66 - Crystal Renn in Vogue Paris

You can view the rest of the images here, which is where I took these from.

Is anyone else seriously creeped out by these images of Crystal Renn in the new Vogue Paris? I know I don't talk too much about actual fashion news mostly because I feel alienated by the industry, but I wanted to bring these up.

They are really glamourising cosmetic surgery. I mean, I know they will all say they aren't. But they so are. Our culture is obsessed with cosmetic surgery, we can see this everyday through hundreds of television shows and features in popular magazines, and I think it's absurd. 

We are so obsessed with our bodies, mainly female bodies, and cosmetic surgery takes it to a whole other level. We treat out skin like a malleable textile rather than as a living part of our bodies. All the focus on glamourising the changes procured through surgery and deemphasizing the pain and trauma associated with it, coupled with the extreme body policing that goes on it our society surrounding the culturally constructed "ideal" body, makes women feel like they have to be plastic to be accepted in our society. This shoot really shows how mainstream this extreme form of body modification is.

I'm not a fan.

What do you think?

65 - Five Take... Outerwear

This is embarrassingly late, so I'm sorry girls! I really have no excuses :(

This week was a challenge to take on outerwear. It's getting pretty cold in Nova Scotia now, and you can see the snow, but it all honesty it's actually not that bad. It's hovering around 0°C, which I can deal with. Usually by this time of the year, we've already had a pretty big dump of snow, but not yet! *touch wood!*

Here is my favourite coat of the moment. Isn't it awesome? My mum bought it for me for my birthday - we found it while shopping in Winners. 

Here's a photo without the distracting dress (yeah, I know they totally don't work together).

Nova Scotia does get quite cold during the winter, usually January and February are the coldest, I think. But this coat is good until then. I have a fleece lined, practical and somewhat ugly coat for when it gets super chilly, no worries!

I usually feign off the cold winds by wearing scarfs, gloves (these ones are leather, but I have big woolly ones too) boots and socks. These boots are from Evans, and although the don't quite fit my giant calves, they're not too bad and quite comfy. My other pair of Evans boots are more sturdy and better for the snow though. 

I keep talking about my practical winter clothes, I should probably do a post on them when the time comes for me to bundle up. I walk to school and around campus most days so it's necessary to be warm and dry, albeit that usually means less than gorgeous.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I wish  had more time to update but school is crazy for the next two weeks. I  am finishing up a paper right now, but still have two due after that, then four exams. But after all that I'm done for 3 weeks of Christmas holidays ♥

As always, check out A Monkey Fatshionista, A Well Rounded Venture, Pretty in Plus and More of This and Less of That for their takes on the challenge.

64 - We Love Colors Review

We Love Colors were kind enough to send me two pairs of tights recently. I have a pair of black ones, but bought the wrong size, so they always fell down and were annoying. So after some advice from lovelies on Twitter, I decided to go for size E. I am always so nervous about tights because I'm 5'8.5" and have a long inseam, but these fit really well! I ordered amethyst and navy. Unfortunately, the navy is not navy but more of a royal blue, which is disappointing, but they are still a nice colour! Here are the amethyst pair..

I would recommend keeping with the size the guide recommends, it seems to be pretty true to size. Their tights are also super soft, and quite warm. They're also the most opaque tights I can find anywhere, which is fabulous. They're a little more expensive at $15US and shipping to Canada is $12, but I do think they are worth it to be honest.

I am looking forward to purchasing a pair of the splash pattern ones next!

63 - Five Take... Summer to Winter

Quick post because I have to get back to working on papers!

Here's my outfit for this week's Five Take... challenge, which I do with the ladies from Pretty in Plus, Monkey Fatshionista, A Well-Round Venture and More of This and Less of That. This week was taking a summer outfit and winterizing it. 

I wore this dress from New Look Inspire. I love the bird print and bright red colour. Anchoring dresses with a long drapey cardigan, tights and boots is one of my favourite way to make a dress suitable for winter. 

Cardigan - Joe Fresh; Dress - New Look Inspire; Belt - Urban Outfitters; Tights and boots - Evans

Aren't these boots awesome? I got them from Evans, who are quickly becoming my go-to place for shoes because they fit so well. The tights are also from them, they're footless but are more tight-like than legging-like, which I prefer when wearing dresses.

Anyway, that's about it. Check out the girls above and their take on the challenge :)

62 - Red Dress Remixed

Hey lovelies. Sorry about the absence. School is insane right now. All of you who are or have been students will know. November is so full of work, it's nuts! Despite being super busy though, things are going really well!

I did a group presentation on female sexual dysfunction for a psych class and we took a very feminist approach in a class that has a questionable student population.. haha, it went well though, and people seemed receptive. The class is human sexuality, and despite being crosslisted as a women's studies class (why I am taking it) it's not very feminist. There are five of us women's studies gals in it as well as our feminist theory class, and we always rant about it, haha. It's fabulous. I love our little feminist community!

The next few weeks are also crazy, lots of work, then exams, but then I have 3 weeks of Christmas break!

Oh and some other good news. My professor for a couple of my classes asked me to submit a paper to a woman's studies conference. There are a few of us submitting, it's great! My paper will be on fat activism as resistance to culturally constructed patriarchal norms regarding the body as exhibited through self-made media (blogs, zines, music, fashion, etc.) (title to be determined, haha). I'm so excited! Wish me luck! We're submitting our abstracts on Monday!

Sorry about the giant random rant on my life. To make up for it, here is an outfit!

It's just a rework of the dress I showed you last week. I love it, even though it makes my boobs look GIANT. 

