American Apparel's halloween costumes on the blog have become somewhat of a tradition. So here's my favorites from this years, or the best photos anyway. Feeling the group shots this time round & if my outfit wasn't all sewn up already I would be right now this minute trying to scrape together the money & convincing 3 friends to dress up as vegetables with me. I love how embarrassed they all look too, exactly what your halloween costume should make you feel like! Although there weren't too many scary one's this year... The clowns are pretty horrific & uhr, the highschool zombies. Anyway you can find what makes up the Bizarro Clowns, Vegetables & 90's Girl Power Group *ahem* by clicking on the words. And the rest of the costumes are here on the AA website. Much love.

What are you 

dressing as?

Rihanna I fucking love you. This video is amazing. & yes it's appropriating culture that doesn't belong to it, & glossing over shit like mad as well as lifting style from Corinne Day; but it's beautiful! The male model guy she's with is beautiful, the clothes she wears are beautiful & the portrayal of love turned to passion turned to hate is fucking beautiful too. Highlights are when she storms off & has to hook her skirt down, lighting 20 cigarettes at once, the Trainspotting drugs sequence, the fake tattooing & her vomiting up ribbons.

Plus I'm in Belfast so it's vaguely appropriate having been filmed on uhr... the same island. I'm here visiting the half of my family I didn't see last weekend. I am a little fam'd out, but at least I won't have to do it for a while afterwards. Anything amazing in Belfast I should do?

We found Dove in a 
soapless place.

I'd been promising myself some time to look at my clothes & try stuff out to prepare for winter.  Does anyone else do that? J treated me like I was clinically insane... but then there aren't many variations on black jeans, black band t-shirt. After some jumper/dress combos that may be marginally successful, I landed on this dress. I got it in Berlin from a pretty good vintage shop, it reminded me of the central Beyond Retro but the stock was like 100 times better & less static inducing (Alex's vintage I think, near Cash that one that eveyone recommends but was shit).

The hottish weather has meant I've overlooked this lovely crimplene dress because it's just so damn thick. But it's cold enough to get away with & if I take off the tights for work (where it's pretty hot) then it's slightly practical too, yay! Minus the belly inducing waist belt... haha. I love crimplene because (as you can see from the gif) it doesn't move! You lean one way & it stays where it is. I can't count the number of times I've put something on, thought I was prepared for the weather & then realised that in the slightest wind it wants to expose my underwear to the world. Not this bad boy.

In other news I'm feeling pretty chuffed with myself having finally made it to a Doctors appointment yesterday & I also had Cat turn my hair into an afro so I'm abducting her to reproduce it for halloween. I'm really looking forward to it! A little pissed about probably missing Friday night at the lanes because I get back from Belfast pretty late, but Saturday & Monday should make up for it. What are you guys doing? Is anyone else appalled at the lack of stamina shown for people doing Halloween stuff on Monday night?

Just me?

By way of some semblance of an apology for my absence here is some beauty for your screen. The work of Andreas Loszlo Konrath has embarrassingly only just come to my attention via the New York magazine that my sister brought back with her last weekend from America. The article on the "lost generation" that I am a cliche of was actually really interesting too, with Konrath's photographs of hipsters with tape scrawled with things like "STUCK" & "Everyone default on your loans" etc, etc illustrating the piece wonderfully enough to catch my attention. Actually, kudos all round for New York magazine, even their joke dissection of a zombie brain is presented beautifully.

Anyway, yes, where have I been? Well no where really. I've been at work. Went to London for a family reunion last weekend. Got pretty ill and slept/relaxed it off between bursts of stress as work. It pisses me off that when people hear I work in a bookshop they assume I sit there all day reading proofs, when actually I've spent the last month dealing with some of the worst human beings known to planet Bristol: Bristol Students. I actively hate and resent them. I'm sorry if you turned up as one of the rare nice people amongst the upper class scum. But honestly I despair for needing a lawyer, doctor or um... French speaker in the future when these clowns are running around. Enough of that.

Basically mostly I've just been really fucking happy at the moment. Life is pretty good despite not really going anywhere. But I have missed finding lovely stuff, thinking about what clothes to wear & writing. & you guys! Of course. First & foremost I've really missed you guys. So I have the day off tomorrow & between doctors appointments & getting ready to go to Belfast I promise to think about & schedule some posts.

How are you?!

