Kingdom Of Style

ENGlorious Girls

To finish off Good Friday, I share with you these cute, affordable tees from ENGlorious, which is a small London based clothing company, specialising in individually hand painted t-shirts. The designer, Lucy Collins, is "inspired by my favourite music, art and popular culture".

The motifs are ones we're all familiar with, but Lucy's are all hand painted and her tees are only £15, so if you still love crosses and anarchy signs, then you can't argue with £15.

I put my hands up though and say I have cross fatigue. I'm sick of the sight of the damn things, so ubiquitous have they become. Ruined for me forever by the Glasgow girl chavs, with their orange faces, too big hair and nasty high street versions of the Black Milk inverted cross leggings. It's a sin. Literally.

Queen Michelle

Payday party

It's Friday and for some of that means payday! I don't know about you, but my pay is only little so doesn't go too far so sales and discounts are always welcome. My lovely chum Francesca from Babooshka Boutique is offering KoS readers an additional 15% off her sale, which is already 25% off. That's almost half price for you guys!

Babooshka Boutique, a label which I've featured a great many times on here, excels at creating wearable jersey basics with creative twists. I own quite a few pieces from several years ago and they are still in perfect condition.

The label is ideal for oversized tees and panelled leggings, in particular.

Here I am in 2010 sporting some Babooshka goodies.

To claim your extra discount simply enter KINGDOMLOVIN at the checkout. Enjoy!

Queen Michelle

Lift The Vale

As I've said many, many times on here - we are partial to a bit of headwear in the Kingdom. I buy vintage hats mostly because I find they are the only hats that are small enough to fit on my head, modern hats are always way too big for me. On my list currently is a hat or headpiece with wings.

Katie Vale recently emailed us telling us about her own work. She designs pretty straw bowlers, fascinators and summer bonnets. There are the obligatory  bridal headpieces in there too, but look beyond those and you'll see some very charming heapieces and hats.

Whilst there probably isn't much left to do with fascinators that hasn't already been done, and generally speaking I'm not massively fond of them, Katie however has some lovely variations of the theme. I'm particularly liking the large coloured floral piece. Mind you, as I look out at the snow, all I can think of currently is ear muffs and my furry SpiritHood!

Queen Michelle

It's Not Dead, It's Just Lying Down

Artist Simeon Farrar has created a wonderful range of exclusive t-shirts for ASOS. The range is infused with Farrars's signature humour and illustration style. His Black Score label, of which these tees are part, are based on old DIY/handrawn punk t-shirts and flyers. The range is "strictly black and white as Black Score adds a daring edge to a line of limited edition hand-printed t-shirts".

The tees are mostly related in some way to music, with playful send-ups of Slash, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kiss.

Brad Pit Bull Inevitable

Red Hot Chili Puppies

Punk's Not Dead it's Just Having a Lie Down

Puss

I am very tempted to buy the Punk's Not Dead baseball tee as that gave me quite an extensive chuckle! Each tee only cost £45, which is a bargain in my opinion.

Queen Michelle

wheels of crochet...

I'll grant you that wheels of crochet don't sound as hardcore as wheels of steel but when you read about the latest work from The Knitterati, I think you will think again...

You wouldn't want to mess with them!

 They eat, they drink, they knit...

 Maybe it's because I can't knit or crochet that I am filled with such admiration for those who can. Especially Guerilla Knitters or Yarn Bombers!

The Knitterati are a charming group from Atlanta in the USA who  "use knitting and crocheting as a delightful excuse to get together, catch up and enjoy food, drink and each other’s company. 

Their latest project saw the team cover 10 bikes that are now on display throughout the East Atlanta Village. My favourite is the Nature Bike above made by Sandy M. Tyler and Julie Jeffers Rivard. This enchanting work took them over 7 weeks to complete.

 My own new bike is in danger of becoming a nature bike! If this snow does not clear, I won't be surprised to find it covered in moss before I finally get round to cycling around on it! Harumph.

 I also adore their  Commuknitree project below which was part of of the Atlanta Beltline public art project

Glorious...

Queen Marie

x

Flat Out Inspiration

I think a great many of us are familiar by now with the work of Simone Rocha, or at the very least will have heard the name. 

Simone is an Irish designer, born in Dublin. In 2008 she graduated with a BA in Fashion from The National College of Art and Design in Dublin and in 2010 graduated from the Fashion MA at Central Saint Martin’s College, London.

She debuted at London Fashion Week, showing her S/S and A/W11 collections on schedule with Fashion East and is now stocked in the likes of Dover Street Market in London, Colette in Paris and 10 Corso Como in Milan.

Simone's work is a mix of ultra feminity and British quirk. Her AW13/14 collection, inspired by both her grannies, was awash with flouncy frocks in pretty shades of pink, side bustles and crochet dotted throughout.

Wearing flat shoes and brogues is so new to me, I've been gathering up inspirational images of beautiful clothes styled with flat shoes and Simone's collections are a common theme in my folders.

Whilst we are still very much experiencing winter here in Scotland, I'm still hoping for the spring sunshine to suddenly appear and have been looking wistfully her at SS13 collection too. Lots of super crisp whites and neon crochet.

Plenty of flat shoes inspiration for me.

