Welcome to the island of misfit toys

Lucy McRae // fashion meets new technology // human hybrid

Sophia Ajram (photograper) // ice and fire // illusions

Virgin suicides // youth // death // obsession

THE HUMAN CONDITION

Bruno Dayan photography // forboding grandeur

Imagine Dragons // levitation

Beautiful skeleton

Marie Antoinette // young, beautiful and damned

Unif ss12 fashion, meh, but I liked the image // how things look from the outside opposed to how they actually are inside 

Chris little photography

Rose Sanderson // nature and decay // fading grandeur

The universe

"5 minute page" I thought this would be a formal presentation but I've found out it's an email hand-in so just to summarise; this is a board of imagery relevant to what currently inspires me, followed by some trigger words to aid further explanation. I like that there's a colour theme emerging; it feels quite soft and feminine but with an ever present darkness looming. I like that. Even if it's cliche or pretentious, I like it.
There's also a reccurent theme of something fading; perhaps descending from life to death, or simply the anxiety of growing up - experiencing the loss of things like innocence and belief in the extraordinary. It's something quite sad and personal, but at the same time it can be so beautiful.  I don't want any one to see this blog anymore, it feels too personal. I don't like university, I feel stiffled, like I'm under seige by my own psychosys. No one else can see, but that doesn't mean it's not real.

[*disclaimer: I do not own these images, using for coursework purposes only]

Self portrait - TAKE 2

I attempted a self portrait in this post here, but was kind of unsatisfied so I intended to stage a proper shoot, however I took this photo in my bedroom yesterday and I think it captured me perfectly. I might do a third portrait if I find time and genuinely feel inspired but I've got so much packing left to do before the big move down to London on Saturday that I doubt I'll have time. It's a shame really because I did have something pretty special in mind, but I don't need to go out of my way to prove I'm good at photography because that's the only real reason why I'd push myself to do a third take, it would imply that I care too much what people think and that's not me any more. It's not technically impressive, and I know there's not a lot to look at, but I've captured an authentic picture of myself featuring the mood I've experienced most lately. Other people may not like it, but it's me, and I can't be anything more than that.

10 facts about meh.

 

Sooo I finally got around to doing my "10 things about me" post, I wanted to do it as a video which took me ages to film and edit, I almost didn't post it because it's not exactly perfect but hey neither am I so I think it sums me up quite well. Youtube wouldn't let me upload it with high resolution soo it's ended up with a strange black border around it, almost like you're watching me through a letterbox, creepy, anywhoo, that is all.

Ooh and yes you read the timestamp right; it is currently 1.15am and I have been editing this video since 6pm... yesterday. I.am.a.machine. Uhh, university, what have I let myself in for?

Quirky web/blog links

I thought I'd combine my links to "four great design blogs" and "quirky websites to look at" posts and compile a list of links to update here whenever I find new sites I like... I've marked the style blogs with this '△' symbol, just so they're easier to pull out from the other sites I've selected, heyho.

R O O K I E   M A G
An awesome webzine for teen girls, filled with artciles on everything from friendship, fashion, books, music, film, photography, youth culture, some pretty kickass DIY's, and with more comebacks than an 80s rock band. I saw this denim jacket DIY on their website recently which I thought was pretty snazzy. It reminded me of being eleven years old and getting into trouble for wearing my own (ridiculously oversized) denim jacket to school. I'd emblazoned the letters "glitter girls" (what me and my friends called ourselves as a collective... I know, we were young) on the back with silver glitter transfers inside a pink satin loveheart (very pink ladies-esque ya know). I'd covered the front of my jacket in holographic animal stickers and saftey pinks strewn with plastic rainbow beads - I was one cool cat :P

Rookiemag was created in 2011 by style blogger Tavi Genvison. Eeryone and thier gran's heard about Tavi by now so I won't go into avid detail, but the best way I can describe her is like a wild old soul in a young girls body - with style to boot. She's pretty cool and has super interesting perspectives on life and popular culture, I almost don't want to like her because she's been so hyped about, but what can ya do...
Anywhoo, that leads me onto my second weblink  S T Y L E   R O O K I E  △  need I say no more.

 

D A Z E D   D I G I T A L

The daily feed from the team behind Dazed & Confused magazine. Publishing an eclectic mix of articles on directional art, culture, music, photography and fashion. It's introduced me to a lot of cool stuff. Strangely I've grown to like it more than the magazine... I think it's because the website's a little more accessible and I can pick and choose the sort of articles I want to read while I'm on the go.

