Press play to watch the highlights of Day Four of London Fashion Week, which has been the best so far (in my incredibly inflated, self-important opinion). An LFW round up will appear on the blog on Friday.
*Apologies for the shortness of this post. Have you ever been so tired that you look at what you’re writing and it’s total gibberish? Not badly-written or poorly thought out sentences, just actual unintelligible burble, like a toddler mashing the keyboard with his fists. So, in a way, I’m doing you a favour by writing a twitter-length missive. You can thank me later.
>It’s that time again. Sluggish bloggers, slowed down into a cosy Christmas chrysalis are sloughing off the excess of too many mince pies and slices of blue cheese and evaluating the year in order to burst into 2011 a beautiful blog butterfly. Like the alliteration? I wrote it just for you. Here’s my 2010 ‘best of’ blog mixtape.
Blog Highlights: I started this blog in March with the aim of sharing what I liked and meeting a few like-minded people. In the space of a few short months, I’ve racked up readers from around the world, landed a fashion column, learned a hell of a lot about the fashion industry, joined the Vice Blogging Network, went to London Fashion Week, networked like a mad thing, was mentioned as one of Ireland’s most influential bloggers and made some truly exceptional, hilarous and supportive friends. All of this due to blogging aspersions. So, to my readers, I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU! You guys are the best. Seeing all your comments really brightens up my day.
Click ‘Read More’ to, ehm, read more, look at nice pictures and watch some fashion films…
Personal Highlights: Moving in with my boyfriend. Getting to write a published fashion column every week. My father chose 2010 as the year to stop bursting into my childhood bedroom at 7am to ask me why I wasn’t sending speeches to Obama and CVs to Anna Wintour and started to buy me copies of Granta instead. And I finally decided which Masters degrees to apply for.
Personal Lowlights: Moving in with my boyfriend. Getting food poisoning four times this year; while on holidays in both Italy and Egypt, on my birthday and on Christmas Eve. And my little brother moved into my childhood bedroom, which leaves me to sleep in a box room filled (appropriately) with a million boxes every time I come home.
I’m in no way qualified to say what the ‘best’ of 2010 has been, but I will share some favourites…
Favourite Magazine Editorial
I’m a huge sucker for cartoons. If it’s animated, I’ll watch it. Then I’ll watch it again. I loved the 2007 Simpsons editorial in Harper’s Bazaar, but I think that the Disney spread, illustrated by Ulrich Schroeder, in this year’s April issue of Elle Spain just about trumps it in terms of technicolor delight. (scans via Miss At La Playa)
Leopard print. Leopard print accessories, leopard print Gaga-esque dresses, vintage leopard print swing coats, I love them all. Not surprising for a girl who has dressed up as both Bet Lynch and Peg Bundy for Hallowe’en (and maybe the odd Saturday night). Honourable mention goes to the return of the boob as seen at Louis Vuitton. Mad Men be blessed, I can stop hiding my 34DDs in buttoned up shirts and let them roam free, or at the very least peeping cautiously over corset tops. Combine the cleavage with the animal print and 2011 is sure to become a year to remember, in social terms at least if not in sartorial ones.
Favourite runway show
Photos from style.com
I was totally blown away by Erdem’s S/S ’11 offerings. This was a twisted take on floralia that I could really get on board with. Do you have a designer that you don’t really like because it’s just not your style? Then one day you look at what they’ve designed and BAM! Everything they’ve ever done is instantly genius. You click your fingers and think ‘Ah, I get it now’. That was me and Erdem.
Photos from style.com
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also loved the A/W ’10 looks designed by Christopher Kane, by then in his sophomore season for Versus. Sharp pleated cupcake skirts, tees imprinted with iconic Bruce Weber photographs, deep jewel tones and colour absorbing black – an easy marriage between Kane’s bandage dress graduate collection and Gianni Versace’s original knowingly wink-and-smile flirty Versus vision.
Favourite fashion films
2010 was the year that fashion film exploded. If I could, I would pick twenty films, but these are my five whittled-down favorites.
Favourite Blogs
- The Selvedge Yard. This is a menswear blog, but really you should look at it because the pictures are so well-sourced. It’s so comprehensively researched that each and every post is like reading a fascinating encyclopedia entry. Devote at least twenty minutes per entry and left all the images sink in. - Fashematics. This one is hard to explain. Imagine ’300′ – knives = Marc Jacobs on the beach. Think that doesn’t make much sense? Click here. - Beckerman Bite Plate. The three Beckerman sisters (and sometimes their parents) put together the craziest, candy coloured, multi-influenced, bonkers outfits and pose (or hop) in front of the camera. It’s a blog world filled entirely with happy faces and derring-do ‘tude. It is genius. - Threadbared. The product of two academics, Threadbared is relevatory, insightful and often thought provoking. This blog proves that fashion is not all vacant stares and mindless consumerism. Both authors examine the machinations and implications of fashion with a balanced mindset, but never lose their heartfelt love for clothes.
