Giles Fall 2011 Ready To Wear

Alexander Wang Fall 2011 Ready To Wear

Stairway to heaven.

As time goes by, more and more of my friends are moving out and getting their own place. Renovated studio apartments, new town house developments, ground floor flats, the lists are endless. 

Whereas my living situation is split between a ground floor bedroom with en-suite at my parents and now a small 5 bed student house with my friends. Neither are quite the same as having your own bit of property, so it's nice to daydream every so often!!

 I love the stark white walls, the metal spiral staircase, the sloping ceiling, the view, the black front door, I could go on!!

A girl can't help but dream!!

Curious and Curiouser.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland)

Fish Fingers, Fish Tank, Fish.......bags, shoes and purses???

I saw Kill it, Cut it, Use it on bbc 3 yesterday, and it highlighted the growing popularity for the use of fish leather in fashion. Most people's ininitial reaction is most likely the same as mine. WTF....FISH LEATHER. How is that even possible!!!!???

The programme explored the process in which the fish are caught, mainly salmon, then filleted, skinned and then the lengthy task of turning the delicate skin into strong and durable leather. It was fascinating to see the transformation that occurred at the end of the 'tanning' process. When the public were approached with garments made from the fish leather and asked to guess what material they were made from, they all guessed snake and croc.

 Im not a vegetarian or an animal activist. I have more leather coats than is necessary and I love sushi and steak, but at the same time I care about the environment, I feel strongly about the conservation of our planet that is rapidly being destroyed and I wont buy anything with palm oil in due to the effect that it has on our ever diminishing rain forest (this includes sun pat peanut butter and palmers cocoa butter). so I believe I can look at this topic from an equal point of view. But I think that to be able to use fish leather in mass produced fashion is an amazing concept.

I understand that fish outnumber snakes and crocodiles so with regards to the use of their skins in fashion, from a conservation point of view it makes sense to use fish leather, as well as the fact that then the meat can be sold for human consumption and the bones and entrails then go to be turned into pet food. It makes sense to source the skins from an animal that can then entirely be used in one industry or another.

Catch Kill it, Cut it, Use it on BBC iPlayer, and make up your own mind on this topic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012c0xn/Kill_It_Cut_It_Use_It_Fish/

Moss regains her title as Britain's most stylish Kate.

He may not be fashion's number one at the moment, But John Galliano didn't let controversy over his personal life effect creating the perfect wedding dress for his muse, who married husband Jamie Hince in a low key ceremony in Gloucestershire on Monday.

lets fly away...

The feeling of lying flat on my back, the soft sand dipping underneath me. Running both fingers and toes in the sand at the end and sides of my towel. The pink illuminations of the insides of my eyelids. The scent of warm coconut oil in the sea breeze. Licking my lips and having the salty taste of sea air lingering on my tongue. Swigs of a bottle of warm water, with a slightly gritty cap. Tight crispy nose at the end of the day. pink warm skin at the bar, with cocktail in hand. This is why I love summer holidays.

New York in January and sports tour to Salou in April was just not enough to feed my addiction of summer lovin'. I've been home 24 hours and i'm literally craving not just a holiday, but an adventure (and a tan!). My problem is that my potential travelling companions come into two categories, those that are poor students, or those that are coupled up. The poor students have no cash so apparently no holidays for them at the moment, and those with cash (or their significant others cash) are doing the couples, or groups of couples holidays. Is it sad to go away on my own?? Im contemplating it as i'm just desperate to get away and into some sun.

xxx

Irena Werning: Back To The Future

With the use of her camera, Irina Wering invited people to go back to their future and recreate childhood snapshots.

Bongo

A very good friend of mine, Emma. Known better to her friends as Umbongo, Bongo or Bong. Has just come to an end of her 3 years at Nottingham trent, where she has been studying Graphic Design. Today the ridiculously talented blonde 21 year old, found out that she will be graduating with a First!! 

People joke that we are twins, I mean we even joke about being twins. But the reality of the situation is that she is clearly the more talented of the two of us!! I love her style of youthful illustrations and typography.

Here are just a few examples of why she has just been awarded the best grades possible for her degree!!

Check out her work at www.emmawellsdesign.co.uk

or her blog www.emmawells.tumblr.com

<3 you bongo xxx

Andy.

I'm back home for a few days before going back to Nottingham to pack up my junk before returning home for the summer. So this morning I woke up early and decided to head down to Southampton to the City Art Gallery before the closure of the Andy Warhol exhibition that has been there since the end of March.

I have seen Warhol's most famous pieces of work at places such as Moma and the Tate, but in such a small gallery such as this one in Southampton, I was interested to see what was on offer. My fingers were crossed for some of his really early illustration work as I've looked into some of it recently and really loved what I had seen.

One room in the gallery was filled with advertisements and posters made by Warhol, and this was by far my most favourite room. I especially liked the poster designed to look like a cinema ticket, advertising the 5th New York film festival. You can see it in the top corner of the bottom image!!

Its a free exhibition with some of Warhol's amazing, but less renowned work so definitely worth a visit for any art enthusiast. 

xxx

It was my own fault

Alyssa Monks.

Alyssa Monks is one seriously talented woman. At a first glance it looks like photography but on some serious inspection you realise that they are in fact paintings. I know how difficult it is to make water come to life when painting, but by adding the element of H2o into loads of her work is just showing how amazingly skilled she is as an artist. 

Check out more of her work at www.alyssamonks.com

RIP Jeff Conaway

You're lovely,
I'm lonely.
Are you ever going to sort your life out?

New York, New York. So good they named it twice

I've finished my 1st year of uni. But i'm not going home for another month as theres still social events to attend in Nottingham!! To fill my time and stop me spending money I've been re-visiting my 4 fave single gals for the millionth time. Watching repeats of Sex and the City not only reminds me of how much I love the characters, the outfits and the girl's various relationships, but how much I love New York.

I've crossed the Atlantic to the Big Apple 3 times. My first visit was in the hazy summer of 2007, the dollar was at 2.1 to every pound and I felt like a millionaire. Yes, I got some incredible bargains!! I brought back more Mac and Marc Jacobs than is even worth thinking about!

It was this summer I was encapsulated by the magic of New York and realised that to me it is one of the most amazing places in the world. One thing I really got from this trip was how proud New Yorkers are of their city. I remember seeing a homeless man sat outside McDonalds in Time Square, In a Yankees cap and  an 'I heart NY' t-shirt and just feeling that although he has no shelter, New York is his home. I Returned a week later all spent up and with an addiction to a truly unbelievable city.

Oh, to be Carrie Bradshaw!

Final Samantha Pleet images from shoot

Emma, how is it possible that one person can be so beautiful???!

I Finally got me some Liberty kicks

After one of the more shitty weeks, I put a smile on my face with a fresh new pair of Nike's!!

Also managed to convince Shannon to buy the floral ones too! 

Samantha Pleet.

3 Polaroids from my photo shoot yesterday at Woolaton Hall.

Help from the US!

If you are an American viewing my blog, please help out with my university project and answer my questionnaire!!

Click here to take survey

That Bitch Has Everything

A recent project that i've had to do was a photographic brief, which ended up in me spending hours perving over Amber Rose....she truly is daaaaammm haaawwtt in every way possible. This is a page from the photographic brief, just demonstrating how fit she is!