Newsflash

Finally!

Took my swimwear collection pictures, more on my portfolio or facebook page.

And I'm going on a roadtrip this weekend.

And I have an idea for a blog post.

And tomorrow I'm going to South Beach tomorrow.

And really damn soon it will be a new year.

All of this equals a super happy moi.

♥ Lini.

Alter Ego

Melody Ehsani Horus Connected Earrings

Melody Ehsani Panacea Necklace in Multi-Color

Not my hand, but what the current mani I'm rocking.

I have a not so secret obsession with borderline tacky things. I like to pretend I must have them in case I find myself somewhere with fabulous people, and then they'll be like OMG, I love your silk floral oxford booties and mint green ostrich leather handbag! Or, you know, whatever other awesome thing I pick up along my way.

I do stuff that average people don't understand because those are the only good things.

-Warhol.

♥ Lini.

Inked

I think this is so funny, but if a guy had the equivalent [which I have unfortunately witnessed] I would be and have been disgusted. Sorry, double standards.

Peter Rabbit, I'm a sucker for bunnies.

Sick typography. Perfect.

Vintage Barbie ♥

YES.

I'm gonna flash this when people bring up the whole "What happens when you get old and saggy?!" thing.

Tres jolie.

This is a better set of tats that I have found, enjoy!

♥ Lini.

Paint With All the Colors of The Pantone Rainbow

So the other day I had the pleasure [read: distaste] of dining with my charming younger sister. My sister Vivian wants to be a doctor. She, along with all the lovely people who want to be lawyers, businessmen, school teachers, journalists, electricians, and a whole array of other professions make up a huge bulk of people necessary to operate our society. And these lovely people, to whom I am very thankful for because I owe them various elements of my life, generally believe that things like color, fabric, and silhouette are completely banal and stupid.

Well, please, let me assure you, Vivian. First of all, I did not singlehandedly makeup color forecasting, trend forecasting, or marketing as you seem to believe. Believe me, you and I both would be much happier if I actually had. You and the whole world can laugh all you want when I say Honeysuckle is the color of the year. It must be very funny for people to pay over $4,000 for the color swatches for just one set of color books. For just now-then just rebuy them when new colors and color reports emerge.

Is that funny to you Vivian? Because $4,000 multiplied by every makeup brand, by every interior furniture company, by every lingerie company, by every car company, by every diaper company, by every... do I need to go on? [Sorry, multiply all that by every one of their international counterparts, by all the other countless services offered by Pantone, by all the other color forecasting systems out there.] Does color still seem trivial, because it seems like color is making a lot more fucking money than you are, now isn't it?

Now, not to seem bitter but I wouldn't hand a surgeon a butter knife then seem confused when they weren't able to perform their job with it. So why do people seem so unwillingly to accept the tools and effort behind every single decision which goes behind the aesthetics of the universe around them? I promise you, from the car you drive down to the paper you wipe your ass with all the products you use are designed, created, and marketed to ensure that you need them, love them, and use them as much as possible.

I always refer back to that speech Meryl Streep's speech in The Devil Wear Prada where she responds to Anne Hathaway calling some clothing "stuff":

This... stuff'? Oh. Okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select... I don't know... that lumpy blue sweater, for instance because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent... wasn't it who showed cerulean military jackets?And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff.

Truth.

Maybe you still think I'm a design school lunatic trying to compensate thousands of dollars of tuition and make myself feel better about my future. Maybe you still think it's funny if you happen to have actually read through this whole mess, and maybe it is since I'm not the man behind the door deeming honeysuckle the color of the year. I can, however say the joke's on you in the end, because whether you read Vogue for fashion advice, or peruse InStyle, or scope out some D-list celebrities in US weekly in the checkout line, you are all looking at the same shit in the end, fed down from the same sources when you trace them back.

♥ Lini.

There's Reasons This is Like Nothing You've Ever Seen

I had been anticipating seeing Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan ever since I saw it’s haunting preview earlier this year. I love love love Natalie Portman and I’ve found Vincent Cassel completely irresistible since that whole break dance/break in scene in Ocean’s 12. If only I had taken the whole “From the Director of Requiem for a Dream” thing more in consideration than Monsieur Cassel’s flawless upper body I probably would have been better prepared for what awaited me.

