IDOLS CRAVING BALLERINAS

2012-02-10T09:30:00.000Z

This is one of the first high street things I spotted online & then seeked out in real life to try on, size up & purchase. This probably puts me about a decade behind everyone else but for some reason I've always found online browsing & shopping browsing seperate. Mainly because I spent last year online browsing without being able to real life shop, and because I think John Lewis has this whole internet shop not killing real shop thing down.

Plus, River Island, who knew? I also got an amazing houndstooth pencil skirt that I've been looking for in vintage shops for the past year or so. It was also made in Britain which is pretty rad, no? They're probably the second brand to change my mind about this year, along with Ted Baker. Maybe my hipster/snobbiness is wearing off. I still can't touch a lot of things without screwing up my face or reeling back in horror. But we're working on it. I can seek out the denim, silk, cotton etc between all the polyester and viscose. & I will dammit!

2012-02-09T10:30:00.000Z

Something really exciting & highly unexpected has happened. Anyway, I don't wanna jinx it right now so here's M.I.A's always epic new video. (yeah totally seamless) By the way, what the fuck is she doing with Madonna? Pretending to be a cheerleader? I love how into it Nicki Minaj is & how blank she plays it... The finger guns into middle finger thing on the highly mental Super Bowl has amused me greatly. Oh & you should all watch this. And this. Yes. I have been on youtube.

2012-02-08T10:00:00.000Z

Oh how I swore the pastel thing wouldn't touch me. Like the 20s fever we're all meant to have gone down with. But in my defense these are technically too bright to be pastels right? Plus I bought this cashmere to stock up whilst I was in Glasgow AND I already owned this skirt. So basically I just "threw some stuff together" (is it just me that screws up their eyes & wants to hit anyone who says this whilst wearing a clearly strategically picked out outfit?) that I already owned because I like bright colours together & Diane Von Furstenburg on Project Runway in mint & purple was somewhat of a colour bookmark for me.

Blah, all this effort to disrepute the fact that I'm slightly influenced by fashion magazines. Who isn't? They're so pretty!

2012-02-07T10:48:00.000Z

This outfit was (apart from the tights) all bought from the vintage(ish) shop Episodes in Paris. Having walked out of Kiliwatch offended by the unjustified high prices, we went into here expecting the same but it was much more reasonable. This silk shirt was like €15 which is very decent for silk. Especially in this insane rust orange red colour. I've developed quite a collection of coloured silk shirts but I'm always a bit lost how to wear them because they're so COLOURful. If you know what I mean.

Anyway fashion weeks start this week so in the spirit of getting Elle Collections and re-living the S/S shows I thought I'd channel Stella with this amazing skirt. The last time I wore it was with lurex on Christmas Eve and was told I looked like a little Christmas fairy. Amazing. I always want to look like a Christmas fairy! Even in February!

PS. Young Adult was a lot darker than we were expecting, but Charlize Theron was really great in it & it was actually really good. Anyway, off to Birmingham today for a lace exhibition, toodles!

2012-02-06T11:55:00.001Z

Colour blocking, nice fabrics & COLOUR makes this absolutely lovely. Kulte's clothes aren't too shabby either. Not that I'm too much of a sundress kind of girl. But it's their zine/magazine Kultorama that makes me happiest of all. Tongue in cheek art direction & nice big ass full pages of word art. Think I'm in sartorial heaven. Check it out. I can't actually find anything about them but I gather (quite convincingly) that they are French. As everything's in French. Very perceptive that way... Anyway nice images & I'm off to see Young Adult now, happy Monday!

2012-02-03T07:30:00.000Z

Ok I'll be straight with you, I am in no way shape or form a "beauty" type of girl. I usually flick through the beauty pages of magazines unless there's some pretty packaging. I buy all my make up in Body Shop because I'm too lazy to research anything else. The only beauty products I own in quantity are nail varnish and Coconut Body Butter. But having stumbled across this lovely old shop pharmacy in Bath a couple of weeks ago I have to confess that I might be a little bit of a convert. We were drawn in by this Weleda stuff in the window because I'd read good things about it whilst looking for presents for my sister.

So we went in to sniff it & found another woman who has also heard good things about it & we opened alternate bottles of the stuff to see how it smelt. Anyway the Citrus one was the only other one that didn't smell like washing up liquid or something. Apart from the Chestnut which reminded me of Olbus Oil which I found strangely comforting having put it on my pillowcase every now & then since I was a kid. I was also a little bit of a sucker for the hippy mumbo jumbo on the back, "It captures the strength with which the mighty chestnut overcomes its own weight."

This week I finally got round to trying it because I don't take baths too often (too time consuming) only really when I have a book to finish. & Jesus. Wow. My skin was like properly smooth & it lasted for like two days, seriously. I can't say if I felt "relieved" or "toned" like the packet says. But my skin definitely liked it. Plus it was only £10 & I've used barely any of it, so definitely worth it to make Baths a little more special!

2012-02-02T09:30:00.000Z

I'm not a very pink type of person. My skin is pink. That's about it. But I seem to have gradually acquired many pink items over the past year or so. & as you may or may not know I have a weakness for monochrome outfits so hey presto pink cropped mohair meet oversized silk shirt dress. It's reminiscent of a dress I saw somewhere that was out of my price range & that, frankly, makes it all the more appealing. Plus it's warm whilst not being too hot for work, lovely. Oh & you can never go wrong with a cheesy name necklace! (thanks Joe)

2012-02-01T09:30:00.000Z

I was having one of those "Agh I don't know what to blog about!" moments when someone suggested my wardrobe/bedroom. So screw it, I always like nosing around other peoples houses & especially wardrobes, plus I'd just tidied up so here are some of my favourite bits of my bedroom, yay!

1/ Bed, Ikea duvet. Doesn't everyone have one? (or three...) & books! It's my dream to pile them up against my wall like Karl Lagerfield so they form disintegrating mountains or something. Plus a lovely candle from my sister & my stool with all my inscents on it that give my mum a headache.

2/ Wardrobe (or the rail with all the lovely stuff on it) colour coded, of course. Because I have a bit of an OCD about arranging clothes by the rainbow. On the two days I worked in Oxfam I did it to the whole shop. Issues. Yes.

3/ See no evil etc statue from my Grandparents & moomins mum brought back from Finland (Moominland). Plus sunglasses, two new pairs ready for summer.

4/ Extra special clothes that are too special to go on the clothes rail. Not that they're not all special. Includes vintage 20s crepe dress that's falling apart, 50s velvet dress that fits like an insane dream, mental knitted dress & falling apart dressing gown that I want to do something with. Plus hats & skull shelf in the background.

5&6/ Above my clothes rail I have printed words, nice e-mails & sayings covering up the equation I spray painted onto the wall that is now on my arm. They're all a little outdated, but sometimes I read one & it makes me smile.

I realise this is highly self indulgent so please just avert your heads if you're not as nosey as me... Oh & HAPPY FEBRUARY.

2012-01-31T11:00:00.001Z

Most of the jewellery I wear was given to me by someone else. So when I was musing to my friend about wanting some fat (or is that phat?) gold door knocker earrings straight out of the 80s she was to say the least, a little surprised. I got my ears pierced in a bout of "wanting to be like everyone else" in my early teens & spent a whole summer smelling like TCP. I've never really been big on them for some reason. Maybe it's the drawing attention to my face thing. But I see so many people rocking them so well that I thought I'd go the whole way & start with these bad boys.

They're satisfyingly cheap looking & feeling & actually one broke when I was wearing them the other day. The bf rose to the occasion and greased his hair back so we looked like a throwback ganster/gansta couple going to see The Artist. Which was not at all what I was expecting. Much like the new songs on Lana Del Rey's album. Talk about clunky. Hmm... Anyway, off track. Possible cultural appropriation aside there's something quite weirdly "power feminine" about big ass earrings. I like it. Especially with one of my favourite dresses from my favourite vintage shop in the whole of Paris. Apart from maybe Didier Loudout but I've never actually been in or bought anything from there so...

2012-01-29T15:41:00.000Z

SWEAT ISSUE±14 IS HERE!

Perfect company for bidding farewell to those January blues. In this issue there's fashion illustration by Clover Chen, cool artwork by Emma Alhqvist plus other peoples new years resolution & my article musing over Lana Del Rey.

I'm also giving away 10 issues ABSOLUTELY FREE because the people at the printers are now like my best friends haha. I~~f you would like a free issue either leave your e-mail in the comments below or e-mail sweat.zine@gmail.com.~~ EDIT: All the issues are gone now. Sorry! First 10 people get the free issues, we'll contact you about postage addresses etc. Otherwise you can read the issue online here and buy it for £2.50 from the link at the bottom of the page.

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000Z

Things I bought and then haven't worn. I think this skirt just screamed SUMMER at me so I haven't worn it since I got it on eBay a few months back. I always feel a bit weird wearing tights under maxi skirts because I think it can take away the whole "flash of leg" thing you get that makes me more comfortable with so much fabric. Actually though, teemed with a jumper and some sheer tights it doesn't look too "covered". Especially in the wind, the slits totally take away from the frumpy Swedish street style feel.

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000Z

Chloe Sevigny is amazing. Do I need to say anything else? Oh these photos were taken by Craig McDean for Interview Magazine & you can see the rest here.

That is all.

2012-01-25T19:00:00.000Z

Brown phase take two. So I've never bought anything from Ted Baker before, in fact my perceptions of it were such that I'd never really thought of it as somewhere I'd actually find anything. Although I do have a soft spot for those bright patent bags with the bows because this awesome girl I used to know had one. Anyway. Me and my mum made the trip out to John Lewis, mainly to look in the wool sale and pick up a gift I'd reserved online, when I saw this amazing swan printed dress. After getting confused over the number sizing I went for the biggest one so it's easy to wear as a shift & I can wear it longer (age wise) or with a belt. I'm always a sucker for a good print. Plus it's 100% silk & has all these cute things all over the label, about Ted thinking I look "Fabulous"

I wasn't sure whether to post about this but it's just still so funny that I figured I'd share. I have a black eye. I'm not being abused, but the absurdity of how it happened either makes you think I am being & it's a really bad story, or it's so crazy it must be true (it is). Basically I kicked myself in the face with a fake leg. (I just laughed again) I use a synthetic leg to put the hearts on the tights I sell and I was balancing it thigh down between my own legs to put the tight over the toe. I turned to pick up the tights and it fell right into my face. It's weighted at the toe so it stands up & it hit right on my bone so it came up in like a huge bump. But we were laughing so hard for like 10 minutes that I didn't notice how much it actually hurt. So yes. Now it's all yellow & stuff. My bf said I look like a gansters moll. So helpful!

2012-01-25T08:38:00.000Z

So I got an e-mail about this interview & I don't usually post things like that but I guess I'm being honest about it & I have actually watched it & find it marginally interesting. Kate Moss is one of those people that I know at the back of my mind is better seen than heard, but I can't help myself pressing play on videos or pausing on tv to hear her speak. She actually comes off a little more charming here than usual (I think) & the video she made with Terry Richardson is pretty sweet, with like a Bond theme or something. Wouldn't she have made an amazing bond girl? Anyway, hope you like it.

2012-01-25T00:23:00.001Z

Whoa the image quality of the Givenchy is atrocious, apologies. I'll update with some better one's when I find them. But in a frantic burst of "Holy wow, look at that" before I try to get some sleep; here's some amazement. I love couture. It's like beauty x art x fashion all squared with like crack or something. I was initially disappointed with lacklustre Dior but Chanel more than made up for it. & Ricardo Tisci has broken out of his white & feather phase with like chains & shit. In a basketball court gym thing. What? Need more photos. Now please. All from Style.com.

