a very[.co.uk] angry note

If you're a regular facebook user and a fashion fan - and you're here, so I would assume both these things to be true - you might've seen very.co.uk's latest promotion.

The online department store is hiring! On facebook, that is. I'll let them explain themselves:

If you know a thing or two about fashion then enter Very.co.uk’s comp to be in with a chance of winning an amazing job for a year! If you win you’ll become one of our V-Team, and that means attending fashion shows, designing a collection, rubbing shoulders with celebs and sharing your style with the world! (Tell all your friends and share the joy – you might need them when you’re canvassing for votes!).

Just when you thought this competition could not get any better, you will be paid for doing it! Do you have enough votes to get the job?

That was enough to annoy me, but I could almost let it slide given that it just appeared to be a competition.

But then, recently (as you can imagine), I've been trawling job sites trying to find a job - something, anything that is a suitable job for me, and this - THIS - has been advertised as a legit job with a "click to apply" link taking you to the facebook page.

NO, VERY. NOT COOL.

If this was a legit job, and they were just using facebook to advertise the position, well, that would be fantastic. It is difficult to find entry level jobs in fashion, and well advertised jobs would be much appreciated, but not if the successful applicant will be the one with the most likes.

There is no screening process.

Anyone can enter.

It is basically a popularity contest.

In an industry which has TENS OF THOUSANDS of QUALIFIED people - not just this years graduates, but young designers all over the country - desperately searching for a job to suit them, I find it inconceivable that Very think it's fine to offer a position which includes 'designing a collection' to whoever has the most likes. A job is not a popularity contest, and this competition seems to be playing into the (apparently) widely held opinion that 'anyone can be a designer'.

denim.

today, i'm wearing jeans.

as you may be aware, i'm not a jeans person. i own 3 pairs - all skinny; one grey, one dark blue and high waisted, one black. i'm on the hunt for some pale blue ones on ebay, but they've got to be perfect.

but that's beside the point.

the black jeans are my favourite by a mile - they're topshop, and they came with a label that said 'ankle skimmers', or something, which i assume means they're supposed to be considerably shorter then they are. on me, they are the perfect length (although i love when skinny jeans are too long and they crumple up at my ankle).

the thing about me and jeans is how i wear them. i don't mean what i wear them with, although that's part of it. i mean, my "relationship with denim" as it were.

jeans are my lazy outfit. since i pretty much never dress down, jeans are my 'lazing round the house' clothes. they are my jogging bottoms. unless i'm being really lazy and wearing pyjamas all day, jeans are my go to. they look good and they make me feel good, but they require absolutely zero effort.

today, for example, i am hungover. well, not anymore, but i was earlier. and, as such, putting effort into an outfit, or indeed, anything, is a bit of a push. i know i have to leave the house later, so, the black jeans plus a slouchy, stripy jumper is an outfit i'm not ashamed to be seen out in but is also the epitome of 'thrown on'.

course, that suggests that any other outfit is born of a time consuming, labour intensive thought process, but the difference between the two is, at most, some standing about in front of my mirror.

no need for mirrors today.

throw on some shoes - anything black, with any height of heel, or even NONE AT ALL, works particularly well. or a chunky boot. the tan chelsea boots i'm hoping don't get expensive on ebay would be great - and maybe some jewellery and a 'chic' outfit is born.

chic. what a horrible word.

luke is moving out today. ;__;

rome; day 3

So the guys from my hostel (I'm gonna refer to them as Team English; we were represesntin' the world's english speaking contingent - one american, one canadian, one australian, and me.) decided it was a Vatican day, but since I'd already been around everywhere 'cept St. Peter's, we arranged to meet up later and I consulted the Rome guidebook I'd liberated from the book exchange at the Amsterdam Hostel.

Turns out I'd noted some shops to check out.

So that's what I did (Designer Outlet shopping, in Italy? I'll take one of those kthnx.)

I was about to say I didn't buy anything; I mean I didn't buy anything in the Outlet place. I did buy a black bodycon dress, cos I'd been looking for one and €17 is pretty good. I almost; ALMOST bought an awesome white shirtdress and now I'm regretting it. But it was a bit short so...yeah.

