The Beginning

For those of you who are meeting me for the first time ('nice to meet you' curtsy), I just finished up designing for Aussie cult label One Teaspoon, after a 3 year love affair.
I found this interview from earlier this year, for Sarah from Beginning Boutique, and was happy to realise my point of view has not altered in terms of what I'm into (as it often wanders, in this industry, and I do get rightly obsessed about certain things).
I'm particularly still very passionate when it comes to the fashion plague that is still affecting millions the world over. Crocs.
Tell me you don't agree with my answer below:

3. What is your no. 1 styling tip?

Don't ever wear Crocs. Seriously. Fuck.
(Sarah Beginning Boutique: I'll have to send my mum the memo..)


How cute is Sarah's little comment...in real life, she better have given her mother the memo. As should you guys! (even though I already know, you know better)

To view the full interview

click here

Hope your having a lovely day my little hippie love children
xx

Love Me Do

"I take 1 1 1 'cause you left me
And 2 2 2 for my family
And 3 3 3 for my heartache
And 4 4 4 for my headaches
And 5 5 5 for my lonely
And 6 6 6 for my sorrow
And 7 7 7 for no tomorrow
And 8 8 8 I forget what 8 was for
And 9 9 9 for a lost god
And 10 10 10 10
for everything everything everything everything "


- Kiss Off, Violent Femmes
(this particularly doesn't have anything to do with my post but I effing love singing these lyrics really really loud when I'm excited about something. I'm really excited about heading to Berlin on Saturday. Ef Yah!)


Tyrone Shrives (which I keep pronouncing Shivers...I must like the sound of that better)
Ty was my date to Broadway markets the other day to check out some cute fabric stores, some handle-bar moustaches, some street style, and some serious babes.
He took me to his favorite coffee place (in which we waited for around half an hour for our capuchinos. worth the wait though.), and while I had him I decided it trivial to interview him on the 5 top things a fashion lover has to do when they visit London.


Here are his answers:

1.       Spitalfield Market on a Sunday

2.       Broadway Market on a Saturday (A for the Kiwi coffee shop and B to go and sit in London Fields)

3.       Go to the magazine stall opposite Liberty’s who has the best international fashion magazines in London and then go and sit and drink wine and read them!

4.       Camden passage in Angle and then hit the breakfast club for the best breakfast wrap and coffee ever!

5.       Berwick street in Soho has the most amazing fabric shops like the Cloth House.

So there you have it fellow wanderer's. Skip to it!

xx

The man himself : Ty

Do you think this lady bought this dog at the market?

vintage Mexican hand woven throws? the answer is yes.

 

Coolest couple of the day goes to these two. Cool rocker boyfriend, and hot Asian hippie chick? yes please.

I wore: One Teaspoon shorts, One Teaspoon tee, Vintage lingerie cape, Vintage fur shawl, boots made by me, 

Dior sunglasses,  and you can see in my left hard the wool I bought for my pom poms. 

It came in a cute red and white candy stripe paper bag! Made me fall in love with it even more!

For the love of Pom Pom's

DIY 

pom pom head piece

Now, apparently I seem to be the only unlucky soul to have missed 'how to make a pom pom' lesson in primary school (which, mind you, I was extremely upset about, and would truly love it if some of you missed that class also....so I do not feel like some sort of Primary school badie, who always missed classes and instead chased boys around the play ground in her favorite game of kiss and catch). Actually let me come out of the brackets for a second, as you must know, for the record, I was really effing into primary school. Probably too into it. I wanted to do everything. I did everything. So now you might see why this pom pom matter is very confusing for me. Surely I sat there, at the front of the class, listening to every word and wanting to be the fastest person to finish the exercise? (let it go, let it go).

Ok I'm back.

So anyway, my friend Holly Hipwell (I am mentioning her last name as it is a very primary school thing to do) showed me how to do it not long before I sold up my whole life and moved away (I'm also feeling a little cranky today) and ever since I have wanted to make a headpiece made of HUMUNGOR pom poms. When I went to broadway markets (more coming soon) I found the cutest fabric store with the thickest wool I have ever seen! So, last night, Ladies and gentlemen...I did it.

Here is how:

1. decide on how big you want your little beauties to be and cut 2 X cardboard donuts accordingly.

2. cut off a piece of wool long enough to go around the outer edge of the donut, leave to the side.

3. tie the end of your yarn of wool around the two donuts, so they are pressed together.

4. Slither the seperate piece you cut in step 2 in-between the two donuts, so you can see the ends poking out.

5. wrap your wool round and round and round the donut until there are no gaps.

6. brace yourself, this next part is hard.

