Pretty in blue

Crystal & pyrite cuff, $40 at AccessoryFoundry. $7 international shipping. In love.

Dieppa Restrepo

…makes beautiful handmade oxfords. A few stand outs for me from one of their stockists, Totokaelo. The last one is straight from the designers’ online shop.

Heinui

Timelessly flattering silhouettes with pretty prints and twists to add interest. Waiting for Heinui‘s online shop with baited breath! Apparently will be shipped worldwide too 😉

ALAS

Loving sleepwear that you can wear out too 🙂 Both of these are from ALAS’ 2013 beauties

Loving Marcue’s handmade leather

Oxide Brown Ankle Boot

The past. The present. The Future. Vintage

A few months ago Zo and I had a wee dress up and a play around with the camera and these vintage outfits were the result! For years I have been collecting all sorts of vintage and junky pieces. The value isn’t always in a garments past often it is far better to envision for it a future no matter what it was before you found it on the rack. These two dresses present two parts one is all about the past whereas the other only had a future when I found it.

The purple and green floral dress belonged to my great grandmother. I have learned through this dress that we shared a dress size and a love of fashion. My favourite parts of it are all in the details, it has gorgeous little crystal like buttons and the belt is made of the same fabric, no way this baby would ever clash!

The peach dress is a whole other story. This wee gem was picked up for $7 and originally was about a size 20 Mama Cass style full length dress with big puffy sleeves that buttoned in at the wrist. As you can see the sleeves and the hemline did not survive my remodel but the fabric did and that’s what I had fallen in love with in the store. With this dress it wasn’t so much its past that got me, which is usually the way with vintage I find but rather the future I saw that it could have with me. It’s given me a whole new approach to vintage and I can’t wait to find some more hidden pieces.

Clashing Prints and Cougars

 

And in this episode of “I am obsessed with things from Gorman” – may I present for your viewing pleasure, this amazing shirt dress. I’m kind of unclear about whether or not the print is actually of a cougar (leopard? cheetah? duck?) but because I am happily ignorant of what makes which big cat distinct from the others, I’m going to claim it’s cougar print. Because that is hilarious to me. Just to me? I also love the clashing print of the bodice versus the sleeves and button detailing – I would most likely wear this with ankle socks and brogues, and as I walked around there would be a fifty-fifty chance that I would be imagining being a character in a Hardy Boys novel or that I was in world war one and suffering through butter rationing (I’ve been reading up on food rationing in war time a lot lately – my interests are teasingly diverse).

Hit list

I’m getting a little old to be writing christmas lists (although I’ve always thought surprises were severly overrated – what’s wrong with getting things for someone you know they definitely want?) But when I look at these items I get all tingly in excitement with the knowledge that in just a few paychecks, I’ll be able to start knocking off my hit list. Does anyone else get all warm and excited about the prospect of buying things? Or are my problems not just limited to my hugely inappropriate crush on Redfoo from LMFAO?

We’ve talked about how I’m 5’11 right? And that as such… what I really need in life is platform wooden clogs to make me even more of an amazon? These Gorman Tie Me Up wedges fit the bill so very well, I’m really regretting not buying them before I moved away from Melbourne.

Do you see what I am seeing? Not just a sweet, perfectly fitting t-shirt, but a sweet, perfectly fitting t-shit with DINOSAURS on it. And a quiz! Who doesn’t love a good quiz? This Tee and Cake shirt going to be my first purchase come payday, I’m anticipating wearing it every moment of summer – way past when it stops being funny and cute. I kid, I kid: it will never stop being funny and cute.

While I love just about everything that Calourette make, this ring very nearly sends me into conniptions. Calourette definitely have the market cornered on adorable, quirky and downright odd jewellary, that is my favourite thing about them. Want a ring with a snail on it? They’ve got you covered. Want to hang a lobster from your pretty little necklace? That dream too can come true. Want to pin ears to your ears? Well… you see where I’m going with this.

So often I think that one-piece swimsuits are boring and dull, but that is so not the case with this Gorman Hello Sailor one-piece. I am a sucker for anything nautical… add in the cute little cut out, and I’m completely sold.

