HEJ! It's clog-o'clock

Jeepers Creepers! Time check - 2:14am. Melissa Sarah has work in less than 6 hours. You would expect I would be hugging the fragile shell of slumberland, ready to wake to birdsong and for cute bunny rabbits to make me eggs benedict and help me put on my powder blue negligee.

Negatory. Probably like the sad individual in the news this week who is being treated for smart phone addiction, the billowing gaze of ghastly white phone screen glare is caressing my face like a cheap balaclava.

It's a genuinely rare occasion that I even make it past 9pm without being seduced by the sandman but this occurence stood out for all the wrong reasons.

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Oh the horror!

Was this really appropriate instagram etiquette? Should there even be a worry over instagram etiquette? Either way, with semantics aside, I have altogether been denied access by the technological robot gods for (quote from 16-year-old brother) "Being an internet stalker freak". Well excuse me Libby Chessler.

I may be spending a nauseating amount of tick-tocks by being extremely rude in peoples company, scrawling through gif after gif of cats and breakfasts but it's all to feed my addiction, not to instagram or smartphones, but to swedish style. Why do the swedish girls seem to be outdressing the globe!

Stockholm and Gothenburg as travel destinations are seeming dreamier and dreamier as the days roll on and Scandanavian style is always something I looked to for adaptable summer looks, without losing your essence and taste, come rain, shine, or rain, or rain again, and rain...

There's something very adorably Suzy Bishop about their dainty collars, innocent 60's prints and coquettish berets.

Circa days of 2007/2008 when I first grew a penchant for blog browsing, I was always more inclined to delve into Scandanavian blogs like the beautiful Sandra from Niotillfem or Alice Point.

Since then, H&M has come all Beyonce over us and high street brands such as Monki & the sought after Orjan Anderson & Adam Friberg creation, Cheap Monday, have made us Brits prick our ears up like clog fancying meerkats. AND BEYOND RETRO! My word!

Brands like Weekday and Acne have only strengthened fascinations, with collaborations with Antwerp graduate Mariel Manuel for Weekday. Scrummy mermaid musings. I want to be a mermaid!
In terms of design graduates, alongside St Martins, I think Antwerp Royal Academy Of Art squeezes the best of fashion grads like Mariel, Matthieu Thouvenat & Cedric Jacquemyn. Their graduate show this year was stunning.

DD: Do you have a type of person in mind when you are designing?

Mariel Manuel: I love women from David Lynch's movies and they always inspire me. I like to work with his feeling of displacement, of people that are not in the exact right setting

-Dazed & Confused

My appreciation is seeming to stem from my love for the more trend-escaping, pure & small intricate details that make life what it is. I love breathing in and getting foolishly giddy over the smaller things in life, and the instragram users I love so from Scandinavia seem to be of the same ilke, not just in fashion terms. No one can underestimate the power of coloured hoisery & t-bar's to drop you back to princess-like innocence. Theirs an element of me feeling like they are ahead of a fashion timeline that no other have hit yet!

So here are a few (to myself) inspiring pictorals from my favourite instagrammers who keep making me want to keep upping my game!

VIA @carolinbrigelius

VIA @johannanyberg



I'm a wee bit obsessed with acquiring some Swedish Hasbeen's . The closest store for these scrumptious yodelling cuties is in York.

                                                      

Who Is Minju Kim?

What's a Minju Kim? Do I need one? Is it a form of bum-bag?
All became structured and candy pink when the Antwerp based Korean designer shone through to win the H&M Design Award this fine day. With Lady Leith Clark & Mister Jonathon Saunders aiding in judging and a chilly Stockholm silhouette, it became a moment in time that could easily redefine the hazy world of designer - high street collaborations. Echoing some notions of architectural & Japanese influences seen at Rodarte, Balmain & Balenciaga SS 13, the breathtaking twists of the bubblegum colour palate, contrasting textures and some seriously skyscraper sterdy laser cut shapes, put Kim on a enviable road of gush from editor's and commentators alike.

With the collection entitled "Dear My Friends" upon which was inspired by Japanese anime horror writer Junji, and Kim's focus on Happy, Brave, Love, provoked warm and stunned feelings amongst people present, focussing on the endearing sherbet-like palette of candy pinks, sky blues and egg yolk yellows AND all the pieces were handmade. In terms of quality of structured arms and shoulders, it definately seems a corner has been turned in avoidance of perhaps unflattering cuts. With boosts in design technology over the past couple of seasons, even people with a low budget can get access to a well designed and sculpted architectural corker. Resembling Japanese bush fighters, adorning haunting animal based headwear, Japanese illustrated leather battle plates and candy floss collars it's no wonder Leith Clark was quoted as saying "The moment I saw the collection I knew I would have it photographed", which may be the most comendable compliment a collection could achieve at such a level. Even some of Kim's previous collection have kept in tune with a similar twisted innocent colour palatte which I think will be super dreamy for the H&M Minju Kim collaboration capsule collection that will be in many a moon away, predicted A/W 2013. I think I'm a real sucker for playful yet edgy collections that offers the eye something different and get people talking. Serious shoe envy also with the statement Japansese illustrated, lace tied shoes that had a rebellious schoolgirl charm that I'm forever falling hook line and sinker for. I'm really in anticipation for this collaboration, after been in parts underwhelmed by collaborations with more well known designers and high street brands.

It's easy to get a genuine grasp of the feel of the show, that Kim followed her designer's heart and believed in her own ability to redefine a silhouette, redefine a concept and redefine what it means to have fun with your fashion. The delicate workmanship that goes into handmaking each individual look, and by gum they were individual, isn't even comprehendable. Volumes were curved, the texture contrasts were out of this world and there was even a little good old gingham thrown in for decent measure. There was PVC, metallics, fur, tassles, sweetheart necklines, pleats, very gutsy. If H&M can get this attempt at upping their high fashion quoitent, which hasn't been as successful as some may have hoped in previous attempts, right, it could really add some excitement back into accessible high-street stores and make more creative souls accessible to those in appreciation of purposeful, diverse and skillfull works of winning worthy garment art. If the capsule collection can evoke such an instant gratification to the pleasure of the eye like the original collection, surely it will sell it in a flash, and I will once more be left weeping in crave for Japanese bear fighting headwear.