7.using sharp scissors, cut in-between the two donuts at the outer edge, making sure non of the wool falls off the donut.

8. pull the two ends of the looped wool (done in step 4.) all the way together and knot.

9. remove from donuts and you have your pom pom! (horray!)

warning : this may take longer than you would expect it to. I reccomend super thick wool, and some super strong patience. Dont give up after 1 like I did and try and make it work. It won't.

photo's of the actual head piece to come...stay posted xx

To Market To Market!

"And they all want to love the cause
'Cause they all need to be the cause
They all want to fuck the cause"

- Cause = Time, Broken Social Scene

I was lucky enough to get an insiders tour of the deliciously amazing Brick Lane and Spitalfield (yes, I googled how to spell it correctly girls!) Jen (styleeast) and Kit (style slicker)met me for some vintage digging and coffee drinking, people watching and people snapping.

This is certainly my kind of nook, and my favorite area in London.

Highlight of the day was Jen nearly getting mauled by a group of super angry anti-fur protesters.

They stood at the door of the epic vintage store Beyond Retro(there was only 1 entrance mind you!), and yelled at people as they walked into the shop.

Jen was wearing a faux fur shrug from H&M and I saw one of them spot her from across the street and whisper to the others.

It was on.

Kit and I stood in front of her, genuinely concerned yelling "it's fake fur, it's FAKE!", but Jen took it in her stride and waltzed straight up there!

I was hesitant and lingered behind, and one of them yelled out "wearing fake supports the industry!", which actually, to her credit, made me think twice about what she had said....

As I followed the others inside, one man at door yelled 'If you buy anything from this store you are supporting what they are doing".

Frightened as F%$K I said back, "i'm not going to buy anything!"....and as soon as those words came out of my mouth I knew I was doomed to find THE most amazing stuff I have ever laid my vintage sleazy eyes upon!

As we walked in we were greeted with a whole rack of vintage fur, and any doubts I had quickly slipped out the window. Kit and I proceed to hug the fur in gratitude (see below), and as a protest right back at them!!!

My rule has always been that if it is vintage, I did not kill an animal....but am I supporting the industry by wearing it?! I would really like to know what you think, because this could actually be a life-changing, style-altering moment right here....and I'm effing FREAKING OUT!

Oh yeh, and there were really cool people and artworks everywhere and it made me very happy, and Kit wore Jeremy Scott sunglasses and I nearly fainted when I saw them.

The end.

Jen wore....vintage dress and brogues

leather from ebay
faux fur shawl H&M

(this was pre-protest attack)

I wore...Jacket: Dsquared

Dress: Jil Sander
Clogs: Michael Kors

Bag: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Kit wore....

Red vintage hat - Christy's London from Beyond Retro
T-shirt - Comic Relief from TK MAXX
Silk scarf - MEXX
Jeans - Levi's
Sunglasses - JEREMY SCOTT
Shoes - KATE KANZIER
Belt - MEXX
Bag - BEYOND RETRO
Leather Jacket - from Hong Kong
Vintage camera - YASHICA FX-3 Super 2000

Yes Please

"Love, love me do.
You know I love you,
I'll always be true,
So please, love me do.
Whoa, love me do.

Someone to love,
Somebody new.
Someone to love,
Someone like you.

Love, love me do.
You know I love you,
I'll always be true,
So please, love me do.
Whoa, love me do."
-Love me Do, The Beatles


Masha Ma.
Oh baby.
Let me tell you a little thing about this London Fashion Week show - It was off the effing hook.
This collection rubbed me up all the right ways last week in their debut show.
Now, as much as there is alot of great newness and epicness and 'heart skipped a beat' awesomeness going on in the fashion industry at the moment....there is also, a whole lot of awful tasteless rubbish...and this show, my friends, was definitely not the later.
I've already got quite a good relationship going with minty blue, and this really took it to the next level.
Mix it with stark white, some silver, and a non-imposing print and we have a bubbling cauldron of deliciousness ready to get truly high off. (a.k.a levitating off the ground from the happiness in the heart etc etc)
There was also one model in there that really stood out....she was all Asian coolness, and pouty lips and had a kind of 'i'm really quite cranky' in a very cute way, expression going on.
The collection all made perfect sense, and the beauty of it was almost mathematical.
You know it's going to be killer when the models do their final walk and each outfit flows into the next, rather than individual pieces really sticking out.
I (as you may already noticed) am their new biggest fan.
Thanks to Shini Park (Park&Cube) for the ticket (you little effing legend) and thank you Masha Ma  for making my day.

