Style Bubble

Childsplay with a Skirt

Do you ever feel like you want to deliberately recreate a childs-play scenario; the mother's heels, the lipstick, frou frou something that flops around your ickle body, the overall messiness of it all?  I hope she doesn't take offense but when the lovely Super Kawaii Mama very very kindly made me this full length skirt because she saw this pleated sheer material and thought sheer-lovin' me would love it (and she guessed quite rightly....), that's immediately what came to mind.  Not fiddling around and doing lots to the skirt but just because it's the got the sort of 'Disney' quality that would make you want to put it on immediately without any regard as to what it's actually being worn with and what consequences that has.  There's just so much fabric and with the several layers of two toned pleats, you just can't help but gather it up, swish it around and 'sashay' around in it.  Note: I rarely use the word 'sashay' which for some reason makes me think of drag queens doing dramatic walks.  In my current childs-play state, it's on with the very worn-out grey AA vest and the Acne white cut-out wedges.  Dressing up and down at the same time but most of all it enables me to look quite acceptable walking around with so much fabric swathing around the legs.

A Fleet for you?

The reaction was a little mixed last time I posted about Fleet Ilya.  Now that the website is lot more evolved, it seems far more clear as to what Fleet Ilya is all about and now I'm sure that there's a Fleet Ilya accessory for everyone, despite the self tagged 'taboo-breaking' description. 

We have the 'Classic' line which consists of simple oversized bags (I spy the bag as a dress trick there...), well made belts and even a simple harness that concentrates on craftsmanship that comes from Ilya Fleet's  (one half of the partnership behind the label) background and training under saddler Robin Cochrane. 

Then there's the 'Concept' line with couture pieces that mainly involves powerful statement-making belts used in Ana Sekularac's AW08 show.  The belt with a one shoulder strap has me thinking about the belt being used more as a garment than an accessory.

Finally we have the 'Restraint' line, probably the most intriguing out of the lot as whilst it's described as the 'epitome of luxury bondage' and I'm not really into bondage gear, I love the extremity of the harnasses and accessories.  The lookbook images here obviously are purposely provocative but again, out of that context and they become something else altogether...

I'll find out for myself once and for all, what sort of Fleet Ilya girl I am as they're holding a sample sale this weekend at Unit 8 Maun House,1 Dunn Street, London.

Coming soon...

Everyone's going e-commerce mental and it seems we have a few things to look forward to this autumn that will probably make our credit card resolve weaken even further...

farfetch.com - I've known about this it a while and I can't really say a lot about it until later on but it all sounds very very promising... 'It's gonna blow your pretty little mind away...'

"Farfetch.com, a one-stop designer-fashion shopping experience, that will provide a fresh alternative to large, soul-less department and chain stores (as each offers pretty much the same as the next).  Farfetch.com will offer unique and hard-to-find fashion exclusives; and the chance to stumble upon something so new you probably haven’t heard of it yet? In some cases, so brand spanking new you couldn’t possibly have heard."

212DressingRoom - This one baffled me a little as they started off by doing a blog and they have roped in some of my favourite bloggers to get it together but supposedly there is a store coming this autumn mixing designer and vintage.  Intriguing stuff...

Child Bride

I generally am quite oblivious to all the resort/pre-fall collections because I'm an old fuddy duddy who can't get with the times of having four seasons a year or in fact just one long continuous season.  Save for the Miu Miu royal purple pleated goodness, nothing really made my jaw drop which I guess isn't the point of a resort collection.  However, I do find it interesting that smaller labels are getting into the four-season game and it pleases me so as it shows that they're making it work on a financial scale.  Tata Naka, a Georgian London-based label designed by the lovely twins Tamara and Natasha Surguladze have done a resort 2009 collection that seems to be themed around a cool child bride.  We've had a few Style Bubble scuffles about kids modelling high fashion but I find these lookbook images adorable as the young teen here wears the clothes so well, yet at the same time I'm not feeling too alienated as a 24 year old.  It consists of lots of lovely light grey, draping and some interesting contrast of shiny materials and I also spy some lace-up criss-cross shoes.  If they match my desire for the Tata Naka shoes that I stalked for a long time on Shop Fatal, then I'm hoping they get picked up somewhere or else I'll have to ask either Tata or Naka to help me out...         

