Say Brie!

In previous posts I've uttered about how much I love glancing over pictorals of grandparents and how influential it is to my attitudes and fashion attitudes. There's nothing love more than a Sunday morning going through boxes of physical photographs, working out who people are, where they may be now, and more, being in total admiration for how inspirationally beautiful and happy everyone in the photographs are. Along with watching Amelie recently, I've the thoughts in the my head of how adorably intimate the act of photoboothing is. Just you, the camera and the curtain. Being able to date photographs, observing the trends of the time, enjoying the simplicity and getting that fuzzy and warm gooey feeling. 

So many stories, so many great hair styles, so many great shaped lapels, so many great shaped spectacles. Fashion trends are all just layers and layers of years of ideas rehashed and layered again like a yummy Victoria sponge, a bleedin big one, which is exactely how I like them. Everything eventually comes and goes, even life comes and goes but the memories will always inspire the future generations. I off to get some 40's pin curls! 

Old Lady Book Club Sundays

Ode to the Sabbath. I'm writing this blog post from the fireside in the riveting company of cable knit socks, Sunday lentil soup, tea filled crockery and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 

Sunday, you are constantly underrated, mostly due to usual fragile alcohol fuelled noggins or uninspiring lulls of dreading the Monday blues. This isn't just a blog post, this is a intervention. It's time to change the opinions of the Sunday smackers and inspire the none believers to embrace Sundays like a soft kitten. Being Saturdays hairy mole is never an easy feat but with some imagination, reading material and perhaps a poached egg, my very own cosy old lady book club Sunday has grown into Saturdays Chanel SS hula hoop inspired bag (hello quarter life crisis). 

My current hibernation venue is around the size of a matchbox, is a gawdy shade of brother's choice of blue and has the storage space enough for Polly Pocket but aside from this I'm putting my cosy interior arranging fedora on and attempting at making it pretty with my tea rooms worthy crockery, car boot sale trawled house shaped teapots and porcelain cats (hello quarter life crisis x2). 

I hope I can look back at the end of 2013 and see how adorably organised I got this year with the help of my newly acquired Frankie Diary via the beautiful people behind the adorable must-read Frankie Magazine 

I can't stop flicking through the purdy illustrations

Definitely just made acquaintances with my daily diary. Howdy papery companion!

A journalistic Victoria Sandwich of organisational fun, overflowing with cutie pie illustrational whipped cream and strawberry jam worthy lists and secret pockets. If anything is going to inspire me to be organised its 

jottings of charming hand drawn cakes, powder blue floral backdrops and lots of space for rambling. It's the simple things that keep simple heads smiling on an old lady book club Sunday.

During the head weary weekdays and confessions of a moody looking commuter there's nothing I enjoy burying myself into more than lurking around other fashion blogs, reading the rambles of the chic witty folk of the online world and pigging out on the outfit posts of the casually coiffed, but my old lady book club Sundays were made for a mini technology hiatus and warm paper publication simplicity. Over time there's been many a discussion and a underlying hoo-haa as to whether fashion blogs are killing the fashion publication industry but in my opinion it's merely enhanced it. Any blogger and garment appreciator worth their bread and butter know the gentle, hair raising art of getting lost in a physical paper bewitching. A subtle stroking of the glossy corners, the vivid bolt of the co-ordinated colours piercing your retina and the rewarding clarity your get with each turn of the page makes girls like me fall back in love with every aspect of my favourite publications each issue. It's just started snowing outside and the icy nature of this house is making my fingertips a nasty shade of cerulean but there's not a thing like the literary hot porridge heat of reading the newest issue of Vogue on a Sunday evening running down your throat. For me, it's a lovely cycle of treasuring, discussing, storing and re-remembering which I'm far to fond of to let go to swap for my need for constant internet quick fix fixating. The delicate and enjoyable merge between street style, designers and blogging has been flaunted by British regular Company Magazine and has totally changed the dynamic and the readership of the publication for the better, especially with last months superbloggers special which I thought was one of the best issues by an off the shelf publication for many a moon.

As you sassy cats may have seen from my last instagram update posts Santa was kind enough to accommodate my book club fetish with this Susie Bubble creation I've been cooing my eye upon for book club Sunday. I'm an unashamed Style Bubble fangirl and have been prying on her blogging outputs from a wee age. This book club flicker recounts the tales of the headstrong and realistic stories of how fashion blogging came to be with a mezze of the stand out posts from the influential big hitters like Vanessa Jackman, Anna Dello Russo, Style Rookie, Garance Dore  & Hanneli over the industries short lifespan. A fond read.