 

W H O 'S   T H A T   G I R L 

I've got somewhat of an obsession with Marie Antoinette soo I'm linking back to an article I found on wordpress blog "Who's that girl?" written by Ophelia Horton - also an avid reader of Rookie Mag (it's like the six degrees of separation up in here, IKR :P). The article's on a photoshoot from Vogue last year, shot by Annie Leibovitz and featuring Kirsten Dunst in glorious Parisian couture - what more could a girl ask for?  

 

 

L U C Y   M C R A E

I've already mentioned her in a previous post but she's my absolute idol; leading advancements in both fashion and technological innovations, her visions of the future have really inspired me to be more forward thinking with my design work and more willing to experiment with the seemingly unconventional.

 

F O X   H U N T I N G

I loved her post on the new Alexander Wang collection for SS13, featuring geometric cut-outs and glow in the dark fabrics. I like how there's a futuristic / fashion-forward feel to this collection without it being too outlandish.   

 

K A Y L A   H A D D L I N G T O N  △  

Kayla is one of my absolute favourite lookbook / style bloggers. I love her eclectic stream of outfit shots - principally made up of what I believe to be, THE snazzy charity shop finds in the world, ever. I also love all the quirky colours she dyes her hair, she's straight up awesome.  

 

 

[*disclaimer: I do not own these images, they belong to their respective authors, featured here only for coursework purposes only]

We're just misguided ghosts

 

Seeing as I've just done a post on a piece of deign I hate it felt only natural for me to follow this with a piece of design I love, just for the sake of maintaining balance in my life / blog.

I spend so much time on here now they're pretty much the same thing :P 

 

I first mentioned the Bubelle dress by Lucy McRae in this post here and I just found the original video I was looking to share with you. I love the way McRae has managed to combine design innovations for both fashion and technology. Scientific developments have a great impact on modern culture and I admire when fashion is approached as an artistic representation of that.
McRae was trained as both a classical ballerina and an architect, which is what sparked her fascination with reshaping the human body. She's recently created a swallowable perfume; taken as a capsule which works from the inside out - releasing a biologically enhanced odour as a person sweats. Fragrance molecules are emitted through the skin creating a unique fragrance which is determined by a person's acclimation to an increased body temperature via triggers such as stress or physical activity. Lucy's also recently branched out into making short films including a music video for an Australian synth-pop band 'Rat vs. Possum' (is there no end to her awesomeness?) You can check out more of Lucy McRae's work on her website here.

A lot of McRae's work looks to what she thinks life will be like in the future; I think that's what excites me most, her work feels so special and ahead of it's time. Much of fashion these days is drawn from retro revival, and whilst I can still look to the past for inspiration and respect how design has evolved, what I'm most excited about it creating something new and maybe even a little unusual. So far all the work I've done has been very pretty, controlled and highly conventional. I'm hoping that my time on this degree course will allow me to look into new waves of design and inspire me into creating something that excites me in the same way as when I look at Lucy McRae's work.
 

Collaboration work: Lucy & Bart, via google images.

 

D'ya like it like that? NO.

 

Part of my summer project was to visit 5 galleries / shows and this is the fifth and final instalment of that, which I've combined with the "piece of design I either love or hate" task.

I went to an alternative fashion show earlier in the summer and wasn't going to post about it as I didn't want to be negative since I felt it was irrelevant to my personal taste. When I hear the word "latex" two things come to mind; the balloons you get children's birthday parties and condoms - both of which can provide you with hours of fun and entertainment, if used correctly. And by that I obviously mean filling the condoms, full of water and throwing them at your neighbours. Water balloon fights are so much fun... err, what did you think I was talking about?! haha

 

Anywhoo, back to the fashion show... A label called "Lady Allura's Latex" featured heavily throughout, whose collections are made predominantly of latex. I can see the designer is trying to take a seemingly unconventional material and make it fashion, but for me fashion is about inspiring people and this felt too niche and any serious fashion statements were lost beneath the sex appeal. Whilst the idea of using an unconventional material is commendable, the designs themselves were very basic and lacking awareness of what real women want in their wardrobe. The designer's ethos aims encourages women of all sizes to feel good in their bodies and latex - being a smooth fabric - is supposed to empower them to be proud of their figure. Personally I can't stand clothes that cling to me and I can't imagine many women in the real world being keen on wearing this either. Rather than being all about "look-at-me-latex" I think what would have been more effective is using the latex in a way so it doesn't look like latex, if that makes sense. Like the artisan couture collections by Martin Magiela, in which the house designers use recycled material in they're clothes. Team Margiela play with the reconstruction of clothing, giving cast off everyday objects (such as combs, shoe laces, old records) a new lease of life. On first glance you might not even notice the abnormal materials, which makes it all the more exciting when you uncover their true unconventional beauty.

