Tag: zara

July 5, 2019 – Marketable (OOTD #526)

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So rarely do I actually buy things at these markets I visit.

Markets may be one of my favorite sites to visit when I travel to new cities, but I almost never do anything other than that walk around and peruse the items.

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szia and see ya

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In regards to just about everything but clothes, I do a fairly good job of not buying things I don’t need. I don’t buy magnets, or cheap made in China scarves, or keychains. If I don’t see something that calls to me, then I walk away without buying anything. Markets with clothing — especially vintage clothing — are another story, but otherwise, I like to think I’m not a complete slave to consumer culture.

The Budapest Central Market was a great place to visit. It’s got this really beautiful, ornate architectural style and lots of natural light (which means good pictures). As a place to shop, though, I was personally a little less impressed. A lot of what the vendors had to offer was food, but I just wasn’t hungry when I went. If you’re not looking to buy food, however, there isn’t really much for you but gimmicky tourist stuff.

If you’re looking for a better market for gift shopping, I’d have to recommend the Ecseri Bazaar, which I’ll write about in tomorrow’s blog.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life in Europe 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: Zara

Shorts: H&M

 

 

June 15, 2019 – Not Florida (OOTD #518)

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Wait, this isn’t Naples, Florida.

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wait, this isn’t florida

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I’ve actually never been to Naples, Florida. I haven’t actually traveled much around Florida, despite it being the go-to vacation destination for every family that lived south of the Mason-Dixon line from about 2006-2015. I’ve seen Orlando and Destin and Panama City Beach, but otherwise, that’s about it. Don’t tell anyone from Florida, but I don’t actually like Florida that much.

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mall rat

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So while I’ve never been to Naples, Florida to compare it to Naples, Italy, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Naples, Italy (also known as Napoli in Italian) is the better of the two. If you’ve been to both and have an opinion, feel free to fact check me.

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twisted my ankle twice on these streets

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As I discussed in my post about my trip to Florence, Northern and Southern Italy have extremely distinct cultures, a distinction that even I, an uncultured American, noticed in comparing Florence and Rome (both of which are actually more Central than Northern or Southern). Naples, the southernmost location I visited in Rome (and furthermore, considered by many to be emblematic of what makes the South of Italy unique compared to Central and Northern Italy) blew the Florence-Rome comparison out the water.

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i’m having a moment

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Naples was very different — both from Rome and Florence, but especially Florence. It’s like comparing a gated community with a private school that Felicity Huffman paid for her children to go to, to the neighborhood that Kelley Williams-Bolar falsified her address in order to prevent her children from having to school in. Can you guess if Naples is the Felicity Huffman or the Kelley Williams-Bolar?

In fact, when I returned to Rome from Naples, the first thing a friend said to me was “Oh, you didn’t get mugged! I guess you didn’t get an authentic tour.”

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not a bad view

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Actually, I don’t think Naples is as bad as its reputation. Sure, it was a little sketchy, especially that first night after I arrived after sundown and had to find the AirBnB. And the beach weren’t the cleanest. And one half of our friend group got kicked out of their hotel room after it turned out that they’d booked through a fraudulent website. At least the roads were better than Rome’s — no twisted ankles for me!

Plus, Naples had a beautiful castle — the Castel dell’Ovo, “the castle of the egg.” Don’t ask me why it’s called that. I don’t know (though I’m certain it was explained on one of the signs, I couldn’t read them as they were all in Italian). It was beautiful though, and I got some sweet photos on the way up.

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sea you around

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That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life in Europe 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!

Outfit 1:

Swimsuit top: Hollister

Swimsuit bottom: Target

Outfit 2:

Top: Zara

Shorts: H&M

June 6, 2019 – Get to the Ponte Already (OOTD #513)

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Get it? Because ponte in Italian means “bridge,” and I’m standing next to a bridge?

I’d also considered some Tiber River-related puns, but I couldn’t think of any good enough. If you know of any, leave me a comment and let me know! I’m always happy to hear suggestions from people who are cleverer than me.

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all rivers lead to rome?

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After the insanity that was my last post that featured not one, not two, but five major tourist sites around Rome (the Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, the Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain), I thought it was fair for me to take a break from exploring for a while.

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get to the ponte already

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And by “some time,” I mean one day. Regardless of how exhausted I felt after my “tourist day” I had work the next morning, so I had to be up and ready to head to work at 8:30 AM. It was a short day, though, because that afternoon, my supervisor agreed to let me out a few hours early for another one of the “cultural enrichment” events with the Notre Dame study abroad students.

