She's doing it a' la mode...

She’s doing it a’ la mode…

Although Alison Messinger has been filtering the visual world through a discerning eye since she was a child, she credits a five-week trip to Paris for jump-starting her eclectic style. “When I came back from Paris, I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s so ugly here’,” says the 26 year old, who grew up in the Bay Area. “I thought, ‘Well I can’t change the architecture, but at least I can change up my personal look’.”

While getting her masters at The Academy of Art in San Francisco, Messinger started a fashion blog, Eclectic a’ la mode, which serves as a visual repository for her creativity. “I’m kind of ADD,” she admits, “I needed a place where I can make creative things and put them down, to not forget them. And if other people want to look at them too, that’s really cool.”

Messinger’s appreciation for collectibles stems from her grandmother, who gave her early primers in table ware. “When I was eight, instead of teaching me how to bake cookies, she was describing how to distinguish proper bone china.” Messinger now collects small figurines and found objects you can hold in your hand. “They have sentimental value, but a nice aesthetic too,” she says. Her favorite is a recent flea market acquisition. “It’s a horse made out of brass from the 1930s,” she explains. “This guy told me it would have been given out as a prize in old San Francisco.”

Another obsession of Messingers is shoes. “I think I have 53 pairs of shoes,” she laughs. “It’s getting to the point where it’s really frustrating, because I’m running out of closet space.” She recently received several highly coveted pairs of vintage Ferragamos from her maternal grandmother, a former model. “I hardly ever take them out of the box,” she says, “because I’m terrified that I will wreck them. They are all really old style pumps with the gold Ferragamo buckle. They remind me of having tea.”

When it comes to jewelry, Messinger is careful to leave her better pieces at home. “I’m kind of clumsy, so there are family heirlooms that I will hardly ever wear, because I’m afraid to lose them.” Instead she finds all these “under 50 buck rings that are from local designers.” One of her favorites, she says, “is a lion’s head ring that has a crystal in its mouth, that was designed by local artist Jan Michaels.” Another one she treasures is made from a coin from the 1920s from Burma.

Since starting her blog, which features fashion picks, shots of Messinger modeling, and some of her distinctive artwork, the site has taken off. “I found out that I’m visited by 120 countries. I have no idea how these people find me.” But the good news is that she gets free merchandise from companies who find out about her. “That’s one cool perk about being a blogger,” she says, “People send me stuff. But first they look at my blog and see what my style is, and so I haven’t gotten anything that I haven’t liked.”