Riffing on a theme

Sources: Lady Moriarty//Vanessa Jackman

Cool girls wear short sweaters and jeans.

Salmon in Winter

I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but here in London it is freezing outside. Skipped autumn, straight to winter. Or perhaps my internal thermometer is just maladjusted seeing as I am currently dealing with my first cold of the season. Anyway, point being, that when the weather gets cold, everyone's wardrobe seems to get grim. Black black navy black ooh slate gray black. Hence why I appreciate Totokaelo's styling in their Fall/Winter Looks, with the unexpected splashes of salmon (courtesy of A.P.C). Vibrant pink when it's cold outside...why not? Matches my cheeks.

That being said, the below outfit is much more my style, but not because of the black. Rather my eye covets that kinda-ugly-colour but-I-love-it cardigan. What is that colour called? Rust, perhaps. And those leggings. Well. They had me at hello.

quick view

Polka dots and gap teeth. A room with solely a bed. A bed room. I like that.

(full editorial here)

Aspiration

Whenever I think about letting my fringe grow out, I look to this picture and snip snip snip.

(the sartorialist)

On disappearing

She just finished school and didn't know what to do with herself. She packed a small duffel with jumpers and skirts and went over to grand-mère's, hoping the clutter and eccentricities of the surroundings would clear her mind.

To be honest, I don't know if this webshoot for Another (styled and photographed by my favorites of favorites, Camille Bidault-Waddington) has made the blog rounds in the past month since I have been completely removed from the blogging world for quite some time. I know that the blog has lain quiet before but never for this long and I've always kept up with my Reader. But since I finished exams (at the end of May!) I haven't posted a post or read a blog.

Currently I have 1000+ posts to read. It wasn't particularly purposeful, I just found that I felt no compulsion, no desire to know what was going on. I blame oversaturation perhaps. Seeing the same editorial over and over, seeing the same girl wearing the same thing even though she was a different girl. The internet and the way it has provided for the democratization and globalization of fashion is an interesting thing. Not a bad thing, but sometimes it overwhelms me, especially as an active participant. I get bombarded with images of people and their internet lives and it freaks me out. So I had to step away.

This blog has no purpose. It has no theme, no direction, no particular point of view. Just me and my quite random thoughts and desires. So when I have no thoughts, desire or inspirations it goes quiet. But I think I'll always come back. If anyone happened to stick around, thanks. Sorry for being wishy-washy.

And now to note: this editorial is everything I do love: A timeless simplicity that could similarly yet contrarily be described as a sort of 70s minimalism, all set in a charming haberdashery of a flat. And that is all.

Haphazard Interiors

While I constantly claim that my student lifestyle relegates my interior design aesthetic to nil, I recently realized that it is more laziness than lifestyle. I don't have a design-point-of-view, rather my apartment is made up of furniture that was already there and Ikea necessities. I didn't think I was much of a nester, but when looking around my flat the other day, I realized I do have an aesthetic: haphazard. Books piled every which way on the bookshelf, a mantle overflowing with candles, pictures, and more books, a desk overrun with jewelry boxes that are over run with jewelry. Haphazard...or maybe just messy, but I kind of like it, which is why I was drawn to the various interiors in these editorials shot by Hugh Stewart . They are all a little scruffy round the edges, the eye darts around at all the visual stimuli, a bit like a Victorian haberdashery, disorganized but lovely just the same.







Photographs by Hugh Stewart found at kris atomic

5 Franken will get you

This picture by Stil in Berlin made me inhale a little sharply when it first popped in my Reader. Her hair is lovely. And that dress is simply stunning. Apparently it was purchased for 5 Franken (which is around 4 Euros they say) at a Zürich fleamarket...dang. Jealousy abounds.

----

On another note, I am still alive, simply immersed in dissertation writing, exam prepping, life prepping. Two months till the very end of my law degree. It's all a bit scary and I haven't had much time or desire to blog. No word on when the winds will change, but if you don't mind bearing with me, I don't mind.

Topshop Unique

It's official - the first show of the season that has left me scheming on ways to make it all mine. Topshop Unique tends to be a little too much for me generally, but this collection, which screams of the wilderness and eccentric rusticity (with a lil' bit of military) is just right. I've mentioned my strange affectation for 'The Country' before, and with all the thick knits over diaphanous dresses, woodland creature prints and furry outerwear...sigh.

It's actually all the coats that have got me counting pennies. All that fur (a bit Opening Ceremony x Where the Wild Things Are collab, no?) and shearling (I'm still pining over my mother's real one) are now permanently inked in my mind. I cannot wait until September to consume unabashedly...

Well, clearly I can and will wait, and hopefully my consumption will be mild and reasonable but a girl can hyperbolize can't she?

A snippet of nyfw: rag & bone

(click to enlarge, if you wish)

I haven't really been paying much attention to New York Fashion Week, mostly because I've attempted to ban myself from superfluous browsing of the internet while writing a hefty slew of papers. This morning, I was feeling a bit ill, and so spent a good part of the morning in bed, checking out New York Magazine and Style.com's coverage to see what's what.

