Candice Lake is one of the world’s best street-style photographers and a former runway model. Her work is regularly featured in Australian and American Vogue. I first met her in February, when I photographed her as part of my first
NBC mini-documentary video. In the bright red heels is
Peony Lim, one of the chicest personal style bloggers out there. She has an international fanbase and counts many fashion-insiders as readers, and with good reason.
This photo is a perfect example of why I always carry my camera in hand – turned on – when I’m out shooting. Sometimes you have only a split second to catch the shot.
I spent two days shopping along Michigan Avenue with my family, who came up to spend Thanksgiving with me in Chicago. My littlest brother Matt is 17 and very, um, particular when it comes to selecting new shoes. According to him, my eye for fashion is outweighed by the fact that I’m his older sister, and therefore inevitably biased towards clothing that makes him look lame. Clearly he didn’t want any advice from me on what to wear, or buy. He only wanted to know what his older (my younger) brother Will thought. Fair enough!
So I ditched him, my mom, and my other younger brother Will in the Nordstrom shoe department to wander around the third floor. It was there that I happened upon
the most fantastic pair of leather shorts.
Aaaahhhhhhhh! I wanted them so badly! The moment I saw them, I knew it. My feelings had changed. I always hated leather shorts, I thought they were too
provocative for me to wear. I’m firmly planted on the man-repeller side of fashion. But these ones were perfect, and not too sexy! When I leaned in to inspect them closer, I saw why I loved them so much. The brilliant Alexander Wang, who creates cool clothes
I can actually afford, was the man behind them.
Which brings me to this photo! I vaguely remembered photographing a girl in leather shorts outside of his Spring 2012 show last September. Of course, when I got home later that night I went through the archives to find it. Discovering these leather shorts at Nordie’s finally gave me the chance to post this image. It’s inspiration too! Add a pair of tights or thigh-high socks to these bad boys and I’d be good to go for winter.
What about you, would you wear leather shorts?
I mentioned in last week’s post about Taylor Tomasi Hill and Joanna Hillman that Anna Dello Russo is the owner of quite possibly the greatest legs in fashion. “But she’s not a model,” you secretly think, laughing at my childlike enthusiasm (a lot of people do!). Since when have you ever seen a high fashion model who is the picture of health and vitality, excluding the anomaly that is Gisele? But what about that Refinery29 slideshow… oh that’s right, it was about how
unhealthy they are at the end of fashion week. Discoloration of the hands and feet is one side-effect of eating disorders.
Anna’s athletic, toned body is as much a part of her street-style imagery as the over-the-top outfits. In a few different interviews she’s disclosed her early morning work-outs and healthy eating habits as the key to her remarkably in shape body. My mom is an avid runner and she used to invite me to go on runs with her from time to time. I accepted because I never turn down a challenge, but was always secretly miserable because I could never keep up. I felt bad because not only is she my mom she was also in better shape at 40 than I was at 14. In her defense she always encouraged me by saying “you can’t just wake up one day and run six miles fast without training” to try to get me to go on more runs. I saw right through that one. I’m a perfectionist and could never get past the “warm up” stage of running when your calves burn like hot coals.
Fast forward to now, and my best friend from college is a big runner too. Every time she stays with me in Chicago she runs in the morning while I sleep in an extra hour. Yup, I’m that girl. My ability to eat whatever the hell I wanted and maintain a svelte figure, which lasted a full 25 years, finally disappeared this summer. I’ve fallen out of shape and I think this photo is the inspiration (aka a kick in the butt) I needed to get back into shape. After all, now both Anna Dello Russo and my mom are in better shape than me, and they’re both twice my age at around 50 years old!
Obviously since winter is around the corner I’m not going to run around in the snow crying tears of ice about how my metabolism finally slowed down! I’m going to be proactive and join a gym.
So, my loyal readers, can you recommend a gym in Chicago for me to join?
