High Fashion in Little Rock

Hello from Illinois! Happy Father's Day to my dad, who is probably the only dad who reads this blog. But if there are other fathers out there reading, happy day to you too! I am glad to be home spending some time with family, and I enjoyed our lunch of gas station pizza and grocery store cake. Do we know how to treat dad or what?!

It was a whirlwind last few days of driving here from Austin. I left Friday morning and the first place I stopped was the tire shop, where I got an already-patched tire repatched. Got on the road and spotted some lovely fields of sunflowers somewhere south of Dallas. There was a rest stop directly in front of a field, so I stopped to smell the flowers. They are huge!  

The sunflowers were camera shy.  

These flowers were a bright spot after taking a little tour through the West. West, TX is the tiny little town near Waco that was devastated by the fertilizer plant explosion just about two months ago. The streets are lined with dumpsters and every house is spraypainted with a giant X or the letters OK. Windows are boarded up, the middle school had billboard signs draped over the gym as a temporary roof, signs for roofing companies decorate the lawns, some houses were reduced to rubble, and the intermediate school was destroyed. The damage pattern didn't seem consistent - some houses appeared unharmed on the same block as some that were a total loss. Nonetheless, the entire community was affected and my heart hurts for that poor little town. 

Back on the road for about another hour when I decided the shaking in my car wasn't ok. Stopped for lunch and a tire balance. 

Big shout out to the NTB in Greenville for taking good care of my car in a short time frame! 

All that, and I wasn't even out of Texas yet! I had to get back on schedule, as I was meeting my mom in Little Rock. She flew down just to drive back with me! It worked out perfectly; she landed about 10 minutes after I got into town. We stayed across town from the airport, so we got to see some of the city on our drive. We had a nice relaxing dinner at a little Italian spot named Bruno's, where Bruno himself cooked up some great pasta dishes and made sure it was to our liking. 

The next morning, we made a stop by the Clinton Presidential Library, which was really cool. I have only been to one other presidential library (LBJ's in Austin) before this, but I want to visit as many as I can - they are filled with great exhibits and of course history. 

 

 

 

 

What a great year 1997 was - I graduated high school and went off to college.

Though I love politics and even started out as a poli sci major, I can't lie - my favorite part of the museum was viewing the Oscar de la Renta collection. This exhibit will be at the library through December and features some extravagant attire that First Ladies Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush wore to inaugurations, as well as some gorgeous dresses worn by Hollywood stars. The room was quite dark so that the exquisite fabric wouldn't be dulled by the lights. No flash photography allowed, but the phone takes some pretty great pictures in the dark! 

 

 

Sarah Jessica Parker wore the long poofy gold dress, Jennifer Garner the long slim gold gown, and Taylor Swift wore the short dress. Can't remember who wore the silver dress on the left.

From the far left, a suit worn by Laura Bush, dress and cape from Nancy Reagan, and pantsuit from Hillary Clinton. Chelsea Clinton recently wore the silver dress, and Hillary Clinton wore the velour dress for a White House Christmas picture.

I don't think anyone in this picture has been a President or First Lady.

There were more displays of the designer's collections (though unrelated to the White House):

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 Fashion and reality are often at such odds with one another, at least in my world!

My mom and me in front of the full-size replica of the Oval Office.

That stop was the high point of the day. We made a couple little stops along the way in Missouri, but nothing quite compared to the Oscar de la Renta exhibit. 

 Our trip was culturally diverse - from designer dresses to do-rags, we saw it all.

Hope you had a great weekend - check back soon, as I have lots of pictures from today's Third Sunday Market to share!

Have a chic week, 

~Sarah