Kingdom Of Style

J N X K O S: Skate Witches, Raised Back

My JNXKOS boyfriend t-shirt is excellent for wearing with leggings, but the raised back looks best with jeans and shorts. The dipped front tucks perfectly into the front of your jeans without having a lot of bunching up and excess fabric.

One of the other reasons I designed a t-shirt with this shape was because I can never find a decent shape of tee which works with my floor length length skirts. Most tees are either too long, too fitted or too boxy. Because the shape dips at the front, it doesn't produce that boxy effect many more traditionally cropped shapes do. The little hint of bare back really works because it's quite modest and my tummy remains hidden under fabric, which is always a good thing.

I've been wearing these samples pretty much constantly since I got them. As I get older I find myself simplifying my wardrobe down rather a lot. When all I live in for so much of the time is jeans, then fun t-shirts are often the main focus of my outfit. I think everyone is thoroughly bored of seeing me in my band t-shirts, so I had to do something different.

The next print will be released in a few weeks time.

100% UK made these tees are knitted in Leicester, made in Fife, hand dyed and hand printed by Jaggy Nettle in the Scottish Borders.  Even the swing tags are made from Scottish board and individually letter pressed in Innerleithen on an original Victorian Platen print press. These are available here in black, navy and white in a small, medium and large.

Kingdom of Style readers get a 20% discount until 30th June. Enter JNXKOS at checkout.

Queen Michelle

J N X K O S: Skate Witches, Boyfriend

So, finally, here is the first J  N  X  K  O  S print release.

The process of getting this collaboration to come to fruition has been a long one, made more difficult by the physical distance between myself and Jaggy Nettle.

However, it's all coming together now.

All production of these t-shirts takes place in Fife in Scotland and the fabric is made in Leicester. All tees are then hand dyed and hand printed by Jaggy Nettle themselves in their studio, and will be run in limited quantities.

The designs speak of my own youthful extremes and hopefully speak of others people's too, either of past moments or current ones.

Some of you of, ahem, a certain age will know exactly what this was inspired by. This pretty much sums up me and everything that shaped me and influenced me. I had the most fun as a teenage skateboarder in the 80's and I think as an adult I'd love to have that fearlessness back again, a state of mind that seems to disappear with age and good sense.

The boyfriend tee comes in navy, black and white, in sizes small, medium and large.

 Boyfriend t-shirt, black, size small :

This project was a selfish one, as I really wanted tees with prints that are entirely influenced by the music I love. But I hope you will hop on board too.

The printed t-shirts are on sale here now, and the plain versions will be up later this week.

Kingdom of Style readers have just been set up with a 20% discount until 30th June. Enter JNXKOS at checkout.

Queen Michelle

Twice The Denim

I really must admit, I am currently struggling to write content to accompany some outfit posts, such as this one, as I don't really have a specific reason for featuring it .

I do find it a little hard just to have an outfit post for the sake of it - i.e. I'm not showing you a new label, something I think is exciting or something I've bought. When I am doing those kind of posts, the ones where I'm sharing  a new purchase or new label with you,  I can waffle on for ages, but an outfit post for no reason other than 'here is an outfit', I find hard to write text to accompany it. This leaves me in a quandry - we need the outfits posts, as those days are busiest on the blog, but I don't always have something exciting to show you, therefore not much text to accompany it.

Recently I was asked how the hell I fit it all in with studying ballet, blogging and a full time job. Well, I really work my ass off for this blog, between the reasonably hefty, daily posts which I work hard at trying to make as nice looking as possible, covering Queen Marie when she's jaunting to places far and wide, plus the design and the constant maintenance - it requires me to set aside all the rest of my free time for blogging. Of course, the hard work has paid off and I have a blog I'm very proud of, but bloody hell it's sometimes stressful! Outfit posts are actually quite a bit of additional work to create and not just for me, but for Prince B too, as he gets dragged out to take the photos. Whilst all my weekends are sacrificed for the blog, the outfit posts are a little easier to write as they require no research. This frees up some time to find 'real' content. With how much work goes into an outfit post, it feels a bit of shame to not have content to go with it.

So what I'm saying is this - sometimes I won't have very indepth content to go with outfits. Obviously, my intention would to keep these 'fillers' to a minimum, but I'm not really buying stuff that often now, so most likely there will be times I'm not showing you new stuff. On days when I can't think of stuff to write along with them, I'll try and give you an extra post to make up for it.

With that in mind, here is 'filler' outfit post. I have no reason to show you this outfit, other than to express a bit joy that I'd rediscovered this high waisted Olesia Makhonko denim skirt. I thought I'd lost it forever and then, quite unexpectedly, it turned up. It seemed right to pair it with even more denim, so a dark denim shirt was pulled out of the old wardrobe and given a whirl.

