Kingdom Of Style

telephone call for Sao Paulo...

It  dawned on me through the week, that it won't be long until younger generations have no idea what a public phone box is!

They will be unable to comprehend a time before mobile phones. A time when if you wanted to make a call in private or in secret, you had to sneak out to the cold public call box at the end of the road. Brrrrrr.

In the United Kingdom our red telephone boxes are iconic even if they are no longer found on every street corner. 

Designed to shelter the caller from the British elements, these sturdy boxes of cast iron and glass could not be any more different from call boxes found in warmer climes.

Introduced at the start of the 1970's, Brazilians will have grown up with this design below.

It looks ludicrously flimsy to us. But in a land of samba and sunshine it doubtless suits the purpose very well.

So I was enchanted to look at this project 

100 phone booths decorated by 100 artisits on the streets of Sao Paulo.

As always I seem to be a litttle out of step.

The ones I like the least have received the most votes,  i.e. the gruesome brain.

While the ones that charm me the most like the Geisha design at the bottom of the post, don't seem to be resonating with Brazilians at all!

 

They are like gloriously painted little eggs.

Perfect for a friday afternoon browse.

Go make yourself a cup of tea and pick your favourite...

Queen Marie 

Join the Circus

I fell out of love with vintage some time ago, mostly because vintage sellers were charging absurd money for clothes that aren't even vintage. A 90's t-shirt isn't vintage, kids, it's just old.

Ebay shops selling the kind of stuff that should be in charity shops for £2 for vastly inflated prices, quickly ensured that snaring a little bargain became almost impossible.

However, a recent wander around some vintage shops in the West End of Glasgow has slightly re-ignited my interest in vintage. Prince B managed to scoop some wonderful 70's Mod style poloshirts for around £8 each, and even an 80's parka in perfect condition for a mere £30. I saw a beautiful 50's jade and white sheer chiffon blouse I nearly blought for only £17.

These prices are the exception to be fair, as most online vintage shops are still cheekily, well, ripping the piss, to be blunt, but it did none the less make me want to reintroduce some vintage back into my wardrobe.

It was rather timely then that I was contacted by vintage Etsy shop, Circus Freak Vintage recently.

The New York based shop has a nicely edited selection of good quality, 80's and vintage clothing. I can't lie, some prices are a bit ouch for me personally, like £30 for a belt or £100 for a floral 80's jumpsuit, but many pieces are undoubtedly selected because they are relevent to current trends. If you want to indulge in trends, but not risk bumping into others wearing the same high street concoction, then this is a shop you might just love...

Queen Michelle

Pop Goes The Shop

For all of you lucky enough to be near this, please visit my hommie Jason and his team at the SGC NYC Pop up shop at Blake Scotland in New York for fashion week next month. As well as SGC NYC, it features some truly amazing brands such as Obesity + Speed and Zana Bayne.

I'll be jealous of you if you go, but I promise not to hate you.

Queen Michelle

city break, shabby break...

It's been a grim old summer, so Grande Empress Gillian and I thought a little city break at the end of September might be just the thing to cheer us up.

City Breaks always sound so simple and spontaneous until you actually try to book one.

Apart from our lifelong love of drinking tea, eating buns and shopping, we couldn't be more different, so even deciding on a city was a little tricky. 

I of course would go to Berlin in a heartbeat, but it is so, not her cup of tea. She would have liked to see Barcelona but I'm not really in the mood to go there again yet.

Cities were lined up and knocked down before we settled on Prague!

It seemed perfect. None of us had been, it's not too far away and not too hot.

But an attempt to book Prague, soon had both of us hot under  the collar last night.

Cheap flights were far from cheap and by the time you added up all the surcharges it has pretty much almost knocked the idea of Prague on the head...

What was affordable and bookable was Milan.

But much to my chagrin, I had to say that for a city break, it just wouldn't work fo rme!

I would love to see Milan. But for me to enjoy it, I would need to be in the right place for it mentally.

I would need to be rested,polished ( well in so far as I can be), switched on and well put together before I visited such a chic stylish city.

It dawned on me that what I need is a shabby city break!!!

I need to be able to feel relaxed, dressed down for just casually kicking around, exploring, people watching and eating cake...

I'm just not smart enough for a smart city right now...

