Undercover=Heaven

Pics from vogue.com.au and catwalking.com

Some Halloween Inspiration

Enid Coleslaw, Wednesday Addams, the Lisbon sisters, Isabella Blow, Marie Antoinette, Thelma or Louise.

Bits & Pieces

New Penguin Books → I was really excited to see a new Penguin stand at my local bookshop stacked with orange and white books. It turned out to be a collection of popular Penguin releases which included Breakfast At Tiffany's, The Great Gatsby, Lolita, Of Mice and Men, A Clockwork Orange and Perfume, The Story Of A Murderer (I recently read this and definitely recommend it!). Very clever timing with Christmas on the scary, scary horizon
Marion Bataille's ABC3D → Another bookshop find. Pop ups! Typography! Fun! While I obsessed over this book my friend pointed out that it doesn't really fill the requirements of a good book in that there's nothing to read and it would take a mere minute from start to finish. But I think it's the kind of book that turns a glance at one page into a million ideas. There's a video of it at the link which had me clapping my hands like a three year old.
Dennis Hopper's Art Collection → Dennis Hopper as an actor really scares me but his art collection excites me. Vincent Price (who also scares me) introduced him to the art world and Hopper went on to collect some seriously amazing pop art, collecting pieces by unknowns (Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein) before it sold for millions. PS. One photo is NSFW.
10 Movies That Teach You To Commit Crimes → I love movies that teach me things. Like how to rob casinos, commit the perfect murder and make soap out of body fat. What a great list!
Pot Psychology → More NSFW, two hilarious friends, Tracie (she looks like Deb from Dexter!) and Rich, give highly informative, herbally influenced advice about relationships, sex and really awkward problems that can only be solved by stoners. I watched "Super High Me" the other night so I seem to be developing a theme. Perhaps the next item on my watch list will be a Cheech & Chong movie or How High?

Fashion That Reminds Me Of Art

Gustav Klimt and Aquilano e Rimondi
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian artist and the son of a gold engraver. His paintings and murals were highly detailed and intricate, luxurious and complex. The Aquilano e Rimondi collection immediately made me think of Klimt, with the heavy gold necklaces, metallics and abstract patterns.

David Hockney and Pringle of Scotland
David Hockney was part of the pop art movement in the 60's, was a friend of Andy Warhol (as every pop artist seemed to be!) and is well known for his swimming pool series which was the inspiration behind Pringle of Scotland's collection this season. The runway was painted with a blue Hockney-esque splash that extended to the prints on the fabric and the colours and fabrics are as fresh, crisp and clean as Hockney's paintings.

Marcel Duchamp and Missoni
Missoni has always reminded me of Marcel Duchamp's early work, particularly "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" which has the angles and pattern that the Missoni designers love. Duchamp's painting embraced the ideals of the Cubists who were inspired by technology, machinery and geometry, the rejection of nature and the embrace of the synthetic and after having spent far too long on an essay about Cubism I can't ignore how well the two meld together.

Ouch, Prada!

Of course every Fashion Week has it's "ooopsie" moments, and Prada had many due to the super slippery socks worn with giant high heels. This is one particularly bad spill.

Marni Makes Me Weak At The Knees

Oh my Marni! Excuse me while I fall of the planet, but I just can't help obsessing over Marni's accessories. Every single piece of jewellery is like a perfectly crafted piece of art and apparently more wealthy women than I agree because Marni opened their first all accessories boutique this year. I always head straight for the detailed pictures to see the necklaces, earrings, bracelets, bags and shoes up close and then look at the clothes. When it comes to Marni, each piece is so unique that seeing them all together as a collection is slightly overwhelming. I almost wish each piece was styled with complete basics so people with short attention spans (like me!) could absorb the individual pieces instead of 3 or 4 or 5 different pieces put together.





I've seen a bunch of mixed opinions on Marni, what do you think? An ecstatic yes or a repulsed no?

Burberry Prorsum: Sequins and Trenchcoats

Burberry Prorsum's collection at Milan Fashion Week has me lusting for chunky square bracelets, coats and cardigans with smatterings of tulle and sequins and necklaces strung with thick squares of croc skin (although they look slightly like very, very fancy kitchen linoleum).





I was also left in a dreamy haze after laying eyes on Revlon's new liptints at Target today. I love the rosy, sweet look of flushed lips and have spent, oh, years in the persuit of the perfect product. Instead of a gel liptint, which wear off unevenly and never seem to go on smoothly, Revlon's liptint is a chubby little stick that goes on like a creamy lipbalm and come in the most yummy range of colours. The more I think about it, the more I wish that I didn't have to spend my remaining money on new contacts (I'm going blind in my old age!). I'll just have to keep dreaming until next week.

Cybele

Another of my favourites from New Zealand Fashion Week is Cybele. I particularly like the winged eyes and shoes, the colour palette, the smock dresses and ooooh the finger curls in the models hair.


