Alexandra Valenti takes pictures of my soul. And lady hippies.

Because I love school (and it was the one thing I was ever actually good at) I've given myself some blog homework this Fall.  Actually now that I think about it, I give myself homework all the time in the form of long to-do lists and giant DIY projects that never get done.  I am the worst kind of procrastinator which I guess is really the best kind of procrastinator...?  Maybe the only part about school I was really good at was the hoarding of college-ruled notebooks and Hello Kitty pencil pouches...

But back to blog homework.  Even though it seems counterintuitive to my having a design blog, I drift in non-style most of the time.  Other bloggers seem to already have style and use their blogs to tell you about it but how the fuck does that happen?  I just post shit I like and hope when I'm on my deathbed (which will probably be on a hovercraft in space) I can look back and discern some meaning from these ancient interweb adventures.  

I figured now that I'm an "adult" it would be a good time to dig deep into my psyche, past the excess of design blogs and trips to Homegoods and uncover my authentic, honest-to-design-gawd personal saucy style!  I'm talking clothes and art and interiors and my feelings about whatever is the 21st century equivalent of a Hello Kitty pencil pouch.  

Probably a vintage Hello Kitty pencil pouch.

I want to look at everything in my life and say "That's so Raven!" but the Lacy equivalent of Raven.  If you say "That's so Lacy!" it sounds weird because it rarely has actual lace and people are confused.  Also, people think you're talking about lingerie and my "lingerie" consists of tank tops in ugly colors and yoga pants with pant splatter on them and holes in the crotch so it's kinda misleading.  

I'm nothing if not honest.  And holey.

And in all honesty, this is actually fun homework because it involves a lot of time thinking about yourself and what your style soul wants.  This isn't selfish - I'm calling it SELF CARE.  By way of Pinterest and mood boards.  Expect to see upcoming posts about ME while I work this shit out.  Feel free to do the same for yourself..  We'll probably need a support group or something.  If you already have your soul style figured out then HOW U DO THAT?!

Keeping all this blog soul homework in mind, my inner style Madame exsqueed "That's so Raven!" when I found the portfolio of photographer Alexandra Valenti.  She shined a laser of lady love directly into my soul style with her sense of fashion, color, art and just general badassery.  I think I've posted photos of hers in the past but seeing all of her work at one time made sense for my research.

"Research" like I'm the Indiana Jones of mood boards and shit.  Imma fight some Nazis once I get my outfit right!

Her portfolio is mostly hippie chicks wearing dramatic costumes in moody settings.  I think that's my spirit animal.  It's probably only .07% of my legitimate, Real Life style but it's at least eleventeen hundred % of my soul style.

And if you hate hippie chicks in moody settings or my overlong dissertation of soul style at least there are some pretty ladies for you to look at.  I think I saw a nipple on here somewhere.

No nipple here.  Sorry.

So what can we deduce from these pictures?  I am obviously a proud supporter of ladies in lonely settings...

Especially if there are rocks involved.

Bonus points for dashes of color...

...and the "built" environment.

Triple word score for styling that looks like tribal bellydancers which you know I'm totally down with.

Is it okay to culturally appropriate if it's just for fantasy purposes?

Let's just go back to blonde ladies and chandeliers - I'm pretty sure I'm safe there.

But enough about me and my non-style, I think we can agree that Alexandra really knows how to take some pictures of ladies looking fierce.

She has a whole series of black and white pictures with trippy graphics on them and you can even buy them should you so desire.  

I know I've seen this one before I just had no idea about the rest of her work.  Shame it took me so long because I have a serious lady boner for this mashup of rainbow colors on a black and white.  Expect to see this in a saucy mood board real soon.

Hoods, not so much.  But mysterious in a crackhead skater kind of way?!  I CAN THINK OF NOTHING MORE ME THAN THAT.

Except sparkly things.  That trumps all and Alexandra really knows how to highlight some earthly sparkle.

She really inspires me to put on all my jewelry at once, finger paint and go bananas with my Instagram filters.  Be prepared for a shit ton of solar flares, light leaks and burnouts on all my upcoming pictures of Charlemagne!

Now if you'll excuse me, put on my "lingerie" and organize my Hello Kitty pencil pouch.