"The fashion side of every issue"

Soo the wife-to-be came home for a visit again. But this time, all we talked about was the ceremony and all of its details. Eventually, the dress talk came.
She said she wanted something classy, simple, chic and beautiful. Said she wasn’t going for the typical strapless and that she loved lace. And something that showed her shoulders.
She asked us to see in magazines and on the internet pictures of dresses we liked, so if she liked our picks she would then send the picture to her aunt, who is a seamstress and get it done cheap.
Through my search, I found some pretty awesome dresses. None that fit her style, though. The first one is a Givenchy, and the second one, a Chanel.
I have a vision for each. The Chanel would be perfect for a traditional, romantic and luxurious ceremony in the beach. Worn with flat black sandals, a relaxed updo, simple makeup, no veil and a gorgeous bouquet of black orquids. Exquisite.
The Givenchy vision is entirely the opposite. It fits in an enormous, high profile ceremony in the city. I would remove the pockets and wear them with sky-high embroidered white stilettos. Miles long veil. Relaxed, pretty updo and makeup to soften the entire look. A beautiful ring with emeralds and matching earrings. And to finish, a big, full bouquet of red roses. Traffic-stopping, impressively beautiful outfit to wear in your wedding; don’t you think?
Honestly, if I had to pick, I have no idea which would be better. I love them both. They are so different and therefore complement each other. Yet so perfect in their own ways. I guess it would all depend in my life at the moment. And the kind of guy I’m marrying.
WG

“Happy Feet”

So today a family friend came home to have lunch and told us all the scoop and details of her engagement. Married + being 24= disaster.
I don’t know if maybe I’m some sort of super modern-open minded-crazy woman from the generation, affected by technology and all the opportunities women have now. But I can’t picture myself marrying at that age. Mainly because I want sooo many things. I don’t want to feel tied. And it’s not like I’m afraid of committing myself to one man. It’s just that I’ll have to share. Tied to share and depend on another person’s desires and needs. I think I need more time to be self-centered, full of myself and selfish with my hard earned money and time.
I picture myself at age 24 as a rising professional. Lipstick Jungle girl in-the-making. Therefore, no time for husband. Just me, focused on my career, my job. I’ve always loved to work. To get things done by myself. To be independent.
Also because I’m really irreverent. I don’t follow social rules when I don’t agree with them. I believe a woman can get as far as a man, and further. I am not the kind of girl who dreams of marrying some millionaire so that she can manage her time between manis, pedis, the gym, cooking and meeting with other housewives to gossip. I don’t want to be a man’s shadow. I want to have my own achievements. You know what I think is sad? A woman is walking by the street and suddenly someone asks who she is, since she is looking good; and the answer goes something like this ‘She is the wife of that Wall Street Billionaire. No idea what her name is or who she is at all. Just that she’s pretty hot.’
That’s depressing. In my dreams, the answer goes ‘She is a member of the most important buffet of layers in all the U.S., the writer of a bestselling non-fiction book, and capital investor. Also, she is gorgeous and married to the owner of every building in NYC. I hear they both got out of nowhere, and worked their asses up to where they are now. Real impressive.’
Now THAT’s how I want to be remembered. I guess my priorities in life are different than hers. She just wants a humble life married with a low-key business man, living on the beach and having plenty of children.
But well, we all have different desires and priorities in life. Every mind is a new world, folks. And even when we don’t seem to understand what’s driving others, we have to support them and be glad, for they are seeking what happiness means for them.
Because happiness, as everything in life, is subjective. Happiness is different for everyone. While she founds happiness in being a housewife, I found happiness by improving in my professional life. As you see, happiness can be whatever you want it to be.

WG

"C'est l'expression"

A picture tells a million stories. So true.

I was looking through my virtual scrapbook of inspirations when I saw this pictures, that, for me, speak for themselves. They portray so many emotions and feelings. The first one, is sort of sexy, kind of seductive. Like if the girl was saying 'I know you want me' or daring someone to do sth. She also is grabbing that jacket so close to her like to show possesion. And the eyes. Beautiful.

The second, is kinda angry, I think. Like rage, resentment. I don't know if its the makeup combined with the hair, but she certantly looks mad to me.

The naked blond is defiant. The open mouth, the eyes, the flying hair. The jacket falling.

Sienna and the cigarrette is just perfect. Is like joy and trying to surprise someone. It's sweet. And carefree. Just happiness.

As for the fifth, I think most of it is because of the tattoo. Milancolia. Then you look at her expression. And sure, it's melancholic. Extreme depression characterized by tearful sadness and irrational fears. She does look sort of sad, but mostly, vulnerable. But she manages to make all that sexy.

The sixth one, well, it's spontaneous, and authentic. She really looks like she was cracking a laugh. She seems relaxed.

The boxer, to me, looks simply determined. Determined to win, to kick someone's ass. She looks like if she was uncharging all that feelings that were trapped for so long.

The crying woman is just confused, puzzled. Like if she didn't understand what happened. She is sad and devastated because of something, but she doesn't seem concious of why that something happened.

And the last, Marion Cotillard looks lost. She looks as if she didn't know what she is doing, or why she is doing it. She is asking for help in this picture.

The only thing all of these pictures have in commonn is that they are misterious. They have backgrounds. They are part of a story, that we can only guess and imagine.

The most astonishing pictures, expiriences, movies, books.. are those that makes us feel, learn. The ones that really get to us. Just like this pictures can if you let them.

with love,

WG.

