Lao limits

If you don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter you are possibly wondering where I've nicked off to. Well, I'm on the hunt for fair trade artisans in Laos. I arrived yesterday after lots of rushing around beforehand - I had intended to post about packing really, really light which is the reason for this picture, which I realise is not particularly inspiring but does at least show off some of my batik collection! Tops are on the top row, bottoms (skirts, pants, shorts) are on the bottom row, and dresses are to the right. I had to think about the fact that it will be stinking, sticky hot, I can't dress too revealingly (not that I think I do normally, but fairly much anything below the knee is out in Laos),everything has to go with fairly much everything else, and that I will possibly leave half of this at the Red Cross in Laos as I rarely wear these things and will no doubt have to make room for all the textiles and jewellery I will be buying! Oh, and I was being tight and only bought a carry-on fare for my flight so my luggage can only be up to 10 kilos.
Anyway, fairly boring post, I know, but hopefully I'll get some pics up of my adventures in the next few days. Happy weekend!

Cruisy birthday

How do you celebrate your birthdays? I like to spend them sewing bits of raffia on to a skirt and weaving fake flowers into a hair garland.

Actually, that's not really how I like to spend them, but this year I didn't have much choice. As usual I had left things to the last minute prior to a big event, "things" being the costume and "big event" being my Caribbean Cruise themed fundraiser for TRAFFIC, which I decided to hold last Sunday (ie the day after my birthday).

Yes, a whole lot of generous and cool people dressed up as if they were going on a cruise, had a heap of fun and raised $1250 for a great cause! And some of them even sang and danced, didn't they Kyra??!


As it was also kind of my birthday celebration, I got a few presents. My friends are all pretty well trained now and know that most of the time I prefer for them to just donate money to a worthy cause such as TRAFFIC or practically any animal/environment charity, so I don't get many physical presents any more. But I thought I'd do a round-up here of what I did get as they might give you some ideas if you are looking for things in the eco/fair trade/DIY vein - gifts that keep giving, you might call them.

If you're a good photographer or have graphic skillz such as I do not possess (yes, this blog is WAY overdue for a makeover, I am aware!), this super cute tile might give you some ideas. The graphic of the cat has somehow been printed onto the tile and there's a hook at the back to hang it up, or you can just lean it against a wall and ... LOOK INTO ITS EYES...


Terrible photo but interesting idea - gourmet scented pens in tropical flavours (to use on the cruise of course! But I admit I have not even opened them for a sniff. Yes, I was one of those annoying kids who saved the "good pens" for special occasions). They're by Smens. And a notebook from Seven Women, a group about which I will no doubt go into greater detail in later posts as the founder, Steph, is a friend and an extremely inspirational person!

This blue scarf made from yak wool is also from Seven Women. It's not quite chilly enough to use it yet, but it won't be long. And the necklace is vintage, a gift from a lady after my own heart when it comes to making statements with accessories...

It's kind of ironic for me to get this card because I hate chickens, but I do LOVE how Oxfam uses them to help communities so that makes it alright! The other card is also from a charity but I'll have to put up the details later.


I love this card from Hope for Women... the lady's hair is all made from pressed flowers! And the bracelet is sweet too.


Speaking of sweet... can't go past mini muffins and a ceramic bowl as a great gift for any occasion (hint, hint). I didn't get a chance to eat them during the "cruise" so I took them to work the next day to share, with the disclaimer that I had not made them (as if anyone were in doubt, with my baking record!). When I told the muffin-giver, she said "oh, they're so easy, you could have passed them off as yours"... Don't you love how my friends have so much faith in my cooking abilities?


And last but not least - technically this was not a birthday present as I won it in a competition, but I got the news that I was the winner the day before my birthday so I'm including it in the present count.

It's a mochila (bag) from Society Collective which I have been lusting after ever since I interviewed one of the founders a few months ago for the current issue of Peppermint.

How could anyone NOT lust after these gorgeous colours!? (The colours in the second shot are more accurate, sorry about that first picture!) If you like what you see here, I would highly recommend you look at their shop as it is a treat for the eyes.

How about you, do you have ideas for gifts that keep giving? Share them with us!

