RIPPED KNEES

i could drink a case of you

2012-01-30T09:18:00.000-08:00

vintage jumper and coat, aa skirt and shirt, asos shoes

Feeling kind of goth-Heathers slash Audrey Horne today. No stockings though, because it's bloody freezing out. I look forward to say, March when it'll be warm enough for just a jacket and some long socks. Do silk stockings actually exist nowadays? I just had a class on wartime fashion and want some for myself.

Sorry for the bad lighting in the last one, I took it just now and it's dark out. But the colour combo of the camel coat with white cuffs and everything else black is my new favourite thing in the world. I actually felt like I looked a bit smart today, for once.

giveaway time! cutpath necklaces

2012-01-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

Tricia and Caroline are two of my favourite people on the whole internet, and they're always making me feel boring and uncreative with their projects and publications at their blog and shop. Anyway, Tricia's started making laser-cut leather jewellery at her shop, cutpath, and we thought we'd do a little giveaway here to get started. It features goats! And bears! And hands and lots of other things. Also, Tricia coined the amazing term 'twee occult' to describe her personal style and I can't get over what a good and accurate descriptor it is. Twee occult forever.

rules
Just comment below with your email address. I'll close entries and pick a winner at random on Sunday 5th February, they can then pick out whichever necklace they like from the etsy shop and Tricia will ship it out to them then.

I'm not going to do that silly giveaway thing of insisting you follow me on a million different formats and add me on twitter for extra chances to win or whatever, but it'd be nice if someone who regularly reads the blog wins, so yeah, follow me or whatever if you want to:
facebook / bloglovin / twitter / google reader

old ground: Meadham Kirchhoff, the male gaze and being happy being a girl

2012-01-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

In the latest issue of Dazed there's a great interview with Meadham Kirchhoff by Katie Shillingford where Ed Meadham says, of the S/S 12 collection, 'I wanted it to be about girls being happy about being girls, without there being the threat of a male gaze,' which is cool. I can get down with that. I've discussed this before in relation to fashion blogging, but for an actual mid-level designer to say this is a good thing and for me, a big deal.

Then Benjamin Kirchhoff follows that one with 'we've been quite obsessed lately with something that Leith Clark said to coincide with the launch of her magazine [Lula], that she was terrified that every shoot and every representation of women in fashion always had this invisible male presence.' And this is where it gets interesting. Because it's utterly true, and there's almost no way around it. Run through the biggest designers in the world. Or the biggest photographers. There is no escaping it, which is a shame when you consider how much time and energy and money goes into assuring women that fashion will make them into better versions of themselves.

But it's funny, because the two of them started off doing menswear before switching to clothes for the girls, and they've pushing this great hardline on womenswear being fun and individual and for the girls for some time now and, as I said, it's really awesome and very, very popular (particularly here in London.) There's always going to be some women, though, who say that just because they acknowledge the male gaze's influence on fashion doesn't mean they've escaped. You know, they are still dudes, at the end of the day.

I've had this little bit of a conversation from Interview between Nicolas Ghesquière and Tom Ford going around and around my head for the past 6 weeks or so, where they're talking about the women they have in mind when they design:

GHESQUIÈRE: I prefer to think about what you are saying as urban fashion. It’s a woman who lives in the city and has a certain lifestyle—
FORD: She is skinny!
GHESQUIÈRE: She’s skinny. [laughs] She walks with confidence. She’s a bit masculine, even if she wears quite sexy clothes. All the clothes are very fitted. So there is that silhouette and attitude for that urban type of woman.

This made me pretty wildly confused when I read it. Ghesquière is the most talented man of our time, I don't need to explain that, and Tom Ford is Tom Ford and I'm not sure I've ever encountered someone whose opinion I respect who didn't acknowledge his importance and, again, talent in what he does. We can't exactly argue with that. So yeah, I want to hear about what these men say about the women they design for. Ford is really good at making women look and feel sexy, and Ghesquière is a genius who's actually a little off-kilter in his women sometimes, picking Jennifer Connolly and Charlotte Gainsbourg over real models. So when these guys sit down and actually tell us what they think about their women, it nonetheless sort of comes as a shock. It's the idea of these two men who have enormous influence and power over what real, everyday women wear sitting around and talking about what they expect their women to look like and be and weigh that makes me kind of tetchy. I think a lot of the [gay, male] power designers don't realise that their 'ideal woman', the one they have in mind when they design, isn't this purely theatrical fashion construct that they can project whatever the hell they want onto. She kind of has the power to disrupt how the rest of us interact with fashion and also, you know, with ourselves.

So yeah, what Meadham and Kirchhoff and Leith Clark say is completely and utterly true. For all the women involved in the business at all these levels, fashion is always in danger of becoming dominated by the male gaze. By and large, what we are told is 'cool' and 'sexy' for women is dictated by a pool of about 15-20 men. And because of that I think it's incredibly important to have designers like Rei Kawakubo and Ann Demeulemeester and Meadham Kirchhoff and Rick Owens, alongside blogs like Tavi's and magazines like Lula and the Gentlewoman as an attempt to realign the way we're forced to see ourselves. It's weird. We shouldn't have to ask for our fashion not to be forced always through this prism of 'how men see us' and 'how we make them desire us', but that's the way it is. We need this small pool of designers and publications to remind us that it's not always necessary to give a crap. What you wear can be about you and not the rest of the world if you like. If you're an MK kind of girl, it can be about nothing more than being happy to be a girl and not really giving a fuck about the rest of it. It shouldn't be a revolutionary act for a designer to work under that principle.

images 1&2 from rookie's meadham kirchhoff backstage gallery and 3&4 scans from lula via tfs

jil sander navy

2012-01-26T07:02:00.000-08:00

ph. Daniel Jackson, styled by Katie Shillingford. images via designscene.net

I opened a magazine earlier and saw these new Jil Sander Navy ads and got kind of upset, because this is how I see myself floating around in my head and encountering them in real life reminded me of the grim reality of my unkempt hair and less pristine clothes and not-so-coltish limbs. Nonetheless, springtime inspiration. Pointy collars and printed skirts and thick-soled tennis shoes.

the reason why you always getting faded

2012-01-24T14:40:00.000-08:00

vintage trousers from the east end thrift store, aa vest, uo belt, h by hudson boots, necklace from the polka dot magpie via etsy, CK bracelet, balenciaga bag

The aforementioned pajama-pants. I supposed I'd put off blogging about them because they're pretty damn unflattering and guess what I am somewhat vain about myself on the internet. Anyway, I don't really care because I love them to bits and they're comfy and I like the print and it makes me happy to wear them. Even if they make my arse look pointy! I don't care. I am much vainer on the internet than in real life. I am not sure if this is typical of style bloggers, but I'm trying to care less overall. Wear what makes you happy and all that. I can't wait to wear these babies with little strapless bodysuits and flatform sandals in the summer. Even if flatforms aren't cool this summer. I have big ideas for whenever it stops being bleak midwinter at last.

PS: my comb went missing my hair doesn't usually look so unkempt.

versace couture spring 2012

2012-01-24T02:47:00.000-08:00

Couture's a bit weird. It's kind of like the short story, in that far, far more energy and column inches seem to be devoted to talking about it than pounds are spent on it. But I love short stories, and I studied them in college for about three years, and I even write some on rare occasion. And I love the couture shows too, even though the idea of it having an actual practical application in my life is legitimately out of the realms of possibility unless my plans to marry rich get confused and I accidentally marry really really really bloody rich instead. Anyway, Versace did a show and while I definitely don't have Versacemania like the rest of you (looking at you, palm-print-legged women of Central Saint Martins) I can still get behind stuff like this.

versace spring 2012 couture

Because it might put an end to stuff like this, which is from almost two whole years ago and yeah, it's still killing me with its prettiness. I won't lie But come on. Hands up if your desktop background was the group shot from this Givenchy show at some stage. Me too. But maybe unobstructed prettiness has done its time for now. Couture customers - all 8 of them - are maybe ready for something new and a bit cooler. Thanks for that one Donatella.

givenchy fall 2010

images from style.com

i'm on one

2012-01-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

over it by anakaye featuring high heels

J Crew long sleeve t shirt, $80
Equipment silk blouse, £210
Stella McCartney wool blazer, $1,895
Helmut Lang denim jeans, £195
Acne high heels, €480
Balenciaga handbag, €1.100
Yves Saint Laurent cocktail ring, £230

Radical revamps in my imaginary polyvore wardrobe underway here. 1: where's the PS1? 2: um, J.Crew? It's OK, guys, it's all imaginary. I could never be this clean-cut and polished. In real life I wear these stupid vintagey pants that look like stripey pajamas but totally aren't everyday. You get all of the uncomfortable stares from the public and none of the actual pajama-comfort-factor. Pointless. Pics to follow. Jeans kind of weird me out at the moment. They're so... tight.

tame the sun

2012-01-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

Topshop dress, ASOS shoes, thrifted army jacket, Penneys hat

I got this dress in Topshop in the sales and my Dad said that it looks like I'm going to work in a 'posh office.' I'm not going to work in any office, so I tried to tone down the posh by piling on the old army jacket and leather brogues. It's lazy and a bit mismatched, alright, but I like it that way. I myself am mismatched, so I guess it matches me. Something about high necks and fit-and-flare skirts says 'hey Joan Holloway' to me and that's not a thing I'm trying to do so whatever distills that a little is fine by me.

I feel like the fatigue and unkemptness is coming off the screen in this post. Sorry! January is manic: deadlines, research, fashion week prep. I like it this way, though. Seeing parts of London I didn't know existed.

On that note, I've been itching to do more writing in London since I came back this month, so if you've got a publication in need of savvy fashion/lifestyle/culture writers, get in touch! My email's up there along with my portfolio.

the man behind the curtain

2012-01-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

Mulberry Spring 2012, ph. Tim Walker

The most disappointing and yet glaringly obvious thing I've learned so far in college is that giant absurd props in fashion editorial aren't actually giant and absurd and completely-made. That isn't a real giant stick of rock, for example. It probably stops just outside the frame. And in real life, it might not even resemble a giant stick of rock until it's photographed the right way. That is disappointing, isn't it? I would still like a giant stick of rock. Seeing what goes on behind the curtain is not always as crackpot-magical as Tim Walker would have you believe. Sorry to ruin the illusion for you all.

(My wardrobe door is a collage of Tim Walker editorials from Vogue with models sitting atop giant gloves and wearing giant strings of pearls and so on. The magic is a good thing. Pretend I never told you otherwise!)

Raf Simons, Jil Sander and postmodern criticism

2012-01-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

i.
I did a thing yesterday where I sat on twitter and looked at a load of people livetweeting the Jil Sander menswear show in Milan.

But I didn't make any attempt to actually look at images until this morning. So I already knew what to expect: Patrick Bateman, lots of black, leather, some whales and stuff. Cool. This is weird. I mean, no. This is standard practice now, isn't it? Read live tweets of show notes and blurry twitpics of models on the runway a good few hours before proper pictures show up on style.com etc. I can't imagine experiencing fashion week without twitter at this stage, let alone without style.com and vogue.com's show reports. It's accessibility pushed to the edge of all real limits. And so it's interesting to view Raf's work through this prism - he's the designer I think who inspires some of the best and most intelligent writing over the past ten years (the obvious one here is Cathy Horyn's 'Raf', from 2005, but Tim Blanks's show report this morning also kind of floored me.)

via style.com

ii.
Why is this? Why does the 'minimal' in general seem to attract more intellectual thought than other segments of fashion? I mean, there are books on everything, on every designer you can imagine. But there's something about Raf, about Rei, and Yohji and Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester that separates their overall perception from others'. It often appeals to people who have no other interest in fashion, too. But overall it's like a marker of difference - it shows that you take it maybe a little more seriously than general label lust (cf. this, that.) So if Raf does a menswear collection inspired by American Psycho, it's not just Inspired by American Psycho, like a million other men's collections that try to push 1980s power suits and slicked-back hair and suspenders. It's instead a cacophony of troubled masculinity, violence and pain and sex and money* emerging overall as a collection of 'serial killer chic'**, and the collection and the criticism of it work together essentially to prove a bigger point. I have no idea if Raf purposefully tries to funnel this much into each collection, or if it's just usual show-notes babble - 'I went on holiday to Africa and it inspired me loads here is my 'tribal' themed collection also check out the shoes cool thanks, signed, Head Designer' - I mean, what's the point in trying to tell the difference? It's already been written up in glossy, smart language by some of the industry's best and most 'serious' critics. It's doubtlessly going to sell well and even further cement the designer's position as genius of our time, the dude who 'gets' what we (me, you, Kanye West) want to wear in the modern world and can formulate it in the clearest, most minimal terms. Don't go to Dior, Raf. Keep doing what you're doing - it's important work.

iii.

I finally went to the Postmodernism exhibition at the V&A on Friday, which ends today. It was absolutely amazing, thankfully, because £8 is a lot to pay into an exhibition if it's not going to be so good you're worn out by it. I left it physically drained from so much information so well-presented - including a Rei Kawakubo-designed outfit from 1982 (the 'post-Holocaust fashion' years) on a weeping cowering mannequin. Again, the minimal fits in better in an intellectual, academic (but still accessible) format than any other style of fashion from the past 40 years, I think. Anyway, the exhibition ends with this video (spoiler alert!) and these words:

"As with all postmodern design, there is no one right way to react to it. Read theory, buy things, style yourself, be subversive. Or just get up and dance."

