If Vince Noir went to Splendour...


...I believe he would have boots a little something like this:

These were $30 from Target! I had began to despair that I would never find a pair of shoes suitable for a festival that is apparently known as 'Splendour in the Mud'. Not wanting to muddy up my beloved Cons (although I know that is kind of the point of having Converse, to dirty them up!...), I went on the search for the perfect gumboot. After discarding a pink polka dot, leopard print, skulls & roses and red and white floral pair, I was about to despair when I found these beauties!
Sorry for the lack of posts of late, but I have had to go back to uni this week and am about to go to Byron Bay and Melbourne for 10 days! Eee!

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I Want: Sailor Dresses


Yesterday when Boy & I were in the city on the way to the train station, we passed a free jazz event. After having a bit of a dance, we continued on to the train station where there were a bunch of kids a couple of years younger than me all dressed up in flapper style (presumably all heading to the jazz night), with the girls in fringed dresses and feathers in their hair and the boys dressed up in suits and fedoras. As I stood gawping, I noticed that one girl was in the most adorable sailor dress I've ever seen, and this has further fuelled my desire to get one! I MUST! I may have to resort to making one myself, but here are some pictures that are getting me inspired...


(Click pictures for information!)
And also...
One of my favourite photographs ever! It's so lovely!
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Say Anything


Like pretty much every other fashion blogger out there, I too fell in love with Nubby Twiglet's nameplace necklace as soon as I saw it. I was so happy when Gilda posted the link up to Helpless Romantic, who sells them! I have wanted one since (surprise, surprise) Sex and the City, but seeing plethoras of tweenage girls with gold and silver nameplate necklaces (not to mention the cringe-worthy ones that are being sold with things like 'Foxxy' and 'Sexxy' on them - I think I got one that said 'Love' with a Girlfriend magazine when I was about eight) kind of made me a bit wary of looking like just another follower of a Carrie trend.

But these necklaces are more quirky and cute, maybe just because the name comes in different colours and looks more bold? I don't know, but I am so lusting over one of these, and especially in the Helvetica! They look amazing! Although, I am not really a minimalistic type of girl, so I think I would be better off with the cursive. Now the only question is which colour to get? I'm partial to the red, but I think that's only because Miss Twiglet can pull it off so well...

Has anyone got one of the Helpless Romantic necklaces? How do they look?

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What I Wore 24.7.08


This is me listening to the Wombats on my iPod and getting ultra-excited because I'm seeing them next Saturday at Splendour in the Grass!
  • Black top from Target

  • Vest from Valleygirl

  • Jeans from Cotton On

  • Earrings from Diva

  • Bracelet from Sydney (another present from my sister, lucky me!)


This is me practicing my dance to "Let's Dance to Joy Division"! Now I am boogeying off to get some lunch, get some trashy novels to read on my upcoming trip to Melbourne and Sydney, and to get my uni textbooks for the semester! I'm so excited, I'm such a geek when it comes to new textbooks!

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Pac-man!


I saw these yesterday and they were too cute (and inexpensive!) to pass up!


A LITTLE PACMAN AND GHOST ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS. They are eight kinds of adorable.



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Hmm: Maggie Gyllenhaal


Recently I have become quite the fan of the jumpsuit, because a) Gala Darling has been wearing it and looking so svelte and chic on more than one occasion, and because b) it's the type of thing that I would never be able to pull off myself, because I imagine to be able to pull of the jumpsuit you have to be long, lean and with quite an athletic figure, three qualities that I unfortuantly do not possess. However, I have seen a really beautiful one from Fleur Wood that if I could wear (and afford) it, well, I would pretty much never take it off.

So I am a bit perturbed about Maggie Gyllenhaal's choice of jumpsuit at the Dark Knight premiere. Usually I am a big fan of whatever Miss Gyllenhaal wears/stars in/is related to but I'm a bit unimpressed by this jumpsuit... or am I? I really can't decide.

While I admire the fact that she championed the jumpsuit at a red carpet event without sporting a cameltoe, and can do the plunging neckline without showing her ta-tas, it's a bit shapeless, isn't it? And I cannot STAND pants that aren't taken up properly (probably because I live in a family of talented seamstresses).

What do you think? Does Maggie look fabulous or frumpy? Are jumpsuits even flattering on anyone? When will people learn to TAKE UP THEIR PANTS?

