What I Wore This Week: University

Hey guys ! Welcome to another What I Wore This Week post, where I feature an outfit I wore during the week, the occasion and how I styled it.

This week’s outfit is all about comfort and statement sweaters. This is pretty much my go-to outfit when it’s freezing and I have to go to class. If I could go to class in a furry onesie and uggs, I would do it. But I don’t. Because I don’t have a furry onesie or uggs. (My birthday’s in a month guys, hint hint!)

It looks like I have a paranormal ghost sneaker, but not really. This is just me walking really fast with my long legs being faster than the rest of my body. (Does that even make sense?)

Event/Occasion: University
Lipstick: L’Oreal Paris Color Riche by Freida #019

I love comfortable sweaters that feel like pajamas, so when I found Rad,  a French online clothing store, I fell in love. Their sweaters have the coolest logos and slogans, and they’re not the cheesy type either. Also, they’re comfortable, and can be worn by both men and women.

So I bought this grey sweater on Rad.co because I love the statement cross filled with roses in the middle. I decided to wear a pair of black printed leggings I got from Select because they’re so much more comfortable than a pair of jeans. Adding to the whole sports theme, I slipped on my white Nike Air Force 1‘s because they are the most comfortable pair of sneakers I have ever worn in my entire life.

And that’s all there is to it guys. When in doubt (and in frozen weather), think sweater + leggings + sneakers as the perfect combination to life.

To get my look, check these out:

Sweater: $34.00 or €29.90 at Rad.co
Leggings: $20.44 or €17.99 at New Look
Sneakers: $95.00 at Nike

Stay tuned for new outfits featured in What I Wore This Week by checking the Fashion section on my blog weekly :)

What I Wore This Week: Chilling on a Lazy Day + How I Style my Outfits

Hey guys! Welcome to another post on WIWTW where I feature an outfit that I wore during the week. This week’s outfit was inspired by searching: “tomboy” on my Pinterest. (I love Pinterest. It’s the best thing that’s happened to the internet because it’s so time-consuming yet useful and inspiring.) But before I get started with the outfit details, I wanted to tell you guys how I style my outfits in the morning.

I have seven Pinterest boards for different parts of my life: Home Decor, Recipes, Fashion, Crafts, Hair, Beauty and Animals. Animals aren’t a part of my life, but honestly, have you seen some of the beautiful creatures that exist in this world of ours?

 

Basically, whenever I’m bored, I go on Pinterest and search keywords like “pencil skirt + sweater” and I get tons of outfit ideas, especially from Street Style boards. I usually end up re-pinning Swedish or Danish fashion blogs because they have an incredible sense of style.

Once I feel inspired by one of the many outfits I’ve pinned, I lay out my clothes on my bed like this:

Event/Occasion: Chilling on a Lazy Afternoon
Lipstick: Grand Rouge in ‘Bright Red’ by Yves Rocher mixed with Sephora R02 Courtisane (dark red)

For this outfit, I was inspired by the tomboy trend that’s been happening amongst us women. So I grabbed my over-sized black blazer (men’s size) from Zara and paired it with a crisp white button up shirt from New Look. It’s pretty cold and pretty preppy out here in Lyon so I decided to dress it down with a plain grey sweater from H&M and dark blue jeans from Zara. If I had worn this with patent heels or leather booties, it probably would have made a nice date outfit. But because it was a lazy Wednesday, I wore my comfortable white Nike Air Force 1 sneakers.

And voilà, chilling in classic attire is Zahra.

To get my look, check these out:

Black Blazer: $147.00 or €129.00 at Zara Men
White Shirt: $29.35 at Asos
Grey Sweater: $9.95 at H&M Basics
Jeans: $45.00 or €39.95 at Zara
Sneakers: $95.00 at Nike

Stay tuned for new outfits featured in What I Wore This Week by checking the Fashion section on my blog weekly :)

What I Wore This Week: In Town with Friends

Good morning people and welcome to another WIWTW blog post.

This week’s outfit was inspired by celeb friends Cara Delevingne and Rihanna, because they look stunning in anything. What I love the most about this outfit is how comfortable I felt wearing a skirt and a snapback. I’ve always loved the idea of mixing sportswear and feminine clothes so when I went shopping with friends this week, I decided to wear this.

Event/Occasion: Shopping in town with friends
Lipstick: Grand Rouge in ‘Bright Red’ by Yves Rocher

I bought this quilted faux snake skin sweater at H&M and I love just how comfortable it is. It has a faux leather hem which matches my New Look bag. Because it’s not as deathly cold as it was a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to wear a skirt outside. I opted for a bodycon high waisted pencil skirt that I bought at New Look with a discreet striped pattern.

