Describe your personal style.
Oh boy, this is hard. Girly, romantic, with a touch of vintage inspiration.
When do you take your pictures?
I take my pictures in the morning right before heading out the door. This is when my makeup is at it freshess and my hair is still ruly. Besides, by the time I get home it's dark outside.
Why is your blog title french?
I'm french Canadian, grew up in a french household and went to french schools growing up. It wasn't until college that I switched over to English. The transition was hard especially writting essays but I've been biligual my whole life so it wasn't that foreign to me.
What does your blog title mean?
My blog name means: "Bright Idea" or "Brilliant Idea" in french. I'm not sure how I came up with it. One day when I was signing up to chictopia it just came to mind....kind of like a bright idea.....haha.
What kind of camera do you use?
I use a Nikon D60 for all of my pictures. I take them myself with the help of a tripod. If I'm out I'll try and get a friend to take them for me but I've become very particular of angles and distances and not everyone knows how to use my camera so I end up giving them a little tutorial of how to take my picture which ends with them rolling their eyes at me.
What do you do for work?
I work for kensie, and have been for 5 years which explains all of the cute kensie/kensiegirl dresses that I'm always wearing. I'm a merchandiser/buyer for the brand.
Three styling tips that always work for you
1. Layer up. when i have no idea what to wear I just keep adding on layers of clothing to make up one outfit.
2. Mix your prints. This is something new to me but everytime i try it I really like the results.
3. Be unconventional. Skirt as a top? Dress as a skirt? I've done it all and it stretches out your wardrobe.
Where did you go to school? Design School?
I attended College in Ottawa,ON (my hometown) and enrolled in their Sales & Marketing program. After one year I really wanted to move to Vancouver,BC so I found a similar college in the city that would transfer most of my credits from the first year and had a similar curriculum for their Business Marketing program. No design school followed as I hadn't any thoughts of going into fashion at that time.
How did you get into Fashion?/ How you came to work at kensie?
One of my first jobs was in retail, and then that sort of stuck for a long time. I'm talking 10 years of retail (no joke). I was looking to get out of retail when an ex-coworker that I had worked with told me that mac & jac/kensie had a head office in Vancouver and might be looking for a customer service rep, especially someone that spoke french, which is rare in Vancouver and the West Coast in general. So I sent in my resume and waited. When the call came I was so happy, I knew that this was going to work. This also explains all the kensie/kensiegirl items popping up in my outfit posts.
I know you're Canadian, i'm interested to know when you moved there and what made you move?
I moved to New York on October 31st 2008, (it's on Halloween day which is why I remember the exact date). I was relocated here through Kensie. I'm currently here on a 3 year work visa which I hope to renew!
How often do you go shopping?
I probably shop once a week. I don't really schedule a time for it. I'll randomly pop in a shop on my way home from work or after having lunch with a friend, we'll decide to stop by one of our Brooklyn spots. It's more something that I'll do if I'm bored or want to take a walk outside. I rarely EVER step into a mall. I've lived in cities where malls aren't really that popular so it's mainly free standing stores
How often to you purge your closet? What criteria do you decide if something should stay or go?
This might sounds ridiculous but I go through my closet about every two weeks. My thought process is the following:
- how unique is this piece? will I be able to find an updated version later on?
- how does this item fit in with the rest of my clothing? if I have nothing to pair it with, then it goes.
- have I worn this item in every possible way? am I tired of it?
- do I have similar thing to this that I might not need multiples of? jeans, cardigans (mostly grey ones)
- do I love it the same way I loved it when I bought it?
What made you decide to start your blog?
When I moved to NYC last year I wanted a creative outlet to document my time here as well as showcase the diy knitting projects that I was doing. So I thought, why not start a blog? If you go back to my first few posts, you'll realize that they aren't consistent with the format that I have now. I think I did one or two posts then just stopped until picking it up again over the Summer and focusing on my outfits. At that time I had discovered chictopia and was really happy posting daily outfits. I started posting them on the blog and it turned into what it is now
Where do you hope to take it in the future?
I've mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I want to spend more time being creative by focusing more on knitting, crocheting, and other possible DIY projects. So I really think that this blog will actually go back to it's original purpose. I'll keep posting the outfits, but I'll make sure to include a few crafty projects and of course continue with some hair tutorials. That's about it really. I'm not looking to make money off my blog, I have a great job in the fashion industry that pays my bills, so I just really want to keep this blog as a hobby and have fun with it.
Do you have any tips on how to pose well for photographs?
- be yourself.
- make sure we can see what you're wearing.
- think of how the outfit makes you feel, and run with it.
- do what makes you comfortable.