Yea I know fashion week has started and Prabal Gurung’s stuff is awesome and we should be focusing on SS13… BUT… THESE GUYS.
Slow Loris. Slow Lori, Slow Lorises? Either way they are super cute, singular or plural.
On a fashion note, LOVE the Prabal Gurung stuff, reminds me of what I wanted my degree collection to look like. Sigh! Also, I am developing a big thing for BCBG. Colour block/cutouts for the win.
I have succeeded in getting myself a job where I disseminate the collections and am constantly working with trends and analysing what’s next. Which makes me less inclined to repeat it in my free time. It’s not that I have lost interest – far from it, I am actually living the dream. But all fashion an no play makes Jane a dull, uninspired girl and a very boring blogger. In the spirit of doing something that isn’t fashion (I think it’s called balance??), I watched a load of american teenage-coming-of-age films last weekend. For your convenience I have rated them according to their suitability for hangover viewing.
1) American Graffiti.
If you don’t know it, get on it. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola (him from Apocalypse Now) and written by George Lucas (you know, THAT George Lucas), it’s a coming of age tale set in the late 50′s early ’60′s. It is visually stunning, the music is off the chain (my favourite quote of the film might just be “rock n roll has been going downhill since Buddy Holly died). It’s got drive-ins and drag racing, teddy boys, T-birds and a hop. It’s all a bit Marc Jacobs. And a bit Moschino. If you ask me, it’s better than Rebel Without A Cause with more developed characters and a more engaging story. It’s just a pity Ron Howard is on screen more than the insanely ridey Harrison Ford.
Hangoverability: moderate to low. It’s slick stylish and character centric, so you might lose interest if you are feeling delicate. However even if you’re not following the story it’s very visually pleasing.
2) What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Johnny Depp being a babe, Juliette Lewis being awesome and Leonardo Di Caprio in what has to be his career defining role. Given that I find touching stories almost always either saccharine or corny, this one just nails it and warmed my icy heart and had me blubbing like a sad kitten. Set in the vast American midlands the whole thing is just unreal.
Hangoverability: Very low. Don’t watch it with a bad hangover/the fear. You might die of tears.
3) 10 things I hate about you
This film is a classic, not least because Heath Ledger is in it, being all Heath ledger-y. It’s over the top, the characters are caricatures, and the story line is silly. Exactly how a teen drama should be. And the clothes are something else.
Hangoverability: high. This film was made with people of low intellects in mind. Perfect hangover fodder.
And I listened to Alt-J. A lot. New favourite. His voice is mesmerising. Sounds a little bit black keys, a little bit bluesy, and very very now.
Hangoverability: high. It’s soothing and melodic. It’s a hug for your delicate ears.
Last Saturday was glorious so I hopped on the train to Brighton. I took my lego camera, which is super fun looking, but takes really bad quality pics. I also took my trusty Olympus, so fingers crossed I’ll get back some good stuff. In the meantime, I wore this…
Sleeveless shirt, chiffon tank, American Apparel; Leather skirt, Urban Outfitters Vintage, Lace trim cycle shorts, American Apparel; Shoes, Carvela; Jacket, Vintage
I saw these….
next DIY project
And I bought these!
Luggage chest aka My new coffee table!
it’s been all round the world!
tacky postcards!
Fashion Week is upon us. These guys couldn’t give a breeze.
Someone let me have a go of a red panda to play with. They’re like half cat, half bear, half squirrel. Cutest critters ever.
I started thinking about stuff a while back. As a recent immigrant, and I had none. I felt really in-between and all over the place, because my new life was here in London, but all my stuff was “at home”. Which made me a strange form of homesick, where not only did I miss my friends & family, I missed my things. I missed my material life.
and what of it?
It seems very superficial to miss things, but it’s more what the things represent – the memories and stories behind them that make them special. So yea, I missed my stuff. It was amazing being home and stocking up on stuff at Christmas – a bit of family mementos here, some friend photographs there. While it is important to make new friends and new memories, there is something really comforting about having a bit of home in my new space – it makes it an actual home, I feel like I live here properly now. I guess I’m not minimal enough to deal with a bare space. Or rather, I think my room just isn’t nice enough to pull off the whole minimal thing…
probably one of my favourite songs of all time. ever.
Hello! Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful NYE and start to 2012. I forgot to bring my digi camera home to Dublin with me so if any of the 35mm evidence develops to be suitable, I may just share mine with you. In the meantime, here are some of my snaps from 2011.
For those of you that noticed (hi mum…), I took a little hiatus there. There was lots going on and the last thing I wanted to do was blog, OK? Jeez. Gimme a break already.
