Mixed Prints- Friend or Foe?

I'd like to think of fashion as a multi-polar individual- soft, subtle, saintly yet screaming sexiness depending on what she wears. She is your friend or foe with a huge impact on your life. She makes you or breaks you and is used as a looking glass through which other view you. In short, your style speaks volumes about you, whether you're into it or not.

Mixed Prints is trending currently and it is simply an arrangement of different colour and shape schemes worn on separate items of clothing together. One rule of fashion that has been passed down over the years is never, ever, ever neveeerr mix prints or 'mix-match'. 'The classic Jamaican stripe and pretty-pretty, stripe and plaid.' This criminal fashion offence, gladly for some, has been amended and mixed prints have become a huge statement when done correctly. There are a few rules, I've observed, that must be followed when breaking-out in this trend.

1) According to People magazine, you must pay close attention to proportion and working within the same colour palette.

Amber Heard (left) is mindful of her tans and browns in her colour palette. Also, notice how the flower motif on her top is larger than the spot motif on her skirt. This makes the outfit easy on the eye instead of creating a dazzling effect it would have, ought they been the same size.
Kelly Osbourne (middle) ensures that white forms the background for both her skirt and top. She like Amber, balances out the look as her polka-dot is not overly 'polka-dotty' since her skirt is overly floral. (I hope I'm making sense)
Selita Ebanks (right) works with white and blue in her palette. She has probably run the biggest risk of them all but still manages to maintain the rule. The spots on her skirt, though numerous are smaller than the floral motif on her blouse and doesn't create that 'dazzly' effect.
* The accessories (jewelry, shoes,handbag etc) should be as mono-coloured as possible. This helps to maintain the balance.

2) When mixing prints you can pull off florals on florals, spots on spots BUT lines do not go well with lines! They just don't.

Look how these celebs work their lines.

Lines and florals- tres chic!

Ethnic prints, especially African prints, defy the rules mentioned above. Believe me. I just think they are too awesome to not look cooool:)

I find mixed prints to be especially rad on the beach....

And my very own mixed print to school (primarily because I've ran out of clean clothes)

Now you decide: Friend or foe?

Fashion Designers have it easy..

While listening to some techno music from the 90'S, MC Hammer's- 'Can't touch this'to be specific, one thing apart from the awesomely insane dance moves caught my eyes, and probably if you youtube the video right now, the thing might just pop out at you as well. In case you haven't figured it out just yet, its MC Hammer's metallic frompy fashionable pants! YUP! The man is not only gifted in rapping but he definitely had a way with clothes and those Aladin pants were his trademark. I then thought, 'where have I seen those pants lately?' and the current Harem pants trend came to mind. Fashion undoubtedly is a cycle that makes is easy for fashion designers to cope in the financial market. All they have to do is think of a way to modernise and resurrect previous trends that hibernated. Here are a few trends that have reincarnated in the year 2011-2012 that might be familiar to both you and your great grandparents.

There goes MC Hammering in the classic pants..

....and a slightly more modern twist to the parachute pants.

The 80's will always be remembered for its loud colours and extreme fashion styles...this dress reminds us of a prom episode of Saved by the bell..

A moderm play of the 80's dress..

I remember my Dad sporting a pair of these back in the day...OXFORDS..

little did I know that I'd now be dying for a pair...

Look how these celebs rock them out..

This photograph dates back as far as 1944, huge bow tie..

Admire how Kourtney Kardashian-one of my style icons, sports her huge bow tie

ACID WASHED then..!

....and now.

Colour blocking from the days of the Bill Cosby Show

Colour Blocking,Gucci Style

And I had to conclude with my trendy African ancestors, who knew how to design prints that would last for centuries.

African Prints do High Fahion

The Fashion Craze will continue..
<3

the NEO pact.

Love. Every living human being longs for it, no matter how much we try to think we can do without it. In some way or the other, everyone longs to find appreciation in the eyes of someone else and experience that tingling sensation talked about so commonly in movies and songs. But what happens when the person you love doesn't love you back, or love you the way you do them. Or when he's in love with 5 or six others, and you have to share. Is it still the same love Beauty shares with the Beast in the Disney Fairy Tale? Nah, I like to think of it as Neo-love.

NEO-LOVE.
Its that kind of love that doesn't exactly fit the script you had written and rehearsed in your mind for the last 20 years. But it still causes those butterflies to form cocoons in your stomach cause' it just won't quit. Its the form of love you wish you could transform to simple love, and sometimes it does, but often takes a great deal of commitment, hard work and patience. It works just the same, only with a few more head-aches, heart-aches, sighs, sweat, enemies and enmity than pure-love.

NO JUDGEMENTS.
Some people tend to turn noses up against those practitioners of neo-love. "Why does she do it?" "He's way too good for her," "That just won't last." All these said, while secretly hoping they had the strength and mentality to take on such a feat. Neo-lovers are strong, ruth-less, ambitious and resilient individuals who know what they want, and stick to it, regardless of the outcome. They possess some of the most coveted attributes and should not be looked down upon. Conventional lovers are whimps, too scared of a challenge that proves the strongest of characters- a true test of Darwinism.

Neo-lovers- someday, I wish to inherit half your strength because if simple love drives me this crazy, I couldn't last a day in your shoes.

Interesting things I've learned these past days.

While bored at work at my school's library, I thought that I'd do some reading for a change. I found this really old book by Robert Lynd (1921), and the title really caught my attention. It read, "The Pleasure of Ignorance." I was always taught that ignorance sucked and that knowledge was the 'key' to success. But what I gathered was that, ignorance is bliss for the very reason of discovery. Can you remember how you felt when you first solved a really hard math problem on your own. Really smart right!? Had it not been for ignorance, you wouldn't have experienced the joy of finally being in the 'know.'
Sometimes we probably shouldn't rush knowing things before its time, because then we lose out on the fun. I don't know everything just yet, and to me, that's truly the joy of living:)

S U M M E R B L U E S

So, I have been anticipating the summer holidays for some time, shoot, I even made a calender, posted it on my wall, and crossed off the days, even before they were completely through. Now that they are finally here, I feel way less excited than I expected. I prefer the feeling I had knowing that they were so close than actually having them, I guess many things in life are like that. Crushes, new shoes, your order at Burger King for instance. But, I vow to make the very best of the time I have. Hopefully blogging will help to form my summer success.
Toast to the first of many posts to come and to the most awesome self-made summer.
XO