Exacly a month...

...since my last post! Exams are finally over, and went as well as could be expected, for the most part. Physics excepted, but then, I only learnt the first third of the syllabus, so I was hardly expecting it to go well.

Exams have actually been over for about two weeks, but I've been super-busy volunteering at Oxfam, which I discovered has a fab online charity shop, making sushi like a mad woman to satisfy my cravings...

(I invented the one in the middle! Brie and Avocado, it's amazing
if I say so myself)

...babysitting like a mad woman to satisfy my purse, and putting together outfits for my week at Central Saint Martins. I'm taking a pattern cutting course to refine my skills, and I'm desperate to make an impression on the tutors, hopefully a favorable one!

I need to crop them and stuff, but there shall be some outfit posts sometime in the next few days.

x

I know I said I wouldn't...

...but lookey, Oscar de la Renta agrees with me on the turquoise/red thing!

I especially like the first one, the overlay(? I think it's an overlay) reminds me of Rob Ryan's work.

x

I'm a terrible person

...and starting a blog right before my exams was a really stupid idea. Not because my priorities are skewed enough to blog instead of revise, but because it meant abandoning this! They're not over yet, but I'm on half-term - I have another two weeks worth starting next Monday. This is just a brief post to explain my absence, and tide you over with an outfit:

Tshirt - Dad's, Jeans - French Connection, Socks - Claires, Wonderful blue non-suede shoes - Miss Selfridge

and a few links, places I plan to visit next time I'm in London

http://www.designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2008/timwalker
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=7272
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7415911.stm

x

Coldplay and prom

If you haven't yet downloaded the FREE. That's right, FREE Coldplay single, I heartily recommend that you do so pronto (it expires on Monday). It's Chris Martin at his finest, and much less downbeat than I felt a lot of 'X&Y' was. I really love Coldplay, but when I got an opportunity to see them live, I had to give my ticket away because I was ill! Rotten luck...

And my original topic, prom. It's not as big a deal over here as it seems to be in the states, but nonetheless it's been the sole talking point at school since January. And that includes some of my guy friends. We're only allowed to invite people from our school and year, which limits date-options rather, but the location they've chosen seems pretty nice, and even if the music is terrible, one last hoorah with my classmates should be fun.

Of course, the main event is the dresses, and when I say prom has been the only conversation topic since January, what I mean is that dresses have been the only conversation topic since January. In my head, I have a bright red, knee length '50s pin-up girl dress, but that seems not to exist outside of my grey matter. I'd really, really like to make my own prom dress, but as I've got exams until a week or two before it, I doubt I'll have time. Infact, I have a feeling that I may be ordering a dress online the weekend before my prom, because my indecisiveness is rivaled only by my talent for procrastination.

Dress may not be decided, shoes and accessories have. I'd really like to wear either a fascinator, or a wee pillbox hat. Pillbox hat is more original, but I don't really fancy fielding snarky comments about my headwear all evening, so I'll probably opt for a fascinator. Depending on my dress, I'd love a peacock feather one, but obviously that wouldn't match everything. Failing that, claires accessories has some surprisingly nice ones, although I can't find any pictures online. Shoes will, unless I deviate dramatically from my plan, be black patent peep-toes. I bought them way back in November because I knew I'd wear them, even if not for prom. I definitely want to make part of my prom ensemble, so I suspect I'll wind up making my bag. Probably a black (recycled) leather clutch, but if I wear peacock feathers in my hair, I'll probably work them into my bag too.

I'm hopeless with makeup, so I haven't a clue what I'll do with that, but for my hair I quite fancy a (very small) beehive. Not like this. Or this. Or maybe pincurls? Not sure how a fascinator would work with that though... I really ought to have an experiment with some makeup, I'm not forking out for getting it done professionally, and leaving it to the last minute sounds like a recipe for disaster...

x

Oooh la la

I'm ill and not feeling much like blogging, so here's a photo of the new skirt I bought yesterday. The outfit I'm wearing it with may or may not have been heavily influenced by the burlesque dancers in Newcastle, promoting a new club. They were in leopard print suits, but the silhouette was quite similar.

x

The fashion-ey post (with a bit of thrifty, and some crafty)

I adore headbands. Prissy ones with little bows make everything cuter, and the variety that go over your forehead (think flappers) make everything a wee bit more roaring. (like the '20s.) Those are my favourite types, but of course there are a hundred other types. I adore feathered ones, but I've yet to find a fake one I like, and given that I'm vegetarian, real feathers would be rather hypocritical.