Black Swan completely blew my mind. I literally and audibly proclaimed “WHAT THE FUCK?” various times throughout the film. I felt confused. I felt violated. I felt deceived. I felt victimized by the propaganda these intellectual film people create with their limited city release only, Oscar-Buzz worthy, Sun Dance Dances With Wolves bullshit.

After the movie people asked me what I thought of it. I explained how haunting I found it, to which someone merely said, “Well, good! If it made you think, and you still can’t stop thinking about it, then it was a successful movie.”

Is that really true? When she first said that, I agreed. I mean, I’ve heard that before, that the goal of a creator is to make their audience think through their work. But, in this same vein, wouldn’t this make anything employing the power of shock successful? The image of Paris Hilton rubbing herself down with a cheeseburger unfortunately lingered in my mind for sometime, as did Two Girls One Cup, as did Snakes on a Plane, as did many a youtube sensation and D-grade movie. Were those all successful just because they were memorable?

What’s the difference then, how can you separate the two in this modern world where people pay more attention to scandal, sex, slime, and sodomy than anything truly noble?

Sticks and Stones May Break my Bones...

But whips and chains excite me.

S&M Rihanna.

I really do not understand this new being RiRi has become, but good for her.

♥ Lini.

Last night I had a dream about... ?

For the last week and half or so I have been having the strangest dreams...

I'd like to take some time and analyze them, but generally they slip away from my memory before I get a chance to begin to understand them.

I'll stick with my daydreams instead...

I want to making bathing suits all the time.

Rosa Cha [pictures #2 & #3] hire me please.

♥ Lini.

Three Easy Payment, Half Off, Buy One Get 6 free, and Free Shipping!!

The business of fashion.

These seemingly harmless words shatter my hope for everything I hold sacred. Maybe that sounds a tad dramatic. But, put in perspective, what if everything beautiful in the world was replaced by a cheaper version of itself? If all flowers were weeds, if all pies came in those little boxes from McDonald's, if all books were summarized, consolidated into a few sentences? Cutting corners in fashion is increasingly common. It's just so safe to make hoards of simple, strapless, princess seam dresses. So they are made. By the ton. Suffocating anything pleated, draped, shaped, or interesting on their way out.

I am starting to feel like every time I buy anything from a mass retailer I am eating the very soul of fashion and art. In an article I read in the NY Times it discussed the recently and shockingly fired employees Judy Collinson and Julie Gilhart, former merchandising manager and fashion director of Barney's department store. Why? They cost too much, cradled design too much, loved the beauty of fashion too much. Under their names Barney's went bankrupt in 1996. But, under their names Barney's sold Maison Martin Margiela. Barney's launched Thakoon in to the success he is today. Barney's was every fashionista's mecca.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. Let's create one of the world's most celebrated stores in the world. Then, to increase profit, let's just go ahead and fire the most brilliant of our employees who paved the road to the aforementioned success.

Business of fashion is just an oxymoron. I really do not believe you can have both. Smaller! Shorter! Less pieces, less colors, less seams, less trims! And there you have it! A mutant industry bearing no resemblance of it's parent. Business consumed fashion and now wears it's skin as a victory pelt.

So please carry on everyone. Break down doors on Black Friday and stuff your suitcases with $9.99 hoodies, then talk about how boring the mall is. How you always see the same shit. Well it's probably because you always buy the same shit. It's probably because we simply cannot understand that if we're constantly donating to good will, renting storage rooms, and making walk in closets a must have, then maybe, just maybe we have a little too much shit. The business of fashion wants you to have a whole lot of shit.

And if you need more convincing, if investing in a $500 designer dress rather than two dozen $25 ones simply isn't persuasive enough, let me remind you of when you turned 16. When you turned 16 and got your first retail job. When working an entire shift wouldn't cover the cost of dinner and a latte, let alone the gas to get there or anywhere. When people buy those $25 dresses at your store, you, the minimum wage associate gets maybe half a nickel of it. And they get the rest. And buy jets and condos and villas in France with it.

