500.

this is my 500th post.

I KNOW. 500 whole posts of nothing in particular.

do not expect anything of note in this landmark post; but do expect the unexpected.

top image from fashionista, bottom image google...

et voila - anna wintour, some time ago. i'm gonna go ahead and place these in the late 80s/early 90s? but look at her! in colour! in shiny fabrics! minus the glasses!

she looks considerably more fun than she does now. i mean, i'd quite like to hang out with late 80s/early 90s anna.

and bares a passing resemblance to mary quant when she has darker hair.

a post about fashion and the 80s/90s. maybe, in future, you should expect the expected.

close to home.

style icons come in many forms. example: who knew ms. benes would be such a fabulous muse?

but while fictional characters and celebrities are all well and good, sometimes inspiration comes from mere mortals. note the huge rise of street style: it's in blogs, it's in magazines, it's in books; one assumes it's inspired dissertations and the like. a trip to the town centre could get your creative juices flowing (or, of course) make you curse your town's lack of style). but how about inspiration EVEN CLOSER to your own person?

i stole this picture from facebook.
i assume mam won't mind.

my mam, some time in the 80s.
i will update this when she comments on this post telling me the exact year. she will. ; in 1984

dear mam,

i covet your top, with its adorable collar (lace? crochet?), and can only wonder what 80s-tastic garment graces your lower half. i am, however, quite aware that you no longer own any of these wondrous vintage items and so can't pass them to your daughter, however much she would've appreciated it.

there are some charity shops that gained some great pieces a few years ago; a mere few years before my interest in such items peaked.

OH MAM.

WHAT ARE YOU LIKE?

kthnxbye

jenn.

the benes effect.

in relation to a previous post, i give you a new acquisition.

i call it 'the elaine dress'.

dress+jacket from ebay//shoes from select//moody face

as is common knowledge, selling half your wardrobe on ebay* inevitably leads to perusing the vintage section, which inevitably leads to bidding on this and a(nother) leopard print dress.

but who could say no to a vintage, calf length, silk, blue, polka dotted laura ashley dress which is a couple of sizes too big and therefore the perfect amount of slouchy?

though, it is actually ankle length. and i hoiked it up over the belt. hoiked is a word, shutup.

also, here is that sheer cardi thing i was blabbering on about the other day. ahhh rspca.

amazingly that H&M skirt continues to reside in my wardrobe, through all the clear-outs. well done, old chum.

*there is a link, under shop venturess on the side bar. do it. i have over 50 things to sell, including a pair of amazing Bally loafers. yesyes.

elaine.

woah, woah, woah. cue slap bass.

img from geometric sleep.

sorry, is that the pic from my sidebar?? i think it is.

this past week has seen some Benes-loving in the fashion world, at least in the above clipping (i want to say it's from the new york times? shrug.) and up on my twitter feed. i can only approve wholeheartedly. if my hair was long enough for a huge front fringe quiff bouffant... thing accompanied by some serious frizz, then it would be happening.

i like to think i'm ahead of the curve, or that i secretly have a mental connection with downtown NYC, but it's likely that the reality is either this is a shortlived/microtrend, or it will totally not catch on. (SADFACE.)

that said, the length is really something that's big right now (or at least, maxis are still in for a/w and will probably keep going till next summer, but a move on to a calf or ankle length would make sense), and collars - especially the high necked/buttoned up variety - are something i'm seeing about the blogs these days. whether it's the Elaine effect or not (which I doubt given how many people around my age have actually seen Seinfeld. boo at being in a minority.), this is a relatable trend and seems totally approps right now.

EXCUSE TO POST THIS GIF, YES!

err, wait, does that mean i'm actually appropriately dressed for something? this can only mean that the rapture is upon us.

