^ DUMBO, you have my heart ^

.head to toe. vintage bra, thrifted floral blouse, American Apparel pant, Zara heels

I have made such wonderful memories during my time in Washington Heights. But deep inside I knew my heart was somewhere else. I mean it's obvious that living in the city(Manhattan) changed me. For one - my fashion choices went down the drain. Like seriously... I looked a hot mess. I had absolutely zero inspiration to play dress up.  Which totally isn't like me. And in the mess of it all the smallest things like "people" started to irritate me. Like you know it's bad when you want to cuss at every tourist. Basically imagine some adolescent girl who never stopped being on her period. That was me for a while. 

Although - I do need to thank the Heights for many things...like my adult (because this can be hard to find ANYWHERE) roomies who were willing to take me in when I needed a place to stay, the tasty and flavorful Dominican food/hott Latin men, the only Chinese take-out spot that made fried cheese wontons the way I like it and the convenience of the "A" express train esp. during my drunken extravaganzas. 

Can I also say that I am so blessed to have found this room in DUMBO for a fairly reasonable price. God was definitley with me throughout this difficult time. And of course my fabulous friends and family. Finding an apartment and being unemployed is the most stressful thing EVER. But as always - I ALWAYS find a way to make it work. 

This Spring I'm looking forward to traveling light and incorporating more neutral colors in my color palette. This will definitely be a challenge as I was constantly sporting darker shades. Not trying to go all psychological on you all but maybe it can be blamed or reflect the lack of inspiration that I fell into? And as the sun appears brighter each day I will begin to pull out those high-waisted shorts. 

Honey, you just don't know how long these legs have been wanting to be touched by the sun.  

xx

RISK TAKER : kimono love

.head to toe. zara kimono, top shop tank, zara skirt, forever 21 heels, celine sunnies

These images are quite different from anything I've shot before. I'm pretty happy with them! Sometimes I think it's crazy that people have the time to shoot an outfit for every day. Like what else do you do? But again I've always wanted to share with my family and friends what life in the city is like, how I've changed, what I wear, etc. In college I was always experimenting with my style and basically wear just about anything. I wasn't afraid. I miss that about me - being fearless. It's not to say that I'm not anymore.  I think I've simplified my taste a little. But I really want to have that fearless attitude again.

Anyways the back story to this shoot : Last year I met one of my favorite fashion inspirational bloggers, Genetic Boi. I remember logging into Facebook and seeing his name pop on my feed. One of our mutual Facebook friends had commented on his photo. I clicked on it and found out he moved to New York City (what a coincidence, I did too!). I was completely estatic. No one knows but I was always a fan of Quan long before his current blog. I use to follow him on asianavenue (popular asian website, kinda like myspace). But by follow - I would stalk his posts and images because he was always posting these amazing photo shoots with these photographer sisters. *Fast forward back to me surfing on Facebook* I added him as a friend and posted on his page saying how much he inspired me and I hope I would be able to meet him. He replied and said hopefully we would. Then a couple weeks later I was working (at Top Man) and I see this asian boy with blue hair(at the time Quan dyed his hair blue). I didn't quite think that much about it but I started to realize that he had the same physical features as Genetic Boi. And that is when I freaked out. He started to walk towards where I was standing and I just started screaming. He looked and me (thank god he recognized me or I would have been embarrassed) and started screaming too. I'm sure at that point he realized that I was the girl who had just written to him on Facebook a couple weeks ago. We both probably looked like the cute asian cartoon characters jumping for joy. HA HA. Since then we've become such great friends. I occasionally help shoot his outfits for his blog and if there is time he shoots me. I'm so grateful to have met Quan. He's such an inspiration to me because I feel like we understand each other. He has a dream and so do I. He needs support and so do I. He is often misunderstood and so am I.

*These images were shot in Summer. I no longer have long hair =X