Never smile at an alligator..

Hello hello my lovelies..
tis been a while, hasn't it? It feels like it anyway.

Here are the most recent updates:

-I really don't like the fact that I'm not posting enough. I feel guilty. However, I feel that within the excitement of NYFW, LFW, and the upcoming PFW, I don't have much to contribute. There's so much to catch up on with other people's blogs who post regularly from fashion week. Also, there have been a few personal bumps with regards to the blog, which has been putting me off blogging. Apologies for the absence, xx.

-I had one of those shopping cravings last week and ended up spending money that should not be spent by online shopping. I am still waiting on my package from the Hub collection at ASOS. However, I did finally receive my Christopher Kane for Topshop stuff. I didn't get much sleep the night of the collection's release, as I set up my alarm at 3am...then 5am...then 6 am etc to obsessivly check if the collection is out. I ended up getting 4 items from the collection; The navy babydoll mirror dress, the embellished black bodycon dress, the black embellished leggings, and the white gemmed t-shirt.

The leggings and the tshirt have been worn. And I thought that the quality of the garments were excellent. I was expecting the sheer fabric to be light but it's actually thick and just the right amount of sheer.

Today's outfit: White gemmed tee (Christopher Kane for Topshop), drop crotch pants and cardigan (Zara), socks (Bebaroque), brogues (Topshop), bag (Miu Miu)

The package came with free stickers! If only we traded stickers like the old days..one of these would be worth 3 small glittery stickers or something. I miss my sticker books.

This dress was on my "I WANT" list, but it was no where to be seen online or in the stores. I suppose I'll continue obsessively checking Topshop.com. I know that the alligator dress and tee were big hits! If you bought anything from the collection, please do share.

-Fiona has moved to London along with 5 of our girls. So now I have more of an excuse to trot myself over there. In fact, me and my friend Jen are going over next weekend! YIPEEE!!!

-I am in desperate need of a house organizer. My closets are literally spitting out clothes, my laundry consists of two massive mountains, my couch is nowhere to be seen as it is buried under a trash of clothes and my clothes rail broke. Disaster.

-No other updates. boring boring boring......

Much love..
xx-LJ

That takes the Biscuit..

While on my Madrid adventure, I made it my aim to find something exciting to report to SOS! Headquarters. And I came across a gem of a shop while lost in the heat of the city. It goes by the name of Biscuit and it's a beautiful boutique stocking lots of local design talent.

The shop itself is decorated like I would like my own house to look like: kitsch vintage is the only way I could describe it. Wooden stands and shelves decorate the walls, to hang accessories, all individually adorned with particular designers. There was so much space to browse the clothes.. which were lovely... And I really could appreciate the attention to detail, from wallpapered racks, an antique armoire for the clothes right down to the writing on the wall. The layout was so well thought out and I would more than happily have spent hours in there, (if it weren't for the fact I was already late to meet people after getting lost).As someone who has been critical of Spanish style, I am willing to eat my words. I believe the talent is sourced locally from Spain. I fell in love, particularly, with three accessory designers stocked there.
Starting with Jdon... This accessories line is so beautiful. The illustrations were gorgeous and their was a wide range of jewelery. The style of the pieces, on a whole, reminds me of a twist on cameo brooches.

Santa Mistura was another line of brooches, hairbands and necklaces with simple illustrations. I loved the basic line drawings on the brooches in particular, along with little adornments of bows, buttons and gems.
The last designer, RH2, had neckpieces which reminded me of LJ's Giia pieces (pics and links coming soon..). They deserve a trip to the store alone to see them.

Check it out if you are ever in Madrid and Biscuit's website should be up and running soon. The designers' websites are in Spanish but that hasn't stopped me from wishlisting..
Fortunately for getting lost, I would never have found this place.
Peace, fi xx

Antlers away..

Lately, I've been browsing blogs and online shops like there's no tomorrow. The fact that I'm missing out on all NYFW is making me feel very boring, especially in this small town.

So here's something for the bored and non bored ones..Antler magazine.

Antler magazine has redefined itself and has made some minor changes. Hence, the new issue is “Volume 1: Dream Girl”, even though this isn't the magazines first issue. The magazine issues will be themed from now on, and this month it's 'dream girl'.

