Haven't posted for ages. I blame a weekend in Exeter and a snowstorm. Plus the minute (HAH) factor that my heating broke and it's difficult to type while wearing gloves. And shivering.
Anyway, have escaped to a relative's house and am happily applying for jobs and catching up on emails while everyone else is braving the cold. Jealousy-inducing fact for you: I'm currently wearing a quilt. Yay.
Snow makes everything pretty. It's even prettier when you're sitting inside.
This is the phrase that saluted me from the automatically generated email that hailed my sign-up to Asos’ new venture, Asos Marketplace. It’s a development that allows fledgling fashion traders and designers (along with the more established) an opportunity to have their wares sold under the Asos brand, thus giving them a hell of a lot more attention from consumers and a far wider automatic audience than they’d have gotten alone.
You have to apply to Asos for a boutique, and if selected you will be able to customise this boutique to your brand’s preferences. Your boutique will be neatly shelved in one of four sections; multi-brand, independent labels, vintage, and emerging designer. There’s also a blog and a friendly community style ethos, similar to the Asos Life section which can be found on the main site. It feeds off that current buzz surrounding fashion blogging and the aforementioned ‘democracy’ of the consumer posting their opinions online and garnering interest in said comments.
The boutique section is only a section of Asos Marketplace, your average ebay-style bedroom vendor is also welcome to sell their old clothing on a slightly separate section of the site. There’s one catch though – you must photograph your clothes on real-life folk in street-style photoshoots. Their motto for this? ‘If it’s worth selling, it’s worth styling’. Fair enough, I suppose, but it does promote that mentality that you are selling a look or a style rather than a specific item. Ebayers buy into this mentality, which is why so many second-rate clothes are sold for increased prices under the false ‘vintage’ label that many sellers have ascertained will substantially hike up their profits.
To try to put it succinctly, I love second-hand and vintage but hate ebay; it's far too fickle for my liking and the sellers are mostly hawkers selling non-vintage items at vintage prices. I think a lot of people have fallen out of love with ebay since its inception but have yet to find a site that has been able to compete with the monopolic (this adjective derives from ‘monopoly’ and yes I did make it up) giant, partly due to their inability to research effectively and partly because ebay is massive and has the resources to keep up expensive advertising campaigns that enable it to price other competitors out of the market. (Oh, so that's what monopolic means). Asos, being one of the biggest success stories of the dot.com revolution clearly has the manpower to combat ebay, along with fashion credentials that means in the ‘pre-loved’ (I didn’t make that one up, that’s actually what people have euphemistically started labelling second-hand objects) clothing industry, it is able to win the war against ebay, and not just the battle.
(Read the Asos Manifesto for all the details, from Asos' point of view.)
Anyway, enough whining, I’m as fooled by the ‘all fur coat, no knickers’ mentality as much as the rest of the fashion pack. I’ve scoured the site for my favourite items, and this is them:
Not really. The post looked crap without a picture so thought I'd put a random hipstamatic up.
While I'm on a music related post....my mother's boyfriend informed me yesterday that he once went to a party at Bonnie Tyler's house. No way? Yes way.
As previously mentioned, Lanvin ♥ H&M is going on sale in the USA tomorrow and in the UK on Tuesday. Unfortunately for me the nearest H&M store selling the collection is Birmingham, which sucks for my wardrobe but is brilliant for my bank account. I'm just going to have to lust over the items online and watch this promotional video for what might be the 23rd time.
I love it, it's like a Parisian film noir version of The Shining. With an improved costume department. And an incongruous abundance of sunglasses.
Which I would really like to own.
Even though it's winter.
And people who wear sunglasses in winter are kooks.
Well, maybe we can all make an exception for these sunglasses.
Also, please will somebody get me this dress?
Yes I could get it myself online but I can't be bothered to go through the rigmarole of a crashing server and erratically clicking refresh, REFRESH, REFRESH.
Plus I've lost my cash card again....
Cue gratuitous picture of Lanvin ♥ H&M dresses as a distraction from my general crapness with possessions : )
I was going to post about how excited I am about the Lanvin ♥ H&M collection which hits the shops on Saturday. Or Lahnvahhhhhn according to Elle Magazine's Joe Zee (you might recognise him from that stellar reality TV show The City).
But then my mother came home from a day out at a Swansea hotel for some posh event (yeah I know, posh + Swansea is about as oxymoronic as Cheryl Cole + talented singer) and told me that she had just been in the same room as Bonnie Tyler. Cue me shrieking (once) and then wondering what in the name of shoulder pads is Bonnie Tyler doing in Swansea?
Well, apparently she’s from there and she lives there. Everything makes sense to me now. I’ve always had a soft spot for Bonnie but had refrained from admitting this too much because I’d already filled up my guilty pleasure quota with other some other naff Welsh legends. This Welshness was important because then I could kid myself that listening to Tom Jones was part of my cultural heritage and was actually very necessary if I wanted to stay true to my roots.
But now everything has changed and I can embrace Bonnie Tyler on a daily basis, something I used to have to limit only to when drunk (Bonnie is the best when you're drunk). This new found expression of love isn't just because she’s Welsh, but because earlier on today she apparently walked into that aforementioned hotel bar in Swansea and declared:
‘It’s like being in Sex And The City in here, isn’t iiiiiit?’
Which is as about as brilliant as this song:
The misspelt lyrics and general crapness of this video adds to the classic naffness that is Bonnie Tyler. Plus Sony won't let me embed the official video. If anyone wants to join me in stalking Bonnie in Swansea, let me know. xoxo fellow Bonnie fans.
