Resolve. And dresses.

New Years Resolutions are a load of yak. Unless they actually work. Then that’s cool. Maybe it’s yak to think we’ll instantly change into new, awesome-r beta-versions of ourselves, but maybe it’s cool to assess where we are in our lives and make some tweaks. Woah, I’m getting deep. Anyway, seeing as this blog began off the back of a resolution, it seems fitting that I share with you what I have up my sleeve for the coming 365…

1. Wear more dresses. Be a real girl.

Wearing your personality and wearing what you are interested in can be two very different things. What I mean is, people often react to you based on what you wear, not your personality. So while you (I) think studded leather everything with all the rings that will fit on your hands is something you (I) like to look at and therefore wear, you are (I am) not a bad ass biker with a massive chopper and a knife up my sleeve. Problem. So, I have endeavoured to stop scaring the living bejeezus out of people and am socially experimenting with wearing dresses. Although I’m convinced part of me must like it when people are surprised that I’m not a total witch, I am curious to see the difference in how I am perceived by looking a little less terrifying…

The real girl thing is a bigger problem. My 80′s and 90′s lo-fi upbringing makes me reticent to any kind of preening, pouting, swooning and stropping and all the fandango that surrounds being a REAL GIRL. That whole modern-feminist-minimal-independent-kinda-alt-kinda-grungy-don’t-really-care-that-much-and-I-don’ t-even-have-the-time-anyway-because-I-have-other-goals-in-my-life attitude I have going on makes me pretty much adverse to the whole thing, actually. However. I have been watching a load of old films and I’m just plain old jealous of all those real girls and their real girl ways. And sure, nearly all of them are terrible role models propped up by their times to perpetuate the notion of woman in the home and woman as object, and yada yada yada…but damn they look good. I wanna look that good. Like a real girl. Like Audrey, or Bette, of Faye, or Ginger. Or Marilyn. A girl can dream.

So while I am more than likely going to fail miserably at being a REAL GIRL, I shall make steps towards it by wearing frocks. And when they look like this, that’s gonna be easy peasy.

Top Row: Balenciaga, APC, Balmain. Middle Row: Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Valentino Bottom Row: Roberto Cavalli, Thakoon Addition, Proenza Schouler. Images via Style.com and vogue.com

Top Row: Just Cavalli, Just Cavalli, Holly Fulton. Middle Row: Dries Van Noten. Bottom Row: Theysken’s Theory, Celine.

All images via style.com

Fashion (bitch) flowers

I spend half my life raging at flowers. Proper rage, ruing them, cursing the petal-y feckers and all their petals and funny shapes that often makes drawing them a pain in the kaboose. Luckily, they have a certain magic that keeps me from wanting to vomit all over them when I’m not doing textiles. Good work, flower magic. Good work flowers, being all petal-y and pretty. There was a discussion in the studio recently about favourites and I mentioned peonies as a forerunner for best one. They were deemed “fashion” flowers, in the way girls are deemed “fashion” – the “bitch” is silent, like the k in know. And the w, actually, now that I think about it…Anyway, bite me, they are gorgeous. And while we’re at it, if we’re talking fashion flowers, eh, like, everyone knows that chrysanthemums are the it flower for SS13, as seen all over Gucci and just about everywhere else. Pssssshhhhhhh.

Also, there are no real losers in this game. Flowers are pretty. End of.

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See?!

Gucci, Etro & Dries Van Noten, Spring Summer 2013. All images via Style.com

Exhibition: Tim Walker

 

Given that this exhibiton has been open for a month, this is nothing that hasn’t been said before probably a million times and more eloquently and definitely more ebulliently.  However. Tim Walker’s exhibition in Somerset House is a must see in my book because….

He is dead good at colour – pink and blue are his thing. He like totally owns them. Like the way Jeurgen is a bit yellow. Cool colours, cold, dream like and a bit weird.

His use of light is also great. It is his own, and though much copied, rarely equalled. It’s fresh, but stifled. Diffused isn’t the right way of describing it, it’s like a dead sort of floating thing. I guess dreamlike, which is good, because that what he goes for most of the time, like a weird film full of broken dolly models or something. That’s it, his work is cinematic, not just two dimensional, but really visceral and imaginative and evocative. Yeah.

