pattern play

necklace - vintage, great grandmother's / striped sweater - H&M / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / skirt - homemade from vintage fabric / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / ring - Amsterdam shop / woven flats - UO

Happy Pattern-Mixing Day! Today's edition of EBEW feels like it might as well be an official blogger holiday. I've happily dabbled in some pattern mixing myself, and this floral (well, herbal) printed skirt has been the basis for a lot of my favorite looks incorporating mixed prints - I recently wore it with navy and white stripes, and paired it with a fun cat-print blouse a few months ago. I think the subtlety of the white-on-yellow print makes this an ideal piece for pairing with more graphic prints like stripes (or cats), and since pink and yellow has been a favorite color combination of mine for some time, I was surprised to realize I hadn't worn this skirt and sweater together yet. Finished with a white belt and a few gold accessories, this outfit was perfect for a breezy day-trip to historic Kutná Hora, home of the Sedlec Ossuary - a chapel decorated by Cistercian monks with the bones of over 40,000 people!


And home to some pretty sweet skeletal pattern-mixing, if you ask me!

To see a few more of my favorite pattern-mixing looks, click here, here or here, and be sure to head over to Everybody Everywear today to see how other bloggers styled up their favorite mixed prints!



Also, in a bit of blog housekeeping, I've recently installed a widget for Google Friend Connect, so if you'd like to follow the other emily through GFC, you can now find it in the right sidebar! And as always, you can also subscribe to posts via Bloglovin', Google Reader, RSS feed or email.

crazypants

Berber earrings - gift from Tunisia / tank - Target / belt - vintage, thrifted / pants - vintage, thrifted / wood & brass bangle - vintage, thrifted / ring - Primark / sandals - Target, thrifted 

I am exhausted; after a long day of travel, hauling suitcases up and down stairs, and doing a serious amount of walking in our new city, I can fairly say, my everything hurts. Knowing that I was unlikely to wear much of anything noteworthy on a moving day, I did have the foresight to take these photos yesterday on our last day in Berlin, but I ought also to have just written a post about them then. As it stands, I think my body is currently siphoning vital fluids from my brain just to maintain basic functioning; it remains to be seen just how much blog-juice I can muster at the moment.

Let's stick with the obvious - these pants? They are insane. I found them on my recent Berlin thrifting trip, and despite the fact that they are objectively rather unflattering (and that boyfriend predictably loathes them), I kind of love them. I think the print is amazing, and they're perfectly swishy and light enough for hot days. They seem so much like the kind of thing a super cool, confident woman might wear - and since I certainly hope to be one of those when I grow up, it only seems sensible to start practicing now.

On another note, I'm glad so many of you liked the sock-bun video! It really is the coolest trick, the fact that it's so easy is a big part of why I tend to do it every single day. I feel I should have included a disclaimer though, I am definitely not the inventor of the sock-bun technique - I heard about it from a reader a few months ago, and there are a wealth of other videos on Youtube that show different ways to do it. You can even use the sock-bun as a no-heat curling method!

miesian

sunglasses - Nasty Gal / necklace - boutique in Montmartre, Paris / v-neck top - Anthropologie / braided belt - vintage, thrifted / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / skirt - altered from a dress, UO / sandals - Target, thrifted 

It's funny to me how much noteworthy architecture pops up on in my outfit posts. I started this blog as an outlet for some of my non-professional interests, and yet my academic background just keeps popping up in the background. Given the kind of sightseeing we do, it shouldn't be altogether surprising - today it was the Bauhaus Archive, the Nordic Embassy complex, and, seen here, Mies' Neue Nationalgalerie - but I still think it's a little funny that my ostensible 'fashion blog' posts could also serve as flashcards for a course on modern architecture.

tied up

sunglasses - Nasty Gal / earrings - handmade by Carie of Pretty Little Mountains, won in giveaway / chambray shirt - Banana Republic, thrifted / wood & brass bangle - vintage, thrifted / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / maxi skirt - Target / sandals - Target, thrifted 

I should probably send this shirt a thank-you note, as it makes me feel great every time I wear it. I've been an admirer of the tied-shirt trend that's been popping up all over the place this summer, but always from afar because I'm not much of an exposed-midriff girl myself; fortunately I figured out that it works just as well over a matching tank and maxi skirt. Super easy, and a nice change of pace from my regular arsenal of belts.

