Influences

No matter who you are, who you want to be, and where you want to go in life, you are complied by a mix of influences. Whether it be your favorite cartoon character, your favorite TV show host, your favorite athlete, or your favorite teacher, you're influenced by each and every one of them. You like each of them for some reason. Whether it be their determination, their drive, their generosity or just them being silly, you're somehow drawn to them and may even adapt or adopt that certain quality to your life. But just because you like them for their character doesn't mean that you should be just like them. That's why you may take just one quality and tailor it and make it fit into the lifestyle that you have or wish. That's how you stay true to yourself.
I've noticed that most of my influences, especially in the music and fashion worlds, are male. They have such a simplicity to how they live their life and how they go after what they want, sometimes without much internal struggle. I admire that and aspire to take more risks and be definite in the decisions I make. A guys mind (not the dirty parts), so dope to me. I'm drawn to guys who can carry on an intelligent conversation and challenge my mind. That's what I think the trick in life is; surrounding yourself and taking from people who are superior. Mentally superior. Not that their necessarily better than you, they just know a bit more. These people are in the places that you want to be, they have been where you want to be. Taking lessons, tips from them is the key to success. But experiencing it is even better.
All of my influences are either well known on the internet or just in the media in general. Which if you think about it makes it seem kind of corny. But they're where I want to be. Simple as that. So to keep up with my blogging more regularly I'm incorporating different things or segments to speak on each week. The first one that I've come up with is talking on an influence each week. Picking apart and breaking down on what really draws me to them and how I'm going to incorporate it into my life and how I want to live my life. I have so many influences from different worlds. From producer Pharrell Williams, to 19 yr old street brand entrepreneur/college student Phillip Annand, all of influences will be relevant to what I want to accomplish and achieve.



I wish it could be something like this. Where I could meet all my influences and interview them and compile them into a book for safekeeping. But for now I will take what I'm learning from other people interviewing them, pictures, and video and use it for my own inspiration. Maybe you'll get inspired too.

Guess who's back!

Meeeeee!!!! I'm so excited and determined to come back and make this a quality blog regardless of who reads this. I left this behind because after awhile I just talked about trends and I was stuck in the rut of just talking about just that. And me reading it back now, it doesn't really sound like me. I'm all over the place and this blog was beginning to turn into strictly a fashion blog when I said at the beginning that I didn't want that. I'm comprised and made up of so much more than my love of fashion. That's why I named this blog "Abstract Expressions." I went to Tumblr because to me it had more freedom. Video, quotes, text, audio, links, photos, and chat. Yes with Blogspot you can do all that too but with Tumblr I felt that the freedom was more organized. There was a button for each of these categories.
So why did I come back? I woke up yesterday with a mission. Make the best street/off beat brand that I can. So I read so many street brand blogs and high fashion blogs that my head is still spinning from so much inspiration. It's amazing. The two street brand blogs that caught my eye were Award Tour and MOB. The team, the blog and their brand were beyond dope. They were off to the left. They didn't do the normal "here's so& so's new single", or "here's the new collection from another fashion line." They also didn't promote themselves that much, to the point of annoyance, which I thought was refreshing. They personalized the blog to where you could actually get a feel of the personality of the person writing each post. You don't get that a lot on street wear brands. They talked about their life, their works, and experiences. That got me thinking about coming back to Blogspot and actually post and write about shit that matters, instead of talking about trends and things that probably won't matter to me in a couple years. At Tumblr, yes there was freedom but for me it wasn't the place to put my in depth feelings about things. To me it was a place to put my inspirations and post little blurbs about different things. But yes I'm back to blogging on here. I've missed being on here! It's like I'm coming home back from a long break at college. I will be going home on Friday too to get my hair done which is amazing. I've missed home. Getting back to this will take some getting used to but when I do no doubt this will be one of my favorite things to do.

* Oh yeah go and check out the blog that really inspired me to come back and blog. Go to www.theawardtour.com and be amazed by Phillip T. Annand's musings. He's dope.* The pic below is a preview of some of his amazing designs.

