Daily Candy | Street Style Awards

{ photos by Andrea Donadio for Daily Candy }

Daily Candy snapped photos of stylish ladies and gents from Chicago and beyond for their 2013 Street Style Awards. They're pitting us against New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and inviting readers to vote for their favorite city. The story features designers, photographers, writers, lawyers, boutique owners, and dozens more people doing and creating cool things around the country. It's an honor to be included and exciting to see so many Chicago friends and familiar faces. Take a look below for photos of a few of my home team favorites and click here to see the full story and cast your vote for the city with the most style.

{ one: Swathi Narra of Luxemi | two: Meghan Lorenz of Cities in Dust | three: Jessica Murnane of Suitor

and One Part Plant | four: Julie Ghatan of Dovetail | five: Heather Sperling of Tasting Table and Fête }

one part plant

{ via One Part Plant }

Introducing One Part Plant, the latest project from Jessica Murnane. Her name might sound familiar because I've worked with her on a variety of projects and gushed about her and her creative endeavors numerous times on the blog. In addition to seeing eye to eye on our handful of design-related collaborations, we've always connected over our love of cooking, eating, and entertaining. Over the years, we've swapped our fair share of recipes and pointers for clean eating, nutritional healing, grain sprouting, and veggie prepping and gabbed for hours on end about pursuing happy, healthy, well-balanced lives. One Part Plant is the culmination of Jessica's journey and her "guide to clean food and a happy head." Today, she features me as one of her Babes in Plantland and makes me blush with her flattering and thoughtful words. I'll be back on the site in the weeks to come sharing some of my tips for natural living and one or two of my favorite plant-based recipes. Take a look! 

creating a custom bridal party

Alexandra Berlin is an interior designer and blogger with a lovely point of view, keen design sense, and an eye for fashion. I had the pleasure of working with her over the past year to design and create a custom dress for her bridesmaids to wear for her wedding last month. She asked me to document the process for her blog, Things That Sparkle, and the post is up today as part of her Wedding Wednesday series. 

Our goal was to come up with a style that would compliment the glamorous yet laid-back vibe of her wedding and was formal and elegant without reading black tie. Alex wanted to incorporate some type of unexpected texture or pattern into the dresses, so fabric choice was a priority. Initially, I worked on a custom print for her inspired by a vintage beaded silk but we eventually decided on a luxe crinkle chiffon. To bring in an extra bit of interest and pay homage to our initial beaded inspiration, I created a grosgrain sash with a beaded chevron pattern. The bride chose gold beading to add a pop of color and compliment the gold accents of her invitations and reception decor.

To execute the rest of her vision, Alex teamed up with a handful of other amazing vendors, including two of my personal favorites—Marina Birch of Birch Design Studio for planning and Jessica Murnane of Suitor for the paper goods. The process was truly collaborative and I loved seeing my creations in the context of Alex's creative ideas and impeccable attention to detail. Not only was every aspect of the wedding stunning, it was such a joyful celebration. I couldn't be happier for her, Spencer, and their families.

The Suitor-designed invitation suite stuck with the theme of keeping things simple but special.

I love the gold edge painting and the polka dot envelope liner.

The beautiful place cards and a shot of Collin and me from the photo booth.

this vest...

 

{ one: via Net-a-Porter | two: via Pinterest | three: Vogue Germany photo via Le Fashion }

...keeps popping up around the internet. Such a special mix of tough and delicate. My goodness, I love Isabel Marant.

so, how was your day?

{ via So, How Was Your Day? }

As I've mentioned many times before, my dear friend Jessica Murnane is a constant source of inspiration and creative motivation. Jessica is full of great ideas and what I love most about her is not just that her ideas are especially clever, but that she actually goes out and executes them, and very thoughtfully at that. Well folks, she's done it yet again with her newest project So, How Was Your Day?. The site launched last week and is full of fun and inspirational glimpses into the lives of creative movers and shakers who exemplify the traits I admire so much in Jessica. Through a handful of brief lines about meals, meetings, daily tasks, and a few fiery follow-up questions, Jessica introduces readers to some serious innovators. Graham Kostic of Glossed & Found and Monica Dimperio of The MidWasteland and Elegently Wasted Vintage are part of the initial line up and it was exciting to see these friends and familiar faces in the mix. The new site is a fantastic concept with the same eye on simple and refined design that I have grown to love through Suitor, Jessica's line of paper goods. Can't wait to see who else she features!

Things That Sparkle

{ EB bridesmaids dresses featured on Things That Sparkle }

Alexandra Berlin is an on-the-rise interior designer and blogger who runs the site Things That Sparkle. She has a great point of view and her blog is a regular source of inspiration for me for interiors, entertaining, weddings, and as the title suggests, all things glamorous and sparkly. Alex recently got engaged to one of my oldest family friends and I had the pleasure of meeting with her last week to discuss some potential dress options for her bridesmaids. She was nice enough to feature my designs in a post yesterday and I thought I would return the favor by sharing a few of my favorite images from her site.

{ images via Things That Sparkle }