We took these pictures on an evening visit to the Reichstag dome over the weekend; the sunset view over the Tiergarten was fantastic, so we lingered as long as we could up on the roof. I've been growing more and more aware of the impending end of our travels, and of our return to the 'real world,' and while I've enjoyed the ways in which blogging has made me more sartorially creative, I think I am even more appreciative of the record this blog has become of our everyday activities. It will be such a fun way to look back on our trip (and on the various life changes that will succeed it) and to remember not just the museums and monuments, but the lazy afternoons spent in parks or exploring unknown neighborhoods.

awkward

necklace - Forever 21 / blouse - Target / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / shorts - thrifted & hemmed / sandals - Target, thrifted

If I look just the slightest bit awkward in these photos (by which I mean, more so than usual), it's because there was a guy going back and forth between the door immediately over my left shoulder and a van across the street the entire time we were taking these pictures. I try not to feel too self-conscious while taking pictures, but this was... awkward. He definitely thought we were pretty odd, but I told him if he didn't want random American bloggers taking pictures outside his place of business/residence, next time he should try not painting his building such a sunny color.*

Since the theme of the week seems to be sharing my outfit inspiration, this one is definitely inspired by this look from Kendi, right down to the aqua statement necklace. Sadly, adorable heels are in short supply around here, but I'm always happy to add some extra bling to an outfit with these braided gold sandals.

*I told him no such thing.

too cool

sunglasses - thrifted / necklace - vintage, great-grandmother's / tote - Forever 21 / chambray shirt - Banana Republic, thrifted / dress - UO / belt - vintage, thrifted / ring - Amsterdam shop / watch - Arkanoplatz flea market, Berlin / woven flats - UO

We're staying in (I think) a pretty hipster-y area of Berlin, and I spend a good deal of time on the U-Bahn observing the impossibly cool girls of the city. These are girls with inscrutable tattoos and long hair that's completely buzzed on one side, and nearly every single one of them is sporting just the most perfect-fitting, perfectly worn-in jean jacket you've ever seen. I will probably never look anywhere near as cool as these Berlin girls (let's be honest, I dress up to visit buildings - 'cool' I am not), but I did decide to borrow their jean-jacket style with this chambray shirt for a late-afternoon picnic in Treptower Park. I think I'll definitely be wearing this shirt as a jacket more often from here on out; I loved the extra dimension it gave to an otherwise simple outfit, and the extra coverage it gave to a dress that can sometimes feel a bit like the express train to Boob City - although given that I was the only girl in the park who hadn't stripped down to her bikini or bra (or, ahem, gone bare - those Germans!), perhaps I needn't have worried too much about modesty.

untucked

necklace - Anthropologie / tank - Anthropologie / tote - German convention freebie / braided chain bracelet - homemade / watch - Arkonaplatz flea market, Berlin / skirt - Target / sandals - Target, thrifted

Like Tania, I have just a little bit of an obsession with belting things; sometime over the last few years, I decided that defining my waist was the most flattering way to dress my somewhat curvy figure, and now every time I put on a skirt, I just instinctively tuck in my top, throw on a belt, and call it done. So imagine my surprise when while getting dressed the other day I caught a glimpse of my as-yet-un-tucked shirt in the mirror and - gasp - actually liked the outfit better that way. There's something so perfectly unfussy about an untucked shirt, and it certainly didn't hurt that I felt like I was wearing classy pajamas all day.

We took these photos on a visit to the East Side Gallery, a 1 km section of the Berlin Wall that's been kept intact and painted by artists. Naturally I gravitated right to the mural that best matched my outfit, a giant black and hot pink face (my head only comes up to the mouth!) that was part of a huge stretch of colorful faces. Speaking of faces, I'm sorry for the recent overload of glamour shots of my new watch - I picked it up for a measly three euros at the flea market over the weekend, and I am completely enamored with it. I kind of want to get my initials engraved on the clasp, if only for the ridiculousness of paying more for the engraving than I did for the watch itself!