Hopes for 2011
- To move away to another country and start a masters degree.
- To keep adding and improving this blog.
- To start clashing my patterns (very important, I know).
- To always be writing something.
- To make my mommy proud.
That’s my 2010 round up of the great and the good (the bad and the ugly got lost on their way to the blog post). What was your fashion highlight? And what are your goals for 2011?
P.S I’m going on holidays on January 1st (Egypt by way of London) and this blog will be taken over by some of my favourite Irish Bloggers, who will be entertaining you with their personal style New Years Resolutions. I hope that you like their posts – I was editing some today and was blown away by the breadth and variety of the responses.
Next week’s Licentiate column will be published on Thursday as usual and I might manage to fit in a post or two while I’m away. Normal service will resume after the 12th of January, when I’ll talk about my own personal style resolution. If I manage to pull this out of the bag, it’ll mean a nice change of pace for The Licentiate. Change is afoot, and revolution is in the air…
Have you ever been blog-scooped? You know, you sit down to write something, only to discover that one of your favourite blogs has written about it already (and, in fairness, much better)? That happened to me last week, when I sat down to scrape some London Fashion Week photos out of my camera, only to discover that Style Bubble had done a frankly, epic post on Jordan Askill.
Askill is a Sydney native, exhibited as part of Newgen and specialises in intricately wrought jewellery that is hand-carved but drawn with the aid of computer programmes. It’s this synthesis between past and present, traditional and technology, that has become the main point of focus in his work and, it has to be said, is nothing short of a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room of bling and intimidating knuckledusters.
The above is from Askill’s current collection. This cherub head pendant is roughly the size of your thumbnail, at most about the length of this line _______ (probably a little bit more if you have a high-res monitor.
I was lucky enough to meet Askill in the Newgen tent and get some very nice compliments on the rings I was wearing. Mercifully, I was too nervous to gush all over him (metaphorically, that is), but unfortunately not too nervous to mentally high five myself and impart on him a very long, boring story about the history of the rings and where I got each one and, and, and… I’m boring even myself now. If you see this Jordan (and your lovely friend too), I am truly sorry.
Here are some slightly blurry close-ups of his S/S ’11 collection. They do no justice to the craftsmanship and time taken to conceive such pieces. It’s rare to see jewellery that displays and obvious concern with both concept and execution. The term ‘high-concept’ really gets bandied about too often but in this case it’s true – the amount of care that goes into this is beyond the norm. Once you hold of one these pieces in your hand you know you’re holding something precious and rare. You’ll know that no-one is doing anything quite like Askill.
While this season is angelic, Askill has turned back to more primal influences for Spring/Summer with studies of tigers, bears and horses. These are all derivations and meditations on a sculpture Askill did of 65 horses galloping in unison, which you can see in full on his website. The sculpture is also fully incorporated into a series of harnesses (click on the Style Bubble post to see; I haven’t seen then anywhere else online). The details is Amazing with a capital A, I can’t express it enough, and I come away from this post a tad uneasy as I feel like a haven’t done his work justice. For once I can’t find the words. Usually it’s too many words, which is also a problem.
You should probably go to his website and step into a new world (and do a bit of healthy coveting).
You could look at his JORDY diffusion line, which is a line of more accessible, but equally adorable rings and bangles. Dibs on the hidden sapphire heart ring.
Mostly though, he just seems like a lovely person with an intelligent, artistic mind and a passion for innovation and craftsmanship. If that doesn’t deserve to be supported, I don’t know what does.
>It’s another Hallowe’en inspiration post this time. Oh, the joys of having nothing to write about, then having a lightbulb moment that says ‘!!!HALLOWEEN!!! In short, if there’s any reason to write about a night in which you can look totally ridiculous without major repercussions, then I’ll grab it with both hands.
You may think that I’m being horribly pre-emptive because I’m a whole month early for Hallowe’en, but if you think about it another way, I’m really eleven months late as this make-up look from MAC is actually from 2009. Whoops.
I’ve had make-up on the brain since I found out that I won an amazing prize courtesy of Think What You Like and Sarah Hope Make Up *. This post is for you. Big up my sistaz (sorry, in real life I never say anything that obnoxious… I hope).
For once, I’ll let the pictures do the talking…
Roy Lichtenstein, In The Car, 1963
Roy Lichtenstein, Girl, 1961(ish)
Nifty, eh?