Stewart Lee eloquently explaining what I didn't even realise I had been thinking. I especially agree with him on the pressure in society to conform to capitalist principles - currently feeling this a lot. Especially the onus to GET A JOB! ANY JOB! NOW!
Finally watched Swansea Love Story on the VBS internet channel after reading a post on internet as the medium of the future for socialist films. It's just a tad harrowing so I had to try to take my mind of it by reading Valley of the Dolls. I forgot that Valley of The Dolls dresses itself up as a glitzy text about fast Hollywood living but is actually about three women's addiction to pills and their ensuing downfall (the 'dolls' in the novel are the sleeping and slimming pills that were rife amongst American stars during the time the novel is set in). It didn't quite give me the escapism from the film since it's also about drug abuse and the vicious cycle of lives controlled by addiction.
I then decided to embrace my inner airhead and researched pink typewriters instead. This wasn't entirely random; I read in the Valley of The Dolls introduction by Julie Burchill that Jacqueline Susann wrote the bestselling novel on one, and I just thought that was just about the epitome of mindless kitsch and probably what I need in my life right now. I found some on ebay but they're all in America and the prices are a bit steep...
Ok, still can't stop thinking about Swansea Love Story. I feel just like I did after watching Requiem For A Dream. Although probably not as bad as my old housemate and her boyfriend did after their spontaneous viewing of it. They're both still scarred after borrowing the DVD from my room thinking it was a rom com.
So with total trepidation, here's Swansea Love Story's trailer, for your viewing (dis)pleasure:
Let me know your thoughts if you end up watching the film. It's incredible and definitely worth watching, just ever so slightly depressing. You can find it on VBS.
I'm already being very lax with this blog. I do have an excuse though, I've been doing work experience at More magazine all week. I got the opportunity last minute and before I knew it I was wandering around Covent Garden trying to find A and J shaped helium balloons for a photoshoot with Alan and Jimmy Carr. (I didn't succeed, I managed to get completely lost, and I didn't get to meet them).
I did come across Neal's Yard while taking a wrong turning, a bohemian-style square in the middle of Covent Garden that I want to go back to in the summer to drink iced tea and pretend to be in an Italian piazza. It's painted in sunny colours and has random signs on the walls like the one to the right. I love that you can get lost in London and discover so many interesting things. You could never get bored.
This week's made me so much more determined to eventually work in fashion media. This means that I'll probably have to work for free for the next year or so before actually achieving a paid wage for my services. Not quite sure how I'm meant to manage that?? It goes against the grain, that you'd have to work for free in order to eventually work to get paid. There's a very fine line between 'work experience' and 'working for free'. The journalism industry goes so far over the line that the line becomes entirely invisible. Unfortunately competition for jobs makes this a reality when applying to work in an industry which offers perks.
Alexa Chung started the bag-naming trend after the eponymous 'Alexa' at Mulberry. Oliver Bonas quaintly indulges in this trend by naming its bags after its store managers. Cute!
This bag is called the 'Carly' bag after my dear cousin Miss Jones. I think this means that she now has It Girl status and should start living up to this by demanding free stuff for her relatives...
Maybe she could start with this bag? Then I can carry around a little bit of Carly everywhere I go. (I'm hoping obsequious cuteness will get me everywhere. Or at least will get me a free bag.)
Feeling smug that I've always wanted to read Valley of The Dolls and didn't just pick it up for the Barbara Hulanicki-designed cover.
Feeling unsmug as I got it from the library which means that if I now go out and purchase a copy I'm definitely only buying it for the aesthetic purposes of the Barbara Hulanicki-designed cover (I barely ever re-read books).
The cover is gorgeous though, I love that whole Biba/ Pucci look. I'm a total sixties chick at heart.
I've loved Evan Rachel Wood since I first came across her in Thirteen (while getting depressed that those two thirteen year olds were way darker and cooler than my lame fifteen year old self would ever be).
My love turned into a quasi-obsession after she was in that Greenday video with Jamie Bell (actual love of my life). She has this air of self-possession that makes you a) want to spend time with her and b) want to be her. I can't believe she skipped from Jamie Bell to Marilyn Manson though. You're not supposed to downgrade with boyfriends..especially not to Manson. Ick.
I like Evan's hair in this video, the middle-parted fringe with the half-up bouffant is a style that I've always wanted to perfect. I should probably get practising with some youtube hairstyle tutorial videos. I shall post one if I find one...
...But will probably never manage to get the hairstyle right on me. I'm far too lazy, my hair just generally hangs there.
Ah the wonders of the internet. I haven't left the house in four days but have managed to acquire a new skirt from Urban Outfitters for the paltry sum of £4.99. Took advantage of the free postage and packaging promotion they had on last weekend. Although they did charge me for p&p but after a rather indignant email to them, it's been refunded. I am cheap (and skint).
Anyhoo, back to the skirt. It's coral pink and has cutesy little pockets with scalloped edges. Not very exciting, doesn't quite merit a photograph, let alone a description.
I used my (limited) connections today to blag two tickets to Fashion Showcase Wales, occurring at The Coal Exchange in Cardiff next Sunday. Am super excited to blog about it next week. A friend of mine is showcasing at the event and I can't wait to see her designs.
There's not much of a fashion scene in Cardiff so events like this are important to be championed in order for there to potentially be some kind of development of a scene...if that makes any sense at all?
Check out the vid and in the meantime I really must learn how to post videos!
