New Friends and New Adventures!

We are getting real here people, so buckle up; it’s going to be a wild ride. 

I don’t really make posts that are too personal and real to who I am. Most people who come to this site mainly come for my fashion reviews and that’s fine. However, today I wanted to talk about something a little different. I was inspired by Louise’s blog Sprinkle of Glitter because her latest post about her 6^th year blogerversary was heartfelt and I wanted to do the same. 

To be honest, I have never been great at keeping friends although, I have weirdly always been great at making them. I just never seem to be able to keep people around for long which has always been hard for me. My boyfriend has friends who he talks to everyday and they all have been close friends for years. This is foreign to me, but I see how happy it makes him to have those sorts of people in his life. 

Over the past two years, I have been lucky enough to share some of Josh’s friendships and it has been great. I now go to karaoke bars (who would have figured that one?!), football games, restaurants, concerts (soooo many concerts, like FOR REAL), parties, and so much more. I am just grateful for the people around me who keep me busy, who keep me company, and keep me happy. 

Here’s to new friends and new adventures! 

XOXO Stay Fabulous!

Alana Long

My Favorite Looks from the 2015 Emmys

Regina King

Regina King looked beautiful last night as she entered in this gown hot off the runway from Krikor Jabotian. The front of the dress was great but really gets you is the attention to detail in the back. The low dropped cut of the back gives this dress that sexy edge without going too far. It’s that “WOW” factor. Also, the material is stiff which is different from the other red carpet looks that night. It makes the hem of the gown float above the ground at a teacup length which is brilliant. I think this look is the perfect mixture of classy and sexy which is perfect for her.

Amanda Peet

I love that Amanda Peet embraced the recent trend of cutouts wearing the designer Michael Kors. We have seen this look everywhere and now it is high fashion on the red carpet! This simple A-Line shape is met with the edgy cutout and on top of all that there are delicate rosettes covering every inch of the gown. This dress really made an impact on the runway and was one of the most memorable of them all.

Ariel Winter

Draped in Romona Keveza, Ariel Winter wowed everyone on the red carpet. She looked great in this dress because it complimented her figure so well. The color of a striking red flattered her also as well as made her stand out from the crowd. There was nothing too outlandish about this gown per say (besides the asymmetrical neckline which is magnificent BTW), she pulled this dress of like no one else could.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga was a vison completely embodying the old Hollywood glamour look at the Emmy’s. We are so used to expecting that Lady Gaga will show up in an egg or a meat suit but when it boils down to it, it seems as if she has moved on. People raved, I mean RAVED, over this look from Brandon Maxwell. She looked gorgeous donning her natural hair as it was swept back with the sides of her dress dipping dramatically low so that we could see many of her tattoos. This one shouldered gown looked as if it was made for her and she worked it.

XOXO Stay Fabulous!

Alana Long

Photo Resources:

http://www.usmagazine.com/emmys/red-carpet/amanda-peet-emmys-2015

http://theybf.com/2015/09/20/2015-emmy-winner-regina-king-supporting-actress-limited-series-or-movie-for-American

http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/dressed/2015/09/emmy-awards-2015-fashion-dresses

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sheridanwatson/gaga-murdering-the-red-carpet#.wiqxe1BRJ

 

 

My Wanelo Shopping Experience

August 31^st, 2015 was the day I started this fretful journey. Little did I know then what an escapade it would turn out to be. 

I decided for the first time that I would try out shopping using the Wanelo application directly. For those of you who don’t know what Wanelo is, it is an application where you can see a variety of products where you have the option of saving the product into one of your categories or you can buy the product. This means it will either take you to the webpage of the company to buy it or have you purchase the product directly on the application if that’s an option. 

I noticed that because of the insanely cheap prices for most of the clothes that are available for purchase on the application, it is very likely that they will be knock-offs probably from China. In that case, it is possible that it won’t look like the photo advertised. I took my chances anyways because I really wanted to find out what this service was like. 

I ordered my sweater on August 31^st. When I looked at my order it said that it would take around 7-15 days. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am so used to everything getting here in two days thanks to Amazon Prime so this was killing me. I realized I couldn’t do anything about it, and then the waiting game ensued. 

By day 7, it said that they were still processing my order. So in seven days they couldn’t put one measly little sweater into a box? By day 9, it said that they have accepted my order and it has been processed in China but it had not started moving yet. In fact it did not start moving until the 13^th and that is when my sweater ended up in New York. I was concerned that it wasn’t going to get here by the date they gave me of the 15^th. I was right. My package came in at 5:00 in the afternoon yesterday September 17, 2015. 

The sweater is actually very pretty and will be great to have as we enter the autumn and winter months. I am just letting everyone know that it does come from China and it does take a fairly long time by a millennial’s standard to get it to your doorstep. 

XOXO Stay Fabulous!

Alana Long

Photo Resources:

https://wanelo.com/p/30479348/s/23t4O-DSNi-tdBH

Lauren Conrad NYFW 2015

If you guys didn’t know, Lauren Conrad has teamed up with Kohls to produce high fashion looks for prices that don’t break the bank. I will be the first to say, “THANK YOU! This is everything I ever wanted and everything I never knew I needed!!!”