Queen Michelle

Silky Squares

I consider myself quite an experimental dresser as I'll give most things a try. I don't stick rigidly to any one thing and some days I might feel like dressing head-to-toe in black whilst other days it's head-to-toe clashing prints. I like to think my style lexicon is pretty varied.

But there is one thing that never quite entered my wardrobe - scarves. Not the warm variety but the more decorative variety - those silky, shiny squares of fabric that seem to serve no obvious purpose. Queen Marie wears scarves all the time to add colour and print to her outfits and layers them up one after another but me, not so much.

However, the other day I found a vintage silk scarf, I guess I must have bought at some point, and shoved it on over my boring shirt and t-shirt combination and it made me think I might have too hasty to dismiss the humble scarf. 

So I think perhaps I'll try and bring some scarves into my wardrobe.

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I might start with Milleneufcentquatrevingtquatre . There SS13 and FW13 prints are really rather spectacular, as is there simply shot lookbooks. I have actually featured these guys before I think.

SS13; IL Y A DES FLEURS PARTOUT POUR QUI VEUT BIEN LES VOIR - inspired by the universe of Henri Matisse.

FW13; Les Nuits De Pleines Lunes - is a collection inspired by the French filmaker, Eric Rhomer, mainly his film 'Les nuits de le pleine lune' released in 1984. The architectures, pictorial composition of its framing. The splashes of color against a backdrop of shades of gray.

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I was also recently contacted by a Scottish textile designer called Emily Stewart who creates hand printed silk scarves under her label Emily Rose Textiles. Emily also started her email, "Hey Phil, I LOVE your blog Kingdom of Style...". Been called lots of things before, but never Phil.

Turns out she's quite the little talent. She doesn't just creates scarves she also makes gorgeous cushions. Emily Graduated from Gray's School Of Art in textiles and surface design in 2009.

In short, I'm definitely going to give scarves a try.

Queen Michelle

hey dollface...

 

 If I had a pound for every time I had posted about Lapin and Me over the life of this blog, I would be a very rich Queen indeed.

The Palace is full to overflowing with treasures that I have bought there.

With space at a premium and a BIG spring clean more than overdue, I should have known better than to go over there. But I'm not always known  for my good ideas. So go and I did and holy crap there's lots of new things that I must have. Dammit...

First up are the Woodland Dolls.

I'm a sucker for vintage style toys and dolls and these are adorable.

First produced in Japan in 1971, they are now being reproduced exclusively for Lapin, in the same factory as they were all those years ago, by one old worker. With the youth of Japan no longer keen on this work, they have been able to work with the factory to keep these manufactured in Japan.

ORANGE WOODLAND DOLL  £12.95      These mid century cuties also come in pink...

If the little Woodland dolls are too cutesy for you then how about some Clonette Dolls.

Cool but slightly creepy!

These amazing plastic dolls  originated in the colonial era and are made in Ghana.  They were the first industrially produced African doll and being produced from recycled plastics,come  in a stunning array of colours.  In Africa the children fill them with water for water play fun! and even better they squeak!

 They are still found in local markets, but for how long? Sadly with mass produced Chinese toys hitting the local Market, demand for the Clonettes lessens and so sadly, does the supply of them over at Lapin. 

So if you love her you had better snap her up.

She comes in small £4.95 and large £9.95

 Now if you will excuse me, I'm just going to turn The Palace upside down and try to squeeze some more plastic dolls in there....

Queen Marie

x

Hardcore Case

As I've already mentioned quite a few times, I have developed a minor, and somewhat strange, iPhone cover obsession. It pretty much came out of nowhere yet it seems like it's here to stay.

I have a nice little selection of custom cases from Caseable, but what has eluded me thus far is the perfect studded case. So it was time to embark on a DIY to create one.

This is so incredibly easy to do. Unlike many studded case DIYs, I used pre-glued studs. The back is filled with hardened glue giving the studs a flat base to work with. You can either iron the studs to melt the glue, or simply dab on superglue on top.

Ingredients:
Hard plastic case
Adhesive studs

Step 1
Firstly, create a guide using tape along the bottom and up one side. This gives your fist row of studs something to wedge up against.

Step 2
Place a little dot of glue on each stud and place along the line of tape. This just makes the studs less slidy on the case and let's you position them easier.

Step 3
Once you are happy with the first row, start doing all subsequent rows in your desired pattern. 

Step 4
When you have finished placing your studs you need to very careful heat the glue. Place a towel over the case and hold the iron on for a little while at a time. This is why you require a hard case - the heat from the iron can easily melt and warp the plastic. 

Voila! Your studded case is complete.

On reflection,  next time I'll just use a dab of superglue and omit the iron stage because my case did melt ever so slightly. The superglue option will ensure there is no such accident.

Queen Michelle

Theory of Everything

Hello music lovers, it's time for another free Bad Planetman tune - the latest release from Prince B and his recording partner Jim.

The 3rd record, entitled Theory of Everything, is  tech-house monster. This time, for ease of download, they have made it a simple mp3, however DJs can email me if they'd prefer a WAV file.

So as always, it's free to download or play here. Be warned thuugh, it's an ass-shaker!

There are the other 2 records in there too to download for free too, for anyone who missed them. Enjoy!

Queen Michelle