Guest Post: Elaine

Hey hi! I'm Elaine and I'm subbing for Jess today on her last day of vacation. Jess mentioned inspiration when she asked me to fill in for her and you know, the timing couldn't be better.

Lately I can't stop playing this game of trying to figure out how to elevate my daily schlep. Anything that strikes my fancy, I love using as a source of inspiration. When an idea hits me over the head, figuring out how to make it work is ridiculously entertaining. It takes the edge off all follow-up emails and excel spreadsheets. You know what I mean.

Case in point: recently I can't get enough of this image of Angelica Houston from the new book featuring '60s and '70s hairdresser Ara Gallant's amazing work. I spent a few good minutes staring at it when i first saw it.

I'm in love with everything going on here. Simultaneously it's spare and lush, hard and soft, shiny and powdered, subtle and arresting, deep and flat...it's like, whoa.

To wait for holiday would be a cop-out and I'm not willing to be patient for that long. Besides, ideas are free and after newly born, they have limited shelf life. So this is how I'd go about to trying it: grey embellished tank top, dark rinse denim, distressed lace-up boots and a single bracelet. Busting out the curling iron would soften the edge of the jeans and boots. I'd finish up with sheer-textured color on the mouth and eyes. SO...FUN.

Although this picture is from the '70s disco era and I like it a little bit '90s punky, it easily translates to ladylike J. Crew, Anthropologie and Banana Republic, don't you think? One picture, a million ways to run with it. I'll be thinking about it for a few more days, I'm sure.