The prices of this collection range from $12 to $300 so if you are interested, SHOP NOW! Everything is already on sale at Kohls stores and online. If you care about fashion and runway shows, there is almost something for every budget and you can take a piece of the show home today if you wanted. 

 

The collection is enchanted woods themed with feminine fabrics and pastels and I kid you not, it is all wearable. That might sound weird to some, but there are always high fashion runway shows that leave me wondering when I would ever wear something so ridiculous. You want me to pay $500 for a large box with arm and leg holes? No thank you. 

I can honestly say that I would wear any piece of clothing or accessory from this line because it is all beautiful. This ex-television star really knows how to make things that will look good on everyone and how to make clothes for the everyday girl. See it for yourself here.

Photo Resources:

http://www.refinery29.com/2015/09/94007/lauren-conrad-kohls-spring-2016-sale

http://www.kohls.com/catalog/womens-lc-lauren-conrad-runway.jsp?CN=4294720878+4294873305+4294697482

China: Through the Looking Glass

For my 20th birthday my grandma took me to New York City to go to the Metropolitan Museum. The Met had an exhibition on display in their costume museum called China: Through the Looking Glass. The exhibition showcased different fashion designers and their interpretation of Chinese fashion as well as historical fashion and how their clothing changed throughout the years. This was very interesting to me because I love learning about culture, history, and of course fashion. 

I built this exhibition up in my head so much because I had been seeing pictures of it all over social media for weeks. I am glad to say that the exhibition lived up to my dreams and exceeded my expectations. 

 

They formatted the exhibition so that the old textile hung in a glass circle behind the new adaptation of the piece. The fabrics complimented each other and it was nice to recognize the beauty of the original garment and the high fashion. The colors were bright and a common theme in the clothes was embroidery. The embroidery was complex and so beautiful, you could tell it took a lot of work.

 This is another view of those dresses with the originals in the back.

This room was breathtakingly magnificent. Literally when everyone stepped in, you heard an audible gasp. It looks like the dresses were floating on water however, the "water" was just reaaaallly polished black granite that reflected this huge image of a planet. 

The technique of these dresses are fantastic. I couldn't get over how beautiful they all were. And now for the big finale...

My grandma and I walked all over the place trying to find this piece. I had seen it on Instagram and I couldn't wait to stand in front of it. I asked three different people directions before I found it and when I did... wow. My jaw dropped and that's no exaggeration. It was outstanding and I couldn't help but stare. This is what I came for. 

I loved my trip and I hope you did too!

Stay Fabulous! XOXO Alana

 

Hello!.. Again.

Hey everyone! So I've made it back to the blog. Trust me! I know it has been a long time since I have posted last. A lot has changed and happened in that time (more on that later!), but something that hasn't changed is my love for anything and everything fashion. So I am here to continue what I started and to make it better. I am making my greatest effort to make the postings on here a LOT more frequently and it also helps that I am enrolled in a blogging class at school and that helps give me some motivation.

So more on what has happened in my life lately. I have officially entered my junior year in college where I my major is mass communications and my minor is art history. I am loving all my classes even if they are keeping me crazy busy and to put it frankly, driving me crazy. But hey! That's what I signed up for. On top of my normal course load, I am the president and senior editor of an online magazine for college women called Her Campus. This is a great opportunity for me and I can't wait to see how the year unfolds.

The picture above is from a trip I went on for my birthday over the summer to one of my favorite places in the world, New York City. This was my favorite outfit of that trip so I love this picture. I went specifically to view this amazing exhibition called China Through the Looking Glass in the costume exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. This was the highlight of my summer and trust me, the fashion was spectacular! I will post more about that later, promise.

Well that is all for now, I will be back soon!

XOXOXO
Stay Fabulous!
-Alana Long

What "an additional 50% more" really means at Forever 21

You would assume that it would mean just what it says, but it's a little tricky.

This weekend I was at Forever 21 and I saw a beautifully labeled corner rack... "additional 50% off". I walk over to it thinking, "can this really be as fantastic as it looks?". There were a lot of cute items all piled up on top of one another and I got very excited. On the tags it shows red prices written on and the original price. Most of the time the red number was about half of the original so maybe it was silly of me to  think this but I wasn't sure if this was the final price or not.

I spot this really cute pair of sneakers on the shelf with the same red markings on it that I just had to have. If the labels were true to their meaning, these shoes would be around $9. But on the same hand, if the red marked price was the 50% off and final they would be $18 and possibly not worth my time.

I went over this possibility in my head and figured out that I liked these shoes so much I would suck up the extra $9 and buy the shoes if it came down to that. 

I know at this point you are thinking, "Alana, why don't you just ASK someone who worked there silly?". The answer would sound something like this, "I lost my voice and sound like a squeaky mouse that nobody can understand. And frankly, that would just be embarrassing."

So I buckled down and headed toward the checkout counter. And now for the big reveal... the shoes rang up as $9!! I was super excited since these shoes were a steal and they had flowers on them so checks all around!

Here's my silly story that hopefully helped anyone who might've had the same question that I did :) When Forever 21 says "an additional 50% off", they MEAN it!

XOXOXO
Stay Fabulous!
-Alana Long