There are lots of great interviews and beautiful artwork contributed by many artists and illustrators. I got very very excited when I flipped the page over to the interview with Angie from I Heart Nowegian Wood. That had to be my favorite piece, only because I know how talented that lady is. I still daydream of her cage skirts and beautiful harnesses..

Anyway, back to the mag.. The photoshoots and drawings were created especially for the magazine, and all would make great wall art. The drawings would fit perfectly in my 'Wall of Art' in my bedroom.

Also, Antler magazine is free and all issues will come out bi-monthly on the 15th.

Here are some magazine snipets..

xx-LJ

Gotta come clean by Ezlyn Izharuddin

Hello my lovlies!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, and for those who are in New York, I am super jealous of you and I'm anxiously waiting for your reports and feedbacks. Since I am one of those people who are not in NYFW, I am finding myself a bit uninspired. However, my dear friend Ezlyn who's blog Off On A Multitude of Tangents has just started blogging again. I thought I'd share with you one of her blogposts, which is hilarious and very very true and applicable for a lot of us. Here it goes..

Gotta come clean by Ezlyn Izharuddin

Obsessions, addictions, compulsions, indulgances. I have all of 'em and they are excrutiatingly detrimental. A healthy addiction is say, an addiction to exercise and running marathons (as admitted by a neurosurgeon here called Mr. Marks whom I adore). That's grand because exercise releases endorphins and these make you feel happy. I, on the other hand, am inundated with "bad" endorphins from an addiction called shopping. You may go "Oh ho-hum boring stuff, heard it all before" but seriously, it is an utterly dangerous, undesirable fetish that anyone can have. If you think YOU have an obsession with shopping, THINK AGAIN.

I watched the morning talk show on TV the other day and a guest on the show mentioned that shopping online is cheaper, more reliable and promotes consumer rights, more so than physical shopping. Well, yeah they're all true but what a terrible strain it puts on your credit card. There's a shopping website that I go to on a regular basis and when I say regular I mean, EVERYDAY. I've been a regular customer at this website for more than a year. The shopping that I do there? Clothes. They have some of the best clothes I'd ever come across and me being weak-willed, whenever I see something nice that "I don't seem to have in that colour" or something, I go berserk. Within weeks, the debt that I owed the credit card company doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled once. And then I started to worry about how am I gonna purchase my return flight ticket to Africa in the summer. You see, I'm not that dumb to not realise my financial responsibilities. However, sometimes (if you have zero will power like me), you're caught in that moment of.. euphoria when you are overwhelmed with the amazing choices of clothes on your laptop screen and like a brainless programmed robot, you click the PURCHASE button instantaneously. In the aftermath of the shopping frenzy, you slowly come to your senses and fall into a deep dark chasm called regret.

Now, we all know that you CAN do something about serious addictions like substance abuse and the lot but sadly, there's no such rehab for shopping addiction that I know of. Maybe hypnotism can help. Oh wait, there's no evidence-based medicine for hypnotism, I think. So what did I do? I confessed my addiction to my significant other. He went manic when I told him how much my debt was. If you'd known the figure, you'd go manic too but I'm not telling =P. Because he is my significant other, he understood what I was going through so he became my firm support. So from then on, whenever I go on the website (which I still do for the sake of eye-candy), I'd ask for his opinion and permission about purchasing online which always ended up unsuccessful because he'd make me realise that those things aren't important anyway. It's comforting to know that there's someone you trust and that person is able to help alleviate the pain you're going through. I'm absolutely grateful that I have him.

--
Don't forget to check out Ezlyn's blog here!!
xx-LJ

The art of writing a postcard.