I’m back now though. And hopefully with a little bit more focus. 2011 was good in parts but really really sucky in others so I am pretty much glad it’s behind me. I am looking forward to this year and I plan on embracing it, and just being really really really good at stuff. Ha! I am giddy, as I am going back to London tomorrow after two weeks back home, and I am feeling restless for the big smoke.
So, here are my resolutions for this year. I feel that this is an appropriate thing to share with you because this blog is a resolution that I am still keeping two years on. It’s like my blogging birthday and I’ll do what I want I guess?
1. Get Fit.
I am not a naturally active person. My favourite things are napping and cheese. But I am pretty sure that I need to get up off my hole and take some responsibility for my body, both in terms of health and aesthetics. My friends deserve more from me than the usual wailing “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY WON’T THIS OR THAT THING LOOOOK GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDD ON ME????? UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGH I HAVE NOOOOOOOOOOTHING TO WEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR”, etc, ad naseum. Sorry guys. I am going to do some jogging (i believe they pronounce that with a silent J) and some yoga style stretching…and generally be a bit better at being fit. Apparently being fit makes you happier too, but seeing as I have never been fit, I cannot verify this. Will report back later. I have also been toying with the idea of giving up smoking, but let’s be honest here – baby steps.
2. Take more responsibility for stuff
I am really good at letting things happen. And I have been pretty lucky that some really great things have pretty much fallen in my lap. But this year, life, I am coming for you. I wanna own up to my own shortcomings and fix them. Fix the crap out of them. And just push myself and be aware that I am responsible for the stuff that goes bad, as well as the stuff that goes good. And hopefully more good stuff will happen. Like Holidays. And new shoes.
3. Take a sun holiday
It has been YEARS since I have been on a hot sunny beach. I am going to fix that in 2012.
I hope that you have all made resolutions and have wantonly and gleefully broken them already. Well, that or kept them, and are on the path to a better you. Resolutions are important, because they are benchmarks we set for ourselves. Often who we think we want to be turns out to be a pain in the ass – trust me on this, detox Jane is boring as hell, and where’s the fun in that. I like breaking resolutions – blatantly and unashamedly breaking them, sticking two fingers up to self improvement and revelling in the fun of life the way it is. So this year, if you are going to break them (I probably won’t be too far behind you), do it as you do everything else in life – with style 
…………..Or with a pair of mouse ears.
all photograhy (C) Jane Alexandra – ie ME! if for some bizarre reason you want to use them, credit & link or die.
It’s CHRISTMAS!!! And I am very very very excited this year. Something in the air has de-Grinched me and I am inviting Christmas playlists, mulled wine, and general merry making. Maybe it has something to do with work and how I feel a bit like an elf getting everything ready for all the people….
Anyway. It is TWO WEEKS til the Big Man brings us all some serious swag. In the meantime, if you are not feeling full of festive cheer yet, listen to these, and if you are still feeling ba humbug, then you should probably go to the doctor, because you are in fact dead inside.
Seriously Santa, help a sister out. I wanna bust a move.
Hipster Christmas legends
The best ba-humbug Christmas song ever!!!
and the best Christmas song of all time ever.
It is far easier to say you are going to stay in and have a quiet weekend than it actually is to do so. It is thus with a level of smugness and a tinge of FOMO* that I report to have managed a full weekend of quiet civility. Ish. These are some of the things that have been entertaining me this weekend (and week).
1) Postmodernism: Style & Subversion 1970-1990
Love love love the V&A. Love love love late night Friday museum banter. No queues. No tourists. Booze. Awesome. There were costumes worn by Leigh Bowery & Mr. Pearl, Dave Byrne’s giant suit from Stop Making Sense, images by Cindy Sherman & Richard Prince, typography and graphic design from the likes of Peter Saville (Factory Records) and The Face….There was lots of art and product design that I felt was quite dated, but then lots of graphic design that was still really fresh and modern.
What really struck me about the exhibition was how far product design and fine art has come in terms of aesthetic, but how I still feel like we live in a postmodern society. It’s a bit brain melty but very very interesting about where art, and society, is right now.
It also reminded me that I need to watch Blade Runner. And listen to Joy Division more.
Peter Saville's sleeve for New Order "Power, Corruption"
2) Dazed & Confused 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Somerset House
If I’m totally honest, I don’t really read Dazed that much anymore. But anything that promises lots of Rankin & Juergen Teller & Nick Knight photos and I’m there. It’s a small but interestingly curated exhibition, well worth a gander. And Somerset House is one of my favourite places. And they have their ice rink & Christmas tree all ready to go….EXCITING!!!! As an exhibition, I was struck by how much of it was really recent, and perhaps a little disappointed that they didn’t have more archival sort of images. I am more interested in the start of Dazed, when it was still a bit more edgy and outsider-y, but that’s just me being a dickhead.