I thought that was really good, a fundamental and significant note to end an exhibition like that on. And it's applicable to what we do when we engage with fashion, too - it's easy to overthink it, if you're into that. And there's so much constant information available to us through Twitter and style.com and the NYT and a thousand blogettes like me who think they are qualified to give an opinion on it. But submerging yourself in it isn't necessarily the proper way to deal with it. Just enjoy it. Like what you like and forget what the rest of us have to say.

* from Tim Blanks's review
** from SHOWstudio

the year of the GIF

2012-01-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

Acne pants, ASOS shoes, vintage blouse and AA cardigan

Do you ever get so tired of outfit posts? Like when they build up in your reader until it's just 40 updates of portrait photos of samey-looking girls until you don't even notice what they're wearing? It becomes just a blur of "nice clothes" and your eyes can't even tell the difference. It happens in real life, too - last semester I was thoroughly wowed by all the crazy and inspiring stuff people were wearing around me in college. I stared wide-eyed at boys in skirts and girls in men's coats and took all these mental notes to try harder and be better-dressed at all times. And this term? I don't even care. Whoop-de-doo, you're wearing a some sort of feathered wingpiece, wow, how arty, congratulations. I'm happy enough doing my usual boring-black thing, for the moment at least. I rewatched Manhattan last week so I'll be stuck in a 1970s Diane Keaton mindset for at least another few weeks. Something will shake me out of my January rut soon enough, I'm sure. But until then? Outfit GIFs for days.

Also, my friend Lou has the same pants as me! We both got them at the Acne sale and we also both have pretty different styles (she wears all black, I wear mostly black, she wears blazers and oversized jumpers, I wear jackets and oversized cardigans... you see the distinction) so we thought we'd blog our takes on the same basic piece. Here she is, in non-GIF form, wearing them with a Zara top and Topshop boots.

i run the underworld, guy

2012-01-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

t by alex wang tee, secondhand jean-paul gaultier skirt & topshop jacket, fjallraven bag, calvin klein cuff

One thing they don't teach bloggers is how to stop apologising for the crass overexposure of your own silly face and self in every outfit post. Here is my face and self wearing what I wore today, to a job interview* and to my first day of term back at school. I am not going to apologise this time, except for how much I love this skirt and the way it pools and swishes when I move. And for the stupid belly-paunch tucking my t-shirt into it caused. Oops. Anyway, new year, fresh start, going to achieve stuff and be better at blogging, et cetera.

*it's real bad karma to talk about job interviews on the internet, isn't it? This is me living life on the internet edge. Come at me karma.

this whimsy has put me to sleep: 2011's top five

2011-12-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

I bought too much clothing this year. I bought so much, in fact, that at one point I even made a haul video about how much I'd bought. In a way, this was OK because I was mostly earning money for once, and also because the vast, vast majority of everything I bought was second-hand, thrifted or 'vintage', whatever term you prefer yourself.

If you've been reading this blog over the past month, you may have noticed the rambling things I've been writing about how my 'style' has 'evolved' this year. It's all very well and good for me to carry on about how I'm eschewing the girly stuff and trying to be more womanly but also less feminine all at once, but I'm going to try and trace this better over the past twelve months in terms of the crap I actually bought, wore and loved. And maybe figure out how I'm going to carry this on next year.

Think about what you bought this year. And what you wore. What stands out? Which are the bits you accumulated that ended up as your mainstays, your failsafes? Which got worn to death? Your greatest hits, if you will. Think about them, and then think about the shit you bought that languished. The Acne dress you got at a sample sale a full month ago that seemed perfect but that you still haven't worn (OK, just me?) The shit you meant to return and didn't, and is now being used as a cat-bed. OK. Thought about that? Now. Learn something from this! It's that easy! Think about the distinction between the Good, Worthy Stuff, and the tat. Ta-da. Here is your resolution for 2012. Stop buying tat. Stop wasting your money.

Here's my Best of 2012.

1. Maison Martin Margiela skirt, second-hand, Buffalo Exchange in New York $18

"Did you try on that Margiela skirt?" My ears pricked up from behind the giant stack of used clothing I've been folding for several hours.
"Yeah. I'm not getting it. It's ugly." It was two East Village girls, the ratty-haired but perfectly-dressed kind with lots of black and a PS1 and probably way more money than I'd ever dream of. She'd tossed it back in the go-backs pile beside me. I could see the non-label label with the circled number on it underneath some nasty old H&M dresses. Mine now. It sat in my hold pile until my lunchbreak when I skipped eating to try it on, obviously not perfect, a full size too big but Margiela. The dream. And $18. Yeah, mine now, sorry EVGs. I've gotten a pretty good level of wear out of it, to parties and events as well as super-casually with oversized tees and jumpers and stuff. It's essentially just a straight tight mini that looks tie-dye til you put it on, when the stretch makes it into giant swirling green flowers. And most importantly, it's mine.

2. Topshop double-breasted blazer, Buffalo Exchange New York $20

Topshop in New York is funny. The sale stuff is the same as full-price stuff here, and the selection's worse and still, everyone goes bananas over it. So even second-hand is priced a little too much for my own blood, but this jacket saved my life. It's what I wear when I need to look just a little presentable, but also, you know, like I like fashion and know about cut and fit and stuff. The shoulders are pointy and padded just enough to be directional but not silly, and it's the perfect, dream length - I have since become convinced that more jackets need to hit that bottom-of-your-arse point. Proportion changes everything.

3. Silence and Noise silk dress, second-hand, Buffalo Exchange, New York ($12)

Last piece of black clothing from the shop I used to work in, I swear. But this is the dress of 2011. Something like $12 and I've worn it probably 40 or 50 times since. In summer it was the little black thing I could wear anywhere - work, parties, dinner, gigs - without dying of sweat-fever. And now it's the thing I can throw on with tights and a cardigan and not think about for the rest of the day. My favourite thing in the world is being comfy and nothing's comfier than a loose silk dress in a size too big. And it's got a giant ruffle down the back which my ex-boyfriend said is like a dorsal fin, and it's true. It's a Desert Island dress for sure, and I genuinely can't imagine what I would have worn this year if I didn't have it.

4. Heart-print dress from Joy, London £40 (I think)

Yeah, yeah, minimalism forever. Yeah, I'm a grown-up now I can't be wearing heart-prints and bows all day every day yeah camel coats real ladylike et cetera. Whatever. This dress is adorable and I look alright in it. I got it when I went to London for a college interview and wore it to lots of year-highlight kind of things, like the Smedias and LFW and so on. Unfortunately, the hearts are fading with every wash and I bought a black fabric pen to colour them all back in but come on. That's like the equivalent of building a pyramid on my own. Let them fade, I don't need heart-prints in 2012.

5. Camel overcoat, East End Thrift Store, Stepney Green, £20

It seems wasteful to have two pieces of outerwear in a year-end top five, but that's my whole thing I think. Outerwear is the trump card in my closet, the thing I'll always fall in love with and be unable to leave the shop without. And price-per-wear it pays dividends, too. This one essentially triggered my whole grown-up-lady minimal thing, but what I love about it is it doesn't kill an outfit. It just pulls it together and cocoons me in it. Yeah. I think I could probably write a treatise on the power of a coat, but you all know, if you have one, what a dream-coat means to your own wardrobe. Heels hurt and it-bags are overpriced, but a coat is a necessity and one that can actually probably change your life in a way a PS1 never could. Spend all your money on coats.

Honourable mentions, portents of 2012's purchases: T by Alexander Wang and (secondhand) J Crew t-shirts, Acne and UO black pants, UO flatforms, giant man's thrifted jumper, (secondhand) Jean-Paul Gaultier skirt (so much I wrote an essay about it)

Conclusion: Almost everything I really loved was second-hand. Nothing was more than £50 and nothing was super-flashy or really brightly coloured. Everything was versatile, borderline too-comfortable and muted. Most were actually a size too big for me at some stage. It's a pretty even split between designer and non-designer; what actually matters is the quality and cut I think. And a certain level of 'directionality', without going overboard. So 2012: I'm going to stop buying bright prints and boring, cheap tat. And hats. I think I'm over my silly-hat phase.

blue skies are all we find

2011-12-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

vintage camera bag, secondhand coat, topshop dress, h by hudson boots

I looked through my last ten or so outfit posts the other day and in every one I'm wearing something oversized or 'boyish' or essentially sacklike... And all of this was supposedly carried out in the name of beginning to dress like a grown-up lady for once. Where did it all go wrong? There must be a sort-of middle-ground. Anyway, I wore this to do some Christmas shopping with my Mum. Hurray festive season etc.

PS potential outfit project for 2012? Could be interesting.

melancholia

2011-12-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

So, Kirsten Dunst is really good at wearing clothes. I saw this film actually months ago, but couldn't find good stills to blog until now, really. In a lot of ways, it kind of reminded me of Last Year at Marienbad, from an aesthetic point of view (yes, I have only seen two films.) And both films made me think about what is maybe missing in all the other films I've been sitting around watching lately: decadent trimmings. Loads of gold. A look of wealth and ruffles and feathers. Who needs gritty, urban realism? Let me live vicariously through Kirsten Dunst's monstrously huge wedding dress for another two hours.

stills from kirstenimages.com

2011 in clothes pt. 1

2011-12-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

I've been writing giant, unwieldy tracts of text in the drafts section of Blogger this week, mostly about what changed this year for me and clothes and all that. It's far too much to edit and blog in one go, so over the next week or so I'm going to try and put out little extracts one at a time. This is really, really self-indulgent of me, I know, sorry, not sorry, et cetera. This blog has and always will be more of a diary than a portfolio of my written work, so yeah, bear that in mind if you are going to read this.

maison martin margiela s/s 00

A lot can change in twelve months. It's easy to think of yourself and your attitudes and your disposition as relatively fixed by the time you get to 21, but sometimes, without even trying, it changes entirely. My ideas of what I liked to wear and all that were pretty concrete and defined at the start of this year - I liked high-waisted stuff, florals, little dresses, cardigans, heart-print motifs, bows in my hair, shoe-boots and showing off my pins. It's fun having a 'personal style.' It helps you develop a sense of who you are, your physical identity, especially now when we do so much to define who we are on internet 'profiles' and in making ourselves into a story on Twitter and whatnot. Knowing what you like means you know what you are, too.

balenciaga f/w 98/99

What I like seems to have changed this year, though. This isn't surprising - I've lived in three cities this year, read more magazines and blogs than ever, met new people, gone to different shops, learned more about the history of fashion and style, had a bunch of different jobs and experienced big life changes like graduating college and living with a significant other and all that stuff. A lot happened this year, and not all of it is directly relatable to what I wear. But it all counts, because it's all had an impact on me. 'What I am' must not be the same now as 'what I was' 12 months ago.

I've begun to understand minimalism and wabi-sabi and that this year for the first time. I can appreciate Philo's stuff at Céline so, so much more than 18 months ago. It's a personal understanding, now, I think. I know now why women want simple, unfussy leather goods. This is huge. This is like a rite of passage that I think many people have to go on at some point. The realisation that less is more, that you don't have to dress like a cartoon character just because you're under 30, that maybe twee has an upper age limit, that young women can wear camel coats too. I am still and hopefully will always consider myself an adult girl more than a young lady or whatever. I'm not disowning the heart-print motif or the oversized hair bow, but they're fitting differently into my whole aesthetic now.

What's going to change over the next twelve months, I wonder? You can't predict it. It's too personal, too bound up with what you do and where you go, the choices you make and the things you wind up doing. And the people you meet, quite importantly. Your style doesn't exist in a vacuum, like singularly changeable outfits for paper dolls. Think of it instead as a conversation, an interaction, a sequence in flux. And don't try to pin it down.

images via tumblr

out of my league

2011-12-08T04:04:00.000-08:00

vintage blouse, zara cardigan, acne trousers, h by hudson shoes

It's sludge season, and it's hard to care about wearing exciting dynamic things when there's only 5 hours of daylight and you're cold to your very bones. But I guess I tried to do an Annie Hall type thing the other day. I think Annie Hall's trousers might have actually fit her, though. A girl can dream.

red dress

2011-12-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

When you find a piece of clothing you really love, it becomes more than just 'a piece of clothing.' When it's invested with desire and significance, it becomes something that can transform you into another person. I think I've spoken about this before in relation to lusting after it-bags - you see so many images of cool girls with PS1s or Balenciaga Cities or whatever that you start to think 'if I had that bag I could be a certain kind of person. My life would be different and I'd move in a different way.' Of course, logic would suggest that if you save your pennies and buy that bag or that dress, you will be fundamentally the same person, just with a fancier bag on your arm. But fuck logic. When I put on my favourite new dress, I become the girl with the dress, who shimmers through the city leaving a trail of glamour in her wake, who turns heads and catches eyes and is the centre of everything. I am fabulous and wonderful and my hair is enviable and everyone will want to get to know me. I become a character in a story. Isn't that why we all blog and keep diaries and so on? The obsessive need to make our everyday causal events into a story worth telling?