Convinced yet?

Another company who doesn't bore me to tear, yet, cross me fingers.

Nasty Gal.

I wonder if they care how bad that looks on your credit card bill?

They sell Black Milk though, so I forgive them.

Pleading the 5th

Two days from today I will have my last fashion journalism class. As a final assignment, we were instucted to write an opinion piece. I struggled with this, trying to find something to find an opinion on. Something interesting. Or maybe something funny. Or maybe something meaningful. I just didn't want it to be stupid.

While pondering the topic I probably checked my facebook 13 times, updated my twitter, and gossiped with my friend sitting on the computer next to me.

When I was younger I had a fleeting dream of being an attorney. I could talk anyone's ear off. I loved and still love to argue, sometime's just for the sake of it. Also, as a Libra I have a complete need for things to be fair and just. You would think churning out an opinion piece would be simple for me.

I don't know, maybe I've run out of opinions. Or thoughts. During my 13 interval facebook break trying to complete this shit I noticed the dozens of updates of people either not wanting to do homework, falling behind in their homework, or questioning why or when or how they were ever going to do it. I would have gotten angry at them and told them to get off facebook, but well, it's not like I wasn't doing the exact same thing.

Why do we only have opinions on people profile pictures? Status updates? Friend requests? You can like it with a click, or not with a comment. Yet somehow, if it's not streaming easily done a feed I find myself unable to decided how I feel about it anymore.

How is that possible that I can't have an opinion without a "like" button?

♥ Lini.

Christmas Wishlust Part 1.

10 years of Nordstom Illustrations, available at Nordstrom of course.

Ruben Toledo's Fashion Almanac.

Season 6.

Gimme gimme gimme, my sister and I have every other season and I need this one.

And, as usual, I would just like to travel.

A lot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

♥ Lini.

Vision is Scary.

Second sketch.

I like the first one I posted better, but whatever. I like working in B&W better in general.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This time tomorrow I will be almost back home in South Florida.

mmmmmm [:

♥ Lini.

Tongue Tied

Fancy.

Flip flop.

Fairey.

Phillip [Lim.]

I should just get a tumblr, I never write more than a dozen words on here anymore.

♥ Lini.

Where in the world is Lini?

Drew this for this school thing.

Thought I'd share since I haven't updated in ages.

In other news, I want to knit so I can make an infinity scarf cause I really want one.

♥ Lini.

Future?

I went to this tonight and it made me both very happy and very said because I felt hopeful for my future in some ways, skeptical for it in others. In regard to my past and present, I just couldn't help but question where I am and what it is that I am doing. Am I in the right school, city, program?

I guess time will tell.

If your in Philly check out these events though, it was very insightful.

"You better make sure you're doing something really special cause everybody's closets are already full."

Wise words.

♥ Lini.

Do you believe in magic?

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows ticket?

Check.

I cannot wait for some Tom Felton in my life.

...Unless the previews are accurate and he's barely in it, and I will cry.

Combined with Thanksgiving, I'm liking what November is bringing.

♥ Lini.

Quasi Doppleganger

Blog Twins!

Badass cakes from another Let Them Eat Cake Blog.

Mine's better [;

♥ Lini

Raindrops on Roses

J'adore:

But I hate, hate, hate school.

Didn't before now.

Used to be a good student.

When do I graduate again?

♥ Lini.

Waste Not, Want Not

I found these works by photographer Chris Jordan when doing research for a consumerism piece for Journalism.

The series, called American Mass Consumption, plays with scale of several reknowned works of art and uses typically discarded materials.

Seriously, this is so fucking cool.

Also, did you know 426,000 cell phones are discarded daily?

maybe it's cause Verizon sold my 3 non-working Droids within like two months.

But still, woahhh.

♥ Lini.

Something Wicked

Happy Halloween!

Myself and two friends are surprising everyone with our costumes tomorrow, what are you escaping from your true self as this year?

♥ Lini.