Do you have those friends who ALWAYS remember to send you a postcard? Or a Christmas card? Or a thank you card for that gift you sent them 3 months too late anyway? I was never one of those people. I was the kind of girl who spent far too much time deciding what postcards to buy rather than actually writing and posting them.
This had to change.
So, while spending a couple of weeks working in Madrid, I set myself a challenge. A postcard challenge. I offered everyone I knew a postcard. If I had your address, you got a postcard. However, each one was going to have to be an individual postcard with a different story and picture on each one. So I started to collect addresses. When it got to 35, things were a bit out of hand and I changed the Postcard Project rules: No more asking for addresses. If you gave me your address, you got one. But I was not asking. I even wrote letters to friends, and they had pictures on the envelopes. All in all, I sent used about 45 stamps, wrote 4 long letters, decorated 5 envelopes, wrote 38 postcards and spent around 40 euro in total. I took a picture of each one and fortunately my friend managed to retrieve almost all my photos from when I deleted them all. One postcard almost made it to Kuwait, but had to to be resent somewhere else. One postcard has yet to arrive in NY. Other postcards got all over Ireland, one to France, Germany, Sweden, two to Finland and two to Madrid itself.




To be honest, I am quite proud.
And the project continues. I didn't get a chance to send one of my new friends a postcard so she is getting one soon. If you want a postcard, you know what to do.
Peace, Fi xx

after a prolonged period of absence...

Fiona is back. Hello there.

Summer was awesome, but due to my "allergy" to technology, I was very rarely able to send emails. So forgive me.
Updates from Fiona, the other one from SOS.
No. 1
I spent the summer travelling with my friends, making new friends, and enjoying life. This included London, New York, Oxygen Festival, West Cork adventures, Madrid...
No. 2
Madrid is one hell of a city. I spent quite some time there over the summer and expect more blog posts about some exciting things I found soon.
No. 3
Life is taking a whole new direction for me.. (If anyone has a suggestion for me what to do now, ideas please).
No. 4
I am no longer a blonde.
Please expect lovely things from me now that I am back on the scene. Upcoming interviews, photos, new designers and general mishmash of things SOS-ers like.
Peace y'all , fi xx

To dye or not to dye..

My roots need to be done. And it's that time of the year again where I feel like a new change. I'm not going to cut it this time.. But I'm thinking of a new hair colour perhaps?

I've always loved my friend Fu's auburn hair..
And now I love Karen Elson's hair in the new H&M campaign.

I'm not sure if that colour would suit me. What do you think?
To Karen Elson or NOT to Karen Elson?

VOTE YAY OR OH-DEAR-LAWD NAY!

xx-LJ

PS: I'll be counting the total votes from here, Twitter, Facebook, etc..

Hermès pour Liberty..

Liberty has to be one of my favourite department stores in London. And Liberty is well known for their prints. Sadly, I was not there for their Prints Charming exhibition, which ended 2 days ago.

But this is exciting..

Hermès will be taking over Liberty's scarf department for 6 weeks, starting this Monday 7th September.

'To celebrate the creation of their ‘ephemeral’ scarf and tie store, Hermès has created an exclusive limited edition range, using Liberty’s renowned Tana Lawn cotton. This utterly unique collection will be available in the transformed Scarf Hall from Monday.'

Liberty London and Hermès have collaborated to create an exclusive limited edition collection of scarves and ties, using Tana Lawn cottons. The prints are designed by Bali Barret, who is the creative Director of Hermès Silk. The scarves will come in two sizes, a 70 x 70 cm and a Gavroche (45 x 45 cm) and in six different micro floral prints, each one screen printed with Hermès’ iconic ‘Ex Libris’ design.

Take me to London.

xx-LJ

Shopping ban, my arse..

If you haven't heard of my shopping ban, well, I've been on one. Or half arsed on one. I decided this first when I was back home after the long summer trips.. and I decided that I couldn't shop anymore because I wouldn't have space to bring all the stuff back to Ireland.

FAIL. I did shop at home and came back here with 2 massive suitcases.

And since I've been back, I've been spending on god knows what shite. You'd think that a trip to Pennys (Primark) is harmless. And you start picking up the 3 euro socks, and the 10 euro throw, etc etc... not realising that it all sums up. Or you buy things on a sale online or in a store, with a "This is a bargain..I'm actually SAVING money" mentality..

At the end of the day...it's still shopping.

I said to myself, I won't shop until my bills get paid. And I did buy a few things along the week since I've been back. It seems like this ban could never be reinforced. And today, just after I paid my bills, I of course hit the shops.

