2015 Spring Trends

Its finally spring! The grass is getting greener, the weather is getting nicer, and you can finally walk outside without wearing a coat. This means you should be storing those sweaters away and bringing in those cute crop tops and skirts! This spring season there have been a lot of new trends that have popped up and I hope to share with you some of my favorite trends.

Midi skirts are all the craze on runways and red carpets, and slowly they are appearing in our stores as well. I love the look of midi skirts because the give that 50’s vibe and yet still looks modern since it is a skirt instead of the 50’s dresses. I would pair a midi skirt with a crop top to make it seem more fashion forward. I think if you pair it with a normal shirt and tuck it in, it can look more on the 50’s side, but of course if you want that look then go for it! For shoes, midi skirts look great with T-strap heels to give that simple, sophisticated look.

Black and white aren’t usually colors for spring, but more and more people have been wearing monochrome colors this season. I think black and white looks extremely modern and can definitely work into a spring outfit. The most important part to making a black and white outfit into the spring season is to make sure the cut and style of the outfit is fun and not heavy looking. By wearing black and white into a spring outfit, you will look both fun and modern!

Kimono cardigans are the perfect staple for that bohemian look for the spring. These lightweight cardigans are the perfect transition from winter into spring. Kimonos also come in a multitude of different patterns and textures that you can pair with anything. These cardigans are also great to wear to a festival or concert to get that hip, bohemian look for this spring and summer.

High necklines are become more prevalent in shirts. I think this cut looks great on everyone because it makes your torso seem longer and if you pair it with some high waisted jeans, it can make your legs look longer too. I think high necklines also look great on crop tops because it makes the crop top not as short on the torso but elongate your neck and torso.

These styles not only work for our spring season, but also great trends for the summer. I know I’ll definitely be shopping soon!

Fashion Review: Kids Choice Awards

 It’s time for another fashion review! The Kids Choice Awards 2015 showed off some fun, flirty pieces that for sure will set a trend for this spring season. Some celebrities really stood out from the others will their bold fashion choices and they clearly worked the runway.

Debby Ryan WORKED that runway with her new purple cut and her cute fit and flare midi dress. She went completely out of the box and I loved it. The hair was the perfect shade because it didn’t over power her face and yet we could still tell it was purple. The dress was such a simple fit and cut, but the pattern and the mesh really made it stand out. I loved how she paired color coordinating shoes and wedges with the dress. All around cute and quirky outfit!

Kaley Cuoco from “The Big Bang Theory” looked sophisticated and quirky all in one. Her mix of patterns in her crop top and her skirt made the outfit look interesting and fun. Sometimes different patterns can confuse the eye and over power the otfit, but her pattern choices were perfect! The black and white colors of her outfit made the outfit look sophisticated and modern. She complemented her outfit by slicking her hair back into a bun to not overpower her outfit and her makeup was simple and light. Kaley also stayed fashion forward by wearing crop top and midi skirt, a fashion trend that is dominating our runways and stores.

Iggy Azalea also looked gorgeous in her crop top gown at the Kids Choice Awards. Her skirt was a complete showstopper and the pattern and texture of the skirt made it look classy and expensive. I loved how she paired it with a white spaghetti strap crop top to keep the top simple with the dramatic skirt on the bottom. She also pulled her hair back into a ponytail and kept the make up light. I would honestly wear this outfit to prom if I could!

Jennifer Hudson looked stunning in her simple black jumpsuit and blue strappy heels. Even though her jumpsuit was plain and simple, the texture of it made it look classy and the fit made her body look amazing. The fit wasn’t too body clinging and hit all of the right spots. Her shoes and lips brought out a pop of color to her outfit and made it look more fun. She paired some gold jewelry to the outfit without overpowering it. A classy look for a classy girl!

The KCA’s really brought out some great spring looks for this season. There were a wide variety of modern looks, flirty looks, and quirky looks. A great show, and a great fashion moment!

American Apparel Controversy

American Apparel has been known for having advertisements that are sexually explicit, using tactics like nudity to sell their lingerie, spandex, and leotards. Many times you see girls who are topless or pant less on their website selling different clothing items. Clearly, American Apparel focuses on sex appeal to lure in more customers. But the question is, does this form of marketing objectify women?

