will this be the last post of 2008?

..quite possibly. for I am working for the next two days and with evening plans and new years eve to throw into the equation, i don't see when i'll have the chance to blog over the next two days.

alas, there was so much i wanted to do to see out the new year.. but i promise i shall share what i got present-wise (it is tedious, and i promise i wouldn't if some of you hadn't seemed genuinely interested, he!) when i get back online.

have a great NYE, remember (because i'm as guilty of this).. don't build it into some perfect dream night it isn't. slip on your favourite heels and dance out, sip champagne at home, or devour mugs of hot chocolate in a mate's freezing garden shed. it is after all, just a night like any other, but with a little extra.

happy new year!

ps, i just rediscovered an old favourite song. it's lovely and anti-romance in a very, well, romantic way.

22: the death of all the romance by the dears.. click here

craft time

go on then, what did everybody get for christmas?
be as self absorbed as you like in the comment box!

before i bottle it.. the first video post!

alas, yet again, after much anticipation, christmas day has now been and gone. i had a chilled day with the family, basically consisting of eating, intervals of sleeping and enough stretching of legs to then justify another portion of trifle or a turkey sandwich.

shame on us and on gluttony. but otherwise it was a rather modest christmas. everyone tightening their belts and all that, but personally, i found it rather refreshing to have a pile of presents that wasn't toppling over and reeking of decadence. and the quality of my lovely gifts were not at all compromised, but more on that maybe later.

i returned home at the end of the day to rather belatedly discover that yes, I can record videos on my laptop with sound (albeit quiet sound) and hurriedly recorded my first mini video blog before fear could stop me!

i'll try to minimise excuses as I think it's best just to get on with it, but you will need to turn up your volume a lot as I have a wee microphone, and as I say in the video, this is really a bit of an experiment. it's bloody nerve wracking posting this thing though, as I realise I sound rather public schoolish, which is not at all me!

ack, what the hell, just watch and let me know what you think..

And I guess now we're on to proclaiming HAPPY NEW YEAR!

ps, now that christmas day has passed, the advent posting has stopped. it was fun this year, but I'm glad to be able to blog without wracking my brains for any kind of seasonal fashion reference!

advent season: day twenty-five, merry christmas!

advent season: day twenty-four;

if there is anytime guaranteed to make people excessively generous, to the point of hindering common sense, it's christmas. i mean excessively generous in a stupid way. like that split second when i considered the possibility of sending a gift parcel to everyone. i very quickly shook this impossible idea from my head, but still thought it would be cool if everyone could share a little blogging present. not only for those who are part of the "fashion blogging community" but for readers and even the lurkers! the more the merrier, and all that.

i did consider getting lots of bloggers to all contribute a little something for an collaborative "cyber parcel", if you will, with a collage here, a video there and a stonking mix too.

alas, i'll admit, i did not have time to turn this idea into something tangible! but I did drop the dead fleurette a line to see if she would be up for contributing a homemade mix..



and indeed she was. so deaddiscofleurettheque (!) presents..

click here for your christmas soundtrack. (midnight juggernautsmgmtthe specialsvampire weekendskream!nouvellevagueth0 buzzcockscut copybornruffians)

set replay and have it on in the background as you prep last minute mince pies on christmas eve right through to dancing on NYE. (because some of the songs will guarantee silly dancing!)

without getting all sentimental (ack, what the hell..) it's been a great year for us fashion bloggers, it's been great to see lots of newbies springing up.here's to 2009, let's hope that the gloomy R word (that's recession..) doesn't take too many prisoners, and speaking of the R word, maybe anna wintour will see the word retirement in a whole new light. and grab hold it of it with both hands?

a little present under the tree

advent season: day twenty-two; wear it red

who knows, maybe it is the season, but i'm seriously feeling these red, pinky hues of late...
and ali macgraw's red dress. ali macgraw's red dress. i can not forget!


