youth & ardency.

zanerobe crafts first eyewear collection

2010-09-24T17:09:00.002+10:00

we love our zanerobe and their new eyewear collection has spunk and life - the perfect addition to any summer outfit. if you're anything like me, you're simply bursting at the seams waiting for summer to roll around, so spoil your inner shopper with this collection and you won't be disappointed!

click here to flick through the lookbook and here to see the full collection.

happy shopping pretties! xx

On Sale: Konstantina Mittas for Sportsgirl

2010-09-17T10:48:00.001+10:00

Australian designer wares by Konstantina Mittas are now heavily reduced – her featured Capsule Collection is a girly-girly style with a glam-rock edge. Get ready to dress like a bold and brave fashion muse with this unformidable collection.

To read this article and others written for 2Threads, click here.

sambag surprise pop-up store

2010-09-16T09:48:00.000+10:00

SAMBAG, the destination of the savvy and chic, will be opening a surprise Pop Up Store in Chadstone Shopping Centre – “The Fashion Capital” in Melbourne’s most prestigious and established shopping centre on Thursday September 23rd.

The store will be located right next door to Mimco and opposite to Sass and Bide. SAMBAG’s Spring/Summer 10 collection will be fully delivered and offer an array of bags, swimwear, accessories, summer apparel as well as unique and endless variations of the SAMBAG classic ballet flat.

The Pop Up Store will create buzz and surprise as the first week of November will then see the opening of SAMBAG’s new permanent store just around the corner. The spring opening will be timed perfectly for Chadstone’s celebrated VIP shopping night in late November and for Christmas. The store, situated at the entrée to the designer fashion walkway, opens with the full High Summer 2010 SAMBAG range.

It’s SAMBAG’s second toehold in a shopping centre. The first, in Chadstone’s sister centre in Chatswood, Sydney opened in May 2009, and has since rivalled SAMBAG’s flagship store in Woollahra as the group’s highest performer. SAMBAG Chadstone will feature the brand’s signature blue interiors albeit with a fresh take. Penny Kinsella from Essi Designs, is applying a contemporary approach but maintaining the inviting plush atmosphere of sister stores with ottomans, mirrored surfaces, and pendulum lights.

SAMBAG, which this year celebrates its 13th year of confirming Australian style, was founded by Sam Wagner in 1997; SAMBAG’s “affordable luxury” is known for quality, style and beautiful finishes. Beginning with simple but covetable totes SAMBAG now offers a lifestyle proposition for fresh, simple, no-fuss stylistas, with shoes and boots, bags, clothing, accessories, swimwear and a capsule range of SAMBAG for kids as well as endless updates of the SAMBAG classic ballet flat.

Chadstone has for years set the tone as an influencer in retailing with ongoing developments in 2009 attracting a cluster of desirables - Gucci, Burberry, Miu Miu, Jimmy Choo and Prada et al - under its ever expanding roof. It had the highest retail turnover of any centre in Australia last year at $1.2billion. The strong branding as the “fashion capital” positioned Chadstone at the fashion epicentre of Melbourne, drawing crowds of 360,000 on Boxing Day 2009, from a trade area comprising one million people – 25% of the city’s population.
Wagner, who feels the fashion hub of Chadstone is ideal to capitalise on the recent strength of the Melbourne market complementing as it does the area’s demographic, has already opened five SAMBAG stores; Woollahra, Chatswood and the Strand Arcade in Sydney, as well as two (soon to be three) Melbourne stores: Prahran East and Albert Park. SAMBAG Online was relaunched in June and has seen an increase in sales of over 200%. And now her SAMBAG aesthetic – and the many variations of Wagner’s well-known SAMBAG Tina ballet flat – will dance into the heart of Chadstone.

Guess Fall 2010 Campaign with Alyssa Miller and Elsa Hosk by Ellen von Unwerth

2010-08-15T12:51:00.028+10:00

swing it baby. let's take a ride in your car. teenage sweethearts. big hair. even bigger dreams. The Fonz. vintage is born.

untitled

2010-08-15T11:44:00.003+10:00

you never notice
it's not there
until you're taking the hits
the more you try
the more you're there
never here
what we think we know
is evergrowing
silence seeps like mould in the rain
can we say there's something else?
when all we've ever tried to be is right in front of us
whispering hopes of something divine
we can't huddle underneath the pain
promise me you'll not do the things i've done
believe whatever gets you through
we'll move forward when our hopes are right in front of us
so take me for granted,
one last time.

Cintia Dicker by Anne Menke for Marie Claire France

2010-08-14T13:07:00.013+10:00

Magnificent Obsession by Peter Lindbergh with Ewan McGregor and Natalia Vodianova

2010-08-12T17:49:00.010+10:00

inceptor

2010-08-12T14:23:00.007+10:00

If you haven't seen it yet, it will most probably change any opinions you have about the relevance of dreams in our lives. I saw it the day it was released, and I had read no reviews as yet, to cloud my opinion of it - and it was BRILLIANT! No movie rivals it's stellar combination: tactile plot, dynamic and amazingly good-looking cast and an ending that just grips you and nags your every afterthought. I cannot wait until it comes out on dvd so i can own such a stunning thing.

Again, i must emphasise that this cast...it's sex on legs - if sex could walk. Firstly you have Joseph Gordon-Levitt who is world-renowned for his role in 10 Things I Hate About You (pre-Heath Ledger passing -Ii love you Heath) and then lesser known for other films and then there was 500 Days of Summer, gorgeous film. Then Ellen Page or Juno or the girl who pops up in US Nylon Mag and THEN Vogue in a Marni dress less than a year later! how did she do that?! Because she's talented. She has that kind of way to her that makes you believe that every little thing she acts out is true, and that you too can act like she can. Not true but i love her for thinking we could. and then there's my husband Leonardo Di'Caprio. his performance is so acute and lasting that you want to jump into his world and hug him and tell him everything will be okay: that the world will not blow up/we will survive and live a happy life together.
what?

There's Cillian Murphy who gives a performance of a career. And then Tom Hardy - give me a moment. Tom Hardy is a beautiful specimen.

You then have the really delightful Marion Cotillard who has very quickly become a favourite of mine due to movies such as Nine and La Vie En Rose - her talent is so spectacular, it take one viewing of one movie to love her, and want the very most for her career. A true Parisian role-model in the film industry for women of any age.

The movie itself leads you to think about what is real or imagined, what is attainable and what is too far to reach, and what the human mind is capable of. There are so many ways to interpret this movie, and the themes of 'layers' in your dreams is so intriguing that I spent half the movie ciphering theories and scenarios of the layers - a feat which really should have occured afterwards.

But I love that - it sparked something in me.

What did it spark in you?

it's go time

2010-08-12T13:54:00.003+10:00

today it all begins. we live and then we write about it. in this case i live and don't write about it for yonks, well no more. this is an invention test, masterchef style. not really i just love that show. have you ever seen julie & julia?! see it.
basically what i'm getting at is that my long-term partner in crime Valentina and I will reinvent this blog to wow you little dazzlers and punch you in the face with our observations on life. photos / videos / poems / interpretive dance - the forms of expression are endless. one thing that will be consistent is our sheer passion and commitment to whatever it is we're bringing you. we're starting small but aiming high and we welcome any and every little contribution you may have. we hope you can relate & enjoy!

much love, G and V xx

2010-05-27T10:12:00.001+10:00

McQueen honoured

2010-05-27T09:21:00.005+10:00

Five months following the shock death of fashion's modest great, Alexander McQueen, very fittingly the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) has graced his honour with their Board of Directors' Special Tribute Award.

