Tag / Fashion

by Lexine

Springtime Random Thoughts

It may be officially Spring, but after last week, I feel like California had its summer. At least the heatwave is over. (But not the rising gas prices here, sadly.)

And speaking of summer and spring, that song is divine. (I know there’s a shorter version of that song, but I’m more partial to the extended mix.)

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I did some work in San Francisco recently and here are some pretty pics from my work trip:

At Glen Park in SF
At the hills of Diamond Heights, which overlook downtown SF and beyond
A sunset from paradise. Taken from Esplanade Beach in Pacifica, CA

That was the Good. The Bad was leaving SF at night. I’ve had to do some work travels there lately, and I usually leave at night to escape traffic. Lately, there’s been some construction on north 101 and north 280 that starts at night (shortly after 9PM). Those two routes are the main routes to get out of the city and onto the Bay Bridge leading to the East Bay (where I live). I’ve had to go on the surface streets in Mission Bay to escape the traffic, but from my recent visit, it was chaotic. I also didn’t know there was a preseason Giants game, which added to me being STUCK stuck in the city. Did I mention some asswipe that drove a large Escalade-style SUV in front of me tried to back into a parking spot, almost hitting my car? That was the Ugly and I hope the driver of that SUV that tried it with me gets (redacted)

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It’s another busy time at the day job, plus I’m still doing my taxes. (My situation is always sticky as I work both employee and 1099 jobs–same profession, by the way.) Yet I managed to complete another chapter of my latest work-in-progress. There will be plenty of drama, and it is a little “darker” than The Playgirl, but don’t worry–there will be a nice ending! All the antagonists (or as the kids would say, the “opps”) get what they deserve in the end (none of this reward-the-assholes shit), and since I’m writing a love story this time, I intend to have a Happily Ever After ending.

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If you want to witness a masterclass in ruining your career and reputation with quickness, just be a “progressive” endorsing a Nazi. I give you Exhibit A:

Utterly loathsome and morally bankrupt.

— Andy Craig (@andycraig.bsky.social) 2026-03-19T17:58:52.308Z

It’s vile beyond belief to see “Democrats” like Warren and Gallego endorse Nazi Oyster Boy, and when they’re choosing the Nazi over a politician who’s highly qualified to be Senator, it’s even worse. Ignorance and antisemitism are running rampant on this planet, and shit like that is not helping, to say the least. That these dubious AF choices from “Democrats” (real Dems don’t endorse Nazis and are not Nazis at all, so fuck Platner and his supporters, too) are being made in another important election year is mind-boggling. Just fucking wow.

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File this under “Just Fucking Wow” too:

And I thought I did some dumb shit on Bluesky by following some of those large “anti-Trump”/”resist!” accounts a year ago that turned out to be lying grifters that blindly bash Schumer and Jeffries for attention. (In fairness, I honestly thought they were the real deal until I noticed them bashing “feckless Dems” in every other post of theirs. I’ve since unfollowed and muted them, then found some revealing tea on them.) This shit here, though, takes the fucking cake. No need to have a “Don’t Say Something So Damn Dumb, Leftist White Male” Challenge; it would’ve flopped after twenty seconds. That post is a sure-fire, first-ballot inductee into Bluesky’s Hall of Shame. It’s so bad, it would get flagged for moderation on Elon’s Twitter.

Also, if I see any of my followers following that Norman clown or even Liked his post, they will be added to my Block list that I believe is larger than my list of Followers. (There’s always going to be an account or five every day now that I just cannot with.)

*******

On the upside, this planet now has one less MAGA shithead thieving oxygen.

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I got PBS playing in the background right now and caught a glimpse of what’s on. There’s an ad for one of their new shows that will be narrated by George Clooney. Anytime I see his name, I get rabid and in a bad way. Dude could’ve just stayed away from politics and preserved his legacy as a handsome leading man from the 90s. But nope. From him wanting Biden to step down and saying Harris was a bad candidate, Clooney is forever on my shit list! Privileged ratfucker.

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OK, time for some eye bleach, and I’m going back in time with this…

The fashion from Spring 1996 SERVED. I think this season birthed the Minimalist movement of the mid-late 90s, but it also wasn’t boring or drab. If anything, it was lively, yet modern. Lots of styles from then could still be worn today. The colors, the prints, the models!

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The Billboard Hot 100 30 years ago this week… Mariah’s “One Sweet Day” had just been dethroned by Celine and her latest ballad, and some of those other songs on that chart take me BACK. *sighs* What a time.

Speaking of 1996, I still on planning on doing a throwback post on how life was for me that year. (I may have been 11 for most of ’96, but I do remember some things from then.) I’ll get to it…after I’m done with my taxes.