2012-01-23T12:13:00.001Z

These photos caught my eye from things going into H&M over the next couple of months. I saw some of the stuff the other day & it was all kind of horrible feeling, with the Acne style jumper a little shiny for my taste. But that motorcycle feel raincoat is INSANE. I will be checking into town over the next month looking out for this beauty. I'm sure it will feel disgusting too, but then I guess it's sort of supposed too. & I can then say officially that I have a developing see-thru raincoat collection along with my Berlin muji find.

There was also a couple of good men's shirts here & here, that I wish I still had a preppy male friend to convince into. Or a bf that wore colours other than black. Plus quite a lot of suit jackets with matching colour shorts/trousers. This blue blazer & matching wide legs are pretty lovely. Unfortunately though I find wide legs are usually too short for me. So I end up with the kind of weird cropped ones ASOS seem obsessed with at the moment. I'm not really into that. But I find it weird because anyone can hem up a pair of trousers that are too long, or wear heels, but you can't produce fabric out of no where. Does anyone else have this problem? Oh well, I think I'd rather have my gangly legs than some wide leg trousers.

What do you have your eye on?

2012-01-22T13:30:00.000Z

This seemed appropriate for a Sunday post. I know, most of you will have already heard of Donna Wilson, or seen her lovely stuff at John Lewis & suchlike. Coming across lots of her work at the Soma gallery a week or so reminded me that I'd saved these catalogue images a while back. They're so damn cute! Almost cute enough to make me want to spend almos £40 on a hot water bottle cover... & I don't even like hot water bottles. I am more than a little tempted by the peanut teddy though, Valentines is coming up & the bf has just got a peanut tattoo in honour of my nickname for him. I know I told him, "Tattoos last longer than relationships." his reply, "Rad tattoos look awesome forever".

Sunday love.

2012-01-21T09:00:00.001Z

Posting before work? Now that's dedication. Especially when I've barely slept. Anyway, I've been going through a bit of a brown phase at the moment. I don't know where it came from but this dress is the third brown thing I've bought this month. Weird. Before that I only had one brown dress, that I barely wore. Maybe it's something about the weather. But anyway. Now I'm allowed to shop again when we were in Bath the other day (looking for some vintage jewellery) I popped into Urban Outfitters. I found this dress in the sale. It has like adjustable bra sleeves so you can make it extra low & wear it over t-shirts so it's work appropriate & very 90s. I was also thinking unbuttoned a little over a longline bra top would look good. For now though I'll twirl around like a 5 year old & admire to flared out skirt. Yay!

2012-01-19T21:53:00.001Z

Trust it to be the one week when fashion people might be looking at my blog to be the week I post a frustrated eBay rant & then take off to Glasgow so I can't post anything else. Oh well, I guess if they can't appreciate the fact that blogging is about every aspect of someone's personality then that's not my problem. & you guys. Jeez you guys. Your comments were so lovely. & I know I shouldn't have got so worked up about it. It's just. You know. I want human kind to be nice & I don't like to be proved wrong on that. Repeatedly. Plus it just put the icing on an already bad mood I was in so...yeah... But it's all good now!

Obviously Sarah Burton's 2011 has to give way to Stella McCartney's 2012, but damn, she pulled it out the bag for the McQueen Pre-Fall. I mean can you just imagine the life you could lead in these clothes? That velvet slash neck catsuit is just...well, insane. & puts fuel on the slow burning desire I've had for a full blown all-in-one for a while. I might just have to put aside my claustrophobia fears & embrace the turtle neck. Especially now it's getting cold. It all seems to have fallen perfectly into place. My other highlights recently from Pre-Fall have been this look at Dior. & the whole collection actually. I was surprised to have my attention taken. Plus Givenchy, obvs. Riccardo Tisci is God.

What are your highlights? Need to check out the menswear...

2012-01-15T07:35:00.001Z

Ok so I know this is probably uninteresting to anyone but me, but I just can't quite believe that it's happening. So I thought putting it up here would somehow calm me down a bit. I literally cannot believe the things this person is saying to me. I listed some stuff on eBay between Christmas & New Year. It was a lot of stuff & I made a couple of mistakes. In this I wrote it was 100% silk when there's no label. I believed it to be, but I should've stated this. I bought the dress in a charity shop as a dress, rather than a slip and have worn it as such. I never noticed any thread or obvious signs it had been cut out of something else. It said in the listing that it was sheer & a slip style. Jesus, the listing says Slip Dress in big ass letters in it.

The thing is, I don't know what to do. She paid fucking 99p for something! I have bought stuff on eBay for 99p and if it turns up & it's not 100% what I want I just think, "Fuck it, it was only a pound" Isn't that what rational human beings do? I can only assume that she's getting off on making me think the whole of man kind is a screwed up little fuck tard who likes to belittle honest people by scaring them with quotes from the eBay handbook. But there's no way to complain. I've already given her positive feedback so what else can I do? You can't give buyers back feedback. Although I do notice they already have a few comments removed after leaving bad feedback.

I just hate how angry/upset it's making me. What should I do?

2012-01-13T09:30:00.000Z

Cos in Paris was like a school of how to wear wonderful coats. A majority of the shop was black and everyone had a habit of crowding you to get first dibs even though it wasn't that busy and there wasn't a limit to the clothes. It was a little weird. But I was looking mainly for my mum. She got some amazing stuff, mainly this orange felt dress that I think she should get made in a rainbow of colours & wear only that for the rest of her life. But that's just me.

Anyway when I saw this I sort of fell in love with the colour. I've wanted something the sort of neon yellow green for a while now but have been told my several people how it would just make me look sick and ill. I don't wholly buy into that whole, "certain people shouldn't wear certain colours" thing since I broke through my orange barrier. That sounded dramatic, anyway, I don't want to look ill or sick but I think this is just the right side of green for it to look ok. The shape is more of a challange but what do you think I should wear with it? I'm sticking to tight at the moment for safety.

2012-01-11T09:00:00.000Z

Got that new year, new shoe itch. I was torn between getting a pair of Clarks Desert Boots in black or maybe a rad colour or some Dr Marten shoes because their boots have always been close to my heart. I went into a Clarks shop the other day and after scanning the men's sale shoes (I have giant feet) & getting all depressed like I usually do in shoe shops, I found some Desert's in my size & tried them on only to find they have giant bits inside that dig into your feet. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm not really into that.

And then scanning the DM sale for some bargain shoes THESE happened. The Lex Shoe in Petrol. Petrol, like when it leaks onto the pavement and shines out all those crazy colours. Holy fuck. I am literally hypnotised by them. They've been opened in a tab on my browser for a week or so now. Along with these red pony hairs that are a little bit of a pipe dream. All I need is £274 pounds for both. That's the equivilant of like 5 days at work. I've developed a really annoying habit of thinking of costs of things in terms of hours at work. BAD. Do you think I could pass them off as investment shoes?

2012-01-09T11:30:00.000Z

So my little boxing day treat finally arrived. Disco pants round 2. Weirdly I bought my black pair last boxing day... Oh wow that means maybe by next year I can finally own the gold pair that I was so close to buying 50% off. Anyway, yay for navy! It opens many possibilities of all blue outfits. I do love a head to toe monochrome. Doesn't everyone?

The first week of 2012 was a weird one huh? I spent Friday in Walk In Centre and A&E waiting rooms. My tongue swelled up & a nurse had to dig my tongue ball/bar out. It's still healing but I'm ok. Also had a mini break down brought on my New Year's early morning "What am I going to do with my life" fit. And have listened to literally nothing but Lana Del Rey this whole year. Is that sad? I've made myself a CD from all her songs on youtube & I just wish she would dress a little better. That is the ONLY thing I am concerned about with her appearance. In other news I'm newly addicted to The Rachel Zoe Project and rewatching The September Issue & Lagerfield Confidential. Much to the dismay of my film accomplice, the bf. Oh well, maybe I'll mature in my tastes one day.

How was your week?

2012-01-06T11:00:00.000Z

My mum was going to buy this for me for Christmas after she saw it in my gift guide. But £12? For a snow globe? No. When I saw it in the sale I had to get it. & make a gif, because, you know. How shit were the sales this year? I was so disappointed. Zara was completely ransacked already, the offers in American Apparel were so stupidly confusing & loads of places just had shit stuff in the sale with no like 20% off everything offers like I was expecting. What happened to everyone being in trouble? I guess all the good stuff went in the pre Christmas sales...which defeats the whole point. I did get some lovely underwear though, only £5 off. Rubbish.

How did you get on

in the sales?

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000Z

So I saw this thread on The Fashion Spot where they'd read 50 books in a year and posted their progress, lists & reviews as they progressed. Working in a book shop I always feel like I should read more & generally I like the idea of being a "well read" person. I set out to do it because I thought it would make me read more interesting & unusual books. It was tough & I admit there were a few poetry books in there at the end but the other day I finished number 50! Unfortunately it did the opposite of what I wanted, I read safe things more because I just wanted to "get through them" as it were. I wouldn't recommend it. Although the freedom I have now means I want to read weirder things so maybe it worked...

A pretty major thing. Especially when half my friends went off to uni & I'm only 19. I'll never say never on the degree front. If I found something I wanted to set my life on I would shell out, move out & do the degree. But to be honest, universities make me homicidal & the students in Bristol are more than enough to put anyone off going to university. We'll see I guess.

So here's me wearing all the things I actually did buy. Two Antipodium dresses, one in the sale, one as a birthday present that I paid half of. Two jumpers, both on sale, one via someone else. One skirt from the Monsoon sale. Plus I was wearing my zara orange trousers, officially the only garment of clothing I paid full price for this whole year. That is pretty fucking awesome. I am still vowed never to set foot in a Topshop ever again but I am looking forward to shopping again. I will however be getting rid of some clothes to do so, trying harder to only buy natural fibres and not going mental buying things I don't actually need. I would recommend everyone trying this!

There's nothing I'm actually saving for. The future I guess. Me & the boy were considering going to Mexico & I guess one day, eventually, in the future I'm going to have to move out. But now I'm working more & earning more I think I need to do something other than fritter it away to make it a worthwhile thing to be spending all my time doing, if that makes sense. Maybe 1/4 - 1/2 of my pay check a month. That seems pretty resonable.

So this one was in my New Year's Resolutions of 2 years ago... & there was a brief spell where I thought everything was sweet & I knew what I wanted to do & I had a thing & something to work towards & a hell of a lot of work to do to get there. I would still love to do this thing but being that my passion has wavered slightly I think I miss the feeling of actually knowing what I want to do more than working towards it. I have a list of jobs now but to be honest none of them are really *IT*. I just wish people would stop saying that I'll "fall into something" because that is how you end up working in retail for 30 years without ever being made a manager.

I still reserve the right to a tirade against the Conservative government ripping our country to shreds once in a while. But maybe just to not talk about shooting people in the head when I see then writing down the details of a book at work to look up & buy online later. Or not be so angry towards every single cyclist in Bristol. I'm sorry but there are too many of you that are shit for me not to generalise. Anyway yes so you see the problem. I have strong opinions... but I think I need to express them less uhr, violently!

What are your

resolutions for 2012?

2012-01-03T11:00:00.000Z

Christmas presents yay! The one's I can photograph anyway. I did pretty well this year getting everything I asked for. Although there was a little bit off missed surprise. The biggest shocker was the bf's present which he'd told me was "fucking amazing" thereby rendering any present I got him worthless. But he was right! A copy of Bambi from the 50s which is in incredible condition & has absolutely stunning illustrations. Definetely planning future tattoos around them. Anyway it was beautiful.

