It is far too sunny to be inside at the moment. The past few days have been spent enjoying the sunshine and partying. So without further ado.. have some awesome music. I was at two deadly gigs in the past week. Firstly, Friendly fires with Casiokids and Thecocknbullkid in Waterford. Dance-fest. Casiokids song has been on replay. Enjoy.
This song is always played at work. It makes me dance.
Then on Thursday, I dragged my friend Katie (who is pure deadly... she is reading over my shoulder as I type) to see Le Galaxie in the Pavilion. There was labcoats and fantastic dancing.
All this talk of music gets me excited about the upcoming festival season. Last year I went to Pukkelpop in Belgium and Electric Picnic in Ireland. This year, it is going to be Oxygen and either Pukkelpop or some festival on a beach in Croatia. Music, camping and festival-chic, my idea of fun. My festival look this year would definitely involve some of these pieces (from Topshop, Fredflare, Urbanoutfitters, ASOS and American Apparel)... Enjoy the sunshine where ever you are. I will be.. behind my oversized shades.. drinking a bottle of pear cider... listening to music.. Peace, fi xx
I was OOHing and AAAHing when I first heard about Fanny and The Cave from Susie Bubble. The 'cave' is off the Old street roundabout, Fanny and the Cave supplies archive pieces from Jean Paul Gaultier, Herve Leger, ThierryMugler, Margiela, Bless, Alexander Mc Queen, and a profusion of garments and accessories from the 90s.
The items are all for hire, and an appointment has to be arranged to view their lovely stuff. All items are collected from previous collections from these designers, and some seem a bit "unconventional", but would work beautifully in the context of styling. I'm looking forward to visiting their shop when I'm in London. I should stop daydreaming about London, and do some proper study.
We received an email yesterday from Fanny (teehee) and The Cave, announcing the launch of their website. Here are some of the looks in the showroom..
Ooh..the black chiffon dress with roped back.. Ooh.. the PVC cape.. Aah.. the black corset.
In June, Jen and I will be graduating from our respective college courses. It is rather exciting and scary all at the same time. But this brings up a major style dilemmas. Firstly, what to wear underneath the cap 'n gown. Secondly, seeing as its mostly shoe one sees under the gown, what kind of shoes to wear. Ok lets tackle dilemma numero uno first. This dress needs... to look good under black, be relatively sensible (there will be numerous photos taken and college folks present) and comfortable, as it has to be worn all day and perhaps out.
I found a dress that could work, if I had a limitless budget. I want it so bad. An Alexander McQueen McQ Striped Sequined Tank Dress. It.Is.Amazing.I.Need.This.Dress. I found it in TK Maxx and it longs to be worn by me. Is it possible to share a moment with a dress?? Because me and McQ fell in love.
Stupid 400euro price tag.
So, I am back looking for a dress. Any ideas please??
Now, onto the shoes... They need to be pretty awesome, as they are what people see when you walk up to collect the scroll. I have lots of shoes, but I need a pair that I am well secure in. A clumsy girl like me can't take any chances on having shoes I will slip out of, fall up two stairs, knock over my lecturer and the podium and flash everyone. No. I need shoes with height, with straps and with "pop". I was browsing Topshop and ASOS for shoes, here is some that may took my fancy.
If anyone cares to throw some ideas my way, feel free to! Peace, fi xx
Ah the joy of having nothing better to do. I miss that feeling. Fu took me on a lovely sunny day trip to Cobh, where there were cute little stalls, and lots of dogs. My heart went soft every time I saw a dog.. I must have said "LOOK, DOGGIE!!!" 20 times today. After some yummy hot chocolates and crepes, we headed back home for some more arsing around.
My computer is acting a bit mental these days, so we decided to do one of our home made DIYphotoshoots..
Today's theme was "Air Suspended Shadows".
