mighty mai

(images via mighty girl)

mai, a friend from my san francisco days and the powerhouse behind the fabulous bay area-based street fashion site fashioni.st has had her style showcased on mighty girl this week, an equally huge bay area blog, as a part of the "mighty closet" series. which is, as far as i can discern, maggie's celebration of the style of women in her life (?).
anyway, all the ladies featured are fabulous, but mai is my favorite, and not just because she's a friend...

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mai is one of the most creative dressers i have ever met. her style is off-the-wall, irreverent, unapologetic, current, futuristic, and retro, all at once. she has an amazing, art-informed eye, and her outfits are like these amazing collages of influences and incredible finds (cheap and not so cheap). to top it all off, she's wickedly intelligent, a loyal, generous friend, and incredibly confident. she's not everyone's cup of tea, especially stylistically, but my my, what a tasty cup of tea she is to those who know her and/or can appreciate her.
mai is an inspiration to me. i miss you mai!
(btw: how friggin amazing is that headband???!!! oh, covet.)

older ladies of the street (and why i love them)

(images via advanced style and au coin de ma rue)

these two ladies popped into my feed reader around the same time...and seeing them, one after the other, warmed my heart and made me smile. these ladies, though advanced in age, clearly have a young spirit residing within them. a penchant for expressing themselves in an artful, daring way that dallies with modernity, and youth without, to my eye, looking like a "mutton dressed as a lamb," as the old (tired) saying goes. they are at once "age appropriate" and pushing the envelope for what's expected of, or typically worn by their demographic (see: that pink hair, those plaid combat boots!!). i hope i look half as good when i find myself at their age...and that i am still expressing my own self with the same attention to detail and clearly apparent joie de vivre that these ladies project. they seem to delight in the act of dressing, perhaps they always have...it would be interesting to see what these women were like in their "younger years".

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on a related note: i am happy that street fashion blogs like advanced style (still) exist, and that some street fashion photographers have a broad focus in the age, gender, race and aesthetic they choose to publish. diversity is good...it keeps life interesting, and the novelty is pleasing to the eye and the brain, no?

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care to share any links to street fashion/fashion blogs which feature/focus on or are written/curated by/for people of "advanced age"? one's that do their work or express themselves with panache? do tell.

cooler: {cunningly curved crochet}

(images via cooler)

what's with all the amazing crochet jewelry coming out of portugal? anyone have the intel on that? is there some sort of historical precedent? some established fiber arts deeply entrenched in the culture from whence this springs? do tell if you know something...i wanna know! i live for learning more about this kind of thing.
anyway, on a related note, check out these incredible crocheted collars fashioned out of cotton jersey by a portuguese maker who goes by the moniker cooler. i am in absolute lust. the colors! the fiberliciousness! crafty and yet so very sophisticated. love love love.
forgive me, i have mom brain: i can't remember how i came across these beauties (one of many posts on my still packed full yet culled down feed reader)...it flipped by and i clicked so fast i forgot to make note. thank you, you, whomever you were! *grin*