Oh How I Want To DIY

Philip Lim 3.1 catwalk show... Pics at Style.com

For some wierd reason that I don't really understand, I LOVE these Lim loafers.


SO ripe for a DIY!


Slippers (resole) at endless.com, studs at studsandspikes.com
If only I had more time...

Xxxc

Gotta Love the Sart!!!

Here are a few of the Sartorialist's posts at Style.com that I'm LOVING... Got to love Fashion-Week styles. Such variety makes my head go whirly, and they really give food for thought!

- Simple. Scarf. Want.

- Pink. Pop. Blue. Pop. Yum.

- Forest green + Wine-dark-purple + Sunniest yellow! (Admittedly on someone else.) Great colour combination that will haunt me for WEEKS!!!

- Denim ahoy. Just so casual, yet sweet. I'm reeeeeeeeally getting the roll-ups and hat vibe...

- Again. Purple. Pop. Blue. Pop. Yellow. Pop. PLUS. Turban magic + Roll-Ups. Sigh. Heaven. Yum. Overload.

;-D

Xxxc

Bejewelled and Bedazzled

So I've had a PINK week.

I had a few nights out in pink stash, and it is HIDEOUS shape-wise. Pink-wise, it's great, but REALLY not remotely flattering. 

So I've had to accessorise and pin to have it REMOTELY wearable!

Now, this particular necklace is part of my growing collection of statement pieces that I think you might be seeing more of over the upcoming weeks and months...

1) My pearl choker, the pink and purple jewels from above and my 'turkish artwork' that has seedpod bells, of all things, dangling from the bottom making AMAZING noises!!!

2) My Ironstone upside-down-pyramid necklace...

WOOP! Xxxc

Whispers, Wispiness, WASPs

This fine, cold evening, I've gotten very drawn towards faded, wishy-washy colours a la Virgin Suicides... Sofia Coppola's genius film not only has the delectable Josh Hartnett in, and may well be the only Kirsten Dunst film ( - apart from Bring it On which is standard chick-flick-love doesn't count territory - ) that I actually like, but also has GREAT VISUALS...  

I love this film with a passion akin to my geekiness about the lives of saints (trust me, that's BIG)... And this is thanks in no small part to the washed out beauty of the colouring, and clothes, more specifically. 

I started thinking about it because of the StylishWanderer's post yesterday; all washed out greens and pinks and pops of coral rose... Sigh.

So then I went a-wandering through google images and IMDB for...

(Ok, so aside from the colourway, this one's a Josh-ogle...)

 
Oh! The lace! And the Twirling!

Next: An ode to those DETAILS!!! Now I know the first two images are morbid... But I LOVE the stacking of beads in those chintzy-seventiesesque-pastels and the tights and shoes with thefit block heels!!! 

And these reminded me of a post Susie Bubble did a while back, which included this 'Virgin-Suicides-esque' Elena Fernandez Raya photograph! (Not very original, am I? ;-D) I can't find a useful lin k though, so you'll have to make do with Susie's amazingness I suppose... Hehe.

 

Oh... And can I have a white corsage from Josh Hartnett please? With that plasticky ribbon and the evergreen sprigs? Oh pretty pretty please?

And, of course, the Seminal shot of Kirsten on the playing fields which just sums up the mood and dreaminess of this movie for me...

Which of course (well, to me anyway...) brings up a Studio Ghibli image I have from a friend's music collection (so no source, but go to the wikipedia page instead!)

So anyway... I slept on it, and didn't really do anything about it today... Until, on an EPIC shopping expedition, I ended up with the Noa Noa Spring09. Feast:

Oh, what fun this journey into my brain's special little image-association-game has been!!! The shirt that may have been influenced by these colours / thoughts may work its way into an outfit post soon, and I'll flag it up. Honest!

Yet another EPIC picture-filled, rambly post - apologies - Xxxc

Runway runway runway... Show #1 - Anna Sui

Ok... So I gave in... I looked... Quickly... At four shows... (And didn't go to a seminar because of it... Oops!!!)

Up first. An old-time love of mine. Anna Sui; channeling Victoriana-Floral-Russian-Doll-meets-Cowgirl!

All images from Style.com

I always go to Anna Sui for cocktail dresses... There are two in my wardrobe that get brought out time and again. Any of 1, 3 and 6 would do me! Number 2 is there for the gorgeous colour and the slightly billowy arms... 4, for the velvet coat with puffy shoulders... 5, just because I look at it and think "hard ass Luella 08-09"! Hehehe.

More to come...