...brb, bidding on calf length dresses with long sleeves and collars on ebay.

dumdum.

i went to see the dum dum girls on monday night. i forgot/couldn't be arsed to take pictures.

apart from having a whole load of tuuunes, they dress pretty well too, yknow. always look at things from a fash-un perspective, etc. of course, by "they dress well", i mean i'm looking for a jacket like dee dee's (front left in the above pic), and already have the tights she's wearing. and i wore them on monday. pure coincidence, honest.

oh, and they have a blog of sorts...

listen below!

suggested reading.

today is a slow day; a day when i am not doing much of anything, even though there are so many things i could be doing. currently watching come dine with me, and i haven't seen this one before, so it feels like an achievement.

something i've been meaning to write for a short while now is a little about some of the blogs i read - i am, as one would expect, a fashion blog reader first and foremost, but there are others (or ones that aren't just about fashion) that i hold in great esteem.

the way i follow blogs is pretty much broken down into categories too - those i follow purely for the pictures are confined to bloglovin, where i can see the pics and view the blog if the thumbnail catches my eye...

pictures
if not for my personal style, then for my sketchbooks and design work...
the point, readers, boils down to "here are some great personal style blogs, yeah?"

- another day to dress up is quirky and often vintage-y, which i guess means she isn't averse to wearing a turban, is a fan of a 70s-esque dress, and she wears trousers well. i'm in a trousers mood today, so anyone with the ability to wear trousers well makes me smile.

- zoë cullie or 'haiku ambulance', as my browser tells me, is another good-trouser-wearer. also headscarves. of all the blogs i read, hers is the one that speaks to me and inspires my personal style more than any other. i mean, while i might greatly admire the style of, say, queen michelle (scroll down, scroll down...), zoë's style is much more 'me', in an 'if our wardrobes got mixed up somehow, i think i'd be fine with that' sense.

- stylorectic is a lot more 'here's a bunch of similar pictures of me in an outfit' than the others (the type of blog i rarely find enthralling), but her use of scarves, sequins and leopard print is enough to keep me entertained. that, and the fact that she's pregnant right now and hasn't given up any sense of her style.

pics from another day...//zoe cullie//stylorectic

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words and pictures
from here on in, my google reader contains inspiration, but also, sometimes, things i do care about reading.

- outsapop is your one stop shop for diy inspiration. if you're a diy-er or a designer of some sort and don't already follow for inspiration or otherwise, get on it.

- of the "big blogs", kingdom of style is my pick over, say style bubble. while susie's style is awesome and all, she's sometimes a little overly girly in the designers she posts about, and i'm more interested in purveyors of leather, chiffon and feathers in neutral shades than i am those of pastel fringing. that, and queen michelle's personal style is awesome.

- ganymede kids is a recent addition to my reader, and i haven't much to say on it thus far, but there's a nice mix of wordy posts and photo posts. the right balance, i think, and a balance i hope i strike here...

- ...whereas nice & shiny is often quite picture heavy, but also relevant to my interests. Kylie shares my thrift-love more than most, and has awesome hair.

- i promised myself i wouldn't pimp out my friends too much, but since Ana is the only one who both a) does fashion-y things and b) posts once in a while, you should definitely look at one fabulous thing after another, even when there's some crossover when she's in newcastle.

- coincidently, we're both fans of white lightning. i don't know what it is about WL that i love, but love it i do.

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words
as one might expect, this section contains little in the fashion arena (though it is not a fashion wasteland, nono)
the blogs in this category are the ones i actually read - where as others are sometimes skim-read or flicked through depending on post, these ones are sitting back in my chair, slowly sipping my coffee, nodding and laughing at appropriate sentences type reading.

- tom & lorenzo, aka project rungay is a tv/media/fashion blog all rolled into one. as a fan of project runway, mad men, lost, and bitchy gays, this is in my top blogs and probably always will be. the one blog i read in a different way to the others (as the posts are published, as opposed to first thing on a morning over coffee and breakfast), T&L do some mean red carpet judgery, and have opinions about a great deal of reality tv. their 'mad style' pieces are like costume psychology on the women of mad men and are a great read.

- the man repeller is a blog i recently fell across but is completely relevant to my interests and probably yours too, if you're a fan of fashion first and attracting a man second.

- and i found that blog via the medium of godammit, my one stop shop for ranting and what i like to term 'random hate', in which one might display a completely unprovoked feeling of hatred for an individual. ok, so, hate is a strong word but 'random dislike' doesn't sound as good. anyway, sister wolf's 'comments for jane', directed towards the sea of shoes blogger, and her general disdain for the niche of vacuous, 25-pictures-of-the-same-outfit type bloggers sits right with me.