While I enjoyed the ones I usually enjoy (Marc Jacobs, Peter Jensen, Karen Walker, Rachel Comey to name a few), I was particularly taken with rag & bone. They aren't a brand I am really familiar with nor generally interested in, but I was quite intrigued with their show. I'm not sure if it is the clothing themselves or rather the styling that won me over. I liked all the grays, olives, and fairisle knits, but what I really adored was all that layering. The only reason I don't mind winter is that I get to layer clothes upon clothes, which automatically gives me warm feelings of comfort and generally happy fuzziness.

The show was styled by Vanessa Reid, who also styled the Missoni aw09 show and an editorial I'd earmarked in the fall 2009 issue of POP - both were favorites last year precisely because of their layering wonderfulness. I only wish I could be as proficient at piling it on.

On Nails and Abby Lee

The post where I write slightly excessively about nails:

I am a bit funny when it comes to nail polish. I used to be an avid nail biter, and then after years of new years resolutions and ragged nails, I simply stopped. Now my nails can grow to a nice healthy length happily, and when they do so, I leave them bare. But whenever a nail or two chips, I cut them all down, and paint them. I have a thing about short nails -- at least my own -- where I can't stand them unless they are painted. I think its because I find that my fingers are bit short, and short nails make them look stumpier (for lack of a better word). So I have a ritual: grow nails, nails break, trim nails, paint nails, grow nails, etc. Rinse and repeat.

When I do paint them, I also almost solely paint them in dark colours: navy blue, burgundy, dark purple, slate blue, dark gray... these are all on constant rotation. But, last summer, when at the local CVS with my 12 year old sister, I picked up a bottle of Revlon's orangey-red 'Red Hot Tamale' and her little wide eyes lit up; she wanted me to buy it so she could try it. So I did. I tried it, but thought it a bit too orange [looks a bit less bright in my shitty webcam pic, that's lazyness folks]. But I'm giving it another go recently and now I kind of love it. Plus it makes me think of the surf colour palette of the new Abby Lee Kershaw editorial in the current Australian Vogue that has me all in a tizzy. Could an editorial breathe any more summer in it with her fantastic dip-dye hair and orange lips? I think not. See the rest here...

Throw on

(top: bona drag, middle: turned out, bottom: asos)

Dresses: truly, the simplest form of dressing . Throw on. Grab some shoes. Done. Course all sorts can be done to spruce up a dress, accessories, sweaters, etc., etc., but when you have the right dress, there is very little extra needed. I am currently enjoying the idea of the nightie-as-dress - not in a Courtney Love 90s slip sort of way - but rather in the Victorian nightgown sort of way. The dress at the top by Lonely Hearts reminds me of that sort of thing, and my mind began to fester more on the subject when I saw this New Zealand gal on turned out, who wears vintage nighties to the beach - quite the perfect cover up. Then I found this very Edwardian looking dress on ASOS, and I was convinced. The last one is a little too twee for me with the bow and all, but all this got me thinking....

I have a long nightie at the back of my closet - 'my granny nightie' as I lovingly think of it (and others besmirchingly call it), and...well, folks, granny I will have to be, because this summer, if I don't have the gumption to wear in the city, it'll certainly be my go-to beach companion.

Colour Therapy

A burst of colour for another grey grey day. It was sunny on Sunday and it was perfect. Now it's back to dim skies and a foggy air.

While I don't really wear bright colours nor am I constantly doused in black, today I'm going to find and wear the most obnoxiously loud, brightly coloured item of clothing in my wardrobe to shake away the winter day blues.

(US Vogue editorial discovered here)

An Approximation

I've had bag lust ever since seeing these Chloé crocodile bags on the runway and photographed by Tommy Ton outside the show way back when...So when I happened upon this little fella in a vintage shop in East London, despite the fact that I was there for a haircut and was supposed to be spending money on that, it reminded me too much of those beauts not to buy. And at 15 quid, it's not like I was breaking the bank. Course it's not croc, and it's not Chloé, but this little simulacrum is my new best friend.

Sophie Conti

I'm sure most of you are aware of that wonderful haven of inspiration, Style Like U...but I couldn't help but repost this recent video of Sophie Conti, merely because she is so hilarious and has the funniest anecdotes, including a Larry David-esque incident involving knock-off Balmain heels. I love her approach to fashion. Quality over quantity and pro- outfit repeats, as she says, "I'll wear the same pants four days in a row, but it looks good, you know." It's fun and funny, nothing too serious, cause in the end, it's just clothes.

Sophie Conti from Stylelikeu.com from Stylelikeu on Vimeo.

strange magic

I feel the need to contextualize, but I got nothing other than I like the above. There, I said it.

Red Hot [Chilly] Pepper

I'm generally a big fan of autumnal/winter colours. Give me grey and navy blue anyday, any season, and I'll wear it happily. But I'll admit that it can be a bit drab, dour and, um, life-sucking to constantly match the weather. This is why I am absolutely in love with the Camille Bidault-Waddington styled (who else could do layers so perfectly?) editorial, The Big Chill, in the December issue of US Elle. It's all winter colours with a punch of red to waken everything up. Indeed another editorial in the same issue uses red as well to marvelous effect. I'll never give up my beloved greys, but a little spice never hurt anyone.


The Big Chill




The Exhibitionist



(source).