The Intricate Gorgeousness of Estela Balan.

Purple color block dress, Estela Balan. Black blazer, Leifsdottir. Plum bowler hat, "Vivian", Monki. Black harness boots, Nelly.

(Photos by me.)

The clone theme continues - don't worry, I'll probably get bored with it soon. But for now, we're here, we're multiple, and we're all wearing Estela Balan.

I got this dress sent to me by Diana Martinez, the extremely talented Mexican designer behind the brand, and I find it absolutely stunning. Just look at the skirt part - the handiwork is so intricate and simply exquisite! This is such a great addition to my wardrobe, which is definitely lacking when it comes to colorful items, and I love the fact that I could wear it out to dinner as well as to a wedding and feel equally appropriate.

You should definitely check out the Estela Balan website: it's brimful of eye candy, inspiration and unexpected color combinations.

I've admired Diana Martinez' work ever since I first laid eyes on her designs through Barbro Andersen's blog - here and here - and I'm thrilled to be lucky enough to have two Estela Balan dresses in my wardrobe now! (Will show you the other one soon.) And like this wasn't enough, they're also made especially for me from my measurements, which means they basically fit me better than any dress ever has. I usually can't wear dresses this tight (except if the fabric is really stretchy), so I was amazed to zip them up and for once not get disappointed with the fit. Quite the luxury, I must say.

Anyway; I hope you like this dress as much as I do! And thank you, Diana, for making me look so great. Honestly, I feel like a movie star in it. (Am I allowed to say that, or does it sound terribly conceited? I promise, I mean it in the least conceited way possible!)

Sticks and stones may break my bones, Sticks and Stripes may... get me hypes?

Light-blue flowy summer dress, Sticks and Stripes. Light pink bowler hat, Monki. Cheetah print peep-toe wedges with ankle straps, luichiny.

(Photos by me.)

Today summer decided to make a surprise reappearance, and it seemed like an opportunity as good as any to wear my new, fabulously flowy dress from Sticks and Stripes. I have so much respect for founder Brit Furgeson, who truly takes responsibility for the environmental aspects of her designs: the fabric she uses for her dresses is made out of wood pulp (and is so wonderfully fluid and light!), and for each purchased dress, Sticks and Stripes will plant a tree on your behalf. I'm always inspired by people who are actually making an effort to sustain our incredible planet - and it's a much-needed reminder that I ought to work a lot harder myself when it comes to this subject.

I got these cheetah print wedges in NYC, and I can't decide if I love or hate them. Which is basically a good thing. That keeps things interesting, and it means that at least they're not too plain! If you decide you hate them because of their immense tackiness, I completely get it. But I came to the conclusion that I do love them... at least today I do.

(Oh, and the stupid title of this post is simply a case of really bad Lookbook.nu humor.)

I Keep Dancing On My Own.

Strapless flower print dress, H&M. Cheetah print litas, Jeffrey Campbell. Black leather belt, Gina Tricot.

As soon as I got in front of the camera in this outfit, I started to move like a prima ballerina wannabe. I find that interesting, since the outfit itself obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with ballet dancing - and still, somehow, it does. There's something about the hair tied back in a bun, the bare shoulders, the wide skirt and the high heels that makes my mind immediately associate to a ballerina.

If you read my story about my love for horses, you might remember that the horses were an exception to the rule: everything else I tried out, I just had to be a natural at. I needed people to tell me, "oh wow, Annika, you're so great at this, I can't believe you've never done it before!". Otherwise, I felt like a complete failure and told my parents, "I hate this, it's boring and I'm never going to do it again". The more talent I had, the longer I would stick around - I did gymnastics for a while, as well as high jumping, played the piano and sang in a choir - until other people started becoming a lot better than me, and so I quit those activities, too. I guess the only thing I was always really good at was writing, and well, that's probably why I ended up writing for a living.

Anyway - dancing was not one of the things I had a talent for. Quite the opposite. Like so many other kids, I wanted to be a ballet dancer, and my mom took me to a dance studio to let me try it. I have no idea how old I was - six? Mom, help me out if you read this - but what I do remember is that we didn't get to try any of those cool moves I'd seen on tv. Instead, we were walking around in a circle, while the teacher repeated the sentence "pick the apples... and put them in the basket". And we were, as you can imagine, pretending to pick apples from a tree and put them in an invisible basket on the floor. Coordination has never really been my forte, and it wouldn't surprise me if I tripped on my own feet at least three times while picking the imaginary apples. When I asked the instructor when we'd get to dance Swan Lake, she laughed and told me we had a lot more pretend apple picking to do before we'd get to that. Needless to say, that was not the answer I was hoping for, and my dream of becoming a prima ballerina died there and then.

