How far can you take ‘natural beauty’?
Posted: June 29, 2011 Filed under: challenges, fashion and art | Tags: art, fashion, Hannelore Knuts, Lernert & Sander, make-up, nowness Leave a comment »
Natural Beauty: Hannelore Knuts by Lernert & Sander for nowness.com
I rarely check out Nowness but good I just did. They posted a video in which Dutch directors Lernert & Sander give model Hannelore Knuts 365 layers of make-up in one go. The idea is to pile on what you would usually wear in a year and see how much make-up was needed to to transform a natural look into a grotesque one.
The video is time-lapsed and took 9 hours to shoot.
To see the original article with the video (sorry, embedding it proved IMPOSSIBLE on this occasion *grrrr*) and for some additional info on how the video was shot, go to nowness.com.
Band Tees
Posted: May 1, 2011 Filed under: challenges, easy style, festival season, rock 'n' roll | Tags: band t-shirts, Beastie Boys, ebay, fashion, Grateful Dead, Guns n' Roses, Patti Smith, Ramones, Rolling Stones, The Clash, The Smiths, tour t-shirts, vintage t-shirts, Violent Femmes Leave a comment »
1 Beastie Boys 2 The Clash 3 Grateful Dead 4 Violent Femmes 5 The Smiths 6 The Rolling Stones 7 Patti Smith (signed) 8 The Ramones 9 Guns n' Roses
Music is a huge part of my life. My taste is quite particular but also covers a lot of different genres. I hate saying ‘I listen to everything’ like a lot of people do. I don’t. Generally, you won’t find any pop or RnB or Hip Hop in my collection. On the other side I’m rather partial to some Duran Duran, Mary J Blige or NAS. It’s probably not exactly necessary to explain what kind of music I like as the t-shirt collection above is a dead giveaway. Hanging out at gigs as a teenager exposed me to tour t-shirts a lot. I still love them and ever need more! more! more! of them in my wardrobe (The Billy Idol reference was not intended but is very welcome to stay!). But great ones are hard to find. Amplified is good but can feel a little inauthentic. The Holy Grail of band t-shirts are, of course, original tour tees. But they are hard to come by. Maybe you find the odd one in a vintage shop but lazy as I am I cannot bring myself to comb through piles and piles of nothingness to eventually walk away with one. So, obviously, what does a girl do but turn to the interwebs for advice. I came upon a website called defunkd which featured a post about 20 Best Real Vintage T-Shirt Stores. Which in turn pointed my towards ebay. I looked around a bit and liked the above. The beauty of it is that whatever kind of band or artist you like, you’ll probably find the according t-shirt there.
Personally, I love wearing them with skinny jeans, a blazer, a few bracelets and heels or biker boots.
There’s also a good selection at t-shirts.com but I haven’t tested the site yet.
And here are the links but ebay being ebay, these particular items will be gone in 3, 2, 1…
Beastie Boys/Licensed to Ill Tour 1987
The Clash/Combat Rock Tour 1982
Patti Smith (signed)/European Tour 2010
Guns n’ Roses/GnR Was Here Tour
The Etsy Challenge
Posted: April 29, 2011 Filed under: challenges | Tags: bangle, bikini, bow, boyfriend blazer, bracelet, brogues, cape, etsy, fashion, lace-ups Leave a comment »
1 Double-breasted Wool Cape $98 2 Narrow Leather cuff with Dragonfly $24 3 Golden Brogues $39 4 Soft Black Leather Bow Bracelet $42 5 Grey Blazer $105 6 String Bikini with Song Bird Print $168.80 (AUD) all at etsy.com
I’m not really a crafty kind of girl so I thought it might be fun to challenge myself to find something I’d actually like to wear or recommend to others on Etsy. I see people with great stuff they say is from Etsy all the time but whenever I log on it seems like the place where crochet boleros and rah-rah skirts go to die. So, drumrolls please! Here are my picks:
1. I love a good cape! Always have. And then my fondness of them was re-newed when I went to the Marie Saeki press day in New York a few weeks back and saw the ones that Alice Ritter does for FW11. Bottom-line is: I NEED one! Not sure if I can wait until the autumn which is why I’ve included it in my picks despite the fact it’s spring now. Nothing will come between me and my cape!
2. A dragonfly bracelet! How beautiful is this? These come in different prints but I’ve been into insects lately. It all began when I found a set of espresso cups with insects on them at ABC Carpet & Home in February. But that’s a story for another time…
3. Oh brogues! Still looking for the perfect pair. I have to admit these aren’t really a contender. They are rather something I’d like to have on top of the perfect classic pair. They are handmade and come in different colours, not all of them metallics. Cute for a really good price!
4. This bow is perfect! It’s sort of tough but the bow makes it feminine. I picture myself wearing it with a black tulip dress (fitted bodice and sleeveless) and red lipstick. Hair in a slick ponytail, black patent Mary Janes. Ah you just know it’s good when you immediately know how you want to wear it.
5. Nicely cut, still very much on trend boyfriend blazer. Isn’t it amazing how stuff that looked decidedly 90s a few years back now seems so fresh? I’m a black evangelist but I love that this one is grey. Never hurts to have more than the classic black one in your wardrobe. From the photo I find it hard to tell if the lapel is made of some shiny material. If so, it needs to be customised. Which is a service designer Ella Lai offers.
6. This bikini is a bit on the tiny side. Especially when you take into consideration that I’ll only do a one-piece because I feel too exposed in a bikini. But this one is cute and and the colours are strong and in a way bright without being garish.
And now, same procedure as every day:
