Artistic Leanings

Yes, I'm still a very peripatetic blogger... Dropping in now and then, scattering whimsical thoughts in my wake! ;-)

Lots has happened lately; lots of ups, a few downs, but at the end of the day, I appear to be Very Happy. Right Now. Which is what matters!

I have just waved goodbye to the wonderful Claire of The View From Here, who was up visiting for the weekend post-her law exams!

Awesome times.

We baked.

We went to jazz.

We wandered.

We had coffee.

We talked boys.

We talked clothes.

We watched Star Wars.

We dressed up as Bears.

It was excellent!

In other news, I also have a dress to (very belatedly) review... The lovely Ceri from Blue Inc sent me this hot little number:

(Wearing: Blue Inc. dress, Eley Kishimoto shoes, M&S cardigan, ToyWatch.)

I absolutely ADORE the painterly pattern, and considering it's only £19.99, it's really well made and a good length for going out - though I will be wearing it with thick black tights!!!! (I just didn't have any to hand at the time, and thus we get my awesomely large and white thighs on show... SORRY!!! ;0D)

I would say that the top bit has a tendency to fall down, but that may be because my boobs are a little large so fall out at every opportunity. A bit of tit tape or the sewing in of straps or a strapless bra will easily solve the problem!

Hopefully I'll be going out a few times in the upcoming weeks, and this dress is a perfect addition to my party outfits!

Right... I must be off. Tonnes of admin to do and parentals turning up in about half an hour. Woop!

More soon. Xxxc

Musical Theatricalities!!!

Has anyone heard of the musical Return to the Forbidden Planet?

We did it as the Lent term musical in my first year, and it was SUCH FUN! "Shakespeare's long lost rock-and-roll masterpiece" pretty much says it all... (Look it up on itunes and you'll see what I mean! ;-D)

Basically, it's pretty much the biggest show of the year, and I'd applied to be costume assistant... It was my SIXTH show that term and I was exhausted and got really ill in the middle of term and hadn't noticed that the actual costume designer had done nothing...

So, with A WEEK to go, he pulled out, citing wanting to run for CUSU (our student's union) as reasons he couldn't do it... Basically elections were at the same time. LAMEST EXCUSE EVER!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was suddenly costume designer for a show that went up in a week, with no costumes made and 22 people waiting to be able to practice in them...

Let's just say, it was one of the most stressful, but exhilerating weeks of my life... We basically redesigned the whole costume concept, and I roped in an absolute horde of people - mostly techies, more used to hanging lanterns, carpentry and programming sound desks than to sewing machines, mountains of pink fabric and miles of ribbon - to help with endless sewing, sticking badges onto shirts, and glitter-glue-ing late into the night! 

And it ended up beautiful! We got rave reviews and I made a tonne of new friends in the process... Silver linings eh!

This is the show where one of the boys' pants split mid-show and gaffa tape was the only option... My favourite costumes were definitely the neon pink dress we made for the lead, out of UV spangly material, from scratch... Oh, and the cute little shirt-shifts we made for the girl pilots... They had ribbon hems and were just So Darling!

The most fun thing to make was the hat for the robot (bottom right and left above). It was a colander we'd bought from Tesco, spray-painted silver, with millions of little LED lights all over the place. It was fantastic, and I will be forever indebted to my best mate, Will, for sorting all those fiddly little blinking lights, when he was supposed to be orchestrating the building of the entire set (as he was Technical Director, so supposed to be in charge of everything Else!)... Hooray for girlie charm eh! ;-D

And, of course, the necessary costume wench pic... Look at me in my boys shirt and red lippie! Odd angle, and rather ill, but Too Cool For School anyway eh ;-D - can't believe this was 2 years ago! Gawd I feel so OLD!

Hope you like the pictures! 

Xxxc

Photos are either my own, or copyright Charles Arrowsmith and Damian Robertson. Poster copyright Esh Alladi. Thanks on this post have to be extended to WW, SM, PN, JD, H, PMD, HO, EA, HS, AB, SP, RL, The B, Spangly G, R, HG, The WHOLE S.O.D. and many many more...

Walking on Sunshine... Wooooaoh!

So today, once again with two essay deadlines looming, we skip out to take photos... 

It's really rather warm and sunny and so today was the first time I've been tights/trouserless in quite a while! Please excuse the winter legs ;-D

Lady in red... And yellow, and blue.

I don't often wear red, but it did make me quite hyper today! 

I'm wearing my Riva boots, a skirt bought in a Dublin boutique about 5 years ago, a vintage belt nicked from my mother equally long ago, my room mate's Primark tank top, a cashmere cardigan (with a button missing... must find it...) from Magaschoni and my vintage tooled leather bag.

Has anyone seen this month's Teen Vogue? I've just realised how much I love it hehe. It's just so bouncy and bubbly, as magazines go ;-D

I actually downloaded Taylor Swift's new album the day before I got this, and didn't even notice she was on the cover! I was more interested in the yummy colours (, seemingly reflected in today's outfit).
I so so so want those balloon brooches... I feel a DIY coming!

The brooch and  the colours of this make me happy...

PYJAMAS and a wild cat... Hehe.

I know I'm supposed to be blogging about sophisticated magazines like LOVE and Lula, but this was just too cute to not talk about :-D and I haven't managed to finish the other two yet... 

Another black tie dinner tonight, and this one has a "with a twist of pink" dress code, so I may wear the same dress again. I'll post a pic if there's a full length one.

Xxxc 

CSM produces Grace-Jones inspired oddness and weirdly captivates me...

Now on first glance at the Central Saint Martins stuff from this year, I wasn't massively blown away. But I mustn't have looked very hard (or I was being a bit of a ditz, which is equally probable considering my constantly sleep-starved state these days).

I happened upon the CSM article on Dazed Digital this morning. (Yes, it's 5.54am... So what?!) It had three little interviews with students who've just shown their collections: Oden Wilson, Laura Mackness, Chary Westberg and Matteo Bigliardi, and along with these, they showed some sketches and 'inspirations'. I instantly fell in love with Mackness' felt tip drawings and her inspiration photo:

So I went to Vogue.com and found (from 148 onwards) her designs which I hadn't looked at first time around...

Most of them really interested me. Now I'm not sure how the colour combinations would look in real life, but I'm rather intrigued by the texture and what I perceive to be the heaviness of the fabric. And just look at those details! I want to draw trouser zips onto yellow trousers RIGHT NOW, with a sharpie. Please. Thank you.

Not so sure about the cone hats, but you never know!!! ;-D 

The sixth photo made me think of maybe making a scarf / collar-esque construction in the shape of that lapel with the hand off the bottom... Black starched / cardboard reinforced fake collar... Intriguing!

I think this might be very love-hate, but I do think it's interesting... I especially love the interview and insights Mackness gives in the article too. Grace Jones and basic shapes... Born in the 80s. Oh yes! 

Xxxc