'C. Päffgen, deceased 18/7/88'

I have developed a morbid fascination with once Andy Warhol/Velvet Underground superstar Nico. After Songs They Never Play on the Radio by James Young, bandmate and companion after her 15 minutes were over, it seems she's described by some as a ghostly presence living on the peripheries of life with a voice so haunting it needs no accompaniment. Others say she's a haggard old has-been who stomped around in biker boots and sounded like a man. I am in awe of both these personas and how someone who seemed less than bothered by what was going on around her could have solidified legendary status. Wasn't she beautiful?

If a body catch a body comin' through the rye...

If it's cool to wear a t-shirt depicting your favourite band, what to do if you are less-than-cool? Wear your favourite book! Kafka Cotton has designed a range of t-shirts themed by literary classics. How can you lose with a company whose tagline is 'Great Books. On Your Chest'? My fave is the teesh inspired by Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (sorry about the big size label, I would photoshop it out if I cared enough. Or knew how to do that).

For a more literal reference to your much-loved titles, Out of Print clothing will provide t-shirts featuring covers from everyone's favourite books, such as these Catcher in the Rye and Tales of the Jazz Ages tees.

If you simply can't decide which is your favourite book, why not just get your favourite author?

Will Douglas Adams be the face of a new Rolling Stones-esque t-shirt fad? Probably not, but if you fancy it anyway, go to Literary Rags to wear your idols upon thy breast.
So, for a look that is effortlessly nerdy, grab your tee now! If anything it may make the wearer look instantly more intelligent.

Kiss Me Kwik

HOORAH! The world may not have to suffer my endless supply of vegetable-themed birthday cards anymore! I've found a new card company that fulfils all my awkward birthday message needs. Kiss Me Kwik cards are the new way to give regards. If you're a gayer.

Mia Wallace

I'm really craving a Pulp-Fiction style wig...can't just be me?

**EDIT** haha... this model's face properly makes me laugh though.

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.

WIWTW

WIWTW: No, not what I'm wearing this week, but what I WANT this week. And I want, want, want this amayzing jumper. I saw it first on Susie Bubble's blog (she got it early, what a poohead) and it was officially released to the public yesterday. Now, I don't have £200 to spare on jumpers but unfortunately I had already fallen in love with it when I saw the price. How cruel life can be.

Just look at that amazing detail! This is no normal breton jumper my friends... it has a hidden skull on it! For those of you who can afford it, it is from Sibling London. They have loads of other vair groovoid things, how very annoying for me. Oh, and please don't buy it, I wouldn't want your bloody nose to ruin that gorgey jumper now would I?

Fur

I'm sure everyone (yes, even you vegetarians!) has looked on in envy at a glamorous woman, or indeed some sort of pimp daddy wrapped in a heap of softy softy fur and thought of the things they would do just to get their hands on a coat like that. We've all been there! Trawling through the depths of eBay has brought to my interest that real fur items are appearing to go for next to nothing. The only reason I've never gone for the real deal is because of the price tag, not particularly thinking of the more cruel aspects of it. However, now that I'm seeing genuine mink pelt is within my fiscal grasp, I am having to consider the moral implications of buying real fur.

I am a devout meat eater and always have been. I would not give up meat to save an animals life (although I have switched temporarily to Quorn until the days I can afford free-range chicken breasts. I'd rather not feast on meat that when alive rotted in its own faeces). However, animals should be treated right. A guarantee with your fur garment is that the animal will definitely have had a good life, otherwise the fur would be manky. The only problem with this is the horrendous ways in which these animals are killed. In some fur farms, namely in China where animal protection laws are minimal, a regular method is skinning the animal alive - watch this video if you dare.

So how to tackle this problem for the many fur clad garments I covet? One solution would be just not to wear fur - yes ok, but I would be a hypocrite unless I turned veggie and also beside the point of this post. I did a bit of research and it seems any fur from North America is ok, probably Europe too but I'm not sure. Always try and buy vintage, as even if these weren't humanely produced, it is better to recycle old fur than create more demand for it.

Anyway, so very sorry to go so morbid but I thought I would bring this up because I don't think that fur-wearers should be condemned any more than meat-eaters. If anything, fur-animals have far better lives than food-animals. So when my mother said to me 'yeah but fur, cruelty to animals isn't it?', I replied with "Which would you prefer? A great life and a horrible death, or a crap life but a quick and easy death?"

And with that, I shall be bidding on this lovely lovely fur collar that I intend to sew onto my woolen coat. God I love animals today.

Mono-whatsit

I have always been aware of how monochromatic my wardrobe is, but until yesterday when I sorted the crumpled heap into a lovely neat pile and was roit shocked to see this staring back at me

I am quite appalled with myself, as I don't generally consider myself a lover of dark colours or a play-it-safe person. Anyone who has seen my bedroom walls will attest to this! Even more shockingly, I picked out the clothes I wear on a regular basis that are not white, black or grey and this is all I came up with:

That is only seven items, dear me! I am now on an extreme mission to fill in this colourless void. I am a bit too chicken to full on start wearing yellow tights or red dresses, but I'm currently watching a couple of nice knitted cardi's (One of them is still black and white but it's patterned so it doesn't count!) and I'm keeping my eye out for a nice camel coat. I know this isn't the most colourful shade but in this cold British climate my black coat undoes any colourful business I have going on underneath, so I guess it's a start!

Sorry for this very boring post but it marks the start of a long journey to try not look like a miserable git my whole life. Until I manage to purchase said ungittifying objects, I think I'll start adding brooches to everything. It might make me look a bit happier?

I Want Candy

Ok so first proper post! I thought I would use it for the good of mankind and alert anyone that hasn't heard of it of a website called CovertCandy . It's all very well and good for people to be 'really into fashion' when they have full time jobs or handouts from daddy to keep them going, but us students want our clothes cheap! Well how about clothes for no money at all?

Covert Candy allows you to upload pictures of your old clothes onto a website, a bit like ebay, except there are no listing fees and no money exchanges hands.

Instead there is a 'credits' system. You get credits for the clothes you give away and you can use those credits to 'buy' other people's clothes. And if that isn't handy enough, every few months every member gets a lovely little top up into their credit bank, so you don't even have to 'sell' items to be able to buy them! They also do a great vintage section:

_{From left to right: ethnic print dress, £15; floral jumpsuit, £20; denim chemise with detail, £20.}

Unfortunately you have to pay for these items but apparently they have all been hand selected from Parisian vintage stores. The three items above were ones I enjoyed the most. Hope you fellow bloggers found that useful!

First Blog Post!

It's Sunday 14th February - yes, St Valentines day. And today I am feeling just bored and self-indulgent enough to start a lovely little blog. I'm not sure what my blog will contain, but I'm sure it will be fashion-centric, as the many fashion blogs that I have been following are the main inspiration for this very activity.
'Not another fashion blog!' I hear thee groan. Girlies (and guyies) stick with me! This will (hopefully) not be your typical daily style blog. Unfortunately I don't have much style. However, I have a lovely new sewing machine, which I will be very excited to utilise once my Vogue dress patterns arrive! I am endeavouring to make this a bit of an inspiration for those of you that always know exactly what you want to wear but you're not quite sure how to obtain it. I have had so many of these moments that my only option really is to learn how to sew!

Anyway, I hope you all like what you see and I will report back with my first customisation project/handy andy fashion tip/sideways look at the worlds current events soon, ok? Ha! Happy reading xx