- nogoodforme is a blog i've championed for a very long time. i've been reading for about a year (...?) but i'm plugging away again if purely for newish feature 'DO AS I SAY' (...not as i do), in which laura jane (one of 3 ladies writing for ngfm, or a third of the nogoodforme troika, as they put it) doles out advice which isn't necessarily based on her personal experiences. said coloumn is genius because it provides soundbites such as the following:

"There is no point in maintaining relationships, romantic or non-, that overcomplicate your life. Complications will arise in any relationship, but I think it's very easy to tell when a relationship only complicates things. Those relationships are bad relationships. They are not relationships. They are simply "ships." Sink those motherfuckers."

- i keep banging on about men i wish i hadn't slept with, but it really is a fantastic and hilarious read and if it takes you 5 links to click on it and read then it takes 5 links. between the one liners and the parallels to either my own life or that of my friends, this could be written by someone i know.

- which is where i heart ncl steps in. northerners should almost definitely click and read and follow, but everyone should take a gander - not only because my upstairs neighbour aaron is the author, and he has a way with words, but because a blog about life and love in newcastle is a great idea. also, he started it merely yesterday and has already done 4 posts, one of which is a lil' interview with yours truly, which will, apparently, be a regular feature. with other people, of course, not just interviews with me. i have high hopes for i heart ncl, primarily because i haven't seen him this excited since he found crusty bread on sale at morrisons.

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perhaps you've found a new favourite today; perhaps not. perhaps your favourite isn't represented and you think i should read it. perhaps you should leave a comment.

shortsuit.

vintage/thrifted blazer+silk blouse//vintage shoes//primark shorts//H&M necklace

lots of outfit posts of late; which is strange cos I'm not really going anywhere. post office; morrisons; ikea. maybe town. *shrug*
anyways, obvs this isn't a suit but it passes as one, and I'm quite down with it.
you might've noticed Elaine Benes of Seinfeld fame has taken over Little My of Moomins fame in the sidebar there > ...then note my buttoned up shirt.
high necks don't often work with me but this gets a pass, ouioui?

I had a dream I was in Inglourious Basterds last night. I've never seen it. WTF.

there's still a voting situation here should you be feelin' it

madder men

big up Tom&Lorenzo @ Project Rungay for dropping this, yeah?

HOW GOOD IS THIS?!?!?!?!

Mattel is producing limited edition Mad Men Barbies to coincide with the Season 3 DVD launch; in the form of a Don and a Betty Draper, a Roger Sterling, and of course a Joan Holloway.

Major attention to detail (as I have come to expect from anything Mad Men related, of course) - note Betty's pearl necklace (and gorgeous dress!) and Joan's pen pendant...

Apaz Don comes with a hat, a briefcase and a coat too. And his suit is lined. These barbies have class, man.

Every Season 3 DVD will come with a sketch of one of the dolls, too.

I want a Joan. Oh, Joan. ♥

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hair do?

I longlonglong to be able to put my hair in a messy bun.
It's growing; ever so slowly.
But this weekend I managed to put together an attempt at the messy bun, even with this limited hair.

jacket+top+trews; thrifted//shoes; garage shoes//necklace; portobello market

Hmm, close up?

Note my randomly ginger roots.

They are much more integrated now; hello re-dyed.

My fringe is starting to get a bit too long to be able to sweep it into the chunky fringe instead of the side fringe; I see this as progress.

So, yeah, short haired laydeez - no need to worry; you can still do stuff with short hair!

I scraped this over to the left side of my head (cos that's the shorter side, so the right side hair had more length and could, err, travel(?) further), put in a bobble and bent it over into a "bun", then pinned all the bits that didn't reach the bobble down to my head. ...There were lots of these bits.

And by "bun" I clearly mean "sticky up curl of hair".

I look like Little My from off of the Moomins.

pic from graphic kid, which is a great blog.

Is it time to change the styleicon picture of Judy Funny from 'Doug' to Little My??

A search for a picture of her encompassed wikipedia and imdb, and I am now aware that they're on making a 3D Moomins film AS WE SPEAK. EXCITED MUCH?!?!?!?!