"In the other side lays a lion"

We love stories. We fall in love with the characters in them. We lure over what they have and we don’t. We fantasize about being part of them. We dream of being the lead character, the hero, the savior, the good one. We imagine how the setting would be like- how we would like it to be. We construct every single detail in our minds. Yet we always seem to materialize it one-dimensioned. Flat. We never explore the darker side.
I think we would find ourselves biased and drowned in compassion for the other side if we bothered on seeing it. We would start a passionate journey in the hopes of changing it, of making it turn lighter. IF we saw it, if we really understood its roots, we could change it.
While reading my new book- Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins- I came to that weird realization. I could actually feel compassion for what I-most of us- I think- condemn. With one clear, current example- the Colombian guerrillas.
Did any of us know the very foundations of these now terrorists groups? And I’m disappointed to answer, no I do not. I only knew what the newspapers told me. What everyone keeps talking about- their cruelty, how they kidnap and torture innocents and their drug and munitions trafficking- their present. Their crucifixion. Yet no one talks about how they started- before power and violence took over them- an actually pretty noble cause.
According to the book The Colombian guerrilla started with a group of honorable slaves, descendants from Indians and poor men that lived day by day at the shore of rivers fishing, hunting and farming. These were working men, who once opposed to the exploitation of nature by big national companies and international corporations. And how were they rewarded for innocently putting signs and singing songs? With prison, torture and oppression. Of course, these guys, no longer trusted neither their government nor their army. They just wanted to have rights, jobs, an opportunity to live comfortably, instead of in extreme poverty. So, they decided to return the favor by becoming rebels. By creating their own, equally dangerous militia.
Now, these militants have gotten way out of control and proportion. And we only seem to either want to execute them or help them kill and kidnap hundreds of people. We are blindsided I think. We don’t see that neither of those contains the solution.
By learning history I have come to approve what every historian, politician, and now even fashion designer says: history repeats itself. Now I say to that: if it repeats itself, shouldn’t we then travel to the past, see how it all started, and start changing all the mistakes that brought every war, every blood drop, every death? I am able to fearlessly bet that if we do that- if these guerrillas, rebels, terrorists, dealers, however you want to name them- started seeing the results- it doesn’t really matters if we followed their request or not- if they saw any change, any improvement in society that proved their theories wrong- they would stop while they still had at least a little bit of honor.
But we can’t just either respond with more violence or help them- because that would be feeding the darnel. Starting another war, again, fed by power, the root of all conflict. There’s always someone that wants to control it all and build an empire; in a very creative matter I shall admit- always with different tactics: religious differences, natural resources, debt, racism, etc. All falling in the same pond- someone or a group of some ones that wants to be the ultimate force, the leader of all, the powerful; that somehow manages to convince us all that he is truly helping us. But of course we can’t acknowledge luminosity if we don’t experience darkness. The ironic fact lays that most of the times, these people have PhD’s in Ivy League universities, high profile jobs, immense cultural knowledge- yet they seem to forget one fact of history that remains a rule- no empire lasts. Humans always seem to lean against social justice at the end.
Of course, there are sometimes, that there is no remedy for these darkened souls but to get rid of them. Hence we shall fight for hope.

-What do you think is the root to all wars? How would you solve these problems?
Let me know your thoughts.
liedevin.wgirl@gmail.com

Here I come

“Lie-de-vin” has to meanings. It refers to the dregs of wine and the color “wine” (red to maroon).
Wine. Vinotinto. Lie-de-vin.
A color, I believe, painted after the inspiration of passion, intensity, love, boldness, profoundness, authenticity and seduction. A tone by which this blog was inspired.
I started reading blogs roughly four months ago. It all began one afternoon reading teenvogue. Then I saw an article about a blog called karlascloset. So I got online, and checked it out. I don’t want to bore you with all the specifics, but from reading that blog, I started reading and mostly checking almost any fashion blog you can imagine. The Sartorialist. Seaofshoes. Jak & Jill. Photos de Mode. Garance Dore. Leblogdebetty. Just to name a few.
Haunted by this extremely interesting universe, I started to vary my daily blog reads, to now be proud announcing I don’t merely read fashion, but economics, politics and personal thoughts and ventures as well. Developing this weird unknown crave to express myself to the world. To raise my voice.
At first, I didn’t knew if I was ready to launch myself like that with such an incredibly big, critical and demanding audience as all the users of the world wide web and blog-readers. I felt uncomfortably exposed just by giving it a thought. And I just kept asking myself the same question over and over again: What would my blog be about?
Finally, just a few minutes ago, as I wrote this first post, the answer came to me. This blog will be about me. It sounds cocky, I know. But isn’t that what all blogs are about? About ourselves? So yes, it’s going to be entirely about me. About my concerns for the world. About my thoughts on politics, economy and current events. About my feelings, thoughts and reflections. About my desires. About what I have learned.
I promise it will be interesting, fun, unpredictable and unlike any other you have read. I now commit myself to the task of blogging, hoping to get a lot of feedbacks, good or bad, I appreciate honesty more than anything, but I do ask you please for respect in your comments and e-mails; since like you’ll soon notice, I can get pretty radical and controversial.
So here it is. My invitation towards all of you fellow bloggers, blog-readers, lovers of the world wide web, to be my partners in this new unknown adventure in lie-de-vin.
Sincerely, The Wine Girl.