This time, it was a tour of the Jewish Ghetto. I actually have no relevant photos to show from that part of my day. It’s not that there weren’t some beautiful buildings that would have made excellent fashion photography backgrounds for my blog — there were — but there was never a good moment to ask someone to a get my picture.

Also, no one else was getting pictures. That’s a big one for me. I really dislike being the only person or the first person in a group to ask someone to take my picture. I’ll do it if it’s an important location, and I’ll just die without getting a shot for Instagram or Snapchat, but otherwise, I try to get a feel for what the rest of the crowd is feeling in regards to stopping for glamour shots. Not every group of people is big into photos. I always hate to be the single narcissist in a group who is.

After the tour, though, my friends and I split off from the group and walked back along the Tiber River to the Colosseo area where we all lived. That’s when I got these pictures. I’m less concerned about being the single narcissist in a group when I’m with a group of friends.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life in Europe 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!

Dress: Zara (thrift)

June 1, 2019 – Friends in Firenze (OOTD #511)

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It took me two weeks, but I finally made a small group of friends here in Italy!

You wouldn’t know it from these photos, since they’re not like…present in any of them but this selfie. I mean, I’m not so vain as to force the people I’m with to take a bunch of pictures with me just so that I can prove that I have friends. I’m only vain enough to force the people I’m with to take pictures of me so that I can prove that I’m out and enjoying my life.

To absolutely no one’s surprise at all, the friends I ended up making in Rome were also Notre Dame students. To my genuine surprise though, the people who wound up as my friends were not the study abroad students who lived so close to me near the Colosseum; they were actually the other interns who lived and worked in other places in the city. There was one girl who was a study abroad student, but otherwise, we were all doing independent internships.

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*mrs. puff voice* oh, neptune.

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I’d met them all very briefly back on campus at Notre Dame, but I hadn’t expected that we’d actually bond, given how on our own we were in the city. But maybe that’s why we did bond — because we were relatively on our own, with no means of making social connections. What, you didn’t seriously expect us to go out on our own and meet people, did you?

Rome’s a great city, and I miss it now that I’m gone, but after being there for two weeks, I was craving an opportunity to get out. Frascati, which I visited had visited earlier for a winery tour, hardly counted, as I was barely there half a day. I wanted a real day trip. Turns out, my five newfound friends wanted a day trip too.

Florence (also known in Italian as Firenze) is perhaps the closest major city to Rome, just an hour by the fast train or three hours by the slow train. We chose the slow train because we’re cheap. If you’re richer than me, though, I recommend taking the fast train — I’ve hard it’s quite nice.

Despite its relatively short geographic distance from Rome, Florence feels worlds about from Rome. As I understand from the very little bit of Italian culture and history that I know, Northern Italy and Southern Italy are economically, culturally, and politically separate entities, almost to the point of being separate countries in effect. They’re united by the Italian language, and not much else. Northern Italy is much more like its European neighbors, while Southern Italy is its own separate world.

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duomo? fo-sho

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What’s the point of me mentioning this? Rome and Florence are both considered Central Italy; the North/South divide shouldn’t play into the dynamic between the cities. But it does. At least, to my unknowledgeable and uncultured opinion, it does.

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i’m out of bridge-related puns, sorry

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Florence felt different from Rome. It felt richer and cleaner and quieter and more stereotypically European. Rome is insane — hot, dirty, ancient, and quite possibly falling to pieces. At times, I’ve felt that it’s almost more like Kathmandu, Nepal than other European cities that I’ve visited, such as Munich. Florence seemed to be more put-together. For one, the sidewalks weren’t constantly trying to kill me, like they were in Rome.

I wish I could have stayed in Florence for longer than I did. I feel like there was so much more to explore than I got a chance to see. Sometimes, at the end of a trip, I feel like I’ve exhausted the things to do in a city; Florence was quite the opposite. It’s a place I’d like to go back to one day, if I have the opportunity. One day was not enough.

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made some friends in firenze

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That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life in Europe 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: ASOS

Skirt: Zara

May 20, 2019 – Up On the House Top (OOTD #504)

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I’m sorry, I don’t know why I used that title, it’s not even remotely close to Christmas and this post is going to have nothing to do with reindeers. I just happen to be standing on a roof because it was empty, and I didn’t know where else to go to get a picture of my outfit.

This was my first day of work outfit, and I personally feel like it was a success. It can be tough dressing professionally and stylishly at the same time, so my work-around is usually to incorporate color and pattern when I can. This outfit gets both.

What it didn’t get, however, was points for being appropriate for the weather.

