Lookbook? Fuckbook.

Please excuse the poor photography layout of the last post. I'm working on an essay and the deadline is kicking my ass and my computer abilities.

I'm not sure how I feel about lookbook.nu. I used to frequent it with the kind of passion and frequency usually reserved for cat videos and failblog, but now i'm not so sure.
I mean, I remember being 14 and seeing Vampire Freaks for the first time and to be honest, I wasn't enamored with the idea of rating and being rated. This has basically the same format of Lookbook without being under the perhaps false pretense of fashion.
 Lets be fair, I am all for judging on first appearance, we all do I, I do; in fact I spent an entire Friday night doing it last weekend. But sitting on the internet and judging people by their appearance, just not for me.
I feel like this is what lookbook has become. It's intents were admirable, giving hundreds of people, surprisingly both men and women, the ability to share their love of fashion (and a tiny bit of vanity and self-love) with the rest of the internet. As with Tumblrs easy blogging style, it is all 5 clicks and you are away and I get it, trust me I do. I like things that are easy, so sue me!
But the trouble is that it's all turned into a bit of a popularity contest. The vainest, the skinniest, the prettiest and the most handsome receive the pandering comments of the non-lookbook-elite. I don't think it helps that you have to prove your blog's worth to be excepted either; it just makes it an alienating and non-inclusive experience. Perhaps i'm just disillusioned with the idea of buying a camera and standing on a street corner in order to have a boyfriend/gaybestfriend/photographerfriend take my photograph in a 'i didn't take any time, just all of the day putting this outfit together', kind of way.

I enjoy the inspiration of the outfits and some of the incredibly talented people that exhibit their style on there, but I just think that the website needs to raise it's game and get rid of the exclusivity that makes you feel like a schoolkid who just can't dress their way into the cool crowd. At the risk of sounding like i'm trying to write the next 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', can't we all just get along?
Nah, i'm a massive bitch.

New Love, New Job.

No, my new love is not a person, it is Zara's latest collection. However, the new job is real. You are now reading the words of the new Creative Intern for the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Brilliant right?
Minus the twice weekly commute and the distinct lack of time that I am going to be having in the future for things like sleep? eating? having fun? I am very excited.
This however, brought up a conundrum, how do I not dress like me, that is, smart, feminine, respectable (that means no jeans shorts, vests with no sides or beanie hats) and still manage to retain my individual style. This is where Zara comes in. Minus the stupid sizing, in which as a size 12, I am an XL, they have produced what is a competitively affordable range this season. It is all about the simple lines, the tailoring (which is actually surprisingly good) and the monochrome for me at the minute. A simple colour palette works well for me because I can't open my eyes enough in the morning until after coffee to recognise anything, let alone colour. But also, the shapes are interesting but not too 'alternative'. Fashion forward workwear, to the rescue.
I own the leather top and long-line waistcoat, but these are some of my favourite picks from their website:

Girl Crush Alert

I have a new girl crush on Jennifer Lawrence. I don't know when it happened or why, but I now seem to be in love with her. I think it might of been when I read in a tabloid that she helped a drunk teenage girl who had decided that the perfect place to sleep/collapse was outside her apartment block. Kudos. I have been that girl and no celebrities have ever helped me, alas just peasants and regular folk. I almost wrote pheasants and that would have been a whole different story and perhaps a Disney film.   

Back to the crush: Her style is so different to mine that I can't quite grasp why I like it so much. Possibly its because I like her so much? Most likely the case but I think it's also the fact that the way she wears such beautifully girly, sexy dresses is so effortless and dare I say it? Graceful and elegant. Two things prized by my mother that I simply do not possess. Plus, she's damn good with a bow and arrow: a thing prized by myself.

Her W magazine editorial is also exquisite. 

shot by Tim Walker for 'W' Magazine

Tim Walker for 'W' 

Tim Walker for 'W'

Tim Walker for 'W'

I get them a lot, many of these crushes are fleeting, case in point Taylor Momsen. I was going through another, 'I want to be in an all girl rock band phase' but with more cocaine and dirt. However, some stick around and remain strong. I have therefore, decided to showcase many of these on a sunday from now on. Most will be because of their style but some because of their just plain awesomeness. 

Chanel Resort

I am in love.

And with Cara Delvigne. 

Photos courtesy of Nylon.com

Barcelona

Well I finally got around to booking my flights for this summer's escapade to Barcelona. Just to prove it:

Via my Instagram

Excited is not even the word. That got me thinking, in the tiny carry on that i'm allowed to take, what the hell am I going to pack?! I don't own swimsuits or bikinis. Not only is it never warm enough to wear one in England, my skin is so white it is actually iridescent.

White Cat $150.00 @ NastyGal

Ibiza Cut-Out $240.00 @ NastyGal

I had a scout around for possible ideas and came up with these:

Coral Lurex £26.00 @ Topshop

 Obviously I can't afford the NastyGal prices but does anyone know of anywhere that they sell interesting swimsuits and bikini's that won't cost more than my flights? Now I just have to work on the body to match.

Lemon Sorbet and Other Flavours.

