Underwear as outwear? We were thinking more blasé bondage.
Strapping men in strappings, girdles galore and having to be laced into every item of your wardrobe, the taboo is now the everyday. Lace it, love it, live it. Or just get your strap on, ok?
Strapped corset belt - Annd
Some of you may know that I was born with the fat, wrinkly appearance of a Sumo wrestler. But also the uncontrollable desires of a magpie- my fingers cling like magnets to anything that sparkles, shines and shimmers. The first explains my nickname, the latter- my wardrobe. When my eldest sister moved to London, she left behind nothing but a vacant room and an almost vacant wardrobe – nothing but two sequined boob tubes (circa 1993). At 15, my magpie mind was in the final stages of development and these tops were like my graduation reward. Slowly but surely they glistened their way into my outfits and by 16 I was sparkling all over the underage dance floors of Dublin’s lovely dives. I got three years out of those spangly tops before her acute sparkle radar whipped them out of my wardrobe one Christmas and brought them back to London. And that was that for me and sequins….. DONT THINK SO! It only got worse (or better?)- slowly but surely my wardrobe turned into a massive cave of sequined delights.
In Sparklier days..
So I’ve been wanting to blog for some time now but couldn’t get going on anything in particular. A wise friend told me not to force it and when the right inspiration came along the words would just start flowing. I’m sorry about this, but I’m about to gush about my new favourite brand Neurotica.
My name’s Izzy and when I grow up I want to be… better at things like this.
MeMeMe
Bitchy Intern took to the streets to scout out the feistiest and fiercest of fashionistas… what were they wearing for autumn/winter and how were they working it? Hitting Portobello Market seemed the best bet as a sprouting ground of good clobber. And I wasn’t disappointed. The lovely market stall hecklers were very well turned out indeed, and their clientele scrubbed up pretty decently too. So what have we got? The resounding answers would be fur, twee hats, denim shirts and jackets and a whole load of punky, pixie, battered boots.
Studding:
Kickass studding
Gal Stern, possibly THE most exciting hosiery brand out there at the moment. We got our mits on some pre-fashion week and sold out before we could even upload. We also got street papped and stopped umpteen times wearing these. Ok so you might add an hour onto your day cause people gonna wanna know where you got these but with legs like this who cares!
Goldfish Tights - click me buy me
Eagle Tights
Fish Scale Mesh Tights
So today we’re leafing through models for our forthcoming cover shoot Monday with stellar Bitchy bestie Photographer Nick IDM and the model we’re shooting with Nell Nabarro has also shot with other BITCHY bestie Rachel Freire. I went through her portfolio and I just had to post this shot. Massive kudos to photographer David Alexandre, designer and model.
Greta teams = great shots. Beautifulness again today…..
Rachel Freire shot by David Alxandre modelled by Nell
Today it’s all going off at BITCHY. We’re interning out of our ears, trying to plan our SS10 buys, co-ordinating our cover-shoot for next week, manufacturing our own label, photoshopping the Jewellery collection. Drinking shit loads of coffee and eating biscuits.
So with that in mind I think it’s always a good idea to draw breath, take five mins and just look at something beautiful. We were going through tears for our imminent shoot and we came across this inspiring image – don’t know what season, don’t know what publication. When something is this special time and place are irrelevant. Maison Margiela, Geisha, leg and a crusty warehouse wall. What could be more perfect.
Just Beautiful nothing else
Some time ago I was on my way to Abbotts Habit in Venice to get my daily wake up call in form of caffeine. As I press the cross button (which you must do for the light to change. A knowledge that might save you many waiting minutes should you ever come and visit) to get to the other side of Abbott Kinney I do a double take on the cross sign. What I saw was pure brilliance on a steel plate. You see a normal cross sign is a description of how to cross the street. Unnecessary you may think but have you not seen Rainman? On a hangovered Monday, tiredness can turn us all in to Rainmen, indecisive creatures that can’t decide to cross or not to cross this can easily result in death as you think you will make it but are proven wrong when 1 ton of SUV smashes in to your face. During these hesitant moments hangovered, stressed or just tired humans can just quickly throw a glance at the steel plate and let the signs decide, is it ok to walk or should I just wait here?
Regular cross sign...
Right, so I know it’s a few weeks old and we’re all a bit crocodiled out at the moment but I don’t think that the video has had near enough representation in blog-land. I was discussing videography as a means of communicating messages in fashion and this baby just does it for me. The model is shit-hot, totally quirky and not generic appeal to the masses safe which is briliant but it is HIGHLY aspirational. I love that she’s got black roots on her bleach blonde hair so she’s not a super air-brushed picture of perfection(ok so she kind of is) but it gives it a very real edge. How can anyone watch this and not want to be her. The music, the backdrops, the swishy metallic fringe – this is what I want to look like in a club. It’s just a big shame I can’t bring my own sound-system and I actually look nothing like this.