I may be a jakebomb.

But at least I'm a self-aware jakebomb!

Queen Marie

Released From Captivation

After doing some work with fashion retailer BENGT recently, I got my little paws on one of their Danielle Foster bags, which I've worn tons and tons and you seen it on the blog a lot too. A little studded shoulder with big impact, it's served me well in times where I need not carry my usual amount of crap. But, those times are not as often as I'd like sadly, so when Amy over at BENGT sent me images of the latest Danielle Foster wares, I saw the answers to my big bag prayers...

Danielle's totes in ponyskin and leather are the perfect size for fitting in my work and my ballet stuff, and doing so stylishly. Beats the random fabric shoppers I'm currently using.

Definitely my favourite - the matt black Fin tote. It's sleek, simple and functional. £440.

The burgundy ponyskin version is also pretty damn lush. Also £440.

There is a fun metallic version too.

The ponyskin tote comes in a slightly taller, slimmer version too, the Kelly. £400.

She has created little shoulders bags and clucthes of you prefer something a little more compact. Starting at £180.

Danielle herself is a Leicestershire born lass who moved to London when she was 18 to study Art and Design Foundation Diploma at London college of Fashion. She then progressed onto the FDA FDT Accessory Design and Technology.

After graduating in 2010, she collaborated with Charlie Le Mindu on his Spring/Summer 2011 collection. She is also a rather lovely model. Talented and beautiful.

Queen Michelle

Pagan princess...

So it would seem that there are pentagrams a plenty in The KIngdom here today!

Cast your eyes upon the new me and zena Autumn Winter collection.

Revenge of the Eyeball Ring  £28.00

This season they are helping you to chanel your inner pagan princess...

They are on stand by to help you summon your spiritual side with their spell binding pentagram necklace and  ring.

Magick Star Pentagram Ring £30.00    Magick Star Pentagram Necklace  £30.00

I'm about as far removed from pagan as you can get.

So I am far more inclined towards their collabaration with the Saatchi Gallery

This is an exclusive limited edition collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery celebrating the building blocks of art and design. The masterpiece of the collection comes in the form of a spilling paint can ring where the vivid cascading colours cleverly pour around the finger.

Available in gold tone with bright red, pink, blue, green or art gallery white enamel.

Me & Zena x Saatchi Gallery Paint Can Ring  £25.00

 There is also a range of fabulous paint dripping brush necklaces and dripping paint heart necklaces.

As always it's a struggle to pick a favourite but I'm going to go with pink paint ring...

 

Queen Marie

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Dare To Wear

Another day another lingerie label to obsess over.

Last week it was the delicious work of Chromat, and this week it's the work of Karolina Laskowska, who is currently studying at De Montfort University, on their prestigious Contour Fashion course.  Her creations are described "sophisticated garments with a cheeky erotic twist".

The designs definitely do lean towards the more fetish/erotica style of lingerie, but I approach this kind of underwear as I do clothing - I see the layering potentional. Frame bras or half bras need not leave you stuck having to wear pasties to cover your nips, instead layer such a piece over a pretty sheer bra instead. It's looks amazing and why not have fun layering your underwear too? 

Karolina begun designing lingerie in early 2011, and found demand was so high for her designs that she ended up starting her own label. The shop only currently has a couple of pieces in it at the moment, but hopefully it'll become more populated soon.

I love how she describes herself on her site too; "In her spare time, Karolina can be found listening to obnoxious music (the heavy metal influences in some of her designs are quite obvious!)" - that explains the pentagram thong. A girl after my own heart.

Karolina is also a columnist for The Lingerie Addict, the world’s biggest lingerie blog.

Queen Michelle

Ballerinas, tarts and nuns...

If it's the end of August, then it must be time for the new Ikea catalogue.

My mother is obsessed with looking at it every year, despite the fact that she never goes there. She's all about the Ercol rather than the flat pack. But for some reason she loves to look through it.

Especially at the lampshades .

But this year she has been less than impressed. I was making us a cup of tea when I heard her shouting -

"What the hell!, these lampshades look like a Victorian tart's bloomers"

I ran in from the kitchen and immediately started laughing, the woman had a point....

LYRIKShades from £25

As we continued to look, it became evident, that someone over at the Ikea buying department had been thinking not just about tarts but also about nuns!