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Lastly, since it’s Opening Day in MLB, the team that dethrones the Dodgers this year will get my merch money. (Unless if the Bums dethrone themselves, or if it’s the Yankees–I’ll never wear any of their trash!)

by Lexine

Gia

I first heard of Gia Carangi in 1999, in the book Models: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross. That led me to finding an old Vanity Fair article on her, which led me to getting her biography Thing Of Beauty by Stephen Fried. Safe to say, I was fascinated by her. She had a look that drew me in, but she led a life that made me sit down and read all about it. A rough childhood that saw abuse, neglect, and a divorce from her parents. An adolescence where she would discover her true self (and sexuality). A fast rise in the modeling industry–a feat considering that blue-eyed blondes a la Christie Brinkley and Jerry Hall were the standard. A top model by nineteen, only for her vices and inner demons to get the best of her, resulting in her freefall from the industry by 22. She would be one of the first notable women to perish from AIDS in 1986 at just 26 years old. Yet amidst all the cautionary tales about models, hers still remains one of the more memorable.

I actually read about Gia first before watching her biopic starring Angelina Jolie. And seeing that she was openly bisexual intrigued teen me then, as I had begun questioning my own sexuality at the time. I knew I was attracted to guys, but girls started piquing my interest. (The movie was a double whammy for me when I would also find out that Angelina herself was also Bi.) I’d eventually come out as Bi in my early 20s, and to this day, Gia is one of my Bicons. She was attractive, problematic, and tragic, which all made her to be iconic in my book.

Today would’ve been Gia’s 66th birthday. 🕊️ And while I knew she was a major Blondie fan, TIL she appeared in the “Atomic” music video!

 

by Lexine

Category Is: Women’s Fall Fashion, 1995

US Vogue cover, September 1995

Shalom Harlow and Amber Valetta on US Vogue, September 1995. 

I was too young to remember what the average woman was wearing 30 years ago. (I was eleven and was more focused on building my pog collection than what Vogue wanted me to wear that season.) It’s a given that the well-to-dos had the latest from the Paris and Milan runways, but I don’t recall my mom or aunts or teachers sporting Gucci’s silk shirts or Calvin’s satin dresses. For those who still own one or a few of those pieces from that season, I legit envy them because those clothes are classy and ageless. Some 90s pieces look dated, but almost everything from Fall 1995 could be worn today and still be stylish. Cases in point: 

Outfits from Calvin Klein’s Fall 1995 show

Ralph Lauren’s Fall 1995 show

Dolce & Gabbana, Fall 1995

Yves Saint Laurent ready-to-wear, Fall 1995

And since pics won’t do justice, three of my favorite collections from that season…

OK, Mugler’s collection may not be for everyday wear (unless you’re Bai Ling), but everything about that show remains STUN to this day! 

by Lexine

September’s Star Face

Yasmin LeBon on the cover of the premier issue of US Elle magazine, September 1985

Though Elle magazine had been in existence since 1945, the publication was only sold in France before expanding to other countries in the 1980s, with the States getting its own edition in September of 1985. Their minimal use of cover blurbs and promoting models of color on their covers were big reasons why I once favored Elle more than Vogue, especially in the 90s when Vogue gave the same two or three white models a cover four times a year. And while many 80s fashion mag covers look dated nowadays, the simplicity of this cover (simplicity in 80s fashion?), with that pop of yellow in a backdrop of black and Yasmin giving FACE, makes it quite the timeless image.

by Lexine

Thursday Random Thoughts

Like many real ones with social media these days, I have joined the land of blue skies. I haven’t abandoned the right-wing cesspool known as Twitter just yet, although I may consider it if I get more followers on Bluesky than Twitter.  The Bluesky app also needs some work, but I must say: it’s soooooo refreshing to see a social media site not bogged down by its MAGA manchild owner, vile right-wing trash, algorithms that are obviously drunk, and dumb bots. Here’s hoping the site stays the course and doesn’t devolve like Twitter.

I’m also on Threads and still have my IG. I got a TikTok but I haven’t touched it for a year now. (I’m just not a TikTok girl.) In the hierarchy of SM posting, Bluesky now gets first dibs on my short-form nonsense, then Threads, and, if I feel like it, Twitter.

My Vegas birthday trip pics will be coming shortly. I’ve posted some on my socials a few weeks ago, but I got a lot more pics and a whole lot to say about them!

I travel for my day job a few times a week, and some of the things I’ve been seeing on the digital billboards when I take 880 North back home…😒”Be Kind”? “Choose Love”?? What in the sappy Etsy boymom hell is that? Many people in this country certainly weren’t kind at all at the polls two weeks ago!

By the way, IT’S STILL THE MOOD

Meanwhile, that parallel universe is looking more lovely by the day. We’re all looking forward to what the Kamala administration will bring to this country after her landslide election win two weeks ago, the House and Senate going blue, Trump and Elon finally going to jail, the racists/misogynists/Nazis all staying pissed on their Truth Social accounts, and next summer bringing us the release of Xtina’s newest album and the Batgirl movie. *sighs*

I think I found THE cold-weather fragrance…

…and THE scent for femme fatales, divas, and the bad girls your mother warned you about. In other words, MY kinds of scent! It’s a few steps above Black Orchid, which I also own, and that’s all I can say because I’m not well-versed in describing fragrances and its notes (and that’s something coming from a novelist-by-night).