 

Anyway, that's just my opinion; I think developing a better understanding of what I like and what I don't like will aid me long-term in defining my personal vision. I'm still finding my way as a designer and whilst I have strong ambitions and want my clothes to have a real purpose and meaning behind them, I think what's also important is valuing the aesthetic content and not letting the message behind a collection be my sole motivation to design.

Ombre hair, ooft yeah.

 

Just had my ends re-dyed... is this really blogworthy news? Idk. but my hair looks (and smells) so awesome right now. 

Thought I'd pop in a photo of my glittery nails and tights too. I'd usually be miffed that this photo's out of focus (my blackberry hates me) but I actually quite like this shot, the blurriness makes it looks just that bit more magical.

 

Thought I might as well spin this into the 'what I won't miss about home' post. I've been putting it off because it's a genuinely difficult question. Even the things I don't like about home I'm sure I'll miss in some way or another.

To some degree I've always felt haunted by my past, living in this town has kept my world feeling so small for so long that I don't really feel like I've been living at all. There's people I'll miss, sure, but there's also people I'll be relieved to get away from. Sometimes I can't decide whether I'm running away from one thing or running to another, it's like my mind's all over the place. The only thing that's constant is the depression... So much is changing, and I'm not afraid to admit that I'm scared. I've been trying not to admit it to myself for long enough, but I think it's time for a new adventure...

There's still some things I feel I have to leave unsaid, but that's me though, I'm nothing without a little mystery.

 

Upritchard & Kubin Exhibition

I went to the Nottingham Contemporary exhibition for Francis Upritchard & Alfred Kubin yesterday. Due to the age of the early Kubin sketches, I wasn't allowed to take pictures in that section of the gallery. Kubin's drawings centres around themes of death, trauma, mystical creatures and fantasy worlds - subsequently echoing the horrors and shaded fantasies of his past. Something about the joint exhibition made me think of the 2009 stop-motion fantasy / horror film "Coraline" - set in a dystopian world, where things that would traditionally bring joy become dark and menacing, taking on a life of their own, not unlike the pieces within the exhibition. Upritchard's colourful sculptures and tapestries are themed around the expectations of counter-culture from the 70s / 80s. Her figures appear wryly and hunched over, as though they themselves grow tired of the excessive referencing of the decades' failed revolution. Whilst we still celebrate the evolution of alternative youth culture and it's remaining influence on much of the art scene, it is quite a tired concept that fell short of it's initial expectations, and in common practice appears generally quite gauche.

 

Attending an exhibition like this, I couldn't help but feel the artwork itself, whilst addressing the subject matter, didn't summon any quantitative reactions for me. Darkness and dystopia are captivating themes which I commonly look to in my own work, and whilst every one has different interpretations of such concepts, the artworks I saw yesterday didn't entice me in any way. I considered for a while whether it's because sculpture and drawings of this nature don't generally appeal to me. I imagine the black and white drawings were intended to create a profound contrast alongside the colourful sculptures, so I can respect that other people will like this, but personally I wasn't enthused.

...Is it just me of does this fella look the slightest bit familiar? 

Oh hey Gotye :P

We only know what we see

One of the tasks on the list was to go to Magma book shop and write about the most inspiring book I find. When I took a day trip to London earlier in the month I had to make a fast decision whether to go to another exhibition or the bookshop and I thought it would benefit me more visiting the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Mod (which I wrote about here). I don't have enough money to pay for a repeat visit to London before I move so I visited the design shop at the contemporary and decided to write about one of their books instead... They have a great range of books on history and the psychology of art, alongside books showcasing individual artists work. The book that most caught my eye however, was one of the more interactive variety... you mean it's a kids book? Um, noo, pssh, what do you take me for?! Okay yeah, it's a kids book, so sue me. (actually please don't, I have no money :P)

What I loved about this book, "How to be an explorer of the world" by Keri Smith, was the way it encourages the reader to open themselves up to the world around them and experience things in a different light. Smith aids her readers in heightening awareness of their surroundings, engaging senses and encouraging artistic instinct by making the slightest detail seem profoundly significant. This is demonstrated through a series of experiments that readers can complete in everyday environments in whatever order at their own pace. I like the way it actively involves the reader to engage with the book and make it their own - I think that's why I love fashion so much over fine art. I find fashion enticingly tangible, whereas a lot of art remains contained behind a sheet of glass, in a gallery somewhere it's often seen, but rarely experienced.