I feel like black is the only color in which you can get away with wearing it from head-to-toe because it’s just so chic. For me, black and sportwear go hand in hand so I chose to wear my high top wedged sneakers (that I bought in an unknown store) and a snapback hat.

Choosing the right snapback hat was far more annoying than I expected. For some reason, you can only find snapback hats that aren’t pink or red in men’s clothing stores. A day before I wore this outfit, I went to Adidas, Nike, Footlocker, Courir, etc., to find a decent black snapback. To my surprise and disappointment I had found none. Finally, a little birdy (a.k.a my boredom) told me to check New Yorker. Let me explain, I really don’t like this store anymore. It goes in the same category as Pimkie and Jennyfer: clothes I wore from ages 12 – 17. Everything is usually so tacky, but I found a plain black snapback hat that costed a mere €9.95 which is a great deal for a cheap snapback.

My look was complete, so I grabbed my purse, put my snapback hat backwards and felt like a real gangster listening to “Money Trees” by Kendrick Lamar.

To get my look, check these out:

Sweater: $26.40 or €23.18 at Love Culture
Pencil Skirt: $29.35 at Asos
Bag: $34.16 or €29.99 at New Look
Sneakers: $100.00 at Jildor Shoes
Snapback Hat: $51.36 at Asos

Stay tuned for new outfits featured in What I Wore This Week by checking the Fashion section on my blog weekly :)

What I Wore This Week: Lunch Date

Good morning fellow fashion lovers, and welcome to another WIWTW blog post.

This week’s outfit is a mix of bordeaux and flannel, two of my most favorite trends of the season. Y’all can say whatever you like but flannel is my bae at the moment. 90’s fashion has always inspired me (most likely because of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) so you can only imagine my joy when Queen Bey stepped out looking flawless in flannel.

This winter, I’ve seen a lot of bordeaux on runways and celebs because on its own, it can be a sophisticated classic look. And when you mix bordeaux and flannel, the unexpected happens:

Event/Occasion: Lunch Date
Lipstick: Lasting Finish Matte #112 by Kate Moss

I bought this plain bordeaux A-line dress on Zalando, a German company that sells an infinite amount of brands for affordable prices. This particular dress had caught my eye because of its high neckline and 60’s style. Alone, the dress can seem a bit drab so at the last minute, I threw on a blue/bordeaux flannel shirt (casually borrowed from a friend) to add some color to the ensemble. The flannel also made the look seem more casual, because I was going on a lunch date (thus, day time).

My long legs didn’t require me to wear heels (Thank God, I love heels but my feet misbehave whenever I consider wearing them. Yes, I’m that type of girl, the one who wears sneakers to the club). Instead, I slipped on a discreet but romantic pair of black leather booties by André. By romantic, I mean that I felt like an adult wearing leather boots.

Finally, the bag. I literally grabbed the first black bag I had and ran out the door because I’m always late to everything. This happened to be a black quilted faux snakeskin bag from New Look which matched my leather boots and completed my look.

All in all, I was still late to my lunch date (probably because I was taking the featured pictures) but pretty proud of myself for styling an outfit in less than 7 minutes.

To get my look, check these out:

Dress: $59.79 at Asos
Flannel shirt: $35.00 at Brandy Melville
Booties: $119.00 at Zara
Bag: $33.93 or €29.99 at New Look

Stay tuned for new outfits featured in What I Wore This Week by checking the Fashion section on my blog weekly :)

What I Wore This Week: University

Hello hello !

Today I’ll be starting a new series of blog posts, completely dedicated to lovers of fashion: What I Wore This Week.

I’ve never done this type of thing before, but I’ve been inspired by posts I’ve seen on Pinterest, Instagram and fashion blogs like WhoWhatWear and Style by Kieren. WIWTW is basically what it sounds like: every week, I’ll be posting an outfit I wore during the week for an occasion/event/no reason as well as how I styled them.

This week’s featured outfit is an international mix of vintage, African print and sportswear.

(Yes, the mirror is broken.)

Event/Occasion: University
Lipstick: Sephora R02 Courtisane (dark red) mixed with Sephora R21 Ingenuous (nude) lipstick.

I bought this vintage second-hand Levi’s jean shirt in great quality for only 20 euros. I purposely bought it in men’s size L (I normally wear a size S) so that it would float around enough to tie at the waist. This outfit would probably still look good with the shirt untied but because I have a short torso and long legs, the tie at my belly button balances everything out.

I’m not a huge fan of denim-on-denim unless it’s really well coordinated so I decided to wear black leggings from Select (a British store I can’t find anywhere else unfortunately) and a plain black tank top from H&M. My entire outfit was styled with the entire Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast in mind, but I decided to modernize it with a pair of plain black wedged sneakers bought in an unknown store somewhere.

