Tag: vintage

June 24, 2018 – Writer’s Block (OOTD #311)

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I’ve been sitting here for like, a half an hour trying to think of a good way to start this blog, but I’ve got nothing.

Usually, I find writing these blogs to be fairly easy — I begin with some sort of observation about my outfit, some pun that plays into the blog’s title, or a continuation of a thought begun in a previous blog. Sometimes, I’ll even just start into a discussion of what happened that day, especially if it was an exciting day with events worth discussing.

This day, however, had no particularly exciting events (Buying some new shoes! Running errands! Eating dinner!), and no easy puns to make.

As a kid in elementary school, we used to have to keep these writing journals. They were meant to help us practice our writing skills — you know, composition, grammar, etc. — and we were supposed to start each day when we arrived in the classroom by writing a paragraph or two. Sometimes, there was a prompt, but more often, you were expected to come up with something to write about on your own.

Yo have no idea how many of those journal entires for me began with something along the lines of “I don’t know what to write about.”

Back then, I used to think I was so clever by responding to the challenge of writing every day with such a rebellious statement — here my teacher was telling me to write, and my answer was that I had nothing to say. It was kind of meta, if you will.

At the same time though, it was kind of lazy. There’s only so much thought vomit about writer’s block that can be amusing before it just gets obnoxious and pretentious.

As you’ve probably noticed here though, that’s what I’m doing now! The 2018 Grown-Up Meilin version of those journal entries I made when I was a kid. I guess I’m just as obnoxious and pretentious as I was back then.

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!

Top: Free People

Skirt: Vintage (thrifted)

June 13, 2018 – Warm Colors on a Warm Day (OOTD #302)

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Perhaps the most common criticism I hear about my fashion sense is that no matter the season, I always dress like it’s fall.

Take this outfit for example — I don’t remember exactly what the temperature was the day I wore this, but given the fact that it was mid-June in Kentucky, it’s safe to say it was hot and humid. Even if it wasn’t as hot and humid as usual, it was still hot and humid.

And yet there I was — wearing a knee-length jacket and a long-sleeve sweater. The skirt and the platform wedges give hint to the reality that it was probably 85 degrees out and sunny, but on the whole, the outfit reads more as 65 degrees and overcast.

Interestingly though, fall is not my favorite season — as mentioned many times here on this blog, that distinction goes to winter, no doubt about it. Fall is second-favorite for me, though. I like the changing leaves and the cooler temperatures, but I just like the snow and the cold even better. Plus, winter allows you to bust out the heavy coats and scarves — I love layering, which you can do in fall, but not to the same extent you can in winter.

That would make summer, with its stifling heat that prohibits anything but the most basic layering, my least favorite season. In fact, I am so deeply not a fan of summer, that I usually choose to ignore the weather, and dress however I want — and since wearing a winter coat in the summer would might give rise to enough suspicion to let a cop do a warrantless search, that usually ends up being a summer-winter hybrid. So, fall.

The thing is, though, that I’m always comfortable. I work indoors, I go to school indoors, and whenever I do something that involves being outdoors for more than a few minutes, I do dress appropriately for the weather. It’s all about dressing for the environment you’re in.

The rest is about suffering the heat without complaint too much and bringing lots of blotting papers.

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: Vintage (thrifted)

Top: thrifted

Skirt: Forever21

July 11, 2018 – Outfit and Blog Do Not Relate (OOTD #301)

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I’m headed out of the country in less than 24 hours!

This time tomorrow, I should be on a plane headed to Abu Dhabi, UAE, en route to my final destination Kathmandu, Nepal.

Exciting, right? Well, maybe the Kathmandu part, but not so much the traveling portion. I’ll be stuck in the Chicago O’Hare (hey, at least it’s not Midway!) for like, six hours before getting on my plane to Abu Dhabi for seventeen hours. Then I have to wait there for another three hours, and then fly to Kathmandu for four hours. I think we calculated it last night, and I have 27 total hours of transit time before I finally touch down in Nepal at 9pm local time on Friday? Yike.

I’ve been working on packing all day today, and at the very least, I have a lot of exciting Nepal-appropriate outfits to show you guys while I’m there! Hopefully, one of the other students there will be comfortable to take my photos. I don’t know any of them really, but  I’m sure we’ll all have to play photographer for each other at one point or another — I just…you know, usually need someone to play photographer for me more often than most.

But that has nothing to do with the outfit I’m posting pictures of here, does it? Well…no. That’s the drawback of posting these OOTDs with a several day-delay — it protects me for days when I don’t feel like dressing up and taking pictures, but it hurts when I have something exciting in my life that I’m not able to write about for until days after it happens.

