Kelsey Dundon

A guest post from my old friend Sabrina.

As an avid fashion blog follower, I’m honoured to do a guest post for your dreamy and delightful blog, Kelsey! I work as an urban planner in New York City, specifically as the community’s advocate for all things related to the Brooklyn Bridge.

In a typical week, I am making presentations to state senators, hanging out with skateboarders and BMXers at the Brooklyn Banks skatepark, contributing to a city-wide policy on social networking for outreach purposes, or holding press conferences with a dozen Chinese papers (um, how do I spell my Chinese name? Why don’t I take your email down and ask my mother to respond to you…) In this quasi-official, quasi-community organizer capacity, I find myself wearing a lot of menswear-inspired, black, white and red:

The shirt? From a 2001 sojourn in Paris with my girlfriends. The pocket watch necklace and suspenders? Vintage. The black pencil skirt and white fishnets are from Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, and the two-tone saddleshoes are Jeffrey Campbell.

Crisp white shirt with french cuffs, circa 2009. Red cardigan, and black pleated skirt with a bow, both from H&M. The boots look like spats and are John Fluevog. But my favourite touch?

When visiting my father in the hospital last month (he’s much better now thank you), I asked if I could have his entire cufflink collection from the 70s. Mais oui, bien sur! These ones have little centurions and come with a matching tie clip…

Thank you so much, Sabrina, for making me desperately want a pair of cufflinks. Want to write a guest post? Send me a note at theanthology@live.com

When I had the honour of giving a guest lecture at the Art Institute, I learned even more than I shared (thank you, Liv, for the invitation!). That was thanks to the students who sparked great debates and La Flore et La Faune, Design.Love.Fest and Haute World who contributed their insight to my presentation (thanks team!).

Herewith, my top four takeaways:

4. I am even nerdier than I thought. Not one of the students in the class is a blogger (unless you count those who created blogs for school projects, which I don’t — I once choreographed an interpretive dance for class, but that does not make me an interpretive dancer. Nor does that make me feel any less like a nerd.).

3. Blogs are changing fashion in a big way. See: Art of the Trench, Burberry’s street-style site shot by the Sartorialist himself, Gap’s t-shirt collaboration with Garance Dore, and the major fashion houses that are now live-streaming their shows. (Thank you Haute World, for your brilliant suggestions!)

2. Blogs aren’t changing fashion at all. To quote La Flore et La Faune: “I don’t think blogs have the slightest influence on the fashion business.” What about the sites I just listed? “Isn’t a blog signed by a person, not a brand?” asks La Flore. Ummm…

1. I have an addiction. Not one of the students is as unhealthily obsessed with blogs as I am. They would opt to flip through a magazine instead of click through what Design.Love.Fest calls the “never-ending vortex of inspiration”.

Does that mean I should be making a print version of the Anthology?

How on earth would you describe this dress?

Love that it has just about every colour in the rainbow. Except for yellow.

My belt? It’s vintage. (And versatile.)

My dress? Not even mine. (Thank you, sis, for lending it to me.)

My boots? From Nordstrom.

But seriously. How would you describe the pattern on this dress? Disco amoeba?

So, so cold outside. Not only is there frost on the ground, but you can see your breath.

I can hear those of you in the prairies laughing right now. Because you probably had to shovel your car out of the snow this morning.

But I am not built for real Canadian winters.

Though I will wear a jacket with enough razzle dazzle to suit a figure skater.

Gotta love my girlfriends.

While I want to wear nothing but sweatpants on a rainy day, Anji rocks customized vintage clothes.

Her vest used to be a blazer until she had the arms removed (sounds painful).

And her shorts used to be (cheesy) dress pants.

So brilliant. I’m going to search out a jacket to modify. It’ll look great with my sweats.