In Dreams: Anthropologie May Lookbook 2014 // Guanajuato, MX

by now you've seen Anthropologie's May lookbook. when i got this sucker in the mail, before i even opened it, immediately i knew it was shot in Guanajuato, Mexico. GTO has a special place in my heart so i just knew. spring break 2009, i took a trip there to visit my friend who was doing a study abroad program and it was amazing. it was my first solo trip, my first airplane ride, and my first visit to Guanajuato. ah, to be 21 and adventurous again!

just looking through the catalogue really made me miss it. i had the best food i've ever had (please don't tell my mom), and was inspired nearly every day i was there. the colors man, they do something to ya. i really didn't want to come back but i did have those coachella tickets, lol. Guanajuato is a big college town so no one finds it weird to see an asian girl speaking fluent spanish. If there's anything i've learned about Mexicans (my other half) is that they love involving people from other cultures to learn their ways, to try their food, to learn their language and share all the good things they have to offer. which in turn, makes me wish mexico wasn't so corrupt and overrun by the drug lords because i want to go back. there is beauty there that needs to be seen. i just want to go to oaxaca, and quintana roo, and nayarit and soooo many other places in mexico, and not to mention i'd love to one day visit the land that raised me, Sinaloa. but it doesn't help that sinaloa is one of mexico's most dangerous states. T___T. it will happen for me, one day. hopefully.

coincidentally, i did wear an anthro top on this trip! hah! 

(this is my friend derek, an african-american and korean boy from kentucky who i met while he studied abroad in mexico. tell me that's not like the funniest story ever? haha. derek, my friend angie, and i were totally joined at the hip during this trip. explorers!)

more photos from my mexico trip can be found here if you care! they're unedited, so dont cringe too much. 

anywayyy, i love when Anthro shoots on location because their photos are just breathtakingly beautiful. what i didn't like about this lookbook was that nearly all items in this catalogue all had spanish words in them. was that necessary? i didn't see ya'll give vietnamese names to all the products on the previous vietnam lookbook. maybe i'm just being nitpicky. you win some, you lose some.

SOME   F  A  V  E  S:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

left to right

you can see the rest of the lookbook here.

Independence, My Origins, and a Dress

As some of you  may know, yesterday was Mexico's Independence day. Since i have dual citizenship i feel like it's only my duty to be patriotic on that day as well. I mean, i was patriotic this fourth of july so why not right? I guess patriotic would be the wrong term actually because that would probably imply that i would wear green, white and red. whoooops. Okay i guess we can say festive. Yeah, festive is a good descriptor here. hehe. 

We didn't really celebrate the holiday because it was a Monday but we did get together on Saturday night at my parents place to watch the boxing fight between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez & Floyd Mayweather Jr. That was really special to me. Now that i'm older i feel like i'm learning to truly appreciate my family and spending time with them is very important. Also i really like boxing (so what?) and Canelo Alvarez is my maaaaan. I love gingers and maaaaan have you seen those freckles? He didn't win the fight, but it's okay guys, he's only 23, he's got a long career ahead of him. But everyone at my parents house was pretty damn bummed (i kind of still am). 

Oh yeahhh, I'm not sure i have mentioned it here but I'm Mexican-Vietnamese. In case you were wondering why this asian girl is always talking about "growing up mexican",  i was born in beautiful Sinaloa, Mexico and moved to the states when i was six. Yes, i am fluent in Spanish and i'm deeply connected to my roots. I can't say the same about my Vietnamese side, although i do know all the curse words and words about eating and food, so i mean, i know all the important stuff, right? Hahaha but in all seriousness i'm really ashamed that i didn't apply myself and stick it out learning Vietnamese--i want to travel to Vietnam someday but i know that in order to get the experience i want, i will need to speak the language first. Perhaps that will be my goal next year, to learn Vietnamese (obviously i won't be a master at it but my goal is just to get by haha).

dress: from Guanajuato, MX, belt: thrifted, shoes: urbanog, glasses: coastal, necklace: erica weiner

So the thing you actually wanted to know: where did this dress come from!? This dress i purchased on a trip to Guanajuato in 2009. I went to visit my good friend Angie who was at the time studying aboard. It was quite honestly one of the most amazing trips i have ever been on. Guanajuato is a college town and it's full of beautiful colors and amazing people and of course the yummiest food. Guanajuato is also known for its mummy museum. Yes, you read that right. hahah maybe i'll post photos from that trip someday. i dont think i even wrote about it on LiveJournal...you know,  back in the LJ days haha. Anyway the dress was actually floor length and had short sleeves that fell down to my elbows! I really had a hard time cutting the dress because the embroidery work is just so delicate and beautiful i didn't want to wreck it! Luckily though the embroidery design on the middle of this dress fell right where i wanted it to be and i didn't have to break up the embroidery too much and then i just removed the sleeves with a seam ripper and added a hem. I wear this dress all the time (even during winter with tights) and i have a feeling it's a dress i'm probably gonna keep forever, or until the very last thread falls apart. Sometimes i wear it unbelted too!