Endearingly, they have enlisted a deserving friend, the one and only Sarah-Jessica Parker to present the award at this year's event on June 7 at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York. Her profound appreciation for McQueen was on most people's lips back in February: "He was talented well beyond his years and the seriousness and unrivalled talent which he applied to his work is in bountiful display year after year and collection after collection," she said. "Every single inspired, original, lofty, whimsical, stunning, brilliant and jaw-dropping detail was Alexander McQueen."

take all your saved pennies up to the counter

2010-05-27T08:42:00.002+10:00

note to self

2010-01-06T16:56:00.003+11:00

notes to yourself are investments of the best kind. they pep you up when you need the extra YOU CAN DO IT slapped in the face like a wet fish. no drug influence of any kind, and no fish necessary.
not only do people around the world write things to themselves but they actually follow them through!! who would have thought. oh, you did? i didn't. i have a diary and an iphone and guess which one gets used even more than the over will ever be?
i just love stationery stores, so this shouldn't be a problem at all. its like walking into a shoe store - they're pretty and expensive and the lighting is extra good, the merchandise inspires quality writing - so what's left to hate about them!

i like it when i have exclamation points in my notes to self, it re-iterates my point. i don't like it when i write in some sort of code so that nobody can ever understand what i was ever trying to say, if they (somehow) stumble across my note to self. uggh, it's a note to self, i think it'll be immune to others reading it all by itself without the help of pig latin.
anyway, this is a note i found which was written a good five years ago while cleaning my room, aka death trap with shoes. it's comforting to know i took a moment to record my goals, however small they were. take note of the sheer wisdom.

Think before you react.
Practise Concious Communication.
Live your life more in public - share it!
Take all bad as challenges.
Create for yourself what you feel is missing.
Smile like you mean it.
Relate to people as if they're your best friend!
Dare to show enthusiasm!

pain

2010-01-06T13:06:00.004+11:00

it's never your fault.
just something we all wish you weren't.
it's almost like telling a fish to breathe out of water, because no expectations means no
let-downs.
it's taken a while to build up, a moment to die down,
but when i see you again, it'll be like nothing has changed.
at least i hope it will.

if youth and determination were all that mattered, it still wouldn't fit right.
like a limb torn off, and sewn back together with fishing wire.
fake, plastic.

alterior motives don't show when you're not looking for them,
and i was blinded, so blinded.
it's funny how we do that.
and never let it show,
just like we want the pain.

take it away though, and it's all the more painful.

just special

2010-01-02T16:11:00.007+11:00

if someone you knew, who has been there for you for years, but their real potential as a friend never really showed itself, because neither of you had really experienced life for long enough - if they died today...what would you do? of course you'd be sad, but what would you actually do? would you change your relations with others so that they knew just how much they have meant to you over the years? would you be a better listener, more astute to what others were going through around your little world, would you sing at the top of your lungs when you're happy in their presence, or cry when you're sharing the hardest moments of your life with them?

those emotions you take for granted when you're in the presence of your favourite people are melded into the moment, all apart of the greater experience, and you ride it, with them.

but what if those people are taken away from you? what if when those ones who have been sewn under your skin are no longer around?

well, you learn more about who you are. you're taken to a place where you've never had those people to cushion the blow when you're lonely, or sad, or just even needing to talk. you start to think about life more, i mean really think, of what you want - as a career, as a lover, as a friend, as down-time, as a hobby, as a good time. your beliefs are still your own, but it's like they've been trapped in a world you've always known. don't get me wrong, this can be an amazing thing, but if you as a person are transient - and we all know everything changes - your outside may not match what's going on inside.

i've gone through these hurdles and a few personal trials this year to realise the value of true friends in this world - the cuddly ones, the ones you've known since you were three. they know you, and you know them, to the point where you can read eachother's minds. you do everything together. they're the first person you think of when you're asked to bring a friend along. when you talk, it's like you pick up where you left off, like every fucking time.

i'm lucky to say i have that friend, and she means the absolute world to me and life would just be dull without her. but i don't always have to be with her. although i want to, i don't need to, and that's important to have. it means you don't O.D. on them....

I know how much i mean to her, and she knows how much she means to me.

it's as simple as that.

please don't live your life with others oblivious.

for my girl, my sister.

new year

2010-01-01T17:31:00.002+11:00

there's something about this poem that speaks to me.

happy new year babies.

may this be your happiest year yet, full of growth and love. xx

Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.

FRANK O'HARA

man up.

2009-12-14T19:09:00.006+11:00

male models. does this term make you think of an American fragrance dude posing intently at you, like he wants to have your children, oiled with a brunette Guess woman on his bed in the background? well, if yes, not only are you an elaborate over-thinker like me, you are completely normal. unlike me. if not, i have a whole lotta respect for you.

the majority of us immediately think of male models as men bordering on metrosexuality or overly-macho, tabloid-typecasted examples, your pink-shirted, Calvin Klein-cled bunch.

they've all been packaged enough that they now remind me of specimens from a Britney Spears filmclip. ew. but then again, those men are not about the clothes.

so let me salvage your minds with a new concept of boy posers. their look is particular in uniqueness, fresh and true. this man is a modern gentlemen who wants to have a definitive style and ease to his aesthetic; he is not trying to be a perfect example of a certain group of men, but is an honest individual. it's less about masculinity, more about how he inspires his voyeur. more daring than dashing, these men try to cultivate you as opposed to catering for you.

i'd crap myself everyday at work if i had to be a model caster, because they have this inherently tricky task of striking the balance between man and cloth, trying to keep the basic appeal of the clothes intact without the person overshadowing this with their large eyebrows or muscled limbs. a very hard task indeed. it seems it's becoming more about the man of late, with many local advertisements and new models cropping up which promote real men.

i probably know what you're thinking - Dove campaign. well, yes it is in a way, just not as aspirational and definitely not as sales-driven. even internationally-acclaimed men's magazines like Fantastic Man and Jefferson Hack's Another Man are jumping on the rusty bandwagon. and it shits all over your lacquered hardwood one.

Gen Y's may just throw their fist in the air with me on this one. for me the strongest modern male figure is one you can relate to, the boys who are not really aware of their beauty, the Alfalfa kiddies (without looking like Alfalfa) who didn't get asked to the school disco by a girl. this ease and naturalist approach to not only fashion, but their life, is what maked them so modern. you often find them on buses, or concerning themselves with tunes at indie gigs held in your town's arteries - hell, they even buy gear from op-shops. and that says a lot for a guy today. it says they're not going to be all GQ on us and are willing to wear a shirt that is ripped unintentionally.

thank. you.

you could say Australia is a pioneer in this morphing view of men in fashion modeling. random and absurd (bordering on 'hippy') as it may seem to the common housewoman or man, favouring consumerism over almost anything else, it is a painfully realistic concept that points us in a bloody good position as far as eradicating Britney Spears' boys from the species goes.

i'm sorry but men who bring new meaning to the phrase 'disco balls', plus lads, are not even in the same country as this ball park of men. (it has to be said, they need to be shot).

men need to be men, not Ken dolls - or walruses for that matter.

desordre

2009-12-03T21:13:00.005+11:00

i found MY store. you know that store that defines you, or as Mitch interestingly puts it "it's like they manifested a part of your brain!" - yes indeedy i found that store! it's called Desordre and they travel around Australia setting up camp wherever they see fit...i say this with an air of annoyance BECAUSE they're just so damn incredible with their Willow, Natasha, Aje, Maurie and Eve and Ellery wares that it was pure fate that we glanced over and saw it there all amazing-looking next to a gay bar on oxford street. Desordre was so unsuspecting yet alluring and we went in only to find a massive wall of colour painted on with faces and objects that i can't recall because i was heart attacking at the time. the whole store wasn't a store, it was a warehouse. a house for wares. and wares they were. lingerie was draped from wooden beams, beautiful lace dresses and studded silk singlets made a massive imprint on my psyche. a poem or mantra or something was painted on a window at the rear of the house and odette and i stood there reading it out aloud as if we were reading from a prayer book. ahhhhhhhhhhhh how can this place exist?! things are only this good in dreams!

kids look at this site/blog/supernatural force that is desordre. i'm sharing with you, this is how much i love you - i have no doubt in my mind that i'm gonna regret airing my little secret!

www.desordrestore.com

C.I. for H&M love

2009-11-30T21:24:00.012+11:00

chanel iman for h&m's holiday campaign.

oui cherie.