Eventually, though, the novelty wears off a little. The first time you wear the dress, it transports you. But soon it becomes a well-worn part of your wardrobe, slotted in alongside a dozen other dresses and skirts and so on. Putting it on doesn't have that same effect. It's just another option to consider when you're deciding what to wear. The cycle continues, you look for another lust-worthy dress in the shops to focus your wild imagination on. But by then the old dress become invested with something else: memories. It's yours. It's the dress you wore when you met a boy, or got a job, or danced all night with your pals. It might not let you become some weird fictional glamourous character anymore, but that's because it's an extension of you now. It seamlessly becomes a part of your past, your future, your identity. It's your story.

images via jak & jil

tell me when the pain kicks in

2011-11-30T02:18:00.000-08:00

BDG jeans, ASOS parka, Acne jumper, UO boots, fjallraven kanken bag

I got up really early to visit Polish One Off!, a pop-up shop set up by CSM Jewellery students in the Goswell Road Coffee Shop in Clerkenwell. Definitely drop in if you can, particularly if you're looking for Christmas presents. There's tons of gorgeous little rings and necklaces and bracelets and things at super reasonable prices, and it's always good to shop local and independent and all that, right? The students are raising funds for their degree show at the college and the shop is open today, Thursday and Friday from 8am to 7pm each day.

Anyway, this jumper is my favourite new thing at the moment. It's big and cosy and reminds me of this album cover. Perfect levels of casual and yet not-boring in one go.

marnimania (menswear edition)

2011-11-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

So Marni is next up for H&M, whoop-de-doo, what a fun thing to discuss on twitter on a Tuesday morning. Everyone likes the idea of collaborations because it's like imagining which celebrities would make the most beautiful babies (cough cough), but by the time the gestation period is up we're sick to death of talking about celebrity offspring and god, didn't it seem like she was pregnant forever? Pass the remote, will you. Jersey Shore is on.

And so it'll probably be with Marni, despite the fact that if I was the type (and I'm starting to think I might be, what with my love of early mornings and queuing), I would be forming an orderly queue outside H&M Regent Street next March. Because Marni's really cool. And it's fun, and not too overtly 'fashion-y' or trend-conscious. I don't own any Marni, but I feel like a dress would be a purchase that would seem special, something to treasure and dig out for certain occasions. When I imagine a high-end 'lucky dress' in my wardrobe, it's most likely going to be Marni.

But enough about that. What I'm trying to get at it that the best bit of Marni, and the only thing I might actually consider spending money on when the H&M line drops, is the menswear. Here are my favourite looks from A/W11.

all images from style.com

a thing for you

2011-11-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

second-hand topshop blazer, vintage oleg cassini silk shirt, acne pants, h by hudson boots, balenciaga bag

Sorry for the pre 8am face/lighting

Continuing the theme of me pushing myself far outside my sartorial comfort zone, here is me wearing what is effectively a suit and tie. What I really like about the style-environment I'm in now in London is that I don't give a crap about looking 'cool' or 'hip' anymore. I mean, moving city can make how you want to dress evolve quite rapidly, and it definitely happened when I started living in New York. But at that point I was bogged down in dressing like all the cool girls I saw around me - long raggedy skirts and t-shirts with sleeves cut off and dirty hair and PS1s and sunglasses and whatever. It was like it was a club for the coolest girls, and I wanted to join. But here and now, I'm getting more into what I think is 'cool' for me, rather than what super-hip pretty girls around me are wearing. Is that me growing up? Or maybe it's because I stopped reading Vice? Am I too old to know what's actually cool anymore? Whatever. This a fun outfit to wear, in a quiet sort of way. You don't need to be standing on a chair shouting loudly in a graphic print to have fun, you know.

A note on sample sales:
Yesterday morning I got up very early to queue outside Acne in Shoreditch for a sample sale. The queue was full of horribly attractive and well-dressed people. But this is something I'm good at: mornings, and waiting around, and grabbing things from rails and guessing what size I am in European. And there's little I won't do for cheap Acne by now. After some panic and confusion and 6 flights of stairs I managed to grab these trousers, a black step-hem dress and an oversized sweater, all for £70. This is, for those of you unclear, excessively cheap. Full-price retail would have been £570, I think. So for a poor student like me, brands like Acne are entirely out of my reach except for occasions like this. I mean, I realise designer labels aren't, in practicality, the be-all and end-all of my paltry existence. But it's exciting when I get to have some of my own at disgraceful prices. So yeah. There are alternative paths to basically whatever you want in life. It's just that sometimes it requires getting up very early in the morning.

what the body's for pt. 2

2011-11-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

topshop jeans, AA cardi and shirt, h by hudson boots, secondhand topshop blazer (first pic)

About three miles outside my comfort zone today, but this is my attempt to put what I was talking about earlier into practice. As a rule I never button shirts all the way up, it makes me feel like a boy and I guess I don't think it goes with my big ole head and glasses combo. I made an exception for this because it's big and oversized and sheer enough to kind of counteract that effect a little. Overall it felt good to put this on, wear the bare minimum of make-up and go out and about with my day. The only real difference I felt was that I suppose I kind of turned off once I left the house. I forgot about what I was really wearing, what the thought behind it (that I was aiming for a more mature, grown-up and pared-back look overall, free from baubles and dressings) was and what had motivated the whole look this morning.

But maybe that's the point? So that we can be less distracted by our own prints and can focus more on what's outside the clothes. Unsure. Consider this a work-in-progress.

what the body's for pt. 1

2011-11-20T02:47:00.000-08:00

On Friday some forces conspired to give me one of those seeming-epiphany moments, where you become convinced you need to scrub down the walls of the mind, rip up carpets and replace them with white-painted floorboards, cut your hair into a chic hassle-free bob, stop wearing tacky lipsticks and clumpy eyeliner and throw out all the stupid floral prints that live in the wardrobe. Yes, yet another minimalist-moment. I know better than to do anything rash when these feelings arrive, because they are generally gone before you can even locate a Celine store, but still, they're hitting me more often than ever before lately. I guess that's called... growing.... up? Oh, God. I am not forsaking my lumpy cardigans and flouncy skirts and polka dots anytime soon, but here's what I'm really into.

1. Proenza Schouler Resort 12 2. Stella McCartney Resort 12 3. T by Alex Wang Fall 2011 4. Stella Pre-Fall 11 5. Stella 'Bryce' coat via net-a-porter, £895

The inverted lapels on that last coat just got me. It's so creepily symmetrical, and symmetry isn't usually something I'd bother thinking about in an outfit. Because you're usually relatively symmetrical right? Except for bags and stuff, left side usually matches right just about enough? Enough not to warrant the label 'asymmetrical', anyway? I've decided that's not enough, though. I want the real thing. It pulls your whole look together and the overall effect is a more polished, put-together appearance. I'm after true symmetry from now on. Unfortunately it comes with an extortionate price-tag for a street urchin like myself.

pass that ver-say-zee

2011-11-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

Slowdown on posting because I've been up to my eyes in college work, can't remember the last time I looked clean and presentable or anything. This morning I was up in the middle of the night to go hang out with those superfashion nuts in the queue outside the Versace for H&M launch. It was crazy exciting, just talking to people who had been camping since yesterday about the collection, students who'd been drinking cans to stay warm, fathers buying stuff for daughters abroad and that unique breed of man we don't really have back in Dublin: the intimidatingly-cool fashion-head. The ones I spoke to actually turned out to be not intimidating but really friendly, but yeah, still the coolest. [Pro-tip: if you just march up to someone without telling them you're a reporter and start asking them questions, people are surprisingly friendly. And you stop being awkward about it after the 700th time!]

Here are some pictures, you can read my full report on Racked now.

(I'm not usually like "OH MY GOD look at those Louboutins!" but this time I definitely, definitely was)

the closest thing i have to a voice of reason

2011-11-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

vintage jumper from the east london thrift store, penney's tights

Sorry for the thousands of pictures of the same thing. The first three have really bad 8am gloom-lighting so the last one is from yesterday, which I took to see if I could get away with wearing my new jumper as a dress. And I can! Or, at least, I'm wearing it anyway. I'm actually in love with it. I keep staring at it and whispering 'you're so Proenza' quietly, stroking the stripes. Even when I'm stuck on a gross sweaty Tube I just pull the sleeves over my hands and pretend I am sitting in a giant ball of wool.
When the Blackberry Market in Rathmines used to still exist, there was a old woman who had a stall that was just a room full of wool. It was packed to the ceiling and would spill out the door and you'd have to rummage deep within for whatever colour wool you were looking for. This was before knitting was cool again, though. Now you can get wool in little boutique shops in the Powerscourt Centre and isn't that what it's all about, really.

coat love

2011-11-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

The love of a good coat is something that can't be quantified or written down. It's heard instead in the wails of despair as girls everywhere realise their trusty winter coat is finally past repair, or that it's been left in the back of a taxi, never to be retrieved. Or lent to a friend who's moved to colder parts, for good. "My coat!" they cry out "I really loved that coat!"

Because a coat is more than an item of clothing for most of us. It's a friend, it keeps you warm, it's often a hefty investment in itself. It brings an outfit together, makes you look legitimate, more often than not is the most-worn thing you own. I think I've talked before here about big-coat-weather, something I like to think is exclusively Irish but obviously isn't unique to us - the first days that the weather changes, usually in mid-October, when the big-coat comes out of the wardrobe for the first time since Spring started back in March, April or May. Depending on our luck. Every winter I look at my coat collection (coats are my favourite, OK, so it's allowed to be a collection) and think, I'm done here. I don't need any more. I have one for every occasion now. No need to spend any more money on outerwear. Not this year.

vintage coat from the East London Thrift Store, black AA dress, Penney's tights, H by Hudson boots

And every year I end up buying one anyway (2007, 2009, 2010 - no photos of 2008's effort). I just find the room, both physically and mentally. I didn't need to buy an oversize camel coat, did I? But sometimes you have to just let go and let fate take over. At least that's what I'm going to say. Putting this cot on today felt like being hugged by someone with no bones. I felt like I was sinking happily into a pile of cashmere hay. And there's something so effortlessly chic about a camel coat, in that it-doubles-as-a-blanket way. Like I don't need a full face of makeup and high-heels now. Just black tights and a jumper and even just my bobble hat and I can look both presentable and as if I have some kind of rudimentary 'personal style' to stand upon (kind of essential in my current circumstances). And the best part? £20. I can't even remember the last time a purchase made me so happy.

press daze S/S 12 - Liberty and Whistles

2011-11-12T03:51:00.000-08:00

With the way this whole fashion thing works, we're forced to be constantly thinking 6 months ahead, about what we'll be wearing on the beach in the sunshine when outside it's foggy and freezing and the furthest it could be from summertime. That's a big part of the reason I'm not really into reading about press days on blogs like mine - we get enough of that via the shows and in the mags and so on, we don't need the likes of me showing you grainy snaps of what'll be on offer. But exception alert! I've been taking up every single invitation offered to me now I'm in London, and that included S/S12 press days at the two loveliest places on earth, Liberty and Whistles.

I don't even need an excuse to go to Liberty. Maybe it's sad that one of my favourite places in London is a ritzy department store where I can barely, rarely afford anything, but I don't care. The novelty I'm sure will wear off soon, walking past the fresh flowers at the front door (avoiding the temptation of the well-stocked mag stand across the road), peering at the gloriously twee greeting cards in the stationery room, idly groping the PS1s and trying on the hats on the ground floor and wishing for a well-dressed husband with a hefty pay-cheque in the men's basement. Anyway, we get it, I could fawn all day. Here's what I liked most from next season.

clothing for little ones

round sunglasses yeaaahhh

Acne menswear

fancy new PS1s. I had a whole blog post written in my head about the one on the left and how they could make almost any print 'cool' and lustworthy by sticking it on a PS1 but it was a bit weird and anyway, I just really like that bag, OK.

I am a terrible fashionhead right now but can somebody ID this for me? I remember it from September but am drawing a blank here

Proenza Schouler and the colour of the season

Next stop: Whistles. Whistles has a weird place in my heart and head - my Mum got married in a Whistles skirt/top combo! I feel as though lately their aesthetic and mine are getting closer and closer and here there were probably about 20 pieces I could have seen myself wearing. Well, maybe a jauntier, citrus-flavoured version of myself. It's like an update on twee for women who have serious jobs and highlighted hair.

I'm trying to keep it professional and calm here but when I saw those last three things, I thought "I would wear the shit out of all of those."

There was a full suit in this print too. I can't imagine ever being unhappy when wearing this dress.

Whistles to me seems so characteristically British, but in a fun way, not in the somewhat staid vein of say, Jaeger. The same goes for Liberty. It's a fun place to be in, not as threateningly hectic as Harrods or Selfridges, nor as overly snobby as Harvey Nicks. It's a place to while away an hour or two after lunch, daydreaming about the person you would be in that dress, that hat, those shoes. And it's always pretty, even if it doesn't take itself as seriously as the places with wall-to-wall carpeting and coats like these. I think that's what a lot of people love about fashion today, and what they want to get out of spending hard-earned money on pretty things. So surely this is what fashion should be about, at its heart - something that's both slightly fantastical and yet immensely practical, something that fits into your everyday life but on the flipside makes it a little more special.

you keep running through my dreams

2011-11-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

t by alex wang tee, aa skirt, h by hudson boots, balenciaga bag

Wore this incredibly bland outfit today to a few press days (post to follow) and some college stuff. Later I'm going to cook something really good, because I've been living off clementines and toast and that can't really go on forever.

