Well I am an Interior Designer in her mid 30's who has have a love and passion for style and design. I grew up in WI and always loved reading fashion magazines as a kid and dressing up my Barbie dolls.
In the mid 90's I moved to MN to study Interior Design at the University of Minnesota. I have many great memories reading my sorority sister's InStyle magazine instead of studying on Friday nights and looking through the J Crew catalog wishing one day I could dress as nice as the models in the adds. I used to dress like a boy. Wearing boys jeans, big sweatshirts and round toe boots.
Thankfully I met Gil in college and he took me to Uptown and showed me how to dress better and he showed me women's shoes. Below is a picture of my spring break my junior year in collage. (love the short blond hair!) Thank you Gil for helping me find my true self!!!
I know it is hard to understand what goes together, what colors work together and how to put your own style together. I am still working on my but now it is just lots of fun.
Some of my friends and co-workers email, text and ask questions regarding style and interior design. One of my co-workers had an idea to start a blog answering style and design questions. I love helping people out like Gil helped me out.
Style Guide Books & Style TV shows
I have read lots of books about style, how to wear color and what clothes works on what body shape. Below is a list of books I found very helpful and I will use in future posts.
- Tim Gunn - A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style (he is my style mentor!!!)
- Tim Gunn - Gunn's Golden Rules
- InStyle - instant style
- InStyle - The New Secrets of Style
- The Lucky shopping manual
- The Lucky guide to mastering any style
- Nina Garcia's Look Book (fun read but most recommendations don't apply to normal life style.)
I am always looking for new books about style since I find it so interesting to read. I have a new book coming this week written by the 2 original What Not to Wear hosts in the UK Trinny & Susannah. I love Stacey and Clinton from the US What Not to Wear but the two Brits are so funny.
So as you guess I also love watching style shows for ideas and inspiration. Below are my favorites that I would recommend:
- What not to wear (BBC America)
- What not to wear (TLC)
- Tim Gunn's Guide to Style (TLC)
- Project Runway (I can't get enough of Tim!!!)
- Sex in the City
I know Sex and the City has been off the air for years but I still watch it for fashion tips and life tips. I can relate to all 4 of the ladies and I wish I had Carrie's shoe collection. I had a hostess tell me this year I looked like Carrie Bradshaw. It was the sweetest thing!
Magazine Inspirations
As many of you guess that I look forward to my monthly fashion magazines. I read Vogue and InStyle and Dwell for modern design inspiration for my home.
I will make sure to post what the main trends are that I see for each month since the Spring lines are coming out which means COLOR, COLOR & more COLOR!!!!
Stores I shop
I learned from my Mother how to shop and love heading to the mall and shop online very day. I don't buy things everyday but I am always looking at my favorite sites for promotions, sales, and new trends.
Here are my favorite shops:
- J Crew (or as I call it "The Crew") http://www.jcrew.com
- Banana Republic (Nanana) http://bananarepublic.gap.com
- Ann Taylor http://www.anntaylor.com
- Gap http://www.gap.com
- Old Navy http://oldnavy.gap.com
- Macy's and Herberger's for great shoe deals!
- www.modcloth.com (they have great vintage clothes)
- Title Nine http://www.titlenine.com
- Athleta http://athleta.gap.com
- Piperlime http://piperlime.gap.com
I am thinking about sharing any sales, promotions on the blog so you all can get the best deal and still look good. I try to buy all of my clothes on sale since there is always some promotion or sale going on.
I will cover off more on Interior Design inspiration and what are the difference on design styles since it is confusing in future posts. There is a lot to cover and I think it might even work well in sharing some of the basic design principles I learned in college.
I hope you all will enjoy this blog and please send me questions/ideas on what you might be interested in reading about or info I can research for you about style and design.
Send all questions and ideas to kms.designs@hotmail.com