Interesting how the fashion industry found it difficult to understand in the early years, feeling like a growing unexplainable skin tag on the face of the industry in comparison to around 7 years later becoming the quirky and fully embraced beautiful and expressive beauty spot.

I've blogged since the age of 16 and being the annoying perfectionist that I am have been in a dizzy cycle of being underwhelmed with my creative output, getting hot under the collar about it, deleting everything and starting a fresh which is a filthy habit. This hardback goddess really plays on the factor that being able to do this and enjoy it gives the under resourced creative souls of this world a voice, even if it is a sheepish murmur.

sh-sh-sh-shenanigone

 

 

Ho! Ho! Ho! Hope all you adorable cherubs have had a delicious christmas and a silky smooth new year. Now that normality has finally been allowed to resume from tomorrow, theres nothing im more excited for than the next year dandies. Hate be one of those deluded pricks who claim that their nnew years resolution is to be the next "Charlie Bit My Finger" but 2013 is finally going to be the year I get organised and sort out this slur of activities that I call a life. Santa has been a pleasant little so and so to me and got the most adorable Frankie magazine diary which is most definately inspiring me to make lists, which may be a devilishly grand experience. I bloody love lists. Anywho, here are a few snippets of photographs from my shenans over tinsel-ember from my instagram which has been a trifle of lounging about with feline Oliver, wearing tangerine, having christmas afternoon tea with gal pals, supping from china cups, sneaking around vintage boutiques in York, reading fashion blog booky wooks (Kudos Susie Bubble), feeling up tassled lamps, dressing like Rupert Bear and having far to many a tipple. I'm having the sit on a cushion because, like the drunken lout I am, fell and bruised my coccyx. Having a dry ethanol free January and hopefully a creative, happy and productive one. Here's to 2013, the cheeky slut, hope it's hip hopping for all your lovely pups. Also tiptoe up to the top of the page, press the cute little instagram button and give me a follow.

 

 

jingle all the... nay



Decembrrrrr. It's a chilly one out there guys. There's mitten's in the air, t-bar flat adorning schoolgirls treading on black ice with too heavy a foot, gingerbread houses being flaunted on every gram of social networking and 20-year-old bloggers having to sport 4 pairs of 80 dernier tights to even attempt at touching the sides of slighty thawed (ahem). A/W is like the Jane Lane to my Daria Morgendorffer, the Antoni to my Alison or the pesto to my everything (current food crush agiven). I wouldn't say I have a love hate relationship with A/W's slighty more tanned fluro cousin S/S but I would say that I treat A/W like it's my dirty little secret. Ever since my loving mother dressed me like Vivienne Westwood & Johnny Rotton's sordid love child as a nipper each chilly year and convinced me that cider & blackcurrant was a goth drink, A/W each season has taken my childlike hands and led me up an adorable path of Burberry trenches, tweed capes, aubergine hues and Kate Moss smoking on the catwalk (she's Kate Moss!). Years of being such an advocate of A/W collections i'm practically Santa Clause & having many a uncontrollable swoon during fashion weeks around the globe in March, particularly the ice maidens Karl Lagerfeld usually turns out in PFW, this winter has taken a perculiar & unexpected twist ladies & gentleman. I've done something which could only be described as "minxish" & started to feel more of a excited flutter for the "the light side".

 

I've heard rumours of this so-called "summerism" amongst other bloggers and for many a moon have prayed it wouldn't spread to me. I wasn't ready to give up my excessive layering & pinafore dresses just yet! Some blame it on the continuation of the damp experiences Great Britain has seemed to be throwing up of late, craving spring print cigarette trousers or whimsical head garments to pull them out of the drippy Monday mornings. Some blame it on how trends are expanding or how moved they were by recent shows & collections for S/S 2013. Some don't have a reasoning at all, (why me!) My reasonings have been a little harder to stomach. Everyone goes through rough times, which I seem to be in the midst of recently, which is never easy, granted. But when said rough times occur during the time of year you've been fantacising over before it was even appropriate to take off last year's bavarian tuba player inspired fur hat, it's not just the weather that turns you numb and a silly shade of cobalt. After keenly spying on fashion week proceedings in September and my current uncontrollable need to focus on & analyse the future, my usual adoration for basking in a yeti state & challenging my christmas tree to a twinkle-off has dwindled before I even got a chance to grasp it! Although my living room currently smells of rich pine, mulled wine has been instantly more accessible in bars and the chances of getting, as my gran would call it, "a smooch" with the tonnes of mistletoe lingering around as ceiling decor has increased too-many-to-mention-a-fold, it would seem not even a pair of Van Der Ham's could lull me out of this icy funk (if Santa is reading that's such a lie, Van Der Ham's, yes please). So whilst every other blogger will have been penning winter wishlists for months, putting pictures of their dogs dressed as elves on instagram or snuggling up in cable knit jumpers with antler based animals on I have been waiting for my favourite time of year to melt away like the ice on my path outside. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying being able to wear my cosy miltary biker coat to the pub and something eerie inside me loves wearing multiple pairs of tights, but for the first time in my life, my fashion focus is purely on how decadent, floaty and happy i'm going to make my S/S 2013.

