by Glitter | Apr 30, 2015 | Fashion, How To
Look one: This tutu is for a fun night out that you probably wont remember in the morning. Forever21 crop top topped with a Sejour print bomber paired with vintage accessories and chucks.
The other night I had some drinks. And by had some drinks, let’s just say I was “high-fiving strangers and inventing new dance moves that later get turned into animated gifs by your friends” drunk. When one gets to this special place, we sometimes come upon “great ideas.” My great idea was that I desperately needed tutus, that this was going to be my thing, and that one would not not be enough to fulfill my my tutu wearing fantasies. A couple of drunken amazon clicks later, I passed out and life moved on…. Until the following Monday. Two tutus show up, that I don’t remember purchasing and I have no idea what I going to do with. Does this feel like a poorly written sitcom? If I added sound effects would it take it the next level and maybe get pick up on ABC Family?
Look two: Stand out at a party by laying two different colored tutus ( black tutu is Charlotte Russe plus) and pairing with a simple crepe black top from forever 21. Top off the look with bold boutique jewelry + Cole Haan wedges.
So I put two fingers in the air and I played around with said tutus (score the red on here) and I came up with so many ideas. I forced myself to pair down and stick to a theme (red and black). You’ll see my four looks pepper through here, but trust me I had so much fun I am sure I could have come up with waaaay more.
Play time helped me arrive at some legit tutu related conclusions in addition to these super sassy photo montages. Read on little chickadees, and get ready for just how to add a little tulle to your today wear.
Look three: I paired my favorite t-shirt with a chambray short sleeve shirt and my tutu. Look is accented by red crocodile leather, bedazzled cheetah earrings, Cole Haan shoes and a serious attitude problem.
1. It’s just a skirt. Remember regardless of it’s fluffiness, a tutu is really just a skirt. If you have a red tutu (like the one I used in this shoot) try to think of it as just another red, swing skirt. This will push you to try new things.
2. Let the tutu be the star. It’s easy to over style a tutu. It’s tempting. It’s just a ball of fun, and you want to just throw bling and sparkles and all other manner of shit at it. However the skirt is the statement, so resist the urge to over do it.
3. Leggings are your best friend. Let’s be real here, tutus can be pretty damn see through, so plan to wear biker shorts or leggings under a skirt if you want to have a tutu moment. Or commit to that whole exposed nether regions, Hollywood look.
4. Experiment with placement. Looks that appear awful when the skirt is worn at the waist, might just look awesome when the skirt is worn just below the bust. The same is true with the hips. Make sure to give yourself some time to figure out what works best for your shape and the styling.
5. Confidence is key. If you wear a tutu skirt and constantly tell people its a tutu skirt and that you feel awkward, then it simply wont work. If you stand proud with a “damn I look good” smile, people are going to think the same. Plus they’ll probably comment on how they wish they could be as bold as you and how sexy-sassy-fierce-awesome you look.
6. Have Fun. It’s a mother effing tutu, not divorce court. Everyone should own a piece of fashion that makes them feel like their playing dress up. IMHO, Tutus are like the unopposed president of that “fun” category. It’s not rocket science. Put on that tutu. Rock some sweet sweet jams. Play around with your clothes. Taylor swift and your self esteem will love you for it.
Look four: A tutu refuses to be seasonal. This winter look pairs an over-sized sweater and leggings from Old Navy with the shirt. Topped with an Irregular Choice scarf, vintage jewelry, and red pumps from New Look.
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by Glitter | Apr 19, 2015 | Inspiration, Life
I have a new theory. If a woman needs to love their body or feel better about themselves, they should do a photo shoot. I am not talking about a tripod in your bedroom or an awkward selfies with outfit changes in the bathroom mirror. I am referring to letting someone else take the reigns and giving up a bit of control. There is something about forcing yourself to let go, putting your image in someone else’s hands and getting comfortable being you in front of a camera that is uber de duper liberating. It forces you to stop thinking about working those angles and allows you the rare opportunity to see yourself through the eyes of someone else. I think it’s a genuine recipe for all kinds of self love and Facebook profile picture updates. 
