Monday 3 January 2011

Bring on New Year

2014 is here!.

My New Year Resolutions:
  • Make Stuff - Make more handmade/self made stuff. Especially if they're just little things that I need. We're talking pencil case or bag-for-life or something along those lines. And it's not just for the sake of it, while making stuff I can improve on my sewing skills AND save money :). I started off by making a bag for my lunch. I used my sewing machine to put it all together but when it began taking shape I couldn't fit it all under my sewing machine so I was forced to do a bit of handsewing around the edges. It's made of a colourful A3 brochure and sticky back plastic with some fabric for the handles and a zip. May I add: It's waterproof ;) Check it out below


  • Be more organised 
  • .
  • Buy less handbags- I have this mad obsession with handbags that I have been trying to soothe for ages now. I've been doing really well until I saw this glorious vintage floral bag for 8 pounds in a vintage store in Kingston. It was literally screaming "buy me, buy me", I had no choice but to buy it. 
  • Buy more winter stuff. Why is it that when ever I walk into a shop, I'm immediately attracted to shorts and skirts? I find it really hard to focus on winter stuff, which is what I really came for. 

  • Save up for a good camera- Although that would take a decade and beyond. By 'good camera' I mean like a Nikon or Olympus or Cannon DSLR.
And Lastly (this is a slight outlier and a tad crazy but....)
  • Finish designing a dress for Lady Gaga: I started designing the dress for her since the beginning of this month yet I hadn't really got round to finishing it yet. I'm planing on seeing her in concert and then somehow giving it to her although I need a bit more of a detailed plan :)
Enough about me, what are your resolutions?

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Being a Teen Fashion research committee for a day and Going to camden town ♥

On Monday I had the wonderful opportunity to meet the stardoll crew and organise next years StardollFashion Week, along five other teen fashion lovers, including Catherine and Deanna. As you may or may not have known, stardoll.com is a online browser game, extremely popular among girls aged from 8 to 15, which has gained about 80 million users worldwide over the six year period, since it was launched in 2004. It is based on a paper doll concept, where you create your very own unique online doll and dress her/him up. Stardoll is not only about dressing up however it host competitions, includes educational games and updates you on the latest fashion trends through the online dress up stores such as Chanel and DKNY. Anyway, along with Deanna and Catherine, I arrived at spring studios where the stardoll meeting took place and was told to sign in, to confirm I was present. I couldn't help noticing the name Kate Middleton on the list. I suppose she was there previously for a photo shoot. Wowza, I felt a jolt of exitement as I realised I could have been holding a pen held by a future princess. Soon after that, we were lead into a luxurious  cafe and waited there until we were called in for the meeting. We were then greeted by the successful director of stardoll and sat around a large white table, while being filmed. She then announced that stardoll is due to be launching Stardoll Fashion Week next year and our job was to tell her our view on it. Everyone agreed it was a brilliant idea. We were then asked what we would like to see when we went there, of course apart from cat walks, because they are essential, many of us said that music is quite important, therefore having performances from artists and bands would come in handy, One Direction was a popular choice among the six fashionistas :) We were also asked about the layout of it as a whole and how the eating area should look like. I gave the idea of having a Starbucks themed furniture layout, which included large comfy sofas and long tables and a stage nearby, so while chilaxing and eating you could enjoy live entertainment. ( fingers crossed they will consider that idea). After the two hour discussion we were sent home. I never knew what it's like to be a  fashion research committee, but now that I got a little taster I think it's a great job; sharing ideas with people who can really make something huge out of it is fantastic and once it is brought to life it could be a great success.


Afterwards, Deanna, Catherine and I, took a trip to Camden Town. It was WOW. Its such an mulit-style place. Majority of stores and stalls at Camden Market and around are either of Gothic/Punk genre however there are plenty of vintage and girly shops too, especially down the Horse Tunnel Market, which don't really seem to get mentioned often. I was much more attracted to the vintage stores but curiosity lead me into the gothinc/punky shops (where extreme things such as black, leather capes, black/electric pink wigs, corsets, fishnet tights, black Victorian themed dresses were sold) where I saw the most staggering boots, the Demonia Outlaw type; Their heel was absolutely outrageous, in the kind of shocking/exciting/original way. I mean, if you are going out for a day themed "exploring the different kinds of fashion" Camden town should be at the very top of your list. You need to go to Camden Town. You HAVE to, its unmissable.