Xxxc

Night at the Museum

So last night I spent the evening shepherding kids around the archaeology museum in the dark... It was really truly surreal. Cambridge does a 'twilight in the museums' event where all the uni ones shut off the lights and do fun games. Ours involved picture cards and torches, finding which objects details on said cards came from. 

I have to admit I had quite a lot of fun, though by the end of the 3 hours, I was fecking freezing, as I'd left my coat upstairs. Oops!

Having been in my Eley Kishimoto heels all day, I stashed a pair of black flats in my bag to aid not-falling-down-holes-in-the-dark. Turns out I could have kept the heels on - I'm more agile in them anyways. See the scarf-necklace red-layering fun below...

The bit of the outfit seen here consists of Hobbs blazer (nicked from the mothership), Topshop Batgirl tee, Tibetan stole from Nomads in Cam, a charity shop silk scarf and red metallic beads bought in Florence for a euro. The unseen details were my grey Acne jeans and Eley Kishimoto shoes. (Though I wore M&S crease toe flat pumps in the gallery...)

 
Xxxc

Musings on Inspiration

So I'm spending the next hour or so working on 18th and 19th century Etruscomania - mainly Wedgwood and Hamilton... 

And some of this stuff is really getting me thinking about colours and drapey-ness. I may soon have the obligatory black hareem pants, so that's number one on the draping list, but now I'm yenning for fabric folds along the Balenciaga SS09 route too!

Also... Look at these colours... Divine much? (Wedgwood replica of the Portland vase)

Xxxc

Bank Account Battering?

Since the shoes proved mildly disappointing, I am currently waiting for DHL man to pick up my Net-a-Porter returns package... He has 10 minutes to arrive, before he's late for a 2 HOUR time slot! Bah humbug. I can't afford to wait after 6.30 as I'm off out on Union Business! Very annoying. Especially after such amazing service from N-a-P itself! :-S

So what did I do? Post-shoe disappointment, I went and got a pair of trousers on Browns' website... Ann Sofie Back in the sale. I will post them if they are successful. I ordered a medium which is apparently a 12, but I'm not humungously hopeful that they won't be normal-person-8 lol. We shall seeeeeeeeeeee!!! 

I also have a new LOVE, but I can't bring myself to spend $78 (plus postage) on a necklace... Even if it is beeeeeeyoooooteeeeeful! (It's from Bona Drag by Miss KK)

Xxxc

I know it's fashion weeek, but...

I just can't quite bring myself to do the trawl... It's bad enough I have to start thinking now about a summer wardrobe suitable for fashion intern-ing, but A/W too?

But... I have been doing a bit of fantasy online shopping and here are my picks:

Life, our universe, and everything...

After yesterday's megapost, I thought I'd follow up with a bright-living post of lots of pictures... Just to give you an idea of the calm-chaos thing we have going on in our set!

1) We like post-its.

2) I don't get up in the morning...

3) We like birthdays and balls best of all.

4) Childhood should never be left behind... (Meet Squirrel-Pooh!)

5) Pink to make the boys wink ;-D

6) I usually kill plants. This is an experiment that may turn out very very badly...

Right, I'm off out now, to conduct people around a museum in the dark... Wearing rather high Eley Kishimoto heels. Oh well. Wish me luck!

Xxxc

Love for Literary Feeling

Jumping on the Clothes Horse's beautiful bandwagon... I love bookshelves. When I go to a lecturer's office for a supervision, nothing fascinates me more than taking a gander at their bookshelves. One thing in this place that makes us lucky (in my view) is all the lovely lovely space for books. I have 11 good sized book shelves in my room... Far more than I could fill with the books my parents allow me to lug back and forth, but I do my best!

So... Up first we have my two 'down time' shelves... Top Shelf: One half filled with dvds (a strange and mildly embarrassing selection of Studio Ghibli cartoons, Buster Keaton silent loveliness, Star Trek films, chick flicks of an extremely unintellectual nature, and lots of French films), the other half, with juice (and alcohol out of the picture... Such a student eh ;-D)

Bottom shelf: Holst - The Planets score, psychology books, bibliophilia and fashion interviews, my Ghana guide, a bit of (soc and bio) anthropology and some 'classics' - I believe we can see Tolstoy's War and Peace...

 

Now we have a little further along the same bookshelf, missing out Mitford, Golding, Dante and Rillke, we come to my depressing Russian novel, Kapuscinski and Tenessee Williams obsessions, part of my Cambridge Pocket Shakespeare collection, Henry James spine chillers, the obvious Austin, the Bride of Lammermoor and Wuthering Heights... The stripy spine is a book of ghost stories. The rest of this shelf contains marshmallows and a lot of books on sewing and costume, a book on Mikhail Baryshnikov and my college's 500 anniversary book.

