Lovely Links: 1/7/11

Whoa. Epic links post this week, friends …

Jentine’s guide to thrifting for quality garments is so spot-on, I wish I’d written it myself.

Heads up! Big Fluevog sale! (I’ll admit it: I caved and bought these in purple. Because we all know I’m running critically low on boots.)

Sara’s series on the nuts and bolts of blogging is AH-MAZING. Learn how to organize and store images, edit images in Picnik, and edit images in Photoshop.

IvaMessy gives tips on how to reduce your hair print.

Do you agree with Huffington Post’s list of the Top 10 Craziest Moments in Body Image in 2010?

These side-by-side comparisons of vintage posters and Sartorialist street style photos thrills my inner color nerd. (Via A Cup of Jo.)

I KNEW it! Love is good for your body. (Via College Candy)

Brand new blogger Gracey is six feet tall and plus-sized. And she’s a KNOCKOUT! Peek in on her blog, Fashion for Giants.

On a related note, Tall Girl Blogging talks about her relationship with style and her body, and how blogging transformed her self-image. (Via The Cohabitating Closet’s Anne, who shares her thoughts, too.)

I’ve been dreaming of an outfit of head-to-toe winter whites for weeks … perhaps I’ll pick up a few of these affordable pieces.

Why are these women laughing alone with salad? Marketers know. (Via Feministe.)

With the close of 2010, Sydne completed a project in which she picked six items for each calendar month and made herself wear at least one every day. Awesomesauce.

Gertie asks: Is it possible that there’s a connection between our current body image crisis and the fact that women have traded their girdles for the gym?

Style Underdog ‘s sock tops are brilliant. And easy enough that even I could make a pair myself!

Do those predictive algorithms that Amazon.com uses to “recommend” possible purchases ever creep you out? Sometimes I wonder if they’re ingenious or insidious.

Makeup expiration dates explained.

Smart, Pretty and Awkward is simply brilliant. Three tips per day on how to be clever, stylish, and graceful throughout your life. (Via Fashionably Marketing Me)

Last week, French model Isabelle Caro’s family announced her death at age 28 following a 15-year battle with anorexia. And the fashion world has kept mum. The hell? As this article points out, when Ana Carolina Reston died in 2006, the industry promised sweeping changes. What’s different this time? And where ARE those sweeping changes?

Sonja shares her best makeup, skin care and wellness tips of 2010.

As Minh-Ha points out, the camera work on these videos is nauseating, but hit play and look away: Cornel West’s comments on clothing, style, substance, and uniforms is compelling and fascinating.

Head over heels for these rings.

DKNY does it again with a mind-blowing set of perfectly paired bright colors.

Why do women constantly apologize for things that don’t merit apology? Cynthia’s word for the year is “unapologetic,” and she explains quite eloquently why it’s an important concept to ponder. (Cheers, Jorde.)

“I am not unattractive because my proportions don’t all play together like sweetest of best kindergarten friends. I’m beautiful because there is beauty all over my body.”

Ahhh, vanity sizing. Gotta love it.

Miss Vinyl Ahoy shares eight simple rules for pattern mixing, all of which make sense … yet I still fear this technique! (Via Dramatis Personae.)

Amazing Kristophine got engaged. She wanted a diamond-free engagement ring for personal and ideological and political reasons. And she expects to take a lot of flak for her decision.

And finally, Jenny posted this quote and it moved me so much I had to post it right here myself so I can find it again and again like a touchstone:

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

…The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

From David Foster Wallace’s commencement address to Kenyon College grads, 2005