EverybodyIsUgly's blog

It might sound a little creepy, but I’ve known about Keiko’s style for a long time. I remember hearing about her clothing line, Postlapsaria, on some Livejournal community (LJ 4eva!) and was inspired by the mixture of colors and interesting shapes. Years later, I stumbled upon her blog, and was hooked on her awesome use of color in her own outfits, the perfect poster girl for her own line. So I was more than thrilled to find her here on Chictopia (as user Keiko_lynn), and a style icon no less! Here’s what she had to say about her life, fashion, and inspiration. <3 Wendy
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How would you describe your personal style?
Girly, whimsical, quirky.

Who/what has most influenced your style?
I’m highly influenced by the past; I am always most inspired after watching an old movie or searching through old photographs at antique shops. As far as direct influence from an individual, I have three:

The first is my great grandma Moe, an expert seamstress who always made her own clothes and dressed impeccably (down to the hat and gloves). I used to tell her I was born in the wrong era, because I wanted to dress up like her.

The second is one of my mom’s old friends, Colette. When she would babysit my sisters and me (I use the term babysit very loosely), she would let us rummage through her extensive closet and borrow or take anything we wanted. She was extremely eccentric and had expensive taste – she was the first person I ever met who was completely enthralled with the fashion world and I found that intriguing. She made getting dressed so much fun.

Last but not least, Iris Apfel. I admire her sense of style because it’s so personal and identifiable. She wears what she loves and wears it only for her. That, to me, is a true love and understanding of fashion. It should be personal.

As a little kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
According to an article in a local newspaper, when I was four years old, I wanted to be a model. I don’t remember ever wanting to be a model; I think I was just put on the spot. Truthfully, I wanted to be Paula Abdul. I don’t think that answer would have gone over very well, so I gave them a stock answer from my tiny little back pocket.

How did you get into designing and making clothing?
I always had a hard time finding clothing that suited my tastes; I was never one to be able to walk into a store in the mall and come out with something I loved. Plus, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend. I started buying clothing at thrift stores and altering them – sometimes just minor alterations and other times, I would completely deconstruct and reconstruct the whole garment. Eventually, I moved onto creating my own patterns and making my clothing from scratch. I started selling select items because people always asked about them, and I needed money to help put myself through college.

What drives your creative design process?
I make clothing that I would want to wear. I’m not trying to be overtly innovative – I’m simply designing and making pretty clothes with the intent to make the wearer feel good about themselves. I don’t take it too seriously; I just think fashion should be fun. So, I don’t put too much thought into each garment. I just think, “What would I like to have in my closet that isn’t currently available to me?” and I go from there.

What is your favorite self-designed piece of clothing?
As far as more current pieces, I’m fond of the Merrylegs skirt (3rd pic). I have it in several colorways; it’s my go-to skirt because it can be paired with so many different options, but it makes more of a statement than your basic skirt.

As for something exclusively in my own closet, my favorite is this skirt (1st pic). It has a bit of a bustle effect in the back and it’s very fun to wear. Each tier is ruffled and trimmed with black bias tape. The only reason I don’t offer it for Postlapsaria is because of the amount of work that goes into it!

You have awesome makeup skillz! Any tips? Which products are your favorites?
Thank you! Always use primer, that’s my number one tip. As for eye makeup: blend, blend, blend. I’m working on some tutorials; they will be up on my blog very soon.

My favorite products: Smashbox photofinish (all over primer), MAC bare canvas paint (I use it as a primer for eye makeup), MAC blacktrack fluidline, Julie Hewett Cheekie Cheek and Lip Shine, MAC mineralize skinfinish.

What kind of music do you listen to?
M83, The Velvet Teen, Band of Horses, Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, Billie Holiday, Animal Collective, The Decemberists, lots of 80s and 90s music, so much more.

What are some of your favorite foods?
Quiche, crepes, soup, arepas from Caracas (the restaurant in Brooklyn), comfort food. I love comfort food, which of course tends to be really bad for you.

