Tag: louisville

December 21, 2019 – Antique Shop Culture (OOTD #592)

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I used to hate antique shops as a kid.

For one, my parents seemed to want to go all the time. Every time we went to a new city, we had to go to the flea market or the antique mall. I didn’t get it — what was so cool about looking at old junk? And furthermore, why, when we were in a new city or vacation spot, would we bother spending our time at an antique store that sold the same 1970s furniture as all of the other antique stores across the country?

Somewhere along the way in the last 21 years, though, I changed my tune on antique shops. Now, as a piece of old junk myself, I understand the appeal of looking at other pieces of old junk. I am an antique. I relate to antiques now.

I almost never buy anything either! I could spend all day and all of my bank account on vintage clothing, but other antiques — furniture, knick knacks, etc. — I almost never actually purchase. I can’t remember the last “antique” I actually bought. Maybe an old Polaroid camera that I keep on my bookshelf as a decoration?

On this antique shop trip, I didn’t buy anything either. Nonetheless, I had a great time — we went to a few places in Louisville with my grandmother and two New Jersey uncles, including the famous Jo Ley Antiques (which is now closed, unfortunately) and a place called Architectural Salvage, which I’d never been to before.

Architectural Salvage was a great place to visit. I didn’t buy anything, and in fact, the things they sold weren’t really my style (lots of tools and furniture and furniture parts), but it was worth the visit just for the location. It’s this huge, three-building (maybe more?) complex full of staircases and courtyards and stained glass windows. It’s like a maze.

My favorite bit was the top floor of the main house, where the owners kept a bunch of plants — essentially, a makeshift greenhouse. With the stained glass windows that let in just enough sunlight on a cold winter day, it’d make for a great place to curl up with a book and a cup of coffee — if it weren’t a dirty old building full of dust and antiques. Clean it up a little bit, though, and it’d make a really cute café.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this winter break in Kentucky. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Sponsored link: Check out this one-button women’s office wear blazer on dresshead.com!

Jacket: Vintage (thrifted, Foxhouse Vintage)

Turtleneck: The LOFT (thrifted, Goodwill)

Skirt: Forever21

July 18, 2019 – Return to Sender (OOTD #534)

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Spongebob narrator voice: Two months later…

Not to be all “going abroad changed me,”  but it definitely made coming home again weird. For one, everything is so far apart here, and there’s no way to get from one place to another without driving a perusal vehicle. What’s up with that?

Yada yada, save the planet, yada yada, need more public transportation options. We’ve been over this.

You’d think that after being away from home for so long, I’d want to stay home for a little while and recuperate from traveling, but I guess not. Just a few days after flying home from London, I was off again — though this time, to a much less exotic locale.

That’s right, I was heading back to South Bend, Indiana!

Why go to South Bend in the middle of summer vacation? Because my friend, Amanda, and I had gotten tickets for a preseason friendly to be played at the Notre Dame Stadium. Ironically, the team we were going to see — Liverpool FC — comes from the country I had just left. What can I say? I’m just such a big fan that I felt the need to follow them all the way back from Europe to the cornfield wasteland of the Midwest.

I’m actually not a huge football (meaning European football, this context) fan, and I don’t know much about the sport. I was mainly only going because Amanda wanted to. Had I known the date of the game would fall just days after my return to the US, I might not have so eagerly agreed to get back to South Bend.

These photos were actually taken in Louisville, the city where I met Amanda in order to make the drive up to together. I had to get my parents (thanks, Mom and Dad!) to drive me because I don’t have a car. If only there were a public transportation option, like a train, that ran from Lexington to Louisville…if only I were in Europe again where these systems and structures have been a part of society for decades and driving isn’t such a norm…

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life back home this summer. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Top: (thrifted)

Jacket: Forever21

March 14, 2019 – NYC, 5th Avenue, Juicy Couture (OOTD #471)

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What’s the oldest article of clothing in your closet?

