he said, she said

scott schuman; "I love that Carine is always happy to stop and talk or have her picture taken with her fans. Carine shows a genuine interest - Carine asked this young lady where she was from. The girl walked away just beaming."


pic and text from the sartorialist

carine, i ♥ you

team hack lepere

saturday 28th november 2008

dear diary.

this is how i want to be when i am older.
this is how all relationships should be.
(minus the phones) but who knows, maybe they're calling each other.

i'm cold.

the end.

pic the sartorialist

girl on roller skates

I have two days off of college, so i'm taking the opportunity to head to london for the weekend, where I shall unsuccessfully resist vintage shopping (i need to buy christmas presents instead!) and have a general snout. having a slight day of losing my fashion mojo (in the words of kirsty lee) and feel a much needed people watch to get some outfit ideas!

possibly no posting until monday!

pic nicolas lawn

wear what they wear

damn this obscenely cold weather we're having. i want to wear shorts and miniskirts without fearing losing my legs to frostbite. i'm chilled to the bone. and i have five layers on.
this is england!

if you're stumped for on what to wear tomorrow..

and you're warmer than me..

why, copy lisa jo and sarah!



kathy is your friend

schoolboy fantasties make the cut for paris vogue's calendar

images from next year's Paris Vogue annual calendar have just surfaced. while i like the whole "sexy pin up calendar for girls" aspect, (as it kind of gives those calendars of women rolling in oil that you find in garages the finger) I prefer last year's which showed the models covered in colourful body paint. While at a glance it appeared that the models were covered in tattoos, on closer inspection, the illustrations of body organs and naked women were a little high fashion meets frida kahlo.



this years' edition is fun enough, with a couple of tongue and cheek poses (see erin heatheron holding her "pussy") but in my eyes, it doesn't live up to last year's standards. The calendar sees carine's styled interpretations of male fantasties, so naturally we have jourdan dunn decked out in louis vuitton nurse garb, a little questionable as come the new year the outfit will be two seasons out of date.
and gasp! where oh where is lara stone? is anna selezneva the new girl in town?

pics, fashionologie, see more here

making good bad style good style

circa 1995

let's all watch clueless, sing boombastic by shaggy and work out how to channel cher, dionne and tai's outfits.

you know that phrase, "so bad it's good?"

and because i'm feeling a dungarees moment coming on.

guys, guys, it's happened. i'm now old enough to get nostaligic and actually have the knowledge to reference by gone eras! haa, i can chat retro shit and not have some 30 year old raise their eyebrows at me. oh.. isn't it kind of wrong that the 90s is now being referenced?

food for thought

the undeniably cool fleurette of dead fleurette has put into words something i've been pondering over the last few months..

does posting outfit posts make that person pretentious and egocentric?

all that posing and pre arranging, it's a little contrived, and hey, anyone who has taken outfit posts including myself will admit that it's not exactly spontaneous, unless of course you have a personal paparazzi, ie, a mate or boyfriend, and in that case doesn't that make you more pretentious?

often i feel a little uneasy about this "photo generation" we seem to have become, constantly feeling the need to document our every move and every person that we encounter. i admit, i carry my camera everywhere with me out of thyis quasi-fear of missing on capturing a perfect moment, but i often feel it's lame that it goes without saying that evidence of a successful night is getting tagged on facebook.

BUT at the same time, we're fashion bloggers, so why not! Just because you might take photos of your outfits, it doesn't make you some vain cory kennedy-alike hipster, it's simply about sharing and documenting what we're wearing, and besides, if you're proud of an outfit and feel good in it, why not stick it up? it's when people share that a huge archive of inspiration can be created.

If personal style posts are accussed of being pretentious and contrived, then surely so many realms within fashion and fashion blogging fall into that category.

ahh, my head is spinning and i'm being tugged in both directions! it's debate time! get involved, rant, please!

denim

here's to 2009.. most likely to be the year of denim.

kate and johnny

and the adidas trainers that she loved so.

more sharing of the 90s Kate love.

i'll take her glasses, and his boots.

ps, at the risk of sounding all "look at me!" lisa corneliusson over at swedish site LLC just posted a little interview feature that I took part in, and it's pretty cooll y'all. lovely to be amongst such a bunch of great bloggers, with the knight cat, tommy of jak and jil, and am-lul also featured..

the english translation is a bit shaky (click below) so here are a few of the answers I gave in "good. proper. correct. english"!

