There was an interesting discussion on Yuli Ziv’s post about Fashion Blogger Stereotypes.

Did you know that believing you can be smarter can actually make you smarter? The next time you run into a stumbling block in your work, studies, or hobbies, remember your smarts aren’t set in stone.

This photo of Chris Brown and Jean Paul Gaultier is really, um…unfortunate.

These typographic playing cards are beyond perfect. Who’s up for a game of Spades?

What happens when you unplug from your internet addiction? I’ll never know, but this writer braves the disconnected life for two weeks.

From An Exercise in Changing Yourself, Harvard Business Review

2010 Digital Marketing Outlook: If you’re considering expanding your business this year, consider the idea that consumers are now content creators and distributors – they are the medium.

In accordance with all the hype, earlier today I sat at my desk, anxiously clutching my empty wallet in anticipation of the revealing of the great and powerful Apple tablet.

Feverishly updating a Twitter keyword search (which received no less than 200 new tweets every 5 seconds) and cursing whenever I lost audio from the livestream, I developed a somewhat comical system of refreshing no less than three simultaneous liveblogs of the event while retweeting ridiculous quotes like:

Geek.

Changing the publishing game?

Nevertheless, I was really interested to see how the e-reader capabilities of the iPad stood up to the Kindle and Skiff. What were the implications for the dwindling print publishing industry and how could this type of device help monetize digital content?

Off the top of my head:

• Publication-specific apps similar to the one created for the New York Times. The idea is to combine the best of print and the web by allowing readers to save stories and view integrated video.

• The basic online pay-to-read model being pushed by News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch.

• iBooks. If they follow the iTunes model, you should be able to subscribe to a single publication and/or purchase available articles/stories from multiple publications as you see fit. For instance, I’d like to be able to purchase (really cheaply) the fashion spread from the latest issue of Numero as well as the feature article from last month’s issue of Dynamic Graphics to create my own custom magazine.

I’m not sure it’s going to “save” so-called old media, but portable-izing digital content is certainly a step in the right direction.

Did you watch the presentation? What did you think?

I came across a vintage velvet suit I got from a former co-worker when I was going through some random bags in my closet, and was immediately reminded of the black velvet looks on the runway at Chloe:

Making it work

Hmm…I was hesitant at first, but I figured there was a way to make the Sassoon suit a bit more modern. Though I have an unreasonable aversion to suits (something about two-piece dressing doesn’t sit well with me), I figured if I wore the jacket and skirt separately I’d get more wear out of them and avoid looking completely retro.

I paired the skirt with a sparkly cardigan, lacy hose, and velvet heels.

Vintage cardigan, skirt, and heels; Hustler tights; thrifted belt.

I wore the jacket with high-waisted harem pants and vintage clip-on earrings. Damn, I have a lot of vintage!

Vintage jacket, ASOS trousers, vintage heels

Interestingly enough, the suit, cardigan, and heels all came from the same coworker. Thanks, Patti!

Walkin’ on velvet

Do you ever come across forgotten treasures? What do you do with them?

Part of the reason I haven’t put hotcomb to hair strands in so long is that I never really felt the inclination. Okay, fine–I admit that being lazy busy had a lot to do with it, but my natural hair texture also felt more me. However, last weekend, curiosity got the best of me, and after a protein treatment and deep conditioner, I fired up the ol’ Gold N’ Hot curling iron, carefully combed and brushed out my coils, and got to work.

Ah, memories

The process didn’t take as long as I thought it would (whoo!), but it definitely brought back some long dormant memories: The sizzling sound of hair oil as it meets heat, the slippery clamp of the curling iron, the smell of hot metal and almost-burnt hair.

The results looked like a cross between Prince’s 1979 album cover and one of RHOA Kim’s wigs:
Then I got the brilliant idea to set it on bendy rollers and wound up looking like a disco version of Blair Warner:

Sigh. Yep, same old hair. My straight hair feels like a childhood acquaintance I haven’t seen in a while, and it hasn’t really changed.

I want Cece hair!

I remember a particularly vulnerable (read: insecure) time around 7th grade or so, when I would’ve given my left pinkie toe for my hair to behave like Cece Peniston’s–to have it hang flat in a shiny ebony-colored curtain, swinging neatly to and fro when I moved, before immediately settling back in its carefully styled place.

Let me tell you, my hair never would–and still refuses to–lie flat. It took years for me to realize my strands are just not heavy enough before I gave up that fight, and last weekend I was quickly reminded of the time and effort I used to put into trying to get my hair to do something it just wasn’t made to do.

So what can you do?

It didn’t take long to learn what my hair will do. It will fluff for days. It will feather. It will form unsolicited swoops and swashes ’til the cows come home, which is why I’ve grown to appreciate the “tousled bedhead” look.

I really just had to accept that my hair doesn’t stay in it’s place. Oh sure, I can attempt to control where it goes and what it does, and it will cooperate to a certain extent. But then there comes a point where it seems to decide that it would much rather loop and swirl and do it’s own thing than obediently stay put and do as it’s told.

I can relate.

Maybe I am my hair.

The skirt and top are both thrift store finds–the skirt stood out because I’m always drawn to bold stripes, and little boy’s oxford shirts are permanently on my “I need more of these” list.

I picked up this sweater dress (again, while thrifting) because the embroidery reminded me of something Consuela Castiglione would send down the runway at Marni. Plus, I have a thing for cozy sweater dresses–really, I have a thing for any kind of clothing that feels like a lounging robe sans the fear of flashing the neighbors.

Which I would only do if they were willing to pay.