A few months ago, I would’ve told you it was this long blue wool dress coat. I just recently gave it away, but I’d had it since I was literally in second or third grade. My mother bought it for me used at a garage sale from a friend with the intention that I’d grow into it, so I didn’t really begin wearing it until fifth grade.

Like I said, I only recently gave it away, and more because it was getting ratty-looking than because it didn’t fit. It was getting a touch small in the sleeves, though, admittedly. I honestly probably would have kept it if not for the fact that I own plenty of coats at this point and I shouldn’t keep accumulating them if I’m not at least getting rid of some old things — e.g., a coat I’d had since I was 8 years old.

The point being, I suppose, that I’m basically the same size as I was in fifth grade. Also that Marie Kondo would hate me.

This plaid blue blue coat (unrelated to the long blue wool dress coat mentioned above) is now probably the oldest item in my wardrobe, but I’m much less willing to part with it. I got it during my first trip ever to New York City from the Juicy Couture store on 5th Avenue. Those three phrases — New York City, 5th Avenue, Juicy Couture — were hugely important to me in 5th grade when I got this coat. They represented the height of fashion at that time, and so receiving this coat as a gift from my parents was a big deal.

And for something that was purchased literally 10 years ago, I think it still looks pretty good. Unlike most of the rest of my 5th grade wardrobe — including Victoria’s Secret PINK yoga pants, Abercrombie t-shirts, and Justice camisoles — it’s stood the test of time.

It is also, admittedly, a little small in the sleeves at this point. We’ll see how much longer it lasts before I’m guilted into getting rid of it to make way for new clothes. But for now, it still “sparks joy,” as Marie Kondo would say.

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

Coat: Juicy Couture

Dress: Altar’d State

 

November 22, 2018 – Christmas on Thanksgiving (OOTD #412)

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I like holidays where I get to dress up.

I almost always have — I remember distinctly the excitement when I was a kid of getting to pick out the dress I would wear for the  Christmas or Easter at church. I’d also often change all of the clothes on my dolls to be similarly festive.

No offense to the holidays that don’t involve getting dressed up — like 4th of July or Labor Day — but a holiday to me is only as fun as the outfits I get to wear.

Christmas takes the cake thanks to Christmas sweaters and red-and-green motifs, but I think Halloween might be a close second. I don’t typically do weeks-worth of holiday-themed outfits for Halloween like I do for Christmas (though I will make an effort to go for fall-themed outfits, at least in October)

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merry christmas? more like merry crisis

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Thanksgiving, the day these photos were taken, can also be fun. Since Thanksgiving involves a big meal with family, I like to get dressed up, even if we don’t go out anywhere and do anything that exciting. Thanksgiving is always fun too, because it marks the division in my mind between fall and winter — between pre-Christmas and Christmas.

In fact, I even make Thanksgiving my marker for when I’ll allow myself to start listening to my Christmas playlists on Apple Music. Midnight on Black Friday, I bust them out and start jamming to my personal favorites, like Fall Out Boy’s “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out.” 

Thanksgiving also makes a great opportunity to mix pieces that could lean Christmas-y or fall-ish. This outfit would look at home on a Christmas tree farm or an apple orchard, no?

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

Top: ASOS

Skirt: J. Crew

October 14, 2018 – The Marvelous Ms. Meilin (OOTD #392)

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I’ve been watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime, and let me say — it’s got a great visual style.

Actually, by “I’ve been watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” I mean, I’ve seen the first episode. I’m not very good at actually watching television shows. I usually tend to begin them and then never find the time to continue them, even if I enjoy the first episode. 

With The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel though, I think I may actually continue  watching. Not only was the plot interesting, but like I said, the 1950s aesthetic was really gorgeous. 

I’m a sucker for historical fashion (being a history major, and all), and I’m always happy to incorporate some vintage pieces into my wardrobe. Case in point: this outfit.