While I’m at it, an oldie but goodie the really set the standard for videography evrywhere – Gareth Pugh.It’s just genius and that’s not going to stop just because a season has passed. I’m a big fan of looking through magazines dating back to 1990 for inspiraiton – sometimes you pick up on trends that were dropped then but are still totally relevant now. This should be going on your all time faves video shelf along with Liquid Sky and Grey Gardens. In fact I think I could quite happily watch a feature length version of either of these video clippits – now there’s a thought, full length ambient feature films – do it, someone, help us be lost, even for just a moment.
I’ve realised I love polka dots. I used to hate them. They always evoked images of bows, perfectly coiffed hair, Mary Janes and full skirts - a look to which I am allergic. I bought an oversized polka-dot top in Top-shop a couple of seasons back and have worn it with everything. I am super polka-dot sensitive now and I’ve noticed the spots spreading onto boys – there is no magic ointment to cure this one, it’s airborn and it’s spreading fast.
Happy dotty party boy
Pensive artist lost in spotty thoughts
It was with great delight that I discovered the dotty folk in the Libertine SS10 video. Ok so there’s something sickeningly “just look gorky/nerdy but still sexy” direction but I really like the range and the dotty sexual cross-overs. After seeing so many slashes and gashes throughout AW, it’s nice to see some clean lazer-cut holes.
I love street art/graffiti, spent the early part of 2009 painting and had a couple of shows before deciding to put all my efforts into fashion. I’ve grown tired of the Banksy wannnabes and think it’s time for innovation in this area. I’ve seen some interesting ideas around East London over the last few months – street crochet and creating slogans with plastic cups in wire mesh were two that caught my attention.
I went shopping on 3rd street in Santa Monica this morning…or actually I went returning in Santa Monica this morning. $1000 worth of clothes back to the shelves and hangers where they some days ago caught my eyes and gave me a few moments worth of shopping bliss. Hasta la vista, babies. Nice having known you.
As I am skipping back to my Mountain bike $1000 richer (Obviously by returning clothes for $1000 I can a few days later shop for, say, $500 without the guilt trip as I just made $1000 a few days back! Wohoo!) I pass this girl performing. At first I didn’t even hear the music but the girl herself caught my eyes. Barefoot, in a vintage flower print dress on a mini piano. Her flyers and CD’s were stacked in a beautiful leather hat box and a vintage leather bag. Her music made me smile even wider than I did from the $1000 I just made and I thought it was nice to hear something that did not sound like a newer version of Britney Spears or looked like a cloned Jessica Simpson.
Her name is Eliza Rickman, and I have not heard of her before but am pretty sure we will hear (of) her again. Check her out on www.elizarickman.com she might make you smile too, if not try the return trick.
Every so often I get a craving for something that I can never quite put my finger on. It usually turns out to be a need for a fix of one my many vices, but after watching the plethora of menswear collections at LFW, I was overcome with that familiar niggling. Only this time, I found satisfaction in the form of menswear’s arguable piece de resistance, the MAN installation.
BITCHY already raved about our morbid fascination with the queen of slaughterhouse chic, Katie Eary and it seems now everyone is echoing the sentiment since she opened MAN. After her last collection drew bloody inspiration from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Eary turned to William Burrough for Spring Summer 2010, profiling characters from his ingeniously dark texts Junky and Naked Lunch, even naming her latest collection the latter.
In recent years I developed a weird fascination with animal skulls. Not content with leaving them RIP I felt inclined to illustrate and stick crystals on them. They found their way onto Fashion156 one of my favorite blogs alongside Kingdom of Style and Stylebubble. These are not to everybody’s taste but they are to my mine – they are my indulgence. When you say on a CV what your pastime is some people put Yoga, others put travel – I guess I could put making dead things pretty. This particular piece is painstakingly hand embellished with hundreds of Swarovski crystals and hand illustrated. I spent endless hours of dark evenings last winter sticking each one on by hand. They kept me off the streets, in my studio and out of trouble – sort of(actually that part’s a total lie).
Hand Embellished Real Animal Skull
When Guy Hipwell, creator of Fashion156 came to my studio I had no idea he would be styling in a menswear shoot – I guess given my boy/girl/girl/boy/boy who cares attitude to style and aesthetics at present it makes me very happy to see them so beautifully styled alongside mensewar designers I really respect – I actually posted about Katie Earie a few months back.
Vintage Tiger Necklace Styled as Headpiece
This morning I woke up to the sound of rain like pebbles against my window – it was cold and it was grey. Receiving this link in my inbox was like a mini trip to carnival, the kaleidoscope of colour providing fashion escapism from the bleak urban landscape that we all faced today. Print these pictures off, stick them on your wall and escape for just a moment.