Va-va-lacey

Through Gnarlitude, my daily cup of cool (did that sound incredibly cheesy?  I hope so...), I came across these pics of Jennifer Eymère, editor of my beloved Jalouse magazine and someone who myself and La Coquette were drooling over at the Gucci party back in February.  Cobrasnake snapped her at the Jalouse Rocks Paris festival on what looks like a very very old London double decker bus (I'd recognise that hideous check pattern anywhere....).  What floored me about the pics though was her top.  Now forgive me for thinking this and it might be incredibly naive and childish but I've always been in that odd school of thought that basically thinks skinny people never manage to look very slutty even when wearing super sexaaay things.... it might just be an opinion but black top as illustrated below with cut-outs going down the midriff and sheer lace panels is something that me, not so skinny gal, would avoid for the reason that the one thing I've never wanted to convey is 'slutty' (it's not a bad thing by the by, just...erm... not me at all... know me in person and you'll know why...).  Jennifer here is not a spindly stick figure and I'd say we're a little similar in size and she pulls off the top paired with the shorts with great aplomb which prompts me to rethink the whole super-revealing clothes and not have me grabbing for the nearest grey t-shirt to layer it underneath that black lacey bit of goodness.  She even pulls it off with a guy grabbing her boob...      

Goodness, it is dirty laundry week isn't it?  First you see my disgusting closet.  Then you discover that I don't always win em' all in the sample sale stakes.  Now you find out that I am a wee bit conscious about the body in terms of what I wear...

I am talking extremes though.  I'd say yes to a lot of things but it is the flesh baring garms that I have to give a little thought too and that's exactly what these... um... boob-grabbing pics have done...

A different sort of cage...

What's one of the best things about Style Bubble?  People like Gloria of Butterfly Black who has my back and sent me this 'Cage Clothing Alert!' as I'm now calling them (thank you to the people who highlighted the Jean Paul Gaultier couture collection.... I did like parts of it but others not so much.... and you know me....i don't post negative designer rants.... so I'll let it slide...).  Going via Gloria, it led me to this Etsy find who are doing thicker, shorter cage skirts for not too much money.  Chunkier bands too.  On further inspection, the label that this skirt hails from is quite intriguing.  Freyagushi is i suppose fetish/goth/lolita/, all of those obvious tags that no doubt they will find offensive as they classify their clothes as 'ultra feminine creations with a twist' and 'medical experimental garments'.....  can't really explain without you browsing the site so I'd recommend a quick gander and as some of the images are frankly a little disturbing I've chosen not to post them here...

I'll admit all of it isn't to my taste but I'm forever fascinated with rooting out things in so-called 'specialist' shops be it Cyber Punk, dancewear shops, costume, sex, goth etc.  Don't want to sound repetitive but it's about taking things out of context as always... the custom-made flower collar will be on its way to me, minus the gaffer taped boobs though....

By the by I promise I will stop with the whole cage thing as I'm sure it's grating some people...

Fashion Hangover

'm experiencing the biggest fashion 'hangover' ever.  If there are two kinds of fashion hangover; one being that you regret something you bought with every look at the offending item incurring a wince and a shudder from you, then the other would be moaning and groaning about passing up on something and NOT buying something despite having the means to.    It's a feeling that you feel in your gut whenever your mind wanders and 'D'oh', you slap your forehead and scrunch up your eyes and think 'Why did I do that?'.  Well it happened with the Preen sample sale over the weekend (has finished now).  Apologies for not putting up a notice as i didn't know about it until the 11th hour.  I was expecting it to be a quite normal Preen sample sale selling 'vintage' Preen, very old pieces.  There was that but then also a sale selling the recent, more recognisable seasons with showpieces with hefty 80% discounts.  The pieces that immediately caught my eye for obvious reasons were the hot pink pieces from the AW07-8 collection, the last that they showed in London before defecting to New York (it makes me sounds like an embittered LFW fanatic but I do think the designs have been a little watered down since the move...... *she says in wee voice*).  In particular, these dresses were knocked down from around £500-600 to £240 and £195 respectively  I um-ed and ah-ed in the tiny shop, spending about an hour in there (and trust me, it's a tiny space to spend an hour in...) going in and out of the changing room, picking those pieces up and putting them down again and generally making the shop assistants think that I was a bit of a twat.  The fit was perfect, the zips were very zippy and the pink....it is that perfect shade of hot pink which I'm quite obsessed with because it has some real depth to it (unlike the £7 cheapie I bought which I love still but the pink doesn't quite hit the right note for me...).  Yes, the obsession got to the point where I was chairing a mini-debate in my head about whether a shade of pink had depth.  Physically, after wiping the perspiration of my sweat drenched head (like I said...small space), I put all the pink down and opted for some black leather panelled trews (see my Betty Catroux look...) but I can't quite get the pink out of my head.  When I was soul wardrobe searching yesterday, a flash of pink would bring up that bottom of the stomach feeling.  Why oh why did I put the bloody hangers down? 