Interesting reads I’ve come across on the web:

Though not really surprised, I was FLOORED by the H&M Clothes Trashing report. Seriously? I know they’re not exactly high priced items, but even if they were, is it really more cost-effective, and more importantly, environmentally ethical to destroy and dump bags of unused clothing?

Social Media Business Strategy Great article about implementing a social media business strategy on Mashable. Remember, set your objectives and listen first!

Startup therapy:  Ten questions to ask yourself every month Thought-provoking questions for current and wannabe entrepreneurs & freelancers. They get harder as you go.

Independent Magazine Publisher Magazine launches. Yesss! Can we form a club or a support group or something?

Updating the Babysitter’s Club The Babysitter’s Club is making a comeback with a prequel and “updated” versions of the first two books, but can we please leave the outfit descriptions (especially Claudia’s) the same? Pretty please? In the meantime, this graphic novel version of the BSC has win all over it.

Writer Lauren Sherman at The Fashion Beat recounts the Ten Moments in Fashion that Changed the Business (this decade). Anyone else remember pre-Rachel Zoe, when you had to explain what a stylist was because people had never heard of such a thing?

NYE

New Year’s Eve was spent hunkered down on the couch, swathed in a Smurf-blue Snuggie with my computer on my lap. There was a very klassy orange juice and beer toast with FriendBoy at midnight before I got back to work and finally nodded off around 3am. How exciting!
Quick tip: Do not try to use the bathroom while wearing a Snuggie–it won’t turn out well. Don’t say I never taught you anything.

Friday

On Friday, FriendBoy and I went to see his sister (who lives in Florida and was visiting for the holidays) and his new niece. The baby is only two months old and is such a cute little dollbaby! No, really, she’s a ringer for a Cabbage Patch doll. I almost turned her over to look for the Xavier Roberts signature on her butt.

Saturday

On Saturday, I had to drop foster kitty Beauregard off at PetSmart, where he will remain for two weeks or until adopted, whichever comes first. I have to admit, I teared up when they put him in the kitty crate in the adoption area–he looked so confused. FriendBoy had to practically drag me away, and it was hard not to cry at the idea that he might think I abandoned him. He’s just such a sweet little guy.

Both of those outings took longer than intended, so I really had to sequester myself from the rest of the world in order to get the new issue of Style Sample together in time. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the blogging community (I really love y’all), a new cover girl and emergency writer came through and we’re ready to roll! Thanks Andy and Anna!

How was your New Year’s weekend?

However, this post from Chris Guillebeau prompted me to start looking seriously at setting–and planning to achieve–some goals. The first step is looking back at what happened this year–2009 was weird for a lot of people. I started Style Sample magazine, my childhood pet died, I hit the dirty thirty and realized I ain’t gettin’ any younger–all of which has prompted me to get serious and focus.

Setting goals and developing detailed action plans is the fun part (well, it is for me because I’m kind of a nerd that way). The hard part is actually doing everything and sticking to the plan, which is difficult because I’m not exactly what you would call disciplined. I’m willing to work my butt off, but only if it’s something I enjoy–apparently this makes me kind of a flake. I prefer to think of myself as an ambitious slacker, if you will.

Still, I decided I have to do something. So:

Creating the plan

To start, I created a Google Docs document with three sections. One for 2009 review, one for 2010 goals, and one for infinity and beyond, which basically includes wish-list items I’d like to do someday and will be ready to do if the opportunity arises in the next year.

In the 2009 review, I listed all the major life events of the past year. Honestly, this took up less than three lines–my life is not that exciting and I prefer not to dwell on the past. From that list, I picked items I want to stick with–namely blogging, the magazine, and making a name for myself in the marketing & social media space.

Then, I created headers for each item, and started listing goals. SMART goals, with quantities and dates and such.

Under each header, I worked backwards (beginning with the end in mind) to determine the real live physical actions needed to achieve each goal.

Shoe sacrifice*

The part I was missing before was sacrifice–I wanted to do more and get more but not give anything up. You can’t get something for nothing though, so unless my sugar daddy/winning lottery ticket/miracle financial windfall comes through, it’s on me.

Sacrifice for me means working on page layouts instead of taking a nap, learning new software instead of cruising Net-a-Porter for stuff I can’t afford (though I still need to do research–you know, for the blog), substituting what I already have for things I think I “need”, and limiting myself to three cookies at a time instead of the usual eight. What? I have to start somewhere!

Do you have any goals for next year? How do you plan?

*No shoes were harmed during the writing of this post.

A great article was written (and it was difficult to get responses to the interview questions–I should have known then), four inside pages have been allotted, the issue comes out in a matter of days, and after repeated requests and multiple deadline extensions, I have no photos for the article and no cover image.

Seriously, boo? That’s unfair not only to me, but to the writer of the article and all the other contributors who managed to get their sh*t together and send everything in on time. Real talk.

It’s cool, though. I’ve been working on a mini-redesign and am excited to see what everyone thinks. I’m also experimenting with some ads, so we’ll see how that goes as well.

So it’s not like I don’t have enough on my plate, but whatever, we’ll make it work. I just wish people would stick to their commitments, you know?

There are some…”interesting” early 9o’s throwbacks in the issue, including Drew Barrymore’s Guess ad, an article about the revival of punk (I guess some things never change), and page after page of “New Romantic” looks–think Linda, Kate, and Christy sporting layers of velvet and paisley and Seinfeld-esque puffy shirts! It’s just too good not to share, so once I get my scanner situation figured out, I’ll post some images.

How was your holiday? Did you do anything exciting?