This year's blink and you'll miss it Summer is drawing to it's offical close soon (for those of us who hadn't given up on it anyway). And as far as clothes go, when the mercury goes up they come off; so here's to summer beauty. Grab a cold one and toast to bronzer, to minimal styling and fuss, and the opportunity to frolick in the blazing sunshine like happy girl-nymphs in a Stelly McCartney campaign until we have to wear tights again (the weather forecast tells us that's Thursday). Happy Summer everyone!
Colour spectrum nails: Red, Coral and pink looks especially gorgeous on tanned skin. Paint each toe a different colour- you always thought you'd bought too many shades of red , until now!
Allthetime: Pillbox red lips and bare legs. No I'm not just using this excuse to post this photo of PJ Harvey. Why would you say that?
Nightime: Glittery stardust on your cheekbones will look pretty in twilight, under fairy lights, under strobe lights... wear with a slick bun and an airy dress. No heels please.
Add liberal sunscreen, sturdy flats and the possibility of sunshine and you have yourself a good ol' time!
Finally a cover > the original? I do not blaspheme, she's that good.
I don't think its quite kosher around these parts for girls to go around wearing suspender/school-girl socks post-16 but dammit i'm going to try anyway...once it's not tights weather
I'm getting OCD over something. A while ago i alluded to rubbing my sweaty little hands over 80s Fred Perry polos, Ben Sherman stripes and tweedy mini-skirts...it's an aesthetic i'm failing to describe despite my obsession with it, so bear with me. But the images above are getting there...it must be the new Topshop Unique line with its teddy-girl influences thats stirring this thing up again, so forgive me for repeating...
But I think it goes with the whole mid-90s/early millenium turnover in style which was kind of like a tripped-out armageddon of 80s/90s paraphenilia...i'm regressing to the years of light blue eyeshadow, twisty-grip up dos and jelly sandals here, but I always instantly think 'Ellegirl' when i see any trace of it. It's the editorials with the sports jerseys, old school trainers and little mini skirts that are getting me inspired for the coming season mixed up in my mind (just waiting on that sunshine)...
It's quite a funny thing you get from reading the blogs, that there can be a sort of shtick/influence/reference you own that's so convoluted in the crap you've been doing that week- the movies/music/books you've been browsing or something you've come across on the street, it's like excavating your brain! So trying to exorcise the whole obsession, I had a go at trying to mix up all the different inspirations and influences i was getting to map them out, which was a fun little hour collaging session...
red: fred perry 80s bleached skinhead chains skinscook sports-polos
It doesn't make sense right? But I tried. There's a lot of overlapping, with the garish 80sness of it all:
the piled on givenchy chains, with lovely bag-lady esque rings which have a bit of New Romantic feel. I've always been kind of obsessed with voodoo (hence the blog name), and the whole Stevie Nicks and Cher headdress thing- so, oblitagory nod to Prince and Jimi Hendrix for the blues-rock vibe and Kohl eyes. The film Mermaids which i re-watched the other day reminded me of other childhood faves, like Back 2 The Future and the sick pair of oldschool Nikes that got featured. That got me started on old band t-shirts and neo-punk type stuff- like the 70s style Sophomore neon zipper skirt pictured. Hence the slightly trashy skin-tight look mixed with boys stuff, like men's shirts reminded me of This Is England and teddy-girls. Which leads randomly to Skins 3 (I only still watch it out of loyalty mind) through this guy Cook, who dresses in a delightfully sporty/ASBO way- only because the same actor essentially played the same character in This is England, shame on you Skins producers...
Pheeew.
I know exactly the look i'm thinking off, but what do you call it?
If you got through that, i commend you because it was exhausting enough to write. I am still not making sense dammit, but one day i shall give this aesthetic a name.
And everyones got the February blues, myself included...and it's still January! Plus, just finished exams yesterday, so i'm taking a well-deserved sickie! So far i've stayed in bed and watched Wayne's World and Rules of Attractions back-to-back, the two most perfect films ever made imo....
this just in:
Sharyn Sossomon has the most beautiful smile in the world!!
p.s. to those who asked, i edit photos like these on Microsoft Paint- i wish i had photoshop!
footnotes:(l-r) Chanel Printemps 2005, Ellery S/S08, Mossy, Rick Owens jacket, Blondie- Call Me, Alice from Closer, a Cobrasnake chick
A very belated new year's wish all around, hope everyone let had lots of fun before herding back to their respective jobs/schools etc- welcome back. Now this is the hard part.
I never really stick to NY resolutions, but here are a few things i'd like to see in 09...and some things that need to come back!