Books wise I got Doulgas Couplands latest, Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People which I read quickly on Christmas Day because it is ridiculously sick & funny. Thanks to my brother for that & a drawing book. My mum got me the Russian Tattoo Encyclopedia that I wanted but it's a little odd, it smells like it's been through a lot & there's a little too many penis' for my liking. No doubt interesting though...

The candle from my sister made me whole room smell like almonds. & I did get two lots of the Chanel matte coating nail varnish but it is fucking awesome so I look forward to experimenting with that, plus the foil & crackle effects ones I got too. My family know me well nail wise.

Anywho guys, I've missed you! What did you get for Christmas? Did you have a good one?

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000Z

Some more than worse for wear photos taken yesterday morning when I got home. Pretty perfect night of friends & acquaintancesI forgot were so fun, too many sweets & shots. Oh well. Anywho yes my hair is in an afro again! Yay! Cat did it on Friday night & I went to work wearing a headscarf so it could be at maximum awesome. It's actually still afro today which is pretty cool. & disgusting, yeah I should probably wash my hair at some point. & to quote Max at his most waisted, "Jess, why the fuck are there hands & feet all over you?" Because Antipodium & Chris Redman are amazing! (Oh & PS sorry about the background, the pile of clothes is because I'm in the midst of photographing stuff for eBay & the other stuff is from photos I did for posts this week. Oh yes, well organised.)

Happy New Year (again)!

2012-01-01T11:00:00.000Z

Happy New Year!

This is what I embroidered for my mum's 61st birthday. Because Jarvis Cocker is obviously awesome & this song is wonderful, beautiful, depressing, honest & most of all a celebration against the opressive elite classes! Woo! Just like my one & only mother (apart from the depressing). Anyway, yes, love you mum. Happy Birthday!

Blogging will be resumed next week, promise.

2011-12-24T21:27:00.001Z

2011-12-22T09:00:00.000Z

Whilst waiting to meet Heidi for Christmas Gingerbread Lattes the other day I found myself in WH Smith. AKA the only place left in Bristol that stocks vaguely interesting or unusual magazines. So sad. Anyway, after the obligatory Dazed, Vogue, Harpers, I-D etc. I drifted over to W with Carey Mulligan on the cover. I hated An Education but I quite like her so I started flicking through, only to find a very lovely "New Season" spread shot by Emma Summerton which was lovely & had lots of weird twin shots (ok, I featured none of them here, but you can view high res shots here) plus a rather lovingly cinematic shoot with Mulligan by Michael Thompson. Anyway, in short, nice images W! Might have to re think them because they've never wholly captured by heart or attention...

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000Z

Admittedly this is a bit of a cop out as far as posts go. But basically, it's almost the end of the year so I was trying to discuss with my Benny, Cat, Max & Seb the other day - over mulledness & mince pies - about what songs had really hit them this year. It came about after reading a list in G2 that only featured songs from like the last two months or something. Which surely isn't the point. So here it is! There's only one oldie in there (at the beginning) but it stands for Arctic Monkeys new album as well as the B-Side compilation Jesus made for my birthday. It's also probably the one that pops up in my head unexpectedly the most. & I'm sorry but the last two... I've obviously softened towards the end of the year. What's your opinion on Lena Del Rey? Against my better judgement I've had her youtube mix on repeat & am so close to pressing the itunes pre order button. Do you love or hate?

What were your highlights?

2011-12-20T12:52:00.000Z

Last week I was feeling a little like I'd peaked too soon Christmas wise. I'd got all my gifts, finished making them, been to Pairs & sort of had a mini Christmas already. Then I came back to miserable weather & work. Boo. So after getting over my horrible illness (pretty much) yesterday I put my Christmas "glad-rags" on to try & get in the spirit. Awesome green & red nail varnish (Barry M Emerald Green & Rimmel Celebrity Bash (THE best red varnish I've ever found)) & my trusty reindeer necklace.

After taking some family friends Christmas shopping, as a sort of tradition I splurged a little on some shiny sparkly awesome nail stuff. (let to right: 17 glitter top coat & strengthening base coat, Barry M mushroom, red glitter & hologram) One of my few female friends Cat informed me that it was horrific to be painting straight onto my nails, as I've always done. So I pronto got on some base coat hunting. I'm not very good at taking care of stuff like that. The mushroom is because I have no like "nude" nail varnish, anyone have any tips? I just like Barry M. Plus, who doesn't want to have Dorothy nails? New Year's Eve pairing with my shoes I think. I don't know if the Dorothy's have ever been on the blog.... ohh teaser. & I was pretty disappointed with hologram. Does anyone have any tips on how the fuck to apply it? I was thinking a cocktail stick to pick out the sequin things so my nail doesn't become like double the thickness with the clear nail varnish that coats it. It'd like a mirror ball though, which is pretty awesome.

Anyway yes so basically the takeaway is that because I have finished buying stuff for other people I'm now buying stuff for myself, very christmassy! Happy almost Christmas though innit.

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000Z

Ok I know, I'm sorry, I didn't do any of the things I promised too in the last post. Mainly make some timed posts & read blogs & reply to comments. So basically I suck. But in my defence I've been working & really ill (food poisoning ew) since, interspersed with Paris! So yeah... I hope the fact that I managed to actually take some pictures of Paris makes up for it a little. Maybe? Anywho...top to bottom.

View from the top of Galeries Lafayette after we'd negotiated our way through the canteen & shoe horned ourselves into a window seat. The Christmas Tree plus the whole floor of underwear was totally worth the longish metro journey.

My favorite stuffed to the brim vintage shop in Paris. I tried on lots of amazing underwear type slip dresses & dressing gowns & teddies. As well as, dresses & uhr... a vintage versace knock off gambling emblem printed skin tight body suit that had the weirdest proportions ever. The body was soooo long. But yes. I only bought a couple of things (one for my mum) but scooped up some less exciting vintage from the cheaper stores that are aplenty in Paris.

We sort of made the mistake of going to Le Bon Marche after the 3 hour Eurostar & a night of no sleep. Which led to me having a little bit of a breakdown in the food section. But... anyway. Some food & a sit down later I was fine. To swan around the clothing section, gawping over Givenchy & Celine, pretending we were genuine customers, not just sneakily on our way to the toy department.

Cute graffiti dotted around everywhere. This particular one in the 4th Arrondissement just around the corner from Cos. I know it's a bit of a cop out, but we don't have one in Bristol so it didn't feel too bad. Roughly translated I'm informed it says, "Who do you follow?/What do you follow?" Something along those lines...

Les Arts Decrotifs in the Lourve is my favorite gallery in Paris. It always has the most amazing exhibits. & has a special place in my heart as the place I finally got to see a Hussein Chalayan exhibition. This time round it was Jean-Paul Goude & Stefan Sagmeister. A total contradiction really. The Goude one was overwhelmingly indulgent & at one point I got stuck in the dark on my own with two motorised Grace Jones heads, one of which unexpectedly opened it's eyes & lit up. The Sagmeister exhibition was much more up my street, having studied him in GCSE art (oh, good times) with little snippits about his experiences of different places. Like how he had to ask a Japanese lady on a train to remove a broken Q-Tip from his ear. What an amazing man.

And finally the lights on the Champs Elysee, pretty much why we wanted to go, to feel all Christmassy & such like. They were a tad disappointing. But the Louis Vuitton windows with a circus theme were fun although the thought, "Why would you want to show your suitcases as being heavier than elephants?" came up... A little pissed to have missed the Karl window though. But we made our way to the Christmas market that was hectic to say the least. But full of vin chaud & uhr...churros. Very French.

Image overload. Word overload. Welcome back!

2011-12-12T11:00:00.000Z

Maria, Laura, Stephanie, Vanamo, Krista & Ina from Hel-Looks.

Hel-looks will always be my favorite street style blog. Because the people are a little bit weird (most of the time) & the things they say are interesting. I like that little snippet of personality. Things like simply, "I'm a hipster" or, Maria's style tip "don't wear stockings to hide your scabby knees". Here's some of my more autumnal & recent favourites.

Lessons to take away: black is awesome, colour block dresses, men's oversized jumpers, collars & necklaces, winter colour, anything can make a dress, purple & yellow, frumpy skirts. Plus from Hel-looks generally, I wish I could really commit to the ugly trouser thing, I just put them on & think... no. If only I was Scandie.

I'm in Paris! So I've timed some posts & (hopefully) commented back enough people that someone might possibly look at those posts! I promise to take lots of photos & generally be festive & merry all over the place. Au Bon Marche here I come.

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000Z

A little bit disjointed but oh well, roll with it. Firstly how nice is the orangeish & red contrast of my scarf & t-shirt today? Wasn't feeling very inspired, top & disco pants...yeah, I've gotten boring dress wise. My wonderful scarf was knitted by my mum after I left the original in Cornwall last year, the pattern is like deer antlers, plus it's extra long "Like me" as I said when I first put it on. Haha.

More importantly though UK Uncut, the wonderful people whom there is a link to at the bottom of this blog, are planning some Christmas disruption for the bastards getting away with not paying their taxes. Now, bad banner & branding aside, lets move on. They're having a poll on facebook to decide who to target. Now, as I do not have facebook (I know, it's too hard to explain, basically, I have a phone) please, please, please vote for Topshop on my behalf!? PLEASE!? If I shout at you with caps does that help? I'm sure a majority of you like the world love Topshop, but Phillip Green is evil. EVIL. & it's the busiest of his stores so it deserves to be shut down. The only problem is security... Anyway, follow the linkage. & you know you could make up your own mind or I could try & filter it into your subconcious... Topshop. Topshop. Topshop.

They've even written a Christmas song to go with it, look:

"Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the town,

Cash tills were ringing, snow falling down.

Big business is merry, and with good reason-

For it's the busiest shopping day of the season.

But not every CEO should sleep snug in their bed,

As dreams of big profits dance through their head,

Because any tax dodgers with hop of good cheer:

UK Uncut know you've been naughty this year."

Vote for Topshop x x x

2011-12-08T10:00:00.000Z

In my second to last year of secondary school a group of girls from my school went to Bristol University to learn about Physics. It was an alright day as far as school outings go, but it also opened up my eyes from electricity & all the other shit we'd thought of as "Physics" up until then. We made ice cream with liquid nitrogen, talked to a woman working on CERN & also watched a CD in a microwave. I got to keep the CD. On Brainiac the things in microwaves bit was always my favorite. & at college I loved doing microwave dyeing on fabric because you'd get really unexpected things happening.

Basically I have a long & checkered past with putting shit in microwaves that you shouldn't. So now that someone has created a tumblr dedicated to just that, photographed beautifully & even made into gifs (!) I no doubt have a new favorite site on tumblr. Microwhat is awesome. Oh & top to bottom: jaw breakers, soap, gummy bears, banana.

2011-12-07T10:00:00.000Z

Credits: top left, Jill Watkins-Wright, top right, Jean Louis David, middle left, Royston Blythe, middle right, John Carne, bottom left, Gregory Kaoua, bottom right, Andrew Mulvenna. All images via ukhairdressers.com.

Ok so I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit shit with hair. In fact most beauty things I'm pretty inept with. I blame having a feminist mother. But anyway, my problem is maintenance, if only you could get a haircut & it would just stay like that, not grow out, or look shit after a nights sleep or a wash after the hairdressers. Another problem is that I don't really like the hairdressers, that kind of forced social interaction has always annoyed me. They don't give a shit where I'm going on holiday, I know this. Although both the hairdressers I've had have been absolutely lovely people with interesting things to say, it's still just such an alien environment.