Now that it's spring i'm trying to embrace colour. I looked into my wardrobe the other day and realised it contained only the monotone palette of a 90's 'loner' or Peyson in the early One Tree Hill episodes. Now, it's not that I don't like colour but I seem to be just drawn to black and grey, maybe it's the laziness of early morning colour matching or lack of ability to see enough to do so.
But hallelujah, I have seen the light and found a way: Coloured Drainpipes. Now these aren't a new thing, in fact they appear every year like a fashion boomerang but something about this years sorbet colours have me hooked. I'm surrounded by them at work and I'm trying desperately to resist purchasing a pair because I do not have £40 to drop on rent, never mind jeans. So I recently bought a bargain pair of light mint ones to try out and I am in love. Therefore, I scoured the internet and am now bringing to you a few of my favourites.

£40 Mint by Topshop

Multi Colour Tie-Dye £102 by Romwe

Candyfloss Leigh Jeans £38 by Topshop

Faded Neon Ankle Grazer £72 by Free People

Lilac £92 by M2F

Oil Wash in Damson £38 by Asos

As you can see I'm going to have a hard time hanging onto my money with this lot available online. One thing that I can see to be aware of is buying a colour that flatters your legs. While I wish that I could have, I certainly don't have Charlotte Free's enviable pins. What do you all think of coloured jeans? Chic or fad?

Fantasising and Realising.

Well, it's Coachella time. That time of the year when every hipster, blogger, model, celebrity and fashion house head on down to the desert to, presumably, drink, dance and tote their finest wears.

Now, I long to be there, on a pipe-dream I even looked into the price of tickets and flights and weighed it up against rent and food. Unfortunately I kinda had to pay my rent or risk my festival tent fun becoming a permanent state of living. Analeigh Tipton rocks my world. I saw her in Crazy stupid Love and knew that there was only one alien girl for me. (p.s I had liked her in ANTM too, I just preferred Marjorie. You know, the french bird that leant a lot? Nevermind.) Her outfit screams i'm just going to go and grab my skateboard and there is something so appealing in that boyish way. It's 90's tomboy but all grown up. 

On a side note, I only begrudgingly added Kate Bosworth because that t-shirt is too damn good. It is a distinct possibility that she annoys me more than every other living human. Why is she famous? Why does she never look to be in a full state of happiness? Why does her hair seem to avoid her forehead as if it is allergic to it?

Life's great mysteries, but, I will show you what I have purchased instead of Coachella tickets. 

Crystallized 

Topshop Cut-Out Dress

Pouch Bag
 Photos via my Instagram

Wheyy, I can do 90's fun all in Britain. Despite the rain, I am dying to wear this lot out properly in the sun. 

I also have a Made In Chelsea marathon to catch up on and a cup of tea. Always look on the bright side I guess. 

Coachella photographs Via Harpers Bazaar

Nylon

Now I have a penchant for Nylon magazine. I want to work there and by want, I mean NEED.
That is a long way into the future and i'm going to have to hope that they start a British extension but nonetheless  I have high hopes.
While perusing their website the other month, I came across the 'Create a look' page. Curious, I tried it and became slightly addicted to it. As it is under the shop tab, it calculates the price of the outfit that you've created but in my case, the eye-watering price totals leave a little bit to be desired! 
But a girl can dream right?


The link to the page is here, so have fun creating and styling from the comfort of your own home ladies. Keep those dreams alive! And until then, I just have my fingers crossed that I win the competition hosted by the lovely Oracle Fox. 

 As you can see, I wish I was at Coachella in the sunshine but again, we can all dream. Grunge luxe at its finest. This actually only came to approximately $1795.00 and I think you'll agree, that is just a bargain... 
Notice the fantastic skull cuff by Natalia Brilli. NEED. Topped with a bowler hat and plenty off attitude and I think I would be good to go. 
Why not send me some pictures of your own creations? 

Life Moves On.

Well, in the past few weeks, I have been embracing the motto: 'Life moves on' and wow, doesn't it just. 
It only hit me today that I have nearly completed my first year at university. I also spoke the ex and it was bitter-sweet but that's okay because I always knew it was going to be.
I think that all of this moving forward has made me look at my past. I've been literally obsessed with everything 90's or 80's that I grew up with; whether that be cartoons, films, clothes or music. I actually realised while watching the 'sabrina the teenage witch movie', that Marty is my style icon. I think I may even own half of the clothes in that movie or if I don't now, then someday I will god damn it.
 Maybe its to regain some of the sanity that I probably had at some point before my teens, before boys and before responsibility. I miss being a kid sometimes because the future is scary. The prospect of bettering my c.v, trying to fight a hundred other girls to get a job that they all want, even to starting a life that is completely my own. Dude, some scary shit right there, jus' sayin'. 


In other news, I'm going to dye my hair sugar pink, get my nose pierced and travel this summer. Barcelona is on my hit-list and I couldn't be any more excited about the whole thing. I'm over being scared and i'm over doing things for other people or because they want something a certain way. I'm taking control. This is starting to sound like a self help guide so i'm going to stop it right there before it gets out of hand.