The varmluft lampshade makes me think of a nun's cornette

A cornette is a piece of female headwear that was especially popular in Europe in the 15th to 17th century. It is essentially a type of wimple consisting of a large starched piece of white cloth that is folded upwards in such a way as to create the resemblance of horns (French: cornes) on the wearer's head.

The cornette was retained however as a distinctive piece of clothing into modern times by the Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of the Daughters of Charity, founded by St. Vincent de Paul. The founder wanted to have the sisters of this new type of religious congregation of women, that tended to the sick poor and were not required to remain in their cloister, resemble ordinary middle-class women as much as possible in their clothing - this was the reason why the cornette was adopted.

After the cornette generally fell into disuse, it became a distinctive feature of the Daughters of Charity, making theirs one of the most widely recognised religious habit. Because of the cornette, they were known in Ireland as the "butterfly nuns".

isThey abandoned the cornette on 20 September 1964 but it seems Ikea are all set to bring it back in 2012!!!

 VARMLUFT  Shade, square off-white  £5

As if tarts and nuns weren't enough, they also threw a ballerina into the mix.

Ikea PS 2012 Floor Lamp is aBallerina inspired shade offers a dramatic effect when integrated LED lamp is lit. But would you pay £100 for an oversized illuminated tutu?

 

You know how much I love me some lamps but there is no way in hell, I would give any of these palace room...

Queen Marie

Napoleon's Dynamite

When the inimitable Black Milk asked to send me something from their latest leggings collection it was, as always, a difficult choice. Each pair is more covetable than the last. It was a toss up between the Green Galaxies or the Call of Napoleons, but I finally decided on the Call of Napoleon ones because having art on your legs is always a good thing.

The best thing about Black Milk leggings is that they are in themselves so visually impactful, that the rest of my outfit can always be a big bunch of nothing.

Balenciaga bag; All Saints t-shirt and jacket; Underground England creepers; Black Milk leggings; sheer full length dress from charity shop

One of the reasons I love the label so much is James' tone of voice. He has created such a warm, funny and approachable brand which completely reflects the man himself. How could I resist the Napoleon's with a description like this?

"Okay, this is not actually the real name of this artwork. But if I had painted it, that's totes what I would have called it! And I probably would have put myself somewhere in the middle, and included a tiger. Having said that, I don't want to suggest that this artwork isn't awesome, even though it lacks my image and a tiger. It is in fact Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of Fallen French Heroes by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Triosson, who was a super talented French painter with way too many names. And despite the fact that he was named Anne, he was in fact, a dude. This painting is fascinating at many different levels - there seems to be a massive mish-mash of cultures in the references; the heroes are French, Ossian is an Irish character whose image seems based on the Greek poet Homer, and they're all getting together in Valhalla, which is the ancient Scandinavian afterlife for dead warriors. And yeah, seems busy there, with piles of money and ladies without a lot of clothes grabbing at your ankles. However, at the end of the day, it must be declared a masterpiece because it has a lady flying around below a chicken. Look closely...."

They definitely could have used a tiger in there too.

Queen Michelle

through the veil...

I laughed my ears off last week, at a comment made by the lovely Sue, from the wonderful Talulah Blue on my robot rabbit ears post.

Sue  said: "Aww, haha!! But we don't want to look like Yoda!! Or...You could always take a look in my Etsy shop, where I have a very similar item and a few others in development!! Sorry, I can't help myself, I want to save you from robot ears!!"

I popped over to her shop at the weekend and indeed it was filled with the most wonderful lace ears imaginable.

Ears like these...

Black lace bunny ears veiled headband  £35

All of Sue's costume and wedding accessories are handmade with love, using her vast collection of vintage trims and fabrics, working from her studio in the lovely village of Avening near Tetbury in the Cotswolds.

And wonderful though the ears and headbands are, I found myself totally captivated by her veils

I'm going to a wedding reception at the end of September and I'm thinking that a black birdcage veil , like the one pictured last, could well be perfect popped upon my head.

Birdcage Veils from £22.00

Veils are redolent with romance , glamour and mystery (not words normally associated with me)

I'm not completely sure I can pull one off, but I think I may have to give it a try...

Queen Marie

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