Yesterday, browsing through my blog feed, I saw that Miss Couturable had written an article for doesthislookstupid. On hairbands no less! I'm in awe of that girl's eloquence and drive, and the sheer amount of STUFF she does. Very impressive. Anyway, after I'd read the article I had a deep and insatiable hankerin' for a new hairband, so I pulled out my scrap bag and some gold fabric paint and went to town. I knocked off the Anna Vince headband in Miss C's article, but with my own messy-chic twist :It is actually real leather, despite what I said earlier about feathers! The reason I don't object to wearing this leather is that it's recycled. It was a leather skirt that I bought in a charity shop to cut up, so as I'm not contributing directly to the producers if I buy leather second hand, I'm okay with that. I really love making headbands, because they're such a quick fix! And this one cost me nada - the leather, thread, paint and headband were all things I had lying around already.

x

Am I turtley enough for the turtle club?

Having had a minor bout of the mean reds, I was looking for something to cheer me up. Chocolate was off the menu, because I'd already had one dairy milk caramel today. Exercise also releases endorphins, but it was cold, wet and 10pm, so that didn't really appeal. And then I remembered this. Put simply, The Master of Disguise is the most ridiculous, nonsensical and yet hilarious film I've ever seen. Especially this scene.


Such a tonic. If you haven't seen it, you should pick a copy up - it's always in sales really cheaply, I guess my sense of humour isn't shared by the public at large. Don't watch it straight away, but hold onto it for a rainy day. You won't be disappointed.

There is a fashioney post coming later, I just thought I'd share that first!

xx

Turquoise and Red

You wouldn't believe how long I deliberated over which colour to put first in the title. Personally I think red with turquoise accents looks best, but turquoise and red sounds better in terms of word order. And then on top of that, in the middle of my considering that dilemma, it struck me that maybe that bluey colour is more of an aqua? I really should stop over-thinking this kinda thing.

Anyway, it's my new favourite colour combination, and it was kicked off by this post. What incredible shoes, right? The blog author apparently couldn't find them on the website, but I found them here, for an incredible £13. I'm holding out to have a proper rummage of the site before I order them, but order them I most certainly will.

My googling turned up a fairly pathetic bunch of results for other things in a red/turquoise palette, but I did find a few things on etsy. There's also a photo-sharing group on flickr with some really lovely photos, I especially liked this one of a fire hydrant.

Looking down the page on my blog, I remembered that my most recent purchase is red, so I've been contemplating how to accessorise that turquoisely. Turquoise tights would probably be a bit much, no?

x

Please look after this bear

I picked up this coat today in a charity shop and it wasn't 'till my brother pointed it out that I realised precisely how much it looks like Paddington's duffel coat! There was some debate over the dinner table as to whether Paddington's is red or blue, but frankly my dears... you know the rest. Wearing it makes me want to eat marmalade... and shove my hands deep, deep into those lovely big pockets!

I don't own many coats, and of the few I do own, I always seem to end up wearing the same one - hopefully this new one will facilitate some branching out. I love how the oversized silhouette looks with just tights (over my school skirt), so I guess it'd probably look good with skinnies too. I must experiment. Once I've satisfied those marmalade cravings...

x

Too kitsch?

I thought that today I'd share a skirt I whipped up recently, and which I have very mixed feelings about. The fabric was in fact a curtain in a previous life, one which I spotted in a charity shop and couldn't make my mind up over. On the one hand I really liked the colours, but on the other hand... well, I'm a bit wary of moving into kitschy territory. I ummed and aahed for a few weeks, then wandered in one day to find that it had been marked down to half price. A sign?