Absolutely.

Never should a woman feel the need to buy a piece of clothing for sex appeal for a man. The way American Apparel is marketing their clothes is as if the only reason why customers should buy their clothing items is because you will look “sexy” to attract the opposite gender. Women looking through their website will believe that looking like the model and acting like the model will be the only way to feel beautiful. If models look half naked, what does that say about our perspective on beauty? That the only way to look beautiful is to flaunt your body? Not only are women believing that being beautiful is to be paper thin and 6 feet tall, but to also wear almost nothing? Our society needs to erase both concepts.

This not only is falsifying what beautiful means to society, its completely degrading to women. If you compare the pictures of males modeling American Apparel clothes and women modeling American Apparel clothes, you can see that they are vastly different. Males modeling their clothes stand straight and you just see the clothes they are wearing. The women modeling their clothes are posing in some provocative way and usually just wear that clothing item.

I’m not saying American Apparel is a bad store and sells ugly clothing items; I actually love some of their pieces. But the problem is that they aren’t selling it the right way. Never should an advertisement degrade women into sex objects. Never should an advertisement tell women that being provocative is the only way to be beautiful. The clothes should sell themselves without the sex appeal with it.  

Prom Prep: Makeup and Hair

For my last Prom Prep series, I will be talking about the hair and makeup. Not only is finding a great dress important, but making sure your hair and makeup complement the dress is equally as important! Different style and cuts of dresses will need different hairstyles so the dress doesn’t overpower your face and vice versa.

If you have a low cut dress or a strapless dress, I recommend leaving your hair down, whether it is curly, wavy, or straight. This way you can still see the details on the dress but also have voluminous hair to complement it so there isn’t a lot of bare space showing. If you have a high collar or a dress with a lot of details, I would recommend putting your hair up or just pushing it all to the back. If the hair is down on a high collared dress, it covers the detailing on the dress and we want to see all the beauty of the dress! If your dress is one shoulder, I recommend either putting it all up or pushing it all to one side that doesn’t have the strap.

Quite often, many girls schedule someone to do their hair for prom. If you like doing your hair and feel pretty confident you can do it well, I recommend just doing your own air for prom! That way you can be sure you have the hairstyle you want, plus you can save money! If you do decide to do your own hair for prom, like I am, be sure to practice beforehand so you know exactly what to do on your special night.

For how you want to do your makeup, that is truly up to you. If you want to go all out and be dramatic or go simple and sweet, the world is oyster! But to make sure your makeup looks perfect all night, here are some makeup products I recommend using:

1)   Any kind of primer will be your best friend. Primer can allow your makeup to stay on night, especially after all that sweaty dancing. I swear by all of the Urban Decay Primers, whether it be the Stay All Night Spray or the Primer Potions, all of their products act like a glue to your face

2)   False eyelashes are something I always use for special occasions because it can really open your eyes (especially for pictures!), but since it is only prom, try finding more natural looking lashes so it just looks like you used great mascara. I recommend any of the Ardell natural false lashes because they are extremely lightweight so you don’t feel like you’re wearing any!

3)   Be sure to bring powder with you! You don’t want to have any oil face all night! With the bright lights from taking pictures and the dancing, you will be sweaty and gross. So to freshen up, make sure you bring some powder to matte your face up again.

Hope you enjoyed my prom prep series, I hope your special night is one you never forget!

Prom Prep: Style

In my previous blog post, I talked about where the best places to find a dress was. Today, I’m going to talk about what kind of dress is perfect for you. If you think about all the styles of long gowns you have a-line, mermaid, ballgown, or crop top. For materials of dresses you have chiffon, tulle, jersey, taffeta, and satin. In this blog post I’m going to talk about the different styles of dresses that fit each body type.

A-line dresses are a go to classic prom dress that looks good on anyone. This simple style usually has a chiffon skirt that flows beautiful and hides away any body imperfections you are a big fan of. There are also a large variety of A-line dresses to choose from whether you want a very beaded top and a low waistline or a simple, sophisticated top with a high waistline. The options are truly endless! My favorite designer to sop for A-line dresses is the Sherri Hill Prom collection. She has made beautiful, elegant A-line dresses that have enough chiffon at the bottom to cover every up and create a beautiful flowy look, but also make it look soft and simple. If you are looking for a time less dress that you will certainly love in 20 years, pick an A-line dress!