Post end of shopping ban outfit: dress (Zara), tights (Topshop), brogues (Unisa), skullcap (H&M), glasses (Urban Outfitters), earrings (a shop in Kuala Lumpur), bag (Miu Miu)

I bought myself unnecessary lovely things for my bedroom, and a few things from Philosophy. Totally unnecessary.. but I like the shtuff. So, fuck it.

On twitter last night, Fashion Dreamer and I were talking about this, and I suggested that form a Shoeaholics Anonymous group. And this was her response:
"Fashion_Dreamer@SaveOurShoes we must do it...but i think we would all encourage each other more so it wouldnt really work!"

And when I announced on twitter today that fashion ban is over, I got this response from Diamond Canopy:
"diamondcanopy@SaveOurShoes ha, how long did you last?"
I think she knows me too well.

So true!

I don't think I'd try reinforce this plan again. Maybe it's reverse psychology that makes me want to shop even more since I've set this plan? Maybe it's the fact that I'm addicted to latenight online "innocent" shop browsing? Who knows why the shopping ban didn't work.

Anyway.. this was my night time verbal diarrhoea for you all.

Moral of story: Shopping ban plan FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL.

xx-LJ

**EDIT**: Here's a close up photo of the earrings for the lovely Piney!

Something for the boys..

Tis a small world afterall..
This is a story of two handsome fellas.

Anthony from Canada (a CSM graduate) and Richard from Australia met each other in London in 1995. The duo worked in London, and collaborated on many projects in London, New York and Italy. Anthony and Richard now have their own label Commonwealth Utilities, which is based in New York.

Things I love about their website includes the concierge service, where you can email them questions such as "How do I tie a bow tie?" and "Where can I buy a vintage Rolex?". I also love the main page, where there are replicas of the same man standing... 1 putting on a suit, and 2 taking of their suits. Yum.

The men's label designs garments which are crisp, clean, yet have a laid back attitude. Their S/S '10 collection consists of well cut suits, waistcoats, white shirts, and soft knits. The colour spectrum is kept on the neutral end, ranging from white, to light grey and charcol grey.

Commonwealth Utilities is showing in the upcoming New York Fashion Week.

xx-LJ

We have a fan page, woop woop!

Lovely readers,

SOS! Save Our Shoes now has a fanpage on Facebook. We'd be extra delighted if you joined.

Click here!

Go on...give it a click. Then do another click on the 'Become a fan' blue box on top.

Mr Duck is a fan

Thank you darlings!

xx-LJ

Weapons of mass seduction..

I just got an email from Stolen Girlfriends Club's 'High Up F#&KER' (As he likes to be called) about the press release of the brand's new short film.

'Stolen Girlfriends Club has created a short film about friends, family and awkward moments directed by Derek Henderson, one of New Zealand's leading fashion and creative photographers

The original idea was to showcase a broad spectrum of independent people off the streets who would/could wear Stolen Girlfriends Club each in their own unique way. The boys thought this was a cool way to show the collection without it being a primary focus. Presenting the general feeling of the Stolen Girlfriends Club brand and its Summer 09/10 collection 'Weapons Of Mass Seduction'.

Once Derek and the boys started working on the film it became pretty clear that they just wanted to take snippets and pieces out of people lives without having any tangible theme/topic to relate the stories back to. Then to add a few more layers of interest Derek put the talent on the spot and it also become really about awkward moments and capturing personal mannerisms when one becomes the centre of attention.

The short film has representations and a feeling of an old style rock n roll or historian documentary, where the questions are edited out and cut straight from answer to answer, giving it a fast moving pace.

Although there is a mix of talent from friends and models used in the film, they wanted to present another side of the typical model who are often so chic and confident. Showing the models as normal people like the rest of us who still often fuck-up when put on the spot.

The film coincides with the launch of the brands new website.

The 'Weapons Of Mass Seduction' short film is viewable at www.stolengirlfriendsclub.com'

The film is a great way of showcasing their new collection, and I personally love all the voluminous big shoulders, the sheer inserts, the sequined touches, and just the whole collection's attitude.

Here are some snippets from the short film..

xx-LJ