WHAT I WORE:





Sunday 12 December 2010

WINTER. ♥

Brrrrrrrrrr. I'm so glad it’s nearly Christmas, and my birthday –hiphiphoorraaay :). Gosh, I'm ever so sorry for not posting for such a long time; everything has just been piling up - coursework, tests, revision and worst of all: Art homeworks, which usually  take 5 hours to complete. Anyway, I managed to do some winter shopping. I had a good look around the high street stores and was really happy to find that knitted Fair Isle jumpers are back! I love them. Apart from being much more attractive than plain jumpers, FairIsle, which is a traditional knitting technique, is named after Fair Isle, a tiny island in the north of Scotland – the hint of Scottish heritage makes it much more interesting. I’ve done a little bit of investigation and found some superduper ones, here are my top 3 - Take a look below :)


1: Joseph chuny knit Fair Isle jumper, £395
2: H&M
3: Topshop:£36.00















Fair Isle jumper – Primark, Denim Jacket – Primark, Jeggins- New Look

Fair Isle jumpers seem to be more popular than ever. I bought one for myself and I’m ever so attached to it. So far I’ve worn it with trousers, jeggins, a tight skirt, a denim jacket, a dark green coat and a black coat and it looked great - which just show that it goes with everything. Sometimes the Fair Isle jumper is referred to as the Christmas jumper, because it’s usually worn around the chilly Christmas period, and it does really get you into the festive mood.
"Careful, the beverage you're about to enjoy is extremely hot."
Love, Starbucks.


Image taken from the official United Kingdom H&M website
and edited using Picnik

Also, I just wanted to say how much I love this song by Alex Winston.  I’m so glad I discovered her, thanks to the Hyundai ix20 Advert which featured one of her songs – Choice Notes. I’ve checked out more of her songs and now I’m addicted. I don’t usually listen to that kind of music, so it was nice to discover something different. She’s got quite an unique and quirky voice – a bit like Marmite, either love it or hate it. Fortunately, I LOVE IT. Medicine is my favorite song, by far.  It’s such a feel good, summery song - makes you feel kind of warm inside – great to listen to during the dark, cold, winter days.


Photo by Callie Klebanoff
Alex Winston
Photo by Callie Klebanoff
Alex Winston herself. Images taken from her myspace.
http://www.myspace.com/alexwinston/photos/70615329#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A70921709%7D

Friday 26 November 2010

DIY :)

Yesterday I had an inset day (a day off school due to teacher training) which gave me a little more time to focus on myself and hobbies, in contrast to the usual coursework-doing. Thank god for that. I decided I'll do something productive. Before in the week, I bought a gorgeous vintagey floral skirt in Primark for a pound, unfortunately it was 3 sizes too big but I bought it anyway - might come in handy one day. Infact on the day of my purchase I was on a hunt for one of those flowy crop tops. I looked everywhere for a fairly cheap one but that was all in vain; the cheapest I found was 25 pounds.  -___- Understandable if it had any sort of applique or at least a colourful pattern but we're talking plain, one coloured short vest here (in other words). I looked at my over sized skirt and zwoooshhh! An idea popped in my head; I though, why pay for one of those when you can just simply make one using an over sized skirt which is most likely to sit in my cupboard in shadow and loneliness? Well, Find out how I went from this:


TO THIS:


Well, This is how: 
I used a 95% polyester and 5% elastane skirt , (3 sizes too big, which was really helpful in this case) and firstly I cut off the waist band because we don't need it, so off it goes, au revoir waistband.


Then, I turned it facing wrong side up and folded in half as you can see
secondly, I got an already purchased crop top and used it as an template




I drew around the top of it because I didn't want the crop top to be in exactly the same shape and size as the already purchased one, so I left the bottom as it is, and because the skirt is quite large and the material is soft and adaptable stays more flowey. Plus the bottom edges of the skirt are already sewn over to stop if from fraying, so leaving it as it is saves me a while of sewing :)


I folded it in half so that when you cut both sides, they will both be fairly even.  Then I cut along the drawn lines

Turn it over to the other side and TaDa. BUT! that's not all. Remember althought it looks complete, you still have to sew the straps together, although  Next step is
sewing over the edges, this way it'll make the top look a bit less scruffy as well as stopping it from fraying



I folded the fabric over about a centimetre all around the very top half, where I cut it and where it's most likely to fray, and then pinned it to keep it in place when sewing

I sewn round all the edges where I have pinned on a straight (normal) stitch.
I kept the pins in when sewing which saved me from tacking but once the pins have been stitched over, they end up a little bent :/

Voila! The edges are over and done with and now all that's left to do is
sewing the strapy-bits together, and nothing could be easier than that

I got the two out of four pieces of strappy bits and vaguely measured out how long the straps I want to be. What's left to do is sew them together on the wrong side,( the image above shows you what it would look like on the right side, so don't get confused by that)

Then I just sew over the two pieces together (horizontally) using the straight stitch
and did the same for the other two pieces left for the straps. Make sure the straps are parallel to each other, you wouldn't want to end up cross-strapped :)

Finished.
 that literally took me 50 min, I hope you try it out sometime, so my mini tutorial doesn't go in vain :)



Tuesday 9 November 2010

Is anyone else going winter shopping?


