down in history as a beloved female pilot and feminist icon, but you know –  you can’t win them all.

I’m a little sad I didn’t have my actual aviator sunglasses on me for these pictures, but I left them at school and I won’t be flying back there for another week. No, I will not be the pilot – I’d like to actually make it back to school rather than crash landing in a frozen cornfield somewhere in Indiana.

Thanks for reading, and 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: Altar’d State

Shirt: Free People

Jeans: American Eagle

January 5, 2018 – Welcome To The Matrix (OOTD #194)

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

Red pill or blue pill?

I actually didn’t much like the Matrix films; the first one was alright, had some good action scenes, but the ones afterwards were so bloated and wordy that I think I fell asleep halfway through the second one and I skipped the last one. To be honest, I can’t actually remember which pill was the one you’re supposed to take to go back to normal life and which one takes you to the Matrix – talk about a fake fan.

If nothing else, the Matrix series certainly had style though, in a leather duster coat and sunglasses kind of way. And I feel like this outfit is definitely something of a Matrix-y style – for good or for ill.

For good in the sense that it has that post-apocoyptic cyberpunk feel, which was honestly probably the best part of the Matrix films, and for ill in the sense that I feel like my haircut plus this jacket plus the shades gives off a 90s vibe.

Is it retro or just dated? Honestly, I’m not sure.

At any rate, it is all black, and I do love an all-black outfit. I think I’m trying to make up for having worn so many colorful outfits during Christmastime; I can only do so much color during the cold months at once, you know? I’ll bring out my bright colors again come spring.

Thanks for reading, and 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: thrifted

Sweater: Francesca’s

January 4, 2018 – Do The Locomotion (OOTD #193)

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

Still haven’t learnt my lesson about playing near train tracks, I guess.

This lovely set was located somewhere not far from the Keeneland stables in Versailles, Kentucky. My friend, Amanda, had been there before, so she suggested we go as a cool spot for photos. She was right.

We were planning on going out at 9:00AM for the lighting but, being lousy teenagers whose only greater love than pictures of ourselves is sleeping in, we ended up going out more like 10:30. From there, it took us about another hour to actual find the place – as it turned out, Amanda had been before, but she didn’t really remember the location.

It was all alright though – country roads in Kentucky make for pretty drives, so neither of us were complaining. Amanda’s a fun driver as well, or as fun as she can be in her Prius. I’m glad I’m too short to see the speedometer on her car though. I’m pretty sure it often reaches numbers much higher than what the speed limit calls for.

Several wrong turns and a consultation with an actual physical map later (who knew? they still exist), and we finally found this spot of train tracks over the water that we had heard of.

It was a pretty easy climb to get up to the tracks, but once we were up there, it was significantly more nerve-racking. For one, the wooden ties were each like, six inches apart, which wouldn’t be a big deal if the tracks were just on the ground except, you know, they weren’t. They were ten feet off the ground, and at the bottom of the drop was a shallow creek. A wrong step would mean a potentially broken ankle.

There was also the what if a train comes and we actually have to jump into the water bit, which could also result in some broken bones, depending on how deep the creek actually was. I guess, also there was the what if the train comes and we actually get hit by it or something bit, which would have been a lot more than broken bones.

Basically, the outdoors are dangerous and I should probably just stay inside and never go out again.

Thankfully no one died and no one broke their ankle and no train ever came, meaning the only outdoors-related trauma we encountered was the miserable cold. Seriously, it was like 15 degrees out and snowing. That’s nippy.

Forgetting the cold and the slightly dangerous location, this was probably one of my favorite LEDJ locations to shoot at. We got some really fun stuff at a distance on top of the train bridge, as well as under the bridge and by a nearby horse farm. Honestly, these photos are probably up there with Shoreditch and my Dad’s and my canoe trip as some of my all-time favorites.

Thanks for reading, and 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!

Sweater: Forever21

Saturday Musings + Coffee – Fickle Flatlays

Published on by lensembledujour3 Comments

Flatlays are hard to make.

I do them both for these posts and for the sake of having something other than just pictures of my face for my Instagram. I do find that they’re worth the effort, though they don’t get nearly as many likes as my outfit posts – it would just be boring to have a feed filled with nothing of pictures of me, so the flatlays break up the monotony.

They also look very nice on my Instagram page in terms of aesthetics, which, to me, is very important. I know there are some fashion bloggers out there who can do well with nothing but posting pictures of their outfits, and good for them, but I feel like maintaining an aesthetically pleasing feed is just as important.

You’ve got to be able to scroll on someone’s Instagram page and be struck with how pretty the colors and patterns all work together without giving each post more than a half-second glance. I mean, sometimes that’s all you get on Instagram – a half-second of someone’s time – so everything needs to look beautiful from a glimpse.

So flatlays are significantly less “authentic” snapshots of my life than my outfit posts – I mean, I do wear all of those outfits, but for flatlays, I usually just set them out, take pictures of them, and then put them away.

Because let’s be honest – I never have this many pretty things laid out prettily on a pretty background at once. I’ve never even used some of those things – the Blick Art materials book is only there because I liked the mint color, and the Christmas cactus is actually my mom’s and not mine. I’m significantly less organized than my flatlays would have a person believe, but what else is new?

Thanks for reading, and 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!

January 3, 2018 – The Game Is Afoot (OOTD #192)

Published on by lensembledujour6 Comments

This jacket is giving me Sherlock Holmes vibes, and to be honest, I really don’t mind.

Alternatively, I guess I also look a little like Nancy Drew – another comparison I don’t mind.

