birds and fruits.

imgs from Charlotte Taylor's blog

Following the print theme currently unfolding at venturess, let's talk about Charlotte Taylor, who, for her AW12 collection 'Jamaica Inn' presented - as for her previous four seasons - brightly coloured, quirky repeat prints. Previous collections have featured penguins, lobsters, fish, trees and, err, robots, but this season we're treated to all kinds of birds (Note the black maxi with the multicoloured splotches. Those would be parrots.) and...some sort of fruit that I can't identify 'cos I can't zoom in any further. Grapes? Raspberries?

Now, we already know that I like anything bird related, but the black birds on the yellow background look a little like leopard print at a squint/in a thumbnail (no?) so they're EVEN BETTER than first imagined.

Scarf prints also feature in the collection, which encompasses the kind of cuts I can always get behind - fitted dresses in midi- and maxi- lengths, slim, cropped trousers, button up blouses and full skirts with fitted waists. Wonderful.

And a real owl in the lookbook pics!

goldkohl.

I know. It's been nearly a month.
Not only that, I've had something to post for weeks; I am merely very lazy. Soz blog.

It was literally weeks ago (three, actually. Err. I think) that I worked all weekend at a warehouse sample sale situation - Premium - with a lot of other stores and brands. One that caught my eye (but I couldn't afford, even at sample sale prices. Not because they were particularly expensive, but because I am particularly skint.) was hosiery and jewellery brand kvast.

Their schtick is kitsch printed socks of varying length and vegetable jewellery. You heard me. Those are broccolis and cabbages rendered in silver and gold, respectively. Vidi:

All pics from kvast's site.

Their e-shop is here and they ship worldwide, which is always nice to hear.

back on it.

Since, evidently, I'm back on the rings (see last post...), it's pretty good timing for KumKum to celebrate their 15th (!) anniversary.

The Swedish label is about to become available in the UK and has been seen on various celebrities*, and though they do a bracelets, earrings and necklaces too, I am, of course, more interested in the rings. The bigger the better, obviously.

Intrigued by the stackable ones (to wear together or with other rings, that is the question...) but the big clusters in black or turquoise are my faves, all in sterling silver with precious stones and freshwater pearls and so on and so forth.

And props to Liselotte Watkins, the illustrator behind the second image down as part of the 15th anniversary promotion. Adore the doodled rings.

*You may note I don't talk about celebrities much on 'ere; not in the 'oo look who's wearing this label' etc sense. That's partly cos I don't care which person is wearing what label, and partly cos I wrote my dissertation on celebrity and fashion and have had quite enough of that subject thankyou.

shoes, hats, etc

fashion156's couture gardening issue is out - a bizarre title, but accurate with all the trees in the shoot and florals on the clothes. I'm mainly blogging this for the styling - some great pieces, some great show/sock combos and some fantastic hats/headwear.

Must take a closer look at the hats in Rokit next time I'm London-bound; as all the hats featured here are from there (apart from the Silken Flowers turban in img 7), while stand out shoes from Claire Davis (the comfy looking - probably deceptively so - shoes in img 1) and Tessa Edwards (img 2) are not helping my shoelust ONE LITTLE BIT.

Great pieces featured are from old fave Hermione de Paula (imgs 1&5) as well as Eugene Lin (img 2) and Ostwald Helgson (the gorgeous skirt and shirt in img 6).

Y'know what's hard? Looking at nice clothes and shoes and hats when you have no money and (currently) no job prospects.

headgear.

I'm pretty into hats right now, I think brought on by the hats I did for collection. Our tutors went a little headwear mental in the run up to the London show; encouraging most of the class to do some sort of head adornment. That, and the assortment of strange and/or adorable headpieces dotted about the other unis' shows... I was even watching a bunch of vintage numbers on ebay until i remembered i had no money.

Meanwhile, a new(ish) site of interest is asos marketplace, which is asos' foray into etsy-style sellers' shops. Great for little boutiques and new designers - the problem with etsy is that it's an American site, so everything's in dollars and not (I find) that non-US friendly, where asos is both British and has a lot of traffic - but not really helping the over saturation of vintage stores on the internet..

I hadn't checked out until recently when someone linked me (via Twitter) to Lizzie Lock's store there. In keeping with the first paragraph of this post, Lizzie's store, Lizzie Lock Millinery, sells (as the name might suggest) hats a-plenty, most with a vintage twist. You can find straw numbers and pins, trilbys and bowlers, wide brimmed and cloche style, and none of them are helping with my new hat fascination.

I've tried to search through asos marketplace, but it's hard to know which shops are going to be good (lots and lots of vintage stores!) and I got a bit bored easily. Any recommendations?

scarves.

i got an email sometime last week 'bout a website/brand hawking printed silk scarves - beta fashion.

very almost passed it over cos i'm not a scarf person, but in the name of procrastination i clicked the link and took a glance.

good choice.

sure, the scarves are lovely, the prices affordable, and the prints interesting*; but it was the other items up for sale that caught my eye.

first, the scarves - all 100% silk; all £35:

see? great prints.

but note the clothing!

printed bodycon numbers and interesting graphic tees a-plenty...

the lamé tee here (pic 5) is fantastic (and £24 in the sale), but as are dresses 2, 3 and 6. (2+3 being £80 and 6 being £98 in the sale. sigh. pennies.) and are definitely my kinda jam.

the webshop also stocks a plethora of printed leggings (all about £40) if that's your thing...

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* the press release happily informs me that "contributing designers range from graduates of Central St. Martins to independent artists from all over the world"; and also that competitions for prints run every month. i believe anyone can enter, so click through if you're a print designer or have an interest in the sort of thing.