May in Rome was cooler than June and July, but not by enough to justify wearing long trousers, a long-sleeve blouse, and a blazer. My daily commute was also an hour each way through a combination of walking and the metro. Either I could walk longer and take one metro line, or walk a shorter distance and take two metro lines. In the beginning, when it was cooler, I chose to walk, but by July, when it was reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day, you can bet I was walking as little as possible.

But at least I looked cute while I sweltered and died in the heat. I wouldn’t want the policeman or woman who has to write me up when I die of heatstroke to judge me.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life in Europe 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!

Jacket: Banana Republic

Blouse: Zara

Trousers: Banana Republic Sloan

May 19, 2019 – Roaming Rome (OOTD #503)

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Packing for Rome was so hard.

I’ve never had to pack for such a long period of time before with only suitcases to put my things into. Packing for Notre Dame is different; I have storage boxes and suitcases and a whole car trunk to load them into. For Rome, as I had to fly, all I could bring were my suitcases.

I brought two suitcases to check, plus my backpack. Naturally, I didn’t start packing until the night before my flight left, so I didn’t really have the time to put together intricate plans for outfits.

img_9803

And besides, I didn’t even know how to plan. I knew it would be hot since I was going to be there May-July, but I didn’t know how hot it would get. Do Romans wear shorts and t-shirts, or are they always stylishly conservative? What kind of dress would my supervisors at my internship require?

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wes anderson would approve

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As you probably could’ve guessed from the aforementioned fact that I didn’t start packing until the night before my flight, I never bothered to research the answers to these questions.

And so the packing strategy I ended up going with was something like this — clothes I knew I liked and that I knew would be versatile. For example, I packed this plaid Zara blouse, which I figured could be dressed down with ripped jeans (as you see here) or dressed up with a blazer for work.

And I think it worked! For the most part, I think my attire was appropriate for my European audience, who on the whole, dress a lot nicer than Americans (no offense). Does that make me feel like I fit in? Yes — but I’m not sure how I feel about that. One thing I like about the US is that dressing nicely helps you to stand out in a crowd of basketball shorts and hoodies — you can’t easily do that when everyone around you dresses up too.

The solution? I guess it’s time to start dressing more like the “lazy American.” The next OOTD on LEDJ — leggings, a Victoria’s Secret hoodie, and Birkenstocks.

Sponsored link: Check out these extreme distressing black denim skinny jeans on Dresshead.com!

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life in Europe 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: Zara

Jeans: Hollister

March 22, 2019 – Missed Busses and Long Walks (OOTD #478)

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So this semester, I thought it’d be a good idea to give myself off of classes on Fridays.

I figured with how hard I work in school, it’d be nice to give myself a treat and build my schedule around three-day weekends. When it came time to select classes for this semester, I purposefully avoided classes that met on Fridays — and lo and behold, it worked! I got off from class every week by Thursday afternoon.

The idea was that even though I’d have a heavier course load Monday-Thursday, I’d make up for it with my built-in long weekends.

Naturally, of course, that’s not what ended up happening.

What ended up happening was that I was so excited about my whole day off from class each week, that I decided to pick up a weekly shift again at the tutoring center of the homeless shelter on my day off. It’s only a two hour commitment, and I legitimately enjoyed going all fall semester, so I figured it’d be nice to be able to continue it into the spring. Besides, I’m able to sit and do homework whenever no one needs my attention (which is often), so it’s a productive way to spend time off-campus.

Then, on top of that, I heard about the internships that the Political Science Department offers, and I thought that might also be a good way to spend my Fridays off. Through that program, I started working at the Special Victims Unit of the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office: six hours a week, split between Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

So in the end, my Fridays were never really off days at all — they were very busy days. I had to leave campus at 12:15 to catch the bus to get to my internship by 1, then I worked there until 4 in the afternoon. I then walked to catch a different bus to get to the homeless shelter by 4:30, where I stayed until 7:30 at night. In the end, I was away from campus for a total of about eight hours every Friday.

Like I said, normally, I took the bus in between the SVU and the homeless shelter, but on this particular day, I missed it. I got caught up finishing a project at my internship, and I lost track of time, forgetting that the Friday afternoon bus comes a lot earlier than the Wednesday morning one.

Thankfully, the SVU and the homeless shelter are in walking distance of each other — if barely. It ended up being about a 45 minute walk, making me 15 minutes late still for my shift at the shelter.

It was a nice, pretty day though, and I got to walk along the St. Joseph river and see downtown South Bend (the nice part, not the run-down part where the SVU and homeless shelter are), which is a rare occurrence. And I got some OOTD photos from somewhere other than on-campus — so it was a win in my books.

