Kingdom Of Style

The Salty Virgin Suicides...

The long winter wreaked havoc in every corner of the garden including the Holy Grotto corner.

I decided today was the day to try to restore some order.

But when I turned the corner.  Holy Crap! what had happened in Holy Corner?

It looked like Our Lady had tried to top herself.

Both she and her grotto were on the ground.

When I picked her up, she looked very strange.  At first I thought her glaze had been damaged with being out in the  elements all winter...

But no!  She was encrusted with salt.

When I put her out last year, being hollow, I filled her with salt to weight her down. 

So obviously it had been no Virgin Suicide, only a salty fall from grace.

I am off now to fill her with earth and rebuild the grotto.

Pictures to follow next weekend.

Silly Queen Marie

x

Could you love a man in Lanvin?

Well yeah, you probably could, if it was these we were talking about...

Nylon Trainer £300.00

But what if he came to meet you wearing these?

Ribbon Sandal £280.00

Ribbon sandals that would look better on me than him. 

 It's taking metrosexual a station too far if you ask me.

Both available from Browns

Queen Marie

Struck by lightning....

I have loved the Eley Kishimoto Flash print for the longest time...

But now my love may become a tortured thing.

I saw these basketball shoes. I love these shoes. I need these shoes. I must have these shoes...

Do I have £100 spare to buy them?  Do I hell!!!

So my love must remain unrequited, but now everytime I look down at my feet I am sad...

Queen Marie

Poster Envy...

In life, the simplest things are often the most striking.

So it is with these 'daily affirmation' posters from the charming Sparklepower

So wonderful, I wish I had thought of them...

Set of 5 prints 

Her husband also has an etsy shop called Tuffin Industries which has gems like this for a mere $10!

Your envious Queen Marie

x

Pinata Envy...

 I received an email from Maria Fernando Orrego who has her own label Dinamita in South America.

Like me, Maria seems to have a love of rabbits and rabbit ears...

One dress in particular has captured my heart.  Inspired by a pinata, heaven alone knows how long this must have taken to make, but I would have to say it was worth it.

I am waiting on more information from Maria about where you can buy her work, but I simply couldn't wait to show you this dress...

Wonderful x

Queen Marie

Peony Envy...

I can honestly say I have never suffered from penis envy!

But peony envy?

That's a different matter altogether.

In particular, the peonies of our own beloved Punk Glam Queen

Her garden is filled to overflowing with the most breathtaking blooms...

I may not have any peonies yet, but I do have some poppies, and even if I do say so myself

they are stunning!

Queen Marie

The Kids Are Alright

When I got an email, perhaps as part of a list of people who got the same email, from a girl called Kirstin stating that she was the 15 YEAR OLD editor of a magazine called Prim, I was a bit "eh?".

I have admitted before that when it comes to online publications I am woefully behind. I read Fashion156 and that's pretty much it, so I hadn't ever heard of Prim before. However I went and had a look and two things struck me: 1/ I am woefully behind because Prim have clearly been on the go for ages and 2/ Damn this kid is good.

When it comes to children doing any kind of creative endevour it's easy to confuse 'good', with 'good for their age'. A world of difference. We also have no idea if there is a mum or older sibling etc in the background pulling the strings.

Whilst I generally don't think we should be judging children anyway, when it comes to something like an online magazine then there is going to be an element of judgement, especially when the editor is clearly wanting her publication to be taken seriously. With all that in mind I genuinely felt this magazine was very impressive and something I would definitely read again.

There are graphic design elements I wasn't keen on but the overall look and feel of the magazine is very professional. The editorials are comparable to any well established magazine I have seen.

I assume it's adults doing the styling and photography, but it doesn't matter because the fact is Kirstin appears to have a genuinely keen eye for fashion since I assume she has final say on everything that goes into the magazine, and that in itself very impressive.

We are used to seeing teens decked out in designer garb, that's nothing new - chuck some new season Prada at them and they can't fail to look fashionable - but what we aren't used to seeing are teenagers with such a developed sense of style that's outwith mainstream ideas of good style - ie Kirstin has avoided filling her editorials with the obvious big labels and instead sourced smaller, more unique, independent labels to express her creative vision.

Kirstin's obviously fearless attitude, which has clearly been the impetus for her to get out and create this, to take it very seriously and be very determined to succeed, is actually a lesson for us all.

Dare I say it - I am actually inspired by a teenager!

Queen Michelle

Let's Go Back. Way Back

Some times I really wish I didn't have such a tendency to give so many of my clothes to the charity shop because there are things I now regret giving away.

Looking back of course I would never wear them the way I did then.

Case in point: the photo below is me taken 14 years ago. OK forget the dreadful t-shirt, but look at those wonderful buckled boots! I loved these boots so much then one day I just got bored of them and gave them away to a charity shop. Obviously I loved leather back then too...and daft glasses.

I remember this photo being taken in photography class at college.

And the photo of me at the top is as old, although I hacked my own hair off (as well as giving away clothes I also used to chop my own hair off when I got bored) and dyed the front red. Notice the PVC corset? I had teamed it with some black combat trousers and some battered old army boots. I am also sporting my Photo Face - which was always a ridiculously cheesy grin. I had my nosed pierced back then too. I really did look stoopid.

Queen Michelle

Bat Girl

With another bout of redundancy in the works for me come July (at least this time it's recession related and not at the hands of an egocentric idiot), I am going to spent money on one last item of unique and intersting design, one last time before it's back to living on a measly £60 a week.

I had several ideas on what I wanted to get for my last blow out before settling on something very special indeed (all will be revealed in the coming weeks), but if I hadn't already made my choice then I reckon this bag would surely be a contender.

It's designed by Stacy Leigh and it's called the Bat Bag. And it's utterly inctedible.

Stacy has some gorgeous bags in her Etsy shop, but this is easily the stand out piece for me. I love the rawness of it and that it does indeed look like a bat.

Queen Michelle

Top Rankin

I have been reallty enjoying looking through Rankin's updated site. The man needs no introduction obviously as he is a legend.

Photography is something I am so curious about. The idea of someone capturing something they see within you that you might not necessarily see yourself. It's a very initimate process and still one I'm not comfortable with, which is why I prefer to take my own photos. Even when my Prince takes them I still feel very self conscious and usually end up looking really awful in the resulting photos. It's the same with anyone taking my photo's with the exception of Queen Marie, who takes photographs as a photographer would - she sees me as a subject to be captured rather than me, the person. It's that detachment that I need to allow me to be comfortable having my photo taken.

The old expression of "a photo never lies" maye be true, but the digital re-toucher lies like a mother f**ker. The often excessive digital retouching of images is an emotive issue indeed. I still don't know how I feel about it. My sensible head says we should see people how they really are and not retouched within an inch of their lives, but when I see the likes of Rankin's work, which is clearly retouched so as not to really bare any resemblence to the original subject, I see the reason why - it makes a magical image and the person in the photographs become a work of art, as opposed to a person merely captured by the lens of a camera. I like the escapism offered. However, I also want to see a beautiful photograph of someone with all their lines intact; to see experience and life written in every wrinkle and flaw.

Realistically there are arguements, and merits, for both types of photography. But today I want to absorb myself in beautiful, unreal photography.

Queen Michelle