US Harpers Bazaar, Jan 09. Styling by Nicola Formichetti

Vogue Germany. Jan 09. Styled by Claudia Englmann

advent season: day twenty-two, life before mr wang

Fashion has been having a seriously masculine moment of late.

or of longer than late, because upon (finally!) viewing Sofia Coppola Miss Dior Cherie advert. i remembered that indeed there did exist a time of pastel colours and floaty dresses before holes and tears and leather and studs.

But this is all part of the fun. It's what makes getting dressed in the mornings so damn difficult but also so lovely; that silky feminine ankle grazing dress, or a baggy tee, high waist boyish combo with some scruffy footwear?

For tomorrow, I am feeling the former.

advent season: day twenty-one; cheer!

i'm craving a bit of old school cheerleader style for 2009. 1950s meets late 1980s; a combination of good girl knee socks and grubby track tops.

The elements: old track tops and jackets jackets, denim, striped tee shirt dresses, knapsacks, wayfarer clubmasters, neckties ala colonel saunders, initials badges, sports socks, white thermal tops, dungarees dresses, plaid and sheepskin jackets, stiff collars.

The poster girl: Drew Barrymore in POP magazine. She's your more adventurous friend, she smokes behind the bike sheds and borrows her older brother's clothes and battered converse.

The hair: Cute short bob, or worn wavy with a few pincurls. Simple ponytails left from the day before.

The soundtrack: Something to bang your head to.

The film: If Grease missed it's curfew.

advent season; day twenty, love story and late nights

since the start of the christmas holidays, I have watched a film a night, working my way through a backlogue of recordings.

I'll go to bed each night, humming the theme tune and dreaming of the costumes.

So far I've watched
Love Story
Me Without You
and Pulp Fiction

Love Story, rather appropriately had me head over heels, and I'm now craving Ali McGraw's wardrobe from that film so badly..

Me Without You is great too, rather intense in parts, but it spans from the early 70s to the early 90s documenting the changing fashions and music along the way.

And Pulp Piction, is well, a classic.

Here is some Love Story inspiration, and note to self.. must find well cut red teadress!

advent season: day nineteen; wouldn't it be lovely to..

pack up christmas and take it away on holiday.
maybe to somewhere in europe, equally chilly.

maybe germany..?

and go skinny dipping on christmas morning.
get absolutely bloody freezing, then open up your presents in front of the fire.

brrrr!

pics, wdphotos

advent season: day eighteen, models with the seal of approval

sasha pivovorova

lara stone

for those of us living in the uk..

you have until the end of the day to get your christmas cards in the post by 2nd class.
and until the end of saturday for first class!

if only the stamps were like this..

advent season: day seventeen; apartamento in your stocking

there is a week to go until christmas, and if you're totally stuck on presents and willing to throw money at the situation, or indeed if you feel like treating to yourself to a little something after all of the inevitble rushing, you must, you must find yourself a copy of apartamento.



i found myself flicking through the delight of an interiors magazine during my last trip to london, and i can safely say that it is the best out there; for design nerds, it's fabulous content matches it's knee quiver inducing layout. all



shot using a "like totally grainy camera, man", the overall quality of the magazine is hazy magnificence.With inspiring articles about the editor of interview magazine who lives in a cottage in the heart of nyc's west village (?!) and about an anti squatters global organisation that can see you room sharing in beautiful derelict buildings, you'll finish reading with your jaw slack. and a newfound passion to live like a "total free spirit, man".

it's £10 for the magazine, which yes is steep, but i put my hand on my heart and urge you to go ahead anyway. buy a stack and give one to each of your friends, roll it up and put in a stocking, or keep it all to yourself!

see here for buying info, stockists: http://www.apartamentomagazine.com/buyb.html

first 2 images, apartamentomagazine.com, scans my own

advent season: day sixteen, knight cat's christmas wishlist

some argue that a blog filled with hoards of copy and pasted images with few words is yawnsville, but the knight cat has the formula of inspiration posts perfected and is the undisputed queen of the field. she mixes the best pictures of MK from so long ago we thought we'd dreamt them up with cutesy illustrations. she introduces us to the newest internet muses and what makes me love the knight cat the most? the multiple daily posts makes it a perfectly aesthetically pleasing procrastination tool.