You are drawn to characters in films and books - tell us about a favorite!
Fictional characters are one of my top sources of inspiration, so it's hard to choose! Women who are independent, a little crazy and oddly stylish usually hit the spot. So Marla Singer from Fight Club for her grubby old prom dresses, Natalie Finch from Running with Scissors for her spontinaety, Sloane Peterson from Ferris Bueller's Day Off for her fringe jacket and nonchalence. And Margot Tenenbaum because she chopped off her finger and deems it something to boast about.

Tell us about yourself and how you came about to start Discotheque Confusion.
I started Discotheque Confusion two years ago when I had been toying with the idea of creating a fashion zine but the blog seemed a cheaper alternative! I live in England, a couple of hours from London and I'm a few months away from the end of college.I plan to spend the next year saving like a madmad in order to hotfoot it over to New York where I hope to live for a few months and intern within Fashion PR.

Why do we find ourselves being in love with Erin Wasson all of a sudden?
I think that when we are exposed to so many typically "fake" looking women in the world, to see a side of Erin, who has a tomboyish side that is so undeniably sexy is incredibly refreshing and also inspiring. Her style is so simple; a pair of cut off shorts or a thin white tee; it's accessable and the fact that she skateboards just adds to this "badass" factor which I think people who have an interest in fashion find appealing . We love her because so often everything within the fashion world is about perfection. So when Erin rocked up to the CDFA awards with her leg in a cast and crutches and she still killed it, our love for her was confirmed.

just a girl. and a t shirt.

Living in such a high-tech world seems to have people nostalgic for the past. Old fashioned snail mail and care packages are favoured over impersonal texts and emails. Most prefer the instant pleasure of a Polaroid to a digital camera. Just as mixtapes ruled in the 80s, we still gravitate towards homemade labours of love.

this homemade appeal is what drew me to i ♥ boxie, a small dalston based tee shirt company which has cuteness and unashamed cool in equal amounts. now here's a thought; how about wearing your heart on your tee shirt rather than on your sleeve?

i came across the i ♥ boxie site a few months back and after reading about moxie (as the mastermind is approproiately named) and her soft spot for typewriters and a desire for embracing the story behind the tee shirt and it's wearer, i fell in love and dropped her a line.

though many of the tee shirts are made in duplicate numbers (but you can opt the bespoke "t spoke" way) they're all very personal in that they're inspired by a place or person special to moxie and their slogans tell a story. if you order a tee for yourself, expect the story to come typed (with mistakes and all) on a little typewritten page; i find little novelties such as this so refreshing and so much more rewarding than getting some old tee in a polythene wrapper from X online store.

another reason to heart moxie is because of the price, which at £23 a pop is certainly no piss take, especially when the personalised tees (you drop them a line with your own slogan) cost exactly the same to "encourage people to have their own tee that tells their own story."

check out the loveliness http://www.iloveboxie.com/

** to clarify, this is my (i guess you could say..) "policy" on chatting shit about amazing products.. I'll only feature products that I genuinely love on this blog, regardless of any freebies or incentives, because selling out smells badd. i got in touch with moxie to let her know i was going to feature her lovely tees on the blog and she kindly offered to send me one of my own. thanks again m. x **

jen and chloe, you are my (plural) homegirl

if ever there was confirmation needed, this is it.

i love these guys because:

1 they don't light up a cigarette just because they're having a photo taken.

2 and they pull ugly faces not pretty ugly faces.

3 they ask "stars" (stamos and cardellini) to pose for a photo with them like fangirls.

4 and because it's jen, (lesley) and chloe.

thankk you deex, you lovely thing, for the heads up. get better soon!

pics cafeconlesley

kate moss nostalgia

walking back from my salsa lesson on wednesday night (that's right, i do salsa..) i found myself in Borders leafing through "Kate Moss Style" a new and satisfyingly chunky book by Angela Buttolph.

The vast number of pictures of Kate Moss reminded me of how fantastic she looked in the 90s. In recent years, she hasn't wowed me in quite the way she used to and some of the older pictures really inspired me to recreate the outfits that are so simple yet effective, like a long slim tube skirt with a little white tee tucked in and some quirky sunglasses.

I'm thinking a Kate Moss style post is in the works just to remind us all of why we love her so.

on the campaign trail

there is much promoting of "Influence" the Olsens sister's fashion focused coffee table book to be done. and thank god many a pair of shoes to be donned. here is the evidence so far.

the pearl jumper fiasco

sorry for the topshop whoring; but you know you would too!

igotitigotitigotit!

i guess i should have kept you abreast of the pearl jumper fiasco, but finally all the drama is over and thankfully (okay, maybe there is a God..) it all ended just swell.

this month at work has been the month that we get to buy items on our uniform allowance (a not too shabby 75% off) and bearing in mind this fact, there have been items i've had my heart set on for at least a month and waited to get it on the cheap.

the pearl jumper is this item. and what happens? a couple of days before I can claim my lovely discount, alexa blooming chung steps out in the very same knit and swooosh, it sells out.

gone, vamoosh!

after much frustration, agonising and emailing head office in search of what had now turned to resemble the holy grail of style quests, some incredible person returned the item to our store.

and well, i haven't taken it off for the past three days.

eeeeeeeh!

fangirl

chloe sevigny at Fontainebleau Miami Beach Grand Opening, november 14th

if the credit crunch hadn't killed the christmas list..

and if asking for a collection of designer clothes was usually a feasible option anyway..