But it's got to that stage again where I can't really ignore my hair & just put it up, pin it out of the way & forget about it anymore. I tried to convince my boyfriend & mum to chop off the back bit that's really grown out, but they both refused. So I have to actually think about what to do with it next. I've had a blunt fringe when I was younger. I've had it longish & wild (horrible). I've straightened it (too much work). I'm kind of over having it short with a bit on the top or really short like here & the second picture. I really loved my halloween afro (here) so maybe I could get a perm? Does anyone know anything about perms? Everyones told me they suck. But I've never dyed my hair or anything so it's in pretty good condition.

The last option is just to get what I have now polished up a little bit. Chop off the mulletty bit at the back, shorten the bits around my face & just sort of diffuse it every morning like the middle two photos. Boring, but at least it would buy me some time! Oh & the last two images are just amazing so I wanted to post them, I would love crimped cat woman ears or a hat of plaits. Wouldn't you?

2011-12-06T10:37:00.001Z

Sorry guys, I've had 2 days of work (in a row!) so I don't really have any excuse for the lack of posting, or decent posts shall we say, over the last few days. I've mainly just been getting Christmas stuff together, embroidering crows & suchlike, helping out with work around the house (we're trying to clear out our front room & attic) & well, seeing people & watching SLC Punk! & Shag which are both pretty hilarious in their own ways.

Now to explain the photos, which illustrate how slow I am on the uptake of certain trends. I know, I know, bloggers & fashion people everywhere have adopted the detachable collar as a way of adding a touch of the shirt about their outfits for a couple of years now (probably longer). But I never really got this, mainly because I'm not too huge on accessories (apart from rings, which are absent due to above tidying!). Anyway, I have a new love that is collars, cuffs & the bottom of a shirt poking out from beneath a deceptively cosy jumper. This extra bright green one I picked up last year in Paris is perfect because it means I get to revert to my default black disco pants. Very prim & proper I think you'll agree.

Um, what else? Oh yes, the school thing went really well! The kids were actually really nice & I had genuine wisdom to impart upon them. Although the job I was hoping to get out of it turns out to only be 2 days a week on extremely shitty pay, so no hopes of escaping the bookshop hell just yet. How are you guys getting on with all the Christmas stuff?

2011-12-02T14:52:00.001Z

At work yesterday I got a text from my mum to say that her & the builders were very excited about a FedEx package that had arrived. So when I got home & opened it up I was extremely excited to see the magazine I wrote an article for a few months back. I don't actually know too much about it from the sparse correspondance I've had with one of the editor/contributors but google makes me think it's a publication in conjunction with a boutique type shop in China. It came from Hong Kong.

BUT enough of that, down to the nitty gritty of the fact that it is FUCKING AMAZING. It's basically like someone's vomited up all the best editorials & fashion adverts, along with some kick ass articles and bound it all together in a highly design conscious way. There are little booklets between the big pages, pop ups at the end & even one of those pull the slide & the image changes thing. It took me a while to find my piece, "Sunday Best" & I have to say the black on green niggled me a little because it's properly hard to read, but oh well. To be honest I'm just super flattered to be asked to do this kind of thing!

I'm not sure if the issue is available anywhere online. There are videos of the past issues here, but if you'd like to enquire about an issue if you drop me an e-mail (neonpeg@gmail.com) I'll interrogate them for you!

2011-11-30T09:01:00.001Z

Good luck to everyone striking today, or standing next to public sector workers on marches & picket lines. Because the private sector has shitty pensions is not a reason to down grade those in the public sector. If, in the work place for example someone is discriminated against, you do not then decide to discriminate against everyone so it's equal, you sort out the original discrimination. If they wanted better pensions, they should've fought for them & put pressure on the government to put pressure on their employers.

Anyway, today is not about the sceptics, it is to show just how much our country relies on hard working, low paid public sector workers to keep everything going. I think I could live without a couple of bankers, or retail workers (which I am one of) but I could not live without nurses or teachers. That's why they deserve better pensions & a bit of fucking respect.

& don't even get me started on the bullshit that cascaded out of George Osbourne's mouth yesterday. Literally, lets behead them. Or read Channel 4 new's fact check & smile/cringe/cry.

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000Z

I can't actually remember how I found Christopher Patrick Ernst's website, but really I'm just glad that I did. His photos conjure up the kind of mental, sparse, depressing America that I've always wanted to wallow in. & the palm print just brings to mind that Versace for H&M stuff... & better palm prints that have been swilling around in my head for some time. Plus, his penchant for crazy wallpaper is wonderful.

I'm so nervous today because I'm going to the school where I'm sort of volunteering /shadowing an art teacher for the next months or so. It was basically because I felt like I needed to do something that felt like more of a step towards what I actually want to do with my life. But I'm not so sure that's it anymore & it's just awkward. Like hello 16 year olds, I'm only 3 years older than you & there's no reason why you should give a fuck what I say because since I finished college I have done nothing productive. Oh well, maybe it'll be fun, maybe I'll get a job out of it. But right now (well when I'm writing this, so...night before) I just want my day off instead. Sorry.

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000Z

Oh how 90s throw back. Mohair, exposed midrif & short skirt appliqued with sequin hearts. Wore this a couple of days back to sort of waft around post illness getting a surprising amount of my Christmas shopping done & getting nothing done at Staples. This week is going to be a little bit dreadful. Too much to do & although my next day off is not till Friday, I spent yesterday clearing out the loft with my mum & brother. Who knew I had so many teddies/beanie babies?

I'll admit I'm in a bit of a stupor clothing wise, because on one hand I've been dressing for practicality (work, manuel labour, illness) & on the other it all seems a little pointless when you just put a coat over it in the end anyway. But I do have a couple of new things I'm excited about so maybe when I find some much needed down time I can somehow figure it out. Anyone else with me on this?

2011-11-25T10:30:00.000Z

Wish List Gifts

Clockwise from top left: House of Harlow Peacock Cuff, £149, Oh So Boho, Fairisle Crofting Blanket, £120, Johnstones Cashmere, Illesteva Meyer Sunglasses in Dark Brown, £401, LN-CC, Our Exquisite Corpse Large Beaded Skull, £489, LN-CC, Yarnz Chic Karl Print Scarf, £125, Liberty, La Perla Bra, £215, Net-A-Porter, The Art Museum, £125, Blackwell's, Delfina Delettrez Make Your Finger Ring, £252, Opening Ceremony

Obviously this was the funnest list to make & I've been hankering after some House of Harlow/Delfina Delettrez jewellry for a while now. I know the first is designed by Nicole Richie but it's fucking fantastic. & we have The Art Museum at work next to the desk, every time someones put it on some Renaissance portrait I flick it back to Frida Kahlo or the Feminism page. Is fun to have little conflicts with the customers. & obviously that skull. That skull. Damn, I hope it's not cultural appropriation because it was made in Mexico...

I'm finally better! Went back to work yesterday & everyone was extra nice to me so it's all good. & I'm getting really Christmassy, bought a surprising amount of my presents although I am making a few things that I really need to get cracking on with. That's probably contradictory to the whole "gift guide" thing that's been going on this week, but oh well, sometimes people are so hard to buy for that you have to make them things *coughmumcough*. Also have to write 2 essays on a really tricky theme for next week so I'm stressing out slightly. Oh well. It's nice to be asked to write things! I am grateful!

Anyway that's the end of the gift guide, although it will of course live here forever on the internet for the next time I have a last minute birthday present to buy... What did you think? Did you like it? If so, I might try & do it next year too!

2011-11-24T10:30:00.000Z

Gifts under £20

Clockwise from top left: V&A Art Box, £12, V&A Shop, Donna Wilson My Beard Tea Towel, £12, John Lewis, Initial Heart Locket Necklace, £12, Urban Outfitters, Kurkdijan Violet Perfumed Blowing Bubbles, £15.50, Liberty, Love Message Bottle, £10.50, Liberty, Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia, £16.95, Urban Outfitters (REALLY want this), Skull Snow Globe, £15, Urban Outfitters (again).

2011-11-23T10:30:00.000Z

Gifts under £10

Clockwise from top left: Moomin Papa Soft Toy, £7, Art Box, Christian Lacroix Notebook, £9.95, Liberty, Freud Little Figurine, £4.90, Culture Label, Moustache Eraser, £2.50, Tate Shop, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Colouring Book, £5.99, Blackwell's, Alphabet Stamp Set, £7.95, Muji, Miffy Mug, £8, Art Box, Totem Pole Tape by Ben Newman, Betty & Dupree.

Glad you guys are liking these & it actually worked out pretty well because after coming home from work on Monday morning I've pretty much been welded to my bed. So these gift guides mean I don't have to force photos of my lovely ill pale face at you! Yay for everyone! PS. I want that tape. A lot.

2011-11-22T10:30:00.000Z

Gifts for Him

Clockwise from top left: Donna Wilson Message in a Bottle Waterbottle cover, £39, Soma Gallery, Idea Journal, £9.75, Sparrow Nest Script, Scratch Map, £16.50, Pod, Solar System Mug, £12.50, Liberty, Taylor of Old Bond Street Super Badger Shaving Brush in Travel Case, £38.95, Selfridges, Squirrel Print Silk Tie, £25, V&A Shop, John Keats Selected by Andrew Motion, £6.40, Blackwell's, Comme Des Garcons Wallet in Green, £65, Oki-ni

After making this I realised that a majority of the stuff I probably wouldn't buy or just wouldn't be suitable for the men in my life. It's more for like a hybrid man with my preferences & personality. What I would want for Christmas if I was a dude. Geeky, cosy, well traveled & well shaved. Nice. So real guys, how did I do?

2011-11-21T10:30:00.000Z

On Saturday I officially bought 2 of my Christmas presents & I have now made a proper "Who gets what" list to set about on acting on. So I thought it would be fun for this week on the blog to do gift guide thingy's because I had to trawl through loads of websites in search of inspiration for what to ask for this Christmas & it got me thinking... Does it sound like a good idea? Today's girls, tomorrow guys, & then under £10, under £20 & finally wish gifts of extravagant cost! I had a lot of fun putting them together but I would be genuinely chuffed to give or receive all the things I've picked & I hope it inspires someone even a tiny bit!

So...

Gifts for Her

Clockwise from top left: Illamasqua nail varnish in Spartan, £13.50, Selfridges, Bumble & Bumble Pin Tin, £11, Selfridges, East of India gingerbread candle in a tin, £6.99, Jonie's Gifts, Andrea Garland Lip Balm Ring, £34, Liberty, Ribbon scarf, £10, V&A Shop, Swatch x Jeremy Scott Punk Watch, £38, Lazy Oaf, 100 Ideas That Changed Fashion, £19.95, Blackwell's, Elizabeth I Portrait Pants, £20, Not The Highstreet.

Did you like it?

2011-11-19T09:30:00.000Z

Today is a day of action for the Fawcett society's "DON'T TURN BACK TIME ON WOMEN'S EQUALITY" campaign. There's a march in London & some tea parties around the UK which you can see here. Unfortunately I'm at work but I will be donning a vintage 50's number, some red lipstick & seamed stockings to show how I do not want to have my rights switched back to that era. It's a little strenuous I know, but hey. At least watch the video if only for the fact that the amount raised from mother's by capping child benefit = £2.5b is the same as the amount raised from taxing the bankers. Yes, equality?