More More More

"Eyeless in the morning sun you were
pale and mild, a modern girl
taken with thought, still prone to care
makin tea in your underwear
you went out in the yard to find
something to eat and clear your mind
something bad inside me went away"
- Those to come, The Shins

 After reminissing about my home the other day with the shots of Angus and Julia Stone, I remembered another shoot we did there, for the epic webiste weartogetit.
It was a profile on me, designing, and favorite hang's.
I love the photography, and it really captures the strangeness and epicness of my den.
Word of warning: I had pink hair. It didn't suit me. It lastest a week. I promise I won't do it again. (until I feel like it mwahahaha!)

Vintage beaded dress from my favorite sneaky antique store in the Northern Beaches

To check it on out,

click here

dare.
you.

Take me with you

"Broken down kitchen at the top of the stairs
Can I mix in with your affairs?
Share a smoke, Make a joke
Grasp and reach for a leg of hope
Words to memorize, words hypnotize
Words make my mouth exercise.
Words all fail the magic prize
Nothing I can say when I'm in your thighs"


-Add it Up, Viotent Femmes


Introducing Giles and Maddy.
As soon as I saw a photo of Maddy I knew I wanted to do a shoot with her. She has these crazy amazing eyes, and an almost uncanny Jennifer Connelly look ('circa the Labryinth with David Bowie. One of my most favorite films).
My friend (photographer) Elle Green had been dying to do a shoot of Giles, and I had agreed to style it for her.
Last minute we were both like..."shall we throw a chick in the mix or what?!" and boom. here we are.
I love how this shoot turned out, with a 'real school girl dates older guy' vibe. Suggestive and a little naughty.
(yes yes I really AM into the whole high school thing arn't I? well, don't pretend you arn't too. Looking at these two is bound to up the temperature).
Just picture him, picking her up from school and driving her home, blasting old school rock n' roll. They would pull up a block too early and climb into the back seat. He would give her her first drag on a cigarette, then kiss her forehead when she coughs it right back up.
Innocence.
You were all there once, so go on, re-live it a little with this shoot.
Enjoy.
Special thanks to George from Ksubi for the get-up.

Maddy wears: One Teaspoon shirt, Ksubi tee, Tiffany&Co bracelet, One Teaspoon cuff, Tiffany&Co ring, large ring from a vintage safari store in Manila.
Giles wears: Ksubi Singlet, Ksubi 'Amercian Flag' jeans, Ksubi boots.

Wanna skip school with me?

"In the morning through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulder blade
I could see what you were reading

Oh the glory that the lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth"

-Sufjan Stevens, Casimir Pulaski Day

Each day walking to work, I can't help but notice the group's of private school boys and girls look to be a whole lot older than I remember being in my senior year.
This year, I have been out of high school for 5 whole effin' years, so you can imagine I feel like I should be a heck of a lot older than these teen's...
They don't look eighteen. Is eighteen the new 25? If 50 is the new 40? holy heck, how can you possibly tell anyone's age these days! Usually the preppy uniform is a dead give-away, but it feels alot more like a Ralph Lauren campaign. Obviously the adolescent's catching my eye are rediculously good looking, and watching them each morning making out with their their private school girlfriends in the park and behind corner's has got me in the mood.
I'm prepping it up.
Wanna skip school with me?

Sweater vest : vintage from 10ft single, Williamsburg Brooklyn, Skirt: American Apparel, Laptop case: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Marker Pens : Collaboration between Sharpie and Marc Jacobs

Shirt: Dizzie Hong Kong, Bow Tie: Topshop man, Lipstick: Tom Ford Ginger Fawn (epic name), Journals : Moleskin 2pack

Oh Manolo!

"Bad kids all my friends are bad kids
product of no dad kids
kids like you and me

Bad kids aint no college grad kids
livin life out on the skids
kids like you and me"

-Bad Kids, Black Lips

Last week I attended the opening of Manolo Blahnik's collection in Liberty (thanks to Natalie and SLAM PR xx).
It was a super private party with only around 30 of us, sipping on delicious cocktails, chatting, and all avoiding the awkwardness of eating the fish and chips out of up side down cones.
(well, that's why I didn't eat it, but I presume their were a few less healthy thoughts circulating the space)!
We were then privileged enough to hear Manolo give a talk about his love for film, (which was born, and has developed, from not being able to sleep at night. He stated, "Since I don't sleep, I choose to do other things with my time". A statement in which I will ALWAYS remember.) He truly is an encyclopedia full of film knowledge. It was incredible to hear him speak. 
Best dressed goes to Manolo's neice Kristia, who wore a design by her friend Antonio Berardi(who also attended, you would know him best as designing the crazy boots with no heel that Victoria Beckham released on the world!) She honestly looked like a fashion illustration. Incredible long limbs, and she just naturally made geometrical shapes with her body as she glided through the room. It was hard not to stare.
When we left, I looked inside my Liberty tote gift bag to find a signed copy of a Manolo Blahnik illustration book, with sketches of some of his most famous design's.
I felt four years old again, and nearly made the cab grow wings and fly off the street with all the happiness jumping out of my heart (kind of like the flying car in Harry Potter.p.s I actually had to download and watch Harry Potter the other day because being in London is just too much of a tease....I'm still searching for Diagon Alley, I'll keep you posted)

