Courtney's Closet Diaries

Hello Dolls, Welcome back to my Closet.

This post is near and dear to my heart because its inspired by my most fashionable, fabulous and absolute favorite fictional friend: the one and only Carrie Bradshaw created by Author Candace Bushnell. Also this post will kick off future blog segments appropriately titled: Fictional and Fabulous. Furthermore, with my recent plans to move to San Fran next month, I too will be a city gal. Although there is no place like NYC, I consider San Fran as a close, yet different second.

Recently, I devoured Candace Bushnell's new series  The Carrie Diaries, that provides a glimpse into the life of the fabulous Carrie Bradshaw pre Sex as well as pre City. As a result, I am now slightly obsessed.... slightly? Who am I kidding, I am head over heals about this Series and the ability to see parts of myself in young CB. Perhaps, I am even more in love with these stories than I was with the actual Sex and the City stories, shows and movies (Relax... I said "perhaps").

Anyways, I have made slight Carrie Bradshaw (and SJP) references in the past (take a peak for yourself) in segments such as Style Stalker, Animal Instincts and even Event Ensembles; but now for the first time in my closet, Carrie (played by Sarah Jessica Parker and perhaps Blake Lively in the new movies) is getting the attention she so desperately deserves. So read on to see me style stalk some of my CB favorites and click on the images to enlarge.

CB's Style: A Night Out with the "Lova"

Although I wasn't a fan of their relationship, I did adore this Oscar De La Renta dress purchased for Carrie by her boyfriend (Or "Lova" as she mentioned) of the moment: Alexander Petrovsky.

Getting Carried Away:

For my take on it, I wore a pink Zara tulip dress I purchased while in New York this summer with black studded pumps, black dangling earrings and a bangle, polka dot heart purse and a black skinny belt.

CB's Style: "You Are Not Alone" 

 Oh, this one just melts my heart. This is my favorite scene from any Sex and the City movie or television show: the point in the first film where Carrie covers her pajamas by throwing on her fur, heals and pearls to jet off to see Miranda before the new year begins to confirm she is not alone. All the while, my favorite holiday song: Auld Lang Syne plays in the background.

Getting Carried Away:

In my interpretation I wore my semi-fur goodwill purchase over a Urban Outfitters shirt and black leggings with pearl and gold bracelets and necklaces, black booties, a black vintage bag, black glitter beanie and extravagant ring.

CB's Style: Can't Rain on Her Parade

I love the Irony of this look. Rain and shine all in one! Rhine? Carrie looks dazzling in all her color even while drowning in the down pour, nothing can rain on her parade.

Getting Carried Away:

For my look I wore a City Scape Talbots skirt with a sea foam tank top, orange striped blazer and kate spade accessories.

CB's Style: Sex in the City of Parié

I love Carrie's contrast here. Its bold and shows she's not afraid to take a risk. Like following your current love to Parié, even if you end up leaving him and Paris for another lover.

Getting Carried Away:

To mimic Carrie's contrasting clothing I paired a polka dot cowl neck top with a striped skirt and black bow belt and embellished with my skunk ring. To break up the black and white, I wore pink and red Kate Spade bow heels and accessorized with a red heart ring and red vintage travel bag.

Cb's Style: Floral Frenzy

 

That dress with those heels, uhm WOW! I love Carrie's passion for Manolo's. I have yet to purchase my first pair, but when I do I intend to name my pair Bradley after Carrie's last name (Don't look at me like that... you know you name your shoes.... please tell me I'm not the only one who names my shoes). But back to the outfit. I love the mix matching of patterns and prints, it's unique and unpredictable. 

Getting Carried Away:

I wish I had Carries amazing floral dress, but sadly, I don't. However, I was able to replicate her look by wearing a floral body con dress with a black mini over it and a red belt. I'm also lacking zebra Manolo's so I wore leopard wedges with a green clutch and my New York charm bracelet.

CB's Style: Ballerina Beauty

What better way to round out the style stalking segment than the Famous Ballet Dress! How adorable is this?  I'm actually in a bit of a Ballet phase myself right now, wearing my hair in a top knot, ballet flats and poofy skirts all the time. If I could wear a tutu everyday I totally would.

Getting Carried Away:

Would you believe that I had three outfits that would resemble CB's Ballet dress? Well, its the truth. Anyways, I settled on choosing a to tuck a white tank into a dress that I temporarily converted into a skirt. Then I drew inspiration from another Carrie look in the accessory department...