In truth, I’m not sure when my first Nepal-related blog will go live, since I don’t know how soon after I arrive I’ll be able to start taking OOTD photos, but hopefully, it shouldn’t be long. Most of the time I’m there, I’ll be doing school-related work, which might not be super exciting, but I will have a few field trips with the group, so I should definitely get some good pictures then.

Next time I write to you guys, it’ll actually probably just be me sitting in the O’Hare airport waiting to board my Abu Dhabi-bound plane. Wish me luck, and pray that I don’t get trapped in the Atlanta airport for 48 hours like the last time I flew internationally!

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!

Dress: vintage (thrifted)

May 27, 2018 – Rustic Chic (OOTD #293)

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I feel like these shots are the personification of one of those trendy Pinterest crafts that shows you how to put a succulent into a mason jar and make it look cute.img_1049-1

Rustic chic is very trendy aesthetic right now, though I’m pretty sure it’s been trendy ever since I was in middle school, about ten years ago. Middle class white Americans everywhere seem to be in love with the repurposed but still charmingly rustic farm materials look, and just about every picture here reflects that.

It helps of course that most of them were taken at an actual farm — a horse farm, to be specific. My grandmother was visiting town, so we took her to an upscale vintage and antique market that was going on at the Kentucky Horse Park. There were mason jars and string lights and succulents everywhere; it was a Facebook mom’s dream.

Though I didn’t really buy much (just a plant — surprise, surprise), I did get some really pretty pictures. There was a sign outside that warned against taking pictures (I guess because they didn’t want you copying the vendors’ ideas?), but no one seemed to mind me wandering in and out of booths taking pictures whenever I saw a pretty arrangement of flowers.

And there were so many! It wasn’t just a Facebook mom’s dream; it was a fashion blogger’s. I wish I had brought several outfits along so I could do a real shoot and get more varied content for my Instagram feed; as it was though, I only had the one I wore. Unfortunate.

Fun fact, though — both my jacket and my dress here are vintage, just like the things for sale at this market! The jacket was originally part of a two-piece outfit with a long cream skirt, and the dress was originally much longer until it was shortened. I hadn’t thought of pairing them together before, and I felt pretty clever for making up an entire outfit of vintage pieces for this event.

If you’ll remember, I actually went to this event last year as well! Back then, I had long blonde hair and dressed in red, white, and blue for Memorial Day. Amazing what a year of difference makes, isn’t it? I am reconsidering going blonde again, though. We’ll see.

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: Vintage (thrifted)

Dress: Vintage (thrifted)

May 17, 2018 – Zero for Two (OOTD #285)

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This post is a day late and I’m posting May 17’s outfit after May 18’s — that’s two strikes against me.

Look, keeping up with a 90% daily fashion blog is hard. I do my best, but sometimes, it doesn’t work out. I hope you can forgive me 🙂

I really like how this outfit turned out. Once again, I’m rocking the sunglasses + sunhat look owing to summer laziness and a general lack of motivation to put on makeup. Still, I feel like they fit really well with the vintage vibe I get from this swingy skirt (which is actually vintage! It’s from a local flea market) — it makes me feel classy, like I’m too mysterious to reveal too much of my face.

In reality, of course, I just had a day that I didn’t feel fixing my hair and makeup since I was just hanging out at home by myself. I like to get dressed up for myself, but I’m not quite at the point where I’ll do a full face of makeup for no reason.

No Instagram makeup blogs for me, I guess.

In other news, look how great our Japanese Maple is doing! I like plants now, so I’m very proud of it. Even though I’ve been at school all year and have done literally nothing to contribute to its wellbeing. I still like to think it’s my presence that’s causing it to thrive.

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!

Top: Thrifted

Skirt: Vintage (thrifted)

April 13, 2018 – 80s Figure Skater Aesthetic (OOTD #266)

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I’m pretty sure I’m only getting this vibe because I just saw I, Tonya and I think she wore an outfit like this in the movie.

You see what I’m seeing though, with the vibrant striped sweater and the swingy skirt? Total 80s figure skater vibe. The sweater’s even vintage and everything!

You’ll have to excuse my lack of a Saturday Musings post today; I didn’t get a chance to take any flatlay photos before Saturday. In its place, you get a regular OOTD post — hopefully, I’ll get a Saturday Musings post in tomorrow instead. It’ll be Sunday instead of a Saturday, but you know — it happens.