Juergen Teller
Nick Knight
Rankin
3) Coats
There is definitely something wrong with me. But I am fine with it. Here’s one I customised earlier.
**PICS TO FOLLOW I’M TOO TIRED TO DO AN OUTFIT POST**
4) Patrick Swayze.
Dirty Dancing. POINT BREAK. I wish I could merengue. And surf. And jump out of planes. Well, actually, it was Darrick Doerner who surfed that massive wave at the end. And the whole thing re-ignited my passion for surfing, and I have made a made a pinky swear with my roommate to go on a surf holiday to Cornwall in January!
Here’s Darrick and other big wave surfing legend Laird Hamilton doing they thang at Jaws, one of the best breaks in the world.
5) Modeselektor – Monkeytown
Just what I’m in the mood to listen to. I think you will be too.
6) Breakfast
The only meal worth having. For reals. I also happen to be an EPIC breakfast chef. Which is handy, given my love for them. I mean, who doesnt love eggs?
*FearOfMissingOut
Things that are better than Ryan Gosling – please note this list is in no way exhaustive and is designed to be indicative only.
1) Civets
Civet!
Small Indian Civet
Banded Civet
LOOK AT THEM! LOOK HOW ADORABLE THEY ARE! They have spots AND stripes! Is Ryan Gosling this adorable? I don’t THINK SO.
2) Tidying my room
yea right, I live in none of these. all bedroom pics via pinterest.com
All of these rooms are warm, inviting, look like the place you wanna go to feel safe. Can Ryan Gosling make you feel like that? NO, NO HE CAN’T.
tidy…what…huh? Oh, I see. You thought this was gonna be pro-Gozzzz. It’s not. Ladies – I.Just.Don’t.Get.It
Well, like I get it, in the sense that a guy with good shoulders is pretty much a hottie. But I mean come ON. He’s a MOVIE STAR. REALLY? I feel that he is indicative of society, as with the rest of life, where we keep accepting less and less as our standard. We NEED to have aspirations, stanadards, things to strive for – even if we never attain them. Movie stars, nay, celebrities in general, should be perfect. Just proper, out of this world, inspirationally perfect. Think Dakota Fanning stunning, Johnny Depp gorgeous. People who, admittedly may make us hate ourselves a little, but I would rather set the bar high. Who wants to live in a “ah sure it’s fine” society. Ah sure it’s fine never invented anything, never moved forward, and probably squandered, withered and died in its own filth and antipathy.
So Ryan, I am sure you are a very nice young man, and in real life I would probably either swoon or punch someone to have a shot with you. But you do not represent real life, you are famous, and when it comes to being really really famous, you = not so much.
*ps no of course i don’t have pics of the gozz. A) He’s everywhere on the internet and i am not going to propagate his mug even further and B) This is a fashion/music/opinion/cute animal blog, not a cheap celebrity gossip site. I have standards, jeeeez.
Sunday Funday. On a Wednesday. As you do. Here are some miscellaneous things that have put a smile on my face the past week.
*warning: link overload!*
1) Weekends OFF!
For the first time ever I have two joined up days off on a regular basis. This weekend I am going to do fun things like going to an exhibition – Frieze is on but alas, £30 is a bit extreme. I’m thinking more along the lines of popping up to the V&A to see the new permanent photography gallery, as well as the Postmodernism: Style & Subversion exhibition. Or else possibly another favourite, the Design Museum, where they have an exhibition entitled “This is Design”. Then there’s the slightly more random Imperial War Museum with a collection of war photography from the front line that’s catching my eye – Shaped By War by Don Mc Cullin.
Mariya Sabotinova via Behance.net
2) Autumn Leaves -
The swishy swishy underfoot. Feel like a kid? Love it? You know it.
Meriol Lehmann via Behance.net
3) The Globe, Notting Hill
Fun club/dive/random hole that’s good for reggae and dancehall. Be prepared for them to be a bit “stranger danger” tho, it has a seriously family vibe. As in, there was a wedding party on the last time I was there.
Garmonique via Behance.net
4) Writing things
I have contributed two posts to RTE’s Red Radar (Part of twotube.ie), which are online NOW. GO, READ THEM. It’s me, doing writing, only better, because it’s for someone else. Well, there’s one writing, and then one VLOG, which is super tech-forward of me. I’m so now, right??? Eeeeehhhhhh, more like the hack of me. But nonetheless, it’s there, so have a gander.
Mariya Sabotinova via Behance.net
all images via Behance.net
