I usually wear no color aside from my jewelry and socks, and I love it because not only has it somewhat become part of my identity, it just so happens to be such a big statement. There’s nothing better than making an ever-so-boring black outfit super exciting by wearing bright socks and some colorful clips in your hair. – Tiani
Tiani in Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2011
Tiani is one of my most colorful friends; her personality is vibrant and she’s never afraid to take fashion risks with bright colors. One of her trademark pieces is the candy colored skull bead necklace she’s wearing above. She is also wearing the Ray-Ban sunglasses I get to keep and identical to the pair April Bocchieri won. We are still giving away a second iPod Nano, all you have to do is like us on Facebook, like Strange Talk on Facebook here, and write on our Facebook page wall about why you love color. For a full explanation of the giveaway, visit this post!
Cheer was a brand I was happy to work with because the entire company’s mission is to keep our clothing bright and colorful! If you read my interviews on CNN and in the Chicago Tribune, you know that the one thing I say over and over again as defining Chicago style is bright color. We are an optimistic, colorful city. Let’s keep it that way!
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…..
Spratters and Jayne is a Brooklyn-based knitwear company. The company uses only Peruvian highland wool sourced from the Andean mountains to create its signature chunky, wearable knits. The line is sold in high-end boutiques around the world, including at Opening Ceremony. Given the Midwest’s extremely harsh winters, every fashionable Chicago woman owns an assortment of cold weather accessories.
Yesterday I took the Spratters and Jayne black Infinity scarf out for a test drive with my friend Benjamin. It was cold and rainy outside, hence the chucks. My neck remained incredibly warm in spite of the blistering wind. I wore it both over my head and around my neck.
The scarf is quite long and reaches down to my ankle when worn without looping it. As you can see in the photos below I wrapped the scarf twice to create a looser feel, and three times to achieve the perfect cold weather insulator. The scarf also weighs over a pound – both an indicator of its quality and of its warmth. This scarf is the perfect layering piece for those bitterly cold days when the wind blows ice daggers off Lake Michigan.
[FCC Disclosure: scarf provided by Spratters and Jayne. Photographs by Benjamin Bradshaw.]