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What I Wore 23.7.08


This is what I wore to go to the bank (in the pouring rain, hence the rather downcast expressions) and deal with what I believe I have aptly named "banker wankers", and then to salvage my day by having potato pizza at the best place in the city, Cafe Delizioso:


  • Coat from Dotti

  • Beret from Equip (with very messy caught-in-the-rain hair!)

  • Necklace from Diva

  • Watch from Singapore (a present from Boy's parents!)

This coat is now my new favourite (especially since I got it at half price!), I'm really into navy blue at the moment for some reason. I think I didn't wear it much before because my primary school uniform was navy blue (even though that was AGES ago), and this coat is so lovely and vintage looking. I really love the necklace, I don't usually wear ones with such long chains because they tend to disappear into my cleavage and go all wonky. But I couldn't resist this one:

Hopefully it is less rainy and horrifying looking outside where you are! (Although truth be told, I don't mind the rain too much!)

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Style Icons: Chan Marshall






This post is inspired by my lovely sister, who bought me a Cat Power limited-release record when she was in Sydney recently. Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, is not only a strong, successful woman, but she also has some rather enviable style (as noticed by Mr Lagerfeld himself). I'm not sure I could really pigeonhole her style (though admittedly, "Chanel-like" would not be my first option), but the elements I admire is that she manages to look effortlessly cool while still giving off the I-just-got-out-of-bed-with-guitar-and-cigarette vibe.

With a Bob Dylan shirt (!! Another one of my favourites) and, ahm.. if I'm not mistaken, forgoing the Brazilian, but still look very rock chick.

Although this is from an editorial so not Chan Marshall's personal style directly, I am in LOVE with the jacket in the second picture. And the shirt. And whatever she has on her wrist.

Another could-be-just-thrown-together-but-still-looks-amazing look. I think it has to do with her hair. A straight fringe (or, bangs, depending what side of the ocean you're from) always seems to raise people's style factor by at least a couple of points.


As said in Not Another Teen Movie (...never thought I would quote that here), "Any chick with a guitar is hot." Even while wearing jeans that even Kurt Cobain might shy away from for being too holey.
For Cat Power style:
  • Be outspoken and passionate for what you believe in. Confidence is always sexy.
  • Smudge your eyeliner.
  • Cut a blunt fringe.
  • Learn how to play guitar. (Bonus points for gorgeous husky voice).
  • Blazers and jeans are key for an effortlessly chic look.
If you want more:
To the sea, the sea of love...
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Rockabilly style


I've always been a huge fan of the 50's rockabilly retro look, but for some reason, apart from a few pencil skirts, one pair of seamed stockings and some retro-looking heels, I don't really have any clothes or jewellery that fit into that aesthetic. I was reminded about how much I love the look when I saw a couple on the train to Boy's house. He was wearing a bowling shirt, Buddy Holly glasses, black skinny jeans and a quiff, and she had a heavy fringe, black cropped cardigan, pencil skirt, leopard print stockings and black peep toe heels. I was surreptitiously trying to peek at them through the whole journey and wished that a) my boyfriend and I dressed in the same aesthetic, and b) that I could find leopard print stockings. My love of rockabilly and pinup was also fuelled by the fact that recently, one of my best friends got a tattoo on her inner arm, of one of those old-fashioned swallows that I like to imagine adorn the arms of 50's sailors and the like. Since then, I've had a full-blown obsession with all things retro-pinup-tattoo-inspired, which was fuelled by the discovery of the Etsy shop artallnight:







I love these! 50's tattoo styles without having to go through the pain of getting tattooed! I think that jewellery is an excellent way to acknowledge an aesthetic that you love without necessarily wearing head-to-toe of the look. For me, an extremely messy girl who has a Cory Kennedy approach to hair most days, I don't think I would be able to pull of the polished pinup look; I think the most I could achieve would be the poor man's Dita von Teese. But I could definitely see myself rocking a pair of the devil earrings or the rose necklace with a cute pencil skirt and some perfectly applied red lipstick (the secret of every pinup girl).