By the way, a big thank you to all the lovely people who contributed prizes for the "Caribbean Cruise": The Green Coconut for the refreshing coconuts which we all enjoyed and the organic coconut sugar and berry nut seed blend raffle items; Smooth Spa for the spa voucher; Omah's for the restaurant voucher; Zoos Victoria for the Beads for Wildlife accessories; Poplin & Panache for the men's shirt voucher; Conscious Chocolate for the delicious chocolate and of course, HONEY BAR, the excellent venue which the generous staff provided free of charge. They're always so helpful whenever I think up hare-brained schemes for fund-raisers!

Street style gives me ideas

Where do you get DIY ideas? These days there are so many bloggers we can turn to for inspiration - I don't mean just for their outfit styling, I'm talking about people like Geneva from A Pair and A Spare and Erica Domesek from PS I made this who actually show their readers how to make things. I love those ladies, but I also love getting ideas from the street, and there was definitely no shortage of street snap-worthy styles at LMFF!

Lisa from Couturing.com is one very stylish, photogenic lady (hey, Australian Vogue thinks so, and you can't argue with that!) - her choice of accessories is always inspiring. Here in the shot with me, she's wearing Richard Nylon crocheted lace rabbit ears on a hairband and using a pencil case that looks like a Penguin book as a clutch (more on her book obsession later).

This is a terrible pic (sorry Lisa!) so go to the Vogue link if you want to see the colours properly, but I wanted to include this shot as there is so much DIY potential.
Beaded cape? Well the beads might be tricky but it would be easy(ish!) to make something similar with rows of fringing. Feathered skirt? I'm sure you could cut out "feathers" from felt or some other material to get this look - maybe cover up a mini skirt that you're sick of instead of making a skirt from scratch?

And if you want a small army of men on your head... you can always raid the toy box of your childhood or get some at a toy shop to glue on a headband.

Not quite so over the top as Lisa, but with equal impact, this lady has gone for bold simplicity ... everyone can use a simple jacket, especially in this great colour!

Speaking of bold colours... I clashed some colours in this outfit which includes a Chinese jacket of my mum's and a pink skirt that you can see more clearly here. This is not the best shot as it was taken on my phone, but the jacket, which is usually fairly shapeless, kind of takes on a peplum effect when cinched at the waist (with a scarf from Laos) - maybe a handy trick to try?

These ladies have all got fringing going on. I like the multicoloured fringing around the waist of the brown dress on the left (you could use scraps of material and stitch them to the waist of a boring dress or skirt, or the hem of a T-shirt), and the long fringe of the dress on the right would be simple to do, especially if you had lots of wool that you wanted to use up - again, a great way to jazz up a boring skirt.

And here's more fringing used a bit more conventionally, but the contrast of colours adds impact.



Oh! And I'm wearing a bit of fringe on my necklace here! (Plus DIY shoes and a skirt I altered).


Melbourne weather is so unpredictable. Tess from Peppermint has only just moved down here from Brisbane and I have no idea how she must be coping coming from a fairly consistently warm climate. Actually I do have a fairly good idea - layering.


Tess is wearing a Gorman summer dress but has sensibly got a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath.

She's with Cheryl from Busichic who is looking very stylish in a vintage dress and cardigan ensemble (the cardigan... yet another Melbourne must-have! I usually have one with me because you can never tell what the weather will do) while she has a chat with Tess.

And here I am in a top that my alter-ego Miss Sew & Sew made for the current issue of Peppermint (issue 13), a skirt refashioned from a Peppermint project, and DIY necklace and earrings which I have not told you about because they are part of an upcoming project. Hint: they will be coming with me on my trip to Laos next week.

This lady works for WGSN and was very busy snapping street looks, but I thought she deserved to be in front of the camera for a change. I know this kind of style would never work on me, but that doesn't stop me admiring people who can rock it as well as she is doing (the camera makes the coolest accessory, don't you think?).

Perfect green pants! That is all.

And here's Lisa Teh again, this time in a Toni Maticevski dress as a tribute to the designer before his show - although she's carrying a book in case the show gets boring.

I told you she was obsessed with books!

But wait! It's not really a book! Lisa carved out the inside to make it a clutch where she carries all her fashion week essentials.

I think this has to win the DIY competition, not that I was giving prizes. Lisa said she felt guilty carving up the book, but sacrifices must be made in the name of style.

What have you seen on the streets lately that's given you DIY ideas? Please share it with the rest of us!

(...sorry about the terrible spacing in this post (and many of my others) - for some reason it's really tricky to get things spaced properly at the moment. Is anyone else having this problem??)