Wandered back up to the Trevi Fountain, scoffed a crepe followed by some gelato from what is regarded as the best gelato place in Rome (banana cream flavour; it was pretty good.) and before I knew it I was running to late to meet Team English (so late they'd wandered on from out proposed meeting place). Lucky I met 'em inside St. Peters! Which is the only place I took photos that day, so knock yerself out:

I then had some awesome chinese food followed by a multitude of wine. I do not recommend drinking that much wine when you have to be up to check out at 10am the next day - you've not been hungover 'til you've been hungover with 20 minutes to get dressed and pack up 4 days worth of crap that's just been thrown in the draw under your bed. I turned up downstairs at quarter past 10 and they were down with that; which was good. I spent the rest of Saturday eating bacon and egg sandwiches/pizza and drinking epic amounts of water, whilst joining in the general consensus between my coursemates on facebook that our new brief (which I totally haven't seen and am just going off their word) is a loads of balls. We're leading the revolution as I type.

I better go book my Paris train, it'll probably be packed cos it's like, the only one running in the train strike. Ergh.

milanooo

I will get back to updating properly in Barcelona, hopefully. When photos aren't taking 20 minutes each to upload. Ergh.

Also ergh? Hungover. I woke up with 25 minutes to pack up my crap and check out. Good job they're lenient here. I turned up at quarter past. I have had fried food, and water, and I plan to go get a pizza in a bit. It's all good. I'm not friends with wine right now.

ANYWAYS

Milan! I was on a bit of a downer the little time I spent here. I didn't know how to get to my hostel and I couldn't find any internetz to get the directions, and I missed home, and that boy, and I'd had enough of dragging my case up stairs. And one of the wheels got a split down it so I'm living in fear that it will break. EEP.

But I done a shower and a cry and I put some clothes on and went into the city centre. It cheered me up a bit.

One one hand, I wish I'd had more time in Milan (I literally had one night and then my train to Rome was the next morning...) but on the other hand I think I would've been in a funk and I had to move on. I've been much MUCH happier in Rome kthnks.

I only got to see the main square, really. And the inside of Zara. Nowhere has thigh high boots! I'm assuming they're all sold out.

Here are some photos!

There was a dog at the hostel, which also cheered me up no end. He was all cute and fluffy and little but not yappy (I'm picky about dogs, yeah?). I did try to get a photo but he wouldn't bloody stay still for 5 seconds so this is the best I got, which isn't very good at all and is mostly a picture of me and some fluff.

Awwww he was so cute!

Fear; Itself

If anyone ever thinks it wise to take me here, you will be somewhat mistaken.

I might like big buildings, but I do not enjoy being able to see directly beneath my feet, even 2 floors up. Let alone 103.
Just sayin'.

Oh hell no.

Friday, Saturday, Happy Days

This is last Friday and Saturday, ofc.

Sunday was not a particularly 'happy day' and is therefore not included.

But yeah.

I met Kim at 4-ish (after leaving work early, teehee) and we dropped her bag off here and went to see QI (!!!), cept, we got there and queued for a while, and then they said it was full, cos apparantly having a ticket wasn't enough, it was also first come first served. BOOOO. Good job they were free goddammit. Gutted though, no Mr Fry sightings ;_;.

So I showed Kim around the South Bank a little instead, in the rain.

And we went to Giraffe for tea.

Where they charged us "optional" service charge? But they whack it right on yer bill so you'd have to ask to have it taken off, and risk the embarrassment. SNEAKY BUGGERS.

And we wandered around in the dark a bit too.

And on Saturday, we went to Camden XD

I saw Eudald from work! Haha, it was random. And he was with two of his friends and all 3 of them had trenchcoats on, I lol'd, it was like they were in a club of some sort.

ANNNND we had lunch at the market, which is one of my fave places to eat cos it's a) cheap and b) SO diverse, you can literally have anything. I had Mexican, Kim had Chinese, and we sat on the awesome new motorbike chairs on the right side of the road - I'm pretty sure it's newly open, I guess after the Hawley Arms fire? I dunno, it looked pretty shiny and new.