I used to bloody love the Moomins.

An anecdote: I believe I'm right when I say that me and my friend Liam, in school (in fact, if I am correct, on the flight back from the school band's trip to Boston in year 10) couldn't remember how the Moomin theme tune went and so just tried singing the words to any theme tune we could think of, including, most notably, Eastenders.

"moomin moomin moo-ooo-miiiinn (dundundundun) mooo-ooooo-min, moomin moo-moomin"

I'm pretty sure it was the Moomins theme tune.

Anyways, we looked it up in out next music class and it turns out it was nothing like we had thought it was. Sad times.

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i will want for nothing more

aka a lazy Sunday ode to Joanna Newsom, whose new song '81 is below and you should listen to it lying in bed whilst eating breakfast/lunch/meal approps to time of day; definately.

Joanna is pretty frickin' amazing, as it goes. I first heard of/saw her on another lazy (and MOST EXCELLENT) Sunday, which was in fact, not so lazy at all - at Latitude festival in 2008, at midday. She forgot most of the words to Sawdust and Diamonds and I was immediately enamoured with her.

Course that day will always be remembered fondly. Later in the day was Blondie and then INTERPOL; YEAH BOIIIII.

*ahem*

But!

She is also awesome in the fashion blog sense, being a purveyor of folk-y vintage dresses and floaty, wispy, ethereal garb which fits just so alongside her out of the norm voice and unusual instrumentation (what, how many harps do you know of in popular music?).

Also, she's big on the Rodarte, AND the Comme.

images from zimbio, wikimedia, mistermort, last.fm and google images

&& that last one is off of aforementioned Latitude fest.

Her new triple album, Have One On Me, is out on Feb 23rd and you can pre-order it here, which is exciting.

my kinds your kind; i'll stay the same

Thursday night was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig - the second time I've seen them this year, this time in Newcastle with Luke. They were awesome; we got all jumbled up and sweaty in the pit, and we got pretty close to the stage despite turning up halfway through the support act.

The stage was all glittery and swirly and had the same big eye as in April looming over it. All my good photos are below... (stage, full band, Nick Zinner, Karen O x lots)

Ms O's getting her leather on in the last one...I phoned Ana during Zero :D she professed her love for me.

I took so many pictures, but nearly everytime I went to take one, someones hand popped up right infront of Karen O at the last minute...you can't imagine how annoying that is after the 15th time in a row.

There was so much confetti raining down from above the stage! Luke was trying to catch them all (like Pokemon XD), and I got some down my top...
Tried to take a photo:

Things Observed In Movies I

Y'know, I finally buy a new camera (it's snazzy, kids. And I haven't taken one bloody picture with it yet.), and all I have to post about is various Fashion Weeks and other such things only to be found online...

Pfft!

Firstly, an observation:

Frenchy, were she to have, at any point, had long blonde hair and a blunt fringe, would have been almost a dead ringer for Lady Gaga. Srsly. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this?!

...it would be easier to see if the Gaga wasn't wearing as much makeup, I'm not gonna lie.

Secondly, a confession:

It was not until earlier this week that I saw Clueless all the way through (I also saw Rain Man for the first time, but this has nothing to do with this post, unless I start to randomly/subconciously write KMart in the middle of sentences.).

Anyways, I've seen the TV show before, but not the film, and it hadn't occured to me quite how awesomely one Cher Horowitz dresses. Not the matchy matchy 2 pieces of the opening scenes, really, but looks such as:

BERETS! SHEER LAYERS! CROPPED JUMPERS!

There's more than a little of the Wang look in here - I'm seeing those sparkly football jumpers from last week in that last look of Cher's there, and the gym class scene is more than a little Wang-esque IMO...

It was only a matter of time before the 90s came back around (good old predictable 20 year rule!), but I feel a lot more comfortable welcoming this in than I did when that whole 'rave' thing happened....

I never did succumb to the neon. Well done me.

"But this is an Alaia! He's like, a totally important designer!"

Amen to that.

Florence's Drumming

So this video is pretty much amazing (as is the song!)...

