Style Bubble

Finally!

>>Some of you may have already noticed that I've overhauled the blog design-wise.  Whilst I was dearly attached to the powder pink and green and the bright yellow mantua, it has been three years and to be honest, this has been plaguing my mind for a while now!  Hopefully nobody is too shocked and I haven't gone for an overly ker-razy design. There'll be tweaks throughout this week so bear with me...

I hesitated about putting my mug in the banner but Aurore de la Morinerie's wonderful quick brushstroked illustration of me sort of fits the bill.... she captured me pondering things as I do on this blog.  Anyway, blah blah blah...it's all symbolic... couldn't find a better image without copyright issues etc etc etc...  

You'll notice that this main column is also a bit wider as I've always found the old template a bit restrictive and seeing as most of my pics are 1000 px wide, why have them pinched and squeezed at half that size?  Apologies that all previous posts will seem a bit small and lost in this wider space but going forward, it should all look slightly better...

Swide This

>>I will come back and add further words to my thoughts on Dolce & Gabbana-produced and branded website Swide.com because it's an interesting development in that luxury brands are now tentatively branching out into content production that isn't banal and chokingly cheesy. 

For now though because I'm about to shoot off, I'll just bung this up and say that Swide have done a very cute interview with me where they asked me to take 'backstage' shots of my blogging environment... aka my messy apartment... I took the opportunity to give the feather headdress, which I randomly bought at Casa Mexico in Hackney, a visual mention.

Here comes the science...

... The one and only time you'll see a sole post dedicated to a hoodie on this blog I can assure you and it's really ONLY because it has special magical powers.  This Nike hoodie from their new collection, that I nabbed via work is ostensibly a grey and white cotton sweatshirt-material hoodie.... 100% cotton, and for the most part, looks and feels like the rest of my grey jersey sweatshirt type things...

But then look what happens...cue video... please press play!  I do have a bloody point here...

I've been trying to demonstrate this to as many people as possible just because I'm a clueless doofus, who knows nothing about performance sportswear and thinks this is the coolest thing I've seen a hoodie do since...errr.... well....I guess hoodies don't really do much except be very hood-like. 
I've now been fantasising about making a Best TV-type infomercials involving coloured water, test tubes and a cheesy companion that just claps and says "Wow!" a lot.  In reality, I just kept on squealing "It's like Alex Mack!" (Did you watch it avidly?  I did...) and the boyf kept on rebutting me with "Terminator".  On and on it went... Alex Mack, Terminator, Alex Mack, Terminator...

It's most definitely Alex Mack...

Missy Miss Miniature

When you have jewellery this wee and a little bit twee, such is the case with Miss Bibi's jewellery as illustrated by this white belt ring and make lookbooks the size of postage stamps...

... you'd of course want to house the pieces in a doll house set-up like this one that I snapped at a PR's office... look closely and spot the mudane objects made miniature, gold and silver... scissors, pliers, lamps, kirby grips, matches, belts...farfalle?!?

I feel like this deserves a spot on CuteOverload or another objet equivalent website...

Leather Trending

>>I don't buy or read Vogue Pelle but discovered these images through photographer Lucia Giacani's website that doesn't any feature any clothes per se but rather is a snapshot of leather's latest trends... with an emphasis on the less conventional colours and softer, more pliable textures.... aka the exact kind of leather I need more of in my life.  Nudes, caramel, butterscotch, peaches (colours that sound like you want to take a bite of) in the softest hides possible... and to take it that step further, used on garments not just in shoes, bags or jackets but as draped Grecian-style dresses/skirts or as giant floopy bows and soft collars as illustrated here.   

Open Air, Open Forum

As I've been trawling through a gazillion menswear S/S 10 show images for work, I noticed that there was a mini tendancy to hold shows in outdoor spaces, fully visible to the passing public as opposed to being locked away behind a beefy security guard, an anxious PR and an invitation that bears your name, and your seating/standing fate that makes you feel big or small depending on where you're sitting or... *gasp* standing.

This of course could be a practical thing, given that it was 30 degrees and hotter.  It could be an ambient statement on Dries Van Noten and Kris van Assche (for Dior Homme)'s part.

It most probably ISN'T an act of democratising fashion, in the way that Henrik Vibskov does with his shows which is to ask the public to cough up either money or packets of cigarettes to attend his shows in Copenhagen. 

