Tag: the formula

February 10, 2019 – Excuse Me, Professor (OOTD #454)

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These are new glasses, in case you didn’t notice.

You probably didn’t notice because they look almost exactly like the pair of old glasses in my last post. I personally think these new glasses are way more flattering than the old glasses (hence buying new glasses), but I know, it’s hard to tell.

On the top half of this outfit, with the green blazer and glasses, I look like a professor. Not like, a real professor — like, a person who has a PhD and gets paid to do research and corrupt students or whatever — but a professor from a mystery novel. Basically, I look like Professor Plum from CLUE if he wore green. Professor Granny Smith?

On the bottom half, however, with the jeans and the hiking boots, I look more like a mountain man or a lumberjack. I wasn’t really aiming to mix the two aesthetics, but it happened, mainly because it had snowed and I needed to wear the boots in order to not break my ankle as I walked around campus. It’s like people who mix pastel and grunge  and wear tutus with leather jackets.

Will professor/lumberjack be the next big mixed aesthetic fashion trend in 2019? Stay tuned to find out.

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 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!

Jacket: Thrifted (Goodwill I think? Or maybe Salvation Army)

Jeans: Abercrombie

Boots: LL Bean

February 7, 2019 – Signature Yellow (OOTD #451)

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Yellow has somehow become my signature color.

It’s funny, because for years I wouldn’t wear yellow because I thought I couldn’t wear it with my skin tone. All the magazines I read when I was younger said that Asians shouldn’t wear yellow because it would clash with the already yellow-undertones of our skin.

Guess what? That’s a lie. I look great in yellow, and so do other plenty of other Asian women. I don’t know where the idea the idea that all Asians have warm or “yellow” undertones to their skin came from (well, historically, yes I do), and I don’t know who decided we should avoid yellow entirely, because both of those ideas are faulty. I’m Asian, but I don’t have warm-toned skin — in fact, it’s cool-toned. No one tells other racial groups that they all have the same undertones to their skin, because even among members of the same race, there are many variations in skin tone. It’s the same case for Asians.

I can’t wear every shade of yellow — for example, pastel yellow or pale gold tend to wash me out — but I can do a deep, saturated yellow like this shirt here. And it seems that of late, I’ve been wearing the color more and more.

One of my friends, Mariana, has adopted the principle of a “signature color.” In order to create cohesion in her everyday look, she’s chosen a particular color — in her case, red — to buy her accessories in. She has a red laptop case, a red scarf, and a red mug, just to name a few things. It’s a great, easy way to tie things together without getting in the way of whatever she’s wearing and whatever color scheme that ensemble has. She always looks really put together, and I think it’s in part because she has a common motif throughout her accessories.

And so I think I’m going to try it with yellow. I already have a yellow winter scarf and yellow snow/rain boots. I’m not sure how that’s going to work with my camel coat, but I’ll find a way to make it work. I think I feel like yellow is the most unappreciated of the primary colors, and it’s about time it gets some love.

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 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!

Jacket: AMIClubwear

Top: Thrifted (Goodwill)

Pants: Altar’d State

 

October 1, 2018 – Recipe for Style (OOTD #385)

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Shhh…I know it’s a corny title. Just hear me out.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a formula for fashion on days when I don’t want to be creative with my outfits. The days where I roll out of bed 10 minutes before class starts, the days where I feel sick, or the days I’m just too lazy to come up with anything better — I come back to this outfit formula.

Here’s what it is: pair one (1) pair of fitted pants or leggings with one (1) loose-fitting top, such as a sweater. Top with one (1) jacket and two (2) simple black booties.

The silhouette is flattering, I don’t have to worry about shaving my legs, and I always know I’ll look fashionable — even if not innovative. It’s basic, but classic, and it works.

With this particular outfit, I even added a belt. That’s the thing with the formula — it also lends itself well to accessorizing. Jewelry, scarves, belts all look good because the silhouette of the outfit itself is so simple.

I’d recommend come up with their own outfit formula for days when they don’t feel like getting dressed up. It doesn’t have to be my formula, but it’s got to be something you’re comfortable with throwing together on those days when you can’t be bothered to stand in front of your closet contemplating what to wear. The worst is when you’re on a time crunch, and none of the pieces you’re combing seem to look good together. That’s where a formula comes in.