 

So with such in mind and my noggin firmly wired into the early 2013 matrix, looking back at some of the stand out shows from S/S 2013 is keeping me from going into complete fashion hibernation. Hey, maybe a more forward thinking Melissa will become a positive. Working a full-time job in media press analysis and being around publications tends to feed the monster in my stomach who's forever hungry for blog cooing and pawing over fashion publications, for a short period of time at least. But when show season commenced in September, especially around LFW, it became a cat and mouse debarcle of how many live shows can I fit around my work without being caught. From FROW to FNO to catwalk to timetables, squeezing every bit of detail possible into my show notes whilst still having the mundane task of working out how to brand fartless underwear at work was daunting but successful in the end.

 

I've always been a firm believer in fashion influencing how you feel as an individual and also knowing that how you feel will also affect how you want to dress and when I think about how I want to eventually feel once spring starts to rear it's fresh head, I couldn't pinpoint a more enchanting or spine tingling show than when watching the Bora Aksu S/S 13 show at LFW (See above Youtube attachment). The turkish designer has become a regular face at London Fashion Week of late, flaunting his contrasting nature of romance but with a deeper & darker twist which has always caught my cooing eye. He has always kept a semblence of regality in his collections, parading grey & rose tones at A/A 2012. Being a sucker for a structured collar and elaborate patterns (HELLO KATRANTZOU) being partaken with the pieces in the collection wasn't difficult. Seriously didn't see it being possible to expand each season but by gum, they've done it. A miriad of regal jewel tone knitted crowns, whimsical fly-away braided beehives and floaty pastels fluttered down the catwalk like elegant wood nymphs and fairy queens alike. "Youth" by Daughter used as show music was a perfect and pure choice, an emotional favourite of mine that I drank in like hot musical miso. Lyrics like "We are the reckless, We are the wild youth, Chasing visions of our futures, One day we'll reveal the truth" silkily enhanced the mood of the show and the inspirational warmth of carefree femininity displayed.

 





Previously, Aksu has gone into detail about where his inspiration has evolved. From the regality that shines through and links his collections together tells a story of how he came to be. Inspired by Queen Marie of Romania (and who wouldn't want to look like a Romanian queen!) and in particular this season by her botanical gardens, was quoted as saying of her "The way she embraced traditional Romanian culture without losing her Englishness led to a lot of beautiful references"

After my over the top swoon session at Carven's SS 12, use of bold primary colours, the palate used bowled me over, with draped honey yellows, oceanic blue pastels & deep silky reds. The botanical element was paramount with sheer tights resembling roots & weeds gathering pace up the legs towards the sunlight and neo-preen organic blue capes adding more movement when sacheting, floating like dainty winged insects. The contrasting elements of silk and organza clean lines mixed with sheer jewelled coloured draping created a natural yet wearable illusion of unconcious delicacy.

 

With minimal accessories used, emphasis was well and truly focussed on the dreamy dresses and statement head wear. With underskirts resembling the glisten in water and deeper blues appearing like damp water lillies layered on top, joined with the strong collars and structured shoulder is what I find most alluring. In much Shakespeare tales, the fairy-like characters have an innocent yet seductive nature which I have linked to the kind of lady likely to indulge in these delicious dresses and the kind of lady I would like to portray in S/S 13. I always think you can tell that a collection is going to make you fuzzy inside when you are able to visualise a moodboard during show and I got adorable imagery of pressed pastel flowers & petals.

 

Some may say im jumping too quick of a warmer weather gun but looking forward is the only way I can live at this moment in time. In 2013 I want to be able to learn how to relax, feel passionate and be able to fall in love again. Bora Aksu SS 13 made me instantly feel at ease & i'm able to visualise the feeling of relaxation, like floating in water with pastel draping and flowers, through this collection. In search of delicate fashion for a delicate head.