Taking Your Style From Comfort Zone to Couture

I hate to go all crazy department store on you (It’s January 28th? Time to set up a Memorial Day swimsuit display!) but the fashion industry is always 6 months ahead of us normal folk. The elite designers of the trade have challenged us with innovative, advanced looks that put oh-so 2011 trends, like flare legged jeans and feathers, to shame. What? You can’t afford Roberto Cavalli? No worries fellow broke college students; I’ve recreated the looks with budget friendly brands. Prepare to rock 2012 with these inventive spring trends:

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How to Look Great (Even Though You Just Rolled Out of Bed)

During winter break, I had the chance to talk to my best friend, who is more like my long-lost twin. In high school we used to spend hours in the morning with hair, makeup, and putting together outfits. While this made me late 60% of the time (and her 100% of the time), we loved it. Now that we are at different colleges and not making each other late in the morning, she asked me, “Do you still get dressed up for class now?”

Uhhh, duh? I mean if I could do it at 6 am, why can’t I do it now when I wake up at 8 am or later? She confessed to me that she has given up on looking stylish for class. How dare she?!?!

Okay, I get it. I have had a few ‘bum’ days too. And she is in a sorority, so at night she has to be dressed to the nines to attend a social or a party, so she gets some slack during the day. However, don’t for a second think she looks like a homeless person going to class.  Smart girls can use ten minutes to look great before they have to be anywhere.

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Candy Dish: Love My Clothes

Do you have an emotional attachment to your clothes?

Which Oscar winning director is being investigated by the CIA!

Was Tina Fey the cause of Alec Baldwin’s airport trouble

What does your favorite Girl Scout cookie say about you?

Selena gets the protection she needs

Attract love in 30 days

Do women read age appropriate magazines?

Mindy Kaling shares her fitness plan for 2012

We dig guys with tats

image via Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock


Web Spy: Closet Couture

I know I’m not alone when I say that I spend way too long trying to decide what to wear in the mornings. Well, thanks to an awesome site called Closet Couture, getting dressed in the morning just got a whole lot easier.

Instead of standing in front of your closet for trying to decide on an outfit, let Closet Couture help you out! Closet Couture lets you build a virtual closet from items on the web or from items you already have in your actual physical closet (just upload the picture to the site)!

Once you’ve created your virtual closet, you can create outfits and post them to the site. Not only is this a great way to store outfits you like to reference on days that you’re feeling uninspired, you can also get feedback from other Closet Couture users and get ideas from outfits they post! Read More »


5 Fashion Rules You Should Be Breaking

Rules are meant to be broken.

Not always the best philosophy to live by, but it is a pretty good philosophy for fashion. Think about it. The best dressed ladies these days don’t exactly play by the rules do they ? They wear what they want when they want, because they like the way it looks, whether that be a body suit or a blazer.

And while we can’t all be as adventurous as Lady Gaga during our days on campus, we can still break a few fashion rules without looking like fashion victims.

initiating the gallery...

What do you think ladies? Do you follow the fashion rules or do think think they were made to be broken? Are there some fashion rules we should always follow? Let us know!


The Post-Grad Journey: Thankfully Out of College

Even though being a post-grad hasn’t been an easy ride (biggest understatement of the year), I have plenty of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. So in honor of the holiday and my new “the bowl of stuffing is half full” mentality, here is a list of post-grad things worth celebrating this time of year:

1. Graduation gifts – Luckily when you graduate, people give you gifts and money and things that you need. Even though these gifts are like “Hey, you’re out of college now and you’re kinda on your own so here is some luggage,” they make transitioning very happy.

2. I’m cafeteria free – Albeit eating in a dining hall and having a meal plan is convenient, not having to eat food made for 800 people is a dream. Do you know how amazing it is to eat food that is warm and flavorful? Maybe my alma mater wasn’t too fabulous in the food department (minus the Swedish meatballs … I lived for those), so I’m alone on this one, but I’ll take making myself food any day over dining hall slop.

3. I can wear my underwear whenever I want – Seriously, every time I would just want to veg out in my dorm room and just comfortably enjoy being in my underwear (with a bag of chips), someone would knock. (Editor’s Note: Thank god they didn’t just walk in. Awkward!) And you know, then you have to get up, put on pants, and open the door. Not now. I can wear my underwear all day and no one bothers me. Hooray!

4. No drama – Getting away from college has been a blessing. No gossip. No drama. Just memories and keeping-in-touch with those I want to (and staying far, far away from those I don’t).  I don’t have to deal with classroom politics, and I don’t have to deal with drunken sorority girls elbowing me on dance floors. It’s great being able to step back from the stuff that made me go “Ughh, I’m so over it.”

