Spring/Summer 2020 Fashion Picks

This current fashion season, despite living inside while stuck in “quarantine” aka Bay Area’s “shelter-in-place” order, managed to massage the materialism-inclined lobe of my mind. Mmmm and it felt good. I’ve listed some of the trends + pieces I’m loving this season.

Summer Dresses

Nothing says summer like an airy dress you can throw on with a pair of sandals. My favorites this year are brightly-colored and feature this season’s trends including: puff sleeves, tiered details, and bows/ties. 

During this epic Anti-Racism Movement, content-creators continue uplifting black-owned businesses, and fashion bloggers are no exception. Freddy My Love’s Black Owned Fashion Brands Haul! features gorgeous dresses by Lem Lem. 

Lem Lem was founded by model-turned-designer Liya Kebede and supports her native Ethiopia by creating jobs for local artisans. She incorporates centuries-old Ethiopian weaving techniques with modern, chic silhouettes. I am obsessed with her tiered-style dresses that look absolutely effortless.

Semira cotton-gauze maxi dress $495

I’m also loving everything by For Love and Lemons.

Chrysanthemum Midi Dress $248 

The midi-length + high slit details are extremely on trend at the moment. As well as a dramatic puff sleeve and any kind of tie/bow detail. 

And if you want an affordable option (like myself), Target keeps impressing me with their Universal Threads line. I just purchased this yellow dress ~on sale~ and she is so flattering. It fits more like a maxi dress than a midi on me because I’m five feet tall. I love the subtle puff sleeve + tie detailing, the bust detail, AND she has pockets.

Floral Print Puff Sleeve Dress Was $30, Now $20

Summer Sandals

Simple mules are still very on trend (since 2017, I believe) and I love how the added heel gives off that 90’s/early-2000’s cool girl fashion vibe.

The Bottega Veneta Mules are everything. If only I had $790 to drop on shoes.

I’ve been loving the heeled, strappy flipflop/sandal trend. I got this pair from Urban Outfitters for $25 when they had a flash sale! I’ve worn them a few times (for grocery shopping lmfao) and they are heavy and not that comfortable tbh. But they look cute as heck, so I’ll keep wearing them.

UO Alexa Strappy Sandal $50

 

Simple Cropped Tanks

I’ve become a HOARDER for these tank tops.

As a person who is 5’0 with a short torso, crop tops + high-waisted bottoms help make me look a bit more proportional.

Below are ones that I have recently added to my basic crop top collection *_*

Babaton Sculpt Knit Tank $58

Topshop Stretch Cotton Sleeveless Crop Top $12

Not a crop top, but it gives off a similar white tank top vibe. I love the square neck of this body suit + ruched bust. I purchased this on sale for $10.

Topshop Body Suit $10.98

This stretchy tank is unbelievably flattering. I snagged this for $15 during a Nordstrom sale. Obsessed.

The Free People Square One Seamless Cami , $30

Mini Bags

I found this bag on sale at Nordstrom for $18 and had to get it. It fits my iPhone 7 and I’m so glad because otherwise it would feel way too impractical to carry around lmfao. She’s so cute and I love how mini-bags look either on a long strap or held like a purse that just shrunk lol.

Topshop Ken Blue Mini Crossbody Bag, $35

Matching Sets

I have been ALL OVER the 90’s inspired, solid-colored loungewear set trend. A lot of folks on YouTube have been raving over Aritzia’s loungewear sets of sweaters and sweatpants (ranging from $25-$80 per piece, not sold as sets)…

Yes, these “boyfriend” sweaters — especially in that gorgeous honey beige or pale violet hues — make a girl wish it were winter again.

But alas. It doesn’t matter how many gorgeous Asian Canadian YouTubers are flaunting their Aritzia Clientele Sale sweatsuits rn — I refuse to wear sleeves.

Instead, I’ve been living for thin, cozy crop-top and booty shorts numbers BECAUSE IT’S HOT AS HELL IN CALIFORNIA.

I got this pajama set from Target’s Colsie loungewear collection and I have been living in it throughout “shelter-in-place.” Best $20 I’ve ever spent at Target.

 

 

 

 

Advice for Incoming Grad Students

Places to find cheap/free books

• Jstor : Your institution may have access to full online pdfs of textbooks 😉
•  Thriftbooks.com : If you’re taking a lit class, this is the place to go for cheap novels and often textbooks as well + FREE SHIPPING over $10 + you can earn points toward a free book

 

Reflections of a someone who dreams in color: Do you dream in color or black and white?