Sometimes the main reason I started this blog is because I have a story that goes with every single piece of clothing I own & in "real" life no one asks me about it. Probably the fact that most of my friends are male adds to this, but anyway. Today was one of those days when wearing this dress in the surprisingly sunny & slightly windy day turned a couple of heads, got a fair few looks. But no one went "I love your dress, where did you get it from?" Is it just me that asks this to strangers because I fear that far too few people do it at all.

So the story is: a paid way more for this dress than I wanted too just because the silk it's made of is extraordinary, the print gets a different identity every time I (or anyone else) looks at it (I think it resembles a flapper girl in profile) & I don't actually own anything pink. I got it in Berlin on Surezstrasse which has loads of vintage & antique shops on it. The shop this was in was my second favorite, after Tony Durante's where I unfortunately didn't buy anything & felt very guilty. But it was full of gorgeous silk & cotton slips and bedclothes, with lots of edwardian underwear & menswear as well. But it was the row of stunning dresses that of course, stole my heart. I have their card somewhere... but if anyone goes to Berlin, even if you don't want to buy anything I beg you to go there & see what vintage shopping should always be like!

Plus blue nail varnish because

I'm missing Mr Jesus Rogers!

So this is going to sound really stupid, but basically I saw almost this exact print on someone somewhere to do with the Spring 2012 shows that I've been avidly picking over. But now I can't find which one it was. Maybe it was my warped takeaway from the Dolce & Gabbana show whilst everyone else was looking at the pasta earrings. Or perhaps it was my interpretation of the Dries Van Noten lanscape black and white prints. Anyway, if anyone could help me out & prove that I am not completely mad that would be lovely.

Whatever the inspiration I am very happy I pressed bid on eBay & this shirt found it's way to me at almost the exact moment I discovered trousers, & just 10 months after creepers entered my life. Now I can dress like a very fashion conscious mod. Or Audrey Hepburn (the trousers) or a painter with the sickest painting shirt ever. Something about these black trousers makes me want to dress up as other people. Like when I tried them on wearing a black t-shirt, in my head I looked like Christina Ricci in Pan Am, all beatnik & monochrome. Maybe it's just trying to get away from the black trousers of mandatory school uniform...

On Sunday I dragged J along to a vintage fashion fair in Bath, which turned out to be the wrong vintage fashion fair rather than the lovely one. So we wasted £5 on entry, but I got a lovely silk dressing gown with holes in it for £10 which I am going to turn into a dress or a skirt... I was also on the hunt for the perfect black t-shirt because THE perfect black t-shirt that I own has developed a strange smell after I lost it for about a year. It wasn't me, I promise. Some stink fairies have infested it.

In the end good old H&M answered my prayers, but on the way we also saw a sign in Monsoon for 50% of everything! Now before you rush to Monsoon that is actually a big fat fucking lie. It was only half off sale items. So after trying loads on, which J saying everything looked lovely & generally being unhelpfully nice, I realised that whilst I would consider paying £23 for a particularly nicely coloured POLYESTER dress, I would not pay £46. No. No. No. But I was surprised how good Monsoon's stuff is actually as I always dismiss them as being a bit mumsey or weddingy. Although they did birth the epic coatigan which stands for at least something.

Anyway long story short, I landed on this yellow skirt that was in the sale. Probably all those Spring/Summer shows filtering into my subconscious making me feel that yellow is a posibility for a pale ginger person. & it is! Evidently. Although only away from my face. Yes. It also has a nice blue zip on the back. Which falls down constantly. Nothing a hook & eye can't fix though... & my New Year's Resolution remains unbroken as J paid for it because I bought lunch. 

Nice.

So there have been a few comments about the stuff behind me in recent outfit photos, so today after spending a little time adding more to my board I thought I'd explain what's there.

Photo 2:

Top left, ink blot I did & have been getting pretty obsessed with, done a few where different colours interact & create new ones. I bought a dropper from boots, well cool. Top right, jewellery by Risa Tai. Epicness. Bottom left, when I was as secondary school we did this "females in physics" day out to Bristol University to talk to loads of girls who were doing physics. One of the talks culminated in a guy putting a CD in a microwave so I asked if I could have it. It's been on & off of my bedroom walls since... Bottom middle, Levi advert with amazing eye make up that I keep meaning to try. Bottom right, a list of quotes from rejection e-mail/letters I've got recently that I'm thinking of turning into embroideries.

