Oh Tilda

Thank you for not boring me to tears like everyone else on Oscar night.

Giving whole wheat pasta a good name

This is nutty-delicious:

Whole Wheat Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts and Ricotta Salata

Serves 6

2 heads cauliflower
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1 pound whole-wheat pasta
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 pinch red pepper flakes
White wine vinegar
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
4 ounces ricotta salata or feta cheese

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Cut the cauliflower into small flowerets. Peel the onion and slice it very thin. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Put the pasta on to cook.

Saute the cauliflower in olive oil in a large saute pan. When the cauliflower begins to soften, season with salt and pepper and add the sliced onion and red pepper flakes. Saute over medium to high heat until the vegetables are brown and tender. The cauliflower should still be slightly crunchy and should not taste steamed. Add the garlic and remove from the heat, tossing and stirring so the garlic doesn’t burn; if it starts to brown, add a splash of water. Add a few drops each of vinegar and lemon juice and the toasted walnuts. Taste and correct the seasoning. When the pasta is done, drain and add to the cauliflower, adding enough extra-virgin olive oil to coat the pasta thoroughly, toss together and serve, with the cheese crumbled over the dish.

Sunday jam

Shoulders, waist

Holy shit, amazing:

(via)

Thrift finds

By request, a new feature!

This sweet baby fits perfectly, feels like butter, and was MADE IN FINLAND. Hello leather pencil skirt, you are the definition of SCORE:
Navy, sheer, 4-sizes-too-big-for-me Anne Klein from 1989. Yes, please!
Delightful fuzzy T-shirt:
Double-click belt:
Part cruise-wear, part mother of the bride. Love the sparkle motion. Oh, and on me it's semi-cropped:
Scoopneck sweatervest. Will probably be a nice little standby:

Pretty things

United Bamboo:

(Click images to embiggen.)

Rachel Comey:
(Ok, I'm really just into the hair on the left.)

Rag and Bone:
Look at that beautiful outerwear! What do you think the odds are of thrifting a navy/black tuxedo jacket? Or a grey wool coat with tails?

Friday Random Ten

1. Cindy Lou - The Gay
2. Turn Into Something - Animal Collective
3. Loud Cloud Crowd - Stephen Malkmus
4. The Overload - Talking Heads
5. Sail Through - Wake
6. Love Vigilantes - New Order
7. Revolver - Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
8. Come Take Me - Betty Davis
9. Pillow Talk - Quiet Village
10. Run Run Run - Velvet Underground

Misty horses

Yes, Margiela is brilliant. But this is eminently DIY-able:

Tights lust

Check out these sweet Missoni knockoffs:


Also these and these. And while we're talking about knock-off hosiery... EEP! Delightful.

What inspires you?

Lassi sez:

My style is inspired sport and political history of the 70's and the 80's, for example distance-runner Steve Prefontaine.

Answers like this are the reason I love Hel-Looks.

Style Icon: Estelle

Did you witness this fashion delight at the Grammys?



The pockets! The asymmetrical neckline! Swoon.

Apparently this is one more in a long line of fabulous shapes she's been sporting:





(She's also doing great things with tulle in this video.)

Witness the flawless execution of the statement piece:



And the basic trench:


Well done, woman. Well done.

Pink and gold

I really love this color combo (via):

Classic.

Bella Donna Monday

Belated Friday Random Ten

1. Thirteen - Big Star
2. Unknown Legend - Neil Young
3. Maybe Sprout Wings - The Mountain Goats
4. (I'm) Somewhere - Marmoset
5. I Have the Moon - The Magnetic Fields
6. On the Surface - Bettye Lavette
7. Tender Object - Orange Juice
8. Lost in a Dream - Papas Fritas
9. It's Not Easy Being Me (Demo Version) - Harry Nilsson
10. Magic Man - Heart

Wow, lots of bleeding-heart dudes this week. Luckily the sisters Wilson and Bettye Lavette are holding it down.

Scarves, shoulders

Is it spring yet?

Nom nom nom.

Drool

I cannot justify spending several hundred dollars on this sweet baby, but gosh, isn't it beautiful?



1950s satchel. (via Etsy.)

Recently weaned off Amy Grant

Amazing styleblogging from musicblogger Carrie Brownstein:

The second band embodied what I'll call the "bassist wanted" phenomenon, which consists of a band made up of disparately styled members whose only commonality is that they all answered the same ad on Craigslist. The singer was fresh off a hitchhike from Vermont. Imagine Ben and Jerry plus that other Jerry (of the Garcia variety) all rolled into one. He was wearing pants that may or may not be called "Jams," which are made of the same fabric as your mom's kitchen towels. Roll those pants up to air out the calves, add a pair of sports socks, a T-shirt with the neck cut out, and a white knit hat that he'd borrowed from an ex-girlfriend and you get the idea. The drummer, on the other hand, was longhaired, wiry and in an Iron Maiden T-shirt. Despite the fact that the venue is the size of my living room, he beat the s--- out of his drums during the line check, an act that wasn't about illustrating his technical prowess so much as proving that he was capable of so much more than the Hootie-esque songs we were about to hear. That's right; he was auditioning. The two women in the band were right out of a musical program at a liberal arts college: a cellist who had only recently weaned herself off of Amy Grant and a keyboard player so spacey that sometimes I wasn't sure she knew the songs had even started. Then there was the electric-guitar player. Jeans around his thighs to show off his boxers, forearms ripped from years of gaming, and a look in his eyes that let me know he owns every Yes record ever made.

Ok, so maybe it's hybrid stylemusicblogging. More, please!

WAIT, stop, let's just repeat the brilliance of that last sentence:

Jeans around his thighs to show off his boxers, forearms ripped from years of gaming, and a look in his eyes that let me know he owns every Yes record ever made.

Ahahahahahahaha.

Geek boner

Gah! I love it.

(via.)

UPDATE: !!!

Product Endorsement: Shoe Goo

This amazing stuff is a vintage footwear enthusiast's best friend.

It is less than $5. It is available at your local CVS or Walgreens or whatever. And oh baby, does this shit work.

I have a pair of vintage red slouchy boots whose soles split apart in three different layers, and Shoe Goo sealed them up so permanently that I can even wear them in the rain. I haven't had to re-glue once. (This is a vast improvement over my previous home remedy for ailing vintage shoes: hot glue. That stuff is gone after one wear.) I haven't tried to use it to reaffix broken heels, but my guess is it would work for that, too. This stuff is magic.

A warning: Don't use it inside the house, or your whole home will smell like industrial plastics for two days.

Back in action

This one's for Becky:



Viva la vaginafied funkadelic vibe!

UPDATE: Whoa.