Anyway, I picked up these curtains and brought them home, then abandoned them on my fabric pile for the next you-don't-want-to-know-how-many weeks, until one day the grey clouds parted momentarily, and sun-craziness* struck me. I needed a bright, colourful outfit, and I needed one now! My plans for an A-line skirt with a zipper were thrust unceremoniously out of the window, and about half an hour later I was the proud owner of a twirly elastic-waisted circle skirt.

In retrospect, I'm quite glad that I did a circle skirt and not an A-line skirt, an A-line skirt would probably have made the kiddy-print too obvious, and I wouldn't have worn it. As it is in the circle skirt some of the print is upside down or sideways, and the fullness breaks it up a little. I'm still not sure that it will come out when I'm in anything but the summer-craziest of moods, but wearing it is like Prozac, so I might break it out when I've got the mean reds too.

I held onto the other curtain, and I figured I might make another one to ebay in the summer, when I'm less time-constrained. I can't think of anything else to do with one lone curtain!

x

*Sun craziness - The desire to wear, eat, drink and listen to mad things, because OHMIGOD it's England and there's SUN!

Not really channeling Cassie

This outfit was originally inspired by a character from Skins, Cassie, but in the end I couldn't find much in my wardrobe to do so. I love Hannah Murray's ability to pull off really long skirts without looking old fashioned, or prudish, so I channeled that a bit. The outfit I'm wearing is probably a bit tame for her tastes, but I'm not really in a very OTT mood. It's a Sunday.
The dusky pink skirt is actually a dress, which fits me hideously round the bust. It's also a bit dressy for every day, but I think dressing it down with a jumper worked quite well. I'm trying to work up the courage to chop the top off permanently, and make it a skirt, but... I have problems cutting up stuff I paid more than a fiver for, even if i know I never wear it in its current state!


Dress - Episode, Sweater - M&S, Belt - Vintage, Tights - M&S



I spotted this dress on Craftster today, and really like it. It's so bold and... wow. And I really like the silhouette that the short bubble hem creates, which makes it a teeny bit like that crazy Balenciaga dress, but way, way more wearable. I'd love to wear it with bare legs and gladiator sandals once summer finally makes an appearance, so I'll definately be on the lookout for floral charity shop dresses to 'upgrade'. I have to say, despite all the love that it's been given on the blogs and in magazines, I hate the Balenciaga dress. Clothes, in my opinion, should work with the body, not against it like that dress does. It looks like it doesn't fit the model, it certainly doesn't flatter her and to be honest, I think it'd look more like sculpture than clothing when it wasn't being worn.

x

Hello world

Nice to meet you.

...

I'm sixteen years old, right now. Sixteen years, four months and two days, actually. I adore fashion, from reading about it to making it to wearing it. But especially making it. Over the past two years, I've become gradually more obsessed with going to Central Saint Martins, and studying fashion there. The first time I saw the name was in the book 'How to Walk in High Heels', (which, for the record, taught me nothing of the sort.) Then I began to notice that this name cropped up in fashion blogs and magazines a lot. You know how it is when things crop up in clusters? I just kept seeing the name everywhere. My curiosity piqued, I decided to look it up and upon discovering a list of alumni, fell in love. The more I read about the college's alumni and history, the more set on getting into it I became.


So when I read that it was relocating, my feelings were mixed. On the one hand, a more unified, campus and up-to-date accommodation is a good thing, but the history of the old site(s) is undeniable and combined with the busy location, part of what attracted me. There's a blue plaque up to commemorate the first ever Sex Pistols gig, and it's namechecked by Jarvis Cocker in 'Common People.' The sheer number of fantastically inspiring artists, musicians and fashion designers who have passed through it must make it an amazing place to learn, although how much of that is to do with the building I don't know. I hope the new campus can retain its vibe and that the less central location doesn't totally suck, but at least if it does I'll have been once - I'm going on a summer course there later this year.

This was a slightly convoluted post, but hopefully it gives a bit of insight into me. In future, I fully plan on having lots of outfit posts and posts about, y'know, clothes, but this was current, pertinent and provided a nice way for me to introduce myself and my ambitions.

x