*Speaking of which, I have a wee giveaway of my own that I can’t wait to unveil once I get fifty google followers. A secret door doesn’t unlock when I get 50 followers by the way – it’s just a personal target.
>Forever in Blue jeans Originally posted on 30/07/09
Now that we’re in a capital R Recession, nostalgia seems to have become a more highly coveted commodity than crude oil. Nothings more zeitgeisty now than pulling together, having an allotment and darning your socks with Brillo Pads or somesuch, because apparently we are now living during the Blitz and having to deal with the Horrid Hun and V2 rockets, and not in actuality having to deal with 15% pay cuts and having to buy cheap plonk and prosciutto. I’m being facetious of course. In some ways it’s probably a return to the norm (perhaps not the darning socks with Brillo Pads bit though…) because we all – yes, I do mean everyone – seem to have become supremely wasteful. Why make your own stuff; it’ll take you hours that would otherwise be better spent on watching America’s Next Top Model and eating bean burritos*, when you could pop down to Penneys/Primark and pick up a cocktail dress for three euros**? What everyone, me included, seems to forget is that people used to make their own stuff. This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip by any means, but imagine what a happy place the world could be – recycling, individuality, holding hands under the rainbow, yurts, drum circles and so on – if we actually did.
A lot of books have been released on the grounds of this newfound Saving The World nostalgia in regards to fashion and clothing, notably Sew and Saveand Make Do and Mend, which are reissued facsimile copies of the original 1940′s booklets (see what I mean about the Blitz?). Another slightly less obvious example is the revival of the Jackie Annual. Do you remember being a kid and reading Bunty, Judy or Mandy magazine, with it’s photostories about having your first kiss, and advice on how to wear make-up without your parents getting mad at you? Jackie and it’s rival Blue Jeans (about which I can find virtually nothing) stopped being published in the early nineties and are as a rule a wee bit before my time. However, I was saved by an industrious granny who would bring me back annuals from local charity shops, along with less welcome things, such as encyclopedia indexes and copies of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time. I started collecting at eleven and stopped at fourteen. I think at one point I must have had about seventy to eighty annuals, including a much loved Monkees Annual from 1965 and a copy of another annual called Misty, which published exclusively horror stories about witches and magical yet vengeful trees and highwaymen hanging from gibbets. As you can probably tell, I wasn’t the most popular kid in primary school.
This is my 1981 Blue Jeans annual, in case you couldn’t tell for whatever reason.When I was younger I was much more enthralled with the Buster Bloodvessel interviews and frankly ridiculous photostories involving women who steal babies because they are grieving for a lost loved one, and the girl always ends up with a broken heart after her boyfriend dies in a motorcycle smash up cum race in a bid to buy her an engagement ring that the real, practical bits. In a way, Blue Jeans ruined my life because I was convinced that I’d be euphorically married at seventeen, and even if I wasn’t, I would have a sizeable collection of zazzy headbands to make up for it.
But I digress. Now that I’m older and wiser, I’m much more taken in by the sheer amount of sewing that these girls had to do in between holding minor clerical jobs and crimping their hair. For example, this beauty…
It’s Quicker by Tube’. Worra pun. Ok, so this may look a bit childish, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if the gold and silver snakes weren’t worn as jewellery but instead used to add texture to clothes. Over the material = instant 3D stripes. Under the body = a mad textured effect. It’s make and do piping and you can wear it around your neck! The sausages are great too. I’d love to make a few of these longer and in really dark, muted Winter colours – forest green, midnight blue, cranberry and so on – and pile them over an otherwise boring outfit, hopefully in a way that wouldn’t make my head look like a christmas pudding. It reminds me very much of some of the Sonia by Sonia Rykiel A/W ’09-’10 knits that had textured piping placed underneath the wool and twisted into three-dimensional bows that are slightly disconcerting and cool at the same time. I’m a super sucker for 3D and novelty knits; it’s the wee kid in me that does it. Ahem, anyway, on to the next point…
If I had any handbag in the world, it would probably be a Chanel 2.55, because I’m generic that way. However, I shall never get my hands on one, unless I suddenly get more money than sense (not looking likely judging by the negative figures bank statement) or mug an Olsen twin (would be a bit counterproductive as I would have to buy plane fare to New York). However, Blue Jeans has evidently saved the day by providing it’s own instructions on how to make a quilted bag of your very own. Hallelujah! Actually, it’s not a bad idea. You could make some very badass colour combinations, or at least contrive to make the art of combining colours as badass as it possibly can be. Grey and bright yellow spring to mind – ooh, and a few pyramid studs to really add a contrast.