....by layering pear necklaces and adding a broach. I also wore a my pear "tea party" ring with another gold ring and my gold sparkly Steve Madden pumps.

Carrie On:
Check out a few of my other favorite carried ensembles who didn't quite make the style stalking cut.
Fancy Seeing You Here

 LOVE this one. While in Abu Dhabi Carrie paired a sassy skirt with a t-shirt and a casual cardigan for a look thats playful and unexpected.

Wicked

Here, Carrie is glowing in green, Kelly green actually, my favorite color!

Tea for Two?

 One thing I love about Carrie is she never dresses down and she always looks like she is going to lunch, or brunch or tea with her fabulous girlfriends. This spring floral gown embellished with extravagant accessories is flirty yet somewhat effortless

Pleated Perfection

Everything about this look is simply splendid and the shoes are my favorite part! I actually bought a similar dress after seeing the movie to replicate Carrie's flawlessness.

"If it's deliberate, it's Fashion"

--Carrie Bradshaw, 17, The Carrie Diaries

Personal Paper Doll: Dené

Hello Dolls!

So since I was dolling up and styling all of my gal pals for these segments I of course had to dollify one of my bestest friends and favorite people to dress: the flawless Dené Roth! Dené is a model in the making and takes the most gorgeous pictures making her super fun to dress and shoot! Her style is somewhat laid back and relaxed but always ultra chic! She has a beachy cali-girl vibe about her that translates into her ensembles. Don't be fooled by her classic casual clothing because Nay can turn on the heat by dressing up and turning heads. I attempted to capture all these amazing qualities of my bestie in our paper doll session.

American Beauty
Dené's style has an All-American vibe, making her the girl next door the an edge. She also really likes some sassy Calvin Klein advertisements that simultaneously ooze class and seduction. This first look drew from Calvin ads as while meshing Indigenous flair with an All-American look. Here she is wearing my  sarong tied into a bando top under her own white jean vest that we created (it was originally a white jean jacket) with white jean shorts, feather earrings, a floral bangle, brown sandals, teal emblem necklace, a gold braided J.Crew belt, chunky gold bracelets and a green ring.

Girlie Goddess
As mentioned earlier, Dené has a beachy vibe about her style. She has family in greece who provided her with this outfits top so we wanted to incorporate that cultural touch with her girlie, flirty side. She is also wearing black bikini bottoms, my kelly green shorts, peachy Mary Jane platforms, pink aviators, my gold Kate Spade ring and earring set and a gold headband. She looks adorable and her legs go on for days!

When I Grow Up
Dené is really into music videos and some of the fabulous people that accompany them. She also is somewhat infatuated with the Pussy Cat Dolls and mermaids. As a result, this outfit is a PCD inspired look with a pirate theme to channel the mermaid/ocean feel. Here she is in a striped bikini op with a black feather skirt under a striped pirate skirt. On her legs are lacy black fishnet tights tucked into black combat boots, she is also wearing rhinestone hoops a rhinestoned bow broach and a black, gray and charcoal bangle set. 

Snuggled Up
As I mentioned when introducing Dené, she has a very casual side to her style and can often be seen in stylish sweats and glam comfortable clothes. Dené and I also share a love for reading, especially in the summer and often trade books back and forth. To emulate these aspects of her personality, this look is based off the idea that Nay just woke up and is cuddling up with a good book and a cup a coffee. Dené is looks comfy cozy in a oversized coral sweater with white and gold bootie shorts and a gray scarf. For accessories she is wearing oversized silver hoops, multiple metal bangles, my fabulous owl ring, gray socks, and Paris's glasses.

Peacock Princess
Dené and I share a love for peacocks, hence why I own both a peacock ring and multiple sets of peacock earrings so I wanted to feature these majestic birds in the paper doll session as well. Also, this look aims to capture the beachy side of Nay by putting her in a sassy summer show-stopping ensemble. I dressed her in a gold and black bikini top with a crocheted cover top and black shorts. She's embellished with a gold ring, peacock ring, peacock feather earrings, black bracelets and sky high gold Steve Madden wedges.

Fabulous, Flawless, Famous
Dené is studying film in school and planning on being some important behind the scenes person. However, I have different plans for her future (how presumptuous of me). With a face like that and a presence like hers, I see her in front of the cameras hosting a TV show or interviewing celebs at the Oscars. So thats where this next outfits inspiration came from. Here Dené could be interviewing at the oscars where her bestie Channing has just won an award for being fabulous. Dené is stunning in a black cut-out dress from Goodwill of all places, black Louboutin* sling backs and a champaign gold stone earring and ring set. Dené and Channing both look AMAZING!

