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Although Melbourne can get cold, it rarely requires warm, woolly headgear. This is one of the reasons I hardly ever wear a beanie, the other being that my head is small and looks ridiculous in a beanie, plus my hair is bad enough without having to endure beanie-hair.On the other hand, I'm pretty sure a turban would work, thanks to the extra volume it imparts.
Especially if it makes me as glamorous as this!! (I found the gorgeous pic here)The only question is, what colour should I go for? (Photo from here)
Seeing as I don't knit, can't really be bothered crocheting, and have part of a red blanket left over from a Peppermint project (I'll tell you when the issue's out so you can see for yourselves!), I think I'll be making my turban red. If it works out, I'll post the how-to at The Clothing Exchange blog next week, so stay posted!
I can't remember if I mentioned it, but not long ago I was part of the two-person team which translated Vogue Girl Japan's iPhone app into English.
Anyway, the app is out now, so go wild and crazy and download it and get the warm fuzzies knowing that you are helping this sometime-translator to keep living the dream. Ha ha.(Obviously this is the Japanese cover, I couldn't work out how to get the English cover up here. I'm a translator, not a tech-head, you know!)
When you think of hens' parties, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Male strippers? Excessive drinking? Vomiting all over your own shoes (or someone else's, just for fun)?
Fortunately for me, my friends are all into more innocent pleasures. My friend V is also into CHIPS. So for her hen's night this weekend, I made her this necklace.
Classy, no? It was surprisingly easy once I got started on a pack of Red Rock Deli Lime and Black Pepper (V's flavour of choice). If you want to make your own crunchy, crafty necklace (which I'm sure you will as it goes with everything AND you can eat it if you get sick of it), all you need to do is carefully pass a darning needle threaded with wool through some chips, one at a time, then tie the wool in a bow when you finish.
Another reason you might want to wear this necklace is that people can't hug you because the chips will be crushed. Perfect excuse for avoiding physical contact with people you don't like!
Now I know some of you must be thinking "you shouldn't play with food, it doesn't grow on trees you know!" Well, you could have fooled me...
Don't these golden ginkgo leaves remind you of chips?! The lawn in my garden is covered with them at the moment. I'm surprised I haven't been visited by hordes of Gobbledoks!
As much as I love my office job (and yes, there may be just a little sarcasm in there), I have to say I love a festival more. So I hardly hesitated when I was invited to take part in the Commune festival at RMIT yesterday.
It was a little festival with a big program of talks by sustainable fashion experts such as Sue Thomas and Tullia Jack (who is wearing the same pair of jeans for three months as part of her research and has posted about the festival with more links here). I won't go into exactly what was said, as I only made it to a few talks, but I'm sure you can guess that the general gist of all the talks was that if we people of Planet Earth want to live here in years to come, we better change our fashion habits, and pronto. Which, as you probably know, is one of the reasons that I blog - I rarely buy any new clothing because I make my own from scratch, customise stuff from op shops, or make stuff out of crap, and I love giving all of you ideas about how to do the same! However, I try not to go on about being green too much because I prefer to just send you subliminal messages through my amazing creativity, hehe...
(YOU... WILL... BE... INTERESTED... IN... SUSTAINABLE... FASHION....)
... Hmm, enough brainwashing for one day! Here's a few shots of the festival. There were lots of CAKES!!
And cacti in teacups!
And critters!
And amazing free vegan food, but because I was too busy eating it, I didn't take any photos of it. I'm not vegan but I'd definitely try the restaurant providing the food as it was delicious. Melburnians - it's called Loving Hut and is at shop 10, 242 Victoria St, Richmond, if you want to check it out. I attended the festival to represent Peppermint and was one of the judges in the student competition - fashion students were asked to refashion items from their wardrobe that they didn't love any more. The stories behind their designs were fascinating...
Kirby told us that her dad is a businessman who goes through a lot of shirts because the collars get grimy fast, so they end up getting thrown out (I would have thought a bit of elbow grease might have solved that problem, but that's a rant for another time). She cut circles from the shirts and made them into blooms that she attached to an old dress.
Another student turned a maroon bedsheet that was being thrown out into a dress and added bits from her mum's turtleneck jumper as decoration. I'm very into fringing and dangly things so might have to steal this idea at some point.
Kirby's dress, with a 'ute suit' in the background made from two shirts joined together (this was the entry that ended up winning).
I should have got a shot of this turban just by itself, but here it is with its creator (not sure what his name is, but he was one of the runners up). This is the piece I found most interesting because the material has been fundamentally transformed rather than just cut up or stitched differently. It was made from some old sports T-shirts, I'm thinking like those shiny synthetic soccer shirts? The base turban part is fairly self-explanatory I suppose, but the yellow and black decoration on top was made by melting the fabric to make it look sort of lacy and honey-comby. I didn't get to touch it but I'd guess it's basically reverted back to a plasticky type of material as a lot of synthetics are petroleum based. A bit of alchemy going on there!
This was the other runner up - she used a business jacket as a base and layered a blanket over the top. Parts of the jacket are still visible so its origins are obvious, but it's now a fashion-forward cape-type garment. 
Hmm, more than enough inspiration if you are sitting there thinking you have nothing to wear but have a pile of old yukky clothes and bed linen ready to be thrown out! Get stitching!
OK, so I know that at some stage I have to stop blathering on about Sydney and Fashion Week, but having been blessed with photos like these from the amazing Cheryl, I feel another post is justified. (You have to admit, these pics make a nice change from my abysmal efforts!) I noticed some of you have already commented on her post that featured these photos - the blogging world is so small sometimes!
