This past weekend my girl Tiani and I hit up Lollapalooza. While I waited for her to get off work Friday afternoon, her co-workers Courtney, Alex and I laughed about how Tiani and I wore practically the same outfit without planning to. We both had on Givenchy jellies and also both selected Suno clothing – she chose shorts while I went with a long tunic. “How predictable,” Courtney and I giggled! After all, they’re the perfect items for going to a festival in high fashion.

Until recently I was very uncomfortable showing so much leg, but a friend of mine convinced me how absolutely ridiculous it is to not wear short shorts as a 25 year old. I’m not sure shorts get any shorter than these jade green ones from the Gucci rip-off collection at H&M from earlier this summer. You know the ones…

To read more about my Lollapalooza weekend, click below:

A few minutes later, Tiani and I were out the door and on the CTA redline with my friend Sarah Levine, who was in from my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas. She wasn’t attending Lollapalooza, instead she spent the day exploring Wicker Park for a few hours while Tiani and I raged at Lollapalooza during the afternoon. Sarah rode up with her boyfriend who went to Lollapalooza. After the festival they drove out to San Francisco to spend the week house-sitting a beach house, which is why she came along. I purposely cut my Friday Lollapalooza festivities short to only four hours so I could spend as much time as possible with Sarah, and I knew Saturday I’d be spending all day at the festival. I called it an early night on Friday and met up with Sarah for dinner on a patio before the sun went down, while Tiani met up with other friends.

On Saturday all bets were off. Tiani and I were in it for the long haul. She wore this really cool tee shirt from Paris with a photo of breasts on it. I’d be lying if I said dudes weren’t complimenting her on her fashion choice all day. For a change of pace I wore a new dress from H&M that is similar to a Zero + Maria Cornejo dress I had my eye on, but sold before it fell to a price I could afford. This dress is kind of like a consolation prize. It’s like competing in a race and getting a ribbon for participation, as opposed to winning the gold. But whatever, it wasn’t meant to be!

We also tried several times to meet up with Jena at Perry’s but non-existent cell phone reception put a damper on coordinating a meet-up time and place. It felt kind of like a Seinfeld episode, since you know that 90% of those plot lines wouldn’t work in the era of smartphones. We were both at Perry’s all day but oddly enough never crossed paths. I love that not only do Jena and I connect with fashion, but we also have the same taste in music too.

Tiani and I saw everyone from Pretty Lights (of course) and Eminem to Atmosphere and The Pretty Reckless, which Tiani made me see. I would never have gone to see Taylor Momsen sing if it wasn’t for Tiani, but to be honest I actually really enjoyed the show. Taylor has a theatrical personality on stage and a strong voice – the girl can back up her predictable rebellious teenage antics with talent. Being up against the front railing made the show far more enjoyable, I’m sure. Atmosphere was great as always, and Eminem’s performance was startlingly raw with emotional realism.

Without turning this post into a rundown of every show we saw, let me just say that Pretty Lights gave yet another epic performance. Due to Lollapalooza’s exclusivity contract, which prevents artists from playing in Chicago for three months after Lolla, Pretty Lights isn’t legally allowed to perform until the end of fall. When he swings back around, make sure to catch his show. Tiani and spent practically the whole weekend at Perry’s, which hands down was the best venue all weekend since it hosted DJs and electronic artists. I’m sure you know by now that I like jamtronica and am secretly a hippie!

Since I wasn’t obligated to shoot street-style this weekend on assignment, I was able to kick back and relax. This was the first music festival I was able to attend in the past THREE summers that I didn’t cover for a website. Before the genesis of ChicagoStreetStyle.com, I worked for Chicago Jam Scene, which is a jamband review website run by my friend and ex-fiancee Jeremy Frazier. He is a hardcore music blogger and so every music festival since 2009 felt like work to me, not play. So it was nice for me to kick back and relax with a close friend like Tiani, who feels like a blend between a little sister and a best friend. I can count on one hand the friends who I can truly be myself around – she is one of them.

And hey, only one year until Lollapalooza 2012. And pssssstt…. let’s hope the line up is better next year…..