Teeny Tiny Skirt Problem

I've had this skirt for about 5 years now. I still love it but it's sooo small i don't feel comfortable wearing it on it's own. It's made out of cotton and elastane so it's stretchy, which is why it still fits. I used to wear it with just tights but now i'm slightly bigger and simply couldn't get away with doing so. Also the darned easter holidays have meant i've put on alot of chocolate weight on the old belly.


Sooo if anyone has any suggestion as to how to wear the skirt they would be greatly received. I realise it's a floral tiered skirt and can't be that hard to wear but i'm finding it very difficult indeed. Please try and help. Thanks very much!

MAYHEM!!

It's that stressful time of year again, when everyone i know are racing around and screaming their heads off. It's that frightful 6.45p.m. when the Leeds and Readign Festival tickets come on sale. If you don't get in their within about 15 minutes, well i can't even think about that right now. It's not an option that i don't go.
This time last year me and my sister were screaming at each other that 'we're not gonna get one!', 'What have you done to the computer screen you bloody idiot?!'. In fact we screamed so much our dog started to wine and go a bit loopy out of fear. I've warned my mother and little sister to get out of the house this evening so as not to get screamed at.

Putting all that aside. And presuming i get a ticket. I cannot wait. Last year i had the best time of my life! It's like a town where all rules and stuff go out of the window, everyone talks to anyone. It's indescribable really.
The rumoured line-up include The Killers, Rage Against the Machines and Metallica. The Killers would be unbelievable amazing! Oooo i cannot wait any longer!!
I do hope myself and Susan see a lot of you stylish people there.....

Precisely Hair

What fabulous hair at the Vivienne Westwood A/W '08 show. I imagine it's very hard to tame after she's crimped it.

Soft Rock Star

Emily Haines is so cool. Her style isn't amazingly interesting. But she makes up for this with coolness.

We saw Metric a couple of years back in November '06. She was wearing, i seem to remember, a grey glittery all in one. T'was so amazing. She just stud on the edge of the stage, kind of leaning out into the crowd, for like ten minutes with everyone grabbing her legs and stuff. While the rest of the band carried on playing.

I still really like their music even after three years. They're currently, i believe, touring America and Canada. As well as being in Metric she also does some solo stuff with Soft Skeleton. It's darker than Metric stuff but still good. If you haven't already got some of their music i would highly recommend them.

I also slightly want her hair!

This photo was taken by Chris Strong for Dazed and Confused magazine in 2006. His photography is pretty good, the lightings nice.

Lead me into temptation

I want blue hair. The reasons why this is not a good idea are threefold:

1. I would have to bleach it first, I've tried this before and it went the colour of a solero ice cream.
2. I would stand out more and would clash (actually who am I kidding, I live to clash)
3. ROOTS! again with the attempted blonde situation, dark brown roots did not create an 'interesting' effect, I looked a fool! and my hair grows about an inch a week.

But I want to cast these doubts aside and throw caution to the wind when I see pictures like this!
(photo from Numero September 2007)

Then I saw this post on hannah couture. Another thing that I had been considering, damn olsen twins and trendy face hunter hipsters, is a fur coat. I was unsure but now I'll be dreaming of them. Charity shops watch out, here I come! (Photo from Vogue Nippon, October 2007)

I need to not be here

I need to be here.

Johnathan Jacobsen. No idea where I found this guy, another blog I suspect. So if the owner of the blog is reading this, my apologies for stealing him but thank you because it has brought some joy into my life. Maybe not joy, but more thoughts. http://www.flickr.com/photos/loganart/

On the Wall, Not Off it.

I re-did my bedroom walls the other day. I took down all the thousands of magazine cuttings and flyers that you get given at gigs as i decided i needed to refresh. It was becoming a haven for crap that i had no idea where it came from or what it was advertising. When i'd stripped them bare my tiny room looked like a prison cell, not quite but it felt very weird. Underneath all the posters my walls are a pistachio green colour. I don't even like pistachios.

I have decided to have my biggest wall dedicated to fashiony things, one wall for gigs tickets and signed things and the other for random shizzle like stuff that friends have drawn and funny stuff. I do have a fourth wall but that's employed by my wardrobe, chalkboard and a few canvas' i bought in France.

Anyhow these are a couple of my favourite images from my 'fashiony' wall.

This woman, whoever she may be, looks soo cool. Just effortless. It was on a page in the new H&M magazine. i wish i could look so cool in such an outfit.

