Thursday 28 November 2013

Highschool Hellcats

What do you get when you put a young Johnny Depp, a young-ish Iggy Pop and a bunch of fabulously dressed Rockabilly teenagers in one movie?

Crybaby, that's what.

This 90's film was originally panned by the critics, however thanks to the tongue-in-cheek humour (and J.D smouldering in the lead role didn't hurt either) it quickly gained a huge cult following.

Traci Lords plays resident hottie Wanda, who is always seen in tight dresses, short blunt fringe and striking red lips, making her the epitome of 50's pin-up style.


And then there's Johnny Depp..... Ahhh Johnny. I'm a sucker for a Greaser at the best of times, with those turned up blue jeans, leather jackets and slicked back hair, so for me this is his greatest role (his acting is also good blah blah and he sings in it as well blah). Just stare into those puppy dog eyes, you can't help but fall in love with him.


Anyway, back to the movie. If you're looking for influence on how to dress like the coolest sub-culture in the 1950's and love films that don't take themselves seriously in the slightest, this is the film for you.
And look out for Iggy Pop in the role of Crybaby's Uncle Belvedere. It's amazing.


love you and leave you





Friday 22 November 2013

Crazy, Sexy, Cool

TLC consists of Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins, Lisa 'Left-Eye' Lopes and Rozanda 'Chilli' Thomas and together these three changed the face of RnB while wearing some of the greatest get ups ever to grace pop culture.

I recently watched the VH1 film about the band 'Crazy, Sexy, Cool: The TLC Story', and while I did spend a good 30 minutes afterwards tearing up over Left-Eye's untimely death, it also got me thinking how amazing these three dressed.

Completely taking the R&B world by storm (there had not been an all girl RnB/Hip Hop group before them), they stormed the stage wearing everything from matching paint splattered overalls to space age suits as seen in the famous No Scrubs video. One of my favourite ever TLC periods was in the early days of the group when Left-Eye, sticking to her nickname, wore a condom as an eyepatch over her left eye. GENIUS.






Animal Instinct

When I start getting annoyed at an overload of uni work, I remember that I could be studying something that completely un-interests me, so I'm extremely grateful that my coursework this year involved creating a fashion spread for our very own Stage 2 magazine.

Wanting to do something different from the typical fashion shoot, my groups concept for the shoot was Fur, Feather and Scales which was more of a beauty spread focusing on make-up styles for multiple animals. I've popped some of my favourite images below - credit to my fellow group members Sammy Clark (blog here) and Grace Arthur (blog here), photographer Rowena Winram and our amazing MUA Stephanie Milne.


POLAR BEAR

 RAVEN

 RAVEN

 SNAKE

 WOLF


love you and leave you





Friday 15 November 2013

Pink Lady

"I'll stop wearing black when they invent a darker colour" - pretty much my style motto, it's a very rare occasion when you'll see me wearing anything bright.

And then the pink coat trend started. Here I was innocently flicking through all my magazines when up popped one pink coat, then another, and then all of a sudden hundreds kept creeping up. And I caved and I hated myself for it. As ashamed as I was for buying a coat that everyone and their grannies will have, I do not regret it one bit. This baby can be dressed down with my trusty scaffy converse, or brightening up a LBD on a dark winter night out.

This cosy little New Look number was bought through ASOS and cost £64.99, buy it here 
 
 

love you and leave you
 
 

Thursday 14 November 2013

Moon Child

Now don't get me wrong here, I love British fashion as much as the next patriot. However, I'm ridiculously envious of the USA and the amount of amazing boutiques they have, especially one I've come across online - Planet Blue. This website is full of different brands that follow the same Californian cool, boho vibe that will make you wish you lived in a beach hut and meditated.
As an extremely stereotypical Aberdonian I hate spending too much money, so I rarely venture outside of UK shores for online shopping (except for that Hollister phase a years ago when they didn't have a Scottish store and I spent a good £30 on shipping from America, I'm ashamed of myself to this day). However, I've been scrolling through Planet Blue's website all night in pain looking at all of the laid-back, hippie dresses and kimonos they have to offer and since it's Christmas coming up, this is a perfect excuse to sook up to my parents and get them to buy me them.

I've picked some of my favourite pieces that I'll be adding to my Santa List (yes my mum still makes me write one) -

for love and lemons' dress
 

for love and lemons' dress

 
blue life sofia top

blu moon high low dress
 
Click here to go straight to Planet Blue's online store, sorry in advance for the heartache it will cause.
 
love you and leave you
 
 
 


Thursday 7 November 2013

Heart of Glass

Half punk icon, half disco darling, Debbie Harry epitomized the 1970's.