Weekend plans: multiple exhibitions, Columbia Road Flower Market, write and send some snail-mail, catch up on non-outfit blogging, do laundry, find a job... et cetera.

silence is so accurate

2011-11-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

j. crew t-shirt, maison martin margiela skirt, topshop blazer (all secondhand), UO boots, Penney's bobble hat

Back in London now after graduating and still can't stop wearing this J.Crew t-shirt. Soft, comfy, dreamy tees are so hard to find at a reasonable price, I wish I had 4 of these and 4 T By Alex Wang ones to round my wardrobe out. The thing about t-shirts is they're too versatile to leave you locked into a 'uniform' of sorts. You can wear them every day and still not look repetitive.

Anyway, I wore this to run some errands and go to Whitechapel Gallery to nerd out at the Rothko in Britain exhibition. Nothing beats going to a gallery for the first time. Now I'm procrastinating homework and tidying and finding a job and doing laundry and all that important stuff.

the heavenly option

2011-11-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

images via tfs

I'm not really into posting editorials anymore because it seems pointless but I found this one in an old copy of British Vogue and had to tear it out so I could stick it on my wall. It's by the undeniably wonderful Venetia Scott and features my lifelong beauty idol, Meghan Collison. I know you gotta love what you got and be happy in yourself and I have nothing against my actual face but good lord, if only I didn't have such a wide face I could have her haircut forever and always. I guess I'll just have to copy the twee-grunge fashion vibe instead. And if someone could ship me to New York for a week that would be the best thing thank you.

i steal your rings and make these your hands

2011-11-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

minkpink dress, secondhand topshop blazer, h by hudson boots, vintage hat from beyond retro

A day for little victories. Enrolling in college, buying saucepans, having a student card again (discounts), getting some work done for once. And getting a new tote bag. If you're wondering where the best people-watching in town is, park yourself on the concourse at Central Saint Martins. Then feel aesthetically and sartorially inferior for the rest of your life.

i wanna make your bed

2011-11-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

UO pants, second-hand j crew t-shirt and topshop blazer, h by hudson boots

I am now every girl who has ever tried to take self-timer outfit photos in a dorm room. I also dyed my green hair dark. Getting used to being a self-contained entity of my own now - buying food, pots and pans, going places with my Oyster card. And doing homework again! What a thrill.

i need a whiskey right now - maison scotch, a/w 2011

2011-11-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

campaign images from Scotch & Soda A/W 2011

I want to live inside this campaign. It feels like the sexy, casual intersection of Annie Hall and Alvy Singer and essentially what this time of year is all about. Wet leaves, undone hair, giant scarves, borrowed coats and plaid shirts. The evenings are getting darker now the clocks have gone back, and I'm moving to London tomorrow and might not have internet for a couple of days so, yeah. See you on the other side.

"mannish tailoring" and remaining a lady

2011-10-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

AA shirt, H&M cardi, H by Hudson boots via Asos, fieldguided bag, vintage hat

The thing about masculine dressing and the latest trends for "mannish tailoring" is that if you have a figure like mine, you kind of end up just, you know, looking like a man. Nothing wrong with that in this supposed post-gender binary universe we inhabit now, but I'm set in my ways about some things. And I secretly fear the day the man at the post office counter calls me 'sir'. I don't know how Katherine Hepburn did it. But fashion mags pushing this on us season by season don't really take this into account - it's all "men's pants" this and "boyfriend jacket" that. What's a boy-shaped girl to do? The only solution I've found is to dilute the look a little, team men's shirts with body-con dresses or miniskirts or tights and heels or a full red lip - whatever it takes to remind yourself and others which bathrooms you use.

I've been hot for men's shirts for about four million years now, but I've figured out by now that there are certain things I can't do with them if I want to retain a vague semblance of what I'm going to hesitantly term 'traditional femininity'. I can't wear them with pants of almost any kind. Can't button them all the way up. Can't wear them with blazers or suit jackets. It's not like these are things I'm too afraid to try for fear of looking silly - I've given them all a whirl and come to the same conclusion. Not for me. The only valid alternative is to take the gamble I've taken here and run the risk of people asking you what happened to the bottom half of your outfit. Voila, shirt-as-dress. I don't care, they can snigger all they like as long as they add a ma'am at the end of their giggles.

Full disclosure the above shirt is actually meant for women, but it's oversized enough to merit many of the same anxieties.

the purple in me

2011-10-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

vintage cardigan from beyond retro, black dress from UO, tesco tights, necklace from some crystal shop in barcelona

Piping hot tea, shepherd's pie, kickin' leaves, reading books, turning on the central heating, big-coat weather, grey mornings, nighttime walks, gloves and scarves. What's autumn without your favourite jumbo vintage cardigan? Worn with a black minidress and bamboo tights and there's your October outfit sorted. Perfect for hiding things in the sleeves and hiding pints in your pockets, too.

fashion fangirls, the internet and susie bubble

2011-10-20T04:34:00.000-07:00

1. You can go a really long time without being inspired by anything, I think, just getting stuck in an imaginative rut and not going anywhere with it. Lately the only blogs I've been reading are Mister Mort-type thing, you know, ones that hunt for nuance and energy in the everyday, and then blogs like cheapskate chic and one sleepless night - blogs I'd almost call anti-fashion except that's too reductive, I think. I have colossal burnout from too many skinny girls posing against out-of-focus backgrounds with links to all the companies who gave them the free shit they're wearing. And it's sad, because personal style is where this whole thing began, sites like wardrobe_remix and whatiworetoday that inspired this global conversation between girls and women (and obviously some guys too) about the power of the everyday outfit, the story behind getting dressed. Discovering there were like-minded people your age who cared as much about combining cardigans and skirts as you did was literally one of the greatest things about growing up with the internet.* It's not like you had to befriend them and become their best friends because they also appreciated a wacky print like you, but knowing that there was an alternative and a medium for it to be communicated through was enough.

Lula, #13

2. The other day Isabel I think jokingly referred to blogging before 2006 as the years Before Susie Bubble and it's weird, how many disparate bloggers I've met have been like 'Susie Bubble is what it's all about.' Well, it's not weird I guess, she's had insane levels of influence since she started out. I had a college interview this year where I ranked her as a fashion critic whose work I really liked and I got an eyebrow cocked at me in response and was asked if I didn't think she was a bit dull because she just loved everything? I've thought about this constantly since then and I figure she's great because she loves everything. Fashion needs its fangirls. I'm not talking about tumblrs that document every single thing Chanel has ever laid its logo on, because that's just bullshit signification, consumerism gone wild, fashion eating itself. The idea behind wardrobe_remix and wiwt was recording your outfits, every day if you wanted. It's not showing off what you have and how on-trend you look and how many resultant hypes you got on Lookbook. It's a record of your love of clothes, of getting dressed, of the raw stuff of fashion that's out there and that's all around us. That's what Susie did at the start and that's why she's so popular today, I think. She took the obsessive joy present within the community and made it into a legitimate thing. It's dead easy to be a fangirl nowadays - look tFS and style.com and all these resources we didn't even have ten years ago. Look at how many magazines are aimed at these fashion niches, outside of the Vogue mainstream. This is what the internet gives us, and what do we do with it? 14-year-old girls with ten thousand hypes on lookbook. When did it change from community to competition?

haider ackermann, spring 2012

3. OK, so maybe I'm not giving the current state of the internet enough credit, purely so I can feel better about my own teenage joy at discovering a world outside Uggs and Ralph Lauren online. I follow a couple hundred fashion blogs, and it's silly for me to point and say they're not as obsessed with the raw stuff of fashion as they should be just because they care more about 'trends' than I do. But there is just so much out there now. It's impossible to keep up, and instead of genuinely immersing yourself in things, in tracking shit down and obsessing over stuff (which is what fangirling is all about, remember), it's easier to get caught up in the stuff of trends. Why buy Lula when Vogue is right there, in your newsagents? Why comb through style.com for new designers when you can just get really into Isabel Marant like all the other bloggers? And this is where I get burnt-out with blogs. There's plenty good about Céline or Theyskens' Theory or Rachel Comey, but it gets to a point where your reader is full of forty different posts about the same old shit. Look outside your tumblr dashboard. Read past style.com's top ten per season.

kirsten mcmenamy at yohji yamamoto, 1993

4. There's a bit in the Tavi/Leith Clark interview for the Nowness, which is up in full on Style Rookie now, where Leith says this to Tavi:

But it’s also like the instant gratification thing is a shame. Part of me feels sad for you that you didn’t have to stand in the back for a long time wanting to get to the front, because I think you obviously have a such a natural love for it, which is so wonderful, but if it’s pushed on you too fast, you’re not going to even realize what you’re in, and I think that’s the biggest difference between your generation and mine. In mine, if you loved a band, you had to, like, get on a train for two hours, and go to some weird record store in some weird town, and you’d be afraid of the street you were on or whatever, and you’d find it, and there’d maybe be one copy in vinyl or whatever. And now it’s so fast, which is also wonderful in another way, but I don’t know, I felt like I wanted you to rewind and run home and sit under the bleachers at your real school dance so much. I didn’t want you to have to sit next to the people who have the serious faces.

The internet makes things easy for us, but does it have to make us lazy, too?

kathleen burbridge by arno frugier for metal magazine 2010

*related: when I was 15 I bought this album on a whim, I probably liked the cover or something. And I listened to it every single night for about six months and thought I was the first person ever to do this and didn't realise it was a thing that people actually liked and listened to until I accidentally read Pitchfork for the first time and discovered that north American indie was like, this whole entity unto itself. It didn't take anything from my enjoyment of it - it was still the CD that lived in my discman for all of Third Year and that nobody I knew in real life had heard. Now everyone's on tumblr and knows what a hipster is from birth and I feel old and like a relic of another time.

tell me all the things you wanna do

2011-10-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

vintage skirt and blouse, AA cardigan and tights, UO boots

Over the last week I've started writing several really, really long posts about fashion and the world and stuff like that, due to a recent aversion to taking stupid photos of myself and blogging about that like I always do. But I kept just hitting save and quit instead of publish so I don't know, here's another post about what I wore today. Maybe more words to follow later.

sturm und drang

2011-10-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

i just want to be cozy forever okay by anakaye featuring a suede tote

Acne black evening dress, £280
Sandro v neck cardigan, $390
Falke opaque tight, £32
Rachel Comey rubber boots, $404
Proenza Schouler suede tote, $1,595
Becksöndergaard black leather glove, €65
ASOS flat brim hat, $44
Rolex 18K Pink Gold Datejust ref 1601 circa 1962

I always put the same stuff in my polyvores. PS1s, Rachel Comey something, Acne something else, black, camel, expensive tights. I have simple, uncomplicated tastes. But very expensive ones.
It's stormy out today, so I want to stay indoors and wrap up forever in front of the fire. With my Rachel Comey boots. And my Proenza Schouler bag. And my pink gold vintage Rolex. Is that so much to ask?

croquet and baked alaskas

2011-10-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

1. & 2. Brighton Beach, 3. Waiting for the train to the LES for a gig 4. What I saw coming out of the subway every morning 5. Our stoop 6. Union Square Greenmarket 7. - 11. Central Park on my last night in New York

I took most of these on my last couple of days in NYC, trying to exhaust a roll of film so I could hurry up and get it developed. It actually took me all the way until today to use up the remaining shots. New York seems like so long ago now. It's weird that a place exists after you've left it, and that it'll still be there when you decide to return.

this crazy powerful in-love-with-you thing

2011-10-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

second-hand topshop double-breasted blazer, UO skirt and boots, vintage top, hat and scarf, cardigan from topshop

Sometimes an item of clothing just does something to your wardrobe. Even if it's full of holes in the lining and if the gold brassy buttons are about to fall off and if the shoulder pads sometimes seem uneven when you look in the mirror. This jacket, despite its many material shortcomings, pulls everything else together. Makes me look like a real person. Finding something like this is like ticking an item off a list you didn't know you were keeping. Now, if I could just find a decent graduation dress at last I'd be happy once and for all.

about a girl

2011-10-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

imitation of christ, spring 2012 via style.com

One time I interviewed Tara Subkoff and she said her favourite thing about New York was bumping into people you know and whiling away sunny afternoons on stoops. Then the interview ended prematurely because she had to get her photo taken with a promotional bottle of sake.

This collection is like the physical representation of the spirit of Lula, which is weird when you think about it, because so many fashion girls like Lula, right? But there's not a lot of this overly romantic dreamy thing coming across in collections right now. I guess I can see why it's a bit much for some. I like it. I agreed with Tara. Being with your friends on summer days is the best thing. Why not do it in a girly dress?

seascapes

2011-10-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

There isn't a person alive who hasn't felt wistful and pensive when staring at the horizon. It's a pretty uncomplicated thing - stand at the point where land meets water, stare at the point where water meets air, and think. Think hard. I think it's universal, and yet it's a deeply individual experience at the same time. It's a way of exploring the limits of the world and yourself at the same time, and it's something that has been there since the beginning of time, long before people knew what happened past the horizon, and before people even existed.

When I was at the Hirschhorn Museum in D.C. in August we saw an exhibit of Hiroshi Sugimoto's Seascapes - silver gelatin prints of various horizon lines in various seas and lakes and oceans around the world, singularly lighted and shown in an otherwise pitch black room. The effect was moving, almost overwhelming in a strange and quiet way. Sometimes you need art to show you the eternal and universal dimension of an experience that can seem so silent, so personal. The paradoxical nature of it all - something that is a limit and a marker of infinity at the exact same time.