The composition of these two images is quite clever, if i do say so myself. I honestly didn't realise what i'd done until a day or so after i put them up. You can think of your own caption for this one. They're two seperate images form two totally different magazines, one is a recent one, the other is a few years old. They were made for each other i reckon.

On a rainy monday

Except it wasn't raining. It was snowing. Snowing! I ask you.

So here's what I wore. It wasn't snowing when I was out and about, which was convenient for my attire. I wore a coat also.

I think my skirt says 'Bananas'

Skins tonight, again. This week we discover that Effie has issue. They ALL have issues, they're teenagers, that's the point.

AbbaMania!

I cannot wait for the film release of Mamma Mia! this july. I saw the advert for it when we went to see Sweeney Todd and oh how i excited i am. It's got an amazing cast including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.

I love musicals. The oufitry is always so outrageous and flamboyant, not particulary nice though. (for example the top on the right of the picture, i couldn't tell you what's going on there.) Musicals are upbeat, not so much Sweeney Todd, and how i love to sing-a-along (you're very lucky you don't have to listen to me, i wasn't exactly blessed with a beautiful voice).
I am very excited especially as Dominic Cooper will be playing the Bridegroom. He's in Starter for 10 and History Boys. There's something about him that i like, i really hope he sings in the film t'would be amusing.

I love a bit of cheesiness i do. Susan says i ' have no shame'. She's probably right. Because i also love Abba's music. I said in my profile that i like any music i can dance to and Abba are the rulers of the dancefloors. As much as i love their music, i can't say much for their outfit choices. Regularly sporting all matching costumes, i can't say i'm a fan of that look. In fact i hate to match, especially with other people, unless it's fancy dress and your going as Abba, it should not be allowed.

Oh my there were some disasters.

All I want for Easter is you.

Yes you. You beautiful things.

These £150 diesel jeans are just fabulous. The way they've styled them is despicable but looking past that these would look lovely on, me thinks. I never usually look at Diesel stuff, i subconciously associate it with market rip-off versions of their stuff. Not that the real stuff is much nicer to be honest. I was actually looking for a denim dress i'd seen in a magazine by Diesel but when i couldn't find that i thought i'd look at their jeans because i really need some new ones that fit me perfectly. All my current ones bag at the knee, have massive rips in them or are too bigor small. None of them fit properly. So I'm on a mission to find some affordable, well fitting and skinny jeans. These would be lovely and i imagine perfect.













Now this beauty is from Urban Outfitters for £38. I love florals. I love love love skirts. I reckon this would look amazing with my 'stomp' boots, which are doc martiny.











I also stumbled upon this Paul & Joe dress, whilst looking for another dress on asos.com that I'd seen in the same magazine as i had the denim dress, this magazine proved to be very useful, i also couldn't find the dress i was looknig for but i found this one instead. Now wrap around dresses are always a friend to those of us with a curvy figure I think and I'm a sucker for stripes. I ust say i really do like it. But at £140 it's going to have to stay on my wishlist which is always soooo long. Hey, if anyone wants to give me £350 i suppose i'll take it off their hands. The burden that it is and all.

An ode to Pam.

There are two people in this blog. That should also mean there are also two wardrobes, but in essense there is only one. I make it regular feature to borrow some of Pam's lovely garments and vice versa. This week I went a bit crazy. I went over on saturday and borrowed a small pile, though admittedly it made barely a dent to her packed wardrobe. The items were ones that she doesn' wear that often, sometimes because they are difficult to wear. I like a challenge. Well, one I can do.

The results of this wardrobe raiding lead to a week's worth of wearing Pam's clothes. Here goes!

Monday:

Tuesday:
Wednesday:

Thursday:And there we have it. The weekly roundup. An outfit overview you might say. The weather has been a bitch this week at times but my legs have braved it. Though today I wore two pairs of tights but that was more for effect. My lovely black and white stripy ones from Primark can look a bit rag-dollish so I tones them down by wearing black sheer ones over the top. Crazy.

A bit of a rant now. Me and pam contribute to the new college newspaper, which is admittedly is a little bit shit. We did a 'streetstyle' type thing, taking pictures of stylish people at college, asked them where they got stuff, favourite shop and their style inspiration. The fricking editing people decided to put 'Our resident fashion experts' followed by our names. There are several problems with this:

1. It makes us look like twats because it looks like we called ourselves this.
2. Even if this was meant to be humourous it was most likely in a sarcastic way.

3. We overheard some very derrogatory comments about US being fashion experts. Though one of these was from someone entirely not to be taken seriously, we also heard her say 'Uggs are the future.' Yep. And she wants to be a fashion designer. Err good luck with that one.

