when you trust your style, you're trusting your heart. welcome to my blog, a celebration of fashion, art and design + all the people who trust their own style.

- mary jo matsumoto



















managing cash flow

business plans

copyright

giving

business cards





thursday, april 29, 2010

trust



this is a photo of me and my friend rebecca at a 50s party during college. i was 17 or 18 years old. we got together last night for drinks and were talking about how much harder it seems to be a young girl now. if you don't have the money to get plastic surgery these days, you're out of luck. we were laughing about how when we were in college at berkeley, showing your cleavage was just about the lamest thing you could do, like an offense to other females--all the cool kids would be like "don't you have anything better to show for yourself?"

like me, rebecca is a transplant to orange county from los angeles. we were talking about the process of making new friends and how the only people we really trust are the friends we made when we were in college--for me that was between the ages of 17-21. those people are still the ones i hold dearest. that, and my blogging friends. i really did tell her that! something about the process of getting to know people little by little, day by day through their diaries and comments is a very intimate process. i never dreamed when i started blogging 6 years ago that it would become such a big thing my life. it was meant to be a commentary on style to brand my company, but it became a place where age, occupation, and appearance were bridged, and it didn't matter and never really did whether my friends have "style" as long as they have goodness. okay good people, i am signing off. if my blog comes back tomorrow there will be a nice giveaway--if not, first thing monday!

xoxo mary jo


wednesday, april 28, 2010

back in a minute!



just wanted to let you know that my internet was down yesterday and today my blog will be migrating to non-ftp blogger and may or may not be down for a full 24 hours at some point in the near future. hopefully there will be no down time, but if it happens, i'll be tweeting more to compensate. so please check back soon--i have a wonderful giveaway this week + lots of stylish things to share with you!

in the meantime, the winner of last week's tonic giveaway {chosen by the random number generator} is teri rees wang. congrats! please contact me at trustyourstyle@gmail.com so i can find out what products you'd like and have them sent to you.



monday, april 26, 2010

monday's bittersweet obsessions


bittersweet obsessions by orly cogan


the only thing better than coffee and fashion on a chilly monday morning is coffee and art, so please join me with a steaming cup and let's catch up. this weekend i was able to stop by orly cogan's reception for her new show, love street, at the charlie james gallery in chinatown in los angeles.




i really enjoyed orly's work--modern themes about the roles of women and their desires juxtiposed on granny linens. the play of the sweet embroidery and all of it's connotations of submissive femininity contrasted with subversive content somehow works brilliantly.


searching for my prince


i only wish these photos better conveyed the sewing, applique and painting details which are quite stunning in person. using vintage printed fabrics and found embroideries, she embellishes them with her own concepts and questions about femininity. as orly explained to me at her opening, the show addresses the different stages of femininity and love: hopeful love {the girls and the appliqued frogs}; bitter love--an arrangement of pillows embroidered with familiar comments: it's not you it's me, we can still be friends, is that what you're wearing?}; obsessive love {the piece with girls snorting cocain and eating cupcakes}.

if you're in los angeles, the show runs through june 19. you can see more of her work at orlycogan.com.

despite some killer traffic getting in to see the show, it ended up being a really fun weekend! i got together with some of my friends in los angeles after the show for a nice dinner, checked out a new {at least for me} silverlake hot spot, had a great sunday brunch {thank you cynthia!} plus did a little hipster shopping on sunday before heading home. and somehow i ended up picking up three new gray sweaters in less than 24 hours--i guess you can never have too many gray sweaters...hoping you had a good weekend too. what did you do?