Walker really goes for exaggeration. He likes hammering his point home, making everything larger than life. Scale is for emphasis with him, like block caps “this is really important”. Again with the dreams thing I guess. Sometimes it might be fun if that was possible in real life. Like you know when you are really hungry and you want a MASSIVE sandwich??  But then I guess it would suck if you were really afraid of something and it was gigantic because it was a big deal…hmmmm. Digression aside, his scale plays with his love of fantasy and creating dreamy scenes. And he totally rocks it.
Anyway. He’s great. And the images are great. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t great were the little stickers accompanying the work – they looked so last minute and out of place (the typeface didn’t even match the blurb on the walls – morto). But that’s me being pedantic. Here are some of my favourite bits, snapped on my iPhone.

 

 

 

 

 

Put a Dragon on it.

Dragons are the new tigers. If you don’t believe me, I refer you to Dries Van Noten’s AW12/13 collection. If you still don’t believe me, well, fine. But I’m telling you. Dragons rule.

Dudes

These guys are dudes. They all like music and clothes and stuff. And they’re cool as f**k. Dudes.

BB King. He’s a dude.

 

Wayne & Garth. They’re dudes.

 

 

Muddy Waters. He really is the dude.

 

The Rolling Stones. They’re total dudes.

 

These guys are dudes. And it’s totally excellent news that Bill & Ted are coming back for another adventure. Will it be excellent? Will it be bogus? Who knows. But Keanu’s always been fine in my book.

And then there’s these dudes. <3 Outkast.

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Designer Profile : Helen Steele

Helen Steele is an awesome designer you need to know about. Her prints are fresh and exciting, with clean and modern silhouettes shaping garments that are nothing short of covetable. It makes sense that her prints come to the fore as she’s actually an acclaimed artist, who got involved with Joanne Hynes to produce a collection, Les Gurriers, and one thing led to another and in two short seasons she is now showing her own collections at London and Paris Fashion Weeks. Not bad for a bird who lives in the (lovely) middle of nowhere in Ireland. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s ultra cool and super nice and took some time to talk to me about ducks, cherry blossoms, wearable art and dreams…

How did you get involved with Better Fashion Week?

Helen Steele (HS): I got involved with Better fashion Week through the girls from Re-Dress, i admire their positivity and drive. Better Fashion Week was brilliant so informative .

Ethical fashion is such a broad concept, reaching into every aspect of the product life cycle. What does sustainability mean to you? How do you approach it?

HS: To produce sustainably I think its the only way forward. We use my husbands down (from his ducks) in our down jackets . We are currently working on an all season jacket that has detachable down togs to adjust yourself to the season and weather. And we create multi purpose inter seasonable wearable art clothing that can be worn all year around and is respectful of all cultures, which appeals to a more global market.

How do you think that approaching fashion design as an artist affects the process?

HS: I suppose working as an artist has helped me to be a bit more fearless in my regard to fashion. I do feel that there is a tiny lack of humour in the fashion world, but it seems to have mellowed since I was in fashion college . What I really like about the fashion industry is there seems to be a movement of helping each other along, of collaboration, only once have I encountered bitchiness and ego which is pointless and unhelpful. In my approach to design I try to keep it simple let the prints do the talking, I see the clothes as a canvas that must be comfortable to wear, that feels like a second skin, not restrictive .

What piece of the current collection are you most proud of?

HS: From our SS12 collection I LOVE the cherry print in the Sharjah dress and leggings . Last spring i put a lapse photography camera under our cherry blossom trees in our garden and we captured the whole growth and blossom of the cherry tree and got great footage which became our cherry print . It was a long process but worth it. The cherry print was really popular in Japan, and sold out in some stores in Seoul in South korea within one week!! I also spotted (under a Japanese street style piece) our cherry print leggings on a Dolly Kei girl in Tokyo  on The Weekly Edit which was a suprise.

What advice would you give to your 16 year old self?

HS: I would say to my 16 year old self be impeccable with your word. EAT properly. Drive slower and safer. Most importantly dont let go of your dreams work hard dont let anything or anyone stand in your way and BELIEVE in yourself. Embrace change its the one thing thats constant in life. Its what you put into it is what you get out of it. TRAVEL.

What’s the best part about working from Ireland?

HS: Best part about working in Ireland is I get to be close to my husband, kids and family. Its very beautiful where I live, there is a good community spirit, and in Ireland there is a great fashion community – it’s small but strong. I have recieved brilliant help and advice from so many people in the Irish fashion community, everyone from stylists,  interns, fashion students, photographers, make-up artists, journalists, people in fashion pr and marketing, designers, stores, boutiques, bloggers.

And the biggest challenge?
HS: The biggest challenge is finding funding, general negativity, insular thinking, ignorent attitude to creativity.