Basically, we know our choice of clothing is derided highly by many of our peers, but mostly we do not care. This leads me to think maybe I do it because of this, not in spite of it. I don't particularly think I make a conscious effort be different, it just happens. Me and Pam often question whether we would still dress this way and be interested in fashion if we didn't know each other, or weren't as close. We think we would. Any negative comments we receive just amuse us and one nice comment makes up for a ton of dirty looks. But why should we have to put up with it. Why are some people so afraid to be different? What if I actually stopped and said 'Yeah I am wearing red tights, what of it? what about them is so disturbing to you that makes you feel the need to yell at me? hmm'. Well actually no ones ever yelled at me personally, just quiet comments passing by, but you see where I'm going here.

The most easy conclusion to come to here is that some people are knobheads. But as much as it can make me insecure I wouldn't change myself for a quiet life. I sometimes feel like a big fish in a little pond, but I don't think it's just yorkshire, we can never escape from the negativity, so why try. Yes it takes me a while to get ready, and yes I actually make an effort for college but why shouldn't I? I dress for myself, I enjoy wearing nice outfits and putting them together. Why wear jeans and tshirt, why be boring at a time when you're supposed to experiment with clothes? I don't care what other people wear, unless its awesome, so why should what I wear offend them so?

Sorry for the "teenage" stress here but I just needed it. If you stayed tuned, thank

you and congratulations for having the patience!

Country Bumpkin

Bumpkin actually means a country person regarded as unsophisticated. I mean the opposite of the meaning of that word in this post, but i liked the word too much to not use it.

Anyhow....I went for a nice country walk yesterday afternoon, just before dinner i set off, with my Mother and my dog, headed for my Grandma's two villages away. This sounds unreal but it's true! I live in 2008 but sound like i come from Jane Austen's time. We live in a prime location do me and Suse when i think about it, it's less than an hour to Sheffield and Leeds, and just over an hour to Manchester. Yet 10 minutes down the pathes you find yourself in the true countryside. Cows a-mooing. Sheep a-baaing. It's rather picturesque once you get away from all the built up estates.

This got me thinking about country attire. What i went walking in was just my wellies (t'was ridiculously muddy), lots of jumpers, coat, jeans, no make up and natural hair (which is truly a sight for sore eyes, Susan can back me up on that one for sure!). I love traditional country wear, lots of browns and autumny colours spring to mind when i think of this. A lot of A/W '08 collections were very country-ish.

This Hermes collection, personally, i didn't find that great but this particular items are very countryside. I do however love the skirt on the far right, though not as much as the one below, which i long for. Just so i can run through some meadows, kicking leaves into the air in the autumn (obviously i would pull it up, so not to ruin the beauty).

My absolute favourite collection from all the A/W '08 ones has to be Peter Jensen. I truly adore it. There is a bit of a country thing going on with it as well. Oh it's simply wonderful, the brightly coloured footwear and socks, the bright colours in generally that aren't matchy matchy.....j'adore!

'Why oh why sooo small?!' I wail.

Me and Susan must start a local exploration in the easter holidays, we need to appreciate our surroundings more i have decided. It's a lovely place. i may dress up fancy and go onto the moors. Singing, of course, Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. 'Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. I've come home.' Yeah.

Go dye

Good god the ice cream van has just come down our road. The sky is grey! Who needs icy snacks in this weather?? That van is responsible for my childhood obestity. No lie.

Longo's? I really do not know what to say.

Anyway that was entirely irrelevant. This post has been a long time in the pipeline as I have so many frickin folders I couldn't remeber where I put the photos. Me and Pamela decided it was high time we did a bit of customization and stuff. It was our friend's birthday the other week (she is the third musketeer as it were) and I thought dip-dying her some tights would be a good idea as she saw and loved them. Flying Saucer was my main source of inspiration. As it was it didn't go all to well and I dyed my central finger and tip of my thumb. This could only happen to me. I wore gloves! How did I just dye one finger? No one will ever know. I have all the luck.

Check out our bitchin high-tec equipment.

It is a fair assessment to say we got carried away. I started with the tights, then the tshirt then I went and got my skirt. Then the paint splashing.

Oh how I love irony. The thing we set out to do in the first place didn't actually work. I was going to post a picture of the tights but they literally have not changed. They are the Topshop dove grey ones, and dove grey they remain. It's stupid, they look dyed in the picture but when they dried it all went a bit wrong.

