Kingdom Of Style

Lie Lady Lie

LIE SANG BONG is a Korean designer based in Paris. I don't know an awful lot about him, but what I do know is that I think his clothes are works of art. I love the way he plays with volume and proportion and all those intricate folds remind me of origami and the colours and silhouettes are dark, gothic and a bit early 20th Century (always a winner for me!). I think the clothes speak for themselves really.

Queen Michelle

Sooooo Neet!

I can't get enough of these shoes by London label Neet. They're a little bit Miss Marple, a little bit Art Deco, a whole lot of lovely! Pretty without being twee, sensible without being dull. What more could you ask for!

I have an amazing (yes Queen Marie, they ARE amazing - she'll try and tell you otherwise but please ignore her) pair of tan, flat, over-knee boots I got last Autumn from Neet and they were, still are, the most exceptionally comfy boots I have ever owned. I'm looking forward to proper winter when they will hopefully add more boots to their range. I do like a good boot in the winter...

Queen Michelle

Bernd Preiml

I don't know anything about this photographer other than he's Austrian. But I was awe struck by his photographs. They are like grim fairy tales come to life. I have to say I love photographers that can create such intense atmosphere in their work and whilst it's ocassionally nice to see the bright, crisp and shiny style of photography presented in the majority of magazines, I don't think you can beat someone who can visually explore the dark and rather sinister and still come out with something of amazing beauty.

Queen Michelle

London Calling

Well loyal subjects (have we any loyal subjects?) it is with great excitement that this Queen will be taking leave of this blog for a little while as she is off to visit that other Royal duchy of London. Your other Queen however will remain in the Kingdom to oversee the posting duties.

I have shamefully only visited London once but I ADORED it! I felt I had discovered my spiritual home (alas many a Scot has thought London would be their spiritual home only to find themselves sleeping in the Subway!). I had been given many a dire warning about what an unfriendly bunch the Londoners were, how no-one talks to you, no-one says sorry if they bump into you, shop assistants are snooty and unhelpful and chances are I'll also get mugged for my trouble. Well I found the polar opposite to be true. I found everyone I met to be extremely friendly and chatty, extremely helpful, extremely apologetic if they stood on my foot and overall....just extremely amazing! Perhaps it was because I had gone the week after the London bombings (no bombs were going to stop me from shopping!) and maybe everyone was pulling together, I don't know, but none of the things I had been told were true. Maybe I just caught folk on a good day.

I had the BEST shopping experience in Browns where an Australian SA took me personally all around the shop looking out fabulous things for about 2 hours. She was fantastic! The cab driver who took my Prince and I back to the hotel from a club in Shoreditch was such a good laugh the ride was totally fun (and he didn't take the long route which he could have to extend his fare). The only vaguely unpleasant experience was the shop assistants in Harvey Nics who were total arses, even though I was spending ALOT on a Nicole Farhi coat. Mind you I did get lost in Selfridges. My Prince was off looking at record shops and left me to peruse the shop, and when he'd finished he'd called me to see if I was done. I told him that I was disappointed that Selfridges looked so huge from the outside but inside it was really small. In he came and I huffed about how they didn't have hardly any labels, only to discover I'd actually been going round in one tiny little circle and had totally missed about 3/4's of the shop!!!

The biggest problem I came up against was the fact I was so overwhelmed by the sheer size and choice of shopping venues I ended up hardly shopping at all! I was totally overcome. But not this time! Thanks to the lovely Susie over at Style Bubble who very kindly emailed me a big list of fabulous shops to visit, I now have a plan! (although my Prince does not thank you Susie!) I have my A-Z rammed with post-it notes with all the shops I want to go to and what streets they are on! I have a route planned and every day is accounted for. Oh the joy!

Now you may have guessed that handbags are my main indulgence so that's primarily what I'm after. I have to choose between the Marc Jacobs Quilted hobo (I've had a few MJ quilted pieces but none quite hit the mark)

or this big slouchy Miu Miu.