How to do it yourself.. 1- Have a friend be in charge of the camera, as this will be much more difficult with a self timer. 2- Make sure it's sunny outside. 3- Stand in front of a window, with the sun shining behind you. 4- As all the people in reality modelling shows will tell us, "find the light, and know your angles." 5- Jump, dance, hop, and skip around like a mad woman/man, and make sure your friend snaps you and directs you as you go along.
And voila..
Fu
Jen
LJ
We have to get a jumping Fi soon, as she couldn't join us today.
Well...not completely, there's an oral one next week..BUT STILL!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!
I'm currently dancing to these happy tunes, because I'm so so happy.
Post exam celebrations? My friend Cathal and I did some crumping in the exam hall, til we got kicked out of course.. then we waltzed outside. It was amazing. I had such a lovely relaxing time in town today, met my friends, my class, arsed around doing nothing. It was great. It was about fucking time I got out of the house.
Where's the party at? Fiona's, of course! There are 3 themes.. 1-Middle partings 2-Woody Allen 3-Plastic big bags It's going to be a beautiful event!
I'm so hyper right now..maybe its the cranbull ie cranberry and redbull drink effect? Here are some snapshots from today..
Anyway.. after my disgarceful absence, I will be blogging regularly again! I promise! And I think I'll be counting the days til I'm in London.. Can't fookin wait. And the party tonight...Also can't fookin wait!
I'm back. My anti-blog curse is gone. All things holding me back from the blog are gone. I have a camera, I have completed my dissertation, I have free free free time.
Anyway, I went on a fantastic class trip to Edinburgh last week. I flew seperately to my class, flying from Dublin, providing me with the opportunity to visit friends in Dublin before flying out. I arrived last Monday at 8.30am and promptly got some coffeee. Then I went on a walking tour of the city. I think I want to move there. The people are friendly, there is amazing shopping and there is so much fantastic art.
When my class arrived, we went for dinner and then started partying. We deserved it, after all those hard weeks slog of dissertationing. It was super fun. Tuesday consisted of visiting the castle, the birthplace of Harry Potter and more partying. There were danceoffs and tequila shots. The rest is hazy. Anywhooo.. I saved some pounds for shopping on Wednesday. The rest of my class had an earlier flight than me back. I used this as a chance to check out an art gallery or two (I LOVED The Red Door Gallery and Analogue ). I ate in a veggie place called the Baked Potato and hid from the sun with an iced coffee in Starbucks. My feet were very sore after walking/dancing solidly for three days straight. But so worth it. My favourite shop had to be Barnardos Vintage, run by the lovely lovely Kerri. It is a charity shop which is full of vintage gems. The store is fantastic, I could have bought so much more. In the end, I got a lovely white cardi with pearl details and a purple floral snood. Kerri and I discussed the benefit of charity shop rummaging and it turned out we had a lot of random connections. I think that the concept of that shop is pretty perfect, as it was really good value and full of diamond finds.
All in all, top notch weekend. Everyone should go to Edinburgh.
SOS! has been very quiet recently. This is because of one word....exams. So this post will be another one of me typing what comes into my head..
-I just finished watching America's next top model finale. What a waste of a season. The models were...OK. And for you who haven't watched the episode already, I wanted the other girl to win. ANTM has started becoming more and more gimmicky, and not in a good way. I'm getting sick of all the skits and rehearsed lines Tyra comes up with. My friend Jen fast forwarded through the episode, and it's fair enough. Also, have you noticed Tyra saying 'WaWaa' a lot?
-I can't wait til exams are over. I want to sleep, wake up and be in London. I'm looking forward for my summer in London so much. And Fi, Jen and some other friends are coming to visit! YAY!
-I'd love an iced caramel mocchiato. Why is it so hard for the Starbucks on campus to have ice cubes? Stupid Starbucks not serving iced drinks.
-I took today off-studying wise. But must get back into action for my forensic medicine exam on Monday. Is watching CSI considered to be studying?
-I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE with H&M's fall/winter 09 lookbook. The volume, the leather, the gloves/cuffs, the studs and the knits..gasma. I've picked out the items I NEED already.. yes, NEED!
