So long 2008

First of all I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

My December has been taken up by working, drinking and family gatherings taking me from London to Glasgow to Edinburgh to Nairn, back to Glasgow then back to Edinburgh and a lot of the last two trips repeated. I have been either too exhausted to think of anything to blog about or, more often, without Internet at all. However the new year brings resolutions and picking up my regular blogging habit is definitely one of them.

So here is my 2009 to-do list. A personal blog I know, but one I feel I must do. If I put it out there one the world wide web I am more likely to stick to it.

1. Blog every day

2. Only sleep 3 hours a night once a week as opposed to 3 weeks solid. This will be achieved by going to bed early when I need to get up in the morning.

3. Eat a home cooked meal at least 3 times a week.

4. To save on money invite people round for a meal and wine instead of splashing it all out on 3 overly expensive wheat beers.

5. Question why I appear to have an obsession with the number 3.

6. GET A PROPER JOB. By any means possible I will work at what I am good at and make a living out of it.

7. Start writing my novel.

8. Do regular exercise by using the dance class gift certificate so kindly given to me by my health conscious Mum for Christmas.

9. Call up the people who keep sending me notifications about my student loan repayments and tell them why they need to leave me alone as opposed to hoping that somehow they magically will.

10. (because 10 seems like a good number to end on) Go on holiday somewhere hot and sunny.

All of these seem plausible so I will be checking these off as I enter 2009.

My Christmas was very successful. The best present I got were hand made spatz which I will most certainly be getting a picture up of soon and find out the designers name from my Mum who so ingeniously got them for me. They are amazing.

On my London family Christmas (the 23rd) I wore this Karen Millen antique sequin dress which I was given for Christmas the year before.

On actual Christmas I wore a chiffon corsage babydoll dress from ASOS with thick black tights and over the knee knitted socks from Jonathan Aston. Christmas has been all about over the knee socks for me with pretty black detailed dresses a thick knitted jumper and a cape.

Or over the knee socks teamed with these amazing bottle green sling back platform heels from Office, a black buttoned up high waisted skirt and a quirky t-shirt.

And tonight is going to be a low key party, but I still want to dress up so I am wearing my Reiss outfit which I have previously posted photos of. The orange skirt and ruffle stripey top.

Then I am going to try and find some bargains in the January sales, yet not spend too much money!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Freak

It's the last Big Freak of the 2008 and although I am still recovering from a 14 hour shift and pre Christmas exhaustion I intend to give it my all in the dressing up stakes. For the first two club nights I was inspired by a 1950's theme; wearing a yellow 50's sundress and carrying around a parasol on the first one. The second one was the Halloween special, so I continued with the 1950's theme and went for a dead housewife affair. But, after having all of my hair lopped off I am not feeling the retro theme so much and it is about time for a change. I am also in desperate need for colour as I am required to wear black at work so my thoughts turned to a dress I bought 3 years ago which has a bright graphic print of green frogs and pink hearts and could not be more colourful if it tried.

The New York based designer, Dirty Addiction, added me on MySpace when I was about 18 and her clothes are aimed at just the alterna teen demographic that I was a part of then. Her designs were Hello Kitty meets Goth meets Emo meets Dolly and I found a couple of fantastic cute one off handmade dresses; the green froggy dress being one of them. Although I am not an alterna teen any longer I am certainly not one particular type and today I felt like tutus and colour and this dress perfectly fits the bill.

I'll post up photos of the night tomorrow and inject some colour into this grey and wintry weather.

A Weary Christmas

I have finally decided to do some online Christmas shopping, as the weather does not greatly appeal to me despite my wonderful John Lewis Fulton lace parasol umbrella. So I have sat down on the sofa, turned on Howard Hawks' fabulous Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell and whizzed through a variety of sites to find the appropriate presents for the family.

I am not going to disclose the details of presents in case a source close to or, in fact, the person itself spots what I bought them. However, I do recommend ASOS for female friends, especially if you are having to do presents on the cheap this year as they have sectioned off their goods into budget as well as item types etc. I managed to find a couple of gems which I would be sitting back and congratulating myself for with a cup of tea if the site did not decide to stop loading just as the final step of the purchase was being made. I believe an Internet shopping site should inform us of their "maintenance work" before we spend a lengthy amount of time perusing their products only to be left frustrated when only a moment before the end was in view!

Fortunately, I remained level headed and returned later to a fully working site. I believe this means that all of my Christmas shopping is done!