Pics from zimbio.com

Zambesi is Fantastic

Oh yum, last week was New Zealand Fashion Week and although there were some really bizarre collections (one included a plastic rhinestone studded raincoat) but as usual, I love love LOVED Zambesi. Zambesi has perfected the layer system, a few pieces on and you can brave the cold, a few pieces off and you can flit about in the sunshine. It screams New Zealand, where you can experience all 4 seasons in one day. And the big cardigans make me want to knit up a storm!

Five Things

James Frey Talks Fiction → James Frey is the author of A Million Little Pieces which was featured on Oprah and was supposed to be the account of the author's rehabilitation after a life of drug use, jail and general addict behaviour. Only there were a few (okay, a lot) of fabrications, he was caught out and forced to apologise. Now he's promoting his third book, Bright Shiny Morning, which is fiction. FICTION. The book even comes with a disclaimer, so just incase Oprah features this book he won't have anything to apologise for. He's an interesting character, I suppose after all of the mayhem surrounding A Million Little Pieces he has the attitude that any press is good press.

Riding The SATC Gravy Train → Candance Bushnell is writing two books about a teenaged Carrie Bradshaw which will be interesting. The original Sex And The City, the book, is so vastly different to the TV series, it lacks the friendship between the four women, is written from the point of view of a nameless narrator and just isn't that fun. I hope the books are about TV Carrie, the flawed but infinitely more interesting Carrie.

The Beatles In India → I LOVE Child Of The Moon, a totally image heavy blog with the most amazing posts of style icons, old bands and vintage fashion. I really love Indian textiles and jewellery at the moment so The Beatles and their beautiful wives/girlfriends in traditional dress is really inspiring.

The Bible...IN LEGO FORM!!! → Honestly, the bible is kind of like one enormous blood bath with a touch of prostitution but somehow (only just) Lego makes it all sort of PG. Alright, not PG, perhaps M15+?

'Isms and 'Ologies by Arthur Goldwag Amazon says "450 of the most significant intellectual terms, movements, and religions that help shape the society we live in", I say I wish I had this book before I started University because I would have looked incredibly smart. It covers politics, religion, art movements, philosophy, anything that ends with an 'ism or an 'ology.

Beautiful colours and bad Beverly Hills inspiration

I adore the blues and yellows that are being paired by designers this Fashion Week (although it's really a month, isn't it?). The combination is so organic without any of the typical earthy greens and browns, instead it's the blue of the sky and the yellow of the sun and the two together are so warm. I love!
Less impressive is House Of Holland, inspired by the original Beverly Hills 90210 and everything scary, wrong and hideous about that era. Big, soccer Mum jean with polka dot circles punched out, boys in tshirts with ruffled hems, bike shorts. I feel like I'm having acid flashbacks or something. Eeek!!

Luella Love!

Pics from style.com

Charles Anastase, Nightmares and Fakes

London Fashion Week! → I love London Fashion Week, it's always quirky, colourful and sort of manic. I think my favourite so far (alright, it's only day 1!) is Charles Anastase who has made me want to take down my sheer curtains and create some sort of frothy, foamy petticoat and ruffled collar. There's something so accessible about this collection, basics underneath sheer blouses, leather jackets and blazers for the cooler climates paired with pale skinny jeans and the aforementioned petticoats. The only thing I'm not sure of is the extremely high platforms, most girls I know have enough trouble in normal heels!



Women Have The Scariest Nightmares → And our dreams are more emotional, according to this study, preparing us for possible distressing events in the future. Does that mean that there is a possibily my zombie dreams will come true?!
20 Memorable Fake Photos → Including a shark attacking a helicopter (?), the Cottingley Fairies (one of the earliest 'fake photos') and George Bush reading from an upside down children's book.

And finally, I'm very much looking forward to October 1, Pushing Daisies returns and Sonia Rykiel shows at Paris Fashion Week. Magnificant!

These flowery waters and these watery flowers

Yesterday was beautifully warm, 31 degrees (that's 87 Fahrenheit), and the sunshine is completely welcome after a long, cold and rainy Winter. On the other side of the world, all the leaves are turning brown and the days are getting shorter. Either way, I love seasonal changes. It's as though nature is waking up after a long sleep, or getting ready for bed after a long day.
Air Your Duvet → The world would be a better place if everybody was sleeping beneath a duvet/doona/comforter that had just spent the afternoon with the breeze blowing out the cobwebs (not literally of course, I would be very concerned if a person was willingly sleeping in a spider infested bed). I don't care how geriatric this sounds, but I look forward to the perfect afternoon to have the sun work it's magic on my duvet. If you can be bothered, flip and vacuum your matress. It's one of the small Spring/Autumn cleaning tasks that make everything a little fresher, cleaner and lighter.
Read Robert Frost → Be still my heart, I love Robert Frost's poetry about seasons. I find his words heady, rich and lingering, like a perfume that tumbles around you with every breath, just overwhelmingly perfect. I like to scribble the lines I particularly like on post its and stick them to the wall beside my bed. Some seasonally appropriate poems: A Prayer In Spring & Spring Pools or if you're entering Autumn Dust Of Snow & October
The Rachel Zoe Project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 → I posted the link to a preview episode of The Rachel Zoe Project a month ago and now the series has premiered. The first episode which had me foaming at the mouth for the majority of the time, and the rest of the time I was trying to figure out whether he husband was actually straight. Miss Zoe is wearing a big gold cheetah ring throughout the episode which made me very excited, I bought one exactly like it last week (from Equip, for any Aussies) for $15 and can only imagine the price tag attached to hers. I love it when that happens!!!



