Good Looks and Good Books: The One About the Crop Top

This past weekend the stars aligned and a bunch of my close friends were in town, both from college and Peace Corps. There were several straight nights of little sleep and lots of rowdy shenanigans. This is everything fun that I wore [not including all the yoga pants and hoodies every morning].

Thursday my sorority sister from out of town came to visit, and we went for a sunbathe at the pool. My suit, aka fatkini, is from My Sugar Doll, an Etsy shop that specializes in retro style bathing suits. They size up to XL [about 14/16, measurement-wise], and also do made-to-measure suits.

traditionally paired with Lolita style heart sunglasses

And later that night we went to a bar trivia tournament, where I scored some crucial points with the question, "what movie includes James Franco, Gucci Mane, and Selena Gomez as actors?" [Spring Breakers, only one of my favorite films of 2012].

everything I'm wearing was purchased like 4 years ago. tank top: nordstrom, jean cut offs: hacked from a pair of Target skinnies, balconette bra: cacique

Friday saw a big impromptu mixer of my college friends and Peace Corps friends, bonding over games of Kings and late night Sheetz. I didn't take a great outfit picture, so here's me and one of my sorority sisters looking A+. 

body-con lace insert dress: target, quilted chain bag: asos

Solid Saturday full of recovery later, we celebrated a friend's birthday and wound up dancing at a surprisingly fun bar in the South Side of Pittsburgh. Which leads me to talk about fat girls in crop tops. 

I've been into the world of fat acceptance/body positivity/fat babe lifestyle for years now. I don't particularly prescribe to any "flattering" rules, and I like to wear what I like. It still took 22 years of life to feel comfortable wiping my face with my shirt at the gym [which I wrote an essay about in the fat babe anthology "Hot & Heavy" and you can read it over here]. Last summer when I bought my fatkini was the first time I'd ever worn a real two piece. Body acceptance is a life long adventure, in my opinion. There are plenty of days when I feel weird or antagonistic towards my body, instead of loving. But Saturday night was not one of those nights, I was pretty pumped about putting this outfit together. For sure, its a bit outrageous, but South Side is kind of trashy so I thought it was an apt fit. In a brief moment of confessional, there's always a pause I feel when I'm going to wear something that's more boundary pushing for a fat girl. I really don't experience any street harassment in regards to my weight, but I always have a fleeting moment of apprehension. Ironically, the only person who said anything was a creeper who tried to hit on me at the bar, and when I turned him down he told Michelle I shouldn't be wearing "that top." NICE!

I'm obsessed with the current trends of sheer and lacy. My top is a brand-less thrift store find from the lingerie section. Sadly, I gave up on the shoes [a spring 2011 Chloe knock off clog] because trying to walk around my friend's hilly neighborhood of Mt Washington is nearly impossible in heels.

top: thrifted, bra: cacique, high waisted trousers: asos, clogs: tj maxx

I was inspired by some old college photos to chop in some bangs Saturday night. I also had a bang up face that day. Bold brows and lips are all I really need. I'm deeply committed to my Urban Decay liner, but that night I also used Michelle's lip stain, which lived up to its "endless" advertising. This face was smudge proof.

face: l'oreal magic skin bb cream, brows: random shadow, eyes: liner- elf, mascara- maybelline great lash, lips: urban decay 24/7 pencil in 69 + kat von d liquid lipstick in outlaw

Sunday I had lunch with a big group of Peace Corps friends. I wore this super darling dress that I didn't take a picture of in the moment, so here it is back when I lived at my parents house. 

dress: target, sunglasses: thrifted

But remember, I have bangs now, so it was ten times more adorable.

quantifiable adorableness 

As a bonus, this is what I wore to a job hunting related appointment today. The elevator was SO GREAT for selfies.

tunic: target, dress pants: target, flats: seychelles, bag: michael kors

But hey, I'm not just a pretty face! I also read, a lot. During my 27 months of Peace Corps, I read over 200 books. I've carved out a home library:

one of the ten days of sunshine Pittsburgh gets a year.

And this week I'm finishing up 20th Century Ghosts, a collection of short stories by Joe Hill [who happens to be the son of Stephen King]. Some of them are creepy crawly horror stories, like the editor who lives out a horror story in the meta "Best New Horror," or the grotesque, Kafka nightmare of "You Will Hear the Locust Sing." But my favorite stories have more heart than horror, and read more like surreal, weird fiction than horror genre. The title story is a love story for any cinephile, and I shed a few tears over the friendship in "Pop Art." But I do crave the adrenalin rush of a good scare, so I hope something really messed up happens in the last few stories.

Journalism wise, I am a bit out of the loop with all this gallivanting this weekend. Obviously there are some really important current events that deserve coverage, like the unrest in Ferguson. But for a fluff piece that I really enjoyed, Nitasha Tuku at Gawker wrote an article on the surge of in-app purchases, including games and third party services such as Uber and Seamless. It's fascinating and worrying to think about how smartphone spending is affecting my millennial generation, with our already shaky foothold in the economy.

Tell me what you're reading or what your favorite lip color is. I'm considering branching out to nude lipsticks? Any recommendations?