All images courtesy of Helen Steele, and are from the Spring Summer ’12 lookbook.

So, if you want to be able to say I Told You So when she is in every style magazine around, check out Helen’s website, or pop into Costume in Dublin to see the clothes for yourself.

Designer Profile: David Longshaw

You may have noticed that I’m having a big print moment. Me and the rest of the world it would seem. If I were in the habit of buying clothes, they would all be patterned like exploding rainbows. Or, failing that, they would be by David Longshaw. One part illustrator, one part fashion designer, his garments are delicious pieces of wearable art. His wonderful drawings create narrative on top of some seriously wearable shapes. Each dress tells part of a story, but don’t let that put you off, the focus is 100% on creating garments meant to be worn.

An RCA graduate, he first showed his own line as Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s “One to Watch” in AW10, and then won the BCF/ Elle Talent Launch Pad for SS’11. He also is editor of Maudezine, which is possibly the cutest thing ever. And while his website is a pain in the breasticles to navigate, we’ll let him away with it for the his beautiful illustrations on beautiful clothes. Expect to hear more from this guy in the future!

David Longshaw

David Longshaw

David Longshaw

David Longshaw

Maude the fashion mouse!

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P.S. If you are David Longshaw’s PR, please send us better images to oogle his clothes with please and thank you.

sparkly bras & trashy runners

It’s not exactly a newsflash that the 90′s are back in a major way – they are the new ’80′s. I am old enough to remember when Blossom hats and X-worx were the-coolest-thing-ever in a totally genuine non ironic way, and Morgan de Toi was, like, totally Parisian and chic*, and 2Unlimited were the BESTBANDEVER. Thinking back, I made a lot of fashion mistakes in the ’90′s, even though I never had a Blossom hat.

I djed for the first time in a while over the weekend – my first set in London town. *shameless self promotion alert!!!! if you wanna book me for a gig, holla* As I was prepping my set, I came across a few tracks I had set aside. I can remember loving the tunes at the time, but I am only now realising how epic the videos and the FASHUN were. This is what you miss out on when you are busy being a tomboy in the 90′s. Had I paid as much attention to what they were wearing as I did to what they were singing/playing, I probably still would have become a dj but I could have spared myself some serious fashion disasters. And, probably, three mostly-wasted years in business school…So I guess the moral is, kids, dress like your pop culture references if you want to get ahead in life.**

not so much what the lead singer is wearing here, but more everything else about the video rocks. As does the song…

I pretty much want everything except her dodgy dance moves…Actually, feic it, I’ll have them too for the gas. I had this song on a tape (I believe it was called Greatest Hits of Dance, put out around 1992) and I used to listen to it on loop.

This video is TOO MUCH. I DIE. DIE.

*if you don’t get the references, head over to YouTube to educate your too-young ass, and stop making me feel old. Jeeez.

**this blog does not guarantee that dressing like cultural icons will make you successful. That bit was mostly hyperbole.

Natalie B Coleman….Be my friend

***NOTE: I am having a total wordfail/brainfart. This article is short on words as a result. It is not, however, short on thought. Luckily, Natalie’s work speaks for itself so I think I might just sit this one out.***

Check this out. Natalie B Coleman is cool. She’s Irish too, which is cool. And she did an MA in St Martins, which is really cool. And her collection is really really cool. Her stuff is girly without being saccharine, staying within the cool-girl zone. She plays with narratives but not annoyingly so, never sacrificing the aesthetic. In short, her stuff is the Shiiiiizzzzzz and I think I want her to be my friend.

Natalie B Coleman SS12

Natalie B Coleman SS12

Natalie B Coleman SS11

Natalie B Coleman SS11

Housesitter

I have a lil crush on Goldie Hawn. She’s a megababe. She’s funny AND hot. Birds aren’t supposed to have both. She’s up with Marilyn Munroe and Pamela Anderson for women who play up the bimbo thing to make themselves funnier. Genius.

Anyway I do have a point here – I watched Housesitter last night. Amazing. The OUTFITS. OH, the OUTFITS. Mom jeans and bodysuits with cropped animal print furry jackets and the best cowboy boots of all time ever (see above). Crochet dresses over full length body suits. The cutest black dress. And one of those curtain tie-back things as a necklace…..GAH! I love the 90′s.

The decor in the house too…Bit of an aztec rug in the living room. And that super cute little floral print chair 1992, 2012….20 years for things to come back into fashion. Just sayin.

And here is Goldie in walking talking full blown awesomeness….