NYNYNY

2009-11-29T20:04:00.004+11:00

www.sophomorenyc.com

strictly cool.

not gorgeous but sex appeal that lasts

2009-11-26T20:20:00.006+11:00

i love this woman. she's strong, sure and has a clear vision of what she wants and also what in life brings her down. it's a gem to have people.

so here's SJP's latest fashion foray, on the cover of American ELLE magazine. Sarah and Carrie are different people, but to me they're very similar, considering the fact that one is a fictional character. my best friend and i had a conversation about her once mid-way through a SATC marathon (we paused first) but she had a good point - she's not stunning to look at. she is attractive, but Carrie isn't one of the lucky head-turner women of this world. but what we both agreed she had, and in droves, is attitude. sexy attitude. this species of girl is unique. she's got swagger like it's her last day on earth and she just saw Bloc Party live in concert. yeah. we then pressed play and saw evidence of this as Carrie did something that proved her point (i can't remember because it was a good 2 years ago, it would have tied this all in neatly if i did wouldn't it?) but i remember her outfit was incredibly original and effortlessly worked (i WANT her wardrobe, you don't understand) because she approaches her sense of style with confidence, candour and cockiness in just the right amount.

it's not about being rude or mean, that's not what i mean - it's about being happy enough in what and who you are to not give a fuck about others' opinions of you.

take it in, but don't let it rule you and get over it, life's too short for that boring behaviour.

Marc Jacobs Spring 2010

2009-11-21T10:30:00.018+11:00

"Marc is New York. Marc is New York Fashion Week. Marc is one of the most dedicated, extraordinary people and designers, and he just stays true to what he does, every season. I've been following his work since I started and he's just unbelieveably so on top of his game. I'm his number one fan." - Rachel Zoe, Stylist.

The lover in the relationship. The mother in the family. The designer in the fashion industry. It's Marc Jacobs.

As my personal favourite designer of all time, I appreciate all his lines, some moreso than others admittedly. It's OK because I've scrutinised every one of his collections and media releases, interviews and collaborative projects and all related endeavours of the glorious man that is Jacobs and understand that even if some aren't to my specific taste, I can always appreciate his way with a sketching pencil and sewing machine.

Wishful thinking - don't you think it would be great though if he did still make his own wares by hand?! Hunched over in an underground basement in downtown NYC with mllions of scribbled details on paper encroaching him on clothing lines held up by pegs.

I do.

ANYWAYS.

I can understand where he comes from, from the perspective of a fashion designer relating to the wearer of their clothes, when he said of his latest collection back in the September/October 2008 issue of RUSSH Magazine:

"When I trust my own whims. and the whims of people I trust, I feel that has credibility...belief is embedded in everything you do - so it doesn't actually matter whether people like it. I guess what we do, as a team, is a daily, weekly, monthly re-evaluation of whims."

And then when asked if fashion should be challenging, he casually says an incredibly bespoke quote that pretty much justifies why I love fashion and why i want to write about it all the time - "We don't need fashion. It's not a necessity. We don't need fashion at all, but we want fashion. And that's important. Because what we want is the reason for why we live." He's captured the idea that is on the tip of every devoted fashionista's tongue.

Of course we don't need fashion - no matter how much us girls say we need shoes, it's not true.

We only want them badly because they're just that fucking amazing. It's a whirlwind of constantly changing needs to express different emotions, atmospheres and wants, through proportion and silhouettes. Are you kidding?! That sounds bloody hard if you ask me - but somehow he does it and pulls it off with flair and a cool-headed approach all the while...

"Marc is always surprising, you never know quite what he's going to do. There's always got to be something, you can love it, you can hate it, you can get blown away...but it will always be something that you just do not expect." - Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director, The London Telegraph.

Expect him to be pushing the boundaries sometime again soon in one form or another, and showing us why we're meant to have fun in this lifetime: because we want to.

a note for you

2009-11-15T21:03:00.005+11:00

truth be told, i don't like staying up all night.
only when i'm drunk.
i much prefer to go to bed at a reasonable hour as long as i have good reading material and a nice warm cup of tea.
it's comforting to know that what you really love to do with your down time is your career (or future i should say) also, which is why i write the most at night.
a lot of things are given new perspective at night i find.
and those niggling problems created in the day have clarity at night.

so this blog will now be my writing haven.
moreso to share & inspire for you.

if you love my images, you can find new ones regularly on my tumblr page at gaiaerin.tumblr.com .

xx

catharsis

2009-11-10T07:29:00.009+11:00

it's such a rush just being with you

2009-11-09T21:09:00.011+11:00

michael angel spring 2010. no angel pun.

2009-11-09T20:18:00.015+11:00

"The inspiration was these jewellery boxes...and the girls opened them in the 20s and they find all of this stuff. They went into their mum's closet and put it all on. But I wanted to keep it modern; keeping it modern was the use of the neo-print. I think I arrived at this signature place, where it's like 'This is what I want to say, and here it is'. It's nice to be able to open the week and be like 'Let's have some fun.'" - Michael Angel.

and he said bonita, there's nothing you can't do

2009-11-07T10:23:00.011+11:00

a muse and a half

2009-10-30T17:50:00.022+11:00

this is "Come As You Are" from the 50th Anniversary Issue of Vogue Australia.

in my opinion it showcases the ultimate tier of talent within just one photo shoot. unmatched by any others i've ever seen...well at least the ones in Vogue.

modeled by Abbey Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil, styled by Naomi Smith, photographed by Greg Kadel.

if these clothes were all i had in my wardrobe until the day i died, i'd want to live forever.

the jewel tones within the make-up reflected in the shimmer of shore rocks and grassy knolls and the bold overtones of mother nature empowering the beauty within every one of us make such an impression.

named after that Nirvana song.

evocative, original, life-enhanced, beautiful.

if you remember nothing about me, remember how much i love this.

magsobsession

2009-10-27T20:03:00.010+11:00

some detailed insights from the latest Lula. merry christmas.

oh may god

2009-10-27T17:23:00.014+11:00

georgia may jagger in my opinion is a little bombshell. she's got that really overly-famous family heir about her and she's got a gap in between her front teeth, but her dad is mick jagger and her mum is jerry hall. and it adds character. we could say she gets her character indirectly through her parental situation also, but that kind of call, as cliched and inevitable it is, isn't exactly justified....but how can we be so sure? i'm not.

signed with Elite Model Management, she has modeled for Rimmel London and Hudson Jeans (where she posed nude). she's stunning to look at. then again she can look like this.

i don't know why i just said that. i rarely criticize celebs for being normal carb-consuming people. anyway, in a recent interview with interview magazine, she said stuff like my dad would ask, “Are you wearing makeup? and I would say back, You’re wearing more makeup there than I am!” and "When I went on tour with my father, I knew he was a musician." great sweetie. she's forged her way in the fashion industry in the way models only can. let's get this straight, SHE'S COOL BECAUSE SHE'S MICK JAGGER'S DAUGHTER.

