Moz Angeles

thrifted blouse + skirt // vintage box purse // asos shoes + shades // jacket, gift from mister

Things are kicking into high gear with trying to transition my life from Oakland back to Los Angeles. There's still a few weeks to go, but the mister and I seem to be in SoCal every other weekend doing apartment / job-hunting business and whatnot. We always stay with my parents in Whitter, about 20 miles east of LA. It's where I grew up, and of course it was boring and stupid and soon as anyone got their driving permit, we drove to Los Angeles at every possible chance.

I still believe that "planned suburban centers" are nightmarishly sterile, but Whittier is actually a very old town. I'm warmed to the charms of suburbia whenever I go back—ample free parking, thrift stores with actual thrift-store prices, ease of traffic, diminished opportunities to get groped by a transient—these are all wonderful things. And where else could a business called Morrissey's Catholic Gifts, a business dedicated solely to the fine literature and ceramic paraphernalia of that hallowed religion, maintain a storefront of such ample square footage? I've been driving by this place for years. The sign itself has become an icon to me. Morrissey's was unfortunately closed when we stopped by, but the pilgrimage has been documented for future generations.

(p.s. My hair turned out pretty nice, n'est pas?)

Spring Chicken

This past week has been such a blur of trains and tears and good food and boozing with my family that I neglected to take any photos. I wore this outfit for my graduation ceremony, but The Look is slightly different here because that all took place before I chemically fried the living shit out of my hair:

vintage dress via ebay  // vintage bag + sweater // cateye shades + heels via buffalo exchange

I like the way my hair matches this little vintage chickadee-colored cardigan my mother gave me. I considered leaving it blonde for a while, but the bleaching actually came out really patchy and uneven. Putting toner in only made it worse, so I used the most vivid blue I could find and prayed the color would come out somewhat uniformly. You may have seen the results on Instagram. I am very pleased. If you're thinking of dyeing your hair some crazy color, I highly recommend adore; it's cheap, vivid, and excepting the initial wash, it doesn't look like I murdered a Muppet in my bathtub every time I shower.

Now it's back to the job hunt... *sigh*

Bright Life

In my mind, color and me are like this *crosses fingers*. Shooting in direct sunlight is a photography faux pas, but I love the saturated tones it gives—I even dyed spontaneously dyed my hair cerulean blue this morning! I was going for International Klein Blue, but the cashier didn't have authorization to open the safe where the formula was kept. Their equation was a guess at best, she told me. I guess I'm not the only art historian chasing the elusive hue through the stacks of J&J Beauty Supply...

Anyway. I spotted this spread on my friend April's mod style blog Ahoy Hoy! and fell for the stripes and pops of color on this incredibly beautiful chick that's making me wonder about chopping of what's left of the bale of indigo hay that is my hair.

Renata Sozzi for Criativa mag // via

Power Puff Girls

Today my friends, I bring you a tale of one coat that nearly ripped two best friends apart. Until that one coat... became two.

thrifted Betsey Johnson jumper // thrifted coat //  f21 tee // vintage box bag // asos shoes and shades

Although my BFF Elisa and I have similar tastes, we often like different things and wear different sizes in clothing; a contingency that has allowed us to enjoy many years of peaceable side-by-side thrifting. But once in a while, an object of supreme longing tests the bonds of our sisterhood. If this were a shitty romantic comedy, it might be some arty guy who says "um" a lot and pushes his hair out of his eyes just so, but since this is real life, said object is often an article of prized vintage vêtement...

I scored this fuzzy blue coat while staying in Los Angeles over winter break. When I presented my treasure to her by whooshing off the plastic bag with the gravitas of an old-timey magician, I could see her eyes flare with that drama of consumer desire and immediately felt guilty. And her birthday was in a few days! But I had to say nayno, I just love the damn thing too much. The thrift gods took mercy on our bond, because just a few weeks later, she texted me a photo of her wearing the exact same coat—right down to the size and tag—that she found at a different thrift store! 

*cue joyous gospel music*

It's a little warm for fur right now, faux or otherwise, but when Elisa bussed it up here for my graduation, I made sure she brought her coat so we could take photos together, and celebrate not only my graduation from college, but a thrifting crisis averted...

Soft Shell

vintage coat // 60s vintage dress // h+m bag // dolce vita brill mary jane

These pictures don't really capture how incredibly saturated the sunshine is right now. I apologize if all I talk about these days is how beautiful the weather is, but it is... it's Stupid Beautiful. I got this dress at the last Alameda Flea Market with Erin. It was awkwardly long, but I hemmed it myself and now I think its pretty darn cute.

I finished my last final at 10pm on Thursday, spent Friday running around ArtPadSF, and got to wine and dine with some of the wonderful people I work with at ArtSlant. I didn't get to decompress until Saturday, when the mister and I sat on the grass banks of Lake Merritt for the whole afternoon, reading and drinking and eating corn dogs. We are moving back to Los Angeles in July, and I could not be more happy to come home, but there are things I will sorely miss about the Bay Area—and Lake Merritt is not the least of them. Sterling said that being up here taught him how to just sit outside and enjoy himself. It's definitely done the same for me. When I first came up here in 2011, I visited and old friend in the city who invited me out for brunch and then to go to Dolores Park, and I thought it was the weirdest thing ever.

"What's going on at the park?" I asked.
"Nothing, you just go."
"What do you mean you just go? And do what?"
"You go and you sit and you hang out."
"For how long?"
"I don't know! Jesus, quit being an uptight LA person."

But she was right. I could not wrap my head around sitting in a park for no reason, without even a book.  I haven't quite been able to fully embrace doing absolutely nothing in the park, but reading a good book in the shade still gently pulls me out of the academic mode.

*p.s. You'll notice that I've started to use Amazon Affiliate links. I've heard great things about it, and I love that it's not limited to fashion. I consider it rather generous that bloggers link to items that recreate their looks—this was before I became aware of the whole affiliate links revenue model. I naïvely thought everyone was altruistically spreading the secrets of their style. I shop Amazon all the time, for everything from film to shoes to cooking supplies, so it seems like a good time to jump on that bandwagon.