Cardigan - Banana Republic (thrift); Dress - Forever 21+; Jeggings - Old Navy; Shoes - Evans; Necklace - Aldo

How have all you been doing lately? How's life? The weather? This week has been pretty mild, but apparently it's going to snow tomorrow :( It's quite late though for the first snowfall so I'm not complaining too much! But still, I HATE the winters here, I get so depressed from the weather and all the work at school. I'm taking tonnes of vitamin D though to try and combat it. I think it's working so far! So this is all I had to wear to make this outfit weather appropriate. 

My bag is from wholesale-dress.net. I got two satchels for $50 including express shipping! Not too bad, right? I love them! They're actually nicer than my blue F21 one.

Anyway, sorry for the novel. I just miss you all :)

61 - Five Take.. Patterned Knitwear

So I actually live in cardigans, a lot of them patterned. I don't know why, but ever since about grade 9 when I moved to Canada, cardigans have been a stable in my wardrobe. I probably wear a cardigan about 5 times a week. Boring I know, but up until recently my uniform was jeans, a cute top, a cardigan and flats. Actually that's a lie, that's still my uniform pretty much. 

When everyone was defining their style in 5 pieces/themes, patterned cardigans is the first thing that came into my head. Honestly, I really do dress like a grandmother, my brothers, my sister and boyfriend make fun of me sometimes. One Hallowe'en when my youngest brother was still young enough that he thought I was cool and allowed me to dress him up, I dressed him up as a grandmother for his Hallowe'en dance in entirely clothes from my wardrobe. 

Anyway, digression aside. Here's my take on patterned knitwear. 

Cardigan - Winners; Top - Asos Curve; Belt - Urban Outfitters; Jeggings - Old Navy; Shoes - Payless; Earrings - Aldo; Hairband - Forever 21

I'm trying to fly, obviously.

Sorry about the weird lighting. The sun was at a weird angle when we took them.

Anyway, so I wanted to remix both the cardigan and top you've seen before. One of my favourite ways to play with patterned knitwear is to pair it with bright colours! May seen like too much but it totally works (most of the time, as long as you can colour coordinate!). 

Check out the other gals for their takes on patterned knitwear. They look fab as always!

Beth

Claire

Ms. Loaf

Nicole

60 - It was the boy's bithday..

My ever lovely boyfriend, Fred, celebrated his birthday yesterday! He's quite the old fogey now. We went out for drinks and appetizers and then to a bar for more drinks and dancing. I went straight from my night class, so I wasn't too dressed up (then again, we live in a small town in Nova Scotia, so there is really no need to dress up to go out, but I digress). 

I could totally be a model for Forever 21 in this outfit, haha. I just got my order from them yesterday and I'm pretty pleased with it! These were taken post-night out at 3am, so excuse the mix of flash and no flash!

Cardigan - Joe Fresh; Dress (more like a tunic though) - Forever 21+; Leggings - Asos Curve; Boots - Wal-mart; Earrings and necklace - Forever 21.

 Oh hi, this is my face.

I'm really pleased with this dress, I snagged it for $9 and it's a 2X, and it's fits really nicely. All except for it just barely covers my bum, but it totally wearable with leggings! 

Anyway, it was a fun night! Today I'm making him a carrot cake so we can celebrate with just the two of us.

59 - We Love Colors

I just wanted to remind everyone to take advantage of We Love Colors free shipping to Canada. It's only on for another two days. You just need to enter WELOVECANADA at the checkout. If you haven't tried We Love Colors tights I really recommend them. I have two pairs of black tights from them and they are lovely - so opaque! Which is quite hard to find, especially if you wear bigger sizes! Here are a few of my favourite colours (their selection is seriously fab!) I'll have a post coming up featuring colourful We Love Colors tights too so look out for it :)

58 - Five Take... Lace!

I'm excited for all the first posts for the wardrobe challenge Five Take. This week was lace, chosen by the ever lovely Nicole.

I don't have too much lace in my wardrobe. I have two Asos Curve dresses, the infamous one worn here and here, and the bandeau one, which I'm not really feeling right now because it is hard to winter-ize it. So I decided to go with lace tights! These are from Evans.

If I was a fancy lady with fancy places to go I would wear it as so, with fancy heels.

However, I am not a fancy lady with fancy places to go. So I wear it like this..

Cardigan - Joe Fresh; Top - Asos Curve; Skirt - H&M, Tights and shoes - Evans; Boots - Wal-mart

Do I get bonus points because my bra is also lace? 

Check out the other fabulous girls who are rocking this challenge.

Beth

Claire

Ms. Loaf

Nicole

57 - Hallowe'en!

I know this is nearly a week late but I wanted to show you all my Hallowe'en costume! I was Minnie Mouse! 

I really hated not being able to post this week but school is getting quite crazy - November is always ridiculously busy! I had a presentation for my Feminist Theory class on Thursday so I spent all week working on it, along with all my regular readings and assignments and all that fun stuff! But here I am, updating! I'm so glad.

Anyway, without further rambling, here's my costume! Sorry for the terrible pictures (but am I known for anything but? haha).

I know Minnie Mouse typically wears red but I couldn't pass up the chance to wear my beloved Beth Ditto dress! My tights are from  We Love Colors, shoes are from Wal-Mart. The headband is from Forever 21, but I modified it quite a bit (took the bow from the side to the front, added polka dots and sewed on cardboard ears!)

In other news, I'm participating in a weekly wardrobe challenge along with my favourites Nicole at A Well-Rounded Venture, Claire at A Monkey Fatshionista, Ms. Loaf at More of This & Less of That, and Beth at Pretty in Plus. We should be posting our first outfits tomorrow, so stay tuned!

56 - URL

Just a heads up my blog url is now www.thestate-iamin.blogspot.com so please change your feed and google friend thing and whatever else.

Thanks dolls :)