I have officially made it to Florence, Italy and have had a wonderful first few days here. I wasn’t originally going to post these photos to the blog but I am so in love with this dress, I just absolutely had to.
This For Love and Lemons Dress is my most favorite piece I own and I made the decision of not bringing it to Italy with me. I only wanted to pack practical clothing that I could mix and match with lots of outfits while still leaving room for some new things.
Of course, before I parted ways with this dress, I had a mini backyard photoshoot in it!
Hello hello! Again, this post is super delayed but I now am free (finally) to share it! This final night of fashion week was my favorite. I got the opportunity to style 12 looks to hit the runway on side of Randall Schneck. We pulled clothing from Dillard’s at the Oak Park Mall, one of Kansas City Fashion Week’s main sponsors, to create 12 Fall looks. I have never gotten to do anything like this before so this was a new experience for me and I loved every second of it. Watching those outfits go down the runway was such an incredible feeling.
Each season of Kansas City Fashion Week gets better and better. I know everyone says this but it is really true. I have grown up within the KCFW community and I feel as if they’re a second family to me. Looking back throughout the past 11 seasons, I have seen myself not only grow as a model and blogger, but as a person. This season was my favorite as I got to expand my horizons by trying new things.
With Brooke Richardson brookelaryn.com (left) and Kylie Rifkin barelybyathread.com (middle)
MY OUTFIT :
The amount of times I’ve worn this dress is kind of crazy but I just love it so much- it HAD to make an appearance at Fashion Week. I wore this a lot in the summer but I thought it would be different to make it more Fall-ish by pairing it with a black hat and OTK boots!
Unfortunately I did not have my professional camera for this night of Fashion Week and my phone took such low quality photos they’re not even worth sharing on here. Be sure to check out my other posts from this seasons fashion week, Tuesday night here and Thursday Night here.
Hi! Thanks so much for watching my video. I have never done anything like this before in fear of what people would think or if people would even watch. I realized how much I love looking back on good memories and thought this would be a fun way to do so. I am so awkward in this video because I’m not used to this but, I had fun with it and plan to make more and hopefully get more comfortable talking to the camera in public places.
My family is super into road trips and we take a long one pretty much every Summer. I am pretty active on Instagram during these vacations but have never blogged (or vlogged) about them so this is a first! We’re stopping in a few different cities this week and each city will have its own blog post including my outfits and some other photos!
ALSO – in one of my recent blog posts, I mentioned how I wanted to better one of my social media channels and I am happy to say that I am officially bringing back my Youtube channel starting with a vlog from this trip once it’s all over! I have never vlogged before so it may be a little rough but I am going to try to get used to it and do it more regularly, showing a more accurate representation of my life. I also plan on creating some fashion videos and films as well so stay tuned. I am so excited to see everything come together!
As many of you know, I love to collaborate with brands and desginers on blog posts! I had the honor of collaborating with Christie Nelson of AnnMann Designs. Her pieces are full of detail so I chose to keep this look simple to focus on that.
These pieces are from her S/S’17 collection that was shown at Kansas City Fashion Week last fall. Her collection was inspired by endangered species and each model represented a different animal. Below are some photos shot by Sara Clance and I am wearing the elephant inspired pieces from that collection.
I probably had the best week of my life covering official media for the Kansas City Fashion Week F/W’17 season. Fashion week has ended and I am so incredibly exhausted, but a good exhausted (which is why this post didn’t go up the day after, sorry, kind of).
Saturday night’s show BLEW ME AWAY. So many awesome designers and genius collaborations. Seriously – I had goosebumps the whole time.
Be sure to go through this whole post to see my look featuring a beautiful gown from Lucia’s Sarto.
from left to right (Mariah Kellii, me, Brooke Richardson, Eliza Williams)
with Brooke Richardson
With Kelsie O’Brien
I hope you enjoyed reading all of my Kansas City Fashion Week coverage. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to do this again in the fall for the S/S’18 runway shows.
Michael Drummond is such a talented designer and his collections are always so good. Each look in this collection was unique in its own way. I especially loved the printed fabrics – they added a personal touch.
This collection looked so comfortable, yet stylish. Getting to sit in the front row was really nice when it came to noticing detail. I got to see the fabric up close and every look in this line that came down the runway looked so soft. Tomboy’s color palette was mainly muted with pops of neon green which I though was super different and eye-catching.
This collection was, to me anyways, pretty ready to wear, which I love when looking to pull pieces. I love the burnt orange/scarlet colors that were used among various different textures. Great collection.