Lake Superior, 1995

Sea of Japan, 1997

Aegean Sea, 1990

Baltic Sea, 1996

Ligurian Sea, 1993

North Atlantic, 1996

images from c4gallery.com

This is so far from the ideal way to view these images that I kind of didn't even want to post them. But everyone loves visual content on blogs at the end of the day, so, you know, whatever. If you do get an opportunity to see Seascapes in a gallery, take it. This is the kind of art that doesn't demand a reaction from you, doesn't shout and jump out, but elicits one nonetheless. And the next time you find yourself staring at a real-life horizon line, make sure you remember to feel wistful.

autumn moodz

2011-10-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Acne F/W 2011

Haider Ackermann, F/W 2011

Rothko Red, White and Brown

Agnes Martin

It's not minimal, and it's not monochrome. It's definitely abstract, though. It's not prints and patterns, it's simpler than that. What is minimal, though? It's a change of seasons and maybe a desire to dress a little more grown-up for once. An update? But it's still not clear-cut and defined. I have mad respect for people like Fleurette who can do minimal and consistency at the same time, well, consistently, but I have no idea how to make your day-to-day wardrobe so stable. I've been selling stuff off and giving others away and trying to identify what my favourite pieces are and expand on them instead of wearing trash, and still what I want to wear is this lumpy schizophrenic tangled fashion cloud - rather live in this inconsistent mess than accidentally filter out my best-loved things.

Why is getting dressed so hard sometimes?

I haven't even seen most things

2011-09-29T05:54:00.000-07:00

this is SO WEIRD. I love Proenza Schouler but is there any other entity in the world as hyper-cool and (I assume) commercially successful who do such weird shit in their downtime? And wasn't Act Da Fool (the last PS/Korine thing) super controversial? Why go there again? Whatever. Weird stuff's the greatest.

london photo diary #2

2011-09-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

1 and 2. Brick lane stuff 3. Skinniest woman ever at Somerset House 4. Apparently this is fashion 5. Anna Wintour's seat at Burberry (I am a creep OK) 6. View from my seat at Burbz 7. Sneaky photo of skeezy tabloid paparazzi blokes 8. Postshow emergency noodle bowl

I don't think I've ever been as hungry as after the Burberry show. I thought I was legit going to faint during the show. Jane and I pegged it to an empty Whole Foods in High St Kensington afterwards and gorged, I had this immense bowl of tofu noodle salad and felt so revived.
This is the last of my London photos, I'll shut up now! All back to business here.

are my eyes the coldest blue?

2011-09-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

UO skirt and boots, Penney's trench, vintage blouse and hat, balenciaga bag

Felt a bit twee yesterday. Really bad quality photos, though, sorry. This is my new hat, I got it in London and feel like Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood when I wear it. I was so happy when I got it that when I talked to my boyfriend that night I excitedly told him that I found a hat in London and completely neglected to tell him that I also found somewhere to live in London. What is the song? Wherever I Lay My Hat is Home?

london photo diary #1

2011-09-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

1. & 2. Acne 3. green Regent's Canal 4. Buckfast St, very important 5, 6 & 7. Brick Lane market stuff 8. Brick Lane animal paints 9. Cupcakes from Sunday Upmarket 10. Burberry fashion police.

At home in bed at last... too tired for words so here are the pictures. It feels like I was away for a thousand years when really it was just three days. The concept of doing 'fashion month' in its entirety is a trip, I can't even imagine the fatigue.... Someday, maybe....

couture level flow, it's never going on sale

2011-09-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

photo by the amazo Jane Kenny. Jean-Paul Gaultier skirt, T by Alexander Wang t-shirt and second-hand Topshop blazer

Today was Burberry plus a jaunt around the actual fashion zoo that is Somerset House. So many people just... waiting to be photographed. I can't really think of a parallel outside of the fashion world, but once in New York, I walked the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and passed a family of Japanese tourists in matching I <3 NY t-shirts with a boombox playing 'Empire State of Mind' as they crossed the bridge. It's all related, I guess.

Anyway, I saw Kanye! If you know me, you'll know that's a big deal. I love him and for some reason I am obsessed with the way he and others consumer and process high fashion. He was sitting right opposite me (him in the front row, me in the fifth but whatever). Also, he was late, and the show was held up and I wanted to be like 'You should be honoured by my lateness! That I would even SHOW UP to this fake shit!' And if you're into fashion celebs, Anna Wintour was directly a few rows in front of me, Lynn Yaeger, Kate Lanphear. And Carine's car almost ran Jane and I over on the way there. It was a fashion fantasy fest. Check out Racked shortly for my real report!

til my middle name was excess

2011-09-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

dress from Joy, second-hand topshop blazer, hairband from beacon's closet

Hi I'm in London! Fashion week is weird and I guess what you expect it to be, lots of running around and tall people and seeing models you thought only existed on the pages of Vogue. Anyway, I've only been to one show and am only going to one more because that's just how I roll. Going to do a giant photo diary at the end of this whole shebang but until then, here's what I wore for a non-fashion week thing yesterday, to get udon at Koya in Soho with my boyfriend when our London paths crossed for all of one hour. Really really good, I've been trying to go here the last two times I've been in London but queues and a lack of time thwarted me. Got a great big bowl of fried tofu and fish noodles and it was exactly what I needed after getting up at stupid o'clock in the morning to pack and fly over.

i better find yr loving

2011-09-15T04:13:00.000-07:00

American Apparel chiffon shirt and tights, vintage army jacket, UO boots, mica lump necklace from Beacon's Closet

Trying to pare my wardrobe down to the most essential of essentials in advance of my move to London - I figure if you really, really love every single piece in your wardrobe then you'll never have a 'oh God I have nothing to wear what do I do' crisis. As it stands I have one at least twice a week. I think I have too much love to give. The solution: be brazen and toss anything that isn't wonderful, that doesn't make you feel wonderful, that isn't somewhere approaching amazing. And, you know, wear more black.

daily routine

2011-09-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

I like to pretend I'm low-maintenance. I do this on the basis that it takes me about five minutes to do my makeup in the morning, and also I don't really like brushing or blow-drying my hair. My big pet peeve is when girls say things like 'this is my hair completely natural, all I did was blow-dry it.' What a contradiction, right? But I'm a hypocrite, too. Last week I was packing for a weekend down the country and didn't want to bring too much of anything and was forced to face the bulging excess of my makeup bag, particularly in post-New York mode. I picked up a few freebies in NYC and also splurged a teeny bit on other things and all of sudden my daily routine is way beyond the 15-minute mark. I blame Into the Gloss. Reading about the makeup routines of women with much glossier lives than mine is giving me notions.

top row: clinique dramatically different moisturizing gel, topshop skin tint, mac studio sculpt, napoleon pedris china doll foundation, smashbox color corrector primer, mac mineralize skinfinish powder. bottom: ysl touche eclat, tarte under eye corrector, nars orgasm illuminator.

So this is just the face stuff. I could write at length about the many lipsticks I've amassed recently. And I don't use all of this every day, obviously. They serve different functions - it's more like moisturizer, primer, 1-2 liquid foundations, 1-2 undereye concealers, illuminator, powder, done. But I can't emphasize enough how much some of these have improved my life. the Smashbox primer helps my face remain all one colour. The Tarte concealer is like a magic potion for my monstrous undereye circles. The Nars illuminator is tricky to apply but makes me look alive and like I actually have bone definition. And I've talked before about the MAC powder, but it's a dream product, particularly combined with Studio Sculpt for younger skin. I know, I know, it's still a silly amount of things, particularly when you're travelling with limited room (hello LFW this weekend), but I dream of someday being paid enough to spend all of it on things like this, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that.

fashion week

2011-09-07T04:22:00.000-07:00

What do you look forward to more during Fashion Week? The collections, or the gathering of the world's most stylish scattered across the world's best street style blogs? Actually, don't answer that. I'm in a weirdly transitional phase right now, in life and style, caught between seasons and school years. But I'm going to LFW next week, so here's what's been inspiring me this month.

hel-looks

thelocals.dk

Angela Lindvall, Helmut Lang F/W 1997 via 90srunway

Irina Kulikova, Alex Wang, Fall 2008 via style.com

I was reading ELLE Collections yesterday and they had a lovely interview with Alex Wang which got me thinking about the Fall 2008 collection and what an impact it had. I mean, now, looking at it it does seem a little bit passé. But does it? In NYC, I still saw girls who were clearly influenced by it even now three and a half years on. And take a look at Nasty Gal - the connection is blatant in a way. It's not copycat, it's not knock-offs, but it's a line that can be traced from looks like the one above to outfits like this. Never write off the recent past.

supercolours

2011-09-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

Back in Dublin. Bye bye New York :( Have not been blogging because am attempting to get life in order again - find a place to live in London, a trip down the country, shedding some of these thousands of items of clothing I've accumulated, get myself in order for London Fashion Week et cetera, et cetera. In the meantime, here are some kittens who did not want their photo taken. And some flowers. Because everyone loves flowers.

d.c.

2011-08-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

vintage blouse, AA skirt, topshop blazer, Mia clogs

Went to Washington D.C., Maryland, that whole area, for the weekend. It's hot down there. Stormy, too. Also visited some paintings at the Hirshhorn Museum, which is now in the running for 'Ana's favourite art gallery ever!' The first is a Willem de Kooning, the second is a Franz Kline. Franz Kline is in my top three favourite painters ever, hence the look of joy.

Still planning to change this whole blog thing in the near future. Give me a fortnight...

workwear

2011-08-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

second-hand topshop blazer, BDG jeans, AA tank top, tote bag from the Ace Hotel and Ecote shoes

Coming home in two weeks! Looking forward to sleeping past 8am, drinks in the Pav, riding my bike, cheese on toast, real chocolate, gin and tonics in Russells, walking Sandymount Strand and all that jazz. And all the people too obviously. Going to miss my little garden, working in a super-cool skyscraper and feeling 'oh wow' about it, my bloke's cooking, speeding 20 blocks underground from Union Square to Herald Square, stoop sales, donuts, deli coffee, free gigs, nice weather et cetera...

If you are ever planning on living in the US for a little while from Europe or whatever, here's my advice: pack all your 'fat' clothes. I've put on a rake of weight from all the fatty (and delicious) foods here, and I don't really mind other than the whole healthy-living aspect, but it sucks when none of your clothes look good anymore...

all and everyone

2011-08-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

I love the internet, and I can't see that changing anytime soon. This kind of blogging, though, I'm getting tired with. Not in an 'I quit forever' way, but maybe in an 'I should reevaluate what I bring to the blogging table' kind of way, and a "How do I do this best, given the time and resources I have at my disposal?' kind of way. I'm tired of most of the personal style blogs I read, particularly those that seem to be vanity-vehicles for the bloggers themselves. It just doesn't interest me to see 10+ photos of the same pretty girl's face when I'm here for fashion yall. I'd hate for my blog to seem like that to readers I guess. I think I need more time to write things specifically for Ripped Knees, like I used to, but here in the real post-student world that seems difficult. Anyway, enough of my sassmouth. Here are some photos. That's what you guys are into, right?

topshop dress and blazer (second-hand), MIA swedish clogs via UO

1. American Museum of Natural History 2 and 3. Brunch at Tom's Restaurant, Prospect Heights (A+ would nom again) 4 and 5. Views from the Staten Island Ferry 6. Midtown Manhattan early morning 7 and 8. So I went to the Hamptons for a day and there was a pool and stuff 9. Do or Dine, Bed-Stuy (A++ $40 got us 3 'snacks' and 1 'small plate', the best meal I've had in NYC) 10. Crab-cake on jellyfish 11. 'Octo-taco' 12. Smoked salmon mousse, best food presentation ever 13 and 14. Work outfit 15. DOG

you're the only story that I've never told

2011-07-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

vintage t-shirt, topshop shorts, second-hand hat, ecote shoes via UO

Hurray for weekends: two whole days in a row to sleep late, eat all the delicious food in your vicinity, and try to establish which is the biggest Urban Outfitters in NYC. Because of my two internships I tend to miss a lot of the weekday/night fun, so I'm trying to catch up now: a BBQ, a show on the South Street Seaport, the Met, Staten Island and a fancy dinner can all happen between now and Sunday night, right?

ETA: part of the reasoning behind my weekday-busyness: I've been doing fun things like interviewing Matthew Williamson. I feel weird endlessly linking to work-stuff I've done here but I'm kinda proud of this one!

walking the high line

2011-07-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

ASOS tee and Maison Martin Margiela skirt both second-hand, Topshop sandals and fieldguided bag

Today's my last day off for a while as I do the big switchover from retail plus intern to interning plus interning, so I decided to make the most of it and keep crossing things off my 'living in NYC must-do' list. We went to the High Line over in Chelsea after stopping off in the Chelsea Market to get a picnic lunch. Challah bread, caramelised onion relish and really, really good white cheddar. Dear Lord I love good cheese, and it's hard to come by here. I'm hungry now just thinking about it. The High Line is a good thing too, nice views of the Hudson and the Meatpacking District. Afterwards I dragged Dan to Canal St so I could finally geek out in Acne and Opening Ceremony and Jil Sander.* Not that I can afford anything. Maybe a new tote bag. Someday, somewhere, somebody will pay me enough many moneys to wear lots of Alexander Wang and Acne and stuff. Until then: yet another almost-entirely second-hand get-up.

*NB I was actually too scared to go into Jil Sander, it was too white and immaculate and clean

what if i take my problems to the united nations?