Next up, we have my 'everyday' bookshelf... The one with academic books; my own and library ones. They're made up of lots of archaeology, a few tomes of theology, a bit of art history and a few biographies and historical accounts. We also have my BRIGHT folders, some of my birthday cards, my Fresh Horses DVD for a moment when I can justify the procrastination, pictures of my cats, my Greek orthodox rosary, lots of post-its, some NARS and paul and joe make up, my CdG perfume, rescue remedy and my notebook stash. No particular order to that. FIT huh! ;-D

My room mate and I really are different in too many ways to count... One of these ways is in our bookshelves. Firstly, my room has quite a bit more book space... Secondly, we have completely different book-taste! Lookie-see...

See! Lots of scary science and management... Though some of those management tomes might work their way onto my shelves next year since I'm (*crossed fingers*) taking it for part III... What a strange thought!

Lots of DVDs, a few art materials... And the Badger-Pooh! I got these (Squirrel, Deer, Beaver and Badger) for myself and my closest friends a little while back... Mine will probably be shown in my next room post...

Bookshelf organising aside, I really am a bibliophile... I love spending hours in book shops... Independent, new booksellers or Dusty old booksellers. Just no high street chain, thank you very much! My favourite places have to be Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street and John Sandoe Books off the King's Road, both in London. The former is an amazing building, filled with travel writing and fiction mostly, but they have a gorgeous 2nd hand gallery above the Western Europe room. John Sandoe is probably where my heart lies... I've been going there since, well, I was pushed around in a pushchair! We used to live in Chelsea, on the KR itself, and it still feels like home to me. I try to make a trip to John Sandoe about once a fortnight when I'm home, as the people in there are so amazingly knowledgeable, and I've known several of them since I was teeny-tiny... They can find anything, from anywhere too!

I also love to read books about books. If you ever want a quick and uplifting read, Anne Fadiman's 'Ex Libris' is a beautiful little collection of essays. And looks cute too!

Finally... If you're ever in a bookstore with me, get out of the way... I'm a fiend when it comes to buying the things. Always have been, always will be. 

At least I don't buy Mills and Boon by the bucketload anymore!!! (Yes, that was a middle school phase...) Hehe ;-D

Xxxc

I Like Bright #2

I like bells. 

Bells are necessary for my happiness.

Bright bells are even better.

These two circlets normally hang over my desk, and I swing them in a playful manner far too often. Both were gifts. The silver was brought back for me by a good friend, from India, and the multicoloured string was given to me by an American shopkeep in a little new age-y store in Lucca, Italy. I was on my way home from a month in Tuscany, a little heartsick, a little lonely, and wandering was proving a tad demoralising. But when I stopped in this shop, initially to try on some ballet pumps (that I regret not buying ;-D), I ended up chatting for nigh on an hour with the lovely 50s-ish gent. We covered topics like my dig, San Fransisco, the Tuscan countryside, and my love of bells. I couldn't resist tinkling the display on my way out, and he very generously gave me one of the strings... It's a little big to wear often as a bracelet, but it's presence in my life always makes me smile, and remember that there's good to be found in every new experience, and that talking to people is the most wonderful pastime in the world...

Then, we have my diary... Stickers and post-it yummyness. The everyday admin happies!

Today's Excitements...

News of the day... 

My order from Net-a-porter arrived BUT, well the shoes are slightly too big... Which is ok, as I now just have to decide if I want a straight exhange pink for pink or if I want a different colour. Cambridge living isn't too mucky, but wondering if London is a bit dirty for duck egg blue or white patent. Hmmmmm. I shall let you know what I decide soooooooon. Or if I return the shoes and get the Luella tshirt I'm currently eyeing. DILEMMAS!

I also changed my igoogle set up to this rather cute samurai doll layout. There were several fashion-y ones, but this one caught my eye...

Life is sweet. I should really be reading about 18th century vases... Sigh.

I Like Bright # 1

Now I don't like to jump on a neon band wagon, as it's been so so done. But. If anyone was going to describe my style. Ok. My LIFE. It would be using the adjective: BRIGHT.

Today, we have my nails (barbie pink plus glittery tips), my (aforementioned) watch and my (slightly less bright-looking, but only in comparison...) necklace.

WOOP! More soon - read: when I've charged my camera and can download more images...

Xxxc