Someone send me back to Vegas for the next seven months with a $15,000/month stipend to cover lodging, food, gas, bills, my rent back home, and miscellaneous. I only say this because the Penguins aka my hockey team won all their games while I was in Vegas. Superstitions and all that.

I’m really gonna miss Rafa. It was only a matter of time before he hung up his racket for good. The first time I saw him play was Wimbledon 2008; I tuned in after getting curious over the whole Nadal-Federer rivalry going on then. That Men’s Finals match, honey…talk about an intro! I enjoyed watching him play ever since, and he was the total package: talented, class act, and, yup, a hottie. 😘Him and Federer defined one hell of an era in Men’s Tennis that I doubt can be topped any time soon. Happy trails, Rafa! 🫶

I know Dolce & Gabbana are sketch (as people; their clothes are fine), but their Fall 2024 ads with Miley are STUN.

The pearl-clutchers need to take all their outrage they’re wasting over how suggestive Sabrina Carpenter is in her shows and instead apply it to why Fist Brown (thanks, Dlisted) still has a career. Go after the abusers in the industry, why don’t you. Or is that too difficult for them?

Ending this post with a song that will go multi-platinum in the households of young women fighting against the emboldened, yucky incels. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll know!

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #9

Thrift stores!

Is that supposed to be a Big Bird cookie jar? 

How did I go a month into this list and not yet mention thrift stores? But anyway, it is the place where most of my wardrobe and even some of my bedding originated from. (Don’t worry–all my keepers get washed and cleaned before I wear them/place them on my bed.) The place that sold me a legit Kate Spade bag “as-is” for $8. The place where I found original editions of The Babysitters Club books for $2 each. The place of colored tag sales, exchanges only (keep your receipt), final sales, and no public restrooms. (Except at Savers stores.) And the place I wish would bring back dressing rooms! (ACS Discovery Shops and Salvation Army stores are the lone exceptions.)

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #12

90s Fashion!

(For women, to be specific. Like I follow men’s fashion.)

Those who think 90s women’s fashion was all crop tops, wide-legged jeans, butterfly hair clips, and Spice Girl-style platform shoes probably got their 90s fashion history from a Tumblr on vintage Delia’s catalogs and that’s it. As someone who owns many issues of Vogue, Elle, W, and Bazaar from 1990 to the December 1999 issues, I can safely say there’s way more to 90s fashion than that. There were traces of the 80s from the early 90s (top left pic), peak grunge and dowdy realness from 1992-1993 (top right pic), a short but memorable shot of disco glam to get rid of the grunge in 1994 (bottom left pic), hip-hop influences and retro comebacks in the mid-90s, and minimalism and nightclub-inspired attire in the late 90s (bottom right pic).

Fashion in the 90s truly had it ALL, but, more remarkably, designers placed more quality and creativity into their collections. That decade also gave us landmarks collections, such as John Galliano’s Spring 1995 (I know JG is a dubious mofo but his clothes for that season were just wow), or Tom Ford for Gucci’s Fall 1995. What happened to moments like that? Nowadays, a fashion moment involves an overpriced plain t-shirt from some fast fashion label that went viral on TikTok because some celeb wore that shirt. Yawn.

by Lexine

40 Of My Favorite Things: #13

20th Century Fashion Photography!

(Top to bottom: fashion served by Richard Avedon (from the 90s and 50s), Herb Ritts, and Ellen Von Unwerth.)

The creativity and quality of the top fashion photographers of the 20th century has yet to be matched by their modern-day equivalents. Pick up an issue of Vogue or Bazaar from 30 years ago and compare the imagery in the editorials then to the ones from today, and the contrast is clear. I do have my favorites within this favorite: Avedon, Penn, Newton, Ritts, Meisel (probably the only OG still shooting quality work today), Von Unwerth, Demarchelier, Lindbergh…All masters at their craft!

by Lexine

When September Had Style

I used to enjoy fashion magazines and September was THAT month for titles like Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, etc. If you’re an old like me, you remember seeing the Fall Fashion Issues that were thick as an old school phone book (because of all the ads 😆). And their covers were 🔥🔥🔥

WTF happened???

I got my theories over why fashion mags (not just for September but for all the months) have been slipping in quality for the past decade or so, and I’m not holding my breath over wanting to see top-tier imagery featuring subjects with personality and life in their eyes again on and in the glossies these days. Like legacy media and their handling of political facts, it’s a damn shame to see the once-prestigious fashion titles phoning it in like a spoiled rich nepo baby, from cover to editorial. And if you think I’m full of it, here’s a thread dedicated to vintage issues of Bazaar from the 90s. Compare the imagery from then to what you see from Bazaar nowadays and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

by Lexine

I Adore! (2024 Met Gala edition)

THE looks that saved an otherwise meh Met Gala for me. (By the way, did anyone else find the dual themes confusing? Besides the one who’s in charge of the Gala 😆) At this point, the committee might as well rename it the Zendaya Ball because she brings IT to you to every year. Sometimes twice in one year! 

From top to bottom: Zendaya, Kylie Minogue (biased me is happy to see her there again, but there’s more to her gown than meets the eye), Anok Yai, and Zendaya again.