2011-11-18T11:44:00.001Z

New coat innit. My New Year's Resolution is starting to look a bit sketchy seeing as every time I find myself in a shopping area I end up buying something... usually planned. I headed up to Bath the other day & went into one of my favorite shops, Edinburgh Woollen Mill! One day I will buy a Harris Tweed Deer Stalker & rock it like some rad old man. For now I am satisfied with this gorgeous wool tweed coat, which is one part Crombie, one part zoot suit (in my head) & with my creepers looks pretty sweet.

Feeling all Christmassy trying to think what to get people & (more difficultly) what I actually want. Does anyone else have that stage fright type syndrome at Christmas where there's plenty of shit you've been wanting but you can't remember any of it? It's cold though, which is a good start. & I have a little money for once. & I'm going to Paris! & I need a haircut. & & & there's an & on my arm...

2011-11-17T10:00:00.000Z

Charity shop shopping is the best no? I went a week or so ago now but this is the first opportunity I've had to post the gems I found! I set out looking for books, but this old man Americana shirt screamed or whispered "Prada" at me over the rails of polyester skirts & fleece jumpers & hypnotised me into buying it without checking it was long enough to wear without bottoms. Luckily it is. Well, denim shorts, but let us not get picky. & now I have an awesome shirt dress with cars all over it.

Because I like to think I am not influenced by the catwalk TRENDS they pump out every season I would like to say I would've bought this anyway because I have a weakness for odd prints. But I probably wouldn't have. Rocking it a whole season early does make me feel very fashion-editor smug though! Weird observations: my camera must be on a tilt & wearing thick woollen tights in photos makes me look like I have posterised legs.

2011-11-16T10:00:00.000Z

Skyping with Jesus whilst he's on tumblr & spamming me with links sometimes has it's advantages. Dermagraphique & Fuck Off SHIT Tattoos have become two of my favorite blogs. Basically they are the antithesis to tumblogs like Fuck Yeah Tattoos! Who post photos of any tattoo as long as the sob story is enough. Now, I do have two text tattoos, a finger tattoo & a handmade one (as well as having submitted to FYT) so I break almost all their rules, but it is pretty unfortunate what people end up with on their bodies forever. Plus mine were (mostly) well thought out & (mostly) worked on & done by an artist I love & respect. Although part of me may wish I had chosen instead to cover my whole body with classic traditional tattoos, but hey... Anyway, if you are considering a tattoo for the first time PLEASE READ one of these blogs.

At work we're having like a little exhibition where all the work is by staff & it gets made into prints that we sell in the shop. The deadline for submissions is 1st December, so if you're in Bristol over December/Christmas please come in to Blackwell & at least look at them! I will happily talk you through which one's to like & not like depending on the person who made them haha. So I was trying to get some inspiration from my old workbooks from college & stumbled across some lovely (if I do say so myself) embroidered ribs. I also did hips, but these turned out better. So...

What do you think?

2011-11-15T15:37:00.001Z

Thank you everyone who commented on the last couple of posts. It all got a little personal huh? Family & permanent body marks. But anyway here's something a little lighter, lovely vintage-ness that disappeared into the ether of my clothes rail a while ago. This Jean Muir crimplene cardigan thing has awesome buttons that look like a bearded man & also sheer sleeves to *uh hum* show off new tattoos. PLUS if I roll them up my arms a little you get this cool poet sleeve effect that I've spent a while trying to get on a blouse of some king. I got it pretty cheaply on eBay a year or more ago & have no idea why I don't wear it more... Worn with another (accidental) eBay purchased Topshop dress. They are evil, but if the money isn't going into Philip Greens pocket then I'm all good with a 100% cotton £3 dress.

The weird face in the first photo sort of shows the lighting issues I've been having with outfit posts too. When I stand close to the window (& the camera) I get really bright focused (awesome) pictures, but when I stand back to get full body ones they're all dark & look completely different. Any proper photographers out there help me out on lighting? It's in an attic room so the window's a velux on a slant. How can I get well lit full length photos

Also on my day off today I have gone to Bath to look at bags, accidentally bought a coat & come home to finally plan some posts. I never had to do that when I was at college or home, but being at work from 9.30-6 means daylight photographing hours are limited. So expect some actual posting this week, yay!

2011-11-14T12:00:00.000Z

Last week my Granny came to the end of her struggle with illness & age. Today is her funeral but as I can't be across in Belfast I just wanted to put these up here in memorial & also to show that I am thinking of her & the rest of my family on this incredibly difficult day. Here are some photos of us in happier times, when I was one at the seaside with my Granddad, Poppy as well.

2011-11-13T10:37:00.001Z

So here it is, a little Sunday treat for my 340th post (how insane is that?) I finally got my ampersand! I don't know if I've mentioned it on the blog, but my friends will know that I've been wanting to get an ampersand tattoo since before I got my equation or anything else. It's taken me a few years but I finally decided on a font (Bold Monotype Garamond, the type my favorite poetry book is set in) & a placement (just above my elbow).

& now with my infinity (yes, it looks like an 8) as well I can say "To infinity and beyond!" through tattoos (almost). Part of me wants to get a 2 just to cement it... is that sad? I didn't set out to spell a Toy Story phrase with the things I've etched into my body forever but hey! Oh & by the way my equation is the Dirac equation that predicted antimatter, hence the beyond, as in parallel universes.

Sorry about the sloppy Sunday outfit. AA leggings & a t-shirt are like pyjamas for the world. Although now pyjamas are fashionable... Oh how confusing. Also sorry for all the marks all over my arm, yesterday I hurt myself by what my mum thinks is an allergic reaction to the masking tape used for the cling film bandage I have to wear for another day, ewww.

Happy Sunday!

2011-11-11T17:34:00.001Z

ISSUE±13 IS HERE

For just £2.50 (+postage) you can get your very own copy to flick through, read & use to complete crosswords & dot to dots around the uhr...TV, at Christmas. The last SWEAT of 2012, which is pretty darn exciting. So to celebrate, if launching on 11/11/11 wasn't enough it's also chocka block with awesomeness from Spring 2012 trend reports & games to stunning artwork by Philippe Debongnie and Sarah Watson. Don't ever say I don't love you, you can view it all & purchase it HERE.

Sorry things haven't improved. This week has been generally shit all round on a personal note. Although I do have a new tattoo...randomly. Love you all.

2011-11-08T18:15:00.000Z

Sorry this is a bit of a rubbish post, heightened by the close ups of my bad skin/face. Nice. But after some charity shop shopping last Friday I wondered into Boots innocently looking for matte lipstick. Red preferably. & something that would last so I can wear it to work. Unfortunately I got a little blind sighted. Have you ever noticed that there's no one to ask about make up in shops like Boots? There are people that hang around their make up stations but they only know that brand. I think more people would be good... just saying. For a novice like me the highly made up girls who know exactly what they're looking for among the bright lights & broken testers can be off putting.

Anyway somehow after my fuzz descended I found myself in possession of some lipstains by Revlon. The one's I got were called Gothic and Flame which sound pretty awesome. The bright pink Flame is really lovely, not matte but nice & it lasts (sometimes overnight) but the Gothic isn't as RED as I would like, it's just more red than my normal lips. I thought stains were meant to be really bright? I do however, appreciate the nice packaging & the lip balm that comes at the other end, both things the other Maybelline lipstain I own lack.

Unfortunately in my little gif you can't distinguish between them (there are 3 photos) & I'm still on the hunt for a matte RED lipstick. Any suggestions apart from Chanel? Or should I just be someone who spends £23 on lipstick & get on with my life? In other news I'm sorry the blog is shit but there's no daylight anymore! I have builders in my house all morning & it's dark when I get home. I'll try & figure it out on my day off (Friday) until then please bare with!

2011-11-06T13:30:00.000Z

Ok so sorry for the text heavy Sunday post but I feel the need to address a comment left by Nancy Magoo on my Halloween post, about my appropriating of culture for my "Day of the Dead" inspired costume. She directed me to this article written on tumblr. I don't mean this as a reply to her specifically, just in general because I really don't like to offend people by accident & it really pisses me off when people wear crucifixes to be gothic when they're not Christian & to me this feels in the same sort of vein...

So, the article says that Dia De Los Muertos is not Halloween, which I understand. The dates are different, the religions are different, the spirit is entirely different. Halloween however, it not an American holiday as they say, Trick or Treat is American. Someone also added that it was written for "any ignorant jerk who thinks that "it's ok to appropriate this stuff" because you're some privileged white girl who thinks - sugar skulls are pretty - or some other dumb shit". Firstly yes, I am white. I also think the sugar skulls that families make as offerings for their dead are beautiful. As are the tattoos people get of sugar skulls (mostly) Aren't they meant to be?

I also know that I was dressed as La Calavera Catrina, not a sugar skull. I also know quite a lot more (I think) about latina & specifically Mexican culture having been fascinated by it from an early age. I see how this might be taken as offensive, but I don't understand how an interest in a culture because it is different from my own can be. In fact I sort of took offence on Halloween when people told me, having had their face painted like sugar skulls, that that's what they were, "Like the tattoos people get".

Finally, I chose to dress as La Calavera Catrina not because it was Halloween & I thought that was what Dia De Los Muertos was, but because it is an etching that was made to be humorous, but to me appears morbid. So in turn applies perfectly to Halloween when we take the morbid & turn it into something fun. In fact me & my boyfriend are saving up to go to Mexico next year, hopefully for Dia De Los Muertos, maybe I can ask if they'd find my costume offensive. Maybe it's offensive that I want to go there & learn about their culture? Or maybe not. Fuck knows anymore.

2011-11-04T17:49:00.000Z

Been waiting on the 20 Years of Dazed & Confused exhibition for a few months now & it opened today! As much as I'd love to rush there on this week, I think I'm gonna wait till the crowds (there should be crowds!) die down a little, or it's not a weekend. In the meantime here are some of my favorite covers from Dazed past. From top left, July 2006 cover by Damien Hirst & Barbara Kruger, December 2006 cover Zooey Deschanel by Terry Richardson, May 2007 cover Kate Moss by Venetia Scott, January 2009 The Youth Issue by Hedi Slimane, May 2012 cover Tilda Swinton by Glen Luchford & April 2011 cover by Jake & Dinos Chapman.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my halloween post, sorry I've been so absent lately. I wanted to make it up to you by trying extra hard with the photography. Maybe those 2 years of A Level weren't a complete waste of time... Anyway, normal service should resume next week as I'm gonna try & figure posts out on my next day off.

Love love.

2011-11-01T15:32:00.000Z

Oh well I'm a day late ("& a buck short, story of my life") but here is what I have worn 3 nights to various halloween parties this past weekend in various guises. On Friday it was just the dress & flowers & I got my face painted. On Saturday without the ginger afro & finally on real Halloween at my friends house birthday/halloween party with everything. Can you guess what I'm dressed as? (Prizes...maybe.) CLUE. I also made cakes with orange & green sponge & purple icing & was promised a pumpkin to carve at work, that never happened.

The headpiece I made from fake flowers from Ikea glue gunned onto a piece of fabric I sewed around a piece of cardboard & slipped onto a headband. Surprisingly easy & rewarding. The dress is my Zara Kate-ish wedding dress & adding my wolf slave ring made me feel rather regal. & the hair. THE HAIR. Seriously considering getting a perm after seeing how amazing this is. Here's the video tutorial (the girls are annoying, but the technique is full proof) I made my friend use after Cat, my hairdresser friend tried it out a little & showed me how to do it last week. It took about 2 and a half hours. & I slept with the unseperated crimp under a headscarf, then went to work with it all out on Monday, re did the front bits & was ready to go. What do you think? Is a ginger afro the way to kick out my "I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-to-do-with-my-hair" thoughts? Or do I just look like Sideshow Bob?

