Washington Square Park, on a weekday summer evening

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Kelly L. Allen

“Memory believes before knowing remembers…”

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Kelly L. Allen

After a weekend of thunderstorms, it was cold, gray and ominous in New York today and I found myself not only wearing pants (something I’ve categorically refused to do for two months) but also donning autumnal hues of pumpkin, sage and plum (neon-satchel-functioning-as-sun-lamp not included). It was an inescapable reminder that after tomorrow it will be August dog days, time will lose its linear quality for a little while and the bittersweet (mostly bitter) smoldering away of summer will begin.

If you love laughter

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Kelly L. Allen

check out Real Men Swear.

Opening Ceremony Best-Dressed

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Kelly L. Allen

Complimentary colors, berets, scarves, blazers, kitten heels, giant lapel flowers, Peter Pan collars, sweater vests: all golden. You know what isn’t golden? Gold lamé trimmed capris. Badly done, UK.

Look at your feet. Feel Happy.

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Kelly L. Allen

These Gravis x Dan Funderburgh shoes featured on Foam‘s Tumblr just shot to the top of my wishlist. I need everything in my life to be this red and blue Hawaiian print. I’m talkin’ matching wallpaper and bedspread and curtains à la Barbra Streisand’s bedroom in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. How do I make this happen? Who do I call?

Also, close-up: notice the skateboarder in the fallen glass.

“We’re team USA and we’re going all the way”

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Kelly L. Allen

The 2012 Olympics are everything I love about everything. Pomp and ceremony, patriotism, global solidarity, sports, costumes, London. Throw in the lascivious tales to come from the Olympic Village and I’m done.

The story-lines are bound to be epic and I can’t wait to watch the Dream Team 2.0 in action, the spectacular tension between the US women hurdlers play out and Michael Phelps represent my hometown as he looks to beat the record for overall medals won (USA upsetting France in the 2008 relay is still one of my favorite sports moments).

And despite the truly incomprehensible decision to have the Team USA uniforms made in China, I love them. More people should wear berets, especially if they look as dapper in them as Kevin Durant does in this picture tweeted by Kevin Love.

But more than the uniforms themselves, natty as they be, I love the effect the games have had on fashion–in collections, retail and magazine spreads. The June/July issue of Foam featured some of my favorite Olympics-inspired styling, not to mention a fantastic piece on British designers to know. Ever since I saw their “Undefeated” spread (pictured below) I’ve had to fight the urge to go into every American Apparel that I walk past and buy the entire stock of leotards and tube socks. Imagine them paired with this jacket and some Keds and that’s basically the outfit I’ve been wearing in my mind for the past week.

That and the uniform that these Australian lady Olympians wore in 1972 because I feel like this is what Margot Tenenbaum would have worn if she was the tennis prodigy. Also the Olympics clearly bring out the best in hats.

As I write, New York is doing it’s best impression of London with a torrential downpour beating at my windows–a sound I fell asleep to many a night when I studied abroad there my junior year of college. Though the recent viewing of season one of Luther had me convinced that since I left it’d become a city filled with nothing but depraved psycho-sexual serial killers, all of these London-centric features in the news are reminding me of everything I loved about living there, when for four months I was a trainer-head and my best friend wore a beret every day. We were before our time.