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)

Top: Zara

Skirt: Banana Republic

February 25, 2019 – Classic Meilin (OOTD #461)

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Time is passing, and I think my signature outfit is beginning to change.

A year or two ago, I would have told you that my go-to outfit is a jacket, a sweater, leggings/skinny jeans, and my black ankle boots. That was basically what I lived in in high school — in fact, I even have a tag on this blog called “the formula” where I sorted all of the examples of outfits that fit this pattern. I wasn’t always very good at keeping up with all of my outfits that actually fit the formula and tagging them, but you can get an idea of what they looked like.

But I’m getting older and styles are changing. I think the formula is changing too — we’ll call it the formula 2.0, I guess. More and more often, I’m finding that my go-to outfit is a skirt and a blouse — maybe with a jacket thrown on top for good measure. You can see a prime example of this kind of outfit here.

It’s just so easy to pair a skirt and a blouse — and with the weather warming up (ever so slightly), it makes it an even more appealing option. Plus, wearing a skirt looks dressier than my old leggings/skinny jeans vibe — and I like looking dressy.

I think I’m going to keep an eye out for more skirts soon. I haven’t really been huge into skirts since middle school, so I don’t really have that many (at least, in compared to my other categories of clothing).

Back in my Justice/Abercrombie Kids phases, I was huge into skirts. I think it goes way back to third grade, when we had a pioneer school history unit where we had to come to school dressed like it was the 19th century for a month. Okay, we didn’t have to do it for a whole month — only the first and last days of the unit — but I chose to do it for the whole month because I loved wearing dresses and skirts and pretending I lived in Little House on the Prairie times.

Hm, history and fashion — I wonder when those two things would pop up again in my life?

Anyway, for a few years after my Apple Valley School days, I continued wearing skirts a lot — first, in the form of sequin-covered tutus from Justice, and then, in the form of floral skirts with those elastic waistbands (remember when those were huge?) from Abercrombie and Hollister. Then, I kind-of got bored of them. Wearing skirts from ages 8-12 will exhaust you. By the time high school hit, I was ready to embrace Victoria’s Secret yoga leggings along with the rest of young women from 2014.

But I think I’m ready to go back to wearing skirts more often again. It’s been a long time.

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: Zara

Skirt: Zara

 

February 18, 2019 – Twinning (OOTD #457)

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I got so desperate for outfit ideas, I dressed up like my dorm building.

Okay, that’s a bit of a lie — I didn’t dress up like my dorm building on purpose. I didn’t even realize I that I had until I stood in front of it in order to take pictures. The friend who took these pictures said something along the lines of “oh wow, you blend right in” and that’s when I realized — I look like a brick building.

As they say, inspiration can come from anywhere — and I guess sometimes your dorm is it. If we ever have a dorm spirit day or something, you can bet this is what I’m wearing.

Apart from the fact that I literally look like a building here, I do actually really like the outfit. I’ve taken to wearing berets ever since my roommate, Anna, lent me hers for my friend group’s Christmas photoshoot. I know I’m a little late to the trend, but I legitimately feel like a good beret can class up almost any outfit. It makes me feel intellectual and artsy.

No pretentious college student look is complete if you don’t match with your dorm building and top it all off with a black beret, right?

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: Zara

Dress: Unknown

Hat: Amazon (NYFASHION101 French Style Lightweight Casual Classic Solid Color Wool Beret)

 

February 4, 2019 – Legit (OOTD #449)

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Apparently, I liked the law school because I went back.

There’s a nice environment in there. It’s quiet and studious and there’s a lot of good natural lighting. Consequently, that also makes it good for taking pictures for my blog.

This is actually right in front of a lecture hall. My hope was that all of the students were paying attention to the professor at the time, and not on the mysterious shadowy figure behind the wall of the classroom trying to take pictures of herself for her blog. There was a semi-transparent set of windows between us, so I don’t think anyone could see me, and even if they could…I guess it’s not like I’m going to know any of the law students.

I am sort-of running out of good locations to take pictures in the law building, however. It’s a pretty building, but it’s surprisingly not got a lot of places for pictures. I want to try the library sometime, but it’s always packed with students studying.

How dare the students study in the library, right? I just want to take pictures of my outfit without their interference. It’s so inconsiderate of them to get in the way.

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!

Sweater: The LOFT (sad story — this sweater actually got completely torn to shreds in the wash thanks to my dorm’s garbage washing machines immediately after I wore it! It may never appear on this blog again)

Skort: Zara Kids