Style Inspiration: Kurt Cobain

I'm a huge Nirvana fan. Kurt Cobain is one of my favorite musicians/songwriters. So it would only be natural that I would be inspired by everything he did and wore.

A few weeks ago I was watching Nirvana performing on MTV Unplugged and I really liked Kurt's outfit. I like the 90's grunge style because it was about wearing whatever you wanted without caring to be stylish. So I came up with some grunge inspired outfits à la Kurt Cobain.

Kurt Cobain Inspired Grunge by naleekadennis featuring black handbags

Etoile Isabel Marant long sleeve blouse
$385 - net-a-porter.com

Uniqlo merino cardigan
£30 - uniqlo.com

Short sleeve t shirt
$54 - amrag.com

Cheap Monday black high waisted skinny jeans
$90 - generalpants.com.au

Dr. Martens white shoes
$115 - hottopic.com

Alexander Wang black handbag
$875 - barneys.com

Hermes fine silver jewelry
$690 - usa.hermes.com

Hook earrings
$145 - maxandchloe.com

Of course there are always cheaper alternatives. You can get these things anywhere. I have a flannel shirt from Forever 21 and just recently acquired another from Superdry. H&M has some grungy cardigans in their stores right now in a variation of colors (and elbow patches!). Look at them here.

I also found oversized cardigans on eBay:

The seller has these in black, navy, and beige. They look warm and comfy! You can get them here.

I moved back to my dorm in Manhattan. School starts in a week (yikes) but I'm excited for this semester. I'm going back to Long Island today because it's my boyfriend's birthday. He's turning 21!

New Addition: The Alexander Wang Rocco Replica

Ever since I saw the AW Rocco I knew I had to have it. But, being a broke college student there was no way I could afford a $875 bag. So I set out to find a replica.

One of my favorite bloggers, Victoria, had posted about this Rocco replica she scored on eBay. I immediately fell in love and bought one myself! I just got it yesterday and I love it. It's my new favorite, next to my Marc by Marc Jacobs bag.

 

This bag is made of nice imitation leather. My boyfriend said it looks expensive, even though it was $32.90!  There's a zip pocket on the side and the interior has two pockets for a cellphone and iPod. The straps aren't long enough to be worn on the shoulder, so I carry it around my arm. It gets kinda heavy if you're like me and carry a lot of stuff.

Here's what I can carry in it so you can see how much it holds:

Notepad, pen case, wallet, eReader, bus schedules, a book, keys, mirror, 2 lip glosses, glasses case, lotion, chapstick, iPod, and Blackberry. This is what I basically carry at all times. It can probably fit a little more too!

I bought the bag from here. The seller was very nice and shipped my package as soon as she could. It took about two weeks. I also ordered another AW replica bag as well, a Diego look alike. The seller has a lot of other replica bags as well. I know this shipping is a little pricey, so you could always search 'bottom studded bag' on eBay. There are plenty of other listings with cheaper (even free!) listings.

I'm currently sick, plus I have to get ready to move back to college Monday, and there's a hurricane hitting the east coast. What a weekend it will be.

New Additions

Yesterday I went to the mall with my friend Gabby. I had bought a cute varsity jacket from Forever 21 (on sale too!) but when I tried it on the jacket fit but was too short for me. So I exchanged it for some new goodies.

 I totally love this necklace. I've been wanting new necklaces for awhile, so I was happy to pick this one out. It can be a nice accent to an edgy outfit.

 This wine-colored chiffon skirt was only $10! I reminds me of the skirts at American Apparel, but it's waaay cheaper. Wine is starting to become my new favorite color to wear.

I got this shirt at JCPenney, also for $10. Voltron was a cartoon from the 80's that came out before Transformers. I love pop culture/cartoon t-shirts. 

Say hello to my new varsity jacket! I saw this in H&M after I bought the other jacket in Forever 21. I liked this one so much better because it was longer on me. Even though it was more money, I caved in and bought it while returning the other. I gotta learn not to but jackets at Forever 21 because they fit too short.

School starts in three weeks, which means I move back in 2! I've already started the early stages of pre-production for my senior thesis film with my producer Alexa. I'm so excited to go back to school and get to work!

Handbag Lust

I have fallen in love with this bag by Alexander Wang:

                                                            Photos courtesy of Song of Style and Mode Junkie

This is the Alexander Wang Rocco bag. It's quite popular among the celebrities like the Olsen twins, and who can blame them? It's a great bag! The black pebbled leather looks beautiful, plus the studs on the bottom add a great edge. Just my style. However, it retails at $875, which it something I definitely cannot afford. Maybe if I save? Haha. I ordered a Rocco look alike bag from eBay a few weeks ago. We'll see how it looks once I get it!

