the most mixed bag of mixed bags

listening to: 'home again' - shihad

i am in such a crud mood tonight (but i'm not getting into all that), so i thought blogging might cheer me up a bit. apologies for the lack of posts recently - we have had serious issues with our wireless here in the flat! big-time grr.

so first of all, this song is awesome. quintessential kiwi rock, what's better? get thee to itunes if you don't know this song and see what i'm raving about. shihad are basically the most famous kiwi band of my generation, and it's for good reason. i saw them live in 7th form - we roadtripped up from invercargill to dunedin, it was awesome - and they were frikkin rad. i hadn't been that into them before that trip, but i was definitely converted. i have been on such a kiwi music buzz lately... i just seriously can't stop listening to shapies!

still on the kiwi vibe, i've been meaning to mention my favouritest magazine ever in the whole entire world. yes yes i know mags like nylon, paper, zink & stuff are pretty damn sweet, but it's so different - in an incredibly nice way!! - to have such a polished fashion/streetstyle/beauty/lifestyle magazine targeted towards a new zealand market, as until the happy day i stumbled across it in whitcoulls i had raised myself on a steady diet of australian vogue (where everything was beyond my means, and aimed at an older audience) and the odd harpers bazaar, as well as fashion quarterly (new zealand based, but again for the older reader). my magazine purchases were devoid of anything really relevant to ME. oh, except for one aussie nylon i managed to procure: it was super hard to find. so thank you karen magazine!! the editorials are amazing, the content is brill, and it's basically everything i could ever want.. sadly 'tis only published biannually. while it's not quite as street-style-ish as, for example, russh, it's the closest magazine to focus on my demographic that actually satisfies my desires and requirements for what i could class as a great magazine. hopefully it gradually incorporates more and more street style, as there is definitely a niche market out there that would lap up a magazine that fuses high fashion and fashion reality.

so what else should i yarn about? i tried to create some ombre tights before i came up to dunedin but they really didn't work, so i gave up. i figure by the time i get it right they will no longer be uber cool. i attempted creating them in both violet and navy, and was so sad that they didn't turn out successfully. i have a real thing for each of those colours right now. the weather is getting cooler already, and i can envisage a winter where i'm pairing my standard blacks and greys with suitably soft, slightly washed out hues of purple and blue.. grey, mauve and a splice of electric blue to jazz things up a bit is a colour combo haunting my many daydreams lately. a mauve leotard under a pair of highwaisted grey wool pants... delicious!! pairing it with a peacoat would be like an ensemble chrysallis... the changing shape & layers would be pretty cool. would the chrysallis analogy or an anology comparing it to those russian dolls that have the little dolls inside them be more striking? what are those dolls even called anyway?

a developing interest for me is a kind of touristy, postcard-like aesthetic. while i was browsing fashion156.com i was taken by a shot from the central st martin's show at lfw. it wasn't specifically an example of that tourist-kitsch idea but the colour combo is a snapshot of what i've been picturing in my mind: teal, a slightly darker blue (but not quite navy), yellow, white & a wee hint of beige. try and spot it here: top row. if i was a creative whizz i'd quite fancy whipping up a lipstick red tulip skirt with a cinched waist and a built-in apron thingee overtop (i've been lusting over aprons for some time now) in a printed fabric of like an old village on the mediterranean or something. my vision includes whitewashed buildings, terracotta rooves, sparkling pop of colour via beautiful blue seas.. by the way, i don't mean kind of a faux-apron either; i mean one with like actual little pockets reminiscent of a stepford wife.

do you know what my favourite thing is since becoming a bit more involved (or compulsive, you choose) with fashion? it's the amount of "rules" i have seen broken. i went to an all-girls school for awhile, i'm from a relatively well-to-do family (at least by nz standards, we're absolutely not even close when it comes to international standards), i've always had impeccable manners - aside from the occassional lapse. therefore, my modus operandi was always that i knew what was acceptable or "right". if i had heard about people wearing tights with open toed shoes, i would have been HORRIFIED. like, literally horrified. or mixing prints - GASP O RAMA!! but now i've seen it, visually experienced it, and amazingly i actually appreciate it. every site i click onto has at least one girl wearing a pair of grey tights with chunky beige platform sandals - open toed sandals. and someone - male or female - mixing either two different plaids, or stripes and a bold abstract print. i think i mentioned previously a girl i saw when i came back to dunedin? wearing polka dots and abstract? it was when we were waiting at the lights, and i was super relieved i was wearing my sunglasses cos i just couldn't look away! i had to take her outfit in, it was that good. if i wasn't so self-conscious i would absolutely love to do what the people behind the likes of the sartorialist do: take photos of people whose outfits catch their eye, inspire them, make them swoon. dunedin is really different from my hometown of invercargill in the sense that, being an academic hub, there are quite a few really arty, creative people; the array of outfits is sometimes quite striking. also, being a bigger town it isn't as close minded. back home, all the girls - myself included - wear basically the same thing, minus a couple variations. it's just the way things are. sure there are clones here too. i think i've mentioned that before. the girls who dress the same here are more noticeable than home - here, they really wear the SAME standard outfit of grey skinnies, black puffer, knee high boots - but it's diluted by all the randoms who rock different looks. i really need to find a job, as i'm running out of money fast and i need to be able to feed my growing love for vintage and my yearning to create all the ideas floating around inside this crazy little head of mine... yes that's right, i'm so broke i can't even op-shop! right now i'm a fashion afficianado with nothing to wear.

headbands. been a pretty major fad for at least a couple of seasons now, and one that i was definitely a fan of. but right now, rather than the preppy school-girl styles that i had previously been all over like a rash i'm really digging the flapper-style ones popping up on street style websites and online chain stores alike. i like the skinny ones as seen on the queen of cool kids (in my book at least) susie bubble - mixed with a slightly messy, exaggerated-volume 'do. but my real love is for the ones with ornate detailing: feathers, sequins, feathers AND sequins. even just a massive bow attached to a headband makes me all shivery - but they have to be worn just so. the great gatsby is a permanant fixture on my all-time-greats mental list of books (and later, movies), both for the story and the costumes alike. and the roaring 20's is one of my favourite eras, for a number of misc reasons, not least of all the clothes. i went to a halloween party when i was 12 - halloween isn't big here so it was kind of a memorable event - and i remember i hired this amazing dusky pink flapper dress with a lace overlay (prada aw09 style) and feathers down the bottom from the repatory society. surprise surprise, i topped it off with a silk headband with yet another feather. check out my selection/variations...

well my friends, i'm done. that's all folks! i'm off to sleep, gotta be fresh for the part-ay we're hosting tomorrow night. bring on saturday!

ps i want a shirt dress so bad. stark white.