This weekend I had the awesome pleasure of hanging out with my rad friend, Allyson and her adorable nuclear family. I mean look at that little sassafras in the photo. ADORABLE. Look how she works that inflatable dolphin like it’s her job. Anyways, these super amazing friends [read saints] agreed to put up with my insane ideas and help me snap some sassy shots for a little swimsuit company’s competition. Because, Bermuda. Because, vacation. Because, I have sun, beach, and tropical cocktail needs.
I should mention every single one of the outfits I post daily on instagram, I take myself with my iphone on a tripod. I know my angles, and I must admit look uniformly (damn) good. I am a master at working the hell out of that $15 amazon budget photography investment. However, most of these shots are not me hanging out in real life. Sure some of my quirk comes through (there’s a little too much sass in this ole body o’ mine to shut it out), but at the end of the day, it’s the manufactured version of me. The me I want you to see.
I love these photos because they show a side of me I rarely see in pictures. I still look rad… I would even venture to say better then I do in my ooh la la, white backgroundy, artsy selfies. They show a quiet confidence, versus a loud in your face “I love who I am for all the internet to see” version of me. I love how they capture both my insatiable curiosity and my uncontrollable silliness. I didn’t manipulate my body into just the perfect pose and she captured beautiful ways I move and exist on film ( err photo card?) for the first time. As a result, I now see myself a bit differently. And, that’s a good thing.
I think all women to deserve to find a special beauty in who they are. Maybe allowing someone else to take the reigns of how we see ourselves is another step in loving ourselves just lil bit more.
(Both bikinis are from swimsuitesforall.com. They didn’t give me anything for this post, I just have a excellent trigger finger when it comes to cute swimwear.)
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by Glitter | Apr 12, 2015 | Fashion, How To
Over the last few weeks I have seen a lot of bloggers, magazines and gossip sites drop their 2015 “best swimsuits for you body type” guides. Of course I started consuming these like a rabid beast who hasn’t eaten in months. Duh, because I too wanted to write one of these “so you want to look like a sexy as shut-yo-mouth in a swimsuit” posts. I’m soooo trendy.
But the more I read, the more livid I got. All I got from reading these posts was a huge dose of “your body sucks, here’s how to make it less sucky.” Nearly every post focused on aspiring to some sort of ideal beauty standard that a lonely caveman came up with to sell rocks many moons ago. None of them celebrated the differences in our bodies. None of them allowed me to be educated enough to make my own choices on what I accented + hid. None of them were particularly inspiring. Sigh.
So I fixed it. Well I tried to. I spent probably about 10 hours researching and reading all of this bullshit. I boiled down all the oppressive body talk, pulled out those little nuggets of truth, rewrote it to be factual instead of loaded with “opinions” and categorized it. I The result is what I like to call the #bodypositive swimsuit guide.
Pick the body part, and select whether you want to diminish or accentuate. YOU [not some internet fashion a-hole] are in full control. No glossy magazine is standing by to tell you to hide your gorgeous grandiose gluteus maximus, or to cover up your curvacious cantelopes. You just do you girl. Because doing you, that’s where the real sexy is at.
Edit: A few feel I am advocating for obesity with this guide. This is a size neutral guide. In reading posts, women with toned and athletic bodies (ie the most fit) were still shamed into feeling their body wasn’t ideal. So were petite women, women with wide shoulders, women with chests, and butts. Basically all women. It’s a shame that because I am plus size and open to showing my body with out shame, that some discredit the value of my ideas and thoughts.
I do believe women should be happy whatever size they are, but have a responsibility to continually improve themselves. That improvement includes optimizing the mind, body and heart. Some people’s challenges are more visible than others. I don’t advocate any “state” because I understand that we are all progressing to our own definition of ideal. I don’t have the right or desire to try and control or comment on what any other person’s goal of perfect is. I am busy enough getting my own shit together. If you want to know what I am striving to improve, read some other posts. Peace.
