I'm just a Steve Urkel guy looking for my Laura

Maybe it's the leopard print hat paired with a plaid dress. Or the long flowing locks. Or maybe it's because she's just plain beautiful. I don't know, but this photo from Ms.Dore has me swept off of my feet. Remember, don't stare, don't ogle, just admire silently and to yourself. And girls, I wish you knew how much we are all caught in your trance...

you can have my heart, or we can share it like the last slice

Boy. by band of outsiders always has the best lookbooks. Marisa Tomei for fall.

A girl with a healthy sense of adventure is a girl that's always fun to be around. (one who owns a hooded trench is also probably quite cool)

Kind of makes you wish for a long distance relationship, no?

I think this photo embodies what all guys want. A girl who reads. A girl who wears pretty things. And a girl that can make you fall in love by just waiting for you in a chair.

the noumenal girl

Ms. Hepburn is almost too obvious a choice. What are you going to do? Pretend the prettiest, most charming girl in the room isn't? I always liked that she played kind of kooky women. There's something about girls with gorgeous eyes and quirky personalities.

'I already know an awful lot of people, and until one of them dies, I couldn’t possibly meet anyone else.'

-Reggie Lampert

Charade is a great film. It's my favorite of Ms. Hepburn's work. Pairing Grant and Hepburn works well and the supporting cast is pretty amazing. The scene that'll really make you fall in love with her? When she meets up with Walter Matthau and smokes a cigarette. (check out this essay on the film)

I think Audrey is for girls, what Steve McQueen is for guys. In and out of frame her style was flawless and always effortless. I think, really, though, it was her personality that made her Audrey Hepburn. The way she spoke, the way she walked. It's ephemeral and it's why we all hope we marry girls like her.

the noumenal girl

via facehunter

I told you I like plaid shirts on girls. Really, though, it's the seemingly effortless way she's dressed. Minimal, if any, makeup and adorable freckles. I bet she has a great accent too. I'm such a sucker for accents. I know it's a superficial thing, but I do love a girl with a good accent-be it southern, east coast, or european. I know girls say they get all dolled up for us, but I secretly think they do it because they like it. Most guys I know swoon over girls who keep it all simple. Why? Because it lets us see you and all the idiosyncrasies that help us fall in love with you. Or maybe I just read way too much into a photo of a pretty girl.

Much thanks to facehunter for making me an eternal optimist as I walk down the street...

the noumenal girl

Katharine Hepburn is probably the quintessential American actress. Beautiful, intelligent, and fiercely independent, Hepburn is the embodiment of the modern woman. I always loved The Lion in Winter and her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine. And who could forget her great love affair with Spencer Tracy? But forget all that. Simply stare at this picture. I dare you to find a better example of how to rock red hair. I love her eyes-no one raises an eyebrow the way Ms. Hepburn did.

She also was the prototype for the whole menswear on women style. So when your girl steals your blazer tell her she reminds you of Katharine Hepburn-I bet she smiles. Ms. Hepburn was the type of tomboy all guys dream about and all girls pretend to be.

the noumenal girl

"At the end of Lac des Cygnes when she left the stage in her great white tutu I would have followed her to the end of the world."

-Rudolf Nureyev

Margot Fonteyn is one of the reasons why we all think of ballet the way we do. Beautiful, graceful, talented; all things to look for in a woman. The best thing about a woman is catching her in an unguarded moment, a scene of quiet repose. It's these moments when you notice her shy smile, the way she tilts her head, and that, even when sitting, she is always en pointe.

the noumenal girl

"[t]hose who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly, everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful."

--Marcel Proust

merci garance dore

the noumenal girl

Seriously. Francoise Hardy. No way. Everyone on the planet wishes to be this cool.

Sigh. She's the kind of girl you totally fall in love with the first few moments of knowing her. But they're so cool you try and play it off. Then finally one day you blurt it out and she says "I knew that already."

oh nancy

Ms. Kwan certainly deserves a little more shine than she gets right now. I already wrote about her before, but she is simply amazing. She pulls every look off without trying. 