What are some of your favorite things to do for fun?
I love to play Scrabble! I’m a huge scrabble nerd. I’m quite a hermit, so I spend a lot of time working on clothing or playing with my little critters. I also love to read, go on spontaneous adventures and partake in many picnics during warmer months.

by Kristine

Fashion illustration has captured our hearts this past year. With the likes of that fashionable hare, Fifi Lapin and the uber talented blogosphere favorite, Danny Roberts, we’re just as captivated with drawings of clothes as we are with actual clothes.

That brings us to our new favorite, Amy Martino of Yellow Bird Machine. The talented, New Jersey based artist boasts a portfolio full of dreamy fashionistas and even some familiar faces. A current favorite – and high on our Next Thing to Buy List – is her collection of Fancy Bags. So much more chic than the ratty tote bags we’ve been sporting!

We had a chance to chat with Amy about her inspirations and what’s next for Yellow Bird Machine. Check it out below.

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Let’s start with the basics: Where are you from and what are your interests?
I live in Montclair NJ with my boyfriend Josh and my two sugargliders
Romulus and Remus. So far I am interested in Graphic Design,
Illustration, and Printmaking.

When did you start illustrating?
I started Illustrating a couple years ago as part of many of my
projects as a graphic designer. Doing cd covers and posters gave me a
reason to come up with illustrations. It was only recently that I
started collecting them to put together as a separate portfolio of
work.

Do you have any professional training?
I have a degree in Sociology from Boston University. I spent a lot of
time doing art in high school but everything else is self taught.

What inspires you?
I obsess over a set of colors that I get in my head and it stays with
me until I use it over and over again and then finally replace it with
another scheme. I am inspired by things that bring that obsession on
like creepy high fashion, people wearing matching outfits, and
clothing in general.

When you’re not drawing, what are you doing?
I am a freelance art director and designer and I work all around NYC
at various agencies. In my free time I like to run, walk, and visit
the zoo. I am also taking a class at the museum down the street which
is great because I get to draw for three hours in a room in the museum
and listen to music.

Something that is particularly relevant to what is inspiring
you right now.
I am really inspired by blacklight posters of the 60’s and 70’s. I
just recently got Ultraviolet: 69 Blacklight Posters from the
Aquarian Age and Beyond by Daniel Donahue and two black lights. I
framed a couple of them and hung them in my bathroom along with the
black lights. Every night when I brush my teeth I tune in, turn on,
and drop out.

Three of your favorite things right now.
Waiting for the movie Machotaildrop to come out, reading Tavi
Gevinson’s blog, and drawing.

What’s next for Yellow Bird Machine and yourself?
I want to do illustrations for fashion magazines, skateboard
companies, and albums… so that’s what’s going to happen next.

LINKS:
Amy’s Chictopia
Yellow Bird Machine
YBM in Cargo Collective
Purchase Amy’s Illustrations on Society6.com

by Kristine

Chictopia is going to the concrete jungle (where dreams are made of)! Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is upon us again and we thought we’d do things differently this time around.

Chictopia is hosting Chictopia 10: The Social Influence Summit. What is it, exactly? It’s a two-day conference hosted by Chictopia where we bring online tastemakers, fashion and retail executives, brands and media together in one place to discuss the phenom that is social media and the influence it has had in all of these industries. Bloggers and brands have the opportunity to learn how to use social media for their business and to network with each other in the hopes creating lasting partnerships, friendships and business deals.

Fashion blogging has exploded within the past year and this is our opportunity to help people better understand how to use this complicated giant.

On top of that Chictopia is presenting 10 of the brightest rising stars in fashion and design in our Designer Showcase. Yes, fashion excites us, but what excites us even more is finding what or who is set to be the “next big thing.” We have some great designers lined up that have already been featured on websites like Refinery29 and NOLCHA. I can hardly wait to see what they have in store.

Of course – having a Chictopia event at Fashion Week wouldn’t be the same without members from our Chictopia community to join us. We love you guys and all the support you have given to us and to the community. And it’s true, none of this would have been possible without your support.