at 17 years of age, she's had the lifestyle of a child prodigy. but has she wasted it? and what constitutes a wasted childhood these days? i don't expect a PhD under her belt but something would be good. she wants to do more than modelling, like photography and designing clothes. apparently she's "inherited a hard work ethic from Dad" i don't know what to say to that. did he ever work? sure he worked but it was no office job. he worked the stage, and damn well. so what did she do when she completed her final high school exams? "First of all I burnt my maths papers, but that was a spiritual thing – I hate maths. Then I painted my nails because we are not allowed nail varnish at my school."

i can't talk about her anymore.

come inside

2009-10-26T17:01:00.004+11:00

my best friend Mitch makes me laugh. so when he asked me if he could interview me for his blog i laughed so hard, and it made me think about how i don't laugh enough.

that last bit's a lie.

lies and slander.

i did it after i had to rattle my brain like a piggy bank with one dollar left inside. for me, that dollar symbolises everything i know about myself, the stuff i regularly think about, but never actually express. in a formal manner anyway. i'm always carrying on like a colloquial banshee to select friends about what i want and what i'm gonna do to get it.

trembling ordeals ensue when i have to write this down, because let's face it i'm pretty un-self when it comes to staring at myself in the metaphorical mirror. that's why i love it when i get feedback from others. yes! great! continue! it's like christmas, without the obvious lipstick marks on the half eaten cookies. exactly like that. i like to look at others, whether they look to me while i'm doing this is their prerogative.

i feel too strong to look at myself, frankly.

and as Mitch and many others know, i can be shy at first, but its because i respect myself enough not to give it all up-front from the words ready and set.

better to let them come in by their own will.

here's that interview.

we're just a protoge of you

2009-10-26T16:50:00.010+11:00

the knife

2009-10-26T15:12:00.004+11:00

listening to this cult band is like listening to life with electrolytes inside you.

karin and olof are altruistic to their creativity and border on world music, and it works so well because they're not afraid to make it into cheeky electronica aswell.

cinematic, spicy & apathetically evocative. click on this.

realise your dreams

2009-10-26T15:07:00.001+11:00

i want to be a writer.

sometimes what you love is right there beside you.

outfitter won't you inspire me?

2009-10-20T09:52:00.021+11:00

if there ever were a blog who's style influences me the most, it's forever got to be The Sartorialist. this is the case with most aspiring fashionistas, but in a un-cliched manner, my love for this website on day-to-day of the young, rich and prolific in the fashion world, and Scott Schuman in general, has reached the point where i find myself studying each outfit: the way it's worn, with what and how, the fabrics, and their combination to make it come together. when i buy clothes now i look more closely at the cuts and details and i've learnt that carefully planning your details make for an outfit that looks like you've just thrown it on, which exudes appeal because it looks good without actually being thrown together. true street style isn't just about the attitude.

schuman chooses people off the streets of Milan, New York and Paris (the most stylish cities on this mortal planet) and says his strategy when he began was to "try and shoot style in a way that I knew most designers hunted for inspiration. Rarely do they look at the whole outfit as a yes or no but they try and look for the abstract concepts of color, proportion, pattern mixing or mixed genres." precisely why i adore his work, and adore it again.
for so long i've been dressing and forming opinions about styles based on whether they are visually harmonic to the eye, and i'm not disputing that this is unimportant, and it seems obvious that this is what our industry is about, but when it comes down to it, we've got incredibly talented designers of our time such as Coco Chanel, Ann Demeulemeester, Nino Cerruti and also the not so famous genius of the likes of Rifat Ozbek, who put so much of their lives and their vision into creating these stunningly beautiful pieces that we throw on, but do we often really notice their perfection reflected in the weave of the hemline, the accomodating cut of the jacket to allow for movement in any direction with ease, or do we take these for granted when we buy 'designer clothes'?

i think photographers like schuman who reflect the passion of the designers reflected in the people are getting us one step closer to understanding and appreciating the seeds of this industry, the grit. after all if it weren't for designers, the fashion industry would not exist! and you know what, it's great fun mixing prints. cast all trends aside. the main rule is no rules allowed.
enjoy these beautiful images, but this time try and look past the smoke and mirrors to their true individuality.
you'll think about fashion in a new light, trust me. xx

diamond dancer

2009-10-14T18:49:00.004+11:00

jewellry. 6 months ago jewellry, to me, meant items you'd spend hours pouring over every little specification before even thinking about making a decision about buying. so due to lack of sufficient interest and funds to endure that process, i seriously didn't even consider jewellry as something of great importance. sure it was beautiful and pretty to admire, but on me? no no.

but i've shifted my perspective. since being hired by a bloody prominent jewellry store in the city (i still can't believe i've worked four shifts there), learning the intricate details of diamonds, gemstones, opals and the people with millions to spend on them, has made me acknowledge and appreciate just how genuinely beautiful jewellry really is. i find it really spooky almost because i've been working with Surry Hills jewellry designer Elke Kramer for just under a year now, and her work is just pure resin genius, but i'm now getting into the jewellry business very unintentionally. it's all amazing, don't get me wrong, but i can't help think that this is meant to all mean something...jewels...gold...nope nothing....YET.

very kindly my friend Nick, who is an out-of-this-planet-talented jewellry crafter, and conveniently located two blocks from Kramer, has offered to teach me the ropes in the jewellry world to basically blow all my colleagues at work away with my spectacular intelligeble encyclopaediac brain. but seriously, the more i know working for that company the better. the retail side is easy, but the origins of all the jewels, how to cut a diamond, these are things they can't teach me. but he can - his passion is so motivating, and he's like family to me, so there's no alterior motives or no politics, like the big money-pumping conglomerates have with their staff. ugh do not get me started.

just sitting in his workshop is enough for me to take in a week. its a hub of books, equipment and hard work. he has esoteric music playing, incense burning, and has a spare compartment in the front for a fold-out bed when he just can't bring himself to part with his work. arguably, the creatively talented folk of this country reside in Surry Hills. it's all just heaven to me.

i spent five hours with him today discussing and writing notes and writing and writing and saying "I don't know what that means" and asking what his tools do.
thank god he is the most patient man i know otherwise i would have crushed him. and the terminology is like gobbledigook. prasiolite, quartz, carats, open cut, baguette, fault, dyke (i so wish i was joking), boart, finger sizing, cast, trigons OMG.

i'm up for the challenge thankfully so its not going to be as hard as it all sounds. i really am excited, it's just an incredibly vast subject and i wouldn't take this on if i weren't seriously focused...and these things take time. lots of it.

so now i'm going to study four amazing books he leant me until my next visit in a week, followed by a billion Google searches. oh by the way, my dad got promoted at Google today so we just had champagne...champagne is a colour of diamonds...i think i'm gonna do just fine.

whatevs.