Happy November.

2011-10-28T11:00:00.000+01:00

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?

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000+01:00

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.

2011-10-26T10:00:00.000+01:00

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?

2011-10-24T21:31:00.001+01:00

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?!

2011-10-14T16:48:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-10-13T12:00:00.000+01:00

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...

2011-10-12T12:00:00.001+01:00

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.

2011-10-11T18:17:00.001+01:00

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.

2011-10-10T12:00:00.000+01:00

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.

2011-10-07T14:05:00.000+01:00

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?

2011-10-06T13:00:00.000+01:00

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.

2011-10-05T12:30:00.000+01:00

Shameless plug for the embroidery sets & pieces I've finally photographed & added to my etsy shop here. They're all based on Sailor Jerry tattoos & I made the cross-stitch patterns my very own self. Also, with each set or framed piece comes a little explanation of the meaning behind each tattoo.

Like the phrase, "Pig on the knee, safety at sea. A cock on the right, never lose a fight." being one of the reasons for a getting a pig and a rooster tattooed. Mostly they're emblems of good luck, returning home safely like the swallow, or keeping grounded whilst away from home, remembering loved one's & pretty girls they hope to return to. I love all that kind of stuff so I find it pretty astonishing & wonderful. I always wish I planned to cover myself in traditional tattoos... but oh well, I still love my equation.

2011-10-04T21:56:00.001+01:00

This post is called "things I would buy from the new Monki online shop if they weren't made out of polyester". I guess I always knew, deep down, that just like everyone else, there seems to be a rule where out of good fabric, cheapness & fashionable, you can only have two. But after years of wishing, considering sending some Scandanavian underwear shopping on my behalf & simply just going there myself, Monki finally opened an online shop that does indeed ship to the UK. & yet along with this they've started listing what they're clothes are made out of. & blog readers I'm scared to reveal that it is all horrific. & until I can feel just how flammable I might be in a lovely Monki dress I cannot buy anything online from them. Damn it!

Look how lovely it all is!

2011-10-03T11:00:00.000+01:00

This is what I wore yesterday, a vintage shift from Berlin with these cute little eyelets that J spent like a half hour staring at trying to figure out if you could see anything through them. Plus a hat. How novel. Well, it's been really fucking hot & sunny the past week or so. So hot that yesterday a group of us went down to the lake at Farley Hungerford, along with a whole load of other people. You can swim in it but my dress was short enough to paddle quite deep, so I was happy, & a little cooler. It's nice to actually be able to cool down unlike at work where the lack of air-con, windows & fans is faint making.

Talking of work, hello to everyone that drove down Park Row on Saturday & saw me in the window getting frustrated at removing vinyl, singing along to Apsci & building a pyramid out of books. There were lots of excited kids when I waved back at them & one guy who took my photo... A little weird. Oh well. Spent the rest of the weekend putting t-shirts & tights up on etsy, listening to "the-new-Kreayshawn-who's-nothing-like-her" Iggy Azalea & celebrating my sisters birthday with pancakes for breakfast, yay!

How was your weekend?

2011-10-01T14:30:00.000+01:00

Picture heavy post because frankly Paris has been killing it. Hussein Chalayan, god of all things fashionably thoughtful put on a killer show that heightened by already epically high love of him. From the exhibition I went to this summer in Paris, to the book I allowed myself to pay lots of money for & have poured over ever since. Honestly, his words & his though process are equally as captivating as his mind bending clothes. Basically I fucking love him, & this Spring 2012 collection was just the icing on the cake.

Perhaps naivly I've never really thought of Rochas as deserving much attention but their 50s inspired show in unexpected materials really had me. & when I saw the backstage close up photos of those shoes... Mirror balls on your feet? Well of course. I like the idea of the sun hitting them & you leaving a sort of trail of light shards in your wake wherever you go. A DIY may be in order...

Anyway sorry for no gifs, gifmake.com who I usually use have some issue with their uploading (very sad). But you can view more non animated runway picks on my tumblr. & I got all the backstage photos from here, here & here.

What's been your highlight?

2011-09-30T18:36:00.002+01:00

It was the ever lovely Hannah Dostine who introduced me to Sticky Institute, via her blog, zine swapping, pen palling & her contribution to SWEAT. & I sent off a few issue 5's a while back & pretty much forgot about it, only these wonderful long e-mails started arriving every month or so from Sticky telling me about what awesome things Zinester's all over the world were getting up to & making me feel bad for not putting more effort into that sort of thing. Until a couple of months back when a lovely package arrived as the payment for the zines of mine that they'd sold.

I'd opted for payment in the strange underground art form of Australian zines because... it's never really been about making money & I really love seeing other people's work, because all zines are so different. So 6 months after I waved goodbye to mine, 16 zines came back in return. From the informative Macarons are not Macaroons & Mutiny to the very personal Watch Him Bleed & Ladybeard (3rd photo). Ladybeard was a particular favorite of mine because it was a story I'd never heard before, written extremely eloquently & opened my eyes to a whole new section of society. For just $2 I would recommend it to anyone & everyone, I have made most of my friends & my mother read my copy & they have all been suitably impressed.

Tales of a 34-year-old Man Whore (4th photo) was another highlight, sketched messages sent to the publishers friend from a jerkface cheating ex. I found myself laughing more than a few times. There were also 3 issues of Y.O.U zine (photo 2) with one on CD that I haven't got round to listening to get... but am very intrigued to. I also loved the zine in picture 5 too (not sure of the title) about two deers who squat & have cardboard antlers.

Anyway what I'm really saying is there are some properly amazing people out there making lovely paper things. I could get lost on Sticky's website for days...

Zine Love.

2011-09-26T23:21:00.003+01:00

Yay! Projector fun! Probably would've all worked better if I had a partner in crime, but having a free night for once I just had to get on with it. Trying to line up the light before it got inappropriate etc etc. There are actually some cool ones I did that are less appropriate but I kind of don't want to put those on the internet. I'm sorry I didn't really think that through. But anyway, I hope you like them. & Mat's already suggested old photographs might look cool so I'll try & get on that. For more images head over to my flickr. Plus my Berlin films are up on there too... the ones I still haven't posted.

Good day today, even though *he* went home, but Blink 182's new album came out. & even though what I'd previously heard just sounded like +44 or Angels and Airwaves, rather than Blink, the album is a lot better than I expected. It also hits on the little nostalgic feeling that started brewing when I saw them at Reading last year, so good! Oh to be 14 again.

Spent the weekend watching Disney films. I really love Beauty & the Beast. I forget how amazing it is & then something reminds me why it's my favorite film. So want to get "For who could ever learn to love a beast?" tattooed somewhere...

What did you do?

2011-09-25T13:01:00.001+01:00

Getting my orange on with these two new purchases. Zara via eBay skirt feels like a wetsuit & is a little too big but I've made my piece with it. & UO jumper I bought of my friend who got it in the sale. I'm not sure if this overrides my New Year's Resolution, but as long as I didn't walk into a UO shop or website & hand over my money surely that's ok? Plus, it's awesome. If a little see-thru. I don't know what the weather is up to at the moment so it puts dressing all out of whack. & I feel a bit out of whack generally. Maybe it's the season, all the change going on, whilst all I've done is quadruple my days at work. I dunno, having the conversation about "what the fuck to do with my life" about 10 times a day with myself & the people around me has started to give me a sort of groundhog day feeling.

Also me & the J-ster started playing with my projector FINALLY this weekend. Although we/I haven't quite figured out the best clothing to wear & we also forgot that doing it in daylight would make the images seriously shoddy. Plus tattoos & ugly bruises kind of distract from the projection pattern. Being instructed to "move your head up a bit, no. & right. too much." whilst I tried to get the word TIME on my forehead & KILLING on my chest so they were readable, was hilarious.

& finally before I have to decide what to do with my Sunday, a big HELLO to all the new followers who have arrived recently. I am trying to be a better blogger, more regularly etc. But I've just lost my inspiration these last couple of weeks. Maybe it's the big "D" word looming again. Oh no. Anyway hello!

& thank you!

2011-09-21T20:29:00.002+01:00

Runway to pavement in 11 days, beat that highstreet. Yes, I may have had some screen printing issues (ie, having to paint through the stencil on 'more' leaving all these splodgy bits) plus having to cut the t-shirt neck to make it more comfortable. But hey, it's a start. & seems more appropriate with all the part conferences happening around now. Shame it would be inappropriate to wear it to work... no? Worn with disco pants & platforms because I felt like stomping around & feeling powerful, as you do.

If anyone wants a t-shirt please e-mail me! I'd be well up for producing more once I get hold of some more t-shirts & new screen fabric. I'm sure copyright can be wavered, I mean... it's a different font!

And runway to Moleskin in 2 days, that's even better! Got inspired to do some painting & rewatch 500 days of summer (how good is that film? I mean I can pretend it's cheesy when I've been away from it, but really I can imagine watching it with my kids when it's a classic), even though I probably should have been more inspired by bagging a new lens on eBay that arrived yesterday. So now I should have better photos again! PLUS good old Curry's took my money in return for a tripod that won't throw my camera to the ground & a cable that means I can stream my laptop through my projector. Arty photos of me in front of various photos, on their way soon. Oh the suspense!

How are you today?

2011-09-19T20:32:00.004+01:00

It's nice when someone comes to buy a book at work & instead of my automatic retail robot I actually learn something, or have an insightful conversation about the pros & cons of say... Douglas Coupland. On Saturday a man came in wanting to order the new Edwin Smith book & unfortunately I couldn't get hold of it for him, but I cursed myself for having not heard of Smith sooner, especially (embarrassingly) not only having studied photography for two years but also done one project focusing solely on architecture photography. Working in large format, his compositions are very much those of the larger scale & I can't imagine how fantastic it would be to see them life size rather than screen size... (images from Google)

Can I also say hello to Sarah (I think that's the right person, Sarah of Dischohecho if it wasn't you, please let me know!) who I met today in Berkley Square on my lunch break who professed to be a reader of this blog. She was intriguingly taking photos of berries & I was disappointingly dressed for the shit weather & lugging heavy boxes around a humid shop... Oh well. It's nice to remember (most) people on the internet are real & lovely.

Mondays, Mondays

2011-09-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

Sick artwork by Carmen Garcia Huerta. His website's down at the moment, but his blog is loaded with his work from Glamour to Portrait Now! I prefer his more sketchy ones that the highly digitalised stuff he does, but each to their own, the others are pretty sweet too. & his portraits of people from Louise Bourgeois to Amy Winehouse & Madonna are amazing. Had to go for Morrissey though, because even though he's a twat, The Smiths were so fucking good that you can't discount his imagery completely. Oh & sorry for all the boobage.

More here.

2011-09-15T20:31:00.003+01:00

This is the third or fourth French Connection collection magazine thing I've got & it's always a nice little punctuation in the post. I always mean to post them because they're just so darn beautiful, but somehow the organisation has always alluded me. This time though, I've done it straight away! You'd think FC were paying me but I promise they're not mainly because I can say this: I don't actually like their clothes. I personally think they're overpriced & pretty generic, but it's their campaigns that set them apart for me.

Their "He is man" & "She is Woman" campaigns from last year are what made me sign up, but the magazines themselves are lovingly put together, wonderfully photographed & printed on gorgeous matte paper that smells amazing. Now that's a lot of positive adjectives but genuinely, I think French Connection deserve to be singled out for their unique dedication to odd & quirky advertisement. You can watch the videos to accompany them here... read the catalogue here (although I can highly recommend it in the flesh) & I'm gonna try & find out who the photographer is.

