Aside from traveling the world as a duo and taking photographs of and with each other, we spend the majority of our time together in New York grabbing brunch and some form of desert as a way of rewarding ourselves for waking up at 7am on a Saturday to go shoot photos. When we are actually creating content for the blog, we are very much in the zone and our conversations focus on the work, so grabbing brunch, ice cream or in this case both, is a time for us to actually talk about our personal lives and bring back the friendship that is so deeply rooted in our work. It's quite funny because when we look back through our 9-year friendship, we essentially still do the same things we did back in high school during our hang-out sessions which is basically eat, coordinate our outfits, laugh a lot, and take some photos. Except back then, we were much healthier and stuffed our faces full with frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, which was the hot, new thing back in 2010-2012. Luckily, our style coordination has definitely improved since our hideous matching green Abercrombie & Fitch zip-up days that are now replaced with floral flirty dresses and feminine rompers. We purchased both of these items last year before the start of our summer long Europe trips, and loved how dresses/rompers easily fit into a suitcase, were comfortable for walking around in 90 degree weather, and still managed to help us look put together and stylish! As much as we hate to admit it, we get bored of our existing wardrobe relatively quickly and often have feelings of "Ew..why did I ever think that [top, bottom, dress, etc.] was cute or ok to wear out in public?" This was a topic of discussion during our past brunch date and immediately we started listing off items in our respective closets that gave us buyer's remorse. Interestingly enough, both the romper and the dress are pieces that we would absolutely re-purchase today since they are so wearable and the prints are perfect for the summer season.
Mel: I haven't religiously shopped at Forever 21 since my pre-college years, but absolutely couldn't resist adding this dress to my cart last year when I was browsing the site. Though the price points at Forever 21 were spectacular during my unemployed high school days, their clothes were never statement pieces or high quality enough to survive multiple seasons of wear and eventually, I moved on to other brands such as Zara for trendier items, or Madewell for the basics. That being said, if you spend enough time on their site, you may be able to find some treasures such as this gorgeous floral chiffon dress. This dress reminds me of the Australian fashion label, Finders Keepers, whose dresses that are similar to this one easily sell for $150-$200. I love how even though there is a cherry blossom print, the dress still remains in the neutral category since the colors are quite soft and muted, making it more wearable on casual basis. The elegance of the long sleeves and the chiffon material balances out the sprinkle of sexiness due to the low neckline in the front of the dress, but since the open neckline isn't too wide, this dress can be worn in more occasions than just going clubbing on a Friday night.
Jess: I definitely have phases when it comes to shopping motivation, but I tend to ramp it up before big events and for fun vacations. I picked up this floral number when I was browsing Revolve.com before my incredible summer in Europe last summer, and found it surprising that it was marked down to just $35! If you follow #RevolveAroundtheWorld like Mel and I do on Instagram, you're probably pretty envious about all of the incredible clothes on Revolve.com and get a bit sad about how crazy some of the prices are. I love a lot of the styles on the site, so when I do feel like picking up some new clothes, I check out the sale section (make sure you don't purchase FINALE SALE unless you're positive about your size since you can't return those items). I promise you'll be able to snatch up some great deals like this floral number! I wore it Santorini last year but have found plenty of excuses to wear it back in non-tropical NYC.
With Love,
Jessica & Melissa