Congratulatory cup of tea here I come...I shall leave you with a clip of 'Bye Bye Baby' for your enjoyment.

Furry Winter

I decided to throw on my fake leopard print coat, which I got from Thread Bare on Broughton Street Edinburgh, the other day in homage to the icy frost weather in Glasgow. The usually wet and grey Scottish winters have currently been abandoned by Mr. Weather and instead we have been granted with blue skies, icy pavements and frost covered leaves which makes that satisfying crunching noise underfoot. This is the sort of Winter weather which makes me want to go outside and dance in the snow whilst avoiding slipping on the ice and falling on my arse like a nameless friend of mine did last Wednesday night. Much to everyone's amusement of course. But, going back to the original image of Winter glamour as opposed to humiliation; this weather is the sort in which dressing for winter becomes a pleasure instead of piling on grey jumpers and trudging around in wellies and a black umbrella.

So fake fur it is then. It always makes me feel incredibly glamorous and I think that works for a few people, for example Mary-Kate Olsen when she made a maxi-dress work as a quirky evening ensemble.

I also have a wee white fake fur bolero which I think I am going to use to glam up a party dress and feel like the most eccentric lady in the room.

But, it's not just coats and jackets; hats are definitely also the thing. I must be honest, real fur is warmer, but I am determined to find myself a trendy fur hat which is made from fake fur but also incredibly toasty. I'm leaning towards a Russian inspired fur hat. Perhaps something in the style of Lightspeed Champion?

How well I could pull something like that off, I can't be sure. But, if I can find one which is warm and decently priced it will go on my head! It will also go on my "weekly fancies" blog which I admit has had a dry patch of more than a week, but it has not been forgotten! As Christmas approaches the bargain hunting will truly begin!

The Skinny

Check out my two articles in this month's issue of The Skinny. I wrote up Glasgow Craft Mafia's Va Va Vintage fair and I also previewed The Big Freak which should be a fantastic event!!! You'll have to pick up your own free copy if you want to read about The Big Freak on page 51 and the full article on page 10 about the Glasgow Craft Mafia, although a lot of it is on The Skinny website.

So get reading!!

Long Time No See

Well, it has been a long time since my last blog; almost an entire week! This is not good. However, I have been swept up with moving flat and as a result of this a horrific lack of internet. It makes me really appreciate it now that it is back though.

Since my blogging departure I have moved from Otago street to West End Park street; to a nice 2nd floor flat which I am currently looking out of the window of onto a garden of snow covered grass and trees. I will be stepping out into the frosty air and crunchy ground in a moment, but I had to return to my blog and start up my frequent posting again. I wish I had the talent to do as The Clothes Horse does and make a beautiful collage of the loveliness that is outside, however I know my photography skills will fail to impress.

I have also completely changed my hair. This year it has gone from light brown to red to bright orange to blue to purple to pink to pink with a sea blue fringe to dark brown with said fringe. Then my fringe has gone pink, then orange and then I died all of my hair a dark reddy brown. Nice and wintry. But, all this dying has wreeked havoc with the condition of my hair so I was forced to go to the hairdresser. I was intending to only have a wee trim, but (as is usual for me) the scent of the multitude of hair products and blow dried hair stirred up an adventurous excitement within me and I was consumed with an immediate desire to go for something more drastic.

The results:

GFW - The Aftermath

Do apologise about the lack of blogging; nothing to do definately does breed laziness! I have had Friday and Saturday off, and did less and less as the weekend progressed. Thankfully I did at least go to Glasgow Fashion Week so my time has not been completely ill spent. I must admit though it was a tad disappointing...

Pictures here from bottom to top: Benito Fernandez, as with Veronica De La Canal, were supposed to be doing "haute couture" collections. If you scroll down and look at Fernandez clothes I would suggest they look more like Essex girls on a Saturday night inspired than haute couture. The only outfit that had something about it was the bottom left orange dress with ruffle hem. It stood out against the other dissppointments anyway and did seem out of place from the other mini palavas.

Then we have Marcelo Senra; with his no originality tribal inspired desgins. I will give him credit for some of the detail though.

Mac Millan, the headliner, was definately the best, my favourite; all in all it was OK. There were interesting shapes and the last dress (the one I featured two photographs of top right and middle with the designer herself) was stunning.

Overall I was not overwhelmed. The best part of the night was definately all of the wonderful people I met and the many drinks we consumed whilst waiting hours for each show to start.




