So I’m a little obsessed with this feature today—Pinegate Road has it’s first fashion designer feature! I’d like to welcome Liz Riden, fashion designer, blogger, and fellow Savannian. Liz and I first became acquainted when we were working for ban.do as a couple of their brand ambassadors this past fall. While we have yet to catch up in real life—weird—I love following her via instagram to take peeks into her fashion lifestyle and day-to-day inspirations. I feel like fashion is one of those things I like to dabble in, but Liz lives and breathes this stuff. It’s pretty inspiring! I hope you enjoy taking a look behind the scenes of fashion designer Liz Riden.

LIZ: I’m currently a junior fashion design major at SCAD, and working on developing my first full collection. I’m keeping myself busy with my job at the school’s art museum, planning my wedding, and illustrating on the side! I blog about fashion and art on The Modern Mademoiselle, and work as a Fashion Associate for Re: Magazine.

What gets you jazzed?

I really thrive when I’m around other creative people! There is something so inspiring and refreshing about being able to have a dialogue about art and design, and then infusing that into my own work.

Where do you go to find inspiration, and what are you inspired by?

When I’m truly stuck and can’t seem to get inspired, the first thing I do is turn off my computer and get out and do something. I find myself getting stuck in the rut of only getting inspiration online, and that isn’t always good. I love vintage hunting to look at design details and textiles, a good iced Americano, and digging through art and photography books.

When it comes to fashion, I’m always inspired by the 1950’s and very feminine styles. Right now, I can’t get enough of florals, both in my apartment and in prints.

Tell me a little about this project and how it was inspired:

I’m currently working on two different projects (three if you count planning a wedding…which I certainly do!). The first project is my new illustration Instagram, liz draws. My fiancé was the creative mastermind behind this idea, encouraging me to do sketches on my ipad that I could quickly share. As I’ve been sketching on my ipad, I’ve really been inspired by Irving Penn’s flower still life photography, and hope to develop my sketches into prints and notecards soon!

My second project is the beginning stages of developing my own apparel line! For my first collection, I really want to focus on color and texture and make each piece a statement of it’s own. For this, I drew a heavy amount of inspiration from Frida Kahlo and her work, especially focusing on bold color and floral details.

How has blogging effected your creative life, and vice versa?

I have found that it’s such a great outlet for me to share inspiration, thoughts on fashion/design, and have a voice. The best thing about blogging is that it’s like a creative journal for me to go back and see what I did, what inspired me, or how much I have grown since then. It also has been so essential and beneficial for networking within the fashion industry.

If you could give one tip to the rest of us, what would that be?

As a kid, my parents always told me “don’t be afraid of being awesome”, and that is something that has always stuck with me. No matter what field of study or career, it is so easy to get discouraged by what people may think, or what people are already successfully doing before you. This simple reminder has kept me motivated to make my own mark in the fashion industry, and keep striving to be my personal best.

Big thanks to Liz Riden for sharing a look into her creative life today! Check out more on Liz at The Modern Mademoiselle.

Happy Monday everyone. 

Soooo,  I just had to share this: LOFT is having a 40% off everything sale, and I’m crazy about these shoes! I came across this the other day, and it was just a little too good to be true. I hope you made some room in your closet after a good spring cleaning.

No, this isn’t a sponsored post, I just really couldn’t get over what a great deal these all were. I’m especially loving those ones on top, the small stacked heel is a trend I’m definitely wanting to try. Comfort + a little lift? I’m in.

Happy spring!

It’s heating up, and that means I have summer clothes on my mind. I spent a good hour procrasti-online-window-shopping the other day, and ended up with this pair. I’m excited to try out the high-waisted bottoms that I’ll be able to match with some tops I already have, and this bra-like top seems like it just might be able to stay in one place while on my body. Here’s to wishful thinking! This marks the first summer in a while where I’m going to try and rock a two-piece. Also, if you’re looking for a new suit of your own and this one isn’t quite you, Topshop has some great mix and match options at great prices! I was impressed, obviously.

Wishing you summery thoughts.

TOP // BOTTOM

After the Valentine’s post I wrote about being holiday-centric, but not too over the top red, pink, and purple, I thought I’d give you a little round up of what to wear for st. patrick’s day.

First off,  I need to give you a little background on why I’m advocating not only that you wear a nightie in public, but that you get one from Wal-Mart—never again will this happen, promise. Last year my friend Megan came to visit for Savannah’s famous St. Patrick’s day. Last minute I decided we needed to be twinsies, so I went to Wal-Mart to find a stock St. Partick’s Day t-shirt—glamorous, I know. Only finding XXL men’s sizes, I waltzed on past the nightgown section and spotted these $10 gems. In to my shopping cart they went. Fast forward to the next day, not only were we able to accessorize these babies with huge flower headbands and skinny belts, I don’t think we’ve ever gotten so many compliments on our festive outfits. Not to mention the comfort level was out of control—totally needed when the parade itself is four hours long. These were the perfect festive, yet not over-the-top outfits for this Savannah tradition. I especially love pairing the green with pops of coral and pastel pink—we could always find each other in a crowd. Plus factor!

Since this endeavor, I’ve decided to not change a thing and reincarnate last years outfit—and share it with you! The weather’s aimed to be a sunny 77° here, and I can. not. wait.

