30 January 2011

I BUILT A GARDEN IN MY MIND, BOYS IN BANDS THERE YOU SHALL FIND

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I couldn't help repost these shots my great friend Kate took of British band Will & The People recently, not simply because they are stunning photographs, but because I feel there is something sartorially perfect about their inherently British eccentricity to their style. This was all 'them', Kate tells me,  from the feathers to the fur collars, and every theatricality is pulled off with such panache. Since the 80s  flamboyant band styling has been lost, killed first by grunge and then by the rise of manufactured G-star clad boybands, which is a real shame, because music and the visual arts (including that of dressing) should walk hand in hand. This look is all their own : at once expressive, inspiring, curious and completely home-grown, much like their music. 
But theatricality or no, it is the nonchalance that is the most important. Hardy Amies once said "A man should look as if he had bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on and then forgotten all bout them."
There is definitely a charismatic nonchalance about Will & The People. Click here to listen to their music.


It's got me thinking about British music, about styling, about boys and clothes and I'm looking back to the 60s and 70s...thinking about the Stones, about the many faces of David Bowie, about the new romantics, about the luxe hippie of Stevie Nicks. 
It's interesting to look back and realise where our influences have come from, but it's more exciting to look forward and imagine where we are going. 


I watched the film Almost Famous at 11 (in secret from parents who religiously adhered to film certificates) and was sold to the dream. For the past few years I've been heading towards fashion journalism but there will always be a part of my soul that rebels against the fixed realm of offices and fashion closets and wants to be out on the road, styling a band. Staying up all night hunched at the back of a tour bus stitching zig zag patterns onto a pair of purple suede jeans, or trawling the most far-out godforsaken shops where clothes come to die, because that's where I know I'll find the perfect worn-through blazer for X and the weirdest looking belt buckle you ever saw for Y. 


If you've never seen Almost Famous, go watch it, tonight. And be sold to whatever part of the music dream calls to you, because it is there for everyone.



26 January 2011

DANCING IN THE STREET

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Photographs by Alice of HARLEY WOOD

Yeti fur from Zara
Blue mesh slip and Doc Martens from a charity shop
Black mesh dress American Apparel
Feather headdress and jewel pendant, Alice's.

Apologies for the photo overload. I had far too much fun doing this. Let's call this look The Craft x Janis Joplin x Where the Wild Things Are. 

24 January 2011

BLUE GLITTER LIPS



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Georgia Bronte shot for Johnny's Bird


Exams are over and although I've still got a tonne of work I'm going to get my act together and making time to play with clothes and cameras and bonkers people. Let's call it my belated new year's resolution.


First shoot set for wednesday ... 
watch 
this 
space!

21 January 2011

ODE TO TWIGGY

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DON'T YOU JUST LOVE BARGAIN BOOKSTORES? YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU MIGHT FIND FOR £1.99...

TWIGGY, YOU'RE A BABE. 

19 January 2011

HALO

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INDULGING IN FURTHER NARCISSISM IN THE NAME OF KATE WOODS PHOTOGRAPHY

katewoodsphotography.com

17 January 2011

COLOUR BLOCKING

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BRITISH VOGUE FEBRUARY 2011

IF I EVER NEED MOTIVATION TO GO TO ANOTHER 8AM YOGA CLASS, IT'S THAT SHOT OF FREJA'S SENSATIONAL ABS I WILL GO STRAIGHT TO.

AND, HERE'S SOME WISHFUL THINKING, I WONDER HOW MANY MORE 8AM YOGA CLASSES IT'LL TAKE FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO ROCK THE NEW CROP-SUIT? 

13 January 2011

FASHION WEEK ANTICIPATION



Trendland's streetstyle medley from NY S/S11.
Watching this makes me tingle with excitement for upcoming Fashion Fortnight (London, Paris).
I'm dusting off my heels...

10 January 2011

Tea For Two

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I bought these smart fellows in New York in the summer, but I'm saving them for a better start in life when I move to Paris later this year. So back into the box you go, I'm afraid!

8 January 2011

TOPSHOP S/S 11

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Now I know half the blogging world has already spammed these across the globe, and normally I avoid copycat posting like the plague but I'm so pleased with these I couldn't help sharing them just in case some of my readers won't see them somewhere else. What excited me so much about the spirit of S/S 11 when the collections were shown back in September was that there has been a distinctly different dynamic this year. S/S collections are usually bulked out with a group of recurring trends every year: nautical; crisp, clean lines; safari-suit tones and shirtdresses; florals; pastels...yada yada yada. What I like about the Topshop collection so far is the fruit salad of colours, many, like the rich plums and burgundies, which are usually reserved for winter, and textures as diverse as leather fringing, metallic brocade and studded knitwear being thrown together and looking, certainly bold, but not ridiculous. This sort of collection is also testimony to the rising influence of bloggers and their personal style on mainstream fashion. I look at some of these looks and read the stylistic elements that have been promoted by fashion bloggers; navajo-inspired knits and jewellry, platforms in the style of JC Litas, vintage fringed kimono jackets and dip-dyed hair among others.

I might have to re-think my own dip-dye for S/S if I'm going to go diving into all this orange and yellow like I very much intend to do. Perhaps a nice frosty blue?

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via Tobacco&Leather

7 January 2011

KATE WOODS PHOTOGRAPHY

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More from Kate Woods's shoot in Leeds last month when the first of the snow fell. This last shot is an absolute slammer, and testimony to Kate's incredible eye for a shot. Capturing shadows and light is one of her signature talents; in the trio of standing poses, I look positively holy. I can also credit her entirely with getting a massively underqualified model like myself to warm to the camera.  Both Scottish girls studying at Leeds, hopefully Kate and I can grow together in artistic talent, but I fear she'll always be one step ahead of me.


KATE WOODS PHOTOGRAPHY

5 January 2011

Small Treasures


Currently Wearing:

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Velvet bangles & stag ring Topshop; Swarovski elephant beetle ring by Mimco; Snake ring from Harvey Nichols; silver jewellry from India

There are my parents, making a cameo appearance in the top right hand corner.

3 January 2011

After the Seance

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Fade to Black NY/Spanish Moss/Lovely Bohemia/Fashion Toast/SRC783/Alison Scarpulla/Everything Style

Call it the Pamela Love influence, or perhaps I've just watched The Craft too many times now, but I'm starting to get swayed (or more likely, bewitched)  by the folky, witchcrafty trend pioneered by US labels like Sisters of the Black Moon and Spanish Moss. The scrawny muse with long tangled hair, in a fringed dress with her fingers and wrists laden with macabre claws, crosses and turquoise stones and more often than not, wearing a pair of Jeffrey Campbell Litas, is all over fashion blogs and tumblr accounts in many different guises. In Spanish Moss American Gold's latest campaign, the blonde apparition (who we cannot turn from because of her enviable wardrobe), is faceless, and spookily child-like from behind... But I'd put a stake through her heart for that fringed kimono jacket. I portend a significant trend emerging; soon we'll be able to buy Tarot cards in Topshop.


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