I don’t know what era this dress actually comes from, but I could imagine it as something from the 50s. I know it’s not — it’s Don von Furstenburg, who didn’t come to popularity until the mid-70s — but with my coat, I feel like it evokes a late-50s vibe anyway. 

IMG_7758.jpg

Speaking of vintage, this coat is also practically vintage, at least in terms of my ownership of it. It’s probably the piece in my wardrobe that’s been in my possession the longest. If I remember correctly, I’ve had it since third grade — and even then, I bought it used off of a friend’s older sister. Who knows how old it really is.

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just some colorFALL leaves

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It was too big for me for several years, and by the time I grew into it, I’d stopped growing altogether. Hence, I still keep it in my wardrobe for days like these when it just really ties together an outfit. It doesn’t happen often, but when I do need it, I’m grateful that I have it. 

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

Dress: Diane Von Furstenberg (vintage)

Coat: Rothschild (thrifted) 

December 31, 2017 – To Grandmother’s House We Go (OOTD #190)

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Grandmothers are the best.

If you’ll remember, I mentioned that over Christmas, my parents were too sick to visit my grandmother like we usually do. Instead, we hung around home and opened presents by ourselves – which was totally valid, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t quite Christmas without my grandmother.

On Sunday, we made up for that by driving over to Louisville to see my grandmother and doing something of a “Christmas part 2.” We exchanged the last of our presents, ate the cheesecake we were supposed to eat the weekend prior, and watched the Eagles lose to the Dallas Cowboys (at home, of all places). That last bit was a little depressing, but otherwise, it was a fun day.

Seeing as it was New Year’s Eve, when I made it back to Lexington, I went party-hopping with all of my 500 friends and had a crazy fun time until the dawn of 2018.

What? Does that really sound so terribly unlikely to you?

Yeah, so in actuality, I had no real New Year’s Eve plans – so instead, I went over to Amanda’s house and cooked dinner before playing some old video games and watching Eclipse with our other friend, Zach. I’m not sure it was what the kids would call, “lit,” but that’s about what happens when you put three introverts in a room together and tell them to have fun on the last day of the year.

We did venture outside once to pick up some ice cream, which was such a terrifying and harrowing experience that I think I’m going to hide myself in my room indoors for the entirety of 2018.

While it was no exciting party, it was still a perfectly fun night with friends. Also, I fell asleep shortly after midnight, meaning I spent the first moments of the new year unconscious – which is arguably the best way to spend any year.

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: Forever21

August 3, 2017 – Schoolhouse Rock (OOTD #81)

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Guess what? There’s only one outfit in this blog post!

That doesn’t, however, mean that there are going to be any less photos for this one. Why?

Well, after a nice, long day hanging out with Jane involving walking around not one, but two separate malls and having Starbucks iced coffees at both of them like the basic (practically) white girl that I am, we decided to drop by my old elementary school, Liberty.

Some history about Liberty Elementary – it was constructed back in 1923 as a little one room schoolhouse, and was, if I’m not mistaken, the oldest school in the Oldham County school district until its 2015 closing. In fact, Jane’s grandmother even attended there, and of course, I did as well, from 2005-2010.

It was a nice little school, and I have a lot of fond memories from there, including winning a dance-off against a girl I didn’t like in first grade, accidentally breaking the finger of a boy I had a crush on while playing four square, and pretending to be a cat for like, a solid week in kindergarten.

So it was very nice when Jane agreed to hang out at the now abandoned Liberty Elementary that evening, even though she doesn’t really have the nostalgia for it that I do. It’s getting a little creepy and run down-looking, and the fact that it was getting dark by the time we got there didn’t help.

But you can’t really be afraid of the school that you went to as a kid, can you? Sure, the random hallways that still lit (emergency lights I guess?) and the giant X over the door of the playground entrance were kinda spooky, but I knew this place, and so the spookiness didn’t hit me that hard.

You could say that we weren’t exactly supposed to be there…especially given the signs that said “No trespassing” (in both English and Spanish, as Jane pointed out to me), but we caused no harm, and we didn’t even go in. There was no way to, actually, even if we’d really wanted to – the doors and windows were all locked.