When back when I was a middle schooler, I had a formula. Back then, it was a floral skirt, a lacy camisole, and a cardigan, preferably from Hollister or Abercrombie. Sometimes I’d also wear Uggs and put my hair in a Snooki bump. It was a look.

The point? Being formulaic isn’t always bad, as long as you do it in moderation.

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!

Jacket: Thrifted

Top: Forever21

Pants: Banana Republic

September 11, 2018 – Power Stances Only (OOTD #372)

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You’re welcome to disagree with me, but I personally really feel like my posing has gotten better over the last year or so on this blog.

I can’t pretend I’m a fashion model or anything, or that any of the producers at Marvel are going to want me on their next superhero film poster, but I have certainly gotten more comfortable in front of a camera. While I definitely have my preferred stances that I come back to repeatedly (see: playing with my hair in some way or twirling), I do those stances pretty well. At least, I think I do.

It’s going to sound silly, but I’ve found the best way for me to improve how I look in photos is to experiment by myself by taking pictures on my own. When I have someone else take my picture, I’m always hesitant so as not to waste their time, so unless it’s a friend whom I’m already very close with, I tend not to ask much of them in terms of retaking things that don’t look quite right. When I’m on my own, just using the remote timer feature of my Apple Watch to snap shots with my iPhone, I don’t have to worry about wasting anyone’e time.

Well, my own, I guess. I can say that I have definitely done that before.

Honestly, the best “posing practice” I’ve ever gotten has probably been last semester, when I would hang out in Notre Dame’s art building late at night studying or working on projects. I’d wait until the building cleared out, or at least mostly cleared out, and then I’d prop my phone up on a chair and start practicing. No one was there to judge me, and I could try out any number of dumb poses to see what worked.

Essentially, it was the adult version of making funny faces at yourself in the mirror.

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power stances only

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I’ve also found that just keeping up with other fashion bloggers and Instagrammers to see what kinds of poses they tend to use, and then replicating those, works too. Obviously, not every pose or angle will work for everyone or for every outfit/background combination, but it’s good to experiment. I’ve taken to posing with one leg crossed in front of the other while I lean back a little on the back leg (which, obviously, because I’m writing about it here, I wouldn’t have any examples to show you in this blog — check this one though if you want to see what I’m talking about) because I learned from other petite bloggers that it makes your legs look longer.

I actually keep a Pinterest board for Instagram inspiration — backgrounds, poses, ideas for photoshoots, anything I think could make for a nice addition to my feed. It’s also great to have around if you and a friend are in the mood to get cute pictures together, but you can’t think of what would make for a good post.

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!

Jacket: Anthropologie

Top: Abercrombie

Jeans: American Eagle

(Lots of A brands today, no?)

August 23, 2018 – The Bend of the South (OOTD #355)

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Look at me, a proper Southern Bender!

Yeah, not really. I don’t even know what the proper term is for the people of South Bend; I think the Notre Dame students call them “townies” but I don’t know what the actual South Bend residents think of that. I interact with few South Bend residents on campus, so I’m really not sure of their take on the “townie” rhetoric.

Regardless, you’ll be proud to hear — I made it back off campus again! A friend and I took an Uber to go to a Vietnamese market downtown. She specifically wanted some groceries, and I thought I’d go along just to walk around and see something other than the golden-tan brick of campus for a while.

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order in the court

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It was a welcome breath of fresh air. Being on campus all the time, I live in the same space as I work, which means that I feel compelled, no matter what time of day it is, to keep working. There’s no physical divide between “home” and “school” — they’re the same. In other words, I’m basically at school, doing school things, 24/7. The brief moments when I can escape school and do something that’s not only distinct from school in practice, but also spatially separate from school, are my favorite.

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alley-oop

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Since we were downtown, my friend and I decided to walk around a little and take some pictures. She’s also pretty into maintaining an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed, so we work well together when we take pictures. It helps as well that we’re similar in height and body type, so I don’t have to worry about her looming over me and taking a dreaded high-angle shot that makes me look even shorter than I already am.

