So I have been in LA a few weeks now and have successfully eaten everything in sight and have gained more freckles then you can shake a stick at. One spectacular adventure included kesh and suzies day out to Gay Pride…Il let the pictures speak for themselves.
Another random observation of Yank life is the ridiculous signs that seem to pop up everywhere I go, see below………
Lady Love......Pure Class
Nice Combination
Direct at least....
I cant figure out which one I like best.....
So yes……random signs……..
Now to ilustrate Gay Pride…..which resulted in me getting stupidly drunk by 4pm and suffering the mother of all hangovers at 9pm…..
Gay Pride indeed
And just to conclude this post…..heres one for you Marion……..
Last Saturday we started a new market linked with our studio building. Generally we’re a bit allergic to the word market as we feel it de-values designers(luckily it didn’t in our case) but could think of worse things to do than sit in the sunshine with my mates drinking beers and having a laugh with the locals and taking pictures of cool people. Fashion reports to follow – fun reports below.
Me n Suzaaaay who I accidentally called Croydon the other day. For real.
Installation by Adelita
Inside of tree-house/shop/watering hole installation
Greg selling Mojitos and Moscow Mules
Kath n Suzaaaay drikin em - check out the boots, online soon, collaboration with Underground!
A smokin customer buying one of our hats and waistcoat
More of these feathered waistcoats on the way
Me and lil bitch Pepper
Kath takes on a shoplifter.
....and loses
Charlie Baker n his missus. Loving his double glasses action.
We’ll be doing this market every Saturday from now on so if there’s something you fancy from the website or just wanna come down, meet us and hang out in the sunshine, drop by say hi. If nothing else do it for the Mojitos, the treehouse and the East LDN eye candy.
Heya, my name is Sharna. I am a designer that lives in Brisbane, Australia where the winter day time temp does not often get lower than 20 degrees celsius, although we think our winter is freezing………I know, I know right, who ever said an Aussie gal was tough. So in saying this weather really does dictate what you wear.
It’s summer in Australia at the mo so that means festival time. Today was all about Gold Coast Parklands, Good Vibrations festival, it was a wicked line up and a wickedly, hot day. Hot, sexy, chiquita’s a plenty and the order of the day were the 3 ‘S’s “shorts, sexy and see thru”. It was freakin crazy to see how many girls were sporting shorts of some form or another, mainly the faded, v.short, ripped denim kind. The girls pulled out no stops and you could feel the sass and love in the air.
The steaming hot weather definitely dictated what people were wearing. Super short shorts, cut out dresses and flowing dresses teamed back with army boots reined supreme on the streets of Sydney. I was expecting the style to be … hmmm, what’s the best way to put this, well… different to what it was. The Sydney I saw was very dressed down and casual, uber relaxed and had that not-giving-a-shit look.
But it is a fine line between “looking like you put minimal effort into your outfit and looking amazing”, and “looking like you put minimal effort into your outfit FULLSTOP.” Some people got it right and others got it wrong. Sydneysiders have a great sense of style and what you forget when you live in a city like London, is that sometimes it’s just too damn hot for all the fan fare.
Aussie chicks pull off the minimal “thrown-on” look perfectly, in fact I think they invented it, so I loved what I saw and thought it suited the weather and laid-back atmosphere of beautiful Sydney.
I’ve returned home to Australia for the Christmas holidays and thought I’d do a little trend reporting. Brisbane this week and one in Sydney next week.
Aussie chicks rock and I’m not just saying this because I’m Aussie (actually in spite of this I’m saying it) but they do have a relaxed, casual and cool sense of style that I’ve not encountered anywhere else in the world. It’s as sweaty & sexy as LA, but more thrown-on or “cas” as the locals would put it.
This chick, to me epitomises the Brissy look. It’s effortless and in no way looks contrived or put-together. American Apparel dress, ripped tights, Ray-Bans and topped off with an amazing Karen Walker neckpiece. It’s great.