Still, I am fascinated by reactions of people peering into and stumbling upon fashion shows, unlikely to know what exactly is going on but being interested nonetheless.  I'm not about to start ripping up the rulebook and declaring 'Vive le Fashion Revolution!', 'Power to the People' and all that but seeing as I'm supposedly part of a blogging community that is making fashion a 'democratic' thing (an unsteady point that actually hasn't been verified but journalists love to throw around nontheless...) I'd like to throw the idea of open-to-all fashion shows out there.  For once, I'm putting forth the question 'Yay or nay?' instead of forming my own opinion (I have no concrete conclusion...)...

I'm specifically talking about the BIG FOUR of course given that public access fashion shows already take place elsewhere.  The fashion hierarchy that we are painfully obsessed with via Jak and Jil (is it envy, anger or adulation?) would be chipped a little save for the top tiers of the triangle that of course still get to sit front row.  Only there would be a somewhat larger crowd sitting behind them.  Or perhaps there could be a tombola system... see what seat number/row you pull out of tombola and you can sit your arse there.  Hey, I'm of course just pondering the mere possibility...

Not that any of this will actually happen in an organised public access system... the fashion industry has just about got over the fact that mere mortals can get hold of show images hours after the show... letting people into the hallowed sweaty halls (more often than not, shows are sweaty affairs...) would be another matter altogether...        

Where's my Birthday Suit?

>> Kat turned me onto Pagesonline, an Aussie e-zine which I actually already had on my links but doofusly hadn't checked out.... Pagesonline then turned me onto Aussie costume designer/outfiteer Birthday Suit which has one of those annoying websites that gives zero information but lots of flashing images that you have to painfully screencap.  I've decided 31 degrees celcius heat is too hot to do multiple screencapping so it's just this one image from Pagesonline that I'm putting up.  This ensemble is in fact the Birthday Suit of my dreams.... to either be born and pop out of my mother wearing a miniature tropical flora and fauna blazer and matching bustier....or to give birth to a child wearing it.  Scientists surely need to make this happen.

Florence's Lungs

>> Apologies that I can't find better images of the lovely Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) performing at Glasto (no I wasn't there...were you?) but Getty is the best I can do.  Last week, I was having a love affair of Roksanda Ilincic's lacquered flowers for Whistles and the flame-haired songstress has taken the flowers to another level adorning her band's drumkit and mic with slightly dishevelled blooms.  More to the point, the gold and black roses adorn her stage outfits which oddly are designed by Topshop, exclusively for Florence.  I say odd, only because high street stores don't tend to do custom designs for people, especially ones that aren't going to be sold in-store.  Still, Topshop have gotten onto that stage train with gusto and given Florence fringed capes, shoulder pieces, giant rose embellishments and custom-fitted tulle sleeves for her to flutter around...

**EDIT** Found better images courtesy of Roger Sargent...

 

It does pain me a little that these shoes that Topshop also made for her won't be sold but does tempt me into a simple DIY task with some fake flowers and grosgrain...

 

I was going to post the original video for Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) but I've decided the Jamie T/Lionheart dance remix is actually pretty good, equalling the original if not surpassing... 

Tetris Power

>> I can't believe the 25th anniversary of Tetris passed me by and I somehow FAILED to mention it on the blog.  You know how I love to work in completely non-fashion related references somewhere in the crevices of this blog to keep reminding myself that life does not in fact revolve around distressed denim, gigantic florals and toppling shoes.  Like many kidult of the 90s', I went from Gameboy original to Pocket to Colour and Tetris was there throughout every stage.  I think in my natural state of rest, my fingers actually twitch in anticipation of the next block that might be falling down to complete a row.  Take that sentence to whatever metaphorical stages you want...

Timothy James Andrews, ker-razy knitwear extraordinaire, also must have had similar brick formations in his head especially when you look at his new collection 'A-Block-A-Brick-Toe' that is very openly inspired by Tetris and its colourful bricks...recreating them in gem embellishments and in the physical cube shapes of the bracelet.  In a way, TJA's collections have always been about colourful blocks fitting together in their various formations that he's feeling at the time so with this collection's literal reference to Tetris, he's probably reconciling a lifelong love with the game that has informed his work...

(Photography by Akio)

GFW 2009: Shroomin' It

>> Ravensbourne student Marie Molterer has combined my current obsession with neoprene clothing (furthermore PAINSTAKINGLY constructed neoprene...) and my all-time food obsession; mushrooms.  Are you into chanterelles, shitaki, ceps, enoki, portobello or otherwise?  An important question that needs to be answered I feel. 

P.S. Really really gutted about the Gold Award winner.... NOT who I was expecting at all...