My Style {Eclectic Casual}

One of my favorite little luxuries of freelance life is the ability to head to the nieghborhood coffee shop every once in awhile to catch up on magazines (research!) and decompress.  The last few weeks of work have been beyond busy, so I'm hoping to get one of these catch up coffee days by the end of this week or next-- fingers crossed!  For more details on my outfit inspiration here, be sure to check out the full post over on Camille Styles!

Hands down this thin cashmere sweater is my fave!  (Marc Jacobs circa 2006! Similar here, here and here.)  It's a little thin but perfect layered over this raw silk tank with a pair of more rugged boyfriend jeans.  For a little more color I added these thin pink socks and my yellow Kendra Scott cuff.

The coffee shop isn't the only place I go to decompress and get creative.  These are the three things that work best for me when searching for fresh inspiration... I would love to hear what works for you!

1.  The Newsstand.  I always begin here. People love to say that print is dead, but I’m a very tactile person when it comes to books and magazines, and I love to read the words on paper and see the photographs on a glossy page (ironic for someone who writes a blog, I know!) I always look for magazines that are a little off the beaten path. I really enjoy the femininity of French editions, but if I’m trying to push my work in an edgier direction I look more towards smaller asian publications. They aren’t all fashion, either — I love interior design and architecture and find those lines and patterns to be equally inspirational.  My favorite tears get put on the large bulletin board in my office. I never take anything off it, so it will be interesting to one day peel back those layers and see what inspiration is buried underneath!

2.   New Environments.  If I’ve been staring at a computer screen or pushing out emails for too long my head starts to feel totally fried. That’s when I know its time to walk away for a bit. I love walking through different neighborhoods and letting my head toss around thoughts about whatever new concept or project I might have on the horizon. To take this one a step further, I always feel my most creative when I’m in a new city.  Aaron and I take one  two-week trip a year to travel to somewhere new and I always find my best ideas on these trips. I carry a pen and notepad with me everywhere and jot down ideas as they come to mind so I don’t forget them. By the time we land back in Los Angeles, I’m ready to hit the ground running with new work.

3. Safe Spaces.  Not every idea I have for a look or a concept is going to work, so it’s important for me to create a space where I can experiment with new ideas and push my creative boundaries. A big advertising job or red carpet event is not the place for taking risks like that for the first time, so I partner with photographers and smaller editorials on personal projects where we can all try out new techniques and be creative together.

Photos by Denise Crew