2011-07-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

topshop blazer urban outfitters dress, opening ceremony boots. all second-hand.

super quick blog post as I'm on my way out the door. The work/fun never stops! I dip-dyed my hair - it was turquoise but is rapidly going green and I'm OK with that! Witch vibez. Also I'm interning at Elle next month in addition to my current gig over at Racked. Fun stuff! Now I just need a wardrobe that can do midtown AND downtown. I'm living in this cheapo silk dress I got second-hand. Also I wore these boots out of the house for the first real time today and was like, wow, they're so easy to walk in! I feel amazing! Then I fell over fully on the ground outside the Time Life building on Sixth Avenue.

summertime tunes

2011-07-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

1. EMA, 'California' 2. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 'My Terrible Friend' 3. How To Dress Well, 'You Won't Need Me Where I'm Going' 4. Hipster Youth 'Coming Down' 5. Reading Rainbow 'Always on my Mind'

the white stuff

2011-07-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

vintage skirt and top, topshop sandals, fieldguided tote

Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights is a good spot. It's got taquerias and bakeries and free wifi and the kind of bodegas that give you little brown paper bags and straws when you buy a car of beer. It's also home to Ample Hills, an ice-cream shop named for a line from Whitman's 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry' that had to close down three days after its grand opening last month. Why? Because it ran out of ice-cream. It's that good. It's full of kids during the day and then couples walking dogs in the evenings. Today was my day off, so we went up to get a scoop before a walk in Prospect Park. I got two - chocolate flake and something called 'a lovely day' made to commemorate gay marriage - rainbow cookies in white chocolate ice-cream. I think one scoop really is enough. I felt pretty sick in the park and a tummy-ache and thunderstorm sent me home again pretty quickly. Other than that bit I can't fault it. Last time I got salted crack caramel which was perhaps the most intense ice-cream experience of my life. If you're anywhere remotely near it, make a trip to Ample Hills immediately.

A side note: I don't think I'd ever have the balls to wear white-on-white at home in Dublin - it'd look weird and out of place I think, and I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone do it really well at home either. But here? It just seems like a good idea! And I'm in a monochrome state of mind right now, too.

hot cross buns - lucas nascimento a/w 11

2011-07-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

Lucas Nascimento is a designer from Brazil but based in London and my first thought when looking at his AW11 collection was 'London buns!' I really don't know what I'm going to do if this whole top-knot buzz fades by the time I move to London later this year because it's my go-to lazy-girl thing these days. It's also the best for coping in the NYC summer heat when long hair feels like a steaming rag on your head.
This collection uses lots of fancy stuff like neoprene and (laser?) cut-out detailing but what I love most is the colour involved. Weird, because I'm feeling pretty monochrome in real life these days.

my heart is in my pocket

2011-07-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Gaultier maxi-skirt I bought the other week made its first outing today when I wore it to work. I have a proposal: can we rename maxi-skirts? Doesn't the word 'maxi-' make us think of, you know..... maxi-pads and stuff? I propose calling them 'princess skirts', because who doesn't feel like a princess when lifting your skirt to run up steps or hop over a puddle? It was a gross rainy day in NYC today but I felt very 'east village' in this get-up.

jean-paul gaultier skirt, vintage boots and army jacket, AA tank and fjallraven backpack

Anyway, I'm sorry all my outfit posts are just 'army jacket' + 'fjallraven backpack' + 'unknown variables.' I'm working on filling out the glaring gaps in my closet...

everyday is summer for you

2011-07-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

vintage top from oasis, aa skirt, vintage jacket via boyfriend via Paris, opening ceremony shoe-boots

My wardrobe just isn't cool enough for NYC. I learned this the hard way when I had to go to a fashion party at the Jane hotel for Imitation's new film (sigh, the glamourous life is tough, isn't it) and looked around and saw I was the least glamourous thing in attendance. So then I went and bought these boots in response. A good buy I think. I now own three pairs of shoes here.

I've been very, very busy the last week and will be for another while yet and it all kind of caught up on me today and yesterday. Hopefully will be back up and at'em shortly. I took these photos the other day and never blogged them so here you go. This will have to last you a while. I may never have time to blog again....

EXTRA EXTRA DOG PHOTOS. We're dogsitting our landlady's dog (a Puli) for the summer and we had to bring her to the beauty shop for her summer grooming the other day. Here is the before and after shots.

Isn't she lovely?

big fat bluebird

2011-06-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Dressing for the weather is hard, because the weather can be a fickle old thing. So today I went to Roberta's in Bushwick for a very belated birthday lunch (three months ago) in black skinny jeans and ended up regretting the choice sorely when I had to drag my arse back home in the gross subway heat full to the brim of delicious pizza. The food itself was totally worth it, though. I got the White and Green pizza and the bloke got one with egg and onion, which was literally the greatest thing I have ever tasted, ever. Maybe hyperbole. Either way.

all gone!

While waiting around Bushwick for himself to arrive from work, some local lads told me they had decided as a group that they liked my shoes because they were gold. I like them because I wore my new Celine ones from yesterday and they gave my horrendous blisters all over my toes, so these are all I can wear today.

vintage silk blouse via beacon's closet, vintage army jacket from paris, BDG jeans and topshop sandals

If I'm frowning in these it's because I was literally full to the brim with pizza. I'm actually going to take a nap shortly to try to sleep off the rest of this food coma. Definitely the best meal I've eaten in a long while, though.

the haul

2011-06-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

so I did a bit of shopping today. And then I came home and decided to tell youtube all about it. I don't really watch haul videos much but I thought it'd be fun and it was, I guess. It took like 7 takes though, which is why I'm talking so fast. Watch it and make fun of my voice or something. Please don't leave me mean youtube comments, I have a delicate sensibility.

the east end

2011-06-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

images via the sartorialist, fuckyeahstreetstyle and the sf style

It's crazy that you can arrive somewhere new - a city, a town, a neighbourhood - and be suddenly aware that everyone's dressing differently, like they're following a whole set of style rules that you didn't even know about. I work in the East Village now and - cheesy fashion moment alert - it's super inspiring on a day-to-day basis. A friend of mine who works on Wall Street put it well: "Girls in Manhattan just know how to dress." And yeah, Williamsburg is like a hipster style parade but there's something different about the East Village. It's about knowing how to work a certain look to your advantage. Girls bring their A game, and it's making me want a whole new wardrobe. I got myself a pretty awesome Jean Paul Gaultier full-length skirt the other day which I'm psyched to wear. Next up: men's tees to cut the sleeves off and wear loose over shorts and sandals. Maybe a decent pair of heels. I know it's the season for sundresses and showing off your bod but I only want loose and baggy right now.

a response to Julie Klauser's 'Don’t Fear The Dowager: A Valentine to Maturity'

2011-06-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

so this really annoyed me (for those of you not bothered to read it, it's a thing by Julie Klausner in which she implores young women to dress and act with more maturity rather than dressing whimsically or tweeishly because they are, and I quote here, 'just in it for the peen.')

I don't really dress like a grown-up all the time. Right now I'm wearing a bright blue sailor blouse with hearts on it tied with a bow. I have about a dozen floral print dresses, and a whole load of bows to match them. I like petticoats and blouses and Peter Pan collars and absolutely anything with a heart motif. I buy things on Etsy a bit*. I really like dressing like this. I like it for a number of reasons: it's aesthetically pleasing. It's an amusing contrast with my not very 'feminine' body-shape. It makes me feel dressed-up even when I'm not. It carries some weird cultural/sartorial nostalgia for that time in your early teens when you're creating an identity for yourself, and when your girlfriends are the most important thing, and when you're finding out new things about yourself and the world every single day.**

None of these reasons have anything to do with attracting 'the peen.'

Klausner writes that "instead of acting like a woman who might remind a skittish bro more of his teacher or his mother, we’re going for the pubeless, twee, Anime-eyed version of whatever dream girl we assume they want or need." But this is where I have a problem with her logic. Firstly, I don't particularly want to remind a dude of his mum or his teacher. I actually think that's kind of weird. If I think about it, I guess I'd want a guy to consider me his equal rather than his childhood authority figure, no matter how intelligent she may have been. And I don't know how much how I dress is going to impact on that, really. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that might be more to do with mutual respect and shared interests and the ability to have fun together. By and large, I like to dress for me rather than for some kind of male gaze which insists on shaping how I'm constantly perceived, according to Klausner.

Because that's something I genuinely love about fashion blogging. Girls and women get to talk freely about fashion and style and getting dressed without the ever-present influence of some heteronormative belief system dictating what looks right and what doesn't. The result is hugely disparate blogs like The Man Repeller, Hipster Musings or even Karla's Closet, which are about more than Cosmo-style spreads on How To Dress To Please Your Man and Hiding Your Body's Flaws Forever and so on. It's real fashion for real girls who care about more than how big their tits look and how tiny their waist is. It's something close to - and even I am rolling my eyes at this turn of phrase - a sisterhood of style, a clubhouse where the kind of dudes Klausner thinks we're after aren't even invited, for once.

And also, you know what? Guys have told me what they think of my clothes before, you know! And it's pretty safe to say I'll get more male compliments when I'm wearing something that actually isn't super-whimsy - you know, tight dresses and pencil skirts rather than ruffled blouses and petticoats. Is this standard for other fashion-types? Doesn't it kind of contradict what Julie's saying to begin with? That when I dress like a 'real woman' guys seem to be more into me than when I wear 'infantilised' clothing? It doesn't make a difference to me if more men than women like a certain outfit of mine - a compliment is a compliment and they're nice to receive, but a lack of them won't deter me from wearing something I really love. You wear an outfit because you like it, you feel good in it, you maybe even feel like it communicates something about yourself, too. Klausner says that in dressing like 'little girls', "women are trying to broadcast to men that we won’t bite their dicks off." I say this isn't quite right. I say that for a lot of women today, what we choose to wear has nothing to do with any man's dick.

* Julie Klausner: "Make sure you own one piece of jewelry that you did not purchase on Etsy" she begs us. Why anyone would have a problem with buying jewellery on Etsy I'll never know.

** despite the fact that this is not how I dressed during those years at all. It's just a collective-consciousness thing I guess

images via tumblr and me

looking good, hanging with a wild bunch

2011-06-12T13:58:00.000-07:00

bk hipsterz by anakaye featuring vintage style handbags

J Crew scoop neck tank, £30
Acne biker jacket, £700
Jaeger velvet mini skirt, $144
Falke merino wool tight, $46
Hobo International vintage style handbag, $85
Selima Optique clear sunglasses, $350
MAC Lipstick, $15

Last night I went to Union Pool in Williamsburg, which isn't a pool at all but a bar instead. For those of you who know Dublin I guess it's like the Bernard Shaw only with unisex toilets and a taco truck outside. In between $3 PBRs I managed to get in an argument with a British man about the song 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' and when we tried to involve an American dude in the argument he said 'I can't understand you guys, you're talking British.' That didn't go down well. I guess you can't win every battle. Anyway, there were some pretty well-dressed people there, and there was a black and white photobooth, and they played Buffalo Stance which is key, so overall it gets an A from me. The taco truck was quality too.

erdem, resort 2012

2011-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

images via style.com

Erdem Resort 2012

My twee sensibilities mean I'll always have an affinity for floral prints, and nobody does them better than Erdem - all bloody and seeping into each other. This Resort collection (featuring the stellar Guinevere van Seenus who at 33 must be the oldest working supermodel in the game?) shows that florals can be quite ladylike and actually kind of glam at the same time. But what I like most about Erdem is its seeming timelessness. It's trendy without being trend-driven - British design at its best.

necessary food porn interruption post

2011-06-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

I went to the Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg just now and it was pretty good and there were nice things for sale and all that but more importantly there was a doughnut stand. Good doughnuts are hard to find and I couldn't resist a giant lemon and poppyseed spectacular half the size of my head . Om nom. It was literally one of the most lemon-y things I've ever eaten outside of, you know, actual slices of lemon maybe.

'donut be sad, friend!'

vintage blouse and shorts, necklace from etsy

After a bit of a laze on the grass by the East River we went back up to Bedford Avenue for a taco from the Endless Summer taco truck. I got a veggie seitan soft shell taco for $3 and it was so good that I'm already trying to think of an excuse to go back there soon. I know I'm a biased vegetarian and all but seitan > meat in this case.

All in all, five dollars and a couple hours well spent. Put this on your to-do list for NYC.

sun in my eyes

2011-06-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

hairband and vintage dress via beacon's closet, cardigan from miss selfridge, fieldguided tote and topshop sandals

Yeah I need to blog less. It's just such a novelty to a) have someone to take photos for me and b) have the time/inclination to do it. The novelty will wear off soon, and soon I won't have the time to (hopefully.) Anyway, I wore this today (slash RIGHT NOW) to do more jobhunting, eat a peanut butter sandwich in Williamsburg and get lost in Prospect Park. I got the dress in Beacon's Closet in Park Slope yesterday - you can't see but it's got dragonflies on it that have 'New Orleans Jazz Fest' written on their wings. It's too baggy at the waist (finding vintage clothing that actually fits me is the bane of my existence. I'm just not a standard size or shape. How do other people find stuff that works?) but I might sew some belt loops on if I can find the right material.

sleeper hold

2011-06-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

I'm only blogging right now because it's too hot to go outside until after lunch and I'm putting off job-hunting until after the heat of the midday sun dies down. BLOG.