To show our gratitude, we’re picking 10 members from our community to join us at New York Fashion Week! Enter our Chictopia10 Contest for a chance to be one of them.

We’re so excited and can’t wait to see you there!

xoxo

by Kristine

As bloggers, finding the perfect photo hosting service can really be a pain. Everything from not being able to upload high resolution photos to having a bandwith limit is enough to cause anxiety in those of us who make a living or hobby out of fashion blogging. Don’t lie, you know there have been those days when you realize uploading straight to Blogger just isn’t gonna cut it. We’ve put together a list of our favorite image hosting services to give you a better idea of what’s out there.

PHOTOBUCKET

Good for:
- Basic image hosting
- Quick editing
- Easy sharing with links to post photos to MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, etc.

Pitfalls: (I only say this from experience, since it’s the only one I’ve used to host photos on a blog.)
- Even with a paid account, there is a limit as to how big of a file (in height/width) you can upload. Frustrating if you are uploading a background image.

Extra Perks:
- To encourage you to sign up for a Premium account, you can sign up for any one of several offers. That’s how I got my Minnetonkas. Minnetonkas in exchange for a Premium account? Don’t mind if I do.

FLICKR
Good for:
- Sharing photos with friends in a social network/community type setting
- Providing multiple size options for prints
- Finding high quality images
- Quick editing and organization
- Clean interface

Extra Perks
- You can connect your blog to your Flickr account to make sharing easier.
- Flickr works with Snapfish to create books, albums, prints and more from the photos in your account.

PICASA
Good for:
- Automatic organization of photos on your computer
- Quick editing
- Ability to download photo editing software to your desktop
- Adding photos to GoogleMaps and finding photos by location

Extra Perks:
- You can download Picasa to your desktop and sync photos on your computer to your account which makes for an easier, stress free upload.
- Easy sharing to Google products like Blogger and Google Earth.
- If you buy 200 GB of storage at $50 you’ll get a free EyeFi card, a memory card that allows you to send your photos from your camera to your computer, wirelessly.

Hopefully this helps in your search for a great image hosting service! Do you have any experience with any of these? We’d love to know your input in our comments section!

by Kristine

Either 2009 has gone by really fast or really slowly. We can hardly believe a year has almost passed since our campaign with American Apparel launched this past January. Our beautiful members Linda, Karla and Melissa had the opportunity to visit American Apparel in Los Angeles and play around with their vintage clothing in front of the cameras. The result? An awesome campaign featuring real girls with really chic style!

The year couldn’t go by without a few contests and one of our favorites was the bike giveaway sponsored by TOPSHOP. calivintage, one of our Style Icons was one of the contests winners. Now, if only I could figure out a way to look just as chic on a bike…

There are plenty of things already planned for 2010 that we can’t wait to share! For now, we’ll reminisce about the great things that 2009 had to offer!

Happy New Year everyone!

by Kristine

So you may have noticed that things around our site are looking a little different lately. Everything we do at Chictopia is in an effort to make the experience seamless and enjoyable for our members. As the year progressed, we began to think about what sort of things we could do to improve that experience. Here are a few things you may have missed:

Upload Page
Now, uploading a picture only takes a few clicks. Rather than moving through multiple pages to label your photo, write a description and tag your clothing, you can do it all from one destination.

Rewards
Since Chic Rewards is such a popular feature of the Chictopia community (seriously guys, could you claim these rewards any faster?) we’ve made it a mainstay on our top menu. Now, there is a Rewards link right next to Style Gallery, making the process of checking everyday much easier. If you haven’t seen our video of how Chic Rewards works, you can watch it below:

How to: Chic Rewards from Chictopia Kristine on Vimeo.

Sharing & Social Media
As social media grows, so does the need for our users. Now, you’ll be able to find several links – everything from Facebook to Twitter to Digg to StumbleUpon – next to user photos. This way, sharing your own style gallery photos or those from your favorite users is seamless.

Have any features you’d like to see on the site? Send us a message =)