I have realised I've just spent a lo-ong paragraph babbling about some fluffy pink bit of Preen.... but these are really at the top of the pink hierarchy...the heavy fabric, the subtle stretch, the slanted pleats...oh the stomach groans again... I doubt that other type of pink; Pepto Bismol will cure this hangover....

Painting the Pink Skies

Speaking of All of the Above, they helped me complete my pink sky vision which was first prompted by Jil Sander's SS08 collection.  All that sheer goodness has been knocking about in my head and I'm determined to play it out to the end despite the arrival of autumn collections already. 

So with my purchases of the All of Above sheer mesh navy t-shirt and dress and with some sheer blue Falke tights over some fuschia leggings, I got the effect of the sort of sky that I'd like to see this summer (it's gotten to that orangey pink but not quite at that pink-blue stage...). 

I also ended up having some fun with a sheer pink cape which I had forgotten about (that would be the sloppy wardrobe makign me misplace things...)...

Now I just need to find that sky in real life...

Yes, all of the above please...

If All of the Above's video teaser of their summer 2008 collection (that would be an Aussie summer) didn't tickle your fancy, perhaps the lookbook images might.  Though the video does give a better indication of what all those zips are capable of in all its shape-shifting glory, it is nice to see all the individual looks and to confirm that yes, I will be taking ALL OF THE ABOVE (ok, that's a lie...I'll take some of it.... it's not expensive stuff either so I'll be waiting for the collection to hit the online store in August...).   

 

Where did the sloppy come from?

For those of you that love leaving comments/sending me emails about my sloppy style, I can present you an explanation as to why that is.  The ugly truth is that I'm living in a shambolic and sloppy mess with the way that I organise my clothes.  It's not so much 'organise' as trying to cram everything I have all into a limited space with all the strength that I have.  This involves hanging about ten things on one hanger, rolling and scrunching things up to squeeze into a tiny space, stuffing things into drawers that won't close, using several suitcases to hold things, heaving bags littered everywhere, cardboard boxes full of tights/leggings/slips and just general mess mess mess...

Why the jumble?  The place where I'm living now was supposed to be a transition period.  This transition having lasted well over a year now and I still don't really have the time/energy to get it into shape.  Still, I see light as I will FINALLY be moving out and in with the boyf to a haven somewhere....preferably with many fitted wardrobes.  The boyf and I both have plans ahoy as to how to get the best out of my numerous garments and I'm hoping something pretty-pretty will emerge from all the mess berow but all shall be revealed later when I find said haven. 

For the next month or so I shall also be doing something that I've rarely done before which is 'cleaning out my wardrobe'.  Yes this concept is a ritual for some but alien to me.  I'm a hoarder.  You ask me to throw away something and you'll get a  terror-stricken expression on my face.  Parting is difficult.  The last time I culled anything was when I left student halls in 2003 and I still get pangs about a certain something something that I donated to a charity shop.  Or when my mum chucked away some Rick Owens AW08-esque curvy wedge platform boots that I bought from Hong Kong, I'm still feeling the pain.  Nonetheless, be it via eBay or charity shop, a cull must be done... 

Betty and Loulou

The Steve is away so I got to spend the evening with Yves instead, watching the Yves Saint Laurent documentaries 'His Life and Times' and '5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris' back to back and then re-reading The Beautiful Fall (tea stains a-plenty in this well thumbed book...).  My favourite bits in the books are when the encounters with Yves' various muses are recalled, with Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise and the descriptions of Loulou are particularly vivid which has propelled me into an afternoon of spending some time with Yves' muses...

I've never been one to channel other people's looks so it's more like playing around with the spirit and the two bi-polar styles that Betty and Loulou represented to Monsieur Saint Laurent and the different things they managed to coax out of him and inspire him to draw...

Betty Catroux: Androgynous, angula, skinny-hipped, invariably in black and liked her leather.  She also sported the deviant schoolgirl look with high black socks, black mini and big belts slung on the hips.  Her thin pencil stroke of a figure matched Yves' then-lithe slip of a figure and they feeded off each other's taste in the 'louche'.