No Age t-shirt, topshop shorts and sandals, fjallraven kanken bag, vintage sunglasses via AA and vintage headscarf

I mean, America's pretty cool and I like it here but what's the deal with the fruit? I don't need my apples to be coated in beeswax or, even worse, 'animal resin', thanks guys. On the other hand, though: food trucks. The best thing yet.
Also, the hair thing. I have a large amount of hair on my head and the heat doesn't like it. I was just skyping with a friend and explaining the heat here and he said 'yes, I can see that your hair has gone completely mental.' I CAN'T HELP IT YOU GUYS. Going to shave it all off if this keeps up.

ETA: I can finally actually make this official on the blog now, although you'll already know if you follow me on twitter or facebook or in real life or whatever. I'm going to Central Saint Martins in London this autumn to start an MA in fashion journalism. I've kind of wanted to do this since I was about 14 or 15 so I'm unbelievably excited and nervous and freaked-out all at once. Foof.

skate parks and airports

2011-05-31T08:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been so lazy on the posts. I had a crazy busy last few days in Dublin and am now safely and snugly located in Brooklyn for the summer. And it's hot here. And I have no internet, so I'm writing this from a hipster coffee shop in Park Slope, which also has air conditioning, another thing I don't have. Hey I'm not complaining! I spent yesterday wandering around and getting used to the place, sussing out the possible thrifting opportunities and practicing saying 'sidewalk' instead of 'footpath'.

dress from UO, topshop sandals, vintage headscarf, vintage sunglasses via AA

Now that I have a man around to take my outfit photos again you're all going to have to get used to me posing atrociously on street corners and in parks, clutching all manner of iced beverages. I won't even apologise. I genuinely never thought I'd actually make it here so I'm still in shock. Hey, are you in New York? Want to hang out? Or even give me a job? I'm wonderful company and a brilliant employee - inquire within for references for both.

fingers on the buzzers

2011-05-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

1. me on fire at dinner in London (care of Gemma White, who won't tell me her secret blog address) 2. airplane wing 3 & 4. cricket pitch on my birthday 5. birthday bouquet 6, 7 & 8. Pancake Tuesday 9. Wall & Keogh Teahaus 10. the view from House 6

This is the last of the slog now. I'm half-heartedly writing and rewriting essays on modernism for my final exam ever tomorrow morning while the rest of the country is in the grips of Obamania. Anyway, I'm putting off thinking about Hemingway for another 10 minutes by blogging these photos I just got back from March-ish time I think. I wish my exam was in blogging instead.

no one else can make me know there's no one else

2011-05-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

dress from joy, american apparel cardigan and tights, urban outfitters boots, penney's trench-coat

I've been having one of those days where everything seems funny and silly. Result: I've been laughing alone a lot in the library today. Everything in Trinity has been disrupted by the Queen's visit, which I don't really have any feelings about. Except that I had to walk really far to get my tea today and it was a bit annoying. Although I did run into the National Gallery after lunch to remind myself art exists and is good (again.) It's only now starting to hit me that I'm almost done with TCD forever. Going to miss you, Trinity. It's been pretty awesome going to college in a lush green sanctuary in the middle of the city centre for four whole years.

I wish I could wear this dress all summer, but it's pretty hot and it's got elbow-length sleeves, so it'll be relegated to the closet til autumn I think. I need to start thinking about summer clothes very soon!
ALSO: does anyone have a real problem with wearing black and brown at the same time? I do it constantly. I like doing it. But apparently it's one of those silly rules that you're supposed to obey. I mean whatever, wear what you want and all that, but do people think it actually looks bad?

what's in yr bag #2: weekend edition

2011-05-15T04:29:00.000-07:00

bag from Fieldguided, red apple, cheapo umby, iPod, The Collected Amy Hempel, Nokia phone, pocket moleskine to jot down all the stupid things that pop into my head ('the blank eyed stare of a girl using a hand dryer' etc), Illamasqua lipstick in 'Over', passport now with American work visa!, student ID, Penney's wallet

I mean, this is kind of a pointless post seeing as the contents aren't hugely different from the last WIYB post I did, but I'm procrastinating hardcore right now and am running out of things to waste my time doing before study... The Amy Hempel book is amazing if you're looking for some summer reading and like short stories and animals and people and loneliness.

talking sweet and looking fine: my fantasy life involves Acne

2011-05-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

You know, I don't think the word 'aspirational' really actually existed until quite recently. It still never seems right in my mouth when I say it. But I guess it's such a huge part of the business of both fashion and magazines that you can't really get by without it. Most of the things that get labelled 'aspirational' in fashion don't really appeal to me - I'm not looking to have enough money someday to get 18 nose jobs, or to be more like Lady Gaga, or to clothe my future babies in Hermes. But it's still a constant in my life. You ogle things in shops and think, oh if I had this pretty thing my entire life would be different. And it becomes a part of 'Fantasy You' where your hair is always shiny and your legs are two inches longer and your skin never breaks out and you never fall down the stairs on the bus in front of everyone. That's how I feel about Acne. Everything they do, even things that I'd never in a million years wear, I look at and think, ohhhhh, if only I could wear that then everything would fall into place. The Ana who owns that dress wouldn't accidentally add someone as a friend on Facebook through tipsy social network stalking. She probably wouldn't get hay fever either. Definitely wouldn't accidentally smash THREE eggs on the kitchen floor. Stupid Acne. Because I don't own a single piece (and at the rate I'm earning, never will), all their new stock serves to do is remind me of my countless flaws.

all photos via https://www.facebook.com/acneonline

tl;dr I really like Acne and it makes me wish my hair was shinier

it's everything time

2011-05-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

vintage scarf and skirt, UO top, tote from fieldguided, AA belt and socks.

Lots of personal style bloggers tend to go on hiatus around exam-time, which is perfectly fair but it leads me to believe that they don't actually wear clothes during exam season, hence the lack of posts. Only joking. Blogging is stressful sometimes and it definitely isn't all that compatible with the academic pressure-cooker.

In continuing with my stuff-that's-not-bike-appropriate, I present this library outfit complete with tired studyface: I was trying to sell this skirt for a while because I bought it without trying it on and found out it's a size 14. But I think it works OK with a belt and some witch boots. It's not so good with my bike, though. I got as far as Harcourt St this morning before realising the wheel was happily munching on my hem. Now it's got a tear in the seam, but hey, it adds to the character, right?
I'd been eyeing up this tote for ages, what with the song being a personal favourite, and finally ordered in the blush dip-dye the other week. It's perfect for schoolbooks and fits just right in my basket and yeah, it was pricey for a tote but I hadn't bought anything for myself in so long, and summer's just around the corner....

ETA: I had a dream last night that Soooali and I were shopping for straw hats on a tropical island, but after we found the perfect ones there was a huge flood and we lost them. Also Ben Wyatt from Parks and Rec was there.

buy my things before I leave them behind for the summer

Bon International, S/S 2011

2011-05-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

One of these days I will stop blogging about magazines. But not just yet, I'm too enamoured with my slimmed-down collection to stop sharing it with the world. And it's still constantly growing, too. I got this copy of Bon International in the Tate Modern last Thursday, after spending a good 25 minutes weighing up which to buy and which I could justify spending so much money on. There were some clocking in at well over £50. But Bon looked pretty, and was in English, and only cost £5 and so it came home with me that evening.

scans via fashiongonerogue

Now, it's been a long time since I've posted editorials here, since I feel like the same ones get mentioned too much on the internet, usually just accompanied by OMG SO FIERCE I LOVE SASHA P AND MEISEL FOREVER but this one, I think, kind of sums up why I liked reading Bon so much and why I'll be back to buy it again next issue. It's clean, it's bright and it engages you. It's edgy in a way that doesn't imply you're not cool enough to read it. It's got Bliss Lau body jewellery. I mean, the whole magazine looked like this (a bit like The Gentlewoman actually) and it feels good, impressive, professional, modern. No offense to the love of my life Lula but fashion magazines get a hard time for being fluffy and trivial sometimes. Sometimes you need a hard-hitter, something that packs a punch and that leaves you visually stunned, a little. And it had enough reading to get me back to Dublin Airport. Put it on your reading list.

a digressive trip to the Tate Modern

2011-05-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

I found myself in London alone on Thursday with a few hours to kill before my flight home again, and with no room to carry any large purchases, I had to find something different to do. I thought about things I could do in London that I couldn't do in Dublin and the list was this, in order of priority: Go to Selfridges and buy Illamasqua lipstick, go to the Tate Modern and look at some paintings. So after legging it up and down and then up Oxford St again (I forgot which end was which for a bit) I got on a Tube to Bank and crossed the bridge to the gallery. If you're not into modern art, skip all this. The photos aren't even good quality. I just like to share.

Anyway, I wanted to go look at the Abstract Expressionist paintings because firstly, I like them and second, I'd been studying a lot of poetry lately for college that was influenced by these guys so I wanted to peer at them up close. The Rothko room was the best. It's a series of murals that he painted for the Four Seasons restaurant in NY in the 1950s until he realised that hey they kind of look like portals to hell and maybe shouldn't be hung up in a restaurant. So he gave them to the Tate so people like me could sit in darkness and stare at them.

"Rothko commented that Michelangelo 'achieved just the kind of feeling I'm after - he makes the viewers feel that they are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked up, so that all they can do is butt their heads forever against the wall.' "

Anyway, that was the highlight. But there was lots of other cool stuff.

'Number 12' by Joan Mitchell

A much more joyous Rothko which I also sat in front of for ages

The Tate Modern isn't organised chronologically, which is pretty strange in museum terms. It's done thematically which I think is really cool - it means you see links you wouldn't otherwise get to see. Like the Rothko above is hung beside a big Monet, and the similarities become so obvious when you stop seeing things divvied up in little chunks of time.

Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei just closed two days before I was there, and these dudes were packing it up... with shovels... in radioactive suits. A mammoth task.

Represent.

The lads.

Bolshevik propaganda room

'Female worker, take a rifle!'

This mirror is apparently art.

Aw mister, you're not gonna eat all those clothes.

I can't remember who did this but it was so cool, usually I am not mad on installations as they confuse me. But this was a staircase to nowhere!

Franz Kline is one of my favourite painters and I've never seen my soul but I'm pretty sure it looks like this. It also features in the background of Manhattan which I watched last week and might be one of my new favourite movies.

I bought this in the magazine shop. It's Swedish, but in English and is my new favourite mag ever. Full details to follow, maybe. I know I always say magazines are my favourite, but I enjoyed this more than I've enjoyed any mag I've read in ages.

It is a very large building, the Tate Modern.

Anyway, looks like I'm moving to London for real this autumn. Better get my game face on. One exam left and I'll be leaving Dublin sadface.

hasbeens

2011-05-03T15:17:00.003-07:00

hasbeens by anakaye featuring swedish hasbeens clogs

Bring me a pair, I'll wear them all summer long I promise. Any colour, any height and I'm a 40 (shush my feet are large, it's a secret)

the collection

2011-05-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

You know when you tell people you read a lot of fashion magazines and they respond 'I really love fashion magazines too, I read the Sunday Times Style Magazine every week!' I mean that's fair, it's not a bad magazine (except when it's positing lesbians as the new must-have accessory or whatever) but there's a lot more out there. I was one of many teenagers (and bloganistas, seemingly) who bought Vogue every month growing up but in recent years I've branched out a lot. I don't really buy Vogue anymore unless there's something really exciting in it - and usually, I've figured out, the formula is this: youth tribes shot by Mario Testino. Celebrity interview. Editorial shot in exotic location. Profiles of five 'ordinary' (read: rich and pretty and skinny) working women. Guide to the latest invasive medical beauty procedure* - just because I'm on a budget and I like to shake it up as much as possible.

But where do you put them all? Dear lord, they get EVERYWHERE. And they're so heavy, too. I decided today to sort through my collection and edit it heavily, seeing as I'm moving out in a matter of weeks. I sorted them into 4 piles - definitely keep, maybe keep, make tearsheets then bin, definitely bin.

This is halfway through. The piles left to right are: definitely bin, tearsheets, maybe, and definitely keep.

Because I am a nerd, I put stickies on the tearsheet issues: yellow for editorials, green for features and blue for 'other'.

These are the eventual 'bin' piles. I don't actually want to bin them, but I don't know what else to do with them! I can't sell them at the Flea because I won't be here for another one unfortunately, and I don't think there's a cost-effective way of posting them to people. Unless anyone wants a specific one and can paypal me the cost of postage. That seems mad though.

Also, I genuinely don't know how that copy of Cosmopolitan got in my room. Sorry everyone. I'm not really a fun fearless female.

The maybe pile.

And the winners! Let's see... 9 UK Vogue, 3 Vogue Italia, 2 Vogue Paris, 2 The Gentlewoman, 1 Lula, 1 Oh Comely, 1 Pop, 5 i-D, 2 ELLE Collections, 2 Dazed, 2 (very old) Nylon, 1 Vice and 1 Mongrel. 32 magazines is a normal amount to have in a collection, right?

Anyway, if you're like me and you know, a hoarder and mag obsessive, how do you store them? How do you decide which to keep? What do you do with the ones you don't keep?

* only joking. I love Vogue as much as the next girl, it's consistently good and it's probably one of the most engaging and best- put-together mags on the market in the UK.

ready for the world

2011-04-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

topshop dress, falke tights, zara leather jacket, AA hoody and vintage boots.