2009-10-13T08:52:00.040+11:00

i could care less about low disc space. although my computer is clearly in the struggles of functioning with all my crap on it, i refuse to delete my podcasts on surfing and Jamie Oliver, episodes of The Hills, music and fashion pictures which, by the way, are all treasured possessions, even if i don't look at them daily (that's a lie i check out Jamie constantly). and what, i ask in fury, is the point of having all this 'stuff' if you can't put it on your ipod? seriously. i do most of my tv watching in transit to and from work. it's just the way i roll. even though i have a pretty nice widescreen at home, i never watch from it, or the tv in my room for that matter. i'm not big on tv. i feel like i'm diverging.

so this post is a rant and a collection of some pictures i've saved on my comp in the hope that they will one day come in handy for a specific reason, and splendidly contradicting myself, as this is not a specific reason to post these and i am emptying space on my computer (i delete everything if it's been used....it's called originality), i am just happy to share these with you.
and as if on cue, i just received a notification that i have low disc space.
such is life.

what could have been

2009-10-09T20:12:00.007+11:00

rosebud

2009-10-09T18:56:00.007+11:00

...and breathe

2009-10-08T17:39:00.011+11:00

i worry too much. i worry about things that are just so stupid...so stupid! even if its a good thing in my life i'll no doubt worry a little bit...but i love to stop worrying. running in the bush does that for me. and beaches, they do it for me, but i don't live near a beach. as long as i can see the sunset everyday i'm more-than-you-could-realise happy. this summer i'm gonna learn how to surf.

it's a promise.

alex loves alexa

2009-10-06T17:08:00.014+11:00

i love alexa chung's style + boyfriend.

watch yourself

2009-10-01T08:06:00.003+10:00

swatch watches rock my socks. they're just colourful enough to induce timely happiness everytime you glance at them. they're durable aswell so you don't have to worry about scratching or denting them when you do anything that is beyond the simple shopping expedition. and they're cool, see Aggy Deyn? she knows what's going on with these watches...they're revolutionising the boring watches of other brands with the CreArt Collection, a blend of painfully delicious designs by U.S. artists, with the likes of Matthew Langille, Billy The Artist, Concert and GREMS. See the entire collection plus videos by the artists at http://www.swatch.com/zz_en/artistcollection.html.
And this is where it gets super juicy - to celebrate the 2009 CreArt Collection, Swatch and its partner Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS are giving away a Billy The Artist Morning Glow Watch!!
Become a fan of Swatch US (http://www.facebook.com/SwatchUS) and Broadway Cares (http://www.facebook.com/BCEFA)...
seriously guys, do it, do it, do it. xx

cute animals and cake

2009-09-20T10:38:00.007+10:00

i think its safe to say that each one of us love animals; and its equally as safe to say we all love cake.

so here's a combo!

it was never always like this, you know

2009-09-20T10:25:00.009+10:00

numero tokyo october 2009

2009-09-20T10:19:00.004+10:00

she's such a charmer oh no

2009-09-20T10:07:00.008+10:00

alexander wang 2010

2009-09-20T09:55:00.011+10:00

city and colour

2009-09-20T09:40:00.002+10:00

city and colour take my heart away!
i knew they were something special with only a few songs on my ipod, but swapping ipods with my friend who has pretty much every one of their beautiful songs, has made me see just how sweet their sound really is.
the girl has nostalgic sounds that i can't get over...

lily aldridge

2009-09-20T09:28:00.004+10:00

i think this gal is stunning, stunning, and again, stunning.
if you're stunning, you either know miranda kerr, or you are miranda kerr.
i know this post is about lily aldridge, but did i tell you the story of when i met miranda?
by met her i mean i said hi, after she said hi to me backstage at the David Jones Spring/Summer Launch, probably because i had to pick myself up off the ground from all the staring and smiling i was throwing her way. lovely girl.

phi spring 2010

2009-09-20T09:21:00.009+10:00

lu la la

2009-09-20T08:38:00.010+10:00

I would love to get my paws on a copy of Lula Magazine. It seems like a magazine with a lot to offer, and with many friends (one die-hard-tattoo-Lula-on-my-skin fan) who praise the little imagination burner's rich and beautiful text and images, i may just get one at $30...their website has already prompted me to make a down payment! the videos are divine. likewise are these stills.

ok that didn't help! now i just want more.

new york, oh new york

2009-09-19T09:48:00.013+10:00

Toni Maticevski stole my heart ever since I spotted his one of his designs on a Home and Away starlet. Yes! That's how the love affair began, I saw Jodi Gordon (played by Martha) wear one of his stunning gowns to the Logies, and i couldn't get it out of my night dreams for the next two weeks. ooh la la.

Maticevski's the cool, understated cat of Australian fashion design and he is more than magical in his imaginative approach to clothes. what a bloody cool vision he's got. and when i learned he was going to be debuting at new york fashion week, it was pretty thrilling (and i was a tad jealous of americans at the same time!)
beautiful snaps:

i wish i was an online whore

2009-09-18T16:40:00.019+10:00

i wish i was an online whore, alas, i cannot keep a credit card, and everything i want online always looks better than it really is. i think i might start getting into eBay...at least i'll have a great bag on my shoulder when i run out of the apartment at the last minute, all because i spent 7 hours bidding on a pair of Sergio Rossi's and a 1979 version of Vogue Italia....seriously can i bid for old magazines on eBay?? anyway, the point of this post was to show you my favourite items on net-a-porter.com right now, don't worry it's not 17 pages long (it was at one point) and let us girls, as the hopeful people we are, look at things we can't afford, again.

happy hypothetical shopping!

Preen Matt Liquid Mini Dress.

Alexander Wang Cutout Jersey Skirt.

Zimmermann Summer Lovers Silk Dress.

Giuseppe Zanotti Swarovski-Embellished Sandals.

Lanvin Teacher Pouchette Clutch.

Anita Ko 14-Karat Gold Diamond Spike Bracelet.

Ray-Ban Clubmaster Sunglasses.

i want want want

2009-09-13T08:31:00.003+10:00

congratulations to Aussie label Zimmermann, for creating (in my opinion) their best summer swimwear range yet. they've always been renowned for their eyepopping hues and patterns but i believe this is their best cohesion of themes to date. pioneering this season's one-piece trend frenzy, the collection screams sexy, fun, beautiful and smart.
the colours are like fresh fruit...so delicious!
to see the entire collection and buy online, click here.
xx

dress-ups

2009-09-12T18:01:00.002+10:00

"I remember as a teenager buying things like ski outfits, not to go skiing, but just to get the feeling of trying things on."

i adore this quote.

imagine if you had enough money to be as obedient to your imagination as Gert Jonkers (Editor-In-Chief of Fantastic Man) is to his.

L.A. Story

2009-09-09T14:45:00.008+10:00

i had to post this photo cos it reminded me of one of my favourite movies of all time.
L.A. Story.

it was one of those 90s movies that made no sense but inbetween the nonsense it had some amazing quotes and memorable characters who you wanted as best friends forever.

since age four when i stumbled across one of the video tapes my dad had been putting 'adult' movies on, really just naf movies with the occasional fuck thrown in, and this was one of them. hilariously, he would censor these moments by taping over them with some brilliantly camp ads. so i'd have SJP and Steve Martin undressing to have sex in a hotel bed, then suddenly i'm watching an ad for Hey Hey, It's Saturday! - score!!

the movie's about a weatherman named Harris K. Telemacher (played by Steve Martin, i know right!!) who's relationships are so vague and meaningless (basically his girlfriend was cheating with his boss for 3 years) that he finds consolation in a electronic freeway sign. oh yes.
his love interest turns to Sara after a randomely alluring meeting at a work luncheon, and soon after he meets SanDeE (Sarah-Jessica Parker, bright eyed and bushy tailed, before she was Sexed up) and the freeway sign and a certain Richard E. Grant (love) keep him floating between the two.

so the photo is like the wallpaper of his neighbour Ariel's rad house. it's got this amazing L.A. vibe, with an airy kitchen and segments of the wall which open up for you to poke your head through. i'm not down with interior design lingo, but you've just gotta see the movie for yourself.
Harris and Ariel have fun by filming eachother rollerskate through art museums. cool.
but truly i think it's one of the greatest love movies ever.

there are some sobby scenes near the end when Enya is the backing track, and the freeway sign stops Sara's plane from leaving, because it controls the weather, and i just become a mess.
the entire culture of L.A. is also explored in this film, which is why i love it so much. so much good and bad is observed about its people and way of living that you want to know these people so much better.

borrow it off me sometime.

my favourite quotes from L.A. Story:
"You know what I can't figure out, is that you look ready; you look so ready that I get ready and I get up and stand by the door for about ten minutes. I realise, you weren't ready at all so I sit back down. Then, I get another feeling that you're ready and I straighten my clothes and then I realise you just gave off illusion of being ready that I interpreted as not being an illusion. I'll be in the car,"

"So there I was jabbering on about my new job as a serious newsman, about anything at all. But all I could think was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful, and yet again wonderful."