Just a shame about the clothes.

2011-09-14T20:35:00.002+01:00

This is what I wore to work today & I thought I'd take some photos of me grimacing into the setting sun because the colours made me smile today, & a stranger I saw on my lunch break. It's nice to make people smile with clothing. & there's something about a) wearing just one colour, b) wearing bright colours full stop & c) wearing only primary or secondary colours, that make you feel like a child or something. It's also been on the runway a lot & I think it's a subconscious way of nodding to fashion in everyday life without looking like a complete twat.

Plus yay for this jumper that I sneakily found in my Mum's wardrobe whilst ironing the other day & have partially adopted as a comfort to Autumn. It also pleasingly exposes my collar bone which I like & reminds me of that fucking ace Alkaline trio song Clavicle. Is a clavicle the same as a collar bone? Not sure... where's a medical student when you need one. Apparently good collar bones/clavicles run in my family. Like height.

Hmm

2011-09-13T14:05:00.002+01:00

I've always had a secret love for lurex, but my problem is when I run up to touch it I'm repulsed. So when I saw this gold lurex polo neck jumper in the biggest charity shop I've ever been in, back in Berlin & it didn't feel disgusting I seized upon it. I think it's like interspersed with silk or something. I'm not sure because I cut off the polo neck & sewed it as a messy neckline losing the label along the way. I know, I know, polo necks are meant to be big this season, but I hate stuff up around my neck, especially a scratchy ribbed lurex. & because I'm in morning over the departure of my best friend, I wore it with all black.

On a brighter note, one of my favorite shows out of New York so far has definitely been Araks. I'm not keen on drop waists, just because I think they're unflattering & not impactful enough to counteract that. But with the shirt combo I'm almost won over. & the half sheer black dress? Insane. I'm getting back to blogging I swear. Right now I'm going to try & comment on all 158 of you followers, whilst watching Submarine for like the 3rd time this week...

Lovely.

2011-09-13T01:19:00.001+01:00

Another gif? Am I trying to give you a headache. Well, no. I just like the way they look. Especially over amazing things such as politics making it onto the catwalk. Go Johnson Hartig for living up to the brand name Libertine. Disappointing though that the shirt itself will probably cost hundreds. Oh well, I feel a DIY screen print coming on. Anyone else want one? Maybe I'll sell them, just to subvert the whole idea itself. In other news I've started blogging the Spring 2012 shows so if you fancy seeing them through my filter, in a nice scrollable, tumblog manner, head over to ICBFASHION.

Not much else to say except that I am a shit blogger, I have just eaten a proper amazing pie at the pub & my best friend/platonic soulmate is abandoning me to go to Russia tomorrow. I'm pissed. But more sad. Oh well, as least I have a day off to wallow. & everyone's packing it seems like. Either to go away to uni, or on holiday, or back to where they came from for the summer or off to do something proper with their life.

Oh well.

2011-09-09T16:06:00.003+01:00

ISSUE±12 OF SWEAT

HAS LANDED.

For it on your doorstep it's just £1.50 + postage. You can find a link to buy it, or observe the beauty of it ***here***. It'll make you make faces as above. Or you can possibly use it as an, um, hat. Packed full of delights from Jonathan Kelham, Siobhan Barbour & Mice Ailing.

Well good innit.

2011-09-06T19:48:00.002+01:00

Photos from my computer to convey my mixed up head. Sorry for no posts but I've been working like a real person (almost) four days a week.

1. Gillian Zinser is lovely. 2. Lulu DK puts my lame collages to shame. 3. Amber Rose because... you know she's beautiful & Kanye West obviously still isn't over her. 4. Kanye & Jay-Z from THE BEST ALBUM SO FAR THIS YEAR aka Watch the Throne. 5. Couldn't find a nice enough image for "teal" that wasn't a dress from Topshop, have to do with stationary. 6. From tumblr I'm guessing. 7. Yes yes they are a feral underclass, you are the secretary for justice, JUSTICE, as in giving people second chances no matter what they've done & treating them with the respect they deserve. 8. Many of the e-mails I have been getting from job applications or work experience applications I half heartedly filled out, not really knowing whether I wanted to do them or not... 9. Fighting the want to buy a load of fake nails & decorate them beautifully like this girl, or at least go to this exhibition. 10. This blog is so beautiful I could get lost there for days. 11. One of my favorite Beyonce songs & just feels sort of appropriate.

That's all.

2011-08-31T11:11:00.002+01:00

Last week I set out on a mission to buy a garment that I confess not to have worn for about two years: jeans. I found some really nice green ones in Urban Outfitters but it just wasn't right. There's something about jeans where they unify everyone sure & some people look proper amazing effortlessly in them, I am not one of those people. So, having given up on jeans & partly trousers as a whole I've turned to a new obsession planted a few months ago when I saw an absolutely lovely 60s white linen skirt suit on eBay.

Jonathan Saunders' skirt suit is probably the epitome of how you can wear it smartly in evening or to work (depending where you work) but I think it would be nice to take the skirt suit into everyday as the chick from Loves Getting Dressed has done, or they used to back in the day. I like the elegance of it. But worn with a scruffy t-shirt and creepers, all in the same colour perhaps, I think it would look fucking ace. My new mission is to find the perfect one, even though with the dawning of a new season tomorrow I'm sure this will be over before it's even begun.

I'd settle for these skirts from Monki teemed with a top in the same colour (even though they don't sell them) for now though. Or that lovely pink Jil Sander esque one. Tomorrow also, Monki opens in Selfridges. Now considering at one point I wanted to ask someone Swedish to buy me Monki underwear & post it over, or that also I was willing to fly out there just to shop there, & to see Scandinavia of course! I should be excited, but part of me knows it'll all be double the price & half the selection, so what's the point? Why don't they just open an online store or open here full stop!?

No?

2011-08-30T18:25:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the image overload, but they were all so pretty I just couldn't resist. A post by Mat reminded me about this guy I knew who was an insomniac and used to go for walks at dawn around the city. He got obsessed by spotting odd signs, mainly ghostly painted ones on the sides of buildings & he took me for a tour once which was so beautiful. I don't actually know what happened to him but when I read this article at work on Saturday the mention of Project Neon brought it all back. If you haven't heard of it basically she roams New York looking for lovely neon signs. & it's neon's 100th birthday so the endlessly wonderful Chris Bracey made a sign to accompany the article & it set me on an internet trail. Neon - don't you know - is also my favorite element in the periodic table.

What's yours?

2011-08-29T17:58:00.003+01:00

It's been 44 years since the Abortion Act was passed in the UK, 4 decades since my mum defended that same act against threats to change it & today on the front page of the paper is yet another threat against one of the most basic women's right we have in this country. An evil, spiteful & unfortunately powerful woman by the name of Nadine Dorries got elected as an MP in 2005, since then she has twice made ludicrous attempts to undermine basic rights by being the driving force behind the Conservatives obsession with shortening the abortion limit & teaching abstinence alongside sex education to girls - not boys - the clear misunderstanding there obviously being that ideologies are more important than arming our young vulnerable people with the tools they need to protect themselves, whatever promises they make.

But this isn't about Dorries, however much of a despicable character she may be, this is about the fact that the government is listening to people like this & that today, with the strategic words from a lawyer or two, they are proposing to change the decision making process of women considering abortions. A small change means it doesn't have to go through Parliament & so on the grounds that those evil, selfish (note: sarcasm) people who go into the British Pregnancy Advisory Service are money hungry emotionless baby-killers; proposes to replace them with softly spoken heavily biased towards religion, pro-life & supposedly "independent" advisors. Advisors who will go onto softly, religiously whisper words of encouragement into ill-prepared vulnerable women's ears about the fact that the cluster of cells is in fact already a human being.

They can say they are "independent" because they keep their religious funders in hushed whispers & out of the limelight. No doubt it's a man, whom I'm afraid has absolutely no authority over anyone's womb & has no idea at all about what a heart wrenching decision it is for anyone to go through an abortion. & an even more sinister thought that was niggling at me until John Healey said it, was that this highly controversial & oddly timed announcement comes just before the Commons debate on the Health Bill as a whole. I wonder how much of that two day debate they will happily hand over to suitably angry opposition MPs who they will accuse of living in the past, when in fact they simply can't believe we're still having this conversation.

Full Article. Picture Source.

2011-08-25T11:25:00.000+01:00

Uhr yeah. So someone sent me a link to this video & the song wouldn't leave my head, but more than that were the girls in the video. More specifically, Lil Debbie. So I got my google on & discovered the White Girl Mob & I'm pretty much in awe of them, if that's the right word. Nah, probably not. Basically they just seem like a load of normal, very American, nicely tattooed girls. I'm not totally on board with Kreayshawn's music, but this song... I can't not sing the chorus. & who else would get away with the line, "I've got the swag, it's pumping out my ovaries"? Seriously watch this video. & then look at pretty pictures of Lil Debbie or visit Kreayshawn or V Nasty's blogs. Picture source.

Sweet.

2011-08-24T17:16:00.002+01:00

Big pictures of wool in perfect colour order mmm... My idea of OCD heaven was lying all my mums wool out & making it into a giant colour chart. I have issues. I spent my 2 days at Oxfam ordering all the cloths by the rainbow, *ahem*. Anyway this is The Room as we've dubbed it for now. Basically it's full of all the art & craft stuff me & my dearest mother have lived with strewn throughout the house. Except now it's all in one room, in a nice labelled drawer or on display. There's just a couple of things left to do like put up some hooks for me to hang my french curves & pattern master on & also find some vases for mum's knitting needles because the wine rack was an ace idea but all the short needles fall out so... That wasn't fun.

My material looks rubbish in that out of focus photo but I honestly have some nice stuff! Lots of silk & awesome prints from Paris last year. Things printed with carrots & uhr, moose. The drawers were an absolute nightmare. After unearthing them from somewhere else in the house I resolved to spray paint them orange from the murky brown they once were. Unfortunately apart from turning my legs orange & intoxicating the neighbors, the spray metal paint didn't really spray evenly or in the right colour. So I just bought some paint. Although it meant I had to squeeze the labels through the excess. Oh well, lesson learned. I'll take more detail photos & some of where I have actually been working once I tidy it up a little!

Timed post so I don't fall behind, but I'm off to see the J-ster today whose just got back from some random tattoo conventions somewhere in vague Europe. The less questions the better huh.

Love love.

2011-08-23T19:55:00.002+01:00

Man it's been a while. I've been MIA, or living off grid, depending what way you look at it. Basically I went underground to avoid all the hectic madness of results day last week. I've had friends making phone calls to the effect of "I don't care which shit hole I end up at as long as I get on X course this year". It's so sad. & has just perpetuated all my homicidal feelings around the university process. I hope you guys all did as well as you'd hoped & got in somewhere to do something you actually want to do. I did alright. A B C. Kind of perfectly. So now I have 2 A's 1 B & a C in physics. Which makes me pretty fucking chuffed.

I've also been obsessively embroidering because I want to sell some stuff online & hopefully at a Christmas market which would be fun! Once I've taken the photos I'll show you my efforts. I also keep meaning to put up photos of the new Craft Room, or Work Room. We're not sure what to call it because either way it alludes to images of yesteryear. Anyway, it's my new sanctuary after aimless nights spent at weird parties in the countryside. I have to hide there because evidently I have lost my dressing mojo, wondering around in spotty cut offs, torn up t-shirts scrawled with Arctic Monkeys lyrics of albums ago & multi coloured nails. Weird fact, at work on Saturday these nails got comments from three males who I see regularly but have never before commented on my nails... very odd. Anyway, let's get reacquainted.