Photo 3:

Embroidery I did a while back using french knot stitch because it looks like stitches gone wrong & I really like that. The words are lyrics from one of my favorite Scroobius Pip VS Dan Le Sac songs Waiting For the Beat to Kick In. It's also a quote from the film Say Anything... but the song itself is full of movie references. & wherever it originates from I wish I was a level headed enough individual to think this before lashing out. Especially (lately) at stupid students ruining my good job & lovely Bristol. Oh & my blue peter badge! I got it for sending them a cookie recipe, which I think is pretty sweet.

Photo 4:

Bottom left, cards from the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin that I went to this summer. Such an amazing building as well as the exhibitions. The temporary one when I was there was on a shoe factory and photos taken for a guide on how to choose the right shoes. It sounds boring but was proof at just how much good design can improve any subject matter. Top left, playing card behind ampersand... I love ampersands. I'm actually getting one as my next tattoo, yay! Top left middle, squares of face from a textile project I did a couple of years ago, my friend found it creepy that I had like 20 photocopies of her face so she pinned them up. Waaaay less creepy. Bottom middle, photo of my brother, sister & cousin dressed up for what I thought was halloween but is actually just my brother dressed up as a wizard on a normal day. Bottom right, birthday card & postcard by Mark Titchner my mum brought back from the Tate one time. I love his work & was pissed to miss all the metal exhibitions they had in the black country a couple of months back. Top middle right, cutting from the recent Monki magazine. Top right, packaging from some tape I got in the Habitat closing down sale. It was so depressing, RIP Habitat's awesome tape (& other things).

Was that at all interesting? Probably not. I just find it interesting snooping & seeing what other people decide to keep or display so... yeah. Oh & for the other things behind me in the photos. The High Street sign I stole from Portsmouth & had to crouch in the middle of the road to get & then prize from a piece of disintegrating wood. & the screen print is of the famous Bristol cranes & I got at an art gallery in Bedminster. 

Pretty sweet.

Getting back into the swing of this blogging thing. This is another timed post because I am at work right now, serving books to people, shifting books around & generally getting frustrated at books. Yay! This is what I wore today to do that. I wrote before about my issues with jeans. That sounds bigger than it is. Basically I look around & most of the people you see in trousers have put them on because they don't want to think about their clothes for the rest of the day. My brain doesn't really work that way. So they just didn't really appeal to me. Plus they hit you at like your widest part, which just isn't flattering now is it.

So I have found a compromise: trousers. All the comfort of jeans, with a little more thought & uhr, interest? Plus these are orange & wooly which makes them pretty darn fantastic in my book. I admit I broke my New Year's Resolution for them & another pair that I shall blog later this week but... come on. I only own two pair of trousers, one of which are Disco Pants. Which most people think are leggings. They have fastenings. Ergo, they are trousers, ok? Ok. So it's ok right? Still looking for the perfect teal (this is teal in my book, there seems to be some confusion) t-shirt to accompany them though. Any recommendations?

Lovely.

These colours together have made me quite happy today. Landing happily accidentally together on the sofa of "discarded clothes from mornings past" next to my bed. Blue sky through a closed window that's covered in raindrops? Must be autumn. My favorite season. I love winter too. Maybe it's the pale thing. Or the fact that generally I tend towards hot than cold & that paleness lends itself to red cheeks the moment I'm a tiny bit above average temperature. Anyway, I'm very happy (unlike the rest of the UK) to see the back of that unseasonal heat spell & get back down to the nitty gritty of autumn winter clothing. Fingers crossed for cold but sunny days with only an inkling of wind.

I've only just got round to returning comments so I'm sorry for the delay. I time posts on my days off & then forget to keep track of it all myself. Been lounging around today having had my frolicking in the country side (even if it's raining) plans defeated by laziness. Thinking of embroidering quotes from all the rejection letters I've been getting lately, as some sort of channelling of the lack of actual things I am able to do. Oh woe is me.

What's your favorite season?

So you already know I have a weakness for neon, but when I finally found the source of some neon art that's been floating around tumblr & the internet for a while, I felt a need to blog it! Also, a little gif-ing never hurt anyone. Can gif be used as a verb? To gif. Anyway, enough of the grammar thought, these are by Kelly Mark, who is generally awesome. & has a whole bit of her website dedicated to loyal fans who have pieces of her extraordinarily complicated work etched into their skin. Check it out.

Also just to add a little update to say RIP Steve Jobs. I am an avid apple fan & I lived off hand-me-downs from my brother until I got my very own. We all knew something was wrong though, when he released a square iPhone. Lets just hope Tim Cook has at least half of the enthusiasm & vision to carry on what is, lets face it, all thanks to Steve Jobs.