Scholastic (Fantastic) Achievement

Subversive School Girl Chic Can Be Magical and Masterful - Not Meek

source: http://th01.deviantart.com/

Happy 2010! I'm sure that your life (and Facebook page), like mine, is being inundated with "Top," "Countdown," and "Best" Lists - not only of the year, but this time of the entire bloody DECADE. That seems unfair somehow -- as though both academia and popular culture get to come together like party guests who usually detest one another, gloating drunkenly, intertwining their fingers and breakin' it down to hook up for an epic dance-off that includes absolutely everything you could think of. A glorious amalgamation. Another decade has passed.

As for yours truly - well, I've made some strong personal resolutions. Things like, stop making bodily function jokes all the time, at the most inopportune moments ... just do the dishes without politicking along the way ... find more reasons to laugh and fewer reasons to stress ... watch more movies and read more books ....

I am a strong believer in devoting a substantial amount of the winter-time to aggressive, fervent relaxation / New England hibernation involving blankets, steaming beverages, and pajamas. In that spirit, I recently watched both Reservation Road (Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo - made me decide to never text while driving or take my loved ones for granted ever again) and Revolutionary Road (reunited Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio - made me decide to never go back in time to the 1950s, should I encounter the DeLorean, or fight with my loved ones ever again). Both were crushingly dark, painfully real, thought-provoking, and beautifully tragic. I loved Frank McCourt's Teacher Man, so I also finally got around to reading Angela's Ashes, which was, while certainly another stunning affirmation of life and of the human spirit, terribly depressing. In summation: three works; an alliterative rush of devastation.

The reason I have all this time to catch up on my leisure activities lies in two gorgeous words: Winter Break. As a teacher, I get to luxuriate from Christmas Eve until Monday, January 4th, in not working and still getting paid. Is it a wildly productive time? Ha. (I'm writing this blog entry while warily eyeing a massive pile of grading that I get to simply refuse, like it's the smarmy, wasted guy at the bar who asks every girl about her ethnic background while breathing his SoCo garlic breath all over the place.) But it's a time where there is some time. As a result, I've finally had the spare moments to start reading Junot Diaz's Pulitzer-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

It's beyond fantastic.

Consider the blurb: "Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fuku - a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from the Dominican Republic to the United States and back again." It doesn't at all begin to do justice to this sprawling, manic, sensitive, heartbreaking book.

It occurred to me that I encountered Diaz's work (short story collection called Drown) when I was that most guileless, ingenuous and suggestible of creatures: a school-girl. Granted, you couldn't find me clad in one of Gossip Girl's meticulous, immaculate and tricked-out private school uniforms or anything close. I was in college, and you would more likely find me with long, dirtyish hair and some ill-fitting wanna-be vintage "frock." Mea culpa - I was a self-styled bohemian (read: pothead).

School Days, School Days! The Original Days of Judgement! Dear old Golden Rule Days!

But seriously, there is a kind of magical je ne sais quois that surrounds schoolgirls and their untold possibility. Without wandering into the trite and inevitable porno context (I won't! I really won't!...), it's clear that this class of human (at least in the sartorial world) possesses a certain allure. They are innocent yet can be crazy-wild; naughty (girls just want to have fun) yet pristine. What I find most intriguing is the fact that school girls, and students at large, have something truly special: the vast expanse of information that lies at the mercy of their learning. Learning and intellect are a business. As Frank McCourt's old schoolmaster used to chant, "Stock your minds! They are your own. Stock your minds!" And it doesn't hurt to look rather natty and dapper while you're at it.

You know by now that I, like many Gen-Xers and Gen-XYers (and plenty of our moms), love me some GG, but this phenomenon is older than Serena Van der Woodsen, Anne of Green Gables, or Becky Thatcher. What is it about a young lady going about her learning with lioness-like ferocity (and often a good dose of sensuality) that inspires such yearning in others? How appealing is a fresh, white-collared shirt, wool skirt, and a menswear tie when you feel like the world has had its way with you, and you're ready to fight back? Right now women are CEOs, astronauts, professors, entrepeneurs - but before we broke through the glass ceiling, school was at the very least one of the only venues of fair game, where a girl could gird her intellectual loins and sally forth with all the swagger and determination of any boy. School is business time. Don't hate just because nowadays, the blouse is more flattering, the boots more fierce, and the blazer cut at a razor-sharp angle. (There's a fine line, of course, between overt sexual brazenness and cool, studied "can't touch this" impenetrability - literally. School-girl dressing past the age of eighteen is, on a style level, I believe, an exercise in proportion, intention, and restraint.)