The skirt is a bit liney but you can't tell that much. The success of the day was the tshirts. My friend asked if I did it myself because you don't see much tie-dye in the shops. Well well my dear you will soon. By this I don't mean I will be selling it.

I do recommend paint splashing as a stress reliever, the action with the arm is hilarious. Jackson Pollock must have been an angry man with good upper body strength.

Thus concludes me and Pamela's foray into dying and such. Some good times, some bad. The paint splashed top can be seen in my little photoshoot, I'm worried about wearing it out as it sort of looks like I do art and do not wash my clothes, which is partially true. The bit about doing art, I'm not a binner.
Skins tonight kids.

It's like a cake in the form of a skirt.

I seriously had heart palpitations when I saw this. I really want a mid-calf or knee length white tutu and during my ebay search I came across this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Net-Underskirt-very-Burlesque-Dita-medium_W0QQitemZ250223661407QQihZ015QQcategoryZ38566QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm thinking that at this moment this is the most perfect skirt in existence in the world.

I think the sex and the city opening credits had a profound effect on everyone with even a remote interest in fashion. I want to wear it with a band tshirt and lots of jewellery. It reminds me of an ellegirl photoshoot with ballerina's. I did love that magazine, one day it just disappeared. Bad times.

Bad ebay!

You do entice me so! I simply cannot afford the luxuries you have to offer me, as odd as they may be. Ebay allows me to find random stuff that I could very rarely find in a shop, stuff that I may well have dreamed about. Ahh, I can only dream. On the wishlist this week:

1. Leopard print pencil skirt: Quite frankly I bet your thinking thinking this is horrific but I have been wanting one after I saw one in Teen Vogue and I would make it awesome and non-emo, well I would try. And I would wear it in an ironic way, just like my pink velour tracksuit top. Yep that's right. Pamela has a whole turquoise velour tracksuit. Please stay with us, this is NOT our normal attire. Anyway. think 50's style, or with a loose white tshirt.http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/leopard-print-pencil-skirt-size-8-NEW-with-tags-punk_W0QQitemZ370032537619QQihZ024QQcategoryZ314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

2. Playsuit. Not necessarily this one, any one. Preferrably a colourful one, or one like the 'Topgun' one they had in Topshop ages ago. Since I got my blue one from Oasis I am loving them. Shame I ripped a hole in the bum of it, pocket got caught on a cupboard handle, what are the odds!?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BNWT-TOPSHOP-GREY-PLAYSUIT-JUMPSUIT-SIZE-12_W0QQitemZ220212493164QQihZ012QQcategoryZ314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

3. (Long) waistcoat. I keep looking in charity shops for a man's waistcoat, thinking they will be longer, but they're all a bit large in the belly. I'm going for the Etro S/S 07 look here. I'm willing to bet several pennies this would actually look very very bad on me but you get the general idea. Mmm. Camel.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Waistcoat-mens-vintage_W0QQitemZ280207705777QQihZ018QQcategoryZ313QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

4. High waisted skirts of any variety. I used to hate anything high waisted but I have discovered I often hate something with a passion and then fall in love with it. I keep hoiking up my low waisted skirts, this often has slutty results, but hey I wear tights. Sometimes several pairs. Yorkshire is chilly ok.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/great-80s-pattern-high-waisted-mini-skirt_W0QQitemZ300206591296QQihZ020QQcategoryZ314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/cute-high-waisted-floral-vintage-topshop-style-skirt_W0QQitemZ220212477067QQihZ012QQcategoryZ314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

5. Sequin mini skirt. I borrowed Pamela's sister's black sequin skirt and it was lovely. As Pamela got into trouble for borrowing her clothes she told her sister the skirt was mine, if only...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Black-sequin-mini-skirt-from-H-M-Size-12_W0QQitemZ180223501864QQihZ008QQcategoryZ314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thank you everyone who commented on those last two posts, you are all extremely lovely. I was well embarrased about them, but you have all made me very happy. Cheearz!

Susan got crafty

AS art can be a 'motherbitch' (this is Pamela's excellent word) but sometimes all goes well. This corset was the final outcome of a project entitled 'The Figure' So I made a corset out of cardboard and then spray painted it gold and attacked it with shoe polish to make it all antiquey and stuff. Here is my lovely friend "Janet" resplendently modelling it for me. She has perfected the 'you disgust me' face, no?

Rolling out those barrels took a year I tell you. Haha. Plug socket, that's what you get for using your kitchen as a set.

I know you can see inside the tubular things but I ran out of spraypaint alright.

If you think it's crap or have any suggestions do tell me, I enjoy constructive criticism.