Today

Today is several seconds longer than yesterday.  Sun, I'll see you soon.

California Sun

"I found this straw hat at a farmers’ market in Sonoma, California. The only other people I'd seen wearing it before were the workers in the vineyards. I’d always assumed the hat was from Mexico because most of the vineyard labourers are Mexican. It turns out the hat is from Ghana, Africa. It is handmade and comes only in ‘natural’ with a variety of colours striped on the brim and base of the hat.

I've had the hat for four years and it keeps getting better with age. It's been in the ocean and the pool several times, yet refuses to be destroyed. The shape only improved with weathering. I bought several for my storefront in NYC, but it felt like a fish out of water in the city. It cries out for the California coastline and the arid deserts of Africa."

-- Jack Spade 

At times I feel like I'm Jack's hat ... a fish out of water in the city, crying out for the California coastline. In less than a week I'll be back.  If I'm being responsible I'll search for a hat, but most likely I'll welcome the sun, worry about wrinkles another day. 

For amber waves of grain,

Alabama Shakes

Today I had the joy of watching them perform with Styrafoam Jones on the b52 organ.  Hard to listen to these songs again without that funk in the background. 

New York

In the summer New York can get unpleasant.  The heat intensifies the omnipresent scent of garbage, which is now mixed in with the smell of streetside kebab vendors and sweat.

I've written about before how my relationship with New York was not love at first sight.

But my position on it has softened.  In little ways the city has snuck up on me.  Its the conversation with a stranger, now a neighbor, at the local coffee shop.  Its spending 5 minutes at the met before realizing, i'm way too hungover for this.  But it's ok, because the met, its not going anywhere.  Its great afternoons like today, where I listened to my favorite new band put on an amazing show, in exchange for donating just a few benjmins.

Ricky Lauren

Words of Wisdom

I like things that are worn. I don't like newness... I still wear old things. And I wear new things. And the old things that I love are non-fashion. There's a timeless quality and an unfashionable sensibility... they're utility, the things you wear to work in, they're things that have sort of an honesty.

From Mr. Lauren

Black on Black

She came in with the strangest outfits and you could tell she was just trying on identities and being a total geek but people found it endearing.

from here

As a recent college graduate living in new york, I have been closely following Girls, Lena Dunham's new TV show featuring recent college graduates trying to figure out who they are and what they're doing in New York. I can't decide if its an opportunity for introspection, or too close for comfort, but this description by Jemima Kirke of Lena Dunham's high school years has really resonated.

This blog has been a bit schitzophrenic- sometimes I like to think of myself as a grungy minimalist, other times a classicist, other times a roadie for the grateful dead.  At times this feels like a failure of personal style. But I like to look at it this way - I am trying on various identities, and I am moving from one to another with each outfit.

Black on Black

Santa

Reading this blog post on the santa annas brought me back to my childhood christmases, on my visits with my dad to my wacky grandmother's place down in southern california. I remember my uncle complaining that in LA, you wake up and its sunny, you go to sleep and its sunny. In this land, the santa anna winds become our version of a 'noreasterner.

This Christmas I'll be at home back in the northern part of the state. No Santa Annas but probably a lot of rain. I cant wait to see the centuries old oak trees sitting in the fields, which finally free of leaves expose their most sculptural form.

natural, easy, chic.

Unfussy chic hairstyle.  Not too polished, but healthy, not the I-haven't-washed-or-brushed-my hair-in-weeks (I think its time for that look to be on its way out)

So Simple, So Perfect

This photo literally stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it., and I still find it completely arresting. It's clean, its sexy, its not fussy. Even the hair- its freshly washed and neatly brushed. Maybe next summer i'll be feeling the waves again, but this is perfect for the transition to winter, for having the hair that your mother told you to have.

parisian style

Inez de la Fressange.

A model for how to dress for the city.

Autumn in the Big Apple

To be honest, being in the city in the summer makes me feel like a fish out of water. While the Loving Spoonful made it seem romantic, I'm struggling to see the allure. I put on my white flowy shirts, my jean shorts, let my air hair dry into my best imitation of beachy curls- and all I feel is that I should be back home, pedaling around on my cruiser, rolling down addison on my longboard. I long for the dappled sunshine of Palo Alto, or the salty smell of Santa Cruz.

But fall. Fall will be the season of New York. When the leaves get crispy the cement skyscrapers will stand in perfect opposition. I will wear blazers and wool sweaters and I will drink hot chocolate. I'll step on the leaves with my leather boots, and I will wear suede. Yes, suede.

Summers winding down

...and I never got a chance to go inner tubing with a drink in hand. This has been a pretty incredibly summer, but can there ever be too many of those moments? Those ones with the sun on your skin, the water beneath you?