What a difference a dye makes

Remember my post about The Front Row project? Georgia made this dress which Lisa from Couturing.com wore early in the week at LMFF (picture from Couturing.com).

But Lisa didn't just take it home and hang in her (amply stocked!) wardrobe. The point of Georgia's project was to make some dresses which would be worn once, then altered for the next wearer. I was the next wearer for Lisa's dress, and as Georgia had told me about an indigo dyeing workshop she'd been doing, we decided to see how the dress would turn out if we tie dyed it. Here are some samples that Georgia did at the workshop - isn't it cool, all the different effects that can be achieved just by scrunching, twisting or folding between planks.
 
This is the dye bath... Georgia took a little while to get it ready as it's a little bit tricky adding the chemicals (the indigo itself is organic but she still had to add a few things).
We experimented with a few other bits of clothing before doing the dress, but I will show you those in another post. Here's Georgia dyeing the dress - she twisted it quite tightly and dipped it in the vat very carefully before lifting it out slowly and letting it drip into another container. If you let the item you're dyeing drip into the vat, too much oxygen gets into the solution and the dye stops working. The dye is really like a living thing and has to be treated with a healthy amount of respect!
 
Here's the dress, untwisted...

After dyeing, Georgia rinsed it to remove excess colour and hung it out to dry. And then I wore it...

I kind of went for the water nymph look but my hair isn't long and flowing enough to really pull it off successfully. Whereas Lady Melbourne, who was also wearing a dress by Georgia (previously worn by Kyra), managed an old Hollywood glam look very well. See?
 
Love how she's done her makeup, very sultry and quite different from her day look. And the pearl collar is such a great touch!

Check out Georgia's blog to see how her other dresses were worn - it was great to see everyone putting their own personal spin on her creations!

Don't you know it's fashion week?*

Although I'm not a street style blogger, something about fashion weeks and all the people who make an extra effort with their outfits brings out the snaparazzi in me. It's LMFF in Melbourne right now, and here are a few shots to show you what the crowd's been wearing!

Melbourne fashion's royal "couple" du jour (that's the extent of my French), Thom and Lisa from Couturing.com (they have great coverage of LMFF... go here and here for instance... you may spot me in there!)


Lara McPherson looking stunning in her mum's dress...


Meagan Harding of Style Farm in a dress she made herself (she's a bit amazing at DIY...)


Rachel and Rebekah of Meet Me on the Streets... usually they're behind the lenses but I think they should be in front of them!


Jess from What Would Karl Do with her friend (Georgina I think?), Irish Rivera from Stylezilla and fashion design veteran Jenny Bannister.


Sarah from Sarahs Style Emporium, someone else you might know in a Vintage Vogue patterns dress, and Cecylia. Lots of clashing pinks and reds!


Cecylia with jewellery designer Estelle Deve in a Christopher Kane dress.


Andy from The Herald Sun showing off her seamed stockings with Lisa from Couturing.com (wearing a Mary Katrantzou dress from Topshop and inspiring envy in all).


Lisa and Andy are just too cute! Nicole from Gary Pepper Vintage is on the left with Tuula...



For the shows yesterday I wore a kimono because it was March 11, the one year anniversary of the tsunami and earthquake in Fukushima. (Photo credit goes to Meet Me on the Streets!) I had a lot of people asking me how I draped this so I'll put up a tutorial later if you like. It's so easy I don't know why I haven't done it before! The singlet I'm wearing is one I made with applique from an obi years ago.


Rachel and Rebekah again...


Teepees on the runway (and knitted cacti!) at the Frankie show...



Glenda from gt gadabout with James who has organised the fashion film program at ACMI (he did an exclusive screening for a few of us a couple of weeks ago - so spoilt!). James is wearing a cockatoo brooch (if you can call a life-size cockatoo a brooch?) that Glenda made for him. His name's Bruce. Of course.


Glenda and I winding up the night! More snaps from LMFF in the next few posts, most likely!


*During the last fashion week in September, I kept getting calls from my bank at inopportune times and I kept telling them I couldn't talk, I was busy, etc etc. Finally, when they called me while I was trying to write a blog post for City Weekly as well as run off to a show, I tried to explain I couldn't talk and got very flustered and said "It's fashion week!" which was, of course, met with stunned silence at the end of the phone and sniggers from all my co-workers... But really, people should know how busy it gets during fashion week, right? Right??