-Speaking of H&M, Matthew Williamson's 2ndcollecting for H&M was yesterday. Since there is no H&M in Cork (SHOCKING, isn't it?), my mom texted me asking if I wanted her to get me anything. Isn't that so nice? She had VIP access from 9-10am before the shop opened. She couldn't make it early, went at 11...Everything was gone. Well, there were only a few pieces left in either tiny or massive sizes. It's a bit unfair for everyone else who didn't have VIP access. But oh well..life goes on.
-For those in Ireland and UK, have you seen the 3 euro jelly shoes in Pennys (Primark)? They are Marc Jacobs knockoffs! 3 euro....that's cheaper than Starbucks coffee.
-You must try the raspberry white chocolate cupcakes from Marks & Spencers.
-I'm bored of my hair again. Dilemma.. To let it grow since it's in a damaged blah state? because I want my long hair back. Or to trim, dye it black with hints of navy? Or maybe back to my vibrant red?
-As if I have nothing better to do ie studying, I decided to get dressed, try orange and pink makeup a la S/S 09, and dance to 'Sing it back' by Moloko..and take some photos of course. A fact that you may not know about me, I'm obsessed with eye make up. And I'm also obsessed with MAC lipsticks.. I have a collection of them here.
Hello spring!
dress (A shop in Camden lock), lace leggings (Topshop), socks (Emilio Cavallini), shoes, necklace worn as bracelet (Topshop), gloves (A boutique in Berlin), cuff (A stall in Malaysia)
Make up used: Lipstick (Chill by MAC), Eye shadoes (Road stripe and Kiss from Urban Decay and an old limited edition Chanel palette), Blush (Grand duo mineralize blush by MAC)
-I recommend the grand duo blushers, if they haven't sold out already where you live, try them out! They have just the right amount of glow and shimmer, but not glitter. And MAC's lipsticks are the best, especially the matt ones. They do stay on for a very long time. My favorite lipstick shades would have to be Russian Red, Dubonet, Dark Side, Rebel, Girl About Town, Retro, etc etc etc etc.
-MAC is not paying me, I swear.
-Alright. I think it's time for some more shows..or serious work. More shows wins.
LJ: What time is it?
Fi: Time for you to get a watch.
That's one of my favorite Fi quotes. She is currently in Edinburgh "The burg" as she calls it. Hope you having a lovely time x
Another day..Another Etsy seller. This time it's 'by Hally McGehean', who's work seams to be involved with plastic photos and excess lamination. I remember when Octopus first opened in London.. I was in love with their plastic retro shopping bags. However, Hally has taken it to the next step to make laminated dresses. The watch piece is very interesting, and mind you has 165 different designer watches on them..
There are some other cute bits in her shop like the lipstick and lingerie Russian dolls, as well as laminated paper watches and pinup bracelets. It's a shame I don't really wear much bracelets.
There's something very appealing about latex garments. The way they are cut and fitted have to be well fitted to your body, otherwise..it can go either way. You may have lots of nonexistent flaps, or your existent flaps accentuated. I came across these latex stockings on ebay. There's something very intriguing about them. Just make sure you're not allergic, and that you won't be wearing them to a bonfire get together.
This whole fetish feel of the latex (not that I'm saying I have a rubber fetish), I thought I'd show you a quick flick through Dita Von Teese's book "Burlesque/Fetish and the Art of Teese". It's one of my few coffee table books, and it never ceases to amuse me. The book is filled with amazing photos and editorials of Dita. She also shares some photos of her haute couture corsets and garments including her lace Jean Paul Gaultier one..which makes my heart melt. There's also some background history into burlesque/fetish, as well as tips and advice for the "teese" factor.
I really don't want to be bombarding the blog with videos.. but I love this book..
I adore Dita. I'd love to meet her. I'm scared that if I ever do, I wouldn't be able to stop staring. GAH! She's so beautiful! I also recommend looking up some of her routines on youtube...maybe have a little session with your mirror. I never do that, no.