But there are some levels of sheer cuteness that even the most hard-core Feminist Theorist could be pressed to appreciate. Anime fans will remember the mini-skirted, conflict-ridden posse from Sailor Moon. These girls were mere demerit-earners by day, but terrific crime-fighters by night. Their femininity, as you can see in the photo, belies their ferociousness.

source: www.imvu.com/.../group/SAILOR%2BMOON%2B4%2BEVER/

Let's say you hate all this cutesy Hello-Kitty fluffy crap, and you want something more gangster. (Studies show that "gangster shit" is one of the highest-ranked search

topics amongst the demograpic of median-range earners ages 17-25.) Well, look no further than GoGo. Yes, film buffs - from director Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill is the merciless 17-year-old body guard/assassin for O Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), leader of the Yakuza clan in Tokyo, Japan. Chiaki Kuriyama played this delightfully diabolical character, clad in the classic white knee-socks, pristine gym shoes, tartan skirt, and insignia-emblazoned jacket of the School Girl.

source: redstringoffate.wordpress.com/.../

She swings a giant, lethal mace, giggles innocuously before she splices your skull open, and lets out a barbaric war cry. She seduces sloppy older men only to leave them dismembered and blood-soaked in a hotel room, then skips off to algebra class, where she also presumably kicks ass. ....... Sweet.

Gangster enough?

High fashion clearly reverberates with echoes of the past at all times, and here are some of its academic-inspired offerings in the school-girl style:

These Hermione-like, whimsical creations are from Charles Anastase, a young designer who studied Political Science at the Lycee Charlemagne in Paris. He was an illustrator before launching a fashion design career. CHARLES ANASTASE, SPRING 2009-12-18

source: http://thechicspy.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/london-anastase-schoolgirl.jpg

At the end of the day, whether it's knee socks, bright headbands, crisp blazers, snow-white button-downs or cheeky little ties, it's really the surge of nostalgia this look brings upon me. I know how hard a serious school-girl works because I've been there. As a teacher, I also know how much work I pile on my students, and I see the strong among them rise to the challenge and keep on rising. The cerebral world is a jungle like any other, and only the fittest survive. I respect the hustle of a serious school-girl. She's there to learn, pick up some business skills, apply her hard-won savvy, and pursue her most treasured creative and mental endeavors.

And what is true learning without kicking some serious ass?

Here's to all of your goals, both style-wise and wise, with style, in 2010.

xo MSW

Obsessed! Ali and Beyonce -How They're Dressed

First and foremost - a million thanks and hugs to my peeps for following this new blog! :) I appreciate it!

Okay, I normally don't cop so easily to falling prey to guilty-pleasure movies like this, but I have now ordered Obsessed (Idris Elba, Ali Larter, and Beyonce) no fewer than three times on free On-Demand. My lovely friend Nadine, who can get down with any movie, would be proud of me. (I knew an awful boy at Wesleyan who used to get up on his soap-box to spew miserable condescension at any "mainstream" entertainment. Luckily, everybody hates him.)

movies.sulekha.com/.../obsessed/pictures/1.htm

I'd like to say that I was impervious to this film's heavy-handed manipulation of the audience's emotions, that I sniffed with disdain at its thinly-veiled, technicolored mantasy (because what guy wouldn't want these two gals bangin' it out over him?), and that I found the screenplay trite and predictable. After all, this was a movie that last year's 8th graders were planning to see in groups as large as 15. I know, because I confiscated at least 3 phones being used to text evening plans during class. The explanation? "But Miss, Beyonce's gonna fight in that movie, Miss!!!"

But all I can say is that I was totally titillated. I actually pumped my fists during the fight scene, hooting and hollering for all the world like a 12-year-old as Ali delivered a fierce face kick and Beyonce used her head (literally - sick head-butt!) to teach white girl what was up. Plus Elba (sexy) is always great. (He's from television's The Wire, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it. Great HBO police-crime-drug drama set in Baltimore. There's a whole season about kids who get into the game, how they fall through the cracks, and how they interact with their school system. My talented work mentor taught at a KIPP charter middle school in Baltimore - the show is dead realistic and true to life. A little boy who played a hard-core baby gangster on the show also did a wonderful, thought-provoking play last year at the Hartford Stage called Resurrection, all about men in the African-American community and issues that they face. The Wire itself is killer - incredible.)