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by Glitter | Mar 26, 2015 | Inspiration
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently. That’s a dumb sentence, we all do a lot of thinking, all the time. That’s what our brains do. Even when we are asleep- we be thinking. Hence why for a brief period of my pre-teens I had a terrifying reoccurring dream about a large dirty mattress chasing me down the street. New readers- I’m weird. Old readers- you should have figured that loooong ago. I digress.
Back to the subject at hand. The internet is now pretty much a mirror of our lives. We all have become the annoying aunt from our childhood who always wanted you to look at the photos she carried around in her oversized pleather pocket book. I used pocket book instead of purse, because it felt more “weird aunt” like. Unlike our dear old Auntie nowadays we have all these amazing tools to make each and every picture of our lives brighter, bolder, better framed, and more “product of an uptight photographer wearing a leather baseball cap” looking.Perhaps our greatest editing tool is the delete button. We have all played the role of “annoying bitch who demands 45 shots until she looks fabulous” in group photos. The 44 other shots? Clickity clack (those are button touches), deleted. We are only are best selves online, and that’s kind of sad.
The reality is the more we show perfection, the more perfect things have to be. We get so used to full faces of make up and perfect hair, that we forget what real people in real moments look like. We lose the memories and focus instead on how fabulous we look in them. Personally I think there is something special and beautiful in stories of the photos that show us at our not so best.
Take the photo at the top which i like to call the potentially worst photo of me ever taken. My hair is a mess. My body is in potentially the most unflattering position it has ever been. This is not the snazzy, sassy, sexy, drop of goddess most people on the internet know me as. But those who know me in real life? This photo is perfectly me. It shows that I am bit zany, shameless, oddly flexible, have great taste in swimsuits, and generally don’t give a fuck what people think. When it comes down to it, I think I should be celebrating this side of myself a whole lot more. I think we all should be celebrating the less perfect, but oh so much more interesting parts of ourselves more.
Help me change this.Let’s make the internet a celebration of all sides of our beautiful crazy ass lives. Commit to post on picture of yourself that isn’t perfect. That isn’t edited. That your make up isn’t done. That your body isn’t perfect. Tag it with #ImperfectlyBeautiful. I don’t care where you do it- facebook, twitter, instagram. whatever.
Lets start a movement and bring the real people with real lives back to the internet. Lets start celebrating multifaceted presentations of our lives and our bodies.
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by Glitter | Mar 24, 2015 | Fashion
So right now I am going through a glitter phase. If it’s metallic or blinged, I am buying it. Seriously I look like the rhinestone section of JoAnn Fabrics threw up on me. And by threw up on me, I mean left me with the perfect glow of bedazzled glory. I’m pretty sure a trail of sparkles follows me wherever I go. I am obsessed. This obsession has led me to develop ninja class skills at exploring the depths of the internet and unearthing the best and perhaps weirdest uses of excessive flash out there. This week I have been especially over the moon for shoes with a bold sheen of shimmer. Why should my clothes have all the fun? A girl needs a good pair of boogie flats (or in my case…several).
These are just a few of my favorites. I’ve already bought the first two pairs of flats as you can tell from my sexy oh-no-she-didn’t-bring-that-level-of-sassiness foot modeling. Right now, as we speak, I am resisting the urge to buy those unicorn sneaks. I mean I kind of need them, right? They are unicorns. I mean every girl needs at least one pair of shoes with mythical animals on them. Yes? Yes. I’m glad we agree on this.
Shoes from top to bottom, left to right:
1. Top Shop: Flow Gladiator Sandal in Pink 2. Asos: Mix It Up Flat
3. Irregular Choice: Misty Reins 4. House of Harlow: Metallic Silver Kole Espadrille
5. Kenneth Cole:King Pebbled Sneaker 6. Zara: D’Orsay Shiny Blue Flats
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