Mermaid styles are very bold and can look very dramatic. I would recommend body types with a larger hips or a slightly curvy body type to wear a mermaid because then you are able to fill out the curves in the dress. I also like to think there are two different style of mermaid dress, the straight down and the trumpet style. The straight down mermaid dress doesn’t have as much of a poof at the bottom of the dress and the trumpet style has a big poof at the end. If you want a very dramatic dress, the trumpet style is your best option! My favorite designer for mermaid dresses is MacDugal because he create very dramatic, edgy mermaid styles.

Ballgowns can really make you feel like Cinderella on your special night! These dresses while dramatic, can be very girly. I recommend wearing a ball gown if you have a larger bust so the bigger bottom can balance the top. There are of course the sweeter, girlier ballgowns that’s are made out of tulle that look like a princess gown, but there are also very fashion forward ball gowns that look edgy and dramatic. Sherri Hill has just put out GORGEOUS ball gowns in their recent spring 2015 collection that are more edgy and fashion forward that can make you look like a show stopper on prom night!

Crop top dresses are the new trend this year for prom. This style of dress looks great on those with a skinnier waistline because the open stomach can really accentuate that area. If you want to go bold and try something totally different for prom this year, go for a crop top! I think crop top dresses are so fun and different so I got this style for prom this year! I think all designers have tried to put out some unique crop top dresses so be sure to look at all the different styles of crop top dresses!

The style and cut of your dress can either make you look like a potato sack or a victoria secret model, be sure to find a dress that fits you best!

Prom Prep: Where to go?

It’s finally prom season guys. Time for cute Promposal pictures on Instagram, scheduling pictures and dinner, creating the best prom group, and my favorite, buying a prom dress! I admit, prom dress shopping can be extremely stressful, especially if you don’t know what kind of dress you’re looking for. But getting that perfect dress outweighs it all! As an avid gown shopper, I know just the way you can buy the perfect gown without all the trouble it may take to find it.

If you live in a small town like Cedar Rapids, Iowa where a mall with Express is pretty much the best it can offer, a gown store is probably nonexistent. But have no fear, because thankfully, we have the internet to provide us with all the dresses in the world! Online shopping can be very intimidating, but the right websites can lead you to find the perfect dress. My #1 prom dress site is newyorkdress.com because it has all the top gown designers like Sherri Hill, Tony Bowls, and MacDuggal and cheaper ones like Allure, La Femme, and Faviana to fit your budget. The best part about this website is it allows you to shop by designer, if you want a more elegant formfitting dress you can click on Sherri Hill, if you want a dramatic, show stopping dress you can click on Macduggal. The options are endless! From my experience, the shipping and sizing is pretty accurate on this website. If you don’t know what size to buy you can click on the size chart and the dress is usually true to the size you choose.

Even though there are no gown shops in Cedar Rapids, there are some great gown stores in Iowa. I went to Hope’s Bridal last weekend to search for a prom dress, and while the service was great they didn’t have a lot for me to choose from. I understand it is very late in the season to search for prom dresses, so if you want to go to a store to look for a prom dress, be sure to go early so you can have a variety to choose from! I would recommend going late December or early January because that’s usually when stores get their new shipments of gowns. My absolute favorite gown store is Le Chic Prom and Pageant Boutique in Muscatine Iowa. This cute little store is owned by an awesome couple who is sure to find you the perfect gown! They will always have a lot of gowns in store and can easily order them online for you if needed. Le Chic does sell more expensive brands like Sherri Hill and Tony Bowls, but if you are looking for cheaper options they can provide those as well. Not only can you find a great prom dress at Le Chic, but the perfect shoes, earrings, and whatever else you might need can be found there too! I know I’m definitely going there to find my prom dress this year!

Finding the perfect dress is so important and you need to feel confident and beautiful in what you wear. Good luck finding the perfect dress and I hope you all can “say yes to the dress!”