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Thank you to the lovely Ronke from Ondolady for asking me about my very messy work space! I had been asked to share my work space before, but even to my surprise when it came to sharing it with Ronke it had actually gotten messier!! Doh! I am a messy pig. It's official!
Queen Michelle aka Dirty Pig
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For reasons not even known to me I find myself fascinated by the human skeleton - I think it's remarkable both visually and technically.
My wonderful skeleton hand cuff created for me by the talented Louise of Super Duper Things is rarely off my hand.
Or I'm getting a dress designed to look like a rib cage (and wearing a little ribcage necklace to match)
But, thankfully, it seems I'm not the lone soul with a dubious interest in bones. Designer Patricia Nichols, stocked at Bitching & Junkfood, has taken perspex and created the most incredibly massive ribcage neckpiece ever!
That rack of ribs don't come cheap, but oh how I'd love to have that resting against my actual ribcage.
Seems designer Katie Eary is loving her bones too with her latest collection, Naked Lunch, inspired by William Burroughs' classic novel. There are skeletons aplenty and applied in the twisted yet humourous way Katie does so well.
(Images nicked from Dazed Digital)
So it seems bones are having their moment in the limelight. Sadly for our dear Sister Wolf her own bone moment is none too pleasant having just broken her poor hip! We are sending special healing vibes to your hip Sister!
Queen Michelle
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After some discussions with my chum James from Black Milk about body suits, my conclusion was that I can't do them unless they are high necked as I don't quite have the 'lady lumps', as a famous woman once contemplated. I am still awaiting the arrival of the black Christopher Kane for Topshop one which has both a high neck and arms, but the low cut swimsuit styles evade me...until I actually saw James' creations. Holy hell, they are amazing!
OK, hot model, hot styling and general all round hotness helps me actually reconsider the possibility of a low cut body suit. Behold the work of a boy genius!
Grommets, panels and Mickey Mouse ears? Doesn't get much better than that!
Queen Michelle
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Whilst in London I snaffled a stunning pink jersey Jean Pierre Braganza dress from the pop up shop. I have wanted this dress from the Hadronexus collection since I first clapped eyes on it, as I don't actually have anything from JP that's this beautifully bright. The print looks like the Northern Lights crossed with Inca lines. It's amazingly draped and it's that kind of jersey that's lovely and cool against the skin.
I teamed it with the gorgeous Hilary Laing scribble print tights for a perfect match, along with the purple LaRare boots, vintage pink belt and navy AA mesh dress.
Queen Michelle
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I watched British film Awaydays on Saturday, which is loosely about football casuals in the late 70's/early 80's. If I had to describe it I'd say it was really more a, to use a cliche, 'coming of age' film based around the relationship between the main characters of Carty and Elvis (who is beautifully played by the very handsome Liam Boyle).
The film is stylistically impressive as the fashion of the football casuals appears to be one of the main focuses and the main reason I loved it so much. I am no expert on the football casual style - that's the domain of our friend the Adidas Archduke, who very often consults on football casual style for films and books - but whether it's an accurate representation or not didn't detract from the fact that stylistically this is an amazing movie.
The character of the lovely Elvis, who is at heart a dreamer and has somehow found himself embroiled in this life of Saturday violence, is by far the best dressed mixing the preppy style of the casual with an art school student twist. He also has really great hair.
The style is very much about the sneakers, again the expertise of the Adidas Archduke, and we see the characters of Carty and Elvis cooeing over the latest Adidas issues.
It did bring back memories of school for me as football casuals were plentiful where I lived and I recall a girl in my class called Maureen (I think that was her name) who's big brother was a casual and he used to come to pick her up after school. He was feared by everyone as he was famed for his violent tendencies, but whenever he marched up the school corridor with his crew I always noticed how smart he was: pink or lemon coloured Fred Perry sweater, neat slim fitting jeans, Adidas sneakers and he would sometimes wear a pork pie style hat. It was hard to believe he was so horrible.
For anyone who liked This Is England, Trainspotting or Control then I highly recommend this film. There is violence but it's not too overwhelming and isn't really the main focus of the plot.