I haven't yet formulated a post based on fashion that I have deemed worthy but soon there shall be one up here and ready to read but it was sunny the other day so I took a picture of me in a dress to prove that I actually own something girly. 

Gloomy Tuesdays and LDF

I am not a big fan of Tuesdays, they just seem, like their neighbour Wednesday, to pad out the week unnecessarily. I have a ton of work to do but as I am a master procrastintor, obviously I am here instead of on the microsoft word document I have open.
While I was commiting said procrastination yesterday, I flicked onto Nylon.com to see their rundown of LDF and stumbled across the Burberry Prorsum show.

Cleverly they showed the whole show live online and I loved every second of it. The 'rain' streaming down the sides of the glass house was literally the most inspired thing to do in line with the collection. The collection itself was a look back to Burberry's roots; lots of burgundy, brown and heritage fabrics but with added snippits of leather.

Cara Delevingne wears a coat for her final look of the show that I am in love with. Plus, the owl t-shirts and jumpers appeal straight to my heart. I adore anything that includes owls.

Could they have hit the nail any harder on the head with this collection for A/W? And surprisingly, there was no fur or feathers! I have become accustom to certain things being part of collections for certain seasons, pastels and nauticals for spring, prints and brights for summer, monochrome and metallics for winter and burgundies, rust reds and oranges and fur and feathers for Autumn. It's always a nice surprise when designers mix it up a little.

So in summary, I want, I can't have and I need to stop procrastinating.
Peace out, make sure you watch the video.

Lonely and Hellbound.

Don't worry, it isn't as ominous and the title sounds.
So today I went to my philosophy seminar, then procrastinated, then came to the library...to procrastinate?
I know what you're all thinking, why go to the library to procrastinate? I DIDN'T! I CAME HERE TO DO SOME WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE OKAY?!
Yeah, so I'm getting a tad frustrated. Therefore the most logical thing to do was to come onto here and read all of the new daily posts from the bloggers that I follow.
This is when I stumbled across two things that I love very much.
Now to elaborate, I have been a huge fan of UNIF clothing for a long time now. I just can't seem to find anything that is nearly as good as their laid back grunge styling. This is how I came across my new obsession:

The 'Hellbound'. Now I have been in love with shoes before but these? These are something else. I want them, I need them, oh baby, oh baby.
But at $210 I don't think I can afford them. I mean, I have the money but that is a lot of money. And I would be hell-bound because my mother would kill me for being so financially irresponsible. The temptation however, is now well and truly entrenched in my head.
It makes me sad inside.

I then stumbled across this little video by Andrea Dorfman and Tanya Davis and it made my day a little bit brighter.  Thank you to Bohemian Musings for introducing me to it. Being alone is something that I'm no longer used to so this momentarily stopped me from naming the 25 cats that I'm sure I'm bound to collect in the future and made me focus on the positives. Thank you!
So now, back to Art and Sentimentality. Or to Art and Sentimentality...
Signing out.

Nail Art.

Now, my idea of nail art simply comes in the form of: 'Well I'll paint them a pretty colour in 5 minutes before I go to work and maybe no-one will notice that I bite them.'
As you can all see, this is maybe not the most enlightened view but I maintain the fact that I don't have time to do them properly.
However, I am learning! I got the most brilliant glitter nail varnish from Essie that I haven't taken off since I got it:

The shade is 'A Cut Above' in-case any of you were wondering and I am in love. The picture shows it as slightly darker but in real life, it is a nice dusty pink. Now I have heard that the 'Luxe effects' range are purely for top-coat use. But to those advocates I say bah humbug. I literally coat in on in layers until its completely covering my nail and this works absolutely fine. Plus the thicker it is, the harder it is for me to chip off but once again, that just shows how much I lack femininity and decorum.

Now, anything further then just painting one colour on my nails is beyond me. I am clumsy. Case in point, I painted my nails the other day and managed to accidentally stick my thumb nail to the palm of my hand. This as you can imagine left a nice splotch of varnish on it. So when I was reading my new favourite blog by Gem Fatale, (check it out, I work with her, she's lovely and exceptionally more gifted then I am at being a girl) and saw the new Meadham Kirchhoff nail wraps for Topshop, lets just say I was dubious but with eyes the size of an excited Pixar character.

Now I've read the reviews which move from startlingly good to startlingly bad. I was so game for these before I new how difficult they could possibly be to put on but now I'm not so sure. While my brain is going 'Squeeeee these are so cute and creepy all at the same time. It's like a Tim Burton film...FOR MY NAILS!' There is a little voice in the back of my head that ominously pronounces: 'These are eight pounds. You don't have that kind of money to spend on your nails you fool. You don't have that kind of money to spend on food. Do not buy them, you'll only fuck them up and regret it. I am your spending conscience and I ruin fun.'
As you can see, a moral dilemma it most certainly is.

BUT LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE:

I WANT A CAT ON MY NAILS GODDAMN IT!

So, fancy nail wraps, good or bad idea? Have any of you used them before? Answers on a postcard please.