Me and the main man himself

Left, I wore top: Laugh Cry Repeat, vintage fur collar found in Bird-In-Hand Antiques Pennsylvania
Right: Bianca Jagger and Manolo Blahnik

Kristina Blahnik, Antonio Berardi. Right: Lara Bohinc

Home Sweet Home

"Girls !
We are not crazy
We're not afraid of you grown-ups
We'll go ask the queen of this kingdom
If you won't let us play with screws and hammers

Boys !
We are not shady
We are not afraid of you adults
We'll go talk to the king of this kingdom
If you won't let us play with dolls"
- Playground Hussle, The Do


I'm missing home today. I love my house. I'm so lucky.
It's an old, tucked away beach shack with pastel mint walls, a view of the ocean, and a super sunny balcony with cock-a-too's galore!
So I thought I'd share a shoot that friend's of mine, Angus and Julia Stone did there.
I did some styling for Julia, but it was more like she would come over and play in my styling room, and we would have a tea party and swap vintage treasures.
They are embarking on a European tour at the moment, following the sold out Australian tour they have just completed.
I can't wait to see them rock Berlin, and hopefully do some more vintage clothes swapping.

(bring your Sunday finest Julia! and don't forget my bright orange maxi cape dress with the sunflowers! I'll put the kettle on!)
Photography : Henry K
Featured Knome : Borris

Can I grab your deet's?

"Of all the intersecting lines in the sand
I routed a labyrinth to your lap
and never used a map sliding off the land
On an incidental tide,
And along the way you know, they tried
They tried

But we got sea legs
And we're off tonight
They can't have that to which they've no right
You belong to a simpler time
I'm a victim to the impact of these words,
And this rhyme."
-Sea Legs, The Shins
 

Effin HECK.
Ladies and Gentlemen, if you will all please be seated I have an announcement.
(warning: local Londoner's, the below excitement may be perhaps non-inspirational to your knowledgeable, and extremely lucky minds)
I have discovered the glory, the beauty, the heart stopping sky rocketing kind of store that I never thought I would encounter outside of the delicious fashion hideaway's in Hong Kong.
I have discovered..... 'T*K Max' (don't stop reading! I know it is the lamest sounding name you have ever heard, and you probably have an image of a cereal box cartoon action hero in your imagination right about now, but wait, it's not!)
It is a chain store that stocks designer samples and old season stock, mixed with vintage (and a whole lot of other non-sense that is quite irrelevant). 


I walked in and staring right at me was an Emilio Pucci jacket that was greater than any jacket I had seen in a while. Geometric madness and a subtle bell sleeve. Next was a Dolce & Gabbana bright orange mini dress, followed by a lime green Calvin Klein jersey slip...by this point I already had that 'about the levitate off the floor' kind of happiness in my heart, so I really jumped on the bright Geometric band wagon.
I'm a firm believer that bright coloured geometrics are actually 'classic', and it's not about whether they are 'on-trend' (whatever the f$%k that means anyway) it's all about being in the mood for them.
And then it happened...I discovered my new favorite brand. Amoungst all the racks, everything I picked up continued to be from the same label. There was some serious flirting going on. 
Introducing...Manoush.
The designer is inspired by gypsy's, Morrocco, lux fabrics and crazy amounts of details. We, are a match made in effin heaven. Look it up. Right. Now. You may have to sift through some middle aged women daginess, but in the collections are treasures any kind of gypsy would skip a heart beat about.
(oh my gosh I have so much to effin tell you guys right now! but i'll resist)
It's all in the detail. Being a designer, I know the cost and super hard work every single individual detail takes to achieve, so when garments are packed full of them, I almost bow down in honor....
I cannot meet clothes like this and not give them a home, so I therefore probably cannot go into this store for the rest of my trip. One time did enough damage, but lucky for me, I have some new lovers hanging in my closet.
Oh la la.

There's a part of me that desires to wear this kind of vibe everyday.

Left to right : Manoush Cape, Manoush beaded vest, Pucci Jacket, Pucci Dress

Matching Manoush vest and skirt : anything printed that is matching? worn together...the only way to wear it.

The Emilio Pucci Jacket ( with my Marc Jacobs tee and Bassike Jeans)