During the last twenty years of my life, the only dancing I've been doing has been on the crowded dancefloors of various clubs, and alone at home, with the music turned up extremely loud and noone watching or judging. That suits me a lot better than years of imaginary apple picking. But that doesn't mean I can't put on a pretty dress and pretend to be on my way to rehearsal for my latest lead role at the Royal Opera House in London!

...oh, and since I stole the title of this post from the amazing Robyn, here's the song for you:

The more bows, the merrier.

Bow print dress, Asos.com. Striped platform shoes, Monki.

There's something about bows that just make them completely irresistable to me. Whenever I see an item covered in bows, I have to get it - so I guess it's a good thing I never go into expensive clothing stores, haha. Sure, the thought has crossed my mind that maybe I ought to do something about my bow addiction, but then again... I've never heard of anyone dying from having to many bow prints in their wardrobe.

Me and the boyfriend are off to have dinner (gotta get down on Friday, y'all), I'm all dressed up in sparkly sequins and my new floppy hat, feeling all fancy and 70's. We have to celebrate that my new office turned out to be my dream workplace! I hope every single one of you have the best Friday night, and whatever you're doing, make sure you have fun, fun, fun, fun. ;)

PS. Oh, you think the Friday jokes are getting old? Already? You be cra-zay! DS.

Sunshine through the rain.

Black velvet dress with sequin detail, Rodebjer. Graphic print tights, from some tiny lingerie store in Berlin. Black polka dot umbrella, H&M. Black leather litas, Jeffrey Campbell/Solestruck.com.

After weeks and weeks of constant sunshine, the Swedish summer weather is now officially back to normal. Which means weird. Yesterday, it was all over the place - sunny one minute, rain the next, followed by thunder and lightning - or, as in the umbrella photo above, warm and sunny and pouring rain.

Midsummer is now over and I really don't want to think about all the work I've neglected this past week! But I've never missed a deadline (okay, I have, but then I've been in the hospital having emergency surgery and the likes) and I'm definitely not going to start now. "Paper in the typewriter", like my writer boyfriend always says. (To him, that means he'll "get to work" or "work harder", and I'm not sure why he's referring to a typewriter since we're both very happy with our MacBooks. Maybe because he's secretly a 65 year old in a 26 year old's body.)

I haven't worn this dress nearly as much as I should have, considering the money I spent on it. I bought it a few years back for this huge award show party I was attending, but two minutes before I left the apartment, I changed my mind and put on another one. In the cab, I was extremely annoyed with myself - you buy a dress you can't afford because it's sooo important to look fab and fancy at this thing, and then you go and put on a dress you've had forever?! - but when I got to the party, I realized it was faith: this gorgeous fashion celebrity, the star of the award show, was wearing the exact same dress as the one I'd left at home. The only difference was that she looked about a thousand times better in hers than I had done in mine (and I'm not exaggerating, she's just that gorgeous)! Needless to say, I was pretty relieved not having to walk the red carpet looking like her awkward wannabe twin.

The very unusual warm weather has also had the effect that you guys don't know about my obsession with socks and tights. When you live this far up North, you sort of have to have a thing for them, since the bare-legged season normally lasts for about two weeks. I've got so many drawers full of legwear in every possible color and print, which you might be made very aware of if you still follow this blog when the cold weather decides to come back! Plus, fun socks and tights are a perfect way to make your outfits way more interesting without spending a lot of money.

These black and white graphic print tights are from this tiny lingerie boutique I happened to walk into while living in Berlin, and I just think they're fantastic. And I can't believe they're still in such good shape - I must have worn them fifty times over the years and put them through far too many machine washes, and they're as whole as when I got them. Usually, I'll rip a pair if not the first time I wear them, so at least the second or third. Which isn't that big of a problem for me - I just pretend like I'm going for the punk look or something, haha!

Now it's time to get some writing done, a friend is visiting tomorrow so I need to be done with today's and tomorrow's work before she gets here. Do I even have to say that none of this will stop me from blogging? I could never let you guys down! ;)