Source: http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Galleries/Movies/M_R/Oa_Oh/Obsessed/1/obsessed3.jpg
Back to Obsessed: Some ideas for us ordinary girls in the workplace grind! Ali's corporate-friendly, put-together warddrobe as psycho-temp temptress Lisa gives cause to laud the movie's stylist. For the work day, my own tastes as a teacher definitely run, like this look, on the more conservative-classic side. Not as sexy, but then I'm no Ali Larter. (Once I made the sad mistake of trotting in to work in some Kate-Moss-esque wannabe rock-get-up and caught my crazy-funky chains on the handle of a door as I was yelling about demerits and chasing down a student who had pushed another kid into the milk cart. Chaos ensued.) Ali's outfits were, I thought, simple, gorgeous and powerfully streamlined. Comfortable enough for the copy room, and sassy enough for the hardcore stalking she did. Most of us don't do that second part so openly. I mean, what is Facebook for? No, I'm kidding. Kind of.

It's hard to go wrong in a crisp, classic palette of blacks, whites, and strong primary colors. In the top frame, Beyonce's getting her hatorade on when meeting her husband's super-cute new temp. You can't see the whole outfit, but Ali's wearing high-waisted, slim black pants cropped at the ankle and some solid black heels. The perfect white button-down, gamine-like black vest (I love any nods to menswear), and sleek, ironed blonde hair come together in a picture of competent decorum. The next frame is my go-to ensemble when I want to feel like I can present myself to the world with confidence: again, a flawless, ironed white button-down, and then the piece de resistance, a beautifully tailored black pencil skirt. Everyone should own one. Nothing could be easier or more classically elegant. It seems obvious, but I so believe in this look. When a girl pays attention to the details and is impeccably groomed, it is perfection. Later, as Lisa starts to feel more comfortable at the scene of her stalking, she dons more body-conscious threads like the vibrant, curve-loving teal sweater at the upper right. Some days, color stands out as its own statement, without the fuss and frill of any accessories whatsover. I was told that if you put something on and don't feel the need for much blush or other adornment, then the hue adores you. Ali's working that concept here.

Beyonce doesn't look too shabby, herself. I'm a fan of the black jersey dress she wears to dinner with Derek (Elba), cinched in Sasha-Fierce style with an uber-wide, just-shiny-enough belt. This wouldn't be a bad choice for work, either. I'm trying to work belts more often into my weekly rotation ... they're smashing.

The focus of this blog is really more about accessible, day-to-day style, but I had to give the ladies props (I'm sure they spend lots of their time in L.A. stressing about my opinion...) for their GORGEOUS red-carpet looks for an opening of their movie. We can all take cues here for the holiday season - nothin' wrong with a skimpy lil' black or white mini, architectural and pure hot, with accordion folds, sweetheart necks, shiny hair, and strappy heels. (You can always make yourself some would-be Louboutins by, as the designer himself did before he got legit, painting the soles with red nail polish. What a pain, but they look *sort of* real ... kind of ... not at all.)

I read once, either in Vogue or Harper's, an ascerbic, cutting, highly entertaining interview with Karl Lagerfeld. He said - and I'm paraphrasing, but the idea is intact - that women should more often than not rock a tight, tiny, spare and ferocious mini - but we must work so that "the legs are flawless." He also feels that an appropriate reaction to the recession is to stop buying new clothes and just intelligently combine your old, as well as to join a health club and work our tubby butts into sculpted works of art.

I don't know that I can fit that bill ... but I'll definitely try to work the combination of sleek and powerful like the girls in Obsessed. But no cat-fights, please. My aim is to be a put-together pacifist. In pumps and a pencil skirt.

xo - MSW

Muses in Malls, Modeling Makeshift Merriment

In my particular neck of the woods, there's a certain mall that we savvy Hartford-area-consumers tend to hit with typical New England, stressed-to-the-max vigor during the holiday season. I worked there for about 4 years when I was in college and grad school, and don't get it twisted, I consumed a staggering amount of Pretzel Time, Sbarro, and Au Bon Pain - in addition to acccumlating a veritable portmanteau of questionable cheap accessories I decided I needed - while wandering this cavernous building on my 30-60 minute breaks.