Seriously. The reification of the little black dress. 

The coolest girls always have the most fun. It's because they're always themselves and never forget to smile. 

Flawless. When you think of life with a family in that arts and crafts style home, this is the woman you think of. Never overwrought and always effortlessly beautiful. Proust, at 13 described her better than I-  "[t]hose who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly, everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful."

the noumenal girl

I don't know what it is about this photo. If I saw her walking down the street, I would know instantly that spring was here, the economy will rebound, and global warming was just a phase.

ps you can buy that skirt at nasty gal vintage.  

the noumenal girl

Catherine Deneuve. If I ever met her I think my life could probalby be considered complete. I remember I watched Un Chien Andalou in high school. Then at university I picked up another Bunuel film. Belle de Jour. I dare you to find a better movie of its kind. 

I don't know why, but I feel like Catherine Deneuve is like that gorgeous grad student who helps you with your senior thesis. Quirky and coquettish, every time you met at the coffee shop she'd have her nose in Wayne Booth's The Rhetoric of Fiction and her feet in the sexiest high heels. Whenever you ran into her, she was always dressed to the nines and always impeccably spoken. And you always wondered what she was thinking behind that smile...

ps how about  more girls wear cool headbands? the bowtie one Ms. Deneuve has on is quite nice. urban outfitters has one.

the noumenal girl

So it's valentine's day and I had to stumble across this picture. I'm not even sure Grace Kelly was ever real. I mean look at her. I always thought that Helen of Troy probably looked like Grace Kelly. The fact that she is wearing glasses and has another pair perched on her head makes her even more perfect. So what's the lesson here girls? Woven fabrics are always in. Glasses make a perfect girl's imperfect eyes even more adorable. And that Ms. Kelly made it really hard for the rest of you ladies...

I had to add this one too. I think if I saw two women of this caliber in the same room I could die. I know Audrey and Grace are easy style icons to pick, but sometimes it's the right choice. If you're going to pick a basketball player to emulate, it'd be Jordan, right? Same here. Let's everyone copy the style and grace of these two women. Forever. Simple hair, gloves, and impeccable good looks. That's all a lady needs, right?

the noumenal girl

I want to live in The Sartorialist's world. All the women are smartly dressed and the men have style and grace. sigh.I don't really know what it means that I notice that her shoes have t-straps...but I do know that I like her shoes. And her bag. She seems like the girl you met during that semester abroad in Paris. You were supposed to study international finance and the effects of globalization but instead you marveled at how she smoked endless cigarettes and drank really strong coffee. That and the way she dressed made you feel like you were in a movie.

How come whenever I buy food on the street it's always just me and the vendor? If you saw this girl at a food stand, you'd go back to the food stand at the same time the next day. Not because you wanted to see her again...that hot dog and knish is just that good right?
Gloves! I really do think gloves are pretty much the coolest accessory ever for girls. She would look a lot different is she wasn't wearing the gloves. The fact that she tops it off with a nice blazer and a cool haircut means she pretty much wins.

How badly do you wish she was meeting you for coffee? You wouldn't even care that she has no explanation for being an hour late.

I've decided that all girls need a great jacket and a great pair of gloves. That and we all need to live as if the sartorialist was just around the corner with his camera...

the noumenal girl

The noumenal girl. That's the girl who listened to Joy Division and xtc in high school. Who if she smokes, smokes Dunhills. She makes killer steak and frites and has better taste in movies than you. She also has incredible style and makes every other woman look like the j.v. squad. In other words, she's the perfect girl.

For me, Nancy Kwan is a noumenal girl. A muse for Sassoon. She's the reason why girls cut their hair into bobs. And why you like it.

If you have not seen The Wild Affair, you must. The only real reason is to see Nancy Kwan in a wardrobe by Mary Quant rocking Vidal Sassoon's bob. That and to understand why I have an impossible notion of women. The style of the film is quintessential '60's mod and will make you wish you were born in London in 1961. It will also make you wish every girl wore their hair in a bob and rocked vintage Quant shift dresses.