Good Riddance!

2010 has been a funny year. And as much as some amazing things happened, I’m not that sad to see it go.

But in the spirit of positivity, here are some of the good things that came out of it.

1) I started Noisy Shoes.

To curb useless procrastination, and waste my time in a more positive fashion (ha!), I started this blog. Here’s my very first post. It was my 2010 resolution. I am glad that I did it, and I am grateful to every one of you who still read it, and leave me such lovely comments – I appreciate every single one of them. Here’s to a resolution I actually saw through, and I’m looking forward to another year of doing the same.

2) Best friends 2010

I’ve told you about him before, but my main bro Orlando is a stellar chap. He’s an unreal dj and an all round nice guy. You can find him over at lancitylimits.com. This year we decided we were going to be best friends, because we thought “best friends two thousand and ten” had a nice ring to it (it does, doesn’t it). We djed a good bit together this year, got stupid drunk together, and generally acted the maggot. I’m pretty sure we’re still gonna be friends once January 1st hits, but here’s to best friends 2010. And seriously, check out his blog, his music is unreal.

Orlando & I. lol.

3) NYC baby

Back in February, I went to New York City. Pretty much enough said! It was rad. I want to live there for a while someday.

4) London town

In the summer, I interned in London. It was also an amazing experience, both in terms of work and what I learned, but also living with 5 of the best birds on the planet. Mostly the living with my best mates if we’re being honest. Works great and all but having the craic is even better!There’s really no way of describing how much fun it was without sounding like a total dickhead (it’s ok, all my friends are dickheads too), so I won’t. But it was great. Despite all of our (not) fixie bikes breaking. All 6 of them. That’s what we get for buying ropey bikes on Brick Lane though.

photo: Triona O'Neill

photo: Triona O'Neill

5) Published work

I do textiles in college, but I also want to work as a stylist/photographer as well (how original says you). This year, I styled a shoot that appeared in the Sunday Independent, and helped style & shot a shoot (?!!) for a friend of mine’s masters’ magazine, Tweed Yourself, which I was very happy to be part of. here it is here to look at.

one of my images from the Tweed Yourself Shoot

So that was 2010. I hope yours had more ups than downs, and that the same is true for 2011. I’ve decided to start a visual diary for 2011, that’s my new years resolution. I got two more cameras this week so it seems like the right thing to do….Happy New Year! x

I have nothing to wear….

The other day i went ice skating with a friend. And yes, it was only one friend, one lonely friend, a shameful admission, but it’s not my fault that the rest of them are all talk and no blades.

It took me ages to get ready to go, for several reasons.

1) I don’t have an iceskating dress. this made me sad.

2) the reason i don’t have an iceskating dress is because i’v been iceskating like 3 times in my life and i SUCK at it.

3) because i am so bad i always want to wear the most amount of clothes i can get on my body for padding and protection from the inevitable falling down on hard water

4) iceskating makes you warmer than you might expect, so all this extra padding makes you roasting after a while

5) it was still snowing, which made me lose all sense of everything (I sort of miss the snow from an aesthetic point of view, but i NEVER want it to snow again!)

6) i was so panicked about the above reasons i lost the plot a little bit, went and made a cup of coffee and smoked a few cigarettes before coming back to get ready.

So, I settled on denim on denim, in a mom jeans/1940′s work-overalls/slightly skinhead style dealy. I felt like all i was missing was the bunny ears scarf & i could have been proper retro. but I’m kinda into it. I liked the mix of skinhead references mixed with wholesome 50′s working woman references. I like that denim has such a strong and diverse meanings in terms of social symbolism. I love that there are so many ways to wear it to say different things, or even nothing at all. And I really love that my mom jeans are Paul Smith and they cost me £2.50 in Dalston. WIN!!!!

 

I didn’t snot myself iceskating. Maybe i’l buy an iceskater dress after all….

That Guy’s colourful

Full Disclosure: I am doing a series on favourite photographers. I kinda forgot to mention that when I started, but I am, and here’s another one.

I was going to tell you a long story about how I’m obsessed with colour and how to get certain colours in photography through film and shutter speed and lighting and blah blah blah, but it’s not that interesting. What IS interesting is when people get it right. Guy Bourdin gets it right all the time. He’s good like that. No, he’s unreal. Guy’s work is pretty iconic. He was born in 1928 and his work was first published in Vogue in 1955. Not that you would really be able to tell by looking at his photographs. His work remains fresh and relevant today. And SEXY. Very Very Very sexy. But for me, apart from the sex and the composition and the other amazing elements to his work (and it’s all pretty much perfect), my favourite part is the colour.

Outfit Post…

As much as I like to flatter myself and think that people read this because of the interesting things I have to say, realistically people are mostly interested in pictures! So, here’s what I wore on Christmas Day. The skirt is Uniqlo, the cardi is from Urban Outfitters ages ago – I was in the mood for a bit of winter white…My family is pretty conservative style wise, and quite relaxed about Christmas dressing, so it’s difficult to strike the right balance of casual-dressy-not-too-fashun. On the upside though, being casual means that you are still comfortable after christmas dinner overeating! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Although it’s really time to start thinking about New Years, ah!!!

Thank you Santa!

This year for Christmas, I got my favourite things – sleeping, shopping, cameras & fashion related nerd presents…..

Sleeping & shopping came in the form of pillows (it’s not as weird as you think) and money/gift cards. WIN. Sadly, I think it’s still not enough for this….

Burberry Prorsum SS11

image via style.com

I got a camera too, and it’s DEADLY….it’s made of LEGO! It’s also a 2010 funsnap (i.e. it’s digital), which is good because I actually don’t have a working digital compact at the moment, and my 35mm keeps dying on me….

