.

I’ve seriously been listening to their debut album all weekend. The sisterly duo from Portland, Oregon are the daughters of Christian missionaries. The experiences from what I imagine can only ensue from such a lifestyle shines through their lyrics—the wonderment of God and the beauty of a relationship with the Lord mixed in with a little feminine angst. Musically, they remind me of Tegan and Sara, another pair of sisters I’m a big fan of, but I think Tal & Acacia have a bit more soulful depth to their voices.

Wake Me is available on Amazon & ITunes for $5.99.

Given that I live in, work in, and pretty much breathe the entertainment industry, I’ve decided to publish a movie guide each month for you ladies. I won’t cover all releases (if you have a request, shoot me an email) but will specially focus on releases with female characters.

BRIGHT STAR – Out Now
Writer/Director, Jane Campion (Female Director Alert!!)
Starring: Abbie Cornish & Ben Wishaw

Bright Star is the true(ish) story of the romance between famed writer John Keats and his neighbor Fanny Braun that inspired his poem Bright Star.

I saw it last week….and I cried. When I say cried, I don’t mean I got misty, I mean that there were legitimate tears falling. I didn’t think this was going to happen given that I already knew what the end of the story was, but alas it still pulled at my heartstrings. I don’t want to give too many details about the story away, but I totally recommend this flick. In addition to it being entertaining and breathtaking cinematically, the fashion is AMAZING. Go see it and bring a tissue box. Seriously.

WHIP IT – Out Now
Director – Drew Barrymore
Writer – Shauna Cross
Starring: Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Eve, Marcia Gay Harden

I haven’t seen this one yet, but as a big fan of Ellen Page, I do plan to. Plus, I’m curious to see Barrymore’s directing skills.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – Out October 16
Directed by Spike Jonez
Written by Spike Jonez & David Eggers

I have to admit I’ve never read the book, but every time I mention this movie to someone, typically the person salivates. It’s a cool concept; I plan to see it.

AMELIA – Out October 23
Directed by Mira Nair
Writer: Ronald Bass & Anna Hamilton Phelan
Starring: Hilary Swank, Ewan McGregor

An Oscar Winner + An Awesome true story = What’s not to love? The tag line for the film is “Defying The Impossible. Living The Dream.” Well, I can’t wait.

As an aside, last night I went to a screening of “The Waiting City,” a movie about a couple that travels to India to claim their adopted baby, and in the process must confront their troubled marriage. I met Claire McCarthy, the writer/director of the film last week after mass through some Catholic film friends, and was highly impressed by her talent and ethos.

The Waiting City just had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival two weeks ago, and will be released in America at some point next year. I was emotionally moved by the film, and definitely recommend you see it once it is released. You can check out the trailer here.

I went to Jessica’s house yesterday to hang out and film some promos for Decent Exposure when she yelled at me, “I have to show you this website!”

LA Vintage is a new-to-me online boutique for one-of-a-kind vintage clothing. It’s pretty much the online version of my favorite vintage brick-and-mortar store Jet Rag. Everything is adorable at an affordable price, most pieces being under $50!

Low and behold, right after Jes and I plowed through the entire website oohing and ahhing, her husband brought in a package from the mail—the clothes she had previously ordered from the site including this swim dress:

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s even cuter in person! The bad news is that the suit was too big for Jes. The good news is that it is a perfect fit on me! And yes I’m buying it from her….

Although I myself did not purchase directly from LA Vintage, I saw the quality of the pieces and was rather impressed.  The site includes shoes and plus size clothing (the garments are pinned to fit the models, so please be sure to check the measurements before placing an order.)  Long story short, you can consider LA Vintage Modestia-approved.

Exit Question: Do you like the design of the suit? If so, I’ll pass the message along and a reproduction of it may just end up in the 2010 line of Rey Swimwear.