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that’s groovy, man

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As it turns out, South Bend has some cool locations for photos. It’s not as well-kept as Notre Dame’s buildings (excluding a few older ones, like Riley, that are just falling apart), but it’s a lot more diverse and interesting. I guess with economic depression, comes a lot of dilapidated buildings that fit an urban aesthetic well. Hooray for that?

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: Vintage (thrifted)

Skirt: Somewhere in Nepal

April 5, 2018 – Spider Plant, Spider Plant, Does Whatever a Spider Plant Does (OOTD #259)

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Look familiar?

Yes, you might remember, I’ve used this setup before as a background for my photos . It’s the painting  studio in Riley, and I’m a fan of it in particular because of the spider plants that hang from the ceiling.

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you might know I’m very into plants now. In fact, I’m so into plants that I even decided to take a little clipping of one of the spider plantlet growths hanging from the tips of this (very overgrown) spider plant and take it home to try to propagate. I mentioned this in my last Saturday Musings post, so go check it out if you wanna see the progress of that project.

I realized the other day that I only have two and a half weeks left of classes — can you believe that? I definitely can’t. There’s no way my freshman year is almost over.

Furthermore, there’s no way finals are coming up soon because there’s no way I’m prepared for them!

I sat down and did some calculations and came to the conclusion that I have a little under 60 pages worth of writing due before the last day of school, May 11. So far, I have about 5 of those written — so I’m maybe 1/12 of the way done with my work. 75% of the way through the semester and 8% of the way done with the work — those aren’t concerning numbers at all!

I’m a little worried, but I figure it’ll all turn out in the end. With some of my classes, I think my grade is already pretty set, and some, I’m going to have to work pretty hard still if I want to get a grade that I’m happy with. I also have class scheduling still to worry about coming up in about a week — which will be fun, considering I am in the very last time slot for the whole sophomore class. Basically, I’m probably not going to be getting my ideal schedule for next year.

College is a nice little pressure cooker. Summer break should (hopefully) be a nice vacation from that.

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: thrifted

Sweater: thrifted

March 22, 2018 – Untitled (OOTD #252)

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I allllllllmost didn’t post this outfit as a blog.

I only have four photos, and one isn’t even very good, so it almost didn’t really feel worth it to post it as a full blog, you know?

I decided to go for it anyway though, because I really like this jacket. It reminds me of the most expensive item in my wardrobe, a similarly architectural jacket, except that I doubt this one is worth hundreds of dollars. Interestingly, though, I bought it at the same thrift shop from back home as I bought the super expensive one — coincidence?

I wore this jacket specifically for an interview I had at 9AM, and, considering I was accepted into the program I was interviewing for, I guess it worked out! While it’s not a paid job (that I’m still searching for), it is a almost-entirely grant-funded trip to Nepal to observe and aid in a research project, so I’m super excited.

You can bet that I’ll be posting a lot about my adventures in Nepal (assuming I have time), so stay tuned for that. Maybe I’ll actually be able to keep up with a regular schedule, unlike what happened to me in London, where one week in, I stopped posting at all.

Speaking of London, can you believe it’s been almost one whole year since I started L’ensemble du jour? I need to check my stats for the exact date, but I’m pretty sure I began this whole project sometime in mid-to-late April of 2017. I should do something special for the one year-anniversary. Any ideas? Leave me a comment below!

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: thrifted

Shirt: Free People

Pants: The LOFT

February 8, 2018 – Dad Plaid (OOTD #222)

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This is some rad plaid.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be_dbAAng8C/

I got this plaid, dad-like jacket from a local vintage shop back home in Lexington, and it’s been in fairly heavy rotation ever since. Or, at least, heavier ratio than I would have expected when I first purchased it – I figured I’d wear it every once in a while, but it’s really grown on me. It’s super easy to style because its pattern makes it look fancy without the need for me to layer a ton of stuff on top of it.

This particular outfit was borne out of another one of my “oh-no-I-just-woke-up-and-it’s-ten-minutes-before-my-exam-begins-and-the-building-is-a-fifteen-minute-walk-away” moments.

Those moments occur much more than I would like.

Anyway, in moments like this, pieces like the plaid dad jacket come in handy.