I almost never blog about nighttime outfits because I'm not arsed taking photos at any time that isn't the morning. Also the lighting in the room is different after dark, unbelievably, resulting in these lovely soft-focus shots. Also it's not very exciting, I just wear a lot of black and tights and stuff. Anyway here's what I wore to see No Monster Club in Whelan's last night, instead of studying and you know, being a normal person. Lipstick is MAC Dubonnet and it looks like I've been eating berries.

pictured with unnamed male companion

Also I never showed off what I wore to the Smedias earlier this month, which was heaps of fun. I got the dress in London and I love it and want more opportunities to wear it, so if someone would like to take me out for dinner or something that would be awesome thanks. Not pictured are my amazing heels, which are blue with little blue dogs on them. They gave us free Bavaria in return for having our photo taken with these fun shiny blue women. The lipstick is the Revlon coral one I was blabbing on about earlier. Both pictures are from the Smedias facebook page.

pictured with my cool friend Megan, who loves Bavaria even more than I do

something else hauls me through air

2011-04-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

vintage cardigan and shorts, AA vest, office shoes

I had to wear stupid black socks today so my shoes wouldn't fall off my feet on the bike and it essentially ruined my day. I mean, beige shorts, cream top, cream sweater-vest.... BLACK SOCKS. What was I thinking? I blame the brainfart on the constant studying. And the hay fever. This outfit could've been cuter, I let it down. And I make no apologies for my hyperbolic reaction just there. My life isn't up to much at the moment. If I can't freak out over the colour of my socks, what can I freak out about? Don't say the Royal Wedding please.

OPI Atomic Orange

(30 sleeps til NY)

what's in your make-up bag and giveaway results

2011-04-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

First off, to clarify, despite this being a make-up post I'm really not a make-up obsessive, high-maintenance kind of girl. I also don't know loads about make-up or anything so maybe best not to listen to me talk about it. I do wear make-up everyday, but it never takes me longer than 7-10 minutes to put my face on, and once it's on, it's on. I'm not a fan of topping it up consistently in bathrooms all day. Too lazy. Put it on then forget about your face. That's my motto.

That said, I'm borderline evangelical about lipstick and liquid eyeliner. It's just so much fun. Lipstick is probably one of my favourite things about being a girl. I like them bold and bright and as matte as possible, day and night, whenever and wherever. It's almost never inappropriate (except maybe at the dentist?) Here's what I've been favouring of late:

Left to right:
- Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick Kiss Me Coral 750 - this is amazing, vibrant colour goes on well and stays on. As close as you come to a perfect coral shade. I'm wearing it here and in lots of other outfit posts.
- Mac Dubonnet - love this, it's very 'vampy' wine-red on without being too cybergoth dark. I wear it out at night a lot so I don't have many pics but you can just layer and layer it to get it as dark as you want. One pic here (lol I look odd).
- Mac Chili. Chili's awesome. I don't think it gets as much attention as the other Mac reds, like Lady Danger and Russian Red but it's perfect for people who don't want a blue-base in their lips. It's got orange without actually being coral. And it's super matte which is a big plus for me. Wearing it here.
- Mac Girl About Town. Everyone loves this one, right? It's pretty incredible, and I did buy it because of the hype, but I went it in the shop wearing the Illamasqua shade that's beside it. The shop girl was like, 'Oh, is that the one you're wearing now?' and I guess I should have taken that as a sign. It's a nice colour, but it's not as good as the Illamasqua one.
- Illamasqua Corrupt (if anyone can confirm the name let me know! I lost the packaging). This is amazing. it goes on like wax, and it stays on forever. It's my absolute favourite lipstick ever and I don't know why Illamasqua pulled out of Dublin because I'd buy a million more of these in every shade. Wearing it here, and also constantly in real life at night.
- Random Chanel lipstick. this is more rosey than the coral it looks like above. It's pretty nice, but very grannyish and subtle. Good for daytime or anything with a super dramatic eye. Here.

Left to right:
Barry M Liquid Eyeliner. Buy this, watch some youtube tutorials on cat eyes/winged liner, wear it everyday. Sorted.
Mac eyeshadow in Soba. I never wear eyeshadow because, like, it is a trek. But this a sweet subtle shade that I think I like because I think it looks like whatever Marissa Cooper used to wear in the O.C. season 1.
Mac studio sculpt in NW15. Whatever, not even this is pale enough for my ghosty skin. Nothing is. I went to the Mac shop to get told what colour to buy and the guy was like OMG HEY EVERYONE GATHER ROUND, THIS GIRL LOOKS LIKE PAPER. Thanks guys, I feel great about myself. Roll on summer so I can be a normal coloured face again please.
Mineralize Skinfinish. Dream product. it's expensive but worth it so much. I depend on this to look like a real person. It's a gamechanger.
YSL Touche Eclat and false lash mascara. Need I elaborate? They're the best of the best and I've been buying them (when/if money allows) since I was 16.

Also, I'm only a week behind, but the winner of the Shopbop giveaway is....

TRICIA of http://ventricularprojects.blogspot.com/ !!
I'll pass your email onto the Shopbop people and your $100 will be with you soon!

And one more thing before I go: I've got some closet-clearing out going on over on my tumblr shop so give it a look and buy my things!

trying to explain the significance of Kanye wearing a Celine blouse

2011-04-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

So I was watching the stream of Kanye at Coachella on Monday evening and obviously it was phenomenal, entertaining, life-affirming etc. But the blouse. I know everyone has probably already discussed this but still. Kanye West. In a Céline blouse. As he sings about the chick in the new Phoebe Philo. I had a little postmodern cardiac arrest when it all collided. It's very meta. And it's very Kanye to wear a designer women's blouse on stage at Coachella. It was, in the grand scheme of things, a great fashion moment in pop culture. The first time I heard MBDTF I got a little excited about the Phoebe Philo reference, because it's not just Arbitrary Hip-Hop Fashion reference like we're used to, like the bit in Bastard where Tyler slams '40 year old rappers talking about Gucci'. It's Phoebe Philo. She made Chloé cool again. I remember seeing her last collection for Chloé in Harrods when I was 16 and just being a little bit in awe by the whole thing. And then she stopped designing completely to concentrate on real life. And then she got coaxed back to do Céline! Remember Céline before Philo, back in pre-2008? Exactly. Michael Kors and stuff. Without meaning to sound trite, her work is kind of another level from most contemporary designers at the same price-point. She does her own thing, but it's entirely informed by a realisation of what women want to wear in their real lives, by a carefully-honed design sensibility that others sometimes seem to lack. I mean, Céline now isn't exactly my own aesthetic sensibility but whatever, it's kind of an awesome trend to watch unfurl across both the blogworld and here, in real life, on Kanye's back. Because it's not just 'trend for the sake of trend'. It's not about trend. It's not 'swag'. It's the opposite of Gucci-emblazoned-everything. A Céline bag isn't instantly recognisable the way an LV one is. It's more about design, minimalism and some vague Platonic notion of good-aesthetics. And so it almost shouldn't be so... cool, in a trend-driven, luxury-goods-industry maximalist-culture way. But that's exactly what it's turned out to be, because what's cooler than Kanye West, Luxury Man & international style icon & designer of weird shoes, wearing it at Coachella?

I just wish he'd worn the matching pants, too.

images via the philophiles and nymag

but we just don't belong

2011-04-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

AA tank and skirt, vintage shirt and jacket

Wearing this to the library and to see a play tonight. I never go to the theatre because I don't like sitting still for that long. But I'm excited! More exciting things: paying for my flights to NY today. Five and a half weeks HURRAY. Tell me fun things to do in Brooklyn in the summer. Also London in two weeks for a day. I'll have an afternoon to waste so if there's any amazing exhibitions going on do let me know thanks!

OK I know it really looks like I'm not wearing a skirt in these pictures but I am and I'm decent I swear. Yesterday while on my bike a man shouted 'SEXY THIGHS!' at me. But I didn't have any legs on show. It was confusing. So today I decided to go all-out and wear a much shorter skirt. Result: not really bike-appropriate. Sorry world. This is all my menswear at once. The blazer came from the kilo-sale in Garage in Berlin and I love it. It's my David Byrne jacket and it's got the biggest shoulders ever.

turn this into a classic night

2011-04-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

Penneys trench, ASOS skirt, vintage blouse & boots, AA tights, cardigan and belt

My finals start in 2.5 weeks and I live in the library now so I've been too lazy to dress nice. It's actually a shame I only ever really do daytime outfits on the blog because it seems like I just wear the same stuff all the time... which I do... but I've got lots of nice stuff I only wear at night too I guess...

OK clearly my brain has turned to mush. I'm going to sort out the winner of the giveaway tomorrow, thanks so much to everyone for entering! Also I did another guest blog for Red Radar, this time on festival stuff for girls. On that note, did everyone watch Kanye at Coachella? life-affirmingly good!

credit for my phone and a honeycomb toblerone

2011-04-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

The Trinity Ball was last Friday night - my fifth in a row and probably my last. Maybe. We'll see. I might come back for more next year. For those of you who aren't familiar with the tradition, the Ball is 'Europe's Biggest Private Party' and takes place on our cobblestoned campus at night with lots of good bands playing (the Streets and Rubberbandits were great this year) and lots of very drunk students in formalwear having the time of their lives. I love it. It's an excuse to get really dressed up and actually sit on the grass in college where usually they'd frown at you for trying. I wore this dress to last year's ball but couldn't help wearing it again. It's my favourite and I have no other opportunities to wear it. Pictured with me is my beautiful bessie mate Laura, who had never been before. I think her dress is from Zara. Mine's from Nasty Gal and the silly hair chain is very old from Topshop. I wore it with a little black leather jacket which somehow kept me warm until 5.30am. I think I've got my formalwear craving out of my system for the time being now.

(also, later this week I'm going to do something I never do and go back in time and put on an outfit I wore last week to take photos of it. The Smedias were last Wednesday and I didn't win but I did like what I wore and got no real photos of it. So stay tuned.)

(PS: remember to enter the Shopbop giveaway if you haven't already! It's open til Friday.)

the thing itself and not the myth

2011-04-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

kimchi & blue trousers, vintage blouse and headscarf, AA tank, shoes from Office and necklace from the polkadot magpie on etsy

Yellow pants! They were a present from my Mum whilst in London last week. I usually can't stand a paperbag waist because it looks silly but I think it really works with these guys. They're sunflower-yellow I think. I want to wear them all summer long with little shirts and blouses and stripey bodysuits and things. Also please excuse my messy dirty bunhead, I'm still technically sick and only wore this to run into the library and then to buy some socks for the Smedias tomorrow night (come say hi if you're there and see me! I'm nominated for Blog of the Year and I'm not going to win because if I did I'd probably die of nervousness and collapse on stage.) And now I have to go back to studying poetry until then.

PS I look so sad and angry in these photos! I just realised. I'm neither! How could I be when I have yellow pants on...

$100 SHOPBOP GIVEAWAY & designer sale!

2011-04-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

unrelated picture of pretty flowers in a shop in London

Hurray! Everyone likes giveaways, right? Last summer I was given a $100 Shopbop gift card to give away to a reader and as luck would have it, we're doing it again! Shopbop have lots and lots of great brands plus they ship internationally, so $100 could get you something pretty to wear for the impending summertime. It can be spent on anything on the site, but some ideas could be gladiator or wedge sandals or else grown-up Costume National heels for those of you with grown-up jobs and lives (sigh.. maybe someday). If you're like me, you'll be heading to the designer sale section to see what bargains can be scooped up with the gift card - that's designers like Opening Ceremony, Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs, Vena Cava, Free People and loads more. Anyway. So many options... but only one winner....

To win, all you have to do is

comment on this post with your first name and your email
like this post on Facebook - the little button is at the bottom left - and like Ripped Knees too if you haven't already!
(If you don't have Facebook, you can just follow me using Blogger or Bloglovin, just let me know which in your comment)

And the fine print:

The competition will close at midnight Friday 15th April (GMT)
It's open to all readers across the globe and I'll calculate the winner using a random number generator on Friday the 15th

subscriptions

2011-04-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

I love magazines more than most other things in the world, in case you haven't picked up on that yet. I love sitting down and devouring them front to back, poring over every inch and looking at how they might have been put together. Back when I had an income I'd buy a lot more, and read anything I could get my hands on. But now it's a matter of lusting over certain publications in Read's (RIP Exchequer News, the only place you could get the likes of The Gentlewoman and AnOther for quite a while) and saving pennies to get an overpriced copy of Monocle or POP every few months.

But I was in London very briefly this week and my friend Gemma brought me to a brilliant newsagent's on Commercial Street where I ended up parting ways with £9 in return for fresh copies of Oh Comely and The Gentlewoman. It took a lot of self-restraint not to buy lots more like 10 and Tank. But it's OK. It's all in the name of research, right? And I've been very sick all week so I'm looking forward to digesting The Gentlewoman this weekend (mag reviews to follow for both) in bed.

April's reading list

Also, I got asked 'so, what do you read?' in a formal context this week. It's a question I've been thinking about for so long, as a mag junkie, so here's what I'd buy regularly if I had bulging coffers (not all are fashion magazines - as I said I'll read almost anything, maybe excepting New Scientist):
Monocle
POP
Lula
The Gentlewoman
Oh Comely
Elle UK
i-D
Dazed & Confused
Self-Service
Esquire
Harper's

(actually I totally would read New Scientist. I read my boy's copy on a plane once.)

Have I left anything out? Are there any that I really should know about?