I adore the short nun-esque habit-type things with the gold sequin hotpants! I'm also enjoying anything involving dance routines in indie videos. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF THIS. I demand more!

There's a bit of an interview type thing on dazed digital about the video and the styling etc. I'm thinking more and more that this is the type of thing I'd like to do...styling and design, possibly within the media (so music videos, TV, film, yknow). Considering when I was younger my other ambition was to be in a band, I think a career mixing fashion and music is pretty much my dream job.

Man, I was an ambitious child.

As a side note, Florence very reminds me (especially in this video) of Queen Michelle off of Kingdom of Style......it may be the mask (around the 3 minute mark, somewhere?), I'm not going to lie.

PS

many apologies for the slow down in posts, I still have a severe lack of a camera so I'm relying on the Internet to throw me a bone on things to post. Also I've been too busy being spontaneous. Which is fun.

90s l'amour

Kate & Johnny, found at Le Fashion, some time in the 90s I guess...? I enjoy this photo; but I don't know why.

Givenchy for Madonna

How awesome is this? Riccardo Tisci's actual illustration for Madonna latest tour outfits!

I'm all about seeing high profile designers illustrations. That's pretty much what I wish my illustrations looked like. I shall get working on them when I've done my placement report*.

This is the finished product, btw.

All courtesy of WireImage/Coutureinthecity.com, via Project Rungay.

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*Which I should probably start soon, instead of making banners and what is essentially an ebay advert. You may have noticed these things (above and to the right, respectively).

To Clarify My Style View

I'm pretty sure I contradicted myself in my resort posts re: what I like in fashion/style, so perhaps a quick clarification?

In the shows, I enjoy either chic, wearable clothes that you can imagine people (if not yourself) wearing; OR completely OTT, insane, absolutely unwearability of the type McQueen and Chalayan do so well (hence why I love them so much). That's what a show is about - you're either showcasing your wares with a view to making sales, or you're putting on a show, showing your art to the world (which will inevitably be pared down for sale).

What I tend to not be into as much are the clothes which are by no means purely show pieces, and yet are unlikely to be worn by anyone outside of a Red Carpet situation.

I appreciate the beauty of Marchesa and Elie Saab, for example, but would never consider them an influence, or be particularly inspired by their work, purely because they don't appeal to either the consumer nor the art fan in me. Call it two years of being a fine art student before a fashion student; I don't know.

However, when it comes to personal style, I have no problem with whatever anyone wants to wear, as long as they can pull it off.

And by pull it off, I don't mean if it suits your body type, or anything to that effect (although that is always something to consider) - lord knows my 5ft 3 frame cant pull off half the outfits I drop onto it - but an air of confidence; even indeed arrogance; as you go about your day wearing your crazy outfit, is as essential as the outfit itself, IMO.

This may or may not explain my tendency to strut along whichever particular street I'm on.

My personal style is pretty easy to sum up - I like layering, sheer fabrics, high waists and cinching, massive heels, and a colour palette of nudes (cream over white any day), blues, greens, black and grey, with the occasional pop of bright colours. One look at my wardrobe could tell you that in a second. I'm not a big print person, but I do have a few florals and, as of my last ebaying spree, a leopard print maxi dress. I adore vintage - it tends to fit me better.

I like to think I'm some sort of Carrie Bradshaw (yes, the character)/Gwen Stefani/Agyness Deyn/Joan Holloway hybrid.

I think I may have too high an opinion of myself.

Joan Holloway is frickin awesome though.

Every time I wear a pencil skirt, I channel my inner Joan. It helps that most of my pencil skirts are vintage.

I'm even debating dyeing my hair red. Damn you Joan!

Anyways, my design style is pretty similar (this is, I suppose like most designers. You wouldn't design something you didn't like. Although I have designed things I like but wouldn't wear, so it's not that restricted. It can't be, you can't put that much of a limit on yourself.)

I intend to pop some of my work up here at some point, but I haven't designed anything original for a while, what with placement and stuff. At the minute I'm mostly working on my own versions of things I could never afford...

When I do get the time/inspiration for new things, I'll put them up. Along with any DIY projects, ofcourse.

OK, long rant/informative post over, sorry to bore you.

Back to the tennis.

C'mon Federer!