"All I know is on the day your plane was to leave, if I had the power, I would turn the winds around, I would roll in fog, I would bring in storms, I would change the polarity of the earth so compasses couldn't work, so your plane couldn't take off."

"Why is it that we don't always recognise the moment when love begins? But we always know when it ends."

the solitary vice of reading

2009-09-09T11:49:00.022+10:00

reading is one of those things in life that can never really change, it is easy and accessible, there is pretty much a book on everything somewhere in the world, it keeps you informed and thriving for more from this world and it makes you happy no matter what is going on in your life.

my personal collection is everything from yoga, nutrition and buddhism to Audrey Hepburn biographies, travel, childhood stories and novels by writers i've befriended. I have my display collection which i read frequently, then the quick referencers in the wall unit behind my bed, and the garage books that have been boxed to be taken with me wherever i go in the future. my favourites are books my mum and dad have given me. so many gems they have collected over the years - dad from Europe, and mum from Sri Lanka - just fill me with excitement and nostalgia everytime i go to read one.

and of course there's my fashion books - the vintage dating back to the 30s, the hefty illustration and how-to-sew editions and the new kitsch numbers i've collected and been given as gifts over the last few years.
magazines have my heart also - international and local, they're all on display under my bedroom window.
i adore little magical book stores that only a few lucky souls know about, like the ones in Glebe and Surry Hills. I have been late to class because of these stores.

in my 20s i want to travel to munich, venice and barcelona and lose myself in bookstores.

libraries have always felt like a second home, piles of books make my heart flutter and i have about a hundred bookmarks scattered around my room, just in case.

reading, i love you so.

In the words of Edward P. Morgan,
"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy."

life

2009-09-09T11:29:00.001+10:00

i think you should stop smoking.

2009-09-09T11:00:00.012+10:00

beach blues

2009-09-09T10:09:00.011+10:00

if someone cruel and insensitive made me choose a favourite shoot from Russh i wouldn't be able to.
but here's just one they've had.
Tallulah's Town.
an eclectically chic match of beach wares with bvlgari jewels, featuring aussie labels such as dion lee, house of fetish, friedrich gray, chronicles of never and ellery.
ahh ellery ♥

i want want WANT the tina kalivas top and pants.

the summer vibes make you envious, no?

mercury poisoning

2009-09-09T10:02:00.004+10:00

Speech Debelle just won this year's Mercury Prize Award, allegedly putting her ahead of Florence and The Machine, The Horrors, Bat For Lashes and Friendly Fires.
what the heck is going on??

reading material

2009-09-04T19:52:00.004+10:00

The Observer's Top 100 Novels. i want to read them all in 2009! i haven't read any. woo.

BFG I’ve read… and high school readings don't really count.

Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes
The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne
Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
Emma - Jane Austen
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love
The Black Sheep - Honore De Balzac
The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
Sybil - Benjamin Disraeli
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
The Way We Live Now - Anthony Trollope
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
The Diary of a Nobody - George Grossmith
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Nostromo - Joseph Conrad
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence
The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan
Ulysses - James Joyce
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Trial - Franz Kafka
Men Without Women - Ernest Hemingway
Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
USA - John Dos Passos
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
The Plague - Albert Camus
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
Malone Dies - Samuel Beckett
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Herzog - Saul Bellow
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carre
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
The Bottle Factory Outing - Beryla Bainbridge
The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
A Bend in the River - V.S. Naipaul
Waiting for the Barbarians - J.M. Coetzee
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
Lanark - Alasdair Gray
The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
The BFG - Roald Dahl
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Money - Martin Amis
An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera
Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
LA Confidential - James Ellroy
Wise Children - Angela Carter
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
Austerlitz - W.G. Sebald

christian

2009-09-04T16:02:00.008+10:00

this morning i was waiting in line at ANZ Bank (represent) - actually i'm with St George but it was for the boss - and of course there's this massive painful line. i spot the lone chair behind the last person waiting, but before the watercooler, and sit down, praising the accountant who had the most useful brainwave of his life for putting a chair in the vicinity of a waiting area. genius. and then i spot at the front of the line a mother with a pram, and a little boy sitting in it. he looks pretty capable to be walking and everything but whatever, who am i to say when a child leaves the pram? nobody. now for those of you who don't know that little bit too much about me, which crosses the line from charming to slightly unhinged, you won't know that i love little boys. not in that way. i could spend hours just observing them. not in that way. when i have children, if i don't get a boy, i'm just gonna keep poppin' em out til i get the jackpot. yeah i'm one of those people. there's just something about little boys, over little girls - frankly i think they're spoilt brats. can't believe i used to be one.

so he's facing the opposite way, and he turns his head around the side of the pram, down the line, and gives me the most adorable face i think i've ever seen.
now i feel it necessary to point out that i was hungover, and probably still am, because for someone to make any type of vague hint at a joke, in my state, i will fall into bounds of laughter, like a giggling machine, ok. that or i'll feel like throwing up. so i am just completely thrilled by this point that someone else feels the same way i do.

so i start a game of peek-a-boo with him, and he plays along, laughing and giggling everytime he peeks around finding me looking out for him. we're having the time of our lives, and of course everyone waiting in line pretends to ignore us like the children we are, but we're too busy having fun. he is such a genuinely gorgeous boy.

then his mother says "Come on Christian" and my heart sinks.

as she wheels him away, he gives me the cutest wave goodbye, and i wave back.
and just like that, Christian made my day!

thankyou for talking

2009-09-04T15:54:00.007+10:00

probably the best 'kids' show to ever be on tv.

neon neon

2009-09-04T15:44:00.011+10:00

some other dream

2009-09-02T18:47:00.009+10:00

Lily Cole photographed by Carter Smith for Vogue Nippon, 2006.

playgirl, why are you sleeping in tomorrow's world?