And on the subject of leg-zy accessories, my lovely friend Jen got me these fabulous Tatty Devineearrings for my birthday a while ago..
If you haven't seen Make Me a Supermodel, then you're truly missing out. Go download it right now... NOW. It's way better than ANTM by the way. It's so good, that I watched the whole first season of the show again on YouTube over the weekend.
Anyway..
I had the privilege to have a lovely chatty interview with Casey Skinner and Frankie Godoy, who are both so lovely. Both of them were contestants on Make Me a Supermodel, and I was a fan of them and the other boys in the house. Frankie Godoy being there was a great surprise, and it was a great 2 for 1 deal!
Casey Skinner
Frankie Godoy
It all took place on skype, with a fuzzy but good enough web cam. Casey, as beautiful as he is, had a new blunter hair cut and was a wearing a plain white tee. After the hellos, how are yous, thank yous, and nice to meet yous.. we got down to business.
Casey: So who else did you contact? LJ: I contacted you, Perry, Ronnie, and Ben. Perry and Ronnie replied.. Casey:What about Frankie? LJ:I couldn't find Frankie on facebook!
and guess who pops into the webcam vicinity? But Frankie himself! ACK!!! the joy!! I was getting even faster palpitations.. This is way too exciting..
LJ: Brilliant! It's a threesome! So what has life been like for you after the show? Casey: It's weird cause we got so used to having cameras following us around, that we started forgetting that the camera was there. And then people would come up to you saying you did this..and I wouldn't even remember it. Frankie: Ya it's funny because people see me walking down the street, and they recognize me from the show! LJ: I'm from Kuwait, studying in Ireland, and I know you guys! And the show was even bigger in the states.. Casey: Is the show airing now in Ireland? LJ: Nope, I watched it online. But it's such a good show, I'm telling everyone about it.
LJ:So where are you living at the moment? Casey:I'm living in New York.. in downtown Manhattan.. LJ:That's cool..I'm so jealous.. Frankie: I'm in Miami, on South Beach.. (I'm even more jealous now)
LJ: So who are you in contact with from the show? Casey: I see Perry sometimes, we meet up to go to central park.. I see Ronnie from time to time too. They're both in New York.. Frankie: Ya I'm here for 3 days on a job so I'm staying with Casey. I saw Jacki (Jacki Hydock who lives in Miami now), and I saw Shannon the other day.. LJ: What about the winner (Holly)? Casey: Holly is big in Asia..or something.. but I don't care if she's big in Asia!
And do you have passions other than modelling? Casey: I've always loved writing. I just recorded my EP, and I'm shooting another movie.. LJ: ooh! That's fantastic! Will you give us a little demonstration? Casey: Well, I don't have a guitar or anything here.. (whips out his guitar) (I took a video of the song, but the video and details about the EP will not be given on the blog, because apparently only me, Frankie, and the sound engineer has heard it! .. Let's just say, he's a talented musician..) After the head bobbing, shoulder shaking, whoot whooting, and clapping, I directed the answer back to Frankie.. Frankie: I love surfing, and the beach.. It's great living in Miami.. Casey: Frankie's passion is boys.. Frankie: Nooo.. I like girls! Lots of girls! (Casey in the background shaking his head..) Casey: He likes brothers of girls..
LJ: Which designers would you like to work with? Both: ooh a lot.. Casey to Frankie: Well you have to be a model first.. (They're such messers!) Frankie: Gucci! I love Tom Ford.. LJ: Too bad he's retired..
LJ: Any romance in your lives? Casey: Yeah.. but I'd like to keep it on the down low.. LJ: fair enough! Frankie: Yeah, I've someone.. Casey: He has a guy.. Frankie: Noo.. I like girls LJ: You just had to make it clear again! Casey: John Varvatos, and Calvin Klien..