her outfit posts are the best, but here take a different form, as this cute fawn and bunny play dress up and dream about the items on knight cat's christmas wishlist..


alexander wang blazer- i bet everyone gets sick of hearing me saying i want this, ahah i want it as much as the bag, which i decided to leave out of the wish list in fear of being too redundant. ha!

miu miu clutch- i have wanted this forever,and if i had it i would wear it with a plain white tee (ideally, with the alexander wang one) and some cigarette jeans.

topshop leather pants- they look like the perfect fit

alexander wang tshirt- really basic, and it can easily be the foundation of every outfit.

fiorentini boots- they are perfect!

loselliani ring- i like a lot of jewelry

rick owens leather jacket- it is the epitome of the perfect leather jacket in my opinion..and it would look amazing with any plain old tshirt..i can see myself in it right now......man am i missing out!

list of image sources:

(rabbit) (meadow backdrop) (deer) (all product images, knight cat)

advent season; day fifteen, binki is the angel on the tree

binki sharipo makes up one third of little joy, a band who although may not have massive amounts of longivity in terms of play per pound, are beautiful for now.

the fact that she plays guitar, glockenspiel, percussion and add (not to mention her gorgeous vocals..) means that she is no "made only for camera"girl and i therefore proclaim we may all fall in love with her, sans guilt factor.

ps, she has a wee bit of the michelle williams about her, i think, which is even better. though as she is fabrizio morretti's gf this may have more to do with the "one half of a cool creative couple formula". for michelle heath and spike apply.

pics; gorilla vs bear and pooneh! at flickr

advent season: day fourteen, sufjan harks, it's christmas!

these days christmas number ones consist of relentless "X Factor" winners, am I the only one that finds this a tragedy?

sufjan stevens, with put the lights on the tree. a modern day christmas jingle, old style. hoorah!

advent season: day thirteen, remembering mj's annual bash

due to financial difficulties (be those as a result of the credit crunch or dodgy not-so-behind-the-scenes hefty bribery pay offs..) dear marc jacobs will not be throwing his annual christmas bash for the first time in 18 years.

it had originally been scheduled for wednesday just gone, and would have had a rock and roll circus theme. surely citizens band and a serving of karen elson would have been pretty perfect for this, but hey ho, let's celebrate and take a look back at the previous years rather than mourn for "loss" of this years.

2005 The Wild West


2007 Arabian Nights


& the rest..


The Previous themes:

2003
The Theme: White and Silver
Marc's costume:Polar Bear

2004
The Theme: Red and Gold theme
Marc's costume: Heinz Ketchup Bottle

2005

The Theme: Wild West
Marc's costume: Wilbur from Charlotte's Web

2006

The Theme: Carnival in Venice
Marc's costume: Vetetian Pigeon

2007

The Theme: Arabian Nights
Marc’s costume: A Camel Toe

pics wwd, style.com, google

advent season; day twelve; magazines, you make the world go round

i have une question..



now that it's december and we have whole years worth of fantastic fashion editorials behind us, which have been your favourites?

maybe one of the million lara stone editorials in paris vogue?
the jalouse hipsters of nyc?
or how about one of the scruffy tomboy erin wasson eds that cemented our love for her?

of course there are far too many to name and these are by no means incredibly stand out ones.. those will have to wait for another post!

pic, italia vogue december 2008

advent season: day eleven; topshop christmas party

last night was the topshop christmas party, and it was the most fun i've had in a very long time. i can tell you, keeping your expectations low works wonders. the first half of the evening was spent wandering around swapping outfit information and generally touching everyones dresses and oohing and ahhing over shiny shoes.

i went in my new leather fringe skirt (we're getting married this sunday) and a slouchy AA tee, pictures another time.

i don't usually post personal pictures, but as it was a topshop party, it only felt right! plus i love that everybody at my work is incredibly stylish yet no one comes off looking like a hipster camera whore.(with the exception of andrew maybe, in his wayfarers. but he's a total sweetie and i'm saying this affectionately!)

oh, what was I saying about hipster camera whores? me and leo taking the piss..