I've been obsessed with the bleach blonde bombshell ever since I discovered that she started her career trying to make contacts working as a Playboy Bunny in New York and that pre-Blondie she was in a folk band called 'The Wind in the Willows'.

Everything about her screamed effortlessly cool, and to pop in a cliche, every girl wanted to be her and, with those feline features, every boy wanted to date her.
I was lucky enough to see the lady herself at T in the Park (bear in mind halfway through Call Me the lovely Scottish sunshine decided to part and make way for hailstones so we escaped to the nearest tent, sorry Debbie!) But that 5 minutes that I saw of her was everything I'd ever imagined, and even growing gracefully at 68, she's still the coolest cat in punk.

                                    

 
love you and leave you
 
 




 

 

Friday 1 November 2013

All Hallows' Eve

Move aside Christmas, Halloween is without a doubt my favourite day of the year so I'm in mourning now that it's passed.
My mum is a bit of a Halloween scrooge and doesn't let me put up decorations (aside from a few skull candles) because in her words it will "attract the annoying Trick or Treaters and they'll steal our food", so yesterday I had to keep the Halloween spirit up by watching Scream 1,2 and 3 and munching on snack size Crunchies. (side note: Crunchies are the most underrated sweet ever).

I was a bit of a loner at school (sob) so I never really had good plans regarding Halloween costumes. However this year I was determined to be something good, and what's better than being Hannah Montana brutally murdered by Miley Cyrus herself? I planned on using liquid latex to create my slit neck, but I was really fooling myself because I'm far too impatient and messy for that. So I found these amazing fake tattoos on amazon which only cost £3.25 and looked genuinely realistic, I'm so in love that I didn't want to scrub them off this morning but then remembered I had work and my boss wouldn't love them as much as I do.

Anyway, only 364 days until next Halloween people!

 

 
Temporary tattoo's (5 sheets) - £3.25 found here
 
 
love you and leave you
 
 


Sunday 27 October 2013

Turn Me To Stone

Can we all please take a moment to appreciate the gloriousness of Damien Hirst's GQ cover?


1) You can never go wrong with Rihanna, a bonafide Goddess in my books
2) I have an obsession with snakes so you can see why this shoot got me all giddy
3) RiRi is channelling the one and only Medusa, the baddest babe in Greek Mythology. I mean the woman has hair of SNAKES and could turn people to stone just by looking at them, enough said.

The issue hits the stands on October 31st, on which I will be grabbing my copy from my local Co-Op and I couldn't care less if the old ladies buying their bread and milk stare at me because this shoot is simply perfection.

 

 
love you and leave you
 
 

Thursday 24 October 2013

Anarchy in the U.K

In the flare-wearing, platformed world of 1970's Britain, The Sex Pistols completely changed the way teenagers dressed and, with a little help from Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, have managed to create a style that crops up every few seasons to this day.

One stand out character from the punk invasion was Nancy Spungen, the brassy American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. I became obsessed with their volatile relationship after reading about their tragic deaths (Nancy was brutally murdered, and Vicious was the main suspect before he himself died of a heroin overdose) and even more obsessed with Nancy's radical style.

Nancy was the quintessential punk poster girl, rarely seen without some leather, leopard print, studs or ripped tights and with a head of bleach blonde hair.

 
 
 
One go-to place where you'll be guaranteed some edgy, tough items to become a 2013 version of Nancy is of course Topshop, and I've picked out some of my favourite pieces that's due to put the fear of God into people.






 
all images courtesy of Topshop



love you and leave you






 

Thursday 17 October 2013

Welcome to the Oasis


Outsider
noun
  • a person who is not accepted by or who isolates themselves from society
I believe that the fashion industry is fuelled by the rise of the outsiders, those kids that rebelled against the clothes that society told them they should be wearing, wore what they wanted to and were gawped at by people in the street for doing so. 
 
Fashion would be stuck in it's own style rut if people didn't come along and shake it up a little bit. Where would our wardrobes be without the Greasers of the 1950s popularising the leather jacket, or the free spirited 1960s hippies giving us kaftans and maxi skirts? The rise of the punks in the 70s gave us rebellious music (The Sex Pistols, The Clash) and even more rebellious dress sense. Kurt Cobain led the 1990 grunge kids clad in their plaid shirts to take over mainstream fashion, with grunge-styled editorials quickly appearing in the top fashion bibles (think Vogue's 1992 'Grunge & Glory' shot by Steven Meisel and featuring glamour puss Naomi Campbell). All outsiders, all unbelievably influential in the way we dress today.
 
This blog will focus on the icons that broke the mould and the new designs and editorials that celebrate said icons. I'll also be throwing in some of my own outfits and posts about my life for good measure, that being said it will mostly be something to do with cats, or Harry Potter.
 
 
Love you and leave you,