FLOWER // NIGHTIE // BELT // FLATS

Do you have any fun plans for St. Pat’s? Anyone going to be in Savannah? I hope at the very least you get to have some fun this weekend!

I was turned on to Baba Souk last week, and oh man, is this shop a treat! I was immediately captured by the quirky and colorful styling, as well as all the goodies that are in the shop. To top off this goodness, it’s run by a lovely lady you might just be acquainted with: Stephanie, the author of popular column colorfest on design love fest. I hope you get a chance to check out her shop and take a gander at all the lovely. My favorites are those adorable colored pouches and the geometric necklaces—they’re all stunning and would definitely perk up a blah outfit or purse for sure.

In addition to these lovlies showing up on here today, Stephanie was very generous and wants to provide one of my readers with their pick of one of the items above! Which is your favorite? I would have a very hard time deciding if I were you! I’m using rafflecopter for the giveaway, so if you’re in a reader, please click through to the actual post to get in on the action below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until Wednesday March 6th at Midnight to enter, and you can come back daily to up your chances for winning. Best of luck friends, and be sure to check out Baba Souk for more amazingness!

This is screaming to be worn for a fun carefree Saturday galavanting around town. It’s that special mix of casual, comfortable, and dressy enough to head just about anywhere. I’m thinking that this dress and I need to go on a date and then maybe go steady shortly thereafter—but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Are you digging all this orange that I’m throwing out there? It’s not usually my thing, but here I’m completely in lust.

EARRINGS // DRESS // SANDALS

I’m sure your rss is filled with the general “wahhh, can you believe valentine’s day is on Thursday?!” Well I’m going to jump right in and join along! While I won’t be celebrating with my beaux until this weekend, there might be a little girls night in Thursday with some champagne, a heart-shaped pizza, chocolate cake, and other such calories that I certainly won’t be counting. I also could quite possibly be catching up on Downton Abbey and crying my little heart out—therapy people, go for it. What these two celebrations do call for is two different outfits! I’ve picked out some *cough* dream ensembles for this lovey day. Here’s my picks for what to wear on valentines day, both dressy and casual. I love the mix of cream being the base color, and then popping that valentines day flair with some purple, pink, and red accessories. I’m seriously dying over that J. Crew necklace! Le sigh.

Do you have any fun plans or traditions you’ll uphold for this valentine’s day? I’d love to hear!

GLAM: NECKLACE // DRESS // HEELS

CASUAL: HEADBAND // TOP // FLATS

After attending my first fall wedding this past weekend, I ran into the delightful issue of what to wear for this season, so I thought I’d create a little post about what to wear to a fall wedding. I didn’t think it would be that difficult, but being used to Savannah temperatures, I had to improvise when heading out to South Dakota. Let’s just say the cooler weather and the late nights definitely didn’t agree with my immune system (I’ve been sick all week, yuck!) but a great time was had catching up with my sorority sisters and new friends. Seeing my beautiful friend get married was beyond special. The mayor even named the day after the couple! Isn’t that sweet?

With the wedding being held in a Catholic church, covered shoulders were a must. With the in-between weather, tights weren’t necessary, but a suede heel matched perfectly with the weather and the changing season. My favorite is a blue suede pump, and I got to break mine in this weekend paired with a black Zara dress from a couple years ago (don’t get me started on the Zara love!). The ones shown here have a cute golden heel that is the perfect height for dancing in all night long—which didn’t really stop me from taking my own off this weekend a couple hours into dancing, but who was asking? I’m dreaming of mustard colored clothing and I think this (on sale!) dress from Target does a great job of mixing the covered shoulders for church with the fun technical aspects and cuts that make for a dreamy wedding garb. This fall it’s all about the jewel tones, so I say break out the mustard! Speaking of jewels, have you seen the black label ban.do hair combs? Isn’t this one dreamy? I can’t get enough of that sparkle!

Have any of your been to a wedding recently? Do you have any suggestions for dressing in this changing weather? I’d love to hear. I’m just getting into the wedding time of my life it sure has been fun!

I can’t handle myself. I can’t handle myself so much that this had to be done immediately, and I couldn’t even wait till Monday morning to share my enthusiasm for these jewels (literally) of shoes that are in the Zara fall 2012 shoe collection.

Check it. 

PS, I promise to start linking to places other than Zara soon, I’m just overly enthusiastic about the fact that you can now order online after years of visiting Zaras sporadically throughout my travels. My time in Florence made me weak. But let’s get back to what’s important here, these studded shoes!

I don’t know how long it took of me working in the real world for the love of the blazer to smack me in the face, but I think it might have happened today after seeing all the glorious zara tweed blazers . I could be wrong with the timing on that one, but I can definitely tell you it’s in full force and one of these babies is sure to come home with me soon. I think they’re calling out to my inner Coco Chanel. Tweed, plain whites, structured pockets, clean lines? I’m all in, thank you very much. Plus, the styling on these product shots is simple and lovely. Yeah, yeah, I know, those neon shoes, right?

To see these zara tweed blazers and more, check out the blazer section at zara. You have no idea how happy it makes me that you can now buy zara online. Pure joy, let me tell you!