Mac Millan





Marcelo Senra





Beneto Fernandez

Little Miss Shock Horror

This is honestly the most disturbing thing ever and although I had seen it's horrors in the film Little Miss Sunshine I don't think the full monstrous extent of this grotesque competition really sank in until I stumbled upon this website.

"Glitz and Glamour"




















I don't have enough time to rant an intelligent argument at the moment, but comments please? This is truly horrific isn't it?

Oh, and by the way, not even dated; deadline to enter your little girl is the 25th of this month!

Borne again

I have recently discovered Borne magazine and ever since have been intending to write it up up on my blog. Borne is a bi-monthly Glasgow based fashion, arts and culture magazine which produces some incredibly unique and eccentric features. And it is entirely free.

Borne not only produces some of the best fashion photography concepts I have ever seen under the art direction of Lindsay Lees and in collaboration with some stunning photographers; Armando Ferrari, Mark Seager and Jannica Honey, but it also covers mind blowing conceptual artwork, fascinating ideas, alternative music and quirky inventions such as the pillowig. One of the contributors is even fellow blogger Susie Bubble.

A particular shoot I thought was fascinating was directed by Ruth Paxton, photographed by Jannica Honey and with model and burlesque performer Missy Malone in which six typically American characters were dropped into a Scottish Highland background. I liked it because it was unsual; something different from the standard fashion shoot because it was not about the clothes, it was esentially about the concept and what the art director and her team were trying to say.
























I fully recommend anyone who lives in Glasgow picking this up! With complete humour, sharp wit and intelligence (espeically in the form of columnist 'Boo, you whore') this magazine would fully satisfy anyone who loves fashion, music, art and a bloody good read.

Glasgow Fashion Week

I have just received an invite to Glasgow Fashion week which has clashed with a lot of my work shifts, but better late than never anyway! It's the 19th till the 21st this week and shows run from 1pm till 7pm each day; and I was originally working all three nights. Fortunately, although I do desperately need the hours, I managed to get the Friday night off. It is probably the best one as it is the last night and I am going to attend on Thursday, also for the first half.

The events are spread across two Glasgow venues; The Winchester and Arta. On the Thursday I will be looking forward to Tantrums & Tiaras show with Boudiche: combining stunning headpieces with lingerie, which will be on 2pm at Arta. However, it may clash with Veronica De La Canal who is a must at 3pm at The Winchester. Quite well known in Argentina, Veronica's haute couture designs are Romantic and Baroc influenced; making stunning corsets and show pieces. Something I certainly don't intend to miss and should be able to squeeze in before work.

On the Friday Shazia Saleem, who take her inspiration from weavers in India's ancient cities and towns, makes socially conscious ready to wear clothes which are currently available on ASOS.com through the Laden showroom. Her show will be at 4pm at The Winchester.

Ending the three day event is Mac Millan who was nominated for Scottish Designer of the Year 2007.



















It's all very exciting!!

London

Although I still wholeheartedly believe there is enough happening in Glasgow (and still growing) to have a vibrant career in fashion and that more focus needs to be brought to such a stylish city I did apply for a job in London today.

It is an amazing job, although I am going to keep hush hush on what it is and who for as I have no idea what my chances are of getting it. Although it is in London and goes against my stubborn point that I do not have to go there in order to be successful in fashion; I still maintain I don't and that it would be more stupid to not apply simply because it happens to be in London!

So wish me luck and we shall see what happens!

Reiss skirt

Last night I had my first Saturday night off in months and we really went to town to celebrate. My boyfriend and I went for dinner at La Vallee Blanche; a French restaurant above Fopp on Byres road. A small candlelit restaurant which has been open since February, but has seemingly picked up very well and all through word of mouth. It serves the most exquisite food, mostly meet which is not brilliant for yours truly, but thankfully I eat seafood otherwise the restaurant choice would not have been the smartest. I started with langoustine's cooked in herbs and served with a garlic mayonnaise dip and my boyfriend had smoked salmon. My langoustine's were breathtakingly delicious. For seconds I had a pumpkin risotto which, again, was amazing and my boyfriend had the Angus beef fillet steak which he claims was fantastic, although the portion was a little on the small side. I was stuffed, so no dessert for me, but he had an apple souffle which was spiced with cinnamon and I must admit I could not resist stealing a spoonfull.