I’m still a bit of a novice at throwing an outfit together. As a rule of thumb, if it doesn’t go with jeans and black Converse, then it’s officially a bit scary and sits at the back of the wardrobe or on the floor. I am trying to break outside the norm though – with mixed results. So it was with trepidation that I looked at the Fashion Workshop below. I didn’t really fancy sewing shoulder pads into my t-shirts. Oh how wrong I was. This double page (lovingly scanned and merged by the boyfriend – ta hon) combine stuff I really should have thought of – military buttons, d’oh – with slightly more consciously ‘retro’ stuff, like painting Mondrian-esque lines on your jumper and instructions on how to make those Cleopatra snake armbands. The text is obviously teeny, but the files are quite large so you should be able to zoom in.
*That might just be me. **Again, that might just be me.
>Ahhh. This is the last Cheap & Nasty post to grace these pages. Mmm, cathartic. Doers anyone think that this is prophetic by the way? I wrote it in June of ’09.
Like OMG BFF *falls down dead*
Dazed Digital bills Charlie White’s animated collab effort OMG BFF LOL, as ‘slightly disturbing’. And it, like, totes is (ahem). What’s most disturbing, apart from the delightful responses that it has been getting on Youtube (example – ‘what the fuck i type in lol on youtube and this comes up theres nothink funny about this’. Groan…), is the fact that it holds up a mirror to people and their shopping habits – and you really won’t like what you see.
There’s a lot to be said about art that has a global message, but does anyone think that the theme of consumerism as an inherently Evil or Wrong thing is a bit, well, overdone? It is true that life, and thus shopping apparently, is a merry-go-round of wanting, getting, wanting again… until what? There’s no end! Sound the Doomsday alarm! Our lives are meaningless!
Don’t mind me. I spent a lorra money today on clothes that I can’t afford, so this just makes me feel truly awful. I must have NO soul.
On a more vacuous note, is it just me or does OMG BFF LOL remind you of every single episode of Saved by the Bell where Lisa Turtle (aka Lark Voorhies) spends way too much money on her credit card, times a million. Although if I’d been in this Always ad, I’d probably try to shop away the pain too.
>… and import my older posts and just delete the old blog altogether. Out with the old, in the the new. That’s how it goes, isn’t it? Let’s hope so. Since this post from last October (I think) I’ve since bought Nina Chakrabarti’s book and it is amazing . Amazing. I might buy another copy. One to keep pristine. The other one to look at and doodle in on rainy days.
Nina Chakrabarti’s line drawings straddle the line between whimsical and intense and incredbly fun. Her series of fashion sketches that come with the Sunday Times Style supplement always manage to while away a few minutes of doodling fun, but the results always stick in the mind for much longer.
The above pages are from her book My Wonderful World of Fashion, which I ordered not two minutes ago while waiting for my Dad to finish watching the tv (Oceans Twelve, I ask you) so I can see Dawn of the Dead. I’m already slavering in anticipation. That or I might have fashion rabies. Her designs, tips and suggestions are a million miles away from the likes of Trinny and Susannah, which is definitely a place where I want to be. And she positively encourages you to go mad with the ol’ felt tips. It’s a good thing.
The bottom picture is taken from a spread from the inaugural issue of I Want You Magazine, which is available in toto online and as part of a limited print run. The spread, which can be seen here, reminds me of the Mexican Day of the Dead iconography… but that might just be because I have Dawn of the Dead on the brain. Eerie and amazing. The work here marries perfectly my love of fashion and also of squiggling elaborate moustaches on the women from the Littlewoods catalogue, although I think i’ll leave the intricate and carefully-thought pen and ink work to Chakrabarti herself…
>Here’s a post I really should have put up earlier from this month’s Paris Vogue.
Once upon a time I actually had reasonable French but all my parlez-vousisms have dribbled out of my ears and I just buy French Vogue to look at the pretty pictures and to look quizzically at the Antonia Fraser interview her life with Harold Pinter. I really wish I knew what she was saying.
French Vogue reminds me of Playboy. Playboy from the 50′s and 60′s, not spreadeagled plasticky smooth women. Sometimes you think that Vogue is all editorial, then you get hit with a treatise on the motivations behind working the camouflage print or that Antonia Fraser interview. It’s a bit like opening an old copy of Playboy and seeing a short story by Nabokov or an interview with Malcolm X. It’s weird and incongruous and totally cool.
Speaking of weird and incongruous and totally cool, there are my favourite pages from the Lady Cops spread starring Brooke Shields and shot by Bruce Weber. Salty goodness.
http://www.t5m.com/v/01z13yszx2qxg9