The Ugly Truth

A fake orgasm never looked so fake…

In this romcom, Katherine Heigl plays Abby, an uptight TV producer forced to confront her rules about love and dating when she begins to produce “The Ugly Truth,” a show for women hosted by a misogynistic and disgusting playboy named Mike (Gerard Butler.) When Abby becomes interested in her new neighbor, Mike promises that if she follows his rules, she will have Colin eating out of the palm of her hand. These rules include sexing up Abby’s wardrobe and eating “phallic” shaped objects. (Errm…ok…) In the end, Abby does get Colin, a seemingly stereotypically nice guy with a fake tan and cheek bones I highly suspect have been surgically enhanced, but then realizes she’s lost herself.

Being an advocate of modesty in dress, I found the film’s approach to the topic to be full of mistakes at best. Mike explains to Abby that men are visual and therefore she needs to dress much sexier to garner the attention of men. OK, but then later on in the film he tells her she needs to keep some of her mystery to keep a guy’s attention. Well which is it Mike? Mystery or boobs on display?

The storyline continues with this battle of the sexes, and in the end the message of the film is a little fuzzy…which of course is a social commentary on dating in and of itself.

500 Days of Summer

The plot of this film can be surmised with the phrase, “the guy who wasted his time on the girl who just wanted to have fun.”

500 Days of Summer is the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is your typical average Joe—he works in an office, lives in a grungy studio apartment, goes to bars with his friends on the weekends, etc. When Tom meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) he is convinced that she is “The One”…despite her clear statement that she isn’t looking for anything serious. (I think the audience heard it and Tom just missed it. Poor thing…) Director Mark Webb then takes us on jumps through time to see the various stages of the couple’s relationship. Signals get crossed, sex ensues, break ups and drunken karaoke songs abound…

Critics keep ranting and raving about this one, but quite honestly I found it boring most of the time. This was due large in part to the lack of character development in Summer. We spend most of the film on an emotional roller coaster with Tom, but the film never really shows the audience why we should be so in love with Summer too, only that Tom sees something phenomenal within her. Admittedly she’s got great fashion sense, but other than that, I didn’t really get it. I sat with my apathy for a while and determined that perhaps this confusion is what Webb wanted?

I found the third act of the film to be the most satisfying. The plot twist elicited a general WTF? from the entire audience. Though it wasn’t an exhilarating ride through horrible dialogue and bomb detonations, I would recommend this one.

Paper Heart

In a pseudo-documentary that isn’t (or perhaps is…or something…) Charlene Yi (played by herself) embarks on a cross-country quest to make a documentary about the definition love and she does not believe in love. Through her trek, Charlene meets Michael Cera (played by himself) and the two fall in love…or do they?

Pressured by the camera crew that now wants to include her dating life in the film, Charlene must continue to confront her pessimism about love while simultaneously falling for the quirky nice guy.

Although I have been looking forward to seeing this film since the beginning of year, I was surprised by how much I liked it. I was literally holding my stomach laughing in some areas, and can I just say I’m glad to see a film in which a normal girl gets the guy?

As a filmmaker myself, part of what I found so hilarious was the ongoing behind-the-scenes comedy within the film crew—standing in the rain, running around in grocery stores—hey it’s all for the integrity of the film man!

Charlene’s interviews of random couples were also incredibly heart-warming and gave a reality check on love and marriage not often seen in films. What is love? Is it a feeling or a decision? Charlene seems to take the opinion of the former as she doesn’t think she could ever “feel” so strongly about someone, but the stories of the couples seem to support the latter. (Duh!)

All that being said, the ending was awful…like…God-awful…and I say that because I don’t think it had enough substance for the subject matter the film was trying to undertake. Despite this, I still recommend you go check this movie out.

BTW, Charlene Yi is the co-writer of the film and only two years older than me…quite inspiring for the soon-to-be senior in film school.

Sherel’s is a family-owned women’s hats and hair accessories company specializing in vintage-inspired and couture pieces. Many of the products are handmade, and all of them are manufactured with the finest European materials. (Nothing from China.)