Of course I'll probably end up seeing lotss of other bags I hadn't even considered.

I am also after some new jeans - my other obsession - and hopefully some great vintage pieces. I shall of course be visiting the Topshop mothership on Oxford Street which I hope to buy lots of fabulous stuff from.

On my return I will share with you my loot which hopefully shall be plentiful!

Queen Michelle

Pretty Ugly

I tend to fall shoes that border on ugly. Infact I have worn shoes that are down right ugly, for example about 9 years ago I used to wear these big shoes by a streetwear brand called Swear that were HIDEOUSLY ugly. Queen Marie used to call them my Hover Feet, due to the massive, rockabilly-esque sole, but I loved just how damn ugly they were!

I really dislike stilletto heels because they are so refined and, well, pretty. I much prefer a chunky cone heel or a big wooden stack heel. You won't catch me in bejewelled Gina shoes. No way! So I am drawn like a moth to a flame, to Chloe's clunky wooden conceiled platforms. They are undeniably ugly. Even if you love Chloe as much as I do, there is no escaping their clunky ugliness.

Jil Sander and Alexander McQueen have also got some pretty ugly shoes on the go too...oh but how I ADORE them!

And Che Mihara with those fabulous, heavy cone heels and thick ankle strap - oh yes please!

Queen Michelle

Bruno Pieters

I LOVE his work. I love the vaguely Victorian strictness of his clothes. The puffy, structured sleeves, cute capelets and all those fabulous details on the shirts. Yum, yum, YUM!! I also love how in his Autum/Winter 07 he's pretty much just used navy and black together (well, some cream thrown in for good measure). The colours look rich and decadent. Did I say yum?

He's Belgian (with utilitarian style like that could he be anything else!) and graduated from the Royal Academy of Antwerp. He's worked for the likes of Martin Margiela and Christian Lacroix.

I SO want that first jacket!

and I MUST, no infact, I DEMAND to have this coat and shirt!!!

Fashionista?

What the hell is a Fashionista? I've been asking myself this question lately as I see the term thrown around by all and sundry. I think this term is so deeply and horribly pretentious.

From what I can gather it appears to be given to people who are considered 'fashion risk-takers'. But who decides who's a risk taker and who isn't? Do you have to be a risk taker to be consider truly, deeply fashionable?

To me, a fashionable or stylish person is one who has truly found themselves and expresses themselves via their clothes. It is those people who, at any age, seem to look so comfortable in their own skin and have totally got their own look going. But those people don't have to be experimenting with clashing colours and patterns, or constantly seeking out stuff that no-one else would dare to wear, they can simply be dressed in a neat trouser suit, but it's how they wear it that makes them seems so pulled together. I'm not saying for a second there aren't 'unfashionable' people out there, but often those people I don't believe get it wrong, I just don't think they care.

I think it's more the judgement of people that the term Fashionista represents. Maybe not even that, perhaps it's more the arrogance of the people who decide who is and who isn't a Fashionista. I like the clothes I wear, I think I suit them and perhaps to some people I am deeply stylish (my Prince certainly thinks so) but to others I'm totally bland - but who's right? I think what I'm trying to say is that I look at people that are considered fashion risk takers and sometimes all I see are people who are wearing clothes they don't suit, in colours that clash badly, in fabrics that make them sweat loads and are often ill-fitting and genuinely don't look any better than a homeless person! Yet, they are considered fashionista's whereas the poor homeless dude is just....well homeless! So am I the ill-informed one who can't spot a Fashionista or are the people deciding who is and who isn't just deciding based on their own personal taste? I am perplexed.

Take Queen Marie and I. You couldn't find two more differently dressed people on the planet. She positively HATES alot of the stuff I wear and I recoil at some of the stuff she wears, but even though we have two totally different looks, and OK I wouldn't say either of us are particularly outlandish or even experimental, we rock what we wear. But there might be someone out there, a stylist or an editor who would say we look awful. Does that make it so?