Lego Camera, with extra lego to play with!

image source

 

I was also given probably the most appropriate book anyone could ever buy me, and it’s one of the loveliest presents I’ve ever received. Because as much as I love fashion and stuff, I am a complete and utter nerd. Not deep down, but like properly totally nerdy. So my friend got me this wonderful little book called A Dialogue Between Fashion & Death. It was written in the early 1800′s and still as entertaining, relevant and thought provoking today as I’m sure it was then. And it’s about FASHUN! It’s part of the Penguin Great Ideas series, which are a bunch of really awesome short books, all of which are well worth a read. The same friend got me onto them a few years ago, and I’ve slowly been adding little stories by George Orwell and Sun Tzu and the like to my collection ever since. Oh, and the covers are lovely too!!

 

So, to conclude, thank you Santa and all my awesome friends Good work.

 

Penguins! I couldn't help myself....

source

Happy Christmas!!!

In the lull before my family return from Christmas morning mass (at this stage I can’t remember whether I stopped going because of my beliefs or because of the massive hangovers after Christmas eve friend-banter….) I want to wish everyone a Happy Happy Christmas! I hope Santa brought you lots of lovely things to play with and that everyone got where they were going in time for Christmas dinner. I might do a Christmas day outfit post later, but here’s what outside my house looked like yesterday….I was playing around with the settings on my camera, and it was just getting to be dusk time, but for some reason all my pics came out really blue. I’m into it though, I think they look pretty cool!

 

Happy Christmas!!

haha these are not the gates of my house, sadly...

Hair Envy #1

So I’ve been going back through the Spring Summer 2011 shows (because I’m a loser and that’s why I do instead of watching tv…seriously, such a loser!). I checked out Badgley Mischka’s show (how many superfluous letters are in that name, by the way…..) and while I wouldn’t be raving about the clothes, I got a SERIOUS case of hair envy!

Badgley Mischka Spring Summer 2011

(actually, I really like that dress….with a shirt over and a pair of boots….or maybe dip dye the skirt to make it less weddingy….so into it though)

Badgley Mischka Spring Summer 2011

Badgley Mischka Spring Summer 2011

The whole hair & make up reminded me loads of like 20′s & 30′s styles. Even the models had those cherub-y looks about them. With a dash of 70′s thrown into the mix. See what I mean?

I am so so so jealous. I want hair like that, now!

(fashion) Toasty…

I sometimes feel like it’s really lazy blogging when people just put a bunch of pictures they took from other bloggers on their tumblrs…maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but that’s just what I think. However, I’m going to totally contradict myself now and do just that…

image via fashiontoast

Rumi Neely is a really famous blogger, and her blog is really cool, full of original photography, her unique point of view (and that of her photographer buddy) and a bunch of great style and cool things she sees. The reason I’m mentioning her is that I saw this image a few weeks back and I have been dreaming of the skirt she’s wearing in it ever since. Actually, turns out it’s a dress, but still, it’s fierce ridey! The designer, Therese Rawsthorne, is an aussie, and all her work is pretty cool. She has an online store, but alas, this dress isn’t on it, mega sadface. I’m on a mission to find something similar, but asos & ebay are letting me down at the moment. I’m considering making one, but I need to get my finger out and actually do it….Hmmm. Anyway, here’s some stuff that Therese has made and I think it’s pretty lovely

Here’s to brighter days…

Today is actually one of my favourite days of the year. That’s because tomorrow the days getting brighter, so it heralds the end of winter? Ha, looking outside we all know that winter isn’t going anywhere in a hurry! But, it’s still going to be a bit brighter tomorrow, and a bit brighter the day after that, and the day….you get it. Also, you get a funny kind of light on the cusp of things, like dawn and dusk, it’s just a different interesting light. Same as now, there was a really strange light, amplified by the masses of reflective snow! So happy solstice, and here’s to slightly longer days in the next while!

This was dusk on the shortest day of 2010 near my house. I was too cold to do an outfit post, and I live too far away to take pics of friends. So, mandatory snow pics it is!

spooky lane!

pink trees...

Happy Christmas!!

 

Oh, and here’s what I’ve been thinking for Xmas day dressing…..

Marc Jacobs, everything little you do is magic...

Roskanda Ilinic, nomnomnom

Valentino, ValentinOH?!!!

Finally in the Christmas Spirit! Velvet maxi anyone? Looks SOOOO warm. Also Valentino’s red leather skirt is nothing short of sublime, and that Roskanda Ilinic outfit just exudes xmas glamour…although I think i need a bigger house and some seriously better social commitments to pull it off…..sigh.

x

My Knight in Shining Armour….

I really wanted to do a post on Nick Knight and his general awesomeness for a while but I don’t know where to start. He is constantly pushing boundaries in fashion imagery, always embracing new technologies and processes. His award winning website, showstudio.com features a whole bunch of amazing films and images and visual treats. I love the way he embraces digital manipulation in the creation of fashion imagery, in a way that adds to the image rather than just for the sake of it. I love that his work can be really weird. I love the movement in his images. And if it’s not enough that I love him, he was asked to do the WHOLE of the i-D’s recent 30th birthday issue. As in, he took every image in the entire bumper magazine. And they are spectacular images. Here are a bunch of other awesome Nick Knight images, including one of my favourite campaigns of his (the Dior kungfu crazy one) and one of my favourite editorials (British Vogue April 03 – it’s actually inspired me and my aesthetic more than I sometime realise!). Enjoy!

American Vogue, September 2001

Vogue April 2003

Vogue April 2003

Vogue March 2007