I have had the pleasure of speaking with one of the owners of Sherel’s on a few occasions and hope to do a sponsored give-a-way contest with them at some point in the future. Sherel’s products can be found online, and in other high end stores and boutiques like Bergdorf Goordman.

A few weeks ago, I checked out two of Forever 21’s new lines, Faith 21 and Love 21 while I was down in the OC.

I wrote about Faith 21—aka Forever 21’s attempt at attracting plus size customers—a few months ago with little to no enthusiasm, and as it turns out, I was quite right to reserve any excitement until I actually saw the garments.

It was immediately clear to me that the design team did not contain any plus-sized women, and if it did, they don’t know how to dress themselves. I don’t mean to be harsh, but at least half of the line was not designed with curves in mind.

Most of the tops were fine, but 95% of the skirts and dresses were waaaaaaaay too short.

For example, this garment is being sold as a “dress.”

This might be a dress on a petite girl who is 4′10, but this isn’t a dress on the average-height plus sized woman like the model it is being shown on. (She doesn’t even look comfortable, does she? I mean with one cool breeze…)

I give the Faith 21 line kudos for manufacturing affordable skinny jeans, but that’s about it. The line is supposed to be “plus sized” but the sizes only go up to 3x. I tested the sizing by trying on garments from 1x-3x without feeling too much difference between them. In other words, anyone over a size 16 is probably not going to be able to wear a lot of the pieces. I have the luxury of having a body type that allows me to shop in both average sized and plus sized stores, but most girls are not like me. Where’s the love Faith 21?

I’m giving the line a solid D. Anyone disagree with me?

The Love 21 Contemporary line is a whole other story. I tried on 7 or 8 pieces and loved every one of them. Most of the line is very work appropriate, and many of the looks can be turned into cocktail attire, brunch, or any other “Sunday morning” type of event.

Looklet is a fashion website that allows you to be the stylist. Pick a model, pick a set, and pick any combination of designer clothes for her to wear!

I “discovered” Looklet yesterday while at work, came straight home, and then created a page. I apparently spent about three hours making outfits when I noticed it was dark out, and my stomach was hurting because I was hungry, LOL.

The site is in its beta version, so there are a few kinks here and there (ex: swimwear is listed as underwear), but overall, it’s a lot of fun.  It’s definitely a great tool for girls that may be new to modesty, or are still a little afraid to experiment.

Some looks I made last night:

Gossip Girl circa ‘85

Early Fall Day

Drinks With the Girls

Hippy Picnic

You can check out my page of looks here. I’m not done yet!

I’m thinking about doing some sort of giveaway contest with the site. Cutest look wins? What do you think?

Slowly but surely as I purchase items from online stores or discover new modest-minded enterprises I think you should know about, I will review them here. Next week I will be publishing an official Modestia review of Eliza Magazine; this week’s review is of the online boutique Myshape.com.

Back in February, I asked what you thought I should wear to the Catholic Underground LA RED Party. I didn’t end up picking any of the options you voted on, but rather ordered this pleated floral skirt by AGB, priced at $40 from Myshape.com.

Admittedly, I was really nervous about ordering from Myshape because I had never ordered anything from the site before and the clock was ticking. The party was on a Saturday, and I ordered the skirt on Monday evening. Much to my surprise, I received my package on Thursday morning!

Part of the reason I received my order so quickly was because the warehouse and I are located in the same state. However, Myshape still gets major points for such fast service because I have ordered from certain sites like Old Navy.com that can take anywhere from 2-3 days just to process your order, even if you select rush shipping.

The skirt was beautiful, exactly as pictured, and well-made. I used the sizing guide on the site, and it fit perfectly. The skirt came wrapped in a pretty bag within the box like a present, complete with a signed card of thanks for ordering. There was no discount card included for my next purchase, but since I am a registered member of the site, I receive sale and discount emails a few times a week.

Overall, I was very happy with my purchase, and on the day of the party I received a number of compliments. I will be ordering from Myshape again, and I think I can officially say that Myshape.com is Modestia-approved!