Comments and Colours!

I have my first comment! It says it's written by me, which I don't understand and seeing as it's complimentary does not look too great, but I swear I did not write it and, in fact, have no idea who did. But thank you!

As the cold Wintry weather is upon us (although it was in fact middle Autumn yesterday) I am trying to put colour back in to my wardrobe. This is more difficult that I thought it would be as for the length of time that I had brightly coloured hair I tended to wear monochrome and let my hair to do the shouting. Plus, I do love monochrome. Although I still have a touch of pink in my hair, most of it is dark brown and I must have colour to prevent me feel shrunken by the doom and gloom weather. So I rebelled with the orange skirt (note: must get photos of this wonder up). But, it's not only my clothes, the same goes for my make-up.

Roughly two years ago I experimented wildly with various colours; mixing and blending to some pretty good effects. I don't wear make-up anywhere on my face apart from my eyes and I started with the fiddly liquid eyeliner when I was 14, so have had almost 10 years of practice. My influences have always been dramatic and alternative; always copying the catwalk make-up as opposed to the toned down street version. However, in the past couple of years I have become lazier. I would still do dramatic eye make-up, but usually only for a night out and stick with a simple black across the top finishing in a retro flick. However, yesterday I decided to splash some colour against my all black attire that I am forced to wear for work. Oh, and some emerald green tights to finish it off.







Not the most detailed and perfect finish, but it certainly brightened up the day.

Halloween in London

I first heard about White Mischief when they added me on MySpace about their latest event 'Around the World in 80 Days'. It was sold to me as a one night indoor festival combining live music with vaudeville and circus acts and fancy dress galore. I was immediately interested after recognising some of the fantastic announced acts, such as Miss Behave, through the Edinburgh Fringe Festival I decided it would be a fun thing to try out. This event was on the 7th June. At the time I was in Carmarthen, Wales at University and going to London for the weekend was a fairly regularly occurance. It never seemed too much for me to do as I have so many family and friends there to visit that White Mischief is just another excuse to see them. I managed to easily convince my boyfriend to accompany me and that weekend it was off to London!

Although I do love dressing up I had no idea of the amount of effort people put into their costumes. It was extraordinary. 'Around the World in 80 Days' had time travellers, exotic beauties, 'machine punk', explorers, the balloon itself and a gold man with a boat on his head of course!

The music ranged from swing to indie/punk to electro to Jacques Brel. The people looked fantastic, but not intimidating. We both felt considerably under dressed, but has the most amazing time.

Before I even began to consider what I was doing for Halloween, on the 21st of September I got an email from the people of White Mischief, announcing they had teamed up with Whoopee for a Halloween bash like no other at 33 Portland Place, the home of Edward Davenport. Very fancy. Although when they sent me the email the location of the party was secret and it was not until that same week that I knew where it was apart from central London! The theme was 'House of the Sandman' and I immediately resolved to go as a clockwork doll and my boyfriend as one of the sandman's victims. After rummaging around vintage shops, borrowing from lucky friends who just happen to have an original Victorian bustle and rifling through my parent's costumes from performances gone by, we managed to assemble two pretty impressive outfits.

The night was not as good as the first one we attended, partly due to the venue being completely ill fitted for a party: the only way to access the toilet and smoking area was down a tiny staircase only one person wide, necessitating a back against the wall sliding up or down the stairs affair in order to pass anyone which is incredibly difficult with a giant key sticking out of your back! Or any costume for that matter. And, of course, all of the acts were upstairs, but as it took up to half an hour just to get up a thin winding staircase a lot of acts were missed and it had to be something we really wanted to see or a desperate need to go to the loo to get us to attempt facing the unpleasant squashed stairs. There was that and also the extortionate drinks prices. £5 for every drink; one measure of spirit or a tiny 330ml bottle of beer! We spent something close to £75 and it might as well have been nothing after sweating it all out on the staircase. Unlike Scala, where they held 'Around the World in 80 Days' which is actually a club venue, this was completely inappropriate for a mass of people with costumes sticking out left right and centre. They also hadn't even bothered to decorate it, presumably relying on the house itself to provide the Halloween-spooky atmosphere. It was a beautiful and impressive feel, but for me it was certainly not in any way scary or anything like the House of the Sandman.