5. I have a degree– Even though it may not be enough to find the kind of job I want, I’m glad I have my Bachelors and I’m glad I worked my ass off to get it. College went fast, but the knowledge and the subjects that interest me will last a lifetime. No complaints there! Read More »


We’ve All Been There: A Full Closet and Nothing To Wear

We’re well into another new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back the fan-favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.”  (We tried to get another national holiday/long weekend for you guys but it’s way harder than we thought so this will have to do.) Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like procrastinating or using the not-so-private bathrooms. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

It might be your roommate’s birthday, or your birthday, or just another Saturday night on campus. Either way, you are currently standing in front of your over-stuffed closet in a towel with wet hair dripping down your back. You’ve got your pre-party mix blasting from your laptop as you scan your closet for something to wear.

To the left is a pile of jeans. 13 pairs of jeans to be exact. Dark wash, light wash, skinnies, trousers, wide leg, bootcut. To the right hangs your shirts: long sleeve, short sleeve, camis, halters, all in every shade of the rainbow.

You put on some underwear and your sexy black going-out bra, pull out a pair of jeans and squeeze/lunge your booty into them. “No late night pizza,” you think to yourself as you suck in your belly to button them.

You pull a low-cut black shirt from the closet and put it on. You check yourself in the mirror. No good.

You grab a different shirt. Nope.

You pull a blue cami off the hanger and put it on. The bra doesn’t work with it, so you slip out of the cami, swap on a strapless bra and put it back on.  Now the jeans don’t work, so you kick them off and grab a lighter pair from the stack. Read More »


12 Reasons You Can (and Should) Wear White After Labor Day

There are some fashion rules you should follow.

Never show your legs and your cleavage at the same time? That’s a good one.
No denim on denim? Also a keeper.

Then, there are those rules that should just be ignored. Your purse doesn’t always have to match your shoes. You can mix prints. And most importantly you can wear white after Labor Day.

Of all the rules put forth by the fashion police, this one has always baffled me the most. Why is white only acceptable between Memorial Day and Labor Day? Why is it that this one color has such a limited lifespan, only to be paired with bikinis and boy shorts? From the plain white t-shirt, to the classic white button down, to winter white pieces, the color white is essential to every wardrobe, all year long. Below are some pieces that will make you want to wear white every day. Read More »


Intern Diaries: Fashion is More Stressful Than Work

This morning I was dangerously close to missing my train into NYC for my internship. So late, in fact, that I had to sprint from my car, up the stairs, and onto the train platform to hurl myself through the train doors about a second before they closed behind me, leaving me panting and sweating in front of a group of polished businessmen. (Always a good way to start the day.) It wasn’t because I had pressed snooze one too many times, or because I had lost track of time. No, I was late because of something much more important:

I was searching for the perfect outfit.

I wish I could say this was the first time my fashion situation put me well behind schedule, but that wouldn’t even be close to true. It’s more like it happens about once a week, and on at least two occasions per month I actually DO miss my train. And this is because when it comes to my internship, almost nothing is more important than wearing something cute. Yes, I get more stressed about what I’m wearing than I do about the actual work and reporting I have to do.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m serious about doing a good job at work. But honestly, if I don’t like my outfit, I am a LOT less motivated to be at my internship. It may sound slightly pathetic to some people, but looking good really is extremely important when you work in one of the fashion capitals of the world, and that’s even more true when you work in the magazine industry. Magazines are usually more casual than your typical office, which is a nice perk, but also opens you up to endless wardrobe possibilities. My office is particularly casual, with editors wearing anything from tight dresses and sky-high heels to jeans and a sweatshirt. And while those options are nice to have, who really wants to wear a sweatshirt to work in NYC? I don’t, especially when practically every girl I see walk by me on Sixth Avenue looks like they’ve just stepped out of the pages of Vogue. Read More »


Senior Files: Creating the Perfect Work Wardrobe

Graduation is fast approaching and soon we college girls will have to swap our flip flops and sweats for pumps and two-piece suits.

Unless you have an amazing job where you can work in your PJs, you’re going to need to update your wardrobe with some real people clothes (that don’t permanently smell of pizza and beer, no matter how many times you wash them).

I, for example, currently own one pair of nice slacks and two dress shirts. And because of all that pizza and beer, they don’t exactly fit as well as they used to. Looks like it’s time to update my closest. But like most college students, I’m not exactly rolling in the dough and can’t exactly afford to buy an entire new wardrobe.

So as per usual when I need some real life advice, I sought out my go-to career hero, president of Hearst Magazine’s Cathie Black. With her work wardrobe guidelines, I’ve compiled a no-nonsense guide to work fashion, complete with tips to help you (and me!) navigate the world of appropriate work wear. Read More »