8 Reasons to Attend Shecky's Girls Night Out

I went to the first day of Shecky's Girls Night Out last night. I hadn't gone in nearly three years. I was asked to cover it for my local blog (Dallas Fashion Calendar) and here's what I came up with. Must have been the five or six drinks I had, but I really enjoyed it.


8: 15 Minute MassagesEnhanced Massage is doing 15 minute massages near the entrance for $10. That means that after a stressful day at work, you can sit on Cloud 9 for less than $1 a minute.



7: Indy Designers
I remember the first Shecky's I went to seemed smaller last night, with less less attendants but more local indie designers. Indie designers offer great style that's hard to find in stores. And this economy, I highly recommend buying indie - designers have to eat too!




6: Meet Local Celebrities
Shirin Askari from last season's Project Runway will be there promoting her Debut Fashion Show (which is tomorrow) as well as the Starlight Children's Foundation. (Please excuse my girlfriend for looking like a vampire in that photo.)



5: Sample Sale
There's a couple of really great designers that design exclusevely for high-end stores. Example: Ed & Betty Vintage Couture is sold exclusively at Nordstrom. But designer Nikki is selling a few of her samples at wholesale price tonight. These necklaces are gorgeous. My girlfriend and I were lusting over the skull one on the left. But I would have taken the giant pearl that the bride-to-be bought seconds before we got the the table.



4: A Bad Hair Day is a Good Thing
Don't have time to smooth your frizzies after work? Don't worry - Conair's got you covered. Just give their little game wheel a spin... If you land on "GOOD HAIR DAY", Congrats! You get a free hair touch up using their new You Style Iron, which is a straightening and curling iron in one. The stylist did a really great job on my hair. But if you land on "BAD HAIR DAY", Super Congrats! You get either Conair straightening or curling iron FREE!



3: It's a Shopping Experience
Grab your girlfriends because this is one of those shopping events that brings out the best in people. The DJ is spinning chart-toppers by the free drinks and there's even a text-to-request number. Not mention all the great little finds from shoes to jewelry to purses. As I was coming in, a group of girls came out and commented on how crowded it was but the goodie bags were good.



2: Sponsored Open Bar
It not a cheap open bar with plain vodka like other places have had. There are two bars sponsored by Midori and X-Rated. I highly recommend X-Rated's Pink Lemonade but Midori's Margaritas & Melonballs aren't so bad either. A couple of drinks and you'll totally be in the mood for shopping. The fun thing to do is wait for the old white ladies to get a few in their system and start dancing hip-hop and Lady Gaga.



1: Best Goodie Bag Ever!!!
Click the pic to make it bigger.
Hands down, I have never seen such loaded swag bag! Razors, make-up, lotion, perfume - I felt so girly just holding it. The only thing they were missing was a coupon for a free Latte from Starbucks (hinthint) and it would have been perfect. When I got home, my sisters pounced on it and left me with some Soft Lips chapstick and KY Lube. My girlfriend says that's all I really needed.

I also snapped a few of the ladies who stood out...

[ART GEEK] A Lovely Noose for Your Lovely Neck

When we get dressed every day, our outfit is an outward expression about our attitude. I believe that every outfit - every attitude - should have a signature piece, a focal point of not just the look but of the day.

I was really happy last Fall to see the rise of the scarf as a signature piece. Some were checkered, some were well coordinated, and others completely mismatched but cool. Honestly, I'm a big geek for the statement scarf since I saw them in manga and snapshots of Japanese street fashion. I was waiting for the trend to hit America, and now that it's here, I don't want it to leave.

But we can't just stick to these checks and plain colors. I'm all for the punk-inspired look but we should change it up a bit. So how about some artsy prints? How about some immaculate yet whimsical illustrations that play with your mind and force you to look twice?

That's what Coco has done in her line of Forget Me Not scarves. She's combined traditional hand painting and drawings with digital techniques to portray her peculiar visual universe. The scarves here are from her 2010 collection - click on them to get a closer look at her collage of surrealism and geometric patterns. They're made in Europe and are only available through Barney's here in the US. You can check out their Stockist Page to see where you can buy them online though.



I really liked the scarf idea so much that I'm trying to convince my business partner and good friend that that we should move his anime artwork in the textile direction. I've already got my eye on these bold and colorful pieces. I think they would compliment the coming neutrals if worn like the boy in the drawing to the left. You can click on said picture to go to his portfolio page.

If the scarves ever get made, though, I for sure will be posting them here. Would you buy one? If so, would it be one of these designs?

[STREET SNAP] You see all of these dolls, Decked in all their pretty garb...

I was in Carrolton yesterday taking Purikura for my friend/photographer's birthday. I love how the girls here are always dressed up. Most don't like their picture taken but I catch a few every nowandthen. These ladies were about to take some Purikura as well. =^__^=

Mary Katrantzou's Crotch Jewels for Topshop

Do you remember when you hit puberty and Mom wouldn't let you wear certain shirts or dresses because the prints accentuated your new womanly features? No? Was it really just my mom? I saw Mary Katrantzou's new collection for Topshop over at Style Bubble and I love the jewelry prints! Printed jersey is great because it mixes comfort and casual with whatever the print brings to the table. In this case, it's lovely and bold - add some lace leggings and you got Spring.

But look at the where the prints are positioned ... Talk about body conscious clothing. You should buy one of these pieces if you have small breasts or if your boyfriend can't seem to find your vagina. Or if you're trying to prove you have vagina.