1. bad is good, good is bad:
As in calpol-pink nails and cher-from-clueless furry pens, bad-mouthed bottle blondes (as per Courtney Love and Debbie Harry), men's bowling shirts, varsity shirts, (I've newly discovered Topman is awesome), glitter, 90s house music, dizzy stripper heels (always) , Baseball caps, animal stripes, lucky-star era madonna and lipstick (call it 'rouge')
I restrained myself from adding glitter jelly sandals...just :) Aii, Nostalgia-heavy
2. 60s-era-Bardot hair
The single best thing about 60s film footage is the hair- i don't know if it is because the world was a better place back then, or because people ate all their greens and were all about loving mother nature and leaving their tresses alone...?
If time travel is ever possible, i warrant that making sure every girl had the birth rights to jen brill hair would be my service to society...you're welcome
P.S. It's so cute how Ruby and Charlotte are channeling the gainsbourg girls here. Colour me heartily jealous.
3. Whimsical dressing
Soft jumper, jersey mini, head-dress... your typical outfit. It's hard not to admire girls like the Clotheshorse and Cherry Blossom Girl, who make a concious effort to warm the world a little with projecting a bit of heart and cheekiness into it. Because why not wear a crown everyday? Oh! And bangles, and piles of rings, and sooty eyeliner- i've nabbed this from somewhere but dressing like 'yourself' is imperative, because if you think about your physical appearance is the only real costume; if it is the last thing that tells you about the interior, isn't your embellishment and fantasy more truthful about who you are?
4. To good music, and to Crystal Castles
The best scientific discovery of bad-assery in 2008 was Alice Glass. She's part-Brody Dalle, part-Mazzy Star and part-Nintendo 64 (the one where you needed cartridges) I love a good frontwoman and she made my 2008, on many occasions.
I doubt she can be outdone, but if it would be anyone it would be this girl. She is possesses the same elfish cuteness which disarms you from the voice thats charged with enough static to put all your hairs on end. Inspired by greats like Marvin Gaye, Betty Davis and Sly & the Family Stone, (and with an amazing little back story on how they came to be) they're simply not like anything else right now...
Mette Lindberg- the Asteroids Galaxy Tour .
5. A little magic
When you read or watch most of the coverage of 2008, the consenus is that it was a shitty year. Because i have little backbone and am easily influenced, i thought to myself, hmm yeah actually this was a shitty year, boo! But that's obviously not true- it's no different to any other year, good things happened and bad things happened. Life is tedious and drags on, we just make the melodrama to break the monotony. So on that note, it's not really a resolution but it makes you feel better:
Everything will be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end...
Sunday forecast: 90s music, old Paris Vogues and long Bronte-style walks in the cold
I'm not of many words (or thoughts) lately, so i've found lots who can say it so much better: as well as saving countless pictures, sometimes lovely words give pause for thought...
xxx
can we have a bit of hush for an unknown ache and other fables; one girl asking permission for a hair cut, packing her horse into a suitcase, name stitched into everything she owns preparing to be a ghost this evening; one girl a guerilla only held up by bows on her shoes, apologising in her sleep and strung like too-early christmas lights
At fourteen I learnt the art of lurking. I had already given up sleep. At night I tiptoed down the attic stairs and the whole house trembled with my disobedience. I slid out of the front door and into the street. I went to the graveyard with its stone angels and pagan gargoyles and lay under a tree which was an umbrella with a canopy of lungs. I made up miserable songs which I sang in a low monotone. I was always looking for the artist. I drifted to the water meadow and walked through clumps of nettles until my ankles grew numb elephantine skins. I walked slowly, wrapped in a duffle coat, hoping that something would happen.`
Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash / Oh baby with your pretty face / Drop a tear in my wineglass / Look at those big eyes / See what you mean to me / Sweet-cakes and milkshakes / I'm a delusion angel / I'm a fantasy parade / I want you to know what I think / Don't want you to guess anymore / You have no idea where I came from / We have no idea where we're going / Lodged in life / Like branches in a river/ Flowing downstream / Caught in the current / I carry you / You'll carry me / That's how it could be / Don't you know me? / Don't you know me by now?
(the busking street poet in film 'Before Sunrise' who writes a poem for the lovers, if they like it they can give him change, his deal...)
Eh toi/ Hey you dit-moi que tu m'aimes/ Tell me that you love me meme ce c'est un mesonge/ even if it's a lie et qu'on n'avons un chance/ and we don't have a chance la vie est assez triste/ life's sad enough dit moi qu m'aimes/ tell me you love me...
(Alice in 'Chansons D'Amour', a ditty she sings under her breath on a cab home, not part of the musical (but should be)