The next White Mischief is on the 10th November which doesn't leave quite enough time for me to save money and go down to London again, but I would definitely like to go to another event in the future and hope that this was just a temporary oversight as opposed to an over expensive event without much effort put in. Saying that I still had an amazing time as did most of the people there, but with a few tweaks here and there and perhaps a few drinks before going I think it would be a mind blowing extravaganza.

Obama for President

As much as I love discussing which shoes go with which outfit or slagging off models/designers/trends/anything, I think there is slightly more important news currently circulating which is, of course, the wonderful election results!

There is certainly a sense of hope and change for the country that rules the world, which can only be a good thing. Also, I must commend John McCain for his gracious congratulatory speech directed at Obama and his support of the new President.

Now, what shoes can I wear with my new Reiss outfit....?

Women's Tops - Fashion Tops, Stylish Tops - Reiss Fashion

Women's Tops - Fashion Tops, Stylish Tops - Reiss Fashion

Oh, it seems I have managed to work out the Reiss website in order to show the orange skirt. I personally would not have put it with a white top. I love it with plain black or ruffles to contrast with the sharp outline of the skirt.

On a secondary note you might notice that I have previously dismissed ruffles in The Detail, but although I do not wish to retract my ruffle attack, I feel compelled to announce that I may have slightly exaggerated. Although I still detest the over the top cake like ruffles I have previously referred to, when it is contrasted against harsh structural lines I feel it works as a feminine touch; softening the look.

And perhaps it is now because I own a top with ruffles.

The Sunday Herald Magazine, 02 Nov 2008. Page 37

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The Sunday Herald Magazine
02 Nov 2008

The Sunday Herald Magazine, 02 Nov 2008. Page 38

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The Sunday Herald Magazine
02 Nov 2008

The Sunday Herald shoot 2

Before I have even written up the second day of shooting for the Sunday Herald, the first shoot came out in the Sunday Herald Magazine yesterday. I also did not even have the opportunity to pick it up as I was on the train from London all day. Yes, all day. 7 hours of traveling taking me from one bed to another. I have been slowly letting myself slide in terms of discipline as I was too ill to attend the Scottish Style Awards runway show on the 23rd of October, then I was face painting at 'The Big Freak' on the 29th and then on the 30th I went to London for a Halloween special at 33 Portland Place and general London mayhem before spending Sunday night curled up in front of Casino Royale on the DVD in preparation for Quantam of Solace on Tuesday as I somehow managed to be the only one who had not seen it yet.

I have not yet been to my flat (I am at my parents house in Edinburgh at the moment) so I haven't uploaded any photos from The Big Freak or from my London trip, although I will upon my arrival and thus will be able to blog them. Although I will put up a video of The Banana Sessions who headlined the The Big Freak event.

The second shoot, which will be out this coming Sunday, was themed with the current trend of structural shapes and hard lines. This is where designer labels come in top with a Balenciaga jacket from Harvey Nichols epitomizing the look we were going for even if absolutely everybody detested the jacket itself.

For the high street, however, Reiss stepped up against the designers with strong shapes and won me over against designer and high street alike with its bold and bright colours. From the accessories; their purple 'cubist' clutch bag or their giant black and blue feathered bag. Their chunky belts with sharp buckles and black patent cut out killer heels. From the clothes; heavy elastaned bodycon dresses, corsets and ruffled blouses and, my favourite; an acid orange tulip high waisted pencil skirt. None of these items in particular appear to be on the website, for either photographs I can put on my blog or, for some, at all and after a lengthy and frustrated Google search I will settle with waiting until Sunday to show you how we styled some of the items ourselves. Oh, and I was so taken with the orange skirt that when my grandmother offered to take me Christmas shopping on Friday we were in and out of Reiss in a matter of minutes with the skirt and a black and white pinstripe ruffle front bustier to match.

Pricey, yes, but Christmas, birthday and a bit of money from me and suddenly it seems so affordable!