Menswear for Women

I love getting to style my friends, and I especially love getting to style Promise Tangeman because the girl has a KILLER closet. Together, we came up with three outfits showing how to wear men's clothing as women's wear for the April issue of EMMA Magazine. Her hubby, Brian Wurzell, also has fabulous style. Are you surprised? NO! haha. So, with their closet powers combined, three looks came together showing how to wear a guy's t-shirt, boy friend jeans with suspenders and a button down chambray shirt. LOOK #1 Men's T

LOOK #2 Men's Pants and Suspenders

LOOK #3 Men's Chambray Shirt

To see more, check out the latest issue of EMMA Magazine.

Photography by Gina Meola Makeup by Stephanie Neiheisel Wardrobe Styling by AVE Styles Hair styling and modeling by Promise Tangeman Assistant for the day, Megan Bryant.

My other life - Promise Tangeman Creative

I live a double life. I'm a stylist AND a project manager for Promise Tangeman Creative (PTC). I love both of my jobs because they equally serve creative industries, but play to my different skill sets.

Promise is a dear friend of mine, and a HUGE supporter of AVE Styles. She not only created my beautiful branding two years ago, but she has been one of the biggest cheerleaders since the start of my business.

This past weekend PTC got together with one of our lovely designers, Liz from Liz Designs Things, who lives out in California. We just had a girlie, nerdy, creative weekend. Coincidentally, Alyssa Yuhas from WeLikeWeLove (one of my favorite online magazines and graphic designer in her own right) happened to be visiting the beautiful desert from Canada. We were able to grab a cup of Joe with her and talk shop. Can I just say how COOL it is to connect with people in person that you've only known online!?

Of course, we HAD to throw in a fun photo shoot to document the trip. We used Prom's rad chalkboard wall in her home and stayed up until 12:00A.M. taking photos.

What I'm wearing: Long-sleeved lace t-shirt, Forever 21; Maroon knit jumper, Free People; denim jacket, J.Crew.

You can see even more on Promise's blog, and I hope you enjoyed the evidence of our creative weekend adventure.

PS - I've busted out my J.Crew 8 year old denim jacket, and I'm lovin' it!

The Haven

I hope you have heard about the awesome jewelry line 31 Bits, but if you haven't heard about it I'm super excited to be the first to share it with you because this jewelry is not only beautiful, it's helping women have a future.

The purpose of this jewelry line is to, "USE FASHION AND DESIGN TO EMPOWER WOMEN TO RISE ABOVE POVERTY." Um...need I say more!?

It was started by a group of young women that met in college, and visited Uganda. They began buying jewelry from six women in Uganda, and have since grown to 63 jewelry makers. Not only is this supporting the women in Uganda financially, but 31 Bits also provides English lessons, finance training, counseling/community groups, AIDS and health education, and vocational training. You can read more about how they help the women of Uganda here.

They have a BRAND new line coming out ON MONDAY called, "The Haven," and my very good friend Promise Tangeman is the model for the campaign.

Check out the SUPER cute teaser video, and make sure to visit 31 Bits on Monday to shop the new line!

"The Haven" - behind the scenes from 31 Bits on Vimeo.

Promise Tangeman Creative Photo Shoot

So, I'm really excited to reveal a photo shoot that I was actually in this time. I had the privilege of being photographed for Promise Tangeman Creative by our TALENTED friend Melissa Jill. Promise and I had a blast doing her photo shoot for her website and promo photos at the end of last year, and so of course, we needed to have another girl PARTY (a.k.a. photo shoot) to kick off 2011.

As I mentioned awhile back, I've been helping out Promise Tangeman with some project management, and I'm LOVING it! She is incredibly energizing, brilliant and SO encouraging. Seriously, follow along on her blog and you'll see what I mean.

I had a blast helping to put this shoot together. It took place in downtown Phoenix - the BEST place for locations in my opinion. Color, hair and makeup were the focal points of this shoot. So, of course Promise and I had our good friend and hairstylist Kim Cornwell help us in the hair department. AND...Jack of all trades, Tina Burnham, joined us to do makeup even though she has told me she isn't a makeup artist. Well, I'm sure you guys can tell from these photos that she is UBER talented as a makeup artist in addition to being a talented photographer and hair stylist. RIGHT?!!

So, as always, we collected hair, makeup and clothing inspiration for this shoot. Promise had been wanting to do a bright eye, and I have been in love with bright lips all season long, so we went our own ways with the one condition that COLOR had to be incorporated. We even painted our nails a really bright color as shown below.

As for hair...Well, as you can tell Miss Promise has hair that is unrivaled. I mean, there is NO chance I could ever do what she does with hers. This girl gets SOOO many questions about her hair and every girl in the work wishes she could get that kind of volume. I have accepted the sad truth that I'll never have "promified" hair, so Kim and I decided we would work with what I have that is unique to me - CURLS!!!

Kim did a FANTASTIC job, no? I felt like I had just stepped off the spring runway. Remember my post on fuzzy curls? Well, she nailed it!!

As for clothes, well, with color being the requirement there was no question that my red, GAP skinny jeans would be used for this shoot. They definitely make a statement. And of course, I played up my love for retro style with my gingham oxford shirt tucked in. We had a second look for which I was struggling to find something until I did a little shopping at Buffalo Exchange and found this cute magenta skirt for $7.00!!!

Promise on the other hand, had these amazing jeans that reminded her of clouds, this sweet neon green/yellow bandeaux top, a teal shirt and this AWESOME pair Zara shoes she got in Europe. I think we nailed the color requirement. haha!

In her second look she incorporated some colored denim and played up the black and white stripes trend. It looked awesome against the blue wall!

Here are some more fun photos. I hope you love them as much as we do!

Part 2 Epiphanie Shoot - Photo Reveal

In Part 1, I mentioned I had an incredible opportunity to style a photo shoot for Epiphanie Bags featuring the Lola bag and photographer/designer Promise Tangeman.

The setting for this photo shoot took place in the desert near a run down gas station during dusk. It was perfect for the free-spirited indie look I created for Promise.

I used clothes from her closet and paired different textures and patterns. I also created a cool scarf by braiding three separate ones together.

Kim Cornwell, who I have worked with on several shoots such as Equestrian Glam and Marie Antoinette, styled Promise's hair. There's definitely an essence of Native American heritage represented by the braids and earthy quality.

The photos were taken by Epiphanie Bags founder, Maile Wilson. I hope you love how it turned out as much as I did.

Don't forget to check out Epiphanie Bags! They are great even if you're not a photographer.