Style Inspiration: Lily (i.e. Christmas!!)

 Outfit Details:

Dress- #forever21

Stockings- Leg Avenue

Boots- Payless

Merry Christmas, to you all! I've been having quite a wondrous day, and I hope you've all had the same. I received a small stack of books, including "Dash & Lily's Book of Dares," which is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite book. I re-read it all today, and it was awesome. Every time I read it, I fall more in love with the story, the writing, and every single character. 

So, the plot of the book: Lily's brother, in an attempt to get her out of the house so that he'd have some peace and quiet, gets her to leave a red moleskin journal next to her favorite book (Franny & Zooey) in The Strand (the bookstore in New York). Dash (a rather snarly boy) finds the notebook, and there's a note on the first page, reading "I've left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don't, put the book back on the shelf, please." Following the note, Lily has left a series of instructions for whoever finds it, having them end up with a message. He leaves clues for her in response, and they end up leading each other off on all of these little mini-adventures all over New York at Christmas time, without meeting until close to the end of the book. Of course, throughout it, they're sort of falling in love, but it's nice because it's not in a sappy love-story kind of way. It's interesting, because you see the ways they expect each other to be, contrasting with their actual characters. Sorry, this may not be the best description, but it's a really good book.

Each character is so unique, and I want to be best friends with every one of them. I love Boomer, Dash's best friend, who is described as resembling a hyperactive and friendly chihuahua, but I also completely love "Mrs. Basil E." (Lily's Great-aunt Ida, nick-named for her resemblance to the character), who is just sounds really cool. Of course, I want to be best friends with Lily, with her great sense of style, almost constant optimism, love of books, and general weirdness. I (as I think just about anyone who's read the series does) am just a little bit in love with Dash, who is admittedly "bookish," pretty cynical, and wants nothing more than to spend his days wandering the Strand, and an Oxford English Dictionary (unabridged). Plus, come on, he can rock a fedora and a pea-coat. What's not to love?

The book has been lightly criticized for giving the 16 year old protagonists too developed of vocabularies, but I disagree. Just because they say things like "fanciful," "ramrod," and "teetotaler," rather than "yolo," "beast," etc. doesn't really make them unrealistic. If you read my book, we've put lots of Dash & Lily types of OED words that we always try to work into everyday conversations. Also, sort of a part of their characters is that they're kind of nerdy and (as previously mentioned) bookish. I guess Dash more than Lily, but she still has a good enough vocabulary that her passages are interesting to read.

Of course, my outfit had to be Lily-Inspired, as she has the most amazing outfits throughout the book. Her first real one is "[an] oxford uniform school shirt tucked into a knee-length lime-green felt material skirt with a reindeer embroidered on it, candy-cane-colored swirled stockings, and... our Great-aunt Ida's retired tasseled majorette boots, with taps still on the toes and heels... [and a] red knit hat with pom-poms dangling down from the ears" (page 42). I tried to at least get the essence of a Lily outfit, with garland wrapped around my boots (as she adds later to her majorette boots), striped stockings, and a green dress. My mom got my dad this awesome "taxidermized" deer head for Christmas, so I dressed him up in my old glasses and my bow-tie. Bow ties are cool. Did I mention there's been a Doctor Who Christmas marathon on all day? It's been beautiful. Plus: New episodes are back! As I write!

I hope you're all having beautifully glitterific and fanciful holidays!

Love (with all my magic),

Chloe