Or if you're like me and you wanna see you mom get prissy because Katrantzou's prints sure break the the traditional view of body emphasis. It's almost a feminist shout: "These are my breasts! And this is my crotch! And YES, they are my jewels!"

The female body is beautiful, though, and shouldn't be hid so kudos to Katrantzou for the emphasizing prints!

GET THE LOOK: Computer Engineer Barbie

I bitched and moaned about Barbie's new "I Can Be" Computer Engineer Look yesterday but realized that I never presented a solution. Below are my own takes on Barbie's look. I didn't skimp on the pink because it's Barbie's signature color. The looks also keep the pink glasses because that's so Barbie...




This first look centers around pink binary leggings and comfortable sneakers, which I liked from the original outfit. Throw a trendy sweater over a black tunic-dress and I don't see any reason a computer engineer wouldn't wear this. And a laptop bag - pink yes! - but I am sooo surprised that she didn't have a laptop bag!

This one looks a little bit more grown up to me and takes more from the original look. The boyfriend blazer, though, would have the binary code on the folded sleeves - another little detail I liked from the original look. The flats are also a great alternative to the sneakers.

I'm Computer Tech Barbie!

There is no way I can call myself the Style Geek without covering this little bit of news. I would like to think I was a well-oriented child - I loved my microscope as much as my Barbie collection. But Barbie won over as I grew older, slowly feeding my love of clothes and style. Until recently, I wasn't sure I even wanted to go back to college because I wasn't sure I could stick to any (acceptable) profession. After a year of soul searching and starting this blog, I decided on website design and computer programming. Code scared me at first but now there's something comforting about it, like Burberry on a rainy day.

So this is where it gets funny. Barbie's resume could put all of us to shame - police officer, pilot, doctor, teacher, President in 2000 - over 120 careers in the past 5i years. This year Mattel decided to add her 125th profession to the long list of careers, but there was a twist: Barbie fans could vote for the next Barbie Career. The winning profession was announced at last Friday's New York Toy Fair: Computer Engineer! This gave me a warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment as a geeky girl with a love of fashion. And then I went to the website to see her...

Something about Computer Engineer Barbie just doesn't communicate Computer Engineer. I am by no means saying computer engineers are not stylish - they make enough money to afford big fashion brands; I met one with Carrie Bradshaw's show fetish and the pocket to fund it. But this Barbie seems more like the hot girl at the Technogeek Convention that is there to make the new merchandise look good. She's cute, she's perky, she's well-polished and knowledgeable but she didn't build the damn touchscreen netbook with camera and Flash capabilities unlike the iTampon. She will, however, giggle fakely and roll her eyes when you make that joke.

But that's lumping all cute, techie girls into one vacuous stereotype. And I'd like to be included in those. Apparently, they did work with the Society of Women Engineers on her clothing and accessories, but I wonder if "a binary shirt under a casual jacket" was misinterpreted somewhere.

Another thing that peeved me was how there were TWO winning careers. The masses convened and the Popular Vote was Computer Engineer. That should have been it, right? But it seems that this job wasn't girly enough or pink enough or Barbie enough for Barbie and there was a second vote being taken. News Anchor Barbie is dressed in head-to-toe pink with a few black accents that remind me of a Chanel suit on bubblegum crack. Her shoes are to die for, though, and in the world of Barbie, that's what matters.

The question stands, can you be a geek and be fashionable? Can you look smart and stylish at the same time? Mattel tried. I want to believe that they had the best intentions in mind because the campaign was called "I Can Be" and will be influencing a new generation of girls worldwide. I know what it's like to be a geek in the fashion world - your outfit is never up to par. I know what it's like to be cute and fashionable in the geek world - you lose respect and IQ points for every ruffle and bow. When I found out Barbie was gonna be a Computer Engineer, it gave me hope that the two worlds could mesh and Barbie would be the torch-bearer... but it seems I'll have to take my torch somewhere else.

[SKETCHBOOK] Ballad of a Fallen Angel

Heaven never wanted you,
Angel of Light reborn
Fall into my arms, My Love
Broken
Bloody
Torn

Plaid tights for this coming Spring... Yay? or Nay? Also, the shirt design is a little hard to distinguish but it's suppose to be a black lace on gray with blood splatters and that small poem in metallic foil.

RIP Creativity & Innovation ... RIP McQueen

I feel pretty late in the game for just writing this but I've been without internet all week. My girlfriend texted me the news Thursday night. I was crushed. Who wasn't? I've been reading everyone's reactions for the past hour here at the bookstore.

He was one of those designers I dreamed about seeing in person and basking in the awesomeness of his runway show. His designs always carried that rebellious aura mixed with fantasy pulled from a dream (or nightmare). I remember the first time I saw his collection: it was Goth and Girly and Scottish all mixed into one. You know the one I'm talking about ♥ ♥ ♥ ... I was just out of high school and still rocking Casual PunkGoth so his aesthetic completely fit into my fashion ideals. I have cutouts of when Sarah Jessica Parker rocked it on the red carpet.






And he never failed to put on a show, always pushing the envelope of shape and volume. He delved into the Dark depths of Goth, played with a wicked circus, and, most recently, took us on a sci-fi adventure into the nouveaux space age.



It goes without saying that fashion has lost one of its greats. Thank you for everything you gave the world - Lee Alexander McQueen, 1969-2010.