LJ: Alright guys..... POSE OFF! Frankie: Last time we did this it turned very ugly.. Casey: Yeah he had to go to the hospital.. (apologies for the shite camera quality)
Ok, just to wrap this up.. What are your plans for the near future? (both have very exciting plans.. & I'm sure you'll be seeing them in sexy ads soon. Casey turned down an offer from Hollister apparently!)
Any words of wisdom? Casey: Modelling wisdom? LJ: Modelling & life in general.. Casey: For modelling, Ignore the camera.. Some of the best shoots I've had were the ones where I didn't pay too much attention to the camera. And for life in general, happiness is rooted in simplicit. LJ: Wow..that's deep.. Frankie: I know! When we were doing the show, Casey was always spiritual and meditating.. I think my advice would be to just be yourself and be what you'd like to be..
Thank you guys so much for taking some time out and doing this. You're a great laugh and pure lovely..I really appreciate it.
After looking at Christian Cota's A/W 09 collection, I feel like going to some place fancy.. where I can be elegant and poncy. I'm happy to accept wedding, bar mitzfah, garden and dinner party invitations..ehem.
What I loved about his collection is how he put a twist on elegant pieces. With a mute palette, hints of metallics, there's lots of poofing, twisting and turning going on. I generally love poofy stuff..especially poofy sleeves. The poofiness was excellentally executed in this collection especially in the black blazer jacket, the midi skirt, and the gold jacket.
I will never forger my dress hunting shenanigans for my friend's wedding last November. Maybe my next ballgown will be something sheer like one of those dresses..
After being brought up as a painter in Mexico, Christian moved to Paris to study painting, and then was whisked off to Parson's school of design in NY. His attention to detail is impeccable (impeccable? what? I never say that..). A lot of embroidery, organic clean cuts are incorporated. Here's a closer look..
I tend to be impatient when it comes to online orders. I'd be checking my mail twice a day, and if "track your order" was a real person, I'd be getting a big slap on the face. However, with the hermitizing and laziness, I've been finding myself doing a lot of online window shopping. The latest purchase was from the Biba forTopshop collection. I was uber ecstatic when I first heard he news about the collaboration, and of course bought a few things. If some pieces weren't sold out, there would have been more items in my basket. I'm over it though.
I settled for the orange leopard print massive shoulder padded mini dress, and the superwide sky blue leopard print pants. They might sound horrendous in theory, but I quite like them. Again, because of all the hype (and also the stupid topshop website removing things from my basket), I ended up getting the dress in a size a bit too big for me.
I was a bit apprehensive about the pants as well, especially because it's viscous. I was scared it would be stretchy, and stick to my "curves" at all the wrong places! Thankfully, it's floaty and airy fairy just as I hoped.
Here are some potential ensembles.. (dress and pants are from Biba for Topshop)
Left outfit: tights (asos), boots (Yves Saint Laurent), scarf (a market in Kuwait), necklace (Topshop), cuffs (a boutique in Berlin)
Middle outfit: petticoat (Beyond Retro), polka dots over the knee socks (Pennys/Primark), scarf (a marker in Kuwait), shoes (MiuMiu), headpiece (Topshop)
Right outfit: velvet bow belt (Beyond Retro), skirt and necklace (H&M), lace leggings and patent purple platforms (Topshop)
Left outfit: black and white top (H&M), jacket with waist belt (Alexander Mcqueen), headpiece (Spitalfield Market), shoes (MiuMiu)
Middle outfit: dress (Christopher Kane for Topshop), neon belt (H&M), hair clips (Pennys/Primark), shoes(Irregular Choice)
Right outfit: yellow knit top (Christian Lacroix), sequin Marylin Monroe jacket (Siren), scarf (vintage), headpiece (Topshop), shoes (MiuMiu)
I would also like to say that I hope Fi is delighted with these photos. They are dedicated to her upcoming amazing party...which I'm sure you'll here all about soon-ish.
Has anyone else purchased any Biba for Topshop items? Please do share!
xx-LJ
PS: Photobucket will be returning to normal function on the 12th...photobucket feckers.