I've missed you!

2011-08-12T11:52:00.002+01:00

For a while I've wanted to take pictures of what I wear everyday & then make an awesome gif of them at the end of every week. I kept forgetting, but finally this week I pretty much remembered! Although when I put them all together the crappy quality made it a little more headache inducing than even I can handle. So here it is in picture form & once I remember to scout out a new camera lens on eBay maybe the images will be of good enough quality for gif making!

Monday: old oversized top from H&M & some vintage culottes I got in Paris last year because after reading Elle Collections, Vogue & Bazaar last weekend I had an overwhelming need for polka dots. Looks pretty nicely like a dress as well.

Tuesday: Cat & mad face plus vintage skirt from Berlin. Got it as part of the €15 a kilo thing at Garage & although it's made of pretty horrific fabric, it has this cute little flower print & comes with a wonderfully clashing spotted belt. As you can see Holly cat was still not impressed.

Thursday: I forgot on Wednesday because I woke up late for my 9.30 train to London, even though that was probably my nicest outfit all week! Sods law. This is a (probably meant for nightwear) playsuit from Oysho where I made myself go to on the brief visit to Paris, so I could stock up on underwear & technically breaks my new years resolution, but maybe it doesn't extend to other countries? It's like this nice toile du jour print & I got the matching shorts too... I also wore it without a cardigan or tights to John Lewis last week to buy a hoover & when I carried the giant box back through the shop from the front it looked like I was naked. Amused the lovely John Lewis staff, so at least my sartorial mistakes make people smile!

Friday: As I'm spending the day making pattern blocks, embroidering & listening to Josh's amazing mix tapes, I'm pretty basic today with one of my favorite dresses with the amazing flashing pin ups print & cut off kimono. That sentence makes my new *adult* life sound pretty good, but actually I'm feeling pretty pressed up a giant brick wall at the moment.

Anyway, yes. London was shit. I dislike London & sort of forget how much whenever I'm away or I settle into a bit outside of the center. But going up for a day to loads of galleries & shops in the center is not fun. Having to perch on a flower bed to eat a sandwich because there are no benches in Kensington is not fun. & the guy at Morplan was a dick.

I also spent the day yesterday watching BBC Parliament & getting more & more angry. This shouldn't be a debate about police cuts Ed Miliband. I'm suspending my membership to the Labour party - I know, I cringe every time I admit it - because he didn't speak for me yesterday & so I can't allow him to think that he does. I'm glad to see from the wonderful comments on the post below though, that there are other people out there with their heads screwed on & their eyes open. There have been some really good articles in the Guardian all week as well, but nothing in the words of all the MPs rushing to condemn it so what are we meant to do?

Hope your weeks better!

2011-08-09T22:58:00.004+01:00

Finally. If your gonna fight, fight for something. Proving stereotypes... Targeting the wrong people... Showing that if you call generations stupid they'll start acting like they are... Did it occur ironic to anyone else that The Smiths are the perfect soundtrack to this so called riot?

Anyway, I'm off up to London tomorrow to buy some pattern cutting supplies. Might stay on & uhr...loiter about Parliament on Thursday though. What do you guys think of this mess? I thought they were justified up to the people's housing & independent businesses. I mean the enemy is police, government & capitalism right? Or maybe this is the riot for capitalism. Anarchy for free stuff. Oh my, the debates we could have in our ivory tours... I sound like a dick. Time to bow out.

2 posts in one day!?

2011-08-09T11:09:00.000+01:00

Whilst sat in the airport last week (man only last week), wondering why it is that people insist on queuing up an hour before the flight is due, I picked up the airport magazine & aimlessly flicked through. I came across a story (now I realize, about 6 months out of date) about Kodak's Colorama photos that adorned Grand Central Station for four decades.

They were hailed as the largest ever photographs and printed at 18"x60", which is pretty fucking huge. But it's the weirdly idyllic (*ahem* white middle class) America that they portray that really interests me. From packing up the holiday home in the 50s (top photo) to the election of 1960 (4th photo) they show an amazing amount of detail just because they're so big I guess. They also remind me of Gregory Crewdson, whose giant images are staged to the extreme to produce well thought out dialogues in an image. I actually got to see some of his photographs at the C/O gallery in Berlin & I've never been a huge fan of his work because the women always look so abused, but I have to say the detail is breathtaking.

Anyway before this starts sounding like a photography lesson, you can view the full archive online as well as more information about the photographers & the actual equipment used. It's nice flicking through the images & seeing so many weird scenes that feel staged & yet are trying so hard to look real.

Good morning!

2011-08-08T12:53:00.002+01:00

Berlin photos! So these are the only from the one's I took on my phone (hence the often shitty qaulity), but it's a start. This is why I am a rubbish blogger, not with the quickness of the internet. Anyway, so the one's of the ferris wheel, creepy boarded up candy coloured housing, broken dinosaurs & swan boats is from our (including my mum!) spurt of breaking & entering. I know I know, but it was into Spreepark. I've already shared by slight obsession with Coney Island & this for me has the same sort of eerie, fake happy sheen that I love about there. A few months ago some Berliners put on a gig here, becaue it's in the heart of the East, which is now like the cool bit... So there was an abandoned stage at one point, plus a cafe that looked like it could be open with some dinosaurs that weren't missing limbs.

But around the rest of the park (dodging through the security tape & caravans that have pitched up on the vacant plot) there were rusting rides, with all the trains & tracks overgrown with weeds. There were broken bridges, falling into the rivers & of course, the most beautifully abandoned ferris wheel. I'm sure the lomo shots I took (about 2 films worth) will look fucking amazing, so I'm holding out for that. But honestly, if you're in Berlin for a while you can get the S-Bahn to Treptower Park & walk round to it in about 20 minutes. There's a little board that lifted up for you to crawl under the fence. We followed some people who looked like they were trying to break in too, but we never saw them again & they carried on round the fence so we think they bottled it. It was such an odd thing to explore & I'm so glad we actually made it over there!

The clothes are in the best vintage shop in Berlin (fact.) Tony Durante of Surezstrasse. I can't remember how we got there, but it's in the West district of Charlottenburg. West Berlin still feels extremely different, in contrast to Treptower Park & Spreepark, they have the Tiergarten that has memorials all over it & proper flower beds etc. It's next to the Reichstag, but once you head into it there were like no tourists. & it was a nice way to get the the Bauhaus Archiv which was so fantastic. But anyway, on Surezstasse there's a collection on antique & vintage shops, a lot of them are just decor, but we found at least three or four with clothes. One with a scary lady who was impressed I could pronounce Yohji Yamamoto...

But Tony Durante's was simply everything an amazing vintage shop should be. He was really enthusiastic about the clothes (less so about Berlin & the rent prices in London) & my mum liked him because he actually talked to her rather than ignoring her whilst trying to get me to try on as many clothes as possible like most other shops. Although when I told him she'd thrown away all her vintage Ossie Clarke, Biba etc from the 60s he said I should kill her. All jokes though! He also showed us this amazing house coat by the guy who makes tweed for the queen, & lots of pieces he said he didn't put out because he didn't want to sell them, just because we showed an interest & actually knew a little what we were talking about. Unfortunately I didn't buy anything, the one dress I wanted to he wouldn't let me because it was slightly too tight around the shoulders. Very upsetting, but he was right. There was also amazing jewellry. & in September (I think) they're having a Surezstrasse street party where all the shops will have stalls. Kind of want to go back for it... oh if only I was a jetsetter. But yes, if you like vintage clothing, even if you can't afford the higher (but totally justified) prices, he is an absolutely lovely man just to talk too. He also has an accessories stall in London (from which he told us a funny story about Kate Moss) for something a little closer to home!

& finally the smiley face and the big mud circle are from the Hamburger Bahnhof museum. The first was from the toilets... but there was much better stuff to see too! The mud circle is by Richard Long who brought over mud from Bristol's very own river Severn to make the Berlin Circle, how weirdly awesome is that? Travel all the way to Germany to see an artist from my home town. Or mud from my home town! This was an interesting museum, because it was stupidly hard to get to from the S-Bahn, with barely any signs for pedestrians. Then when inside it was like a microcosm for hipsters. Literally. Outside there were none, on the way there, on the way home, we saw no hipsters. & yet walk through the door & it was crawling with them. Very weird. We actually found this with quite a lot of museums, or maybe that was just me. So yes, even if you're not into modernist art, or Richard Long, there was some very good people watching to participate in!

Oh & plus a waffle from our very first day (almost forgot about that) I don't think I took a picture of Currywurst, but we had the whole range. From upmarket in the biggest foodhall I've ever seen at KaDeWa to proper rank in Treptower park where the sausage was covered in ketchup & then sprinkled with curry powder. Nice. Anyway, I brought some curry-ketchup back with me from the super market so maybe I can recreate it!

I miss Berlin.

2011-08-07T20:58:00.003+01:00

Yesterday settling back into the routine of work rather uncomfortably after holiday, a bright ray of sunshine struck right through my reorganizing of the 3 for 2's. Commissioned by Penguin Ink - whose rather awesome logo of I took a shoddy photo of for the first picture - 6 of the worlds great tattooists have re-imagined 6 - well, in my humble opinion 3 or 4 - equally great books. They're also on 3 for 2 in Blackwell's, so despite trying to have some constraint, I opted for Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, which a friend confessed was his all time favorite book recently (fate?) The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe because I've just read The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim & it was billiant, & The Book of Dave by Will Self because fate (again) aligned as for about a year now people have been recommending me to read Will Self & this is the cover done by one of my favorite artists of the bunch, & the profession, Duncan X.

Sorry for lack of posts, my Berlin films are being developed by the very slow Jessops as we speak. But I do have some photos on my phone for posts, as well as having finally remembered to start something I've been meaning too for about 10 weeks now & haven't. Ooo cryptic. It'll all be clear by Friday, probably, promise.

Out.

2011-08-03T09:57:00.000+01:00

The wondrous Barbara Ryan of BFR mag is putting on an ace exhibition/event at the Tatty Devine Brick Lane shop until the 3rd of September. & of course SWEAT is part of it! The launch is tonight, but you can pop along anytime to browse the zine library or even bring along your own publication to swap or add. You can also read an interview with her about the exhibition on Dazed Digital here. & you should check out her blog too, innit. I wanted to go down tonight but unfortunately after hours of traveling yesterday I don't much fancy getting a numb bum on the mega bus just yet. But I will make it down soon!

Lovely.

2011-08-02T18:07:00.002+01:00

I'm back!

Back from rainy Berlin & sunny Paris with about 20kg extra of clothes (does flying make everyone completely weight conscious about what they buy?). Thank you all so much for the e-mails & recommendations for Berlin, I had a properly wicked time but once I've gone through my e-mails, deleted all the rubbish, put the washing out, checked my bank balance, & taken my film to be developed; I will do some proper posts all about it. For now here I am in front of (I think) the people's theater, or something. I can't completely remember where. Holding a bag full of clothes from Alex's Vintage, my impromptu raincoat from Muji (feeding all those desires I've had for a 60s see thru raincoat inspired by The Doom Generation) & in my gorgeous birthday Antipodium dress.

It's summer!

2011-07-24T14:13:00.001+01:00

R.I.P
Rest in pieces & I'll keep one with me
(photo: hedi slimane)