Urban Cardiff

Urban Outfitters (UO) opened in Cardiff last Thursday, to much less fanfare than the same-day-opening Spitalfields store, which had Coco 'Hi I'm Sting's Daughter And I'm Cashing In On My Dad's Success' Sumners playing with her band.  

Hi Coco.

She's wearing Urban Outfitters in this picture.  Convenient.

On a recent London trip my friend bought this dress, which I love, from UO Kensington High Street.

She was deliberating over buying it because the price was a bit steep but then Annie Lennox walked into the changing room as we walked out and it just seemed like fate.  Yes, we slightly clutched at straws when jumping to this conclusion, but now whenever she wears the dress she'll think of the time we (sort of) met Annie Lennox.

Annie was trying on fake fur leopard print coats, in case you were wondering.

And yes, of course we're on first name terms, in case you were also wondering.

Anyhoo, back to Cardiff UO.  I took this picture last week, pre-opening.  What does Heluo and Helluo mean?  I'm fluent in Welsh and I'm 93.66% sure those words are made up.

Oh, I just got it. Hel U O.

Doesn't that guy with the coffee cup look like he's posing for me?  I think you've got the wrong shop dear, Hollister is in St. David's 2.  Just up the escalator and turn right, it's the one that looks like a middle class Brazilian brothel.

There's a far more informative post by Cardiff Fashion on the opening if you want actual information rather  than incessant wittering (pictures are from the CF blog too, apart from the one above). 

 Also, I'm venturing into Cardiff tomorrow so will let you know what I think.

Feel free to comment if you've already been in to the shop, a head's up would be super.

(Images: Cardiff Fashion)

Of Books And Bags

After reading my post on how much I was drooling over the Olympia Le-Tan bags, a friend of mine did a spot of research and pointed me to this little piece of homemade craftiness.

Turns out other people do put in effort to gain their desires.  Anyway, isn't it twee?  Here's the post on how to make your own clutchbook.

Black Swan

In my previous post I make reference to a bag Natalie Portman carries at the Hollywood premier of her new film, Black Swan.  It’s directed by Darren Arofonsky’s, who was also responsible for the notorious Requiem for a Dream, a film I mentioned  in a previous post; the romcom that is definitely not a romcom?  Well, he’s releasing the much talked about Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (Jackie in the completely underrated That 70’s Show).  

I love the starkness of the posters below, you don't see that quality often in the world of Hollywood film.  If these art-deco inspired  the posters are anything to go by, the film is going to be darkly beautiful.

With Arofonsky's genius direction and the sisters behind Rodarte designing the costumes, there's actually no doubt that this is exactly what it'll be.  Roll on February 11th...

Judging A Book By Its Cover

Someone somewhere needs to win the lottery soon so that they can buy me this Olympia Le-Tan for Christmas.

It looks like a book but is in fact a bag.  Genius, eh?  Plus Catcher in the Rye’s always been one of my favourite books, even though I only read it because I wanted to appear a precocious teenager.

I’m fond of 1984 too so if anyone would like to supply me with this, it wouldn't go amiss as a suitable Christmas present.

There’s something about touting your (self-believed) intellect in your sartorial choices, it’s simultaneously both nauseating and charming.

Natalie Portman’s got the Lolita version, which I’ve also taken a liking to.  I’ve never read Lolita so probably shouldn’t covet the bag too much. I imagine if (in an alternate universe where I was rich/ a film star) I managed to own it, I’d get know-it-alls everywhere snootily asking my opinion on the novel.  I think this as a vainglorious girl myself who would relish trying to trip Natalie Portman up in this way. Yes I'm a terrible and crap person.

Rather than making me want to read Lolita though, the bag’s made me want to take up embroidery so I can make an appliqué version of that Valley of The Dolls cover I recently posted.  Or plan to rob a local shop so that I can afford the £895 price tag that's on the Olympia Le-Tan.

Effort. I should just buy a book instead and carry it around, pretending it's a bag.

SNOW

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.

Fashion, Uncensored.

Welcome to the fashion democracy.  

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:

Alexander Wang Backpack, Browns, £755 (eek)

 

Jumper Rope Boots, I Can Make Shoes, £90

Pearl And Frill Dress,  Love Getting Dressed, £20

Fashion Showcase Wales - Pictures

Pictures by me from Fashion Showcase Wales a couple of weeks ago.

They're not the most professional photos, a talented photographer I am not.

Have also written a review of the event, it can be found here.