It's been a little while since I did an in-depth outfit post, so these photos come at a good time.What I'm wearing:Green jacket - I made it (you can see more that I made using the same pattern here)Batik T-shirt - it was about $3 at an op shop, I changed the sleeves slightly.Skirt - $2.50 from SaversSandals - unusually for me, bought new from Wittner's outlet store at the DFO in South Wharf for $10 or so??Bag - leather, from the Salvos on the "op shop tour" I did recently, $10.... and now we come to the accessories (my favourite part, of course)
Earrings - I used clip-ons and added a bit to them (more detail here)Necklaces - tiger's eye strands from India which were $3 or so each (I made a long strand by joining shorter strands together with the clasps) and metalwork necklace, $2 from SaversRing - $5 from a marketBlack slave bracelet - I made it (see here)Black leather bangles with gold bits - Givenchy, but they were given as a novelty at a press event when I worked at Vogue. The editor didn't want his and gave it to me, so I have two. Yay!
Tassels on my bag - maybe $2 or so each, from Laos (more about tassels and my trip here). They've been sitting in a drawer since I got back, as I wasn't really sure what to do with them, but I think they look perfect on this bag! A guy from Grazia magazine even came up and took shots of them (I don't think they got used in the magazine though).Even though I normally wouldn't be so prepared, the combination of a cheap hand-luggage-only fare on Jetstar and wanting to know in advance whether my outfits for each day would meet the skyhigh standards of the international fashion pack meant that I had to be very organised when I packed for Sydney.
So much so that I had each day's look worked out in advance, right down to the accessories. That NEVER happens when I'm at home - the Melbourne weather's too unpredictable, for one reason, and where's the fun in working out what you're going to wear days in advance? Plus, no fashionista worth her salt would admit to anything like that. It's the unwritten rule that every outfit has to have been "just thrown on" at the last minute, if anyone asks. But I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to plan more, even when I'm not going anywhere, because it means I have a bit more time to be creative with my look. I would never have put these prints together normally but I was quite happy with the result.
Of course, I'd be more motivated to do the planning ahead thing if I actually had somewhere to wear interesting outfits, now that I'm back in cold, hard, fashion-free reality... But at least I can fantasise about my next getaway - have you got any packing tips for me?
So, thanks to my own laziness last week and then Blogger deciding to crash, this post is even more outdated than I planned, but better late than never, right?
The weather was bright and sunny (again! so lucky) for the final day of Fashion Week, something that seems like a distant memory now I'm back in drizzletown AKA Melbourne.
I never would have thought it, but one of my favourite shows for the week was the Ms Couture show, which was a lingerie collection.
Warning - it might be better not to look at this at work, just in case someone thinks you're a dirty perve! Even though it's all extremely classy and beautiful, like this.
I'm not a fan of pastels, usually, but they were perfect for this collection.
I didn't realise it at the time, but I think that the reason this all came across as so sophisticated and pretty is that even though there was a lot of embellishment, most things were in one colour rather than being festooned with frills or lace of a different shade.
This was my favourite look - even though I would never wear pale primrose yellow personally as it does nothing for my half-Asian skin tone. Although this model looks amazing in it, and she seems to be of oriental extraction... there were several amazing Asian models in the shows which I was happy to see, as modelling and the fashion industry in general in Australia doesn't really reflect how multicultural our society actually is.
OK, I'm off my soapbox now, so you can just enjoy the pictures! I loved the embellishment on the front and back yokes of this gown, and the swishiness of it (yes, of course that's a word! Well, it is now that I've made it up).
I'd love to swan around in a boudoir wearing this sort of thing, when I eventually have a boudoir, and when it's not the middle of winter, of course. And when I have a spare $6000, which is what Elaine told me one corset from this collection would cost! She was standing next to me giving the inside goss as you can see from her great big chunky rings taking up half this shot!
Don't all the models look perfect here? Not a G-string or red-and-black satin combo in sight. Just sweet, sherbetty shades and prettiness. 
The Poppy Lissiman show was my other favourite for the day (well, of the shows I was actually able to get shots of). Her collection featured clashing colours and TASSELLED EARRINGS which are definitely my type of thing.
I loved this mermaid skirt with its digital print of a deep sea scene.
And I definitely want more red in my life!
Or perhaps shocking pink??
Genesis is a blogger who would vote for the shocking pink, to go by the colour of his jumper. But even that shocking shade is overshadowed by the studs on his collar. (Does this idea scream "DIY idea!!" to you as much as it did to me?) By the way, if you want to see much better shots of the lingerie show, go to Genesis' blogpost.
Here is another blogger I got to meet - Mez, the friendly lady from Fashion Fazer. As you can see, she's a girl after my own heart when it comes to the big earrings!
Here she is with Margaret from Shine by Three (who is a first year uni student and had just styled the Paper Skye show when I took this shot.... all kinds of amazingness going on there) and another lady whose name I unfortunately did not catch (oops!).
And last, but certainly not least, the ladies who made RAFW so much fun for me - Cheryl from Business Chic and Lou, whose many roles include being one of my colleagues at Peppermint. Thanks for the memories!!
I'm still getting more photos organised to round off my Fashion Week posts, but in the meantime, I thought you might be craving some off-catwalk craftiness. Well, I'm happy to say that I will now be blogging about how to make a cheap, earth-friendly garment/accessory once a month for The Clothing Exchange. Here's what I made for the first post. Cute, hey? If you want to get your fringe on too, click here!
