Long and Lovely

Kids, I am absolutely falling for the look of those really awkward length skirts and dresses, the ones that stop mid calf. Ever since I saw Agyness Deyn in a white Topshop number, it occurred to me that I would forever be in want as I was not quite tall enough to pull off such a length. There were some great looks at London fashion week that give me hope the awkward length is going to pop up in high streets all around Britain.

Roksanda Illincic

Antonio Berardi

Charles Anastase

House of Holland

Ashish

Topshop Unique

I am just fully in love with the geometric prints on the long Ashish dresses. Plus they are sparkly so double bonus points there. Just another thing to drool over that I simply can't afford.

Quest for Colour

Thinking about my colourless wardrobe reminded me of the time when I was taking pictures of my clothes to sell on eBay and when I uploaded them I realised they looked a bit off - I had the black and white setting on the entire time without even realising. THAT IS HOW BLAND MY LIFE IS. At least I have the defence of saying that I was getting rid of those particular clothes. Anyway, my mission to inject some colour into my wardrobe that I would actually have the guts to wear is succeeding! I present to you:

I thought this was a groovy bananas oversized cardi, parfait for days when it's not cold enough for a big bulky coat and where you wouldn't normally be able to get away with an overly patterned coat, this gives enough excitement to my outfit to justify everything else being plain Jane. Also, the clasps are tres cool and what made me buy it in the first place:

A twisty metallic pattern! Brilliant. I got this norwegian number from Ebay for about a tenner, bargainious! Now, I know it's not particularly colourful but I bought this camel coloured wool coat as a way of not looking so dark and heavy on these breezy spring days in my big black coat and grey scarf:

I think it will work for my colour deprivation scenario and the fact that I can tie it up fairly loosely means that if I deem my outfit underneath interesting enough for the world I can give them a cheeky peek! Also brilliant! This one also came from Ebay, so very sorry if anyone has the urge to rush out and buy an identical one.

I previously mentioned cutting some very dodgy sleeves off a glittery blouse I bought when vintage shopping in Manc back in September. Here is the finished product:

I don't really know what to think of it because I still remember it when it looked like a bad jazz/tap costume reject. I think it will probably do to wear on a night out just to add some colour to a black dress but unsure of whether it's too tacky to brave out in the day. Anywhooo I saved the best for last. My mum saw the skull jumper that I posted up before and wanted to surprise me with it until she also saw the price tag. So instead, and how very innovative of her, she bought me a different jumper with a unique skull detail. I've got to say my confidence boosted enormously this morning when I walked into the kitchen and my flatmate said 'oh Ellie, if I were a girl I would want to have your dress sense!'. Fancy that eh? So basically well done mum for picking out this number! I was going to put up the whole outfit but it's really too casual to be putting on a blog so I'll just show you the wicky war war deets on the jumper:

Vair groovoid indeed! This one was actually bought in a shop, Republic as it happens, and it's still on sale for £19.99. As it's actually a crop top it's a little bit awkward to wear with jeans but hopefully when my dresses are done it will go nicely with them. Hoorah! Spring is here and I can show off my partially non black-white-grey clothes! Hopefully I will have some 'personal style' photos up soon so that you might feel slightly inspired by my random choice of purchases...or not. But always fun to judge other people's styles. I am a bit photophobic so might take a while but one day they'll be there.

Here It Goes Again

Unless you have been avoiding pop culture for the last 4 years or so, you will probably have seen the Ok Go video for the song 'Here it goes again', featuring the foursome doing an innovative dance routine involving four treadmills. Naturally this idea would have sparked the minds of advertising execs everywhere but disappointingly the treadmill-dancing was stolen for an advert for Berocca (you on a good day?), some vitamin tablet for old fogies. I was hoping it would be Honda or something like that, as they never fail to disappoint on the crazy ad front. Anyway, Ok Go have only bloody done it again! Check out this shizz!

A paper aeroplane explosion! An Indiana Jones-esque rolling ball! Even a tv featuring the Here it Goes Again video being smashed with a hammer! And just imagine the frantic camerawork weaving in between all of this, my God I was feeling the fear the whole time that something would have been knocked. Funnily enough, this has in a way been ripped off from a past Honda Advert, which in my opinion is ever-so slightly better because it features Rapper's Delight.

There is an article explaining just how they did it here if you care enough. They recruited a group of engineers (featured at the end of the video) to build the whole circuit and it gives me great hope that my crapfest of a mechanical engineering degree will one day pay off and I can do something as brilliant as this.

Leon's Fabrics

Ok first off, I am no seamstress, so my attempt to make my own dresses will be as good as anyone elses. I bought some loverly dress patterns and I haven't made anything properly since GCSE Textiles at 16, so bear with me. In the meantime, if you are a fellow wannabe seamstress, read on!

In my quest to attempt to make my own dresses I have been having trouble finding any decent fabric. I am so so very excited to announce that I found an amazing little shop. It was in Chorlton, a bit further out from Manchester but so worth the bus journey. One day I'm gonna go back there with my camera because it is seriously a fabric fetishists dreamworld. There were floor to ceiling rolls of material, it was so difficult to choose just three different fabrics! I already had in mind the sort of thing I wanted for each dress so that made it a bit easier. The patterns I have are these:

And I think you'll agree that the fabrics are just lovely! This is the fabric for the dress on the right hand side. It's actually navy blue but you can't really tell that here:

 This will be the halterneck fabric:

And this is the floaty evening dress fabric. I have taken a pic of it hanging so you can get the full on floatiness of it:

Sooo self indulgent of me to be telling the world this (well... Steph and Jim. You are the only two that know of this web address thus far!) but I am beyond excited about finally getting round to this project! Plus, I'm hoping that people will note that even idiots can sew, it's really so easy and much cheaper and more fun than normal clothes buying. I hope more people do this kind of thing, the world would be so much more interesting if people wore the clothes that they actually wanted, rather than what the shops shove down our throats.

Anyway, I won't bore you with intermittent progress, I'll just give you a gander of the finished articles. Report back in about 6 weeks and I may have even started by then!

I am Onit(suka)!

Ha, sorry about that terrible terrible pun. Is it weird that I very much want the new Onitsuka Tiger Mexico '66 Deluxe trainers? I know that is a ridiculously long name but I want them no less. They are oh-so-colourful (unlike me as we have already established!) so even though they are trainers and ladies don't wear trainers, where some girls are a sucker for heels I am very much a sucker for flats.

They remind me of all those episodes of Cribs where various rappers would have wardrobes full of trainers that just looked so perfect, all colour coordinated and undirtied. I wouldn't mind the red pair, just because on the leather they look pink and I like a bit of pink me, although the boring bastard in me would definitely go for the white. Nomnomnom.