Let's Try This Again...

Hi folks.

So I had deleted this blog because I wasn't keeping up with it as much as I liked to. Plus I didn't think I had anything interesting to say, but actually I live quite an interesting life as an NYU Film student. Now my summer is almost over and I'm going into my senior year. I'll be competing to make a senior thesis film so the semester will be exciting.

We'll see.

Catharsis: Wrapped

More details to come soon.

Hair Journey

For the past year I have been transitioning from relaxed to natural hair. I've been getting relaxers since 3rd grade, and as much as I hated getting chemical burns I loved having straight hair. I always thought I was prettier with long, straight hair.

My first contact with natural hair was in 2006 or so when I went to see my sister for the first time in 2 years. She had completely stopped relaxing and she had a nice head of natural hair. I thought she was crazy, but I really liked it. She said it was much easier to manage because she didn't have to worry about getting it wet, plus it was cheaper to not relax (it's about $65). Afterwards I asked my mom if I could go natural and she flat out said no.

My mom is friends with a lady who owns a hair salon, so I was always around black women getting relaxers and weaves. I was stuck in the belief that having straight hair made you more attractive and presentable, especially to white people.

In Freshmen and Sophomore year of college I was still addicted to the creamy crack. I went from Manhattan to Long Island every couple of weeks to get my hair done and get a touch-up every 6 weeks. It was pretty expensive, especially after paying for the LIRR. But in college I met more girls who were natural or thinking about transitioning. I started doing research about natural hair and came across the blog Black Girl With Long Hair, which became the first blog I began to follow. It featured different natural women and their hair, as well as discussions on transitioning, haircare, and stigmas about natural hair. I was shocked to find this whole community of black women who had natural hair. I began to follow more natural hair blogs in order to learn about hair care.

My boyfriend Brian, who is white and always disapproved of me getting relaxers, was a big supporter of me transitioning. I also had support from my sister and my friends at school. Now that I'm older my mom didn't really care what I did with my hair. I decided to start transitioning last June and never looked back.

During my transition I sported a number of hairstyles, mainly braids:

Still on the creamy crack, sophomore year 2010

Start of my transition, Summer '10

I spent the rest of the summer with box braids

While abroad in Europe I had longer box braids for three and a half months!

I was fed up with braids so when I cam back to the U.S. I got a weave for the winter

I got another weave (longer with highlights) from February to March

Spring Break: This is my real hair. My hair was blow-dried, straightened and cut.

Finally natural!

The last picture was taken today! Sunday I washed my hair and was left with a mess of hair that still had relaxed ends at the top. I twisted my hair and slept in it overnight to achieve a 'twist-out' look. I'll cut the rest of the relaxed ends off eventually but for now my hair is fine. I was really nervous about having my natural hair out. As you saw, I was so used to having long hair! But everyone has been complimenting my hair, which makes me smile. I'm so glad I made this journey, and I really do love my hair!

Spring Transformations, Lookbook, and Catharsis Updates.

Hello everyone.

I had a pretty good Spring Break. I did no work at all and instead I hung around with my boyfriend. I got some thing done since I was home, like getting my hair cut and new contacts.

I've been transitioning to natural hair since May of last year. I had braids in for most of the time until I came back from my semester in Dublin. From December to March I had weaves in to protect my hair from the cold. I decided spring would be a great time to cut my hair so I can wear it out naturally.

It didn't really come out how I wanted because my stylist straightened my hair to cut it. She didn't cut all my relaxed hair off, just the ends that were broken and damaged. she said she'll cut the rest when I come back. I hair does look pretty good short though. I can't wait to see how it looks once it gets wet. My kinky hair will come through!

Catharsis is doing well. We've raised $630 and we expect more donations to be sent through mail. unfortunately, if we don't raise $1,000 in 25 hours then IndieGoGo will take 9% of what we raised so far. It kind of sucks but at least we'll have most of the money we'll need. Alexa and I have been working on getting the production book done so we can submit to the production supervisors at Tisch. The shoot is less than a month away.

I returned to Manhattan today. Th weather has been so nice the past couple of days. I'm really into not wearing pants so the warm weather has been great for me. I can't wait for summer! I've been really into shopping for the spring and summer season. I bought some cute floral dresses from Forever 21 and I'm currently trying to find a nice pair of brown wedges.