Sabyasachi → Another favourite from NY Fashion Week, I love the hot little librarian vibe, the patterns that remind me of feathers and mosaics and the colours, those glorious colours!

Chip Chop Copy Cat

GG Style Guide → A guide by the Gossip Girl costume designer, Eric Daman, for Revolve Clothing. Each look is a slightly simplified version of the costumes on the show with pieces that pop up in chainstores all the time, a lot designer inspired touches (a big bow knotted around the neck a la Chanel), stacked necklaces and bold, bright stockings.
Chip Chop For Sportsgirl → Chip Chop make super duper cute statement tote bags and tank tops, like their classic tote that reads "Nobody panic! I know Origami and Pilates." which I have pined for many times, oh how I have pined! Now they're bff's with Sportsgirl and have released a range called "I ♥ Art" with an "I ♥ Art" printed bandana, a Mondrian style tote and a bunch of bags, clutches and tees with the word "Louvre". Perhaps this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship? I hope so because this is the first time I've been excited about anything from Sportsgirl in months.

More NY Prettiness!

Pics from vogue.com.au
Two shows that have made me want to pin flowers in my hair, wear seamed stockings, flushed pink cheeks and absolutely anything printed.

A Plethora of Pinks

DVF

Pics from style.com
Having an icky emotional day, I wish I could put my mood in a box and push it to the back of a cupboard, behind my old rollerskates and bag of school photos.

NY Fashion Week Favourites

Pics from nymag.com

Catherine Holstein (ooops, forgot to label that one!). Pics from coutorture.com

Pics from style.com

Let The Sun Shine Down

I love the colour yellow, it's an instantaneous mood enhancer and has the emotional effect of a soft grass under bare feet and a spoonful of lemon gelato. To summarise, yellow is my version of heaven of earth. It makes me think of Sunday's, late afternoons, the sound of water lapping against the shoreline and the otherworldly smell of jasmine as the day draws to a close. It makes me so happy my breath catches in my throat and I hiccup. What I love about colour is all the little attachments it comes with.
Obviously I've been a little ball of sunshine with all the yellow that's popping up during New York Fashion Week (although FurFur is from Japan Fashion Week). The buttery, pale yellows are so prim and proper and the rich, mustardy yellows are so strong, I want to dye all my clothes yellow. Don't worry, I won't go that far but you can't deny it would solidify my stance on the colour!

Five Things: Songs That Make Me Smile
Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations
Stupidly Happy by XTC
Shining Light by Ash
Do It All Over Again by Spiritualized
Why Can't We Be Friends by War

Kirsten Dunst for Boy by Band Of Outsiders → Little Miss Dunst is the model for Boy by Band Of Outsiders this season (they used Michelle Williams last season). Great inspiration for anybody trying to simplify, the collection is quite mix & match and highly blazer orientated.

Lorick & Modern Ruins

New York Fashion Week began today & while flicking through Zimbio I was struck by how amazing the sets for the Lorick presentation were. Abigail Lorick is the designer behind Blair's mother's collection on Gossip Girl. You can find fantastic coverage of the show here. But more on the 7 sets for the presentation!


After the Storm

A Room of One's Own

Overgrown Garden

In Limbo

Bedroom Disaster

Cake Coma
Demolition Party No photos, it's the only setting I really didn't like. It's very industrial, lots of caution tape and rusty chains.
Photos from Zimbio.com


Modern Ruins → The most fascinating photographs of modern ruins like abandoned orphanages, mills, jails, insane asylums (these are particularly creepy!) and even Holy Land USA by Shaun O'Boyle. Every photo is like a movie set & it's scary to think the tiny cells held people, the scratches on the walls were left by real live fingernails and hundreds of parentless little girls listened to Nuns play the music left on the piano.

My Miss Havisham Complex

Pics from Zimbio.com & Japan Fashion Week


These Junya Tashiro dresses are giving me a Miss Havisham complex, I have the overwhelming urge to dance around a decaying manor house in beautiful, old wedding dresses. Miss Havisham is the rich, old spinster in "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens who lives in a crumbling mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella. Miss Havisham was left at the alter and continues to wear her wedding dress around the house while her wedding cake and feast rots on the dining table and all the clocks are set at the time she learned she was being left. I've always loved the idea (& the idea alone, being that sad would be dreadful) of Miss Havisham, she strikes me as a sort of precursor for Big Edie/Little Edie (Aunt/Cousin of Jackie O).

I found some fantastic embroidered napkins in an op shop a while ago for $1 each and thought they could be used for a much more subtle way of playing Miss Havisham; a collar type necklace.
I unstitched the embroidered flowers so they were separate, stitched them together in a collar shape and sewed a scattering of little pearls & a longer strand to the neckline. I think it's a little too light, it flutters around in the wind so I think I still need to add a backing of some sort. It definitely does the job though!