Waveborn shades will be joining us at the Sweetlife Festival in the TRASHed store. Waveborn provides extremely cool, quality sunglasses with a mission. With every pair of Waveborn glasses bought, the company donates eyeglasses to those in need. Four colors of their shades will be availible at the festival and they’ll also be raffling off one of each pair. Additionally, they’ll be handing out discount cards for 25% off your next purchase. Make sure you stop by the TRASHed store to check them out & enjoy the ride.

Cult Gaia is everything. It is an off kilter, whimsical brand that celebrates the exploration of fantasy, fun, and everyone’s inner rebellious charm. Colliding rebellion, romance, and everyones inner child, Cult Gaia is designed to woo you, and remind you that few things are as profound as nature, beauty, good times and comfort among like minds.

Cult Gaia makes a variety of high quality, beautiful crowns and turbands for the urbanite needing a break from city life. For nights of debauchery. For romance and rebellion, For fairtales and fables. for bad hair days. For nostalgia, for fun, for friends, for festivals, for birthdays, for dancing, for living the sweetlife. Cult Gaia will bring whimsy and fun to your life.

Cult Gaia will be joining us at the Sweetlife Festival with an exculsive sweetgreen crown in the VIP lounge. For beauty, grace, glory, good times and sould alike. CULT GAIA.

Believe it or not, Sweetlife Festival 2012 is just around the corner. If you’re a sartorially-minded lady I’m willing to bet you’ve started thinking about your outfit. And if you haven’t, don’t worry – you’ve come to the right place.

The other day I had the chance to visit Style Étoile, a boutique in Rockville, Maryland. The store, owned by sisters Christina and Natalie Albina, is a short metro ride outside DC but feels a lot more like an out-of-this-world fashion wonderland. Christina did all of us wondering what to wear an enormous favor by putting together these sweetlife inspired ensembles (I’m telling you, she has a gift).

The first look, Heavy Metal, ensures that you’ll be dancing all the way through the final set in those unreal converse. The second, Punk Princess,  keeps it a little brighter while the third, Tropical Punch, kills it with the leader shorts. Sweetlife Sparkle is next – can we talk about those sunglasses? The last look, Almost Famous, proves that practical layers can look waaay better than practical.

So you can stop staring dejectedly at your closet and begging your friends to just pick your outfit for you — Style Étoile has come to the rescue. All of these things and so, so much more are for sale in store and on their website.

Let’s talk about underwear. Specifically, let’s talk about MeUndies, a company that understands the need for high-quality and affordable clothing basics… and by basics, I mean underwear. Intrigued? Thought so.

MeUndies founders Jonathan Shokrian and Barak Diskin saw the whole underwear shopping experience as having some inherent problems. Specifically, it’s something you’re constantly buying more of, but most of it is uncomfortable, heavily branded, or low quality. That’s why the created MeUndies. Visit their site to become a MeUndies member and take a short and fun quiz that pick your perfect pair. For $16 a month you’ll have a new, high-quality pair waiting on your doorstep! And, because MeUndies has cut out the middle man, customers save money (and time) while getting what Shokrian and Diskin promise are the “most comfortable underwear ever”. Problem solved.

If you don’t want to take the subscription plunge just yet, you can stop by a MeUndies vending machine to grab a pair. That’s right — stores, hotels, and airports now boast shiny underwear-dispensing machines. It’s like some kind of underwear nirvana, right?

RAW: natural born artists is a independent arts organization currently spotlighting local artistic talent in 30+ cities nationwide. RAW Artists seeks out developing artists in the beginning of their careers and creates a community that fosters their creativity and gives them the tools and exposure they need.

A big part of the sweetlife involves living local and supporting your community. As longtime fans of DC’s arts scene, we couldn’t be happier that RAW has recently come to Washington, DC! On the second Thursday of every month they hold a showcase featuring twenty of the very best artists in the city. We’re talking upcoming and emerging designers, bands, filmmakers, hair & make-up artists, visual & performance artists, and photographers. Previous showcases have seen Nayas, a DC-band that plays a fusion of Latin, Reggae, and Rock. Those familiar with the Latin scene will surely have heard of the band, which has been well known for over a decade. Work by Clinton Rozelle, a DC artist who uses many different materials including collage and tempra, has also been featured. Check out one of his paintings below.

Their next showcase, entitled ”Menagerie”, is being held on April 12th at Cafe Asia. Tickets are $10 in advance and can be purchased on the website, which also has more details on the various artists featured.  In addition to the performing artists, painters, and photographers, the more sartorially inclined will be pleased to hear that fashion designer Talisa Johnson will be showing off her line Talisa Michelle. With the variety RAW:natural born artists showcases, there’s something there for everyone!

If you’re looking to become a RAW Artist – submit your work to: www.rawartists.org in your local city!

Small changes in your preexisting wardrobe can update your closet classics and change up your look without splurging. Subtle details are often the ones that set an outfit apart. By manipulating the silhouette you can transform a look. Some tricks that are currently inspiring us are:

Riffing off a popular viral video train, Lululemon (who we’re unsurprisingly pretty obsessed with) came up with their own self-deprecating take on the trend. Above, check out “Sh*t yogis say” and then maybe we can go do an infrared sauna and get some wheatgrass shots. Namaste, y’all.

If you’re a fan of Lana Del Ray’s recent music video for Born To Die, big brass choruses, anything sun-drenched, or Katy Perry – well boy do we have a present for you.

Yoann Lemoine is the visonary behind some of the music industries best current music videos. Most recnetly, he directed Lana Del Ray’s video Born To Die – one of my favorite videos from 2012, with its gorgeous European setting and slow dramatic shots. Turns out Lemoine is a musician himself – and has directed a music video for his own new project, Woodkid. In Woodkid, Lemoine takes the visual drama we see in his videos and infuses it into his music. The result is relatively arresting.

His video for Iron is above. Below is an unrelated but totally delightful commercial he recently directed for Lipton International.

Not sold yet? Oh yeah. He also directed Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. BOOM.

As part of their holiday 2011 campaign, Madewell combined two of my favorite things – video photo shoots, and “choose your own adventure.” As Elle Magazine puts it,”the interactive film stars Dree Hemingway and stylist Marina Muñoz sitting side by side, one drinking coffee and one tea, until you choose the direction in which you want the film to go.  First you pick the girl, and then you make outfit choices like “dress up” or “confetti” by clicking on the video itself.” Check out the video above for a full rundown of how the shoot was created.

The video is styled beautifully – but I’m almost more enamored with the seamless technology that allows the short film to flow continuously as you choose which direction you want the shoot to evolve. The level of interactivity is flawless – I can’t wait to see what other brands, artists, or musicians use this model in the future.

Choose your own adventure music video? Here’s hoping!

Fashion is confusing and counterintuitive. Just when one season is kicking into gear, the fashion world is 2 steps ahead, planning for the opposite season change. Enter “Lookbooks.”

I like to think of lookbooks as the EPs of fashion. It’s just a teaser. A little single release to give you a sense of the tone of the season, so you can tee up your trend trackers accordingly.

No one seems to have done look books better than Opening Ceremony – who have a video version above. Extra points are given for their live animation-style filming and awesome soundtrack - ”Stinging Nettles” by Hortlax Cobra.

Give it a watch and check out all the summery love thats coming our way in 2012. Then put your jacket back on cause winter hasn’t even hit us yet.