DREAMS I thought everyone dreamed in color, too, until my friend, Rachel, stated, “I only dream in black and white.” My dreams possess a color scheme synced with reality, if not brighter.  A cherry-colored balloon floating across the sky was the boldest hue I have ever seen, and I saw in the dreammind of a middle-school aged me. But every dream is not as vivid as the others. Some are tinted with literal and figurative darkness. In middle and high school, learning about the Holocaust entailed viewing Schindler’s List, Anne Frank documentaries, and yellowed and faded photographs of survivors, culprits, and innocents. Throughout this experience, I realized I had a predisposition to undergo a strong form of vicarious traumatization. The tint of aged photographs filtered the coloration of my dreams. In these dreams, I was still Catholic, but somehow a target of Nazi soldiers who burned down my dimly-lit church and murdered my family in a sea of shadows. Sometimes, the nightmares are filtered in a sepia-like haze. Other times, my eyes linger in that state of adjustment from being out in bright light to going into a room. These dreams do not do colors justice, complying to the notion, as noted by Tacita Dean in Magic Hour, “that nothing can keep its color under the cover of darkness.” They are colors with diminished saturation, but retain distinct hues. This is the closest I have come to dreaming in black and white.

Depression is a Bacteria

We were at a pizza place. She told me that a wise friend had told her that for different people, our ability to be happy ranges on a spectrum. “Some people need to work harder to be happy,” she told me.

“Isn’t that obvious?” I responded. It was not the reaction she probably hoped for, and I felt that she was surprised by my lack of surprise.

“Not to me,” she answered.

---

“You could exercise. Exercise releases endorphins. Oh, and you could listen to music. Do what makes you happy.”

In my head, I thought “I know. I know. I’ve heard it all before. From parents. From counselors. From myself. From lovers. From teachers. From friends.” In my words, I said, “You don’t understand. But thank you for trying… I really appreciate it.” I really did.

“Thank you?…” A pause. She did not let the conversation fade. “How would you describe how you feel (depression)?”

---

I could not say anything so coherent in that moment, which is why I am cringing at myself, why I am taking this moment to try to describe what it is I feel. How do you describe your depression to someone who, presumably, has never been depressed? Well, it helps that we are both Biology nerds.

---

Depression is like a bacteria

It is not an innate part of my being, but feels like something from the outside trying to infect me, trying to become a part of me, live inside me.

Depression is like a phagocyte

And I am the cell it engulfs. I become part of it, which contradicts the bacteria metaphor, but bear with me, because depression is complicated. It can feel like bacteria. It can feel like a phagocyte. It can feel like both at once.

Depression is like a virus

And I am its host. It injects its genes which code for dissatisfaction, discontent, self-loathing, irrationality, and comparison. They replicate. They spread with the goal that the host cell dies

---

I have tried to cure it.

First, I tried using antibiotics.

They stopped depression from growing for a while.

Antibiotics were movies, music, friends, and art.

But then depression grew resistant to music by altering its shape in such a way that it still functioned but the drug could not bind to it anymore. The depression grew and grew.

It became resistant to movies, deciding that it could feed on feelings of failure and harness the energy to pump the drugs out of its cells as to become untouchable.

Depression became resistant to friendship. It closed its membrane off to love.

Finally, it tried becoming resistant to art. It did whatever it could. It mutated. It got stronger. It continued to grow. But so did I.

---

The antibiotics are within me. They are not external. I am, at present, not on antidepressants. I am not clinically diagnosed as depressed. I cannot validate these experiences with anything other than my words. But this is what it feels like.

 

Winter Haul 2016

With the holiday season comes a bounty of holiday sales. Here are some of the pieces I recently picked up from Anthropologie, Madewell, and Crossroads (a second-hand boutique). All of these pieces were the last in the store and happened to be in my size! I always take that as a sign that I have to buy it 🙂

Anthropologie “Mockneck Knit Tank”

Orig: $68. Sale:$39.99 + 40% off = $23.97

Anthropologie “Ella Turtleneck Tank”

Orig. $98. Sale $69.95 + 40% off = $41

Madewell “Anthem Boatneck”

Orig. $35, Sale $24.99 + 30% off = $19.99

Madewell “Etched Shield ring in silver”

Orig. $28, Sale $19.99 + 50% off = $10

 

 

 

 

J.Crew “Qulited Puffer Jacket”

Orig. $168 Sale $38 (at Crossroads)

Free People “City Lights” Open Back Cowl Top

Orig. $68. Sale $18.50 (Crossroads)