I spent lots of money on a bright pink skirt, a long black dress (VAIR gothic/Comme De Garcons/Rick Owens. LOVE.), a white jacket and a nautical brooch, and a Russian-style fur hat, which was purely for that nights entertainment and which I have been trying to shoe-horn into my actual wardrobe for the past week, but to no avail.

(FYI, there will probs be pics of these items on here at some point soon, mmkay? I'm in my jamas now and can't be bothered to change.)

It doesn't matter what I put it with, I just look Russian. I'll keep it till winter, when it's actually fur hat weather, and see what happens then, ey? Else it's going on ebay.

So, the nights entertainment, you ask? EUROVISION, MY DEAR!

Bailey had invited us round, and jokingly she suggested it be fancy dress.

Never offer the option of fancy dress to someone from Newcastle - I am almost certain it is the fancy dress capital of the world. (No lie, go out, any night, and you will see hundreds of people in fancy dress. Especially if it's a weekend. Or a big student night. Or a day ending in Y.)

I was Russia, and wore this, as well as my fur hat:

(Hat from Camden Market, vintage jacket from Brick Lane, vest from work, skirt from

Topshop, boots from ebay. Fur tail from Portobello market, put together by me :D)

Note the fine colour matching of the flag there! Also the fierce use of fur (read: the only 2 furry items I had), and know that I also took a bottle of vodka. This last fact was regrettable.

And Kim was France:

She looked AWESOME. I dunno what it was about the flicky hair, but she looked so much more French with it. And those are all my clothes, haha. Even the necklace kinda looks like onions! Genius.

'course, Nico, an actual french person, turned up later, but Kim clearly *looked* more French, so yknow.

So yeah, we went, we made/drank copious amounts of cocktails, we ate pizza, we cheered on Greece*, Bailey's dress fell down more times than was appropriate (well, one time is more than enough, really), we danced with a crutch...?**

...we woke up the next morning somewhat worse for wear.

Understatement.

Made it home, slowly, after much walking/fresh air before we could brave the bus, and after a stop at Tesco for cheese strings and haribo (Kim) and sausage rolls (me). Hungover cravings are weird.

We got in, we had a sleep and a cheese string each, and I made sausage rolls and mash, and it was awesome. XD

----------------------------------------

OK, so today, I felt like an actual proper designer. Haha, it was ace.

I dunno why, I mean I was sitting at Eudald's desk cos he's buzzed off to New York for 10 days (lucky bitch.) but it's not like I haven't sat there before...shrug.

Annnd on the way home I saw this car:

LEOPARD PRINT SMART CAR

WANTWANTWANT

----------------------------------------

* The campest, therefore, the best song. Apparantly the UK gave it 12 points. I did not remember this. I do remember voting for it twice, though.

**I have no idea who this crutch belonged to.

Hayfever :(

So despite the fact I've never suffered from hayfever before, I currently have a blocked nose, aching sinuses and crusty eyes when I wake up in the morning. Lovely.

And sadly, the last two days have been placement-filled, so I couldn't even just curl up in a ball and watch tv till it went away :(

Although there isn't much craic from these days, I kind of just drifted through them =/ oh dear. Hopefully will have pepped up a bit by next week! I hope so anyways, this weekend is plan-filled, I better be well enough for it (there will be posts, I shan't spoil the suprise.).

I spent far too much money at the start of this week, mostly on ebay =/ new burberry coat, to replace the one which was too big (which i sold last month for extra moneys), leather jacket (which is love), a bowler hat (ohhh yes!), and 2 pairs of boots =/. Oo and some new jeans (!) from Topshop. Mostly the ebay stuff has gone to Newcastle - it'll be like my birthday! AHH IM EXCITED, ONE WEEK!  

If Gemma gets her own way I'll be adding a pair of shoes to that mix, but I think I might hold off for now, I dunno. Theyre £110! Well, £99 with ye olde student discount. But there are some similar ones on ebay for muuuuch cheaper *strokes chin* I'll see, I'll see.

I need to check that list of things to do when I get money! I know book europe trip is one of em, but I haven't gotten around to that yet =/. I will, at some point. I do really want to go!

This post has no pics :( this is sad. But....I'm too lazy to go find some so deal.

I'm off to fill the Lost-shaped hole in my evening with chocolate and Winchesters*. 

*errrm gonna watch Supernatual, innit.