Girls

So yesterday I go down to the basement of my dorm to do laundry. It was the first time I had done since I got to college. So while I'm waiting on my clothes to get done, I chill on my computer and read nothing but street brand and fashion blogs. & occasionally listen to some music. The laundry room is on the guys floor so nothing but guys come in and out of the room to do laundry at this time. Out of about 5 of the guys I have conversations with 3 of them. They were genuinely friendly and not just joshing me. They really didn't have to talk to me. But it kinda made me feel better. Then I suddenly the age old question that I've been trying to answer for years popped up in my head. "Why are guys nicer to me than girls? Why do girls seem not to take to me as easily as guys?" They still have gone unanswered for years but it's getting to be annoying. In elementary school and high school it was fine. But for some odd reason I thought that just because I live with a floor full of girls, that I would at least bond with one of them, if not my roommate. I finally thought that I would interact with some girls that were like minded because all these girls have my major which is Music Technology (which I am about to drop!!..peep future posts for the explanation). But just because they have your major doesn't mean you'll automatically get along. All my life girls have just rubbed me the wrong way. So it's weird whenever I strike up a friendship with one. I try to keep my distance because they never last that long.
I raised this question and conversed over this topic with two of my guy friends and my sister. One of my guy friends said it might be because girls are jealous, and that's why the friendships never last that long. I relayed that to my sister and she said that most white girls( I'm the only black girl on the floor and maybe the whole dorm) don't get jealous over black girls. They really don't go out their way to reach out to us either. I won't go into depth on that subject, we'd be here all night. My other guy friend said it's because I'm gorgeous. Even though I was very flattered by that comment, me and my sister know for a fact that they don't feel threatened by black girls. They think they're superior anyway. Okay, okay lets get off the race subject. But even within my own race I never really had a long term female friend. Sometimes it came off as though I wasn't "black" enough to hang with the ghetto ass black girls. Which hurts. But I gotta keep it moving. I'm a cool ass black girl who really doesn't try to define herself because of her race. I am defined by my interests, my personality, my fashion sense, shit like that. Butwould you really get to know that if you never talk to me? Probably not .

* If you didn't realize I've been M.I.A. for awhile but I'm back!!! This blog got kinda boring. I've been blogging over at Tumblr. Jimmychoosandsupras.tumblr.com to be exact. Go check it out.The blog is getting revamped & in my next post I will tell you why!!!*

Mens Fashion

I ADORE men's fashion. The boo keeps calling me a dike..but eh..whatever. It's just so classic & their trends actually last for more than a season. It's more stable. The trend I'm seeing so much is women wearing men's clothes or men styled. Like the boyfriend jean, the boyfriend cardigan, the boyfriend blazer, & button down. This loose, easy looking trend is good to be paired up with feminine touches such as ankle booties, leggings & where the key piece is the loose fitting boyfriend clothes are play up the proportions & have something on more fitted.

I got a feeling...

Sneakers. Love 'em. The new trend this fall is textured shoes. Out with the leather in with the suede, khaki,tweed, velvet & wool.

Big Hair Trend...

The partly shaved head seems to be the big thing. Recently Rihanna shaved the sides her hair. Everybody's saying that she bit off cassie's 'do. But it's not the same & cassie wasn't the 1st. I saw british model Alice Dellal 1st rock it yrs ago in a Fashion Rocks mag. I was thinkin,"she got guts to do that..that's hot!" After that came Brook D'Leau from J Davey. Then after that Kesh a up & coming fashion designer/DJ. Now everybody's doing it from LaLa, Nicole from Nina Sky to Carmen Electra.In my opinion the best is still the originator Alice Dellal, then Rihanna. You gotta have guts to do something like this though. I don't know if i would want to part with that much....

Sweet Dreams are made of these...

Wishlist by SammyD.lish featuring Nike shoes

So.....

I Finally have a job!!! Took me forever...So now that the money is about to come in fashion is gonna be a subject that i talk about frequently on here. Posting about people's styles and what inspires me when it comes to fashion, what's on my LONG shopping/wishlist, and post collages of different outfits and different styles. This is gonna be FUN!!!


So this 1st outfit I made is like a mix of rock, hip hop, girl and guy fashions. I ADORE men fashions right now. A lot of it is classic and well made, while the graphic tees and shoes are made with brighter and better colors.

UpTown RockStar by SammyD.lish on Polyvore.com

"There'll always be haters, that's the way it is"

This dude gives his all when he's on the stage. He's a big inspiration and influence to me as an artist.

Pharrell's Says Beware

I just came across this via GoASTROkids.com. Pharrell speaks the truth on this. He's giving any type of artist (mainly music) advice. This is truly a wake up call like I gotta be on it especially now that I'm a recent highschool graduate (!) and I will be going off to college. There's always gonna be somebody who's wait for you to trip up and slip. I gotta get to work!!!