When I was really young, I used to love to collect paper dolls, the kind that came in a book with many different outfit changes. I would play with them for awhile but then because I didn’t want to crumple the edges, I would leave them in one place, making a sort of collection of fragile clothes that I would stare at and imagine the different outfit choices. Every now and then I gave in to the urge to play and actually change the outfit but I always knew that they were paper and wouldn’t last that long. I understood back then that nothing beats actual fabric to use on a doll or on yourself to create that timeless dress-up feeling.

I hadn’t thought about the paper dolls in forever that is until I came across this editorial that ran in Vogue Nippon (how I love that particular magazine) in Dec 2006. Photographed by Tim Walker, it is pure genius.

How great would it be to have the ability to cut an outfit out of an magazine and have it be real, not paper? What would be your cut and paste wishlist?

♥ the alchemist

I saw this editorial in Zink magazine and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it. I’m drawn to the color combinations and am frantically thinking of ways to incorporate into my current wardrobe.

This is why I can never have too much inspiration, I ‘ve seen enough crazy color combinations that work and don’t work to have a sense of what I like. Then I see how another stylist put things together and how a photograper uses that to create an interesting picture and I get a renewed sense of color fever. Annabelle Tiaffay is the amazing photographer for this editorial.

It was this last group of pictures that really made my adrenaline pump. The electric blue tights with the hot pink shoe a neutral short and that lemony green top with a neon blue headband is just pure genius to me. As in I wanted to wear that yesterday.

What do you think?

♥ the alchemist