I had a detective novel phase as a younger kid brought on by my parents buying me a few Nancy Drew books for Christmas that year. I later graduated to Sherlock Holmes and then some Poe, and that’s about when the mystery phase stopped – simply ran out of time to read anymore. I personally count Harry Potter as something of a mystery series as well, just without the typical mystery story setting.

Anyway, I found this jacket at Goodwill for $5, which is more than a steal considering it’s Ralph Lauren. The fit is also amazing, which isn’t normally something I can say about my Goodwill finds. It’s typically a place more suited to finding oversized sweaters than well-fitting jackets, you know?

I paired it with a camel turtleneck (that I probably were too often…), a black skirt and black tights because apparently color is too much for me. Actually, looking back at the last week’s worth of outfits , it appears that I haven’t really worn much color at all in the last few days. I should probably do something about that tomorrow.

On the plus side, I haven’t fallen back on my old crutch of wearing all black like the 2006 emo kid I once was, so that’s something.

Thanks for reading, and 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: Ralph Lauren (thrifted)

Skirt: Forever21

Sweater: Forever21

January 2, 2018 – Goodwill Glamour (OOTD #191)

Published on by lensembledujour1 Comment

One of the best parts of this whole fashion blog thing is the sheer variety of how many locations I’ve been to trying to find a good background for my photos.

I’ve been from places as glamorous as Abbey Road and the Tower of London to as un-glamorous as a public dumpster. Today’s location, the outside of a local Goodwill, probably ranks up there with the unglamorous locations.

But you wouldn’t necessarily know it’s the outside of a Goodwill unless I told you, and that’s part of the fun of it. It’s something of a challenge trying to find new and unique backgrounds every day to go with my outfit; I can’t just have the plain white of my garage door every day, can I?

It’s been terribly bitter cold recently in Lexington – like, 5 or 10 degrees every morning and only going up to the teens during the day. To do today’s pictures, I threw off my coat for about three minutes to get my dad to do these shots, and as soon as they were done, I put my coat back on as quickly as I could. I guess that’s nothing compared to how cold it is at Notre Dame right now, though. I think it was -15 the other morning.

Speaking of Notre Dame, how about that Citrus Bowl win from the other day? Alright, so admittedly, this isn’t a sports blog, and I have no legitimate insights to offer about their plays. The fourth quarter was certainly exciting though.

Or so I heard. I actually napped through it.

So I’m a lousy Notre Dame fan. So I’ve only ever gone to the football games, and so I didn’t even go to all of those. I still like to wear the clothes and pretend I’m a passionate devotee. If I’m going to be a fake, at least I know it.

Thanks for reading, and 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!

Sweater: PacSun

December 30, 2017 – Resolutionless (OOTD #189)

Published on by lensembledujour1 Comment

Happy New Year’s Eve!

I guess this will be the last blog I publish before 2018. In that case, I hope you have a lovely time partying tonight or whatever it is you’re doing, and I hope you start of 2018 right, whatever that means for you.

My New Year’s Eve will consist of eating an obscenely unhealthy pasta dish I found on Pinterest, and watching old Disney Channel movies with my friends. I’ve got no parties to go to, or else I’d have a more exciting, glittery outfit to show you. As it is, I do have this fun Hollister sweater I found at Goodwill for $4; it may not be glittery enough to pop champagne in, but it’s fuzzy enough to keep warm.

I’m not really one for New Year’s resolutions; I personally feel there’s no need to designate certain goals for yourself at this arbitrary time when you could be striving for improvement at any time during the rest of the year. If I were to set one, though, I guess I should post more and more consistently to this blog.

In fairness, it’s far from my main priority – I do have to put school first – but I definitely could do better. I feel like I’ve got to give myself a little credit, though: 500+ followers on WordPress and 6000+ on Instagram over the course of a few months isn’t half bad. If nothing more, this is a hobby I enjoy, and I enjoy that some of you like to follow along with my hobby.

Anyway, here’s to hoping you have a wonderful 2018, and that you succeed in whatever your resolutions may be. And if you’re like me, and you consider the concept of resolutions that you probably won’t keep inhibitory to progress, then I hope you enjoy not making resolutions and moving on with your life like normal!

Sweater: Hollister (thrifted)

Skirt: Zara (thrifted)

Shirt: the LOFT (thrifted)

December 28, 2017 – Not A Bowling Outfit (OOTD #188)

Published on by lensembledujourLeave a comment

If you’re wondering: yes, I did make it out of bed before 2PM today.

Look at this shirt. Doesn’t it just scream “bowling?” Or maybe “Hawaiian vacation?”

Unfortunately, I did neither of those things yesterday. Instead, I tried to go bowling, just to find there was an hour long wait (on a Thursday night of all times!), followed by driving around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do before finally giving up and going home and watching The Cheetah Girls 2.

That’s all fine and good, but I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t get to go bowling with my bowling shirt on. I mean, honestly – it looks like something straight out of The Big Lebowski. Alternatively, one could also say that I look like I should be selling knockoff Rolexes out of my coat in a dark alley, and that would be equally valid.

Actually, I didn’t buy this shirt with the intent of looking like a bowler or a street vendor a or even a 90s Leonardo DiCaprio – it was inspired by this one girl in my art class my freshman year of high school. She used to always come into school with these really cute,  vintage-y outfits usually consisting of a jacket, some sort of patterned shirt, and leggings. There was some variation of course – a scarf or other added accessories – but it was always very chic.

Also very formulaic, which I was less a fan of, but I’m nitpicking.

Anyway, I have no idea what this girl is up to, or if she’s still wearing the same outfits because she was a few years older than me and graduated my sophomore year, but I guess you could say this outfit is a tribute to her. Also bowling.

Thanks for reading, and 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: Thrifted

Leggings: The LOFT