How do I know that? I might’ve checked a few…or something. Not because I wanted to see inside, of course – just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any rain getting in, right?

Eventually, Jane got tired of me walking in circles and snapping photos of every other door and peering in every third window, so she went off to sit in the car. And since she was kind enough to entertain me for even that long, walking around some creepy old building that she probably didn’t care about, I soon followed.

I would definitely go back though! Maybe in daylight, for some clearer photos…and maybe with a crowbar…

I’m kidding, of course.

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!

 

August 2, 2017 – The Blog Post of 1000 Outfits (OOTD #80)

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I’m going to apologize for two things here: 1) not posting a blog for a few days, and 2) returning to posting blogs with an obscenely picture-heavy post with about four separate outfits in it.

The four separate outfit thing is less directly my fault though – my dad and I went canoeing for the first part of the day, so I had the outfit I wore for that, then the bathing suit I wore underneath for when we stopped and swam in the river, then the outfit I changed into afterwards since my first outfit was wet and dirty, then the dress I changed into when my friend, Jane, and I went out to dinner.

So you see, the costume changes were all necessary to the day and totally not all due to me simply being an excessive person who likes excuses to change her outfit. What, you think I’d start a fashion blog and actually enjoy putting together outfits?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXseat9FBee/

Pshaw.

Anyway, my dad and I started out day at about 5:00 AM with a two-hour drive out to Milltown, IN in order to catch an 8:45 bus down to the Blue River for canoeing. This – canoeing on the Blue River –  is a tradition we’ve had since I was a kid, maybe third grade or so. It used to be that we’d go along with some of my friends and their dads, in sort-of a daddy-daughter thing, but over the years, people moved away, and the tradition sort of died off.

In truth, we hadn’t even done it for years ourselves. But, with me going off to college in a few weeks, we thought it would be a nice time to bring it back.

And I’m glad we did. Canoeing is a low-key kind of fun; there’s not a ton of screaming and laughing, and conversation’s quite difficult since you’re sitting one in front of another, but it’s a nice way to simply enjoy each other’s company. The part of the Blue River that we canoed (didn’t know that was a word) down was really pretty, and there were a couple of banks where we stopped to walk around the woods and wade in the river as a break from sitting.

Also, the sunglasses are back! Thank goodness. I wasn’t about to wear eye makeup while canoeing and swimming, and I also wasn’t about to be doing pictures without either eye makeup or my sunglasses.

About three and a half hours later, around 12 noon, we reached the end of our trip. From there, I took on my second costume change of the day (the first being changing from my canoeing clothes into my bathing suit while still on the river), changing one dirty, wet top for a clean, dry one.

We then stopped in Louisville in the Bardstown Rd. area (very cute and hipster, by the way – almost like a little Shoreditch) for lunch, and, though I didn’t intend to take any more pictures, I couldn’t resist when I saw this big beautiful wall with a colorful mural on it. Then, I ate a popsicle, and I thought that would make for a good shot too…you see now why this is such a picture-heavy post?

Up next, I met up with my friend, Jane, who lives in Louisville. Jane and I became friends in 6th grade, and a year later, I moved away to Lexington. Regardless, we’ve stayed friends through texting and social media (and before texting and social media were huge, emailing and IMing), and we visit each other a few times a year.

That leads to my next costume change of the day – a beautiful pale pink maxi dress Jane bought in France and gave to me since it didn’t fit her anymore. We were going out to dinner that night, and I thought, you know, why not change out of my slightly ratty canoeing/Bardstown Rd clothes and into this new dress?

Thankfully, that fourth time was also the last time I needed to change clothes for the day…unless you count the pajamas I changed into at Jane’s house. I guess that would’ve made for five? Oops.

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!

Shirt 1: Forever21

Shorts: Forever21

Coat: North Face

Shirt 2: Hollister

Dress: Unknown (gifted)