Fashion Revolution....

Above is just a sample of my trip to Somerset House for the Showstudio exhibition. It was really interesting from a creative point of view and also was incredibly good value (£2 to get in! I treated my mum as well). They let you take photos without flash, which is pretty decent as so many galleries don't let you record anything and it's hard to recall all the bits you loved afterwards. Anyway, the board in the photo above is just a section of a larger piece about how a shoot is put together and how magazines work, etc. etc. I was in awe! It was great being able to see the ins and outs of the fashion industry and see what a photography studio looks like post-shoot.

Clashing Prints

This was how I approached packing for the Christmas holidays - basically I started trying on strange combinations from my wardrobe. I tend to do this during times of stress, particularly on the night before an important exam... no idea why, but it's somehow quite relaxing to think about something so utterly alien to what you are meant to be doing. Anyway, the silk tunic has never yet made it out of my wardrobe because it's not a fabric I tend to wear a lot of (I am far too messy!), but I love the ombre/tie-dye thing and the deep black-blue colour is really beautiful. The scarf is made out of a skirt from a charity shop which purported to be a size 12 but was lying, so it got chopped up because I fell in love with the print. Then I stuck a black slip underneath, because the problem with silk is that it's impossibly sheer and you have to have an impeccable body to even consider not lining it with anything. Merry Christmas!

Sartorial Times in the Club

Went to a really good club night last week, where we were all given free t-shirts and allowed to scribble on them with fabric pens. Obviously this left room for many drunken designs and lots of bizarre slogans, but it was a brilliant idea for getting people involved and looking individual, especially when fashion trends often leave people dressing virtually identical. As you can see, I added wings to the back of mine, and a slogan on the front. The pen was a bit shaky as I had a large queue of impatient clubbers waiting their turn behind me (oh the pressure!) but it was a great idea for doing something alternative. Interestingly in these Health and Safety-conscious times, the staff were offering to slit the necks of people's t-shirts but they had to take them away and not give the scissors to the patrons, because we couldn't be trusted with them. Shame...

Inspiration

I want to dress like this woman. Shame she is only made of ink! Taken from a book called 'Drawing with Ink' by Laliberte and Mogelon, which is currently being plundered for Art research.

Yellow Peril

This outfit was for sketching...needless to say, I wasn't that excited about the task in hand. What started out as 'let's find an outfit that blends in for incognito work' turned into something completely different, spurred on by metallic blue leggings. That's my excuse, anyway.
The lace looked a bit kooky and musty, which was fitting for sketching an old building, and then I threw a curve-ball with the earrings, which I found in a bag. They were from a charity shop and were handmade, yellow metal heart shapes, but kind of squished. Then I got creative and computerised the glasses... this is an average day in the life of my wardrobe!

Dia de los Muertos

Ignoring the spectacularly bad camera work, this is what caught my eye at the British Museum. They, very appropriately, placed these sculptures on the ceiling of the 'Life and Death' exhibition, which was really interesting. I like the garish colours and the simplicity of the whole thing; everything is instantly recognisable and cartoon-like. It also fits in with my burgeoning love of anatomy.

H-H-H-Halloween

I find Halloween a bit weird because I'm not into Trick or Treating, but I do like the whole Mexican idea of Dia de los Muertos. Saw a good few papier mache sculptures of that stuff in the British Museum, which I will upload soon. Anyway, my Halloween costume consisted of a blue metallic bridesmaid's dress that I got free from the charity shop where I work, and some ripped tights that only ripped into holes instead of laddering, plus some red MAC lipstick and creative use of scarlet eyeliner on my ugly mug. Wil also upload that once I've found a photo that doesn't make me look like so much of a goon.... basically I seemed to be having a stare-out with the camera. It was very emo.

The Carnivalesque

We went to a fancy dress party the other day and I made some dreadlocks for my boyfriend’s Jack Sparrow costume. This is about as near to sewing as I’ve got in a few years and, surprisingly, it wasn’t a total disaster. They looked quite good from a distance, but are probably really insulting to people who have actually cultivated their hair to look like that! The end result was a bit John Galliano once I brought out the eyeliner on him and the whole costume looked very theatrical, aside from the very plasticky smell of the pirate boots he wore.

Basically I just cut up a t-shirt and wrapped black wool around the strips of fabric. It was much cheaper than buying a dreadlock wig, and pretty quick to make. I feel like Neil Buchanan off Art Attack now....

And So It Begins...

Well, this is it - the first post of the blog. Basically the aim of this thing is to express my completely materialistic love of style, clothes, magazines, films, and everything else that makes me dress the way I do. I might have a little ramble about other stuff too, who knows? Plus I spend more time on the internet than writing in my diary now, so it makes sense to put my thoughts into cyberspace for a while. I don't expect it to be fascinating in any way, shape or form, but if it means anything to you too then it's a bonus. Enjoy :)
P.S. The image above isn't me, but it's a woman I saw at a party who drew her own eyebrows in a very enthusiastic manner, and it made me laugh, because they are a good few centimetres above where they should be, and are slanted the wrong way. I figured it was a good way to start a blog on style, because images like this can generate so much debate, and certainly grab my attention!