 
I was planning to wear this outfit   this autumn/winter but my plans where shattered by the awful frosty wind (and the horrible weather in general) that has been recently sweeping the nation. grr, I hate weather like this, where its neither snow, rain or sun. It's just dull, cloudy and cold with a bit of drizzle. But then again, don't we all? I normally wear shorts all year round, of course during the cold days I pair them up with tights or leggings, but it's only the beginning November yet it already feel like the middle of winter, here in London, so I'm assuming that I'd most probably freeeeeeze in shorts, even with the thickest pair of tights underneath. So unfortunately I must ditch them and buys some new warm trousers.Infact, must refresh my whole wardrobe with a load of winter clothes  
 which can only mean one thing:
SHOPPING TIME! I'm on a special watch out for a faux fur coat - essential this winter. I'm loving  this one from UO, but its way over my budget :(



 As I won't be squeezing on my shorts anytime soon, I thought I'll make a tribute to them by posting some photos :)




SCARVES. I like scarves :)



A little edit I did with Picnik.
.

What I'm wearing: A scarf from a market in Poland, A coat from Primark, Shorts from a charity shop
Belt from a charity shop. Last two images above: Scarf from a market in Poland,Short denim jacket from a charity shop, a primark vest,  Jeggins from New Look♥




I  bought some military leather"winter shoes" last weekend, from River Island
I love the look of them and they are really comfy.
I wore them recently and I thought my toes where going to accually freeze off.
So I established they won't be able to handle the job of "winter shoes"
which is quite a shame as I do love them.





SKY. random much?
I really liked the sky the other day :)





This is a bit out-of-no-where but ;about two weeks ago, I discovered this little boutique called Terminal D in Covent Garden (although I forgot to include it in my previous post) in which they sell these lovely vintage and floral clothes and accessories, but what mostly stood out to me were these lovely small chain handle box bags (below) and vintage satchels/brief cases (last image)
they're just yummy
what do you think?






love Karo ♥

all my own pictures



Terminal D: Thomas Neal Centre, WC2 9LD

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Friday: National Gallery, Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus ♥

Exploring Continued.



On Friday, myself and Deanna made a  journey into Central London. We took the train to Piccadilly circus and decided we'll just have a look around. Below, you can see Deanna, looking busy with her 'robot phone' as I like to call; it features so many apps and is almost like a mini portable robot :). Anyway.... 




We ended up in Trocadero, which is mainly a massive three floor arcade. Although fully aware that they are a complete waste of money, we spent almost an hour on the 10p machines, which turned out to be a waste of time, as we left with nothing won . Then we skimmed past Leicester square and somehow arrived at the national gallery. I've never been before but I've heard some really good reviews, so I was looking forward to it. I managed to take a few photos before getting told to put my camera away and almost threatened of being chucked out, which I believe wasn't really fair due to the fact that most of the paintings can be found on the Internet without any trouble. Here's an painting by George Stubbs, which I really admire. It's a painting of a life size pony.


Then we went to Covent Garden in which we found some really cool shops such as Urban Outfitters, The official Doc Marten store and Rokit (pictured below) which has superduper vintage items of all sorts- handbags, shoes, purses and of course clothes-and the prices are reasonable. I highly recommend popping in, especially if your a vintage-lover, like meeeeeeeee ♥








Just as we were going through Covent Garden we popped into the little stores in the Piazza, such as Octopus, David And Goliath and of course the glorious Candy Cakes, which has cupcakes that looked like they had been hand-painted on the spot :)






The entertainment in covent garden is great; stand up comedians, clowns, performers, what more could you want?

A stall with colourful accessories





Covent Garden has it all- the live entertainment, the modern and vintage stores, the loooveely food and of course the market; with jewelery , hats, scarves and pretty accessories. It's so convenient and has a slightly vintage theme to it yet the place is so current and there's that refreshing vibe.





I LOVE LONDON.


PS: Just a quick question.
I found these really gorgeous shoes(below) in a little shop called Tomcat Leather for about 55 pounds (29 Neal Street Covent Garden) although I'm not too sure they would be suitable for the cold winter that's emerging rapidly.
Advice needed QUICK.
Should I get them or leave'em?

x

Love, Karo ♥
all my own pictures