Dené was a joy to shoot and style but from my pervious work with her, I knew she would be a perfect paper doll. However, I really enjoyed emulating her style instead of just dressing her up as a pinup or a flirty vintage girl like I have for previous photo shoots. Dené is leaving us for Australia but you can follow her adventures at her Aussie Blog: The Dené Diaries. Also check her out as featured in my many other blog posts here: All About Dené or the going away party I just threw her here: Off with Dené. If you like what you see check out the rest of my paper doll styling shoots or read the original doll post for for more information on becoming a personal paper doll for the day :]

Photography by Paris Sims, Click to Enlarge. 

Marie WannaBe

Bonjor Fashionistas!

Time for another event ensemble, this one was for a Marie Antoinette party (check out the party details via my hostess blog).

For the Affair I wore a pink corset tucked into a black tulle skirt with a bow and added a petticoat underneath. I also wore gold steve madden wedges with my Grandmothers pink knotted pearls, black and gold rhinestone crown earrings a pink and gold cluster ring and a big light pink bow with a feather in my hair!

You're A Firework

Hello Fashion Lovers!

I'm taking a quick pause from the Paperdoll Posts for a few Event Ensembles! So last weekend, for the forth of July I wore two outfits (one to prepare food in and one for the rest of the evening!). For my first look was almost completely from forever 21. I wore a red and white striped shirt tucked into a denim bag skirt with a blue open sweater vest and Tory Burch gold flats. 

Paris looked great in a Coca-Cola Shirt, white shorts and navy shoes

For the second look I wore a red and white striped Zara sweetheart dress with a royal blue cropped cardigan and Vince Camuto brown booties. I embellished with coach gold earrings, a Kate Spade ring, blue vintage broach and a red heart ring.

Check out my celebratory desserts displayed on my hostess blog: 4th of July desserts.

Until next time<3

Paper Doll: Channing

Hello again!

My latest paper doll was the lovely Miss Channing Pickett. She was a rather exciting doll because not only do I love her own personal style but also she is an aspiring actress/model/famousperson so she really knows how to work the camera. Channing is classy and fabulous and her style is a reflection of her enjoyable personality. Her style straddles a spectrum: on one side its very vintage and retro (circa 1950/60's) and therefore feminine and flirty but on the other end its an endogenous and a somewhat masculine inspired street style. So for her paper doll session I wanted to touch upon all of these diverse aspects of Channing's personal style, future goals and personality.

Pin-up Pickett

This first look is inspired by the retro aspects of Channing's style by being a little bit Pin-up-ish. Channing brought some of her own sassy clothes so of course I wanted to incorporate those into the shoot. Here she is wearing her own retro fabulous peach one piece swim suit, my floppy retro summer hat, a Coach leopard print scarf, pearl bracelets and nude pumps.

Desert Goddess.

The second look is somewhat masculine and draws from trend throughout the past year: menswear. For this look I put Channing in a putty dress with an Army jacket synced with a brown braided belt. She's also wearing my Moms vintage coin necklace from the 80's, a turquoise bracelet (also that once belonged to my Mother), hoops with dangling stones with nude lace tights and my fabulous nude platform booties from London. Everything about this screams: I am Woman here me Roar. 

She Can Do It!

Next we have another retro look, this one is inspired by the idea of a flirty diner gal. For this look Channing is wearing her own adorable sweetheart polkadot romper with my big red bow belt, white Mary Janes, red heart ring, red drop earrings that are my Mom's from the 80's (basically my whole jewelry collection was my Mom's in the 80's) and my Grandmothers pearls. She looks strong, feminine and fabulous!

And the Award Goes To...

I am confident that Channing will reach reach her dreams of becoming an actress and we will all soon see her name in lights! So this final outfit is inspired by the idea of the future famous Miss Channing receiving some fabulous award for being a master of her craft and inspired by a sassy Cameron Diaz Dior look. 

For this look I paired a full length hot pink dress with a turquoise Kenneth Jay Lane necklace with Steve Madden glitter gold platform pumps. Dené is also featured in this outfit, her personal paper doll segment will be coming soon.

All in all, Channing was a fabulous paper doll with an amazing personal style who was oodles of fun to style and shoot! If you like what you see check out the rest of my paper doll styling shoots or read the original doll post for for more information on becoming a personal paper doll for the day :]

Photography by Paris Sims, Click to Enlarge.