But as burned-out as I am on wandering the mall, I'm like the proverbial moth to the light. Like many girls on a budget, I'm constantly hitting that shit up for regular H&M, F21, and Gap runs. There's also a Macy's and a Lord and Taylor's that are rich with sweet scores.

Cue Cher (Alicia Silverstone from Clueless) asking contemptuously, "Can we please be more, generic?..." ..But ay, the mall can always yield treasures untold if you go in with a lioness's skill and a narrowed eye. It's how we put it together and swing out with our swagger ... or at least this is what my 8th grade students assure me.

When I first decided to start this blog, the first person I told was my beautiful friend and creative kindred spirit Beth Bannon, an artiste extraordinaire on the verge in the fields of makeup, graphic design, and tattoo / body art. She agreed to help me with Mission: Find Stranger with Great Style, Pt. I. We went trolling through the mall to do some Christmas shopping. We were also, for MSW's sake, trolling for cute girls in killer outfits, feeling vague twinges of guilt at acting on the same urges as those guys from the "My New Haircut" videos ... our creep factor was formidable!

But like most Northeastern shoppers on that frenzied Friday, including ourselves, most shoppers were dressed, ultimately, for comfort. People had piled themselves into snuggly sweats, super-beat Uggs or Target Ugg-knock-offs, pilly leggings, and windbreakers. My boo has a slammin' bod, so she looks amazing in everything, and I had looped on a few superfluous necklaces in an effort to look cute, but in the end, we blended right into the dull, panicked holiday masses. We were getting discouraged. Then, right around our 3rd loop, we were floating through H&M in daze when we saw her: a vision in a totally eclectic ensemble, all disparate elements and nubby-luxe textures and color.

"Should I do it?" I demanded. Beth paused and then nodded gleefully. "Yeah, do it!"

So I rushed up behind this girl (almost tripping over a dress rack and eating cement floor) and let loose some kind of garbled request involving words like "fabulous, blog, brand-new, creepy .. please?.."

"Huh?" Fabulous Girl wrinkles brow and steps back nervously.

Me: "Um, so cute, MetroStyleWatch ... err ... know we're strangers ..."

Fabulous Girl's Friend: "C'mon, Mayuki, do it!"

So with both sets of girlfriends giggling nervously and casting awkward glances at each other, Mayuki graciously agreed to grace this page! (I had an ever-so-brief stint of working in freelance journalism, but I'm really too much of a doofus to do it well. Hence the beauty of a blog.)

Above, here she is in these great cognac-colored, chunky-heeled boots, bottle-violet tights, black short-shorts (I'm fairly certain they're high-waisted, but I really think she would have drawn the line at me peeking under her shirt to check), a textured gray tank, cropped black leather jacket, and a freakin' sweet mustard scarf with some plum patterning. Her hat , though, was definitely the crowning glory - beanie meets beret, full, festive, in some kind of rich black velour. She also had a furry leopard-print handbag which, alas, didn't make it into the frame.

We all called somewhat confused holiday wishes at one another and scampered off with our respective wifeys ... and I was thrilled with the picture. It's not an outfit I would ever think to put together, especially for shopping, and I loved that Mayuki was rocking it in the land of NorthFace and cords. That sense of spotaneous expression and joyful dressing was why I wanted to write this blog in the first place.

Plus ... the holidays are a time for celebration. The rest of us may not have Mayuki's singular flavor or panache, but I'm sure we all share the same joie de vivre. So if you're seeing this, Mayuki, please know you inspired me!

Merry, merry!

xo - MSW

A Ring Thing

.... if Gollum had a blog, what would he blog about?...

source: http://abowlofstupid.com/wp-content/2007/09/gollum-precious.jpg
..... why rings, of course! What better way to celebrate one's own personal style and taste than a favorite ring?What could be more glorious than a celebration of all things ring-related? Elated by finger jewelry: definitely something we have in common, my precious. Friends, do you feel the same?

This is a post I hope to run more often as a feature, and I hope some of you would be willing to share some pictures and stories about your most treasured digital decorations or other joyful jewels. Here, just to get things started, are some of the rings I keep in regular rotation. Some are antique and special, others mass-produced chain knockoffs, but all of them work for my personal life and style.

The two striped rings on the top row (black and white with gold tone) are ForLove 21 finds under $10. They're rounded, solid baubles that liven up a plain ensemble and stand against my legendary clumsiness. (You've likely encountered a girl like me - you know, tripping over her own pointy-toed stilettoes that she loves but can't quite handle, falling *up* the stairs, bashing her hand against the next step, recovering to find that she's broken her necklace with her elbow and dropped her work papers down to the bottom floor, then looking up and seeing her boss smirking with delight and, worse, pity.)