I bought this dress from Forever 21. I can't wait to wear it!

When I came back to my room I found my House of Holland Super Suspender Tights came in the mail! I ordered them all the way from England on a website called Tightsplease (www.tightsplease.co.uk). I loved the suspender look of them and I had to do some internet searching to get them. I know Urban Oufitters has them for $28, but I bought them for $19.97! Plus shipping.

I took some pictures with my new tights on and posted one on Lookbook. I joined Lookbook awhile ago because I loved the outfits people posted. I've always been a little insecure to post my own looks, plus I don't have a super fancy digital SLR camera.

I had a grungy look going on today. I was wearing black jeans with my studded boots. Both the Led Zeppelin shit and the plaid shirt I got in Dublin. The plaid shirt is from H&M and my Led Zep shirt is from a small vintage store in Dublin. Led Zeppelin is one of my favorite bands.

I should be in bed right now. I have so much work to do for Catharsis and I haven't started writing my paper for my video game class.

Remember to donate to Catharsis!
http://www.indiegogo.com/Catharsis


~Nelly

Spring Break Is All I Ever Wanted

 Next week is spring break and I'm really looking forward to being home and taking a break. By break I mean trying to get my Thinking About Games midterm paper and my production book done. Tisch requires us to send them a production book so they can approve out films, and then we also have to submit the NYU Office of Risk Management. This needs to get done soon because they require at least 3 weeks in advance.

I've been revising my script. I'm on the second draft now. I'm pretty content with the changes.

This page kind of gives you an idea of what I'm going for in the story. I'm still trying to raise money for the film. Now there is 9 days left and it hasn't reached $500. I've resorted to posting the link directly on my friends' walls to get their attention and so far it kind of worked. Alexa and I are trying to find an apartment to throw a fundraising party to raise more money. Budgeting is so stressful.

I have shoot to sound mix tomorrow, and then I'm going back to Long Island. More updates about Catharsis soon.

Donate to Catharsis!
http://www.indiegogo.com/Catharsis

Locating Scouting, Casting, and Kevin Smith

Hello everyone. I've been pretty busy as well as lazy, so I haven't updated since my first post. I've done a lot in terms of pre-production for my film. We've raised $325 as of today, with 16 days left. I've been promoting IndieGogo almost twice a day on Facebook, but that doesn't seem to get me much attention.

Last weekend I went back home to Long Island to scout Jones Beach as a potential shooting location. It's only 20 minutes away from where I live. I knew Jones Beach was the perfect location, and scouting only confirmed it.

The wide open space of Jones Beach is perfect for the scenes we have to shoot there. My producer Alexa and I are going through the process of getting a permit to shoot there. It'll cost us $250, which is a reduced fee. It costs $2,500 to shoot in a state park.

This past week I held auditions for the parts of Narsha, Dante, and Grief. I held two two-and-a-half hour casting sessions. The first day I already had a favorite for each role. The second day I found some more. I think I know who I want to cast, but I want to go over the headshots with my casting director Erica before I make my decision. For me, casting is really nerve-racking. Partially cause I don't want to seem like an idiot in front of actors, who are just as nervous as I am. I have to get better at communicating with them if I ever want to be a director.

Introduction.

Hi everyone. For those of you who know me and those of you who don't, I'm Nelly. I decided to start another blog. I've always wanted to start one, but I never knew what to write about. Then I realized I live a pretty interesting life as a film student living in New York City. I'm a junior in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After a relatively less stressful semester abroad, I've come back to once again throw myself into the crazy world that is making student films.

I will be shooting a short film for my Intermediate Experimental Production Class in mid-April. Right now my producer Alexa and I have been meeting to discuss how we're going to get this film made, where we're going to shoot, who will be on crew, etc. The biggest issue is money. We've been trying to raise money through IndieGoGo, but so far we're not even close to our goal.

Time for some self-promotion.
If you can, please donate to my short film, Catharsis
Every dollar counts.

Anyway, I'm going home back to Long Island to take some location photos of Jones Beach. My film has two locations, the inside of a bedroom and a beach. The beach requires more effort to require because it's state property, which means we need to apply for permits.

Oh. My film is about a young woman going through the five stages of grief after her boyfriend dies in an accident. It's gonna be shot on the Canon 7D. This is the first time I'm making a film with a considerable budget and I really hope we can made it work.

-Nelly