I finally wore my Reiss skirt and took some overly posey photographs to show it. I wore the white vest on the night out, but teamed the skirt with the black and white striped ruffle bustier, also from Reiss, to show the outfit together as a whole.

Sleeping

I am simply posting this to apologise for lack of blogging. I should be writing a lengthy blog, but I have neither the brains or the energy to do so right now. I have had very little sleep in the last 72 hours and I am about to take a nap before I head out tonight. Finally going to wear my Reiss skirt though!!

Will post photos of it up after! And blog something more interesting.

Check out my article in The Skinny's December issue about the Glasgow Craft Mafia's Va Va Vintage fair!!!!!

Galliano again

I know this will appear pretty slow, and it is, but it took me a while to realise the Galliano shoes in my previous blog about my bedhead were not partly a mirror reflection. I saw it soon afterwards that the bottom is an extra stack on the sole, but I still find it hard to not see a mirror reflection when I look at it!

Outstanding designs making me hallucinate.

John Galliano spring 2009

For the past couple of days I have been glued to my laptop, updating and promoting my blog, adding and customising a spin-off focused on bargain buy versions of fashionable styles and writing a preview for the Skinny on the Glasgow Craft Mafia's Va Va Vintage show at Queen Margaret University on the 4th December. I found out I had to do this yesterday and it needs to be in by the end of today so that has taken precedent over anything else I do with my day, including getting out of my pyjamas.

The only thing that will get me up and showered is the fact that I have to go to Edinburgh today, otherwise my striped cotton pyjama bottoms, batman t shirt and insanely messy hair would stay as dirty and crazy as when I woke up this morning. The only consolation I have when I look in the mirror and see my mess of a 'do is the fact that it looks nowhere near as bad as John Galliano's models for his Spring 2009 show. My hair does look mental when I wake up, but thankfully it does not look that bad.

Now I need to get out of my comfortable filth rut and get showered and glamourous; perhaps in a pair of Galliano's fantastically sculptural heels.

Do you think it is possible to get a bargain version of these?

Moss at Christmas

I do love a few of Kate Moss's items from her Christmas collection, especially the 'leopard dress' and the 'triangle rock' dress, both of which have seemed to have disappeared off the website since I first looked (less than 2 weeks after the range was launched) and have been unavailable at any Glasgow Topshop. But, with the 'leopard dress' already overpriced at £110, and currently selling on Ebay for £200 and rising, and the 'triangle rock' dress priced at £50, but likely to go for double that, I can't even begin to contemplate affording them.

Then, yesterday afternoon before work, I was wandering in and out of shops along Buchanan to get out of the rain and in the window of H&M I spy a dress identical in style and far from identical in price to Kate Moss's 'triangle rock'. Leaving aside the much saught after Comme des Garcons range for the moment, I must praise this dress. I did go off H&M for a while, but this moment proved to me that it should not be looked over, because when it does come up with some fantastic outfits they always have the fantastic price tag to match. So, here I am copying Kate Moss's pose and working her outfit, but at £19.99 instead. This dress also comes in black and gold stripes and silver stripes; each alternating one being glittery like this purple dress.

I also went a bit purple crazy and bought purple glittery hoops for £1.99 which also come in black glitter and silver glitter. I might not wear them all together for fear I might look like a Ribena blackcurrent, but they would be perfect to brighten up an outfit.

In fact, when I bought the dress I was wearing pink tights from Primark at a bargain price of £1 and I did think they went with the dress in a nod to Susie Bubble's colour palette clashing/blending and maybe for a less dressy outfit and a more wacky day attire with my fave converse, a blend of pinks and purples would be a good choice.

All of this is leading up to a new idea I had which is to find a bargain of the week and add it as an extra to my blog of fancies which actually possess a sensible price tag! So look out for it.

Rachaels' weekly fancies: whatever you fancy at a price you can afford!

The Sunday Herald Magazine, 09 Nov 2008. Page 3

This, and the four posts below, is my shoot for the Sunday Herald in which I was an assistant stylist. Comments please!

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The Sunday Herald Magazine
09 Nov 2008

The Sunday Herald Magazine, 09 Nov 2008. Page 42

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The Sunday Herald Magazine
09 Nov 2008

The Sunday Herald Magazine, 09 Nov 2008. Pages 40 - 41

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The Sunday Herald Magazine
09 Nov 2008

The Sunday Herald Magazine, 09 Nov 2008. Pages 38 - 39

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The Sunday Herald Magazine
09 Nov 2008