Again, menswear is something I am extremely interested in and this collection was beautiful. I enjoyed the stereotypical feminine floral prints being incorporated into menswear. Floral is for everyone and christianMICHEAL’s take on it was awesome. He also incorporated these spring florals into a fall collection which was super innovative. The bags on the runway are from Dolyn Bags who I have featured in a past blog post, here, and are also featured later on in this blog post, alone with christianMICHEAL’s womenswear collection – keep scrolling!
I loved Georgina Herrera’s jewelry collection. Her pieces are absolutely gorgeous and totally wearable. I love the simplicity of the clothing, keeping the focus on her pieces. Keep scrolling to see Georgina’s pieces featured again in another collection.
I really liked House of Cochon’s artistic touch. I definitely received garden-nature-y vibes from all of the butterflies and the colors. A new take on simple black clothing, very cool.
Natalia Meyer of Lucia’s Sarto is such a kind and extremely talented women. This ready to wear collection is something totally different from her usual couture collection. A lot more casual, but you can still tell that she put her heart in each piece. I loved the cooler tones and delicate lace. She partnered up with Dolyn Bags as well!
I actually wore a gown from one of her past collections to the show, keep scrolling to see!
christianMICHEAL part two! I can not believe that he pulled off two AMAZING collections! This guy is incredibly talented. This womenswear line was so chic with straight lines, edges and minimal colors. I loved the structured pieces, it reminded me of Christian’s past menswear collections showing that his personal self is present in all of his work. The accessories were provided by Georgina Herrera.
MY OUTFIT :
I thought that it would be fun for me to wear a piece by a designer, to their showing at fashion week. This gown is from Lucia’s Sarto by Natalia Meyer out of Kansas City, Missouri. This gown is so beautiful and I didn’t want to take away from that so I left all accessories out. I am usually not one to wear dresses but when I saw this, it was a must.
I got to shoot with Rian Stallbaumer for the first time in these photos and she is great and also absolutely hilarious – as you can see I am trying not to laugh in all of these photos…
I had such a great time at the Friday night runway showing of Kansas City Fashion Week. It was a sold out show which is so awesome! The designs last night were all so unique and I loved how different each collection was. I’m really looking forward to seeing the last night of designers this evening!
with Ashley Nickolaison
Make it all the way through this post to see my full look!
All the way from Los Angeles, California, Joshua Christensen came to Kansas City to show his collection. He was on season nine of Project Runway! Joshua’s collection was so unique. He used many different colors and patterns but keeping the aesthetic consistent. I will always automatically love a collection that features both womens and menswear.
This children’s collection made my heart melt. The models were not only adorable, but looked awesome in these clothes! Military style vibes were definitely given off.
This collection surprised me a lot. I never knew a holographic pattern would pair well with such muted, warm tones. I liked each look individually but wasn’t sure about how cohesive everything would be when put together as a whole until the finale walk came out. I was so shocked at how well each look vibed together. It was so different than anything I have seen.
OKAY. The whole time that this collection was walking down the runway, I had major goosebumps. A Catholic, Pope, Holy, etc. inspired fashion line?! I am obsessed. This was something I have seriously never seen before and I am so blown away by it. The clothing was minimal and extremely structured but the details made this so beautiful and personal. Each model came down carrying a rosary and their fingers were painted gold. As a big religious art fan, you could say obsessed with this collection is an understatement.
Lauren Bander is a Kansas City Fashion Week star. She’s shown in so many! This collection, you could tell, had a lot of emotion. It started out with all black pieces and they looks gradually had more white in them, to full white looks, to a LIGHT UP DRESS. The second to last look was leaving the runway and the lights went off and model Kiera Nordike strutted out in a white gown with lights on it. So beautiful and a crowd favorite.
Andrea Long is an amazing designer, talented human, and sweetheart. I love this woman. Her collection was stunning. You can never go wrong with velvet- and velvet jewel tones?! Yes. This lady never fails to amaze me.
I was so happy after watching this collection. Tiffany Brown was inspired by old New York and I definitely felt like these clothes totally encompassed that. I am so glad that these styles are coming back for it was such a beautiful, and elegant time for fashion.
Menswear!! If you know me, you will know that I LOVE menswear and pull a lot of my own outfit inspiration from it. This collection was a good mix of pieces. I mainly shot the more rugged looks because that’s what caught my eye the most. All of the different textures mixed together was seriously so cool.
MY OUTFIT :
This look is kind of a combination of all of my favorite pieces that I own. I was iffy about combining such a bohemian top with these edgy culottes but I think that my double breasted belt made the two pieces flow together nicely. These photos, yet again, were taken by the amazing Sara Clance in the most beautiful area. I am so excited about the mix between this outfit and the location.
top : Dillard’s (similar) | pants : Bloomingdales (similar) | bralette : Free People | shoes : Rebecca Minkoff | earrings : It’s A Beautiful Day
BELLA LIGHTNER 