I really don't think we should have these horrid, judgemental terms like Fashionista. Especially as the people who consider themselves a level above everyone else on the fashion barometer usually don't look any better than anyone else. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of judging people on how they dress, of course I do, I often see people I think try too hard or look too contrived but what I'm saying is...you know what, I don't actually know what I'm saying! I just hate that friggin' word.

Fully Armed

I've never been into leg warmers - well not since I was a kid in the 80's, but then I also wore pinstriped jeans and a bat-wing denim jacket. However, I do love a good pair of armwarmers. A strange creature it is - neither a glove nor a sleeve, but I love how it can add a bit of slouch to any outfit. When I first started wearing them I had to make my own as they were not sold in the shops (well not here in Glasgow anyway), so I chopped the middle section out of a pair of woolly tights thus creating a tube, sewed a hem on either end and instant armwarmers! They look best scrunched right down (when they are pulled right up they look a bit too goth, a bit too stripper).

Of course they are now much easy to get a hold off with amazing shops like Gloved Up selling the most interesting and unique designs (they call them fingerless gloves, but to me fingerless gloves still have finger holes, albeit little ones, whereas arm warmers tend just to have a thumb hole).

Marc Jacobs sent his models down the runway in slouchy high gloves and short sleeves which also looked amazing.

Of course, Queen Marie is horrified by these glove/sleeve hybrids. But I'd be disappointed if she were anything else...

Queen Michelle

Bus Bundlers

Every morning I take the bus to work. It's not ideal, but I like to support the transport infrastructure of my city in my small way (£1.10 to be precise). However, there is a breed of creature that is making my journey somewhat...unpleasant shall we say. This creature can be male or female and I call them BUNDLERS. The Bundlers are those folk who get on buses, or any mode of public transport really, who seem in a perpetual state of un-togetherness. It's like they roll out of bed in the morning into a pile of bags which they take with them, that seem to be filled with bricks, pointy sticks and other jaggy implements. The Bundlers then get on the bus and proceed to rummage through the assorted bags to find their measly £1.10 bus fare, which usually takes about 7 minutes or so. So a ranty message to Bundlers out there:

1: Chances are you knew you were going to work in the morning, so why didn't you look out your bus fare the night before and put it in an easily accessable pocket. This avoids a) you rummaging about your collection of bags and b) doesn't hold up the people who are actually organised!

2: The bags. WHY SO FRIGGIN MANY???? Are you the first ever homeless working person? Do you have to carry EVERYTHING you own around with you?

3: The contents of the bags. Is everything you own pointy and heavy?!

4: And this is the thing that REALLY gets me - You don't have a seat. I have a seat. You are standing and your multiple, pointy bags are FACE height with the seating passengers, so of course you keep poking the seating passengers in the face because you don't seem to want to TAKE YOUR BAG OFF YOUR SHOULDER!!!! Lady Bundlers - just because it's called a shoulder bag doesn't mean it must remain on the shoulder at all times! Man Bundlers - are you surgically attached to your rucksack? Is it actually some type of colostomy bag? No? Then take it off your back you freak!!

So, if you are a Bundler, please stop it.

Queen Michelle

Sonic Blamange

If there is anything that is likely to send this queen into a rage it is a bad sound system...
Last night i was confronted by the worst one yet. I had gone to an afterparty at the ABC to hear Kerso, the Adidas Archduke play. Considering I know many of his records as well as my own, the fact that I couldn't always recognize what he was putting on is testament to just how bad the sound was. He had the mixer turned up full to little or no effect. It just sounded like muffled indistinct noise.
This problem is also faced by your other queen very bravely when she plays the Arches cafe bar. Again the most apalling equipment does nothing to complement genuine dj'ing talent.
I have given this unacceptable noise produced by substandard set ups a name, from this day forward it shall be known as - SONIC BLAMANGE...