These Unif hell-raisers are the end word in amazing smoking slippers. Loungewear is the new cool, and I couldn’t be more excited about all the quirky and crazy styles of smoking slippers currently on the market right now. It is not an understatement to say that I am obsessed with these, they are comfortable but also just a bit off (kind of like yours truely), and I’m imagining kicking some butt with those spike studs.

It might be almost summer, but that doesn’t stop me from craving this Illustrated People raglan sweater. It makes a change from all the vaguely rock chic black sweaters that you see all the time, the white equals out the (lets be honest here people) slightly demonic feel of it. I’m imagining short shorts, a tan, and a road trip while wearing this sweater.

Fuck Flattering.

Yes, Nike isn’t doing anything groundbreaking – it’s jumping on board with advertising campaigns such as Dove’s campaign for real beauty and Nivea, and possibly many other fashion and beauty companies who are promoting real beauty, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t something commendable.

I love this Nike campaign, particularly the thunder thighs ad, because girl my thighs are a thing to be reckoned with. They are big, and they are muscular from years of playing sport, and they will never fit into a size 8 pair of pants, but that doesn’t make them bad. I’ve been reading a lot of body/gender/sex positive books and articles lately, and it’s been getting me all fired up about how all my insecurities are actually things that are okay. If any of you read  The Rumpus you might be familiar with Sugar, one of my new favourite interweb writers and she’s basically summed up my feelings about myself perfectly;

“You don’t have to be young. You don’t have to be thin. You don’t have to be “hot” in a way that some dumbfuckedly narrow mindset has construed that word. You don’t have to have taut flesh or a tight ass or an eternally upright set of tits.”

When I read those words, I was so relieved. It felt like permission not to be perfect, and I’ve been trying to really focus on the idea of that ever since. There are many, many girls on the internet who can sum this idea up better than I can; try Feministe, I Am Offended Because, Cartoon Heart or Rookie Mag if you want to get all fired up with feministe bolshyness.

But my main point is just to give everyone a gentle reminder that fashion is fun – it shouldn’t make you feel like shit. Don’t let wearing a size 10/12/14/16/18/20/22/24/26 make you feel bad just because it wasn’t the size you were once upon a time.  There’s no shame in needing to go up or down a size from store to store (because guess what? There’s no regulation about sizing and they’re really just doing whatever they want with those labels). You are not the wrong size for the pants, the pants are the wrong size for you. You are perfect.

It’s perfectly fine to wear short shorts if you have thick thighs, just like it’s okay to wear a sheer shirt if you are a size 18 or a size 8. If you feel good in what you’re wearing – that is the only thing that matters. So don’t let other people’s opinion of you, or fashion’s opinion of what is ‘flattering’ get you down. Fuck Flattering.

Witching Hour

In what is probably a direct rebellion against the bright colourpolsion that is popping up in every store I see, I’ve gone all gothy. That’s right, I’m 23 and all I have left to rebel against is pop colours. I could end this right here and just hashtag my life #whitegirlproblems.

My latest purchase is a matte lipstick by Mac called Potent Fig, and I love how grumpy it makes me look as I’m stomping through the streets, but I am not the only one who is feeling like getting a little dark and stormy, my girls from Rookie (the latest project by wunderkind and all around fierce lady Tavi) are also getting in on the gloom. They’ve been making their own cat shoes, wearing black lipstick and designing detachable collars. Did you hear that? They’ve been MAKING THEIR OWN CAT SHOES. I am the anti-craft girl so I will just be lusting from afar and instead I’ll be vibing on slashed up shorts, floating maxi skirts, anything with crosses on it, dark plum lipstick and as my love for sheer continues, buttoned up blouses with fabulous collar detailing.

 

These are some of my favourites, all from ASOS (apparently the only place I bother shopping these days) and I love the gothy witch girl feeling they give me. They’re still all quite light and floating (because summer is afterall, inching ever closer upon us), but they’re volumnious and dark enough to get the best out of your mysterious-witch-girl feeling. Maybe it’s leftover from my days of teenage hormone angst or maybe it’s because Halloween is fast approaching but every time I look at these clothes I imagine sitting in a spooky graveyard at night surrounded by Barbie dolls wrapped in twine and conducting a séance. Wherever you wear it, it’s definitely time to let your petulant, black lipped inner self  shine. Or sit in a dark corner and glare at passer-bys. You know; whatever.