Between those is a huge faux pearl edged by thick columns crusted with hematite crystals, set in sterling silver. It lends a kind of throwback Hepburn opulence to black clothes and a clear manicure. The dark steel-colored flower is a brooch and isn't often broken out, but I see potential, maybe worn in the hair or on the lapel of a blazer.

The next ring is a great find from C'est Magnifique near Washington Square Park in Manhattan. The picture leaves something to be desired ... but it's a fierce piece that begs that question, Are you tough enough?? (Some days I'm definitely not!) It is a super-realistic glass brown eye set in partially oxidized sterling silver with a bulbous little spider curled possessively around it. I believe the shop is a family business, and the gentleman who helped me with the ring really took the time to figure out what the right piece for me might be. In the end, this won out because it reminded me of the Greek allegory of Arachne. This boastful young weaver declared that she could weave better than Athena herself. The goddess of wisdom and innovation challenged the wretched girl to a weaving contest and summarily kicked her booty, using fleece of cloudwool and colors from the sunset. Arachne, struck by shame and terror, hung herself - but Athena took pity on her and gave her new life as a spider, free to weave beautiful webs for all time. The ring and the story always somehow fill me with a creepy, portentous sense that creativity is vital to fulfillment, and that art is crucial to human life. Pretty good reminder on a mundane Monday. Stories of some of the others to come ....

What are some of your most treasured trinkets? As I get everything up and running, I'd love to feature some of your jewels and share stories of how they found their way into - and jazz up - your life.

And Frodo Baggins can just back off.

xo MSW

Take Me Down to Emerald (Paradise) City...

... or jade, forest, hunter ... elegant and pretty.

source: http://www.gossipgirlreport.com/ipgirlreport.com/

Alongside the likes of Victoria Beckham, a friend and fellow English teacher, and one of my super-savvy 13-year-old students, I have become enamored of the CW's hit show Gossip Girl. In this frame, perennially gorgeous, sublimely styled princesses of privilege Blair Waldorf and Serena Van der Woodsen (a.k.a. Leighton Meester and Blake Lively) look lovely in Central Park.

The brilliant concoctions of the show's stylist, Eric Daman, are inumerable and revered by fashionistas. The characters and their influence are ubiquitous, and the show seems to plant subconcious longings in women's minds every time a new episode airs. Weeks later, the sparkling accessory or frock becomes de rigeur on the scene, i.e. Blair's ever-growing headband warddrobe, anything in Jenny's punk-doll aesthetic, and Serena's blinged-out statement necklaces.

What struck me in this scene was the luscious, jewel-toned, eye-catching emerald purses both girls are rocking, each in their own distinctive way. The color is so vibrant, so indicative of life and understated richness.

I'm in love.

This hue pops equally on blondes and brunettes, and I can only imagine how it glows on redheads like my friend Marina. Just a touch elevates a simple outfit to stand-out status, and in leather, it screams chic. Nothing particularly new, but as always, it's the freshness and precision of how it's worn. Like the best star-making colors, it seems to intimate that stashing your goods in a bag like this would instantly brighten (literally) your day.

The first two are Marc Jacobs and the third is Sophia. These are some exemplary ones, but I imagine that a darker hunter shade would look smashing as well.

My hunt for the right emerald purse has been somewhat discouraging. My initial babe-on-a-budget scheme involved painstaking huntress-style tactics at every T.J. Maxx and Marshalls I could hit, but alas, most of my near-misses were slightly muddy hues or overly embellished with ruching and hardware. My feeling is that the young socialites on GG got it right, keeping the styles fairly simple and classic, and letting the hue take center stage. I saw a lovely Marc by Marc Jacobs baby messenger-bag at Nordstrom that just might make the cut if I can concede to the price tag. This might be the right move, though, considering how poor deep hues look in less-than-top-notch quality.

In my pipe dream of emerald glory, I would rock the bag with either a neutral palette or pair it with a pop of primary color, like Blair, and keep the look pretty structured and graphic. And big, chunky heels or boots.


My mother's name is the Mongolian word for green, and I've always associated the color with her and with vivacious energy.

I do believe the Wizard had it right .... What do you think of these beauties?


xo - MSW