Finally, my favorite part of this entire outfit, is the African wax print bag that I’m wearing. This bag was actually hand-sewn by my incredibly talented mother, made with fabric bought in Burkina Faso (West Africa) and plain black fabric. The blue and grey patterns matched my jean shirt perfectly and added more life to what would have been a casual 90’s outfit. African wax print bags are hard to find online, but you can always choose fabric in an African fabric shop and head to a (talented) tailor with a tote bag design!

To get my look, check these out:

Jean shirt: $128.00 at Levi’s
Tank top: $5.95 at H&M
Leggings: $16.69 or £10.99 at Select
Sneakers: $100.00 at Jildor Shoes
Bag: $60.76 or £40.00 at Ask Her Friends

Stay tuned for new outfits featured in What I Wore This Week by checking the Fashion section on my blog weekly :)

I choose to be Happy

“The best people in life are free.” Taylor Swift, New Romantics (2014)

If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d start 2015 as a single woman, I wouldn’t have believed them.
If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d start 2015 as a single and happy woman, I wouldn’t have believed them either.

The truth is, it’s nobody’s concern why or how it ended, because the relationship didn’t define who I am today.

Over the past month, I figured out that until now, I wasn’t living for myself, but for others. Who am I living for? I asked myself daily, without bothering to answer the question. Who am I trying to be?

In this short, precious life we have, why should we live to please others? I’ve come to realize that the most important person’s happiness should be your own. It doesn’t mean you’re selfish, it just means you’re choosing to be happy.

You’re choosing to be free.

I read an article in Elite Daily magazine the other day, and the author wrote something pretty incredible: “The art of living life for ourselves and at our own pace is the one thing we know to be ours. When we give that up through fear, or pressure of others, who are we living for?”

I usually write New Years resolutions every January 1st, hoping that this new year I’d accomplish them all. This year, the only New Years resolution that I have is to be free.

Free to do whatever I please, when I please, where I please. Free enough to know that my happiness doesn’t depend on others. Free enough to choose to do what makes me happy. And I am happy because I am grateful for all the beautiful things and beautiful people that I used to take for granted.

So here’s to a new chapter in life, with 340 days left to make it count, until the next.

Happy New Year 2015 :)

Annoying things that 20-somethings do

I’m 21 years old, going on 22 so technically, I’ve only been a 20-something for a year. If you’re like me, I’m sure that you sometimes reflect on the stupid/embarrassing/awkward/weird stuff you did back when you were in high school or middle school and cringe. Like that time I created a friends club in middle school so that all my BFF’s could be in it and I could be the leader so I made ID cards for all of us hoping that it would catch on and that people would ask to be a part of our club.

And though I’ve learned a lot and come a long way from being a dorky dork, I’m pretty sure that in 10 years, I’ll be looking back at:

Annoying things that 20-somethings do

1. We say stuff like, “OMG you’re only 19???? You’re SUCH a baby!” Just so we’re all clear, I was 19 years old two years ago. We were ALL 19 years old two years ago.

2. We say stuff like, “When I was a teenager, I did NOT do all the crazy stuff these kids are doing these days.” Uh yes, we did. We did it without technology, which makes us creative.

3. We write statuses like, “I miss the 90’s when I used to ride my bike to the park and play until it was dark out. #nostalgia”. We can still ride our bikes to the park, it’s just that 90% of us are too lazy to do so now that we’re in our twenties. Most of us have a driver’s license or don’t even live next to a park.

4. We brunch. I love brunch because I’m 21, I love the idea of eating everything in my fridge at once. Instead of cooking three times a day, I get to cook once a day at 11am and order pizza for dinner later.

5. We go clubbing and scowl at the younger kids. “WTF are they doing here? Aren’t they like 17? WHY are all these kids here?! Shouldn’t they be in school?” When we were 17, we were crashing every club that wouldn’t ID us. When we were 17, we didn’t bother anyone older. We got drunk amongst our group of drunk teenage friends.

6. We complain about our job/university giving us too much work. Three years ago, we were looking forward to this. We reap and we sow. We get what we asked for. We make our cake and we eat it. (What??)

7. We roll our eyes at other 20-somethings who are getting married and having babies though secretly we wonder if we’ll ever grow up and have our turn.

8. We hate on Justin Bieber, One Direction, Taylor Swift, etc. But when we were preteens, weren’t we obsessing over NSYNC, Stacie Orrico, S Club 7, etc.?

9. We force our non-party animal friends to party with us because we know that in a few years, we’ll be too busy with spouses/children/careers/the economy to get wasted.

10. We don’t know how to dress. Wearing a backwards snapback is too rebellious. Wearing a suit and tie is too grown up-ish. Wearing an old hoodie and jeans makes us look too college student-ish. Everything’s wrong because kids these days all look like this:

We are just a confused group of people waiting to grow up.