If you want more:
Enjoy!
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Disney torture


This may be in direct contradiction to my last post about my newly acquired Paraphernalia necklace, but I am really in love with this magic castle ring from Disney Couture. I know that this range has been out for a while, but I've never been a huuuge fan of wearing Disney-branded clothes, probably because of all the cheesy Tinkerbell shirts that are around and the amount of shrieking, shrill tweenage girls who favour them. I've never really looked twice at the jewellery range, but I can definitely imagine some outfits where this ring would be perfect. I don't think that the whole range is available in Australia, but I've heard that it is available on Miijo.com and 80spurple.com (but I can't find this particular ring on either of these websites! If anyone knows where it's available please let me know!).

When I was looking for stockists of Disney Couture, I came across this Vogue forum where some of the commentors say that some of the jewellery looks like what you would buy from a $2 shop, or looks like something you could buy from Diva and Sportsgirl when it actually costs 3 times that. I have to agree that some of the pieces do look a little tacky and not like they're worth the $30-$40 that you would be paying for them (for example, all of these), but the pieces that are made well are really well done. Here are some more of my favourites:

(Click images for product information.)

On the topic of Disney, a while ago, I read this article about one mother who'd finally had enough of the Disney princess phenomenon being pushed onto her daughter. Although I was a Disney girl through and through, I thought that this article was really interesting, because I guess I'd never thought about just how much the princess theme is forced on little girls. Even if you aren't a fan of the feminist side of the Disney argument, you might be interested to know that according to the University of Maryland, in the early 19th century pink was considered a more masculine colour, because it was seen as a lighter shade of red, and blue more feminine because of its associations with daintiness, constancy and faithfulness. Gin in a Teacup, bringing you useless but interesting information every day.
So what do you think? Is it OK to support such a massive corporation? Is it OK to wear Disney branded items after the age of 13? Is the jewellery tacky or cute, or does it represent a stereotype that women have fought to oppose? Are all these questions making your head hurt and you just want to go back and look at the jewellery? Me too.
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Paraphernalia




I'm so excited! I have been lusting after Paraphernalia necklaces for about six months (after seeing Gala Darling and, more recently, sandypandycandy rock the style) and FINALLY (thanks to an old post on Smaggle Style) I found out that they could be purchased through Etsy! I found them last night and there was one left which I bought this morning!


They have other gorgeous necklaces that I'm guessing sell out pretty quickly so go have a look! Now now now!
Find them here. I would love to get the tooth one for my mum - she's a dentist - but she seemed less than impressed with the idea of me wearing an anatomically correct heart around my neck so I'm not sure she would be totally enamoured with a tooth. But I am planning to buy one of the name necklaces and the typewriter necklace!

Most people seem to either love these necklaces or are a little creeped out by them, which one are you?
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We Can't All Be Carrie Bradshaw, pt #1


Sex and the City: The Movie has either brought you a great deal of joy and many excited squealing over the orgasmic outfits featured in the movie; or a great deal of pain if a) you are a man who was dragged to see it, or b) there are some trends that you wished would just die with the series and not be resurrected ever again. While I did love the movie, it brought back one of the trends that I had laughed at during the series and dreaded the return of.

The corsage.

If you're as obsessed with the show as I am, you'll remember that in season 3 Carrie pimped the hell out of this accessory and designers and chain stores around the world followed suit. I don't mind a cute flower brooch, but Carrie's corsages would take on ridiculous proportions. This was NOT resolved in the movie, in fact the corsage took on Little Shop of Horrors proportions:

Although, yes, Carrie Bradshaw can pull of most things that she wears, in "real life" I doubt anyone could wear this without forgoing the ability to come in close contact with people/eat/move their right arm. However, I admit. I am a fan of the flower and even the corsage has won me over. There are ways of wearing them without looking like a clown, as demonstrated by the painfully stylish people on Facehunter:

Wearing flowers tucked into your hair (or, for extra points, your beret) is a cute way to acknowledge the trend without letting it overpower your look. (But maybe leave the incredibly huge shoes at home - unless you WANT to lounge on the stairs all night.) If you are going to wear your love of corsages on your chest, make sure that it matches the rest of your outfit. Particularly in the third picture, where the red flower matches the red of the belt AND the red of her lipstick, while still complementing the colour scheme of the dress. In the fourth picture I think that the flowers may actually be part of her dress, but it's easy enough to make felt flowers that match a dress you already have. & bonus points to the guy for rocking the trend and pulling it off!

If you want more:

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I'm a freelance writer who blogs about Perth (my old home), Paris (my new home), fashion, food, and everything else that takes my fancy. Have a look around and enjoy!