After this weekend, I’ll only have a week and a half left of classes before finals week and then the end of my freshman year. Can you believe it? I definitely can’t.

I’m kind of sad because I’m afraid I’ll almost completely miss out on spring weather — it’s only just this week really begun to feel spring-like here in South Bend, and I know that by the time I’m back in Lexington, it’ll feel like summer. Ho hum. I guess that’s what I get for getting such a lovely, long autumn earlier this school year.

I am excited though to go home and get to use some new backgrounds that aren’t just Notre Dame buildings. I think I did a decent job of diversifying things with stairwells and empty classrooms in recent months, though — it’s not all doors anymore!

I’m also excited to have my parents come visit campus, because then I’ll have free reign to have them take my picture in front of any building I want without feeling badly about asking someone to go out of their way and take pictures of me! Not that my parents wouldn’t necessarily still be going out of their way for photos — but I don’t feel badly asking them because they’re my parents. Maybe we’ll get some shots inside of main building — or even the basilica.

Stay tuned.

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!

Sweater: vintage (thrifted)

Skirt: thrift

April 12, 2018 – The Blues (OOTD #265)

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I think the recent trend of a short sleeveless shift dress layered over top of a long sleeved shirt is one of my favorites.

Maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for layering, and I love any kind of trend that allows me to put multiple pieces together in a stylish way. It allows me to feel trendy while still maintaining my love for piling as many clothes on my body at once.

I think my least favorite trends are the ones that require a single niche article of clothing that doesn’t really lend itself to creative outfits. I’m thinking like, some of the voluminous off the shoulder blouses that were all over the mall boutiques last summer — they were super cute, but they didn’t lend themselves to layering at all, and for that reason, I didn’t really buy up a bunch.

The job search is a little over a month old now, and unfortunately, I still haven’t come across anything that works for me. I actually was offered one that I really wanted to take, that paid well and that would allow me to take off for two weeks to go to Nepal, but I wasn’t going to be able to perform the job duties properly…so alas, I am still unemployed.

I’ve applied for some that really interest me, but getting one of those employers to actually contact me and then interview and then hire me is such a struggle. I wish I had majored in something more job-friendly, like business or engineering. Sigh. I’m going to have to do this every summer for four more years.

Hey, maybe this blog will have taken off by then and I’ll be paying off my student loans comfortably with just sponsored posts. Seems feasible, right?

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!

Dress: Vintage (thrifted)

Shirt: Hollis

April 11, 2018 – Amethyst Ardor (OOTD #264)

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Oh boy, is my current Instagram color scheme going to love this.

I’ve mentioned several times recently that I’ve been trying to create more color scheme-centric outfits in order to fit in with my attempt to make my Instagram feed more cohesive. This means that I’ve been putting more thought into making my outfits and backgrounds coordinate, which means they have both been more on the monochromatic side.

This then, is the perfect Instagram-friendly purple composition.

My mother would be so proud of me — purple is her favorite color. I think my purple hair color has been one of her favorites of the last two years of hair color changes. 

Purple theme aside, I’m a fan of this outfit just on its structure. It’s very feminine, in a 40’s librarian kind of a way. And if there’s anything I like in terms of fashion aesthetics, it’s quirky vintage-inspired and narrative-friendly vibe. 

Sometimes I fear my outfits lean a little too much on the narrative side, sometimes heading in the direction of costume, but it’s that line that I toe that makes fashion interesting to me. How do you create dramatic and eclectic styles without going gimmicky? How do you remain artistic while still following the trends?

In general, I’ve found that the best way to keep from going too far is to keep the accessories and styling contemporary and conservative, while going more quirky on the clothes themselves. In that way, I keep a pretty decent balance of the bold and the conservative. 

My purple hair, however, is anything but conservative, which sometimes makes it hard for me to look like anything but an adventurous hipster. I have nothing against being an adventurous hipster, but it’s not always the best look for say, a job interview, you know? In general, though, it seems people are starting to fear unconventional hair dye a little less now. You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell that on Notre Dame’s campus, where I’m actually one of the only people to have an unnatural hair color, but the whole of the US seems to be heading that way.

On a side note, today (the day of posting, April 19 — not the outfit featured here, April 11) is the one year anniversary of L’ensemble du jour! I’m going to be doing a more involved special edition post for the April 19 OOTD blog commemorating the anniversary, but for now, let me just say thank you to anyone who’s bothered to stick around reading this blog for an entire year! And also to thank anyone who just started reading or has been reading any amount of time at all really — it means a lot, as a relatively small presence in the ocean of the Internet, that anyone would stop by and pay attention to me.