2009-09-02T18:18:00.013+10:00

english girls look pretty when they play guitar

2009-09-02T15:29:00.021+10:00

such simple things when combined have the potential to create magic.

point in case: summer and lakes, dogs and jumpers, and girls and guitars.
but even though i, and many of you gals out there cannot strum a nursery rhyme to save our lives, it doesn't mean we can't pour over every single guitar string of our favourite song, can't empathise with the musician in the emotion they are conveying with their guitar and can't understand the beauty of a sound that you adore with most, if not all, of your heart.

about a year ago i was actively managing a friend's band, The Astratto, and i was forever in awe of their ways with the guitar, it wasn't showy (let's face it, they were flaunting it) yet it drew in such acclaim due to their simple talent to create a tune that was harmonious (admittedly they were boys...teenage boys) but my point is that girls can play guitar just as well, and boy don't they?! even though i personally have as much hope as wishing upon a star to play as well one day, other women throughout history have pioneered the music industry with their simple talent. It's these talents that have not only carved a strong female name for themselves, but have also been muses in their own right. Courtney Love was never really well known for her guitar-playing, as talented as she was, though, she was better known as the lover of male musician Kurt Cobain.

i think it's time we throw a proud and mighty feminist fist in the air, and celebrate women such as Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Joan Jett, Ani DiFranco, Liz Phair, Carla Bruni and Kaki King whose chords lifts our hearts and enlightens us to the sheer beauty of a simple song, which come alive in the arms of a woman.

child's play

2009-09-02T15:17:00.010+10:00

Oh my gosh!! I found this and the only right thing to do was share it with you,
just take a moment to see how cute it is?!
It combines children (french?), kisses, taking photos and cutely matched outfits!! I love all of these things!

sartorialism

2009-08-30T13:06:00.023+10:00

a long time love of mine, the sartorialist is such a muse of a website. my goodness, what other blog can attract such attention from photographing people in the street? that question doesn't really perplex me because of the exact brilliance captured by a certain Scott Schuman, a man who started to photograph people in New York and has posted the images on his blog since september 2005.
as he describes here, designers are always kept in mind:
"I thought I could shoot people on the street the way designers looked at people, and get and give inspiration to lots of people in the process. My only strategy when I began The Sartorialist was to try and shoot style in a way that I knew most designers hunted for inspiration."
now widening his scope to encompass fashions in Paris, Milan, Stockholm and London, among other projects Schuman has dabbled with some Ready-to-Wear Paris couture shows via style.com.
i personally adore the ethnicity of culture, individuality and observations of clothes that are really quite beautiful that indicate his selection of photos is inspirational above most else.
not only that, it gives me a well-earned opportunity to get into the grit of European fashions, sans the extravagant and misleading couture shows, which is really our only publicised example of what people are wearing over there.
alas, i stumbled across this little nugget, proving that fashion in general should always be kept in perspective.

crazy adventure

2009-08-24T14:09:00.005+10:00

"My favourite look in old movies is when a man wears a tuxedo out to a party, but he has a crazy adventure, and the next morning his tie is around his neck, and his hair is down. I wish I could look always look like I came from a party all night."

- Jason Schwartzman in the new issue of Self Service

gag me

2009-08-24T12:56:00.011+10:00

i kind of hate myself for liking this. i'm still not sure if I love or hate her - i'm almost convinced that this Lady GaGa persona is soon going to be revealed to be an elaborate art project, and the lady will exclusively tell Perez Hilton that she is actually a dude. or not. the whole thing just feels so contrived. but I do love that she says things like, "You know you're kindred spirits when you both arrive in pastels". i also like that GaGa seems self aware enough to completely take the piss out of herself and interviewers - she told The Guardian, "I used to make my boyfriend dinner in my stilettos, with my underwear on. And he used to be like, 'Baby, you're so sexy!' And I'd be like. 'Have some meatballs.'" when asked what her least favourite food was, she answered, "I'm a pop star. I don't like food at all". she wears some amazing, insane things too; see the metal leotard in the video above, and it's worth hitting up youtube to see the Nasir Mazhar orbit headpiece she wore on Ellen.

encounters

2009-08-24T12:38:00.015+10:00

my morning walk was delightful. the weather is warm, flowery and comforting, and the tide is very high.
this girl thinks there's some magic in the air...

mcqueen

2009-08-20T19:58:00.005+10:00

"People who move in [fashion] circles never have anything to say. You know it's hard enough doing this job, I don't have to fucking live it as well. I'd rather sit at home watching Coronation Street."

Not all fashion circles are wanky - most people are quite nice actually - but I still think this quote from Alexander McQueen is brilliant.

erinnn

2009-08-15T12:34:00.008+10:00

I really can't stand Erin Wasson. Don't get me wrong: she is a hot babe, and I can see the appeal. I'm just a tiny bit sick of bloggers and hipsters ripping off her style and thinking they're so indie and edgy because they're wearing ripped denim and tassels. She can also often sound like a pretentious creep - there was that homeless comment, and then she came out and declared that she'd never sell out. Um, you pout your lips in a freakin' Maybelline ad love: I think that may be damn near close to selling out.

Anyway. What was the point of this post? Oh yes. Usually when I read something about Wasson, I feel like punching my computer screen. But not this time. This are some pictures from an editorial she styled for the new issue of Elle - it references Empire Records, features some young Hollywood talent, and is very cute. And yes, that's Isabel Lucas from Home and Away in the first shot.

hurry up and take the photo!

2009-08-15T11:27:00.012+10:00

bootay

2009-08-15T10:56:00.034+10:00

i don't like winter. it's no secret. i would much rather be toasting in the sun than skiing on the slopes. humidity? bring it on in droves.
the one thing about winter that pulls me out of my gloom is the endless styles of boots. boots are one of those items you can get in any style your heart desires, chuck on and be free. heeled, ankle, ugg, studded, Frye Harness, patent or suede - for me, they're like jeans. but one million times better. i adore my gumboots like they're my children, they make me so happy and the best thing about it is that they're a simple pleasure. most importantly they're warm. and remember: there's nothing more important than being warm...

bat your lashes

2009-08-15T10:27:00.031+10:00

Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes always steals my imagination, and she won’t give it back until i've been completely entranced by her brilliance! Bitch. But truly, she is gorgeous, utterly nuts, and makes wearing things on your head so very stunningly attractive (but it's easy when you're that gorgeous). Her beautiful, ethereal album Fur and Gold is still on high rotate in my stereo, so her new album is on my list of things I must have, called Two Suns. In it, Khan takes on her alter-ego – “a destructive, self-absorbed femme fatale named Pearl”. My absolute favourite shining moments she creates are in Glass, Daniel, Horrorshow, I'm On Fire and What's a Girl To Do.

and so continues the love affair…

well said

2009-08-15T10:04:00.013+10:00

lellow!

2009-08-04T16:33:00.013+10:00

i came along
i wrote a song for you
and all the things you do
and it was called yellow.

- yellow by coldplay -

upto my knees in fabric

2009-08-04T09:45:00.034+10:00

i never really got into the knee-high socks and stockings trend. i had thoughts along those lines and suddenly flashbacks of a flitting teen britney spears and cheerleaders/school girls in general ensued. i envisioned Tokyo tourists doing bunny ears at Darling Harbour. but in light of seeing The Sex and The City Movie...seeing SJP in those ankle boots with her Prada purse, and le gloves? what a heavenly combination! big props Patricia Field. zing! it just seemed so defiantly stylish for her to don them the way she did.

and believing i was Carrie Bradshaw (for the first time since the day before) i went out and bought myself a pair. actually two. exhibit A is a black opaque pair with fine lines that look like dents (see the white pair below), purchased from Sportsgirl. exhibit B is a raunchier black version. they're like the doily type if fishnets were placemats; ending up with them at David Jones from going bananas one afternoon in the stocking section pre-winter was a pleasure (you know what i mean girls, they're all lined up, each differing ever-so-slightly from the next...so what are you doing just standing there?) and they go swimmingly with my white Little Joe silk dress teamed with my black patent heels...but i am yet to wear this ensemble!!!??? it's ok. i like looking at them. but exhibit A i can never look at because they're GONE. i lost them. i've checked/ransacked my room and my drawers like a fat kid searching for mudcake since i discovered this, but nothing. well, a lot of nothing.
so then Prada did their own version last year.

then along came Erin Fetherston.