I have been a bad SOS blogger of late. In the past week I have managed to completely break my laptop AND I have 3 days to finish my Final Year Project dissertation. Ick. But expect some posts from Fiona in the not too near distant future.
Best of luck to all my friendsicles who are doing exams. And anyone else doing exams. And to our LJ here doing exams.
In the meantime, please suggest places to go for me in Edinburgh, I'm going there next week.
Spring is here, the weather has been fantastic, and I'm sitting here at home trying to get into my "hardcore" study mode. It seems to always be around this time of the year when daydreaming and creating scenarios in my head is dramatically exacerbated. I think about travelling and the beach quite a lot. Will someone take me to the beach please?
With the ocean breeze in mind, I came across Stine Goya who's a Central St Martin graduate (can't you tell?). As I look through her latest collection, it's capturing what I have in mind perfectly. Me.. with one of those outfits.. on the beach.. sunset time.. in Morocco.. or maybe Spain?..sipping on redbull and cranberry juice.
What I love about this collection is the dramatic shapes, especially when it came to the harem pants. The harem pants aren't the typical ones you see in every shop these days. The sequined ones are amazing, which I know that in theory I wouldn't have liked, but they look amazing on the model. The overalls (yes. overalls.) are made with a new floaty relaxed take, using refreshing fabrics such as apricot color and polka dots.
The colors in the collection range from warm colors like orange, apricot banana yellow and tan to a bit of a dark denim, greys, and polka dots. There are some patterned items, as well as sequined items. And the whole thing just makes me think of a 1970s jet setter.
My first pairs of Bebaroque's were the fuchsia pink tights with the fringed seam. I love it. It's just the right thickness, amazing bright color, and the fringes move with you as you strut down the street or shake yo bootay. They are...perfect (& I don't use this description very often..).
A bit of a spending mania came over me when I came across some of their pieces on sale on Asos a couple of weeks ago. I found myself clicking away and adding oh so many items to my basket without even realising what was going in there. I was on the website for so long, that the basket automatically emptied at some stage (and yes and I was pissed off.. and the dark side of me was unleashed). After much editing of the basket, these were the end buys..
I finally own a pair of two tone tights a la Gareth Pugh and Chanel. Those are from Asos. The 2 ruched striped and polka dot socks are from Emilio Cavallini. And the sailor socks, tassle tights and studded tights are from Bebaroque. (all from Asos.com)
I'm loving the idea of socks made out of delicate tights material. And anyone who knows me well would say to you how much I love pinup girls and burlesque. I had to have the sailor tattoo pinup girls socks. And also, they are mismatched! swoooooon. I also love the sheer ruched ones. They'd look very cute worn over tights. I need to wear them out soon.
(I'm sorry about the word diarrhoea..it's late.)
I wore the black tassle ones the other day. Apparently, the shimmy trick with the tassled pasties is to jump up and down...and that makes the tassles go around in circles. I should try jumping up and down in these tights and see what happens..
Zip dress (a boutique in Bangkok), skirt (Topshop), jacket (All Saints), tights (Bebaroque), scarf (H&M), bag (Betsey Johnson), shoes (Melissa)
Maybe Dita Von Teese should get some tassleyfringey tights for her shows. I am calling her as we speak...ehem.
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When my class arrived, we went for dinner and then started partying. We deserved it, after all those hard weeks slog of dissertationing. It was super fun. Tuesday consisted of visiting the castle, the birthplace of Harry Potter and more partying. There were danceoffs and tequila shots. The rest is hazy. 
Anywhooo.. I saved some pounds for shopping on Wednesday. The rest of my class had an earlier flight than me back. I used this as a chance to check out an art gallery or two (I LOVED 
Kerri and I discussed the benefit of charity shop rummaging and it turned out we had a lot of random connections. I think that the concept of that shop is pretty perfect, as it was really good value and full of diamond finds. 