There was lots of black on black. Black jeans with lil black camis, black sandals with black accessories. Hmmm… not your typical Summer get-up, eh? Personally, I love black in summer, I think it looks shit-hot and can vouch that you will be seeing lots of black in the BITCHY summer collection too.
There was also acid-wash denim, pretty crotchet tops and pixie-boots. Satchel bags teamed with floral vintage dresses, too cute hair accessories and killer bandanas. Look, I think pictures speak louder than words so sit back and take it in.
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.
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.
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 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.
To be able to say anything about fashion in Los Angeles you first need to say a few things about Los Angeles. LA is a big city. So big that the first time I came here I got into a cab at LAX and asked the taxi driver to take me to my hotel. What city, he asked. I had just been awake for 24 hours because a large mans body kept occupying both mine and his own seat and was really not in the mood for stupidity. Did he really think I wanted a cab to San Francisco? New York? London? Los Angeles, I said looking at him with my most “you stupid F**k” eyes. ‘Yeah, but what city?’ he continued asking. Turns out I was the stupid one. Los Angeles is not “a” city. It is several. Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Venice and more are all cities that reside in this massive city otherwise known as Los Angeles. Apparently I wanted to go to Century city.
As with any city, trends tend to keep within areas. I mean let’s face it. The pearl necklaces I used to wear as a Hoxton girl were of a very different kind than the ones my fellow women wore over in Chelsea. And LA is no exception. Trends here tend to stay within their city limits, sometimes they don’t even cross streets. Maybe because it is just too bloody far to the nearest zebra crossing.
I now live in Venice, therefore I find it appropriate to start here.
A couple of days ago, I decided to get up early and do Yoga in Santa Monica. I got on my bike and was riding along the beach with my yoga mat in my basket. It was early Sunday morning, the sun was shining and the streets were quiet. As I looked to my right I saw dolphins play in the sea. Awwww, I thought. As I looked to my left there is a guy shooting crack on his beach view balcony. Venice, I thought.
It is a city of contradictions. It was the centre of hippie culture in the 60’s, and is the cradle of skateboarding. The style here is an eclectic mix of surfers, skaters, hippies, bohemians, rock n’ rollers and gangsta. Sometimes individually wrapped and sometimes a mixmatch of them all.
I always associated Polka-dots with rock-a-billy, full skirts and coiffed hair, none of which looks I am particularly comfortable with. They don’t bode well with my eclectic shizo aesthetic. However I bought the above Topshop crop-top a few months back and it had wangled its way into my wardrobe and I wear it layered up with all sorts of prints. I’m really into layering prints at the moment. That or all black. Yup schizo.
BITCHY and Manaboutworld met up over the weekend to put blog brains together and make sense of everything we’ve papped over the last few weeks in East London’s hottest venues. Over the next two weeks we’ll be bitch slap blogging back to back all over cyber-space, hair flying, the claws are out……I might collect them and stick them on chains.
Men in make-up is right up there on our panstick pedestal and despite the heat, this look ain’t slidin.
Apparently it’s gone as far as Superdrug are launching manscara and guy liner – we’re thinkin they should add male varnish and dickstick.
Black and White
Pierrot clowns have been on my radar for a while now. Nice to see Fanci one of our Dublin favorites rockin this look. Red eye reduction not necessary. I was especially impressed with the nod to netherlandish middle-ages pictured at Steve Strange’s birth
I’ve always had a bit of an obsession with trainers. It used to be soo much easier to get cool limited edition Nike – I had a bit of a ‘95 obsession a few years back. My faves were silver ones with flouro orange highlights – I wish I’d bought 10 paris. There’s a fine scally line when it comes to trainers than I like to dance upon, stella in hand – unfortunately Nike pushed the 95’s to the far end of the wrong side of the scally line so me and 95’s went our separate ways.
So the highstreet’s telling us it’s AW but we’ve just hit SS last week and don’t think you can fob us off by calling it transitional. It’s not going to anywhere near to AW until the end of Sept.
Having spent the last 5 years working as a buyer I’ve never actually known which season it is as I’ve been wearing SS, watching AW sales and forecasting the following SS. So it’s still summer right?