I wonder though, does this count as a Canadian tuxedo?

Queen Michelle

J N X K O S: Boyfriend T-Shirt, Plain.

I've said this many, many times, but I am often happiest in jeans and a t-shirt. It's a truely no fuss outfit option. But I am very picky about the t-shirt I chose for such a plain, pretty uninteresting outfit. Bands tees are always the best option, but I'm not always in the mood to loudly display my love of Metallica. That's where the plain tee comes in.

I have criteria for my plain tees.

The first is that they must be semi sheer. I really hate heavy cotton t-shirts. Light, almost transparent is always best.

Secondly, they must cover my arse. Unless the t-shirt has a design feature which isn't arse covering, I like them to be long enough to almost be dress length.

Thirdly, the cut must be loose. I can't bear tight or fitted t-shirts. Big and baggy is best.

But, these elements are hard to find. And do I do when I can't find what I want? I make it of course.

That's not strictly true. I don't make it, Jaggy Nettle make it. I mentioned my collaboration with Jaggy Nettle to create a my perfect tees recently, well this is the other design. Having hunted for the perfect oversized yet sheer tee endlessly, I decided to design one myself for the collaboration.

And so the Boyfriend Tee was born.

Imagine getting out of bed and pulling on your bf's well loved, worn out and battered black tee. That comforting feeling as his t-shirt envelopes your much smaller frame and instantly makes you feel super feminine. That's what I wanted to recreate.

It seems like a simple thing to create, but it actually went back and forth a few times before it was right - just the right length, the right neckline width, the right sleeves. But I'm really happy with it and for my simple jeans and t-shirt outfit, it's perfect.

It's not exactly jeans and t-shirt, but for me leather is as common in my wardrobe as denim, so it's my jeans and t-shirt.

This simple outfit consists of Topshop trousers; Balenciaga shoes; 7Chi bag; Zara coat; DIY beanie and Super sunglasses.

Next week, hopefully, Jaggy Nettle will be putting up some tees for sale on their site. The tees for sale are actually going to be printed, and we will release one print every few weeks. Each print will be available on a raised back tee and a BF tee, in white, navy and black, in small, medium and large. We might also put up the plain versions too but we haven't absolutely decided on that quite yet. I shall be featuring the first print next week.

Here I'm wearing the size medium.

Queen Michelle

That 70's Shoe

Last week I made a mistake. A stupid, annoying mistake. I bought shoes from Office.

I never buy shoes from Office. Office is, for me, the worst place to buy shoes. Why? Because of their awful, outdated and unhelpful policy on refunds, which is basically that you can't get one. I prefer to have the option of returning my purchases should I change my mind, and get my money back, but when Office have your money, they damn well make sure they are keeping it. As I said, outdated and unhelpful.

So how did I end up buying shoes from Office? Weakness, that's why.

I've been searching for the longest time for the perfect pair of pointed toe, stiletto court shoes. Something undeniably sexy with a fair dose of vamp. Such shoes are hard to find sadly. I found a pair of ankle boots in Kurt Geiger that had the right amount of sexy, an amazing stiletto heel and pointed toe, but they only had a size 6 left, which I bought but had to concede they were just too big, so back they went.

I had tried everywhere and as a last resort I went into Office and saw a pair which seemed pretty damn close. Not entirely sexy ot vampy - they needed a bit more point on the toe and a higher, thinner heel to tick those boxes - but the cut seemed as close as I was going to get, even after extensive online searching. So on a crowded Saturday afternoon, when I couldn't even get a seat to try them on properly, I bought them.

Silly me. Silly, silly me.

I got them home and tried them on and realised they were dull, dull, dull. And not very well made. Absolute schoolboy error. So I returned them and now I was left with the dreaded credit note. I went back online and tried to see what I'd buy from the damn shop. There was only two avenues open to me - Underground England or Jeffrey Campbell.

My immediate response was to head for the Underground concession, but sadly they only had single sole creepers and I'm a dedicated double sole kinda gal, so that just left me Jeffrey Campbell. Please god no, not the Litas! Thankfully no. They had some lovely suede platforms in a variety of colours which I was actually quite happy to get.

A millions miles away from sexy or vampy, but I am fond of a 70's style shoe, and a shape I continually mean to buy when I have a hippy urge, which is more often than you might think.

These are exceptionally comfortable, and work as well with jeans as they do skirts and dresses. It worked out quite well because realistically I'd never have made this purchase entirely voluntarily, so having my hand forced turned out to be a good thing. In my head, I can already see me wearing them with lovely warm knitted socks on dry winter days with librarian-eque cardigans.

I revisited a paisley print 70's dress, which I've not worn since I cut off my hair a few years ago, and paired it with some blue velvet Black Milk leggings, leopard socks and ASOS tweed coat for a mix and match print fest.

Queen Michelle