Queen Michelle
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FarFetch I hate you. You and Pixie Market. I hate you both.
My life now seems devoid of beauty because I don't own any of these boots by Gianmarco Lorenzi.
FarFetch, you are dead to me.
Queen Michelle
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I was introduced to the work of artist Roisin Dunne by the lovely Levi Palmer, who was manning the Jean Pierre Braganza and Hannah Marshall pop up shop, via a postcard thrust into my hand. The artwork on the walls of the shop belonged to Roisin and I have to say she seems like my kinda gal.
Upon inspecting her website on my return, I discovered wonderfully dark, medieval inspired, disturbing and symbol rich illustrations and paintings.
She has explored eyes in great detail in some pieces, creating these rich textural works that would not be out of place on printed fabric. Some artworks look like the mysterious and vaguely menacing Masonic culture, though I don't believe it's literal in any sense. Whilst some pieces look like they came straight out of the mind of Aleister Crowley and Golden Dawn, I think she is merely presenting a representation of the human fascination with darkness and mystery.
Thank you Levi for providing art as well as laughs!
Queen Michelle
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I mentioned before that I, along with some other bloggers, had been asked to create a DIY for a magazine. Well, now that the magazine is out, Vogue Girl Korea, I can post the full tutorial.
Firstly, I'd never seen Vogue Girl before as we simply can't get it here so I was thrilled to receive a copy as it's actually an amazing magazine, inspite of the fact I can't read any of it. I love it for the reasons I love Vogue Nippon - the inherant understanding of good layout and brilliant typography. It's packed with great images and I genuinely enjoyed looking through the magazine.
I haven't heard of any of the other bloggers featured, apart from Park & Cube, so it was cool being introduced to those, but sadly I can't read their tutorials for their DIY's.
My own DIY was a version of the Lanvin necklaces from the AW10 season.
To me they looked like a bunch of stuff from the hardware shop so that's what I did - headed off to B&Q and bought some copper couplings and a hinge, then to the art shop to get large wooden beads and jewels. I used spare net and strips of jersey I had lying around to thread the bits on to make two necklaces.
The process was really easy. I wanted a short chunky necklace which was just the wooden beads and cooper couplings, and I wanted a longer necklace which also included the hinge.
The short necklace
A simple case of threading bead then coupling until I got the required shape.
I added a strip of jersey at the end because the beads and couplings need to stay at a specific angle which requires them being tight against each other and since the net is stretchy, the weight tended to seperate them. The extra knot with the jersey simply stops the seperation from happening and they remain at that specific angle.
The long necklace
I used a different style of coupling and a slightly different arrangement but the method is basically the same.
I was adding the hinge to this one. I attached it with a thin strip of net at the front of the necklace and to hide the holes on the hinge I glued fake jewels on top.
Easy! We then had to style it three different ways. Since mine was just a necklace the styling is a bit irrelevant really as you can wear them with pretty much anything.
Queen Michelle
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Such is the appeal of my poppy necklace, a birthday gift from Queen Michelle, I can't stop wearing it...
I'm wearing it so much, I'm afraid I might wear it our. *whimper*
So it seems only sensible to maybe to find another necklace that I could maybe rotate it with. Despite having hundreds and hundreds of necklaces, all of a sudden it seems that only felted flowers will hit the spot.
One of these may be the answer...
These lovelies are made by bigfrozenmelon
You can find them at her etsy shop and at only $39.00, I may need a whole bunch...
Queen Marie
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So! the Style Section of The Sunday Times has had a restyle...
What do we think then?
On first look, it strikes me as what Queen Michelle and I would call 'tricksy' - lots of little graphic tricks on the headers and footers
I don't know if the illustrative graphics for section headers will be repeated every week
If so, they may have designed themselves into a hole. They will look appealing for a few weeks and then I predict, will start to grate.
You can't argue with the content however and I never object to some reversed type boxes...
If I had to sum it up in word I would say it sadly, it strikes me as 'gimicky', but will it stop me reading it, hell no! it's The Style section - an essential part of my sundays...
Queen Marie
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