.. then each item from this collection would surely be on it.

snowflakes around the corner

december is just over two weeks around the corner, which means that in typical christmas tradition i shall be creating a virtual calendar! (wayyy) of course for me, the novelty of publishing daily has now subsided as that's what I do usually, but coming up with 31 christmas themed posts is nice little challenge, don't you think?

i have lots of ideas, but be sure to hit me up if there is something in particular that you'd like to see. you could always get into the christmas spirit by flicking through the previous two advent posting from dec 2006 and 2007.

and this would be a good time to mention the christmas fairytale to be told in the magical land that is topshop (which to be honest is a bit of a fairytale all year round..)

Topshop is hosting a game which involves dishing out some serious prizes to ALL players. hop over to http://www.topshopchristmasfairytale.com/ to check out the beautiful animation which involves a rather special seasonal carousel..

sadly as I work for them, I can't take advantage of the top prizes of a years (!!) supply of shoes and clothes but it is only fair to share this nugget of excitement with you, because if you live in UK, Eire, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Australia then you lucky things can play too. Even if you don't get the big prizes, you "walk away" with something lovely like a gift card.

hmm, i think mr phillip green is feeling generous this year!

embracing the anti face

and the internet buzzes with rumours that pamela anderson shall be vivienne westwood's face come spring 09. everybody's favourite "lifeguard" will be starring in Dame Viv's Spring 09 adverts which, according to the word on the street, were shot in a trailer park.

I think this sounds fantastic and actually, for all the 30 second marriages and boobage, I'm not afraid to admit that I absolutely love Pamela Anderson and actually think that she's a rather good role model. for starters, she's a advocate for animal rights and is constantly involved with PETA's latest campaigns. Her work is this area isn't half arsed either, as she has written numourous letters and publicly campaigned, sticking to her guns unlike some other people I can think of who publicise their anti-fur views only to go back on their "morals" when they're offered a free fur. Anyone who has seen Pamela Anderson interviewed would probably agree that she seems like a very cool and down to earth person, in fact the type who would fall into the "person i'd love to spend the day hanging out with" category. And of course she seems like a great Mum; she seems to actually hang out with her kids rather than employing other people to do it.

So to conclude, I think this is a fantastic choice of face for a Vivienne Westwood campaign. The choice of an 'anti-icon' or at least somebody who isn't instantly associated with high fashion (though Pam is a huge fan of Stella McCartney) is always an interesting route to go down, take Marc Jacobs who always chooses interesting stars for his campaigns, even if they're not typically beautiful, popular or an obvious choice.

let's wait and see.

pic; nymag

Quote of the Day

Morning everyone! Fancy some pessimism with your breakfast?

"Don't do it. Find another career. People have so many misconceptions about this job and what is required. Styling is 90 percent production and sometimes only 10 percent creativity. Loving clothes is not a good enough reason to do this job. If you love clothes, go shopping; don't become a stylist. I love music but have no illusion to thinking I could be a musician."

oh really? you don't think i should?

thank god you told me. i could have wasted so much time.

stylist haidee findley-levin pisses all over the fire that is "your dream career".

editorial to heart. hanne for 10 magazine

10 magazine, latest issue

stylist david vandewal

photographers claudia knoepfel and stefan indlekofer

model hanne gaby odiele

i'm going a bundle on the restricted grey hues and relentless rooftop landscapes; aesthetically speaking it reallyreally appeals to me, though i could be doing with a little less of the "hey check it out, i'm being held hostage!" hands-behind-back posing.

but this small draw back is very much redeemed by the great casting (Hanne Gaby Odiele) and the styling. Animal masks(!), multiple layered belts and the odd streamlined silhouette of a 1990s style dress. add a bit of "let's accessorise with bin bag hats and sparkly shoulders" spirit et fini!

i have never really understood why hanne never made it bigger. personally i really like her; she has such an incredible face which actually has a look rather similar to heidi mount, i think. and is often a great example of model style, and yet although she has walked many a show, they're rarely for the big guns of the design world.