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!

Sweater: The LOFT

Turtleneck: Forever21

Skirt: Vintage

April 6, 2018 – Formal Fashion (OOTD #261)

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My parents said I wouldn’t have to deal with formals after my high school prom — they were wrong.

Granted, my dorm formal wasn’t nearly the level of formality my high school prom was   — for that, I had a big ball gown, and a corsage, and did all of the regular cheesy high school prom stuff. For my dorm formal, I just took a shower and did nicer makeup than usual, which, come to think of it, was probably all I needed to have done for my high school prom in order to have a good time and would have left me significantly less stressed.

I was kind of concerned about how my dorm formal was going to go, as I’m not much of a partier to begin with and a lot of my friends were bringing dates while I was not, but it turned out pretty fun. It really was basically just like a high school dance, except there were no teachers to pat you down for alcohol when you first came in.

The theme was technically masquerade, but I don’t really know of anyone who kept up with that beyond taking a few cute pictures with masks beforehand. I mean, that’s what  I did. I definitely did not keep the mask that’s perched atop my head in some of these photos on all night — in fact I think I left it on a table somewhere and lost it. Oops.

In the end, I’m definitely glad I paid the $5 and went. I had been considering staying in, since, like I said, I don’t usually party and I was concerned my more party-enthused friends would find me boring to be around, but I managed to have fun, even though it wasn’t really an environment I typically hang out in. Whether or not I was boring to be around isn’t something I can really speak to, but I think I made for a good fake extrovert, at least for the night.

Plus, I got an excuse to wear this gorgeous vintage dress I got from a flea market over winter break for $8! It’s not really something I can just wear out and about, so I was waiting for the perfect occasion to wear it — and I think this was it. I looked very nice among the gold balloon decorations of the ballroom, if I do say so myself.

Honestly, wearing the pretty dress made all of the socializing-in-a-public-place woes worth it for me. If any of my friends or family is reading this, keep that in mind: if ever you need to coax me out of the house, promise me that you’ll take pictures of me in pretty clothes against a pretty background and I’ll probably crawl out of my cave.

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!

Dress: Vintage (thrifted)

March 30, 2018 – This Isn’t Chicago (OOTD #258)

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As much as I’ve complained about Catholic school’s somewhat restrictive practices, especially during gLent, I must say I do appreciate things like getting off for Easter Break.

I’ve always gone to public school, so Easter weekend or Good Friday have never warranted a break from school. Actually, I do have this vague memory of, back when I lived in Louisville, there being a vote in the school board about whether we should have off for Oaks Day (a big horse race at Churchill Downs right before the Derby) or Good Friday, and they chose Oaks.

So it was a treat to get off a few days for Easter. A lot of my friends went home, but it didn’t really seem like it was going to be worth the time and money for me to fly back to Kentucky, so I just hung out on campus.

My original plan was to try to go into Chicago — there’s a train that goes in every two hours from the South Bend Airport for only $12, and the trip is only about two hours (one hour if you account for the time difference!). I thought it would be a fun little weekend getaway to a real city and a way to get away from the Notre Dame bubble.

I didn’t want to go alone though, and I didn’t have any friends who were willing or able to join me. Sadly, it looks like I am not going to make it into Chicago until perhaps after the semester is over — so I’m looking at maybe trying to go for a day when my parents come in to help me move out. Parents: if you’re reading this, which I know you are, you should take note of that 😜

Instead of getting out of town for Easter Break, I had a friend suggest a trip to the Mishawaka Mall, only about 20 minutes by bus away from campus. It wasn’t Chicago like I’d hoped, but it was off campus — and that’s really what I was craving.

It turned into a little bit of an adventure when we wound up taking the wrong bus and going to downtown South Bend instead of Mishawka and getting stranded at the bus station for 30 minutes until another bus could take us the other direction. It was fun though because it was something other than Notre Dame.

I got my pictures done at the mall nearby the Easter Bunny setup. Why is there no Easter Bunny in these shots then? Because this is actually the opposite side of the setup — the Easter Bunny is sitting in a chair directly opposite where I’m standing here. I didn’t have the time to wait in line or the money to pay to get my picture done with a guy in a fur suit, so I figured I’d cheat a little and still use the same background.

Anyway, I’ve got an exam to study for for tomorrow, so it’s time for me to wrap this up. That’s 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, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Dress: Vintage (thrift)

Top: Target

Hat: Kohl’s (I think? I’ve had this guy for ages — since I was maybe 10. One of my favorite pieces in my wardrobe anyway!)