and all of a sudden they seemed more feminine than those school girls and more classy than those cheerleaders, and made my legs look great, so on the bandwagon i leaped. lovely. but then there's the issue of what type and colour shoes you team them with - too light stockings teamed with too dark shoes with peep-toes makes you look like the heeled edition of the man in the grocery store who unashamedly wears socks with sandals. and this is where i go no siree. but alas, it seems our saviours, the designers of today have found a way around this. just make knee-high SKIN TIGHT boots. and i mean skin tight. they're pretty and chic nonetheless.

today was the launch for the David Jones spring/summer collection and not i, but six unfortunate dressers were lumped with the task of getting a model leg into shrunken Willow suede boots of the knee-high variety. it was stressful to say the least. if her foot was not in 'em by the time models had to line up you would use all your arm strength and vegeMIGHT to literally shove it up in there and zip it AND ever so delicately so you didn't lose skin along the way.
in my adventures at fashion week in april i dressed my model in less life-endangering and extremely swish sequined numbers by Kate Sylvester. they didn't cover the foot, but were simply strapped on under the sole of the shoe, zipped up the leg, and voila! instant glam ma'm.

so from someone who doesn't go out of her way to follow a trend, embrace this one if you really do love it, but go away if you're a school girl or a cheerleader. you lot had your limelight in the '90s, *waves cane in the air*: these ones are reserved for the rockin' ladettes of the noughties.
p.s. i'm lovin' the ones that come above the knee.

top 10: summer daze

2009-08-02T18:58:00.016+10:00

it's the thick of summer.
you're sitting on concrete steps, wearing a tube top and cut-off shorts, eating sunflower seeds and watermelon, drinking iced tea, thinking about how to stick it to your ex.
trés sweaty and trés fabulous.
this is your playlist.

1. Chase That Feeling by Hilltop Hoods
2. Heartbreaker by MSTRKRFT feat. John Legend
3. I'm Good, I'm Gone by Lykke Li
4. The Sweat Descends by Les Savy Fav
5. Fever Dog by Stillwater
6. You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse
7. Starstruck by Santigold
8. Under My Bed by Meiko
9. Once Around The Block by Badly Drawn Boy
10. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa by Vampire Weekend

bang bang you're dead

2009-08-02T16:50:00.024+10:00

girl crush

2009-08-02T16:00:00.017+10:00

can audrey be any less perfect?

bliss at splendour

2009-08-02T15:16:00.010+10:00

the flaming lips. like old chums.

parisian dreams

2009-08-02T12:25:00.022+10:00

hedi slimane photography.
infamous artists. ingenius images.
parisian dreams have never been so sweet.
www.hedislimane.com

careless chap

2009-08-02T12:07:00.013+10:00

jethro. nick cave's bad seed. love or hate?

the queen of defiance

2009-08-01T17:59:00.036+10:00

i love M.I.A., aka. Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. if you don't know who she is then what kind of weirdass rock have you been living under!! listen to her shit. it's underground and epic. it begs universal acclaim. it's not pop. it's 'other'; electronica, dancehall, world, jungle, shoegaze (whatever the hell that is) it's just not pop. i refuse it to be because she goes against what most pop artists believe in. and that's superficiality (ok, i'm generalising here but you get my drift). her opinions are in the categories of political, social and racial mainly surrounding the Sri Lankan civil war (she was born in London but of Sri Lankan, or Singalese, origin).

she makes a habit of speaking up, she has a relevant voice in music for a nice change, and she demands that same right for all people: "The Third World deserves freedom of speech just like everyone else. We want to fight the battle to say what we want, whether to be serious or just make fun of ourselves. Thats what Worldtown is about, that's what Paper Planes is about. It's what people in the third world live through." her plain conviction inspires the same feeling in me, that's what great artists manage to seamlessly do. it's that her songs are airy and bombastic and fantastic - they never fail at making me dance, no, grind, especially in my pjs (oh my god Bingo?!?!?!).

you can't help but admire how she combines real world issues with the music we can shuffle to in any respectable nightclub. and her lyrics are dope - with "Lolita was a man-eater...clocked him like a taxi meter" in 10 Dollar, her candy-filled wit is the music to my ears. the song that takes the cake for me is Bamboo Banga. the chorus lead-up conjures images of Shaft, it is that cool, and then it just goes ridiculously funky and there are eastern back-up singers!!!! i have Sri Lankan pride too you see, my mother is a native. but unfortunately i'm not 'of colour' - my dad's Irish, therefore i burn. good times. thinking back, her sound can't compare with anyone else these days because it is such a social and cultural fusion of sounds and ideas whilst being completely enjoyable and not pole-up-your-ass boring.

on top of her already stellar music career (she writes and produces her own material) she adds photographer and fashion designer as notches in her shiny belt (she practically had a Marc Jacobs line dedicated to her) and i'm in love. she's played at kick-ass festivals such as Coachella, Bue and Summer Sonic and has toured with acts like Roots Manuva and LCD Soundsystem. in an interview last year she stated that she'd "love to write songs like The Last Shadow Puppets or something, or like old Blur songs" - i have no doubt i would buy that album.
but man oh man does she love her fluoro, always she looks like a highlighter in a pencil case full of HB pencils but i guess that's her way, and i must admit she does it tastefully and in a way that screams interesting.

Grammies and Academies for her pure genius, she also won a placing in TIME Magazine's top 100 list of "World's Most Influential People" for having "global influence across many genres" and has earned a spot in this blog as a result. word. she's sexy and has a real sense of humour - isn't that all we ever want? oh, did i mention she's a cancer? the best sign in the zodiac by far.

sweethearts can listen here:
www.myspace.com/mia

the most memorable sentences for me in M.I.A.'s songs:

"Physical, brute force
Steel lion you're the boss
Yeah, you're so do-able
Grind me down sugar, slow"

"Quit bending all my Fingo
Quit beating me like you're a Ringo
You wanna go?
You wanna win a war?"

"Jumpin' girl to girl
Make us meat like burgers
When I get fat
I'll pop me out some leaders"

"Tap, tap that bed to the wall!
Does this look good to ya, mista?
Well you stare like you just saw a film star
Hipper than the average chica
Does it make that heart go quicker?"

xx

hi there

2009-08-01T14:55:00.022+10:00

hi! this is gaia. my name means 'mother earth' in greek. if you find it interesting, thankyou. but it's a label, not a part of who i am. actually, i don't want to get fluffy, and i don't particularly want to get profound. i just want to be and let others take from it what they do. i'm a student of fashion - literally and metaphorically, future freelance editorial stylist, volunteer at fashion magazines/shows/events, assistant to a freelance stylist, and retail assistant. friends, fashion and music are my lifelines and find myself drawing inspiration from them almost daily. so, that's me. for now at least.

my main aim is to inspire. i believe it is one of the greatest powers we have as people, to evoke something - anything, in others and cause them to change in any way, no matter how seemingly insignificant. it is something that we thrive on - what motivates us to live, not just to live, is the meaning in our lives. it opens up worlds we never knew existed - as an effect we explore, learn, think, seek and materialize these things that were once ideas in our minds.

i promise to share with you what's inspiring me in many parts of my life - from the muses and pioneers in fashion, books, music and culture that touch me, to the simple experiences in my life, in the hope that i will inspire a spark in you to do a little something you love and i guess just cause you to think about how you can make everything the greatest it can possibly be. a unique mix of fluffy and profound!

so to christen my blog, spoken by a true lady Froline Maria, here are some words of wisdom:
when the dog bites,
when the bee stings,
when i'm feeling sad,
i simply remember my favourite things,
and then i don't feel so bad!

life should be fun for goodness sake! the young are free. the ardent are happy, so i wish you all the youth and ardency in the world. shazam.
love, gaia
xx