Like I said, its bombastic pattern makes it super easy to style, so I’m able to throw an outfit together around it really quickly in order to make it out the door on time. Since the plaid pattern is so loud, everything else has to be very simple and plain, and I don’t have to think too hard about what to pair with it. A plain sweater, plain pants, and plain shoes, and I can go.

You’ll also notice that this outfit, like yesterday’s, follows my basic everyday outfit formula – jacket, sweater/shirt, skinny pants (in this case leggings), and an accessory. It’s formulaic, but the formula works.

And when you’re faced with the decision to either be late to your exam or opt for a formulaic outfit (and very little makeup, you might also notice), you take the formula.

Also, can we just talk about this background? I’m in the art room again (my typical Thursday photographer friend was out of town), and I have no idea what this installation is. It was brand new when I got in there, so I assume some class is using it, but for what? I don’t know, but I figured it’d make for an interesting composition.

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: vintage (thrifted)

Sweater: Aeropostale

February 7, 2018 – Formula One (OOTD # 221)

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Here’s something I just noticed – when in doubt, I just throw a jacket on.

Recently, it seems like hardly a day goes by when I don’t wear some kind of jacket with my outfit. I mean, just look at the most recent blog posts here and here  – jackets everywhere.

I’ve discussed this a little before on this website, way back in the summer, but this is my go-to outfit formula. A jacket, skinny pants, some kind of blouse or sweater, and ankle boots – when I don’t have any clever ideas about what to wear, this is what I tend to go with. It’s safe, but it works, and it looks good.

This outfit is a little more unique with the yellow rain boots and the My Chemical Romance shirt. I like to have something unexpected to pair with even my formulaic outfits, you know? And a pop punk band t-shirt is practically the definition of “unexpected” here at the very very Catholic Notre Dame.

That’s another thing I’ve discussed on this blog – the fact that everyone at Notre Dame dresses in the same kind of rich, preppy way. There’s not much variety in the kinds of style you see people wearing around campus, not like my high school had. For one, I never see anyone trying to come in wearing gang signs, which happened a few times at my high school.

On a more serious note, there is a striking lack of diversity in fashion tastes here. Everyone looks nice, but pretty uninteresting, you know? There’s a lot of skinny jeans, crewcut sweaters, boots – you know, basic style. There’s also a ridiculous amount of bookstore-bought (overpriced) Notre Dame regalia.

I feel almost self-conscious wearing something like a My Chemical Romance t-shirt here because “emo” fashion – or any kind of goth-leaning, hipster-leaning, boho-leaning, or other more niche fashions –  seems to be such a foreign concept. I can’t imagine what people thought of me earlier this year when I dressed like a high-fashion dementor. Probably that I was a dementor.

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!

Jeans: Hollister

T-shirt: Hot Topic

Jacket: Banana Republic

February 2, 2018 – Ducking Around (OOTD #217)

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I call this my duck sweater because it’s fluffy and yellow like a duckling.

It also sheds all over the place like a baby bird, which is a bit of a downside.

I have a lot of nicknames for certain articles of clothing in my wardrobe – there’s my Sherlock Holmes jacket, my dragon slayer shirt, my Southern soccer mom jacket, just to name a few. I have a pretty sentimental connection to my clothes (I’m just waiting for the day when I make it onto one of those hoarding television shows), so I guess it makes sense that I would start nicknaming them like stuffed animals.

Anyway, in this outfit, I paired my duck sweater with my yellow rainbows, which made for particularly duck-like results. I don’t know, maybe it’s something in the way there’s a high contrast between the dark of my jacket and pants and the brightness of the yellow tones.

I suppose the duck-centric thinking I’m doing might also be due to the fact that the dorm I’m standing near, Howard Hall, has the mascot of a duck. It’s admittedly pretty lame in comparison to some of the other hall mascots, like the Keenan Knights, but it’s also not as bad as the PDubb Purple Weasels (seriously – purple weasels.)

I’ll leave you with this – a super cute photo of me looking behind myself to try to see if anyone’s walking by who would ruin my pictures.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one!

Jacket: thrifted

Leggings: The LOFT

Sweater: Forever21